Posts by Russell Brown
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Hard News: Friday Music: Some Year, in reply to mark taslov,
But dealing specifically with just music if possible,
But pop's never been about "just the music". Part of what's interesting about Lorde is that she's no part of the Disney-trained world of Britney Spears and Selena Gomez. She looks different and she sounds different when she opens her mouth. When teenage girls respond to those things, it makes a difference.
the big game changer there as I recall was Beck’s Loser in 1993, written and recorded by Beck and producer Carl Stephenson while he was visiting Stephenson’s home, reaching No 1 in U.S. Billboard Hot Modern Rock and 10 on the Billboard Hot 100. Obviously that’s by no means as massive as 2 and 1/2 months holding out all else, but I’m pretty sure you could pick that song out of a line up.
That would be a fair call. But I would strongly contend you'd pick 'Royals' out of any lineup too. It still seems hard to believe that it has done what it did without having its spaces filled in, its tempo raised or its chorus embiggened to industry standard. It's a very, very different pop record.
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Hard News: Friday Music: Some Year, in reply to bmk,
Again I like Lorde but I just can’t believe she’s this massive game-changing phenomenon.
On reflection, I amended it to "slightly shifted the axis of pop music" to better reflect what I was saying. It's not a revolution, it's not the Beatles, but it is one of those records that recalibrates things a but.
To me it just doesn’t seem anything like when say Nirvana first appeared where a whole musical paradigm was thrown out almost overnight.
Interestingly, Ann Powers of NPR drew just that comparison earlier this month:
Finally, there's the hit itself: a no that blossoms into a yes. "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was an emerging generation's frustrated battle cry, and like "Royals," it decried the pop industry of which it became a part. Hitting hard, "Teen Spirit" revitalized the idea of what rock could be. Sneaking in, "Royals" suggests that pop can have deeper layers. Nirvana lobbed a Molotov into the charts. Lorde released a virus. Each weapon suited its time.
Powers' essay is well worth reading, even if you don't buy it all.
The comments get a bit bizarre. There's a lot of "but what about Eddie Vedder?" I never cared a jot for Pearl Jam. If the paradigm shifted, it really didn't shift far in their case.
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Hard News: Friday Music: Some Year, in reply to mark taslov,
I don’t see how anyone who is interested in music could not find the whole phenomenon compelling. It’s a record that has shifted the axis of pop music.
That’s quite an interesting call, mammoth…and interesting. It’s undeniable that No 1 in ten territories (including the Euro digital Billboard chart) is absolutely massive, no question about it, both in terms of pop music and western pop culture.
It's true. Almost everything else that 'Royals' jostled with at the top of the charts is a product of songwriting factories -- especially the one run by Dr Luke. That's not new for pop, but it's highly notable that a weird, sparse song like that, with a meaning people argue over, could hold out all else for two and a half months. And that it should be recorded in a little studio in a light commercial suburb in Auckland, by an almost unknown producer and a precocious, hip 16 year-old book nerd. It has changed the idea of what can succeed. Read the teenage girls' tweets about her - she's shifted ideals of beauty in pop culture. It is quite a thing to carry.
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It’s amusing how much harder Radio NZ has gone on the Cameron Brewer story than the Herald, which actually broke it. Todd Niall has done his usual good, patient work on it. All he's had back from Brewer is a brief email saying that Brewer won't be commenting on Len Brown's failure to declaring, starting today.
No word on whether he will ever comment on, like, his own failure.
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Yikes. I kept feeling I'd left something out of my faves list and eventually realised I'd missed Ladi6's Automatic. Fixed now.
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Hard News: We need to talk about Len, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
I don’t quite get why a broadcaster would have a commercial interest in a public transport project. Are they worried people won’t listen to the radio when commuting by train instead of car? Or are they just objecting on normal right-wing pave-the-earth principles?
The tunnel route runs right under their building in Eden Terrace and may cause problems with noise and vibration during construction.
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Hard News: We need to talk about Len, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
No, thankfully Cr. Brewer’s sex life remains a known unknown (to coin a phrase). But, boy, while the Filthy Five and the Herald were riding their moral high horses yesterday it turns out Cameron just forgot to declare his own junkets.
As far as I can see, Brewer also flat-out lies to Orsman in that story when he claims to have made the proper declaration in 2011. The register of interests didn't exist in 2011.
He told another version of the same lie to John Drinnan in 2011, who wrote about the junket in September 2011. Brewer claimed to have properly declared the gift. In today's story he admits he did nothing of the kind. It's astonishing.
And isn’t it funny how the story is well buried in the paper and Bernard Orsman’s tone is *cough* considerably more temperate. Guess we’re not going to get a screeching front-page editorial demanding Brewer’s head on a pike any time soon.
Or even just a tough story that really put Brewer on the spot. That would do for now.
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This Clynelish bottling seems an exceptional buy at $89.
Add on Adelphi's excellent Private Stock blend for $45 and you've got quite a lot of good whisky for your $34 top-up.
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Hard News: Public Address Word of the…, in reply to SteveH,
So, I think I deserve some props for voting for metadata, fuckstrating, and selfie in that order.
Respect!
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Crickey. Rob Hosking just tweeted this:
If anything will save @mayorlenbrown, it’ll be his opponents behaving like malignant guttersnipe. Learn from Ken Starr’s mistakes, folks.
Also, Penny Bright's in the room. Sigh.