M.I.A made what was probably 2015's most powerful music video with Borders. It was powerful, sleek and one of the most humanist moments of her career to date. It's no coincidence that it has been listed as one of 2015's finest videos - no one else hits as hard for the international community. And no one else is as out there and willing to court the ire as much as she is, which makes anything she does a natural target for criticism. In the video for Borders, which you can see below if you haven't already, M.I.A forces us to look at borders and boundaries from a human perspective. It's populated by a choreographed mass of male refugees who disperse and reform to great effect - the naval arrangement is mind blowing - and powered along by M.I.A's amazing graphic touch. She was after all, a visual artist before she became a genre hopping music act. But M.I.A's graphic touch is what often gets her into trouble - and it's the case here. In the past her mimicry of symbols, slogans and icons have done a lot to help her take her place as one of the current era's most switched on and tuned in artists. But in Borders, she briefly dons a pirated football jersey - the Paris Saint-Germain jersey - adapted as only M.I.A knows how. The video, which has been flowing around for months has outraged the football club. They're convinced that M.I.A's appropriation of the jersey is somehow linking them to the inhumane aspects of the refugee crisis that the world hasn't ever seen the likes of. In a rambling kind of cease and desist letter, they note that as a football team they do so much for the community, that they are confused about how they can be seen to be responsible for the crisis and a whole lot of other blah blah blah - it's all about me - nonsense. It seems that M.I.A's track record with the football industry in general looks to keep continuing on its trajectory. Now that she's outraged the NFL and now the European leagues, what else can we look forward to? As an Australian I hope she can pull of something to get those smug AFL and Rugby leagues to come down off their perch a bit. Then she could probably make it global with a bit more uproar in Asia and South America. Seriously. Does nobody understand irony anymore? Do overpaid legal teams have nothing else left to do? It's M.I.A actually wearing the top that has got people all hot and bothered. I get that we're moving into seriously paranoid waters but can we just get over it? Can we actually celebrate an artist without threatening her with a law suit? Seeing that jersey made me chuckle when I saw it. But clearly I'm an idiot because I should've interpreted it as likening the PSG squad to human barbarians. And how its inclusion in a clip that the mainstream shamefully have been ignoring has the potential to strip and crumble that poor little organisation, sending it into the ground and burying its... oh I can't even be bothered. Watch it here before all the paralegals at Youtube start panicking and start stripping its presence from the web. They may well do that, but they certainly can't strip it of its eloquence.
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We have entered into that terrible window of the year when it becomes the norm to be subjected to Christmas carols. And crap Christmas pop sung by pop acts who caved and went straight down the filthy, hard cash route. You know how some people have a psychological aversion to clowns? Well, I don't have that, but I have a very similar reaction when I have to listen to these kinds of songs. You know, the ones that you find behind the silver/red/white packaging that harp on about peace and good tidings when you know all the singers are thinking about are the dollar signs they can't see past. I think I can trace all of this back to my days in retail, back when I was a university student. I used to have to listen to Mariah damn Carey's original Christmas album on loop, from like, October. The effect? If I hear sleigh bells now, it makes me want to slash the throat of the first reindeer that passes. I don't think that was Carey's intention you know, but we all deal with trauma in our own way. Anyhoo, can something good come out of this kind of thing? Maybe? I mean, the Christmas spirit is strong, and was strong enough to bring Kylie and Dannii together on a record for the first time ever. There are still echelons of the gay gasp being heard in Australia and beyond. That 100 Degrees song sounds like it should've been on the Priscilla soundtrack, so how fitting that it seems to have inspired a drag, flash mob on Sydney's Bondi Beach. Watch it if you're up for a bit of a giggle and enjoy the ongoing Kylie/Dannii 'rivalry'. Have to say it was good for a chuckle, and a timely reminder that Christmas is not about snow, eggnog and mistletoe, but rather, surf, sand and sun! Is it just me or are BRIT acts slowly regaining their supremacy over pop culture again?
