Gaga and Perry

  

There isn't much to say about them really. They are not bad. Well not according to the popular standards set these days. They are not good either. I'd call them mediocre. Uninteresting. Not even worth talking about. Gaga is being Gaga,  and Perry... Well she's trying to be cute. As always.
    Overall the two hold so little relevance to me, and I don't really have any words to offer.

 But then why am I talking about them you might ask.






    Well first its because of the promoting.
    I mean it's not as if these two didn't already have the American pop scene, so radios going at lengths to promote them would seem redundant. No? Yet that's all they did.
    About a month ago, just as the summer was rolling towards its end, and around the time the songs came out, the stations simply would not shut up about it. First it was two days of ranting about how the songs got leaked a week too early. Well guess what? I don't care.
    Then it was the charts, and the votes and all that crap that went on and on for days.

    So what I'd like to know is, why the hell did they feel the need to hype these songs as if they are some newfound miracle that also cures cancer?

Did they finally realize the low quality of the pop industry and gasped: "My god! Are people really going to buy this garbage?" Well guess what, they are buying it anyway, of course they are, but that's besides the point.
    So yeah, the phenomena of the hype online and on the radio has baffled me. Though it still did not make the topic worthy enough to analyze or spend more mental power than what's needed for a snarky sneer.
    No.
    The real reason I'm writing all this for is kind of silly. It is a simple thought. A musing that came to me quite a while after I saw the Perry video. The lyric video, not the other thing... as ridiculously hilarious as it is.  (Also not that Destiny's Child didn't do it before. And I've got to love how she has working cell phone and all these things in the wilds. Yes, yes I know its supposed to be a metaphor or a parody or whatever, it still seems ridiculous to me.) 

    So yeah, I watched it, it was cutsy and all. Again not worthy enough to more than sneer at it. Then few nights after, just as I was falling asleep, I got to thinking about it again. So my brain did this little thing imagining it without the sound, and then I was looking at the pictures moving with the text messages and the cute emotes, where a trophy for some reason is read as "champion," and some weird eye references I would have never gotten, and I am like "Hold on, I've seen this shit before."
And indeed I have. 5000 years ago. Well on artifacts and writing systems from 5000 or more years ago.

Why yes, that is Egyptian Hieroglyphic, Mayan and the evolution of Cunei Form in a slide.

Though its not really fair to compare these scripts to "text language" as they are, technically, more complex.

So, the question I came to ask myself is, why, after thousands of years of lingual evolution, are we going back to the roots of all language in so called text speech. I mean wasn't it bad enough when we butchered the tongue with all the "shortification" of words like you to u and you're to ur? We looked that over since we had limited symbol count and stuff, but then it went on the internet, where it saves nothing but maybe, possibly, if we squint, a few seconds of writing. And then in schools and on paper writings of essays, or so I've heard legends.




And now? I look at the Perry song. This? We return to the forms of ancient language? Why? Why when we have the rich variety of nouns and adjectives and I don't know, verbs maybe. When our language has finally evolved enough to attempt to outline abstract ideas in detail and succeed to an extent? When it can clearly and easily define or describe a thing or event without needing a story teller or a courier to translate and elaborate? Is this a sign of some lingual devolution, or are we simply growing too lazy to think and even less explain ourselves in actual words?

Drake ft. Rihanna - Take Care

http://quanno3.deviantart.com/

     Well... It's been a while... Again. Crazy, crazy year.




   This time, just because I am kind of tired of ranting about everything, all the time, I decided to pick something nice to talk about. So, ladies and gentlemen, today I shall be presenting you: Drake ft. Rihanna - Take Care  

    Lets jump right in, and talk about the video clip. 

    The colours, the images, their movement and arrangement, it's all beautiful. Simplistic, yet beautiful, especially the movement. I know that most of the symbolism, if any, eludes me, but the way the sound and visuals combine is pretty.  It is also emotionally charged. Looking at the two performers, their positions, motions, gestures, expressions, how the camera zooms in and out, and that secret look Rihanna gives us, we can feel it, we can really see their emotions. I also feel the need to praise the choreography. It might seem simple at first glance, but the fluidity of motion, the movements that compliment the emotion of the song, that is not easy to pull off.


