SheriffFatman
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Post by SheriffFatman on Oct 12, 2020 16:17:27 GMT 1
661 - Panda by Desiigner No. 7 in 2016
Not for the first time on the Millionaires thread, we consider the phenomenon of muttery rap. I'm not sure exactly at what point it became no longer possible to tell what most rappers were saying, I feel like it might have been pioneered in the early 2000s by Nelly with his southern drawl being so distinctive from the east coast / west coast rappers we were used to hearing in the charts. Fast forward to 2016 and we have the likes of Desiigner making the top 10 with tracks that are essentially indecipherable.
That said, I'm not against the concept at all, and I'm actually quite a fan of this track. When you can't immediately tell what he's on about, and especially when the track has such an intriguing title, you have a choice - either ignore it altogether or pay more attention. I instinctively tend towards the latter. For me Panda is a great track, moody and atmospheric but catchy too. It has to be said of course that although it may be incomprehensible to a middle aged man from the North-West of England people from Desiigner's neck of the woods probably hear every word. That's cool too, it's an invitation to their world, you just have to make an effort to be allowed in.
Desiigner is in fact Sidney Royel Selby III, a 33 year old rapper from Brooklyn, New York. Panda reached number one in the charts in the US, and he was signed to a major label. It apears that last year he was kicked back off it again though, if you're not a fan of the genre you may be pleased to hear it looks increasingly unlikely we'll be hearing from him again.
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SheriffFatman
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Post by SheriffFatman on Oct 13, 2020 10:10:01 GMT 1
660 - Problem by Ariana Grande featuring Igg Azalea No. 1 in 2014
I've managed to avoid this one for 6 years, right up until today in fact. Obviously, for very sad reasons, I've heard a lot about Ariana Grande over the last few years, I've never really taken the time to listen to any of her music. Judging by this, I was right not to.
I shouldn't be too harsh really, it's not terrible, but it's definitely not for me. I guess the vocal range she demonstrates here, from high to ear piercing, suggests she's probably a good singer. This track is just a mess of production though, there is so much going on it's disorientating. Iggy Azalea turns up to do a brief rap which simultaneously steals from Jay-Z and sounds like it is being delivered over Starships by Nikki Minaj. The most appealing thing on the whole song is an uncredited man repeatedly wispering "I got one less problem without you", which is quite a cool line and also provides a welcome break from all the other racket. I guess I'm sounding old, but I really do not like this.
Problem entered the charts at number 1, but only managed 1 week there, spending the rest of its chart career slowly falling. It was the first of 17 top 10 hits for Ariana Grande so far, 6 of which have reached number 1, so it obviously appealed to a lot of people in a way that I simply do not appreciate. It came well into Iggy Azalea's chart career, but to date it remains her only chart topper.
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Post by masenz on Oct 13, 2020 13:38:46 GMT 1
I quite like Problem. Not a major favourite, but a perfectly solid example of 'that' sound of the early-mid 2010's.She sounds pretty good on it too I find.
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SheriffFatman
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Post by SheriffFatman on Oct 13, 2020 16:38:53 GMT 1
I quite like Problem. Not a major favourite, but a perfectly solid example of 'that' sound of the early-mid 2010's.She sounds pretty good on it too I find. I think I may have had my fingers in my ears furing the early-mid 2010s, only listening to 1960s folk music. I guess I'm not fully prepared for what I'm going to find as we move through this thread...
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Post by Earl Purple on Oct 13, 2020 17:25:07 GMT 1
Jason Mraz had his first hit in my chart in 2003 but his most successful year in my chart was 2018 when he had a #1 and a #2, and was #3 on the final chart.
