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saucylittlesmile · 1 year

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Saucy I'm reading this interview with Rettstatt and I'm fuming. It seems to me that what they're doing is trying to make ice dance as meme-able, as tiktok-y as possible. It's like they're catering to a general crowd that isn't invested in skating at the end of the day at the expense of the long-time fans. We have an over-saturation of pop or should we say "low" culture rn. Personally I watch skating to see something more elevated once in a while too. "Open hold" is my supervillain origin story.

I tracked down the interview for a read myself (via google translate). (Of all people it’s Rettstatt…… 🙄)

I don’t mind the idea of the theme so much. The OD and the SD were based on themes - that’s how VM skated to ‘the 20’s’ in 2008/2009 (and the options included the 30s and 40s too!) and how we ended up with programs as diverse as Samuelson/Bates hoe down and Davis/White’s Bollywood and VM’s Farrucas and yet also the hideous Domnina/Shabalin monstrosity in 2009/2010, all under an umbrella of ‘folk/country’. While the 80s as a theme is new, the 80s itself is both forty years in the past and experiencing a resurgence in popularity. Appealing to younger skaters and audiences isn’t in itself a bad thing; without either of them, the sport ceases to exist after all. And while obviously ice dance’s origins were based on ballroom, I don’t mind that they’re exploring other styles of dance.

Where my personal irk with the current trend of ice dance lies is with the removal of difficulty and technique. Not all themes or styles will lend themselves to closed holds or partnering, but then, not all ballroom dances translated well to the ice either; but to discard the importance of holds and step sequences and replace them with things like ‘character!!!’ or sliding on the ice or insisting they stop in place to dance, rather than expecting skaters to be able to actually skate (together) is what is destroying ice dance to me. It can take a creative choreographer and certainly not all skaters will be able to achieve outstanding programs, but that’s why it gets marked.

I took out some of the translated quotes:

Moreover, we do not set strict limits: let it be Madonna, Michael Jackson, Cyndi Lauper or the duet “Wham!”. Different countries had their own popular music at that time - and that's great. After all, the main thing is to get a truly dance program. If the skaters have chosen a composition that the judges or the public do not perceive as dancing, then they made a mistake with the choice.

Therefore, even if we hear a song for the first time, but it is from the 80s and it is danceable (because we are talking about rhythm dance with you, let's not forget about it) - it will be understood and felt everywhere, I'm sure of it .

Depending on any other requirements the ISU decides upon, there could indeed be a crazy range of program music and vibe. But there are already rules in place about how any music must have a rhythm/beat (including specifying that classical music has a beat), so unless he’s trying to imply that everyone needs to have a program that will have the audience bopping in their seats, or else it isn't ‘danceable’ is a weird take.

Of course, they [coaches] are fully included in this process - especially this year. We started discussions at the beginning of autumn and have been exchanging views on this matter for almost half a year.

For example, one of the innovations in rhythm dance for the next season is a response to a request from athletes and coaches. We had quite a long meeting in the series “this was great, but this didn’t work at all.”

I was hoping this was about the lack of a pattern, but then he went on to talk about juniors, and then finally this:

Adult dancers won't have this [version of junior suggestion]?

No. Although we also prepared something new for them - a choreographic element of a dance pattern (in the original Pattern Dance Choreographic Element - Sports.ru). I emphasize once again: for now, these are only suggestions, it has not been officially approved, but in fact, we will return to the rhythm dance the pattern that everyone is used to.

The only thing is that it will not necessarily be evaluated by levels. Let's put it this way: most likely it will have to be perceived by the judges as a choreo element. So we are preparing something new; let's see how it will be in practice.

That is, this season in rhythm dance we have a choreo track, next season there will be something like a choreo pattern, and then we can decide what to keep from it. We will have the experience of two seasons - and we will get the reaction directly from the dancers and their coaches. It is important for us to hear their opinion: what was more interesting for them to do from a choreographic point of view.

Aside from me being a little confused, how I’m reading that is basically - a return to how the judges used to mark the compulsory dances, which in theory was how well it was done, but in reality was ordinal judging, aka the ‘we liked it better’ or any other cynical version of judging. On on hand, it would at least in part return us to patterns, but on the other, it seems like just another step backwards and downwards into judging that has little to do with what happening with blade on ice.

Before that, we heard many times that juniors (and their coaches) like the pattern and they would like to keep it - because it helps to develop skills, but adult skaters … I won’t say that they are against it, but they didn’t like the level system on pattern because it limited their creativity and imagination.

I mean, the weird thing about the pattern as it was in the short/rhythm dance, is that it focused so much on a few specific pieces - an edge, a turn - and cared to little about the rest, that I don’t blame the skaters for not enjoying training it. But seeing the state of the senior skaters coming through, I’d say that they still need to work on those skills. :/

– You and your colleagues go to all the official trainings of dancers during tournaments. For what? At training sessions for single skaters, for example, you will not always meet judges.

It's interesting that you asked about this - because we just started discussing with colleagues whether it is necessary for us to do this, haha.

In fact, representatives of the panel of judges and the chief referee of the competition do not just sit at official training. We need to know what elements this or that duet is going to perform so that in the competitive box office we have an understanding of how it should look in the idea. This helps when setting levels per element.

And even this does not always save us, by the way: sometimes on the day of the competition we are in for surprises - we still see some elements for the first time. At the same time, the technical panel should evaluate not the original idea, but what it sees in competitive box office.

Tessa was talking about this a bit recently, in that she and Scott deliberately chose to attend more practices in regular gear rather than costumes and to avoid having the hair and make up that go with it (of course even more for the women).

But yes, it’s good for the judges to know what to expect, when, in a program, but it’s pretty sad he has to specify that judges should be marking what is competed, rather than on what they did in practice, lok - it’s almost like momentum and reputation are issues in figure skating .🙄

#ask

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lovejustforaday · 1 year

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2022 Year End List - #6

Once Twice Melody - Beach House

Main Genres: Dream Pop, Indie Pop, Neo-Psychedelia

A decent sampling of: Ethereal Wave, Synth Pop, Shoegaze, Indietronica

Can’t believe that it’s taken me this long to do a Beach House review. I mean, just look at the record I’m holding in my profile pic. It’s about damn time, I’ll say.

For those not in the know, Beach House are a dream pop duo based out of Baltimore, Maryland. There is guitarist Alex Scally and vocalist/keyboardist Victoria Legrand, both primary songwriters.

Beach House is known for largely leading the wave of renewed interest in dream pop amongst a whole new generation in the 2010s, and it’s safe to say that they’re probably one of the three or four biggest names in indie rock of the last decade. Hell, there’s footage on YouTube of frigging Beyoncé and Jay Z vibing in the audience at one of their shows at Coachella.

Beach House’s typical sound is marked by the following: warm retro organs, slide guitars, minimalist drum machine beats, a generous amount of reverb, Legrand’s earthy but soft contralto vocals, poignant and sentimental lyrics, and of course, major viiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiibes.

Alex and Victoria are notable as artists for their clear dedication to developing their signature sound organically, opting to explore new avenues of their sonic palette here and there rather than reinventing themselves entirely. Yes, the essential components and formula of the Beach House record have remained largely the same from the band’s self-titled debut all the way up until now. Yet, at the same time, the band has evolved in a multitude of ways, and each of their albums manages to sound quite distinct from each other despite maintaining similar base elements.

I, for one, really admire that Beach House treats their albums more like different expressions of a persisting musical approach, like an artist using the same paint brush and many of the same colours to create very different paintings. Using their essential components, Beach House have created records that range anywhere in sound from the expansive, youthful wanderlust of Teen Dream to the cozy, elegant melancholy of Depression Cherry and the cool, hypnotic twilight of 7.

I also greatly admire the firm stance that Alex and Victoria have taken in that they will continue to make the music that they love, exactly as they would like to, largely removed from the context of their time. It helps that the band has a very loyal following, and as an aside, are generally some of the coolest people you will ever meet.

But I digress. What to make of their latest record? Well...

Once Twice Melody is the most ornate, maximalist, and monumental album of Beach House’s discography thus far. The record takes on a distinctly fairytale aesthetic, with glittering, majestic arpeggios and glissandos, more string arrangements than the band has ever previously incorporated, and a sense of regal polish that defines the mastering and production. The album is divided into (and was released as) four separate 'chapters', much like a storybook. This is probably why it is also Beach House’s longest record to date, almost 1.5 times as long as their next longest record Bloom.

Chapter one opens with the title track "Once Twice Melody", which heralds the beginning of an enchanting dream, with prancing chimes that dance around like flashing colours behind closed eyes. It becomes immediately apparent that Beach House are looking to deliver something more mythical and epic on this record, and “Once Twice Melody” more than exceeds in setting that tone.

If Beach House’s now-signature "Space Song" off of Depression Cherry was a song fixed among the stars and floating in tranquility, then Once Twice Melody's “Superstar” is a rocket preparing for blast off, with all of the necessary fanfare in the form of arena rock melodies, exuberant orchestral strings, and a soaring bridge that leads into a gravity-defying outro. It is the most massive sound the band has yet achieved, beating out even “10 Mile Stereo” and “Irene” in its sheer sonic magnitude.

“Pink Funeral” is an unearthly paradise of a song, like watching a rain of shooting stars turn into colourful puffy smoke clouds. The whole thing washes over the listener in a beautiful unicorn shade of neo-psychedelia.

Chapter two features “ESP” as a slow, teary-eyed dream pop serenade with earnest strings, cushiony in sound and immaculately compassionate in its atmosphere, as if trying to alleviate all the misunderstandings in life. Victoria Legrand demonstrates her knack for imparting simple truths with the simple but brilliant lyrical motif “What everybody knows / Not everybody shows”. Another one of the highest highs on the record.

Marked by a fluffy feel-good melody, bright sparkly synths, and a steady hi-hat drum machine beat, “New Romance” is essentially a lost Bloom track. I don’t mean this in a bad way, mind you; it’s actually one of the best cuts off the album, and it makes feel incredibly nostalgic for the summer when I first started listening to Beach House.

Chapter three’s greatest highlight is “Masquerade", a dark and dreamy labyrinth of electronic ethereal wave. Very cool sci-fi-meets-gothic sound, not entirely unlike a Depeche Mode song. Somewhat of an occult anthem for a mysterious, morally ambiguous heroine, and I absolutely love it.

The final fourth chapter and record itself closes with “Modern Love Stories”, a cinematic and flourishing dream pop ballad that climaxes, and then dissolves into an acoustic guitar melody that flies off into the night sky of an open desert highway. I could (and will) point out that it gives off quite a similar impression as an album closer to 7′s “Last Ride”, albeit with a much less depressing, more uplifting spirit. Either way, it’s still gorgeous in its own right, and “Last Ride” remains my favourite Beach House closer, so I'm more than happy that they did it again.

As for my one real critique of the record, all I can say is this: Front. Loaded. Chapters one and two are significantly more consistent than chapters three and four. Then again, I can’t say I would prefer the album to be edited down; the whole point of this record is clearly that it is meant to be Beach House’s ginormous opus album, and I appreciate the concept and wouldn’t want to change that.

And this is still Beach House we’re talking about, a band who outmatches about 99% of all bands when it comes to consistent quality. Likewise, talking about the consistency between tracks on a Beach House record is really like splitting hairs at the end of the day, although its frontloadedness is still plainly noticeable to me.

Regardless, I will always be thrilled for another new Beach House record. This might not really even be my second or third favourite project by them, but Once Twice Melody must be acknowledged for the landmark album that it has become in the band’s discography. It is great to see that eight albums in, Alex and Victoria are feeling more adventurous than ever before. A highly recommended listen for anyone looking to lose themselves in a lush fantasy world.

9/10

Highlights: “Superstar”, “ESP”, "Pink Funeral", “New Romance”, “Masquerade”, "Once Twice Melody", “Modern Love Stories”, “Runaway”, “Through Me”, “Sunset”, “Many Nights”

#beach house #once twice melody #indie pop #dream pop #neo-psychedelia #2022 #aoty #list #year end list #best music #album review #music review

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sleeperagentclone · 3 days

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@figsandphiltatos Tagged me!

shuffle your on repeat playlist (on spotify) and list the first 10 songs and then tag 10 people

1. Roses are Falling by Orville Peck

OOOOH BOY. So like I have a very vivid imagination and a very good minds eye and for years I have been plagued with visions when listening to this song. *Exterior, wild west, sunset* A cowboy stands smoking a cigarette and watching the sunset, back to his companion who is rummaging through a saddle bag "I guess they say nobodies perfect" The second cowboy turns "But they've never" aims his revolver at the first cowboy "Met a devil" cocks the gun "like you" a single gunshot rings out across the prairie. Anyway I can't fucking draw so now I'm writing a book about outlaw lesbians in the wild west who have a totally normal and fun time and nothing bad happens to either of them, I promise

2. Miss Chatelaine - Iron Hoof Remix by k. d. land and Orville Peck

Imma be real with you, never heard this song before in my life, I have been shuffling Orville Pecks entire discography recently while working on aforementioned book and I've definitely fallen asleep to it, so I guess it played than. It's good, I like it

3. Brick By Boring Brick by Paramore

I am too shy to tag people in this but I will tag @ribbittrobbit because I've been listening to their Crisis of Faeth playlist and I doubt this will be the only song from it making an appearance. Absolute banger of a playlist, absolute banger of a song

4. Seven Nation Army By The White Stripes

What did I fucking say, another Crisis of Faeth song! Fucking love The White Stripes and this is undoubtedly a classic. Fun fact I was at the thrift store a couple of weeks ago and found a White Stripes funko pop set for probably at least half as much as it would be new

I normally think funko pops of just full on real people of a little odd but I had to fucking do it

Other fun fact, to me Gorgug is very Meg White coded, widely considered one of the greatest drummers of a generation but steps out of the limelight because performing just isn't for them

5. I Don't Care - single version by Fallout Boy

Say it with me now, Crisis of Faeth! Listen to it! I like never on purpose listen to Fallout Boy but I was a teenager in the 2010's so I do love Fallout Boy

6. Dead of Night by Orville Peck

I love Orville Peck, I have a pinterest board that's just outfit inspiration for if I ever get to go to one of his shows

7. Dancing on My Own by The Regrettes

Besides being another Crisis of Faeth song, all of The Regrettes song are so fucking Fig Faeth coded to me, like nearly a 4th of my Figayda playlist is The Regrettes because they just sound exactly like something Fig would write about Ayda

8. Satanist by boygenuis

Crisis of Faeth also finally forced me to listen to boygenuis, and I can almost listen to them without having an existential about Lucy Dacus now so 👍👍👍

9. Summertime by Orville Peck

It's extremely unfair that none of the other Orville Peck songs that remind me of my outlaw lesbians come up, like it's a great song, but, come on man

10*. Fences by Paramore

Fucking love Paramore dude, Haley Williams is truly one of the greatest vocalists of a fucking generation and they put on an incredible fucking show (The only thing that could ever get me to go to a music festival is Paramore, I would love to see them live but I know they tend to do some like flashing effects so a dark venue would not be ideal for my epileptic ass) (This is also a Crisis of Faeth song)

*I cheated on this one because the real 10th one was a song Orville Peck featured on that I just don't like very much so I skipped it

#Things I've been listening to on repeat that spotify didn't want to talk about: I know it's today from the Shrek musical soundtrack #Which was actually the first song on my unshuffled on repeat playlist #And I've been listening to a lot of vintage lady jazz vocalists #I don't think I've ever been tagged in one of these before!#Thank you ☺️#Also I swear I listen to smaller artists

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mykpopwire · 2 months

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media release: KOREAN-AMERICAN SINGER, SONGWRITER, POP SENSATION, VOCAL DIVA, AILEE, SET TO DAZZLE FANS WITH HER FIRST SOUTH EAST ASIA SOLO CONCERT IN MALAYSIA

Malaysia, are we ready for this K-Pop powerhouse? With bated breath, frenzied excitement and high adrenalin pumping, fans across South East Asia and Malaysia have much to celebrate come June 22nd as international K-pop phenomenon, AILEE, revs up to mesmerise Malaysian fans with her much anticipated first solo concert in Kuala Lumpur.

