"The future is electro, female and DIY"

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/dec/17/electro-pop-female-artists

AKA the Guardian has another pop at predicting the pop revival.

That said I like all the acts mentioned who I've actually heard. Perhaps this is the Real Thing!!!

Comments

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the Sound of 2009 longlist made this fairly clear. I kind of hate all these acts - surprising given my propensity for electro and for female artists - but it all sounds so amateurish. So many mannerisms, so little substance. (And it's much too self-conscious to be any fun.)

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I can see the DIY bit trumping the "female" and "electro" bits for you!

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

UGH yes, I don't have anything against acts who do things all themselves but flagging it up so much in your music (mostly by making things sound shit) is obnoxious and annoying.

None of these women have the slightest idea how to construct a groove OR a song, either.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

There I'd disagree - "Stuck On Repeat" works as both, "Quicksand" works as song.

What did you think of White Town?

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

The 'Stuck On Repeat' groove is basically 'I Feel Love'! Though I don't mind Little Boots really (pending hearing any more songs by her). Don't think 'Quicksand' is well-constructed at all - the melody is really rudimentary (and not that catchy) but there's nothing to latch on to lyrically.

'Your Woman' was OK I guess? Like, 7/10 if I was generous? I get the point of comparison but it wasn't all look-at-me about its DIY-ness or weirdness, it was just nicely understated if not all that special. Mostly saved by really good lyrics!

Really, going by La Roux and Florence & The Machine especially, the new trend is "Misunderstanding Kate Bush". I bet they all idolise her...for her "wackiness".

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I don't think there's a party-line Right Way To Appreciate Kate Bush, Lex!

Take your point about the Stuck On Repeat groove but nobody ever went aesthetically broke nicking "I Feel Love".

White Town may not have emphasised it in the song (though there was definitely a lo-fi vibe about it) but the promotion was totally look-at-me-I'm-DIY. La Roux has that same feel about her, but I still like "Quicksand" a lot, her shriekiness appeals wherever she's getting it from.

[friend-of-tofu.livejournal.com]

White Town may not have emphasised it in the song (though there was definitely a lo-fi vibe about it) but the promotion was totally look-at-me-I'm-DIY.

Agreed, particularly with the B-Sides. (Hell, release named for a PC error? Of course!) And I say this as someone who really liked that single.

[koganbot]

nobody ever went aesthetically broke nicking "I Feel Love"

I love Divine's version of "Walk Like A Man." But when I put it on a Why Music Sucks blindfold test it got nothing but derision.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Taking only the surface weirdness from Kate Bush's work seems woefully reductive though (and it doesn't do justice at all to Kate's talents).

La Roux's voice really irritates me - I don't dislike shriekiness as a rule but there seems so little POINT to what she's doing. The song doesn't move me because it's not about anything, it doesn't make me dance because it's so stilted, it's just not a very interesting song - but all of this is at odds with her statements and the imagery she uses and the mannerisms she employs, she couldn't be keener for us to note how interesting and arty she is. But she's just...not.

This is re: Lady Gaga more, but this Tim F post (http://www.ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?boardid=41&threadid=65133) sums up where I feel this aesthetic goes wrong.

(And evn though I like 'Your Woman' I don't think it's a song which should be a blueprint for anyone. Its appeal is more of a one-off - it works despite itself.)

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I wish there was some kind of secret RSS feed for actually good ILX threads! I like Tim's taxonomy a lot.

La Roux' stiltedness kind of reminds me of Soft Cell's stiltedness (i.e. it's a 'good', jagged elbows stiltedness). I think it's almost impossible to come off as 'edgy' these days tho, and she's a mug for trying - Soft Cell had it easier.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I just heard "Just Dance" for the first time - it's OK, nothing more really. It suggests that there is a male elephant in this article's room and its name is CALVIN HARRIS.

Anyway you're right in that the test of DIY is whether the songs it produces are as strong or exciting as the dance-pop ones produced via non-DIY: in the case of GaGa I'm not convinced yet.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah have you heard Frankmusik yet? I wouldn't recommend it. He's even more like the new Calvin Harris.

Luckily I don't particularly like her music, but calling herself Lady Gaga was an immediate and irredeemable black mark against her.

Dan Black and Florence & The Machine are the current nadirs of this little scene - surely it can't get worse than that.

[friend-of-tofu.livejournal.com]

Oh gods, F&TM! "Hit With A Kiss" is just dreadful! That "Dog Days" [?] one is better, but nothing to write home about. I can't figure out their appeal, and I really don't get why she keeps getting compared to Kate Bush.

I hadn't actually come across Dan Black, so thank you for that. Just took a gander at YouTube and "Yours" and, yeah, boring. Reminds me of my brother's obsession with also-tedious funk band Kings X about 10 years ago...

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Dan Black's other "signature" "tune" is a cover of Biggie's 'Hypnotize' in which he basically sings (very badly) the lyrics while an 'Umbrella' instrumental plays tinnily in the background. It is the most repulsive piece of music I have EVER HEARD. It is even worse with the video!

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

hahahaha, Kings X! isn't it? wasn't it?

they were funk METAL though, shurely? they used to be in RAW all the time...

