I am silently judging you by your taste in music.
All right, I’m a music snob. I look down on other people’s musical choices. When I’m in a restaurant and I hear music I don’t approve of, I ask the waiter to change the song, turn it down, or turn it off. If I meet someone who is humming an Air Supply or Celine Dion song with no visible irony, I know we will not be friends.
Contemporary R&B triggers my most curmudgeonly disdain. These musicians are not fit to do the laundry of Prince (or as my friend calls him, “The Artist Formerly Known As The Artist Formerly Known As Prince, a.k.a Prince”). They have no wit, no verve, no funk in what passes for their souls. Most of them sound like this. “Ooh baby let’s have sex. Oooh sexsexsexsexsex.” They’re hacks. Prince is a genius.
I am silently judging you by your taste in music in Emotional Weather Report, today in the Philippine Star.
Bonus: Chris Rock and Tracy Morgan sing Simon & Garfunkel.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
October 24th, 2010 at 00:08
Sarah Mclachlan was meant to perform for Lilith Fair last week in Auckland. I love her. Then the organizers cancelled. p*%&na!! the tickets didnt sell ata. I watched, uhm, Paramore instead. Don’t judge me. I am in sheepland afterall, where people actually PAY to watch Isla Grant and Lionel Richie perform in the wineries.
October 24th, 2010 at 00:36
If you have time to kill, I recommend you listen to It’s Not Me, It’s You (2009) by Lily Allen. She’s funny. Here a snippet of the bonus track “Fag Hag”.
We pretend we’re into art galleries
‘Cause it makes us feel clever
We’re both in our element when we’re on our knees
Whatever the weather
October 24th, 2010 at 03:42
i’m not as choosy about songs.. as long as it’s fun to listen to and it fits my mood, i listen to it.
though i have to admit, after here lies love, i haven’t bought a cd in a long time. when i do it’s mostly the best of the stuff that i used to like when i was younger.
as my sister mentioned when i was on vacation a year ago: why is it that the songs we like are the ones playing on mondays when our favorite radio station plays the oldies.. yep my sister and i are getting old haha…
now i’m just listening mostly to U2 (because even in his 50s, i think bono is still hot hehe) and bamboo (the lead singer was in that older band when i was in my senior year in university and they and the eraserheads played the soundtrack of our lives at that time).
** btw, i saw a special dvd set of back to the future at the store today. nostalgia..
October 24th, 2010 at 11:55
Nakaka-miss ang 90’s… music.
October 24th, 2010 at 16:14
“I am silently judging you,” an honest, memorable quote from Tom Cruise’s character in Magnolia, one of the best films ever made :-)
October 24th, 2010 at 17:40
Curvy: I love Magnolia. That was probably Tom Cruise’s best performance. He’s good at portraying assholes. Still, you could see the effort. Compare with Philip Seymour Hoffman who was in the same scenes. PSH didn’t even seem to be trying, but he completely pulled us in. And he was playing a kind person.
October 25th, 2010 at 12:44
Jessica, have you listened to R&B that’s not played on the radio (at least in the Phils.)? There was an avalanche of sublime creativity that came out of the so-called “neosoul” movement in the 90s through the early 00s, in which new artists retained the old-school soul/R&B organic sensibilities of the 60/70s greats like Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Al Green, Aretha Franklin, etc. while injecting a modern R&B/hiphop twist. Check out artists like: D’Angelo, Bilal, Raphael Saadiq, Musiq Soulchild, Erykah Badu, Dwele, John Legend, The Roots, the brilliant Lauryn Hill (!!!…still waiting for the follow up to Miseducation), India Arie, Jill Scott, Maxwell, Jamiroquai and so many others I’m still discovering (thank god for Youtube! — one of the few things it’s good for). I would even include Amy Winehouse. (Much like Nina Simone, Janis Joplin and Sly Stone, it seems like brilliance is often accompanied by some form of mental illness, eccentricity or great personal trouble — i.e. Lauryn, D’Angelo and Amy.) And live instruments!!!
