Pop Music Notes

Random Notes – 07-08-09

July 9, 2009 · 4 Comments

07-08-09…is that some kind of cultish date?

- Several articles have popped up on Casey Kasem’s last countdown. In a lot of ways, Casey is the reason I do what I do, because he gave life to the charts that I worshipped as a kid. I will occasionally put on Sirius-XM’s “80s on 8″ or “70s on 7″ during the weekend to hear rebroadcasts of Casey’s countdowns. Sadly, I thought he was already done, having turned the reins several years ago. As a result of the linked article, though, I can now go to YouTube and hear Casey cursing. Good times.

- If you enjoyed the late 80s entries I did a couple of weeks ago, go on over to Wacky on the Junk and check out some of his recent posts on Breathe, Level 42, and Curiosity Killed the Cat. He got me good, as I was planning to come back for a few of those. Good stuff (and possibly some samples for ya, too)!

- Yuri and I did up another “Us Against the Music” last weekend about the MJ chart fallout, along with some chat about Maxwell (who is looking to do some big thangs on next week’s Billboard chart). Check it out!

- I should have my laptop returned to me on Thursday, and regular posts should return at that point. In the meantime, here’s a terrific commentary for the brand-new video Beyonce single, “Sweet Dreams”.

→ 4 CommentsCategories: charts · personal · us against the music · videos
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“Wasn’t Nothin’ Strange About Your Daddy!”

July 7, 2009 · 8 Comments

7538313I think I’ve got myself together here. Went to lunch, and put on Sirius to hear the Michael Jackson memorial. Things were good until “Will You Be There”, and then the floodgates opened. First off, to have Jennifer Hudson sing it is brilliant, given what she’s been through in the past year. But when Michael’s spoke outro of the song played, I got choked up.

In our darkest hour
In my deepest despair
Will you still care?
Will you be there?
In my trials
And my tripulations
Through our doubts
And frustrations
In my violence
In my turbulence
Through my fear
And my confessions
In my anguish and my pain
Through my joy and my sorrow
In the promise of another tomorrow
I’ll never let you part
For you are always in my heart.

Gah. How do you top that? Apparently, you bring in Rev. Al Sharpton, a man I have never been a fan of, to really pull it all together. A few quotes sum it all up nicely.

“Michael made us love each other.

Michael taught us to stand with each other.

Michael rose to the top!

Michael never stopped.”

But the most impactful statement of his testimony went straight to Michael’s children:

“Wasn’t nothing strange about your daddy. It was strange what your daddy had to deal with.”

Okay…an overstatement of the facts, because there WAS something strange about Michael. He had unusual quirks, but he also had unusual talent. You have to imagine that the extremes of that will manifest themselves in pretty exaggerated ways. However, no matter how you slice it, Michael was also a father, a son, a brother, an uncle, a human. It is WAY too easy to forget that in all of this. If that boy from Gary can achieve what Michael did, then the sky is the limit for each of us if we want it.

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Video Notables – Mr Hudson

June 30, 2009 · 8 Comments

mr-hudson-supernovaThe video finally hit today for “Supernova“, and I’m a bit underwhelmed. Visually, the first half of it looks terrific. And then the whole “Mr Supernova” sucks the life out of the clip. The “chase” scene at the end just can’t bring it back.

Having said that, I sat here watching it and thinking to myself “he’s actually going to have a hit in the U.S.” This should be as sure-fire of a hit as Kanye himself. If it’s not, I’m considering emigration. Suggestions?

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Random Notes – 06/28/09

June 28, 2009 · 15 Comments

fathrson- First off, if you haven’t already done so, head on over Olga Loves Yuri to check out the chat I had with my blogger brother this week regarding the passing of Michael Jackson. I think it came out pretty well, and if all goes as planned, we will do some type of dialogue like this every week. There is so much going on in the pop music world, but sometimes it just doesn’t call for a full post. And it’s a good excuse for me to give Yuri hell. Simple pleasures…

- At Yuri’s prompting, I have become a fan of Popdose, which really does a great job of capturing pop culture at its finest. Their tributes to Michael Jackson have been outstanding, but I have been caught up in the posted series by Tom Werman, who signed and produced groups like Cheap Trick, Ted Nugent, and Molly Hatchet. Me being a music industry junkie like I am, it is difficult to walk away from the computer when there’s another entry of his waiting to be read. Also, it’s a great antidote to read about a decent A&R guy after having read Kill Your Friends while I was in London.

