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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FMera, Week of June 20

Here's my weekly review of a few songs from the Billboard Top 100 Singles, plus a few from the "Heatseekers" section. Hope you enjoy! Click on the song titles to open them in Spotify.

56. Safe And Sound: For quite a while now, there's been a fairly massive discrepancy on the Billboard charts. Looking at all the songs in the lower reaches of the charts, they seem to be the same generic electropop they have been for about a decade. But up higher, we have all sorts of stranger; more out-of-left-field hits: We Are Young, Somebody That I Used To Know, Thrift Shop and Can't Hold Us, Harlem Shake, Blurred Lines... and, I predict, Get Lucky; and probably Safe and Sound, too. It may seem crazy to predict that a random song in slot 56 will top the Billboard charts; after all, there are 55 other songs that statistically have a better chance. But here's why I think Safe and Sound is going to do it: Because it sounds different. For a very, very long time now, pop music has sounded one certain, very specific way. It's clear that the pop music audience is ready for change. Maybe it's not an organized protest, but there's a certain kind of protest going on among pop music listeners: A rejection of nearly all traditional electropop, and an embracing of everything that's not that, that they hear on pop radio. How else do you explain the fact that, when you get rid of all the country, rap, (the two most successful niche genres in terms of getting radio play), traditional electro-pop, and songs by pop radio artists that have been around for five or more years with a high level of success; you are left with Blurred Lines at number one; Get Lucky at number two; Can't Hold Us at number three; Radioactive at number four... the inexplicable semi-success of Cups, The Song From "Pitch Perfect" With All The Cups, at number 18... and nothing else in the whole top 40. In fact, the next song that applies is this song, Safe And Sound. So that's why Safe And Sound is going to be popular! Well, that, and the fact that it's a really good song. 19/20


74. What About Love: There is nothing fundamentally wrong with Justin Bieber. Bieber, who emerged in 2009 after being discovered from his YouTube singing videos, started off as saccharine teenybopper bait, but eventually turned into a major-league pop star. And look, I'm not saying the same thing couldn't happen to Austin Mahone. Mahone has a very Bieber 2.0-esque arc: Discovered on YouTube, mentored by a famous producer, and now making some of the most popular songs-- Sorry, some of the 70th-most-popular songs around. And, of course, the music is horrible. Imagine Justin Bieber's producers discovering dubstep before he had the talent to use it correctly. You'd end up with something very similar to the nearly unlistenable What About Love. And look, maybe this Mahone kid will mature into a fully-fledged pop star who can score actual hits and make listenable music. Unfortunately, "Justin Bieber" the phenomenon happened under very specific circumstances, at a very specific point in time. I'm betting Mahone stalls at the teenybopper stage. 2/20

24 on the Heatseekers chart, which is basically the chart for songs that are rapidly gaining in popularity without cutting into the high reaches of the Billboard charts. Breezeblocks: Alt-J, or ∆, has been touted by some as the next Hot Chip, by others as the next Arcade Fire or James Blake or Jack White or Alabama Shakes or even LCD Soundsystem (although really, what hip band hasn't been called the next LCD Soundsystem?) But that could easily be a list of "Pitchfork's Favorite Bands," who are ∆ really? Well, it's a tricky question, because, see, what they are is an amalgam of all the formerly listed bands. As much as ∆ sounds like everything Pitchfork likes, Pitchfork actually hated their album. That's because it doesn't have any of the deep meaning or resonance of the bands I've listed above. Here's the thing that Pitchfork and some other reviewers missed, though: That doesn't make their music bad. And ∆ makes really, really good-sounding music. Breezeblocks is a catchy, addictive bit of pop meaninglessness, and I'd love it if generic pop music sounded like this instead of whatever it decides it sounds like next. 19/20

Quick Takes:

25. The Other Side: Jason Derulo, sorry, JAY-SENNN DUH-ROO-LOW, is back with another generic piece of pop electronica. This guy's fanbase consists of the following: 50 percent like him ironically because he sings his own name at the beginning of all his songs, and 50 percent like him because he's a Chris Brown they can listen to without getting creeped out.

70. Jump Right In: I may be harsh to country music sometimes, but there is absolutely good country music out there; and furthermore, not all good country music has to subvert expectations. Zac Brown Band continues to be an excellent straight-country band that cranks out fun, listenable music on the regular.

