You know, we've gone this whole month and we haven't even acknowledged Pride Month.
This song, originally pitched to Anne Murray, was written by Tom Kelly and Billy Steinberg about Kelly's mother. When Cyndi Lauper got a hold of the song, it became something so much bigger - a song of empowerment and encouragement.
It was also become an anthem of LGBTQ pride. In fact, the song resonated with Lauper specifically because she had recently lost a good friend to AIDS - a good friend who had been ejected from his home at age 12 for the crime of being gay. One of the great things that Lauper has done is founded the charity now known as True Colors United, a group dedicated to the unique problems of LGBTQ youth homelessness.
If I were to ask you "what was the first US Top Ten hit by Genesis", you'd be hard pressed to come up with this 1983 hit. And yet, this little song with a Ringo Starr-esque drum part is indeed the right answer.
It's also their first appearance on Wicked Guilty Pleasures, so......
That drum riff was absolutely intentional. This song was Phil Collins's attempt to write a catchy pop song a la The Beatles.
If you have been reading this blog for a while, you probably expected a Charli XCX song to be the 1000th post. Long-time readers of this blog will recall that I used to post about Charlotte Aitchison more than I even post about Béatrice Martin now. That MAY be the only time those two artists will ever be mentioned in the same sentence. Trust me. I Googled that.
Anyway, this isn't the 1000th post. It's number nine hundred and ninety nine.
In 2013, I thought Charli was ahead of her time. Her 2013 album True Romance was a revelation - at the time, I said, and I quote, " Every single song can stand alone - and several have as singles - but the sum of all the parts - a dark pop gem that teeters between love and heartbreak - is so much greater." Its follow-up Sucker was solid. Of course, there was also "Fancy".... you know, the post where I admitted I had a Charli XCX problem.
Then came Vroom Vroom. The post I did about this song on September 1st, 2016 is the last time I posted about Charli XCX. I had misgivings about the song but spun it positive. Still, I found this period to be a step in a direction in which I wasn't interested - her subsequent single just didn't interest me. So, I turned my back on this music, and, frankly, her catalog.
I even unfollowed her on Instagram.
In the ensuing years, she has released a couple of albums and mixtapes. She's taken a stronger electronic direction, and a lot of it is really good. I largely ignored her late 2017 mixtape Pop 2, and that was a huge mistake, because that represents her best work since True Romance.
Apparently, though, I'm not the only one who missed Pop 2, because this video, released in April 2021, is for a song from that mixtape that has found a new life on TikTok. It would appear that the world has finally caught up to this artist ahead of her time.
I'm not going to show you the countless TikTok videos that are set to this song. I AM going to share a performance of the song, featuring Kim Petras, from 2019. I have always had respect for the fact that Charli performs her songs live, and doesn't rely on a helper track for all her vocals. Not every artist does that.
So I was minding my own business the other day. You know, doing normal Internet stuff before I headed off to work. Check Facebook, read a couple comics, update my fantasy baseball teams and lastly check Twitter. Big mistake (on the last one).
"Kinda want to bring @sneezeguard back to #WickedGP for a day so I don't have to write a @taylorswift13 post...." - Anthony D'Orazio @RedArgyle
Really? Called out on Twitter. I thought about it though and said, "maybe?" Sure I haven't done a Wicked Guilty Pleasures or Totally Covered post in like seven or eight years but it's just like riding a horse with three legs. Right? (By the way I left the kooshie blog world to run a Country Music website and then moved on to an outlaw country site where I seemed to only talk about metal or alternative bands, before settling in to "semi-retirement" after a stroke...seriously).
Could I spend an hour a week barely talking about specific songs while using the occasional clever reference? I don't know. Maybe...
So here we are...coming back stronger than a 90's trend.
In 2013, I wrote a post about a song, by a pop duo called Karmin. It was I believe the 4th post about them on this blog - there were another bunch on Totally Covered. Without actually counting, I think this might be the most I've posted about any single artist thus far.
The duo was a real-life engaged couple, Amy Heidemann and Nick Noonan.
In 2014, Karmin fired their record label - who weren't promoting them -and began releasing music on their own.
