Songs and Production

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

What draws you more into a track you enjoy? The song - the melody, words - or what's done to it - hooky noises, production tricks, disruptions? And where does the performance fit in?

This may seem like a really unsupportable binary but it's one which has a certain amount of traction in the word outside Poptimists and maybe even some within it.

For instance many reviews of the Britney album seem generally to be treating it as - for better or worse - a record which stands and falls on its production rather than the songs or performance (and are explicitly making that distinction). And the reason *I* like the Britney album I think is the way the production seems to be making war on the songs, never totally winning but never letting them get out unscathed either.

For another example of what I'm fumbling towards, look at the two latest Girls Aloud singles. "Call The Shots" and "Sexy! No No No..." seem to work in quite different ways - the former resting on its melody and 'songcraft', the latter on the impact of its production. (You may of course completely disagree).

I feel this entry is very clumsy - sorry - but I think there's a conversation worth having here!

Comments

Re: HIS BARKING MATERIALS

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

As phrased tho, that concept album sounds kinda sterile and inward-looking - which I know it isn't or needn't be, but how to find/express the links between that and the listener's life rather than the pop-maker's one?

ts: quadrophenia vs xenomania

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

the listener is also a pop-maker! an (old-skool) opera is not well able to explore the stage-rushing audience as they "become" the auteurs (not those auteurs)*; but the current shape of the relationship between star and audience, and between (cowelloid) svengali-producer and malleable but utterly hungry wannabe, is i think WAY more contested and contestable

*(in fact the problem with quadrophenia AS an opera abt this is that it has to confuse the MODFAN'S rejection of his idols with his ARRIVAL at ARTISTIC CONTROL AND MATURITY: ie by hatin on sting phil daniels BECOMES pete townshend) (which doesn't fly -- it's another version of the punk-rock contradiction i think)

Re: ts: quadrophenia vs xenomania

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

have you heard 'Make Me A Song' by Kiley Dean? it sounds like EXACTLY what you describe:

[Timbaland]
What you hear is not a test
Wha wha wha wha wha

[Kiley Dean]
I'm on a mission
Sun is out
My skin is glistenin'
Got my jeans on
Tank top, chillin'
With my girlfriends
Looking fabulous
My tan is just amazin'
Turn it up
That song is blazin'
(Call Me) [this is an interpolation of 'Call Me' by Tweet!]
I'm headed to LA and
Gotta make sure I ask Timbaland

Can you give me a song like Rock The Boat, Rock The Boat, Rock The Boat
Can you give me a song that you and Missy wrote, Missy wrote, Missy wrote
Somethin' like Get Ur Freak On
Cause Kiley needs something to sing on
Make me something I can get my groove on
Somethin' I can get my groove on

3 o'clock at the studio
Timbaland is playin' Hootnanny kinda low [interpolation of Bubba Sparxxx!]
Felt the love in the room
Soon as I hit the door
Bubba's pacin' around gettin' ready to flow
Tim is in the corner doin' a track
Bobbin' his head
I know he's feelin' that
Take his headphones off
And he looks my way
And he asks me what I wanna do
And I say

Can you give me a song like Rock The Boat, Rock The Boat, Rock The Boat
Can you give me a song that you and Missy wrote, Missy wrote, Missy wrote
Somethin' like Get Ur Freak On
Cause Kiley needs something to sing on
Make me something I can get my groove on
Somethin' I can get my groove on

And then he asked if I liked this [Timbaland beat]
Oh do you like this [Timbaland beat]
But do you like this [Timabland beat]
And then he flipped it
And then we start to move
We're gettin' in the groove
He says it's just for you
And I'm glad I asked

Can you give me a song like Rock The Boat, Rock The Boat, Rock The Boat
Can you give me a song that you and Missy wrote, Missy wrote, Missy wrote
Somethin' like Get Ur Freak On
Cause Kiley needs something to sing on
Make me something I can get my groove on
Somethin' I can get my groove on

[Timbaland]
I think I got somethin' for you
I think I got somethin' for you
I think I got somethin' for you

twist in the tale = Timbaland did not write 'Rock The Boat'!

Re: ts: quadrophenia vs xenomania

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

'Timbaland did not write 'Rock The Boat''

An excellent comment by Kiley on the misleading ubiquity of RnB producers tho. See also loads of people thinking that Dr Dre produced 'Addictive' and The Neptunes getting credited to stuff that wasn't them but was clearly inspired by them. Perhaps.