Adventures in the Top 40: Wayward Choruses

Here’s a geeky little medium-length post about chart pop to offset all that earnest politicising in the last post, and - spoiler alert - all the earnest politicising to come in the next post. I just wanted to describe a lovely musical trend that links three of my favourite tracks clinging doggedly to the UK singles chart. Let us listen first to Nicki Minaj’s ‘Super Bass’ which has just popped out the bottom of the Top 40. An awesome song for many reasons: great hook, great lyrics, great production, she’s awesome. But one of the things that I think really defines this song in particular is how unusual the relationship is between its harmonic progressions (the chords used) and its conventional structure (verse/chorus etc.), especially for unabashed party pop.

Political Visions/Political Actions: The Apposite Voices of tUnE-yArDs and John Maus

I’ve spent a little time at the Occupy London camp since its establishment last month, though not nearly enough to feel in any way qualified to be a representative of the protests. However, I am proud to say that I was at least there on the first night, in the exhilarating chaos of the first assemblies and the comprehensive yet unconvincing police encirclement. At that point there really was a very broad range of protesters represented: long-haulers and day-trippers, established British socialist groups and a huge number of European students showing solidarity with concurrent protests overseas. There was a slew of different aims, obsessions and strategies represented (although a good number of fundamental ideals were clearly universally shared).

In this article, I'll try to locate some of the differing (and at times warring) qualities of these young contemporary activists, as represented in the new political music of two artists giving early voice to this new political movement: tUnE-yArDs and John Maus. By comparing these two artists, I also aim to demonstrate two very different ways in which pop music can engage explicitly with politics.

Dramatising Exclusion: Kurt Vile & James Blake

I was lucky enough to go to End of the Road festival last month, and lucky enough to see Kurt Vile and the Violators from the front of the crowd. And they were awesome. In fact I actually found it quite overwhelming, emotionally (and yes, it’s the 21st century, I’m going to make reference to emotions, deal with it).

I’m sure most music fans know the emotional chill which might seem randomly and inexplicably to wash down through your body with the first few bars of a live song. Often, it seems to have a lot to do with the realisation of a private treasure - a recording cherished in your bedroom or between earphones - in real time and space, by real people. It authenticates the provenance and value of that treasure, validating all its personal truths. The presence of an equally ecstatic fellow audience surely adds to this feeling. I'm sure this was part of it, but between me and Kurt, I think there was something else more specific in action at End of the Road, and I believe it extends right down into what I feel to be the unique qualities of his recent album.

On Aesthetic Imagination

Enjoyed this article, which touches on the kind of thing that I've ended up writing about quite a lot here:

READ READ READ

The writer explores the distinction between what he calls the 'aesthetic imagination' of pop on the one hand and indie on the other. In doing so, he touches on the depth to which signifying styles and tropes are expected to permeate musical and visual personas in each culture, and how far an artist's 'theatricality' can extend before appearing 'inauthentic'...

NewNewNewish

For a British person, I actually listen to a disproportionately small amount of British music. (Although I suppose it depends how you look at it - the rest of the world is a lot bigger than the UK, after all.)

Anyway, perhaps perhaps this is all about to change... Forget the Mercury Prize, I give you three great videos for three great songs by three of the upandcomingest British artists:

Pengilly's - Toby's Hill



Leeds/London collective finding natural, spiritual idylls in the airy, ascetic spaces of what's becoming our national post-urban post-electronica.

Visit their bandcamp to download the new Toby's Hill EP (name your price)

Psychologist - Propeller



The glitch-soul Macbeth lays bare his regicidal aspirations in this uncanny coven. Dark as fuck, and rapidly becoming one of my favourite videos ever.

Check out his website here and download his EPs

Clean Bandit - Telephone Banking



Superb homemade meta-riot of a video for catchy new single from the wry chamber-dance ensemble.

Visit website here, buy the single and tune up/stay tuned for debut EP...

Bedroom Music #2: Sexy White Boys/Sexy Black Boys

Two riffs on race and hetero male sexuality in this year’s music, with especial reference to of Montreal, Wild Beasts and The Weeknd...

So I like to keep abreast of my own prejudices, and I was recently made to reflect on my differing reactions to similar gestures made in different, 'racialised' genres (a discrepancy which, I think, is pretty common). The gestures have to do with the sexualisation of a hetero male subject - the singer themselves, or their performed persona.  It basically runs that I make a comparable ‘double-take’ when:

• a male R&B or hip hop artist (‘black’ genres) suggests any kind of sexual self-doubt, impotence, or even averageness, and...
• a male indie rock or indie pop vocalist (‘white’ genres) makes any kind of claim to particular sexual prowess or potency.

Postmodernism as Topic #2: The Go! Team Listen To Yr Childhood

I belatedly return to a subject that I embarked upon a while ago in reference to Deerhoof’s new record Deerhoof vs. Evil, which is an exploration of postmodern practices and concerns as the topic, not just the aesthetic or process, of pop music. The Go! Team, whose 2011 album Rolling Blackouts is quite possibly their best yet, have self-consciously crafted an unmistakable signature sound, yet their approach goes further than that. At many levels, the Go! Team represent the postmodern age, through postmodern means (form as well as content), referencing other postmodern media in a thoroughly postmodern game of signification. Just a cursory listen to Rolling Blackouts could demonstrate several layers on which the tenets of postmodernism are being addressed as well as merely inhabited. The main ones that I want to discuss are: the creation of a sonic ‘frame’ through which a ‘listening’ to the early 90s is pre-mediated, and a direct engagement with the musical language and cultural meanings of TV theme tunes.