Just wanted to let you know that beginning Monday, a certain Shady Dame and I will be off on a vacation to Bonnie Scotland; for 8 days we'll be based in Edinburgh, and making excursions both in and out of the city (Loch Ness or bust, baby!!!).
I'm gonna try to interrupt our busy pre-trip schedule of getting flu shots and packing our clothes to write a few normal posts for next week before we leave, but what success I'll have in that regard is an open question. In any case, I figure you'll have to endure at least a couple of entries devoted strictly to our Scottish tourism. I beg your indulgence for this in advance.
Okay, with that out of the way, on to our traditional weekend mishegass.
The short version: As you may or may not know, I am not a big fan of the pop music coverage in the otherwise estimable New Yorker magazine. I mean, I basically gave up on it when World's Most Irksome Rock Critic© Kelefa Sanneh migrated over there from the New York Times a couple of years ago, and new girl on the block Amanda Petrusich didn't strike me as much of an improvement when she showed up.
Anyway, Petrusich has a piece in the most recent issue about current chart-topping pop tart Sabrina Carpenter, which I read with a certain degree of skepticism. And, initially, it struck me as just the usual indefensible cutesie puff piece from Petrusich's patented "Everything's Great Including the Obvious Shit" school of cultural musings.
But she begins the essay with a longish exegesis of Carpenter's latest single ("Manchild") and in the interests of critical responsibility, I gave the video of same a look-see.
And to my considerable surprise...
...I kinda (emphasize: kinda) liked it. The song is moderately catchy, the lyrics are legitimately funny, and the production -- and this floored me -- is really pretty good; the thing rocks, and there's even an actual, if brief, guitar solo for heaven's sakes. Couldn't stand Carpenter's singing, which sounds auto-tuned even if it probably isn't, but hey, you can't have everything.
Which brings us, inexorably, to the subject of our latest group discussion. To wit:
Proposed: Most current commercial pop music -- i.e. the stuff that sells -- is by and large the worst crap we've had to endure since the pre-rock Fifties.
Discuss.
By which, of course, I mean weigh in yea or nay.
I'm leaning towards yea, in case you haven't guessed, but I do wonder if this isn't just me being a grumpy old man who's turned into his parents. And then I hear something like the Carpenter song above and I grudgingly think -- y'know, maybe these kids today are not so bad. 😎
Alrighty, then -- which side are YOU on?
And have a great weekend, everybody! See you in Scotland!!!
21 comments:
I don't hear enough pop music to have an opinion one way or another. Though it seems that every pop music story on NPR's Morning Edition has a song that is auto tuned to death (Molly Cyrus this morning, for example).
So, I'm going to go with No based on somebody's old rule "90% of everything is crap."
As I said, I tend to agree. Manufactured, assembly line crap is the same in any era, only today it's pretty much the only game in town.
The only place I hear modern pop music is at the gym but fortunately it isn’t loud. None of it sticks in my head which is the best possible outcome. I would say this is worse than the past because the songs are so disposable.
- Paul in DK
I am officially a grumpy old man. If Sabrina Carpenter would sing just a bit higher, my high-frequency hearing loss would spare me from her voice.
Heh. 😎
I'm a high school teacher who teaches a History of American Popular Music elective. With that, and I'm not trying to be that "get off my lawn!" guy but there's simply so much commercial pop music that it's like shopping for spaghetti. Who really cares? That said, I read the NYer article with the same take as Steve - the writer of pop music sucks. However, after reading the article then WATCHING the video, I wonder: in this social media age, would a song like this SOUND different without the video? I absorbed both experiences differently. Also, look at the cover of the album and ask, "Is THIS 'Smell the Glove'?" - Is she being deliberately ironic and iconoclastic?
I only hear commercial pop when I'm getting my hair cut or my teeth cleaned. Sometimes I wonder if perhaps being background music is the point.
Off topic, but I was wondering if you'd noticed that Bobby Hart passed away last week.
There's always been disposable pop. I think the difference now is that the past disposable pop became classic not out of Boomer nostalgia so much as rock was still a nascent art form so even disposable stuff had a chance to stand out or even be groundbreaking on some level, if for no other reason that in the grand scheme of things it was not yet part of a multi-decade juggernaut like where we are now. Even someone benchmarking another artist back then pretty much had to exhibit some uniqueness, by default, so the copycats still had some personality. I don't see that in modern pop, and by that I mean pop from the 1990s on. One keening boy band sounded like the other, one dance diva sounded like the other, one pop guitar band sounded like the other, and nowadays, many of them literally do have the same production/songwriting teams ,so they literally are interchangeable. And that interchangeability isn't the only problem, it's that the shit they're sharing is uninteresting because....see the start of this rant.
I've made the point before that it's not just nostalgia that keeps the Beatles and Hendrix et al in the pantheon; there really was a time when the acts pushing the art form forward were also topping the charts. I haven't seen that situation for a loooooooong time.
C in California
Notwithstanding my revulsion at the autotune era, I've long maintained that 1976 was the nadir and why Punk had to happen. That was the year I worked as a DJ at a disco roller rink; so much aural crapitude!
