I already don’t remember what it was I was so excited about with those other songs and mixes I posted about earlier this week, because this edit of Rihanna’s “Diamonds” by Jerome LOL is the only thing I want to listen to now. I fell asleep to it on repeat last night before bed feeling lonely and disconnected, and it was the first thing I wanted to hear when I woke up. Will I like it tomorrow? Who knows. Does that matter? I don’t think so.
There’s probably a lesson in there about the disposable nature of an overabundance of music in the contemporary internet assembly line, but I’m not even sure that model has to be received as a negative thing any more. Who says that your relationship with a song has to be everlasting? Can’t we meet songs, or people for that matter, and throw ourselves fully into their gravitational orbit for a few fleeting moments in time, maybe a day, maybe a few weeks, and then move on to the next one and start the process all over again? (I went through a similar cycle with a while back in a week-long surge of infatuation).
It’s a common criticism of pop music of course, but one people level at electronic music as well with its unending stream of new edits and remixes and tracks flooding the internet. “This is disposable crap,” some of my grumpier rockist friends say. That’s often true, and maybe it is even in the case of this song specifically, but I feel like people who think that way are truly missing out on rich listening experiences that don’t have to replace your traditional taste, but can run alongside it. Do you need every song that you enjoy to be a song you’re going to like for the rest of your life? When you find ones that do it’s certainly a beautiful thing, but that eternity fallacy is harmful to our reception of culture. It’s a common stance among rock purists (aka old people) and, I imagine, among people who don’t understand how simply speeding up the vocal to a Rihanna song, accentuating the drums, and editing out half the lyrics can amount to a transcendentally transformative new work of art that somehow improves on the original “proper pop song.” (For another example of what I’m talking about here, consider , in which he does something similar with a Ciara vocal.)
Read the rest at Bullett.
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1 comment:
This is good. I was ready for it to be really bad. Not because you're taste is bad, but because I can't fucking stand the version on the radio. What do you call the original version these days? The Alpha mix? Whatever. This song's lyrics annoy me more than anything else since Beyonce's "Halo"--it's embarrassing to humanity, I think, that people are getting the bright/diamond metaphor for the first time in their lives this song. "Yeah. I'm bright. Like a, like a, DIAMOND." It's what I might call a bit on the nose.
You have good points, and I think that I agree with you on some of them. I guess your analogy of music and sports which you gave to me the other day kind of troubles me though. While I get your point that pop music is a youth culture thing it disturbs me that music can be compared to sports in this regard--I have always said to people throughout the years that the great thing, SACRED thing even, about music, is that it's not like sports. You don't have to be the fastest, or the strongest, or the most agile to be the best. You can be weird and damaged and broken and fragile and ungainly and lopsided in every way. I want to test this theory to see if I still think it's true, but the very worst of American pop music is labored in this American Idol/Glee bullshit where the prettiest mall singer is essentially rewarded by the lowest faction of culture with a record contract. And this has trickled into much of music. Not all of it. But I'm not so sure
that Rihanna is fun, candy-sweet disposible pop. It's hard to say. I'm just not sure. I think we know that music of this ilk can be disposible and fun, but I'm not sure it's much better than Paula Abdul's 2nd or 3rd single. Which, at the time was really bad.
However, I'm looking now at the top 10 charts 25 years ago this week and this is what we've got. The good (Bad, U Got the Look, Little Lies) the bad (I Think We're Alone Now, Mony Mony, Cassanova) and the ugly (Causing a Commotion, Lost in Emotion, Let Me Be the One, Carrie).
Yet, so far removed from New Order, Kate Bush, Arthur Russell, the Smiths, Primal Scream, Elvis Costello, Spacemen 3, Sonic Youth, Go Between, JAMC, Replacements, Husker Du, Talk Talk, the Church, DM, etc etc, not to mention all the good hip hop.
Why was their a need to listen to top 40 then, and why is their now? Is it disposible fun, or is it a red convertable and a blonde girlfriend?
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