Category Archives: Pop

Album Essays, Artists, Manhattan, Pop, The Big Apple

Like a Virgin: More Than Just Another Dance Album

May 24, 2016 Samantha Lee Leave a comment

The 1980s was a decade that changed music forever. The introduction of synthesizers and drum machines paved an infinite path for artists to explore and create multiple genres of new music. For example, the use of synths and drum machines in songs was just a small step into the modern world of dance music. Without the emergence of synthesizers and drum machines, dance-pop music would have never been born, and EDM/dubstep/house music would cease to exist. Madonna’s Like a Virgin album incorporated elements of dance-pop along with powerful lyrics that conveyed a very relevant message.

Growing up the sounds of new wave and 80s pop music always filled the family car, since my mother was (and still is) a huge fan of those two genres. Duran Duran, Madonna, INXS, The Cure, and Depeche Mode are just a small number of artists I remember listening to during my elementary school years. The fact that I was familiar with and enjoyed listening to 80s music is one of the driving factors that prompted me to chose Madonna’s Like a Virgin as the album I wanted to write about.

Madonna was born in Bay City, Michigan in 1958, but dropped out of college and moved to New York City at the ripe age of nineteen with only $35 and a dream. After five years of living in the Big Apple and working non-stop to make her dream a reality, Madonna finally got a record deal through Sire Records. Released in July 1983, her first album Madonna proved to be a huge success, setting the bar for dance-pop music with hits like “Lucky Star,” “Borderline,” and “Holiday” that dominated the charts. madonna album cover

Though the album was a success, it was not what Madonna had envisioned. Producer Reggie Lucas did not allow Madonna to give any input on the production of the tracks and did not adhere to her wants and ideas. Consequently, on her second album she wanted to have more creative input and become one of the producers. However, her new label, Warner Bros. did not want her to hold such artistic freedom just yet. She was able to choose her own producer (with the approval of Warner Bros.), Nile Rodgers. Rodgers was part of the disco/funk band Chic in the 70s and produced hits for Duran Duran, Diana Ross, and David Bowie. Madonna knew that she wanted to work with Rodgers because she was in love with his band, and especially loved the single he produced for David Bowie. Bowie’s single had many dance-pop influences, and Madonna wanted similar elements in her album’s tracks.

-Madonna and Rodgers performing “Like a Virgin” together- -Madonna in her recording studio-

Dance-pop was a music style that could be played both at dance clubs and on mainstream radio. Its simple beats and uncomplicated strong structure made them easy to dance to at clubs, while catchy melodies and lyrics made it suitable to play on the radio. Many young people enjoyed the nightlife by going to dance clubs and discovering the latest songs to move their bodies to. Even my mother, who was just a freshman in college living in Harrington Park, New Jersey made the journey all the way over to Manhattan to go to a dance club with her friends. She confessed to sneaking out of her aunt’s house at night and taking a bus with her friends to the Village and sneaking into 21+ dance clubs. Palladium Dance Hall, Fat Tuesday’s, The Cat Club, and The Bottom Line are just a few of the most popular night clubs in Lower Manhattan. One of the dance clubs Madonna frequently went to to promote her music was the Danceteria, and was the place that she finally got discovered.

-Pics of dancers and Madonna at Danceteria-

Although Like a Virgin was only Madonna’s second album, her drive and dedication to music proved her different from other artists, that were just in it for the money and fame. The need to create her own music and oversee every step of the album’s production showed that she truly wanted to be an artist, not just a singer, and that this album was something that she had a lot of involvement in. Madonna co-wrote 4 of the 9 tracks on Like a Virgin with her former boyfriend Steve Bray, which provided raw and real songs, ones that almost anyone who has been in a failed relationship can relate to. The instrumentals used a lot of synthesizers, fast beats, and funky bass lines which put on a façade that the songs were happy and positive. Still, the lyrics and messages behind many of the songs prove that her music was more than just something to dance to in a night club.

