olivia rodrigo sets a record

Breihan writes, "Organic popularity, once the driving force behind pop music, barely feels like it exists anymore." But before the current era (and especially in the pre-digital days), the charts were driven largely by record companies and radio stations; isn't it better, in some ways, that actual fans have more control than they used to?

The real difference is that the *result* of a big radio push is that a song could become *broadly* popular, familiar to anyone who regularly listened to Top 40, whereas a fan-army mobilization to juke the charts does nothing to extend a song's popularity beyond the artist's fan base. It used to be that anyone could tune into a Top 40 station for an hour and get a pretty good sense of what's ruling the Hot 100; perhaps that's no longer as possible as it once was.

boy do we miss mediation

online stans are fucking psychotic and that kind of anti-social behavior shouldn't be rewarded in any way shape or form.

i understand that this might not be practical, but whoa my god.

meanwhile politely complaining about the new billie eilish song on a message board is very good actually, and should be rewarded with money

I just can't get my head around being so invested in the continued success of global superstar millionaires that you'd spend hundreds of dollars for every single release to push it to the top of the charts. I guess I can understand the appeal of championing an underdog artist or new act and wanting to push them to more visibility with an organized campaign or whatever, but stuff like the BTS army just baffles me in terms of how much money people throw into these campaigns. I'm sure the millionaires who are such ubiquitous global pop stars that they have a McDonald's meal named after them will be just fine, even if Jack Doe in Nebraska doesn't buy fifteen copies of the physical EP and eighteen copies of the same digital single.

Anecdotal (and I may have mentioned this on another thread once), but I was in a Barnes & Noble once and this girl, around sixteen or so, came in with (presumably) her mother. Apparently BTS had just released a physical single or EP or something (it was in one of those oversized cases that they all seem to be released in) and she bought every copy the store had, which I think was 14 or 15. She ran three separate transactions, split between her and her mom and different credit cards (again, presumably something to do with making sure they count). I love music and physical media more than I should myself, but I can't wrap my head around loving any artist enough to buy that many copies of the exact same release.

yeah it's insane.

stan culture is bad regardless of artist AFAICT

Not disagreeing with you Simon, just using BTS as the example given the recent discourse.

And to be clear, I'm not disparaging young fans and people genuinely into pop music. That's fine. It's just the amount of money they must drop on this that stuns me whenever I read about these campaigns. Maybe I'm building a straw man here that doesn't exist, but I do worry about younger, more impressionable fans getting pressured into spending more money than they should/actually have to keep up their true stan status.

I love the grain in her voice... Olivia may be more "limited" of a singer than, say, Billie (in terms of technique), but her voice is so perfect for the big rock ballads and rave-ups that she writes/sings.

(sorry to keep reviving; I'm still bumping this CD on the reg.)

you can tell she's ex-Disney and there's something of the musical theatre in her delivery but it's not a bad thing for her like it often is - little moments like the sarcastic laugh on "good 4 u" or the exaggerated exasperation of "God... it's brutal out here" really elevate this from good songwriting to great pop performance

Exactly - the drama fits (and she no doubt borrowed some of that theatrical expressiveness from Taylor, as well).

I imagine these songs will be really fun to do at karaoke

gonna try that soon, I hope (at a friend's house)

xxxp "like a damn sociopath" and "Ican'tstanditohgodIsoundcrazy"

these are the moments that really make the album for me. songs are good, lyrics are tiresome (admittedly, i am a middle-aged man, they are not for me) but those little moments have drawn me in.

there are plenty of other ex-disney pop stars who don't have anywhere near her charisma

Feeling inspired by @Olivia_Rodrigo ☀️ 

Original photo by Brett Lloyd for Purple Magazine pic.twitter.com/gRIfWlgfxI

— Kyle MacLachlan (@Kyle_MacLachlan) June 8, 2021

there are plenty of other ex-disney pop stars who don't have anywhere near her charisma

― ufo

Multiplying by 0 is still 0.

Jk

Opened this thread to confirm that song is a cover of Misery Business

The song is structurally similar and with similar rock leanings but melodically they're not really and good 4 u doesn't have that hooky riff. Even as a Paramore fan though, I've come to realize I've probably underrated misery business, what a song - "I REFUSE I REFUSE I REFUSE"

I hear only a faint similarity in the chorus (“Good 4 U” is a far far better song, IMO).

I guess I should be more diplomatic and say that the Paramore song is not in a style that I can connect with / enjoy.

It's remarkable how much more pleasant I find the SNL live video of "Good 4 U" than the studio version (at least on YouTube). Sounds like human beings singing and playing instruments in a room. Good power pop tune.

