Back Tracks 13
The Hip-Hop/Soul revolution was in full swing ten years ago. The number one song was Freak Me by Silk, number two was That's the Way Love Goes by Janet Jackson. Snow, Vanessa Williams w/Brian McKnight, Whitney Houston, Dr. Dre, Jade, SWV, P.M. Dawn and one-hit wonder Paperboy rounded out the top ten. There is no rock or country, alternative or adult-contemporary hits on the charts. There were a few overall - Two Princes was number 11 and Ugly Kid Joe's cover of Cats in the Cradle was number 17 (Ugly Kid Joe? Hey, they had the first short form {EP} ever to be certified platinum. Don't dare knock Everything About You).
I took the opportunity of Apple's new iTunes music store to listen to high quality snippets of some of these top tracks as a "refresher" (ten years ago I was working at a record store so I am familiar with these horrible songs and many, many more). Listening to Freak Me or I'm So Into You by SWV reminded me of how vacant and color-by-numbers early 90's soul was. The beat was bump-bump bump PAUSE, bump-bump bump PAUSE. The only thing that varied was the tempo - fast pause or slow pause. Up-tempo - SWV, or Jade's Don't Walk Away. Down-tempo - Silk, or Shai's Comforter. Which is why so much of this was forgettable - ten groups of four black men imploring their women to "Love them that special way" while tilting their heads back, grabbing and shaking the lapels of their jackets and showing their bare, hairless chests underneath. The female groups were primarily trios who wore the same outfit in three different colors and you could tell them apart by their hair style or head apparel (who can forget the short haired one, the one with the scrunchie and the girl in the Fat Albert hat! They ruled!).
Nowadays, we have the rapper with the fake bandage (did you see the guy with the pirate eyepatch? 50 Cent ain't got nothing on Gold Doubloon!), a whole family of Lil's (Kim, D, J, O, Mo, B, C, P, Jon, Rob, Bo, CS, Ed, Keke, Mac, Ric, Amp, Bud, Cas, Dap, Dee, Dre, Fly, Romeo and Bow Wow to name a few), the All-Star Spelling Crue (the Doggs, Fabolous, Ginuwine, etc), and don't forget Floetry. And the bastard children of the bastard children of the fourteenth generation of punk bands who think that they are the sons of the pioneers because they were influenced by Limp Bizkit and Blink 182 and their older brothers set fire to shit and raped people at the 30th anniversary of Woodstock. It's enough to cry out "R. Kelly come save me from these children!" Okay, maybe not that. Yet.
I took the opportunity of Apple's new iTunes music store to listen to high quality snippets of some of these top tracks as a "refresher" (ten years ago I was working at a record store so I am familiar with these horrible songs and many, many more). Listening to Freak Me or I'm So Into You by SWV reminded me of how vacant and color-by-numbers early 90's soul was. The beat was bump-bump bump PAUSE, bump-bump bump PAUSE. The only thing that varied was the tempo - fast pause or slow pause. Up-tempo - SWV, or Jade's Don't Walk Away. Down-tempo - Silk, or Shai's Comforter. Which is why so much of this was forgettable - ten groups of four black men imploring their women to "Love them that special way" while tilting their heads back, grabbing and shaking the lapels of their jackets and showing their bare, hairless chests underneath. The female groups were primarily trios who wore the same outfit in three different colors and you could tell them apart by their hair style or head apparel (who can forget the short haired one, the one with the scrunchie and the girl in the Fat Albert hat! They ruled!).
Nowadays, we have the rapper with the fake bandage (did you see the guy with the pirate eyepatch? 50 Cent ain't got nothing on Gold Doubloon!), a whole family of Lil's (Kim, D, J, O, Mo, B, C, P, Jon, Rob, Bo, CS, Ed, Keke, Mac, Ric, Amp, Bud, Cas, Dap, Dee, Dre, Fly, Romeo and Bow Wow to name a few), the All-Star Spelling Crue (the Doggs, Fabolous, Ginuwine, etc), and don't forget Floetry. And the bastard children of the bastard children of the fourteenth generation of punk bands who think that they are the sons of the pioneers because they were influenced by Limp Bizkit and Blink 182 and their older brothers set fire to shit and raped people at the 30th anniversary of Woodstock. It's enough to cry out "R. Kelly come save me from these children!" Okay, maybe not that. Yet.
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