A Year In America December 18, 2008

[koganbot]

Beyoncé and T.I. trade places at 1 and 2, up a spot into third is the undeniably catchy Lady GaGa track the catchiness of which the rest of you want to deny, and the Veronicas enter the American Top 40 for the first time with the tenth-best song on Hook Me Up.

Brandy "Right Here (Departed)": Lyrics speak the power of Brandy love: "When you're trapped and there's no key and you can't breathe, I'll breathe for you." She makes such extremity seem a normal thing in her world of song. TICK.

All-American Rejects "Gives You Hell": Toy keybs at the start and a half-emo half-ruefulness in the singing give this a pleasant demeanor, though brief bits of guitar crunch suggest some heavy weaponry to come. And it does come, of course, without undoing the pleasantness, or the dullness. NO TICK.

The Veronicas "Untouched": Deep guitar throbs, while the V's sing with their usual end-of-the-world desperation tied to their usual cheery sing-song. TICK.

As a bonus to my stalwart readers, here's the Miss Universe Swimsuit Competition from last summer; note the charmingly inept dancing from the contestants near the start, especially Miss Norway at 1:15:

[Aw, YouTube killed the account of the person who posted this. I think the contestants were dancing to "Just Dance."]

Comments

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Wow, 'Right Here (Departed)' has only just made the top 40? It's been out for ages (I'm sure the push for the second single has been going on for at least a month!). Anyway, I totally agree about the way Brandy makes extremity seem normal - I think it's because her voice and her way of singing is so understated, she's more prone to wrapping herself up in the song rather than dominating it. So the sentiments and melodies are epic and cosmic in scope, but she makes them seem intimate in feel. The album is really excellent btw, it's being slept on b/c of its inconvenient release date but it shouldn't be.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Also, every time I listen to the Brandy album, I notice another TOTALLY EPIC lyric which she makes seem completely normal - eg on '1st & Love', she sings: "Don't know how long forever is / Would you stay with me and find out with me? / Oh if the sun don't rise for weeks, baby that's alright with me / Can't add to infinity / But if you stay with me, you can count on me." That's...just toweringly massive imagery.

[koganbot]

Songwriters on "Right Here (Departed)": E. Kidd Bogart/Victoria Horn/Rodney "Darkchild" Jerkins/Erika Nuri/David Quiñones.

Songwriters on "1st & Love": Christopher "Lonny" Breaux/Chauncey Hollis/Rick King/Jesse Woodard.

So, either they're choosing extremity for her or she's choosing songs for their extremity, or for some reason we notice standard pop normal extremity more when Brandy does it.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

The extremity is all over the album - it's very consciously "deep" and serious - and it seems like a natural outlet for all the turbulence in Brandy's personal life, so I guess it's what she was going for (has she ever written her own material? I don't recall her doing so...). I think the understatement probably helps us notice it more, though - Brandy's voice is so soft and understated, but it really pulls you in.

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

I noticed this too -- a lot of What Does It All Mean in a dippy sort of way. WHAT IS IT TO BE HUMAN?! (Or are we dancer?)

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Also, a perusal of the inlay reveals that she has dedicated the album to the memory of the GUY SHE KILLED in that Car Crash of Tragedy, whose family are currently suing her for squillions of dollars.

Cognitive dissonance

[koganbot]

What I feel being a human being is, having the freedom to be yourself... and not bein' afraid. 'Cause if you're not yourself, who are you? (Track One)

Save me, save me from myself. (Track Ten)

Re: Cognitive dissonance

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

Well, the last sentence of your first quote plus the second quote = some kind of essence of confessional music, doesn't it? (Fear is always a red herring with these things, anyway. "I am not afraid to be myself." Well, yeah, OK, fine. But there are other emotions to choose from. Are you happy to be you?)

Note to self: Write song about being afraid to be yourself.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

(I have a fever today hence the disorganisation of thought...)

[koganbot]

Seems well-organized to me.

(I hope you listen to the Mauboy/Flo Rida track I posted on Poptimists.)

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I definitely will, but am waiting until my head is not pounding/burning quite so much. Mega-fever = not the ideal conditions to experience "ft. Flo Rida" I feel, I am turning instead to the ELGAR CELLO CONCERTO.

[koganbot]

So what she does is she understates the overstatement!

(dubdobdee to thread: "overstatement" doesn't make it into the Sidorsky index to AoR, and a two-second thumb-through of AoR doesn't find it. Do you happen to know where in the book the overstatement discussion occurs?)

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

remind me who the overstatement discussion might relate to?

[koganbot]

You mean whom it might relate to in Meltzer's book or whom it might relate to on this thread? I assume you mean the former, and the answer is that I don't remember (it might have been a lot of performers or only a very few, or maybe I'm imagining it and no such discussion ever existed).

(If you mean whom might it relate to on this thread, the overstatement refers to Brandy and esp to Lex saying "I totally agree about the way Brandy makes extremity seem normal - I think it's because her voice and her way of singing is so understated, she's more prone to wrapping herself up in the song rather than dominating it. So the sentiments and melodies are epic and cosmic in scope, but she makes them seem intimate in feel.")

[koganbot]

Wow, 'Right Here (Departed)' has only just made the top 40?

Yeah. It took fourteen weeks to make it up to #34 (all three new tracks were in the 30s). Probably the publicity surrounding the album helped push airplay and sales.

[koganbot]

Actually, "Untouched" is at 40, so only two of the three new ones are in the 30s. "Gives You Hell" is at 37.

[poptasticuk.livejournal.com]

I can't believe Lady GaGa has taken 8 months to get to the top! That's ridiculous.

[koganbot]

Well, she's a new recording artist, but agreed, the U.S. was very slow to go along with her international success.

Other recent songs that took a long time to hit: Miley Cyrus "See You Again" (top 40 stations were probably reluctant to play this at first, given that she'd had no hits anywhere but on Radio Disney before); Pink's "U + Ur Hand" (not sure why this had such a long long buildup; probably the stations had decided at first that the album was done with and wouldn't be producing any more hits; then slowly the song got more and more airplay)

[koganbot]

Also, it's really hard for "dance" tracks to hit in the U.S. (as opposed to r&b and hip-hop tracks, which of course people dance to).

[poptasticuk.livejournal.com]

Your countryfolk must have a pretty narrow definition of r'n'b if it doesn't include Just Dance. Surely it's as much an r'n'b song as a dance song? It's produced by Akon, after all!

[koganbot]

No, it's produced by RedOne.

[poptasticuk.livejournal.com]

Oh I know (he's a Swede!), but I thought it was a joint effort with Akon. Looking into it now it must have been because the early promotional articles about her mentioned Akon quite heavily, I presumed he'd worked on Just Dance. I'm glad he didn't though, now I can continue disliking him!

[poptasticuk.livejournal.com]

Also, RedOne is an r'n'b producer, so my previous point still stands! :D

[koganbot]

Also, you're right that Akon co-produced "Just Dance" with RedOne. It sounds more disco than r&b to me, however.

[poptasticuk.livejournal.com]

Oh, really? I'm glad I didn't imagine it, although it is a shame that I have to credit him for the ace song. I'd say Just Dance is a good halfway point between dance & r'n'b, but I wouldn't put it fully in the dance category, because for me that is reserved for the Septembers and Cascadas of the world. I think the UK and USA definition of dance music is quite different, maybe because it's more popular here so we need to allocate songs to other categories or else the dance category would include anything that's upbeat.