Wednesday, July 1, 2009
music Finding substantial girl pop in the Web vortex
Posted by Amy Atkins on Wed, Jul 1, 2009 at 12:39 PM
The proliferation of Lady GaGa videos on MTV or VH1 (I can never remember which one actually shows music videos any more) indicates a trend of interesting, up-and-coming female pop singers on the scene.
Lady's danceable beats and The Jetsons-meets-Xanadu fashion sense makes her fun to watch—the zippered eye-patch and LED sunglasses are pretty damn cool. Too bad her sometimes mind-numbing lyrics are made all the more so by their monotony. "My my my poker face" makes me want to smash something. And somebody give her a quarter already so she can ride that disco stick.
A few young women on the scene, however, are combining avant garde looks and stylish video concepts with more thoughtful lyrics. The songs are no less poppy but more entertaining for their substance.
A friend sent me a link to a Marina & The Diamonds video for "Obsessions," which led to "I Am Not A Robot," a video in which body makeup plays as large a role as the comely singer—who looks like a cross between Amy Winehouse and Kelly Clarkson—but whose lyrics don't take a back seat to her style.
A little research on Marina led to the discovery of Brit-pop duo La Roux and singer Elly Jackson's front-heavy mohawk and I've been desk dancing to "Bulletproof" all day.
Little Boots, another British electro-pop singer, popped up in conjunction with a La Roux search. The 20-something's talent is clear from the get go, but listen to the live version (above), the bedroom version and the produced version of "Meddle" and see that her ingenuity is as much a part of her music as the music itself.
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Lady GaGa has never (and will never) sing the line 'my my my pokerface'
Please go check the lyrics for the pokerface chorus. While your at it read through the whole song. You'll actually find out what you believe to be superficial lyrics are actually meaningfull and imbedded, as for your comments about her hooks being monotonous, I think the word your looking for is catchy. And I'm not the only one who feels that way, considering pokerface remained at the top of the charts for months. Seriously to fact check before you publish. And stay away from gaga.
LOL @ the shit they call news these days...
Nope, I think monotonous was exactly the word she was looking for.
She has other songs with strong lyrics as well - Paper Gangsta and Papparazzi come to mind. She also shows quite a sense of humor - "How'd I turn my shirt inside out (background "Inside out, right)" on Just Dance cracks me up. She sings Paper Gangsta and Brown Eyes with her New Joisy accent, and does nice piano work as well. Yes, she's fun to watch, and fun to hear and consider as well.
YAWN....Really???? Why would someone bother to fact check a one hit wonder? She should be lucky to get any press at this stage in the game."Ga Ga" will be "GONE GONE" before you know it. Wake me up after she "GO GO's"...
the irony in the first set of comments is likely lost on "Andrew Ga Ga," but I, for one, got a giggle.
Amy i'll always work on keeping you in the loop when it comes to up and comers, thats a promise!
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