    The music is also beautiful. The eerie sound of the piano and the guitar create a unique atmosphere, a calm and relaxed feeling, few club songs can impose. Furthermore the combination between the visuals and the music is stunning. For example towards the end when the tone and melody change, the image of fire flashes, then we get the scene with the bull and the arrows. As the tone changes, becomes somewhat more urgent, more tense, so do the visuals, becoming a little bit more rapid, more threatening.

    And now to, perhaps my favourite part: the lyrics. They actually mean something. Can you believe it? There was thinking process behind the combination of words in a song. What sorcery is this? Have we reached a new stage in our evolution? God I hope so, even if some other examples of modern media cause me to seriously doubt that.
     True, some of the lyrics were sampled. Still, the combination, execution and composition are good. Furthermore, the people seem to like the song. Not that the majority particularly care or notice the lyrics, but, still, it's nice to know the masses like something decent for once.
    So what do the lyrics actually tell us? Do they really paint us a picture?

    Yes, they do.


    Amazing isn't it? The tale is of a troubled, complicated love story, between two people who clearly care about each other, but need to go over some inner turmoil before they are able to have a real, healthy relationship. And they are willing to take the steps.

    But that is my general reading. Lyrics can be read in many, more detailed, ways depending on the viewer, and that precisely is the beauty of good lyrics.
    Overall, it's a gentle and thoughtful song. What I like most about it is the performers, and especially Rihanna who has been looking particularly blank eyed and robotic in most of her recent songs. I mean, really, is this the expression of someone who is thrilled to have found the love of their life? ->

In Take Care you can really feel the emotion in her voice, really see it on her face. It resonates with the song. That's how singers, dedicated to their craft, should be. If they really are invested in their craft, it will show. Even if its just acting. It is still effort.
    Granted, the song samples/borrows from an older, original, song (by Bobby Bland), and its remix (by Jamie xx), but I think, the composition of this one is much better. The way the music compliments the voices, and how the instruments are executed and combine is much more fluid and melodic.
In the end, I still find it kind of funny. How a lot of modern pop songs often sample, borrow or are remakes from older songs... I do hope creativity can pick itself up rather than remaking things from the past, even if it has decades of innovations and greatness to surpass.

    Take Care did not become as popular for as long and was not as marketed as some other chart songs out there, but it was still pretty high up. So then, now that we have proven it can be done, why can't pop songs be more like this? What is their excuse?
   
    What excuses: Robin Thicke ft. T.I., Pharrell - Blurred Lines  or its unrated version?

I just love how bothered and uncomfortable they look, don't you?

    Whatever they paid those models... It really wasn't worth it.

So lets pray, the future brings us more of Take Care and less of Blurred Lines.
And finally, just for laughs because I found this reverse hilarious, enjoy: Sexy Boys, Parody by Mod Carousel 

Hispano Madness

http://iambrony.com

So... Hello again.

 [A foreword: this is going to be more ranty and less analytical. Yes, believe it or not I have been trying to actually analyze not just rant. In this case I just don’t think such brainless works of “art” deserve me utilizing the intellectual power for something other than ranting.]

Initially I thought my next post to be on a book, but in the spirit of the dying summer, yes it's over believe it or not, I decided to cover a topic brought to me by a friend. A friend who lives on the other side of the world, yet we both seem to have noticed a rather curious plague spreading through the the radio stations… Hispanic disco songs.

 Everybody seems to go wild about them. Would they be playing so often and for so long else? The reason why someone would constantly request this... I simply cannot picture. The lyrics I don’t get, even with a translation… I mean I understand what they sing, I just don’t get it. Most songs in that genre seem to be singing mostly about dancing drinking and getting laid. And that revelation received only after a careful dissection because the structure and "sentences" quite often don't make any sense. Still, nothing new here. Hispanic songs are about drinking, dancing and sex, and American songs are about drinking, dancing and sex. I guess that's just what the people want in their music/culture.

