Jessica Simpson. ‘I Wanna Love You Forever. ‘Sweet Kisses’ (1999)

 

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Where do we draw the line between love and obsession?

 

Hello, and welcome to my new thread/blog/soapbox whatever you want to call it. I’ve used various threads over the past year to talk about pop music to combine my three favourite things – writing, popular music and self-gratifying narcissism however I’ve found myself increasingly unsatisfied with each of them as I find it very frustrating and hard to right about music I don’t at least, on some level, enjoy or find something to talk about within them. Reviewing every top ten single of a decade sounds like a good plan on paper, but not every song is noteworthy enough to warrant a conversation about it and that is something that has been frustrating me a lot in recent months. So, I decided to just throw caution to the wind and start this thread which aims to take a pop song I either love or at least know enough to be able to write at least a few hundred words on it, post it here and satisfy that itch I have. This doesn’t mean I’ve totally abandoned by other thread, but this one will be more active because I’ll be writing about pop music that I’m actually 100% invested in writing about. It’s not all going to be music I like – though most of it will be to some extent – and even if it is, I will be critical because heaven knows I have some very sketchy taste when it comes to what most people consider quality music.

 

I think a testament to this thread already is the fact that my first entry is going to be discussing Jessica Simpson, when was the last time – if ever? – Someone decided they wanted to take a serious look at a Jessica Simpson record? Well, if you’ve been looking for that you have certainly come to the right place. I think my reason for picking this record as the first one to talk about here is because it has always utterly fascinated me in a way that doesn’t seem obvious when you only take the song at face value – if you even remember it, which many people don’t – and my friends get very tired of me bleating on about it all the time but I can’t help it – there’s just so much hidden in this song that you don’t notice until you really dig into it and uncover some very telling and quite chilling themes

 

OK, so on the surface, what is ‘I Wanna Love You Forever’? Most people who recall it generally seem to remember it as a middle of the road, uninspired, quite soppy love song Mariah Carey-rip off ballad that was used to launch the singing career of one of the most plastic and least interested pop singers in the history of the genre. I believe it is all those things on the quality of Simpson’s recording which, whilst well sung, is a tad uninspiring but the reason I’m so fond of Simpson singing this as opposed to a Mariah, a Whitney or a Celine is because lyrically, the song is so f***ing disturbing and Simpson’s complete lack of awareness to this in her vocal performance makes it bloody (unintentionally) hilarious.

 

 

Let’s look at some choice lyrics:

 

“Pour yourself all over me, and I’ll cherish every drop here on my knees” – OK, wow. Now we all know that at the beginning of their careers Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Mandy Moore and Simpson were all grouped together because of their apparent similarities as artists. They’re actually all very drastically different but they all debuted within nine months of each other, all were young pretty blonde haired white girls and all song cutesy pop songs. Even though she’s the oldest of the bunch, looking back at the earlier music of the four, Simpson is by far and away the most wholesome of the four and plays to that very well. She was, apparently, still a virgin when this became a hit and boy, does it show. I’ve never seen anyone quite – as a friend of mine termed her – “devout Christian senior year cheerleader” as Simpson comes across in this video. No skin on show, no sexy little winks to the camera. She’s just standing infront of a wind machine belting ala Celine Dion. But, the song is blessed with gems like this all the way through. Read the bolded lyric – that is filthier and more sexually explicit than anything found in what Britney, Christina and Mandy were putting out at this time but the thing is when those three had sexual lyrics and innuendo’s within their music – we’ll be covering ‘I’m A Slave 4 U’ at some point – it was all done with a wink and a nod – they knew what they were saying, particularly Christina. But Jessica doesn’t. The rampant sexual imagery that line creates – whether that was its intention or not – goes unnoticed by Simpson as she stands on top of her hill, in the wind trying her best to look like some virtuous angel. It’s hilarious. The biggest problem with ‘I Wanna Love You Forever’ is the way in which it is framed – as a pure, reasonable, sane love song when lyrically it’s about the same level as The Police’s “Every Breath You Take”. Here are some more choice lyrics;

 

“10,000 life-times together – is that so much for you to do?”

“Be at the mercy of a man, I’ve never been, but now I only want to be right where you are”

“I’m breathing for the next second I can feel you loving me”

 

Does that not sound obsessive? Possessive? Like something a stalker would think and do? There’s a brilliantly dark song hiding somewhere in here – and in a way, it’s a good thing whoever decided to frame it in this way chose to do just that as Simpson, whilst a good singer, doesn’t possess the nuance to pull that off. But at the same time, having this sweet, virginal looking girl belt on and on and on about these dark, obsessive tendencies whilst passing it off as sweet, youthful and loving is just funny to me. One of the most deceptively interesting pop songs ever – it wouldn’t look out of place on the Fifty Shades of Grey soundtrack.

 

Edited October 9, 20159 yr by James Silkstone

Katy Perry. ‘I Kissed a Girl’. One of the Boys (2008)

 

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A musical no homo.