The chronology of the tracks in Like a Virgin paints a clear picture of the life of a young woman during the 1980’s in New York City. When listening to the album, you must listen to it in chronological order, or else you won’t be able to see the bigger story that is being told through each subsequent track. It feels like watching a romance movie with many twists and turns throughout the plot. The album starts off with “Material Girl,” which opens up the story for us. What Madonna is telling us is that she would rather be with a man who can provide for her economically, instead of emotionally.

However, on the next track “Angel,” she tells us that she ends up falling in love with someone who is “an angel in disguise.” Then, she goes on in “Like a Virgin” to express her strong love for this person, claiming that she “was beat incomplete…sad and blue but you made me feel…shiny and new.” Though metaphor “like a virgin” is very ambiguous and can be interpreted in different ways, the general message is that Madonna feels new again. Whether that’d be love has a new meaning for her, or that she literally feels like a virgin when being with her lover is open to the listener’s interpretation.

The next track is not so optimistic and sets the mood for the rest of the album. “Over and Over” does not quite qualify as a love song, and its meaning can be applied to almost anyone who is trying to follow their dream, but has someone holding them back. However, the next track “Love Don’t Live Here Anymore,” makes it clear that this person not supporting her is indeed her love interest. It is evident that Madonna is suffering from heartbreak when she sings “you abandoned me, love don’t live here anymore.” Track 6, “Dress You Up,” exemplifies the overt feeling of love when meeting someone new, and wanting to shower them with affection: “Gonna dress you up in my love, in my love//All over your body, all over your body//In my love.” “Shoo-Bee-Doo” brings Madonna back to reality when she starts to notice that her newfound love is not expressing the same feelings as she does. Another turn for the worst is taken in “Pretender.” This man that Madonna was so madly in love with only wanted to have a one-night stand, and tries to console herself by saying “things happened much too fast I should’ve stopped him then, I knew it wouldn’t last.” Finally, the last track “Stay” ends her journey on a bittersweet note, with her first love (introduced in “Angel”) returning back to her. Madonna admits her flaws and mistakes and begs him to stay, to “leave the past behind…you know you’ve got to stay.”

The trials and tribulations someone goes through when in relationships are perfectly embodied throughout Like a Virgin. At first there is this new, exciting feeling of love, but then the smoky honeymoon phase ends. Then begins the arguing, not being able to see eye-to-eye on anything anymore, followed by the breakup. To top it all off is the regret and longing to be with that person again, but ultimately finding someone new and starting the vicious cycle all over.

Album Essays, Artists, Disco, Manhattan, Pop, Rock

Parallel Lines and Blondie’s Capture of New York City

May 18, 2016 wangie wu Leave a comment

New York City was booming with different artistic flavors during the 1970’s. There was a lot of artistic expression in all parts of the city, from the Bronx all the way to Brooklyn. During the 1970’s, New York City was dirty, grimy and poverty stricken; crime and bankruptcy rattled the city and no place was safe. However, that never stopped the voice that people had, it wasn’t the glorified happy beat of disco; it was the harsh vocals and guitar riffs of punk rock. A lot of the bands never made it to the big times, but that did not discourage people from trying and one in particular, Blondie, made their hit album based on New York City. Blondie was a unique band that encapsulated the spirit of New York and brought something new to mainstream music.

Blondie was originally an underground band that was only known by a small group of punk lovers. They wished to make it to the big times and play for larger audiences, but their sound faced many challengers such as disco. After the release of their third album, Parallel Lines, they sprung into success and escaped from their little world. Their album was inspired by the New York spirit, scene and the neighborhoods surrounding them.

Originally starting out as a punk band, Blondie only performed in small clubs. The Cavern and CBGB’s were their spots and they shared these with the Ramones and other well known bands at the time. Interestingly, CBGB stood for Country Bluegrass and Blues. The owner, Hilly Kristal, took a bet and allowed a rock band called Television to perform in his club, but they weren’t just any rock band they were original. Their sound was like a riot, so much noise and harsh lyrics with off tune vocals. Kristal was skeptical at first, but soon enough, his club became the most famous rock club on the planet.

