It takes a brave person to agree with Mum without being ordered to do. Especially if Mum belongs to the 70s and has questionable tastes.
I think I used the love affair between Mum and the Swedish quartet to develop what I hoped would be biting sarcasm to hold me in good stead in my growing years.
I got pretty good at the eye roll and the eye roll while simultaneously saying Lay-ame.
But I couldn't for one moment effectively hide the evident song in my heart (hyperbole alert) when ABBA came on.
Even that ridiculous Pierce Brosnan - Meryl Streep film had me all confused. Did I like it?
I've learnt to make excuses for any ABBA love, one of the best ones being that I'm not the only one. (Heard the one about how ABBA were one big Swedish mind-control exercise?)
With the benefit of hindsight, we can say that ABBA were so simplistic with their tunes - catchy, we say - so flashy with their persona, that their songs have survived better than others.
This survival has only been aided by that their songs, rife with double meaning (unintentionally I believe), to be appropriated by LGBT community who, (I wish I could find the link for this essay) saw a measure of equality in these songs and have been keeping them alive, so to speak.
So bonus: the "gayest song ever"
Showing posts with label Pop culture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pop culture. Show all posts
Friday, 9 July 2010
Thursday, 10 June 2010
Day 9: a song I can dance to
Alternate title: Why I love Lady Gaga
I haven't stepped onto a dance floor in the last two years without having this song playing.
It's a great song to make up awkward dance steps for as you go along. (Those are the best kind, no?) And I have nothing but the fondest of memories of friends in different states of sobriety doing so.
But there's so much more to this song, and indeed to Lady Gaga as a contemporary artist.
I'm a huge fan of Gaga, and I have nothing but respect for her as an artist, because I think she's one of the few mainstream artist doing it smart and doing it right.
Most importantly, Lady Gaga's songs, are perfect examples of music - I'd call it an art form - that has made way for shared experiences and has inspired further creativity.
Many of those who've contributed to her over one billion views on YouTube and put two of her songs in the top 10 iTunes downloads until February 2010 - and these are only two of the innumerable music outlets today - have gone on to do creative things (amazing/ odd/ funny) on their own.
Like these guys:
Or this really cool video+cover by The Morning Pages
Or any of these ones for that matter. Make up videos, karaoke, credible covers, tributes to friends, just a bit of fun - but all about people creating shared experiences with the song.
Loads of people seem to love dancing to Gaga. Just like I did with my friends.
I also think that her sexually ambiguous and arty videos which tell weirdly fascinating stories, stripped down+over the top live performances and of course, her Madonna 2.0 bras, make her an extremely talented, passionate and astute artist, perfectly suited for multiple media platforms.
But that's for another day, another argument.
I haven't stepped onto a dance floor in the last two years without having this song playing.
It's a great song to make up awkward dance steps for as you go along. (Those are the best kind, no?) And I have nothing but the fondest of memories of friends in different states of sobriety doing so.
But there's so much more to this song, and indeed to Lady Gaga as a contemporary artist.
I'm a huge fan of Gaga, and I have nothing but respect for her as an artist, because I think she's one of the few mainstream artist doing it smart and doing it right.
Most importantly, Lady Gaga's songs, are perfect examples of music - I'd call it an art form - that has made way for shared experiences and has inspired further creativity.
Many of those who've contributed to her over one billion views on YouTube and put two of her songs in the top 10 iTunes downloads until February 2010 - and these are only two of the innumerable music outlets today - have gone on to do creative things (amazing/ odd/ funny) on their own.
Like these guys:
Or this really cool video+cover by The Morning Pages
Or any of these ones for that matter. Make up videos, karaoke, credible covers, tributes to friends, just a bit of fun - but all about people creating shared experiences with the song.
Loads of people seem to love dancing to Gaga. Just like I did with my friends.
I also think that her sexually ambiguous and arty videos which tell weirdly fascinating stories, stripped down+over the top live performances and of course, her Madonna 2.0 bras, make her an extremely talented, passionate and astute artist, perfectly suited for multiple media platforms.
But that's for another day, another argument.
Saturday, 7 November 2009
Live Music (Coming soon to a cinema near you)
Last week, I watched This is It. While the MJ plaudits may be taken for granted, this post is not about the genius that Michael Jackson was.
It’s about how much I enjoyed the experience of watching a ‘concert’ on a large screen, eating popcorn and having the music sound better than ever before.
I love my music, and I know my music largely as a result of exposure to both licensed and unlicensed digital music.
For years now, sections of the music industry have been lamenting the loss of revenue caused by illegal music downloads. At the same time, even two years ago, reports estimated that live music revenue would overtake recorded music sales.
People like me, lucky enough to have heard of bands from the other side of the world, bands that MTV or commercial radio wouldn’t even sniff, would happily pay (or consider paying – I’m pretty sure I can’t afford U2 on most days) to see someone worth more than manufactured pop on little plastic disks.
