Sak Noel - Loca People

Sak Noel is a Spanish DJ, music video director and music producer. He is the one who we must thank for the existence of this... rather extraordinary song – Loca People…

This song and artist were first brought to my attention when one Sunday afternoon I happened to hitch a ride in my dad’s car. Now my mother’s car radio is broken in some mysterious and inexplicable way so it catches only AM stations. You know news stations, sport station, religious stations, in short no music, just talk.

So for quite a while I haven’t heard any of the FM (popular) music stations, and therefore no new rising songs, as my tastes exclude the mainstream pop music and I am unlikely to find them, listen to them or even less buy them. So this particular Sunday I was in my dad’s car, and he was listening to one of the three most popular stations in town, which names elude me, but that’s beside the point.

The song that was playing was Black Eyed Peas – The Time (Dirty Bit), a song I absolutely detest not only because of its nonsensical lyrics (the bits that weren’t stolen from Dirty Dancing) but most important because of its horrific melody (again the bits that weren’t stolen from the movie). The moment it came on I turned the volume down just to be reprimanded by my father’s disapproving stare.

“You really like this?” I asked, “Yes why.” He answered. Defeated I let the music play, praying it would end before my brain turned to mush. Then after what felt like ages it finally did, and I was happy because there couldn’t possibly be a song currently in air worse than this. But, like many times in my life, I was proven horribly wrong.

Sak Noel – Loca People enters the stage.

This is an actual shot from the music video.

Is there any new and great art trend or innovation of which I do not know of? Or am I simply stupid and I can't comprehend its allure? Because the monotonous almost Rebecca Black voice and melody instantly struck me as unbearable.

But still I listened; I actually listened to what was sung. And the singer took the words right out of my mouth: “What the FUCK!”

And so is this.

So I turn to my dad, the disgust plainly written on my face and I ask “And this? You like this?” He turns to me innocently oblivious and says: “Why yes I do. It has a nice tune.” Tune? What tune? Speechless I turn away and embrace the wonderful meaning and musical sounding of “I couldn't believe what I was living so I called my friend Johnny.”

Now I am not a fan of crazy parties, but my playlist does include quite a few dance, house, techno, and electro style songs. I know what party music is like and damn right I know it doesn’t have to sound like a drill making its way into your head. Because that’s exactly how Sak Noel is like. I can safely say all of his songs are like that, or at least I am yet to find an exception. But it was precisely Loca People that made it to the top of many European charts. All I can say is – Why? Why,

But let us back off a few steps here. What does a song consist of? Minus the music video, we will return to later, a song has two things that make it what it is: music or the melody of it, and lyrics or its story. For me the music has to be beautiful, it has to have meaning, it has to evoke certain pleasant feelings, or soothe any negativity and distress. Remember Mozart and those guys from the classical period. Go to YouTube find Chopin’s Raindrop or Nocturne for example, (I was even good enough to supply the links) and you’ll see what I’m talking about. Music that flows, that changes the mood, beautiful music.

 

No, I’m not saying every song has to have a Chopin worthy melody, no, all I say is that the melody, which supports the lyrics or the dancing, as it is with many techno and electro songs, has to at least be pleasing to the ear. And every time I hear a song such as Loca People, I can feel my brain cells dying while wriggling and screaming in pain. Listen, listen very carefully and you can hear yours suffering, provided you decided to hear Loca People, or I'm Sexy and I Know It by Lmfao, another great example of brain torture.

But the melody is not all that determines good music, we also have one very peculiar element – the voice. Ignoring the fact that the majority of popular entertainers can't really sing, what beauty is there in the monotonic, rhyme-less melody and voice such as that of Rebecca Black for example. But forget Rebecca Black, she was just some poor teenage girl whose dreams of greatness were exploited by a studio attempting to make another one of the hot selling shallow teen singers. Her song was just cheap, yes it had some fancy editing, fancy clip, but it was cheap and her lyrics were rather innocently foolish than offensively ignorant. Or at least that’s the way I want to think of her so I can keep at least some faith in humanity and the new generation.