- Review of the David Cook show coming later today or first thing tomorrow morning. I got some great pics and video, along with ringing ears. You would think by now I would remember that this happens, but I’m so giddy when I get to a show that I don’t even think about it.

- Not sure what posts will look like this week with the holiday coming up. I’ve got a four-day weekend ahead, and between school work and threats of being kidnapped (details later), posting may be a bit light. In the meantime, I have homework to do! (I sound 12 saying that…need to work on the delivery.)

- Let me leave you with a bit of Shayne Ward goodness. Not sure how I missed this, but after having been obsessed with the Cadbury eyebrows commercial, this just cracks me up. Happy Sunday!

→ 15 CommentsCategories: american idol · personal · plug
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You’re Michael Jackson, I’m Michael Jackson

June 26, 2009 · 8 Comments

I have to say I’m completely stunned at the speed of this, but there is already a tribute record out called “Better on the Other Side”, and it’s actually pretty decent. At the heart of the song is The Game rapping, with Chris Brown singing the hook. Mario Winans and Boyz II Men also pop in, and Diddy gives the eulogy at the end of the track.
Not to be left out, 50 Cent also tosses a track out to the world called “Where You Are”, which samples MJ in his younger days. Once again, not a bad track at all. Gotta love how quickly music can be put out for the public when there’s motivation to do so.

→ 8 CommentsCategories: death · videos · youtube

Remember the Time

June 25, 2009 · 6 Comments

Damn…I can’t believe just how quickly that title came to me. It doesn’t matter to me that everyone and their cousin will have something to say, because as far as I’m concerned, they SHOULD. To quote a friend, “they bettah DO!” Michael Jackson, for all of his quirks, eccentricities, publicity stunts, and gaudiness, is a legend. I use “is” because that legend does not disappear today. In fact, it grows.

Jackson 5 3rdThe Jackson 5 had their first hit the year I was born. 40 years on, children born in a completely different century still know “I Want You Back” and “ABC”. Those are my first memories of Michael Jackson, although the first song that really impacted me was “Never Can Say Goodbye”, which came out in 1971. Even as a child of 9 or 10, I got it. That voice, that talent, that connection. How could someone so young get that? And yet, he did. Even singing Christmas songs like “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus”, Michael had an amazing way to project and connect that I doubt I could find any other artist of his generation to do.

The Jackson 5 became the Jacksons, and I was right with them. “Shake Your Body”, “Enjoy Yourself”, “Lovely One”, and even “Blame It On the Boogie” were all jams. Songs I didn’t even know at the time came back to me eventually, such as “Can You Feel It”. If you want to talk about an epic pop/R&B song, that’s the one. All of that just prepped Michael for a future that I doubt even he could have predicted.

MJ Off the Wall“Off the Wall”, “Don’t Stop ’til You Get Enough”, “She’s Out of My Life”, and especially “Rock With You”…without knowing it, my musical world was shifting along with Michael’s. There’s life in a record that you truly get. It seems to breathe on its own, and the drum beat might as well have blood coursing though it. “Rock” not only lived and breathed, it seemed to imbibe me with an energy that I would become more familiar with as I got older. It’s an energy that grows on itself and is hard to predict, but you know it when you’re in it. But even at that point, it was still just a song. Then Motown 25 came along, and I was a goner.

There are moments in my life that I will remember as long as I live: the moment it hit me that my Grandma was no longer with us, that the Challenger exploded, that I drove every one of my possessions across the city line into Denver. Michael’s performance of “Billie Jean” on Motown 25 is right up there. When Michael stepped to center stage while his brothers left the stage, you just knew something was going to happen. But that’s an understatement. When he let loose the moonwalk, I couldn’t pull my eyes away from the screen. The performance was too short, and no one could drag me away from the screen until the show was completely over and I was absolutely sure I wasn’t going to miss anything else. I was a persistent kid, to say the least.

MJ Thriller“The Girl Is Mine” has to be the lamest lead single for a hit album in the history of pop music. Who really cared? I mean, two stars singing a duet, but really, didn’t more people still care about McCartney at that point? “Billie Jean”, on the other hand, while not an Earth-shattering song, still set the world on fire. The performance, the video, the song…it’s an experience that only happens a couple of times in a lifetime. I wanted the red jacket, I wanted a glove, I wanted to be connected in any way possible, but the music was really my only way. (For more about my Thriller period, go here.)