Fast forward to 2017. At this point, the music had changed, and Karmin morphed into Qveen Herby, with the now-married couple both involved BUT with Nick behind the scenes and Amy billed as a solo act. They - she - proceeded to release a ridiculous number of EPs.
The debut Qveen Herby full-length album, A Woman, was released in May 2021. I'm happy to be able to share a pretty great single from that album.
On this blog, we've had three Hall of Fame inductees - Nirvana, P!nk, and the first, Katy Perry. When we inducted Katy Perry, she had only TWO albums released.
TWO.
We had so much material JUST from what she had released thus far, we left stuff OUT.
This song, from her landmark 2nd album Teenage Dream (this version technically from Teenage Dream; The Complete Confection 2012 reissue), was one of those outtakes. This, the fourth single from that album, was also her 5th #1 hit in the US, and the 4th from that album, making it (at the time) only the 7th album to achieve that milestone - it would go on to produce a 5th #1 single, only the second album to ever achieve that (Michael Jackson's Bad being the first). (The Complete Confection would spawn a 6th #1, by the way)
So, on the strength of two albums, Katy Perry was a Hall of Famer in our eyes. History has already been kind to both Katy Perry and to Teenage Dream. And this collaboration with Kanye West is quite interesting and a bit of a departure from the rest of the album, taking a harsher edge tone.
Katy still performs this song live - but this is one of the FIRST times she ever did.
I feel like this blog has grown up with Kesha. Our 3rd ever post - and my 2nd - was a Kesha song..... back when she was Ke-Dollar Sign-Ha.
This song, her second single, was a top 10 hit, but mostly off digital download, as it was a bit of an explicit song - "just turn around boy, and let me hit that" - and GOD FORBID a woman be as explicit as the men.
Kesha herself co-wrote the song, as she has done with most of her music. Her performance overshadowed any participation by 3OH!3 (whose Sean Foreman was also a co-writer), who had their biggest hit with this song as well.
We know that, since these songs came out, that Kesha has had some troubles and some tribulations, which we have discussed extensively in other posts. Because of all that, we're also still happy to have these songs and happy that Kesha is still making music.
The best laid plans sometimes get disturbed by new releases. Indeed, in this little review of the first 1000 posts, I had not intended to highlight Poppy, who isn't someone we've posted MUCH on this blog, but who has been an interesting and unusual force in the recording industry and performance art. Not that she doesn't deserve the attention - she's been featured previously on this blog. We just haven't found a place to slot her in more. There's a lot of guilty pleasures, folks!!!!
However, I promised myself that I would post this at the soonest opportunity I could, as soon as it was released.
Poppy first performed this song on the 63th GRAMMY Awards Premiere Ceremony, unexpectedly debuting a new song as opposed to the song for which she was nominated. She finally released it on Tuesday (June 8th, if you are reading this later) as part of the Eat EP, which is a sonic wonder in and of itself. The song is an angry, appealing, noisy revelation.
This did bump another post, but we will feature that at a later date. Don't worry.
A few years ago, we did a week of Fleetwood Mac posts.
Several of those posts are the most popular we've ever written. By a lot.
Clearly, we leaned heavily on Rumors, but not just. However, because of that, we had to leave out a few great songs that really deserved a highlight.
This song. which was recorded in the middle of the night in 1976 and features some unusual instruments, like breaking glass and an electric harpisicord. It quickly became a classic and a signature Stevie Nicks tune.
On this very blog, in 2012, my friend and former co-author Scott Colvin posted a surprising XTC cover as performed by Mandy Moore. This song was actually one of the catalysts that sparked our OTHER blog, Totally Covered, but we didn't have that back then, so this is where he put it.
My immediate internal reaction when I saw that was, "you mean that girl who sang 'Candy'?"
There is a large subset of you reading this who are a little surprised that the mom from This Is Us was not only a pop star - at 15! - but a peer of Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera who was actually making the same kind of music. And she was mentioned in the same breath as those huge stars, because her music was that catchy, and her voice was that strong - and still is.
So, big TV star Mandy Moore, who does XTC covers and classy folk-pop music now..... you might think she'd be embarrassed by this song now..... right?
Wrong.
