Metal Mike Saunders On The New Britney Album (And Maybe The New Gaga One Too?)

He asked me to start a new thread, so out of respect for the man, here goes; apparently there's more coming. Yesterday, via email:

i pay cash on the barrelhead, or Visa card on the counter, hard copy all the way, so i dunno why i was so slow getting to the record store (like four whole days after the album racked).

oh yeah --bought the new britney album yesterday. whoa and wow, tracks 4 through 12 KILL nonstop, it's just as good as advertised. and totally-different from BLACKOUT or (different still from) CIRCUS (which i actually like even more than BLACKOUT), but the SAME genre, ha! hat trick, baby, hat trick! ARTISTIC 3-CARD-MONTE PRIZE WINNER HERE! the buzz and advance press (including Max Martin and Dr Luke themselves in the new Rolling Stone, talking aggro and making good points about the album) did not lie.

the britney album tracks 1 and 2, oh yeah...those are the two hit singles everyone knows sooo i didn't even really notice those when it started playing (from the living room while i was around and about back and forth).

i guess that leaves "Track 3" as the only "why didn't that one tune (only) sound great on first listen?" i do believe we got a 5-star 9.5 and 3.90 GPA "BEST OF CAREER" winner here. even if nothing is even a pimple on the 1999-2000 teenage genius of "Lucky" or "I Won't Be There" or or or, any of them. yep, totally different ten years down the line. now that sir is a true artist's catalog!

Today:

dunno...you might have to post up/start a new thread ILX, "metal mike on the new Britney album" so the myriad of subsequent posts would have a focus. (starting with, whether or not THE FAME was as good as rock's Rubber Soul, or britney FEMME FATALE vs. Pet Sounds....see?) that way real quick someone will ask,

"WHAT ABOUT BLACKOUT"? and then the great minds of ILX will fire up the IBM mainframe computers .

and imagine: if the next gaga album isn't half near-amazing (i don't expect it to be, since piano-based-singer-songwriter DNA disease makes implosion into being a billy joel or elton john dork -- as a songwriter -- a possibility at any nanosecond. did anyone say "yeah, fuck Spechless!" yep, someone just did). (and jeesus, "Born This Way" is almost as BORING as Respect Yourself...musically. just a fucking drone, weak melody line over the 3 chords. both those tunes) --

sitting (gaga) in its can for May release -- she may just hear the britney album (like right now last week) and be all "ohhhh FUCK"

dunno if it really worked out too good for the beatles/beach boys (i like nothing after Rubber Soul, categorically, or nothing after BEACH BOYS TODAY until the Smile "bootlegs"/comps and onward, and only kinda sorta at that. and i bail quick and hard the second "This Whole World" has finished its track on Sunflower), but what the fuck do i care. john lennon's dead, he doesn't care either!

Just wanted to let everyone know that I've started a Todd-Homer-on-the-second-Rebecca-Black-single thread.

Why doesn't metal mike register?

I have no idea. It's none of my business!

yeah tell him to post

sounds like a new t.a.t.u. album to me. which is a good thing.

xp I am not the boss of him.

Latest Mike installment; not gonna try to edit it. (Print 'em all, let God sort 'em out.)

(greg hetson's kid, it turns out)
Violet Hetson / facebook, apr 1st 6:53am, wrote:

theres only one question i have (re: all the Excello swamp blues and Howlin' Wolf stuff)

Metal Mike / facedork, apr 4th 2:49pm, wrote:

yes, "why are you old people so lame"

well i don't have time to answer that, because i'm busy arguing with clueless oldfuck braintards (that my
brother Bonze/samoan posted a facedork "wall" comment and embro-glioed (?) onto his local Cornell Univ
friend's facetard "wall"'s twenty&counting responses to a "43 of my friends like lady gaga?!?" "status post") but lame
fuckbook won't let me post directly to that "wall" comment thread and say like:
dumbass, go back to 1964 and say "43 OF MY FRIENDS LIKE THE BEATLES!??" well you get the picture.

the catch 22 x 2 thing with (gaga say) is that it's a regular beatles / stones / beach boys (i mean 1965 before those bands all started to suck prettty soon) pileup -- gaga, K$SHA (ask any 8th grader who's not you AND not a 'punke rockere'), and NOW the new britney (is holy shit wtf omg this Max Martin-Dr Luke effort is fuckin Hall of Fame BRILLIANT) and ha, K$SHA wrote (with max) the lead track / current (2nd) single / almost-No.1-already hit tune.

hits, baby, hits. if the fuckin Ramones had just gotten just one of those
1976/77/78 singles to crack top 40 in 1977-78 we WOULD HAVE BEEN SPARED FUCKING JOURNEY and STYX, the world (music) would have tilted, etc., bla bla bla.

that's what a game-changer the Fame/FameMonster album was (the industry and
press used that dumb term 5,000 times). but Animal (K$sha) was BETTER.
and the new britney....is an omg, holy fuckin shit.