 

So, its summer 2008 and I’m on holiday with my family and some family friends in Portugal. My Dad brings our Sky Box card so we can access British coverage of that year’s Olympics whilst away but obviously, the coverage wasn’t 24/7 and whilst it wasn’t on – we’d always switch the music channels on just to add some color to proceedings and have something on in the background on a fairly constant basis. Oddly, I remember the exact moment this song first came into my life – it was Saturday, August 9th 2008 at about 10.30pm when this came on the television and for the first time in my life I was exposed to one Ms. Katherine Hudson or as we know her, Katy Perry. I quite like that I’m able to recall the precise moment one of the biggest pop stars of the last decade became known to me, and I think a benefit of that is how much of an impact and impression ‘I Kissed a Girl’ leaves behind in its wake.

 

I was 13 years old when I first heard this, and at first I didn’t pay too much attention to the lyrics, though at 13 I obviously got at least some of what Perry was saying here and perhaps, rather progressively for a thirteen year old, in my mind I identified her as bisexual. I’m a sucker for a good pop beat, and ‘I Kissed a Girl’ is one hell of a ride when you hear it for the first time or listen to it for the first time in about three years as I’ve done for this purpose of this review (essay? I don’t really know what these things are) but yeah, in terms of enjoying it as an actual pop song – this still holds a little place in my heart because it sounds pretty bloody good to me and most people in a public place will both know it and happily sing-a-long too it but my feelings towards it have soured a little since 2008. I’m 20 now, and a proud member of the millennial generation. Yes, we have our issues and what not but as far as I can see in general we seem to be a far more forward thinking, progressive and LGBTQ+ friendly generation than most. My issue with ‘I Kissed a Girl’ rises from that.

 

 

I’m not going to sit here and accuse Katy Perry of being actively homophobic, I have no evidence to support that claim and a lot of her subsequent music has had definite LGBT+ friendly themes within them (let’s leave ‘Ur So Gay’ alone for now because I’ll probably end up covering it at some point) but I definitely think it’s fair to say she’s occasionally guilty (as are most of us, I’m not condemning her here) of being passively homophobic. By this I mean, she’s guilty of using the gay community as a straight person in order to prop up her own desires and ends without really paying any service or acknowledgement to the struggles of the gay community. She’s likely – I assume – made up for that with actual charitable work but the legacy of ‘I Kissed a Girl’ will haunt her reputation until she addresses the seriously questionable themes of the record and acknowledges it’s fetishizing of lesbianism and use of queer-baiting.

 

This is not, I repeat not, an objectively pro-LGBT anthem. This is a pro Katy Perry anthem, I guess you can make a case for this record being progressive in the fact that it shows Katy as a woman in charge of her own sense of sexuality and not catering to specific gender roles. That would be fine and I would accept that if not for the constant ‘no homo’ she pulls again and again throughout the song reminding us all that she’s not a lesbian, or bisexual, or interested in women at all – she has a boyfriend, and she hopes he won’t mind. Perhaps he won’t. But I do.

 

Ultimately, in 2015, ‘I Kissed a Girl’ lives to serve as a cautionary tale for the millennial generation. Be as supportive as you want of oppressed groups, but do not use their struggles and community to prop yourself up.

 

Miley Cyrus. ‘Party in the USA’. The Time of Our Lives (2009)

 

 

Where did our little girl go?

 

Whether you love her or hate her, you can’t say that Miley Cyrus will not be a remembered figure for our generation. Hannah Montana was a runaway, worldwide success for the Disney company and launched Cyrus to superstardom; I always test how well things are known within this country with two criteria; 1) if at least two of my four grandparents are aware of it and 2) whether a reference is made to it on some kind of panel/chat/magazine show and the reference is caught, understood and appreciated by a majority of the audience. By late 2009, Miley or at least Hannah Montana had passed all these criteria and it was clear she’d reached a level of worldwide fame that is very rare for a (then) 16-year old. I would hesitate to call Miley an icon in the same way that Elvis or Marilyn are broad icons, known to literally everyone but I would certainly call her a generational icon – everyone of a certain age group, like her or loathe her, are aware of who she is and this must be a daunting prospect for a 16-year old.

 

By late 2009, following a relatively successful movie, it was clear that Hannah Montana was reaching the last stages of its existence and it would go off the air in 2010. Obviously, Miley was the star and she was generally expected to have a successful solo career away from the show and considering she’d already done reasonably well with her own solo albums whilst still attached to the franchise, her fortunes for future success were looking good. Whilst certainly not the best thing Miley released whilst still contracted to Mickey and pals – that would be 2008’s glorious See You Again – I find ‘Party in the USA’ the most interesting because its truly Miley at a crossroads in her career and her life

 

 

We have the slightly sexed up image coming into play – she danced to this on a pole at the 2009 Teen Choice Awards causing a large amount of controversy – but the song itself is very innocent and quite obviously something that would please Disney execs and win their approval. The wheels are clearly in motion to set Cyrus up as a star in her own right in the upcoming new decade – this is her first single released from an album that wasn’t tagged along with a Hannah Montana soundtrack and it was very successful in the US and would’ve been a multi-week number one if not for the pesky Black Eyed Peas. Here the reaction was more lukewarm giving Miley her third #11 hit in 13 months but leaving her bereft of a top ten hit before the 10’s began.

