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

[steviespitfire.livejournal.com]

Some Prince.

Not the "fuck" stuff (Sister, Darling Nikki), because that isn't particularly extreme for pop, I guess, not now, anyway, but the "headfuck" stuff eg. and esp. If I Was Your Girlfriend. Extreme because of the sonics, I guess, the tweaked voice(s), the Camille "backstory" the first 12 seconds or so with the strings, the sampled voice, the wedding march that becomes the slow crawl of the beat, the words, you know, I'm no writer, sorry...

[steviespitfire.livejournal.com]

"When You Were Mine" also. Sonically: mix between sparse drum machine soul and new wave yes yes which is weird for Prince, maybe, and the lyrics have new wave geekery ("you were...kinda sorta my best friend") which go all expansive when they sit next to IIWYG-style stuff like "I used to let you wear all my clothes" and "he was sleeping inbetween the two of us"...

[blue-russian.livejournal.com]

It's so hard for me to call these extreme, given that I grew up with them. That said, it took me ages to come around to "When Doves Cry," which I do remember thinking "This is not a SONG" for weeks, finding it unlistenable in a way that very few songs ever have been.