It's been a while since we've seen "Britpop" reign, but we've never seen it be, so, well, bipolar. I'm planning on seeing some great Brits over the New Year - Foals, The 1975 and the newly reformed Bloc Party, but in the meantime, I'm keeping my eye on some of the unusual suspects. There's something of the unexpected in the ascendency of Ed Sheeran and Adele in recent years. I think it's something that is quite unique to British culture that old school acts are as celebrated as those on the cutting edge. Two Brit gals have got both spectrums covered right now... I've made no bones about how much I love M.I.A over the years. I think she is the only artist with a mainstream profile that is really invested in what's making the world tick these days. As a result, she always seems one step ahead of the game. She pulled it off with MAYA with what many dismissed about the big brother nature of the Internet and took it even further with the Vickileekx Mixtape. And her recent/current Borders project has consistently been bold and prophetic. While we wait for the accompanying album Matahdatah (are you seeing the connection?) The Atlantic looks into the genius of her new Borders video. Adele defiantly proves that 25 year olds still know what CDs are. The fact that 25 has shattered records around the world and is not available on streaming services makes me think record companies are going to rethink their launch approach in the new year. But don't worry about the fracas about ticket buyers having their details revealed: the world is not ready for an Adele backlash just yet. Briefly on NME here. IN my new novel, Vinyl Tiger, I explore the world of Alekzandr. He starts out as a bit of a musically challenged 80s disco act who needs to rely on his looks and his charm to get ahead. His short term goal is to overcome the stigma of being a disco act or a one hit wonder. But his long term goal is that of being taken seriously as a pop act and making music that is true to his artistry. It's an arc that a lot of acts have to go through. Especially if their roots are firmly lodged in dance or pop music. Some of you might be familiar with Tina Arena. For those that aren't, she's a Melbourne gal who got her first break as a child via Young Talent Time. She's the show's most successful alumni, even if Dannii Minogue also graduated from the weekly variety show. Tina has a pristine, powerful voice. She's capable of bending more than the odd note, and in the mid nineties she worked hard to overcome the stigma of having been both a child star, and a pop act whose biggest (and only real) hit to date had been I Need Your Body. (Search it out on Youtube). After being dropped by her label, in the late nineties she moved into adult oriented pop-rock. And in Australia at least, it was a move that proved crucial in her becoming the most formidable female artist on the scene, thanks to songs like Chains and Sorrento Moon - and their ENDLESS airplay on Australian radio. Her album, Don't Ask moved close to a million copies there alone before it became a hit in a lot of other territories. Back then I was working in the record bar of a department store. Because we were in the city centre we were a bit of a target for the visiting record company reps. I remember one of the old Sony music reps coming in one day when Tina's follow up album In Deep came out and being a little blase about it not doing as well as hoped. In Deep was another smash hit, but was on track to sell about a third of what Don't Ask managed to. Speaking with the rep I had to read between the lines a little. While it was clear In Deep wasn't going to be another million seller, Tina was on her way internationally: rerecording her songs in Italian, Spanish and French. That meant she'd proved her worth to the label. But more importantly for Tina herself, she'd unshackled herself from the chains of the idea that Don't Ask had been a fluke, or that Tina no longer needed to be taken seriously. Tina's subsequent albums never sold anywhere near what those two albums did, but they've kept up her profile over the years, and routinely sell well in Australia. She's onto her eleventh album - Eleven - and although it went straight into the Aussie charts at No.2, she's not the radio staple she once was. In fact, she's seen by some as being something of a legacy act. Why? She's released a couple of cover records (which did pretty well), but for the most part, she has focused on releasing new material. Her previous album, Reset was being touted as a bit of a Ray of Light moment, and although it went platinum, I think the majority of the public wouldn't be able to recognise any of the songs on it. The voice, yes. The songs, no. Why? Well, there's much to be said about the music industry's ageism. While they have no problem championing a 25 by someone as young as Adele, getting behind a project by a woman in her 40s is a tough proposition. We saw the debate about older actresses play out in recent years, but, because pop music is usually a no go area for almost anyone over 40, the theory hasn't been pushed and provoked enough. Last night Arena was inducted into the ARIA (Australian Recording Industry