MetaFilter posts tagged with popmusic

What It’s Like When A Label Won’t Release Your Album

reenum — Sun, 19 May 2013 12:44:33 -0800

What It’s Like When A Label Won’t Release Your Album

Manele, Romanian pop music

nickyskye — Tue, 14 May 2013 12:07:15 -0800

Modern Manele is a deliciously vulgar, cheesy-fun, bouncy Eastern European pop music. About Manele on Wikipedia. Ye old thyme Manele. More folky, less bouncy. Some other examples of modern Manele: Nicolae Guta & Sorina - Nunta Sandu Ciorba - Ha, ha, ha, te chelau

Time to feel old!

The Whelk — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 14:21:57 -0800

Youtube user Thepeterson puts together collections of the major radio hits, movies, video games, and technology of a given year. So why not take a time machine trip to the media landscape of : 1997, 1999, and 2002

Then Play Long

MartinWisse — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 03:43:10 -0800

Marcello Carlin and Lena Friesen review every UK number one album so that you might want to hear it, starting in July 1956 with Frank Sinatra's Songs For Swingin' Lovers (reviewed August 2008) and so far ending up in September 1981 with Genesis' Abacab (March 2013).

Let's big dance!

Nomyte — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 21:31:43 -0800

Are you still confused by Ukraine's 2007 Eurovision entry? Trashy, consumerist, loud, countryfied, super-sized, Gogolian, Verka Serduchka is, to some approximation, Ukraine's Vicky Pollard. Created by character comic Andrey Danilko (b. 1973, also Andriy Danylko depending on language of choice), she is a tapestry of ugly stereotypes, a story of rags to riches, the target of both repulsion and admiration, and an enduring female media personality. Reportedly, Danylko was born to a poor family in Poltava, in eastern Ukraine (wiki; some local flavor via a travel blog). Danylko was raised by his mother after his father died of lung cancer in 1980. Shy and a mediocre student according to his schoolteachers, Danylko applies to study music and pedagogy, but is rejected, only managing to finish a year of trade school. In the early 90s, Danylko tours Ukraine and western Russia with a character comedy act in the tradition of much-beloved, older, cruftier Soviet character comedians (e.g. in Russian and Danylko's version). An early version of Verka is among Danylko's character sketches, as are a number of other male and female caricatures (e.g. and more and stuff like this). Crash course in linguistics: many Slavic languages offer speakers a bevy of choices for diminutives (TVT, sorry) and augmentatives (wiki). For the armchair experts, here's Learn Russian the Fun Way on diminutives. "Verka" is a crude, childish augmentative from "Vera," faith. "Serduchka" is an augmentative schoolyard nickname from a typical Ukrainian surname (Сердюк → Сердючка). In 1997, Verka begins appearing as the host of her own comedy chat show. Verka, in character as a train conductor lady, is visited by various media personalities. The show migrates from Ukrainian TV to Russian TV. The show looks like this. The show runs for a long time. It's vaguely reminiscent of Graham Norton's schtick. (In the aftermath of Eurovision, Danylko would incoherently call in to Norton's show.) Linguistics crash course, part 2: aside from Eurovision, Verka speaks a kind of broadly Russified Ukrainian… or, perhaps, Russian with a broad Ukrainian accent… or, maybe, a crazy in-between dialect flavored with occasional Ukrainian. Whatever it is, it's ridiculed by Russians, derided by Ukrainian linguistic nationalists, and widely spoken (using various proportions of Ukrainian to Russian) by swaths of people living in Ukraine, inluding Danylko's native Poltava. (Kennan Institute explains surzhyk. Contested Tongues, Laada Bilaniuk's ethnography of Ukraine's contemporary language culture has a lot on Verka and her language, but this PDF manuscript has lots of interesting sociolinguistic detail as well. Languagelog reports on Russian vs. Ukrainian.) What's a megastar to do but sing? Before long, Verka embarks on a musical career. Widespread acclaim arrives with her fourth album, Kha-ra-sho! (i.e., khorosho with a broad Russian accent). The album is full of cheap, tinny-sounding music and becomes very popular. Several music videos appear:

Гоп-гоп ("Hop-Hop," brimming with Ukrainian kitsch)
Контролер ("Ticket Inspector")
Пирожок ("Pirozhok," namely)
Все будет хорошо ("Everything Will Be OK")
Here's a live performance of Verka's bee song.

