A Year In America November 20, 2008

[koganbot]

Thought on my mind today, as the stock market plummets another five percent and credit freezes up again: in 1933 "race records" pretty much disappeared, as its audience got too poor to buy. I don't yet expect a depression, and I know that r&b and hip-hop travel beyond demographics, and its core demographic reaches into the middle class. But I do wonder what genres will be hit hardest by the slowdown.

Taylor Swift "White Horse": A gorgeous purr of sadness in her throat, sudden snaps of the whip from her tongue. Gentle guitar chords at the start have the same quietly hair-rasing effect. The chorus can't maintain the mood, so the song loses itself, but the mood returns when the verse returns. TICK.

Guns N' Roses "Chinese Democracy": Dramatic chords to start, then an Axl squeal sampled from "Welcome To The Jungle," same dance rumble from the bass that was all over Appetite For Destruction 21 years ago, same subtle half-growl as in "It's So Easy." What's missing is any kind of release in the chorus; also missing is the high shriek with which Axl could have delivered it. Good song, exciting, even, but ought to have been far better. TICK.

Nickelback "If Today Was Your Last Day": Gremo? Grunge emo? Or would that term be redundant? Good tune, at least in the verse, and Chad's tonsillectomy gargle is less bothersome than on the track I hated on poptimists on Monday; but the deep sodden guitars sink these guys once again. NO TICK.

Jazmine Sullivan "Bust Your Windows": Man, another album I need to get to. Once again Jazmine's vocals overmatch her material, end up busting its chops even when she's stepping delicately. That's a drama to look forward to when I get the album: a bull of a voice dressed in a gown, trying not to rip the apparel. TICK.

T-Pain f. Ludacris "Chopped 'N' Skrewed": Mr. Autotune walks through a nondescript melody, while voice and beats are chopped and screwed to an annoying degree. Novelty number done wrong. NO TICK.

Comments

[koganbot]

I miscounted. Four Taylor tracks not counting the focus single "Love Story" were released for download and hit the Top 40 before the album was released, so that means ten of the album's thirteen tracks did or are doing significant action as individual downloads, and if you add in "Love Story" that makes eleven out of thirteen. Again, I don't know if or to what extent this is economy-related.

(Also, the Taylor album still has a shot at my P&J despite having only one clear winner ("You're Not Sorry"), the relatively weak songs being beautiful nonetheless, especially in the singing.)

[edgeofwhatever.livejournal.com]

I'm guessing it may be more demographic-related than economy-related: Taylor and the JoBros both appeal mostly to tweens and teens, who are accustomed to downloading individual tracks rather than buying whole albums and may be more apt to just keep downloading single songs as they hear them. (Also, and this is just conjecture on my part, they probably have pretty limited funds -- their parents probably only let them spend so much per week or month at the iTunes store, so they might be less likely to blow all that money one artist's album when they could buy several songs they already know and like by several artists they already know and like.) Have any artists without ties to Disney seen the same individual track action?

[koganbot]

This seems right, and it took Taylor a while to reach the teenpop audience the first time around, whereas now with the album coming out and the audiences she's built jumping on it all at once. Of course, maybe older audiences will start acting like the teenies in this regard, with money tighter. (And anyway, the markets overall are shifting from albums to songs, and this was happening even without a financial crisis.)

Was the Jonas Brothers the first album to release a whole bunch of different songs week by week in runup to the album? I noticed it especially because I'd started dong A Year In America, whereas if it had happened a few months earlier I might not have.

[chuckeddy.livejournal.com]

Lots I'd talk about here (and in the previous DDR thread) if I had more time and wasn't on constant deadline and baby duty (i.e.: I'm not so sure music listened to by "working class" fans would be hardest hit by an economic downturn in the first place, but if so, you might want to look at the differential between sales and expendable income {country sales have been slipping for the past couple years, and hip-hip sales have been plummetting drastically long before there was economic crisis; post-high-schoolers listening to metal and indie-rock -- both of which have still been comparatively selling okay in the past couple years, as I recall, notably physical product in metal's case -- will probably be hurt even more than most demographics in the job market as older people pick up service jobs that traditionally went to younger people {but that's already been happening right?}; the Latin market, which has still yet to adapt to the digital market, seems like it could be hit hard too {though again it's already been hurting}; I think Frank's generalizations about country music lyrics are oversimplified as usual {i.e., yeah, lots of country songs do what he says, but lots don't, too}; I'm still basically bored and pissed off by Taylor Swift's hookless new Lisa Loeb album though parts are starting to grow on me a little and I expect they'll do more so after I stop taking a break from it}; still have not consciously heard a single song off the new GnR album, which I'm sort of dreading, though I'll listen to it if a copy falls into my lap. May get around to checking out the title track on youtube in the next few days, or maybe I won't.)

Taylor songs in the current Hot 100 are below. Yep, six debuts ("White Horse" is the week's "Hot Shot Debut.") Really don't see how this phenomenon has *anything* to do with the economic downturn, though; seems to me it's just how teen pop has been marketed at least since *High School Musical,* which I believe is when this sort of download deluge started. Happened with Hannah/Miley, too, right? (And maybe with David Archetta or however you spell his name just a few weeks ago? I dunno, I was paying less attention then, I may be wrong about that.) Or maybe Taylor's deluge is differs in some way I'm not getting?


13 1
White Horse, Taylor Swift
N.Chapman,T.Swift (T.Swift,L.Rose ) Big Machine DIGITAL | 13
18 14 16 10 Love Story, Taylor Swift
N.Chapman,T.Swift (T.Swift ) Big Machine DIGITAL | 5
49 NEW 1 Forever & Always, Taylor Swift
N.Chapman,T.Swift (T.Swift ) Big Machine DIGITAL | 49
72 NEW 1 The Way I Loved You, Taylor Swift
N.Chapman,T.Swift (T.Swift,J.Rich ) Big Machine DIGITAL | 72
79 NEW 1 Fifteen, Taylor Swift
N.Chapman,T.Swift (T.Swift ) Big Machine DIGITAL | 79
87 NEW 1 Breathe, Taylor Swift
N.Chapman,T.Swift (T.Swift,C.Caillat ) Big Machine DIGITAL | 87
94 NEW 1 Hey Stephen, Taylor Swift
N.Chapman,T.Swift (T.Swift ) Big Machine DIGITAL | 94

[chuckeddy.livejournal.com]

And "hookless" is a hyperbole, obviously. There are a couple really good hooks. They just seem few and far between, and most of the album just really seems to be bigtime missing....*something* I can't quite put my finger on.