I've got to be honest. When I started writing this, I expected to find an old performance of this song from year 2000 late night television - and I found a LOT of those. I didn't expect to find this. This incredibly solid performance that brings a fair bit more soul to the song is from February 2020.
Next week, we post our 1,000th blog entry. Let's spend some time looking back on some of the more important posts on this blog.
Lorde has always been popular on this blog. Our post about her song "Tennis Court" is the most popular by any solo artist on here. You would have thought it would be a different song, but no. Every Lorde post has done well, though.
In 2017, Lorde released her long-awaited 2nd album, Melodrama. She hasn't released anything since, despite the critical acclaim she received for songs like this, which was co-written by Lorde and Jack Antonoff.
While this song didn't chart in the US, it was a minor hit worldwide... and it's an incredible, epic song.
Lorde performed this song live many times, in different versions. In this version, she stripped it down, making it less epic and more intimate. I almost like it better.
This 1984 single, the lead single from her album A Private Heaven, was a huge hit almost everywhere in the world.... but not her native UK. Go figure. It was a departure from her more innocent love songs to a more adult, more suggestive sound - a sound she'd continue to pursue in a future collaboration with Prince.
I found early Sheena Easton to be boring, but 12-year-old Tony really enjoyed this song... and I still do. Also, great, now you know how old I am.
It seems noteworthy to say that she performed the song in a 1986 commercial in Japan while dressed as a geisha.
We posted about Tracy Bonham on this blog almost nine years ago. It i incredible to me that I am still writing this so far in the future from that.
We referred to the fact that she was a one hit wonder. This was that hit. In reality, she had a 2nd hit - which I will post another day. This was by far her biggest one, however, and for good reason - it takes a completely relatable story of a girl who has moved out of her mother's house and is trying to reassure mom that EVERYTHING'S FINE, even though it isn't.
This video, which got a lot of MTV airplay, features Tracy's actual mother on vacuum.
This version of the video was made for VH1, which had an audience that skewed older and more family-friendly. I guess trying on clothes in a closet mutes the primal scream that EVERYTHING'S FINE.
The VH1 video makes it a little clear, but this live performance makes it more abundantly clear that Tracy is playing a fiddle, and uses it to convey a tone shift and to punctuate the fact that EVERYTHING'S FINE.
You were about thisclose to forgetting this song even existed, weren't you?
And yet this was Lit's biggest hit, in 1999. It was only a moderate hit, but it was a hit nonetheless. It is the epitome of post-punk power-pop, but it was also a catchy tune. It's OK to enjoy it.
It has been a hell of a year already for Béatrice Martin.
She bought her record label - Dare To Care Records - and renamed it Bravo Musique. SHe is now its owner, President, and A&R Director....
She had vocal cord surgery - to treat a hemorrhagic polyp. She seems to have recovered, although it left her completely silent for a while..
She dropped a surprise instrumental album on April 30th (Perséides), recorded while she was recovering from vocal cord surgery. It's a delight. Highly recommended. I cannot stop listening to it.
Plus she keeps getting featured on this blog written by some silly American fellow who discovered and fell in love with her music accidentally. Seriously. We've posted more Cœur de Pirate music here than any other artist thus far - this is the fifth post and I promise you there will be at least a 6th. I want to make sure I say that loud enough for the people in the back. A French-languange artist is making compelling, catchy music that transcends language barriers - again and again.
And today, I am launching a campaign to make this single, released May 28th, 2021, the 2021 Song of the Summer, in the United States. This is a catchy, mature, piano-synth heavy song that really deserves a lot of attention.
Whether I am successful or not, this song is MY Song of the Summer, because it is a delight.
I have made an awful lot of Doja Cat jokes in my day.
However, this is a clever and catchy song that brings a warm summer vibe, and, on this unofficial first day of summer, I felt it was a great choice.
In writing this post, I gained a lot of respect for Doja Cat. You see, when you have a big hit song, your record label is going to push you to perform it EVERYWHERE. Well, that's what RCA Records did to Doja Cat when it came to the 2020 MTV European Music Awards...
So, in response, she made a genre shift.... and it was really good.