More albums and music videos follow. Verka often works in collaboration with VIA Gra, a popular band whose name is a cheap three-way Russian-Ukrainian-English pun:

Чита-дрита (Verka visits her backward country relatives, singing starts at 2:35.)
Тук-тук-тук ("Knock-Knock," Verka takes her backward country relatives to a fancy restaurant.)
Я попала на любовь ("I Stumbled Into Love," Eurokitsch nosebleed.)

Around the time of the Orange Revolution (Foreign Affairs PDF), Verka begins to sing in unaccented Russian:

Трали-вали
Хорошо красавицам ("Pretty Women Have It Easy," featuring some chimps.)
Бери все (что у меня есть) ("Take Everything (I Have)," which appeared in the runup to Eurovision. Lots of ethnic stereotypes!)
А я смеюсь ("And Yet I Laugh," pretty in pink.)

Nor is Verka absent from the screen, appearing as a supporting character in a variety of TV productions alongside other well-known entertainers. In 2003, Verka appears as the ugly sister Brunhilda in a musical version of Cinderella (representative sample). Here's a musical number: Я не поняла ("I Didn't Get It"). In 2005, she appears as the shrewish and commanding Khyvrya (Хивря) in a televised pop-music version of Gogol's "The Sorochinsky Fair," a quintessential Ukrainian farce from his collection of Dikanka tales. (There also exists an opera version of this story, in part due to Mussorgsky, but I doubt it has strong connections to this one.) Note that the historic village of Great Sorochintsy is in the vicinity of Poltava, Danylko's hometown. The musical offers a torrent of Ukrainian folk kitsch and musical atrocity. A couple selections: Ти напився як свиня ("You Are Drunk Like Pig") | ending This was not Verka's first Gogolian excursion. Several years prior she appeared (sample) as the village moonshine brewer in a musical version of Gogol's Night Before Christmas. (There is also a classic film version of the story, featuring this amusing scene.) Danylko, rather than Verka, appeared as Cherubino in a trashy TV version of Beaumarchais's The Marriage of Figaro, appearing alongside a variety of trashy aging stars like Filip Kirkorov and Sofiya Rotaru. A bit later he also appeared in a musical based on Hans Christian Andersen's "The Snow Queen," playing alongside Kristina Orbakayte, Layma Vaykule, Gennadiy Khazanov, and Natalia Vetlitskaya. Perhaps most importantly, he (as Verka) appeared alongside Alla Pugacheva, the dowager queen of Russian popular music, in Chase After Two Hares (Catch Neither) (a remake of a musical Ukrainian farce, previously filmed in 1961). I promise that all of these people were big in the USSR. Trust me. In 2007, Verka appears on Eurovision with Dancing Lasha Tumbai. You already knew that. Verka's selection as Ukraine's Eurovision representative was not without controversy: among other things, she was burned in effigy (UKR news coverage). Verka's career, already an intensely politicized sociolinguistic act, takes a hit because the nonsense phrase "lasha tumbai" sounds like "Russia, goodbye!" to people who don't speak English. The Russian St. Petersburg Times covers the controversy. Elsewhere, the press echoes it back and forth. Here's an interview with the artist in UK's free daily Metro. And here's a post-Eurovision summary in PRI's The World. Here's some informed, though not impartial cultural criticism of the Verka phenomenon. Verka was awarded the title of "people's artist of Ukraine" by then-president Viktor Yushchenko (himself no stranger to controversy). To complicate things, here's Verka dancing with Belarusian dictator Sergey Lukashenko. Partisan news organ RT reports on Verka's post-Eurovision bid for Ukraine's parliament. Here's a post-Eurovision music video, EVRO VISION QUEEN. Here's a concert version of the more recent Dolce Gabbana. Verka's albums can be streamed from this shady Russian site. I'm sure you can also buy them somehow, somewhere. Since the Eurovision incident, Danylko has had a few TV roles (here as a female genie in "Aladin's New Adventures" and here as Little Red Riding Hood). Generally, his trajectory seems to have stabilized. Verka makes regular TV appearances and also periodically goes on concert tours, taking her Eurovision schtick to the US and Canada. In repetitive Russian and Ukrainian interviews, Danylko himself appears tired, defensive, and muted. Here's a recent interview in English (PDF). Notably, while English Wikipedia devotes a page to Verka, the analogous Russian and Ukrainian pages are specifically about the character's creator first and the character second. The Russian page is significantly more detailed than the Ukrainian. NME reports that, earlier this year, Danylko bought Queen vocalist Freddie Mercury's Rolls-Royce at auction and apparently intends to donate it to a museum. (previously)