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Post by masenz on Oct 13, 2020 17:58:24 GMT 1
I quite like Problem. Not a major favourite, but a perfectly solid example of 'that' sound of the early-mid 2010's.She sounds pretty good on it too I find. I think I may have had my fingers in my ears furing the early-mid 2010s, only listening to 1960s folk music. I guess I'm not fully prepared for what I'm going to find as we move through this thread... It's not exactly my favourite era, but I quick think of some of the biggest hits that I would expect to find on this list should see some decent ones. Especially 2010 - 2013 time, where digital sales meant a million seller genuinely did cross over and was a 'huge hit', though many that weren't will have got there now via streaming.
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SheriffFatman
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Post by SheriffFatman on Oct 14, 2020 11:19:51 GMT 1
659 - Supermarket Flowers by Ed Sheeran No. 8 in 2017
It actually seems a bit odd that 83 songs into this thread we are only now mentioning for the first time the words 'Ed Sheeran'. He appears on the Millionaires list an incredible if not all that surprising 19 times, it is perhaps a further indication of his astonishing success that none of them are particularly near the bottom.
My take on the Sheeran phenomenon is that commentary on new music in the second half of the noughties was constantly of the moaning variety, with an ever present argument that no one writes proper songs any more, no one plays proper instruments anymore and no real songs make the charts. Then, in 2011, along came Ed, writing and playing his own proper songs, and within the blink of an eye the same people that were complaining when he didn't exist started moaning that he was rubbish because they didn't like the fact he was so popular.
That said, it's not as if I'm an unquestioning Sheeran fan, I just refuse to do what so many people I otherwise respect do, which is write off all of his music without even listening to it. In this thread every one of his entries will be considered on its own merits, and I am confident that I will say some of them are rubbish and some are excellent. Looking through the list there are some I'm not sure at this stage I even know.
Supermarket Flowers is an interesting place to start. It is in one sense a desperately sad song, dealing with the very practical aspects of the death of a close relative. He wrote it upon hearing of the death of his own grandmother, and subsequently performed it at her funeral, which is confusing because the lyrics gave me the impression it was about his Mum, although she is apparently alive and well. In his typically relatable everyman lyrical style there is some positivity to be found too, he uses the opportunity to give thanks for her life as well as mourning her death. It's a song I can imagine giving comfort to others upon the deaths of their loved ones, not really something you expect to find in the top 10 but a song of value nevertheless.
The track entered the charts at 9 on the contraversial week when 16 of the top 20 were from Ed's album รท. Unlike most of his tracks that entered that week, it actually climbed a place the week after. Over a year later it was promoted as a single, but could only climb back as high as high as 29. It's not exactly a song that lends itself to airplay on cheery radio stations.
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SheriffFatman
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Post by SheriffFatman on Oct 15, 2020 15:36:19 GMT 1
658 - Empire State Of Mind by Jaz-Z featuring Alicia Keys No. 2 in 2009
I love hip-hop, but what's probably not very cool to admit is that I love it most when it crosses into the mainstream. Rap music spends a lot of time preaching to the converted, and there's nothing wrong with that, but I know I only got into the genre after hearing Dr Dre's mega-hits from his album 2001. Every now and then you need a big hit to draw people in, and they don't come much bigger or more memorable than Empire State Of Mind. This is a wonderful single.
All the componants here are perfect - Alicia Keys' singing is glorious, Jay-Z's rapping is at its 99 Problems style most relatable best, the production is top drawer. At it's heart though I think what makes this track so brilliant is Jay-Z's obvious passion for the subject matter, it is a tribute to his home, and as he clearly loves it. Part of the reason this is so brilliant is how much it evokes New York, it makes you feel like you know the place even if you've never been.
I have been, just the once, and I was alone. I worked for 2 weeks in Pennsylvania in March 2012 and on the middle weekend, rather than sit bored in my room in a Holiday Inn at the site of a freeway, I decided to get a Greyhound bus to New York. I was pretty skint at the time (twas ever thus!), the hotel room on the Saturday night was about all I could manage, but I walked and walked for miles, in absolute awe of this iconic city which has had such a huge influence on western popular culture. I made a playlist for the trip and Empire State Of Mind, only 2 years old at the time, seemed to capture the essence of the place better than anything else I had on there. It will be ringing in my ears again in the event I ever get to go back (I'd love to).
