I read a forum post by someone stating that Miley Cyrus was going to be bigger than: The Beatles, Madonna, Elvis and Michael Jackson… Combined. The dude was twenty-nine and completely off his rocker. Okay so here’s the thing, I don’t mind “Party in the USA”. The video is lifeless though, as are most non-Lady Gaga videos are (more on her soon). “Party in the USA” though, call it what you will but it’s a fun dance song, it’s not meant to be anything deep, if you want deep go listen to your National or Arcade Fire albums. That’s not what this is all about. Every few years pop music has a whole new set of stars that rise and fall at will with a fickle audience that eventually “grows up” and becomes a bunch of whiney, emo, “i’ve always loved indie music” teenagers. I’ve seen the trend in the last twenty-seven years. New Kids on the Block (they had a bunch of hits, and no chinese food doesn’t make me sick), ‘N Sync, Backstreet Boys, Spice Girls, 98 Degrees, Britney Spears, Mandy Moore, Christina Aguilera, and insert anyone I might have missed from the late 90′s, and now Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez, Demi Lovato, The Jonas Brothers (I will always state that Nick is the talented one, Nick Jonas and the Administration is actually really good), insert Disney/Nickelodeon star here.
Okay so that covers just a small portion of the hit list right now, we still have Taio Cruz, Iyaz, Jason Derulo, Jay Sean and a dozen or more similarly named artists. They all have a few songs that are truly fun but when it comes down to it, it’s like the 1950’s all over again, a bunch of singles an album does not make. Rewind about thirty-five years, through the late 70’s the album ruled, sure there were singles off those albums but they only told part of the story. Here’s what you do, go hunt down your copy or your parents copy of Fleetwood Mac’s beautiful album “Rumors” and put it on, either in iTunes, CD player, record player, 8-Track, it doesn’t matter as long as you can listen to it. Now listen to it all the way through. You’ll notice the big hits “Go Your Own Way”, “The Chain” and “Don’t Stop”, but in between those tracks you’ll notice much, much more. The telling of a successful band that wasn’t always so successful, who had all kinds of inner problems, demons, relationship issues and more. The entire album tells the Fleetwood Mac Saga. Now go put on Taio Cruz’s “Rokstarr” album and tell me what you hear. This isn’t to say that there isn’t passion in modern day pop music, quite the contrary, most of the aforementioned musicians/artists put plenty of heart and soul into their songs, but only one or two songs at a time, not a full album. If you want to hear a full album full of meaning you have to become that indie kid I talked about earlier and go find albums by The National, The Gaslight Anthem, Arcade Fire or some band along those lines.
Will Miley Cyrus or Justin Bieber ever create anything as lasting as Fleetwood Mac? The chances are very slim. Cyrus has never actually had a number one hit single, neither her nor her Disney show alter-ego Hanna Montana. (According to Wikipedia anyway.) Funnily enough neither has Bieber, for all the fever (ha!) he creates, with the exception of France, where “Baby” was a number one hit. As I write this the number one song in the country via Billboard is Eminem’s “Love the Way You Lie”, Eminem has been around for over ten years now, has grown lyrically (sorta) and with “Recovery” his latest album has released one of the best albums of his career. Eminem will go down in history as being one of the biggest rappers, he was a game changer, he was/is white in a predominately black genre, he joins the ranks of The Beastie Boys as musicians and artists that have last longer than one novelty single (“Fight for Your Right to Party” and “The Real Slim Shady” respectively). Eminem has pissed a lot of people off in his time in the industry, he’s created a lot of ruckus but he’s still making music and people are generally interested in what he has to say next. “Lose Yourself” might go down as the single song that changed the course of his career, sure “Stan” was serious and had the lovely Dido sampled on the track but it was still full of youthful anger. “Lose Yourself” was truly a grown up song for him. We’ve seen stars like Miley come along before and yes at that young age, Mandy Moore was fourteen when she released “Candy” and has completely reinvented herself as a mostly talented actress. Hilary Duff is probably the closest thing I had to Miley growing up, she had her own show, a music career and was everywhere. Then she left the show and her music career pretty much tanked and what do we remember her for now? Showing up on ‘Gossip Girl’ for a few episodes. Disney stars have a shelf life and with the exception of Justin Timberlake they actually reach it and then are tossed out as the next generation of kids find a new tween star to latch on to.
Sure Britney Spears and Christina are still recording, but lets be honest they aren’t a threat to anyone really. Then we have the anomaly that is known as Lady Gaga. “Just Dance” has been out for two years now and with every single her popularity keeps growing. Her power keeps growing, she’s been called this generations Madonna and I’d have to agree, I don’t want to like her, much like I don’t want to like Jersey Shore but like Jersey Shore they’re both entertaining in the weirdest ways. Lady Gaga’s songs are what every single pop artist tries to achieve, catchy and infectious. I dare anyone to throw “Bad Romance” on and not want to sing along or have it stuck in your head for days afterwards. Much like Snooki and her poof they’ll be ingrained in your head like some sort of weird pop culture demon. And for the record there is absolutely nothing that Beyonce adds to “Telephone” and Quentin Tarantino should’ve directed that video not Jonas Akerlund, it’s too glossy, to refined and considering it uses the truck (Yes the you know what Wagon) from Kill Bill and pays “homage” to QT flicks he should’ve just directed it. That aside, I’m interested to see what Lady Gaga will do next, Madonna turned to acting, she turned serious (“Like a Prayer” anyone?) and she was good at it. For the longest time Madonna could not be touched by anyone, until now. Now she’s considered old and a representative of a different culture and generation, a Pepsi vs. Coke, MTV generation. Lady Gaga is representative of the YouTube, Red Bull, iPhone vs Droid generation (remember the time that AT&T was pretty much your only choice?). Music goes through changes and every so often we need a new figurehead to lead the way, Madonna lead the way for the longest time, along with Michael Jackson, so I suppose the question lends itself to be asked, who will be this generation’s Michael Jackson? Will we see one? Probably not and probably for the best, there’s no denying the amount of talent that Michael had, whatever you thought of his personal life (I’d make a Jersey Shore reference but lets face it, not even The Situation has any talent for, well anything) he was a force to be reckoned with (much like Ronnie! bazinga!).
All of this is to say that it’s alright to be in your upper twenties, almost thirty and listen to this music. Why? Because it’s fun, we all want a little fun in our daily lives right? Something that will lift our spirits, pop music has that power, no matter how cheesy. How dorky do you get when “Sugar, Sugar” by The Archies comes on? Who doesn’t dance along to “Thriller”? And who doesn’t shake their hips like yeah with Miley when she Parties in the USA?
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