#janet jackson and dream street era

[janetjacksonarchive]

[butrflie]

janet jackson ☆

‹𝟹 like or reblog if u save.

[emrose-gold]

[luvthe-hurtaway]

“I feel everyone is put here for a reason. Everyone has a calling. I always thought my real calling was to help other people” - Happy Birthday, Janet Jackson! 05/16/1966.

[popsocialism]

“But when you talk about destruction Don’t you know that you can count me out… IN!“ (”Revolution”, Lennon/McCartney)

Ah, sure, ‘Revolution.’ There were two versions of that song but the underground left only picked up on the one that said 'count me out.’ The original version which ends up on the LP said 'count me in’ too; I put in both because I wasn’t sure. There was a third version that was just abstract, musique concrete, kind of loops and that, people screaming. I thought I was painting in sound a picture of revolution – but I made a mistake, you know. The mistake was that it was anti-revolution.

On the version released as a single I said 'when you talk about destruction you can count me out’. I didn’t want to get killed. I didn’t really know that much about the Maoists, but I just knew that they seemed to be so few and yet they painted themselves green and stood in front of the police waiting to get picked off. I just thought it was unsubtle, you know. I thought the original Communist revolutionaries coordinated themselves a bit better and didn’t go around shouting about it. That was how I felt – I was really asking a question. As someone from the working class I was always interested in Russia and China and everything that related to the working class, even though I was playing the capitalist game.

(John Lennon’s interview for The Red Mole in january 1971)

The very next day following the Red Mole interview, Lennon composed his song, 'Power To The People’. John would release the song as a single in March.

I wanted to put what I felt about revolution; I thought it was time we fuckin’ spoke about it, the same as I thought it was about time we stopped not answering about the Vietnamese War when we were on tour with Brian Epstein and had to tell him, “We’re going to talk about the war this time and we’re not going to just waffle.” I wanted to say what I thought about revolution.

I had been thinking about it up in the hills in India. I still had this “God will save us” feeling about it, that it’s going to be all right (even now I’m saying “Hold on, John, it’s going to be all right,” otherwise, I won’t hold on) but that’s why I did it, I wanted to talk, I wanted to say my piece about revolution. I wanted to tell you, or whoever listens, to communicate, to say “What do you say? This is what I say.”

On one version I said “Count me in” about violence, in or out, because I wasn’t sure. But the version we put out said “Count me out,” because I don’t fancy a violent revolution happening all over. I don’t want to die; but I begin to think what else can happen, you know, it seems inevitable.

(…)

So that’s my feeling. The idea was don’t aggravate the pig by waving the thing that aggravates – by waving the Red flag in his face. You know, I really thought that love would save us all. But now I’m wearing a Chairman Mao badge.

I’m just beginning to think he’s doing a good job. I would never know until I went to China. I’m not going to be like that, I was just always interested enough to sing about him. I just wondered what the kids who were actually Maoists were doing. I wondered what their motive was and what was really going on. I thought if they wanted revolution, if they really want to be subtle, what’s the point of saying “I’m a Maoist and why don’t you shoot me down?” I thought that wasn’t a very clever way of getting what they wanted.

(John Lennon’s Interview for The Rolling Stone, recorded in december 1970, published in january 1971)

I thought it was interesting that Nina Simone did a sort of answer to “Revolution.” That was very good – it was sort of like “Revolution,” but not quite. That I sort of enjoyed, somebody who reacted immediately to what I had said.

By the 1980s, an era in which the so-called “flower power” of Sixties idealism was being superseded by materialism and yuppy culture, and which began with John Lennon being violently shot to death outside his home, “Revolution” was about to receive a new lease of life when the Oregon-based advertising agency Wieden+Kennedy sought to use the song in an advertisement to launch a new air bubble gimmick for Nike shoes. (…)

The process of obtaining permission was complex (…). In 1985, Michael Jackson had outbid Paul McCartney to buy the performance rights to a whole catalogue of Beatles songs and it was his representatives who contacted Yoko Ono to solicit approval on behalf of Wieden+Kennedy. Ono, it seems, managed to persuade Capitol/EMI to release permission. Janet Champ, who was part of the team that came up with the idea of using “Revolution” for the spot, remembered the matter as follows:

“What made me feel really good about having this spot was we wrote Yoko Ono and we went and told her what the idea was — I didn’t get to go, but we sent the idea to her and we asked her what she thought about it — and she loved it… And the Beatles were all behind it, too, so once they said it was all right, we felt pretty good about it.”

Ono later explained to Time magazine that she didn’t “want to see John deified” nor for “John’s songs to be part of a cult of glorified martyrdom” but instead to be enjoyed by a “new generation”, “to make it part of their lives instead of a relic of the distant past”. (…)

Yet the use of “Revolution” by the Beatles attracted controversy too. Time magazine wrote “Mark David Chapman killed him. But to took a couple of record execs, one sneaker company and a soul brother to turn him into a jingle writer”. The Chicago Tribune described the ad as “when rock idealism met cold-eyed greed” and the New Republic commented “The song had a meaning that Nike is destroying”. Yet what meaning Nike was destroying was a puzzle. A rock critic for the LA Reader wrote “When Revolution came out in 1968 I was getting teargassed in the streets of Madison. The song is part of the soundtrack of my political life. It bugs the hell out of me that it has been turned into a shoe ad”. John Doig, a creative director at Ogilvy & Mather, remembered anti-Vietnam demonstrations with “bloody police truncheons coming down and Revolution playing in the background. What that song is saying is a damned sight more important than flogging running shoes”. “Revolution”, it seems had apparently morphed considerably for some listeners from a “petty bourgeois cry of fear”, all catalysed by a sneaker spot.

“You can count me out… in” — Alan Bradshaw on fifty years of the Beatles’ “Revolution”

To the musical backdrop of “All You Need Is Love” a military-dressed Castro, aided by star Cuban singer Silvio Rodriguez, unveiled a bronze statue of Lennon sitting on a bench in a Havana park.

“What makes him great in my eyes is his thinking, his ideas”, Castro told reporters after the ceremony, which was timed to coincide with the 20th anniversary of Lennon’s murder in New York.

“I share his dreams completely. I too am a dreamer who has seen his dreams turn into reality”, added the 74-year-old former guerrilla who took power in the 1959 Cuban Revolution.

Castro Unveils Statue Of Lennon In Havana On December 8, 2000

[erhiem]

R. Kelly arriving for a court hearing in Chicago in May 2019.

Nuccio DiNuzzo/Getty Images

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Nuccio DiNuzzo/Getty Images

R. Kelly arriving for a court hearing in Chicago in May 2019.

Nuccio DiNuzzo/Getty Images

Editor’s note: This essay contains allegations of sexual assault and physical abuse.

On Wednesday, singer, songwriter and producer R. Testimony is set to begin at a Brooklyn courthouse in the first of two federal trials against Kelly. In two such indictments in New York and Illinois, the one-time R&B king is accused of abusing 11 girls and women over more than two decades; making child pornography; Quietly paying money to silence the alleged victims; and specifically building a criminal enterprise to “hunt young women and adolescents”.

Additionally, New York prosecutors want to acknowledge what they say is evidence that Kelly sexually and physically abused girls and women, sexually abused a boy, and bribed until 1991. Kelly has pleaded not guilty to all charges, and has consistently denied allegations that he abused anyone.

Often, when I’ve told people I’m covering a New York lawsuit, they’re confused. There have been allegations surrounding Kelly for more than 25 years, and so they ask me: Wasn’t he arrested years ago? Yes: He was recently arrested in July 2019, and has been in custody for two years, awaiting trial. But they may also be thinking about her first major trial in 2008 — and those allegations, and that trial, add to some of the current charges.

In 2002, in his hometown of Chicago, Kelly was indicted on multiple child pornography charges after an infamous sex tape aired: it featured the singer having sex and urinating with a woman, about whom In the U.S., prosecutors said he was about 14 years old at the time. A full six years later, Kelly went on trial and was acquitted of all charges. The girl who was believed to be the girl on tape and her parents refused to testify.

That 2008 trial is heavily involved in some of Illinois’ current charges, including allegations that Kelly and members of her circle bullied the girl and her father, and persuaded them to lie to both the police and a grand jury. . 14 other witnesses who refused to testify, despite identifying the girl, seem to have influenced several jurors to acquit Kelly. (The same woman, now in her thirties, said in 2019 that she is cooperating with federal investigators.)

Back then, it seemed that much of the pop-culture conversation was primarily about Kelly and her perceived tendencies and behaviors, and not so much about anyone who might have been hurt. In some ways, the culture has changed since Kelly was last tested. Many fans today are far less inclined to ignore what they see as problematic material or context in an artist’s work – whether it relates to racism, sexism, unfair power dynamics or homosexuality.

The intervening 13 years have also seen dogmatic, harsh reporting about Kelly, including Soulless: The Case Against R. Kelly, a book by east Chicago Sun-Times journalist and music critic Jim DeRogatis, and alive r kelly, A six-part documentary starring Dream Hampton to air on Lifetime. Both were released in the middle of the #MeToo movement in 2019.

In the early days of #MeToo, many of the leading accusers were white women. But Kelly-related projects apparently focused mostly on black girls and women who were allegedly harmed.

