Rules Of The Game #15: Grown-ups Make Puppy Love

[koganbot]

Latest column: why teens sing adult lyrics: a theory (which is that it's the other way around); also, Britney as the little engine that couldn't.

The Rules Of The Game #15: Grown-ups Make Puppy Love

Once again they botched the italics. And I just spent five minutes debating with myself as to whether it should be "Grown-ups" or "Grown-Ups." (Oh, and I know that JoJo is actually 16 not 15, but she was 15 when her second album was recorded and released, and I couldn't be bothered to explain this.)

So, any opinion as to why love and romance lyrics overwhelmingly dominate pop music?

EDIT: Here are links to all but three of my other Rules Of The Game columns (LVW's search results for "Rules of the Game"). Links for the other three (which for some reason didn't get "Rules Of The Game" in their titles), are here: #4, #5, and #8.

UPDATE: I've got all the links here now:

http://koganbot.livejournal.com/179531.html

Comments

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Do people assume songs that have adults singing about teen subjects must have some 'higher' meaning? Are we automatically blocking out the possibility that the song is meant to be taken at face value because it's a bit creepy? In particular I'm thinking of that 'Stacey's Mom Has Got It Going On' song, but who's to say Pink Floyd's 'Another Brick In The Wall' couldn't actually be talking about how they hate their teachers, aw man doesn't school suck? PF actually get some kids in to sing the chorus, helping suspend our belief for a split second. It annoys me a lot when people are all 'I'm clever enough to realise that this song's about druqks/oppression/slavery/Thatcherism/abortion/singer's dead mum' when it might just be that Roger Waters disliked Maths lessons.

A different point: who is writing these teen/adult songs, and why? A professional songwriter who is churning out tunes is writing for an audience: they want to be successful and sell records. An artist who writes their own material alone is far more prone to introspection and exorcising of demons. Just look at TashBed - her entire album is MY FEELINGS LET ME SHOW YOU THEM. A band writing their own songs together are more likely to be flippant/abstract/worthy (OUR JUST CAUSES LET US SHOW YOU THEM) as each writer has the restraining force of the others to moderate the 'feelings'. Especially if the singer is shagging the bassist behind the drummer's back. Um. Anyway. Solo artist be writing about love because *everyone* experiences it and of course it'll sell well. People who don't regularly buy music will inevitably splash out for 'Greatest Love Albums Ever' to set the mood on Valentine's day...

[koganbot]

Who writes the songs varies from singer to singer, but JoJo, Vanessa Hudgens, Corbin Bleu, Ashley Tisdale, and Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana mostly don't write theirs, whereas M2M, Michelle Branch, Pink, Avril Lavigne, Vanessa Carlton, Kelly Clarkson, Ashlee Simpson, Skye Sweetnam, Brie Larson, Aly & A.J., The Veronicas, Jordan Pruitt, and Taylor Swift do write or co-write most of theirs. That was the sea change in teenpop of the '00s, definitely ratcheted up the level of angst and idiosyncrasy. Results vary depending on the person, obviously, but they've been surprisingly good, maybe owing to the chemistry between the performers and the various adults involved in the co-writing (Shanks & DioGuardi, the Matrix, Martin & Gottwald [who've obviously had to change how they do things], Linda Perry, etc.) Hilary Duff didn't used to write hers, but on the newest alb she's on the credits of every single song. And Miley Cyrus's one and only writing credit is on "See You Again," which is by far her best, though the fact that that's the one where she's working with Armato & James (the great duo who've worked with Aly & A.J. on everything since "Chemicals React") probably has a lot to do with that.

Unfortunately, the sea's been changing back, with the dominance on Disney of High School Musical and Hannah Montana. And the problem isn't that adults are back to writing the material (this isn't a problem with JoJo, who's generally great) but that Gerrard & Nevil, who do a lot of it, are generally mediocre (though I do like Corbin Bleu's "Push It To The Limit," which is sort of *NSync Lite; the rest of his album is blah, unfortunately).

Enough about love; let's talk about eggplant

[koganbot]

But notice the claim - or hypothesis - I'm making, which is that the standard adult pop song ("love was just a glance away, a warm embracing dance away"), sung by and for adults, without anything that signals "teen" in the lyrics, is based on the teen experience of relationships and crushes, not the adult experience of marriage and family or long-term gf and bf, etc. Country is a partial exception here, in that it definitely mines divorce and extramarrital affairs and love-grown-tired and love reinvigorated as themes; but still, this is only a partial exception, since adult day-to-day experience of relationships isn't divorce and extramarrital affairs.

And why do love and romance supersede all other topics? (For instance, there clearly aren't enough songs about aubergines.)

Love comes in spurts

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

This was a point I was trying to make in my Pitchfork column on ABBA a few months ago, that their songs often (not quite always) feel more situated in an adult world rather than a teen one, even the love songs (of which there are many, obviously).