 

Lyrically, the song makes you feel as if you’re actually losing brain cells. It’s incredibly inane and Cyrus doesn’t put any resemblance of nuance into it – maybe there was none to find – but its intentions are clear and that is that Cyrus was being set up as the newest all-American sweetheart. This sounds like something they’d play at a Republican BBQ and in a way I kind of respect Cyrus for going so against the grain of what was expected of her in the coming years and I’ll always defend her against people who call her a $l*t or a whore because she swung nude on a wrecking ball. That said, I look at the Miley Cyrus of 2015 and a little part of me yearns to have the Miley Cyrus of 2009 back – annoying and plastic as she was, at least she wasn’t appropriating black culture and showing support for Donald Trump.

 

In a way though, I guess she is kind of an inspiration. Whatever you think of her, you can’t really deny that she is 100% herself every second of the day and like it or not, she has a legacy now. It’s not the legacy she wants per say but she’s made a name for herself and has most likely succeeded in being remembered in years to come as more than the girl who put on a blonde wing for the Disney channel.

 

Justin Bieber. ‘One Time’. My World (2009)

 

 

The rise of a new evil? Not really

 

I thought it was about time we got a bloke up in here, and who was more manly than 2009 Justin Bieber? Of course, being 14 and a male at this time, I was firmly in camp ‘hate this kid for no real reason’ when he first came out and it’s something I still automatically go to now in 2015 when Bieber is actually matured and releasing generally fine pop music. I often look back this cute little cherub of a boy and feel a twinge of guilt for how much shit this kid had to put up with at such a young age, I think back to myself at 15 and wonder if I could’ve taken the constant abuse and the answer is no, probably not. I’ll give Bieber props for that – he took a lot of shit, and I think it must go a long way to explaining his bad behavior in subsequent years. Whether it was a genuine breakdown of some kind or he was simply fulfilling what he felt to be a self-fulfilling prophecy I don’t know but for me, looking back at Bieber’s young days is always going to be twinged with a little sadness because the kid really did nothing wrong other than having a slightly high annoying voice for what? 6 months?

 

Yes, this is all a very cleverly worded way of saying I don’t think the music itself was all that bad and if it had been sung by someone with a marginally better reputation – it would’ve been received fine, or at the very least, not been treated with the derision it was. ‘One Time’ is the first single from Bieber and to be honest, despite my claims, this has aged shockingly. I never really think of 2009 as having a definitive sound per say as in hindsight it was actually a rather eclectic year but I will say that upon listening to it again, I can say that there’s no other year that ‘One Time’ could possibly have come from. It’s a song that makes me rather uneasy as again, being 20 makes me realize how young 15 years old is. You don’t really have a true grasp on ideas like love when you’re 15, and that makes the purpose of ‘One Time’ very obvious – it’s a deliberately manipulative record aimed to cater specifically to teenage girls who can place themselves within the song due to its absolute lack of detail about the girl Bieber is supposedly feeling these strong urges and feelings towards.

 

 

However, ‘One Time’ has a bit of a unique approach to this in that unlike a lot of other teenage love songs, this one aims to at least sound like it’s coming from the mouth of a 15-year old boy who’s not quite down with puberty yet. It’s rather awkward and clunky, compare this to earlier song by One Direction or even the Backstreet Boys which were targeted towards the same demographics – they talk of eternal, long lasting love and finding the other person totally flawless. ‘One Time’ doesn’t actually do that, all it says is that Bieber wants to spend some time with this girl – yes, the word ‘love’ is used but it is rather flippant towards the concept and the word love is often bounded about by 15 year old’s without meaning to it. There’s no real promise of forever in this song – they’re probably going to just spend some time together, go to the cinema, pop into McDonalds and maybe have a cheeky snog at the bus stop.

 

The use of the term ‘One Time’ can obviously be used to say Bieber’s only going to tell this girl he loves her one time – I prefer to see it as an acknowledgement that all of this is going to happen only once. Bieber was a cute 15 year old, take it from another cute 15 year old – he’ll have moved on before sunrise.

 

'I Wanna Love You Forever' fascinates me too! I remember seeing her perform it on TV, I would've been 8 and it was the first time I could sense the hype around a new artist. As you said, the song doesn't seem well-remembered at all and nowadays I'm surprised it was such a big hit. She certainly went on to record much better songs, but I do understand your fondness for this one.

 

I remember hearing 'I Kissed A Girl' for the first time too. It's hard to say for sure, but I think Katy was lucky to become famous in the Myspace era. With the way social media (I hate that phrase) and gay rights have progressed since then it'd be interesting to see if she could have managed just as big of a breakthrough in 2015 with that song and still become a massive superstar without some kind of Iggy-esque backlash. I suppose if Meghan Trainor could survive the 'All About That Bass' controversy, then Katy could probably do the same with 'I Kissed A Girl' if it was released now.

'I Wanna Love You Forever' fascinates me too! I remember seeing her perform it on TV, I would've been 8 and it was the first time I could sense the hype around a new artist. As you said, the song doesn't seem well-remembered at all and nowadays I'm surprised it was such a big hit. She certainly went on to record much better songs, but I do understand your fondness for this one.

