2 posts tagged “pop”
Okay, seriously...who the fuck is Lad GaGa and why is she "famous"? Is she another one of those Paris Hiltons who are famous simply because they're hot and they just sort of...hang out where people can photograph them?
The first time I encountered Lady GooGoo (and what a stupid name that is) was on the radio during my afforementioned Top 40 Immersion Week. I kinda liked that "Just Dance" song, even though I found the lyrics to be a little annoying in their celebration of being a drunken, drugged-up "hot mess"--but, hey, the beat was okay and the throbbing synth bassline was adequate. I later found out that Lady GewGaw had some actual experience in the world of electronica, was quite well-known as a pop songwriter, and had considerable musical training--so I figured...eh, what the hell: I'll check out The Fame, her debut album...which apparently came out last year, though I wasn't even aware of its existence until the day before yesterday.
Lady G-squared's got some serious pop cred under her belt, and it shows on her first personal production...but the album is, as a whole, a surprisingly lifeless--if impeccably-produced and surprisingly varied--example of the same kind of electropop best exemplified by Britney Spears. It's by no means a bad album, but it's not in any way memorable....
UNLESS you're talking about the third track, "Paparazzi." This is a song that is great literally despite itself. The music is flat-out excellent: beautifully melodic, with a stompin' pseudo-hip-hop-meets-electro beats, buzzing synths, and eerie atmospheric effects. The chorus in particular is spectacular, featuring one of those soaring melodies that transport the soul--or, to atheist materialists like myself, the limbic system--into the thermosphere. Lady GaGgle's voice is surprisingly mellifluent, and sounds naturally so (I've got a good ear for autotuning), and actually gives a certain heartfelt credence to the ridiculous lyrics "I'm your biggest fan, I'll chase you down until you love me / papa-paparazzi." The lyrics really are horrible, if you listen to them too closely, but even so it does not matter, because the song itself is such a lovely confection that it doesn't matter that it's all made out processed sugars and Chinese pesticides: it goes down as smooth as a shot of Bailey's Irish Creme and gives you that same transient warm feeling in your heart--gone quickly, but nice and comfortable while it's there.
In fact, I think the song--and Lady GiggityGiggity--is best summed up in the following lines from the song:
Real good, we dance in the studio
Snap snap to that shit on the radio
Don't stop for anyone
We're plastic but we still have fun
You can't get much more plastic than this song--and in today's fame-obsessed culture, plastic is perfect. But there can be art and heartfelt melody even in the most robotic recordings. Kraftwerk taught us that, and Lady GaGa (there, I said it right, for once!) exemplifies it...if only in this one song. I can't believe this was not the lead single from the album.
In...I believe it was the early months of 2004, me and a certain young lady who now lives somewhere on the West Coast (I think) spent a great deal of time hanging out and running around in Pittsburgh. She was astonishingly hot--tall and sleek, with the most gorgeous eyes and short blonde hair (a combination that never fails to get me all hot n' bothered)--but more importantly, she was just cool as hell. She loved all things kawaii and prettymuch got me hooked on Japanese pop-culture. She was bright as could be and had dreams of becoming a Classical scholar; we spent a lot of time talking about ancient Rome and the over-wrought but still incredibly sensual imagery of Petrarch.
If I hadn't been such an awkward jackass, still stinging and disoriented from two bewildering relationships that paradoxically convinced me that I was at least somewhat presentable but, at the same time, doomed to failure, I guess something would've....
Well. Whatever.
We spent a lot of time listening to Britney Spears' In The Zone that winter, because it was a damnear perfect pop album: shallow, glossy, but silky-smooth and eminently groovy. Before Britney Spears married Kevin Federline and went batshit crazy, she was actually a really good pop diva, and In The Zone was her first "mature" album--the album in which she broke away from the thoroughly-wholesome Disney Teen Queen persona of her earlier albums and really let her sex appeal shine through in her music. The album is a collection of pitch-perfect club anthems best known for its opening duet with Madonna ("Me Against the Music") and its collaborations with Moby and the Neptunes.
But the two songs on the album that really stand out are its two ballads, the above-linked "Shadow" and the spare, haunting closer "Everytime." I was torn as to which song I wanted to post, as both of them have that wistful atmosphere of past good times fondly remembered. "Shadow" is a somewhat better song, though, simply because it's a bit more bleak--something that always appeals to me in terms of balladry--and so lushly-orchestrated that it seems to form a cloud of soft sonic pillows in which you can relax and lose yourself. The lyrics are sad and downbeat, true, but the music is not leaden--there's an airy majesty to its string arrangements and underlying electronic beat. Britney Spears is no great vocalist, but her breathy voice complements the lyrics beautifully, especially on the eerie, lovelorn chorus.
It's one of those songs that really remind you of things long gone and makes you wonder what could've been. It's the perfect tonal background for thoughts of that young lady I should've pursued, or done something with, but I was just too damn confused.
Alas. At least we'll always have Purim. (Cryptic Reference #198948820111)