81. High School: Nicki Minaj spends the first minute proving she's still really good at rapping, then spends one minute singing and one minute letting Lil Wayne whine incomprehensibly. My god, Nicki Minaj, are you using our frustration at your wasted talent as an alternative energy source or something? It's really the only explanation for this.

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Yeesh! How Kanye West's "Yeezus" Proves That Less Is M̶o̶r̶e̶ L̶e̶s̶s̶ ...Something Else.

Kanye West does not make short albums.

His first, The College Dropout, is an insane 76 minutes long; and while it could prove tiring, it's instead exhilaratingly ambitious, an album-as-manifesto that stretches boundaries more than it stretches patience, the kind where the album-closing twelve-minute part-spoken-word track could feel unnecessary but instead feels absolutely mandatory. "Graduation,"an album West created to be more listenable and less complex than his previous works, still clocks in at a lengthy 52 minutes; where most albums max out around 45.

That's why the thing that surprised me most about West's new album Yeezus had nothing to do with its style, content, or method of distribution; what surprised me was that the album was only 40 minutes long. And indeed, that 40-minute running time epitomizes the album perfectly.

Calling Yeezus minimalist is somewhat misleading; this is not a quiet album, and certainly not an album with few things going on. More accurate is that this is an album of contrasts: One second, there will be thousands of overlapping synths and buzzes; the next, absolute silence. It's a distinctly impulsive album; you genuinely never know what's coming next. It's a jarring style; but it succeeds in what it's trying to do: Namely, keep you on the edge of your seat, and keep you listening. Where West's other albums have been romances and coming-of-age stories, Yeezus is pure horror movie; to the point where one song, "I Am A God," ends with the sound of a man panting and screaming. And the album is constantly pointing out that West has a triptych of roles: The man screaming, the monster chasing him, and the filmmaker choreographing the whole thing. And the album's repeated biblical and religious motifs tie into those roles too: The triptych of Jesus, God, and Hooey Ghost mirrors the other one perfectly. But where in West's first four albums he inhabited the role of the man being chased, and in Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy  he inhabited the role of monster, here he is in full-on filmmaker mode.

Yeezus was made in an incredibly short period of time; a popular anecdote going around is that Rick Rubin went to the studio three weeks before the album was to come out and discovered three or four completed songs and a lot of scraps. And you can absolutely see evidence of that in the finished album; which has many seeming imperfections; sixteenth-beat stutters and feedback echoes. But the surface flaws add to the auterist meaning; in a similar way to the French New Wave practice of visible cameras and boom mikes, or the way Wallace And Grommet filmmaker Nick Park has intentionally visible fingerprints on his films' plasticize puppets, Yeezus contains fingerprints of its artists' presence with every blip and bloop.

Yeezus' sparseness can sometimes make it feel like it's not enough of an album; there is far less pure rapping here than nearly any big rap album of the past few years. And its dashed-offness can sometimes feel more careless than intentional; your milage will certainly vary as to whether you see it as genius or sloppy. When a rapper like Drake spends two years perfecting a masterpiece like Take Care; it can feel cocksure to dash your album off in a couple weeks. But when you're a god like Kanye claims he is, who cares if you take seven years or seven days?

Did you enjoy this post? I read and respond to all comments! I am also available at my email address, SamECircleProductions@gmail.com -- If you like what you see, shoot me a note!

>2Chainz: NCP & Post-NCP

>2Chainz [Greater Than Two Chainz]: A look at marginalized, negated, or otherwise unloved genres and types of music.

TODAY'S GENRE: Nouveaux-Country-Pop and Post-Nouveaux-Country-Pop

If you're a frequent Pop Cultured reader, you've probably seen me throw around the term "Nouveaux-Country-Pop," or NCP. This is my way of describing country music that's not REALLY country music; stuff like Blake Shelton or Lady Antebellum. There's a massive difference between that stuff and, say, Willie Nelson. And while there's certainly some good NCP out there; most of it is pretty crappy. It's basically the modern equivalent of what Yacht Rock was in the '70s: Obviously, some people liked REO Speedwagon, but they were decidedly uncool. And that's how most NCP has been regarded: A necessary musical evil; something to be avoided when at all possible. But that's beginning to change. 

