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 like Taylor's "Forever & Always" at 49 more than "White Horse" at 13: is rolling along in pissy heartbreak and interrupts itself with a dramatic instrumental flourish that reminds me of the dramatic instrumental flourish in Lou Reed's "Ocean."

[chuckeddy.livejournal.com]

Interestingly, I'd just compared Taylor's "The Best Day" to Lou Reed's "Perfect Day" on the ILX Rolling Country thread the other day. Still think Lou's is a whole lot better, though.

[chuckeddy.livejournal.com]

And I still kinda wish her "White Horse" said "If you wanna ride, you gotta ride the white horse" and "If you wanna be rich, you gotta be a bitch" and things like that.

[koganbot]

I'm barely paying attention to the new lyrics yet, but from what I've noticed they seem strenuously expository (compared to the first album's), take a long time detailing just what the song's conflicts and situations are.

I never was interested in Lisa Loeb's music, but I remember her (like Taylor) looking good in dresses. Or anyway, that's what most of the Radio On discussion of her hit single seemed to be about. Or perhaps the discussion was about a lot of things but all I remember is the dress.

[chuckeddy.livejournal.com]

Really??? I actually thought Lisa was more famous for her Sarah Palin glasses. (And her cat, maybe. Don't remember the dress at all.) (And actually, I only really know her one hit, "Stay," which I never liked. Which somehow hasn't stopped her from repeatedly come to mind when Taylor's album is on.)

[chuckeddy.livejournal.com]

"Coming to mind," that is.

(And actually, Taylor may well sound nothing like Lisa per se'. I guess the comparison is just indicative of my newfound nostalgia for the long-lost early '90s, when the kind of confessional music that teen girls maturing beyond pop hooks regularly make these days was rightly dismissed by *Radio On* people as "boring singer-songwriter alt-folk" or whatever. So who knows, maybe Taylor is way more Natalie Imbruglia instead.)

[koganbot]

Well, what I remember was that Rob Sheffield's review - was it Sheffield's - went "Nice dress."

The glasses really made her look cute, now that you remind me of them. Sort of dark and scholarly, which somehow made her more winsome.

As for Taylor's lyrics that I haven't really paid attention to yet, she seems to be making a bigger thing of her demographic (her demographic not being "country" but "I used to be thirteen, or am thirteen, or will be thirteen"); though the first album surely had some self-consciously teenage lyrics, e.g., "A Place In This World," but this one seems to be hewing more to the idea of "specifically teenage romantic concerns." Or maybe, since that's what so many people are talking about ("Taylor Swift sings of high school and specifically teenage romantic concerns"), I'm noticing how much she's continue to sing of specifically teenage romantic concerns. And of being picked-on in middle school. (Was that from the perfect day song?)

What's wrong with the songs? Something about their pacing, maybe, the same revved-up instrumental and vocal blare in a lot of the choruses? Melodies just not that great in ways that I'll never be able to specify? But I'm up to six songs that are better than pretty good: "You're Not Sorry," "Love Story," "Hey Stephen," "Breathe," "Forever & Always."

Btw, two things I've talked about on other people's locked comment threads so you won't have seen them but (1) t.A.T.u. album not that good on first listen, (2) Bronx Mowgli Wentz wtf? (I use "Mowgli" as an excuse to quote "Damn, I Wish I Were Your Lover" where Sophie says "Come Inside My Jungle Book.")

[koganbot]

Um, I can't count, that's five songs better than pretty good. How about "You Belong With Me" as a sixth?

Are there a lot of teen and formerly teen singers maturing away from hooks? Britney, Lindsay, Avril, Ashlee, Aly & AJ, and Hilary don't seem to be - in fact Avril seems to be veering towards hooks. Some of them may be using hooks that aren't as good as previous hooks, but that's a different matter. Maybe the sound is just wearing out. Michelle Branch was always going to try to sound "mature," as was Vanessa Carlton (whose third album had more and better hooks than her second, and I never heard her first). Mandy Moore is the main person who really comes to mind here, though maybe there's someone obvious I'm just not thinking of. (And I only remember a few of Mandy's tracks from the old days anyway.) I felt that Kelly Clarkson and Ashlee etc. were working under the assumption that going "confessional" in the '00s didn't mean you had to forgo hooks. But as I said, maybe the sound is just wearing out. The new Taylor album doesn't seem to be a maturity move; it seems more like a blatant pop move, actually. Hooks weren't forgone, just weren't achieved. In fact, I think the nonhookless parts (the verses) tend to sound better than the hook-attempted parts (the choruses).

[chuckeddy.livejournal.com]

Hmmm...You may have me there actually. I'm certainly under the *impression* that ex-teenpoppers have been heading in a more confessional direction, but it might help if I come up with actual examples. (Veronicas go for more hooks and less confession on their second album, too, I guess.) Need to give this more thought....(But then, where does my impression come from? Maybe you're right; the hooks just aren't as good anymore. Not sure I agree with you, though, that Taylor's followup isn't a maturity move. It certainly sounds more singer-songwriterly and less bubblegummy to my ears; I kind understand how "less country and more pop" would be a smart marketing plan, and I also get what you've been saying about blatantly teen oriented lyrics I guess, but that doesn't mean the album *sounds* more teenage. It definitely doesn't. It sounds like a college girl with a creative writing notebook.)

Actually, her glasses aren't dark, and they make her look like a cat

[koganbot]

[koganbot]

Well, Marit Larsen, obviously. (Interesting that I didn't think of her.) Except she's full of hooks, it's just that they're singer-songwriter approved artistically ambitious hooks. I mean, she's arty up-the-butt at this point. And generally pretty good, though I'm afraid to go back and listen to the new one and find out I've been fooled.

The thing is, the whole teenpop genre went singer songwriter for a while starting with Michelle Branch and Pink and Vanessa Carlton and Avril in '01 and '02, with M2M as precursors, but thanks to Shanks and Max and the Matrix etc. and probably the girls' own proclivities, the move towards singer-songwriter didn't associate itself with hooklessness. And as I said, I don't think Taylor's hooklessness is deliberate.

[koganbot]

In fact, this is what I wrote about Bronx Mowgli Wentz (first part is in response to someone complaining about the name by imagining what it would be like in forty years or so when president-elect Bronx Mowgli Wentz comes out into the arena to receive his applause:

koganbot:
Clearly, a weird name is a prerequisite for President. They are doing the child a favor. I mean, should they have called him George?

But since everyone is doing the weird name thing these days (at least everyone black is, and everyone who wants to be black or hip), any seemingly normal current name will be weirdly archaic by the time the current year's crop reaches adolescence. "Your name is Andrew? That's like from the Middle Ages! [snicker snicker] Sir Andrew and Lady Genufluct rode to The Lake. [snicker snicker]" (you know how cruel 13-year-olds can be).

Though once, when my mother was relatively young, like in her thirties, she met a young couple with their child Como, and my mother said, politely, "That's a lovely name," and the wife said, "We had our honeymoon at Lake Como, so that's why we gave him that name," and my mother thought to herself "It's a good thing you didn't honeymoon in Ocean Park, New Jersey."

I hadn't previously been aware that the Simpson-Wentzes had honeymooned* on the Grand Concourse, however.

*Would have been a pre-nuptial honeymoon, however, so that must have been why it wasn't widely reported.

Damn, I wish I was your middle name

koganbot:
As for Mowgli, it's likely that during the Simpson-Wentz honeymoon on the Grand Concourse they were listening to Sophie B. Hawkins' "Damn, I Wish I Was Your Lover" and they were taken with the line "Come inside my jungle book."