In this form, Empire State Of Mind spent a solitary week at number 2 behind the Taio Cruz's vastly inferior Break My Heart. Only a few weeks earlier Jay-Z had already been at number 1 with the also inferior (if not vastly) Run This Town, so maybe the UK public had just had enough of him for the time being. It hung around for a long time though, racking up 30 weeks in the top 40.
Part way through its run Alicia Keys charted with her solo version of the track. That peaked at number 4 but also had a very long chart run, and I think I remember reading at the time her version actually outsold the original. Sales wise they must have swapped places again though as this is the only version on the millionaires list, and in fact Key's only appearance. It is one of 6 appearances for Jay-Z.
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Roo.
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Post by Roo. on Oct 15, 2020 15:54:52 GMT 1
Panda - not the worst, but nothing special.
Problem - I enjoy most of it, but I'm not a huge fan of the rap.
Supermarket Flowers - not one of his best, I think it's a little too boring.
Empire State Of Mind - a really great song, and as you said, it's a really fantastic crossover success. I don't like the solo Keys version, I think it sucks the joy out of the track.
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SheriffFatman
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Post by SheriffFatman on Oct 15, 2020 16:13:03 GMT 1
At this point it would be remiss of me not to mention probably my favourite ever parody, Newport State Of Mind - "Concrete jumble nothing in order, not far from the border..."
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SheriffFatman
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Post by SheriffFatman on Oct 15, 2020 16:16:49 GMT 1
I could also mention Empire State Of Mind was no. 38 in my personal list of the 100 greatest songs of the 21st Centrury, and no. 23 in my personal list of the all time greatest number 2s. I really do love that track.
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SheriffFatman
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Post by SheriffFatman on Oct 16, 2020 10:33:45 GMT 1
657 - The Scientist by Coldplay No. 10 in 2002
Coldplay have 9 songs on the Millionaires list, and the first one we get to is my favourite.
Similar to Ed Sheeran, Coldplay are a band who get a lot of stick from people who consider themselves fans of 'proper' music. I think it's because they seem to try hard to maintain a balance between authenticity (verses, choruses, real instruments) and mass appeal, I guess they value that mass appeal more than credibility. They deliberately make music which ticks all the indie rock boxes while at the same time sounding perfect for radio, they never do anything that might alienate any sector of their potential audience. In doing so, they instantly alienate people who only want to listen to music which does alienate part of the potential audience. Some people want to feel like their musical taste puts them in a little club of like minded individuals. If you buy a Coldplay album that puts you in a club of about 15 million people.
All of this does my head in, quite frankly. I only want to judge any act on their music, I really couldn't give a monkeys who else likes it. When I listen to The Scientist I hear a beautiful sound, the piano hook is lovely and the whole thing just gives you a fantastic feeling of romance and longing. I sometimes wonder if Chris Martin is actually a particularly good singer, or if we've all been conditioned to ignore the fact he isn't just by weight of the fact that he's Chris Martin. Here though the fragility in his voice lends a kind of reality to the song.
As a song writer, Martin has the same talent as Bono in that he seems able to select words that brilliantly convey a feeling despite not having any clear meaning, and I guess that's part of the key to their success. I really don't know what The Scientist is about, I just know it's lovely.
The track entered the charts at number 10 in November 2012, fell to 25 the next week and was never seen in the top 30 again. It seems to have been a consistent seller ever since though, entering the top 100 another 8 times, most recently in 2016. It's one of those songs which frequently soundtracks sad moments in TV documentaries, I guess it's never far from the public's attention. Personally, I think it's wonderful and that Coldpay have never done anything better.
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Post by greendemon on Oct 16, 2020 10:39:15 GMT 1
I cannot stand Ed Sheeran, but I have to acknowledge that his success has come from a knack at tapping into, as you put it, his 'relatable everyman' quality.
