★ The Weeknd ★ What You Need ★

he could pack barclays by himself even before all this pop crossover stuff began

The question with stuff like this is always, yeah, but how big a venue can he play outside New York or Los Angeles (or in his case Toronto)?

Trilogy had really good distribution for an "underground"/"indie" release, btw. I got my copy at Target.

I agree that Kiss Land sucked; I've also hated pretty much everything he's done since. That 50 Shades song was terrible (though the idea of him going large-scale with an orchestra is interesting and good, the execution was weak), "Can't Feel My Face" is just dull, and "Often" is so bad it's actually laughable.

He should record a duet with Lana del Rey. That might actually be good.

ha yeah – my Best Buy still boasts a couple copies.

xpost still, the idea that the weeknd could sell 18,000 tickets in any city was a surprise to me. and distro wasn't the concern re: Trilogy for me, i just had no idea that he was affecting culture on that level – though i guess his appearance on one of Take Care's best songs helped open him up big time (doing some search box research now, the fact that each of its three discs counts as an individual "sale" explains a lot, though even then i'm pretty shocked that nearly 350,000 people paid for a Weeknd box set in the span of five months, i.e. well before the Ariana feature and everything since). it's also surprising to me that he's now gunning for, like, Ed Sheeran fame (let alone MJ...), and that caramanica wrote a piece that in some way endorses the idea. also weird that these are the songs responsible for the change, especially "earned it" and "often"...

guess i just heard how bad Kiss Land sucked (and bombed commercially) and figured the writing was on the wall. even though he hasn't musically re-engaged me yet, this redemptive pivot is definitely an interesting turn of events.

350,000 people paid for a Weeknd box set in the span of five months

it was priced like a single disc iirc. i bought it, seemed like a bargain

nyt profile is real lazy, even contains a "r&b was boring before it absorbed the rhythms of 'indie rock' and before the internet invented frank ocean" paragraph

‘These kids, you know, they don’t have a Michael Jackson,’’ he says. ‘‘They don’t have a Prince. They don’t have a Whitney. Who else is there? Who else can really do it at this point?’’

At the time, R.&B. — the genre to which the Weeknd notionally belongs — had atrophied. Years of hybridization had left it a submissive sibling to hip-hop, a bland side dish. But as Tesfaye was emerging, so were similarly heretical soul singers like Frank Ocean and Miguel. They made R.&B. laden with references to indie rock and psychedelia for a younger generation accustomed to unexpected juxtapositions. The Internet had made novelty stars, and it had made mash-ups. But with this class of singers, it began to make auteurs.

Tesfaye’s music was a miasma of sensual, slithering rock and soul, cut with melancholic samples of Siouxsie & the Banshees and Cocteau Twins. He also imported hip-hop’s low rumble and vulgar mind-set, molding them to his sound. He moved at a crawl, his sound a dark vortex.

unpopular opinion: the 50 shades song was better than anything since house of balloons

(low bar I know)

also that wiz khalifa song he was on didn't totally bomb on the charts (wasn't exactly a hit though) so..

unpopular opinion: the 50 shades song was better than anything since house of balloons

otm

I agree that Kiss Land sucked; I've also hated pretty much everything he's done since. That 50 Shades song was terrible (though the idea of him going large-scale with an orchestra is interesting and good, the execution was weak), "Can't Feel My Face" is just dull, and "Often" is so bad it's actually laughable.

― the top man in the language department (誤訳侮辱), Tuesday, July 28, 2015 8:01 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

what specifically is laughable about often?? it's like the best tropes of his earlier material of his earlier work formatted into one super catchy single. it is masterfully structured and executed.

the above criticism that abel has made the same song 85 times is understandable but i think some of the post-trilogy tracks (often, twenty eight, the hills) elevate the aesthetic to a new level of pop.

Junii Waves 3 months ago
Yo no gay shit but this track is hot The Weeknd only makes hits

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PqGrfdAw90

there's an untapped monetary market on acts like lana, the weeknd, frank ocean and to lesser extents arctic monkeys and the 1975. these acts embody youth culture and are amongst the true superstars of our age. despite having huge fanbases their success hasn't translated from internet fame to real world viability. this could be outdated ideology, but the opportunity for profit still exists. because of their youthful, immense online followings, they should be turned into household names alike rihanna and kanye (artists who derive great influence from younger internet oriented artists themselves).

this is how i rationalize the weeknd's shift into top 40 oriented material. it makes sense on a purely artistic trajectory too. instead of making sad fetishizing drug music, make happy fetishizing drug music. crazed disco influenced cocaine cowboy is a very viable cultural avatar. it's almost like the weeknd is working backwards; he had his thematic hangover/OD (trilogy) before the party/binge (can't feel my face/BBTM ).