Ailee is an American singer and songwriter based in South Korea. Praised and adored by her global fans for her empowering, magnetic and engaging stage performances and high-octane vocal prowess, Ailee, also called Queen of OST’ has smashed more than 30 original soundtracks on the charts till date. Making her undeniably a mega star in South Korea.

Ailee has won four consecutive Mnet Asian Music Awards for Best Female Vocal Performance’ from 2013 to 2016, with "U&I," "Singing Got Better," "Mind Your Own Business," and "If You," respectively. Her 2017 single, "I Will Go to You Like the First Snow," recorded for the soundtrack of the television drama series Guardian: The Lonely and Great God, won several awards and was the most digitally successful song of the year, becoming the best-selling record in movies and dramas in the Korean sound record market.

Starting her singer career as a 16-year-old, the K-pop star has since released four studio albums, 26 music videos, six extended plays (Eps) and twenty-three singles, six of which charted within the top five of the Gaon Digital Chart.

Following a short stint at Muzo Entertainment in New York City, Ailee moved to South Korea in 2010. Debuting with her first single "Heaven,” in 2012 which peaked at No 3 on the Gaon Digital Chart, Ailee earned her Best New Artist Award’ at the Melon Music Awards, followed by Golden Disc Awards, Gaon Chart K-Pop Awards, and Seoul Music Awards.

Touted as the Beyonce of South Korea’ for her high energy dynamic stage presence and power vocals combined with fierce songs focused on female empowerment, Ailee has cemented her status as one of the most captivating performers in the K-Pop industry. Her crown of achievements also includes winning 11 trophies at the very popular TV programme series for vocalists `Immortal Song Diva,’ with nine wins for the series and two wins at the finale King of Kings.

Ailee’s first solo concert in Malaysia thus marks a significant milestone in her illustrious career, as she brings her infectious energy and chart-topping hits to fans in the region. With a string of chart-toppers and numerous accolades under her dainty belt, the K-Pop Powerhouse has captured the hearts of millions around the globe, and now Malaysian fans will have a taste of her unmatched talent up close and personal. From powerful ballads to infectious dance tracks, her diverse musical repertoire promises something for everyone, guaranteeing an unforgettable night for fans of all ages.

Excited to present Ailee, I AM: HERE in Kuala Lumpur, Chief Executive Officer, of LOL Asia, Rizal Kamal states,

“We are thrilled to be working with Ailee on her first solo concert here in Malaysia, not just in promoting the show, but producing creatively as well. Ailee is an incredibly talented artiste, and a role model to a generation of K-Pop music lovers. We are confident that her concert will be a resounding success, captivating audiences and leaving a lasting impression.”

Are we ready then to experience a sensational evening? Ailee, I AM: HERE is set to be staged at Mega Star Arena on June 22nd at 8.30pm, promising an immersive experience filled with electrifying performances, stunning visuals and star-fan interactions. Fans can expect to hear some of Ailee’s biggest hits, along with special surprises.

Fans are requested to buy show tickets from authorised ticket outlets directly on LOL Asia’s official site. Don't miss this opportunity to witness one of K-pop's brightest stars in action. See you at the concert!

Ailee, I AM: HERE is presented by LOL Asia, and supported by A2Z Entertainment, HOT FM, FLY FM, Ascott Hotels.

*photos courtesy of LOL Asia

Don’t forget to like, follow and subscribe to MY K-POP WIRE for more K-Pop interview, debut, comeback and event updates!

X (Twitter): mykpopwire

Instagram: mykpopwire

TikTok: mykpopwire

Facebook: MY K-POP WIRE

YouTube: MY K-POP WIRE

#Ailee #에일리 #Aileeans #AileeInKL #AileeInMY #I_Am_Here #LOLAsia #MYKPOPWIRE #concert

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nexthitjcink · 4 months

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a history of next hit.

Under the cut you will find a (semi) brief history of the site's setting and focus company, NEXT HIT Entertainment. Everyone in the RP will be working under NH, so it's important we discuss the company's history! This post will give an overview of the history of major players in NH's history and present. If there are any questions about any of the following, feel free to ask away.

BEFORE NEXT HIT

NEXT HIT ENTERTAINMENT is an entertainment agency founded in 2009, which manages multiple artists and subsidiary labels. First, a bit of history on how NH came to be. Waterfall Entertainment was an early company in the K-Pop entertainment world, where Nam Dohyun began his career as a road manager in the early 2000s. Nam would eventually worked his way up to become Creative Director of Waterfall. However, in 2008 Waterfall Ent. went bankrupt and was dissolved. This did not deter Nam, who used his knowledge from almost a decade in the industry to establish NEXT HIT Entertainment, with a team made up of mostly former Waterfall employees.

HWA

Like much of their creative and management teams, NH's first artist, HWA (based on IU) was also a Waterfall rescue. At only 18, she was the first (and currently only) solo aritst signed to Next Hit Entertainment, releasing her first album Growing Up only months after the establishment of the label. The album was originally supposed to be her next release under Waterfall, but with the dissolving of her company she was more than happy to put it in Nam hands, who she had worked closely with during her Waterfall days. While the album had moderate success, enough to keep the new company afloat, she would achieve national acclaim with the release of her third EP, REAL and her hit single Good Day. As years went on, her wholesome self-made image has propelled to her to be one of the most popular and respected artists in K-Pop history.

2CHAN

While nowadays not discussed as much as their other artists, 2CHAN (composed of members Woochan and Chanbin) debuted as NH's first original group in 2010 with the single "Bounce," now seen as a commercial flop. The duo disbanded after their third single, “Keep Your Head Down” was another commercial failure in 2013. Woochan is a successful soloist and actor (albeit under a different company), while Chanbin has become a renowned vocal coach. In 2020, the pair joined for the first time since their disbandment for a reunion concert.

SAGA

The success of HWA allowed for NH to comfortably build a small roster of trainees and plan for future projects and endeavors. Rumors of the company's next big hit spread around the K-Pop world. After years of waiting, fans of NH were finally given answers to the question with the surprise drop of a dance practice video featuring four, up until then unknown, trainees and the original song "4 Walls" in late 2015. The internet went insane over the video and NH officially announced the debut of their first girl group, SAGA, early the next year. The girl group finally debutted on Valentines Day, 2016 with dual title tracks Whistle and Automatic, and an additional member, Angel, not featured in 4 Walls' initial release. The first mini album SAGA: The Beginning, was met with wide commercial success and marked the start of the of the leading groups in the third generation of K-Pop.

The quintet has gone on to become of the most notable, awarded, and successful group in K-Pop history, known together as "The Queens of Girl Crush" and members being some of the most sought after celebrities. Some of their top hits include: "Peek-A-Boo" (2018), "Black Dress" (2018), "Bad Boy" (2018), "Psycho" (2020), "Lovesick Girls" (2021), and most recently, "Feel My Rhythm" and "Birthday" released together in 2022. The members are also activity in sub-unit and solo endeavors, with their unit So Far having one of the most successful sub-unit debuts with the 2021 hit, "Monster" and has continued that success with their 2023 release "Air Force One".

NOON

With HWA being secure in her spot as the "Nation's Little Sister" and SAGA gradually taking the world by storm, NH found themselves with more capital than they knew what to do with. Over half a decade into NH's lifetime, Nam Dohyun wanted to something fresh and new to add to their roster. That was when he happened upon a small indie group, 눈높 (NunNop), looking to get their first record label. The group was well known in the indie scene for their songwriting abilities, lead by then guitarist Moon Ryuwon and the every flowing charisma of their lead singer, Jake Yang. After the departure of a member (Kitae, who had been critical of them "selling out" and now performs as a soloist under the name "Kit") the group signed as quartet and began work on their first album in 2017. Since joining NH, they have become one of the most well known K-Bands domestically and internationally, best known for their heart-wrenching break up songs. Some of their top hits include: "Congratulations" "Shoot Me" and "Love Cut." Main Vocalist and Guitarist Jake, has also become one of the biggest solo artists after his solo debut in 2022 (inspired by Baekhyun).

SUBSIDARIES

NH STUDIOS - Producing Path

Since the founding of NH Entertainment, its focus has largely been on expanding the capabilities and expectations of Korean popular music. As NH Ent. grew, it required more time, effort, and energy put into this aspect of its brand. Thus, the creation of NH Studios, home to producers and music creatives under the NH Ent. brand. NH Studios plans to increase it's output with new talent behind and in front of the screen.

NOHARM - Modeling Path

NoHarm was originally created to help handle SAGA's growing modeling careers and endeavors (specifically that of member Soul, who established her own brand RE:Born under the label). With creative director Kim Sookyung at the helm, NoHarm has been on the cutting edge of everything in the world of fashion and design. Always focusing on every aspect of the design process, its roster has become not only some of the most sought-after models, but also creatives in the industry.

CLASS ACT - Acting Path

Class Act was established to support the growth of NH's brand into the film industry. Class Act has been home to great talent in the film and theater industries. Partnerships with domestic and international distributors, writers, directors, and actors, has allowed Class Act to quickly rise as one of the top film production houses in South Korea. In the nature of NH Entertainment's company mission of creation, in the beginning of 2023, Class Act began forays into the creating its own films and television shows. Plans to expand these continue to be in development as Class Act grows its talent roster.

SCANDALS

One of the first major scandals that faced NH had to do with SAGA's Visual, Soul. Mid-promotions of their 2017 song, "I Like That," was injured on stage and had to go on a full hiatus, causing her to miss their first tour later that same year. This was after videos of the girls looking exhausted and weak backstage had gone viral. Fans called for a full group hiatus due to the issue, since the girls had been working practically nonstop since debut. NH never announced an official hiatus, but did attempt to spread out promotions in 2018 and onward.

In late 2022, rumors spread of SAGA's Leader Mia possibly being an relationship after photos were leaked of her out with a mysterious man. Dispatch, on New Years Day 2023, confirmed that the man in question was NOON's Drummer and Maknae Jaewon, and that the couple had been dating since 2022. NH quickly confirmed that the two were in a relationship. Both released letters to their fans, thanking them for support and asking for privacy in their personal lives. The two have gone on to appear together on various red carpets, and Mia has been seen attending Noon's Toronto concert (where she is from) during their most recent world tour with some of her hometown friends. The pair have been named "MiWon" by fans with most being supportive of the couple.

and that is all for this preview! i hope you enjoyed this little look into NH's history and lore. i can't wait for all of us to build upon this lore with our own characters and plots. as always, feel free to throw any lore questions my way--probably best done in our discord!

#preview #jcink rp #jcink site #is it too obvious that im a reveluv?

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kevgao1030 · 1 year

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The (Most Popular) Originator of Kpop

Kpop, or Korean pop music, is synonymous with flashy colors, hyped up dance choreographies, catchy lyrics, and the presence of a band that is generally well recognized. These trends have been shown to be tried and true, generating over 150 million fans worldwide with no signs of diminishing momentum. While I do not consider myself to be a Kpop fan, I have had a fascination in how such a niche genre in the early 2000s really took off to become the musical superpower that it is today.

To preface my stance on such a question, I would like to address the fact that Kpop in itself has its origins stemming from various facets of the musical world. It is of course difficult to deduce one singular point from which Kpop sprang to life. Instead, I have chosen to focus on the point in which it truly took off and cemented itself as a sensation that it is today.

Thus, the originator of Kpop from my findings is the classic Gangnam Style by PSY, released in 2012.

youtube

When outrightly stated, this conclusion seems almost obvious. However, there is still merit such a deep dive into covering the global sensation. Through such introspection, we can gleam into the conditions in contemporary US that allowed Kpop to spring up, what truly led to the Kpop golden age we see ourselves in, and lasting impacts that Kpop will leave for us in the coming future.

To begin, let us look back into the 2012 music scene. At the start of the year, the contemporary artists of the United States took center stage, such as Katy Perry, Justin Bieber, and Adele. These sensationalized pop songs as we know it were being released for the first time. Furthermore, the platform Gangnam Style was released on, Youtube, was continuing its pattern of great growth. With the establishment of VEVO channels in 2010, Youtube had already carved itself as a mainstay in the music world. It was in July 2012 that PSY published his music video on Youtube for the world to see. Almost overnight, the world was captivated by the video, especially within the US where the concept of pop music had been established. Following such momentum came a third factor that led to Gangnam Style's continued success: social media. Days after its release, many American artists and celebrities began personally endorsing such works, including Katy Perry, Tom Cruise, and Britney Spears.

