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It is the Grammys, so I wrote a
blog on the music I liked in 2017.
I don’t
listen to a lot of music. I have the
Pandora app which I utilize for a solid 5-12 hours a month (I am more of an
audio book guy), and regardless all of the stations I listen to trend in two
directions depending on starting point.
If it is post-1990 it trends toward
The Black Keys (which is odd, as I
own none of their music). If it is
pre-1990 it all gravitates toward Blue
Oyster Cult (less odd, I grew up as a classic rock guy). There are of course times when I take
deliberate sidetracks into Michael Jackson style pop, but I think that is
because he is the star in the center of that pre/post 1990 split.
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| It is a "Pop Star". |
I don’t drive much and the radio in
there is often just plugged into… again audio books. My contact with I Hart Radio (the death
rattle of culture set to a steady rhythm) is limited. As such, the only time I really listen to pop
music is on youtube when I am at work.
I often
fall into tasks that require too much focus for me to simultaneously listen to
a book, but are boring enough that if I did not have some other stimulation… I
would probably walk myself into traffic… Who can relate?
SO! Youtube....
Decided to slap together a short
list of songs I liked last year. I tried
to pull only from songs that came out in 2017, though not all of them are hits
I am sure you have heard a few and… liked them?
I don’t know. Feel free to say
that I focus too much on populist tripe.
I do.
In no
particular order, here are some songs I liked.
Let’s continue
with two songs that kind of make me feel sad when I listen. This is because of the ridiculous and
unpleasant air that swirls around them at all times. At least, it has a bad air if you know
anything about the life and times of its creator.
Kesha, even
when she created the kayfabe
esc character of the brain-dead party girl to play some cosmic bit of
performance art on the world has always been operating on another level. It was clear she had the mind that was able
to shift and evolve as music shifted to something new. It was only a matter of time before she
changed from party music to something deeper and richer.
REALLY wish
she did not have to suffer a massive criminal victimization and lengthy legal
battle in her life, but it is NOT AT ALL HARD TO SEE those events having an
impact on her work and artistic voice. I
am a firm believer in this quote by John Green, “I don’t subscribe to the
notion that suffering is somehow ennobling; it sucks.”
It sucks
that Kesha went thru what she went thru.
I hope that the sentiment of these songs, that she is moving on to make
art and healing, is a legitimate sentiment and not a brave front.
“Obsession” by Ok
Go
And to
dramatically shift tone away from sexual battery… Because this was supposed to
be a fun blog about pop music… Let’s
talk about a band that I kind of have nostalgia for.
Ok Go won a Grammy for “Here it Goes Again” back in 2007,
the year I graduated from under grad. I
recall walking to Target to buy that CD, and I think a season of “Justice
League Unlimited” on DVD. Probably
different days.
Regardless
of the Justice League’s involvement, I listened to that album a thousand times
and still from time to time drop into the world of Ok Go to watch their latest
music video… ALL OF WHICH ARE GOD DAMNED MASTERPEICES. “Obsession” carries on that trend.
To mix
discussions of Kesha evolving and Ok Go nostalgia.
I am kind of nostalgic for
Paramore. They were always on the fringe
of my awareness. I think I confused them
with Evanescence strangely
enough. But when I look back at their
stuff it is hard to look at “crushcrushcrush”
or “That’s What You Get” and say it
is from the same band as “Hard Times”.
Their older stuff feels more angry and full of bravado, while “Hard
Times” sounds floating and upbeat.
“Feel it Still”
by Portugal. The Man
For much
the same reasons I have been listening to Bruno Mars’ music bringing a retro-funk
feel to the world of pop music, “Feel it Still” flat out name checks the era of
rebellious music it is channeling. I can
grove to this song, it makes me want to walk rhythmically down a hall while
twirling a cane.
“Whatever it Takes”
by Imagine Dragons
Most of the
songs by Imagine Dragons were kind of pointless and thudding this last
year. That while I initially liked them
they quickly wore out the welcome. “Whatever
it Takes” does not have that deficiency.
It starts with a gentle floating instrumental, then hard cuts into a
racing delivery of lyrics, before building momentum, and a chorus that hits
triumphantly.
Some songs pull
and push images in my mind and often times when I find myself creating my own
montage to the music I feel that it worked.
I like
Halsey. Especially when she wails like
she does in this. The idea that the woman
in this had relationships with both men and women and they ended for a myriad
of reasons makes for a good little story/reminiscing song. It is not so much the character is bad at
love, it is that she fell for people that it did not work out with. That isn’t bad at love, that is bad at…
picking targets?
“The Story of OJ”
by JAY-Z
I am not a
hip hop guy and I think that the music video sold this song to my white-guy
sensibilities more than the song on its own.