I used to go to a lot of drug company dinners concerning drugs for multiple sclerosis. This is because it is something that impacts my life (I won't betray medical privacy by saying why, but if you know me personally, you know why).
I remember going to one in Webster, NY, hosted by Teva Pharmaceuticals - a drug called Copaxone, which was one of the first drugs developed to treat relapsing multiple sclerosis. The way these things work, a doctor talks about the drug and its efficacy for about a half hour, and then a patient taking the drugs comes up to tell their story.
On this particular day, the patient's name was Julie. They are TYPICALLY only identified by their first names. She came in singing a Barbara Mandrell song. I know you're wondering what song, but it isn't important. That was the first clue that we were in for something different.
Julie told a moving story about her life - about she dreamed of being a country music superstar, how she lost her home in a flood that also triggered an MS relapse (when she was trying to ignore having anything wrong), how she came to work for a record label (Mercury Nashville) as their receptionist and eventually was signed. And....
"My debut album, Julie Roberts - that's my name, Julie Roberts....."
At which point I immediately reached for my phone to 1) find the post on Totally Covered that Scott had posted to 2) make sure I remembered correctly that there was a picture of him with her 3) wrote to Scott on Twitter to basically tell him all of this. He told me to say hi for him after the talk.
Which I did. Amazingly, she not only remembered him, but the venue in which he saw her perform - without a prompt from me. She was exceedingly nice.
Julie's patient story was far and away the best I've ever heard - so detailed, so moving, and so engaging. I won't tell her whole story - but she is a working musician who happened to have multiple sclerosis.
And she is a musician, and this was her debut single from that album. It would be a top 20 country hit, with the album receiving a gold certification.
You might be wondering why I am posting this on a Sunday. Today is World MS Day. I encourage you to visit the National MS Society website and tell 'em we sent you. Donate, learn more. Help find a cure.
Now here's more Julie Roberts performing this song live in some elementary school auditorium.
Guys, Jane was my favorite Go-Go. Let's start there.
That's why I saved this song, her biggest solo hit - top 10 in the US, top 20 in the UK - for last.
Two things of note about this song:
1) The video is very dolphin-centric, which doesn't really have a lot to do with the lyrics. It's a great video, for sure. but..... dolphins.
2) Video of this song being performed live is incredibly rare. It's complex and tough to reproduce live..... which is why this video from a couple of years ago is such a treat, and required a large band.
A little bonus for you - two Go-Go's songs from the same performance. This includes Jane's third verse of "Our Lips Are Sealed" and the Charlotte Caffey-penned "We Got The Beat".
To support this great cover band that doesn't usually feature Jane Wiedlin, go to nitewaveparty.com
Either I open the week with Belinda Carlisle or I end with her.
Either I open the week with Kathy Valentine's band The Delphines, or I end with it.
Pretty clear which way I went.
Smack dab in the middle.
So enjoy The Delphines. They are led by Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Kathy Valentine. This was a great band in its own right - so great I won't even mention that other band she was a member of.
Belinda Carlisle's first solo release was this song. It peaked at #3 in the Untied States and was a hit worldwide. Featuring Andy Taylor from Duran Duran on guitar (yes, he's in the video), the video also features her husband - who she married three weeks before this song was released in 1985 (they're still together, people).
Jane Wiedlin and Charlotte Caffey of the Go-Go's sang bankground vocals on this song, and replacement Go-Go (for Jane Wiedlin!) Paula Jean Brown co-wrote the song, so any rumors about acrimony in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame-inducted band were not well-founded. In fact, this was almost a Go-Go's song - but when the band split, the song went to Belinda.
InB4 the hate mail I will get reminding me that House of Schock was a thing. I know. I grew up in the 1980s.
Former Go-Go Gina Schock is clearly not drumming here. No, no. She's singing and playing guitar. And she does a fine job - the song is enjoyable pop-rock - but the band - formed with Ellen's brother Vance DeGeneres - was clearly lacking in chemistry and record label support, so they were a one-album wonder.
Robert Pollard is perhaps the most prolific songwriter of all time. He's written few better than this song.