 The melody, again it’s the same every time. One or sometimes two beats repeated over and over until the melody is so deeply beaten into your brain you want to find a zombie and have it eat it to rid you of this torturous existence. But joking aside, they all seem to sound exactly the same as any other mindless disco songs out there.

Flickr

But let’s get to the actual songs I wish to mention. To be fair they never really got high in the charts around here (higher in Europe) but every time I turned on the radio, entered a store, or went any place public with music, I would hear them at least 2 times. Thus here they are, the top three most annoying Hispanic songs this summer has to offer according to my aching brain and my annoyed friend.

Number one spot, no doubt, goes to Tacabro – Tacata

Well technically Tacabro is an Italian band but with a Cuban singer so they sing in Spanish and I will brand them Hispanic. In terms of melody and lyrics, as you might guess, this is horridly repetitious and mind crushingly annoying. It is easily the song I dreaded most, instantly reaching for my phone and headphones whenever I was unable to make it stop. The problem is: it’s catchy, and crappy, very, very, very crapy. Listening to it just once will make you sing tacata, tacata, etc, inside your head for eternity.

http://www.ponychan.net

When I first heard this song it reminded me of something but it was so vague I couldn’t make sense of it. It was when I did my research that I finally realized what that initial feeling of familiarity was. Paco Paco – Taka-Takata. True it has nothing in common other than those annoying "words" but it’s still worth mentioning. Especially when the original was quite the hit back in its days and definitely better than this crap released today. An honorary mention for Joe Dassin’s version too, which I had actually heard before and was the source of that uncanny familiarity I felt. I couldn’t find more information on those two on the net so I apologize for that.
Inexplicably, the two old songs can’t manage to annoy me, at all even, although they too contain the “taka” thingy.


 Oh I get it, I think! They have other words in them and the singer’s voice is actually nice.

http://mlfw.info/f/1124/

Finally, I felt asudden need to comment on the video… As far as my research went there are 2 video clips for this song. Both I find obnoxiously slutty, and seizure inducing with their blinking light, swirling colour horridness. And here I ignore the cheap looks, kindergarten editing, and god awful choreography, if it can be called such.
As a last commentary I say to the producers: for god sake have some bloody decency, you could have bought the girls a swimsuit or something not make them dance in what looks like their underwear!

But moving on.



Number two: Michel Telo - Ai Se Eu Te Pego  

The Pitbull edition because that’s the one that was popular around here… Do I really need to say anything else? At least he brings in some diversity to the monotonous original song. Wait… No he doesn’t.

Uh all right, I will add to this. Why I don’t like this particular song isn’t that much the repeatedness, although it is one of the reasons. No, I hate it because of Michel Telo’s voice. I cannot begin to comprehend why he became such a sensation when throughout the whole song all I hear is whine, whine, whine; whine, whiiiiiine. Seriously listen to it, it’s like the most annoying sound I have ever heard coming out of a man’s mouth. It’s even worse than Bruno Mars, and god do I hate Bruno Mars’ girly voice strings.

It’s truly sad when the moment these songs come on it makes me wish I was listening to Katy Perry’s Wide Awake instead. Hell, I’d even take Nicki Minaj’s Starships anytime.

http://smylliecyrus.net

And Number Three:  Willy William feat Lylloo - Baila

This song actually came out around the end of last year, but I am mentioning it here because its popularity reached its zenith this summer.

To be truthful I don’t find it particularly bad, I’d even dance to it in club, if I danced that is. Music and lyric-wise it’s just like all the other mediocre disco crap out there. What I find particularly appalling is… it’s just too noisy. I attribute that to the annoying female singer who won’t stop squealing her lines through the whole thing. How old is she anyway? 12? Or is she on helium or something. Seriously, is it just me, or does she sing kind of like a chipmunk?

Last I wanted to talk about one final Hispanic performer who became quite big this summer. Don Omar. There are two songs I wish to mention - Hasta Que Salga El Sol and Danza Kuduro

Again I don’t find them particularly bad or annoying or anything, really I’m neutral about it but when they just wont stop bloody playing them... Eesh...
Anyhow, it's the same type of lyrics, dance till you die, drink a beer, have fun, lather, rinse, repeat. In both songs there was something about hips. Actually a lot about hips, so I am beginning to think he might have some fetish about it.

