Friday, August 28, 2009
National Skyline The Phoenix's David Thorpe Takes on Billboard's Hot 100, Taylor Swift and KoL
Posted by D. Patrick Rodgers on Fri, Aug 28, 2009 at 2:30 PM
We've linked before to The Boston Phoenix's David Thorpe, scholar of all things popular music and architect of snarkiness-trumps-all formula for rock criticism. Though many folks think he's sassy simply for the sake of being sassy, it's important to remember that there's a tinge of laughabilty to even the most legitimate of artists, and this guy's better at pointing out said tinges than just about anyone else...even when the artists aren't especially legitimate.
Thorpe has finally taken on the Billboard Hot 100--well, the first seven artists on this week's list, anyhow--and locally grown superstars Taylor Swift and Kings of Leon are in there. But it's his unadulterated disdain for chart-toppers Black Eyed Peas that's truly golden:
If there's any genius in the Black Eyed Peas -- and that's a pretty generous "if," folks -- it's that they have one of the most impressive effort-to-money ratios in the history of pop music. If any element of this song -- the music, the lyrics, the performances, the production -- took more than a few hours, I'd be amazed. It's among the most meatless morsels ever to top the charts, and that's saying something -- it's not as if the charts had a history of favoring symphonies. You could reasonably object that this is more sophisticated than "My Humps," but I still refuse to believe that was real, and I'll thank you not to trifle with the delusions that keep me sane.
Easy targets? Perhaps. But in the far-reaching domain of music criticism, someone's gotta be the consummate take-down artist. And at least this guy's hilarious.
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