Pharrell William’s song “Happy” is a bouncy catchy song from a children’s movie. It’s innocent and infectious with nothing to offend us. We’ll take it. (Photo courtesy Sony)
The songs in the Top 40 change every month. The musicians are different. But the messages remain the same. This is what’s important in life, according to the World of Top 40 songs:
- Looking for a hookup
- Looking for or initially finding a romantic relationship
- Coping with the breakup of a relationship or threat of a breakup
- Feeling self-empowered
Most popular songs fall into one of those four categories. It’s all too easy to place most Top 40 songs into one of those slots. There are a few exceptions. But almost all of these songs have one of those themes.
The problem with so many pop songs with such similar themes? Play them over and over again and they shape how people think.
So on and on it goes. The nine new songs on the charts from last month are (mostly) easy to place into categories. Here we go:
1. Hookup songs: “Chillin’ It,” by Cole Swindell; “Whatever She’s Got,” by David Nail; “Talk Dirty” by Jason DeRulo
Pickup truck with product placement. Check. All we need is a country girl for this music video by country singer Cole Swindell. (Photo courtesy Warner Nashville)
In “Chillin’ It,” country singer Cole Swindell is cruising in his truck, one hand on the wheel and other around his girlie. Something is on ice in the back. He eventually knows they’ll be “tangled up.” But for now he digs riding around her with the music cranked up. The music video for the song looks so much like a pickup truck commercial — because there is product placement for a truck company and the usual smiling ready-for-anything country girl in it.
In “Whatever She’s Got,” country singer David Nail is obsessed with a moody hot girl. What else do we do know about her? She likes to paint her toenails and put lipstick on. And he’s spent a lot of money wooing her.
We know she’s hot because “she got the blue jeans painted on tight that everybody wants on a Saturday night.” And “when she moves every jaw’s gonna drop.” Problem is she’s moody. The singer wants her, but she’s too hard to get a grip on it. Dude can’t control her. So he’s pretty obsessed.
For “Talk Dirty” scroll down below under Worst Song of the Month for a full account of how awful the song is.
2. Self-empowerment: “Happy,” by Pharell Williams; “The Man,” by Aloe Bacc; “Best Day of My Life,” by American Authors
These three songs sometimes are on the verge of exploring something spiritual. But the songs are so vague we don’t know they’re about a spiritual awakening or just some ego trip.
In American Author‘s “Best Day of My Life” it’s not exactly clear what’s happened. The singer could have been at an all-night party that made him feel empowered. Or he could be elated from a dream. Or maybe it’s just the aftermath of a romance. Or it could be some kind of semi-spiritual awakening. Who knows?
Hey, isn’t that indie band’s song in a commercial? Yep. American Authors song “Best Day of My Life” is climbing the charts after being used in a corporate hardware store commercial. (Photo courtesy 10 Spot)
Whatever it is, the singer doesn’t want to look back at the past anymore and he’s in a state where it’s about “all the possibilities, no limits just epiphanies.” He feels so empowered that he knows it will be the best day of his life.
This band is categorized as an indie band. But I don’t know how much credibility they’re going to have anymore after the song was used in a commercial for a home improvement mega-company.
The official music video for the song also shows how formulaic the hipster indie band image now is. There’s a bizarre use of someone dressed up as a stuffed animal. But there are the stereotypes of the hipster dive bar, tattoo parlor, and loft party with all sorts of pretty people. It’s getting to be really cliche, guys.
Pharrell Williams’s catchy song “Happy” is a child-like song about feeling good. It’s good to hear something more innocent in the Top 40:
“Clap along if you feel like a room without a roof,
Clap along if you feel like happiness is the truth,
Clap along if you know what happiness is to you.
Clap along if you feel like that’s what you wanna do.”
The music video is fun too. I don’t know if Williams realizes it, but the line “happiness is the truth” is quite profound.
The song that dabbles the most with spirituality is Aloe Blacc’s song “The Man”:
“Somewhere I heard that life is a test.