 

I remember hearing 'I Kissed A Girl' for the first time too. It's hard to say for sure, but I think Katy was lucky to become famous in the Myspace era. With the way social media (I hate that phrase) and gay rights have progressed since then it'd be interesting to see if she could have managed just as big of a breakthrough in 2015 with that song and still become a massive superstar without some kind of Iggy-esque backlash. I suppose if Meghan Trainor could survive the 'All About That Bass' controversy, then Katy could probably do the same with 'I Kissed A Girl' if it was released now.

 

I think the difference between Katy and Megan as opposed to Iggy is the fact that Katy and Megan are just misguided as opposed to deliberately doing harmful things in order to prop themselves up in the way that Iggy does. 'I Kissed a Girl' and 'All About That Bass' are problematic for sure, but they're not malicious in any way, shape or form. What Katy and Megan did wrong was they just didn't think - they wrote songs to serve their own ends but the fact they ended up sending out harmful messages is merely oversight on their parts. What Iggy does is worse because everything she does relates back to her overly exaggerated 'black-cent' that is so clearly deliberately and thoughtfully put on and only seems to be becoming more exaggerated as she progresses in her career. Her songs, lyrically and thematically, are not really problematic at all but her entire persona is because she appropriates black culture in such a deliberate and knowing way.

 

 

Avril Lavigne. ‘What the Hell’. Goodbye Lullaby (2011)

 

 

You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the enemy

 

Avril Lavigne is one of my favourite pop singers of the 2000’s. I owned and adored her first two albums as a kid and have been fond of one or two of her songs in this decade too, but for me she began to lose her edge as she aged infront of us. Avril was 17 years old when she first burst onto the scene with ‘Complicated’ in 2002 and despite her young age, she quickly set herself up as being a credible musician in her own right very quickly by showcasing her instrument playing and song-writing skills and for her first two albums she came across as a very relatable, mature and savvy young woman who was in touch with her feelings and knew how to cater them to her young fan base. Even songs such as ‘Sk8er Boi’ or ‘He Wasn’t’ which on the surface are quite silly, fun little pop songs had some resemblance of truth and relatability to them – being a teenager herself, Avril was going through the same thoughts, feelings and changes as her fan base and was able to cater to them exactly because of this. But it was all, in hindsight, rather hollow.

 

Look at Taylor Swift, it’s much the same story. Young girl writes own hits and is incredibly relatable to her younger audience – but where Swift and Lavigne differ is that Swift has matured along with her audience whilst Lavigne seemed to stagnate and perhaps even regress as hers got older. ‘What The Hell’ is not the first time this has cropped up in Lavigne’s career – this was an issue that first arose in her 2007 lead single from her third album ‘Girlfriend’ in which Lavigne seems to take on the persona of a mean, horrible possibly sociopathic ex-girlfriend who targets her ex-boyfriend’s new girlfriend for no discernable reason other than the fact she’s his new girlfriend. In short, in that song Avril became the kind of girl that she was originally cussing in songs like ‘Sk8er Boi’ – she’d become her own enemy. None of this is to say that Lavigne was never capable of writing a good or mature song again – that same album contains the beautiful ‘When You’re Gone’ – but she definitely flanderized her old self as opposed to grow and change.

 

 

‘What The Hell’ might not be as problematic as ‘Girlfriend’ was but for me, it was the final nail in Lavigne’s coffin. It’s just an outright immature and brattish song – there’s nothing wrong with writing care-free songs about not giving a f*** when you’re in your mid-20’s but for god sake, you’re in your mid 20’s you’re not 14 anymore and any grown woman who displays the behavior Lavigne does in the beginning music video of this song would have serious problems existing in real life. ‘What The Hell’ is the clearest sign yet of Lavigne not knowing how the hell to appeal to her existing, aging fan base and going back to her bases to see what once made her popular. Yes, ‘Sk8er Boi’ and the music video for ‘Complicated’ have some vague anarchic themes running through them but by this point both those songs were nearing a decade old and Lavigne was 17 then. By 27, Lavigne shouldn’t have been acting more destructive in her videos than she was doing 10 years previously – yeah, still have fun and be care free but don’t regress yourself in the process

 

Lavigne has redeemed herself a little in my eyes since then – 2013’s “Rock N Roll” is an absolute triumph of a record and I think proof of an Avril Lavigne that can grow up and change but keep her rebellious appeal alive and well. Of course, the next year she released ‘Hello Kitty’ so it is very much a case of one step forward and two steps back.

 

UP Next: “Broken Arrow” by Pixie Lott.