As those projects were being developed, a #MuteRKelly movement — founded by two black women, Kennett Barnes and Oronike Odelle — gathered steam in an effort to pressure major entertainment companies to sever their ties with Kelly. . By writing about #MuteRKelly, Washington Post Columnist Christine Emba quoted Malcolm X’s 1962 speech: “The most humiliated person in America is the black woman. The most vulnerable person in America is the black woman. The most neglected person in America is the black woman.”

In March 2018 Barnes insisted in an interview to Derogatis for BuzzFeed News: “We don’t care about black girls. If R. Kelly were white, every civil rights leader would march on every street in this country.” If the girls were white, every feminist group would rage in a pile of cat hats for marching against them. The bottom line is that R. Kelly and her victims are the perfect storm for those we don’t care about We protect black men who are problematic in the black community, and we spare black girls in all communities. Essentially, he’s the ultimate example of a stalker going after the most vulnerable that anyone cares about. Not there.”

A few months later, however, Kelly’s management called #MuteRKelly “a public lynching”, noting that “since America was born, black men and women have been lynched for having sex or being charged with it.” Has been done.” At the time, #MeToo founder and activist Tarana Burke told me, “The reality of lynching in America is so, so painful, and so real. It’s not public lynching. It’s a call for public accountability.” (Also, in several cases Kelly’s accusers have said that they were underage girls, not women, when they began sexual contact with her.)

Burke continued in a 2018 conversation, “We’ve brought charges against R. Kelly for 24 years, and he’s gone unpunished.” “We’re looking for in our community and outside, there is some accountability of corporations that support this man, who has a 24-year history of sexual violence against black and brown girls across the country.” (Later that year, Burke was one of the victims of a gun threat called to an advance screening. alive r kelly in New York; Kelly’s former manager, Donnell Russell, has been charged with making this threat. His case is ongoing.)

To a large extent, #MuteRKelly succeeded, albeit years after Kelly’s commercial and creative peak, and sometimes in highly deserved ways. In May 2018, for example, Spotify removed Kelly from its playlists, the way many listeners use the service instead to look for particular artists or songs. If you actively search for Kelly’s music on Spotify, however, it still exists, as written by other artists such as Celine Dion, Janet Jackson, Ludacris, Lil Wayne, Ciara, Missy Elliot and others. and/or created songs. Audience considers problematic: Michael Jackson.

There has been one notable exception: Most of the music by Kelly’s protagonist Aaliyah — whom he married in 1994, when she was 15 and he was 27 — isn’t on Spotify or other streaming services at all. But at an interesting time, Aaliyah’s uncle and former manager of both artists, Barry Hankerson, announced a few days before the Kelly trial began that he was making his recording catalog available for streaming services. New York prosecutors refer to Aaliyah as “Jane Doe #1” in their indictment, for which they say Kelly and associates bribed a public official to produce a fake ID prior to their wedding.

In January 2019, Kelly’s longtime record label RCA and her parent company, Sony Music Entertainment, removed her from their artist roster after increasing pressure from #MuteRKelly. But that decision, apparently, was made in view of alive r kelly The broadcast came 16 years after their last big chart hit, 2003’s “Ignition (Remix)”. Furthermore, RCA and Sony have never publicly admitted to leaving Kelly.

Long before the most recent wave of accusations and reporting, black and brown voices were calling for reckoning. almost two decades ago alive r kelly, for a long time Chicago Sun-Times Columnist Mary Mitchell wrote several articles asking why alleged victims were being dismissed or ignored, and why so many Chicagoans were on Kelly’s side.

Nevertheless, many fans liked him very much. Some fellow cast members denied the allegations and continued to work with them. And comedians like Dave Chappelle joked about the alleged Kelly tape and its contents.

after the first broadcast of alive r kelly, Then-new York Times Culture editor (and now NPR affiliate) Aisha Harris wrote about how the allegations against Kelly became pop-culture joke fodder: “Over the years,” she wrote, “people who laughed at Kelly were able to ignore the allegations against her.” were able.”

In retrospect, that particular spin cycle is reminiscent of what happened to Britney Spears in the same era. (She was one of R. Kelly’s labelmates at Jive and then RCA, and Kelly wrote and produced her own song, “Outrageous”, released in 2004.) Spears’ Public Conflict, which was a joke and a joke for 24/7 Became little more than grist. The multitude of gossip blogs and cable channels coincided with Kelly’s Chicago trial. The girl at the center of that trial, like Spears, became largely a punchline.

Many of the women who have accused Kelly of sexual, physical and/or psychological abuse say that when they met him, they were, like the girl allegedly featured on the infamous tape , was a teenager striving to become a professional musician, and hoped that the king of R&B would help him chart his music career.

In the music industry, it’s a familiar story. Young men strive to make it in the tough, unforgiving music industry; If they do succeed, it is often at least partly with the help of older male mentors. Young women attempting to make it in the tough, unforgiving music industry can also enlist the help of older male mentors; After all, there are still far more successful men in business than women. But sometimes, instead of being given guidance or opportunities, they are developed into sexual conquests – and those dreams fade.

The post 13 Years After The Last R. Kelly Trial, The Culture Has Changed : NPR appeared first on Spicy Celebrity News.

[deadcactuswalking]

BABY, DON’T HURT ME: The Top 5 Best and Worst Hit Songs of 1994

1994 was the definition of a 6/10. I can’t sit through all 100 in one sitting, but it’s not like it was terrible, in fact, my worst list was hard as nails because a lot of the bad stuff was just not interesting enough to talk about. When I did my 2017 list, stuff like “Thunder” by Imagine Dragons was just so mind-bogglingly terrible in every way, hence I had a lot of material, but here, you can clearly tell how better I am at talking about music I like, because God damn, there are some all-time classics hidden in all this boring schlock and even the stuff that’s not fantastic has a lot of redeeming qualities and charm. Hence, the worst list is mostly composed of stuff I found to be utterly charmless – well, except the #1, but you’ll read on for that. First, however, before we even get into talking about where on earth the popular music scene was in 1994, here are the Honourable Mentions – songs that just couldn’t make the cut for a much shorter list than what I would usually make. I’m going to try and keep it brief, because there were a lot of songs I actually really enjoyed that didn’t really cut it when under the pressure of just a top five list.

Honourable Mentions

These are basically in order of where they were on the Year-End list, so don’t think the guys at the top weren’t ever going to make the list because some of them were pretty tough snips.

“The Sign”, “All That She Wants” and “Don’t Turn Around” – Ace of Base

If you ever wonder why people hate Magic! and UB40 so much, it’s because white-washed cod-reggae can be done so much better.

“Whatta Man” – Salt-n-Pepa and En Vogue

Not the best horn sample in this Year-End, but Goddamn, they get close.

“Wild Night” - John Mellencamp featuring Meshell Ndegeocello

I don’t know who either of these dudes are but they can make a nice song. On the other hand, how in the hell do you pronounce Meshell’s surname?

“The Most Beautiful Girl in the World” – The Artist Formerly Known as Prince

This dude still had it way after his heyday when he started calling himself “the Artist Formerly Known as Prince”. Rest in peace.

“Fantastic Voyage” – Coolio

This dude had a second hit – before “Gangsta’s Paradise”? That’s cool... not going to make the obvious pun.

“Any Time, Any Place” – Janet Jackson

This song is a full seven minutes of pure beauty, but the reason why it doesn’t make the list is because it’s seven minutes. We’ll get on to that later on in the list.

“Because the Night” – 10,000 Maniacs

Specifically the MTV Unplugged version. The other version is just not as effective.

“This DJ” – Warren G

Warren G is kind of overlooked now, but he was a hit-maker back then who could crank out some fantastic stuff back in this G-funk era.

“Cry for You” – Jodeci

Drake shouts this song out in “Controlla”, but he doesn’t exactly reference it in a clever way. He just says “I think I’d die for you” and then rhymes it with, no joke, “Jodeci, “Cry for You””, like, okay, Aubrey.

“Keep Ya Head Up” – 2Pac

This sample was done better by BlocBoy JB. Something about me just loves how they take the Five Stairsteps’ vocals and make them Kanye chipmunk-style, as BlocBoy mourns the losses of his friends from life in the streets, but since he’s still young, he is a “child” as the sample suggests, so it kind of seems condescending when they say “things are going to get easier”, and Bloc is trying to say that young people go through real hardships too. I don’t know, but this isn’t a BlocBoy JB review, and if I wanted to I could talk about that song in length, but I’ll just say this 2Pac song is damn good too.

“Who am I? (What’s My Name?)” – Snoop (Doggy) Dogg

I mean, I’d be able to tell you if you didn’t change it all the time.

“Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through” – Meat Loaf

The video for this is directed by Michael Bay of all people. That’s all I have to say.

“Mary Jane’s Last Dance” – Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

Okay, but Red Hot Chili Peppers kind of did this riff more justice.

“U.N.I.T.Y.” – Queen Latifah and “Here Comes the Hotstepper” – Ini Kamoze

These were the songs that made me want to extend these lists to ten songs, but on the other hand, my Dishonourable Mentions made me want to shorten these lists to no songs.

“I’ll Take You There” – General Public

Who?

“What is Love” – Haddaway

Now, THIS one hurts to cut. This is a bonafide classic.

“Bop Gun (One Nation)” – Ice Cube featuring George Clinton

The 11-minute version of this song is more tolerable than it sounds.

