Now, in case you're not thoroughly depressed and/or snowed in, let's liven it up a bit. Look, music isn't dead. It isn't dying, and I'm not cynical enough to think that all was bad. I'm a bit of a pop apologist, so while I can't promise to dial down the gushing, I promise that these next 5 things will only enrage some people 1/2 as much as my previous 10. Oh, and as far as tracking my mood on Tiger Woods-fest? I'm so over it. What a difference 3 days and 2 pornstars can make? Anyway....
10.) Lady Gaga: See What I Did There? - This isn't hypocritical, it's reality. Whether or not she does it for me, she is an important cog in the next evolution of solo female pop. I dislike her holding the torch, trust me. But I don't see anyone else willing to take the backlash along with the accolades. Who? Miley Cyrus, outside of also being horrible, has paper thin skin, Taylor Swift, adorable as she may be, isn't crossover enough (unless we're taking this seriously?), Hayley Williams is tied to a band (and not a very good one at that), and all of the rest are either too indie, too old, or too anti-everything to be taken seriously. What music, on the whole, has been lacking since the demise of Britney, and I mean the REAL demise of Britney, the one that affected her musical standing JUST enough, is a brash, (forced and copied, but....) unique, and entertaining solo female pop artist. The guys are fine. We've got Justin Timberlake, if all else fails. And, going back to the point I made the first time around, Gaga's got some musical chops, I don't think many....but Spears had NONE, and Madonna had misguided ones. And Gaga doesn't seem to intentionally play to her sexuality (look, I'm not going to stoop to making a joke off of rumors here, I've got slightly better taste than that, sometimes) as much as people expect. Now, she's not a nun, but she's also not making videos where she's pretty much being held up by a stripper pole while groaning inaudible lyrics. (Britney jokes aside, hat tip to Danja on that track. That beat is infectious.) The point is, I don't get Gaga, and I don't care for her.....thing. But I'm also smart enough to know what's good for music. And she's got the goods. I'm not buying....but I'm one of few. And that's good enough.
9.) Movie Soundtracks: Oh, Yeah. They're Cool Again. - First off, I'd like to dedicate this to 80's teen flicks. Because every one made....the music was spot on. They made me appreciate the film soundtrack more than anyone else. (Oh, and yes...I do own a vinyl copy of the Pretty in Pink soundtrack. So?) It's not even about setting a tone for the film, your epic film should do that on it's own. It's about getting a bunch of cool artists from past eras that the kids today will appreciate, so I can impress some girl outside of the movie theater by schooling her on my extensive Morrissey knowledge. So, in essence, movie soundtracks have to be good, or I'll never get dates. This year, more than any other, movies made digging in the crates cool. 500 Days of Summer, while an evil movie, that left me heartbroken and shattered for weeks, mixed Regina Spektor with the Smiths and Simon & Garfunkel almost effortlessly. Pirate Radio? mixed my new overseas crush of the year, Duffy, with the Kinks and Otis Redding. (And, by the way, how can you not just adore Duffy? She's Welsh, has the swag of Dusty Springfield, and she's so cute. She got robbed at the Grammys. Adele, I'mma let you finish.) Not to mention the bang up job that Karen O did on the Wild Things soundtrack...look, we're no longer looking at movies and tuning out sound. Movies are now the things that remind us, "Oh! I've got to download that song when I get home!" And I love it. When the Coen Bros took the soundtrack out of No Country For Old Men in 2008, it was genius. Now? I could always take more music with my films. Even Adam Sandler had a good serious contribution to a soundtrack.
8.) Autotune: The Good, The Bad, And The News. - Autotune had long been out of hand, though with Kanye West's 808's & Heartbreak late last year, it probably hit a peak this year. The thing is, with West, that was partially tasteful autotune at first. He knew when to get a normal haircut again, and get back to the business of murdering Jay-Z on Jay's own track. The rest of the world didn't seem to catch on to the trend of stopping, prompting the aforementioned Jay-Z to go partially crazy, grow a weird afro, and record the now famous track "D.O.A." (Death of Autotune), which was all hilarious. And then, best of all, we got parody. Oh, did we get parody. That = equally hilarious. ("Am I crazy, am I trippin' on shrooms...or are you singin' about pimpin' on the late night news??" Come on. That is pure gold. PURE.) The thing is this. What is music, if at some point a hilarious trend can't be exposed to make us all laugh? Never mind the fact that autotune got comically overused. The fact that it got exposed, and has practically vanished, but not before giving us some comic relief, is well worth celebrating.