Association) Hall of Fame - and inducted by another 40 something Aussie - Kylie - but it's likely that you haven't heard anything that Kylie has done in years either. Yep. Tick tock, tick tock. Radio is not a place for women in pop after a certain age. WHY? In my novel Vinyl Tiger I play with this idea. I take a look at what it would be like for Alekzandr - who's gay, so therefore his treatment in the industry is in a category on par with that of women - to age in the face of the music industry and in the pop world. It's a bit of a pisstake of the hipocrisy that exists, but the problem is it is very real. But last night, Tina ripped the Australian industry a new asshole. In a fifteen minute speech which earned her a standing ovation, she called out their ageism and noted that Australian radio, despite its local music quotas, still won't get behind her or her ilk. Nor will it get behind other international acts like Madonna, Annie Lennox or, erm, J.Lo, who she name checked - and who are upwards of 40. Sad fact is that, as she noted, it should be the ladies themselves who should decide when the gig is up not fat, balding radio programmers. Tina may have firmly come out on the other side of the pop arc, but, girl's got a whole other battle to fight. Congrats on being inducted. And let's all just get over ourselves regarding age. We need to respect 'older' acts: male or female. Because the best music is timeless. Who doesn't love Adele? She's the kind of lass you'd want to share a pint with and basically hang out with. She has an amazing set of pipes and could sing the phone book. And, there's the bonus that she's likely a bit autistic about numbers. Don't believe me? 19? 21? 25!!! Bingo! Speaking of numbers, Adele has, in the space of three days, sold so many copies of 25 that she has the week's best seller, 2015's biggest selling album - over 2.4 million in the US alone - and, the biggest opening week sales in history. And it's like not even hump day yet. Will be interesting to see how far 25 goes sales wise- but it's good news for some parts of the music industry. They've got their Christmas best seller locked and loaded. Really. There's no point in commenting on the phenomenon that is Adele. And that song Hello. Adele is review and market proof. Hell she IS the music market. She's gonna single handedly rewrite the book on 2015 in the marketplace. And take about two weeks to do it. Hello wasn't even released and there were already memes out there for it. The 30 second snippet set the web on its ear and, like, totally changed the world. Within 24 hours I saw unknowns posting to youtube with their accapella versions of the song. So, 2015's music event has finally been unveiled. Derr, it's Adele's comeback single. And is it just me or does it seem like this album feels like it should be called 28 cos 25 doesn't seem to do justice to the gap between albums. Really, once could go on for hours on all this and take it in a million directions but Michael K at dlisted just does it so well that there's no point. There's even funnier stuff on that post. But I'm such a gentleman that I'm only posting the one screen shot. Kudos to Adele and Michael K especially. He managed to make me feel more nostalgic than ever. But not for Adele. For my old Nokia. I mean, I've missed snake forever, now I'm just thoroughly depressed that my iPhone is not a flip phone. They were great. Especially when you just wanted the satisfaction of ending your phone call with a good slam. Publications like Rolling Stone, NME, Slant, Spin and Sputnik are experts in music. When I find free time I love scanning through the endless "Greatest (Pop) Albums" lists that they produce to see if I agree or to see if I've missed something along the way. As you might know, much of my time has recently been devoted to writing my debut novel. "Vinyl Tiger" is as much about the story of Alekzandr as it is a tribute to pop music, pop culture and to the collaborative spirit that often makes art so powerful. At a certain point, I started to organise the story into chapters that captured the events and spirit of Alekzandr's life as it changed in and around each of the albums he was making. Soon, the idea of writing the book became one of imagining it as the kind of pop album I love listening to. For me a good pop album is full of different things. It can be pulpy or lightweight and still have meaning. A great pop album has moments of fun, its ups and downs, and tracks or moments that pack an emotional punch long after you've finished listening to them. So that became my working goal as I wrote "Vinyl Tiger" and once it was sent off for editing. To make a "great pop album" that is more than just one thing. And because I can't sing to save myself I had to rely on my words to try and achieve those things instead. You can get more information about Vinyl Tiger on the Facebook page or download the first chapter of the novel here. (Just be warned, it's been written for adults, so it's a bit racy people!) Vinyl Tiger will be released on Nov. 16 via Amazon/Kindle. Other formats and platforms to follow. It's available for pre-order here. You've probably not heard this record.