Courtney thinks she owns the concept of a prom queen with smudged eye makeup, f'ing excuse me?: https://pitchfork.com/news/courtney-love-accuses-olivia-rodrigo-of-stealing-hole-album-cover-concept/

they should have credited costello though for "brutal"

― ufo, Thursday, May 20, 2021 9:52 PM (one month ago)

This is fine by me, Billy.
It’s how rock and roll works. You take the broken pieces of another thrill and make a brand new toy. That’s what I did. #subterreaneanhomesickblues #toomuchmonkeybusiness

— Elvis Costello (@ElvisCostello) June 28, 2021

pretty cool response, can't think of too many in his generation who would've handled it the same way

Just listened to "Brutal"--anyone who thinks that's plagiarism of "Pump It Up" is completely out to lunch. I could easily believe it's nothing more than a coincidence.

I mean my first thought when I heard it was "that's Pump It Up" but it's also a pretty simple riff

I mean, I'm sure at least Dan Nigro has heard the song before and the riff does seem like a quote or homage but that's not a very strong case for plagiarism on its own imo.xp

The song reminded me of "Cannonball" and "Connection" before "Pump It Up," tbh.

it's absolutely close enough to "pump it up" that costello could have sued if he'd wanted to & so it was pretty surprising that they didn't credit him as a precaution, especially in the current legal environment around writing credits

anyone else watch the sour prom thing? it was pretty cool, better than I expected

Finally hit me the other day that the driver license bridge is the melody of the "na-na nanana" playground taunt which is why I've been connecting with it so hard, something about the way she sings of the relationship like it's a taunt in and of itself, combined with this massive emotion makes for the perfect elixir of unreasonable love and the real thing

I thought "Pump It Up" within 5 seconds of hearing it and agree with ufo.

Solid response by EC, tho.

about being surprised they didn't preemptively credit him, I mean.

xxp add it here!: Songs that incorporate the "nan nanny boo boo" melody

it's absolutely close enough to "pump it up" that costello could have sued if he'd wanted to & so it was pretty surprising that they didn't credit him as a precaution, especially in the current legal environment around writing credits

Oh, I agree that court cases have been won over less and an acknowledgment would have been decent.

If Elvis Costello was going to sue over Pump it Up, he would have already sued Escape Club for "Wild Wild West" and U2 for that terrible "Get On Your Boots" song. Granted both of those borrow more from the main melody as opposed to the lead riff like the Olivia Rodrigo song.

Haha, I thought about mentioning "Wild Wild West".

The song reminded me of "Cannonball" and "Connection" before "Pump It Up," tbh.

The two riffs consist of the exact same chords (B5-Bb5-A5) changing at the same times. "Brutal" just starts with four eighth notes on B5 rather than two quarter notes. There's no question that it's the same idea but there is a valid question imo as to whether people should sue over one repeated bar with three power chords falling by semitones.

Yeah - and after Blurred Lines, the bar is pretty low for “could have sued if they wanted to.”

I thought the "Blurred Lines" settlement was ridiculous but come on they clearly nicked the tune

It was a verdict! And it didn’t even really involve the melody (AFAIR), it involved the “feel” of the song.

they nicked the groove and wrote a different song on top of it

a classic songwriting method

Got to Give it Up is on my party playlist and pretty much every time it comes on someone says "wait is this Blurred Lines?" which I think gets to the essence of it

I just always felt that it was weird that Blurred Lines was the one that got him sued, as opposed to Magic which clearly nicks from Curtis Mayfield's Move On Up without any credit, but I guess that's what happens when the Gaye estate is a lot more litigious than the Mayfield estate.

It’s how rock and roll works. You take the broken pieces of another thrill and make a brand new toy. That’s what I did. #subterreaneanhomesickblues #toomuchmonkeybusiness

Perfect response, but also consistent with his own history. EC has pointed this out in his own concerts for many years by quoting his sources in his songs or seguing his songs into covers of his sources. With "Pump It Up," he frequently quotes "Subterranean Homesick Blues," and something like "Brilliant Mistake" usually quotes "Tangled Up in Blue" - in each case, the only thing that's different is the words, emphasizing his song's chordal and melodic roots to the source. He's frequently written or spoken about this too, particularly in the liner notes of his Rhino reissues.

that's really a really refreshing from an older artist

Another thing "Brutal" reminds me of--feel-wise, if not totally musically--is Courtney Barnett stuff like "Pedestrian At Best".

^That’s really funny; I’ve been trying to “sing” Brutal in my head the past day or so, and keep singing that song instead (I just listened to the CB album last week).