Unfortunately though, with only practically retired rockstars (Mr. Big? Seriously?) coming to my town, I think I’d jump at the opportunity to hear my favourite music ‘live’.
Live music from the other side of the world
On November 25, fans from 16 countries tuned in to watch U2 live on YouTube. The rock group was playing to an audience of 10,000 at Pasadena, California, but 10 million online viewers were part of the show at the same time as well.
A recent Wired report talks about the increasing popularity of such live music webcasts, with players like Billboard, Sony and MySpace organising live online shows.
The report goes on to suggest how these shows, while being remarkable examples of an industry finally adopting new marketing practices, would be that much more memorable as experiences when being watched in a cinema, in a crowd, rather than as a thing between just you and your PC.
I’d fully agree.
I like Michael Jackson because he sounds good, even on my laptop speakers. I don’t need to elucidate on how amazing it was to be able to listen to his songs in surround sound. Add to it the excitement of watching what was technically a lavish stage performance, and I’d say it was Definitely Worth It.
Why can’t we have more of that?
If acts still dream of being rockstars, I’d say this is as close as they’ll get.
Of course, in no way can a show watched in the cinemas take the place of the real concert experience – of watching the bands up close, with maybe more than a little jostling, of being part of a 10,000 plus crowd.
But this could be a way for an industry to adapt, a way for audiences to acknowledge creativity and talent, and large groups to be part of a process of culture building, based around shared experiences.
It’s like when the movies started and going to the cinemas was a real event. Live concerts in cinemas could well be the beginning of a new form of entertainment, and a lucrative one at that. I'm in.
Image courtesy p4nc0np4n aka Victor.
It’s about how much I enjoyed the experience of watching a ‘concert’ on a large screen, eating popcorn and having the music sound better than ever before.
For years now, sections of the music industry have been lamenting the loss of revenue caused by illegal music downloads. At the same time, even two years ago, reports estimated that live music revenue would overtake recorded music sales.
People like me, lucky enough to have heard of bands from the other side of the world, bands that MTV or commercial radio wouldn’t even sniff, would happily pay (or consider paying – I’m pretty sure I can’t afford U2 on most days) to see someone worth more than manufactured pop on little plastic disks.
Unfortunately though, with only practically retired rockstars (Mr. Big? Seriously?) coming to my town, I think I’d jump at the opportunity to hear my favourite music ‘live’.
Live music from the other side of the world
On November 25, fans from 16 countries tuned in to watch U2 live on YouTube. The rock group was playing to an audience of 10,000 at Pasadena, California, but 10 million online viewers were part of the show at the same time as well.
A recent Wired report talks about the increasing popularity of such live music webcasts, with players like Billboard, Sony and MySpace organising live online shows.
The report goes on to suggest how these shows, while being remarkable examples of an industry finally adopting new marketing practices, would be that much more memorable as experiences when being watched in a cinema, in a crowd, rather than as a thing between just you and your PC.
I’d fully agree.
I like Michael Jackson because he sounds good, even on my laptop speakers. I don’t need to elucidate on how amazing it was to be able to listen to his songs in surround sound. Add to it the excitement of watching what was technically a lavish stage performance, and I’d say it was Definitely Worth It.
Why can’t we have more of that?
If acts still dream of being rockstars, I’d say this is as close as they’ll get.
Of course, in no way can a show watched in the cinemas take the place of the real concert experience – of watching the bands up close, with maybe more than a little jostling, of being part of a 10,000 plus crowd.
But this could be a way for an industry to adapt, a way for audiences to acknowledge creativity and talent, and large groups to be part of a process of culture building, based around shared experiences.
It’s like when the movies started and going to the cinemas was a real event. Live concerts in cinemas could well be the beginning of a new form of entertainment, and a lucrative one at that. I'm in.
Image courtesy p4nc0np4n aka Victor.
Sunday, 22 March 2009
Princess Lessons
It ought to be my dirty little secret, but I owe these books too much to hide the truth.
I love the Princess Diaries. All ten of them.
I'm quite certainly too old to be in the demographic that the books target, but I remain a sucker for happy endings and I credit them immensely for their significant contribution towards my social and emotional development.
Why deny it - I've learnt more about myself, my friends, and everything that goes with being part of the cell phone, iPod, pop-culture, consumerist generation, from TPD.
Other books have real conflict. The heroes and the heroines have real problems - war, poverty, no family, evil witches.
It's all very well that that's inspiring, but that doesn't really help me in my cushioned existence now, does it?
Just because I have nothing but love, friendship and comfort at every step, doesn't mean I'm going to give up on having some drama in my life.
Me and Mia, we like the drama.