They even got their girls some swimsuits!

 Else on the clip of Danza Kudro, it's the same boring crap of men jerking their hands in the air and women in scanty clothes lounging around. It's better produced that Tacata, definitely, but I attribute that to the bigger budget.

Seriously though isn’t there something else that could be playing on the radio instead? I know there must be, so cut it out with the endless hispanics and give me some variety.

That’s what I thought, and well I got my wish... They now play Flo Rida – Whistle…

And about that…
I...
Um...
Well...
Just…

No. Just no!

There. I am out of words. Happy crappy pop song?

In any case I doubt I could have added anything to what Todd in the Shadows already said. Here, watch his review(s) and support the struggle against crappy pop music.

(And yes, I know Whistle is not Hispanic but I thought it deserved some hatred.)

As for anything I could have said about it, here let me illustrate it with another pony.

Geronimo

I wrote this a few months back but didn’t have the chance to finish it till now. It might be somewhat outdated but what the heck here it goes:

So… Today I’d like to shortly tackle another example of the new and aspiring hit songs from Europe. To be honest the European pop stage had always amazed me. Whether it is crap or hit or whatever, you never really know what they will throw at you. America on the other hand is easy.  A few hours alone with the TV and you pretty much know all trends and formulas that are going around at the time. It is predictable, simple and a bit too dependent on the shock effect. It is sad, however, that we’ve reached times when Europe is becoming more and more like America in that respect… and what I am presenting today is an example of that phenomenon. I am talking about no other song but Aura Dione’s Geronimo.

But let’s begin with a little bit of backstory. Aura Dione is a Danish song writer born in New York who debuted in 2007. So I made an actual effort, I found and listened to her songs, read their lyrics, then listened again for something I might have missed the first time, for what I heard on the radio definitely wasn’t like this. What I am saying is she’s not the best, no, but she is good. Her music is energetic; it has a charm to it, and even has lyrics that mostly make sense.

Example: Breathe, Something for Nothing, LullaGoodbye, etc.

So enter Geronimo, the song, Aura Dione released in fall 2011. It took a few months before it reached the Americas but thorough December and then back in March-April 2012 it circled some of the radio stations around here. At first I didn’t pay any attention, it was just one of those stupid songs with catchy tune that made me want to claw my brains out, and no actual contents. Still after a few times hearing it, as it usually happens, I actually stopped and listened to what it said. Thing is the music was pretty good for a radio song, but the lyrics were an obscure mystery. At first I thought she had some weird dialect or the song was in a weird language, or perhaps something had gone wrong in the studio, because no matter how many times I heard it the only thing I could make out was gibberish. So like any dedicated know-it-all I opened google and searched for the song. At that time I didn’t know name, nor singer, or anything about it at all so it took me a while to go through the radio stations listings (since I didn’t have many worlds to go with either) but eventually I found it…

http://www.cutebeerfloat.com

Aura Dione obviously has a voice, I don’t deny it. (Unless of course there’s some miraculous editing software I don’t know about.) So why I asked myself, why wasn’t she using her voice to actually sing… you know… words…

 

It was then that I took a look at her previous work which made me wonder how it came to this even more:

Lyrics? Phh too mainstream!

http://www.cutebeerfloat.com

I couldn’t help but notice a pattern here. Somewhere in 2009 she released I will Love you Monday and unlike most of her other singles it was accepted pretty well. Thing is in that song there was already certain decay of lyrics. Realizing the tastes of her audience, I suppose, she did the only logical thing, push it even further. If retarded lyrics was what the people wanted, then retarded lyrics was what they would get. As for grammar… Having good grammar in media? This is not the middle ages, for god sake, who needs grammar! But wait, says a cheeky producer in a neat costume, or worse the actual artist, I have even better idea, why not remove lyrics at all and substitute them with odd alien sounds. Gaga did it, everybody loved it, let’s give them more of that…

 

Then why have a vocal at all I ask?