I been though the worst but still I give my best,
God made my mold different from the rest,
Then he broke that mold so I know I’m blessed.”
He’s becomes empowered by this realization. There’s something interesting going on here. I think the singer is onto something but isn’t overt enough about his spirituality.
3. Romance: “All of Me” by John Legend
Oh, who needs to hire a model for a music video when you married one? John Legend’s model wife is featured in his music video for the snoozer ballad “All of Me.”
This very boring ballad has a message of I’ll take all of what you are, even the “perfect imperfections.” It seems to be more about his acceptance of her flaws than a love song. She apparently is causing him some trouble because “My head’s underwater but I’m breathing fine.” And he feels like he’s “risking it all, though it’s hard.”
I’m not buying this as a sweet love song. Sounds like there’s too much stormy stuff in this relationship. The music video shows his wife and lots of tropical scenery frolicking around and ends with footage from their real life wedding. That footage is way more interesting than the cliché music video.
4. Breakup fallout: “Love Me Again” by John Newman
John Newman’s Northern Soul-like song “Love Me Again” is the best new song this month. This Brit can groove. (Photo courtesy Universal)
This is the best new song on the charts by far.
Maybe I’m just a sucker for Northern Soul-inspired English R&B. There’s been a resurgence of that on the charts that started with Amy Winehouse and still trickles over to this side of the pond once in a while.
The lyrics also use some religious imagery. He wonders if whatever he did that was wrong (did he cheat on her?) makes him a devil or a demon who destroys everything. Whatever he’s done, he feels “I shook the angel in you.” He’s now “rising” and sounds like he wants to get back together with her. “Can you love me again?” he asks.
This blows away the other R&B songs on the charts. But what about the ending of the music video for this song? Didn’t see that coming!
5. Uncategorizable: “Hey Brother” by Avicii
Swedish DJ Avicii, left, modeled for a clothing company advertisement last year. This year he’s making bizarre music videos. (Photo courtesy Ralph Lauren)
A bizarre and disturbing music video accompanies this song — just like there was for this Swedish DJ’s smash hit “Wake Up.”
The lyrics are about devotion to someone the singer calls brother and sister. But the music video turns this into some strange fantasy about a boy imagining his dead father (who died in a war) as a fantasy brother. There are really disconcerting shots of a funeral with dance music swelling in the background. The music video portrays the death as almost a happy occasion. Are anti-war songs — or at least songs that are more well-rounded about war — a thing of the past?
Summing it up
All in all, on the charts this month the two songs each by Lorde and Imagine Dragons are standouts as well as this month’s best song by Eminem. Pharell Williams’s song is innocuous but contagious. John Newman’s song “Love Me Again” is a nice dose of modern Northern Soul. “Let It Go” from the Disney movie “Frozen” is surprisingly compelling — former Rent and Wicked star Idina Menzel really belts it out like it’s an anthem.
Other than that, you’re treading into dangerous territory listening to anything else in the Top 40. The remaining songs are so formulaic and trite it’s almost like you’re willingly agreeing to be brainwashed by listening to them.
Best song of the month: “Monster” by Eminem
Eminem and Rihanna team up for the infectious and profound song “Monster.” Rapper Eminem proves he hasn’t mellowed or been bought off by success. (Photo courtesy Aftermath)
We all have our demons. But “Monster” shows that sometimes we must accept these demons as always being with us in some way. Maybe they’ll never go away. So we have to learn to live with them. It may be best to “make friends” with them — maybe the solution is what Rihanna sings in the chorus: “I’m friends with the monster that’s under my bed.”
What is the monster?
For Eminem, some of it seems to be his mental health, maybe resulting from for former addictions. Sometimes addicts say the tendency to use again is always there. It’s not going to go away. So they have to accept it. Perhaps that’s part of it.
Another monster is what fame has done to him.
He realizes it’s affected his ego (“fame made me a balloon cause my ego inflated”). Fame is bittersweet he says. He knows getting famous was like winning the lottery and that he’s made “something out of nothing” by coming from such poverty.