The main problem with NCP is its repetitive sameness. Almost all the songs sound identical; and their messages rarely differ from a few cliches: Small-town country life is great; America is great; Trucks, beer, jesus, country girls, getting married and having kids, all are great in the eyes of NCP. It's not just a matter of geographical or political disconnect; or the almost propagandizing feeling much of the music gives off. There's also a sense of uninclusiveness; much NCP can feel like an inside joke you're not in on. 

But recently there's been a wave of NCP and NCP-esque music (that's Nouveaux-Country-Pop-Esque, for those playing along at home) that shows the darker side of the cliches espoused in NCP while retaining the uncynical warmness that attracts many country listeners in the first place. It's a kind of Post-NCP.

The best of these Post-Nouveaux-Country-Pop albums is Kacey Musgrave's "Same Trailer Different Park." Musgraves emerged last year with the single "Merry Go Round," a melancholy and droll look at the traditional NCP cliches: "If you ain't got two kids by 21, you're probably gonna die alone, at least that's what tradition told you. And it don't matter if you don't believe, come Sunday morning, you best be there in the front row like you're supposed to." That's pretty biting for a song released by mainstream country label Mercury Records; this is outsider art from an inside source. "Same Trailer" got glowing reviews upon its release; reaching an incredibly high "89/100" score on Metacritic. It's a definite success; and hopefully it will lead to a more substantial change to the NCP mainstream.

Same Trailer isn't the only Post-NCP album to get mainstream praise. Pistol Annies stick fairly close to the traditional NCP mainstream, but they morph it subtly with tales of female badassery combined with a better produced, more stripped-down sound than most NCP. And the Annies as individuals have released lots of great country music too; especially Ashley Monroe's teriffic Like A Rose (which was released the same week as Same Trailer, and also got an 89 on Metacritic.) 

The future of country music is looking bright for the first time in decades, and it's all due to incredible talents like Musgraves and Monroe. And for those that still doubt the cultural relevance of NCP or Post-NCP, this is just the beginning. Country music has a ways to go yet; but this is the time to jump on the bandwagon. 

NEXT WEEK: Modern rap music

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FMera, Week of June 13:

Here's my weekly review of a few songs from the Billboard Top 100 Singles. Hope you enjoy! Click on the song titles to open them in Spotify.

1. Blurred Lines: There's an interesting trend I've been noticing lately on the Billboard charts, which is that while most songs in the top 100 have about an equal chance of being super-successful and falling into obscurity, the songs by less famous artists have a much, much higher success rate in that regard, even though there are very few songs by untested properties in the top 100. Robin Thicke, whoever he is, is just the latest example of that trend, after Macklemore, Bauuer, Psy, et cetera. 
In terms of the song itself, I think the R&B-aping style is partially successful, and I think the song is catchy enough to merit pop-radio play despite its slightly unorthodox style. I also think some of the song's gender politics are a bit backward; with cringeworthy lyrics that objectify and then smirk at their own objectification. But I don't necessarily think it's that much worse than other songs on the top 100 in that regard; and I certainly don't think I'm the guy to pass judgement on an otherwise mostly harmless pop ditty. I think this edginess works against the song quite a bit, though, because it's such an otherwise chaste throwback tune that the edgy lyrics seem out of place.
It's interesting how little this song sounds like anything new. There are obvious '90s influences at work here: Janet Jackson, Blackstreet, Maxwell. And there are some '70s influences too: A sort of Jackson Five-esque disco-swing feel to the production. It's as if listeners are so desperate for a break from modern pop sound they're looking to music's past for inspiration. Wait, why did I say "as if?" That's exactly what's happening. Why else would the top 5 hits be this, a white rapper, Daft Punk, Justin Timberlake, and Nelly? That sounds an awful lot like the turn of the millenium to me. (12/20)