A clear workingman's anthem from the Dayton, OH band - that's the middle of the Rust Belt - it starts somewhat calm and controlled in the first verse, but Bob Pollard goes full on yell in the second verse, struggling to exceed the music that has also increased in volume, tempo and desperation. The third verse is a hypercompressed repeat in feel of verses one and two - with something of a greater desperation ending on a more somber note.
Live in Cincinatti in 2016, the contrast between verses is even more pronounced,
What really got me feeling the chills on this song, however, was this version billed as the demo. I heard a version the band recorded for the radio station KCRW, which is quite similar to this one. The desperate emotion in Pollard's voice really shines through with a slightly quieter mix.
This was Warren Zevon's last single. He wrote it after he realized he was dying. It was released on his last album, The Wind, two weeks before he passed away from mesothelioma, a form of lung cancer.
Think about mortality as you listen to it.
Despite being dead, Warren Zevon managed to appear on the Grammys in 2004. This is a very special tribute to the man, and you should see it. These artists - most of them legends in their own right - aren't singing a duet. They are singing backing vocals.
Let's be clear. The Marti Jones version, released in 1988, is absolutely a cover of Don Dixon's version. I am OPENLY posting a cover here, and not on Totally Covered.
However, Marti Jones brought a feel to her husband's song that was simply transcendent. It is a desperate, haunting song that I cannot get enough of, to this day. Also, this version adds a bridge, which absolutely adds to the mysterious appeal of this simple folk song.
Of course, this doesn't mean the Don Dixon version sucks. It's amazing. Here it is. It is a much simpler song in its arrangement - which is why it doesn't get top billing on this post.
It is "Songs That Are So Good They Give Tony Chills" Week,
We start with this 1958 single by the Everly Brothers. Written by famed country songwriter Boudleaux Bryant, who wrote a lot of Everly Brothers hit songs, it is a beautiful song of longing for the one you love. The harmonies of the brothers absolutely make the hairs on my arm stand on end.
The song was so good, it topped the pop charts for five weeks in 1958 AND returned to the charts in 1961. It also topped the R&B AND Country charts. Literally everyone loved this soulful, mournful song.
Throwing Muses, as I have stated elsewhere, is my favorite band ever. I've seen them live twice (1989, 1995) and neither time did they disappoint.
And if there was ever a post I had been dying to write, it was this one.
This song, from 1992's Red Heaven, is almost every Muses's fan's favorite song. It has been compared to "Stairway To Heaven", and I get that comparison - it's epic and pulls on a wide range of emotions. Essentially a fever dream, Kristin Hersh's vocals and unaccompanied opening guitar give me chills every time. In the middle, it moves to a very bass-and-drum heavy song
Live, the song has a slightly different feel, with Hersh on an electric instead of acoustic guitar... but Bernard Georges and David Narcizo still don't accompany her until nearly two minutes into the song, which opens a bombastic two and a half minutes before it becomes a soulful solo again. Simply beautiful, it is a song that you need to listen to until the end.
This, the first single from her new album Soberish, her first album in over a decade, is nuanced and layered and beautiful. Anyone who has been through divorce, or any breakup, can relate to the feeling of wanting to be alone and just hiding in the bathroom. This song illustrates that in such a artful way.
Contrast that with an also excellent, but less beautiful and more gritty, song from her 1993 debut album Exile In Guyville, and the Girlysound tapes before that. In 2016, she called this one of her favorite songs, and I agree. It's sad, and dark, but also jangly and hard not to relate to.
This song leans heavily on the beat from "Genius of Love" by the Tom Tom Club. Samples are a hallmark of hip hop music, and this entertaining song uses it well - changing the key on the sample ever so slightly.
This song, which went to #2 on the pop charts in 1997. would be British R&B singer Mark Morrison's only hit. Which is OK, since he is now a politician challenging to be the mayor of Leichester, in his native UK.
That famous guitar rift at the beginning of this 2003 song was the first part written by Jack White in 2002. The rest of the song flowed pretty easily after that. Jack plays both traditional and slide guitar on this song, as well as providing vocals. Meg White's drum beat keeps time.
But the song is more than that. It's an anthem at sporting events. It's a rallying cry for political rallies. It was a catalyst for a growing garage band movement, based on how incredibly sparse the song actually is - able to be played by a band of 2 or 3 people.
