Extreme Pop

[koganbot]

I posted this over on the rolling teenpop thread.

xhuxk was talking to me about Decibel magazine, which devotes itself to extreme metal, and after I got off the phone I got the idea that if you could designate some things "extreme metal" you should also be able to designate things "extreme pop."

So, my nominations for EXTREME POP would include:

Mariah Carey (esp. her 1991 peak) because she's just fuckin' extreme, and 'cause she squeaks.
Napoleon XIV's "They're Coming to Take Me Away" because it's extremely silly and irritating and because the flipside is the same song played backwards which causes people to shoot themselves in the head.
The Veronicas' "4ever" for its deliriously gorgeous harmonies.
Boney M for being guilelessly eclectic.
Richard Harris' "MacArthur Park," because someone left the cake out in the rain.
Lindsay Lohan's video for "Confessions of a Broken Heart (Daughter to Father)"
Johnny Ray
The Shangri-Las
Little Richard

You can figure out what's extreme about the last three. This list is just to get the concept going.

Comments

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

My defn of extreme pop = pop to which my entire reaction is basically "what the fucking fuck????" and which makes me think that the performer is completely insane

Christina Aguilera - 'Make Over'

because it shamelessly lifts, note for note, the melody of the Sugababes' 'Overload', safe in the knowledge that no American will have heard it before. Then it proceeds to filter it through a completely insane mariachi/flamenco/hair metal/powerballad purée - the insistence of the castanets alone would put this into the extreme category, and that's before we consider the hysterical stabbing treated strings and Xtina's own bonkers, strung-out holler.

True Steppers ft Dane Bowers & Victoria Beckham - 'Out Of Your Mind'

as discussed recently on a Now poll

I don't know if Shakira is too self-consciously mad to be extreme, I think she is (the Outkast 'wacky' rule, though she is not as bad as them).

[blue-russian.livejournal.com]

I'm having a hard time with the concept, although I like Lex's definition. I remember having that reaction quite clearly when I first saw (or maybe it was heard) Gala. "Freed From Desire" was positively martial, her voice like a series of flat, shouted commands - it took me a while to decide whether she couldn't sing or didn't want to.

Perhaps if you were a club-goer, this was perfectly normal pop, but for me it seems absolutely surreal when I first heard it on the radio (and seeing the videos only reinforced the feeling, I remember wondering whether they were produced for some goth aerobics tape that we in Kyiv were oblivious to).