Now that’s it for the Honourable Mentions but what exactly was 1994 pop music like? Well, I can tell you one thing – G-funk and smooth R&B and hip-hop were in full effect by this time, and many people say the 90s took a while to start, well, this is the breakout year for the 1990s as a decade. All the tropes you expect from early and mid-1990s pop music are here, and they’re here to stay (excluding a lot of the grunge and rock, mostly because of nonsensical Hot 100 chart regulations from at the time). Enough rambling, let’s get onto the actual list. These are...

BABY, DON’T HURT ME: The Top 5 Best and Worst Hit Songs of 1994

#5 Worst

So, if you think Scum Gang scumbags becoming popstars is a new thing, you obviously haven’t been following the absolute trainwreck that is R. Kelly. He was all over this year, whether it be him riding solo or providing vocals, songwriting and production for other R&B acts like Aaliyah and new (at the time) duo Changing Faces, who had both of their first two singles written and produced by R. Kells himself. I was on the fence about this particular track until I saw the Wikipedia article.

“It features uncredited vocals from R. Kelly.”

Alrighty then!

#5 – “Stroke You Up” – Changing Faces featuring R. Kelly

The immediate second this song starts I shrivel up and want to die. That piercingly high first note in the loop aggravates me because it’s just an instant onslaught of a screech. Oh, and that cowbell-like noise that appears in a lot of ‘90s R&B? I hate it.

Don’t get me wrong, I love 1990s R&B but man, it has to be done well to be anything more than a bit of a slog to get through, mostly because pretty much every song in that niche has these set of tropes, and I’m not going to lie, I probably could not sit through a whole album by anyone in that scene who isn’t Usher. Like, you’ve got to have some charisma to make your songs interesting – and that’s true with any decade and any genre – so when you’ve got only serviceable singers and a creepy-as-all-hell backing vocalist, you don’t exactly do wonders to the blocky production.

Don’t even get me started on that hook.

Do you mind if I stroke you up (I don’t mind)

Oh, of course, you don’t freaking mind, you’d get a stroke from anyone as long as they’re female. I don’t think you guys exactly needed confirmation... although actually maybe consent is the best foot forward in R. Kelly’s case... wait, why does R. Kelly need to consent to anything except jail time? He’s a piece of sexist human trash and this woman needs to ASK to just stroke him, oblivious to the fact that he can just hop straight into the girls in his sex cult?

All through the night

You know, you’re supposed to get like eight hours, so are you just going to stroke him for nearly half a day? Because knowing R. Kelly, I’d think he’d want a bit more.

Until your body’s tired

How is he going to be tired? You’re the one actually making some sort of motion, albeit it just be stroking... for eight bloody hours.

Oh, and R. Kelly can stop moaning in the intro and outro. We never need that, okay, we just never need R. Kelly moaning anywhere, anytime, please reissue this song without it. In fact, Spotify, I think I’m going to report abuse for the moaning alone. Nobody needs to sit through this tire fire of a track.

#5 Best

Talking about arrogant, forceful jerks, here’s a song about them.

I know what I want and I want it now / I want you, ‘cause I’m Mr. Vain

Uh... maybe I shouldn’t have met the R. Kelly comparisons. Yikes.

#5 – “Mr. Vain” – Culture Beat

That synth hook is iconic... well, at least for me. I’m into a hefty load of Eurodance and 90s house, in fact a lot of 90s electronica tickles my fancy in more ways than one, so I listened to this a lot before I even considered doing reviews as my hobby – in fact, all of my best list is like this, pretty much, and apologies for the nostalgia goggles but we need them because we’re going deep into Music Heaven’s seas and we ain’t got submarines.

That synth hook is only beaten by “Better Off Alone” in terms of 90s classic dance hooks, but that’s not the only thing about the song that’s amazing, no, before we dive into the vocals and lyrics, how about we just appreciate the rapid-fire guitar strumming replicating the hook and the freaking strings solo before the final chorus? Seriously, there’s a lot of attention to detail in what seems to be a simple Eurodance track and I appreciate that.

Also, this song is a narrative. Let’s explore that, shall we?

Call him Mr. Raider

What?

I guess it kind of makes sense in the context of “This dude only wants to get one-night stands with girls he considers to be of his stupidly high standard” (if you squint) but “Raider”? You couldn’t think of another word there to describe him? It didn’t even need to rhyme, it’s not part of the scheme.

Call him insane

Yeah, okay, so this song is about a guy who’s so irresistibly charming that all the ladies flock yet he only wants one night with them and will immediately stop caring once they’ve had sex... Is this song about Lil Yachty?

I know you want this for life / Taking pictures with all my ice / But I can’t have no... wife / I just want you for the night – Lil Yachty, “1Night”

Okay, obviously, I’m kidding – Lil Yachty didn’t even exist when this song was written – but I’m not joking when I say Tania Evans and rapper Jay Supreme do a pretty good job at representing different sides of this story. Sure, Supreme’s flow may be a bit stilted, and Evans’ (fantastic) vocals might be wasted on way too repetitive lyrics, but it’s Eurodance, cut it some slack.

Call me Raider

No, I won’t call you “Raider”. We already went through this, Jay.

In all seriousness, though, I just love how much Jay perfectly overplays the fact that he’s just an uptight douchebag.

Call me what you like / As long as you call me, time and again / Feel the presence of the aura / Of the man, none to compare

“Feel the presence of the aura”? Who the hell are you, Lucario?

Overall, despite some flaws in its writing, this track is still a dance classic, mostly for how well and intricately it’s produced. Really a fantastic demonstration of how genres like Eurodance can be top-tier stuff as well.

#4 Worst

You know, when I think “forever”, because of music I’ve listened to in the past, I don’t imagine the ungodly length of time that is. What does forever even entail? Is it an individual’s lifetime or just the span of life on Earth in general? Either way, I like my “forever” songs immediate, driving, punchy and to the point. Like Donna Lewis’ earworm hook on “I Love You Always Forever”, the hunger that Drake, Kanye West, Lil Wayne and Eminem show on the bloodthirsty posse cut “Forever”, the good stuff is what takes the concept of “forever” and makes it NOW. Now, what happens if you take the concept of “forever” and play it incredibly straight... that phrase being a synonym of “making it as boring  and plain as a sponge cake with no icing”.

#4 – “Now and Forever” – Richard Marx

Now, music isn’t my only interest, far from it, one of those interests being video games, and more often than not game-wise, you could catch me playing a Nintendo game, so when I saw Marx, before Groucho even crossed my mind, my first thought was the character from Kirby, and maybe that’s not exactly the best first impression of a singer I’ve ever had.

You know what? That would have been much more interesting, because this is pretty non-descript, to the point of it being infuriatingly “nothing”. This guy’s voice, however much force he wants to put onto it, is just serviceable at best and pretty okay throughout, while a white-bread acoustic guitar is being strummed mindlessly in front of a solid orchestral instrumental, which would be pretty nice if it wasn’t so pushed back in the mix to focus on Marx’s promises of being someone’s man “now and forever” – yeah, okay, well, at least try and sound like you care. Put some effort into saying you’ll love someone always, like Bon Jovi’s “Always” the same year, which pulled off the simple power ballad much more effectively by simply seeming like people put effort into it. I can imagine that the band wrote their song about a real-life woman, but Marx here might as well be singing to a cactus. Next.

#4 Best

Now, you may be wondering why a song recorded and released in 1975 about an event from 1963, that eventually hit #1 on the Hot 100 in 1976, is on a list about music from 1994, and it’s all because of a remix – not the first one, mind you – that landed it back onto the charts in 1993 and 1994, “peaking” at #13. Thanks, Ben Liebrand, but your remix is irrelevant because the version I’m counting is the original.

#4 – “December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night!)” – Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons

So this was Valli and his band’s biggest hit in their extensive discography and very lengthy career, mostly due to being pretty much the opposite of what they always did. Sometimes shaking up the formula is actually ideal in pop music, as Valli saw when he relegated himself to backing vocals, letting the leads be handled by the drummer, Gerry Polci, and the bassist, Don Ciccone. Usually, this might have been a risky misstep, since the singer is chosen as the frontman due to the fact that they would naturally have more vocal talent, yet despite Valli being quite literally the name of the band, there’s no real frontman, as everyone sang and everyone appeared in the videos... and that’s impressive, considering how much of an ordeal that is, with how many members there are and were, and how members constantly go in and out while Valli’s still standing. The fact that the band never felt like Valli was in power is honestly one of the reasons why this song works so well.

This song sounds so joyful and happy, and you couldn’t replicate that with one man playing all the parts, because of a tried and true phrase.

One is the loneliest number that you’ll ever do – Harry Nilsson, “One”

If this was all one guy and it was just all the parts mixed together, I doubt it would feel anywhere near as gleeful and carefree as it does as a group record. It starts with a tight disco groove, and then you’ve got that classic piano melody, before Polci starts singing and he’s not a Phil Collins by any means, but he does the job damn well for a drummer, and that just adds to how fun it feels. Everyone did their best and contributed to a happy, sunshiny song that holds up to this day – and by everyone, I mean everyone, it definitely sounds like all seven or so of these guys, including even the keyboardists and the guys on the horns, had a blast recording this. I can imagine them just loving it in the studio. Oh, what a night, indeed.

#3 Worst

Oh, yeah, fun fact: Did you know that last song was originally going to be celebrating the repeal of prohibition, and Frankie Valli wanted it to be changed to a song about an affair? Yeah, and it’s not necessarily a subtle song about an affair either.

Spinning my head around and taking my body under – Don Ciccone, “December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night!)”