7.) Emo Dudes Grew Up: And Making Mix CD's For High Schoolers Harder To Make. - Pete Wentz gets married, has a kid, dials down the eyeliner, and subsequently, dials down the cliche' heartbreak metaphors. What happens? Folie a Deux happens. Fall Out Boy's most legit, focused effort since debut Take This To Your Grave nearly 7 years ago. Take the overcomplicated lyrics, and replace them with fun, witty lines that are just as good out of context as they are in context, and you've got it. That album alone showed that it's cool to be emo-turned-happy. Other bands followed suit. Cute is What we Aim For broke up and took their ridiculous name with them, to focus on more "adult" efforts, My Chemical Romance re-went back into the studio to re-craft their Black Parade follow up, and claim that they wanted to make it more "true to rock and roll". And the general mood is up, look, I get it, Chris Carraba is emo's Godfather, so he has to still be a whiny tool, but man....he's still giving it all he's got, and trying...REALLY trying to write lyrics that are more intricate than those in say...."Screaming Infidelities", which I put on almost every mix CD I made for every girl ever in 2002. Not everyone can be influenced by the Cure and make the same records Robert Smith is still making now. Because, face it, Robert Smith is getting to old for this shit anyway. And no one wants to be 40 and screaming. (Although, I still love the Cure, and I'm not sure what that says about me. In a funny twist, Wentz and Patrick Stump remixed a Cure song beautifully. Eh...) So, what did all of this do? This domino effect, simply put, turned some of the younger crowd to other things, exposed the high school crowd to more diverse music, and then..............
6.) Your Kids Are Probably Listening To Better Music Than You Again: Passion Pit, The Gaslight Anthem, Fleet Foxes, And Other Reasons To Have Your Teenager Make You A Mix CD - The new breed of band over the past few years can beat up any other brand from any other year. Just 2 weeks ago, I was sitting in Virginia, in an incredibly thick music discussion, when I was asked who I could confidently say the best band of the past 5 years was. Without hesitation, I responded, "Well, the Gaslight Anthem....easily", and look, it's not even close. I think they're that damn good. And I know I'm biased, they're a Jersey band, and I'm admittedly a Jersey scene fanboy. They pretty much frame everything they do after Springsteen, and let's face it. I like Springsteen just a little bit. But it's not just that. It's the fact that this new breed of band, they're getting back to appealing to the SONGWRITER in us. Yeah, Brian Fallon might think rock n' roll began with Asbury Park and ended with Nebraska, but man, that's where BEST stuff was anyway. And I know, I know...isn't Gaslight copping Springsteen swag the same as Gaga copping Madonna swag?? Maybe, but last time I checked, Madonna couldn't lead music to the promised land. Bruce could. These guys can. (Despite that, they're from Jersey, and they bleed and breathe Jersey, so if they steal some of Springsteen, they've earned it.)
Passion Pit, by all estimations at this point, will be my band of the year. I was never sick of electronic keyboard rock, but even if I was, I'd dig these guys. Their album, Manners, is so worth a listen, it's not even funny. Look, are (at times) 3 keyboard players overkill? hell yes. But, Overkill is the new understatement (where have you guys been?), and they're the belles of the ball. And even if they flame out, I could care less, they gave me the best 2 years ever. Last January, I was outside of the Newport on OSU's Campus, down because the fucking guy at Apollo's gyro place screwed up my gyro again, and these kids, bummed 'cause it was too cold to skate are hangin' around the record shop, and they look me up and down, kids these days, you know? and I wanna know what they're listening to, I wanna know what the kids these days are doing to get their fix of good music, and I don't wanna hear any Lil' Wayne or Backstreet Boys neither. And these kids, they're like, "Man, we're listening to Passion Pit and Fleet Foxes....whattya know about it?" if a possible pre-teen is listening to better music than me (which they probably weren't overall, just at that moment), that's a massive victory for pop music. The crop of bands that have popped up since early 2008 is like the 1997 NBA Draft. Everyone's good. Everyone's contributing. Throw in Florence and the Machine, La Roux, White Lies, the insufferably cute Ting Tings, and a handful of others, and well....The Kids Are (finally) Alright. Again.
(Tomorrow is the final installment, in which we look at 5 things that made the toppermost of the poppermost just delightful in 2009.)
No comments:
Post a Comment