Of course, the White Stripes broke up in 2011, but we still have these songs and performances to remember them by. Take this show from 2005, in Brazil - proof positive that you can play this song with a band of 2.
Also, can we talk about how happy Meg looks on the drums?
We just can't stop the K-Pop. I feel like I short-change y'all last week because, well, Darling Buds Day, so I'm making up now.
MAMAMOO have been released really good music since 2014 - music that is both poppy and critically acclaimed. All four members have strong solo careers outside the group.. which, in K-Pop, isn't all that uncommon - but the level of success they've all had as solo artists is nearly unprecedented - all four of them have extensive solo discographies that rival the success of the group as a whole.
Still, the group stays together and makes excellent music. This single, from late 2020, is an example of that. Not only is it entertaining - it DIRECTLY addresses the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact it had (and, as of this writing, still has) on social life.
As is not uncommon in K-Pop, a Japanese version of the song was released in early 2021. I'd like to point out that this isn't just a redubbing - there are a lot of portions of this video that were recorded to reflect Japanese lipsync.
I was originally going to post this during the two weeks of K-Pop, but, you know, the Darling Buds annual celebration interrupted that. So, you get an extra day of K-Pop. Not like I don't have literally three months worth of solid K-Pop to post.....
And when I first saw aespa, I thought they looked a lot like BLACKPINK - but theirs is a unique sound.
aespa, however, doesn't need uppercase letters. This was their debut single, premiering in November 2020. It is an bass-heavy song that has become a worldwide hit.
The video definitely does NOT shy away from the snake imagery. The song itself is meant to explain the concept of aespa.....yes, there's a whole concept about avatars and experience.... you see, a lot of K-Pop is focused on performance and entertainment, and not the actual music.
However, this one's a banger, DESPITE the high concept. The four women in the group (I promise you there's only four) are clearly talented at singing, and the music here allows each of them to highlight their vocals.
How do artists clearly in two different countries collaborate in the middle of a pandemic?
Clearly, via Zoom.
Yes, they made an actual video for the song, but I wanted to show off the Zoom version first. However, even in this version, you notice that BLACKPINK is very much not in Selena Gomez's area, as their scenes were recorded in Korea, whereas Ms. Gomez filmed in the States.
The song was teased before its release, with BLACKPINK fans hoping the mystery collaborator not initially mentioned would be Ariana Grande. As it turns out, Grande was a co-writer of this song, but Selena Gomez was chosen to perform.
The song is nothing more than a huge double entendre, mostly in English, save for Lisa's Korean rap near the end. I mean, it was partly in Korean - not that it wasn't filled with double entendres. The song is BLACKPINK's biggest in the US to date, peaking at #13 on the Billboard Hot 100.
We interrupt this K-Pop bonanza to bring you the Darling Buds.
And thank God for the Darling Buds. They last year recorded an update to one of the tracks from their 2020 album, Erotica. Which, of course, was a really timely update.
They even recorded it in May, but too late for our 2020 Darling Buds Day. However, something tells me it's still going to be somewhat appropriate this year. At any rate, Andrea Lewis's dog steals the show here.
While I am writing a blog post, I tend to like to listen to the songs I'm writing about. Sometimes, I get into the writing and I let the song go to the next song. Usually, especially these couple of weeks, the next song is one I know well. As I wrote yesterday's post, the next song came on, and it was one I had not heard before.... nor did the artist sound familiar.
So, that isn't the typical way I get to posts for this blog. But Jessi is not your typical K-Pop artist.
Because she was born in Queens. In New York. The Korean-American rapper was raised in New Jersey until age 15, when she moved to South Korea in search of her music career. After early problems aclimating to the Korean culture, the hard-edged hip-hop artist has gained some momentum.
This song was released in March 2021 and is her latest single, cowritten by PSY. Yes. That PSY. I promise that wasn't planned.
HyunA is one of the grand dames of K-Pop. And, so we are clear, she turns 29 in June. So, she's got a lot of career ahead of her.
You see, she debuted long ago - in 2007, as a member of the Wonder Girls. Do the math, people. She was 14 when she joined them. She did leave that group and go on to 4Minute and a very successful solo career as well.