How a Live Nation Deal Cornered Justin Timberlake

reenum — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 18:34:24 -0800

Justin Timberlake likely made his new album to fulfill a contract he signed with Live Nation in 2009.

I want to be let alone to listen to my damn records.

Mothlight — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 05:16:41 -0800

Noted filmmaker Allison Anders (recent L.A. Weekly profile) won 50 rock and pop records once owned by Greta Garbo at auction. She's listening to them, one by one, and writing about them at Greta's Records.

I don’t believe just doing this means I can be forgiven for what I did.

Ghidorah — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 23:51:33 -0800

A couple days ago, Minami Minegishi, a 20 year-old member of the wholesome, innocent idol group AKB48 posted a video of herself, head shaved, tearfully begging not to be fired from the group. What horrible crime did she commit? What awful, unpardonable sin caused her demotion and public humilation? Dating. From the Japan Today article, Members of AKB48 "are allowed to have “one-sided romantic feelings” for a boy but can never progress beyond hinting at their crush—and must never disabuse their legions of male fans that they might one day stand a chance with their fantasy woman." Reactions have been quite strong, though in recent months, other members have been demoted or transferred to regional AKB48 'sister' groups for similar violations. Flaws in the idol system are pretty widespread. Maybe this is a moment for a new union movement in Japan?

Baby Brosteps Towards The Elevator

mannequito — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 19:50:22 -0800

"This year, two monumental genres with decidedly global pedigrees arrived on our shores and attempted to crack the American pop code, with one enjoying far more decisive success than the other...One of those is definitely sexier and zeitgeistier than the other, but that doesn't always result in sustained cultural relevance."
K-Pop, EDM, and Baby Brosteps Toward a More Global Pop Landscape

Thank You For The Music

naju — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 01:24:14 -0800

"If Fantasma is a concept album, then what exactly is the concept? Simply-put, Fantasma is an album about music itself — a tribute to how the very process of hardcore music nerd fandom and collection reference lead to creation and production." Released in 1997, Fantasma by Cornelius was one of the finest albums of the 90's, and arguably the peak of the Shibuya-Kei music scene in Japan. Néojaponisme recently published a five-part, detailed retrospective on the album in honor of its fifteenth anniversary. While reading, you can listen to a playlist of the full album on YouTube. Enjoy! Bonus: The Legacy of Shibuya-Kei Pre-Fantasma: Flipper's Guitar - "Blue Shinin' Quick Star" (1991) Cornelius with Kahimi Karie performing 69/96 tracks on NHK (circa 1995) Post-Fantasma: "Drop" (2002) "Point of View Point" (2002) "Music" (2006) "Breezin'" (2006)

Pop music is never just pop music

rollick — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 08:40:16 -0800

The 'About' page of UK music website Popjustice also doubles as a pop fan manifesto.