It doesn’t seem possible that Bad hit the shelves in 1987, because Michael never left the airwaves. (A personal favorite part of mine was “Torture”, from the Jacksons record Victory) Michael could have recorded lullabies, and it would have been an instant smash, but instead, he pushed his sound further toward the center of R&B and Pop. Folks hadn’t heard tracks like “Dirty Diana” and “Smooth Criminal” before, and they ate it up. Just to stress the impact of Bad, the first FIVE singles went to #1, and the other two went to #11 and #7. 30 millions copies sold worldwide. Tour grossed a then-record $125 million. Crazy.

1991 brought Dangerous to the world, and for me, this was his creative peak. “Remember the Time” is in my Top 5 tracks by him, and I felt like he had done a combination evolving his sound while remaining current and up with the trends of the day. HIStory wasn’t as much of a success for me, but “You Are Not Alone” proved that Michael still had it. Even a remix album like Blood on the Dancefloor, which could have just ridden on the coattails of the hits that preceded, instead came hard with the title cut, a jam that was sadly overlooked in its time.

MJ EvolutionMichael Jackson’s star may have been tarnished over the years, but I believe that many have lost sight of all of the good that he brought to the world through his music and actions. I’m not making excuses for what people have said he did, and we may never know for sure how things went down. But for me, Michael opened my eyes to not only the diversity of music, but also the diversity of people. He wasn’t afraid to be different, and he encouraged others to be themselves, rather than conform. If anyone wants to find fault with that, have at it. My choice is to remain positive, and build off the strengths of his legacy. Bashing his past does no one any good right now.

→ 6 CommentsCategories: commentary · death · personal

What Did You Expect?

June 24, 2009 · 10 Comments

My two cents on the whole Perez Hilton/will.i.am dust-up in Toronto. First, please read Duane’s dead-on commentary, if you haven’t already. Second, I don’t believe that violence is ever the answer, but karma’s a bitch, Perez. Just like you.

Showing one more reason why I like her, here is Kelly Clarkson’s reaction. She was also in town for the concert, but was not at the party. [And make sure you check out Will-W's YouTube page for some great footage of rehearsals for the concert.]

→ 10 CommentsCategories: news · videos · youtube
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I Dreamt the Impossible

June 22, 2009 · 8 Comments

I originally was just going to post this in the comments for Poster Girl, but with David’s show coming up here in four days at the Ogden Theater, I feel like sharing with everyone! Nothing like keeping a theme alive, eh?

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Isn’t It Post New Romantic?

June 20, 2009 · 16 Comments

Talking about my Post New Romanticism loves the other day left me wanting more, so you’re going to get a video entry to show ‘em off!

- Go West/”Call Me” – While the likes of Duran Duran and Culture Club were at the peak of their popularity, there were other groups that were putting out music with less fanfare, but still of note. I loved Go West from their debut single “We Close Our Eyes” (#41), but “Call Me” (#54) sealed the deal for me. Unlike many of the groups that followed, Go West had some longevity, and evolved their sound as they went along. While some may not be as crazy about their more commercial sound in later years, I thought Indian Summer was a great album, and really enjoyed their remake of “What You Won’t Do For Love” (#55).

- Danny Wilson/”Mary’s Prayer” – One of several US one-hit wonders on this list, Danny Wilson released “Mary’s Prayer” (#23) in 1987, and the song slowly grew into a modest hit. Named after the title of a Frank Sinatra movie, the band consisted of brothers Gary and Kit Clark, along with Ged Grimes. Honestly, I don’t even remember if I had the full-length on this one, but “Mary’s” really holds up well over 20 years later.

- T’Pau/”China In Your Hand” – One of my all-time favorite songs. I remember watching T’Pau perform this on the US version of “Top of the Pops” in 1987, which really just recycled the British performances and inserted a few US-only tracks to make it more authentic. I would have bet money that this would have been a #1 record, but the song never even charted here, and T’Pau remains a one-hit wonder in the US. It wasn’t the first time my instincts were wrong, and it sure wasn’t the last. Of course, the song went straight to #1 in the UK.