Listen to these and tell me you don’t hear Prince, Marvin and/or Stevie in them:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fce41OOpUPk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSYMKUtNuw8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ddnt_upvkFI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJncE7vurq0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvbyHCtcpoA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEg40E8d0Ho
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POUdVUlWpXM (This Angie Stone song reminds me of Gladys Knight.)
If there is one album that would be considered the magnum opus of this movement and that you HAVE to get, it would have to be D’Angelo’s “Voodoo”. It was rightly proclaimed the best album of 1999 by Time magazine and the New York Times said “the succes d’estime that proves the force of this new music: it is a largely unslick, stubbornly idiosyncratic and genuinely great album” but I don’t think it needed all that approbation; the work speaks for itself. And what a great year for it to have come out…hehe…since he seems to be highly influenced by Prince. I would personally put it right up there alongside “Innervisions” by Stevie and “What’s Going On?” by Marvin as a bona fide great classic. It still gets played regularly in my car after more than a decade.
And oh…I think this is one of the sexiest music videos ever made! Prince would be proud! I think how it ends is very interesting. Song is called “Untitled”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxVNOnPyvIU
October 25th, 2010 at 12:53
Dr. Feelgood: My point exactly—the artists you cite are from the 90s. Ooh D’Angelo, I was wondering what happened to him. And to Terence Trent D’Arby. Legend and Saadiq are featured on the Levi’s Pioneer Sessions site, covering their influences. Free downloads.
October 25th, 2010 at 13:06
while dining at cravings last night i heard the whole album of remakes by the bossanova girl. i agree with your comment about the horrible phrasing. and the style was monotonous and boring. it totally spoiled my appetite.
October 25th, 2010 at 20:11
This reminds me of your essay from one of the earlier Twisted books where you walk into a bar and the cover band is playing “Sharing The Night Together,’ complete with forced “ohhhhh, yeahhhh” sing-a-long.
Also, the trend of weak-voiced girls doing “bossa nova” covers must DIE. And the worst part of it all is that they’re actually copying OTHER ARTISTS while doing so – I mean, I’m not the world’s biggest Jason Mraz fan, but I just cannot abide hearing the rhythm for “I’m Yours” being used as a soundbed for the worst cover of “Single Ladies” ever recorded in mankind. Pfweh.
October 26th, 2010 at 11:18
I think that to (properly) know music we should know music history. There are plenty of great music in the past. I’ve been listening to a lot of old school and loving it.
October 26th, 2010 at 11:22
There IS plenty. There ARE many. There IS much. There IS/ARE a lot.
October 26th, 2010 at 17:41
Jessica, thanks for the heads-up! Didn’t know about the Levi’s Pioneers thing. Totally right up my alley.
D’Angelo, like Lauryn, has been plagued by what it seems is the paralyzing fear of trying to follow up a great, seminal album. Year after year, random singles are leaked online and we hear of rumors of him “finally” releasing one (tentatively called James River once), the last one supposedly for summer 2010 but now it’s “finally” going to be 2011. In the meantime, he has been arrested for various charges involving drugs, DUI, etc. And he has become fat.
Terrence Trent D’Arby now goes by the name “Sananda Maitreya”. He decided to do it after a series of dreams. He still releases albums.
BTW, I just looked up that Angie Stone song. I was wondering why it reminded me so much of Gladys Knight. Turns out the record samples “Neither One of Us (Wants To Be The First To Say Goodbye)”. Love that song!
October 26th, 2010 at 18:31
Dr. Feelgood: Thank you for reminding me of D’Angelo. I’ve been listening to Voodoo all day, it’s still brilliant. So the playlist for my trip to Kota Kinabalu will have artists besides Prince.
October 26th, 2010 at 19:09
No prob, Jessica! Have fun in Borneo!
Forgot to say: D’Angelo and Angie Stone have a child…ooh the synergy of musical genes!!!
October 27th, 2010 at 15:39
philstar.com’s article index SUCKS! Can’t retrieve the article!