Now Loca People… To be fair Loca People did have a beat and a rhythm or at least half a beat and a rhythm repeated to infinity. That’s what I hear, a single beat and a single rhythm grinding against my eardrums. And the singer… I don’t know whether Esthera Sarita, the vocal of the song can actually sing, since she just kind of talks over the “music” here.Her awfully monotonic voice just keeps reminding me of that literature teacher I had in high school. It took her 10 seconds, exactly 10 seconds to put me to sleep.

And that’s what the song does, make me want to fall asleep and escape the horror or my brain will simply walk away on its own.

But enough of that, I think I was clear enough its music and voice suck to such an extent I can barely listen to it.

Off to the second element that makes a song a song. The beauty of true musical lyrics I find is that much like in poetry everyone can draw their own meaning from the words. Here I want to give my favourite example – Kansas, Dust in the Wind. (It’s actually funny how when I tried to open it the ad for Justin Bieber played. I really hope the guys from Kansas don’t see it.) Now that song has some lyrics, you must agree even if it’s not your type of music. And Sak Noel…. As it is with many if not all of the pop chart songs… well… yeah… deep…

I understand, people want simple lyrics to party. Well here, this is how it’s done:

[Groove Coverage – Summer Rain]

Simple and yes rather repetitive but still much more meaningful and deep than:

“When I came to Spain

and I saw people partying

I thought to myself:

'What the fuck!'

All Day, all Night

All Day, all Night”

Actually the whole Summer Rain song is a much better club song than Loca People. Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.

I would understand if Loca People was some home-made YouTube video, (and oh the video I watched, believe me it’s just as bad as the song) but this, this played on the radio. Not the most popular radio station, but still one of them. My first and foremost question was – how in the world, did this thing get on the radio? So as soon as I got home I googled the song. It was on YouTube, and believe it or not 31 980 (at the time) people who actually liked it. Over 11 million watched it and out of them 32 thousand listened to this and thought of pressing the like button. Out of all these millions only 7 thousand recognized it for the cheap, unoriginal, unintelligent piece of failed art it really is. One of them is me, and I encourage you go and hate on it some more, it needs it.

But I’m not done ranting. I’d like to discuss its visual art as well. First the cover of the single… Yeah, I honestly don’t feel comfortable attaching it to my blog. I find it detestable, ugly, offensive and lacking any visual qualities.

Actually, it would be perfect for one of those, cheap exploitation porn shorts or whatever they are called. Then the video… Well we’re dealing with a visionary here… I have seen few music videos as tedious and boring and I ran out of synonyms for uninteresting. Don’t even get me started on the faded colours. It’s a party song video, yeah totally. (Just for the record this is how a song, to which you party, video should look like Magic Pad or Auriga , or In and Out of Love and Just Be if my choice of anime related montages is not suited for your taste.)

The point I’m trying to make is: there must be movement, colour, light. And Sak Noel’s video for Loca People just doesn’t cut it. There’s a painful lack of colour throughout almost the whole clip, and all the shots are single camera, point of viewish, wide shots. There are also hardly any between shots and angles cuts, but then again the song is not dynamic enough for that.

And its contents…. Well don’t get me start on the contents – ignorance, alcoholism and prostitution pretty much summarizes it.

But let me elaborate. There seems to be a story in the video. A girl, Esthera Sarita, from I don’t know where, comes to Spain. There, a friend of hers, played by Sak Noel himself, if I’m not mistaken, meets her. He suggests some sightseeing, but she refuses. The great cultural and architectural sights of the city are not good enough for her because… I guess she wants to party. There, ignorance. Then the two walk around a bit and what captures her interest you think? Why of course beer, let’s drink. Alcoholism. And when do colours return to the video, in the shots of a skimpy dressed, I-don’t-know-what, must be females of the human species but I might be mistaken, “dancing…” And then more drinking. Yeah, wonderful.