These rock bands were different from the mainstream disco scene. Disco had a repetitive beat and a usually happy kind of feel to it, in addition to, the singers were usually dressed well with eye popping colors. For rockers, it was the complete opposite. Rock bands had a hoodlum kind of feel to their clothing; a simple t-shirt, ripped jeans and short platinum blond hair. This difference allowed a small group of people to enjoy themselves with their unique taste of music. Punk and rock bands were usually raw in their lyrics and vocals, not everything needed to be crystal clear. Moreover, the instrumentals were usually had an aggressive edge to them. This type of scene is where Blondie’s career sprouted.

Although they were liked by their peers and fans, no one thought the band was going to make it make it big time. The clubs were usually filled with other bands and their significant others. The community was small and not very known. CBGB’s only got a little more flare in the mid 1970’s when Danny Fields wrote about the club for SoHo Weekly News. When Blondie performed more frequently, they were discovered by Chrysalis Records and what raised them to stardom was when they worked with producer Mike Chapman.

They were all true New Yorkers and captured the style and sound of their surroundings. For instance, Debbie Harry would like to walk down her block once in a while to absorb the character and spirit of her neighborhood. They appreciated the grime and grit of the place. A lot of vivid memories were made in this area and it is presented in their album. There were a lot of different artists that roamed the streets of New York from fashion designers to photographers to rising stars. They were all gathered in this crumbling neighborhood to try and make it to the big time. New York City was a rundown and poor area that many flooded into, which gave it it’s rich diversity. The different characters, styles, and attitude that made up New York City was embraced by the band and they incorporated it into their sound.

During the 1970’s, New York City was a dying society. The crime rate was escalating, people were scared and everything was cheap. Drugs were freely traded on the Lower East Side. For instance, heroin could be scored easily from dilapidated storefronts and apartment buildings. The mayor at the time, Abe Beame, tried to appeal to the government to bail the city out of its bankruptcy, but the President refused. President Ford allowed the market forces to have their way and the Daily News made a headline that read: Ford to City: Drop Dead. Many artists lived on the Lower East Side and Greenwich Village because the rent was cheap. Furthermore, this environment allowed people to be creative and touch their inner thoughts about the society. Because of the turmoil that was occurring in the city. Times Square was filled with crime and every corner made one feel unease. Dead bodies were not concealed but the city was filled with life. The area was full of menace and harsh reality and that scene was depicted in many different art forms.

Music was an outlet and the lyrics that were spoken was a poem that had true meaning and thought. They were both part of the underground scene because what the rest of the world was listening to was mostly disco. However, all the genres strived in different parts of New York City. Blondie was one the only bands that made it to stardom from the underground scene. They knew they made it because their original fans started to despise what they became.

When Mike Chapman produced their album, he saw great potential in the band because of all the talent that illuminated from them, especially Debbie. Debbie Harry was a strong woman that was not only beautiful but also had a punk attitude that inspired many others later on. Her voice was harsh and identifiable the moment one would hear it. She also had a certain way of singing. She wasn’t always in tune and she didn’t need to be, sometimes she would scream out her lyrics more, but that added to the emotion of her songs. Even though Chapman made it so that the album was a pop album, he incorporated a lot of different genres into this album and still held the spirit of New York City.

Debbie was never shy about her attitude and expressed it not only in her shows but also her music videos. She proved herself to not only be a bleached blonde girl that had good looks. She embraced and used her sexuality to her advantage w Blondie_-_Picture_This hich allowed the band to have its unique style. She designed her own outfits and embraced the simplicity of the punk rock scene. Her clothes were usually more toward a casual sexy. In addition, the lyrics were explicit and unforgiving just like New York. A good example would be Picture This when Debbie says “All I want is a room with view, oh-oh/ I will give you my finest hour/The one I spent watching you shower.” In addition to the lyrics, the different beats and sounds from their instruments really embrace the busy and frustrating nature of the city.

