Digging Up Old Mix CDs

Instead of focusing on the 2000s as a whole, I decided to focus on a big moment in pop culture that seems to be forgotten today. Back in 2004, Ashlee Simpson was THE rising star of the moment. The little sister of Jessica had a huge summer hit (TRUST ME, YOU’LL KNOW IT) and was on her way to becoming staple top 40 artist. However, it all came crashing down one moment.

One SNL on Saturday, October 23rd, 2004, Ashlee was the guest musical artist. Her first song to play was “Autobiography”. The band started playing the song, with Simpson dancing along. Then, with the microphone at her side, the vocals to “Pieces of Me” [her big hit] starting playing. As Ashlee was caught lipsyncing, the band stopped playing briefly and she did a jig — a weird, oh-my-god-my-career-just-ended jig. The band starts to play “Pieces of Me”, and she is just confused. She eventually walks off the stage. At the end of the show, she tries to explain that her band started playing the wrong song — an obvious lie. The picture above is from that moment.

Wanna see the video?

Beyond just describing the event, I wanted to talk briefly about the impermanence of fame. While some celebrities have obviously been famous for a very long time, the fact of the matter is that it can all change in a moment. It’s nice to entertain questions about where she would be now if she didn’t have that mess up, but it’s far from the possibilities on how to react and learn from an event like this. Pop culture is a savage world — people can love then hate things on the turn of a dime. You can go from the ‘it’ girl to the laughingstock of America in 15 seconds.

Okay.. I searched up the words ‘success’ and ‘music’ on Google to try and find a picture for this week’s post (I know, I’m such an independent thinker) and this came up on the first page. This definitely sets me up much better than a music note and a check mark…

The picture above, which is the cover of a book that is out now, presents a few things that I am not that happy about. First of all, it says ‘The ARTIST’S guide”… I know that musicians are often called musical artists, but using that word invalidates the art form in a sense. I know what the purpose of that is .. “Oh, I must be an artist if I’m reading this book…let me figure out how to make my artistry better”. But that’s not what happens underneath the surface. What’s happening here is the disintegration of a word. An artist does not create upon the motive of commercial success.. that is as simple as I can make it. This book is entirely about commercial exposure.

Secondly, this ensures that this is one sure-fire approach to music, when the 2000s has taught us much more than that (points for tying it back to the 2000s!). The Internet has provided so many new avenues for commercial exposure, and whole new ways to experience success. This book cover defines success extremely narrowly and misplaces the definition of ‘artist’. But that’s enough of a rant on that for now…

What defines success? I know that’s a broad question, so let’s just focus in on music. What makes music successful? When I discussed N’Sync, The Beatles, and One Direction 2 weeks ago, would you consider them successful based on their economically-based achievements? I know that selling a million albums is a success, yes. But why are people still want to hear No Strings Attached and not 50 Cent’s Get Rich or Die Tryin’, the top Album of 2003? It’s beyond the numbers…

I believe the answer to this question is closely connected with one of the themes of my blog: nostalgia. Instead of thinking of the songs themselves, what do they remind you of? Perhaps that is what gives music its power. But what makes it have longevity and cultural power? Is that what you define musical success as?

I stand in a very unique place on this issue, but before I get to that let’s provide some context here. As everyone who hasn’t been living under a rock knows, the 2000s brought with it an unprecedented ability: sharing music globally. I remember when we had the dial-up modem and watched that download bar slooooooooooooowly move closer and closer to completion. What do you mean, we can listen to this as much as we want now?! That reality was really exciting for me, but less than 15 years later I would be agitated if my music download took more than 10 seconds.

The ability for music to be shared on this scale winded up hurting the music industry, as you will most likely know. They started a whole campaign based around ‘preserving artistic integrity’ and tried to convince people that this sharing was wrong. And, after all the consideration, I think that music should be free to download.

The music industry (and other companies) understand my opinion, and have set up ways to still make money. YouTube advertisements make a significant amount of money for an artist (for example, an est. $350,000 for Robin Thicke) and Spotify makes music into a social experience where we do the advertising for them.

So, at the end of the day, I am a singer-songwriter who has ambitions to make it in the music industry. I don’t buy most albums I listen to — I torrent them. Many view this as disrespectful or a jinx to myself for the future, but I don’t really care about those things. If I like the album enough, I go out and buy it. I download music so that I can truly determine if I feel like supporting the artist. I don’t want to be caught up in the rush of ‘the hottest new album’ and buy an album knowing 1-2 tracks — I want to experience music in the 21st century.