You know, I guess it’s somewhat poetic and at least it depicts the subject in a way that doesn’t feel cliché and cheesy. On the other hand...

#3 – “Said I Loved You...But I Lied” – Michael Bolton

What a terrible thing to say right to your significant other’s face, Michael Bolton. Why would you manipulate someone like that, man? Is this some sort of nasty plot to get sex without any consequence?

Said I loved you but I lied / ‘Cause this is more than love I feel inside / Said I loved you but I was wrong / ‘Cause love could never ever feel so strong

Oh... well, then. That is the dumbest bait-and-switch I’ve ever fell for. Well, this sickeningly sweet song is something else to add to my list of reasons to punch Michael Bolton in his corny face. Wait a second, he’s in his 60s now? Huh, maybe I should scrap that list entirely.

You know, Michael Bolton used to make metal and hard rock back in the 70s, and I won’t exactly say his work under that style was all that good, at least it wasn’t as vomit-inducing as his middle of the road, soft rock ballads, including this one, which hides its snoozeworthy self under a guise of a clickbaiting title... which I imagine isn’t even the reason this song became popular, no, it’s because of radio play, specifically adult contemporary stations – why would you put the effort into clickbaiting adult contemporary listeners when in the end, a song about tricking a woman for sex and/or a mediocre romance could have been written better than this generic schlock, and would have probably garnered even more attention, especially from the good-guy Michael Bolton?

I suppose none of this matters when the music’s good, right? Well, it’s not. It’s borderline tropical semi-tribal pop music, actually, it’s kind of interesting. The intro feels like it would fit right into Legends of the Hidden Temple and I don’t think that’s entirely a compliment. Michael sounds out of breath all the time, and nothing else in this song is worthy of even a footnote. I’m so glad we get immediately to the good stuff after trash like this.

#3 Best

Alright, now we’re getting into the hip-hop stuff that I loved this year, and, yeah, there was a lot of it but only a few of these songs really left enough of an impact on me to put them on the list. Remember when I said Warren G was overlooked? Well, I don’t think anyone forgets this G-funk classic.

#3 – “Regulate” – Warren G featuring Nate Dogg

God, no movie soundtrack tie-in deserves to be this smooth and this catchy. This song is immediately recognisable from that Dr. Dre-like synth hook and tight rhythm sampled from “I Keep Forgettin’ (Every Time You’re Near)”, a soul song from singer-songwriter Michael McDonald, which was a success of its own back in 1982, peaking in the top five. Sadly, it’s nowhere near as good as the song it eventually birthed 12 years later.

This song is basically one extremely lengthy verse of Warren G and the late Nate Dogg trading bars and telling a story of both rappers being involved in some ghetto violence, with funky instrumental breaks separating topics and flows.

It was a clear black night, a clear white moon

Warren’s looking to pick up some “skirts”, as they say, but for the most part, he’s just cruising. Meanwhile, Nate just arrived in Long Beach and is on a mission to find Warren – for whatever reason – before women start distracting him, because, of course, they do, it’s hip-hop. Warren notices a gang shooting dice, so he decides to politely join the activity and engage in some of the fun, and then they pull out their guns and try and kill him. However, Nate Dogg doesn’t have time for women.

Since these girls peepin’ me, I’mma glide and swerve / These hookers lookin’ so hard, they straight hit the curb / Onto bigger, better things than some horny tricks / I see my homie and some suckers all in his mix

He was on a mission to find “Mr. Warren G”, and he has discovered the holy grail, however there is one obstacle – the gang that is attacking Warren. He screams out for help from Nate, he’s completely hopeless, in fact, it’s surprisingly vulnerable for a gangsta rap track.

I’m gettin’ jacked, I’m breakin’ myself / I can’t believe they’re taking Warren’s wealth / They took my rings, they took my Rolex / I looked at the brother, said, “Damn, what’s next?”

He’s expecting even worse assault from these guys, but he doesn’t know what’s next because nothing can be this awful, right? He doesn’t believe this was even possible for him to be in this situation. But then, Nate Dogg, shades on, goes all action hero on them right after Warren G starts to accept his fate.

They got guns to my head, I think I’m goin’ down

But then, Nate shoots all his problems away.

Nate Dogg is about to make some bodies turn cold

I said Nate had no time for women, but that’s incredibly untrue, because right after he shoots multiple men to death, he’s picking up women on the streets, and, to be honest, yeah, I’d get in his car. Like Ty Dolla $ign, who I feel Nate was a massive influence on, he knew how to be seductive and smooth in his delivery, even if what he was singing wasn’t particularly sexy.

She said, “My car’s broke down and you seem real nice, would you let me ride?” / I got a car full of girls and it’s going real swell / The next stop is the Eastside Motel

For the final section, Nate and Warren just lay down some of the ideology of the G-funk philosophy... okay, then!

It’s the G-funk era, funked out with a gangsta twist

You know, it’s actually pretty impressive how throughout this violent yet sensual story of murder, assault and illegal criminal activity, as well as mentioning smoking and complementing women for their physical appearance, there’s actually minimal profanity. Warren G’s really for the kids, huh?

This whole story would be pointless, however, if it wasn’t for how well it was all sung, and I say sung instead of rapped because, yeah, it’s pretty much an R&B song with the melodic flows both take on, and I’m not saying Warren is anywhere near to the level of Nate’s singing ability, but you can tell effort was put in on both sides for them to complement each other well, and with Warren’s vulnerable and uncertain portrayal, a more unsure and confused personality and scattered flow really assist in painting the story, especially in stark contrast to Nate’s deep, smooth tone that makes all this sound effortless. Overall, yeah, this song is irresistibly catchy without anything even resembling a chorus, mostly due to the infectious beat and fun flows from everyone involved. Undoubtedly one of the classics in hip-hop. Rest in peace, Nate Dogg.

#2 Worst

“Whoomp! (There it Is)” by the Tag Team is an energetic and fun banger, with a catchy, sing-a-long chorus and a repetitive but effective rhythm. It’s an okay song, so making a song nearly identical right down to the “whoo” sounds isn’t going to result in anything awful... right? Right?

#2 – “Tootsee Roll” – 69 Boyz

Really, guys? 69 Boyz? You’ve got to know the innuendos involved there, and even if you did know and that was the origin, or even if they had another moronic excuse like they were all born in 1969, or there were 69 of them (which is a blatant lie), you’ve got to admit how cringeworthy and childish of a name that is... I’m not entirely sure if that’s to be expected of Miami bass, but considering its alternate names are “booty music” and “booty bass”, I should probably keep that in mind when digging deeper into the genre, but in the meanwhile, I cannot imagine any woman shaking their booty to this stiff, almost metallic beat, with some stock whistle sound effects and a constant onslaught of cheering gang vocals looped for the whole damn song to the extent of it being absolutely unbearable.

The Butterfly? Uh-huh, that’s old

What’s the Butterfly? Genius states, “The Butterfly was a dance move that caused the performer to look like a butterfly.” Thanks for that detailed explanation, now, what on earth is a “Tootsee Roll”?

From what I can gather, it’s just the opposite of the “Butterfly”, which is played out, while the “Tootsee Roll” is a dance you could still see in clubs at the time and is timeless? I mean, I doubt it, because rolling in a club is extremely dangerous and probably will lead to various deaths.

Keep rollin’ that derriere

...Is it like, twerking?

If so, that’s actually a decent comparison. Tootsie Rolls are softer taffy sweets that do not melt and are one of the first candies to be individually wrapped in America. Butts are not as soft as a Tootsie Roll (from my experience of seeing a few pictures of the candies) but they don’t have as much bone, you can slap them like jelly but they don’t melt (unless you have a severe medical problem), and typically, butts are wrapped in clothing, which could be different for each individual with a butt. That’s a pretty clever metaphor... too bad that 1.) your song’s an unlistenable, mind-numbingly repetitive loop with little to no changes to the instrumentation throughout, 2.) Tootsie Rolls also come in long sticks known as logs... is this a gay-pride anthem, then, or am I looking way too deep into this nonsensical piece of trash? Probably the latter.

#2 Best

Now, I wish I could talk about this next guy much more than I end up doing, but he’s way past his heyday, in fact, he’s a one-hit wonder despite having an extensive career that lasts more than four decades. This was his only song to ever hit the top 40, but does that matter at all when he’s had such a long-lasting career simply because of this one song? This track put him on the pop music map and stopped this weirdo from being a completely unknown figure in the music sphere, which he probably would have ended up being if not for this breakout single. You could say this song is riding the wave of both alt-rock and hip-hop being insanely popular at the time, but knowing my boy, I can safely say this was not a sell-out moment. This is one of the strangest, most diversely-talented musicians doing what he does best: wacky self-deprecation.

My teacher said I’m a loser, I told her, ”Why don’t you kill me?” – Kanye West, “Get ‘em High”

#2 – “Loser” – Beck

In the time of chimpanzees, I was a monkey

Sorry, repeat that?

