Smashing Pumpkins 'Oceania' Review

I wrote another guest piece that was just posted. This time I wrote a review for the newest Smashing Pumpkins album Oceania (which is awesome). Check it out:

Oceania Review

The Rise Fall and Resurrection of the Simpsons

I wrote another guest piece! This time it was for popgive; a cool site for killing time/pop culture. It's about The Simpsons' rise and fall.

Here's a link:

The Rise, Fall, and Resurrection of the Simpsons

Saying Goodbye is Hard to Do

I wrote a piece for a music website called Hardcore Troubadour. It touches on the sadness that is the finale of an album, and it's awesome. Here's a link:


Saying Goodbye is Hard to Do

The Problem with Human Products

            I’ve been to L.A. three times now, and I have yet to see a celebrity. It just seems like something that people are supposed to do when in L.A./Hollywood, but it’s yet to happen for me. You’d think it would, considering the slightly cheesy name of their soccer team. In fact, there are certain default questions you’re asked when you travel to certain places. If you go to New York, you can expect to be asked the following: “Did you see the Statue of Liberty? How about the Empire State Building? World Trade Center?” Ironically I did none of those things when I was last in New York, but that’s beside the point. When you go to L.A., one of the questions you’re asked is if you saw anyone famous, as if it’s such a common occurrence.

            I’m not too sure that I’m affected by the fact that I have yet to see a celebrity in person. It seems to me that every time I hear of someone meeting a celebrity out of the blue, specifically not at an event where they’re expected to meet and greet, the person is disappointed. A coworker of mine who lives in southern California recently told me that some of her friends have actually seen celebs at the gym. Basically, her friends saw them in normal environments being normal people. What really struck me however, was the fact that she said that her friends were underwhelmed when they saw them. Apparently they just weren’t what they imagined they’d look like in person.

            Obviously, the stars not shining as bright as the friends of my coworker thought had to do with the sweat, body heat, and raw humanity that are ubiquitous in gyms. If you show up to the gym wearing high quality clothing (or at least such that’s not designed for absorbing sweat), or in full make-up, you’re clearly going to distinguish yourself in a bad way. So to assume that a famous person would follow the same general unwritten rules of society in the gym isn’t that big of a leap.

            All that’s to say that when you remove the designer clothing, makeup, and hair stylists, these people actually look normal. They still might be gifted with certain physical attributes, such as good height, a symmetrical face, and good genes for aging; but a lot of what makes them look exceptional is the help of the people backing them up and marketing them. They’re human products.

What might be the biggest problem with that is that people end up feeling like they can relate and lead similar lives, but that’s just unrealistic. I read the autobiography of Slash from Guns N’ Roses and Velvet Revolver when I was in high school. There was one point in the book that Slash fell asleep in a class in high school and flipped over his teacher’s desk when the teacher woke him up and made an example of him. He was expelled and went on to become a world famous and extremely successful musician. As much as I would’ve liked to go down the same path, there was no way I would get away with that. The funny thing is that I was still tempted to do that when I was in class after reading that chapter. Yes, Slash was a rock star, but I rationalized that he was once bored in class like me and he turned out fine when he did something about it. My rationale was, “If Slash could do it, why not me?”

When simply asked out loud, my rationale from that time sounds absolutely ridiculous. It was definitely one of those things that sounded better in my head. Yet don’t a lot of people do that? Don’t they rationalize that if this celeb from a random midwestern suburb can turn out happy and successful, they’ll turn out fine as well? We never really see every process that turns these human-coals into diamonds. People see these products that are still human beings, and they feel that they can relate. It’s something else entirely when people run into these products after they’ve reverted to coal to go to the gym.

I’d still like to see some famous people in L.A. someday though. If nothing else, I’d be able to brag about the experience. However, it’s still disconcerting to think that not everyone realizes that these human products that you see on TV are supposed to be relatable, but not people you emulate. Maybe someone sees the moms on Teen Mom, and find comfort.

Or maybe they see those moms and think that everything will turn out okay if they get pregnant early.

Lady Gaga vs. The parameters of pop

A lot has been said about Lady Gaga, but comparatively little has been said about her newest album. At least compared to her earlier major-label work. Musically speaking, they’re both pop albums, though if you took away the distinctive vocals of Gaga, it wouldn’t be that crazy to assume that different artists made the two albums. Yet it’s not like that’s never happened before, so why has Born This Way not had the same buzz? It very well could be a transition album suffering a sophomore slump, or just one of those albums where the artist basically decides to abandon their past and do what they want, thus alienating fans of earlier work. Either way, Born This Way doesn’t have the same star power as her last efforts, and her preference for the 1980’s impeded her matching her own benchmark of popularity.

When The Fame started getting played on the radio, it started off with a warm reception. The leadoff single, “Just Dance”, persuaded you to do as the title told you to, unless you’re like me and live in shame because you can’t dance at all. It made the listener go, “Wow, this artist could be a really good one hit wonder!”

But then Gaga scored another hit.

And then she put out five more hits or so, thanks in part to the release of the accompanying The Fame Monster.

Gaga’s meteoric escalation to fame was capped off with the general consensus that she was a bona fide star. Her song “Paparazzi” probably became even more relatable for her to sing about. In 2009, she no longer was the quintessential starving artist in New York/LA trying to make it big. With the explosive personality of her music (mirrored appropriately by her public appearance), Gaga had joined the ranks of other pop rulers such as Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera in their heyday. The most incredible part of all of this was that she was still so… fresh. She was a noob, some might say.

Possibly the most amazing thing about Gaga’s strangeness and her music was how quickly people snatched it up. But how much of each had to do with Gaga’s outlandish getups and loud actions? There is no denying that she’s a very talented and very skilled individual, so that definitely scored her some points. Yet that’s not the most important thing with popular musical artists; just look at Blink-182. No offense to Blink fans, I’m an active listener, but their music is simple and easily digestible. That’s not a bad thing. In fact, keeping it simple pays off far more often. The Fame (Monster) pushed boundaries but stayed within the parameters of what pop music was supposed to be.

Yes, her seemingly infinite amount of shock value helped, but she has made really good music. The Fame was well received, according to Metacritic. Critically, Born This Way racked up similar reviews on Metacritic. However, it’s worth noting that the latter received less sparkling adulation from the common listener. This implies multiple things, with one of the most prominent and most important being that while the quality of music was still there, the charm wasn’t.

Great pop artists are the ones that can recognize those parameters I mentioned of what would be well received by the masses and what won’t. I can’t really confirm it, but I once read Rivers Cuomo of the band Weezer made a reference book to use that noted what worked in pop songs and what didn’t. Assuming this is true, Cuomo had figured out that those parameters existed and tried to catalogue them. Weezer fans probably would argue against the lack of experimentation and darkness in newer Weezer music, but that’s a whole other essay/blog.

The problem that’s stopped Born This Way from achieving the same success as it’s predecessor isn’t that it stepped out of the parameters of what pop music is supposed to be, the problem is that Gaga used the parameters that were established in the 1980’s. It’s hard to be mad at her for being true to her influences, because really, that’s not a valid reason to dislike someone. However, not liking 1980’s music is a good reason to not like music influenced by that decade, and that’s what’s happened with Born This Way.