(historical reference magsba, for perspective: except for 2 or 3 american
reviewers/well-known (greg shaw, ken barnes, actually that's it...i had quit by then/1974 onward), ABBA were SAVAGED throughout the 70's by the UK
press, and basically totally ignored in america in the press). duh, greatest pop group of all time (the eventual obvious consensus).

thus (as a lame English teacher would say): the only real "classic pop music" question is always: "is it as good as ABBA?"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=760bkcZ8rb0
I WANNA GO
well holy fuckin christ on a stick, the ABBA-redux of this not just
(the Max Martin tune), but (Max - Shellback) PRODUCTION (sounds, audio) sure the hell is. like as good as any ABBA hit single EVER issued. this is Tk 4, probably the 3rd of 4th single and an automatic Top 5 hit or better.

(K$sha's ANIMAL was actually so much better than the
rolling stones of 1965, as in pop/now or rock/then, it's not even a
fair analogy to use. but everyone in the world is familiar with the dopey rolling stones -- post'65 that is -- so, whatever)

===========================================

since the facefuck "wall" wouldn't accept a "non friend" post/comment, i just messaged this directly to the two Cornell Univ guy's friends who'd had half a clue and posted "I LOVE GAGA" onto the thread.

sent to: some Cornell Univ staff guy Scott King Seidts
facebook / Apr 4th, 2:25pm

message header: lady gaga = the beatles. K$sha = the rolling stones. new britney album = ALL OF THAT COMBINED + ABBA

yes any foo knows that THE FAME = the Rubber Soul of pop music (ie the best shit ever). but the new britney album (read = producers/writers Max Martin + Dr Luke make their first actual "TOP TO BOTTOM pop/dance entire-album artistic statement"...like motown Norman Whitfield w/the psych-era-Temptations you dig? oh wait, he was lazy and didn't, cranked out about 8 variable-quality Lps in 6 years) .

yep the new britney (Max + Luke) album = PET SOUNDS of modern pop. and the K$SHA Animal album....was better that either of those (gaga, britney, any other pop album ever made). what a load of idiot shit clueless deaf people who can't dance say about pop/dance music. as if any famous producer/writer team of the 60's had never existed. go kvetch to Porter/Hayes (and steve cropper) at Stax/memphis 1966, dumbass! Isaac Hayes will stuff your white ass into a trash can for "disrespecting the producer in this room who wrote the damn song too."

lady gaga = the beatles. K$sha = the rolling stones. new britney album = ALL OF THAT COMBINED + ABBA

More. (Remember, I used to get paid to edit him. If somebody wants to pay me, I'm still up for it.)

ok, here's the Rolling Stone story, april 14th (2011) "GAME ON, HAMMERDOWN" quotes per Max/Luke/britney

Britney: "I wanted to make sure that this album was completely different from CIRCUS or anything else i had ever recorded. i love CIRCUS, but I wanted something darker and edgier."

"according to Luke": the agreed plan was for a more electronic, "
grimier" Britney.

Britney: "I knew I wanted to make a dance album that was ahead of everything else out there but unique to me, which was why I was so picky with the recording process."

Luke: "I hope we go six singles deep"

Max: ? max? oh right, Max Martin never says ANYTHING to the press (lifelong, save the european TIME Magazine year 2000 huge cover story on Scandanavia's music export ruling the world, and its major players (Max + everyone else) in Stockholm: teenpop.

who knows what max thinks. he ain't gonna tell ya. but, whoa those Britney quotes (scripted? off the top of her head? or PARROTING what she had heard Max Martin and Luke talk about during any point during the recording process.

i right now stick with the "minority report" opinion --

"which is why i was so picky with the recording process" --

POINT GUARD came off the bench, and PG no.15 now in charge on the court --

britney = electropop's first Frank Sinatra! (like 50's/nelson riddle and billy may product, duh).

K$sha's tight with max martin, and talks a lot...get K$shter on the ILX cell phone party line!

======================================================

monday morning, April 4th:
industry "projections" for first week FEMME FATALE/britney album sales: "275k to 300k" (as in thousands). dude...brian wilson 1966 would have killed for that in even its whole first month of June for that dopey PET SOUNDS shit (unless it's the original pressing MONO which is uh, more or less ok. i think.).

(Remember, I used to get paid to edit him. If somebody wants to pay me, I'm still up for it.)

so who's paying you to publish him?

I'm doing it out of the goodness of my heart. (Also, maybe I'll get some cool old Samoans swag in the deal, who knows.)

dude is really generous - gave me a used warrant VHS and threw in two video mixes for the hell of it!

Seriously -- every other year or so, he sends me a huge box of old vinyl LPs he got for 50 cents! Lots of it's great, too. I owe the guy!!

you'd think an abba fan would like styx.

There should be a tribute band called Stabba that covers both artists.

