Top 50
Olivia Rodrigo has quite a few songs in the Top 50. You go girl. Right up there with Doja Cat. How many songs can a girl squeeze from one broken heart? A lot.
Ideally a single song should reflect a small moment in time…what your eyes said when you closed the door, how my heart felt when you came back in — not every detail from the entire relationship. Consider Andy Shauf’s The Party, a series of connected vignettes that offer up tiny observations from a single night. Chart toppers from Sour on the other hand all revolve around the same bad actors and storyline. That said, Ms. Rodrigo has an excellent command of her emotions. The songs are remarkably well channeled even if she and her co-writer(s) found themselves having to sort out the channeling and writers credit on more than one track. (“Good For You” /“Misery Business”).
There’s more mimicking going on now than ever. I usually side with the ‘borrowee’ but I’m not judging…merely pointing out that songwriters, if they’re not careful, can become a slave to the new A&R — the algorithm — which won’t allow ‘content’ to pass through the gate if it doesn’t have enough in common with its recent predecessors. Thing is, if a song is undeniable (“Leave The Door Open”) it can get an honorary entrance.
I brought up this topic in a class I started teaching. To be fair to the students I’m trying to combine my old-school sensibilities with the realities of hit-making in the streaming-verse. I advise them to pay attention to what’s trending and then superimpose those trends with whatever makes them unique. A follower might benefit from a current formula but it remains to be seen if the material will stand out in 10 years. I guess you have to ask if you’re willing to create within the designated lines in order to have a better chance of what may only amount to 15 minutes of fame.
Another thing I’ve been bitching about lately is all the gratuitous profanity on the charts. Even the most wholesome artists are throwing around “fuck” like confetti. I happen to appreciate a colorful expletive as long as it’s not being used because everybody else is doing it. As long as it enhances the song. And it’s not just the fucks. Hip-hop tracks are strewn with the ‘x-word.’ I’m not supposed to say it. And I never did. And never would. I’m afraid to even write ‘x-word.’ But yet…it’s all up in my face. Constantly. Hearing it makes me squirmy and UNCOMFORTABLE! No matter who sings it. I’m really trying to accept it as legitimate lyric but as you can see I’m having a lot of trouble.
This week Kanye owns Top 50 real estate. It’s been said that he’s mad but mad, crazy, insane all make for great art . Though there are some ‘squirmy’ bits 😳and…the first track “Donda Chant” sounds like a curious exploration of semantic saturation (a phenomenon whereby the uninterrupted repetition of a word eventually leads to a sense that the word has lost its meaning) some of his lyrics resonate profoundly: “The truth is what you can get away with.” Ain’t that the truth! Now more than ever. He may be nutty but he gives me something I need from music — (even tho it’s not exactly the vibe I curate for a bubble bath) — he gets me out of my own head. I feel like I’ve traveled somewhere — Planet Kanye perhaps. I’m sure he believes there is one.
Gotta hand it to him. He’s not following algorithms. He’s inventing them.
To the kids in my class I say…if you want to be a Pop Songwriter study and respect the Top 50. You don’t have to like all the rules but you’ve got a learn them before you can break them.
And I hope they do.
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