Hip-hop marmalade spic and span

[koganbot]

Just posted this on Dave's tumblr, my disagreeing with his designating LFO's "Summer Girls" a novelty song and with his contention that LFO are trying to be really stupid

Comments

[koganbot]

(But I don't necessarily see the song referencing a particular summer to the exclusion of others; rather, just calling forth times and feelings, perhaps a number of summers.)

[carsmilesteve]

to me it's a novelty because they were one hit wonders (something i don't think dave gives enough weight to, but i would say is pretty key) and because the lyrics are really really odd, not dumb, but just referenceing a whole world of things i didn't know about (there was 0 abercrombie & fitch in the UK at that point).

also "i like kevin bacon, but i hate footloose".

and it's the music, not the lyrics that made it a hit i'd contend, it's a gorgeous chorus, regardless of what's being sung over the top of it.

[katstevens]

I'm still not entirely sure what I'd define as a 'novelty' song, because I can always find a counter example in each definition/category that I would not class as 'novelty

[koganbot]

Yes, "novelty" is something we have a feel for but can't necessarily define. Family resemblance: not every novelty has the features of *all* novelties. Rolf Harris had only one hit in the U.S. but a lot in Britain, right? But I had the impression that everything he did was a novelty. Ray Stevens, who did "Ahab the Arab" and "The Streak" only hit with novelties early on but then he became a somewhat serious country singer. Shel Silverstein would write novelty songs - Dr. Hook had a couple of hits with his material - but also wrote serious tracks, "One's On The Way" for Loretta Lynn and "The Ballad Of Lucy Jordan" for Marianne Faithfull.

[carsmilesteve]

i can confirm that everything rolf did was a novelty, yes... ;)

He isn't just one of the guys

[koganbot]

Would Johnny Cash's "A Boy Named Sue" (by Silverstein) be a novelty, or is it something else? (Cash obviously not a one-hit wonder.)

What about "Where's The Dress?"? (I'd say definitely.) Not as sure about Phil Vassar's "Bobbi With An i," which doesn't sound like a novelty (and will probably make my country top 30 this year).

[skyecaptain]

Left a few more comments on this one at the Tumblr, but to paraphrase here

[skyecaptain]

Thing is, I'm guessing that the Beasties and Backstreets were essentially from the same places, generally speaking -- suburban, seeming to be "imposters" or imitators in what they were doing (hence "boyband" sticks to BSBs, NSync, etc. hearkening back to NKOTB, even though BSBs sounded very little like NKOTB and much more like, say, Boyz II Men -- Boyz right in the name yet they weren't a "boyband"). I can imagine a Rich Cronin taking great solace in the Beasties, especially when thrown into the Lou Pearlman universe of boyband construction -- aside from being popular among the demographic pretty generally they also offer someone like Cronin a way out of the biz world's baggage -- respect on his own terms. Which sounds like what he kind of wanted (out of the biz world's baggage) in the few interviews I've read of him (he did a big one with Howard Stern recently).

[koganbot]

Not that this is particularly relevant, but I don't think that either the Beasties or the Backstreet Boys are particularly suburban (though it depends on how you define suburban). The Beastie Boys are from New York City. The Backstreet Boys were assembled in Orlando, where a couple of them were from, but they're from all over (Nick Carter is from a small city in western New York; another is from Lexington, Kentucky; another originally from West Palm Beach).

[skyecaptain]

I guess what I really mean in all honesty is "goofy white boys doing black music."

[skyecaptain]

And even if "stupid" is definitely the wrong word for it (my issue with that word is that can confer actual stupidity on the writer, which isn't my intention here) I think it's hard to argue that "Summer Girls" isn't very silly!