Track of the Moment: Call Me Maybe by Carly Rae Jepsen

Now, before I begin, I’m going to preface this article by saying that this is good for a POP song. I know you’re going to forget this by the time you’re done reading, because your goldfish brain can’t keep a thought in it for more than 3 seconds (nothing like starting out an article with an insult), but I’m only looking at this as a pop song. I’m not comparing it to Neil Young or Led Zeppelin or Nirvana or whoever; I’m comparing it to Britney Spears and Lady Gaga and Katy Perry. So when I say that I like the song, don’t take it as me saying it saying that it deserves to be canonized.

Now that I’m done defending myself, let’s get started with this very late article on one of the biggest pop songs that took it’s time climbing to the top. Originally it was released in September of 2011, which is practically an eternity in pop music. However, with a single tweet from Justin Bieber (who heard it on the radio in his hometown of Canada) in January made this song go from a footnote in music history to what critics are calling the “Song of the Summer”. The song peaked at #1 on the Billboard charts in mid-June, after spending the previous 16 weeks slowly being engrained into the minds of every human that owns a radio or using the internet, like a parasite. However, this parasite isn’t bad, kind of like that bacteria that makes you poop good.

The Activia of pop music (poop music?)

The song itself is actually pretty good. The most surprising fact in what little research I did was that it was originally written as a folk song, but then got popified, and, when you listen to it with that in mind, you can see a lot of the folk influences in the lyrics and composition. And that’s really why it’s such a good pop song; it doesn’t rely on the conventions of pop music to carry it. Rather, it takes the tolerable qualities of folk and adds in the funness of pop to make it. I’m not the first think this, but this eerily similar to what Taylor Swift did for country music. While Taylor is a lot country than pop, and Carly Rae Jepsen is more pop than folk, there is a lot of overlap in their styles.

What first caught my ear was the synth part during the chorus. Technically, it’s violins, however musicians that are only big in Canada can’t afford to hire a string quartet, so they just use a guy on a synthesizer to play that part. Either way, I had never heard a pop song instrumental that really centered itself around violins. Sure, there are pop songs out there that use violins to show that the singer is deep and artsy, but never as something that was meant to be fun and to carry the weight of the song. And while it’s really the same 3 or 4 chords, it’s just so infectious. On top of that, you have the wailing, up key guitar flitting around in the background and big bass kicks, adding to the addictiveness of the song, along with the subtly of its perfection.

But most importantly, at least to me, you have the lyrics. Carly Rae Jepsen doesn’t do what most pop artists do, and talk about how sexy she is and how you totally want to bang. I mean, I do, but that’s not what the song is about. Ironically, it’s about how insecure she is, and the nervous approach to a hot guy (which is me, by the way. I tend to make women nervous whenever one of us approaches the other. But that may just be the fact that she’s tied down). But it’s such an innocent song that plays to the 14 year old girl in all of us; how many times have you been nervous about walking up to a sexy guy/girl to give them your number? Which totally explains the chorus; she’s stumbling over her words and trying to be non-committal with the “call me maybe” part. But the biggest part of her lyrics is the simple ABCB rhyme scheme of the chorus; it allows it to easily be adapted to any number of jokes, as the internet has shown us. This of course only adds to the popularity of the song, both because of the simplicity, catchiness, and meme-ability of the lyrics.

Now, like I said at the top, this isn’t the greatest song to ever grace my ears. But it is one of the best pop songs out there right now, and definitely a top pop track of the past few decades. So don’t be afraid to put it on your iPod and sing along with it when you’re driving down the beach; we’re all doing. Some of us are only singing in our heads (so that the voices up there have a little company).

Hey, I just met you, and this is crazy, but if you thought this was funny, like Frogs on a Log on Facebook maybe?

Track of the Moment: Friend Crush by Friends

On the staff outing I was consensually dragged to a week or so ago, we saw this strange band open for the fantastic Neon Indian. Nobody knew who they were (if these articles tell you anything, it’s that we do almost no research) until I looked the concert up on the Union Transfer website. But then they started playing, and they put on a great show. It may not have had the production value of Neon Indian, but it was, in my opinion, a more fun show to watch and experience. So I decided to check out their albums.

They remind me of a bit of a Pheobe from the TV show Friends(I’m a white, middle-classed suburbanite; I have a working knowledge Friends, whether I want to or not); while they certainly can play instruments better than her, their musical style is a bit out there. They use some unusual instruments that you don’t really see in most modern bands, even indie bands. Wooden blocks, a cabasa, and plastic maracas (which at one point Oliver Duncan as a drumstick) all get their percussive turn on the tracks, and surprisingly, they don’t just let them play around in the background noise like most people. Rather, they let them play in the same realm as the bass and synth and vocals, and sometimes carry the songs through the bridges.

But at the same time, they’re also a Rachel; still clinging on to the synth-pop of the 80’s, trying to reclaim that once-great time period (depending on who you talk to, but I assume you’re talking to Friends). They’re stylish and attractive, and a bit flirtatious, lyrically, musically, and in person (if you see them live, of course). Samantha Urbani sings a lot about the love she has, or the love she wants, and it’s just so sultry and sensual. Even when she’s saying “I want to be your friend”, it sounds more like “you, me, bedroom, right now”. And then you got Lesley Hann’s funky bass that reminds me of 70’s dance/boot knocking music. And then they bring in the loud drums and fun synths, and you have yourself a party.

Everything about them is pure 80's, from the hair and clothes, to the music, to the videos, it's just pure nostalgia for a time period I never grew up in. So throw on some of this “weird pop”, and have a good time chilling out to some fun music.