Don't be embarrassed even if you should be ashamed. There are numerous reasons behind you not having heard it. Darren Hayes, the record's creator, is someone you spent most of the nineties listening to, especially if you ever had the radio on during that time. He was one half of Savage Garden, whose record sales were somewhere between the 20 and 30 million mark worldwide, and whose folding allowed Darren to pursue a solo career. At first his debut LP Spin picked up some traction, especially with the lead single Insatiable, on which his vocal seemed uncannily Michael Jackson like at times. Spin didn't change the world, but it did permit him to make a follow up, The Tension and the Spark, which to my mind was a great album, and one which allowed Darren to mess around with his sound, be more tortured, and lay the groundwork for his more textured and dramatic music that would later follow. The super slick radio hit maker was no more: he was more likely to be working with Marius De Vries et al and playing around with electronica and old synths. Vocally, Darren is the kind of the guy who could sing the phone book and have you enthralled. Check out his version of Madonna's Ray of Light to get an inkling of how amazing he is in front of a mic stand. But why is it that This Delicate Thing We've Made and Darren's other solo output have rarely received the kind of attention that his (comparatively inferior) Savage Garden work did? Well for one thing, Darren's solo work has rarely been as straightforward and pop radio friendly as his Savage Garden work was. This, coupled with his battle with his sexuality and the difficulty facing gay acts in the nineties and the turn of the millennium, made for a muted audience and press reception for his work. Additionally, the freedom of releasing This Delicate Thing We've Made, his double disc opus of 2007 through his own label, also meant that he didn't have the same kind of major label resources at his disposal to promote his work to wider audiences. It's a shame, because in my opinion, TDTWM is one of the few double albums that consistently holds its tone and only rarely missteps. The music is sophisticated, full of intriguing melodies and the lyrics are always poignant and expressive. It's a seamless meeting of personal honesty, reflection and sci/fi fantasy styled story telling that creates a detailed picture of Darren's histories and state of mind rather than the expressive but wider brush strokes of Savage Garden's material. One of the recurring themes on the album is the idea of going back in time to change the end outcomes. I remember listening to the album and being completely caught up in the idea at the time. How to Build a Time Machine sets up the paradox of going back to times of cherished memories and heartbreaking moments, armed with the self awareness that only time and experience can bestow on us. Casey takes us back again, but without the insanity and fear: it's poignant and sad, but radiating a warmth that thaws out the icy strings and synths. Sinister memories reach their apex with Neverland, in which the young Darren imagines topping his father with a toaster in the bathtub. It's wonky pop: a seductive pop melody providing the background to some of the most brutal recollections on the album. Even in his Savage Garden days, Darren's skill with balladry was already peerless, and on TDTWM there's room and scope for some gorgeous, lush ballads beyond the trips back in time. The trilogy of Sing to Me, The Only One and The Tuning of Violins, give you the sense that his recent marriage at the time did much to restore his romantic's heart. After all, as Darren points out on Who Would Have Thought, nobody tells us "that a heart is like a deep deep freeze/so many lies/ so much of it broken". Being a double album, there's also still scope to explore his other side, and that side, the electronica-dance loving Darren, crafts some equally impressive moments. The 1983 Fairlight synth is impossibly modern on songs like Me, Myself and I and the dance chart hit, Step Into The Light which also received the full remix treatment. So many elements conspired against the commercial success of this album, and perhaps we're moving into a time when sexuality and indie labels are no longer the barriers they once were. But gems like this one deserve a relistening, and if you've got the time, take the full journey back and listen to both discs before you try hunting down Darren's subsequent side project We Are Smug and his subsequent return to pop form Secret Codes and Battleships. So, Janet Jackson has announced that she's making a comeback. I don't know if a new Janet Jackson project has the potential to do anything other than preach to the already converted. And even then her parishioners aren't what they once were. Her last few projects seemed to come and go without contributing all that much to her legacy, which I think is based on her amazing work from the late 80s/nineties. But that said, I feel we've come to the point in pop where everything feels so cynical and lightweight, and even the possibility of a new Janet Jackson album seems almost groundbreaking. These days it seems that if we want something that is not middle of the road from the current bushel of talent show grads and stock standard label acts, then we have to fund it ourselves. Innovation doesn't seem to be what it once was nor what we're much interested in these days. Don't get me wrong, that Style song was great, but I fear that we're not about celebrating music that moves things forward anymore. I think Taylor Swift and her album's success is a modern take on what someone like Shania Twain once represented. Wholesome, corporate entertainment than doesn't challenge you in any real way, and that you can find something to like or admire even if it's not your cup of tea. Not the kind of thing that will make you switch the channel in disgust. The great thing about Janet was that at her peak, she was in the middle of a creative and chart rivalry with Madonna who was the flip side of the same coin. It's gonna be interesting to see if Janet's work is received any differently to that of Madonna's recent work, and if she finds a wider market for it in a way that Madonna hasn't been able to. Madge and JJ were their label's most prized possessions but, rather than aim for pure commercial supremacy, their rivalry seemed to push one another into newer territories while experimenting with the scope of what pop music could be and do. As much as the press seems to pit the