In regards to what led to the boom in Kpop, we can look further into PSY's reason for making the music video and the style that was emphasized within the music video itself. In 2012, South Korea was undergoing an economic boom, following closely in the footsteps of the US in terms of innovation and culture. PSY originated from such an area, known as Gangnam, known for its similarities to rich neighborhoods akin to Beverly Hills in California. Rather than follow in his families' footsteps and take over his family business in semiconductor manufacturing, he committed himself to a music career. Of course, this story is no rags to riches, but it imparts a sense of freedom, likely inspiring other would-be Kpop artists to pursue similar careers in spite of what "they were meant to be".

Another aspect of defining Kpop was the unique style that Gangnam Style captured 10 years ago. With a single watch, one can immediately recognize some qualities, even if implicitly. These include an iconic dance sequence (horse dance in this instance), catchy tunes (possibly even English to draw in the American audience), and a colorful set to define their character. While there are surely more qualities of what makes Kpop what it is, these aforementioned qualities are what I believe are the heart of Kpop.

Finally, I would like to touch up on the future of Kpop. Whether we like it or not, all media will have to evolve to garner the general populace. While Kpop still remains a mainstay within the United States, its growth is undeniably not as great as its prime in the late 2010s. However, new and old stars alike still continue to remain in the music scene through their innovation and adaptation. For instance, Kpop bands have tapped further into the facets of American music, redefining their brand through the use of jazz, blues, and hip hop for a unique twist on preexisting styles. Ultimately, Kpop is a style that will be etched into the history of American music through its impact on capturing the hearts of the world, acting as a trailblazer that embodies both expressiveness and freedom for those who listen and those who sing.

#kpopidol #gangnam style #pop music #dance choreography #2012 music #hallyu #Youtube

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mountain-man-cumeth · 3 years

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(Possibly) rude thoughts on finalists

Cyprus - Satanists automatically get a pass from me. also neighbours

Albania - Good voice, probably best solo female vocals

Israel - In light of the "current situation", submitting a song called "Set me free" might not have been the best choice. shes adorable tho no shade to her personally

Belgium - Don't even remember the song tbh

Russia - Not a big fan of one-the-nose empowerment pieces but BORYUTSYA BORYUTSYA bit does make me feel like a strong, independent, slav woman

Malta - Same problem with Russia, very catchy chorus tho, very 2010s

Portugal - Ya kno what. I love it. No I will not elaborate

Serbia - I am not immune to legs

United Kingdom - It's ok. Which is like the greatest compliment anyone can give to UK's entries

Greece - They had dancing pants guys-- dancing pants. Very generic song, saved by ace rights

Switzerland - In this case knowing a bit of french actually worked against me because I have no idea what he's singing about and I'm not sure if I'm missing the message or if it's just random verses mushed together to give off the illusion of depth. Good voice, good performance, not too bad for a ballad. Still wish there weren't any.

Iceland - How does it keep getting better? This is all want from Eurovision. Just. *chefs kiss* those funky lil dudes get me

Spain - Moon's not gonna save you

Moldova - Better hope Kirkorov's pockets don't run dry until finals

Germany - Finally, a proper song to cringe to

Finland - 🤘😩 crowd chanting during the results got me very... emo. At least the general public has some taste

Bulgaria - I love her lack of energy! go girl! give us nothing!

Lithuania - YEA BOI This song is what Eurovision's all about. This right there. More of this.

Ukraine - I know the word zelenina in czech and I am convinced that she's singing about vegetables. Great song, too good for Eurovision and probably won't be appreciated. This is my jam, seriously, ive been listening on repeat and now I feel strong enough to eat my vegetables

France - Name dropping Jacques Brel and Charles Aznavour as inspiration is... cute. It's a nice song and she's a very french looking lass. That's all I can say, I'm not too fond of classical french without the element of nostalgia and I can't say it made me feel nostalgic

Azerbaijan - As a turk I am not allowed to say anything bad. I never thought I'd see a day people dance halay(idk what its called in eng, that circle thing they did) in a sexual way, that's for sure

Norway - If only this song came out 10 years ago at the high of Supernatural craze. I just love how cheesy it is

Netherlands - Not one of the bests but it's good. I have nothing bad to say about it

Italy - This has me feeling some type of way. Not only thirst but I always loved glam rock and I am brought to tears at seeing Maneskin do it so much justice. They deserve to win. My man's out there tiddies out in leather overalls he needs a win

Sweden - As a generic pop song it's quality is top notch like if a pop song's to win I wouldn't mind it be swedes

San Marino - Very catchy, I'm vibin in my apple bottom jeans and boots with fur. I don't care that they snatched an Americain, it's a good song with or without Mister Rida. Not exactly what I want from Eurovision but on the basis of quality it gets a shining B from me

#esc21 #esc #eurovison 2021 #eurovision

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afrival · 3 years

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Hetalia Characters and Their Music Tastes

I’ve been in the hetalia fandom for like a year now and I stg thinking abt what these bitches listen to NEVER gets old

no warnings

will feature mostly modern day music, like 1950s-2010s

I don’t know a lot of artists that don’t sing in English so there’s probably A LOT that I’m missing on here, not even including shit from like the 1800s

The Allies

Alfred:

Before He Cheats by Carrie Underwood, The Chain by Fleetwood Mac, Crazy In Love by Beyoncé

- Listens to basically everything, but particular fond of like 80s rock and early 2000s shit

- Likes country music bc ofc he does, a huge fan of Carrie Underwood, Sam Hunt, and The Band Perry

- Got his love of rock from England 💀 Especially during the like the 60s-80s when Queen, The Beatles, and Elton John really popular

- They really only bond over their love for this period of music lmao like they would absolutely go ape during karaoke

- He loves more mainstream artists like Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga, all those iconic mfs

- Probably enjoys old wartime music just for nostalgias sake. Shit from the 40s and he listens to Civil War tunes (Union Dixie lmao)

- Definitely listens to musicals and forces Ivan to as well. His favorites are Hamilton, Hairspray, and Chess

- LOVES LOVES LOVES The Backstreet Bogs holy shit. This man had a whole phase where he dressed like they did. Don’t even dare play I Want It That Way because he WILL sing along

- Speaking of which he’s actually a really good singer, like he probably used to sing at clubs and shit back in the day

- It’s very specific but I imagine his voice to sound like Taron Egerton’s cover of “Crocodile Rock” by Elton John

Arthur:

Killer Queen by Queen, Set Fire to the Rain by Adele, Tiny Dancer by Elton John

- Old man who had a weird punk phase in the 90s. Definitely listens to The Beatles and Gorillaz

- Like I said, he and Alfred bond over Queen and Elton and Bon Jovi and FUCKING Michael Jackson

- Refuses to admit he really likes Elvis

- Oh boy. He had so much fun in like late 2000s and early 2010s— Panic at the Disco, MCR, Green Day, he absolutely got his ears pierced during this time

- Doesn’t listen to like current mainstream music that much he will sob to Adele and probably really likes the Cry Baby album by Melanie Martinez.

- Francis plays so much Lady Gaga in the car that at this point he really likes her music

- He likes Ed Sheeran I am so sorry </3 and he absolutely gets bullied for it

- He can sing too honestly? I know I just said he listens to Ed Sheeran but I honestly think he kinda sounds like him too just maybe a little deeper

- Listen to Galway Girl and you’ll get a basic idea of what I imagine he sounds like

Ivan:

Dance and Cry by Mother Mother, Baby One More Time by Britney Spears, смерти Больше нет by IC3PEAK

- THIS MANS MUSIC TASTE MAKES NO SENSE. It ranges from fucking Aerosmith to Ic3peak to Lady Gaga

- Literally has every Mother Mother album downloaded and probably on Vinyl bc he’s a fucking dweeb

- Also a huge musical stannie, loves Wicked and Hairspray

- He and Al will split the parts to sing along to in the car

- Alfred made him listen to Britney Spears ONCE in like the 90s and now he’s obsessed

- Speaking of the 90s he went absolutely fucking ape during this time. The USSR wasn’t very big on western music but when it fell there was a HUGE influx of it and suddenly like it was just his favorite thing ever

- Alfred also got him into Carrie Underwood, literally lost of his music taste comes from Alfred forcing him to listen to shit

- During the 70s/80s he got really into Fleetwood Mac and Aerosmith, maybe even a little bit of disco but not a lot

- Went to a club with Al a few times and he won’t ever forget dancing to Footloose by Kenny Loggins at like one in the morning and having the absolute time of his life, easily one of his favorite memories

- Like I get so soft thinking about him just letting loose and actually having fun, even though he was very stiff and shit during the 1900s

- He can’t sing LMAO but my friend and I said once that he could lowkey rap really well and now it’s all I think about

Francis:

From Eden by Hozier, La Vie En Rose by Edith Piaf, Primadona by Marina

- If you look up the gay agenda his playlist would just show up

- I mean seriously he has it all: Lana Del Rey, Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, and Lorde

- HOWEVER she does really enjoy softer sounding music. Edith Piaf, Louis Armstrong, and Vera Lynn are favorites of his

- Listens to the Les Mis soundtrack like once a month

- REALLY REALLY loves Hozier, like a whole lot. He’s probably one of his favorite artists along with Sufjan Stevens

- Even more of his homo playlist includes Marina, Madonna and Troye Sivan

- Bullies Arthur for liking Ed Sheeran but he also really likes Ed Sheeran, just refuses to admit it

- Stromae ofc 🙄🤚 can’t just not include like the most popular French musician or whatever

- He can also sing but he sounds kinda raspy, it’s nice tho

Yao:

- I don’t think he listens to music LMAO, if he does it’s probably instrumental

The Axis

Ludwig:

Elastic Heart by Sia, From Now On from The Greatest Showman, Natural by Imagine Dragons

- Also doesn’t really listen to music but my friend said that when he does it ranges from classical to heavy metal

- For some reason I think he really likes Sia, he seems like a Sia kind of guy

- Doesn’t listen to Hozier but really loves Take Me to Church

- Most of his music listening comes from giving Feli the aux in the car

- The whore listens to Imagine Dragons like he fucking loves them

- When The Greatest Showman came out he had the soundtrack on repeat for a solid month, From Now Onis one of his favorite songs ever

- Cannot sing Jesus Christ do not let him near a mic

Feliciano:

Thank u, next by Ariana Grande, Break My Stride by Matthew Wilder, Bella Ciao by Manu Pillas

- Pop music! So much pop!

- Loves Ariana Grande and Conan Gray

- Probably listens to A LOT of classical because of his time with Austria

- His music taste is kinda all over the fucking place and it’s mostly happy and peppy shit

- Weirdly tho he listens to GRLwood? Like it’ll just shhow up on shuffle and suddenly he’s an entire different person

- Will listen to absolutely everything just to find something that Ludwig likes, was so proud of himself when Ludwig really ended up loving The Greatest Showman

- Doesn’t sing but plays like 5 instruments. Violin and piano are his faves

Kiku:

It’s Been So Long by The Living Tombstone, Faded by Alan Walker, Ophelia by The Lumineers

- LISTEN. LISTEN. HE LOVES VIDEO GAME MUSIC AND FUCKING THE LIVING TOMBSTONE

- The fnaf songs are his guilty fucking pleasures, he fucking loves them

- Loves loves loves the Undertake Soundtrack

- Listens to a lot of anime openings 💀 Me too tbh they’re so good at for what

- Big fan of TheFatRat

- In general he enjoys techno shit? Idk what the word is but it’s a lot of instrumental

- Listens to regular music as well (The Lumineers especially)

- Likes listening to Elvis because it makes him happy to see Alfred having fun

- Feli also introduces him to a lot of music but he can never fucking remember the names of the songs or artists

- He hums a lot rather than sings, and it’s really soft and gentle

If anybody wants any more characters lmk bc I love coming up with these, also I do have playlists for these bitches 😎✌️ Spotify is in my linktree (bio)

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thesims4blogger · 3 years

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The Sims 4: Sims Sessions Official Details and Web Page

The Sims team has announced Sims Sessions, a social media and in-game experience that will be free for players who own The Sims 4. Maxis has launched the Sims Sessions web page with details and information on the music artists featured in the event.

Sims Sessions (Key Features)

Light up your summer with the hottest tracks from your favorite artists. Experience Bebe Rexha, Glass Animals, and Joy Oladokun for the first time all over again—in Simlish! Catch the live event from June 29 at 10 a.m. PT to July 7 at 10 p.m. PT.

Shop the Festival – Buy artist-themed merchandise, run your own craft sales table, or snack like a rockstar at a food stand!

Camp Out – Festivals are fun but exhausting! Get some sleep in one of the tents—or Woohoo to the music.

Enjoy the Show – Gather around the stage to watch, dance, and cheer on the performances!

Perform on Stage – After the performances, go on stage and keep the tunes flowing. Jam on the piano and sing your heart out.

Sims Sessions (Featured Artists)

Bebe Rexha

Diamond-selling and two-time GRAMMY®-nominated New York City native Bebe Rexha is a musical force to be reckoned with. Her RIAA Platinum-certified debut album Expectations (released June 2018 on Warner Records) contained the Platinum single “I’m a Mess” and the global chart-topping smash “Meant to Be” (featuring Florida Georgia Line), now RIAA Certified Diamond. “Meant to Be” held the #1 spot on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart for a record-setting 50 straight weeks, the longest reign ever by a female lead artist, and won Top Country Song at the 2019 Billboard Music Awards and Best Collaboration at the 2018 iHeart Radio Music Awards. It was subsequently nominated for Best Country Duo/Group Performance at the 61st annual GRAMMY Awards® in February 2019, where Bebe was also nominated for Best New Artist.

Early in her career, Bebe won the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences’ Best Teen Songwriter Award, and then formally burst onto the scene when she wrote “The Monster,” a worldwide hit for Eminem and Rihanna that was certified 6x Platinum by the RIAA. Bebe went on to co-write and carry the instantly recognizable hook for the 3x Platinum “Hey Mama,” by David Guetta, which was nominated for a Billboard Music Award for Top Dance/Electronic Song. Bebe also hit #1 on the Billboard Pop and Rap charts with her 5x Platinum “Me, Myself & I” with G-Eazy. In 2017, Bebe released the critically acclaimed EPs, All Your Fault: Part 1 (with the Platinum single “I Got You”) and All Your Fault: Part 2 (with “Meant to Be”). In conjunction with GRAMMY® Week 2019, Bebe launched the GRAMMY® Music Education Coalition’s (GMEC) national campaign on behalf of its new All-Star Ambassador program. Better Mistakes, her new album, includes the hit singles “Baby, I’m Jealous” feat. Doja Cat and “Sacrifice.” To date, Bebe has amassed over four billion YouTube views and over 12 billion total global streams.