In the time of chimpanzees, I was a monkey / Butane in my veins so I’m out to cut the junkie

This song is the second on the best list to use the technique of sampling, modifying a portion of another work in order to use it in a new creation. This particular track samples a relatively manic drum beat from “I Walk on Gilded Splinters”, a Dr. John cover by blues guitarist Johnny Jenkins, and this sample does more than just adding a tight drum pattern to the song, as it adds to the interpretation that it was a parody of what was perceived as late-80s “slacker culture”, since sampling was a bit infamous in the early 90s. Just as recent as 1991, sampling had caused a headlining court case in which Gilbert O’Sullivan forced Biz Markie to not only pull all of the offending records off of stores, but also accept his career being ruined from the money he lost and the fact that the old white man was victorious over a predominantly black hip-hop culture, showing not only another case of the transformative use of work being unfairly refused, but also the racism that is still prevalent in court judges, the music industry and society today, as proved by Meek Mill’s recent case of being wrongly imprisoned. Yeah, it was an important lesson to learn in terms of the consequences of sampling, but it leaves a bad taste in peoples’ mouths, especially for Beck, who appreciates the art of sampling, despite it being seemed as lazy by many others in the biz, including Damon Albarn of Blur and Gorillaz, who has recently presented his anti-sampling thoughts (despite many, many cases of sampling other works himself). In fact, I believe Beck actually brings this up in the second verse.

The forces of evil in a bozo nightmare / Ban all the music with a phony gas chamber

Hence, throughout this sarcastic verbal beatdown Beck gives himself in the verses, he sounds bored, tired and exhausted, relying on the charm in his voice and the simple, sampled beat to carry him along. In fact, the lyrics seem to be Beck just spitballing, as well, as it’s mostly complete word salad, but it definitely has a consistent vibe of uselessness and being pathetic.

With the plastic eyeballs, spray-paint the vegetables / Dog food stalls with the beefcake pantyhose

Overall, though, it just seems like it’s an incredibly ironic, borderline nonsensical and witty suicide note at points – there’s always discussion of death and guns and pretty grim imagery.

I’m a loser, baby, so why don’t you kill me? (double-barrel buckshot)

He hung himself with a guitar string

Someone keeps sayin’ I’m insane to complain / About a shotgun wedding and a stain on my shirt

The whole song is a slog in the best way because of its repetitive chorus, unconventional sampling and... interesting ad-libs.

(Get crazy with the Cheese Wiz)

It’s nothing like a parody of slacker culture, at all, actually, it reads more like a man on the edge of absolute insanity, and we get to explore his mind, which is all-over-the-place with some brief observations and commentary on the industry and early 90s society, while he occasionally contemplates ending it all.

And my time is a piece of wax falling on a termite / That’s chokin’ on the splinters

This is a strange, confusing song, but Beck’s a strange and confusing artist, and I love him for it, especially when he subtly adds some meaning in the lyrics, such as songs like this... and it’s not even in his top 10 best songs.

#1 Worst

Okay, so, flash back to even before the Honourable Mentions where I said this.

“Hence, the worst list is mostly composed of stuff I found to be utterly charmless – well, except the #1, but you’ll read on for that.”

Yeah, and when I said that, I wasn’t lying – this next song has a lot of charm, hell, it has a lot in common with my choice of fifth best hit song, “Mr. Vain”. Both are quirky little Eurodance songs, but this one does not understand how to embrace how awful it is, while “Mr. Vain” did that perfectly. This song is charming yet also insufferably incompetent.

#1 – “Another Night” – Real McCoy featuring Karin Kasar

Yep, that’s their name – Real McCoy. I don’t understand how a Eurodance act would be this desperate to prove themselves as “real”. Now, I’m pretty sure this terribly-named act is a band, actually, two or three members, one of which being the “rapper” on this track, O-Jay, but we’ll get to him. First, let’s focus on the instrumental, which is pretty well-made actually, albeit pretty typical of the time – it even has a pretty forced reggae influence in the steel pans obviously profiting off of Ace of Base. We have some nice piano chords, a jackhammer beat, an annoying synth that goes from the right to left channel constantly – which would be cool, if it didn’t go on for the whole song and you know, sounded any good.

That’s not what makes this song so horrible, honestly, it’s the vocals. First we have a vocal sample that comes in occasionally but trust me, when it comes in, it does not stop hammering at your brain. It is a really lazy yell, like a man who’s in a deep ditch, hence it echoes, but he can’t talk properly, or like at all, so he just makes a sound that resembles chopped-and-screwed Mario jumping sounds compiled together with some reverb and pitch-shifting... but that’s technically still the instrumental, the vocals on top can’t possibly be as bad, right? Well, I guess the singer, Karin Kasar isn’t bad, even if the lyrics combined with her light-as-a-feather performance are as putrid and sickeningly sweet as you can get, at least Tania Evans had some “oomph” in her voice.

Contrasting Karin Kasar is O-Jay, the “rapper”, who provides some deep, stilted, multi-tracked verses – see the dynamic here? Exactly the same as “Mr. Vain”, except that song prevailed by being joyful despite its obviously less optimistic subject matter that made it feel self-aware, while this plays it straight... but somehow makes it feel less sweet and more terrifying. This O-Jay guy took it too damn fair, he sounds creepy and the lyrics he’s provided with don’t exactly help either.

You feel joy, you feel pain, ‘cause nothing will be the same

Uh, can you stop, please, like, right now? It’s disturbing when this man’s deep voice, not shrouded in the mix, is perfectly clear and you hear every word he’s saying in this intimate yet skin-crawling tone. It’s not pleasant and really doesn’t help build the mood, in fact, I’m pretty sure it takes the mood of the song and bites it in half.

Hey, sister, let me cover your body with my love

Hold up – sister? Look, I know that’s something people call important or friendly females in their lives and in any other case, this line would be fine, but, Jesus, O-Jay, could you maybe say it with some kind of corny flair because your delivery itself implies so much more than what’s being said. Oh, and it doesn’t help when in his final verse, we have an eerily distorted sub-bass with a manic synth playing during it.

I am your lover, your brother

You’re not helping! All this track is is a sloppy remake of “Mr. Vain” which falls flat on its face with everything that Culture Beat’s track succeeded in.

Another night, another dream, but a-always you / It’s like a vision of love that seems to be true

Isn’t that a Mariah Carey song released in 1990?

I had a vision of love / And it was all that you’ve given to me – Mariah Carey, “Vision of Love”

So, not only do you ride the coattails of the Eurodance movement that became prominent in the US because of Haddway and his top 20 song, completely rip off Culture Beat’s top 20 hit (and #1 in the UK!) “Mr. Vain”, shoddily enforce some reggae pop because Ace of Base had three massive songs, all of which ended up being in the Year-End top 10 of this year, but you reference the name of one of Mariah Carey’s biggest #1 hits, just in case you weren’t enough of a clumsy amalgamation of everything early 90s in America and Europe. Nice one, you lazy, pathetic, untalented hacks.

#1 Best

Let’s take a little trip back to the Honourable Mentions, where I said that Janet Jackson’s “Any Time, Any Place” would not make the list due to its length, and that’s mainly because this is a list of hit songs, and honestly, if your song’s not short and sweet, does it really “hit” you as much?

A pop song doesn’t need to be conventional and can stray far from the formula, and I appreciate that when it happens to be that a 1994 hit does not follow the rules of its niche, see “Loser”. However, when you make a song, no matter how good it is, very long and not particularly that far away from what is expected, it loses the punch I want to see in good pop music. That’s why I hate “Perfect” by Ed Sheeran so much – it lacks what I want from any good pop song, a real hook that reels you in, not because it’s catchy and not because it’s unique, hell, I’m not talking about the musical hook here, just a moment in a song that forces you to pay attention and even if you don’t like it, you will understand why it’s so popular because it demands you to be attracted to it. I don’t like “Blah Blah Blah” by Kesha featuring 3OH!3. Listen, I like both of these artists fine, but I’m not a fan of the song for many reasons, however there is a true hook that grabs me in, and it’s not the chorus, it’s Kesha’s voice, which is childish and bratty, but it just commands your attention because of how obnoxious it is. “Any Time, Any Place” doesn’t exactly have that hook, hence no matter how much I liked the song, I just couldn’t write about it in mass. It’s not as interesting as it could have been.

Ladies and gentlemen, as you know, we have something special down here at Birdland this evening – a recording for Blue Note Records.

This song has so many of them.

#1 – “Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia)” – Us3

Oh, my God, this song has so many of those hooks. First of all, how all of it is so blatantly sampled. I think the additional trumpet solo is the only original addition and composition other than the vocals and knowing classic hip-hop, that solo is probably sourced or interpolated from somewhere – hell, the pure amount of samples of Blue Note’s catalogue on this song and Us3’s album lead to them grabbing a record deal with them. Now that’s how corporate bigwigs should be treating artists who sample. The first sample is immediately obvious to you – it’s a vocal sample at the beginning of the track spoken by Pee Wee Marquette from Art Blakey’s A Night at Birdland Vol. 1 album. After this brief spoken word section, we get into the beat which kicks in almost instantly afterwards for a real punch, and I’ve listened to the original track, Herbie Hancock’s “Cantaloupe Island”, and can confirm it’s just pretty much a sped-up version of the first 16 bars with a lot of subtle changes, but that’s not a bad thing, as the drum beat is fun enough to dance to, as what was probably in mind, the recurring additional vocal samples crowding up the track (acting as kind of a chorus) from both Marquette and Lou Donaldson (specifically “Everything I Do Gonna Be Funky (From Now On)”), as well as the occasional lively ad-lib from the rapper here, Rahsaan Kelly, shortened to Rahsaan, who scats a nice little “itty-bitty-bop” throughout. The final instrumental break before the track ends is heavenly, with Gerard Presencer’s fantastic and frankly pretty insane trumpet solo just going on and on. It’s crazy how good it is as well, the playing is intricate and fits the beat perfectly, mostly because of how wacky it is, until it just fades out like it’s nothing.