This song, released in January 2021, was co-written by HyunA, Dawn (from Pentagon and her boyfriend) and Psy. Yes, THAT Psy. It's fun and does poke fun at her long-standing image as something of a bad girl.
Clearly, without knowing anything else, you know this song owes a huge debt to the will.i.am song "I Got It From My Mama". What may surprise you, however, is that it was not only openly authorized, but will.i.am is a co-writer and co-producer of this 2015 single by the king of K-Pop.
Is there anything remarkable about TWICE when comparing them to other Korean girl idol groups?
No, not especially.
I mean, there's nine of them. That's pretty remarkable in and of itself.
This song is also pretty remarkable. On the surface, it seems pretty shallow - but really, it's about the struggles of maintaining a social media image. It is not unlike a future song we are going to post on here, "#Selfie" by The Chainsmokers, in that it is direct social commentary.
The video was filmed on location in Vancouver, BC, Canada.
The group has experienced some worldwide success, including strong support in North America. However, they are more successful in Japan, so they did record a Japanese version of this single.
You had to know, if you actually read this blog, that Marmello was making an appearance here. They are inevitable.
Why did we feature this song, though? There's two things about this that are unique in Korean pop music.
1) Instruments as opposed to a focus on performance and dancing.
2) Minor chords
This is just fun and happy po-rock music, different than anything else that was coming out of Korea in the mid-to-late 2010s. They disbanded in 2019, but I still hope for a comeback.
OK, people, we were going to obviously get to BTS. How could we not? Their harmonies are absolutely infectious.
You will notice over the next couple of weeks that we are talking in a lot of superlatives - biggest, best, first. We are also using words like "influenced by" or "a throwback to". And, a lot of those do apply here. This is the band's first all-English language song, and it is both their first #1 hit in the US and the first #1 hit by any all-South Korean group. It earned the band their first Grammy nomination.
But this song isn't influencED. It is influenTIAL. It is a fresh, modern pop hit. The country of origin doesn't matter. Other artists are now looking to South Korea for influence. This song is a great example of that.
I mentioned the Grammys. BTS performed this song at the 2021 Grammy Awards broadcast... and gave a hell of a performance.
You see, in 2009, this song entered the Billboard Hot 100 at number 76. Modern K-Pop fans take for granted that there will be South Korean artists on the pop charts. Here's the list of all the artists that were on the Billboard Hot 100 from South Korea before Wonder Girls:
1)
Oh. Wait. There weren't any.
NOT ONLY was this the FIRST South Korean song to be a US pop hit, it would go on to become the best selling physical single of 2009 (in an era when the physical single was dying a quick death). The song itself is a bit of a Motown throwback in its harmonies.
The version above is the one that hit the US charts. Of course they did a Korean version, and of course it was a hit in their home country.
Roseanne Park was born 11 February 1997.... in Auckland, New Zealand.
She lived in New Zealand, and then Australia, until she was 15, and she had an audition with YG Entertainment, the famed K-Pop label. Two weeks later, she was in Seoul, and she hasn't really looked back.
The way K-Pop works, when a label signs you, you usually train with them in singing and acting and dancing until you are ready to join a group. With Rosé , that happened four years later, in 2016, when she was paired with Jennie, Jisoo and Lisa - which the world knows better as BLACKPINK, who are likely in your area.
K-Pop groups often have a set beginning, middle, and end. I don't think BLACKPINK is done, and since the debut of Rosé as a solo artist happened AT a BLACKPINK concert, I think the group has a future.
That doesn't mean that Rosé isn't a great artist in her own right. Internationally, this song, released on 12 March, 2021, has been huge. Its debut on YouTube has been the largest ever by a South Korean solo artist - with nearly 42 million views in its first day. This song has so far peaked at #70 on the Billboard Hot 100, far higher than any other Korean female solo artist. Worldwide, it's done even better. Universally, this song is loved and respected.
Two things of note with this song.
1) The song is 100% in English. 100%. Since it's Rosé's first language, it makes sense that she would cross over and do that.
2) Her first single probably could have been light and fun pop music. This isn't.... and in fact, Rosé is listed as a co-writer of this deep and meaningful song.