Glass Animals

Since 2010, Glass Animals have redefined alternative pop with their experimental sounds, cinematic visuals, and narrative lyrics. The Platinum-Certified UK quartet—Dave Bayley [lead vocals, guitar], Drew MacFarlane [guitar, keys, backing vocals], Ed Irwin-Singer [bass, keys, backing vocals], and Joe Seaward [drums, backing vocals]—first presented their signature style on their 2014 breakout debut, ZABA. It yielded the Platinum single “Gooey” and elevated the band into the global spotlight. 2016’s How To Be A Human Being notably garnered a nomination for the prestigious Mercury Prize. However, Glass Animals lifted off to a new stratosphere with Dreamland in 2020. It marked their first Top 10 debut on the Billboard Top 200, while their global smash hit “Heat Waves” has amassed millions of streams to date, went Platinum in numerous countries, gave the band their first #1 on the U.S. Alternative Radio Chart, Top 15 at Top 40 Radio, and hit Top 10 on Spotify’s US Chart. Skyrocketing to the forefront of popular culture, they garnered nominations in the categories of “Top Rock Song” and “Top Rock Album” at the 2021 Billboard Music Awards, delivered knockout performances on Billboard Music Awards, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, The Late Late Show with James Corden, and Ellen, and lined up global headline dates for the 2021 Dreamland Tour everywhere from legendary amphitheaters such as Red Rocks to Bonnaroo, Life Is Beautiful, Outside Lands, and more. The band sold over 130,000 tickets in three days for their 2021-2022 North American tour, with the majority of the tickets selling out instantly. All the while maintaining their unique connection to their fans by creating their open sourced website where fans can create artwork based on the world of Dreamland, putting on a “Live In The Internet” concert that sold 25,000 tickets worldwide, and more. They created unique music videos during the 2020 pandemic by DIY-shooting solo in Dave Bayley’s apartment directed solely over Zoom (“Dreamland”), asking neighbors to shoot on their iPhones while Dave walked down the street (“Heat Waves”), and inviting fans to take 3D scans of their heads (“Tangerine”). Racking up billions of streams across their catalogue, they even made history as “the first UK band to capture #1 on Triple J’s Hottest 100 since 2009” with “Heat Waves” down under in Australia, leading to the longest run at #1 in 2021 on the ARIA Official Singles Chart. Ultimately, Glass Animals continue to redefine what alternative can be, while they quietly overtake the mainstream.

Joy Oladokun

With a guitar in hand, baseball cap over her eyes, and hooded sweatshirt loose, a woman sings with all of the poetry, pain, passion, and power her soul can muster. She is a new kind of American troubadour. She is Joy Oladokun. The Delaware-born, Arizona-raised, and Nashville-based Nigerian-American singer, songwriter, and producer projects unfiltered spirit over stark piano and delicate guitar. Her music and story galvanized a growing fan base as she completed a successful Kickstarter campaign to release her independent debut, Carry. Her song “No Turning Back” soundtracked a viral baby announcement by Ciara and Russell Wilson, opening up the floodgates. She landed a string of high-profile syncs, including NBC’s This Is Us, ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy, and Showtime’s The L Word: Generation Q. On the heels of in defense of my own happiness (the beginnings), she garnered unanimous critical praise. Billboard touted the album as one of the “Top 10 Best LGBTQ Albums of 2020,” while NPR included “i see america” among the “100 Best Songs of 2020.” Predicted as on the verge of a massive breakthrough, she emerged on various tastemaker lists, including Spotify’s RADAR Artists to Watch 2021, YouTube “Black Voices Class of 2021,” NPR’s 2021 “Artists To Watch,” and Amazon Music’s “Artist To Watch 2021.” Not to mention, Vogue crowned her #1 “LBTQ+ Musician To Listen To.” She kicked off the new year by making her television debut on NBC’s The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon with a stunning and stirring performance of “breathe again.”After attracting acclaim from Vogue, NPR, and American Songwriter, her words arrive at a time right when we need them the most.

#the sims 4 #ts4 #sims 4 #sims sessions

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kingstylesdaily · 4 years

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Why Harry Styles Just Scored His First No. 1 Song

Like any boy band alumnus, he first had to overcome radio’s bias against teen heartthrobs.

Late summer is a great time for sleeper hits: songs that have been hanging around the charts for months and finally hit their stride. Four years ago, in August 2016, Sia’s “Cheap Thrills” reached No. 1 after knocking around the charts since the prior winter, getting its final boost from a Sean Paul remix. In September 2018, Maroon 5’s year-old “Girls Like You” slipped into the top slot after wafting around the Top 10 for more than four months, with a Cardi B verse putting it over the edge. Last year around Labor Day, Lizzo finally topped the Hot 100 with “Truth Hurts,” a song that was two years old and had been rising gradually on the chart since the spring.

This year’s sleeper hit is “Watermelon Sugar,” a wisp of a song by boy bander–turned–self-styled rock star Harry Styles. With a name inspired by Richard Brautigan’s hippie-era, post-apocalyptic novella In Watermelon Sugar, Styles’ lackadaisical tune is not only a sleeper but a grower, the sort of hit that sneaks up on you—I wasn’t sure it even had a fully written chorus the first time I heard it, and I’m pretty sure I’m not alone. Indeed, the whole nation took its time deciding that this quirky ditty would give the starriest, most eccentric member of One Direction his first-ever U.S. chart-topper.

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“Watermelon Sugar” is the third single promoted from Styles’ second solo album Fine Line, which was released last December. That alone is remarkable, given the challenge in the digital age of generating chart interest in anything other than an album’s first couple of singles. Generally, in an era when all of an album’s songs are available to be consumed the day the album drops, you need a remix or a special guest of some kind to gin up chart action months after the song first hits streaming. “Sugar” has none of those. To be sure, there was some gimmickry fueling the song’s leap to the top, albeit of an old-fashioned kind: The song had its best week of sales ever thanks to an assortment of limited-edition vinyl and cassette singles that came bundled with a digital download. Those sales got “Sugar” the last mile on the charts, but Columbia Records wouldn’t have put the physical goods on sale if the song wasn’t already a radio smash—“Sugar” currently has the second-biggest U.S. airplay audience—and they knew they had an opening between current hits by Taylor Swift and a pair of lascivious female rappers I’ll almost certainly be writing about in this space next week. So, fair play to Team Harry: They took advantage of an open chart window, a tactic as old as the Hot 100 itself.

As “Sugar” leaps from No. 7 to No. 1 on the Hot 100 this week—essentially switching places with his ex-girlfriend Taylor Swift’s “Cardigan,” which falls to No. 8—Styles scores only the second-ever chart-topper by a member of One Direction. That includes all of the hits by 1D itself. In its five years of recording, from 2011 through 2015, the band never scored a Hot 100 No. 1. This despite topping the Billboard 200 album chart with its first four studio albums, the only group in history to launch a career with that haul. So … what was that other 1D-affiliated Hot 100–topper I mentioned? It was by ex-member Zayn Malik, the only member to break from the crew while it was still active. Zayn’s smoldering, Weeknd-esque boudoir jam “Pillowtalk” debuted at No. 1—and spent a solitary week there—in the winter of 2016, fueled by blockbuster streams and downloads ginned up by 1D superfans still mourning his departure the prior year and the group’s resulting, presumably permanent hiatus.

Explaining how the top-selling boy band of the 2010s could shift so many CDs and downloads but generate only two No. 1 singles means briefly recapping the fraught history of boy bands and the charts. Selling albums has never been hard for pinup pop groups, since the days of Meet the Beatles! and More of the Monkees. And in the ’70s and ’80s, such precision sing-and-dance troupes as the Jackson 5, the Osmonds, and New Edition managed to generate both gold albums and chart-conquering singles. In 1989, New Kids on the Block had the year’s second-biggest album and four of the year’s top singles, including a pair of No. 1s. But starting in the ’90s, as U.S. radio networks consolidated (fueled by the 1996 Telecommunications Act) and programmers more narrowly targeted specific demographics, radio stations shied away from maximalist teen-pop that appealed primarily to under-18 audiences. By the end of that decade, even as boy bands were enjoying a new wave of TRL-fueled popularity, radio became a chart handicap for them. The Backstreet Boys and ’N Sync had the top-selling albums of 1999 and 2000, respectively—the diamond-selling Millennium and No Strings Attached—but only scored a solitary Hot 100 topper between them, ’N Sync’s “It’s Gonna Be Me.” (Backstreet never hit No. 1: The deathless “I Want It That Way” peaked at No. 6.)

This radio bias against boy bands has persisted into the 21st century. And ever since the Hot 100 went digital about a decade and a half ago, teen-pop’s chart placements have been the result of a battle between rabid downloaders and radio gatekeepers—massive digital sales compensating for modest radio play. For example, radio was what kept the Jonas Brothers from scoring any chart-topping hits during their original wave of teen idoldom; their biggest hit of the ’00s, the No. 5 hit “Burnin’ Up,” sold 2 million downloads but only ranked 55th at U.S. radio. By the ’10s, the same fate befell one-man boy band Justin Bieber. In this long-running Slate series, I have chronicled the blow-by-blow between Justin Bieber and radio programmers that swung from Justin as hit-starved teen idol in the early ’10s to dominant young-adult chart-dominator in the late ’10s. In the early ’10s period, Bieber was a YouTube and iTunes demigod with not a single radio smash to his name. He could sell a half-million downloads of “Boyfriend” in a week and still fall short of the No. 1 spot, thanks (no thanks) to radio.

For One Direction, the chart patterns were the same. A Frankenstein’s monster that Simon Cowell famously threw together in 2010 on his televised competition The X Factor from five solo competitors—Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Harry Styles, and Louis Tomlinson—1D continually found its singles dragged down on the Hot 100 by radio, even as the band sold truckloads of albums. The pattern was set in fall 2012 when “Live While We’re Young” debuted with a staggering 341,000 downloads but could only get to No. 3 on the Hot 100, thanks to its 50th-ranked radio airplay. In the summer of 2013, the slyly Who-interpolating “Best Song Ever” became 1D’s highest-charting hit ever, debuting at No. 2 with record video views and near-record downloads, but at radio it never got past No. 53. “Story of My Life” (No. 6, 2014), “Drag Me Down” (No. 3, 2015)—no matter how many downloads sold or videos viewed, 1D could never top the Hot 100 so long as its radio spins remained limited.

The reason I’m running down all of this granular chart data is it reveals the hurdles both 1D and its post-breakup soloists had to overcome to top the Hot 100. Like Justin Bieber, they had to become credible radio fodder with adults as well as kids. With his early break from the group, Zayn was the first to pull this off. Though “Pillowtalk” debuted at No. 1 largely due to massive sales and streams, the carnal song did eventually become a No. 4–ranked airplay hit. Cleverly, Zayn had chosen a then-current EDM-inflected R&B mode and dropped his debut while the Weeknd was between albums. Other former 1D-ers have had their share of solid radio hits, including Liam Payne’s hip-hop–inflected “Strip That Down” featuring Quavo of Migos (No. 10 on the Hot 100, No. 4 on Radio Songs) and Niall Horan’s softly bopping pop jam “Slow Hands” (No. 11 Hot 100, No. 2 Radio Songs).

And Harry Styles? He decided to make things harder on himself. His 2017 debut album was chockablock with old-school classic rock. This would be like launching a career in 1964 with big-band jazz. While Styles’ fame ensured a big launch for his Bowie-esque single “Sign of the Times”—it opened, and peaked, at No. 4 on the Hot 100, fueled by strong downloads—radio showed only moderate interest. It eventually reached a modest No. 21 on the airplay chart. Later Harry singles like the twangy “Two Ghosts” and the thrashy “Kiwi” missed the Hot 100 and had little radio profile beyond a handful of pure-pop stations that were loyal to Styles from his 1D days. One admired Harry for following his artistic muse—more Joni Mitchell than Justin Bieber—but as a pop star, he arguably squandered his momentum coming out of One Direction.

What has made Fine Line, Styles’ sophomore album, such a clever left turn is he retained the rock flavor he naturally gravitates toward but converted it into mellow California-style surf-pop, and he let his production team—Tyler Johnson and Thomas “Kid Harpoon” Hull—fashion the songs into percolating radio jams. Each single has opened the door a bit wider: “Lights Up,” a No. 17 last October, is lightly strummed beach music with ethereal backing vocals. And “Adore You,” a No. 6 hit in April (for my money, still Styles’ best single), is thumping electropop. “Adore” in particular served as Styles’ entrée onto radio’s A-list—it reached No. 1 on mainstream Top 40 stations and No. 2 on Radio Songs by early summer.

With this beachhead established, Harry was finally free to let his freak flag fly with “Watermelon Sugar,” which is simultaneously his oddest single and his most infectious. The chorus consists of nothing more than the line “Watermelon sugar high” repeated a half-dozen or more times, with emphasis on the “HIGH.” (TikTok users have keyed into this idiosyncrasy, sharing videos in which the “high” gets its own video edit of the user playacting her best stoner face.) Last November, when Styles did double-duty hosting and singing on Saturday Night Live, “Sugar” was one of the songs he performed, and in that indoor setting, it came off as willfully quirky and seasonally incongruous; the song’s first verse line is “Tastes like strawberries on a summer evenin’.” Now, timed for 2020’s beach season—complete with a video filled with beautiful people on the shore, shot just before the pandemic and, according to a title card, “dedicated to touching”—it’s sitting atop the hit parade.

In short, Harry Styles finally has a profile on the radio and on the Hot 100 that matches his profile on magazine covers, and he achieved it on his own schedule and something like his own terms. Like John Lennon in the ’70s—the founder and nominal leader of the Beatles but the last former Fab to reach the toppermost of the poppermost as a solo artist—Styles just had to find his own way. As that onetime teen heartthrob sang, “Whatever gets you to the light, it’s all right.”

source: Slate

#kingstylesdaily #harry styles #hs: watermelon sugar #august 2020

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plutoandmoon · 3 years

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I like it when you sleep, for you are so beautiful yet so unaware of it / The 1975

I like it when you sleep, for you are so beautiful yet so unaware of it is The 1975’s second studio album. This iconic alternative album was released in 2016 and continuously has over a million streams combined. In addition, the English rock album has received variety of awards from being on the 100 Greatest Albums of the 2010s to reaching the Gold platform in the United States. The 1975 incorporates all sorts of new sounds into this album such as synth-pop, disco, electronic house, and R&B to deliver the overall mood of all 17 songs.