Next I took a glimpse at the writers of the lyrics: Aura Dione, David Jost, Joachim Persson, Ian O'Brien-Docker, Thomas Troelsen. Really? They needed five people to create this? I wish to think that there was some sort of inner strife that led to mass sabotaging and the distortion of any possible lyrics, but who knows what really happened... Perhaps they actually made the conscious choice to do it, which makes me wonder what kind of alien language they were using.

 

So I ask, is there some new trend of inarticulate speech pattern that I do not know of? I mean Gaga does it, but she’s Gaga I don’t expect anything else from her. Besides she doesn’t make whole songs like this, she has you know, words in there somewhere, even phrases, stanzas, paragraphs if she feels in the mood. Shakira too, but then again I don’t speak Spanish so I can’t really tell which is incomprehensive speech and which Spanish words.

But let’s focus on Geronimo here. And of it, the part that actually makes sense, sort of.

“And I'm breaking, I'm breaking away
I'm aiming power power shots
And I'm giving all I got
I'm fearless, I'm fearless today”

Ok not so bad thus far…

But then…

“I paint my face with teardrip-drops, I'm kissing underdogs” –the hell is that supposed to mean?

Now as you might have noticed I am a huge fan of lyrics and stories and let’s just say writing. I really like, you know, to be able to make sense of what people are talking about in their spoken/written/sung art without going through google windows and dictionaries and long mental debates over “what the bloody hell is that supposed to mean/say?”

Yes I know what the words mean; I even know what the combination of them supposedly means. What I can’t get is why? Were those five writes, all five of them, out of ideas what to fit in there? Couldn’t they find one actual poet to consult?

“…and what is more she does not write your stereotypical pop-lyrics either.” Her official web site says.

I can see that, but I am not quite sure it is a good thing…

But let us move on. I shouldn’t comment too much on the clip itself or we’ll be here forever. Overall it's not bad. It's well composed, with movement and colour and all. Its more matching for personal freedom theme than a supposed love story but we can overlook that. Still i have a few remarks. First, Aura, girl, I don’t know you did to your face, or you just need to shoot your makeup artist, but honestly you look like one of those aliens in whose language you are singing. Also judging by the clothes she wears throughout most of the video she’s actually trying to dress like them. I guess Gaga’s home planet is becoming quite popular in the pop world these days. We are looking at a full scale invasion if this keeps on…

http://www.smosh.com                                                         

But back to the topic, I always thought and will continue thinking that pop stars sound and look better before they begin whoring out. For that is what I think happened here. Look at Avril Lavigne for example, begins ok, sort of simple and normal, not too flashy but decent, and then she starts whoring out and it all ends in a musical disaster… But I can’t really blame it all on the artist. The issue here isn't that someone released a bad song, it happens, it's not a big deal. The problem is when it's the bad song, in an album of pretty good songs, that becomes popular. And the artists, they just do what the public wants, what the industry seems interested in. If society wants crap, it will get crap… and what makes me sad is people actually wanting that crap.   

 

Really though, what’s wrong with us people? Have intelligence and common sense become too old fashion? Is stupidity the new trend? 

http://clipartfort.com

Thing is, I know there are many smart, intelligent people out there. Probably even more than the stupid ones. But if the media - the face of the world, promotes this vision of utter retardness, how am I supposed to consider the world “sane?” Or for that matter… smart? If I were an alien looking from beyond, searching for a good, highly moral planet with great potential to share my knowledge with, to help improve, if I were looking at a catalog of worlds based on what is generally shown in them, I’d go for the Slug Empire, forget this tasteless, noisy, senseless pile of garbage in the pits of the Solar System with the tag line humanity. Let them rot in their own filth.

But still if the alien was to actually take pity and chose Earth, how is it supposed to determine what language it should speak to us when our grammar and sentences and even words have become “too mainstream?” How is someone else to learn our language when we don’t seem to know it ourselves? Oh how I wished this applied only to the English on the internet…

Which brings me to a different topic – the world of modern writing, but I’ll leave that for another time….

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.