Cinderfella

MeghanC — Sat, 28 Jul 2012 03:07:58 -0800

What happens when you mash up Cinderella, Disney songs, queer culture, and top 40 hits? This, apparently. [SLYT]

Warning for general ear-worminess. I'll be humming this all week.

Long afloat on shipless oceans ...

mrgrimm — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 14:57:02 -0800

Its writer refused to record it. Pat Boone almost killed it. Then it was resurrected as a B-side to an indie prestige project. Then it became an A-side in its own right, sold a half a million copies, and ended up being performed by its writer on the last ever episode of the Monkees. - "Song to the Siren's irresistible tang" by Martin Aston. Tim Buckley (Monkees) Tim Buckley (Starsailor) This Mortal Coil Covers (in order of article appearance): Robert Plant George Michael Sinéad O'Connor Bryan Ferry David Gray John Grant/The Czars Sheila Chandra Lost Witness Half Man Half Biscuit Jimmy "The King" Brown Brendan Perry Alfie Boe More covers: Cocteau Twins John Frusciante Pat Boone Damon and Naomi Gravenhurst Thomas Dybdahl Juno Reactor Charlotte Martin Julienne Taylor Vengeance Susheela Raman Movies: Lost Highway The Lonely Bones Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003)

If you’ve ever heard someone complain about the 4 chord pop song, this is what they are talking about.

stroke_count — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 20:33:38 -0800

"I analyzed the chords of 1300 popular songs for patterns. This is what I found."

Beebs!

eugenen — Fri, 18 May 2012 12:02:58 -0800

GQ Attempts to make a man out of Justin Bieber.

Ring Ring

rollick — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 11:36:41 -0800

The story of the ABBA sound. 8 minute Swedish documentary. Click the "CC" button for subtitles.

Time Has Come Today, Just Not Royalties

oneswellfoop — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 13:50:30 -0800

The story of Lester Chambers of The Chambers Brothers in one picture. A cautionary tale of working for an RIAA label (and Clive Davis) and what happens when your 'legendary hit' peaks at #11. At least he has a friend in Yoko Ono.

Pitchfork, 1995–present: What did we do to deserve Pitchfork?

filthy light thief — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 15:48:26 -0800