The introduction to the album, “The 1975”, is incredibly beautiful. It sounds like the beginning of a coming of age trailer that captures all the overwhelming emotions of the film and story.

Love Me is quite a legendary song in terms of how catchy the lyrics are and the musical layers of the band. I’m not sure how to properly describe it but it reminds me of a new age of 80s music with the electric guitar, synths, and drums. I do love the use of trumpets too to emphasize certain notes. The guitar solo is the perfect session to have a full jam out in your room. I really love that piano sound in the beginning and end of the song that sounds futuristic.

The beginning of UGH! sounds like an intro to a 2000s coming of age movie. It reminded me a lot of Clueless and Mean Girls. Again super catchy lyrics and melody.

The instrumentals of A Change Of Heart make me think of that slow dancing part of a junior high prom/dance. The way I visualize it is the main couple slow dancing underneath the bright light around their classmates after they just won prom king and queen. I love the electronic vocals and the piano synth used in this song. Again it still has that 80s feel to it that is perfect for this album and band.

I’m not sure why but the guitar rift in She’s American gives me Michael Jackson vibes. This song feels very American for some reason LOL. Again, it makes me visualize a scene in a coming of age movie where the main character is running and feels lost on what to do with her life. Catchy lyrics and melody. Personally don’t think this is their strongest song as it just feels similar to the others above but still a good song.

If I Believe You is very different from the songs we have listened to so far. I love Matty Healy’s vocals in this song so much and the production is literally beautiful. It is a very R&B inspired song with the slower pace tempo, back up vocals, piano, and drums. The 1975 still incorporate their own unique style in the song with the usage of electronic elements with the high hats, reverbs, and futuristic sounds. The middle of this song with the trumpet (3:30) is very jazz inspired. It is a beautiful intermission of the song. It is musically layered filled with so much emotion and sensation. The pizzicato from perhaps violins and harps really up lift this song. It adds an angelic layer to it as Healy continues on with the lyrics “If I am lost / how will i find myself?”. For me, the addition of these instruments makes me feel as I am ascending towards heaven or a higher awakening. One of The 1975’s most underrated songs in their whole career.

Please Be Naked is a perfect transition from If I Believe You because it sounds like the ending of a chapter and an opening to a new one. When looking at it through a coming of age lens, it appears as if the main character has said goodbye to their old past, old version of themselves, and everything that does not serve them. They are coming to terms with the reality of life and looking forwards for a new and higher purpose. Although there are no lyrics to this song, it is keep to pay attention to the instrumentals and the dynamics of each note. You can also hear the sounds of someone walking, closing the door, opening paper, etc that adds layers and meaning to the song. It is not another simple lofi or instrumental piece but rather it is an important one for the album and the 1975’s message. It tells a beautiful story over 4 minutes if you choose to really listen to the main character’s journey.

Once again, the introduction of Lostmyhead sounds like the continuation of the story from If I Believe You and Please Be Naked. The beginning is heavily rock inspired with the overwhelming guitar, piano synth, electric guitar solo, and much other sounds. I believe this is the point in the character’s journey where they are probably overlooking a building or a crowd and thinking to themselves that this is a start of something new. They are going onto this journey and not looking back anymore. I also love the use of string instruments here and how at the end of this song, everything finally drops. It is like we have finally bursted this bubble and allowed everything (emotions, purpose, life, etc) to hit us. You can hear this with the aggressive drum kick, the crescendos of the violins, and how dynamic everything else is. Then the song slowly crescendos and all we are left to hear is the futuristic sounds.

The Ballad of Me and My Brain has a very interesting introduction with the background vocals being manipulated with their dynamic and pitch. This song is heavily influenced by rock and synth pop as Healy’s vocals are more aggressive.

Somebody Else. The most iconic songs in our generation, the 1975’s career, in alternative pop music. Everything about this song is perfect from the lyrics to the musical production to simply everything. This song can put you into two moods: dance or sadness. You can visualize yourself dancing to this at a party/club or blasting this in your car at 2am as you sob. The versatile of this song is something that I believe many over look. Like you cannot just ignore the most help advice ever “Get someone you love / get someone you need / fuck that get money”.

Loving Someone is another LEGENDARY song from the 1975. I love everything about it from the lyrics, melody, musical production, and the execution of it. The introduction of the song is unlike anything you have heard of. It sounds like Matty Healy is rapping (perhaps) but it sure does have the influence electronic and indie pop. The flow of Matty Healy’s verses is very different from all the rest of the songs on this album. It shows how musical diverse the 1975 is and how they executed this new style perfectly. The ending is cute with the piano (sounds like ones we used to play as a child) and the monologue softly being played.

The self titled album song sounds like another intermission in the band’s album. This instrumental sounds to focus more on futuristic electronic sounds. It could be another story that Healy and the band is explaining to us through a coming of age lens. It sure is more optimistic than the other instrumental songs we have heard from the band in this album. I love how more towards the end, the overall pace and tone of the song is changed up as it has more of a dance feel to. Listening to it more, it sounds more of a song where everything is at a peak and peace. Where you can just jam the fuck out and not care about anything at all.

The Sound sounds like new beginnings. This could be why it is put in towards the end of the album. With the optimistic beat and melody, it could be referring to a new perspective on life. It does sound similar to a few of the 1975’s songs at the start of the album and that is due to the synth pop style the band is famous for. Overall, it is quite a catchy song and a nice one to jump around to.

This Must Be My Dream has a really unique intro. It really gives the song a 80s/90s feel to it. I believe the band uses a dream like bell sound for the melody. This song feels dreamy hence the title of the song. Towards the end of the song where the breakdown begins, it feels like the part where the dream starts to slowly warp and then the main character is reflecting on what just happened.

I believe everyone holds the song, Paris, in a special place in their heart. It is such a cute song with the melody, instrumentals, lyrics, and vocals. I would definitely listen to this song in my own room and sway alone under the flashing lights pretending I’m at a dance with my lover. The chorus after Healy says “How I would love to go to Paris again” is very dreamy with the echo background vocals and the synths. It is quite a slow song though so for me, I feel like 4 minutes and 53 seconds is drag for the song (that is just me because my attention span is short …)

Personally, I find Nana to be boring. Perhaps because of how slow it is but other than that, it seems like a nice song.

She Lays Down is another soft slow song but this time it is just Healy’s vocals with an acoustic guitar. I think it is a nice and beautiful way to end the album. It is a huge contrast to how the 1975 began this 2nd studio album. They began with their intro (The 1975) and Love Me, that immediately set the overall mood and tone of the album. It was very electric and energetic, while She Lays Down is a more mellow and reflectional piece. Overall, this album is a memorable work of art as many associate these songs with their teenage years. Some songs to mention are If I Believe You, Please Be Naked, Somebody Else, and Loving Someone. The 1975 is a powerful band with Healy’s vocals, lyrics, and style. Hopefully they will be able to create more music as similar to the ones in “I like it when you sleep, for you are so beautiful yet so unaware of it”.

#new music #music #music review #music blog #pop music #pop #pop culture #spotify #the 1975 #i like it when you sleep #alternative #alternative music #indie pop #somebody else #loving someone #if i believe you #i'm new at this

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fyexo · 3 years

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201216 M-Pop star Lay Zhang tells us about his music, dreams, and starting his own company

Chinese Megastar Lay Zhang wants to bring ‘China to the world’ with his music. He talks to Don’t Bore Us about how he plans to achieve his dreams.

For most of us, our dreams are conditional. For us, they remain in the abstract most of the time, attached to phrases like ‘It would be good if…’ or ‘I wish I…’. Not for Lay Zhang. Lay Zhang speaks in dreams. In his mind, he picks them out of the abstract and parks them on the road to his goals. Then, he sets into motion a cause and effect cycle, where each step leads to the realization of that dream.

“The word dream is a strange one,” he wrote in his autobiography Standing Firm at 24. “You start with a dream, but you have to fulfill everything in reality. Of course, it’s not really that you’re dreaming, because someone once told me, a dream is actually what a person’s heart looks like.”

Despite his status as one of China’s most famous stars, it’s this spirit that still is the condensation of Zhang’s ethos as an artist. Born in Changsha in the Chinese province of Hunan as Zhang Yixing, he was no stranger to the world of entertainment as a child star. In 2008, he auditioned for trainee-ship at SM Entertainment, largely considered the progenitor of modern-day K-pop, and passed. Four years later, he debuted as EXO’s Lay, an act that turned the tide for K-pop in the 2010s.

Home, however, was never very far away — after flitting between South Korea and China for work for sometime, the lengthy schedules eventually made him shift base to mainland China, laying the groundwork for Lay Zhang. His first studio album, Lay 02 Sheep, broke five records on the first day of digital release on the Chinese music service QQ Music. His second, NAMANANA, ranked No. 21 on the Billboard 200 chart, making him the highest-ranking M-pop artist on the chart to date.

It’s an ideal trajectory for anyone with dreams as big as Zhang: every new release came with new records and renown. Eventually, however, Zhang realized what his work was missing: a piece of his roots. He wanted to show the world “what China is really about.”

And so he said: “Let there be LIT.”

Named after a play on the Chinese word for lotus, ‘lián huā’, LIT — released in two parts over the course of 2020 — puts Zhang’s Chinese identity at its core. As he weaves the sounds of the Hulusi, Guzheng and Gong together with hip-hop, R&B, and Latin, Zhang not only creates his own genre (which he calls “mixed Mando-pop”), but also nurtures a new dream: one where Mando-pop frees itself of the labels of being “vapid” and “vain” and presents new avenues of experimentation and cultural triumph.

“In the future, mixed will be king. Every work, every genre can be mixed with each other; every language can mix with another. That’s where we go.” he says.

The way to this “mixed” world might be long, but Zhang will soon have company on the way. Earlier in 2020, he announced the establishing of his own company, Chromosome Entertainment, with a set focus to not only train the next generation of Chinese idols, but also to include Chinese culture and history as an integral part of their artistry.

DBU caught up with Lay Zhang to talk about Chromosome Entertainment, his music, how he is going to take his company to ‘infinity’, and his adorable cats.

Don’t Bore Us: Why did you think this was the right time to start your own company?

Lay Zhang: I have always wanted to have my own company and leave my mark in the world. I feel I need to think less and do more. I wanted to do it no matter how difficult it would be. If I kept waiting for the right moment, I might never do it. So, I created the Chromosome Entertainment Group.

DBU: Is there anything that you’ll focus on teaching the trainees that you yourself didn’t get during your trainee years?

Lay Zhang: Our trainees will learn more and more about Chinese culture and Chinese history.

DBU: Speaking of your music over the past year, we have to talk about LIT. We saw you expand into genres that you had never experimented with before. While Part 1 was a mix of traditional Chinese sounds, Part 2 had more modern inspirations such as R&B, Hip-hop, Latin, and others. Which of these sounds comes more naturally to you, and which one is more difficult to explore?

Lay Zhang: I just tried a lot of genres. Since I was young, I have been singing in Chinese and listening to pop music, so I find writing R&B is easier, since it is similar. With traditional Chinese music, it feels like second nature, since I grew up with it.

Latin and Hip-hop is very new to me, but Latin caught my ear because it’s easy to dance to. I’ve been listening to hip-hop and trap in the past few years. I think no matter what kind, I want to do a new genre. I want to call it M-pop because I think in the future, mixed will be king. Every work, every genre can be mixed with each other — every language can mix with each other, and that’s where we go.

DBU: Speaking of the incorporation of your native Chinese sounds into the songs on the first album, what is the most difficult part while looking for a middle-ground between culture and modernity?

Lay Zhang: You always want to respect the culture. We owe a lot to the past for giving us today: I cannot stress that enough. I understand that people have new tastes each year, so you want to make sure that you match the energy and the vibe of the year.

It’s hard to explain how I find the balance. I ask my friends and collaborators, what they feel. I took that into consideration [with LIT], and checked my gut feeling. Did I feel [like] it mixed my Chinese sound with the present or modern without losing it? It’s [a] feeling I get after listening to the record time after time in my car or in the studio.

DBU: With reference to bringing “China to the world”. How do you think LIT did that, apart from, of course, being a mash-up of different influences?

Lay Zhang: I think this album is the first of its kind in a way. It’s very unique: we brought together new and legendary producers to create beautiful music. We had traditional and modern day stories to showcase the idea of the past and the present, to show the world that Chinese artists can be creative. They can think more deeply about music. I want people to know that we are improving everyday. We are working hard. This is what LIT shows.

DBU: Historically, western audiences have thought of Mando-pop as being “very vain or bland.” You have always wanted to push forward Mixed Mando-pop through your work. How do you hope to change this perception of Mando-pop globally through your music?

Lay Zhang: It is a work in progress. We are still improving and developing M-pop. Since I was a child, I have always had big goals and dreams. I want to show the world what China is really about, that we are respectful people trying to better ourselves.

DBU: Your current approach to your work makes me curious. The words “one of China’s biggest celebrities” are often used in your context. With the fan-base and work you’ve built over the years, you could very well have taken the safer route and stuck to the previous sounds you have experimented with before, because anything you make is guaranteed to be a hit. So why is it important for you to keep making the kind of music you do, in the way you make it?

Lay Zhang: I want to challenge myself and see what I can do. I admit, I don’t always succeed, but I’d rather try different genres and sing in different languages to see what I am capable of. Like any artist, I want my music to reach more people, so you have to branch out and try new things, but at the same time, not lose who you are. I have great fans that support me and allow me to dream bigger. I want to pave the path for the next generation to share their music with the world.

DBU: You’ve worked both in South Korea and China. With K-pop having a moment in the global spotlight, what are some things that you feel M-pop could learn or borrow from K-pop?

Lay Zhang: I think it’s great that K-pop is having its moment. In M-pop, we need to put ourselves out there more. We need to meet fans in every city and town to create that one-on-one interaction. I think there are enough artists with quality music to match the artists in K-pop: we just need to focus on sharing Mando-pop.

DBU: For the past few years, you have been heavily involved in music reality shows geared towards bringing out China’s next musical stars. There was Idol Producer, Youth With You, Street Dance of China: what are your hopes from the next generation, and why this interest?

Lay Zhang: The next generation inspires me. Their dreams and efforts inspire me to work harder and be a good role model. I hope they can focus on creating great art and work that they can be proud of. Their work should speak for itself. If everyone can do this, they can do this. If everyone can do this, we can push the boundaries of music and art. We can create works that leave people in awe.

