Let’s say you wanted to direct an update of the 1967 film The Graduate, only this time Mrs. Robinson –– the bored housewife played by Anne Bancroft — would be a Gen-X indie rock star, and Benjamin Bradock, the directionless boomer played by a young Dustin Hoffman, would be a twentysomething millennial. To be honest, […]
Saturday Night Forever: When Disco Dominated Dancefloors
Disco defined American life and culture during the latter half of the 1970s, emerging from the underground dance clubs of New York City to become a mainstream phenomenon that fundamentally reshaped popular music, dance, fashion and style.
Raise your glass and bang your head to Andrew W.K.’s ‘Party Hard’
Andrew W.K.’s “Party Hard” is a blunt instrument. It’s big, loud, boneheaded and, in case it wasn’t obvious, about partying. The word “party” is uttered 57 times across its three minutes, and each utterance is swaddled in heavily overdubbed guitars spewing bludgeoning power chords. Decades on from its original release, “Party Hard” is still Andrew […]
Crowded House’s ‘Don’t Dream It’s Over’ finds a home in the pop pantheon
Crowded House’s “Don’t Dream It’s Over” is one of the most enduring anthems of the 1980s. Unlike the bombastic power ballads typical of the era, its enigmatic lyrics and quiet dignity make the song timeless. KSID::F3Ua4040404a47
Rick James’ ‘Super Freak’ creates a whole new form of new-wave funk
If you were a teenager in the 2000s, you probably associate Rick James with one of three phrases, all first heard on the February 11, 2004 episode of Comedy Central’s Chappelle’s Show: “Cocaine is a hell of a drug,” “Fuck yo’ couch!” and, most famously, “I’m Rick James, bitch!” If you were a teenager in […]
Barry White’s ‘You’re the First, the Last, My Everything’ deserves unlimited love
What a weird and wonderful world we might now inhabit if racism and homophobia hadn’t killed disco at its cultural zenith — if sybarite symphonies like Barry White’s “You’re the First, the Last, My Everything” still flew their freak flags from the highest reaches of the Billboard charts. There’s never again been a pop star […]
Loleatta Holloway remains the best part of Marky Mark’s ‘Good Vibrations’
Now we come to the payoff. In a commendable if inadvertent show of self-awareness, “Good Vibrations,” the 1991 hip-house hit from Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch, wastes no time in letting the listener know that the majority of the song — a series of listless couplets by titular rapper Marky Mark, who would go […]
How Kenny Rogers hit the jackpot with ‘The Gambler’
“All the songs I record fall into one of two categories, as a rule,” Kenny Rogers once said. “One is ballads that say what every man would like to say, and every woman would like to hear. The other is story songs that have social significance.” The 1978 country-pop crossover classic “The Gambler” fits squarely […]
Orianthi shreds more than preconceptions on ‘According to You’
Orianthi was an anomaly in the testosterone-heavy realm of 2000s-era rock music. The mononymous guitar virtuoso transitioned from stints behind superstars Carrie Underwood and Michael Jackson to solo success with “According to You,” which appended her hair metal shredding onto American Idol-inspired pop stylings. KSID::P4Za51Y604Z09
Why the Four Tops’ ‘Reach Out I’ll Be There’ remains a pillar of strength
“Reach Out I’ll Be There” is a light in the darkness — an achingly tender declaration of commitment and compassion delivered with the force of rolling thunder. Released in August 1966 following a summer of mounting civil unrest and violent rebellion, the Four Tops’ humanist anthem remains a bottomless reservoir of strength and succor through […]
