Rules Of The Game #15: Grown-ups Make Puppy Love

[koganbot]

Latest column: why teens sing adult lyrics: a theory (which is that it's the other way around); also, Britney as the little engine that couldn't.

The Rules Of The Game #15: Grown-ups Make Puppy LoveOnce again they botched the italics. And I just spent five minutes debating with myself as to whether it should be "Grown-ups" or "Grown-Ups." (Oh, and

Comments

[katstevens]

Do people assume songs that have adults singing about teen subjects must have some 'higher' meaning? Are we automatically blocking out the possibility that the song is meant to be taken at face value because it's a bit creepy? In particular I'm thinking of that 'Stacey's Mom Has Got It Going On' song, but who's to say Pink Floyd's 'Another Brick In The Wall' couldn't actually be talking about how they hate their teachers, aw man doesn't school suck? PF actually get some kids in to sing the chorus, helping suspend our belief for a split second. It annoys me a lot when people are all 'I'm clever enough to realise that this song's about druqks/oppression/slavery/Thatcherism/abortion/singer's dead mum' when it might just be that Roger Waters disliked Maths lessons

[koganbot]

Who writes the songs varies from singer to singer, but JoJo, Vanessa Hudgens, Corbin Bleu, Ashley Tisdale, and Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana mostly don't write theirs, whereas M2M, Michelle Branch, Pink, Avril Lavigne, Vanessa Carlton, Kelly Clarkson, Ashlee Simpson, Skye Sweetnam, Brie Larson, Aly & A.J., The Veronicas, Jordan Pruitt, and Taylor Swift do write or co-write most of theirs. That was the sea change in teenpop of the '00s, definitely ratcheted up the level of angst and idiosyncrasy. Results vary depending on the person, obviously, but they've been surprisingly good, maybe owing to the chemistry between the performers and the various adults involved in the co-writing (Shanks & DioGuardi, the Matrix, Martin & Gottwald [who've obviously had to change how they do things], Linda Perry, etc.) Hilary Duff didn't used to write hers, but on the newest alb she's on the credits of every single song. And Miley Cyrus's one and only writing credit is on "See You Again," which is by far her best, though the fact that that's the one where

Enough about love; let's talk about eggplant

[koganbot]

But notice the claim - or hypothesis - I'm making, which is that the standard adult pop song ("love was just a glance away, a warm embracing dance away"), sung by and for adults, without anything that signals "teen" in the lyrics, is based on the teen experience of relationships and crushes, not the adult experience of marriage and family or long-term gf and bf, etc. Country is a partial exception here, in that it definitely mines divorce and extramarrital affairs and love-grown-tired and love reinvigorated as themes; but still, this is only a partial exception, since adult day-to-day experience of relationships isn't divorce and extramarrital affairs.

And why do love and romance supersede all other topics? (For instance, there clearly aren't enough songs about aubergines.)

Love comes in spurts

[freakytigger]

This was a point I was trying to make in my Pitchfork column on ABBA a few months ago, that their songs often (not quite always) feel more situated in an adult world rather than a teen one, even the love songs (of which there are many, obviously).

Does love dominate partly because it's an emotion that is felt in surges with specific triggering moments (same with anger, which is probably the second most common pop emotion) so it fits the 3-4 minute format well.

[martinskidmore]

Best negotiation of terms song is by O.V. Wright, where he tells us of a woman saying "When it comes to lovin' / I don't mind gettin' down / But I ain't gonna tread on forbidden ground" then we go into the chorus "I don't do windows [that's the title] / I won't wash no floors" etc.

[koganbot]

Does "forbidden ground" mean he's not going to trespass on women's prerogative to do all the housework? Those seem like great lyrics, by the way.

[freakytigger]

Yes forbidden ground = THEE KITCHEN it seems!

[martinskidmore]

Those are her words he is citing, not his - she's saying she's up for a relationship and sex, but she won't do his housework for him.

[alexmacpherson]

I think love/romance is probably the subject area best suited for...a kind of universal ambiguity, maybe. In that most pop songs about love (and especially teenpop ones) are simultaneously cliché-ridden and strikingly ambiguous - so much of the time the emotional crux of the song isn't a particular word or line that you've heard a million times before, but whether the narrator means it, or is deluding him/herself; the clues will be in other lines, some of which (usually in the initially-overlooked verses) provide some sort of disjoint, and of course in the vocal delivery. It's a subject matter which has great scope for lyrical implication, where one line can make you feel like you know a great deal more of the story. Which can be equally down to the listener's own projections

[koganbot]

Brilliant comment. Someday I will convince you to love the early Rolling Stones, in that you keep praising pop and Paris in much the way I like to praise the Stones.

Politics is ambiguous, but most political expression is simpleminded and obvious and a lot of posturing, which is why I usually can't stand political lyrics. (Exception: the Rolling Stones. Lots of ambivalence in their social-issue lyrics. Just as in their "love" lyrics. Ongoing use of the untrustworthy narrator, but Jagger delivers the songs as if he is that narrator, so there's rarely the detached feeling that says, "We know better, and this is not me," even when the song clearly does know better.)

[alexmacpherson]

I think most popstars are pretty dumb, and therefore most lyrics are simpleminded and obvious, but with romance simpleminded/obvious lyrics are still a good way (in fact prob the best way) of expressing emotional complexity and depth, whereas this is...v much not the case for politics.

Romance novels and romance novelties

[koganbot]

From: "Richard Kogan

Murder mystery songs

[koganbot]

I recall that the Del-Byzanteens did a version of the Supremes' "My World Is Empty Without You" into which they interpolated "The Perry Mason Theme." And then of course there's always Tom Lehrer's "I Hold Your Hand In Mine," which combines the romance and the murder theme nicely. (Well, "nicely" is perhaps not the correct word. "Thoroughly," perhaps.)

[anonymous]

This thread has inspired me to write a song called "Doin' Dishes."

(Dave on library comp)

I'm the type of guy

[koganbot]

I did this couplet years ago (based on LL Cool J's "I'm The Type Of Guy"):

"You're the type of guy who gets suspicious
I'm the type of guy who always does the dishes"

Re: I'm the type of guy

[anonymous]

Hm, I think I read that somewhere (presumably yer book). Drat! But it's a relatively unexplored subgenre of kitchen-sink-rock.