Unlike most rappers, fame and materialism aren’t enough for Eminem. He’s still trying to make peace with his inner demons in the song “Monster.” (Photo courtesy Aftermath)
“Beggars can’t be choosers,” he resigns himself to believing about his rise to fame. He’s realized that he can’t “have his cake and eat it too” by being famous and not having the problems that go along with it. He fantasizes that he can just walk out “as a regular civilian” but realizes he’s too famous for this to happen.
This strips apart the idea shoved down our throats by advertisers and the media that if we just can be successful enough all of our problems will go away. Only materialism and all the things that go with it are supposed to make us happy, we’re told. Not true, Eminem says. It’s better than poverty. But it isn’t going to make all of your problems disappear.
Our demons may not be addiction or the ego and isolation that comes with fame. But we all have them. Those voices that come to us, or something underneath that is lurking there.
Maybe it’s just part of the spiritual condition of life that there’s a dark side to us all. Or the potential for slipping into it. When we feel that way — when we don’t feel like we don’t have control — maybe it’s natural to think we’re going crazy, as Eminem worries about in this song. Perhaps the only solution is making peace and making friends with the dark side of yourself.
There’s one thing you can count on Eminem for. He hasn’t been bought off by success. If anything he sees success as having a new set of problems. Compare this to other rappers who seem satisfied with the materialism and hedonism that success brings. Eminem always has his b.s. detector on. That’s what makes him one of the very best rappers.
Here’s the music video for “Monster”:
Worst song of the month: “Talk Dirty” by Jason DeRulo
Almost every month you can count on a disturbing sexist song and music video to be in the Top 40. Following previous songs by Robin Thicke and Pitbull, this month’s hypermasculine misogynistic song is Jason DeRulo’s “Talk Dirty.” (Photo courtesy Warner Bros.)
There seems to be steady stream of popular sexist songs on the charts.
Just after I think it’s dwindling a bit because songs by Robin Thicke, Pitbull and Beyonce/Jay-Z are heading down the charts, another one pops up. This month Jason DeRulo is going up the charts with his song “Talk Dirty.”
For all of the talk of feminism and how times have changed, and how women are more respected now, it’s incredible these songs exist and are so popular. For too many rappers, R&B singers, and country musicians, it’s still a hypermasculine sexist world. Call it backlash against women progressing in the world, I guess. But because some of these songs are so popular it becomes more and more acceptable to have this sexism entrenched. Especially when so many musicians endorse it.
So what does this Jason dude — and his rapper friend 2 Chainz — have to say? What’s their particular twist on sexism?
The world is a worse place because of songs like Jason DeRulo’s “Dirty Talk.” Sexism is everywhere in the song, and the music video even throws in some stereotypes about Asian women. (Photo courtesy Warner Bros.)
DeRulo has a fantasy about women around the world who don’t speak English. It appears that talk is just too much of a waste of time. So it’s better to bypass talking and get down to business. What’s that?
“Our conversations ain’t long, but you know what is,” he says.
If there is any talking, he wants it to be dirty talk. He’s not interested in anything else.
And oh, yeah, he likes his booty. When he enters one woman’s in his phone he doesn’t give her a name. He just puts her in as “Big Booty.”
With so many references to foreign women, DeRulo has a fetish for exotic women who can’t speak English very well. That’s his twist.
There’s the usual boasting about all the trappings of success — first class airplane rides, sold out arenas, willing women all over the world. But we’ve heard that kind of stuff many times before. Why do you need advertising agencies? Too many rappers and musicians so willingly tell us that life is all about consuming products and people.
And the music video?
There’s a lot of booty shaking and women of different ethnic groups twerking and grinding. The music begins and ends with an Asian woman struggling to speak English. “What? I don’t understand,” she giggles at the end. Looks like a kind of cultural racism there. Sexism and racism in one package. Wow.
There’s also the usual product placement for a drink with one of the women suggestively drinking from a bottle. And at the end there’s a rack focus changing from the bottles lined up in the background to a woman in the foreground. Amazing how innovative these product placement people can be.
Here’s the music video for “Talk Dirty”:
