Word: pops
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Civilizations don't clash, but share and mutually inspire. So argues "Beyond Orientalism," an exhibition opening on July 25 at the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia (IAMM) in Kuala Lumpur, www.iamm.org.my. The show examines Islamic art's impact on Western artists, highlighting how Islamic calligraphy, tile designs, and geometrical motifs pop up in the most unlikely places, from Tiffany lamps - some of which drew on 16th century Persian works - to the art of M.C. Escher, whose elaborate drawings of endless staircases and interlocking patterns were apparently inspired by Islamic designs...
...could talk about the deceptive simplicity of Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson's melodies. How their exchange-student lyrics imbued the songs with an innocence that is one of pop's purest pleasures. How the really powerful cultural forces are those that make you forget your dignity. (Yes, Meryl, we mean you.) We could observe that Abba's music is best enjoyed by those who know that events are not entirely in their control. Hence America, the unassailable superpower, had no use for it until recently...
What They're in French First Lady Carla Bruni might blame hubby Nicolas Sarkozy for the lukewarm reviews of her latest folk-pop album, Comme Si Rien N'Etait (As If Nothing Happened). Though nearly half a million people logged on to the chanteuse's website before the much hyped July 11 release, sales are slow, and 55% of French voters think Sarkozy is merely using his wife to boost his image. With lyrics like "my lord, my darling, my orgy" (which presumably refer to Sarkozy)--that's quite an image indeed...
...Mamma Mia!, the new movie based on the 1999 stage show with nearly two dozen songs by the Swedish pop group Abba that were hits some two decades earlier? One guess: a lot of the women who saw Sex and the City, plus kids who loved High School Musical, plus some gay guys. And, a big plus, most of those who saw the original musical, which by now has grossed over $2 billion--more than any movie has ever earned in theaters...
...this once, then run for cover: Abba was not just the top-selling group of the '70s; Andersson and Ulvaeus created the smartest, most buoyant body of work from any pop group since the Beatles. Their gaudy gear, with the spangles and spandex, made them easy to deride, but their real sin was that they lacked "depth," which is to say they didn't pretend to be miserable. Instead, like pop performers from an earlier age, they pretended to be happy. Their music did too. The lyrics to the song Mamma Mia confess to erotic obsession and serial masochism...