Their album would be called Seasons in the Abbyx

There should be a tribute band called Stabba that covers both artists.

― EZ Snappin, Tuesday, April 5, 2011 11:04 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Their album would be called Seasons in the Abbyx

― Carthusian Product (seandalai), Tuesday, April 5, 2011 12:28 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_aXm8w0JnEeI/TUb1F3N8zfI/AAAAAAAAB2Y/N7hcnxIZkV0/s1600/Picard_full_of_win.jpg

Possibly one of the three most insane things I've seen in my life:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPZ_LxSGYtA

Not Mike:

From: powerpoplarry
Subject: Re: Rubber Soul / to Pet Sounds ; THE FAME / to FEMME FATALE it's tooo obvious
Date: Tuesday, April 5, 2011, 3:26 PM

I totally see what you are saying and here's the thing...based on the evidence and my "rules" for singer/songwriters, I NOW WILL be buying the Britney FF...and I'll tell you why.

One of my rules/exceptions is that, unless the singer is in a BAND where the guitarist/drummer/keysman writes everything...look at the first 3 Oasis albums...Liam Gallagher sang most of the tracks but Noel Gallagher wrote most of them...do they suck?? No.

Another one is: if the singer works with the same writers/producers for his/her whole catalogue, and there is a certain sonic "stamp", it's like the same thing as if the singer and those writers/producers are a band THEMSELVES...

Three examples are: Luv's records (the 3 girls were like their Frida/Agnetha and their producers/writers were like Benny/Bjorn), Greek singer Anna Vissi and her husband/musical partner her whole catalogue, and Sandra's solo records, 1984-2002, post-Arabesque, produced by Michael Cretu...they were like a band/duo themselves, Arabesque same thing, with the 3 girls like ABBA and the 2 producers/musicians like Wolfgang Mewes (plus Michael 1982-1984) were like their Benny/Bjorn, Sandra "solo", same thing, Michael is the quivalent of Max/Luke, where he wrote all the songs & produced all the records, and Sandra did all the distinctive vocals, and those records were genius pop and had a certain distinctive sonic stamp that was influential and still sounds killer to this day...after Sandra and Michael split in 2006/2007, her 2007 downbeat/melancholy/personal, and superb solo album "The Art Of Love" was basically written by Sandra herself, so she fits the solo act and former band mentality to a T...her most recent solo album, the Toby Gad-produced 2009 opus "Back To Life" had some Sandra writing, but Toby injected his sonic stamp, similar to his work with Beyonce...back to the band mentality.

Britney/Max Martin/Dr Luke/Ke$ha are like a band themselves, like Rockpile (Nick Lowe, Dave Edmunds, Billy Bremner, Terry Williams), where there's the Rockpile ALBUM, 1980's "Seconds Of Pleasure", but also Nick's just re-released 1979 gem "Labour Of Lust", and Dave's 2 late 70s albums like "Tracks On Wax 4", where those are Rockpile albums as well, just credited to Nick or Dave, whoever sang lead on the songs, and on their own respective labels...

The Britney albums like the new "Femme Fatale" is like their Nick Lowe "Labour Of Lust", where all the vocals are Brit's, and Ke$ha's "Animal/Cannibal" records are like their Dave Edmunds' "Tracks On Wax 4"...only when there is a release where Britney and Ke$ha are on the same album and trade vocals, that will be their "Seconds Of Pleasure"...

So this 4-way tagteam is the new American/Swedish dance-gonzo-catchy Rockpile!!

PLUS, I was watching MTV the other day, and they had a whole hour of Britney vidclips on, I was watching, and I was like "Fuck Me, this is genius-written pop and Max/Luke have a distinct sonic stamp that still sounds fresh and holds up to this day...all the Swedes do...the early singles don't sound like worthless throwaway teenpop at all...they are like, BUBBLEGUM ART...everything from "...Baby One More Time" through "Hold It Against Me"...the singles I never heard from "Blackout" sounded fresh and ahead of their time...none of the songs sounded dated in the least...all like one living, breathing, body of work."

So yes, the Britney/Max/Luke/Ke$ha records fit the band argument of singer/songwriters.

So I will be buying "Femme Fatale"...I may not see her live on tour though as all she does is fucking LIP-SYNCH!!!!!

I dig your analogy of Beatles/Beach Boys vs Gaga/Brit-Max-Luke-Ke$ha though...what about mine with Rockpile??

Oops, this one came a few days earlier I guess? I'm confused.