Debbie Harry was a unique person and her attitude was incorporated in her style. Her strong emotions were able to show through her music. For instance, her song One Way or Another was based off of one of her ex-boyfriend’s that would stalk her. Her live performances and strong vocals captured the audience. It’s strong messages and her presentation of the song shows them to be very New York. However, it wasn’t only because of her did the band make it to the big times, her guitarists and drummer also played parts into it. For instance, Gary Valentine also contributed to some of the songs on the album, he wrote them. Jimmy Destri made the base sound for their hit song One Way or Another. These people put their own lives into their music which was what it so original. They were songwriters and singers that poured their memories and experiences of the city into their music. This explains why their lyrics capture the audience.

With Debbie’s presentation and sometimes sing-song voice, it was baffling to hear such crude words at times. For instance, their disco song, Heart of Glass was just that. When you hear it, it has a happy and upbeat tone, but then as she sings in a sort of lullaby voice, and one may drown the real words that she says. “Once I had a love and it was a gas/ soon turned out I had a heart of glass… lost inside adorable illusion and I cannot hide/ I’m the one you’re using please don’t push me aside.” Her voice sugar coats the sadness and aggression that is presented in the lyrics.

Blondie as a band is New York in the 1970’s. They capture a lot of the sounds and spirit that was presented to them in the city at the time. Their unique styles and attitudes melded together to make their biggest album which captured a lot of what the city had to offer. This made them into a big success that is still being mention to this day.

Suggested Reading

Blondie’s New York and the Making of Parallel Lines. Dir. Alan Ravenscroft. Perf. Roberta Bayley, Andrew Bolton, Clem Burke. BBC Documentaries, n.d. Web.

Fletcher, Tony. All Hopped up and Ready to Go: Music from the Streets of New York, 1927-77. New York: W.W. Norton, 2009. Print.

Album Essays, Pop

Born to Die

May 18, 2016 rababalajmi Leave a comment

Lana Del Rey is a polarizing figure in music and pop culture. Some praise her as one of the best artists of the new generation, some think she is a con artist who has hardly any talent. Love her or hate her, it is unarguable that this woman is impactful and has birthed a new era of branding and amassing a core demographic young people in New York City and the United States as a whole. It all started with Born To Die, Del Rey’s first major release in 2012, which she released to mixed reception. Many praised the album for being unconventional and genre-pushing, while many wondered if the album sold for reasons outside of the actual music. The album artwork, for example, is a display of what one can call unattainable beauty. It shows Del Rey looking dead ahead, smileless, wearing thick red lipstick and a see through button down partially showing a red bra. What is for certain, though, is that Lana Del Rey spoke a certain perception of herself into existence and turned herself quite literally overnight into a pop star. The themes of Born To Die touch on very relatable topics to young music listeners including love, happiness, depression and even the rags to riches archetype. This album is shamelessly New York because there is nothing more New York than flashing one’s sexuality and money around while being depressed.

Lana Del Rey was born as Elizabeth Woolridge Grant in NYC to an affluent family, but raised in Lake Placid, New York. After dealing with substance abuse problems through high school, Grant moved in with her aunt and uncle in Long Island, who taught her to play the guitar, eventually attending Fordham University, in which she began to earnestly consider her musical career. Grant eventually signed with 5 Points Records in 2006, with the stage name Lizzy Grant, and recorded an EP titled Kill Kill, which was only released digitally, and the combination of that and the fact that her label was not acclaimed can be accredited as the reason why the album flopped, even despite a self-titled album that she released in 2010 with her current stage persona, “Lana Del Rey” (Harris). Eventually, Grant began working with different managers that wanted a more distinguished career for her (Ben Mawson and Ed Millett), revoking 5 Points Records’ rights to her music and moving her to the United Kingdom to work on her new stage persona “Lana Del Rey” in 2010 (Billboard). By 2011, (now) Del Rey released the videos for “Video Games” and “Blue Jeans,” under Stranger Records, an independent Interscope subsidiary label, which were watched over a million times each on YouTube. From that point on, Del Rey blew up and became the face of grunge-pop/hip-hop with her unique “bad-girl/country/vulnerable/yet-urban” persona (Harris).

