Every once in a while, a song separates itself from the repetitive pulsating sounds of the clubs and garners enough attention to gain non-ecstasy airplay. Whereas Daft Punk's "One More Time" will forever live on in soundbytes, soundtracks and blue-skinned anime creatures, you'll be lucky to hear an Ace of Base song more than once in the upcoming year. Since their emergence onto pop airwaves is rare, the videos for these songs sometimes are the only thing that extends our patience. Kylie Minogue's song "Can't Get You Out of My Head" is showing signs of surpassing that uncertain window of annoyance, simply because the video offers something intriguing. It's set in a future city with even bigger buildings, brighter lights and faster superhighways than our quasi-future tales usually offer us. Everyone in the video dresses in those weird triangular airline stewardess outfits and dances the Robot, and all the time they just hum this "La.. la.. la" song to the beat of their numb existence. It's a vision of the quasi-future that seems sadly much happier than the one I'm watching unfold on Fox News. Where is the soma? When do we get flying cars like they promised us in the Jetsons? Why didn't anyone tell us that the '80s "technology" wasn't real when we were growing up, so I could have learned job skills other than "Knows how to program a VCR." Fuck Max Headroom.
- Some things are only important so far as they drive you insane. While I doubt I'll be going to see Van Wilder, I still felt it necessary to look the movie up on IMDb (http://www.imdb.com ) just to figure out where in the hell I'd seen that kid before (Ryan Reynolds). That somewhere turned out to be Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place, and my frustrations were sufficiently put at ease. But eventually the commercials stop, the videos come back on, and I see things like Res's "They Say Vision." And although I have no desire to watch the video or listen to her attempt to recreate the easy listening sounds of the early '90s, until I can figure out who she reminds me of, I'm forced to keep watching. In 1991, Crystal Waters (from 100% Pure Love fame) put out a song called "Gypsy Woman (She's Homeless)" that was immortalized in an In Living Color parody called "Crystal Waters: My Songs Are Mindless." Res and Waters are not connected in any way whatsoever, but at least I can sleep better now.
The Neptunes are once again making an impact, as two-thirds of the group N.E.R.D, with the new single "Rock Star." Randy Quaid lends his services for a gym class video that features skateboards, cheerleaders, cockiness, monkeys and (you guessed it) . nerds! The song is included on the NFL Fever 2002 soundtrack and should be a nice springboard to get some face time for the Neptunes. It's time to start enlisting entries for a summer anthem, and perhaps this song is simply too slow and distorted for popular appeal, but if the summer's usually reserved for Big Willy Style (and don't worry, he's got a tune on its way this summer too), then why can't we all be rock stars this summer instead? The persona's much more interesting and you get away with a lot more than you ever could by being a playa in Miami. Why can't we all be rockstars? Because, as the song explains, "You think that you can get away with it" but "posing wont save your game."
Speaking of summer anthems, when I first saw Andrew W.K.'s video for "Party Hard," he seemed to me like an '80s metalhead who had lost his way and stumbled upon, against his wishes, a faster punk sound. However, his frivolous party song just didn't provide the kind of substance I needed to convince me that it was worth listening to. I figured I'd wait and reserve judgment until a second single was released that had some semblance of artistic merit. However, in addition to "Party Hard," his album I Get Wet also includes the songs "It's Time to Party," "Party 'Til You Puke" and "Take It Off." Meanwhile, Andrew W.K. is continuing to gain attention for his energetic performances and on-stage antics. I think I'm beginning to reassess things. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe he's not just selling a hook- maybe he does actually party hard.