From: powerpoplarry
Subject: Re: hello world the new britney album KILLS
Date: Sunday, April 3, 2011, 1:01 PM

Hey Mike...first off, you didn't buy the deluxe 16-track version?? Secondly, sorry, I will not buy Britney's "Femme Fatale"...why??? She didn't write any of the songs!! Sorry, but I'm only into singers who are songwriters...yes Max Martin & Dr Luke pretty much wrote this whole album, and they are masters, but so are Xenomania, and on Girls Aloud's records, the girls all contribute to the writing as well...Brit not writing ANYTHING here just leaves me with an uneasy feeling...I won't buy any records by any artists who don't do any writing whatsoever...I just won't, I have my rules with artists, and that's the biggest one...artists being the songwriters themselves, or at least contributing SOMETHING...and FF breaks that big rule, so I'm not buying it, sorry. Gaga writes everything, so does Ke$ha, so does Katy Perry...so why not Britney?? FF could have been a 3-way collabo between Max Martin, Dr Luke & Britney, but noooooo....That's just sheer laziness and a bad bad move..

Mike's response to that first one. I think:

From: Mike Saunders
To: powerpoplarry
Sent: Mon, Apr 4, 2011 12:54 am

Larry --

"laziness" that's probably pretty close (for a "disqualifier" per your rules that are far more stringent than the average pop-music fan). britney since time began has been famous for getting in, out, fast, done, one of the quickest "got the vocals done, boom, gone, i'm gonig shopping now" solo artists since the 50's and Sinatra (and the 4-songs in 3-hour pop/country sessions, automatic, of that time).

but check the ROLLING STONE 1-page front-section feature (on the next album/britney) where they have quotes from all concerned

Max (martin)
Dr Luke
AND britney

and it's a regular tag-team pile-on.

either (a) britney is just parroting what she heard Max and Luke talking about during this recording process (see the article, to get the full context)

OR (b) (and this IS possible) DON'T FORGET THAT SHE PLAYED STARTING PG ("point guard") the whole 9th grade school year. point guard, dude. it is actually possible she woke up from her lifelong haze, and realized "fuck! i have a serious recording catalog, especially through BLACKOUT and CIRCUS. this is fuckin' dope!" and ditto, realized that she IS in charge. of ok'ing everything. (same as like Elvis choosing every song he ever cut late 50's-early 60's, by personally drudging through all thos endless PJ-Proby-on-vocals publishers' acetate demos of tunes submitted "for Elvis").

and put BLACKOUT on her home stereo or Ipod and realized thricely, "now i GET it!" = what Max and Luke had been saying/'working on (tunes, recording, mixing, and most of all the SOUND of it) working on the album -- see the RS quotes. i mean Max and Luke AND britney's quotes are artistic intent on "agrro" (translation = on blast, and dead on target). BLACKOUT and FEMME FATALE existing as completely-different musical bookends of the exact same genre's playing field, with Femme Fatale an exact counterpoint (audio, re the mixes/sounds/etc), by intent (according to Max and Dr Luke)....it's Hall of Fame. i'm talking like Sinatra 50's, beatles, beach boys, you name it. (unfortunately, 60's Motown/Brill Building never took up serious "album rock" until Norman Whitfield/temptations if my memory is good).

i'll just point out the obvious conclusion (or inference) --

gaga -- THE FAME = the RUBBER SOUL of its genre (translation = the best shit)

max/luke -- "fuck that, we're gonna match and top it, the game is on" (channeling their inner surfboard/brian)

britney -- FEMME FATALE -- the PET SOUNDS, as a musical response and knowingly so

none of this ends well two steps further down the line (with those 60's acts/album-requences), but hey whatever.

(ha but notice that K$sha, by happenstance of Max and Luke and co. being key figures in her big "10 day blowout writing session(s), everyone flown in to LA" for her last album/8-song, Cannibal....wound up with a tune from that bouncing instead to the LEAD track on the britney album! right, the current 2nd single/big britney hit from FEMME FATALE). whether or not that means "K$sha's in the britney camp, not the Gaga camp of writers, hmmmm." who's john lennon then? who's brian wilson? who's paul mccartney? i don't even care, unless there's an unnamed ray davies figure lurking around that hasn't surfaced yet. or math problems: does Max + Luke + K$sha (in any order) = or > Gaga ( + whoever) as a songwriter?

you'll well recall that Max Martin said alll the way back in the european TIME cover story (on teenpop's Stockholm wing) in year 2000, to paraphrase, "once we've got the song in the can and done, it DOESN'T MATTER who comes in and sings it." duh! but if the SINGER does the reverse, and specializes in choosing great producers and strong material, entire albums' worth.... then which tail is really wagging the dog? (ans: both!)