I add this "live" performance to illustrate a piece of the K-pop machine that I don't really enjoy. There's several videos like this. Rosé CLEARLY wants to sing her song. She's fully capable of singing her song. The helper track is turned up so high she can't. When she can break through that track, you can hear the absolute passion in her voice.
Here she is on the Tonight Show. Pretty much the same performance. She doesn't break through as much.
Those familiar with the Spotify music platform know that they automatically create a number of daily mixes of music for subscribers. Usually, they are broken out by genre - electronic, rock, folk, indie.
Since #MapleLeafMarch, one of my lists has been consistently French-languange pop music. I have no idea why. I haven't been terribly upset about it, though, because it has reintroduced me to one of my favorite French artists and Lily-Rose Depp's mom, Vanessa Paradis.
This song, from her 1990 album Variations sur le même t'aime, never released in the States as far as I can tell, was one of the biggest hits of her career - not "Joe Le Taxi" big, mind you, but pretty big. With its sultry, bluesy pop and Vanessa's voice belting out with passion, it's not hard to understand why it was such a hit. But it was more than that. It was a move to a more mature sound - a sound that would continue throughout her career.
I don't want to give the impression that her career is over. It isn't. Here she is in December 2019, performing the hell out of this song, live.
Ice-T's story is that he was a badass gang member before he cleaned up and turned to music, and then to the Manhattan SVU.
In this song, he's clearly pushing something that isn't drugs - which is why we didn't post this song on Tuesday, frankly. It's a great song that gets lost in some of his harder, flashier stuff, but this is a reminder of how positive an influence on hip-hop Ice-T really was.... and is.
In 1981, there were not many all-woman rock groups playing their instruments and making music like this. Los Angeles had two prominent ones. This was one of them.
So when these five women burst onto the scene with a song one of them (guitarist and backup vocalist Jane Wiedlin) co-wrote with Terry Hall from The Specials, it was something of a big deal. Despite their short tenure (they officially broke up in 1985, after only forming in 1978), they remain one of the most successful female rock bands of all time (the Rock and Roll Hall of Fall calls them "the most successful" but I'm not sure that's true), and they still reform and play together from time to time.
This song is a tour de force, a phenomenon in its own right. It was a top 20 hit in 1981 in the US, and a top 5 hit around the world.
Remember what I said about them reforming? Here they are in 2001. I always loved that Jane Wiedlin sang that bridge, and here, she absolutely BELTS the end of it.
Incidentally, that verse you don't recognize in the middle that Belinda Carlisle shoves in was part of the original composition. This is the full version.
This was the first single from Dr. Dre's 1992 debut solo album, The Chronic. It also introduced the world to Snoop Dogg, famed marijuana customer.
Warren G is pretty openly smoking a blunt in this video.
Soooooooo, that's why we're posting this today. It's also a song that combines the "I'm the best MC" vibe of 80's hip hop with the in-your-face style of N.W.A. brilliantly. The public responded, too - it made it all the way to #2 on the POP charts.
Contrary to popular belief, Billy Squier is not dead. In fact, he's still making music. None of his new music has the same impact as "The Stroke", which is an absolute classic song. And the fact that he's still around is not the only thing that goes against popular belief.
This song is absolutely not about masturbation. Of course, everyone thinks it is, but the reality is, it is about the music industry and how artists need to sell out to make it. Ironically, the song became a top 20 hit, probably because everyone thought it was about masturbation.
Regardless of the subject matter, it's a great song. Breathe it in.
POWERS is a band that has not gotten a ton of attention. I hope to change that today.
Their Wikipedia page is very sparse, but here's what I have been able to find out about the band:
1) Their two principle members, Mike Del Rio and Crista Ru, started off as songwriters for other artists, and they have a number of Wicked Guilty Pleasures to their credit.
2) The duo got their big break when they appeared on a single with The Knocks - we'll have to feature that here sometime, but today, I wanted to give them their due.
3) Their music has been described in many multi-adjective ways. I won't add to that pile. I will say that a male/female vocal duo that shares the duties so evenly and so well is rare, refreshing, and energetic.