Does love dominate partly because it's an emotion that is felt in surges with specific triggering moments (same with anger, which is probably the second most common pop emotion) so it fits the 3-4 minute format well.

Re: Love comes in spurts

[koganbot]

Anger of course is usually integrated into the romance cycle, in break-up/revenge songs.

I have another hypothesis, by the way, which is that punk-protest-type lyrics are basically break-up/revenge songs with the lyrics simply redirected at parents social institutions. By that theory, "God Save The Queen" is essentially "It's All Over Now" but directed at Queen and country. You lied to me, but tables turn, your turn to cry. I used to love you, but it's all over now. Under my thumb's a queen who once had me down.

Re: Love comes in spurts

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

3-4 minutes is key, yes. Teen love in particular is a simple form of it that the listener doesn't need a phd in politics (or to have experienced a divorce) to understand. Almost everyone has had a crush on someone, because usually that's the first phase of love that people experience. In their teens.

Re: Love comes in spurts

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

Maybe it's a Swedish thing (Jessica P to thread!)...Amy Diamond's songs are totally terrifying sometimes in their adultness. Seriously, "Welcome to the City" pretty much is "Frankenstein" by the New York Dolls.

Re: Love comes in spurts

[koganbot]

Well, most of my love relationships last three or four minutes anyway. (Er, just joking, but there's that great line in David Johansen's "Frenchette": "You call that lovin' French but it's just Frenchette, I've been to France, so let's just dance/I get all the love I need in a luncheonette in just one glance, so let's just dance.") But I've been meaning to explore the ABBA catalogue ever since you ran that piece. Assuming my column keeps running, it'll probably be several months before I decide I've accumulated enough money to spare a little for CDs. Next month I go clothes shopping for the first time in ten years.

Re: Love comes in spurts

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I should compile (and upload) an ABBA compilation then! It's not like Benny and Bjorn need the money.

Re: Enough about love; let's talk about eggplant

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

"I got out the baking sheet and you grabbed a pot
The way you slice that aubergine is makin' me hot
Stick it in the oven babe and watch it collapse
And while it's sizzlin' we can go take a nap.

'Cuz it's an EGGPLANT dinner EGGPLANT surprise
I'm only seein' EGGPLANT when I look into your eyes
EGGPLANT dinner and an EGGPLANT lunch
On sale at the market so there's gonna be a bunch"

Re: Enough about love; let's talk about eggplant

[koganbot]

But this is really a crypto romance song! But then, the way to a man's heart is through his stomach.

[koganbot]

Speaking of aubergines, I remember a story about the Middle Eastern princess (or whatever they're called) who was married off to a prince and brought with her as a dowry 100 gallons of olive oil, so that she could make the prince's favorite aubergine dish every day. So on the first day she made the dish and he loved it, the second day she made the dish and he loved it, on the third she gave him cabbage salad instead. "Where's the aubergine?" he demanded to know. "The cooking oil is all used up," she said.

(Moral, if you can find a recipe that calls for baking or broiling the aubergine, your job is a lot easier. I know a great Greek Eggplant Salad recipe that's a cinch to make.)

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Aaaaaaaaargh I am starting to develop an aubergine phobia!

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

You know, I love aubergines so much.

This is why I am never going to try to cook them myself again.

[koganbot]

10 months later I realize I said a falsehood: Miley Cyrus co-wrote a whole lot more than just "See Me Again." (Was a cowriter on most of Disk 2 of Hannah Montana/Meet Miley Cyrus; don't know about the new one, which just leaked yesterday, though my second-favorite song on it was written in 1979 by Robert Hazard and was covered by Cyndi Lauper several years later.)

[martinskidmore.livejournal.com]

Best negotiation of terms song is by O.V. Wright, where he tells us of a woman saying "When it comes to lovin' / I don't mind gettin' down / But I ain't gonna tread on forbidden ground" then we go into the chorus "I don't do windows [that's the title] / I won't wash no floors" etc.

[koganbot]

Does "forbidden ground" mean he's not going to trespass on women's prerogative to do all the housework? Those seem like great lyrics, by the way.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Yes forbidden ground = THEE KITCHEN it seems!

[martinskidmore.livejournal.com]

Those are her words he is citing, not his - she's saying she's up for a relationship and sex, but she won't do his housework for him.

[koganbot]

Ah. More complicated.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I think love/romance is probably the subject area best suited for...a kind of universal ambiguity, maybe. In that most pop songs about love (and especially teenpop ones) are simultaneously cliché-ridden and strikingly ambiguous - so much of the time the emotional crux of the song isn't a particular word or line that you've heard a million times before, but whether the narrator means it, or is deluding him/herself; the clues will be in other lines, some of which (usually in the initially-overlooked verses) provide some sort of disjoint, and of course in the vocal delivery. It's a subject matter which has great scope for lyrical implication, where one line can make you feel like you know a great deal more of the story. Which can be equally down to the listener's own projections!