The way Lana Del Rey fit into mainstream music and pop culture was by creating her own genre of music that intertwined hip-hop, pop, and alternative. With her soft, whiney voice Del Rey recorded this album with a group of very important producers who would help her craft this unique blended sound. Kanye West’s classic 2010 album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy served as one of the largest inspirations for Born To Die, as this was a very eclectic, genre-bending album. Also, many of West’s producers joined forces with Lana to produce her album. Producers like Jeff Bhasker (who went on to produce hits like “We Are Young” and “Uptown Funk) and Emile Hayine (who also produced many early Kid Cudi hits) took Lana’s narrow range and allowed her to explore over multi-layered, intricate beats. Songs like “Blue Jeans” and “Off To The Races” are made up of programmed drums that sound ready for any rapper to rhyme on, but also have alternative components like piano and guitar leads. “Off To The Races” even has real background noise from Coney Island! Fans of alternative, pop or hip hop can all find elements of their favorite genres on Born To Die, making it even more accessible.

Because Lana Del Rey is a modern pop-star, who serves as America’s “not-so-good girl,” social media websites like Reddit and Tumblr have a plethora of fans that idolize her, making her the subject of a myriad of GIFs, which would be quite aesthetically pleasing on the class website as a representation of what NYC idolizes as a hard-shell, soft-core NYC woman. Del Rey also mentions in an interview with Complex’s Ernest Baker that she picked out all of the video snippets for her music video for “Video Games,” making sure that specific music video was unique to her and her album, although it is mostly composed of fragments of other videos, therefore making it a video that is an accurate representation of what she stands for and her career: a compilation of already established classical themes tailored for the 21st century. Her music video for “National Anthem” is also very New York-esque because a big part of it features A$AP Rocky, a native Harlem rapper, thus also making this music video an excellent candidate for a cameo on the class website.

Image result for lana del rey

The title of the album is the title of the first song of the album, but the significance of it delves deeper than that. Throughout the album, Lana makes stark contradictions between happiness and depression. For example, in her song “Diet Mountain Dew,” she starts off the song by singing, “You’re no good for me, But baby I want you, I want, Diet Mountain Dew, baby, New York City, Never was there ever a girl so pretty.” The contradiction between the tone of her insecurity in that she wants this person, even though they are not “good for her,” to her talking about being the prettiest girl in New York City is an accurate depiction of the attitude of New York City. The attitude of New York City is one that is not humble. New Yorkers are notorious for being rude and prideful of their city, and Lana brings this out in Born to Die, but she also incorporates the insecurities and depression that people face in secrecy when having fun, creating a beautiful, relatable and always relevant narrative

This album ultimately touches the hearts of young girls in a way other albums by different mainstream pop artists haven’t. Del Rey hits young New York women with genuity of the dichotomy of the importance of being beautiful, youthful, living “the good life,” along with with the all too familiar depression of being lonely or falling in love with the wrong person. She displays this dominant theme of preserving beauty and youth in her later singles “Young and Beautiful,” but the bud of this theme is seen in the lyric “Money is the anthem of success, so put on mascara and your party dress” on “National Anthem,” signifying how despite all of the problems and complexities of the female experience, a woman should still look and dress her best. This very superficiality is the essence of Born To Die. Like New York City and Lana Del Rey herself, the album is half beautiful and half ugly. It’s very deep in its exploration of growing up, relationships and heartbreak, while also very fake in its obsession with exuberant wealth, much like the classism that makes New York the city it is.