11. We Can't Stop: Who is this "Mike Will Made It" person and what has he done with Miley Cyrus? "Trap" Rap is all the rage recently, and the producer "Mike Will Made It" has been leading the battle, producing songs by everyone from Rihanna to Drake to, well, Miley Cyrus, apparently. I've never been a huge fan of the former Ms. Montana, but I'm a definite "Party In The USA" apologist, and I think her brand of ultra-bubblegum country can be great for certain situations. But this new song, "We Can't Stop"... I have no idea what to do with this. I guess the first thing to make clear is that the song is awful. I have a feeling that some people will be blindsided by the fact that this song is completely, utterly different from the rest of Cyrus' discography and will forgive how cringingly horrible it is, but make no mistake, it's bad. An example of lyrics delivered completely, utterly straight: "To my homegirls here with the big butts / Shaking it like we at a strip club / Remember only God can judge us / Forget the haters cause somebody loves ya / And everyone in line in the bathroom / Trying to get a line in the bathroom / We all so turnt up here / Getting turnt up yea yea." That's some genuinely abysmal lyricism. And the production is as bad as everything else I've heard from Will Made It, a tinny, cheap-sounding mishmash of aesthetics and moods that falls completely flat. But I don't blame Cyrus, she's obviously trying something new with her music, and that's almost always admirable. No, I blame you, Mike Will Made It, because you are a horrible producer and you have been ruining radio-rap for long enough already. Go away. And taxi man: When this song comes on the radio, turn it off. I don't care who's putting their hands up. And yes, I did listen to that song eight times while writing this. What? It was research! (1/20)

61. Crazy Kids: Oh god. Ke&ha... AND Will.i.am...on ONE SONG? I'm not sure the world is ready for that. Luckily for my sanity and the world's, will.i.am is confined to one mostly meaningless verse, although it does contain some insane garble-speech madness that can be heard at two minutes and eleven seconds in... and please, don't listen to the song, but listen to this. It's crazy. I think someone must have realized the glory of will.i.am and Ke%ha in one room was too much for the world to take, because the official release subs in "Juicy J," who is much less insane. As for the non-guest-verse parts of the song, I have a feeling this will be similar to "Die Young" in that I won't like it, exactly, but I will listen to it constantly. There's something about the mix of guitar-strums, whistle riffs, synths, and mumbled half-raps that's just eminently LISTENABLE. I can't explain it. Wait; yes I can: I just want to hear will.i.am's insane mumble-talk again. (7/20)

98. Sweater Weather: Man, who'd have thought the lowest reaches of the Billboard charts would be such a good place to find third-wave Pitchfork music? That probably requires some clarification for new readers. First wave Pitchfork refers literally to bands that Pitchfork likes. Specifically, the most hipstery of those bands: Animal Collective, Ariel Pink, Bon Iver, Arcade Fire, Fiona Apple... that kind of thing. Second wave pitchfork refers to the bands that rip those bands off: Mumford and Sons, Monsters and Men, Regina Spector. Third wave pitchfork, then, is the bands ripping those off; but often smaller-scale, less-famous bands. Basically, it's like how punk rock came in three waves: First, the "real" stuff like Sex Pistols, then all the stuff that ripped the Sex Pistols off, then third, all the tiny garage-punk bands that popped up that basically just sounded like the Sex Pistols anyway. Point is, where First-Wave Pitchfork is thematically dense and frequently brilliant; but not great iPod listening; and where Second-Wave Pitchfork was too commercialized and cynical, Third Wave Pitchfork hits the perfect sweet spot; basically, it sounds like first wave without all the pesky meaning and thought. It's exactly the kind of thing pop radio should have more of, and between this great song and the excellent Safe And Sound by Capitol Cities, it looks like there's shaping up to be a lot of it. (18/20)

Quick Takes:

26. 22 (Taylor Swift): If Lena Dunham's "Girls" was on ABC instead of cable, this would be the song playing instead of "I Don't Care."

43. Rich As F**k (Lil Wayne): The censored version of this song is like dadaist poetry.

50. Gone Gone Gone (Phillip Phillips): I never thought I'd say this, but somehow, Phillip American Idol Phillips Americans Idols, I think you're charming enough to become a real, legit pop star, in the vein of Jason Mraz or John Mayer. Lord knows you're more charming than John Mayer...

92. Levitate (Hadouken!): Last time I covered this song, I said it was the most annoying song on the Billboard charts. I'd like to clarify that it is also the most annoying song ever, and that I have listened to it more often than any other song, ever. AAAAAND LEVITAAAAATE!Did you enjoy this post? I read and respond to all comments! I am also available at my email address, SamECircleProductions@gmail.com -- If you like what you see, shoot me a note!