Edited October 11, 20159 yr by James Silkstone

Pixie Lott. “Broken Arrow”. Turn It up Louder (2010)

 

 

Yeah, it’s hard to be interesting about Pixie Lott

 

Ah, Pixie. It’s not so much that I wanted to write about her here but I kind of needed too, for some reason beyond anything I can fathom, I’m unreasonably fond of pretty much every Pixie Lott song I have ever heard and I really don’t know why. For me, liking Pixie Lott’s music is about the equivalent of getting taco’s from someone’s van on the motorway, eating ten of them and then shitting yourself on space mountain ala Ross Geller. The thing is – I’m not even sure why I find the fact I like her music so embarrassing, I guess it stems from other people’s reaction to the fact I like her which range from asking “who….oh her, why?” or just a flat-out “why?” Maybe I’m just fond of an underdog, but my admiration for Pixie Lott goes beyond just finding her attractive and I snapped up her greatest hits like there was no tomorrow and what’s more was genuinely disappointed that ‘What Do You Take Me For?’ was left out of the track list. That’s how far this goes and for my own sanity, I think I need to take this opportunity to properly figure out my odd yet undying fondness of Pixie Lott. Maybe it comes from my fondness of the more vapid female pop singers like Britney? Pixie’s definitely modeled more on the idea of a US female pop star than a British one – amongst the Adele’s, the Emeli Sande’s, even the Jessie J’s – Pixie feels like she’s a step below on a Britney/Katy Perry kind of level.

 

I’ve chosen to use ‘Broken Arrow’ as the song to frame this with as a) it’s my favourite and b) it simultaneously demonstrates everything I like about Pixie’s music and everything which makes me think I need some kind of head exam for liking it. With Pixie in general, I think the attraction for me is the fact that like Harry Styles and Emma Bunton (but to a much, much lesser extent) her natural warmth and charisma can’t help but shine through when she sings. Whatsmore, unlike a lot of other pop stars, she always sounds like she’s really enjoying herself when she sings and she’s totally living out her dream and you can’t really help but go along with that. I think the best example of that is in ‘Turn It Up’ which is the most positive sounding breakup song I have ever heard, I’ve never been so happy listening to someone sing about a break up but Pixie is absolutely beaming in that tune. So, whether a good singer or not (I personally think she’s actually pretty poor) Pixie always sounds invested and dedicated to what she’s singing about, and that automatically uplifts most if not all of her songs

 

 

Now, about ‘Broken Arrow’ in particular. True, it’s my favourite Pixie Lott record but it’s also a bit of a mess. It is easily Pixie’s worst vocal performance on a single, her voice really can’t take the strain of the chorus and the whole thing ends up feeling a bit screechy and forced not to mention the lyrics are incredibly vague and lack any remote sense of depth. It’s also very narrative, and not in a good way, it comes across like a child who’s been asked to write about their weekend in a diary not some pained explanation of feeling genuinely conflicted between two men. So, how can I love it so much despite tearing it apart just now? Well, all of those things work in a positive way too. This is a Pixie Lott song, do we really expect much? Not to be mean but no and the beauty of ‘Broken Arrow’ is that it leaves things so vague it actually becomes oddly relatable. I’ve never been in Pixie’s situation in this song but damn, it makes me empathize with the feeling incredibly vividly so much so that you do kind of feel as if you’re going through this with her. The video also does a reasonable job of visualizing the internal struggle found within the song. If the aim of the song was to be a masterpiece, then it failed on every level but if its aim was simply to get its clear and distinct message across then it damn well succeeded. Furthermore, Pixie’s lack of vocal skill ends up being a bit of a strength as it just ends up making her sound like she’s in pain a little bit which ultimately plays well to the sense of struggle that the song is meant to portray

 

I’ve never met anyone else who likes this song as much as I do, I hope I’m not alone but in a strange kind of way, I’d kind of like it if I was. God bless Pixie Lott.

 

UP NEXT: “NIGHT CHANGES” – ONE DIRECTION

 

One Direction. “Night Changes”. Four (2014)

 

 

But I don’t want the night to change.

 

Can we all please sit back and admit that One Direction aren’t shit? Like, I don’t care if you still don’t like them but I refuse to hear claims that One Direction have remained at the level they were at during their first two albums – they have significantly improved their output since 2012 (curiously when they actually started to become a lot more involved in making the music they were putting out) and I now consider them one of the better aspects of modern pop music. One Direction’s output over the last two or so years has been consistently great, the exact thing that I look for in pop music – music that is still unashamedly and obviously pop but has some semblance of effort, skill and meaning put into it. More than any other boyband I can think of, I truly believe the music we are getting from One Direction nowadays is music from the hearts of the people within the band. This is the sound and style that they want to make.

 

So, of all the singles they’ve put out since 2013, why am I choosing to talk about the relatively low profile ‘Night Changes’? It was hardly the most successful single they’ve put out nor was it particularly critically acclaimed but for me, this is the icing on the cake of One Direction as a legitimately brilliant pop act. My personal favourite of the band by far is Harry Styles – that may sound cliché as he’s easily the most prolific but this guy genuinely has The X Factor (for want of a better phrase and believe me, I tried greatly to think of a different one). Styles is One Direction’s best asset not just because of his good-looks, apparent magnetic personality and grace but mainly because he’s an absolutely stellar vocalist. If Night Changes is the best thing about present day, matured One Direction – then Harry is the best thing about their best song because he just completely owns the thing. His chorus just bloody soars and creates a general feeling of warmth and intrigue, even as a heterosexual male I’ll happily admit that when he’s singing part of me wants to be on that ice skating rink with him. The guy just rules, whatever may happen to them all when the band is over, it’ll be Harry that I’ll be following with the most attention. The guy just has something. My praise of Styles, of course, is not to the detriment of his four bandmates – all of whom, particularly Malik, put in stellar performances as well. ‘Night Changes’ is brilliant because of everyone, Harry just plays the biggest part in that.