What are your thoughts? And trust me, artists have found ways to make money besides album sales — don’t be worried for their well-being.

Would you consider the Beatles a boy band?

I started this week’s post by trying to guess what the top selling album of the 2000s was. I was close to correct (I thought it would be a boy band), but was surprised to see that No Strings Attached by N’Sync came out in the year 2000 and no one has out-sold it yet. The top album of 1999? Millenium by Backstreet Boys. The first British group to debut #1 with their first album in the US? One Direction (with Up All Night). There’s something about boy bands that make them timeless…

It’s easy to say that sex sells, because, well, it does. I had the chance to listen in on research paper presentations in my Cultural and Ethical Studies class last semester and was given some special insight into the construction of boy bands that I’d like to share with you now. The Beatles was a boy band. Besides their construction of being boys in a band, there are a few ingredients that propelled them on the same path that others will do after them. Each of their personalities was distinct, so that they are as marketable as possible. Ringo Starr, the silly one? Niall Horan. George Harrison, quiet and artistic? Zayn Malik. Paul McCartney, the professional and musically-inclined one? Liam Payne. And John Lennon, figurehead and heartthrob? Harry Styles.

These are patterns that repeat themselves in music culture and a formula that just seems to work. How do these boy bands dress in accordance with their times? What types of messages do these bands project?

This post was bound to happen at one point, and it’s a part of the 2000s that absolutely cannot be ignored: the progression of rap music. To our left is an epitome of a new wave of rap music that quickly became the forefront of the American mainstream culture for a few solid years. There’s not too much to say analytically about this music, which was preceded by 90s hip-hop and succeeded by heavier, gangster rap that has slowly gained prevalence to today. Instead of trying to find a clever way to speak about this, I wanted to simply look at this music nostalgically and hopefully help you realize that while it is really silly at times, it’s fun and less vulgar than what we hear today.

Click here and here and here and listen (& enjoy it, if this is music really got you going at your middle school dance).

P.S. After seeing this Soulja Boy single cover, I need to admit that I turned a pair of sunglasses of mine into something similar (with my name, of course) using wite-out. I think it’s on my MySpace somewhere…

Beyonce & Britney Spears

I wanted to think more about the music culture’s progression since the mid 2000s as opposed to just reminiscing and admiring the musical artists of the time.  I wanted to think about which artists have truly persevered. Two of the main artists I thought of were Beyonce and Britney. They represent something special besides still being a good artists through all this time: they’ve undergone image transformation. Regardless of the business perspective of these changes, I wanted to think of how they’ve changed and what it means to the progression of our popular culture.

I feel that they’ve become more ‘confident’ personas in the musical world. Britney fell from grace during her ‘shaving-her-head’ phase. Beyonce fell from the public eye during the same time, but with no major event as a catalyst. Both of these artists have emerged in the 2010s with a fearless attitude and a powerful, feminist tone to their work. What happened to the good girl from Destiny’s Child and the girl who sang “Toxic”? It’s obvious to say that as they got older they became more confident in themselves, but I can’t help but think that they are representative of a cultural change. I don’t necessarily want to answer this question, but spark thoughts in your mind. Can you think of someone similar? How do artists change, and how is this a representation of our culture?

A post like this should begin with a confession: I used to be the biggest Aaron Carter fan. I specifically remember playing “That’s How I Beat Shaq” on repeat over and over again while I listened to my single CD. But, just as he was at the height of pre-teen pop culture by guest starring on the incredibly popular Disney TV Show Lizzie Mcguire, he fell into obscurity slowly and the rest of the boys and girls my age forgot about his existence.

(Before I continue, I just wanted to leave *this* here, because Aaron was just recently back in pop culture news for something other a little more positive than drug usage and bankruptcy.)

Needless to say, I was anxious to see Aaron Carter when he came to UD. It embodies what my fear was with this blog — Would seeing and revisiting Aaron Carter ruin the memories I had of him in the past? Should I keep those memories pure?

The performance itself was spectacular, and there was a great crowd (see Aaron’s Instagram post from his UD performance here). His voice was stronger than I thought it would be, and he did a great job showcasing his dancing skills as well. Aaron Carter is back, and I say that not as a fan but as a musician. He has real potential to make something of himself, and 10-year-old me can not be happier.