Keep Climbing!; The Songs We Wanna See Go Higher

We are ALL about diversifying the POP landscape... & let's face it, the Billboard Hot 100 could certainly use some more variety. Recently, we've noticed a shift in popular tastes in our native USA. We hope that this trend continues, & by doing so, adds some spice & flavor to the POP music charts & airwaves. Here are the 6 songs to which we scream "keep climbing!"

Calvin Harris - Feel So Close (#15) - Oh Calvin! The Scottish raver behind international hits deserves another chart-topper of his own. It's that simple. And after the smash success of We Found Love, America will easily welcome him with open arms & neon disco balls (we feel so close to you Calvin, it's a force-field).

Fun. - Some Nights (#70) - Although a bit more complex than other tracks on their second record, Some Nights has the potential to become a collassal hit-- especially with its accessible chorus & witty lines like "here they come again to jack my style." But for now, Fun.'s current reign at #1 with We Are Young will continue to reinvigorate the POP-friendly indie band.

M83 - Midnight City (#75) - Fellow blogger Nico Lang wrote an excellent article entitled "Why We Should Make M83's 'Mightnight City' the #1 Song in America," encouraging POP-savants to mobilize behind Anthony Gonzalez's alternative masterpiece. We completely agree with him. Midnight City has earned an outpouring of critical acclaim since the release of Hurry Up, We're Dreaming last year. M83 has produced some incredible cult classics during its 10+ year lifespan, & it is about time for the band to reach popular music audiences. The beautiful & expansive Midnight City could be the ticket.

Adele - Rumor Has It (#44) -We're so proud of Adele. As someone who started as an indie singer-songwriter and catapulted to mainstream stardom, she hasn't compromised her vision nor her sound. She's still writes from the heart and puts out singles that aren't standard POP tracks in the vein of Rihanna or Katy Perry. Though she works with some big name producers, she's able to get a sound of out them that is unlike anything they've done for their other POP clients. Rumor Has It is the best example. Produced and co-written with Ryan Tedder, the One Republic frontman behind Beyonce's Halo and Leona Lewis' Bleeding Love, Rumor Has It is missing his signature synths and bum ba da bum bum bang beat, instead sounding like a bluesy time-capsule to another era. Our favorite part is the bridge, when Adele puts the uptempo attitude on pause and balladeers with a piano accompaniment. Without a doubt, this is the best song on the album. It most definitely deserves the top spot on the Hot 100.

Ellie Goulding - Lights (#66) - Across the pond, Ellie Goulding has turned her electro-folk into a POP staple. She's a bit like Taylor Swift, but with a larger vocabulary, writing songs that possess catchier hooks and more experimental song structures than any of Swift's recent singles. Lights is Goulding's most straightforward pop song to date, written with and produced by Richard "Biff" Stannard, the man behind the Spice Girls' biggest hits. Together, they've created a track about Ellie's childhood fear of the dark. Cute.

Gotye - Somebody That I Used to Know (#4) - Though this song has finally made it to the Top 5, it's still not regularly played on Clear Channel stations, which boggles our minds. Such a high climb without much airplay indicates that it would be a surefire hit on radio. Times are-a-changin'. We're entering a '90s like period where indie bands (Fun., Foster the People) and singer-songwriters (Adele, Gotye) sit beside manufactured POP on the Hot 100. It's time for radio to catch up.

Unapologetically,

Gregory & Minna

JFF - Calvin Harris & Ne-Yo, "Let's Go"

My obsession with Calvin Harris bordered on mania during my college years (my roommates would probably have a few words here).  I have been meaning to write a comprehensive piece on Calvin for weeks... but, unlike all y'all fancy bloggers (pros), I have a day job.  It's exhausting to buckle down & write a long, detailed work on someone so massive after working 9-5.  Where do we begin? Perhaps with a song?

Today, in the middle of structuring a future article on Calvin I heard, to my ears' delight, Let's Go, a breezy dance smash with POP-R&B artist Ne-Yo.  Once again, Calvin proves himself to be the King of "good decision" collaborations, & Let's Go it clearly another one under his belt.