 

 

I’ve also chosen to speak about this one because in retrospect, it’s rather a melancholy verging on quite sad as it was the boys last single before Zayn left in March 2015. Of course, this is circumstance changing the meaning of a song. ‘Night Changes’ actually is a rather positive record – one about seizing a moment with the person you love most and living totally within that moment where nothing else matters. At the same time, it’s a record that acknowledges change is just around the corner. The night changes fast i.e. everything around is us changing at a rate that we can’t control, we want too but can’t so let’s just take this moment and enjoy it. Considering within nine months of this songs release, the band had lost one member and subsequently announced a hiatus with no real acknowledgement of when they’d be back – that message seems all the more poignant don’t you agree?

 

I went into One Direction’s career hating them, I never would have expected to have become as invested as I did and I’ll be genuinely saddened if this is the end.

 

UP NEXT: Spice Girls - "2 Become 1"

Edited October 15, 20159 yr by James Silkstone

Spice Girls. “2 Become 1”. Spice (1996)

 

 

*Me suddenly at 15* “holy shit, this song is about sex!”

 

For some reason, after finishing my One Direction review, my mind just couldn’t stop thinking about ‘2 Become 1’. If One Direction are the Spice Girls of the 2010’s, then I guess this makes sense as ‘2 Become 1’ and ‘Night Changes’ are rather similar – both are wintery ballads that put one in mind of the Xmas season even if the holiday is not explicitly mentioned in the lyrics, both showcase the two most talented members of the band at their best and really show how they elevate the band (Harry Styles, Emma Bunton) and despite both being songs with positive, uplifting message they’re inexplicably tinged with a sense of melancholy and longing which, truth be told, I’m a bit of a sucker for. October to December is my favourite period of the year and any single that reminds me of that time is going to be a winner for me.

 

I was born in 1995, so whilst I was alive during Spice mania in the late 90’s I was a little too young to be really swept up in it. If my mother is to believe, I was fond of ‘Stop’ whenever it came on the radio and the video for ‘Spice Up Your Life’ used to scare me (it’s also the song that was at number one when my sister was born) but that’s about all I’ve been able to find out in regards to how I felt about the Spice Girls when they were at their peak. By the time I really got into pop music in late 2003, the Spice Girls had long gone and the girls solo careers were also beginning to dwindle somewhat so it wasn’t until the fuss over their reunion in 2007 that I really dove into their back catalogue. There were, however, two songs of theirs that I was familiar with by this point; “Wannabe” as it’s iconic and most people know and “2 Become 1” which is played a lot near Xmas time and was a favourite of my mothers. I grew up with ‘2 Become 1’ as opposed to the Spice Girls themselves so it does hold a bit of a special place in my heart whilst a lot of their other songs leave me a little cold as they don’t have that nostalgia attached.

 

Like it says above, I was a bit blindsided by childhood nostalgia so the true meaning of the song did not occur to me until I was literally fifteen. In a way, you’d think this would taint the song for me in some way as those precious, innocent childhood memories could now be seen as having been tainted by the images of sex and protection – but on the contrary, realizing the meaning of and message to the song only made me love it more. I love the soft but firm approach the song takes towards protection and how it really does promote sex as a loving action between two people; I feel like my generation has become very desensitized to sexual content with the rise of internet porn that’s disturbingly easy to access as well as the constant objectification of women in music videos so a soft, realistic gentle approach to the act that also promotes safety in it is absolutely fine by me. Songs about sex tend to be about the pleasure, the experience of sex has some kind of overly erotic romp and seem to completely miss the part of sex that is about communication and love between two people. Of course, I’m not naïve enough to suggest that everyone who has sex is in love with the person they’re having sex with but a song using sex as a pleasurable but gentle act is a very good thing in my book

 

 

Making the whole thing what it is, of course, is Miss Emma Bunton. I’ve heard people say Mel C is the most talented Spice Girl and I’d certainly agree that some of her solo material is fantastic – but for me, Emma is the most talented and has had the best solo career. Quite like Harry Styles, Bunton’s clearly natural grace and charisma are perfectly represented through her voice and that comes across on many Spice Girls singles and singles of her own but none more so than in ‘2 Become 1’. Her voice is perfect here for the tone and mood of the song; sweet and playful, almost teasing and coy whilst making absolutely sure that her lover is going to ‘put it on, put it on’. Yet, as I said before, the whole thing feels rather tinged with a sense of melancholy – maybe that’s retrospective melancholy; the images of the twin towers in the music video of such a beautiful, toned down song feels rather poignant and sad. The song seems to be the conclusion of a journey for me – like this girl has been looking for the right kind of love for so long and has just found it. I absolutely adore the melancholic feel too it – in a way, it’s kind of the perfect Christmas song even if it has nothing to do with the holiday.

 

My favourite Spice Girl single, and by quite some distance.