It's my right to have problems. Loads of them. Nobody has problems bigger than mine and I'm convinced that my world will end.
So it's an extremely grounding experience to be reminded in rather amusing literary style (full of smart contemporary pop-cultural references that have for too long been denied the recognition deserved in fiction) that none of my problems are problems at all.
That every nobody-understand-me or nobody-cares-about-me situation is a been-there-done-that-so-get-over-it for every other formerly self-pitying teenager (and 20-something to be fair).
That happily-ever-after is only what I make of it. And hence, there's still hope for happily-ever-after. After-all, everyone needs the fuzzy feeling of a happy ending :)
Saturday, 10 November 2007
U/A
I was so caught up in figuring out why Mir Ranjan Negi would want to have anything to do with Reality Dance shows with as much melodrama as the primetime soaps they've dethroned, that I failed to notice the dangerous effect he was having on my folks. Dad's so inspired by the compliments heaped upon the man week after week despite an evident lack of dancing skills that he now considers it within norms of acceptability to dance in public again.
I knew I shouldn't have let Mum n Dad watch the same stuff on TV as me.
I knew I shouldn't have let Mum n Dad watch the same stuff on TV as me.
Sunday, 20 May 2007
Long Live!
8 out of 10 people in the Cool* People list find their names on the list only because they Burned Out, not Faded Away.
I could invoke poster-boy for irrefutable iconic falls and tragic loss of Cool, Wacko Jacko and no more, and comfortably rest my case.
I could say Britney. But that would be overkill.
But think Elvis. If he hadn’t … you know … he’d have been old and fat and doped and selling himself silly while on the fast track to bankruptcy. Now he gets to be God, the King and the second richest dead person.
Thank the heavens that we didn’t have to see the richest dead person become anything but the Cobain persona he left behind.
Che. He’d be like Castro. Not a symbol of revolution and (personally, I would say, misplaced) icon for every rebel yell, but a power-hungry, dictatorial communist who’s good only for getting the US’ goat.
Gandhi even. So he went when he was old. But he went before he turned into a politician and everything the word implies, and when we still liked him enough to make him father of the nation and martyr his name forevermore.
And if the Blonde that Gentlemen Prefer and stayed around for a little longer, the world would have soon forgotten all its fantasies about flying white dresses and remembered a sorry prescription pills addict.
Some never had any chance but to fall authoritatively into legend.
James Dean was always driving too fast; Jim Morrison was too deep into Rock and Roll to ever be anything else….
I could invoke poster-boy for irrefutable iconic falls and tragic loss of Cool, Wacko Jacko and no more, and comfortably rest my case.
I could say Britney. But that would be overkill.
But think Elvis. If he hadn’t … you know … he’d have been old and fat and doped and selling himself silly while on the fast track to bankruptcy. Now he gets to be God, the King and the second richest dead person.
Thank the heavens that we didn’t have to see the richest dead person become anything but the Cobain persona he left behind.
Che. He’d be like Castro. Not a symbol of revolution and (personally, I would say, misplaced) icon for every rebel yell, but a power-hungry, dictatorial communist who’s good only for getting the US’ goat.
Gandhi even. So he went when he was old. But he went before he turned into a politician and everything the word implies, and when we still liked him enough to make him father of the nation and martyr his name forevermore.
And if the Blonde that Gentlemen Prefer and stayed around for a little longer, the world would have soon forgotten all its fantasies about flying white dresses and remembered a sorry prescription pills addict.
Some never had any chance but to fall authoritatively into legend.
James Dean was always driving too fast; Jim Morrison was too deep into Rock and Roll to ever be anything else….
(Makes me wonder how Axl Rose is still around?!?)
My palm tells me I have an especially long lifespan. So it rankled a little that I, by my own definition, have little chance at Cool. But now, I and my bucket of poporn have settled into our front row seat.
My palm tells me I have an especially long lifespan. So it rankled a little that I, by my own definition, have little chance at Cool. But now, I and my bucket of poporn have settled into our front row seat.
I'll watch them come and go in blazes of glory. Becaue, it’s not about quitting when you’re winning or about retiring gracefully. It’s about being fortune’s favourite and the handful that get there.
I can live with that.
Note: For the 2 out of 10 exception, there’s a Keith Richards (!!!) and a Hugh Hefner (I mean, this guy has a rabbit named after him!), attitude firmly tongue in cheek and eccentricity allowed as genius.
* I’d define this as institutional, revolutionary, with cult like following, not necessarily indicating my personal taste.
I can live with that.
Note: For the 2 out of 10 exception, there’s a Keith Richards (!!!) and a Hugh Hefner (I mean, this guy has a rabbit named after him!), attitude firmly tongue in cheek and eccentricity allowed as genius.
* I’d define this as institutional, revolutionary, with cult like following, not necessarily indicating my personal taste.
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