Charlie Olvera: A Blog

December 11, 2011

Robyn’s backward somersault/floor hump (while wearing platform Timbs!) is one of several highlights from her performance of “Call Your Girlfriend” on last night’s “SNL”.

Holy shit. Perhaps I’ve not given Robyn a fair shake. For the record, I’ve never been opposed to her- rather, I thought she was a nice alternative for people who still wanted pop but were sick of the radio. Now, what I think I’m realizing is that this is pop songwriting gold- the kind of thing that Max Martin writes when he’s REALLY on his game (love em or hate em, all those boy/girl band songs from the late 90s were really hooky and stridently complex, formally speaking), minus all the fluff and excess that characterize big radio hits.

Moreover, and perhaps more interestingly, many of these songs have a really rock-solid harmonic foundation- play them as big block chords in open rhythms on the piano, and they’re indistinguishable from the way Baroque harmony moves. Classical-music heads can debate all day whether or not they want to include 20th century popular music in their canon of “art” music, but the reality of the thing is that Bach wasn’t art music- it was music for the masses (terrible pun most definitely intended). This was music that common people sang when they came to church- it didn’t need to be overly complex, just airtight and logical. Really, in a way, Bach is just kind of perfectly-constructed pop music. This kind of harmonic language in pop music is just another iteration of the same harmonic language that has existed in the Western tradition for five hundred years now. Perhaps we need to pay more attention to musicians, like Robyn, who are still trying to find new expressions within that same tradition- after all, tonal music has been good to us, all things considered. Tonality, with all its attendant stress upon rules and forms, might be dead- and that might not be a good thing- but tonal music isn’t going anywhere. We might know the edges of the map, but we still haven’t charted all the territory.

Oh, and also, the thing she does with the spotlight and the wall is one of the most crucial rock and roll moments I’ve ever seen.

(Source: artem15s)

7:32pm | URL: http://tmblr.co/ZM1HayD7yHQE

(Notes: 360)