Lady Gaga, Pussycat Dolls and a Taxonomy of Vacuous Pop

And yeah, "Poker Face" is different from "Just Dance" in that "JD" is a decent enough song and "PF" is fucking horrible.

rong

i don't really hear Don't Stop the Music in these 2 songs at all either

another thing w/ her is that her annoyingness is manifested at least once in both singles, each time ruining or almost ruining a pretty good song. the puh-puh-poker face part in "poker face" is so horrifying and as much as i love "just dance" the bridge is unlistenable

it's far more stripped down xp

the puh-puh-poker face part in "poker face" is so horrifying

nope

I don't mind songs that are barely songs if there's something else about them I find engaging, whether it be the foundational beat, the arrangement, some weird sound effect, or, you know, ANYTHING. "Poker Face" is a warmed over retread of "Just Dance" with most of the singing (aka the best part of "Just Dance") taken out and replaced with some of the most irritating bullshit on the airwaves since whatever Chris Brown's last single was.

"just dance" is great, as i said on this thread earlier, to me because it breaks free of the trappings youd imagine youd find in a synth-pop song in 2008. its synth is huge and identifiable and lyrically it's as graphic and vivid as anything on the radio. "poker face" on the other hand uses nearly the same synth sound as "just dance" and is also pretty lame lyrically, esp. in the chorus

it sounds pretty ordinary to me

JD

the one good thing about it is the "i love this record baby" line

Poker Face is a pretty decent single. Its just Lady Gaga that I think is a BAD THING FOR MUSIC. Also Xenomania.

Chris Brown's last single was Superhuman fyi

agree totally w/ Surm's last few posts abt that song

I'm usually not a huge lyrics guy but the whole "I'm fucking blasted; maybe if I keep dancing everything will be okay" narrative trumps "uh, I wanna hump this guy... POKER FACE!"

the 1st line in poker face is so good it hurts

Yeah, I actually kinda like this stuff when I hear it on the radio but I don't really listen to the radio all that much so I don't really get hung up on overplay fatigue with this stuff. Its the way its being framed that pisses me off and I suppose its a bit like guys on Vampire Weekend thread frothing about Pitch4k reviews.

And yeah, "Poker Face" is different from "Just Dance" in that "JD" is a decent enough song and "PF" is fucking horrible.

^^ I kind of think the opposite

I don't mind songs that are barely songs if there's something else about them I find engaging, whether it be the foundational beat, the arrangement, some weird sound effect, or, you know, ANYTHING

exactly, except i think Poker Face actually does have this, in the 'barely qualifying' sense - more so than 'Just Dance' altho that's better in every other department and is carried mainly by vocal qualities and better song structure

I blame Gwen Stefani for all this BTW

I like the CANTREADMY, CANTREADMY bit

gwen stefani can be blamed for most things

I would buy GS way more as a pop-provocateur than LG

It's not Gwen's fault that she can do vacuous self-regard well and others can't!

once i bought one of her CD's, i thought it would be a fun thing to do. turned out i was wrong

hollaback girl sounds like it was written by Uncle Kracker

yeah well you NEVER buy CDs by any of these people, they are rather blatantly singles artists

i do love hollaback tho, kind of a lot

good

lol curtis

i would pay $40 to see uncle kracker cover "hollaback girl" while dressed as stefani and dancing w/ the harujuku girls

I... would not

I'd pay $40 not

I apologize for my attitude on this thread. I've been listening to top 40 radio regularly again for the first time since like 2003 and it's making me cynical

so that hardbody brooks & dunn zing was like top 40 roid rage then?

Chuck is OTM regarding her quasi-electroclash schtick (which is kind of what I was getting at re: the overall American Apparel aesthetic here), especially considering her vague aspirations to some kind of performance art (which she talks up incessantly, but which I have yet to see manifest itself in the recorded output).

As for the synths, they sound to me like the pretty standard sounds used throughout trance music for years. Her main trick seems to be to layer a bunch of "supersaw" type chords, big buzzy monsters, and offset them with a slightly different lead -- not sure how to describe it, but kind of hollow, tubular and striated. It's not a bad trick. But I don't think there's anything crazy inventive about her synth work that you couldn't find done with more nuance in Depeche Mode or The Knife. (But I'm not gonna tell Mike what kind of synths he should like; that's just my read on their precedents.)

especially considering her vague aspirations to some kind of performance art (which she talks up incessantly, but which I have yet to see manifest itself in the recorded output)

reminds me of someone else...FISCHERSPOONER. Empire Of The Sun making similar worrying noises recently too.

ah yes, but fischerspooner have the deitch imprimatur, therefor they are FOR RILLZ!

I thought it was kinda funny when Fischerspooner did it, and I'm sure someone's gonna google a quote that proves me wrong in five seconds, but they always came across in interviews as thinking the whole thing was pretty ridiculous and funny too.

yeah well you NEVER buy CDs by any of these people, they are rather blatantly singles artists

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― Wes HI DEREson (HI DERE), Thursday, March 19, 2009 9:33 AM Bookmark

Love Angel Music Baby is a dope album tho

This is true.

the way she enunciates the d in "he can't read my poker face" is nice

also i'm unsure why the "puh-puh-puh poker" bit confuses ppl so much, i thought there was plenty stuttering happening in music these days

this song is like taking over my life right now

"confuses" isn't really the right word for the reaction that part gets from people.

what is it?

"revulsion"

:(

it revulsions people

lazy sry

funny kinda