Pop Cultured, Week of June 27

Here's my weekly review of a few songs from the Billboard Top 100 Singles, plus one from the "Heatseekers" section this week due to lack of material. Hope you enjoy!

32. Counting Stars: It looks like the recent trend of folksy, stripped-down pop music; from bands like Mumford And Sons and The Lumineers; is starting to be mimicked not just by small bands hoping to hop on to a new trend (and like with any trend, you're gonna get some hop-ons,) but by large, previously established bands; hoping to score a few cheap hits off the trend. Leading the trend-hopping giants is One Direction One Republic, who've scored a top-40 hit with this generic Mumford-lite ditty. Along with the far-better Goo Goo Dolls, One Republic led the so-called "alternative pop" movement at the last gasp of traditional pop mega-success, around 2004. The Goo Goo Dolls' smash hit Iris has been determined by some metrics to be the song with the most radio plays of all time, which speaks to how disappointing it must have been when these bands realized that they reached their initial successes around the same time pop music peaked. After every peak comes a fall, of course, and as pop grows increasingly less prevalent, alternative pop languishes in the lower reaches of the charts, with only the stray thirty-five-year-old dad for company. So both bands decided with their newest albums to pander to the newer pop audience. One Republic's single has been slightly more successful so far, though I'm not quite sure why; the two bands' lead singles are nearly identical in terms of approach. Either way, this is one trend I like less every time I hear it; as much as I love folk music, this revitalization tends to overproduce it and strip it of all meaning, much like Nouveaux-Country-Pop does to country. I'd hate for folk music to go down that path, and it's for that reason I'm hoping One Republic and the Goo Goo Dolls go back to their dad-rock dungeons. Although Iris is a pretty great song, you must admit. (5/20)

56. New Slaves: I've covered West's new album with in some depth in a previous article, but I think it's interesting that New Slaves seems to be the song that's getting the most radio play. West decided not to release an official single, meaning it was up to radio programmers to select one. This song is maybe the most overtly political on the album; and while the entire album seems designed to spark controversy, this song in particular seems controversial. If I were choosing a single, I'd go with the romantic "Bound 2," which is also one of the more radio-listenable tracks. Instead, we have this at number 56, Black Skinhead at 69, and Blood On The Leaves at 91. Those are maybe the three most provocative tracks on the album, so it's interesting they're the ones getting radio play. (New Slaves: 19/20, Black Skinhead: 17/20, Blood On The Leaves: 16/20)

15 on the Heatseekers chart. Watching Movies: Kanye West wasn't the only big rap-album release this week. We also have Watching Movies With The Sound Off from white college-kid rapper Macklemore Mac Miller. His new album is, to me, mostly notable for being maybe the first with an officially sanctioned Pink Floyd-esque video synch-up, to a documentary about sea turtles, of all things. Mac Miller apparently was listening to his album while watching the movie with the sound off (name drop) and decided they fit well together. Miller's in full-on self-proof mode on this album: After his last album, Blue Slide Park, was panned for being too pop-leaning, he's making some very hard, edgy hip-hop here. He's not a master of the form by any means, but he certainly holds his own here, and it's pretty unexpected that there's more pure hip-hop in the single from Mac Miller than there is in the Kanye West single. (13/20)

74. Crooked Smile: This song is from the third big hip-hop release this week, Born Sinner by J. Cole. Cole burst onto the scene with "Cole World," a big grammy-nominated surprise success. Cole makes raps that are thoughtful and sensitive but unchallenging. Crooked Smile sticks to that theme, mirroring Cole's choice not to get surgery to fix his literal crooked teeth with how women should value their inner beauty over their outer looks. It's not exactly a challenging message, but the song's well-produced and delivered. But more importantly, in a week when Cole was a very, very close second to Kanye West on the albums charts, it serves as a subtle mirroring of West's rise. First of all, the song uses a sped-up R&B sample, a style West perfected. But the song's subject is also very similar to that of West's first single, Through The Wire, in which West famously rapped through the facial apparatus he had to wear after getting involved in a life-threatening car crash and needing reconstructive surgery. Maybe it's a coincidence that J. Cole chose a song about teeth issues as the lead single to the album he released the same week as the new West album, but it could also be a subtle claim to West's place in the totem pole. (15/20)

18 on the Heatseekers chart. Royals: Lana Del Rey is one of the strangest success stories of the pop landscape: Her initial single Video Games was beloved by the Pitchfork-"hipster" crowd, but after a disastrous performance on Saturday Night Live and a severely underwhelming first album, she fell from grace amongst the critical crowd. Since then, though, she's been discovered by the all-consuming demographic that is Teenage Girls, and has found renewed popularity, including her first hit on the charts. It's really too bad, then, that despite her interesting story, Lana Del Rey makes horrible music. Her style is dreary, and her messages are surface-level tales of glitz, glamour, wild parties, and true love. In some ways, Lourde sounds like Lana Del Rey. Her production is more stripped-down and thus more successful, but quite similar; and the indie-female-aesthetica is essentially the same. So for the first thirty seconds of her upcoming hit Royals, I was dreading the first of surely many Del Rey ripoffs. Then I started listening to the lyrics, and was delighted to find that Royals is essentially mocking the Del Rey messages; showing the meaninglessness of the material things Del Rey luxuriates in, but in a much more biting, subtly sardonic way than a mere parody. And maybe the best part of Lorde is that unlike Del Rey and Video Games, the other songs on her EP are just as good as, and sometimes even better than, her initial single. Lorde is absolutely one to watch, and for once I won't be rolling my eyes every time a Teenage Girl mentions her name. (18/20)

Quick Takes:
There aren't very many new songs this week, so instead, let's go through the top 5. I'll try to come up with something new to say about each one.

1. Blurred Lines: Hey, did you know this song's racy, controversial music video was directed by the same person that directed Miley Cyrus' racy, controversial music video for We Can't Stop?

2. Get Lucky: If you like this song, you'll also like the new eleven-minute remix! It's basically more of the same, but it's official and very well done. Also, this.

3. Radioactive: Ha ha, I guess this song is certainly active on the radio, considering how much it's getting played!

But seriously, this is a horrible song.

4. Cruise: Is it just me, or does the line "she's popping right out of the south georgia water" make it sound like they're talking about baking cupcakes? "Popping?" Really?

5. We Can't Stop: Uh... Hey, did you know this song's  racy, controversial music video  was directed by the same person that directed Robin Thicke's racy, controversial music video for Blurred Lines?

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