BUT! Let me emphasize that while
I am not going to listen to this song for fun, I do feel that it has pushed a
good bit of personal reflection on race and my place in it. I admire Jay-Z as a guy who very much is the
American Dream, starting from a low point and is now a king of his industry,
artist and businessman.
I would not
have taken as much to this song without watching this review by the Rap Critic, a
youtuber who did a detailed run down of the content and also links to reviews
of the old style cartoons the music
video uses as a reference for what it is presenting.
“Castle on the Hill” by Ed Sheeran
This is his
best song. It is perhaps the best song
about nostalgia I have heard in a long time.
It is an earnest reminiscing about a time in one’s life that started a
trajectory. It feels real, and whether
that is because it comes from a real and true place in Ed’s life, or he is just
that gifted a performer, I do not know.
I have found myself rather
nostalgic, not for when I was a teen/kid, but instead for recent history,
seeing the multitude of little failings, little shortfalls that ate up so much
time and so much effort and wanting to return to those moments, not wishing I
could change them, but to grant myself peace over those mistakes, that I have
felt guilt enough, that I should be allowed to move on.
“New Rules” by
Dua Lipa
Maybe it is
just me, but I think that most of music is about the positive aspects of being
in a relationship and the worst aspects of a relationship falling apart. The old expression, “You know you are in love
when all the songs on the radio start to make sense”.
But I think
“New Rules” is a place I haven’t heard a catchy tune to before. A person trying to get out of a relationship
that is destructive, and it requires an act of will. Bad relationships can still be fun,
fulfilling, or just hot. There are reasons
people stay in those relationships and get back into them once out. A song about making yourself stay out by
recognizing the pattern you fall into and trying to break it… that is interesting.
This is a
strange song that seems to be about how deadening to the senses pop culture (and
really all of Americana culture) can be.
The music video is explicitly about that and illustrates it thru a
variety of cute visuals. I find this
song strangely catchy, and I suppose that irony pushes it up a notch for me.
I liked her
other single “Bon Appetit” too, but
as it is her second song that is a protracted metaphor about sex and is not
nearly as good as “Birthday” so I am
not giving it its own call out.
“Beautiful Trauma”
by Pink
One day I
may get tired of this one type of song Pink has been releasing for the last
decade. I doubt it though, as she keeps
putting a fresh spin and presentation on the ideas presented in it. I like her.
I have never been the type of guy who gets celebrity crushes, but I find
Pink to be super attractive, her
look, her vibe, the fact that she clearly has lived an interesting personal
history that she has grown thru and from.
I also just
find eclectic short hair on women attractive (to tie this in with Katy Perry and Halsey above).
“1-800-273-8255”
by Logic ft. Alessia Cara and Khalid
I feel that
the topic of self-destructive behavior and the idea that death is an escape
needs to be addressed. This song got a
lot of play and while it is not the only song to deal with such a topic, and it
is by no means a perfect song (Who can relate!? WOO!) I feel that it has a haunting quality that
makes the subject matter stick harder.
Even the “WOO!”
has a kind of layer to it. Let me slow
down and decompress that “WOO!” to illustrate all the subtext: “WOoooo I can
only explore the topic of depression and feelings of hopelessness paving the
way to my self-annihilation thru veils of irony because the stigma against
suicidal thoughts is so ingrained in our culture that it contributes to the
feeling of being trapped and death being a reasonable outlet oooooOOOOO!”
There is a
lot being said in that “WOO!”
Let’s end
this light-hearted exploration of pop music from 2017 by keeping on track and
talking about suicide. Chester Bennington took
his own life last year and it affected me more than I had anticipated. While Linkin Park’s music had always had a
dire element to it, I felt that was something that was to be overcome. To fight back against.
It is
impossible to look at the ultimate fate of Chester Bennington without that
event retroactively contextualizing the entire discography of Linkin Park. Every instance of unbearable pain; lasting
anguish; anger being thrown in all directions; and the ever-present sense of departure,
divestment, and letting go. All of these
things are tied into songs like “What I’ve Done”, “Breaking the Habit”, or “Crawling
in my Skin”.
The song, “Heavy”
serves almost as the last epitaph for the man whose songs often expressed the
directionless teen and young adult anger and sadness that I just could not wrap
my own head around. Where do you go when
you are your own worst enemy? How do you
deal with a world that feels like a load too heavy to hold? I don’t know, and I am sorry that Chester did
not find a way to deal with his inner demons a little longer.
I am going
to leave that there. I hope that the
Grammys are entertaining to those who watch them (I don’t) and I hope that they
give awards to a variety of artists that are pushing the artform (I respect
lots of performers while admitting that their stuff is not really my thing, hello
Kendrick Lamar, I hope you are well, “DNA.”
Is pretty good.)
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