DBU: In the larger context of your artistry, what impact has this year had on you personally?

Lay Zhang: COVID-19 slowed my life down like everyone else. We have all experienced difficulties, but I was able to think about my music and career more clearly. I decided that I should go after the things I want as soon as I could. For my artistry, I realized I needed to focus on music I made, my company, and make music that really carried the culture and vibe of my country.

DBU: Observing your trajectory from when you just started out to now, I was thinking about how it is very clear where your professional priorities lie. What about personal ones? What are you focusing on personally in the coming year?

Lay Zhang: I think about this a lot, and it’s hard to separate my work and personal life. But I think I only have that much time before I run out of energy. I am always thirsty (laughs), so I know I won’t be able to continue this forever. I want to keep pushing until I can’t. So, then I can focus on my personal life knowing I gave it all to my career.

DBU: I asked some fans if they had anything to say to you, and most of them wanted me to relay the same thing: please take a well-deserved break! Now that LIT has had its successful run, is it time for a vacation, or is there more to come?

Lay Zhang: My cats give me a lot of confidence and happiness. They make it easier to face each day; it’s nice to know you have someone waiting for you at home. But I will take a vacation when I turn 40 (laughs). Of course, there is more to come: the trainees we are receiving are so talented. I am excited to create something that will hopefully last a long time, and will improve and uphold the entertainment industry in China.

L Singh @ Don’t Bore Us

#exo #lay #t: interview

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tillidontneedfantasy · 4 years

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A Track-by-Track Breakdown of Taylor Swift’s 8th Studio Album: ‘folklore’

Taylor Swift’s 8th studio album, folklore, starts off with the lie, “I’m on some new shit.” Perhaps to someone who hasn’t been paying attention this would seem to be true. But to those listening, folklore is the essence of her skill and success throughout her entire career stripped down for all to see, but more refined, enhanced, and impressive than ever.

Even prior to her pop-world domination with 1989 (2014), Taylor’s storytelling ability has always been her most compelling strength as a writer. In 2010, she released her third album, Speak Now, penned fully solo to prove to the cynics that she does, in fact, write her own music. And it’s damn good. Widely considered her best song, “All Too Well” from Red (2012) is a five and a half minute epic about love had and lost, all in walks through autumn trees, almost running red lights, dancing round the kitchen, and a scarf reminiscent of innocence, unreturned.

Yet her pop prowess over the last six years perhaps leads to her storytelling being overlooked to those more focused on the music. There is a particular genius in writing a successful pop song, let alone three successful pop albums, that still has hard-hitting lyrics underneath the synth. Take the excellent “Cruel Summer” from Lover (2019) for example. The song is just under 3 minutes, and the production is so enthralling and infectious that it can take such a hold on you, you might miss the tale being told along with it about a fraught summer relationship that was actually just the beginning of her own love story.

But without the pop production, her stories on folklore demand attention. Swept up by a strong wave of creativity and inspiration, Swift secretly wrote and produced this album in around three months with Aaron Dessner of The National, one of Swift’s favorite bands, and long-time collaborator and friend Jack Antonoff. A surprise album is a new endeavor for Swift, as she generally spends months meticulously planning an album rollout. It is refreshing, and as a dedicated, long-time fan of Taylor, it is thrilling. Due to the album cover where she is standing in the woods, and the genre of the album itself, there have been think pieces regarding the “man in the woods” trope and what it means that Taylor seems to be embodying it. As a result of over-exposure, people are unable to stop focusing on her image and the way she presents herself. It’s understandable, as she is a very smart and deliberate businesswoman, and clearly cares about how she is perceived. But with this album, it is clear that none of that was at play. We are in the middle of a pandemic. Her mother has been battling cancer for years. Isolate a creative person in a dangerous world and they will dream up an escape. She understands more than ever how precious each moment is, and does not want to waste another one. The woods being the landscape for the photo-shoot is most likely attributed to the fact that it is the safest place to have one under these circumstances. She’s not pretending she removed herself from society and became enlightened, she didn’t dabble into a more alternative sound to prove anything; she is just sharing stories she wants to tell that she is proud of, and nothing more.

Of course the music of the album is important, but the lyrics are the heart of it all, and I wanted to focus on them. Upon its release, Taylor explained in a foreword that the album was a mixture of personal and fictional accounts. The beauty of stories is that once they are shared, they never live one single life; each person who consumes a story interprets it uniquely, and the story becomes a multiverse, with different meanings and outcomes than what initially drove the pen to the paper. As explained by Swift in a YouTube comment prior to the album’s release, three songs on the album are all one story, which she has dubbed “the teenage love triangle.” The three points of the triangle are “cardigan,” “august,” and “betty.” But if someone had not seen her say that, they might not have figured it out. Maybe they’d interpret each song as their own story, and connect it to their own. Taylor knows this. It is why she loves storytelling and is why she is so good at it. The album itself is a mirror ball, shimmering with every version of the stories being told, reflecting a bit of each person who listens. These are my interpretations, but they can mean whatever you make of them.

1. the 1 The melody of this song helps set the scene; picture yourself skipping rocks on a lake, reminiscing on the one that got away. “the 1” is about learning to assimilate into a life without them, resentfully accepting that they might be moving on, too. She ruminates on what went wrong and what could have been. In a very Swift fashion, she puts the blame on herself when she sings, “in my defense, I have none / for digging up the grave another time.” Perhaps this song is fictional, perhaps it’s a revisit of a past feeling or relationship, but its relatability makes it feel real and present. She searches for explanations, restraining herself from asking, “if one thing had been different, would everything be different today?” But it’s good she didn’t ask, because she’d never find the answer, anyway. Best lyric: “We never painted by the numbers, baby, but we were making it count / You know the greatest loves of all time are over now.”

2. cardigan (teenage love triangle, part 1: betty’s perspective) “When you are young they assume you know nothing,” Swift sings in her smooth low-register on this Lana del Rey-esque single. “But I knew everything when I was young,” she asserts. They say wisdom comes with age, but there is wisdom lost, too, of what it felt like to be young; but she has held onto it. In this track, the narrator (Betty) is looking back on her relationship with someone she once loved (James, as name-dropped in “betty” later on in the album). Her insight on his character was always spot on; she knew he’d try to kiss it better, change the ending, miss her once the thrill expired and come back, begging for her forgiveness in her front porch light. As soon as she was feeling forgotten, he made her feel wanted, his favorite. The ending in question is unclear, whether she granted him her forgiveness or not. But what is clear is Taylor’s understanding of the pull of young love, the intensity, the immortalization of all the smallest of details, the longing to be someone’s favorite. It’s why we look back on it so often, read stories and watch films about it, even as we grow old. It’s the cardigan we put back on when we want to be Peter Pan and remember what it was like to fly with Wendy. Best lyric: “You drew stars around my scars / but now I’m bleeding.”

3. the last great american dynasty The story of Rebekah Harkness and her destruction of the last great American dynasty, Standard Oil, is documented in this track, as each verse covers a different part of Rebekah’s life, going from a middle class divorcee to one of the wealthiest women in America by marrying into an empire. Swift paints Rebekah as an outcast, the Rhode Island town blaming her for her husband’s heart giving out. Rebekah used her inherited fortune on her ballet company, throwing lavish parties with her friends who went by the “Bitch Pack,” playing cards with Dali (Yes, as in Salvador Dali. It’s not clear if they actually played cards together, but her ashes were placed in an urn designed by him), and feuding with her neighbors. Then, fifty years later, Taylor Swift bought that very house and ruined the neighborhood all over again, bringing with her the triumphant return of champagne pool parties and women with madness, their men and bad habits. It’s a note on how women will be blamed for tarnishing what is sacred to men rather than celebrated, specifically when its related to wealth and power. They will call them mad, shameless, loud. But just like Rebekah, Taylor learned to pay them no mind, and just have a marvelous time. It is also interesting to note that Rebekah went by Betty. Perhaps Taylor felt inspired by and connected to her and gave her a whole backstory, and thus the birth of “the teenage love triangle,” or maybe it’s just a coincidence; but that’s the fun of it all. Either way, this track is a standout showcase of how Swift has truly mastered her craft as a songwriter. Best lyric: “Holiday House sat quietly on that beach / free of women with madness, their men and bad habits / and then it was bought by me.”

4. exile ft. Bon Iver You know that feeling when your parents are fighting and it’s upsetting you but you can’t help but listen? That’s kind of what listening to this song feels like. Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon co-wrote the track, and he lends his gorgeous vocals to play a man who has been exiled by his ex who has moved on with someone else while he desperately tries to understand where it all went wrong. The bridge is particularly poignant, both proclaiming, “you didn’t even hear me out,” while talking over each other. He thinks he was expected to read her mind, but she is adamant that she gave him plenty of warning signs. Miscommunication is one of the most common downfalls of a relationship, and the emotion in Swift’s and Vernon’s voices really draws you into the argument with them, transporting you back into your own exile from people you once called home. Best lyric: “I couldn’t turn things around / (You never turned things around) / ‘cause you never gave a warning sign / (I gave so many signs.)”

5. my tears ricochet Taylor describes this song in the foreword as “an embittered tormentor showing up to the funeral of his fallen object of obsession.” If you know enough, you can put the pieces together that the tormentor is Scott Borchetta, the head of Big Machine Records, and the funeral is of their professional and personal relationship. Taylor was the first artist ever signed to Big Machine. Borchetta and Swift had to trust each other in their partnership for it to be a success, and oh, how it was. But prior to Lover’s release, Taylor announced that she would be signing to Republic Records as her contract with Big Machine had ended and Republic offered her the opportunity to own all of her masters moving forward and negotiate on Spotify shares for all their artists. It all could have ended amicably there, but then Scott Borchetta sold all of Big Machine, along with Taylor’s masters from every album prior, to Scooter Braun. Braun manages some of the biggest stars out there, and had previously managed Kanye West. Taylor publicly spoke out about this purchase, stating that she was not made aware of this before the announcement, and how much of a betrayal it was considering she had cried to Scott before about Scooter’s mistreatment of her. Taylor has continued to be vocal about this, and so she sings, “I didn’t have it in myself to go with grace.” There is a lot to unpack in this song, but the main takeaway is that this betrayal hurts him just as much if not more than it hurts her, because his career was built on her achievements. He buried her while decorated in her success, becoming what he swore he wouldn’t, erasing the good times for greed, all just to be haunted with regret for pushing her out and stealing her lullabies. The pain is palpable, and it is notable that this is song is placed at track 5, the spot generally reserved for the most vulnerable on the album; it shows that there are different types of heartbreak that can shatter you just as much as those from romance. Best lyric: “If I’m dead to you, why are you at the wake? / Cursing my name, wishing I stayed.”

6. mirrorball On Lover’s “The Archer,” Taylor expresses her anxiety over people seeing through her act, her own grief at seeing through it herself, wondering if her lover does and whether he would stay with her regardless. “mirrorball” is about the act, one of the more obviously confessional songs on the album. She talks about how a mirror ball can illuminate all the different versions of a person, while also reflecting the light to fit in with the scene. Taylor’s critical self-awareness is heart wrenching, and it’s clear that the anxiety that surrounds the public perception of her is still prevalent. She describes herself as a member of a circus, still on the tightrope and the trapeze even after everyone else has packed up and left, doing anything she can to keep the public’s attention. It hurts to hear the desperation in her voice, but there’s hope in the song, too. She is speaking to someone (we can assume her long-term boyfriend, Joe Alwyn) and thanking them for not being like “the regulars, the masquerade revelers drunk as they watch my shattered edges glisten.” In 2016, the height of Taylor’s fame and subsequently her farthest fall from grace, all the people who pretended to be her friends and attended all her parties celebrated her (temporary) demise, continuing to dance over her broken pieces on the floor. But he stayed by her side as she put herself back together. And so now, when no one is around, she’ll shine just for him, standing even taller than she does for the circus. Best lyric: “I’m still a believer, but I don’t know why / I’ve never been a natural, all I do is try, try, try / I’m still on that trapeze, I’m still trying everything / to keep you looking at me.”

7. seven Her voice gentle and haunting, Taylor recalls the freedom and innocence of her childhood in Pennsylvania. She asks to be remembered for how she was, swinging over the creek, before she learned civility when she would scream anytime she wanted, then letting out a very pretty one. She sings to her old friend soothingly about taking them away from their haunted house that their father is always shouting in, where they feel the need to hide in a closet, perhaps literally, or figuratively, or both. They can move into Taylor’s house instead, or maybe just to India, just be sure to pack their dolls and a sweater and then they’ll hit the road. She can no longer recall her friend’s face, but the love she had for them still lives in her heart, and she wants it to live forever through story. Just in the way that folklore itself blends reality and fiction, but the truth within it passes on, so will the purity of that love and friendship. Best lyric: “Please picture me in the weeds / before I learned civility / I used to scream ferociously / any time I wanted.”

8. august (teenage love triangle, part 2: the other girl’s perspective) If you had to assign the feeling of longing to a song, it’d be “august.” It’s when you’re teetering at the edge with someone, unsure of where you stand with them, clinging to anything they give you and doing anything just to raise your chances, “living for the hope of it all.” August, the last month of summer, its heat causing it to slip away the fastest in a haze before reality hits. This track is a display of how sometimes losing something you never had causes an even deeper ache than losing something that was yours, and Jack Antonoff’s signature production intensifies the emotion even more. It’s the story of shattered hope, and the longing for the days where it could still fuel you. Best lyric: “To live for the hope of it all / cancel plans just in case you’d call.”

9. this is me trying “this is me trying” is like a drive through a tunnel at night, hearing your loudest anxieties and insecurities echo all around you, caving in. The track is another apt insight into Swift’s struggles with her self-image, with the pressure she puts on herself, so much so that she sometimes pushes herself too close to the edge, her fears luring her out of the tunnel and down, down, down into her own cage, stunting her own growth and keeping those who care out of reach. She tells us how she was “so ahead of the curve, the curve became a sphere.” Every action has an equal, opposite reaction, meaning that she was pushing herself so hard, she rolled back to where she started, and now has to reset. This could be referring to the period between the end of the 1989 era and the release of reputation (2017), or a different time in her life, or just a general sentiment. It doesn’t really matter, though, because no one’s growth is a neat, straight line; growth is jagged. Just like any of us, Taylor will always have to face new obstacles, new pitfalls, new reasons to get back up. She sounds most vulnerable as she cries, “at least I’m trying,” and you feel comforted knowing someone so beautiful and successful has to push herself to try, too, and yet that motivates you more to try yourself. Best lyric: “They told me all of my cages were mental / so I got wasted, like all my potential.”