 

 

 

Taylor Swift. ‘You Belong With Me’. Fearless (2008)

 

 

You sing-a-long to *that* part, you know you do

 

Ah, Taylor Swift. Things have really changed haven’t they? And to be honest, it really does not seem like six years ago that all of this was going down and I have to say, for a song that only peaked at #30 before falling down the charts like a stone, ‘You Belong With Me’ has certainly done a good job of making itself remembered by the masses hasn’t it? Her bigger commercial successes not arriving in the UK until 2012, by late 2014, this was still in her top ten biggest sellers list which was playing on MTV in my Uni canteen one lunchtime during my first year and I’ll be damned if most – if not all – of the people in the room at the time either sung a long with this to themselves or seemed to give some kind of recognized smile at its presence on the television screens. So, not only was this #30 hit from 2009 remembered by everyone I knew at the time – it seemed to have been remembered fairly fondly as well. I’ve theorized before that ‘You Belong with Me’ has been remembered because it was the video that won Taylor her award that Kanye West ended up jumping on stage and protesting about. But then I thought – that incident is remembered a lot more for Kanye than Taylor in general, much less the song of the video she won the award for in the first place so quite how ‘You Belong With Me’ has etched itself into most young people’s collective consciousness in this country still baffles me a little. Not so much in the States though, where it was a genuine hit, but how it’s been so well remembered here is confusing especially as in 2010, Taylor registered another #30 peaking single – ‘Mine’ – that sank like a stone and no one remembers that unless they’re an active Taylor fan.

 

Of course, Taylor had had a big hit earlier in 2009 with ‘Love Story’ – a song I’m not going to get too far into at the moment because I do plan on covering it at some point – but I wasn’t that keen on it in 2009. I wasn’t keen on Taylor overall in 2009 to be honest, the situations have actually reversed in our household now, but back then it was my little sister who was the Taylor loon and I can’t begin to tell you how many times I heard the full Fearless album that year. So much so that to this day, it actually remains my least favourite of any of Taylor’s albums – including her self-titled 2005 country debut. Even if the commercial success was a bit slow to catch up over here save for that one single, Taylor was an instant celebrity at least amongst my age group, and maintained a decent presence through her celebrity until she started scoring consistent hits in 2012. So, what is it about ‘You Belong with Me’ that has stuck around? It’s a nice little number but not so critically acclaimed that people are now looking back and wondering why it didn’t do more on the charts. But maybe that’s because people just assume it did as so many people seem to remember it?

 

 

So, what are we working with here? Well, if there was ever a song to showcase how much Taylor has grown up as a song-writer and person in general, I think it would be this one (or ‘Picture to Burn’ but reviewing that would mean I’d have to listen to it and I REFUSE). Taylor’s in love with a boy. Fine. She doesn’t like his girlfriend. Fine, if the girlfriend is genuinely a dick but if you’re not liking her based purely off of the fact that she’s his girlfriend then you’re kind of a dick, Taylor. Then, she decides for some reason that this boy doesn’t belong with the girl he’s chosen to go out with, he belongs with her. Here’s the thing – we learn a lot about Taylor and her love rival in this song – she wears high heels, Taylor likes sneakers. She’s cheer captain, Taylor’s on the bleachers. But we learn absolutely jack shit about the boy in question – the boy who is apparently so amazing that he has two girls chasing after him – and what he likes? If he’s a good-looking teenage boy with plenty of girls chasing after him then he’s most likely a dickhead and he probably does only go for the girls who are cheer captains and wear high heels and to be honest, who can blame him? I always felt like Taylor’s “character” in this song was the one who sounds highly strung, clingy and unreasonable. If the guy is having genuine problems with his girlfriend, fine, but she at no point ever seems to consider it may be – and let’s be honest, probably is – his fault. The fundamental problem with Taylor’s grand statements of love and understanding here is that we never get even an impression that this boy likes her back or is even aware of her existence – the video, of course, tells a much different story but none of that is explicitly referenced in the song’s lyrics and by the point of the video’s happy ending, Taylor is still singing about him not liking her back so it’s all pretty moot if you ask me.

 

Taylor hasn’t performed this song – one of her best remembered hits – on her recent tour and I think that’s telling. I can see her leaving out a majority of her pre-Red singles except for the two that were genuine crossover hits; this and ‘Love Story’. But, ‘Love Story’, is there – a bit re-worked, re-framed and re-modeled but it still made the set list whilst this has been glaringly omitted. I see this as acknowledgement from new feminist Taylor that this song is really, really not that nice behind its cutesy little pop/country sound and very problematic for Taylor’s new-found feminist cause. It’s a song, at its course, about self-centeredness and objectification of ones crush. Taylor’s love interest here is totally idealized and made into some prize at the end of a competition, his girlfriend torn to pieces for merely existing and having won the puberty lottery whilst Taylor’s needy, clingy, presumptive protagonist is clearly meant to be the one we are rooting for her despite the fact that if she were a dude singing this – everyone would’ve acknowledged how genuinely creepy this whole thing is

 

Does the song leave a bad taste in my mouth? Not really, it was written when Taylor was 17, and 17 year old’s often suffer from tunnel vision when it comes to love also for all of its flaws the song remains very catchy and an enjoyable listen if you don’t think about it too deeply.