I'm really waiting for Calvin to make a bad song. So far it seems implausible.  This man even made Rihanna sound good...

Unapologetically,

Minna

Ra Ra Ra Ra RihanNa

Holler!

Have you heard Rihanna’s first single off her upcoming sixth album? Six albums by the age of 23; I envy her because there are days when I want to be her. I may be bad but I’m perfectly good at it, too, mister! "We Found Love" (click here to listen) is her first collaboration with Scottish DJ turned producer Calvin Harris, famous abroad, but viewed as more of an underground electronic artist out here. Obviously, working with Rihanna is great for him. Once this song becomes a hit on American radio (and it will), he’ll join the ranks of top producers as more American based recording artists will hear it and likely gravitate toward him when they gear up for new album cycles. 

I’ve had mixed feelings about Rihanna for quite some time. After "SOS" made her the dance diva she is well known as today, I couldn’t help but love her songs. "Please Don’t Stop the Music," "Disturbia," and "Only Girl" were irresistible for a gay man like me who loves to dance in a Hanes T-shirt and undies by myself in front of my bedroom mirror. Plus, girlfriend’s got some undeniable swagger! Eventually, though, I was a bit annoyed with her.  A portion of my sentiments surely sprung from my jealousy of her pop success, as I’m an aspiring pop artist myself. But other parts of my feelings were more justifiable. Her voice wasn’t great live (it’s since gotten better), and she didn’t dance up a storm. In other words, she wasn’t as magical on stage as Beyoncé, currently the best live performer in pop. Furthermore, I was a bit turned off by her sex shtick hitting the repeat button with each album. Actually, I was getting annoyed with everyone’s sex shtick to a degree. Madonna was the pioneer in that regard, but she used pop to snatch the power of female sexuality out of males’ hands and place it into females’.  She used sexuality to break social barriers (and to further her career, but at least positive social change came out of it). Awesome examples of respectable, powerful, sexual women on television like Samantha in Sex and the City wouldn’t be around without Madonna’s work.  Basically, I love everything Madonna’s done.

At least Lady Gaga has used sexuality to focus people’s attention on LGBT issues. Katy Perry, whose music and look I love, doesn’t have a social agenda (apart from "Firework"), but at least her sexuality has been semi-original; she’s twisted it in a tongue-in-cheek, hipster, cute, sundress, candy girl/Chiquita Banana direction and made it her own.  On the other hand, Rihanna seems to copy Madonna move for move but without any political point and without revealing much of her own personality, unlike Katy who makes her personality known. In other words, she uses sexuality solely to push product, which sometimes puts a bad taste in my mouth. However, after talking to my friend Laura, a progressive bi-sexual with a buzz-cut, I’ve realized that maybe Rihanna is doing something right. Laura said that in many Rihanna songs, the pop siren is in the power position. In "Rude Boy," she tells the guy to “take it, take it.” In "S&M," she’s the one wielding the chains and whips. At the end of the day, it’s all about pointing that out to the naïve, impressionable youth who hear these songs and see these images so that they interpret them in a way that’s beneficial, as opposed to detrimental. Young boys need to comprehend that women aren’t sex objects. Young girls need to know that sex, while an important and essential part of life, is not the end all be all. They need to see the positive in what Rihanna’s doing, which is something that Rihanna may not see herself (I don’t know; I’ve never met the girl). They need to understand that when they are ready for sex, or to express themselves sexually, they can do it however they want to, as loudly (“S S S & M M M”), or softly as they want to.  They need to know that they have power, just like Rihanna does in her songs. We need to highlight those points because the media system, which everyone enables, including Rihanna and ourselves, doesn’t. That system emphasizes the “sex sells” part, which isn’t empowering, so we need to push back and stress the positive messages where we can find them, in the fun, entertaining, danceable, omnipresent hits by Ms. Umbrella herself. Love you girl! Can’t wait till your album drops.  Until then, I’ll be obsessively listening to "We Found Love." It’s absolutely addictive.

Unapologetically,

Gregory