10. illicit affairs A quiet, slow-build testament of the passion, the tragedy, the secrecy, the inimitability of a romance that shouldn’t exist, “illicit affairs” demonstrates how you can ruin yourself for someone from just one moment of possibility or truth, quite like the narrator of “august” does for the hope of it all. An illicit affair can be many different things: infidelity, forbidden love, a love that can never be fully realized, a relationship that is inherently wrong but electrifying all the same. It’s a reminder of what so many of us would do just to see new colors, to learn a new language, even if the one moment of enlightenment destroys us forever. We might lose the iridescent glow but we don’t forget it; we carry it with us, but must be careful to remember its blinding effect, to remember how fatal the fall is from the dwindling, mercurial high. Best lyric: “Tell your friends you’re out for a run / you’ll be flushed when you return.”

11. invisible string Clearly the most outright autobiographical track, “invisible string” is the plucky pick-me-up needed. The song is like sunshine, as Swift endearingly links all the little connections between her and her boyfriend, Joe Alwyn, since before they even met. She compares the green grass at the Nashville park she’d sit at in hopes of a meet-cute to the teal of his yogurt shop uniform shirt, and gives a nod to her smash hit “Bad Blood” from 1989 with the delightful line “bad was the blood of the song in the cab on your first trip to LA.” She reasons these coincidences as a fateful, invisible, golden string tying them together since the beginning, always destined to meet at the knot in the middle. She thanks time for healing her, (a callback to “Fifteen” from Fearless [2008]), fighting through hell to make it to heaven, transforming her from an axe grinder to a gift giver for her ex’s baby (the ex in question, Joe Jonas, and his wife Sophie Turner, happened to have their first daughter two days before this album’s release). As she has on her previous two albums, she uses the color gold to illustrate how prized their love is to one another. It’s sweet to know in all the gloom that the string has not been severed, and the trees are still golden somewhere. Best lyric: “Cold was the steel of my axe to grind for the boys who broke my heart / now I send their babies presents.”

12. mad woman Throughout her entire career, Taylor Swift has defiantly defended female rage, all the way back from throwing a chair off a platform on her Fearless Tour during the impassioned “Forever & Always,” to her patient, vengeful reliance on karma in reputation’s lead single, “Look What You Made Me Do,” to her most recent tackling of the matter on Lover’s last and final single, “The Man,” where she explores society’s acceptance and encouragement of angry men yet disdain for angry women. “The Man” is catchy and upbeat, and a fun thought experiment into how Swift’s career would be perceived if she was a man, something that is even more interesting to think about now as she releases an album in a genre heavily dominated and lauded by males. But on “mad woman,” she further explores the creation and perception of female rage, though masked under a smooth, haunting piano melody, her vocals subdued, taunting. In the album foreword, she describes the inspiration behind this song as “a misfit widow getting gleeful revenge on the town that cast her out.” This could be the continuation of Rebekah “Betty” Harkness’s story at her Holiday House in Watch Hill, RI, and how she further alienated herself from the rest of the neighborhood as they cast stones at her for the collapse of the last great American dynasty. (Or perhaps Daenerys Targaryen’s descent as the Mad Queen played a part in the song’s inspiration, as Swift has spoken of her love for Game of Thrones and her character specifically.) Taylor herself could also represent the widow, her music and masters as her love lost, and the men behind the crime as the “town that cast her out.” In the first verse she sings, “What do you sing on your drive home? / Do you see my face in the neighbor’s lawn? / Does she smile, or does she mouth ‘fuck you forever’?” It’s the first f-bomb of Taylor’s career (though a much more playful one will come two tracks later in “betty”) and it speaks volume. Taylor has received a lot of condemnation for expressing her anger at their transaction, for calling out their greed for what it is. Some view Swift’s stance on the ordeal as petty and trivial; they see the men as orchestrating a good business deal, and Swift as the girl throwing a tantrum. Ask any woman, and they can tell you about a time a man told them they were crazy for being justifiably angry; it only makes us angrier. “No one likes a mad woman,” Taylor states, “You made her like that.” Swift underscores that here, how they will poke and poke the bear but then blame it for attacking, as if they had never provoked it at all, and how dare it defend itself. Just as they blamed Rebekah for her husband’s heart giving out, they somehow manage to blame Swift for not being allowed to purchase the rights to her own work. And yes, she’s mad, but the song is measured and controlled; she’s used to her anger now, and knows just how to wield it. Best lyric: “Women like hunting witches, too / doing your dirtiest work for you / It’s obvious that wanting me dead has really brought you two together.”

13. epiphany This is another track Swift provided some background on, stating it was inspired by her “grandfather, Dean, landing at Guadalcanal in 1942” during WWII. The first verse paints this image, while the second verse depicts a different kind of war, happening right now, fought by doctors and nurses. She speaks of holding hands through plastic, and the escape folklore has granted you suddenly lifts. Watching someone’s daughter, or mother, or anyone suffer at the hands of the COVID-19 pandemic, just as watching a soldier bleed out, helpless, is too much to speak about. As she points out, they don’t teach you about that vicarious trauma in med school. We are living in a tireless world with barely any time time to rest our eyes, but too much going on while we’re awake to make sense of any of it. “epiphany” is a cinematic prayer, pleading for some quiet in order to find an answer in all the noise. We’re still waiting for that glimpse of relief. Best lyric: “Only twenty minutes to sleep / but you dream of some epiphany / Just one single glimpse of relief / to make some sense of what you’ve seen.”

14. betty (teenage love triangle, part 3: james’s perspective) It makes sense that a song reminiscent of Fearless would exemplify some of the best story-telling on folklore. The final puzzle piece of the teen love triangle, “betty” is a song sung by Swift from the perspective of the character of her own creation, James, attempting to win back his true love, Betty, who he slighted in some way. He proclaims that the worst thing he ever did is what he did to her, without explicitly stating it. Though the infamous deed is unclear, here’s the information we collect from this song: James saw Betty dancing with another boy at a school dance, one day when he was walking home another girl (from “august”) picked him up and he ended up spending his summer with her yet still loved Betty, and though he ended things with his fling and wanted to reconcile with Betty, he had returned to school to see she switched her homeroom (James assumes, after saying he won’t make assumptions. Classic men). So in order to make it up to her, he shows up at her party with the risk of being told to go fuck himself (the second and charming “fuck” on the album! Which is repeated!). Upon his arrival, there is a glorious key change (ala “Love Story”) and all the pieces fall into place for the listener; we realize Betty is the girl singing in “cardigan” as he lists the things he misses about her since the thrill expired, like the way she looks standing in her cardigan, and kissing in his car. He’s 17 and doesn’t know anything, but she knew everything when she was young, and she knew he’d come back. The way I see their story conclude is that she led him to the garden and trusted him, but as they grew older they grew apart, but the love she had for him never faded completely. Listening to this song is like being back in high school, whether you were the person who did someone wrong or the person so willing to forgive in the name of young love, or Inez, the school gossip, you’re right there with them. The other great thing about this song is that it is sung to a girl, and though it is set up so we understand it is most likely from a boy’s perspective, it doesn’t have to be. It’s really great that girls in the LGBTQ community can have a song in Taylor’s voice to fully connect to without changing the pronouns or names (even James, which is unisex and is one of the names of the daughters of Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds, Taylor’s close friends, mentioned in this song). That is the beauty of folklore: the infinite ways a story can be told, perceived, retold from a different perspective, and told again. Maybe you’ll hear it from Inez. Best lyric: “But if I just showed up at your party / would you have me? Would you want me? / Would you tell me to go fuck myself, or lead me to the garden?”

15. peace One of the most beautifully solemn songs of her career, “peace” echoes the same fears explored in “Dancing With Our Hands Tied” from reputation; will the person she loves be able to weather the ever-present storm that comes with the life of a superstar, but also dwells within herself? Will holding him as the water rushes in be enough? Will giving him her wild, a child, her sunshine, her best, be a fair consolation? Presumably another confessional track and about Alwyn, Swift puts him up on a pedestal, praising his integrity and his dare to dream. She proclaims that she would die for him in secret, just as she told him she’d be on her tallest tip toes, spinning in her highest heels, shining just for him in “mirrorball.” She highlights some of the greatest gifts of love, such as comfortable silence and chosen family. She knows what they have is special, but she also knows the value of peace, the ultimate nirvana, and does not want to deprive him of that. It is so deeply relatable- to me, at least- to feel like you can give someone so much of yourself but know it still may never be enough, and to fear either losing them or robbing them of something better. But looking at what they have together, maybe peace is overrated. Or maybe, she’s looking for peace in the wrong places. The calm is in the eye of the storm, and sometimes, there’s nothing more freeing than throwing away the umbrella and soaking in the rain. Best lyric: “I never had the courage of my convictions / as long as danger is near / and it’s just around the corner, darling / ‘cause it lives in me / no, I could never give you peace.”

16. hoax The truest enigma of the album, the closer, “hoax” is a devastatingly dark ballad about the uncertainty, or perhaps incredulity, of someone’s love for you, a love that is your lifeline. The lyrics are ambiguous, which gives way to a plethora of interpretations. Perhaps she is speaking about a hypothetical situation that has yet to happen (and hopefully doesn’t) in which someone she loves and trusts betrays her. Maybe she is talking about a relationship, real (hopefully not) or fictional, in which despite the torment it brings her she holds onto it for dear life. I’m most inclined to believe that the song represents her difficulty in accepting that someone is willing to love her through such dark periods, that their love must actually be a hoax, but she chooses to believe in it anyway and uses it as the motivation to rebuild her kingdom, to rise from the ashes on her barren land. And even through the downs that come at some point in every relationship, she can still see the beauty in it all. Yes, their love is golden, but waves of blue will crash down around any partnership, because life does not exist without them. So even when things are as blue as can be, she’s at least grateful it’s with him. Best lyric: “Don’t want no other shade of blue but you / no other sadness in the world would do.”

Although we still have yet to hear the deluxe track, “the lakes,” as a fan of Taylor for almost 12 years, it feels so obvious that this is her strongest work yet. The storytelling I fell in love with on Fearless as a teenager (which, much like folklore, was highly inspired by imaginary situations and real emotions) is even sharper now as we have both grown into adults. The music on this album might not be everyone’s speed, and that’s okay. But it allowed Taylor to dip back into what made Fearless such a success: using pieces of her own truth and the whims of her imagination to develop a multi-faceted narrative that becomes universal. During her Tiny Desk concert, before performing “Death By A Thousand Cuts” from Lover, Swift explained the anxiety she felt around the possibility of stunted creativity when people would ask her what she would write about once she was happy. Taylor has released an abundance of beautiful, fun, complex love songs since the start of her relationship almost four years ago now. But “Death By A Thousand Cuts,” which is a fan favorite, helped her prove to herself that she can still write a killer breakup song while being in a happy, fulfilling relationship; the song was the last track written for Lover and was inspired by the film Something Great on Netflix. And so it makes perfect sense that Taylor used folklore to continue exploring this new avenue for songwriting. All of her discography and all of her life experiences have culminated to the folklore moment: as all the best artists do, she will never stop finding inspiration in hidden corners of this dark, mystical, wondrous universe, and falling in love with new ways to share those wonders. And that love will be passed on.

DISCLAIMER - REVIEWER’S BIAS: I love Taylor Swift more than any person in my life, yes including my parents, they are aware and have accepted this fact long ago ❤️

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whenitsdarkweilluminate · 2 years

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Baku 2012 – Grand Final

Host: Azerbaijan Slogan: “Light Your Fire!” Participants: 42 Voting method: 12-point system (50/50 system - combined) Format: 2 Semi-Finals / Grand Final = the top 10 of semi 1 & 2 + the Big 5 + host Winner: Loreen - Euphoria Country: Sweden Points: 372 (75.6% of highest score possible) Language: English General Overview: With the change to the “Big Five”, that means the number of entries in the Grand Final is now standardized at 26 from here on out (aside from 2015 and probably 2022 as well). Incidentally, that matches the record from the 2003 final. The postcards begin by showing the artists greeting the camera in the audience, just like last year. Then it cuts to a fire animation with the country name/flag, followed by various footage showcasing the country's culture and scenery, alongside some traditional music. This portion is more-or-less aimed at attracting tourism lol. The sequence concludes with a seaside distance shot of the arena, where the wall lights depict the respective country's flag colours. Then, every performance begins with the lights dimming. The stage is shaped like a diamond, with a panhandle in the back, and two narrow walkways connected at the front that intersect the audience. At least one of which leads directly to the Green Room. Behind the stage are some asymmetrical LED screens. I remember this year's stage design for the odd shapes lol. The lighting effects are the visual highlight of this show though. The opening sequence introduces Alim Qasimov, a famous mugham (Azerbaijani folk genre) musician. He sits on a carpet and cushions, and he will later feature on the host entry. This segues into a modern dance music portion. There's glowing white outfits and people floating midair on strings. The next segment features traditional music and clothing, including a flurry of hand drums. This eventually leads into Ell & Nikki reprising “Running Scared”. Like I said before, the hosting team is very scripted this year. Also, Lys Assia is honoured yet again.