Speaking of wackiness, I think that’s the main appeal here, because it sounds like a jazz rap song straight out of a cartoon, fittingly for its title containing the name of the Disney movie Fantasia, but it’s all so smooth in its execution despite being littered and cluttered with samples all over the place. It’s beautiful in all its layered madness, and taking any of the layers off would be a disservice, and yes, that’s including Rahsaan.

Brace yourself as the beat hits you / Dip, trip, flip Fantasia

He may not be the best MC, but he has a slick, impressively stable and at times surprisingly quick flow for the time, and with his alliterative lyricism that often include a lot of fun, colourful words, he fits right into this Roger Rabbit of a jazz song.

Groovy, groovy, jazzy, funky / Pounce, bounce, dance as we dip in the melodic sea

He even has some pretty cool lines about actually taking a trip to the neon land presented in Fantasia...

Caught in the groove in Fantasia, I’m found

...and damn, if I don’t feel like I’m there. This song is just so fun to listen to, honestly, because of the pure joy you can feel from every sample, every trumpet riff, every line Rahsaan spits. I thought “Loser” by Beck was going to be my #1 going into this Year-End blind but as soon as I noticed this song was on it, the chance dropped from 100% to less than 3%, because even though I love both songs to death, “Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia)” is such an overlooked classic that I can’t help but love and want to talk about. Everyone’s heard “Loser” but this is not something people really look back on today for all I know. I first heard this song on Vintage TV, actually, a British television network that shows old music videos, and it was a 90s and 80s funk block they had on when this song was broadcast, and when it came on, I had an instant grin on my face and I’m so glad it came up on this Year-End otherwise I would have likely to never have talked about it, and I couldn’t have done that. This song is way too good for me to pass on.

Feel the vibe from here to Asia / Dip, trip, flip Fantasia (out!)

As I said, it’s not conventional for a mostly instrumental song by a British acid jazz band to hit the American top 40, but to stay in the Hot 100 top 10 for three weeks is crazy, and just shows that although the general public and I may disagree at times, the power of national appreciation can do pretty great things for humanity. Thank you for reading, guys, and thank you to Us3, Rahsaan and Gerard Presencer, for making the best hit song of 1994, and one of my favourite songs of all time. See ya!

[rickrosset]

365 Days of 90's Songs

Every day of 2017 (or at least close to it), I posted a different song from the 1990′s on my Facebook page. When I started it, I had no rules and no plan. I just started posting songs that came to me that I enjoyed from that era. To be honest, I had always done a lot of research on 90′s music because in film school (2010-ish), I outlined a screenplay set in 1996 and deep dove into the music then. As 2017 went on, and I continued to work 70-80 hours a week in film production, updating the list became cumbersome, but I still refused to post weak 90′s songs like “U Can’t Touch This”, “Barbie Girl” or “Blue (Da Ba De)” etc. If you like songs like that then please go listen to them, but I’m not going to pretend that I enjoyed them at all in the 90′s or now. 

Looking back on this list, I wish I had put a little more thought into creating a cohesive mix or including my favorite songs, many of which were left off because I ran out of time, but most of the fun of doing this list was just winging it and seeing if anyone liked any of the random songs I did when I was 7-17 years old. I’m going to make an Apple Music and Spotify playlist out of all of these songs but compiling this full list in the proper order already took enough time for this weekend. 