In the last decade, no organ of music criticism has wielded as much influence as Pitchfork. It is the only publication, online or print, that can have a decisive effect on a musician or band’s career.... [W]hatever attracts people to Pitchfork, it isn’t the writing. Even writers who admire the site’s reviews almost always feel obliged to describe the prose as “uneven,” and that’s charitable. Pitchfork has a very specific scoring system that grades albums on a scale from 0.0 to 10.0, and that accounts for some of the site’s appeal, but it can’t just be the scores.... How has Pitchfork succeeded where so many other websites and magazines have not? And why is that success depressing? A lengthy history and review of Pitchfork [Media], from an inexpensive online alternative to a music zine, to "indie" music kingmaker, and thoughts on pop music (criticism). The article references a lot of old Pitchfork reviews, and some have disappeared from the site's archives, but you can find them on Archive.org. Those archived reviews (plus other referenced interviews, articles, and random bits of specific music) are linked below, in the order that they have been referenced in the article. I Love Music internet message board, source of the 2009 thread (not 2010) discussion of Pazz and Jop poll, all of which was posted to MetaFilter before. 2008 Pitchforkmedia.com interview in BusinessWeek, and the 2004 interview with The New York Observer Early 10.0 ratings that aren't in the current Pitchfork review archives Walt Mink's El Producto 12 Rod's Gay? Amon Tobin's Bricolage Bonnie "Prince" Billy's I See a Darkness A (more) complete list of Pitchfork's 10.0 ratings More reviews Black Eyed Pea's Behind The Front (7.1) The Roots' Things Fall Apart (9.4) Thelonious Monk's Live at the It Club (9.2) John Coltrane's Live at The Village Vanguard (8.5) Mashups referenced in the article Freelance Hellrazer's mashup of The Strokes and Christina Aguilera (YouTube) Hollertronix - Never Scared Uneasy Listening Volume 1 from DJ Z-Trip and DJ P Radiohead's Kid A (the new 10.0 standard) Radiohead's OK Computer, the band's prior 10.0 rated album Stephen Malkmus' 1999 interview with Spin magazine (Google books) White Stripes' White Blood Cells (9.0) Source of The Shin's comment about selling a song for a McDonalds (which was made possible by a kid who worked at an ad agency who was a Shins fan [Pichfork interview], and might have chosen the song because of the line about dirt in the fries) The Rapture's Echoes (9.0) Best New Music from early 2003, including Broken Social Scene's You Forgot It In People (9.2) Arcade Fire's Funeral (9.7) Beastie Boys' To The 5 Boroughs (7.9), in which long-time reviewer Brent DiCrescenzo said farewell to Pitchfork Source of an accurate portrayal many of Pitchfork's reviewers from 2004. Jet's Get Born (3.7) -- an imaginary dialogue that is summed up with "Fuck you, we're Jet!" Tool's Lateralus (9.1) -- written as an English paper titled "My Summer Vacation" 2006 Washington Post interview with Ryan Schreiber (print view; four-page web view) Travis Morrison's Travistan (0.0) -- the review of the debut solo album by The Dismemberment Plan's lead singer, which is Morrison talked about in the above-linked WaPo article as the thing that killed his solo career before it went anywhere. (WaPo article on MetaFilter, previously) Sufjan Stevens' Illinois (9.2, Best New Music) Piracy Funds Terrorism Volume I, a mixtape (8.5, Best New Music) by M.I.A. (Pitchfork show preview), followed up with the album Arular (8.6) Animal Collective's Spirit They're Gone, Spirit They've Vanished (8.9) and Merriweather Post Pavilion (9.6, Best New Music) Why We Fight, a Pitchfork series on "discussed the discussions that surround popular music," written by long-time Pitchfork writer Nitsuh Abebe. The Pitchfork 500: Our Guide to the Greatest Songs from Punk to the Present (Wikipedia page, with links to the 500 greatest songs as listed in the book) Jay-Z watched Grizzly Bear in Brooklyn (video clip: Jay-Z on the "indie rock scene" being more interesting than hip-hop)

Give Me Dynamite Love

beaucoupkevin — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 18:15:37 -0800

GonZo Presents Disco's Payback: The Reboots is an 11-track album featuring modern pop records mashed up with disco classics.

Or just ten reasons why Donna Summer is awesome in general

rollick — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 16:51:44 -0800

10 Reasons Why Donna Summer Belongs in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Top 40 Data

gwint — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 05:43:17 -0800

The Billboard Wayback Machine is an interactive that lets you explore the Billboard charts spanning from 1964 to 2011

Snap, Crackle, Rattle and Hum.

goodnewsfortheinsane — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 16:53:17 -0800

40 Noises That Built Pop [parts 2 • 3 • 4]

If you look in my fridge, it's like children's food—chips, milkshakes, yogurt

mippy — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 10:06:32 -0800

"[Punk] in itself is comedy. The whole thing is ludicrous. They were taking themselves so seriously—" he laughs—"and the great message you want to tell people forty years later is 'Put butter on your crumpets'? What they were saying they stood for, which was sort of anti-greed, anti-establishment... At the end, they all want the check. That's the truth." Pop biographer Chris Heath - who's written some rather fascinating books on Robbie Williams and the Pet Shop Boys - meets Simon Cowell.

Oh nah nah, what's my name?

ThePinkSuperhero — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 19:44:35 -0800

Pop star Rihanna gives good Meet & Greet And if you don't believe me...well...

We're All Born Superstars

empath — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 07:47:30 -0800

In Defense of Pop Music -- New York Magazine takes a look at the rise of pop and dance music and the death of rock in the charts.