As someone who has lost a parent, I find the lyrics of 'Supermarket Flowers' cloyingly sentimental instead of moving, like they've been ripped from a Hallmark card. But then, Hallmark cards sell, so they must appeal to loads of people.
'The Scientist' is in a whole other category for me. Quite possibly their best song. And genuinely moving.
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Post by Whitneyfan on Oct 16, 2020 12:09:52 GMT 1
I liked Ed Sheeran's first 2 albums, and the odd song since. But I didn't get bored of him because he became successful (most of my favourite artists are hugely successful so that would make no sense!) - I just found that most of his tunes were starting to sound very samey and boring, and I thought there were far better male singer-songwriters out there who excited me more.
Coldplay I was the opposite - I hated them in the beginning ('Yellow' aside) but grew to appreciate them as they started experimenting in different sounds.
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Post by Earl Purple on Oct 16, 2020 12:37:01 GMT 1
I don't know if Coldplay do that but I wasn't that keen on their direction change in the 2010s. (Sky Full of Stars and that kind of thing). However The Scientist is old-style Coldplay and is brilliant.
In 1999 they were on the Fierce Panda label, who had loads of brilliant artists signed to them - I knew because I bought a lot of music on that label that year, but it wasn't commercially successful because radio stations wouldn't playlist music on indie labels. Among the music I bought was one of their CDs and a few years later I could have sold it for quite a large sum - or maybe not, they were listed on e-bay for large amounts but that doesn't mean anyone paid that much.
They weren't making music back then that was "the sound of 99" or "the sound of 2000" or anything, just their own music, the way they liked it, and I don't believe it was targeted at radio or anything like that, just that once they moved to a bigger label radio stations decided to start playing it, particularly "Yellow".
As for Ed Sheeran, that song doesn't really belong on here as in the old days it was really just an album track which would have been part of a massive-selling album, up there with the other big albums of their day, but it was when he took over almost the entire top 20 that they changed the rules. Divide was actually the only album of 2017 I recall listening to all of, and liked a few songs on it.
It appeared he made a number of videos for songs on it as the year went on so I could have charted all of those but because they weren't listed as singles they didn't appear on my "wait" list, and only Castle On The Hill, Galway Girl and Perfect ended up on my playlist, and the latter in its duet version with Andrea Bocelli. (And Shape Of You but in spite of it being his biggest hit it was one I really did not take to).
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Post by onehitwonder on Oct 16, 2020 14:32:55 GMT 1
I cannot stand Ed Sheeran, but I have to acknowledge that his success has come from a knack at tapping into, as you put it, his 'relatable everyman' quality. As someone who has lost a parent, I find the lyrics of 'Supermarket Flowers' cloyingly sentimental instead of moving, like they've been ripped from a Hallmark card. But then, Hallmark cards sell, so they must appeal to loads of people. 'The Scientist' is in a whole other category for me. Quite possibly their best song. And genuinely moving. I really liked Ed's first album and second wasn't that bad (except Sing and Don't), but I got really tired of him. I never really listen to him anymore. I didn't like Coldplay at first (because my taste in music was really sh*t, but what could I do ), mostly because I didn't like depressing music, I liked happy songs, but it all changed in 2003 when I dyed my hair black and this is when I re-discovered them, got into rock/alternative music. Fix you is probably my favorite song.
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Roo.
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Post by Roo. on Oct 16, 2020 19:42:23 GMT 1
I should probably know what my favourite Coldplay song is by now after Haven Factor, but I'm not sure - The Scientist is definitely top 3, if not my favourite. I love the song, and the video just adds to its brilliance.
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SheriffFatman
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Post by SheriffFatman on Oct 19, 2020 16:24:48 GMT 1
656 - Like A Prayer by Madonna No. 1 in 1989
Now for the Madonna record that is liked even by people who don't like Madonna.