Still seeing Sak Noel wearing a Family Guy shirt makes me hope: hey, maybe he’s actually a major troll and is trying to point out the ugliness and dirt of our society. But even if that were the case we know it is not why people like this song. And then again I saw his other work… He’s either master troll who got carried away in his trolling, or simply a shallow, narrow minded, ignorant and bad, so very bad, artist. 

 

And, no, I will not be doing his other works it will take me an year and several books worth of writing to point out everything that is wrong with them. Also, I’m not bashing on Loca People in particular, I am bashing on all so called “party” music that's out there at the moment. You know bands like Lmfao (Party Rock Anthem, I’m Sexy and I Know It) or Kesha (Tik Tok,) and many other similarly degrading songs and performers. But then again some of them get at least one part right, they usually have catchy tunes. And Sak Noel… well it fails, badly.

You don’t believe me? You don’t agree even after listening to Loca People? Then tell me, what beauty is there in its repetitive monotonous tune? What depth and meaning are there in the retarded lyrics? Does it make you feel, draw you a picture, present you a story? Does it have any emotional or intellectual effect on you? Because for me it doesn’t. It gives me nothing but crappy lyrics to ask what the hell and an annoying tune stuck in my head. It is shallow, it is empty, and it is hollow. But the most important question remains: why, why was it made, why was it allowed to reach such popularity. Have people really fallen that low, or do they simply not care anymore. Has society gone insane?

No, I don’t stand against the freedom of speech, creation, expression, but why have this many people favoured the tasteless, shallow, ugly music. Do they have no experience of anything else to consider it, but then why have the previous generations allowed it? They certainly saw more and knew better music. All is a plan of the rich and powerful to keep the population stupid, conspiracy theorists would say, but really? The evil overlords aside, what really happened to true art, true music, why this degradation? Just how low can we fall? Even lower than Loca People? Oh I don’t doubt we can, I’m afraid to admit.

This is an issue. If others don’t see it, if you don’t see it, I am telling you, this is a serious issue. This raises all kinds of issues actually. Whether you believe me or not I will continue presenting the lowest of low of the media. It wouldn’t be as shocking if these lowest of low weren’t standing in the brightest spotlight of popularity. That is the issue. People choose crap. What does this all say about our society?

I’d like to be optimistic and say: people are just busy. Most don’t have the time to sit and enjoy a song or relax and pay attention to the lyrics, let themselves be carried away by their meaning. In today’s busy life there simply isn’t enough time to look at the deep layers of a music piece, there’s just a few minutes for a quick shallow song, or a repetitive melody in the background. Similar thing can be said about some of the authors.

Overburdened by endless stream of information and cruel deadlines, they lack the time to create depth, they have no chance to conceive it. A quickly written lyrics, a quickly sang song, some fancy editing with the help of top class software, and there you have it. The typical radio song who everyone listens, but no one stops to really hear, to really enjoy. Here’s the sad thing. Not only is music shallow, but the enjoyment taken from it is shallows as well. 

A few minutes, an hour at most, and then the song is gone. No pleasant memory of the melody, no remaining thoughts about the lyrics. Just emptiness, and then we’re back to the swirling world around us.

This throws us into a loop, loop where musicians create crap, that crap is chosen, it becomes popular then someone creates even crappier crap and on and on until the Nyan Cat song will be the equivalent of Mozart. Why? Why must it be this way? Because you, yeah you, the people out there, keep allowing it. Stop and think, even for a moment, stop and think what you’re consuming. Something healthy and nice or crap? You’re powerless to change it you think? Well let me wrap up with a quote:

Margaret Mead

“A small group of thoughtful people could change the world.

Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."

You are not powerless, you are dictating society, you are society. And you the individuals decide whether to think or to turn your brains off, to look around or wear sunglasses on a moonless night. In the end it is all down to a simple decision “Do you want such music in the top of popularity charts or not?” a simple like or dislike. And for some of the artists out there – for heaven's sake make a god damn effort.