The interval act involves a variety of traditional instruments, a violin section, and some emphatic drum duelling. It's pretty dynamic though. Singer Emin Arazovich then descends from the ceiling via wires and performs his song “Never Enough”. I liked the bass percussion and the arena-filling chorus on it. As for the vote reveal, the producers saved most of Sweden's 12s for as late as possible to create suspense... but it was a runaway victory regardless. Below the #1 spot, Serbia held #2 for a bit, Estonia started from behind, and it was worrying seeing Turkey in the top 3 initially. Also, the other 3 Nordics were stuck 0 points for so long (rip). As for the spokespersons, Mr Lordi was as extra as always and “Lynda Woodruff” gave us a teaser for what next year's hosting will be like. 2012 was a good year for the auto-qualifiers, with 4 of them landing in the top 10. While stylistically, this was the year of dance-pop bops and big ballads. United Kingdom: Engelbert Humperdinck - Love Will Set You Free Yeah this was a baffling selection. Just like their 2008 and 2010 entries, the UK are dated and out of touch with modern Eurovision. I guess they thought another familiar name would replicate Blue's success, but this flopped. Engelbert's mushy crooner ballads offered a stark contrast to the psychedelic rock era of 1967, where he topped the UK charts with “Release Me” and “The Last Waltz”, the former even reached #4 in the US. “Love” is another mid-20th century crooner ballad, just without the dreary backing vocalists from that time period. In the song, he wishes his ex to be happy with her new lover, choosing her needs over his own pride. While musically, the pace is driven by a solitary acoustic guitar, supported by orchestral strings. It's like a slow dance lullaby in the moonlight. The stage features a guitarist on the left and two Ballroom dancers on the right. The performers are spotlighted against a dark backdrop. The song concludes with a “big” final chorus, accompanied by some fire rain and sparklers. Engelbert is a career performer and the song has a nice sentiment, but the whole thing is so tedious and listless to me. The pace is sluggish, the song is basic, the final chorus underwhelms, and the pyrotechnics are out of place. Engelbert's pointing to the audience is extra too. Hungary: Compact Disco - Sound of Our Hearts Albania: Rona Nishliu - Suus Albania and their poor running order slots... Lithuania: Donny Montell - Love Is Blind His vocal seemed better in the semi-final. Bosnia & Herzegovina: Maya Sar - Korake ti znam Russia: Buranovskiye Babushki - Party for Everybody Kinda glad Russia was early in the running order to ensure they didn't win. Iceland: Greta Salóme and Jónsi - Never Forget Cyprus: Ivi Adamou - La La Love France: Anggun - Echo (You and I) These bloody whistles. So, the pop music scene of 2011 witnessed a short-lived whistle trend (ie. “I Wanna Go”, “Pumped Up Kicks”, “Moves Like Jagger”). Subsequently, “Echo” employs an inescapable whistle hook that dominates the intro, the pre-chorus, the bridge breakdown, and the outro. It's overused in an annoying way, and yet it's the most memorable aspect of this song? Seriously, this melody is so flat and bland. It keeps circling back to this sterile, robotic, shimmery, high-speed dance-pop production. Still, there are two welcomed divergences: the post-chorus pull-back (the “J'entends l'écho...” part) and the intro. The latter involves a slow-clapping beat, guitars, an explosive synth acceleration, and a dancer cartwheeling down the ramp in sync to it. There's also a carnival keyboard in some parts, and a clapping rhythm in others. The former matches the acrobatic backing dancers on stage. And Anggun's dress flows wildly in that wind machine lol. But overall, this entry feels aimless and lacking in personality. The lyrics are about two people being on different wavelengths, hoping to reunite someday. The delivery misses that mood. Ultimately, France got ZERO points from the televote, which began a 4-year stretch of bottom 5 placements for them. Italy: Nina Zilli - L'amore è femmina (Out of Love) This is basically an Amy Winehouse tribute. Nina's hairdo is remarkably similar, and “L'amore” is a retro 1960s jazzy number. It wasn't even a full year after her passing, but I wouldn't call this entry tasteless either. Nina exudes comfortable and effortless stage presence here, as exhibited in her casual arm movements lol. The song is a sassy kiss-off, and she delivers the necessary “don't mess with me” attitude for it. She stands up for herself after being devalued by her lover, and in spite of his attempts to charm her into staying. She is over it. The lyrics contain a few biting remarks such as “You're great, but not impressive” and “You're an independent grown man after all”. While the chorus translates to the advice “love is female; if you don't receive, you don't give”– basically, don't put effort into a relationship if the other person isn't doing the same. The bridge, meanwhile, takes a dark turn where Nina threatens a “gun shot” (she even gestures one with her hand). But the atmosphere is too breezy to be taken serious. The sax, the snapping percussion line, and the dramatic “Boom boom boom”s keep the song active. As does the prevailing call-and-response routine, which is also a great hook. The chorus melody and its fuller production are effective too. Interestingly, Emma Marrone actually won Sanremo this year, while Nina came in 7th... with a different song. Emma will appear soon though. Estonia: Ott Lepland - Kuula It seems to have a softer ending this time. Norway: Tooji - Stay Azerbaijan: Sabina Babayeva - When the Music Dies Better than the song they won with. On paper, “When the Music Dies” is a standard live show ballad. The first verse is lead by a piano, the drums enter in the second, and there's a climactic build into the final chorus. But there are traditional elements here, as exhibited by Alim Qasimov's feature and the Balaban woodwind. Moreover, Sabina truly brings this melody to life. She begins pensively in the lower register, as she pleads her lover to stay. She's emotionally wrecked, and desperate to salvage a relationship that's clearly over. The choruses, meanwhile, showcase Sabina's clean, clear, professional vocals, as her dress looks stunning in the changing pastel colours via lighting effects. There aren't many words to this chorus (or the verses for that matter), but her careful delivery makes it impactful. From the “IIIIIIIII” shout, to the staggered “cold, cold, cold” hook, to the ensuing “now every second...” escalation. The chorus ends by receding to sorrow, followed by Alim inserting a Mugham vocal chant to fill the quiet space. It's the dreaded moment “when the music dies”, or when she accepts it's over. Incidentally, this is the best performing host entry of the decade (4th place). Romania: Mandinga - Zaleilah Denmark: Soluna Samay - Should've Known Better Greece: Eleftheria Eleftheriou - Aphrodisiac Sweden: Loreen - Euphoria (winner review below) Turkey: Can Bonomo - Love Me Back Spain: Pastora Soler - Quédate conmigo “Euphoria” wasn't the only thing Thomas G:son was up to this year – he also co-wrote Spain's entry. 2012 has no shortage of big vocal/piano ballads, and this is the most bombastic one. The first verse is guided by piano and swelling orchestral strings. The second verse is powered by tension-building drums. Pastora then unleashes a huge note to transition through the bridge, as the instrumental dramatically pauses for full effect. Finally, the grandiose final chorus introduces the backing vocalists and the outpouring instrumentation. The song does a good job of holding tension in the first half, and releasing it in the second. It progresses from vulnerability to distraught, tormented anguish. Usually I overlook these types of ballads, but “Quédate conmigo” is a true showstopper. Pastora supplies the powerhouse Celine Dion-esque vocals. She delivers a heartfelt performance too – her facial expressions during the first verse are strikingly empathetic. She also pleads the title phrase “stay with me” with emphatic passion. The lyrics describe someone who is on their knees begging for forgiveness. It's a song of regret and desperation. The “si no supe amarte, amor” part is a grabbing hook as well. In the end, this became Spain's best placement in 8 years. Germany: Roman Lob - Standing Still Germany's first offering in a post-Lena world finishes in 8th place, so they were still riding that momentum, although it won't last beyond 2012. “Standing Still” is basically just “How To Save A Life” by the Fray. Well, in regards to the soft rock ballad instrumentation and Roman's vocal tone anyway; the subject matter is completely different. This one is about accepting when a relationship has gone cold, and just letting it passively come to its dissolution. Roman realizes there's no reason to salvage it, so he's just “standing still”, frozen in one place. It's almost like he's surprised by his own inaction. He surmises “this ain't giving up, it's knowing where to stop”. It seems all of the auto-qualifiers are about break-ups this year, with a varying degree of responses. Anyways, the bittersweet atmosphere works well here. The mood is nostalgic yet numb yet reassured. The arrangement is smooth and built for HAC radio, while Roman has a warm voice, although it's a bit rough live. The leading piano notes help set the mood as well. Malta: Kurt Calleja - This Is the Night He goes for the ad libs this time. F.Y.R. Macedonia: Kaliopi - Crno i belo Ireland: Jedward - Waterline Serbia: Željko Joksimović - Nije ljubav stvar I keep second-guessing my rank for this. I want to like it more than I do. Ukraine: Gaitana - Be My Guest Moldova: Pasha Parfeny - Lăutar The Winner: Sweden achieves their 5th victory, becoming the fifth country to do so. This isn't just any winner though... no this is a behemoth. Firstly, “Euphoria” annihilated the competition this year, earning a whopping 372 points (which was only 15 shy of the “Fairytale”'s record) and continued an era of landslide winners. It received “douze points” from 18 different countries. It became a massive commercial success by hitting #1 in 17 European countries, and even #3 in the UK where ESC songs rarely chart that high anymore. It has 174m streams on Spotify. And it was the first purely Eurodance song to win the contest. But above all else, “Euphoria” is usually rated as one of, if not THE, best Eurovision entry of all time. It's an immensely popular winner, and one that seemingly everybody likes... ...Which begs the question: does it live up to its legendary status? Well, first of all “Euphoria” has to be one of the best staged entries of all time. Like, visually this is work of art – the lighting effects, the silhouette effect on Loreen, the snowfall, the calculated camera shots. It gives an illusion that this performance is happening in a completely different venue (“we're all alone in our own universe” indeed). Furthermore, Loreen's choreography is entrancing in how she flails her arms like she's swimming underwater, while her baggy cloak flows in the wind machine. I also like how she collapses to her knees when the song sinks, when she jerks her arms upwards during the “up up up”part, and when the backing dancer physically lifts her for the final chorus. Also, performing barefoot adds that delicate touch. The visuals complement the lyrical themes too. The song is a mental tug of a war between embracing the present moment vs. the insecurity and doubt over whether it'll last. The production correspondingly rises and sinks, as it oscillates between the brooding verses/bridge and the icy, sweeping synths of the chorus. The euphoric moments end so suddenly too, where the production snaps shut at the end of the chorus (just like how negative thoughts will instantly intrude). Loreen expresses both feelings pretty well, although I used to think her live vocal was “shouty”. Otherwise, the song literally begins with a foghorn and a swirl of flashing lights to immediately grab your attention. The dance-pop production itself is very clean, intricate, cohesive and atmospheric. It's actually aged pretty well. And the “UP UP UP UP UHHH-UP” hook is memorable. The song was written by Thomas G:son, becoming his crowning moment in the contest, and his third Melfest winner as well; alongside Peter Boström, who also produced the Melfest runner-up that year – “Amazing” by Danny Saucedo. Loreen and Danny really towered over everything else in the Final. Verdict: It rightfully belongs in the “S” Tier. My Ranking: Grand Final: 01. Sweden: Loreen - Euphoria 02. F.Y.R. Macedonia: Kaliopi - Crno i belo 03. Iceland: Greta Salóme and Jónsi - Never Forget 04. Spain: Pastora Soler - Quédate conmigo 05. Albania: Rona Nishliu - Suus 06. Denmark: Soluna Samay - Should've Known Better 07. Bosnia & Herzegovina: Maya Sar - Korake ti znam 08. Italy: Nina Zilli - L'amore è femmina (Out of Love) 09. Serbia: Željko Joksimović - Nije ljubav stvar 10. Germany: Roman Lob - Standing Still 11. Cyprus: Ivi Adamou - La La Love 12. Azerbaijan: Sabina Babayeva - When the Music Dies 13. Moldova: Pasha Parfeny - Lăutar 14. Russia: Buranovskiye Babushki - Party for Everybody 15. Norway: Tooji - Stay 16. Lithuania: Donny Montell - Love Is Blind 17. Greece: Eleftheria Eleftheriou - Aphrodisiac 18. Estonia: Ott Lepland - Kuula 19. Hungary: Compact Disco - Sound of Our Hearts 20. Romania: Mandinga - Zaleilah 21. Ukraine: Gaitana - Be My Guest 22. Turkey: Can Bonomo - Love Me Back 23. France: Anggun - Echo (You and I) 24. Ireland: Jedward - Waterline 25. United Kingdom: Engelbert Humperdinck - Love Will Set You Free 26. Malta: Kurt Calleja - This Is the Night Full Ranking: 01. Sweden: Loreen - Euphoria 02. F.Y.R. Macedonia: Kaliopi - Crno i belo 03. Iceland: Greta Salóme & Jónsi - Never Forget 04. Spain: Pastora Soler - Quédate conmigo 05. Albania: Rona Nishliu - Suus 06. Denmark: Soluna Samay - Should've Known Better 07. Portugal: Filipa Sousa - Vida minha 08. Bosnia & Herzegovina: Maya Sar - Korake ti znam 09. Italy: Nina Zilli - L'amore è femmina (Out of Love) 10. Bulgaria: Sofi Marinova - Love Unlimited 11. Serbia: Željko Joksimović - Nije ljubav stvar 12. Finland: Pernilla Karlsson - När jag blundar 13. Germany: Roman Lob - Standing Still 14. Cyprus: Ivi Adamou - La La Love 15. Azerbaijan: Sabina Babayeva - When the Music Dies 16. Moldova: Pasha Parfeny - Lăutar 17. Russia: Buranovskiye Babushki - Party for Everybody 18. Norway: Tooji - Stay 19. Lithuania: Donny Montell - Love Is Blind 20. Greece: Eleftheria Eleftheriou - Aphrodisiac 21. Slovenia: Eva Boto - Verjamem 22. Estonia: Ott Lepland - Kuula 23. Hungary: Compact Disco - Sound of Our Hearts 24. Switzerland: Sinplus - Unbreakable 25. San Marino: Valentina Monetta - The Social Network Song (Oh Oh – Uh - Oh Oh) 26. Romania: Mandinga - Zaleilah 27. Ukraine: Gaitana - Be My Guest 28. Austria: Tracks**ttaz - Woki mit deim Popo 29. Israel: Izabo - Time 30. Latvia: Anmary - Beautiful Song 31. Turkey: Can Bonomo - Love Me Back 32. Croatia: Nina Badrić - Nebo 33. France: Anggun - Echo (You and I) 34. Ireland: Jedward - Waterline 35. Netherlands: Joan Franka - You and Me 36. United Kingdom: Engelbert Humperdinck - Love Will Set You Free 37. Malta: Kurt Calleja - This Is the Night 38. Belarus: Litesound - We Are the Heroes 39. Belgium: Iris - Would You? 40. Slovakia: Max Jason Mai - Don't Close Your Eyes 41. Montenegro: Rambo Amadeus - Euro Neuro 42. Georgia: Anri Jokhadze - I'm a Joker “S” Tier: “Euphoria”, “Fairytale”, “My Number One” “A” Tier: “Every Way That I Can”, “Wild Dances”, “Hard Rock Hallelujah”, “Satellite” “B” Tier: “Molitva” “C” Tier: “Fly On The Wings Of Love”, “I Wanna” “D” Tier: “Everybody”, “Believe”, “Running Scared” “F” Tier: none!

#eurovision review #eurovision #Eurovision 2012

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