O, Song! Daily Links

In which I write 2000 words about Flo Rida’s ‘whistle’ that he wants you to ‘blow’. (Sometimes these Number Ones columns of mine involve me trying to speak eloquently about the big questions. Sometimes they end up mostly being set-ups for one-liners. This is quite obviously the latter).

(The Singles Jukebox also discussed the song recently. Katherine St Asaph and I seem to be on the same wavelength here, though she is somewhat more concise.)

Wherein I write about Carly Rae Jepsen’s song for the Vine - it’s the #1 single in Australia. It’s fiendishly catchy: I’ve had it stuck in my head pretty much nonstop for three days. Apart from discussing what is basically an enjoyable bit of bubblegum, I also discuss the phone and the odd social rituals we have around it, and things like that.

The usual plan: they get to #1 in Australia, I write about it. So I get to write about fun.! And I mean, shit, Janelle Monae on a #1 single! Shame that her role is so minimal.

This one stretched out to about 3000 words, because I had lots to say. And said it! There’s lots of stuff about how our expectations influence our reaction to music, about anthemicness, and about the idea of youth in pop music.

(Also see Maura Johnston’s and Andrew Unterberger’s takes on it, both complimentary). 

(‘All The Pretty Girls’ from their old album is such a great ELO pastiche, seriously)

Gym Class Heroes’ song of the struggles of being on tour really didn’t make much impression on me one way or the other, and so in this piece for TheVine in my long-running series on current #1 singles - shit, I’ve almost been at it for two years now! - I mostly discuss stuff like the cliche of the road song, ‘what goes on tour stays on tour’, theologians on the nature of faith, and the allure of long-distance relationships.

In which I try to explain the appeal of Flo Rida with reference to Friedrich Nietzsche’s The Birth of Tragedy from the Spirit of Music. No, seriously. In the process I discuss Johnny O’Keefe, Newt Gingrich, Jack Kerouac, the man who survived after a railway spike was fired through his head, and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. Oh, and why it’s weird to hear Sia in this context (but why she’s integral to the song).

The current Australian number one is ‘Pumped Up Kicks’, largely because it was recently featured in a commercial for XXXX beer, I think. (The song is 18 months old, Australians knew about it at least a year ago, and it’s almost comical how much the world has changed in the last 18 months). So in this piece I talk about advertising and music, and about the song being about a massacre and whether that matters very much, etc.

I kind of knew there’d be a new #1 this week - six weeks seemed long enough for ‘Sexy And I Know It’ - but I was thinking it might be either Ed Sheeran’s ‘The A Team’ (currently #2) or Lloyd’s ‘Dedication To My Ex’ (currently #6). Of course, I suspect if I had watched The X-Factor I wouldn’t have been surprised in the slightest. 

It’s actually the first X-Factor style single I’ve had to review, so I wrote a bit about how I think the process works/about why the song isn’t very good. I also get sidetracked by YouTube comments. Poor SuperCrazzybunny.

In which I argue that LMFAO really appeal to the tween market, who think they’re hilarious. Won’t somebody think of the children?! MC Hammer’s ‘Pumps And A Bump’ gets mentioned, as do the Wiggles and Sigmund Freud (as you’d expect if you’re talking about kids getting into a song called ‘Sexy And I Know It’?).

Things I would have included if I thought I could get away with/had time to write a 4000-word piece: a) a discussion of the Streets’ ‘Fit But You Know It’, which is sort of the opposite of this song; b) a discussion of whether they mean it, man; c) an analysis of the gender politics of ‘Sexy And I Know It’ - what does it mean to have dudes doing what girls usually do in pop videos? Is the way I feel when I watch the video similar to how girls feel about soft-porn pop videos like that one for ‘Call On Me’ by Eric Prydz? (etc)

(Various alternative takes on the song at the Singles Jukebox, and an amusing faux-feminist take at SF Weekly)

(And if you want to read all my other #1 single analyses - I’ve been doing this for almost two years now - you can do so in chronological order here or in reverse chronological order here)

Australia’s #1 last week was Kelly Clarkson’s ‘Mr. Know It All’, so I wrote about it for The Vine at the link up there. Except it didn’t get published until today, and as of last night, it’s no longer #1! So there you go.

Things I have included: a) the word ‘LOLpop’; b) a discussion of, psychologically, what we actually know of ourselves; c) the word ‘boring’, about a dozen times.

Things I could have included but did not: a) a lengthy discussion of the ‘price of fame’ stuff in the video and its antecedents; b) some reference to Stevie Wonder’s obviously wonderful ‘Mistra Know It All’; c) my profound lack of understanding why this song actually got to #1 in AU - was it used really prominently in some super-popular TV show or something?

(Also see the Singles Jukebox’s various takes on the song - which I purposely didn’t read until I’d finished mine ).

After 7 weeks, bye Adele! Hi Gotye (and Kimbra!) I’m still a bit baffled that this is a number one single, but it is a number one single! I’d originally written this to be a drier musical analysis, focusing on what it sounds like, but I wasn’t happy with that - so I’ve tried to focus on how well Gotye swings between emotional poles in his songs, and on how the situation describes in the song fits into the way that I understand relationships between adults and how they work (and don’t work). I think I said what I was trying to say quite well (with big assists from Jadey and the Vine’s editor Marcus).