The Flamingos, “I Only Have Eyes For You”
I once interrupted a perfectly comfortable web discussion to growl disagreeably that the Flamingos’ version of “I Only Have Eyes For You” was crap and I much preferred the tune as the jazz standard it originally was.
Months later I re-listened to the song in question and discovered I was thinking of the Platters’ “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes.” The Flamingos do great work.
Phyl Vinncombe, “No More Boomerang”
60s folk song written by Aboriginal poet Oogeroo Noonuccal. It’s better than the weedy performance allows.
Nas ft. Olu Dara, “Bridging The Gap”
I honestly don’t know why the world doesn’t have more time for songs like this.
Keri Hilson ft. Lil Wayne, “Turnin Me On”
That low-end brass sample (I wanna say tuba, but it could just be pitch-shifted trumpets) is one of the few things getting me through a really weird deppressive patch.
I mean, I fucking cried listening to Pink today.
Aventuro, “Su Veneno” Caught this twice on the radio today, and couldn’t shake it. Afro-pop guitars with merengue rhythms and a vocal style that is unashamedly vulnerable, even to the point of being sissy. (To anglo rock & roll ears, anyway.) Fascinating stuff.
Shakira: Not sure about this - in a list yes, but an overview? Open to explanation! I’d be keen not to use her as a handwave at all “Latin Pop” - better just to admit my total ignorance there I think.
As I say, may just be my personal obsession, but at least in the US she seems to have been a catalyzing factor in the way the Britney generation of female pop stars began experimenting with their personas ca. 02-06. Something about how the magpie eclecticism of her music (tango! surf-rock! electro! and that’s just one song!) was prelude to Brit going Middle Eastern, Xtina going 40s, Pink going hard rock, etc. And then she provided reggaeton with its mainstream-crashing, perhaps even its shark-jumping, moment at the tail end of that.
Of course I don’t know how much influence she actually had. This is all from the sidelines.
As previously threatened, I’m attempting a Popular rip-off (because apparently I feel that my current level of commitment to writing about music is inadequate) focused on the Billboard Hot Latin charts. The rough draft is here, but it probably won’t go live for another few months.
Thoughts? Objections? Anything?
“If I was reading a big essay on pop in the 00s and it failed to mention ________ I would feel minded to complain.”
And ________ stands for?
I already answered (Outkast, Timbo, Kanye, internet, AutoTune), but it struck me driving home that the one that would really piss me off if left out — rather than just seeming like an unconscionable gap — was Shakira.
But that may just be the private obsession talking.
Ron Davies, “Yesterday Is All I Want”
It’s a fine irony that the title of this song typifies exactly the kind of asshole who would listen to it. (That’d be me.) It’s the B-side to an obscure 1971 single, the A-side of which has a modicum of fame due to being covered on Ziggy Stardust. (Though my favorite version is by Long John Baldry and Maggie Bell. Runner-up: Bettye LaVette.) It’s acid-damaged folk from the most miserable end of the sixties, and there is no good goddamn reason to listen to it in 2009.
Cindy Walker, “Miss Molly”
It’s probably not fair to call this evidence of same-sex attraction; this is more a songwriter’s demo than a statement of intent. (Though it was commercially released, in 1942.) Still, a country girl singing about kissing Miss Molly makes modern ears prick up.
Mariah Carey, “Touch My Body”
All this talk of Mimi has made me want to revisit her most recent Stateside smash, which starts out as a standard seduction song and ends up in a weird place, threatening the object of the song with bodily injury if the tryst ends up on YouTube.
I mean, come on, girl, you know YouTube has content filters on that stuff.
“it’s not just a disparity in opinions, it’s…this really extreme disparity in basic assumptions about her place in pop culture. It’s what she’s perceived to stand for as well as her actual material. On the one hand, people dismissing her, her voice, her diva eccentricities as totally worthless; on the other, people who consider her the defining voice and greatest pop star of the past couple of decades.”
— Lex on Mariah C
Butbutbut….
Isn’t that true of every major pop star? I think Br. pop lovers tend to ignore the disdain for, say, Britney or Madonna or Kylie, etc. in a way that they haven’t for Mariah, probably because, as Tom notes, she doesn’t have much chart traction in the UK.
For Americans (OK, for me), the maundering on about how Real Pop Music died in the 80s, or the 70s, or the 60s, by people who fancy themselves devotees of pop music, forms a kind of omnipresent backdrop to all discourse on modern pop.
Blur, “Out Of Time”
It’s unfortunate that a band so overflowing with great songs in the 90s only produced one song in the 2000s that can stand up next to them.
Although Damon’s other projects during the decade have been better still.
In fact “this is dumb because tweens like it” and “tweens are dumb for liking this” form a self-reinforcing feedback loop.
You can substitute “tweens” for “hipsters”, “rockists”, “the masses” etc and the argument remains a poor one. But the loop’s so common there must be a generic name for it - any ideas?
I don’t suppose the Vicious Circle Jerk is catchy enough.
Paulina Rubio, “Causa Y Efecto”
I need to start following the Latin charts more regularly than an occasional listen to the local station. Maybe a Popular rip-off is even in order. I keep saying Latin Pop deserves more attention from the assembled music nerds of the Internet — if not me then who? if not now then when?