And now Mike's reaction to Powerpoplarry's second one; yeah I'm confused too:

annnd he's basically saying (below, read his long e-mail first) that britney/max martin/dr luke all get a joint-induction into the rock Hall of Fame when she gets in, as the Max Martin Experience...or something. (not as "britney spears"). but WHAT ABOUT RAMI? the dude was max's co-hort / co-mixer for that whole 200+ hrs (7 days, non-stop until the tune was "properly re-mixed") that Max/Rami spent RE-MIXING the lead single off, what else....Oops I Did It Again. (at their own instigation, not requested by the label).

now this makes them automatically as "nuts, this girl's crazy" as britney ever was later. as i kinda alluded to in the may 2000 VV mega-ssay? i think? (did i have the "200 hrs remixing, lead single ain't right until then" story at hand by the time of that piece?

all of larry's names/artists/theories are factually correct (just different than people who're fans of Motown/Norman Whitfield w/temptations, or Stax/Volt entourage, or or or (some guy named phil spector...if you go back that far, it leads to Joe Meek which stops cold with "nah, britney's crazier than those two guys both put together!"

my favorite part of britney/modern-swedish-pop's career/world domination since Baby One More Time is that Max Martin don't talk to the press. no one. nothing, nada, null set. not even a lame white-cover-jacket "JOHN SIMON (Warners-Reprise)" type solo album in the works! (some guy who produced the 1st Band lp, whoop de fucking doo, then the next year cut an lp of himself plunking on hookless plodding piano-chord tunes with snoozefest half-asleep half-audible vocals).

oh and hey man, i thought Rockpile had only ONE good song, did i miss something? the 45/Teacher Teacher, right. nah, Nick Lowe was a big zero except for his "novelty singles" ie "Rollers Show" and "Bay City Rollers" We Love You. post-brinsley schwartz i mean (Silver Pistol was very cool, some of the later stuff too).

And this is a related article he sent along, I guess:

from

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Max-Martin/75057705535

this:

http://www.thecriticalcondition.com/2011/03/10/marti/

IT'S OFFICIAL: MAX MARTIN OWNS POP MUSIC
The Critical Condition
March 10th, 2011

by Mark Blankenship

(picture) http://www.thecriticalcondition.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/maxmartin.jpg

If you’ve listened to pop music in the last fourteen years, then you’ve heard dozens of songs written and/or produced by Max Martin. And you’ve probably loved them.

A native Swede who launched his global (writing/production) career in 1997 with Robyn’s “Show Me Love” and “(Do You Know) What It Takes,” Martin has since delivered over THIRTY top-ten hits -- in the United States alone.

His credits include future classics like “I Want It That Way” by Backstreet Boys, “…Baby One More Time” by Britney Spears, “Since U Been Gone” by Kelly Clarkson, “So What” by Pink, and “I Kissed a Girl” by Katy Perry.

This week Martin has outdone even himself.

He has written or produced ten songs in the top fifty.

Ten.

With the possible exception of George Martin (who worked with the Beatles and several other 60s hitmakers), I can’t think of ANY writer and/or producer who has so dominated the sound of popular music. Even at their peaks, Timbaland, Babyface, The Neptunes, and songwriter Diane Warren didn’t created a fifth of the most popular songs in our country.

Even more impressive, Martin is just as hot in 2011 as he was in 1997.

For almost fifteen years, he’s been one of the primary architects of pop music, pushing us toward swirly beats, shoutalong choruses, and rich instrumental tracks. (Compare “Since U Been Gone” to the minimal stutter of “Milkshake” or the frikky-freak looping of “4 Minutes,” and you’ll hear Martin’s distinct contributions to the national playlist)

But for all his signatures, Martin’s mutability has been crucial to his success. He has worked with a series of behind-the-scenes collaborators (Dr. Luke, Rami, etc.) and often co-writes with artists themselves. The typical results are songs that feel connected to Martin’s legacy but also suit the PERSONALITY of the artist they were written for. Pink’s “Who Knew,” for instance, blends his hooky melodies with her bruised lyrics and rock vibe. Katy Perry’s “Hot ‘n Cold” blends his swirling synth tracks with her in-your-face aggression. Being a consistent chameleon helps you evolve with pop music, and helps pop music evolve with you.

I’m not sure why I’m so fascinated by Martin...but I really am. I think it’s got something to do with his anonymity. To my ears, the man is a genius -- yet he’s practically unknown to the masses. Until I found the picture in this post, I didn’t even know what he looked like.

In the world of pop music, where the "branded image" is sometimes more important than the product being sold, this makes him like a black rhino, or an actual unicorn.

Do you have any thoughts to/regards his staying power? On his track record? Follow that link up there and look at ALL the songs he’s crafted. I’d love to know your response.

And then peep this short list of the ten songs he’s CURRENTLY got charting in the top 50 of the Hot 100. I love some of them, hate some of them, but on the whole, I have enormous respect for the man who helped create them.

