Word: pop
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...very last rock song everyone could rally around. (Check out the video of its first public performance on the With the Lights Out DVD; as soon as the drums kick in, the whole room learns how to levitate.) But the closer you listen, the more it sounds like straight pop. That four-power-chord sequence that never ever changes? It's got the rhythm from Boston's "More Than a Feeling," but it's not a riff anyone had heard before. If you'd asked one hundred Sex Pistols/Ramones wannabes how F-Bb-Ab resolves, one hundred of them would...
...OutKast: "Hey Ya," 2003 In 2003, Atlanta's OutKast decided to resolve their creative differences by releasing a double album - one disc for Big Boi to make lush, solid hip-hop, and another for Andre 3000 to follow his muse into scattershot, genre-mixing pop experiments. Big Boi may have steered clearer of potential embarrassment, but it was Andre's "Hey Ya" that sold both halves. Pop fans, rock fans, rap fans, children, Mennonites, high-school principals, the elderly, terrorists - everybody loved this song. Animals loved it. Silverware loved it. You could play it in a forest with nobody...
...popular songs are exquisite. The review of Brian Eno's "1/1," tells how the bedridden singer's inability to reach the volume knob on his stereo led to the creation of an entire genre of "ambient music," and provides eager but inexpert music fans with a greater understanding of pop music's evolution. But the problem with the book - and indeed with many music reviews - is that unless the song is familiar, it fails to inspire. It's one thing to read about Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean," but quite another to read about German industrial band Einstürzende...
...dominant pop culture certified homophobia. Gays and lesbians were depicted as predators in best-selling novels (A Walk on the Wild Side) and respected plays (The Killing of Sister George), and the films based on them. The plot dilemma of that age's serioso movies was often just the threat of being accused of homosexuality, as in Tea and Sympathy, The Children's Hour and Advise and Consent. The tone was sensation dressed up as sympathy...
...TELEVISION Spectacle: Elvis Costello With ... It's not just the glasses--Elvis Costello really is that smart. On this Sundance Channel Q&A series, the singer, showman and wit talks pop-music history with Elton John, jazz with Bill Clinton and more. Interspersed with cover songs, Spectacle is an engaging showcase for a curious mind...