Post by trashcanman on Dec 31, 2013 22:41:17 GMT 2
The Lady Curmudgeon has wowed us for a few months with some notable pop songs from her list of guilty pleasures, and now it's my turn. I tend to gravitate towards punk, metal, hardcore hip-hop and various other extreme iterations of musical expression, but I've branched out pretty consistently and have incorporated almost every genre into my listening habits so finding some pop gems for you guys to adore and lambast shouldn't be a problem. Let's do this.
I'm starting you off with a true killer this week. These days, the words "pop artist" are a bit contradictory of one another. I mean, most of these are just pretty people with modest talent who are paid to be the face and abs of music that was knocked out on a Protools production line by jaded corporate songwriters whose only skill lies in looking at what is popular and diluting it to the point where even the most sheeplike fans can't take it anymore.
But sometimes -just sometimes- pretty people have actual ability as vocalists, performers, musicians and songwriters. Enough to melt even my cold, cold heart that insists that music must always be awesome and not just to fill your ears with noise. Take this lady, for instance.
Dreamy-eyed, sexy, beautiful, and excessively talented Alicia Keys. Superior in every way to the Beyonces and Rihannas of the world, she pretty much renders modern R&B meaningless by throwing it back to the golden age of soul and bringing it into the modern age with slick production, classical piano chops, and empowering, heartfelt lyrics. She fucking KILLED at the concert for New York after the hurricane, showing up some of the greatest acts in music history and returning after her set to close the show after the likes of The Stones, Billy Joel, Clapton, Springsteen, and many others had done their thing. And she did it while extremely pregnant.
My pick from her impressive list of hits is "Try Sleeping With a Broken Heart", and it's one of the most glorious and goosebump-inducing pop songs I've ever heard. Even if the video is kind of odd in places.
That purple number @ 2:58....
My appreciation of Ms. Keys was a long-running joke at my last job when where she had a prominent presence on my iPod alongside thrash, classic rock, and gangsta rap, but I think she fits in just fine. Anyone else have a massive musical (and romantic) crush on this woman?
I'm starting you off with a true killer this week. These days, the words "pop artist" are a bit contradictory of one another. I mean, most of these are just pretty people with modest talent who are paid to be the face and abs of music that was knocked out on a Protools production line by jaded corporate songwriters whose only skill lies in looking at what is popular and diluting it to the point where even the most sheeplike fans can't take it anymore.
But sometimes -just sometimes- pretty people have actual ability as vocalists, performers, musicians and songwriters. Enough to melt even my cold, cold heart that insists that music must always be awesome and not just to fill your ears with noise. Take this lady, for instance.
Dreamy-eyed, sexy, beautiful, and excessively talented Alicia Keys. Superior in every way to the Beyonces and Rihannas of the world, she pretty much renders modern R&B meaningless by throwing it back to the golden age of soul and bringing it into the modern age with slick production, classical piano chops, and empowering, heartfelt lyrics. She fucking KILLED at the concert for New York after the hurricane, showing up some of the greatest acts in music history and returning after her set to close the show after the likes of The Stones, Billy Joel, Clapton, Springsteen, and many others had done their thing. And she did it while extremely pregnant.
My pick from her impressive list of hits is "Try Sleeping With a Broken Heart", and it's one of the most glorious and goosebump-inducing pop songs I've ever heard. Even if the video is kind of odd in places.
That purple number @ 2:58....
My appreciation of Ms. Keys was a long-running joke at my last job when where she had a prominent presence on my iPod alongside thrash, classic rock, and gangsta rap, but I think she fits in just fine. Anyone else have a massive musical (and romantic) crush on this woman?
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