The CURRENT TOP 40's hits written and/or produced By Max Martin

(Current / Title & Artist / Peak)

#4 — “Fuckin’ Perfect,” Pink (#2)

#7 — “Blow,” Ke$ha (#7)

#8 — “E.T.” Katy Perry (#8)

#16 — “Hold It Against My,” Britney Spears (#1)

# 20 — “Till The World Ends,” Britney Spears (#20, highest debut this week)

# 23 — “What The Hell,” Avril Lavigne (#11)

# 31 — “Raise Your Glass,” Pink (#1)

# 41 — “Dynamite,” Taio Cruz (#2)

#47 — “DJ Got Us Fallin’ In Love,” Usher (#4)

#48 — “Teenage Dream,” Katy Perry (#1)

He even ghost-wrote an intro graph in my voice this time! So, okay, this is Mike as me:

mike's original stance on Max Martin (back from the May2000 Village Voice 3,000-word OOPS I DID IT AGAIN essay, aka Dear Diary, that i edited and cut/pasted the entire enormo first half of which together from all available "source material," i.e. mike's e-mails/internet postings. including the Arkansas Razorback postcard reviewing the britney "mall tour's advance cassette/sampler" long before the Baby One More Time single) -- actually, mike's "stance" hasn't ever changed --- here from May 2000/Voice he clearly opines --

(according to mike, not me)

And this is Mike as Mike:

Max Martin = phil spector + Goffin/King

Britney >>> Ronnie Spector (mike's not a Frankie Lymon fan?)

VILLAGE VOICE June 6, 2000
(from the essay/review/etc)

April 29, 2000: The new single finally hit local radio today. A stale remake of "Baby One More Time"? Nah, to my ears "Oops! I Did It Again" is one of the swellest pop singles of the past 10 years. The choruses' stacked vocal sounds have their own parking space in the ABBA-World Hall of Fame.

If Max Martin at his best is a one-man Bjorn & Benny-channeling Phil Spector for today's dance music generation, then the best Martin/Britney tracks do a helluva job channeling Anna & Frida when the A*Teens have to go to bed early. Mark my words, 20 years from now "Hit Me Baby" and "Oops" on oldies radio or up on movie screens' soundtracks will seem like songs that've been around since the dawn of time, as definitive of their era as "Da Doo Ron Ron."

May 5, 2000: The one really weird thing about today's Rolling Stone Britney cover story is that not once did it mention Max Martin by name. Considering that each classic track inches Max a bit closer to being this era's Goffin-King and Phil Spector combined....well, maybe Max read a Phil Spector bio and decided that "cult of personality" was not something to strive for. I actually slightly prefer Britney's chipmunk-Mariah vocals to Ronnie Spector's cartoonish chipmunk-Frankie Lymon one-trick-pony get-me-a-divorce-before-Phil-beats-me-and-robs-me-blind 1963 pre-teenpop thing.

(and re "Stronger" and "Lucky"):
May 20, 2000: Did I mention, no surprise, that king-of-pop Max Martin is named as the writer, producer, and mixer of both of these tunes, plus "Oops I Did It Again"? (Actually, "Max Martin/Rami," to be correct.) Simple detective work also reveals that Max is the nerd voice on the spoken dialogue of "Oops I Did It Again." Backing vocals on my top three track picks ("Stronger," "Lucky," "Oops," not to mention a year agoBaby One More Time") are credited to Britney, Max Martin, and Nana Hedin. Could Nana be the Darlene Love—-nameless anonymous voice heard and loved by millions—-of the modern pop scene?

xhuxk, you should write a Metal Mike book using all Metal Mike quotes but you would get the cushy royalties.

that only works if people buy it

I'd buy it! And mail it to xhuxk who could then aurtograph it with Metal Mike's name.

been waiting in vain for someone to make a really good smart ass comment here

I'm pretty sure Mike wanted me to post this youtube link, followed by the subsequent commentary from him. But I'm not positive. Anyway.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=be2veEkxeYc

metal mike says: "if you watch that BASKETBALL britney/Ellen Show clip even half attentively, it's like whoaa. huhh!"

this clip is RIGHT before the 2004 tour and its unholy alliance of britney/K-FED

the obvious moral, actually a simple tutorial on life that ALL t kids with reponsible parents get the day before they start middle school, that everyone knows being...

oxycotin + ecstasy = don't do it, kids! look what happened to britney!

thug male kids/6th graders who are boys can understand the more complicated "K-Fed actually is not cool. he got fat and ugly even with all the big-alimony monthly-child-support $$$ payoff!" advanced tutorial.

britney's discography and outside-the-studio life's bio = everything you need know about (pop) music is there, and everything you need to know about life is there

a) swedish pop rules the world. THIS IS ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT POP MUSIC.

b) oxycotin (heroin) + ecstasy = that's some bad shit! you might as well just do belushi speedballs and die a lot sooner/quicker. unless you actually like the idea of being a "uhh uhh uhh uhhhh" vegetable for the tabloids until you finally get to rehab for five years and get cleaned up.