I can't think of any other theme which has this kind of potential...work and so on are all certainties. Politics can of course be ambiguous but a) political ambiguity is perhaps not best expressed in popsong form, and b) popstars (not just popstars) always seem to feel a need to emphasise their certainty when it comes to political issues.

[koganbot]

Brilliant comment. Someday I will convince you to love the early Rolling Stones, in that you keep praising pop and Paris in much the way I like to praise the Stones.

Politics is ambiguous, but most political expression is simpleminded and obvious and a lot of posturing, which is why I usually can't stand political lyrics. (Exception: the Rolling Stones. Lots of ambivalence in their social-issue lyrics. Just as in their "love" lyrics. Ongoing use of the untrustworthy narrator, but Jagger delivers the songs as if he is that narrator, so there's rarely the detached feeling that says, "We know better, and this is not me," even when the song clearly does know better.)

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I think most popstars are pretty dumb, and therefore most lyrics are simpleminded and obvious, but with romance simpleminded/obvious lyrics are still a good way (in fact prob the best way) of expressing emotional complexity and depth, whereas this is...v much not the case for politics.

Romance novels and romance novelties

[koganbot]

From: "Richard Kogan"
To: "Frank Kogan"
Subject: RE: Rules Of The Game #15: Grown-ups Make Puppy Love
Date: Thursday, September 13, 2007 9:14 AM

"[M]y feeling is that all of pop's breakups and infatuations and crushes and reconciliations involve issues that still remain in adult life but aren't so high-pitched." I think you have this exactly right, and you must think so, too, because this is the thesis you explicate in later paragraphs.

I have a few random comments on the thesis. First, reasonable synonyms for "high-pitched" might be intense, all-consuming, or novel.

Second, the adult desire to continue to deal with these issues can have many sources, from enjoying (and so replaying) the best of romance; to recapturing the greater sexual energy of youth; to rehashing the issues that one still has not resolved satisfactorily.

Third, in this context, it is probably worth an hour of your time to quantify the novels sold each year in various different genres (including the paperbacks sold at grocery stores). I assume the sales of romance novels, broadly defined, will vastly outweigh those of all other genres combined. This isn't just popular music we are speaking of.

Fourth, and even so, romance in all its stops on the cycle may dominate music even more than it dominates other forms of discourse. The reason is that romance is so elemental that it does not require a lengthy lyric to evoke the required memories or emotions. A good murder mystery really does necessitate the use of more of the space-time continuum, so there will be relatively fewer 2-minute musical who-done-its than literary equivalents.

Finally, obsessing about teenage angst by musically re-living its emotions is not confined to romance; one can obsess in written work about high-school social groupings, for instance. But there is some merit in getting beyond the strong feeling that were evoked in adolescence, so that one can be more richly integrated into adult life and get more out of it.

Murder mystery songs

[koganbot]

I recall that the Del-Byzanteens did a version of the Supremes' "My World Is Empty Without You" into which they interpolated "The Perry Mason Theme." And then of course there's always Tom Lehrer's "I Hold Your Hand In Mine," which combines the romance and the murder theme nicely. (Well, "nicely" is perhaps not the correct word. "Thoroughly," perhaps.)

[(Anonymous)]

This thread has inspired me to write a song called "Doin' Dishes."

(Dave on library comp)

I'm the type of guy

[koganbot]

I did this couplet years ago (based on LL Cool J's "I'm The Type Of Guy"):

"You're the type of guy who gets suspicious
I'm the type of guy who always does the dishes"

Re: I'm the type of guy

[(Anonymous)]

Hm, I think I read that somewhere (presumably yer book). Drat! But it's a relatively unexplored subgenre of kitchen-sink-rock.

V tired, brain turning to mush, must post lj comment

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

I think music, books, films, telly/soaps, ballet, whatever, are way more commonly consumed for escapism than e.g. understanding a political message/passing the time. Explosions! Defeat the baddies! Kiss the girl! Things that don't usually happen in real life. There are less songs about aubergines because aubergines DO happen in real life. Lovelives are very difficult to get right (even harder than aubergines), and most people need to believe that a great relationship (or an exciting one) can indeed happen. Or need commiseration when it goes wrong (which is often).

Re: V tired, brain turning to mush, must post lj comment

[koganbot]

Kiss the girl happens less often than aubergines? I like your last couple of statements.

Lovelives are very difficult to get right (even harder than aubergines), and most people need to believe that a great relationship (or an exciting one) can indeed happen. Or need commiseration when it goes wrong (which is often

This is one reason that escapism often ends up with deep content - kind of without trying - when it addresses romance.

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

I'm only just catching up on your columns, having been too knackered/angsty to read anything longer than about three words over the summer, so I don't know if you've addressed this in previous one but from the current one: what interested me from it was the idea of parity between the artist and the listener. Err, I am slightly too drunk to explain this idea.