- Johnny Hates Jazz/”Shattered Dreams” – If you measure a record’s potential by the impact of the single that preceded it, you would have hoped that Johnny Hates Jazz would have been more popular, but as often is the case, you would have also been wrong. I remember “Shattered Dreams” tearing up the airwaves in 1988, and it peaked at #2. The follow-up, “I Don’t Wanna Be a Hero”, only made it to #31, while “Turn Back the Clock” (a personal favorite of mine), only charted on the Adult Contemporary chart. As was often the case, there’s a US version of the video, but I actually prefer the UK version (not that either of them are epics).

- Climie Fischer/”Love Changes (Everything)” – I was obsessed with this song for months for some reason, and to this day, it remains one of those records that just goes to show that I am a music and chart geek. Released originally in 1987 and considered a flop, it took “Rise to the Occasion” becoming a hit in multiple territories to give “Love” a second chance. The re-issue was a remixed version, and ended up at #10 in the UK, and #23 in the US.

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Back to School

June 18, 2009 · 16 Comments

I got to college in the fall of 1987, and it was sensory overload from the first day. There were a lot of changes hitting me at the same time: living on my own for the first time, moving to Albany from Syracuse, being involved in Navy ROTC (that didn’t last long), and a whole new circle of friends. From where I’m standing now, I think I handled the transition fairly well. At the time, though, it was a whirlwind of new experiences. Without getting into too many gory details, let’s just say that John found his place in the world in several ways. (Let the comment beatings begin!)

While I’m sure that a lot of this stuff would make for exciting Afterschool Special viewing, the music is what I want to talk about today. Here are a few memories that I think a few of you might be able to relate to.

T'Pau Cover- Post-New Romanticism – I don’t know if this is an actual term, but it fits what I’m looking for here. As groups like Duran Duran and Culture Club lost some sway with the public, they were replaced by pop groups with an even smoother style, which bordered on Adult Contemporary. Groups like Johnny Hates Jazz and Danny Wilson were big in ’87-’88, and I ate it all up. I wore out the cassette tape of T’Pau’s Bridge of Spies, which only spawned one Top 40 hit here in the US with “Heart and Soul” (#4 Hot 100, #13 Club Play). My favorite song from this period, though, was “China in Your Hands”, which was #1 in the UK, but never charted here. One more nail in the coffin of Americans having good taste in their pop music.

CureKissMeKissMeKissMe- Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me – Ah, Robert Smith. How I wanted to be you in 1987. I had just gotten caught up with Staring at the Sea when Kiss Me came into view. Despite only having one minor Top 40 hit (“Just Like Heaven”, #40), this is the album that really started the momentum moving in their direction here in the US. “Heaven” was by far the deepest, most romantic record I had ever loved (I was 18, ‘nuff said), and I subsequently experienced a couple of firsts with that album playing in the background. It was DEEP, folks! [Somewhere along the line, I will have to pen my ode to Disintegration.]

K Sweat Forever- R&B and Rap – I went through three majors in one year at school, and the only consistent thing in my academic life was working at the radio station on campus. I threw myself into that venture with every free minute of my time. While I may have been pop and alternative elsewhere, at the station I was R&B and rap. High on rotation that year was Keith Sweat, whose Make It Last Forever was far and away the most played album on the R&B shows at the station. While the seeds for my crossover to rap had been planted years ago, 1987 was the year that they took root and grew. Teena Marie (“Ooh La La La”), 3rd Bass, Rob Base and DJ EZ Rock, and New Edition (“Can You Stand the Rain” was the JAM!) all made a big impact.

prince_sign_times- Sign O’ the Times – Given all of the influences that I was feeling that year, it really shouldn’t be any wonder that Prince was the epitome of my musical preferences. The title track was both funky and topical, and “U Got the Look” came out of nowhere to liven up Top 40. For me, the pinnacle of Sign was “Adore”, which I am not afraid to say is the best performance of a love song in the Rock era. I won’t say “best love song”, because lyrically I don’t think it stands up to the true champs. From a delivery standpoint, Prince wins hands down. The phrase is clichéd, but I have no problem in referring to this as a Master Class in how to really deliver a song. You get as much meaning from the delivery as you do from the lyrics. In my opinion, this is Prince’s best album and performance by a mile.

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