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]

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."