BTW, have you seen Carpenter's album? The cover is a rip-off of 'Smell the Glove.'
yep —other than Steely Dan and Springsteen, there wasn’t much else worthwhile going on then.😎
"Hey you kids get off of my lawn, get off of my lawn, etc, etc, etc."
I don't listen to modern pop, hell I can't keep up with current rock and roll so I can't offer any informed opinion to the state of modern pop.
The video is a hoot!!!
She's got great ass cheeks!!!
Fill in any disgusting comment you imagine I'm thinking. You could be correct but possibly not. I'm that much off a deep thinker. :-)
Captain Al
So I did my homework and looked at the Billboard top ten in May every 10 years from 1965 to 2025. It was a pain, so I'll share it below. I can't really come to some useful conclusion, except that I've been out of the mainstream since some time in the eighties, and there has always been a whole lot of crap on the charts. Now more than ever? You decide. Personally, for me it's the proliferation of songs written by teams of writers, produced by teams of producers, using the lowest number of actual musicians possible, never in the same room at the same time, since the turn of the century mostly.
May 8 1965
Mrs. Brown You've Got A Lovely Daughter Herman's Hermits
Count Me In Gary Lewis And The PlayboysL
Ticket To Ride The Beatles
Game Of Love Wayne Fontana & The Mindbenders
I'll Never Find Another You The Seekers
I Know A Place Petula Clark
Silhouettes Herman's Hermits
I'm Telling You Now Freddie And The Dreamers
The Last Time The Rolling Stones
Cast Your Fate To The Wind Sounds Orchestral
May 11, 1975
He Don't Love You (Like I Love You) Tony Orlando & Dawn
Before The Next Teardrop Falls Freddy Fender
Jackie Blue Ozark Mountain Daredevils
Shining Star Earth, Wind & Fire
Only Yesterday Carpenters
Walking In Rhythm The Blackbyrds
Thank God I'm A Country Boy John Denver
How Long Ace
I Don't Like To Sleep Alone Paul Anka with Odia Coates
(Hey Won't You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song B.J. Thomas
May 6, 1985
Crazy For You Madonna
We Are The World USA for Africa
Don't You (Forget About Me) Simple Minds
Rhythm Of The Night Debarge
One Night In Bangkok Murray Head
Some Like It Hot The Power Station
Smooth Operator Sade
Everything She Wants Wham!
Obsession Animotion
Everybody Wants To Rule The World Tears for Fears
May 8, 1995
This Is How We Do It Montell Jordan
Freak Like Me Adina Howard
Red Light Special TLC
I Know Dionne Farris
Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman? Bryan Adams
Run Away Real McCoy
Water Runs Dry Boyz II Men
I Believe Blessid Union Of Souls
Dear Mama/Old School 2Pac
Strong EnoughSheryl Crow
May 9, 2005
Hollaback Gir lGwen Stefani
Hate It Or Love It The Game Featuring 50 Cent
Oh Ciara Featuring Ludacris
Lonely Akon
Just A Lil Bit 50 Cent
Candy Shop50 Cent Featuring Olivia
We Belong Together Mariah Carey
Since U Been Gone Kelly Clarkson
Lonely No More Rob Thomas
Slow Down Bobby Valentino
May 11, 2015
See You Again Wiz Khalifa Featuring Charlie Puth
Trap Queen Fetty Wap
Uptown Funk! Mark Ronson Featuring Bruno Mars
Earned It (Fifty Shades Of Grey) The Weeknd
Shut Up And Dance Walk the Moon
Sugar Maroon 5
Love Me Like You Do Ellie Goulding
Want To Want Me Jason Derulo
Nasty Freestyle T-Wayne
Thinking Out Loud Ed Sheeran
May 4, 2025
Luther Kendrick Lamar & SZA
Ordinary Alex Warren
Die With A Smile Lady Gaga & Bruno Mars
Nokia Drake
A Bar Song (Tipsy) Shaboozey
Pink Pony Club Chappell Roan
Lose Control Teddy Swims
I'm The Problem Morgan Wallen
Beautiful Things Benson Boone
Anxiety Doechii
Tell me those lists don't mess with your head!
Hey! 'Shining Star' is fantastic. I'm surprised that you have a problem with 'Ticket to Ride' and 'The Last Time.'
"It's not just nostalgia that keeps the Beatles and Hendrix et al in the pantheon; there really was a time when the acts pushing the art form forward were also topping the charts. I haven't seen that situation for a loooooooong time."
Ya think? I mean -- the otherwise admirable Taylor Swift is an innovator who's advanced the art of songwriting and record making? Seems unlikely. I mean -- compared to some of the other people dominating the charts at the moment, she's The Beatles and Bob Dylan and Phil Spector. I.e., not. 😎
While your in my wife's homeland pleasure yourself with a wee dram of
of Dalmore 18 year old.
In our house it's "Scottish Holy Water"
😉. rob
That 1965 list is actually rather mediocre by the standards of its day. 😎
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