From 1984 onwards Madonna dominated the UK pop charts, the astonishing thing about her 80s output was not so much the quality but the consistency. She just kept having hit after hit with quite good bouncy pop songs, none of them were absolute classics but as a body of work it is the absolute soundtrack to the 80s, she was never far away and crucially never bad, all of her music was at least alright.
In March 1989 though she totally stepped up a gear. Out of nowhere came a complete change of style and a genuinely fantastic single. Forget everything you thought you knew about Madonna, she's now much better and far more interesting. Like A Prayer is all kinds of wonderful and sounds nothing remotely like 1989 in general. Gothic, moody, sacriligious, and yet still uplifting and ticking the singalong box, it's a production triumph as much as anything. She was never the most amazing vocalist, but here it doesn't matter at all.
Like A Prayer was Madonna's sixth number one. It mercifully knocked Jason Donovan's trite career peak Too Many Broken Hearts of the top after only 2 weeks, but for all 3 weeks it was number one Jason held at number 2, proving that regardless of quality his was a very popular single at the time. Eventually they both gave way to a combination of The Bangles and Simply Red, how very late 80s.
One result of Madonna's consistant success is that she kept selling bucketloads of singles without any individually cracking the 1 million mark prior to the digital age, which seemed odd considering her enormous impact on pop. Downloads and streaming have rectified that somewhat, she now has 3 singles on the Millionaires list, no doubt many others just below it.
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SheriffFatman
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Post by SheriffFatman on Oct 20, 2020 16:46:30 GMT 1
655 - Love Will Tear Us Apart by Joy Division No. 13 in 1980
Next, a song which, in 2002, the NME named the greatest single of all time, and you can see their point. I must confess the first I knew of the song was a Paul Young's version from his No Parlez album, which one of my older sisters played repeatedly when I was about 5. It was quite a while later when I discovered the original and came to realise it was one of the greatest tracks ever.
It's hard to find the superlatives for this one, in some ways I think in here somewhere is the essence of the very reason I love music. The whole thing is absolutely beautiful, a three and a half minute listening experience that takes my mind away from everything that has ever troubled me, which I guess is strange when it's very much about the things that troubled someone else. I just absolutely adore it.
The guitar is wonderful, unmistakably indie and low-fi and authentic and all the things it needs to be to truly appeal to me, and yet at the same time sketching out a tune which is is unquestionably pop. It just makes me want to dance in a jerky flailing kind of way, exactly as Ian Curtis used to while performing it.
Then there's the lyrics. The dreary realisation that a relationship has reached a phase very different to the passion and excitement that was felt at first is an angle that is not often covered in pop songs, but here it is defined so exquisitely as to act almost as a warning to listeners what to expect to happen if you don't work on it. "Why is the bedroom so cold? / Turned away on your side / Is my timing that flawed? / Our respect run so dry?" - it is painfully relatable, you can imagine yourself in that situation even if you've never been in one remotely like it. There are, quite simply, very few songs this perfect.
Interesting to see Love Will Tear Us Apart on the Millionaires list. Its sales must have been quite hard to track, it looks like one of those indie singles that could have sold fairly consistently under the radar even in the physical era. It was originally released in 1980, just weeks after Curtis' suicide, and peaked at 13. It then reappeared in 1983 and crept up as high as 19, a position it scaled once again on a third trip to the top 20 in 1995. All the same, it must have shifted hefty numbers in the digital era too.
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Post by Whitneyfan on Oct 20, 2020 20:23:18 GMT 1
I've got really behind with this, but the last 2 are both real classics. 'Like a prayer' isn't my favourite Madonna song, but I love the fact that she's got at least one song that even non-fans will agree is good.
'Love will tear us apart' is just totally awesome in every way. It's hard to get your head around really, that if everybody lived a happy life without any of these deep, dark feelings and torment that people suffer - then much good music would never be written. Because a lot of creative things come from a dark place.
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