January dropped some amazing music on us. For one thing, Tinie Tempah and Eric Turner’s electro hip-hop anthem “Written in the Stars,” which you may remember was my #17 song of 2010, was finally released in America. Go. Download. You won’t be sorry.
Meanwhile, both The Decemberists and Lori McKenna released spectacular Americana albums, infusing roots music with their inimitable voices.
Listen up ya’ll it’s Music
By DOUG STRASSLER
TGIF, loyal readers! This will be a fairly short column since I’m on location out in sunny LA, but I couldn’t contain my excitement after being a part of what’s easily the best studio audience I’ve ever attended.
And it’s all thanks to the host, the hard-working, skinny tie-loving, beanstalk-reaching Joel McHale.
Listen up ya’ll it’s Doug Strassler · Television
You know why Tilda Swinton’s crying? Because she didn’t get a Best Actress nomination for I Am Love.
With all the talk about the 10 nominees for Best Picture, I started wondering what would happen if this year’s Oscars also tapped ten people for the Best Actor and Best Actress categories. Who would the additional performers be? Could the world handle the result?
You can find my imaginary ballot at NPR’s Monkey See blog. Do you agree with my expansion pack? Did I leave off someone worthy?
Hey y’all! It’s been a busy few days, and there are many things happening in our culture all at once. There was some speech about the State of the Somethingorother, and there was also the announcement of Oscar nominations and the season 3 premiere of RuPaul’s Drag Race.
Much has been said about all three, but I can’t resist throwing in my two cents about two of these subjects. I’ll choose… oh… The Oscars and The Queens. Let’s begin!
Listen up ya’ll it’s Television
Welcome to Wife Watch!, the only blog post that ranks the most powerful wives on this week’s episode of Big Love.
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Yes, people. Yes! This is why I will spend so much time thinking and writing about Big Love every week… because at its sterling peak, it is intricate, masterful, and moving. This week’s episode, “A Seat At The Table,” rivals “Come, Ye Saints” from Season Three as the most elegant and satisfying in the series. Like the older installment—which included landmines like Sarah’s miscarriage—this one uses major events to tease out larger themes. It succeeds both as character-driven drama and spiritually resonant rumination.
Oh, and once again, the episode is written by a playwright. (It was Melanie Marnich who gave us a “Come, Ye Saints,” and Julia Cho delivers “A Place At The Table.”) Maybe that accounts for the subtle revelation of a world-altering truth. So subtle, in fact, that it’s full impact may not be felt for weeks.
But I’ll get to that.
Listen up ya’ll it’s Television
Last night, in the interest of Oscar completism, I saw the movie Blue Valentine, which follows Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams on their tortured way as their marriage collapses. I could give or take the film—the acting is specific and believable, sure, but I the story is naively bleak, as though “let’s just make everything shitty for them” is the same thing as being honest and clear-eyed—but there was one moment that I loved. Near the beginning, Michelle Williams drives down the road and hears “We Belong” on the radio. As you know, I love being surprised by Pat Benatar’s greatest song, so I naturally embraced her appearance here.
When I got home, I was in the mood for even more bombastic hits, and as I scrolled through my iPod, I realized that the power ballad is really having a resurgence right now. After quite a lengthy fallow period, in which Kelly Clarkson, Leona Lewis, and Carrie Underwood kept the genre afloat by themselves, the music world is delivering a passel of shamelessly emotive, vocally gymnastic songs.
And you know what? Good. When a power ballad works, it is simultaneously ridiculous and moving: It’s so sentimental that it almost feels indecent, but that sentiment also feels real.
Plus, a good power ballad has a great melody, which makes singing along really, really fun.
You won’t find these songs on pop stations, where honest-to-god ballads are in short supply. Instead, you have to turn to country or adult contemporary radio. (Or to The Critical Condition. I live to serve.)
And in case the word “country” makes you shudder, hear me out… country music doesn’t sound like what you imagine. At least, a lot of it doesn’t. Some of the songs you’re about to hear are country in name only, and had they been released in the 80s or early 90s, they would’ve been storming up the charts alongside Heart and Roxette and Damn Yankees. More importantly, country music is one of the only popular genres that still makes ample room for instrument-based songwriting. I love dance beats and drum loops, but sometimes, I just want to hear something pretty, you know? And Pink isn’t always on the radio.
