★ The Weeknd ★ What You Need ★

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"

this "what's going wrong with jeremih's career" piece is already about eight months old now
http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/6327425/jeremih-holding-back-his-career

Derulo always found more success on the pop end of the pop-r&b act spectrum, compared to Trey and Jeremih, who I think are both much closer in style to more traditional R&B singers than him. Derulo's pretty much a non-factor on the R&B charts up until Talk Dirty, but is consistently scoring more pop airplay than Trey Songz and Jeremih.

listenability / talent scale is Jeremih > Trey >>DeRulo imo but, yes the inverse has proven true in terms of pop breakout success

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"

― insufficiently familiar with xgau's work to comment intelligently (BradNelson), Wednesday, July 29, 2015 11:32 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

why

xp I enjoy all three of them much more than abel of course!

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"

― insufficiently familiar with xgau's work to comment intelligently (BradNelson), Wednesday, July 29, 2015 11:32 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

why

― nose, Wednesday, July 29, 2015 2:27 PM

b/c Brad has to eat?

forks otm

alfred otm

not really a fan of "earned it" or "can't feel my face" at all and i am not optimistic about the new album but i do really dig the trilogy mixtapes ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

12. Dark Times featuring Ed Sheeran

going to be the title of my book about popular music in 2015

A+

the singles are definitely the best things on the album

that does not make me look forward to the album

just started it (for review purposes, i've been over the weeknd for a minute now tbh) and it opens with what is m/l a power ballad

this does not bode well

Interested to hear this. Curious to see how he balances his creepy, creepy persona with big pop ambitions. Does he tame it, or does he run with it?