Remember yesterday when we talked about Bella Poarch lipsyncing to grime?
Turns out she has a music career herself. This was her debut single, from 2021 - and it's really good. That's not just me saying that. That's critics, who praised its body positivity message.
The video is some sort of a twisted take on Build-A-Bear workshop, where men could come and pick out the parts on women they might want - which, of course, is the point of the song (love yourself, you can't build a.... well, you can read the title).
So, a lot of you have seen this little viral TikTok video that came out a couple years ago. I know a lot of you have seen it, because it is the most viewed video on TikTok.
Sixty million likes for a little head bobbing. What did I do wrong in my life?
As it turns out, this was part of a series of lip sync videos released by TikTok star Bella Poarch, and this one just took off. The story behind the song is a bit unexpected, though.
You see, Millie B was a 16 year old kid from Blackpool who inserted herself in the grime scene - which was (is) all about freestyle, with a focus on diss tracks. That's right - this song is a complete and total diss track, and if you look at the title of this post - I used the original title and not what it's popularly called on TikTok - it's directed at the queen of the Blackpool grime scene, Sophie Aspin.
You know, to get that information, I had to listen to a lot of grime. Some of it is awful. Some of these artists - including Millie B and, frankly, Sophie Aspin - are really really good. And, let's be clear - none of these children talking about "shitte head" are at all serious (Aspin and Millie B have collaborated on tracks after this was released).
It's the holiday season, which means it's time for a significant uptick in perfume ads. So, how you you sell something that smells in a visual medium that doesn't have an odor component?
In the case of Marc Jacobs, when selling the perfume Daisy (as in "fresh as a"), this is what they chose (for a 2019 commercial that seems to be getting a lot of airplay this year). .
Creepy, right?
However terrifying I found this commercial, I found the music underneath compelling. So, I had to do some digging, and found that it was a remix of the the song "Cheree" by the band Suicide. From 1978, the synth-heavy oft-covered song is considered "important" and influential, but isn't necessarily a song that was a hit. Still, we'll take interesting.
Here's the remix they used in the commercial, by the way:
By 2002, it was starting to not be so taboo for a woman to talk about sex in such an explicit manner.... but it was still a big deal for this song to hit #2 on the POP charts (for 10 weeks, which is a record, by the way).... which means it was getting a lot of radio airplay for a sexually explicit song....which Missy Elliott hid with sound effects (the elephant trumpeting, for example), but everyone knew what she was saying.
But this song isn't just a bold sexual triumph. It features some old school samples ("Peter Piper", "Request Line") as well as other classic songs ("Heart of Glass").
And, let's be honest - we know why you're here. It's not for Missy's badonkadonk. It's the line "Ti esrever dna ti pilf nwod gnaht ym tup i." Guys, she's not talking backwards. It's backmasked. And it sounds really cool, doesn't it?
Whereas a lot of artists wouldn't have the guts to perform such a heavily produced song live, Missy Elliott did... many times. Of note is her 2003 American Music Awards appearance, which turned it into a call-and-answer and featured a male artist doing her backmasking for her.
For now, let's feature the 1984 Cars hit song, sung by bassist Benjamin Orr and written by Ric Ocasek. The video was produced by Timothy Hutton (the actor) and features supermodel Paulina Porizkova, who would later become Ocasek's wife.
Orr sang the song beautifully, giving a heartfelt and moving rendition of the tune. He was clearly the right choice, and the American public agreed, as this became a rather big hit for the band.
Perhaps the song is best known for its Live Aid performance - which is spectacular.
How did INXS become an afterthought on the US charts? The answer may surprise you.
This 1993 single, the lead one from their album Full Moon Dirty Hearts, featured a video that MTV would not air, because it had "controversial images" - specifically Gulf War images, something that was still pretty fresh in the American psyche.
It was, and is, still a great and exciting song. It is a true shame that it was ignored to the extent that it was.
Even though Michael Hutchence passed away in 1997, he still have time to give spirited live performances of this song. Here is the band, performing the song to an excited crowd in 1994.
This joke, co-written by and primarily performed by reality show dating star Flavor Flav, is about the paramedic response in predominantly black neighborhoods. It is not about police response - only paramedic/ambulance response.
I think a lot of people look at Flavor Flav is a joke because, well, the clocks, Flavor of Love's three seasons. Come on, man - just pick New York. However, he wrote and performed poignant songs like this one - and delivered the hard messages with a side of humor. It's somewhat brilliant, really.