1/1/17 - Guns 'N' Roses "You Could be Mine" 1/2/17 - Ice Cube "It Was a Good Day" 1/3/17 - System of a Down "Spiders" 1/4/17 - The Fugees "Fu-Gee-La" 1/5/17 - Backstreet Boys "Everybody" 1/6/17 - Nirvana "On a Plain" 1/7/17 - Smashing Pumpkins "Disarm" 1/8/17 - 2pac "Brenda's Got a Baby" 1/9/17 - Oasis "Wonderwall" 1/10/17 - Billy Joel "River of Dreams" 1/11/17 - Metallica "Sad But True" 1/12/17 - Blind Melon "No Rain" 1/13/17 - Blackstreet "No Diggity” 1/14/17 - Garth Brooks "Much Too Young to Feel this Damn Old" 1/15/17 - Aaliyah "Are You That Somebody?" 1/16/17 - Santana F/Rob Thomas "Smooth" 1/17/17 - Sublime "STP" 1/18/17 - Go West "King of Wishful Thinking" 1/19/17 - Goldfinger "Here in Your Bedroom" 1/20/17 - Lisa Loeb "Do You Sleep?" 1/21/17 - Bobby Brown "Humpin' Around" 1/22/17 - Bad Religion "21st Century Digital Boy" 1/23/17 - SWV "Weak" 1/24/17 - Jesus Jones "Right Here, Right Now" 1/25/17 - Ghostface Killah "All That I Got Is You" 1/26/17 - The Chemical Brothers "Setting Sun" 1/27/17 - Mr. Big "To Be With You" 1/28/17 - Busta Rhymes "Gimme Some More" 1/29/17 - Elastica "Connection"   1/30/17 - Ace of Base "The Sign" 1/31/17 - LL Cool J F/Boyz II Men "Hey Lover" 2/1/17 - Mazzy Star "Fade Into You" 2/2/17 - Deftones "My Own Summer (Shove It)" 2/3/17 - Beastie Boys "Sabotage" 2/4/17 - Pearl Jam "Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town" 2/5/17 - Travis "Why Does It Always Rain One Me?" 2/6/17 - LL Cool J "Momma Said Knock You Out" 2/7/17 - Len "Steal My Sunshine" 2/8/17 - Bell Biv Devoe "Poison" 2/9/17 - Red Hot Chili Peppers "Under the Bridge" 2/10/17 - R. Kelly "I Believe I Can Fly" 2/11/17 - Beck "Loser" 2/12/17 - A Tribe Called Quest "Scenario" 2/13/17 - R.E.M. "Strange Currencies" 2/14/17 - Garbage "#1 Crush" 2/15/17- Spacehog "In the Meantime" 2/16/17 - DMX "Ruff Ryders' Anthem" 2/17/17 - Enya "Orinoco Flow" 2/18/17 - Foo Fighters "Everlong" 2/19/17 - Orgy "Blue Monday" 2/20/17 - 10,000 Maniacs "Because the Night (Unplugged)" 2/21/17 - Dr. Dre F/Snoop Dogg "Nothin' But a G Thang" 2/22/17 - U2 "One" 2/23/17 - Sneaker Pimps "6 Underground" 2/24/17 - 311 "Homebrew" 2/25/17 - Tom Petty "You Don't Know How It Feels" 2/26/17 - Notorious B.I.G. "Juicy" 2/27/17 - Soul Coughing "Super Bon Bon" 2/28/17 - Janet Jackson F/Q-Tip and Joni Mitchell "Got Til It's Gone" 3/1/17 - Faith No More "A Small Victory" 3/2/17 - Korn "Got the Life" 3/3/17 - The Afghan Whigs "Going to Town" 3/4/17 - Goodie Mob "Cell Therapy" 3/5/17 - Charles & Eddie "Would I Lie To You?" 3/6/17 - En Vogue "Free Your Mind" 3/7/17 - Ini Kamoze "Here Comes the Hotstepper (Remix)" 3/8/17 - Soundgarden "Black Hole Sun" 3/9/17 - Seal "Kiss From A Rose" 3/10/17 - Black Star "Definition" 3/11/17 - Harvey Danger "Flagpole Sitta" 3/12/17 - Chris Isaak "Wicked Game" 3/13/17 - The Verve "Bitter Sweet Symphony" 3/14/17 - Shai "If I Ever Fall In Love" 3/15/17 - Jay-Z "Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)" 3/16/17 - Jeff Buckley "Last Goodbye" 3/17/17 - Eric B. & Rakim "Juice (Know the Ledge)" 3/18/17 - The Mighty Mighty Bosstones "Where'd You Go?" 3/19/17 - Cypress Hill "Hits From The Bong" 3/20/17 - The Offspring "Self Esteem" 3/21//17 - Nate Dogg & Warren G "Regulate" 3/22/17 - Jane's Addiction "Been Caught Stealing" 3/23/17 - Eazy-E "Gimme That Nutt" 3/24/17 - Green Day "Longview" 3/25/17 - Sinead O'Connor "Nothing Compares 2 U" 3/26/17 - Matthew Sweet "Girlfriend" 3/27/27 - Daft Punk "Da Funk" 3/28/17 - Bush "Comedown" 3/29/17 - Missy Elliot "The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)" 3/30/17 - Tool "Sober" 3/31/17 - Third Eye Blind "Jumper" 4/1/17 - Mariah Carey "Vision of Love" 4/2/17 - Weezer "Undone (The Sweater Song)" 4/3/17 - Alanis Morissette "You Outta Know" 4/4/17 - Alice In Chains "Would?" 4/5/17 - Limp Bizkit "Stuck" 4/6/17 - Paula Cole "Where Have All The Cowboys Gone?" 4/7/17 - Placebo "Pure Morning" 4/8/17 - Juvenile "Ha" 4/9/17 - Nine Inch Nails "Wish" 4/10/17 - Mary J. Blige "Real Love" 4/11/17 - Counting Crows "Mr. Jones" 4/12/17 - Radiohead "Just" 4/13/17 - Veruca Salt "Seether" 4/14/17 - Outkast "2 Dope Boyz (In a Cadillac)" 4/15/17 - Coolio F/L.V. "Gangsta's Paradise" 4/16/17 - Depeche Mode "Personal Jesus" 4/17/17 - Goo Goo Dolls "Iris" 4/18/17 -2pac "Ambitionz az a Ridah" 4/19/17 - Silverchair "Tomorrow" 4/20/17 - George Michael "Freedom '90" 4/21/17 - Marilyn Manson "Beautiful People" 4/22/17 - Toadies "Tyler" 4/23/17 - Fiona Apple "Criminal" 4/24/17 - Edwyn Collins "A Girl Like You" 4/25/17 - D'Angelo "Devil's Pie" 4/26/17 - Bruce Springsteen "Streets of Philadelphia" 4/27/17 - Green Day "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" 4/28/17 - Live "Lightning Crashes" 4/29/17 - The Cranberries "Dreams (live at Woodstock 94)" 4/30/17 - TLC "Creep" 5/1/17 - Garbage "Stupid Girl" 5/2/17 - Blur "Song 2" 5/3/17 - Montell Jordan "This Is How We Do It" 5/4/17 - Smashing Pumpkins "Zero" 5/5/17 - Silk "Freak Me" 5/6/17 - Incubus "Redefine" 5/7/17 - Everclear "Santa Monica" 5/8/17 - Wilco "Outtasite (Outta Mind)" 5/9/17 - Ma$e F/The Lox, Black Rob, DMX "24 Hours To Live" 5/10/17 - No Doubt "Just A Girl" 5/11/17 - Destiny's Child "Bills, Bills, Bills" 5/12/17 - Kid Rock "Only God Knows Why" 5/13/17 - Prodigy "Smack My Bitch Up" 5/14/17 - Wu-Tang Clan "Protect Ya Neck" 5/15/17 - Nirvana "In Bloom" 5/16/17 - Cake "The Distance" 5/17/17 - Jermaine Dupri F/Jay-Z "Money Ain't A Thing" 5/18/17 - Soundgarden "Rusty Cage" 5/19/17 - Johnny Cash "Rusty Cage" 5/20/17 - Temple of the Dog "Hunger Strike" 5/21/17 - The Proclaimers "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)" 5/22/17 - Nice & Smooth "Sometimes I Rhyme Slow" 5/23/17 - Lenny Kravitz "Are You Gonna Go My Way" 5/24/17 - The Breeders "Cannonball" 5/25/17 - Chumbawumba "Tubthumping" 5/26/17 - White Zombie "More Human Than Human" 5/27/17 - Rage Against the Machine "Killing In the Name" 5/28/17 - P.M. Dawn "Set Adrift on Memory Bliss" 5/29/17 - Guns 'N' Roses "Civil War" 5/30/17 - John Spencer Blues Explosion "Wail" 5/31/17 - The Geto Boys "Minds Playin Tricks On Me" 6/1/17 - Flaming Lips "Turn It On" 6/2/17 - UGK "One Day" 6/3/17 - Fatboy Slim "Praise You" 6/4/17 - Mariah Carey F/ODB "Fantasy" 6/5/17 - Mobb Deep "Shook Ones, Pt. II" 6/6/17 - DJ Clue F/ Cam'ron, Big Pun, Noreaga, Canibus "Fantastic 4" 6/7/17 - Eve 6 "Inside Out" 6/8/17 - Nada Surf "Popular" 6/9/17 - The Presidents of the United States of America "Naked and Famous" 6/10/17 - The Beatnuts "Watch Out Now" 6/11/17 - Meat Loaf "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)" 6/12/17 - Meat Puppets "Backwater" 6/13/17 - Rancid "Time Bomb" 6/14/17 - Lord Tariq, Peter Gunz "Deja Vu (Uptown Baby)" 6/15/17 - Folk Implosion "Natural One" 6/16/17 - The Black Crowes "Remedy" 6/17/17 - En Vogue "Don't Let Go" 6/18/17 - Letters to Cleo "Here and Now" 6/19/17 - Beenie Man "Who Am I? 6/20/17 - Salt-N'-Pepa "Shoop" 6/21/17 - Mobb Deep F/Lil Kim "Quiet Storm (Remix)" 6/22/17 - Tim McGraw "I Like It, I Love It" 6/23/17 - Alan Jackson "Chattahoochee" 6/24/17 - Metallica "King Nothing" 6/25/17 - Stone Temple Pilots "Big Empty" 6/26/17 - Notorious B.I.G. "Hypnotize" 6/27/17 - 112 F/Notorious B.I.G and Ma$e “Only You (Bad Boy Remix)” 6/28/17 - Soul Asylum “Somebody to Shove” 6/29/17 - KRS-One "Step Into Our World (Rapture's Delight)" 6/30/17 - Spice Girls "Wannabe" 7/1/17 - Seal "Crazy" 7/2/17 - Marc Cohn "Walking in Memphis" 7/3/17 - Pearl Jam "Alive" 7/4/17 - Pearl "Better Man" 7/5/17 - Outkast "Rosa Parks" 7/6/17 - Pete Rock and C.L. Smooth "T.R.O.Y. (They Reminisce Over You) 7/7/17 - Beastie Boys "Intergalactic" 7/8/17 - Monster Magnet "Space Lord" 7/9/17 - Creed "My Own Prison" 7/10/17 - Bone Thugs-N-Harmony "Tha Crossroads" 7/11/17 - Westside Connection "Bow Down" 7/12/17 - Snoop Doggy Dogg "Tha Shiznit 7/13/17 - N.W.A. "Niggaz 4 Life" 7/14/17 - 2pac F/Dr. Dre and Roger Troutman "California Love" 7/15/17 - Too Short "Gettin' It" 7/16/17 - Dr. Dre F/Snoop Dogg, Kurupt and Nate Dogg "Next Episode" 7/17/17 - Makaveli "Hail Mary" 7/18/17 - Liz Phair "Supernova" 7/19/17 - The Wallflowers "One Headlight" 7/20/17 - Sublime “Doin’ Time” 7/21/17 - Cornershop "Brimful of Asha" 7/22/17 - Enigma "Return of Innocence" 7/23/17 - DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince "Summertime" 7/24/17 - Hanson " Mmmm Bop" 7/25/17 - Black Sheep "The Choice is Yours" 7/26/17 - Jay-Z F/UGK "Big Pimpin'" 7/27/17 - Alice In Chains "Man in the Box" 7/28/17 - Dave Matthews Band "Crash Into Me" 7/29/17 - A Tribe Called Quest "Can I Kick It?" 7/30/17 - Ghost Town DJ's "My Boo" 7/31/17 - Red Hot Chili Peppers "Soul to Squeeze" 8/1/17 - Blur "Girls and Boys" 8/2/17 - Sophie B. Hawkins "Damn, I wish I was Your Lover" 8/3/17 - Radiohead "Creep" 8/4/17 - Ol' Dirty Bastard "Shimmy Shimmy Ya" 8/5/17 - Real McCoy "Another Night" 8/6/17 - The Dropkick Murphy's "Amazing Grace (Live)" 8/7/17 - The Lemonheads "Mrs. Robinson" 8/8/17 - Marilyn Manson "Sweet Dreams" 8/9/17 - Limp Bizkit "Faith" 8/10/17 - Fugees "Killing Me Softly" 8/11/17 - UB40 "Can't Help Falling in Love" 8/12/17 - Nirvana "Man Who Sold The World" 8/13/17 - Metallica "Turn the Page" 8/14/17 - Deadeye Dick "New Age Girl" 8/15/17 - Onyx "Slam" 8/16/17 - Erykah Badu "Next Lifetime" 8/17/17 - Orgy "Stitches" 8/18/17 - Chris Isaak "Baby Did a Bad Bad Thing" 8/19/17 - R.E.M. “Losing My Religion” 8/20/17 - Backstreet Boy "I Want it That Way" 8/21/17 - Robyn "Show Me Love" 8/22/17 - Weezer "El Scorcho" 8/23/17 - Marc Anthony "I Need to Know" 8/24/17 - Wyclef Jean F/John Forte and Pras "We Trying to Stay Alive" 8/25/17 - Bush "Straight No Chaser" 8/26/17 - Queens of the Stone Age "Regular John" 8/27/17 - The Refreshments "Banditos" 8/28/17 - Jars of Clay "Flood" 8/29/17 - H-Town "Knockin' Da Boots" 8/30/17 - Jodeci "Feenin'" 8/31/17 - Smashing Pumpkins "The Beginning is the End is the Beginning" 9/1/17 - Digable Planets "Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat)" 9/2/17 - Melissa Etheridge "Come to My Window" 9/3/17 - Aerosmith "Cryin'" 9/4/17 - Neil Young "Downtown" 9/5/17 - JT Money "Who Dat?" 9/6/17 - Outkast "SpottieOttieDopaliscious" 9/7/17 - Wu-Tang "Reunited" 9/8/17 - Sex Pistols "Pretty Vancant (live)" 9/9/17 - Marcy Playground "Sex and Candy" 9/10/17 - Sheryl Crow "If It Makes You Happy" 9/11/17 - The Flys "Got You (Where I Want You)" 9/12/17 - Nas "New York State of Mind" 9/13/17 - The Foo Fighters "I'll Stick Around" 9/14/17 - Beastie Boys "So What Cha Want" 9/15/17 - Gang Starr "Next Time" 9/16/17 - Lauryn Hill "Doo Wop (That Thing)" 9/17/17 - Arrested Development "Tennessee" 9/18/17 - Sponge "Molly (16 Candles)" 9/19/17 - Deftones "Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away)" 9/20/17 - No Doubt "Don't Speak" 9/21/17 - The Lemonheads "My Drug Buddy" 9/22/17 - U2 "Mysterious Ways" 9/23/17 - DMX "Stop Being Greedy" 9/24/17 - INXS "Not Enough Time" 9/25/17 - Destiny's Child "Say My Name" 9/26/17 - Eagle-Eye Cherry "Save Tonight” 9/27/17 - Radiohead "Paranoid Android 9/28/17 - Big Punisher “The Dream Shatterer” 9/29/17 - Dawn Penn “You Don’t Love Me (No, No, No)” 9/30/17 - *NSYNC “Tearin’ Up My Heart” 10/1/17 - Pixies “Dig for Fire” 10/2/17 - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers “Walls (Circus)” 10/3/17 - The Roots F/Erykah Badu "You Got Me" 10/4/17 - Bruce Springsteen “Human Touch” 10/5/17 - Pennywise “Bro Hymn” 10/6/17 - Weezer “Say It Ain’t So” 10/7/17 - Foxy Brown F/Jay-Z “I’ll Be...” 10/8/17 - EMF “Unbelievable” 10/9/17 - Peter Gabriel “Steam” 10/10/17 - Raekwon & Ghostface Killah F/GZA “Glaciers of Ice” 10/11/17 - Blink-182 “Adam’s Song” 10/12/17 - Eminem “Just Don’t Give A Fuck” 10/13/17 - Kenny Wayne Sheperd “Blue on Black” 10/14/17 - Violent Femmes “American Music” 10/15/17 - Faith Evans "Love Like This" 10/16/17 - Pearl Jam "Black" 10/17/17 - B.G. F/Big Tymers & Hot Boyz “Bling, Bling” 10/18/17 - Rage Against the Machine “Bulls on Parade” 10/19/17 - DJ Muggs F/Goodie Mob “Decisions, Decisions” 10/20/17 - Beck “Debra 10/21/17 - Public Enemy “Welcome to the Terrordome” 10/22/17 - Dishwalla “Counting Blue Cars” 10/23/17 - James "Laid" 10/24/17 - R.E.M. "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?" 10/25/17 - Keith Sweat “Twisted” 10/26/17 - Nas F/AZ, Nature, Cormega and Foxy Brown “Affirmative Action” 10/27/17 - L7 “Shit List” 10/28/17 - Faith No More "Epic" 10/29/17 - Godsmack “Voodoo” 10/30/17 - Rob Zombie “Dragula” 10/31/17 - Screaming Trees "Nearly Lost You” 11/1/17 - Guns N’Roses “November Rain” 11/2/17 - Wu-Tang Clan “Da Mystery of Chessboxin’” 11/3/17 - Craig Mack F/Notorious B.I.G., L.L. Cool J, Busta Rymes & Rampage “Flava in Ya Ear (Remix)” 11/4/17 - Nas “N.Y. State of Mind II” 11/5/17 - Collective Soul "Shine" 11/6/17 - Aerosmith “I Don’t Want Miss A Thing” 11/7/17 - Pras Michel F/ODB and Mya “Ghetto Supastar (That Is What You Are) 11/8/17 - U2 Hold Me “Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me” 11/9/17 - Elliot Smith “Miss Misery” 11/10/17 - Underworld “Drive Slippy (NUXX)” 11/11/17 - Smashing Pumpkins “Eye” 11/12/17 - The Cardigans "Love Fool" 11/13/17 - Marilyn Manson “Long Hard Road Out of Hell” 11/14/17 - Supergrass “Alright” 11/15/17 - Boyz II Men “End of the Road” 11/16/17 - Butthole Surfers “Pepper” 11/17/17 - Tori Amos “Cornflake Girl” 11/18/17 - Ginuwine “Pony” 11/19/17 - Big Pun F/Joe “Still Not A Player” 11/20/17 - Tom Cochrane "Life is a Highway" 11/21/17 - Prodigy “Out of Space” 11/22/17 - Duran Duran “Ordinary World” 11/23/17 - Failure “Stuck on You” 11/24/17 - 4 Non Blondes "What's Going On?" 11/25/17 - 311 “All Mixed Up” 11/26/17 - Primitive Radio Gods "Standing Outside a Broken 11/27/17 - Phone Booth With Money In My Hand“ 11/28/17 - Noreaga “Super Thug (What What)” 11/29/17 - Duncan Sheik "Barely Breathing" 11/30/17 - A Tribe Called Quest “Electric Relaxation” 12/1/17 - Notorious B.I.G. F/ Ma$e and Puff Daddy “Mo’ Money, Mo Problems” 12/2/17 - The Crystal Method “Keep Hope Alive” 12/3/17 - Natalie Imbruglia "Torn" 12/4/17 - Jeff Buckley "Hallelujah 12/5/17 - Usher "You Make Me Wanna…” 12/6/17 - Björk “Army of Me” 12/7/17 - Teenage Fanclub “Mad Dog 20/20” 12/8/17 - Akinyele “Put I️t In Your Mouth” 12/9/17 - Cranberries "Zombie" 12/10/17 - Lenny Kravitz "Fly Away" 12/11/17 - The Dandy Warhols “Not If Your The Last Junkie on Earth” 12/12/17 - EMPD “The Crossover” 12/13/17 - TLC “No Scrubs” 12/14/17 - Counting Crows “A Long December” 12/15/17 - Limp Bizkit “Nookie” 12/16/17 - Nine Inch Nails “Closer” 12/17/17 - Camp Lo “Luchini (aka This Is It)” 12/18/17 - Oasis “Champagne Supernova” 12/19/17 - Ma$e "Feel So Good" 12/20/17 - Red Hot Chili Peppers "Scar Tissue" 12/21/17 - Better Than Ezra “Good” 12/22/17 - Semisonic “Closing Time” 12/23/17 - Madonna “Ray of Light” 12/24/17 - Juvenile “Back That Azz Up” 12/25/17 - The Offspring “Gone Away” 12/26/17 - Tool “Opiate” 12/27/17 - Cracker “Low” 12/28/17 - Method Man & Redman “Da Rockwilder” 12/29/17 - Britney Spears “... Baby One More Time” 12/30/17 - Smashing Pumpkins "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" 12/31/27 - Nirvana "Smells Like Teen Spirit”

