Music as conversation

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

New Pitchfork column by me on answer records, fan fiction, music as conversation... thanks to piratemoggy for her help putting this one together!

http://pitchfork.com/features/poptimist/7635-poptimist-21/

Comments

[cis.livejournal.com]

Beyoncé, that mistress of the in-song situation, needs a Greek chorus of R'n'B nobodies to step up and vainly say their piece. "A ring? Get real." "Babe, you will never replace me."

does "Comfortable" by Lil' Wayne count as an "Irreplaceable" answer record, I wonder?

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

I wrote about how the second half of The-Dream's new album is a complex "answer" of sorts to Beyonce's "Single Ladies" here (http://cureforbedbugs.tumblr.com/post/84889393/whats-the-deal-with-the-3-year-curse). Frank suggested (I think) that it's also an echo/answer to Lou Reed's Berlin which I think I actually own but have not listened to since I bought it. Still need to do my homework :(

Maybe Britney should sing it

[koganbot]

The production/arrangement of Berlin is a botch, which means that I've spent vastly more times singing these songs than listening to Lou sing 'em. I used to sit down strumming and just go straight through "How Do You Think It Feels" ("to always make love by proxy"), "Oh Jim" ("all your two-bit friends they're shooting you up with pills"), "Caroline Says II" ("Caroline says, as she gets up off the floor/you can hit me all you want to, but I don't love you anymore"), and "The Kids" ("they're taking her children away/because they said she was not a good mother").

Re: Maybe Britney should sing it

[koganbot]

(I have no idea if The-Dream ever heard Berlin; just that his various confused and wildly ambivalent mixed-up mixed emotions remind me of Berlin.)

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

it absolutely does! i mean, answering 'irreplaceable' is the entire basis of the song: "to the left, to the left / if you wanna leave, be my guest, you can step / feelin' irreplaceable, listenin' to beyoncé / but ok, i'll put you out on your b'day"

and then obv we lead into trina jacking one of wayne's songs and saying "he's a beast, he's a dog, he's a to-the-left problem", which fits into the whole narrative of trina/wayne answer records over the past couple of years. wheels within wheels