Ya got the New Jack SWING comin’ atcha!
If you listened to pop music in the early 90s, then I’m guessing you read the line above and immediately started tapping your toe. Maybe you considered adding exclamation points to your name, a la Tony! Toni! Tone! (That would make me Mark! Marc! Marque!)
And maybe, just maybe, you felt sad that the New Jack era is over. Lord knows that I certainly miss it. Those hard drum beats, bouncy piano loops, and harmony vocals are all just so much fun. The early 90s hits of T!T!T!, Mary J. Blige, Janet Jackson, Michael Jackson, and Bell Biv DeVoe have a full and aggressive sound, yet they’re also charming and accessible. They occasionally remind us that we are a part of a rhythm nation, but they’re mostly about dancing and having fun.
Let me repeat that: Having fun. As much as I enjoy the minimalist sexypantsing of Timbaland and the vocoded preening of Jay Sean, their music has a darker edge than “Do Me!” or “Miss You Much.” It’s partly the grimier beats and partly the explicit lyrics, but whatever the reason, their music occasionally makes me yearn for the sound of my adolescence.
Given that nostalgia—and I freely admit I’m doing the whole “back in my day” thing right now—I’m ecstatic that “Nothin’ On You” is tearing up the radio. The first single from Atlanta rapper B.o.B. (featuring vocalist Bruno Mars), it is the New Jackiest jam I have heard in ages. Take a listen…
Damn, y’all! That beat is straight Jam and Lewis, all hard drum beats and sweet piano undercurrent. And when B.o.B. drops that “nuh-nuh-nuh-nothin’ on you” line, I want to throw on a “Button Your Fly” t-shirt.
I’m glad this song is succeeding, because pop music needs this kind of breezy, sunny jam right now. It’s a nice balance for the robotic funk of Black Eyed Peas, the high-drama fever of Lady Gaga, and whatever the hell Ke$ha is.
What do you guys think?







6 responses so far ↓
1 Lora // Mar 3, 2010 at 2:45 pm
Agreed! It’s a fun song, simply put. It will probably be overplayed by summer, but it’s a great summer song.
Funny aside: The first couple of times I heard No Loot I misheard the line ‘If the shoe fits I want you to wear it and wear it good’ as: ‘If the shoe fits I want you to wear the wig, too’.
I think it has it’s own merit.
2 Sasha // Mar 4, 2010 at 7:01 am
Funny, Lora, I just popped in to say that until this very moment, I thought the background groove was “You can new jack swing on my nuts.” So thanks for posting – nothing like uninentional public service! Very fun song – will have to add it to the workout playlist.
3 Mark Blankenship // Mar 4, 2010 at 11:11 am
Sasha… I just put “Nothin’ On You” on my workout playlist this morning. Whoa! We’re totally in synch. Or should I say N*Sync?
4 Sasha // Mar 4, 2010 at 12:28 pm
As long as I’m not the fat one… I mean Fatone.
Bad boy-band puns: Go!
5 Stephanie // Mar 4, 2010 at 6:38 pm
As someone who posts the “New Jack Swing” video for her Facebook friends once a year (you are WELCOME, FB friends), I am so grateful that you posted this. Thank you.
It’s weird, that year was the worst of my life (4th grade, sorry if that made anyone feel old), but that music is so great that makes me nostalgic… if only for the peaceful moments that I secretly listened to songs like “Do Me”, and probably didn’t know what “do me” exactly meant.
6 Anne // Mar 5, 2010 at 3:39 pm
“…they’re mostly about dancing and having fun.” This post reminded me so much of the song “Rooftop” by Kelly Jones:
We’re dancing to the music playing on casette
It’s a song from 1991
When it was all about having fun
(from the 2008 album Shebang!)
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