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21 jun 06 "Do you think Shakira will come to sweden on her worldtour?" please don't make me download a shakira song. although, doing so might add to my cool-points in terms of music-listening. when someone with mostly eclectic and fringe musical tastes has some pop in his library, it's evidence of judgement based on pure aesthetics, and a willingness to experiment and remain open-minded. i'm telling you, it's a phenomenon: demonstrating how cool your musical tastes are by listening to uncool music. i really need to keep my cynicism in check here, and give myself some credit: i like my modest pop collection because i like the way it sounds (i think). the world of pure aesthetics doesn't really exist, anyway -- it's always clouded by culture. i wonder what music i would enjoy, had i materialized on a desert island, lived my life without human contact, and had with me on the island an electrical outlet, a CD player, a pair of headphones, and every CD ever produced. would i turn out to enjoy iannis xenaxis or shakira? iannis xenaxis, for those of you knuckle-draggers out there, is a 20th century "avant gard" composer. ie, one who doesn't compose "music" as most people understand it (some kind of tonal harmony), but instead what one might describe as sound-art, sound-sculpture, or just noises. in order to appreciate xenaxis, you have to sit back and close your eyes, and do nothing but listen. then, focus on and consider the sound that's coming at you. it can be interesting, but it doesn't exactly fill your soul with feeling. i have a few pop tunes: billy joel, green day, chris isaac, jamiroquai, lionel ritchie, michael jackson, sting, toni braxton, U2....even ABBA. i used to have some ace of base, but that dissappeared. furthermore, i'm not sure if it's "ace of bass" or "ace of base." the first would make more sense (soprano, alto, tenor, bass). however, "ace of bass" looks a lot like a show on the fishing channel. but enough shifty-eyed speculation on "do i listen to 'music x' just to convince myself that i'm cool?" -- it's time to troll p2p for shakira. "hips don't lie" seems to be a popular number, so i'll give that a try. (listen) it includes a lot of wyclef jean's rapping. shakira sounds like she's hinting at soul/r&b, but never quite musters the guts to go all the way there. i'll grab another: "don't bother." (listen) a bit more interesting. the instrumentation sounds like 80's pop, and i'm realizing that shakira's voice sounds a lot like a lower-register version of "the cranberries"'s delores o'riordan's; both singers pull the infamous octave-cracking trick. shakira's voice is also reminiscent of natalie merchant's "bubble-in-the-throat" nasal delivery. but unlike delores's or natalie's, shakira's doesn't have much character or uniqueness. neither does mariah carrey's, but mariah can hit c29 or something (shakira ain't got no range, as far as has been demonstrated), so we give her "technician's leeway", as we might to a lighting-fast guitar player who's backing band cranks out boring, hackneyed rock 'n' roll. i'll sample one more shakira song before i form the beginnings of an answer to whether or not she will come to sweden: "whenever, wherever." i'm going to delete these when i'm done using them for scholarship purposes, in case the RIAA is reading. (listen) it's set to a reggae beat. with this final observation, i draw the conclusion that shakira is a producer's derivation. shakira-music is inoffensive, but it's not so interesting or catchy that i'd glance up as it played over the PA system in the supermarket. a central american pan flute tootles at the end of "whenever, wherever". yeah, shakira is a corporate project; she's probably a robot. i'm glad i mentioned "ace of base" and ABBA a while back, because they're both from sweden, and both generate unapologetic pop music, like shakira. this makes me think a shakira tour would do well to include stockholm (population: 1,239,100). when i think of swedish music, my first thought is of "black metal" (complex, tightly-arranged, almost symphonic heavy metal about thor's warhammer and such, squealed and/or grunted). this is from wikipedia: Sweden is also the home country of many well-respected heavy metal, power metal, death metal, Industrial metal bands and black metal bands, including: "europe"!? must be a different "europe." i have tracks by opeth and meshuggah, but i've sampled many of the above bands before deleting them. many sound similar, especially to the unseasoned ear, but opeth and meshuggah said something special to me. speaking of the intersection of pop and heavy metal, a german once sent me an amazing track which merged, seamlessly, destiny's child's vocals on "independent women" (girl, i didn't know you could get down like that) and fugazi's (anti-corporate post-punk band from washington DC) instrumentation on "waiting room." they blend perfectly. if i had never heard either artist before hearing that song ("independent room"), i would have thought it to be a single released by a talented new group. it's a catchy song, and more than just a novelty. maybe i should be reading up on the culture of sweden rather than swedish black metal bands. It can be noted that Britney Spears had at least one of her early albums produced in Sweden, and so have Bon Jovi and the Backstreet Boys. end of discussion. shakira will come to sweden. |
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