With that in mind, won’t you join me for a feast of power balladry? You may want to bring a lighter, just in case you need to wave it back and forth…
Listen up ya’ll it’s Music
I like Pink’s new single, “Fuckin’ Perfect.” It’s got a nice melody, crisp production, a hella catchy chorus, and a typically strong vocal. (It also proves that Max Martin can do better than this.) And while it’s the 100th song released this week about loving yourself in the face of criticism, its lyrics are on the strong side of cliche.
The same is true of the music video, which arrived yesterday. Just like “Unpretty,” “Beautiful,” “Firework” and tons of others, it depicts a teenager being ostracized and then finding inner strength. But again, it’s a strong spin on a hoary idea. The cinematography is beautiful. The story is clearly told. The throughline with the teddy bear works well, especially when the little girl pops up in the last scene. And the images—which include cutting and fairly graphic sex—are intense, but they forward our understanding of the central character and don’t seem like mere shock tactics.
Still… there’s nothing new here, right? Particularly in this season of anti-bullying campaigns and itgetsbettering, neither the song nor the clip explode like grenades of surprise, right?
I think so, but this video was instantly paired with news reports about the controversy it would inevitably create and the importance of its message. Pink herself released a statement that presupposes outrage about what she’s doing.
But while I applaud her for supporting people on the fringes—which she’s done for her entire career—and for making strong artistic choices, I have to wonder… is there any real controversy here? Or is it just a media creation?
Or am I just old enough to remember other videos that today’s teenagers can’t? Will “Fuckin’ Perfect” seem like a fresh insight or a powerful rallying cry to people who don’t recall that girl making herself throw up in “Unpretty?”
What do you think? Is this video breaking new ground, or is it merely covering well-worn territory? And beyond that, what do you think of the clip and the song?
Listen up ya’ll it’s Music
By DOUG STRASSLER
I doubt it will shock any of my loyal readers for me to say I have no problem throwing caution to the wind, so here goes: I have just become a fan of Josh Groban.
Now, none of my friends like him. In a world of Vampire Weekends and Flo Ridas, he pretty much typifies “un-cool.” And for the last decade, ever since I first saw his guest spot on Ally McBeal, I’ve always respected the singer, but from afar. He never did it for me. I thought, this is a nice guy with dopey hair and probably the best male voice currently recording pop music, but I wanted nothing to do with the songs. I’m a sucker for soaring anthems, but ballads like “To Where You Are,†“Believe,†“Don’t Give Up,†and his cover of “You Raise Me Up†always felt too generically saccharine. I’d avoid the songs but praise the talent – which pretty much made him my anti-Katy Perry.
And then I realized just how funny Groban is.
Listen up ya’ll it’s Doug Strassler · Music
Today I was reminded that 2011 is the 20th anniversary of Voices that Care.
Come now… you remember. Voices that Care. The supergroup of early 90s entertainers that gathered to perform the song “Voices that Care,” a charity single intended to support the Red Cross and “boost the morale of U.S. troops involved in operation Desert Storm.”
Those are both worthy reasons to get a bunch of athletes and pop singers together, but if you’ll recall, “Voices that Care” (by Voices that Care) didn’t exactly set the nation aflame. It peaked at a modest #11 on the Hot 100, and though it sold a respectable 884,000 copies, it was dwarfed by “We Are The World’s” massive numbers.
It’s not hard to understand why. “We Are the World” and its antecedent “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” both have a straight-forward message that everyone can get behind: Don’t let people starve to death. “Voices That Care,” however gets into the murkier waters of wars-that-aren’t-called-wars. This is the basic message of the schizophrenic lyrics: “We don’t care if the war is right or wrong, we just support you. Except the war is totally right, because honor must be defended. Except it’s totally wrong, because hurt is hurtful. Let’s hold hands!”
Which… okay. The song both agrees and disagrees with everything, so I guess it offends no one? Is that good? The catchy melody can only get you around this questionfor so long.
Twenty years later, however, “Voices That Care” (by Voices That Care) is useful for something other than dubious consciousness raising. It’s a glorious time capsule of a bygone era, when multicolored jackets were all the rage and even the heavyweight champion rocked a nice sweater.
Let’s revisit the magic together, shall we?
Listen up ya’ll it’s Flashback! · Music
Now that the Academy nominates ten movies for the Best Picture Oscar, a fantasy ballot is tantamount to a top 10 list for the year in film. So here you go… here are my ten favorite movies of 2011 and the movies I’d like to see nominated for Best Picture. (The actual nominees will be announced next week.)
Note: I haven’t seen Blue Valentine, Animal Kingdom, and a few other high-profile contenders, but since most of the Academy hasn’t either, I don’t feel too bad about making a list anyway.