current generation of it girls against each other, I don't feel that they are forced to acknowledge each other in any other way other than commercially or socially. Madge and JJ's rivalry was as much about targets as it was about overcoming their limitations as talents. I don't feel like the current crop of pop acts is forced to perform to the kind of exacting level that they were forced to. Few pop artists are being rewarded these days for innovation. And let's face it, in recent years pop has been a ladies' game. With the exception perhaps of Beyonce's last album, few of the top solo female acts have really been pushed to do anything that JJ and Madge did in their prime. Back then, everything rested on a strong album full of potential singles. These days, albums seem to be constantly repackaged and added to, meaning that six months' down the track they are unrecognisable and only ever a means to an end. I'm not saying that there aren't any amazing pop acts around, but if you look at who's making great pop today, it's not built around the last wave of innovation that we saw at the end of the 'oughties. Back then, Robyn, Santigold, M.I.A, Kelis and Róisín Murphy seemed to be redefining what pop could mean at the time. Even Goldfrapp and Lady Gaga were adding something sophisticated to pop and leading people to emulate in the process. The tragedy seems that we've regressed from that point and are now more interested in the middle of the road than what lies beyond. Is it just me or is it more formulaic than it has been for a long time? And if you're not following the formula, you've got zero chance in hell to get any exposure today. Case in point: Róisín Murphy. She's back you know. Imagine the lack of surprise to see that her new album, Hairless Toys has arrived and nobody's paying any attention. She's not ever been one to break open to the masses, but she has consistently made amazing music back since her Moloko days and she's the kind of innovator whose ideas were further poppified (I think I just invented that word) and streamlined for the masses. People were slow in catching onto Overpowered, her last studio album, but when it dropped some eight years ago it was chock full of amazing, pop friendly tracks. The single You Know Me Better, with its Cindy Sherman tribute video was one of my favourites at the time and criminally ignored by the masses, but if you had your ear to what was happening, you could see that Roisin in many ways was like a new Grace Jones. Smart, a great vocalist, and that one of a kind avant-guard artist who wasn't afraid to put it all out there. She remains a living gallery act who also happens to be amazing live. From first listens of Hairless Toys, I think she's still unafraid to put it all out there, and yet it seems to be a fearlessness that doesn't translate over to the masses. A shame cos we definitely need to fight the fight for people like her. Watch the lead single from the new album and tell me that its not unlike anything you've heard before and ten times more sophisticated than anything else you're going to this year until the pop acts catch up to her next year. In the last few weeks there has been a global outpouring of grief, disbelief and resignation to Whitney Houston's death. At her best Whitney was as beautiful as a model, a singer without peer and fascinating both during her significant prime and then seemingly endless self destruction. The power of music is that it often provides a backdrop to our lives, and if you think about Whitney Houston and consider that commercially she had an almost unassailable decade at the top (1985-1994), its not unusual to expect that a legacy from those years will remain. But the fact is that Whitney, compared to many of her peers and contemporaries, was often an inferior artist in the overall sense, notwithstanding those amazing vocals from the first half of her career. Whitney was a consummate singer, a chanteuse who was at her best delivering icy ballads, and for years nobody from her generation could even think to compare vocally. This however was something of a trap for her and her management who repeatedly steered her catalogue towards middle of the road, formulaic muzak. Unfortunately, much of what Whitney recorded dated very quickly, is often questionable in relation to subject matter (did feminists ever take umbrage in her song choices?) and aside from her sometimes gritty vocals is the kind of schmaltz that is best left back in the 1980s and 1990s. The phenomenal success of The Bodyguard soundtrack is a case in point. The movie and soundtrack were unequivocal successes, the songs mere showcases for her vocal abilities, but twenty years on act more like old photos to mark a time that has passed rather than attest to any enduring significance. That these songs so completely dominated the airwaves between 1992 and 1994, racking up record breaking sales and chart successes would prove to be a mixed blessing for Whitney. In a way, The Bodyguard was like a greatest hits album. Once its been released, it somehow marks a decline in the fortunes of the rest of a performer's career. Commercially, this was definitely the case for Whitney; where she once dominated the US charts, the week after her death marked the first time twelve years that she had reached the US Top 40. Once the 1990s rolled out, we began to see the beginnings of the demise of her vocals for well documented reasons, but Whitney's music also became more interesting. My Love Is Your Love was one of the first credible steps she took towards RnB, after mixed attempts through the 80s How Will I Know, I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me) and 90s I'm Your Baby Tonight, My Name Is Not Susan did little to suggest that she was more than a vocalist on alternatively bubblegum and more generic attempts at RnB and New Jill Swing. Later releases such as I Look To You hid occasional gems (Call You Tonight) amongst more of the same attempts at balladry, HipHop and RnB stylings, but without the voice we loved so much, Whitney didn't have much else to offer us, and as such, her reality TV fate was sealed. Have a listen to her Greatest Hits album...see if you can sit through all those ballads and not squirm uncomfortably, or wonder what the hell the neighbours are thinking of you. |
Dave
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Dave Di Vito is a writer, teacher and former curator.He's also the author of the Vinyl Tiger series and Replace The Sky.
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