(i keep forgetting that britney is officially/diagnosed bi-polar, sorry). she would need a drug-rehab wing of a mental institution at this point.

a1) the only "second thing" you need to know about music, ever.

britney >>> trumps all that Syd Barrett, Arthur Lee, Skip Spence, Alex Chilton (ie, the second-raters, not first-raters like brian willson the king domo of drug-vegetable bad-LSD-trips crazy guys), all that cult artist shit. she's not just "fuckall girl's crazy" more than them all put together, she's that PLUS SWEDISH POP.

oh and fyi, the second Big Star album sucks ass. all you collector dorks please quit talking about it. Chris Bell was the big studio-recording deal w/early Big Star. (and the 3rd Big Star is by far the most interesting album of the three) (and included above out of respect for all the second-rate "crazy fuckin' guys" cult artists of the 60's-70's).

Big Star live at Overton Square may 1973, yes, amazing, i wuz there. and you weren't. and i'm from arkansas. so shut the fuck up

It's nice to encounter a fellow fan of 3rd and Femme Fatale. I wonder if the connection is explicit or about to be figured out...

britney >>> trumps all that Syd Barrett, Arthur Lee, Skip Spence, Alex Chilton (ie, the second-raters, not first-raters like brian willson the king domo of drug-vegetable bad-LSD-trips crazy guys), all that cult artist shit. she's not just "fuckall girl's crazy" more than them all put together, she's that PLUS SWEDISH POP.

this is possibly the most ridiculously tenous popist bullshit I have ever seen on this site, which is really saying something.

i'm just kinda surprised that mike likes any big star at all or has anything good to say about them. but there is no telling with him.

HEY MIKE YOU ARE A BIG FAT WEIRDO! HAHAHAHAHA!

Metal Mike may be happy to know that I bought the Kesha and Britney Spears albums (physical copies!) at my lunch break today due to this thread.

Are we sure he's not really called 'Mental Mike' ? Anyway his contrariness certainly makes him a perfect fit for ILM.
Chuck, im sure hes a great guy and all, but i really feel for you having to edit him all those years!

I can't seem to figure out why this thread exists, believe me I've tried. Also, Ronan OTM.

Meanwhile, something else to be kept in mind:

http://www.autostraddle.com/its-not-britney-bitch-84052/

Thanks for giving the thread real purpose and value Ned, that is one hell of a read

I wonder how many other performers think being on stage is like being a tiger?

xpost -- too kind. Frankly, nothing against Metal Mike, but his hyperfantasizing over what he imagines Britney is, in the context of his own (quite understandable) aesthetic concerns, needs a little contrasting with a much different reality.

does it? why does he need reality?

and i'm being for realz ans zerious. when i buy a record i can make up whatever scenario i want for it. it can be whatever i want it to be/mean/etc. right? it's a free country, ned. fascist!

He doesn't need reality at all. Perhaps Britney does, though.

oh right sorry i read that wrong.

don't know if britney's reality would change mike's POV of the music though. don't know if anything could!

Quite true!

This thread is like a Wikileaks info dump. What does the Ambassador to Chad think of the new Britney?

The Ambassador of Chad Kroeger is too busy rocking right now.

i still dont get why 'metal mike' would ask someone to post his rantings on ilx rather than do it himself.

he's too metal to post on ilm.

or not mental enough

oh he's plenty mental. aren't you an angry samoans fan? isn't everybody? everybody in the world should be.

the angry samoans are still together???

http://www.angrysamoans.com/

They're playing in a couple of days, even.

awesome!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vt7QpTWbl7U

i bought cyrus 4 CDs for his birthday. he just turned 6. i got him one of those now that's what i call music comps. he digs that one. i got him the new beastie boys. he's kinda eh about that . got him a deluxe version of the first ramones album. he's not into it. like, at all. got him britney. he's had it on repeat since he got it. loves it. i dig it too.

I'm listening to Femme Fatale right now. It sounds like a compilation of Britney's CD maxi-single remixes from the late 1990s rather than a proper album. Also, needs more Radar.

Mike on the new Gaga album, unabridged (if the italicizing messes up the youtube links, guess you gotta cut and paste):

ooh now i geddit -- gaga drank The Boss's kool aid long long ago // UNCOVERED: direct gaga (RedOne) link to the A*Teens!
Saturday, May 28, 2011 2:16
"Mike Saunders" "metal mike on the lady gaga album"

dude, if i hear Edge of Glory and its kill-me-last-year-twice-over 80's fucking "sax solo" just one time in a convenience store overhead, i may pound my head against the wall until the bad noises stop. i thought that even bad hair metal had to be invented (by 1983 Def Lepperd in or 1986 Bon Jovi, take your pick) in order to get away from the 80's "springsteen's really rockin' man, and here comes the saxophone!" Born in the USA juggernaut? which was never 1/10th as listenable as John Cougar but hey, whatever, we all can't be born in Indiana and grow up seeing Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels play at National Guard Armories. (speaking of which, this late-era Kingsmen footage from an Indianapolis nat'l guard compound that i'm sure cougie was present at more than once, is insane. starting with the drummer. like wow type nuts, as period artifacts go)

http://www.youtube.com/user/66rules#p/u/1/yuxyekY1_BY
Kingsmen LOUIE LOUIE very late lineup
Indianapolis national guard armory

but right, the 1-hour MTV Gaga special/interview made it real clear that she's gone over to the dark side. not even the 1971 Elton John plunking-the-piano side that everyone (me anyway) was sure would rear its head with the "You And Me" type of once-a-singer-songwriter-always-a . but an 80's-rock version of 1975 springsteen and jeesuz, what next? duets with Ann Wilson and Mike Reno? because that damn Edge of Glory piece of musical crudball is surely 50 miles into Heart/80's-MTV black-hole you can never return from, audio torture.