Album Essays, Bronx, Pop

Views On the 6 Train: JLo’s Claim to Popstardom

May 18, 2016 danielleurquhart Leave a comment

On The 6 was the first professionally produced studio album released by Jennifer Lopez in 1999. As her debut album, which was released in the midst of a new and blossoming acting career, many wondered why the Lopez would want to jeopardize her possible future successes as an actress to record an album. In fact, her role in the film Selena prior to the releasing of the album earned her $1 million dollar check, making her the highest paid actress of the time. Despite this, she maintained that music was something she was truly interested in creating. The inspiration for creating the album at that point in her career came from her recent starring role in the 1997 film Selena which was a biographical picture about the life of the late Latina singer (Sacksteder 2016). Her live and sometimes lip syncing scenes seemed to fuel a desire to record music of her own. Although Lopez has since acted in more movies and released a few albums since On The 6, the album can provide insight into the singer/actresses theme’s drawn from her experiences and the culture of the time the album was recorded and released in. Granted that at the time of its’ release On The 6 was a few months shy of being an album of the new millennium, it is still rich with ‘90s flare.

Even though I was a toddler when this album was released, while I listened to it a few songs were quite familiar to me. Some of them being former top ballads on US record charts such as “If You Had My Love,” and “Waiting For Tonight”, and others such as “Open Off My Love,” and “It’s Not That Serious.” Knowing some of these songs caught me by surprise and I can’t help but wonder if my mother had this album playing in one of our past apartments. I realized however, that it is one thing to recognize a few hits from an album you thought you knew, and another thing to actually listen to it in its’ entirety. I was apprehensive after hearing the few songs that were recorded almost entirely in Spanish. I wondered what themes I would be able to draw from music I had trouble even understanding. I also found it a little difficult transitioning from an upbeat pop song to a slow R&B tune about love and heartbreak, which is what listening to the first few songs on the album is like. The more I listened however, the more I was able to appreciate the mixing of beats, dynamics of Spanish and English lyrics, and emotions emanating from the music. I enjoyed how a song would start off with a distinctively Latin drum and rhythm, and then morph into the background of a fusion of a pop and hip-hop beat. This led me to wonder how important it was for her to incorporate her culture into an album targeted to be a part of the pop hits and culture of the time. The transitioning from upbeat pop to slow R&B love songs were representative of the ups and downs of her life trying to make it as a celebrity in New York City.

Initially, the lyrics seem to be centered around love and the singer’s experiences in dating and being a joyful young woman. This is just the surface value of the music however. As the album contains ballads that play on different emotions and explore themes that contrast, such as happiness and sadness, so does the life of a young Latina woman that desires a future in show business. There are triumphs and failures mixed into the journey Lopez took to make it into the places she wanted to be then and now.

The neighborhood she resided in on any given day would’ve been dotted with the differing sounds of Latin music, pop, and hip-hop, perhaps inspiring her to combine the three along with R&B into the sounds of her album. All three genres turned out to be suitable in helping portray her experiences and culture into the music. Like many other artists in the Bronx she was especially influenced by Latin music, this was also reinforced by her Puerto Rican background. This is evident when one takes into consideration that Lopez chose to have songs sung in Spanish on the album.

Lopez was a product of the Bronx’s legacy of artistic spirit, having grown up in the 70’s and 80’s seeing those around her strive to create positive forms of expression. As she took singing and dancing lessons however, her goal was to transcend the local scene and display her talents to the world. Although her neighborhood in Castle Hill was not immune to the decline seen across the South Bronx due to fires, poverty, and lack of investment in the 1950s and 60s, it was able to bounce back to lower crime rates and the restoration of housing since the 80s and continuing into present day. This structural and social renewal taking place around the time Lopez was an adolescent and teen in Castle Hill might’ve allowed her a more flexible opportunity to pursue the career she wanted.

Unlike many members of underrepresented groups that come from minority families and depraved neighborhoods, Lopez was able to realize the dreams of fame shared by millions of New Yorkers. She has celebrated her journey and that of others through her music in On The 6.