Tag: pop

533. NCT 127

~ ernopepper ~ Leave a comment

(November 2023) Episode 533 is NCT 127. A month ago I listened to Taylor Swift to show my daughter that my musical curiosity was broad enough to include her favorite artist. The problem is I have two daughters. To avoid familial strife, I realized I had better do the other daughter’s favorite artist. NCT 127 is a K-pop group. It is a boy band. K-pop (out of South Korea) spans music, style, and culture and has a huge worldwide following. The acts are tied to corporations, and everything is hyper-marketed and choreographed (the dance moves, the appearances, the images). As my daughter has told me, NCT 127 is a subunit of a larger group, NCT. As for the music, it is about as far from music I enjoy as music can be. But I appreciate that my daughter is deeply into this fan culture. (I have my own fan culture: see my Star Trek page.)

Favorite album: none

Favorite song: none (but if you want to know what they sound like, here is their top-played song on Spotify, Fact Check)

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: My daughter really likes it.

531. Frank Sinatra

~ ernopepper ~ Leave a comment

(November 2023) Episode 531 is FRANK SINATRA. There’s little I could say about the Chairman of the Board that hasn’t been said by Bruno Kirby in Spinal Tap. If there were a Mt. Rushmore of American Voices, he’d be on it. Sinatra’s music generally falls in two categories: crooning ballads with syrupy strings and swingin’ tunes with boppin’ horns. I enjoy neither. In fact, slogging my way through his big discography, at times I hated it. Undeniably, though, Sinatra’s music evokes an era and a style, and that’s worth something. But it’s not for me. He also gets demerits in my book for not writing his music.

Favorite album: Come Fly With Me

Favorite song: Brazil

Favorite sing-along song: Strangers in the Night

Worst album of covers: Some Nice Things I’ve Missed

Worst cover song (among many): Mrs. Robinson

Worst album art: Only the Lonely

Compared to expectations: ↓

Recommendation: I can’t see why you would listen to this other than as a soundtrack for a Mad Men costume party.

529. Taylor Swift

~ ernopepper ~ Leave a comment

(October 2023) Episode 529 of the “opus project” is TAYLOR SWIFT. I’m not saying I did an episode on T.S. to prove to my daughter that I can listen to more than just obscure late-60s psychedelic rock bands. But I’m not not saying that too. Whether it’s the early cotton-candy country pop or the later autotuned-to-hell hyper-productions, this is not music I enjoy. However, I did tolerate the two stripped-down, decapitalized albums from 2020, folklore and evermore. The best thing is that she writes her own songs, which separates her from most other mega-stars.

Favorite album: folklore

Favorite song (bouncy): Shake It Off

Favorite song (dark): Vigilante Shit

Best moment: When I heard the lyric “Or does she mouth, ‘Fuck you forever’?” from mad woman on folklore as “Or does she mouth-fuck you forever?”

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: 274 million Instagram and 100 million Spotify followers can’t be wrong, right?

515. George Gershwin

~ ernopepper ~ 1 Comment

(August 2023) Episode 515 is GEORGE GERSHWIN.  If America had a soundtrack, Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” and “Porgy and Bess” would surely be on it. He bridged classical and popular music, creating audience favorites played from living rooms to Broadway, movies and concert halls. The music is indelibly evocative of the Art Deco and the Jazz Age. That said, it’s not my favorite. I’m just not into Broadway musicals and related musical forms.  So I recognize Gershwin’s artistry but don’t tune into it.   

Favorite piece Rhapsody in Blue

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: Essential for any understanding of 20th century American music. If you like Broadway you’re probably into Gershwin, even though I’m not.

506. Tina Turner

~ ernopepper ~ Leave a comment

(June 2023) Episode 506 of the “opus project” is TINA TURNER, including her work with IKE & TINA, begun after her recent passing.  Few if any performers can match her dynamism on stage and in voice; I had not fully appreciated her powerful delivery before this episode.  Add to this her personal story of overcoming Ike’s abuse to become an international star, reaching a pinnacle with her mid-1980s hits. While these songs are how my generation knows her, my favorite stuff is the Ike & Tina albums from 1970-73.  It’s fantastic gritty, funky soul.  (Their earlier R&B material is less interesting.)   

Favorite album (Ike & Tina): Feel Good

Favorite album (Tina solo): Acid Queen

Favorite song (Ike & Tina): I Like It

Favorite song (Tina solo): Whole Lotta Love (yeah, it’s a cover, but what she does with it is funkalicious)

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: Those early 70s albums are essential funk/soul

500. Gordon Lightfoot

~ ernopepper ~ Leave a comment

(June 2023) Episode 500 is GORDON LIGHTFOOT. Begun after his passing, I entered this episode without knowing his work other than the five songs* that were staples on soft rock stations. He’s a national hero of Canada, and his long recording history affirms why.  While the famous songs were all from his more pop-oriented singer/songwriter period in the 1970s, I prefer the more conventional folk approach of his 1960s albums. Strong voice, gentle guitar, good themes. One hidden gem is “Solo,” his aptly-named spare last album (2020).

Favorite album: The Way I Feel

Favorite song: Long Thin Dawn

Compared to expectations: ↑

Recommendation: I realize I should have paid more attention to his catalogue, so I recommend you do too

* “If You Could Red My Mind,” “Sundown,” “Carefree Highway,” “Rainy Day People,” “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald“

487. Youssou N’Dour

~ ernopepper ~ Leave a comment

(April 2023) Episode 487 is YOUSSOU N’DOUR. Senegal’s biggest musical star, he is known for popularizing the genre known as “mbalax” that fused indigenous drumming with wider Western and Afro-pop elements.  You probably know him from his collaboration on Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes,” which put him on the international scene.  I kinda prefer the raw authenticity of his early cassette recordings, although he has recorded many fine albums in the studio (as well as some pop-oriented duds).  

Favorite album: Rokku Mi Rokka

Favorite crossover album: Egypt

Favorite song: Birima

Favorite crossover song: Touba Dar Es Salaam

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: it’s happy mood music, so it works in the background or the foreground, or to dance to

468. Regina Spektor

~ ernopepper ~ Leave a comment

(January 2023) Episode 468 is REGINA SPEKTOR. I can overcome my aversion to “singer-songwriters” with Regina Spektor. She uses her versatile voice like an instrument, confident yet delicate, neither emo nor operatic. Her lyrics and wordplay are interesting, and melodies inventive. I prefer her earlier, sparer recordings —  mostly just her voice and peppy piano — over her later lush and orchestrated albums, although two of my favorite songs are on her latest release (“Up the Mountain” and “SugarMan”).

Favorite album: Soviet Kitsch

Favorite song: Up the Mountain

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation:  I do recommend

464. Buffy Sainte-Marie

~ ernopepper ~ Leave a comment

(January 2023 ) Episode 464 is BUFFY SAINTE-MARIE. An archetype of the activist folk-singer. As an (the only?) indigenous woman in the business, many of her songs address the struggles of native peoples, but she also sings of war, poverty, etc. Her dominating vibrato voice is not my cup of tea for the folk style, but it is distinctive and well-suited to deliver her worthy messages.  Her 60s recordings are typical for the folk revival but I prefer her more inventive direction in the early 70s.

Favorite album: Illuminations

Favorite song: Cod’ine

Compared to expectations: ↓

Recommendation: you should have some familiarity with Buffy