https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNJL6nfu__Q
1. My brain has decided, when I read science articles that mention dark matter, to picture protest banners that blare "Dark Matter Lives". Thanks, cortex, I can tell this will be endlessly cogent and helpful.
2. At an Amanda Palmer concert back in 2012, one of the opening acts was two of her bandmates as a saxophone duo called Ronald Reagan, who played instrumental covers of '80s pop hits. They played "Take on Me" by a-ha; the crowd sung the choruses for them. They played "Don't Stop Believing" by Journey; the crowd sang every single word. Then they announced that would play a true gem of the 1980s, a song from the best-selling album of all time. As they blew into the opening riff, I turned to my friends and said "Weird Al Yankovic was popular but not *that* popular", then shrugged and bellowed along to "Eat It". Great rock song.
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Showing posts with label chart pop. Show all posts
Showing posts with label chart pop. Show all posts
Sunday, June 25, 2017
Thursday, March 30, 2017
#416: Gloria Gaynor, "I Will Survive" (1978)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYkACVDFmeg
I don't entirely get disco, it seems. It's certainly not that I'm against it: there will be four disco songs on the countdown. That said, all of them were massive hits and obvious choices. (I also considered "In the Navy", although it wouldn't have been the radio version: it would have been the one from the Muppet Show sung on a coastal village raid by Viking pigs.) Chuck Eddy has argued that disco succeeded in achieving progressive rock's goals -- of bringing together unlike forms of music from across the world -- far beyond prog's own powers, and I find it plausible that he might be right. You'd have to link me favorite examples in the Comments, though, because most of the disco songs I've heard *other* than those mega-hits strike me as bland.
"I Will Survive", though, works, and it's definitely eclectic.
I don't entirely get disco, it seems. It's certainly not that I'm against it: there will be four disco songs on the countdown. That said, all of them were massive hits and obvious choices. (I also considered "In the Navy", although it wouldn't have been the radio version: it would have been the one from the Muppet Show sung on a coastal village raid by Viking pigs.) Chuck Eddy has argued that disco succeeded in achieving progressive rock's goals -- of bringing together unlike forms of music from across the world -- far beyond prog's own powers, and I find it plausible that he might be right. You'd have to link me favorite examples in the Comments, though, because most of the disco songs I've heard *other* than those mega-hits strike me as bland.
"I Will Survive", though, works, and it's definitely eclectic.
Tuesday, March 21, 2017
#420: Tom Petty, "Don't Come Around Here No More" (1985)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0JvF9vpqx8
I call my list "favorite songs", but technically it's "favorite *recordings* of songs", and those can be quite different. To make the case for Tom Petty as one of our great mainstream rock songwriters, I have a decent array of options. Few hit songs have ever sketched a character as efficiently and wittily as "She's a good girl: loves her mama, loves Jesus and America too. She's a good girl, crazy about Elvis; loves horses, and her boyfriend too". "Into the Great Wide Open" needs just two verses of AAABCCCD rhyme to tell an entire VH-1 Behind the Music biography ("His leather jacket had chains that would jingle/ They both met movie stars, partied and mingled/ Their A+R man said 'I don't hear a single'/ Their future was wide open"). "She was an American girl/ raised on promises" summarizes a person and a country in eight words.
I call my list "favorite songs", but technically it's "favorite *recordings* of songs", and those can be quite different. To make the case for Tom Petty as one of our great mainstream rock songwriters, I have a decent array of options. Few hit songs have ever sketched a character as efficiently and wittily as "She's a good girl: loves her mama, loves Jesus and America too. She's a good girl, crazy about Elvis; loves horses, and her boyfriend too". "Into the Great Wide Open" needs just two verses of AAABCCCD rhyme to tell an entire VH-1 Behind the Music biography ("His leather jacket had chains that would jingle/ They both met movie stars, partied and mingled/ Their A+R man said 'I don't hear a single'/ Their future was wide open"). "She was an American girl/ raised on promises" summarizes a person and a country in eight words.
Monday, March 20, 2017
#421: Janet Jackson, "Velvet Rope" (1997)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeO4Da3J-sM
Neither the album Velvet Rope nor the title song were anything I expected, in 1997, to like. I've mentioned that my songs countdown is going to under-represent black artists; it's nothing to do with malice, and quite a lot to do with the simple fact that at least in the United States, white and black listeners are exposed to different musical traditions (on average, obviously with many exceptions, but my musical listening growing up at home was *entirely* white). One broad difference, as I perceive it, is a traditional white-music emphasis on composed melodies, versus a traditional black-music emphasis on dance rhythms, bass, and melismatic vocal improvisation. I had no use for Janet's Rhythm Nation 1814, nor do I now, and I wouldn't have expected to from the title (although the "1814" part sounds intriguingly specific; I've never figured out its referent, sadly, and the socially conscious lyrics throughout seem vague and limp to me).
Velvet Rope on the other hand puts more emphasis on tunes. Every song has a good beat,
Neither the album Velvet Rope nor the title song were anything I expected, in 1997, to like. I've mentioned that my songs countdown is going to under-represent black artists; it's nothing to do with malice, and quite a lot to do with the simple fact that at least in the United States, white and black listeners are exposed to different musical traditions (on average, obviously with many exceptions, but my musical listening growing up at home was *entirely* white). One broad difference, as I perceive it, is a traditional white-music emphasis on composed melodies, versus a traditional black-music emphasis on dance rhythms, bass, and melismatic vocal improvisation. I had no use for Janet's Rhythm Nation 1814, nor do I now, and I wouldn't have expected to from the title (although the "1814" part sounds intriguingly specific; I've never figured out its referent, sadly, and the socially conscious lyrics throughout seem vague and limp to me).
Velvet Rope on the other hand puts more emphasis on tunes. Every song has a good beat,
Wednesday, March 8, 2017
#425: Buggles, "Video Killed the Radio Star" (1980)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iwuy4hHO3YQ
MTV, obviously, set the precedent here back in August 1981: if you're going to present a bunch of unrelated songs to an invisible public with no clear path to accomplishing anything, start with "Video Killed the Radio Star" by the Buggles. It's structured superbly for an introductory song: first the gleaming, reverberating washes of synthesizer. Then the soft but sprightly electric piano and the sad vocals, distorted over cheap transmission; the cooing female "Oh, uh oh" hook; the thumping quarter-note drum that starts 24 seconds in, and the first quick tease of that switched-on-Bach style of sprightly keyboard two seconds later.
MTV, obviously, set the precedent here back in August 1981: if you're going to present a bunch of unrelated songs to an invisible public with no clear path to accomplishing anything, start with "Video Killed the Radio Star" by the Buggles. It's structured superbly for an introductory song: first the gleaming, reverberating washes of synthesizer. Then the soft but sprightly electric piano and the sad vocals, distorted over cheap transmission; the cooing female "Oh, uh oh" hook; the thumping quarter-note drum that starts 24 seconds in, and the first quick tease of that switched-on-Bach style of sprightly keyboard two seconds later.
Saturday, February 18, 2017
Walking through paradise: the best music of 2016, part two
(Continued from part one. The list is immediately followed by actual writing/ blogging, I promise.)
Single of the Year
1. Regina Spektor, “the Trapper and the Furrier”
2. Shearwater, “Quiet Americans”
3. Esperanza Spalding, “Good Lava”
4. Saul Williams, “Burundi”
5. Aesop Rock, “Blood Sandwich”
6. Xenia Rubinos, “Mexican Chef”
7. Deerhoof, “Criminals of the Dream”
8. Anderson / Stolt, “Knowing”
9. Emma Pollock, “Dark Skies”
10. Anna Meredith, “Taken”
Single honorable mention(s)
Aesop Rock, “Dorks”
Aesop Rock, “Rings”
Beyonce, “Formation”
Birdeatsbaby, “Mary”
Blackpink, “Whistle”
David Bowie, “I Can’t Give Everything Away”
Dear Hunter, "Gloria"
Death Grips, “Giving Bad People Good Ideas”
Dowling Poole, “Rebecca Receiving”
Everything Everything, “Distant Past”
Field Music, “the Noisy Days are Over”
4Minute, “Hate”
Jesus Jones, “How’s This Even Going Down?”
Julie Ruin, “Mr. So-and-So”
King Gizzard + the Lizard Wizard, “Robot Stop”
Knifeworld, “High / Aflame”
Let’s Eat Grandma, “Eat Shiitake Mushrooms”
Marching Church, “Heart of Life”
Melt Yourself Down, “Jump the Fire”
Momus, “Fuck This Year”
New Model Army, “Devil”
Overlord, “Mission to Mars”
Sleigh Bells, “I Can Only Stare”
Esperanza Spalding, “Unconditional Love”
Regina Spektor, “Small Bills”
Kate Tempest, “Europe is Lost”
Tribe Called Quest, “We the People”
Kanye West, “Ultralight Beam”
Jane Zhang, “Dust My Shoulders Off”
Regina Spektor emerged this year as one of our great protest songwriters. The “protest” is surprising. “Great” shouldn’t be, yet
Single of the Year
1. Regina Spektor, “the Trapper and the Furrier”
2. Shearwater, “Quiet Americans”
3. Esperanza Spalding, “Good Lava”
4. Saul Williams, “Burundi”
5. Aesop Rock, “Blood Sandwich”
6. Xenia Rubinos, “Mexican Chef”
7. Deerhoof, “Criminals of the Dream”
8. Anderson / Stolt, “Knowing”
9. Emma Pollock, “Dark Skies”
10. Anna Meredith, “Taken”
Single honorable mention(s)
Aesop Rock, “Dorks”
Aesop Rock, “Rings”
Beyonce, “Formation”
Birdeatsbaby, “Mary”
Blackpink, “Whistle”
David Bowie, “I Can’t Give Everything Away”
Dear Hunter, "Gloria"
Death Grips, “Giving Bad People Good Ideas”
Dowling Poole, “Rebecca Receiving”
Everything Everything, “Distant Past”
Field Music, “the Noisy Days are Over”
4Minute, “Hate”
Jesus Jones, “How’s This Even Going Down?”
Julie Ruin, “Mr. So-and-So”
King Gizzard + the Lizard Wizard, “Robot Stop”
Knifeworld, “High / Aflame”
Let’s Eat Grandma, “Eat Shiitake Mushrooms”
Marching Church, “Heart of Life”
Melt Yourself Down, “Jump the Fire”
Momus, “Fuck This Year”
New Model Army, “Devil”
Overlord, “Mission to Mars”
Sleigh Bells, “I Can Only Stare”
Esperanza Spalding, “Unconditional Love”
Regina Spektor, “Small Bills”
Kate Tempest, “Europe is Lost”
Tribe Called Quest, “We the People”
Kanye West, “Ultralight Beam”
Jane Zhang, “Dust My Shoulders Off”
Regina Spektor emerged this year as one of our great protest songwriters. The “protest” is surprising. “Great” shouldn’t be, yet
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