Ummm. Dafuq? Why so much hate? Yeah, it's not an incredible song, but it sure isn't bad either. It's a catchy, funny pop song. And maybe they didn't parody the ''overly-sexualized music'' the best, but hell, it's a good song. And with the hate on everything new Em makes? Why? Recover was great, and he was incredible on Hell: The Sequel. He never puts much effort in these pop collabs (see: ''Numb'' by Rihanna and ''Here Comes The Weekend'' by Pink) but here he had a decent verse. My conclusion: Great, catchy song. btw. What did you think she was gonna do? Sad, slow songs through out her whole career?
Uhm, no, but that music style what is fit to her. She's good at writing "slow, sad songs". But this song is really in the "MMM...Cookies" category. And I don't hate fun songs. But after all those good "slow, sad songs" she made, this is just ridiculos. Even if it's catchy. And btw IMO the "New Em" is much better then the "Old Em".
All songs by her that I've heard are awesome. And I could not agree more that the new Em is much better.
Believe it or not this is not selling out. This song is supposed to be a joke, believe it or not. She has stated in many interviews that this song is supposed to be sarcasm, and the video just simply emphasizing it. The "I'm only fucking with you" part actually means that it isn't her, she just wants to point out that the media is over-sexualizing everything and she's just making fun of it. At first, when I heard this song, my reaction was the same as you guys, but when I read the articles and heard the song again, I started laughing so hard at the points she's making (although the lyric video scarred me for life). It even became a running gag among my friends. She's still the same old Skylar Grey, which is why she still shows up in public with her dark outfits.
I wonder if the lead single to her next album will be a pop "parody" featuring a mainstream rapper too.
It sure is strange how literally everyone seems to make that justification for their shitty songs and moronic videos. Gee, it seems as though almost nobody actually makes these songs, it's just a parody of that other girls song, which was a jab at that other girls, which was saturizing etc etc etc It's an incredibly nifty little trick. If it's a hit? YAY! People think it's crap? "Oh... thing with that was is huh... making a point!".
Her mistake was in thinking the mainstream kiddies would be intelligent enough to realize she was parodying the same music they mindlessly support. The general public is stupid. Skylar Grey gave them too much credit.
I've never really seen why people always say this about popular music they hate, there's an entire slew of would-be pop stars that crash and burn all the time that wouldn't have if they were just given "mindless support". You know who else caught they kind of condescending attitude towards their popularity? About how they were only as big as they were because of the tools that ruined rock-radio because those kids were just too stupid to know better? Linkin Park. Sometimes people do, in fact, miss the point of a parody. Other times people just make terrible content and later try to pass it off as a "statement".
Yeah but the problem is that you also then have artists who deliberately make stupid music because they know that it sells. Which goes back to the mindless support comment I made, because these artists make shitty music on purpose to get a "top 40 hit". Take Ke$ha for instance, she had near perfect SAT scores in high school, was in the international baccalaureate program, and would sneak in on Cold War classes at Belmont just because she wanted to. Her demo tape had a country ballad, and a second track in which she was pretty much just fucking around and rapping dumb shit. Can you guess what song got her signed? The dumb track. And she's actually a brilliant songwriter but she deliberately does the stupid music, rather than country (which being from Nashville she was surrounded by) because people gobble it up. So yeah you can disagree with me and that's fine, but when artists deliberately make shit dumbed down so it sells...and the mainstream proves them right by gobbling it up by the truck load, it makes the argument that perhaps the general public really do go for mindless pop.
Maybe the "dumb track" was actually way better done. "Serious" music doesn't make it inherently better, I think we have enough Green Day songs to verify that. Assuming the track 'Feels Like Rain' was the country song you're speaking of, yeah the song is more serious, but it's also kind of boring. Very competently crafted, very genuine sentiment no doubt, but it's also almost indistinguishable from most of the other country pop tunes out there at best, and quite inferior at worst. The "dumb" one, assuming it was 'Red Lipstick', is a lighter, goofier track, it's not quite as generic, either. It's actually kind of fun to listen to, but more importantly it stands out. That's sort of important. Katy Perry was a Christian singer songwriter in her youth too, and provided the religious aspect of the music wasn't an automatic no-no, you'd probably assume she was insanely talented with it. You'd be wrong, her "stupid" tunes are infinitely better crafted, delivered, and received. Nobody's saying "I Kissed A Girl" is a masterpiece, but "The One That Got Away" isn't half bad. "California Girls" isn't going to be blowing anyones minds, but "Wide Awake" doesn't need her to be sitting on a piano wailing away her feelings to be just as good. Bruno Mars? Can sing his ass off, and not that bad a songwriter, either. Taylor Swift? Has essentially rewritten the same song hundreds of times over, but boy is the bitch good at it. Fun.? One of the more unique pop groups at there at the moment. These aren't anomalies, they're who dominated the pop charts, the mindless music, for all of 2012. Nobody's insisting Flo Rida is exactly batting out poetry every few months, but to sit there and genuinely insist that the vast majority of this music is 'for sheep' is just as mindless as those kids you insist would be the only people eating it up. Sometimes pop music is genuinely shit, and sometimes parodies miss the mark. And sometimes people make genuinely shitty pop music and then insist it was a parody to try and skirt the embarrassment of failing at what was supposed to be an easy cash-in.
The fact that she changed her entire "PERSONA" to do this bullshit angers me the most. Her 2006 debut album was great, this is pure shit.
Totally agree with this. Making "dumb" catchy poppy danceable tunes isn't necessarily bad. Some people are buying it because they actually like that style of music, and some artists are making it because they actually enjoy it. When Ke$ha made her stupid demo, I don't think it was because of label pressure (she was totally unknow at the time), but because she actually enjoyed it. On the other side, yes, there are plently of artists who have taken that direction because they see it's what sells the most these days.
Complex rated this the 8th worst song of 2012... Definitely doesn't deserve it... http://www.complex.com/music/2013/01/the-10-worst-songs-of-2012/let-me-ride