Wednesday, August 11, 2004
Musical musings. Since I moved house, my car has been so crammed with crap that I can't reach the CD stacker, so I've had the same few CDs in there for months and I'm really sick of them. Not enough to move the crap out of my car, though. And at home, my CD player has become 'the' CD player in the living room, meaning that in my bedroom I have to listen to a crappy little tape deck. So my musical musings are probably quite boring. But anyway.
I think that Nina Sky's "Move Ya Body" is the "Never Leave You (Uh Oh)" of 2004. It has a dancehall beat underneath (though not bassy enough for my liking - recently I just can't get enough bass!). It has an irritatingly catchy chorus. Irritating, I say, because, like Lumidee, the chicks from Nina Sky can't sing, which bothers me. Yet, you can't get their off-key moanings out of your head. I first heard this song on American Top 40 - it's a measure of how old I am that when I was recording songs off the radio, Shadoe Stevens was hosting that show, then it was Rick Dees and now it's Ryan Seacrest. They had it as a prediction, and I remember thinking to myself, "This song is almost good, but not quite. But I bet it'll get big anyway."
I also think that Britney Spears' "Outrageous" and Beyoncé's "Naughty Girl" sound very alike. I wonder which was recorded first. I remember when I first heard "Naughty Girl" I was like, "This is a total rip-off of 'Outrageous' - that Bollywood sound is so 2003." But then I started to sing them over the top of each other: I'll be in the car randomly expostulating, "Outrageous! my sex drive! Outrageous! my shopping spree!" over Beyoncé, or caterwauling, "The way your bodyyyy moves across the floooooor..." over Britney.
I have also been obsessed with "Push Up" by the Freestylers, but not enough to buy a CD single. Maybe I will illegally download it. I was listening to it in the car the other day, trying to work out why it was such a great song even though it has one of the dumbest rhymes ever: "your body, your body next to mine/I wanna make that sexy booty mine". I think it's a combination of funky bassline and strategic use of high-pitched woo! sounds, and the chord change in the middle eight. I will have to work some of that shit into my Melk stuff.
Which has been driving me crazy. Chris accused me of "channelling Big Boi" - I am constantly dissatisfied with the drums and bass and always want him to make them louder. Plus there are some seriously cheesy synth lines and fake handclaps etc that would make Lil Jon run from the room in embarrassment (maybe shouting something unintelligible as he did). And I think the songs need more 'direction' - at the moment they're just grooves on one or two chords or bass notes, without actually progressing anywhere.
Also, I was listening to some dumbarse song - oh yeah, it was "Everytime" by Britney - and was annoyed at how unoriginal some lyrics are, like they come in prearranged pairs. Like "baby" can only ever rhyme with "crazy", "lady", "maybe". I loved it so much when Beck mocked this in "Nicotine and Gravy" with various rhymes like "I think I'm going crazy/her left eye is lazy/she looks so Israeli/nicotine and gravy" and later, "love the way she plays me".
So, I decided to look up the dumb rhyme in "Everytime", i.e. "strong" and "carry on". And this is what I found...
Our love is strong
Why carry on without me
Britney Spears, "Everytime"
I must be strong and carry on
Eric Clapton, "Tears In Heaven"
Love make me strong
Give me the strength to carry on
Olivia Newton-John, "Love Make Me Strong"
For the strength to be strong
For the will to carry on
Christina Aguilera, "I Turn To You"
And then a hero comes along
With the strength to carry on ...
So when you feel like hope is gone
Look inside you and be strong
Mariah Carey, "Hero"
Okay, you get the picture. The Christina one is particularly silly - the strength to be strong????
I think that Nina Sky's "Move Ya Body" is the "Never Leave You (Uh Oh)" of 2004. It has a dancehall beat underneath (though not bassy enough for my liking - recently I just can't get enough bass!). It has an irritatingly catchy chorus. Irritating, I say, because, like Lumidee, the chicks from Nina Sky can't sing, which bothers me. Yet, you can't get their off-key moanings out of your head. I first heard this song on American Top 40 - it's a measure of how old I am that when I was recording songs off the radio, Shadoe Stevens was hosting that show, then it was Rick Dees and now it's Ryan Seacrest. They had it as a prediction, and I remember thinking to myself, "This song is almost good, but not quite. But I bet it'll get big anyway."
I also think that Britney Spears' "Outrageous" and Beyoncé's "Naughty Girl" sound very alike. I wonder which was recorded first. I remember when I first heard "Naughty Girl" I was like, "This is a total rip-off of 'Outrageous' - that Bollywood sound is so 2003." But then I started to sing them over the top of each other: I'll be in the car randomly expostulating, "Outrageous! my sex drive! Outrageous! my shopping spree!" over Beyoncé, or caterwauling, "The way your bodyyyy moves across the floooooor..." over Britney.
I have also been obsessed with "Push Up" by the Freestylers, but not enough to buy a CD single. Maybe I will illegally download it. I was listening to it in the car the other day, trying to work out why it was such a great song even though it has one of the dumbest rhymes ever: "your body, your body next to mine/I wanna make that sexy booty mine". I think it's a combination of funky bassline and strategic use of high-pitched woo! sounds, and the chord change in the middle eight. I will have to work some of that shit into my Melk stuff.
Which has been driving me crazy. Chris accused me of "channelling Big Boi" - I am constantly dissatisfied with the drums and bass and always want him to make them louder. Plus there are some seriously cheesy synth lines and fake handclaps etc that would make Lil Jon run from the room in embarrassment (maybe shouting something unintelligible as he did). And I think the songs need more 'direction' - at the moment they're just grooves on one or two chords or bass notes, without actually progressing anywhere.
Also, I was listening to some dumbarse song - oh yeah, it was "Everytime" by Britney - and was annoyed at how unoriginal some lyrics are, like they come in prearranged pairs. Like "baby" can only ever rhyme with "crazy", "lady", "maybe". I loved it so much when Beck mocked this in "Nicotine and Gravy" with various rhymes like "I think I'm going crazy/her left eye is lazy/she looks so Israeli/nicotine and gravy" and later, "love the way she plays me".
So, I decided to look up the dumb rhyme in "Everytime", i.e. "strong" and "carry on". And this is what I found...
Our love is strong
Why carry on without me
Britney Spears, "Everytime"
I must be strong and carry on
Eric Clapton, "Tears In Heaven"
Love make me strong
Give me the strength to carry on
Olivia Newton-John, "Love Make Me Strong"
For the strength to be strong
For the will to carry on
Christina Aguilera, "I Turn To You"
And then a hero comes along
With the strength to carry on ...
So when you feel like hope is gone
Look inside you and be strong
Mariah Carey, "Hero"
Okay, you get the picture. The Christina one is particularly silly - the strength to be strong????