5 writers for the current single. FIVE!

max martin and ali payami produced, savan kotecha and peter svensson did the topline, abel did something somewhere, where's the problem

nobody inform this clown how many writers were on the trilogy tracks, he may not survive

5 writers for the current single. FIVE!

the return of the "beck vs beyonce" meme makes an unexpected appearance.

i too got the trilogy boxset cos it was cheap and nicely packaged, and i actually liked the mixtapes.
never bothered with the album, but have since been wondering how on earth a single foggy photo of him in the dark gets so much traction on facebook.

now i know.

that paragraph re: how r&b had 'atrophied' prior to the supposed wave of indie-rock-influenced artists (or perhaps more accurately, the p4k crowd perking up its ears and finally deciding it was worth covering) is nauseating

besides i'm sure it won't be long before that period of the 'emergence' of 'auteurs' is also written off as atrophied, as arguably some of its figurehead artists are already stooping to (sometimes literally) masturbatory self-parody to significantly diminishing returns. altho who knows, decades-old rockist tropes re: auteurism continue to be received as fresh all this time later so maybe i'm talking nonsense.

yeah i enjoyed the piece because the narrative is pretty interesting, but there are some strange contentions in there. was struck by how both the article and the weeknd himself seem to have this revisionist bent about his older music. the stuff on kiss land was pretty optimistic in its aspiration to wind up on pop radio (something i wouldn't have inferred it was trying to do), but all this "i hated choruses, i hated structure" talk doesn't totally add up. didn't house of balloons blow up because songs like "what you need" and "the morning" had really clearcut, commanding choruses (and verses, for that matter)? like, echoes had "initiation," but it also opened with an MJ cover

doc mckinney and illangelo (and even drake, aside from a few mentions of his manager) being absent from the piece was weird

yawn

that paragraph re: how r&b had 'atrophied' prior to the supposed wave of indie-rock-influenced artists (or perhaps more accurately, the p4k crowd perking up its ears and finally deciding it was worth covering) is nauseating

Look I was writing a lot of p4k reviews of R&B in the 2006-2010 era, it's not my fault they averaged about five page views per review.

Aside from the strange generalisation about R&B that's a great profile. Unusual to see someone so brazenly committed to going for mainstream success. Most people would try to cover that up.

When "mainstream success" is 100,000 copies sold, what's the point of being secretive about it?

Point missed

I guess I'd need to know how you define "most people."

Most artists who started out with lots of underground cachet - free mixtapes, no interviews — wouldn't be quite so blatant about saying they now want to be the biggest pop star in the world and leaping into bed with Max Martin, Sia and 50 Shades of Grey. They'd dress it up a bit and pretend they haven't really changed that much or compromised themselves for success. Apart from Catfish & the Bottlemen, who are reading from the Oasis playbook, I haven't come across such unvarnished ambition in ages.

this new album is easily gonna sell a million tho

yeah i've asked a lot of artists about making obviously more pop-oriented music and most of them hem and haw and say nothing has changed, it's actually kinda nice to read a guy just being like "yeah i just wanna be super famous"

MIguel's been pretty clear about wanting hits, no? Especially after the experience with the debut.

Never cared for his music, only thing I've enjoyed from him is Can't Feel My Face.

surely miguel can't be as focused on getting hits now, especially after dropping an album that has basically no singles on it except "coffee"

This guy has zero charisma and/or relatability though. Who the hell would want to have sex with him while sober?

sorry that suggesting that two out of three original producers of the weeknd might merit mention in a "how we got here" on the weeknd comes off as "boring"

also for someone who lacks relatability a whole lot of bros sure think they relate to him

Ugh.

My students – male and female – think he rules, and the love goes back to 2011.

unpopular opinion: the 50 shades song was better than anything since house of balloons

(or on House of Balloons)

everyone is agreeing with my unpopular opinions, how am I going to be smug now :(

but seriously, I didn't know anyone (small text) else (regular text) actually liked that song

it makes sense on a purely artistic trajectory too. instead of making sad fetishizing drug music, make happy fetishizing drug music. crazed disco influenced cocaine cowboy is a very viable cultural avatar.

otm

first heard "earned it" while shopping for groceries and was like "this is kind of a jam oh my god no it's the weeknd"

it makes sense on a purely artistic trajectory too. instead of making sad fetishizing drug music, make happy fetishizing drug music. crazed disco influenced cocaine cowboy is a very viable cultural avatar.

Agree that since his sad party boy routine was an act it's not too much of a stretch to go to a happy party boy act, but I haven't heard anything from him that makes me think he could pull off that sound.

Also R&B circa when Weeknd was making R&B > Top 40 pop circa now, so that's an inherent downgrade imo

Top 40 pop is finally starting to not suck again! I'm totally about this Desrouleaux-wave, especially a nice turnaround since I once considered that guy my mortal enemy. I honestly thought CFMF was him the first time I heard it.

Rev otm. I don't know what kind of illness I'm reeling from that made me vulnerable to Desrouleauxist weeknds.

who would have thought jason derulo would be the one to flourish of the post-chris brown wave of pop-r&b acts

Well, it wasn't gonna be Jay Sean.

Should've been Iyaz, obviously

who would have thought jason derulo would be the one to flourish of the post-chris brown wave of pop-r&b acts

It was going to be either him or Trey Songz imo

or jeremih, although I guess that's starting to happen

might have happened sooner if his first big song hadn't been "Birthday Sex"