[koganbot]

Odd thing is that on "Just Dance" GaGa takes a basic disco sound from way way back and roughens it up in a rock way to make it edgy, thereby making it worse. But unlike you I think it's a terrific song, very well constructed (actual songcraft, riffs, memorable chorus). It's the the song that carries her, not vice versa. And though she makes a valiant effort, she fails to ruin it, even with her godawful horrible rap in the middle. I have yet to listen to anything else she's made. I have a bad feeling about it.

I liked the Ladyhawke track that charted in Britain this week. Thought you did too. Seems way more pop-goth than electro, however, no matter what its instrumentation. Song is well-constructed.

If someone's going to write about this stuff, wouldn't the success of "Paper Planes" and "L.E.S. Artistes" be relevant? Also Basshunter, but he's got a penis and therefore clearly he doesn't fit the trend. Have I mentioned that I hate trend pieces?(And why wouldn't Wiley etc. be relevant to what's supposedly replacing guitar bands on the charts?)

You need to watch the beginning of the Miss Universe swimsuit competition for some of the most charmingly inept dancing ever - not GaGa's, which isn't charming, but the contestants getting into it in the background, especially Miss Norway at 1:15.

[koganbot]

Yes, listening to Ladyhawke's "My Delirium" it's definitely got a rock guitar and rock drums; the instrumentation is very '80s DOR (for you young'uns, this means "dance-oriented rock"), the mixture of rock and pop and synth. I really don't get why Ladyhawke is considered part of this trend, other than that she uses synth riffs. I mean, I don't see how this is different in kind from Kim Carnes' 1981 version of "Bette Davis Eyes" except that "My Delirium" is more gothily draggy (in a way that works because the tune flowers from within the dragginess and makes it something other than draggy).

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

there's always been a dance element to our music ;)

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Did you see the Tim F thread on Lady Gaga on ILM? (Linked in reply to Tom's comments.) Sums up my problems with her fairly well.

Yeah Ladyhawke surprised me - she'll get lumped in with these acts b/c she's a hyped solo female, but stylistically she seems to have little to do with them - doesn't seem at all concerned with being "wacky", indeed doesn't seem concerned with much beyond how much she loves Stevie Nicks. Am going to give her album a try - am guessing it'll stand or fall on how much individuality she brings to her songwriting (though she has a head start on the likes of La Roux in that she seems to care about songwriting in the first place).

Agree that the critical success of MIA and Santogold definitely figures into the growth of this aesthetic - again less for what they said than their mannerisms - but closer to home, I have a feeling Kate Nash is more to blame. (Maybe they saw how successful she'd become while completely unencumbered by any sort of talent at all.)

[friend-of-tofu.livejournal.com]

Oh good thread, thank you.

Conversely, Lady GaGa's "i'm interesting and arty" angle relies totally on her post-facto justification of it, there's nothing in her music or performances that would point to it. What's the opposite of the the Trojan Horse? The Emperor With No Clothes.

*nods*

TBH, I hadn't really thought of MIA or Santogold as especially mannered, which could mean that other people have a very different view of their attributes than I do, or that I'm so mired in mannerism that I can't see the wood for the trees! On 'quirky', though, I'm with freakytrigger - ick.

[friend-of-tofu.livejournal.com]

Obv mistype for freakytigger there, sorry.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I think they have mannerisms but they also have a lot more going on as well as the mannerisms (and in both cases the mannerisms serve the other stuff).

[koganbot]

I still haven't made my way back to ILM except for Rolling Country. Obv, I feel wary of and uninspired by the place, but probably I need to look at it more, since poptimists has been fading. Don't know how I'll make the time, though, since I don't want to pay attention only to music. Tim's still being there makes ILM worth looking at, I guess.

Abstracting "Just Dance" from its role in a supposed trend or aesthetic, it's produced and co-written by the guy who did Kat DeLuna's "Whine Up" and stuff for Darin and the revived New Kids On The Block and the recreated Menudo etc., which is to say dance pop all the way. And dance pop songs are hitting all the time in Europe and Britain, though in the U.S. they have to compete against r&b and pop rock (and as I said, I think they roughened up "Let's Dance" to make it more "rock"). So the average listener (which in this case is me) isn't going to go "OMG, here is something new" or identify it with any trend beyond "pop." So my guess is that if this stuff (and are we actually talking about anyone more than La Roux and Lady GaGa?) is to be an actual chart trend it'll have to come through with the popcraft. In any event, its commercial rise and indie rock's supposed decline are unrelated, from what I can tell. (This is now me just grousing about the article. Have I mentioned that I hate trend pieces?)

[koganbot]

OK, read the Tim F post. Agree with this of course (written by I'm not sure whom): "Lady GaGa's 'i'm interesting and arty' angle relies totally on her post-facto justification of it, there's nothing in her music or performances that would point to it"

But Tim loses me completely when he talks about "vacuousness." I realize he doesn't mean it as an insult, but nonetheless it's false if you take him literally - i.e., that if songs or performers have no capital-S Significance then they have no content - but I don't know what else he means by it. If Britney's voice is vacuous, then so is Jolson's and Sinatra's and Presley's and Jagger's. And if dance pop means nothing to Tim - well, obviously that's not true, dance pop means a lot to Tim. Maybe I should give the post a more concentrated reading, since he proposes all these different subvariants, but he seems to be short-circuiting his ideas by letting a single word do too much of his thinking for him.

[friend-of-tofu.livejournal.com]

So many mannerisms, so little substance.

For someone who generally appreciates mannerisms in music, I have to say I agree with you there.