 

Backstreet Boys. ‘As Long As You Love Me’. Backstreet Boys (1997)

 

 

I don’t care if you’re a serial killer, as long as you love *me*

 

If I’d been more sentient in 1998, I would have found myself in a bit of a quandary as to whether I liked the Backstreet Boys or NSYNC more. Not in terms of who I found cuter (I know NSYNC had Justin, but he looked like he was auditioning for Annie back then) but actually in terms of whose music I actually thought was better because truth be told, I highly enjoy listening to both band’s music to this day. They’re very different in a way; the Backstreet Boys are what we think of as the poster boyband for a reason and that’s because they fit all of the stereotypes about boybands that can possibly exist but at the same time, they play to their strengths very well and showcase each voice fairly – and each voice is very good. NSYNC were more showmen than a boyband in the truer sense of what a boyband is – lead primarily by Justin and JC, there music tended to stray away from the traditional idea of what a boyband song is and they weren’t afraid to call out girls in their song as opposed to idealizing them in the way many other boybands do. NSYNC’s greatest advantage was how well they performed, where the Backstreet Boys succeeded was a sense of proper earnestness and a sense that underneath it all, there was something more to them than just being soppy boyband members in love and they did develop a more deceptively “hard core” image as they moved forward.

 

The boyband phenomenon is something to this day that baffles me a little, mainly because despite my fondness on both the main boybands of the 90’s, Blue in the 00’s and One Direction now, many, many boybands are musically terrible. I have thrown pillows more sexually threatening than Westlife who also released terrible single after terrible single and in a way completely subverted the idea of how boybands function and why they’re popular. It’s all about appeal, a sense of providing the primary audience of teenage girls, something to grab, hope and hold onto. This is why there is a boyband ‘type’ when it comes to who they pick to be in one and it’s why music often comes across as an afterthought with these groups – like I’ve said before, Backstreet Boys are the classic model for a boyband perfected because they succeeded in every possible way that a boyband can succeed and what’s more so – they did it with consistently good songs, save for one or two blips, which truth be told air more on the side of being boring than outright bad. They’re the perfect boyband due to our idea of what a boyband is – Westlife, Boyzone, 5ive even Take That had the concept down but were guilty of going short on the music one or two times. Take That and Five eventually developed into solid performers whilst the amount of covers in Westlife and Boyzone’s final days kind of prove my theory (the shift from teenage girl to woman of a certain age demographics is something I’ll cover in more detail when/if I decide to talk about Westlife or Boyzone). So yeah, when it comes to the cream of the crop, I’d probably say on the quality of the songs and me buying into the idea of what a boyband is and what it should be – I’ll go with the Backstreet Boys as my favourite, but that is not to say that they were without flaw.

 

 

That is best highlighted in their 1997 hit ‘As Long As You Love Me’. Fun fact, this is actually their biggest selling single in the UK something which surprises me as naturally you would assume that ‘I Want It That Way’ had sold the most on the sheer iconic pop-song factor. But it actually has quite substandard sales for a #1 single in 1999, then again ‘As Long As You Love Me’ peaked at #3 and had a very good top ten run in late 1997 which was quite possibly the strongest sales climate in the UK Chart history, at least until 2011-mid 2013. So, what is wrong with ‘As Long As You Love Me’? Well, on the surface, nothing too drastic – one who doesn’t read as deeply into pop music as I do would probably say it’s a dull, kind of drippy ballad that’s entirely one dimensional and pretty forgettable and I’d say that’s true to the point, but at the same time it is a song that I enjoy the sound of at least. The vocals are very good and the boy’s harmonies blend well together on the chorus and at face value, for me, this is a perfectly passable boyband ballad that maybe borders on the boring side a little too much. But then, like the Jessica Simpson record that started this thread, the intrigue comes with the lyrics which paint a rather different and slightly pathetic picture. When one really sits down and takes in what the song is saying, you realize how utterly disturbing it all is. This is essentially the tale of a lonely boy who’s been so desperately lonely and looking for love that if/when he finds love, he’s going to totally ignore any negative aspects of that person’s character as long as they provide him with the love and attention he needs/craves.

 

Now, this element of the song was totally lost on me for many years and I can’t imagine any of the Starstruck 13-year olds who listened to it at the time picked up on it either – but this really is some messed up, needy, almost emotionally abusive kind of shit. “I don’t care who you are, where you’re from, what you did, as long as you love me”. I will forgive your murdering spree, as long as you love me. I don’t care if you’re running off to support ISIS, as long as you love me. It’s weepy and pathetic. As a concept, there’s nothing really wrong with making a song around the saying “as long as you love me” – take Justin Bieber’s identically named 2012 song for example. Whilst certainly no great musical masterpiece, the message of that song is that the world can beat Justin and his girl down in whatever way it wants but as long as they have one another and love one another – he will be fine, he will withstand the blows. The Backstreet Boys aren’t saying that – what they’re saying is they don’t just want to love someone, they want their entire existence to be dependent upon the love of someone else. I may be jumping the gun a little with all of this but there’s definitely a notion of idealization of women at best, or outright ignoring negative traits at worse both of which send a really poisonous message

 

I like the Backstreet Boys, I really do, but this song needs destroying or at least re-worked and positioned in a way that doesn’t attempt to justify and normalize such a sense of neediness and dependency.