(below, the long awaited for by myself if no one else, OFFICLAL RATINGS of the first sixteen to sixty Gaga hit singles)

10 Just Dance, duh. a 10+ actually.
7 Eh Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say) other countries in 2008
10 Lovegame. so classic. anyone who doesn't give LoveGame a ten, get out! the Dance Party Commander is ejecting you from the party!
10+ Poker Face
10+ Paparazzi

10+ Bad Romance
10 Telephone
7 Alejandro because really it's not as awesome as The Sign (ace of base)

2 Respect Yourself zzzzzzzzzz wake me when it's over
3 ? what was gaga's version called? i can't even remember the title
4 Judas (that might be high; the chorus does NOT wear well)
< negative 2 > Edge of Glory

but anyway. they had this brand new giant sized coffee-table hardback bio of gaga at the library
titled GAGA/Johnny Morgan (and it was a quick 50 minute read since half of it is pictures, with tons of inneresting neat early ones pre-2008)
and its first 90 pages (of 160) are all pre-first-single/"Just Dance" biographical info. her musical background/bio makes it clear forever that she was brainwashed with The Boss's Kool-Aid when her dad had those damn 70's Springsteen records/tapes/CDs lying around. obviously the half-neat NEBRASKA was not among them.

and i also am now informed that her tune the first real producer Rob Fusari halfway-didn't-hate-on was "Hollywood" (hence he decided to work with her), and that a little previously to that,

in fall 2005 she was the lead singer in an indie "alt-country" band called SGBand (who saw themselves in the style of Wilco or REM).

who self-pressed a five song CD, WORDS, that they sold at their many gigs.
Words
No Floods (performed live on national TV in the NBC columbus day parade, Oct 2005. huh!)
Something Crazy
Something Crazy
Red & Blue
Wish You Were Here

this timeless band also covered...omg no, D'yer Maker. no no dear god in heaven no. i thought there was a 14th Commandment forbidding anyone (Led Zeppelin included) from ever performing that wretched fake-reggae song, or else the ghosts of rastas everywhere will rise up and smite them.

now to the good part.

RedOne - A*Teens connection.

yes, RedOne who was reponsible for the way most of the great dance tracks on THE FAME and FAME NONSTER sound. (those big honking synths)

here ya go: he was one of the furthest-low-end (beginner) producers on the back end of the 2nd and 3rd A*Teens albums, 2000 and 2001.

one lame/forgettable track on the half-lame 3rd album POP TIL YOU DROP (his cut is track no. 9, "singled Out" and yeah he wrote it.

but on Year 2000's Radio Disney (and at my house)'s teacher's pet the TEEN SPIRIT album?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMAtNLvsi9s
track 2, the semi-classic TO THE MUSIC beach boys(Sunflower era)-go-to-sweden tune. yes he wrote it! and sang backup vocals with the girls/guys! RedOne of gaga era hits wrote/produced/recorded/sang backs (and the "hello all you music lovers" fake-DJ intro to the song) a Radio Disney year 2000 hit single!

TO THE MUSIC - A*Teens
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTdkEkj7mBg
the 1999 Aaron Carter tour
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsQywZAflzo&feature=related
onstage in Stockholm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpS2SgUXwYM
onstage in Chile

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iuyFVd-3kw
A*teens with Alice Cooper before their cover song recording of "School's Out"

conclusion: if gaga had half a clue, she would have done this song on her new album, and during its middle break done a "shout out" to RobOne "giving it up for the A*Teens, RobOne, yo!" ha! but no, instead we get hideous springsteen-reject saxophone solos that i thought were outlawed decades ago, ohhh well.

why were the A*Teens the swellest pop group of all time along with ABBA? here is just Exhibit 1 out of a thousand --

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZGjZ0x1bKA
Amit and Dhani lipsync-karaoke the max martin BSB classic SHAPE OF MY HEART at a birthday party. with NO irony believe me. "at 0:59, marie hugs amit's leg. cute." yes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZGjZ0x1bKA
i have the sudden urge to listen to all ten Max Martin cuts on BACKSTREET BOYS GREATEST HITS. Shape of My Heart is so epic. (also from that last BSB period, The One is another huge favorite here at the house. max was really getting wonderful sounds out of howling-puppy Nick Carter's voice at that point, no mean feat).