[clubofinfo]

Expert: The New York Times Business Page recently featured a front page article about the annual conference In Jackson Hole, Wyoming hosted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. It contained this interesting opening: In the decade since the financial crisis economic policymakers, professors and protestors have gathered here every August to argue about the best ways to return to faster economic growth. This year, they gave up…instead focused mostly on making sure things don’t get any worse. Fed chairwoman Janet Yellen spoke about the risk of further deregulation while Mario Draghi, head of the European Central Bank, spoke against protectionism. The tepid tone of the conference, of course, was the opposite of President Trump’s boisterousness tweets about the current economic reality, most prominently on July 2nd when Trump tweeted ‘Stock Market at all-time high, unemployment at lowest level in years (wages will start going up) and our base has never been stronger!’ Not to be undone, July 31st saw Trump tweet ‘Highest Stock Market EVER, best economic numbers in years, unemployment lowest in 17 years, wages rising, border secure, S.C.: No WH chaos’. For certain Trump isn’t the first president to hang his hat on the Dow Jones. Barack Obama for one certainly wasn’t above it. However, as Michelle Styczynski recently explained in Jacobin, a rising stock market has little to no effect on the wages of the hourly workers who make up almost 60 percent of the workforce. Before 1980, real wages grew at an average of two and a half cents ($0.0025) per month while the S&P grew on average 0.53 points per month. After 1980 wages grow by an average rate of 0.7 cents ($0.007) per month – a 71 percent drop. Meanwhile the S&P has risen to an average growth rate of 4 points per month for an increase of 660 percent. In other words it’s been a long time since stock market growth correlated to higher wages for the working class. As for the rest of the ‘base’ as Trump refers to it is plagued by the same longstanding trends Trump incoherently campaigned on. The top 1 percent continues to swallow up the lion’s share of growth. From 2009-2012 the one percent captured over 90 percent of economic gains. That number has declined since but from 2013-2015 the one percent still grabbed about half of growth. Productivity has stalled. The economy has yet to even recover the output it was on pace to produce prior to the Great Recession. In 1967 95 percent of ‘prime age’ men (ages 25-54) worked. Today more than 15 percent aren’t working with some localities having fewer than 70 percent of men without a college education unemployed or out of the workforce entirely. The percentage of underemployed Americans is now at 8.6 percent. Paradoxically 7.6 million people currently work more than one job, the highest in two decades. A study by economists Lawrence F. Katz and Alan B. Krueger showed that nearly 95 percent of jobs created during the Obama Era were temporary, part-time, or contractual (i.e. of the mythical ‘gig’ variety). As has been the case since the mid-1970s Americans continue to make up for stagnant wages by using credit to finance the middle-class life. Just prior to the last recession household debt in the U.S. hit $12.68 trillion. It now stands at $12.7. Given the economy is larger now than it was a decade ago today’s total household debt is equivalent to 67 percent of the economy as opposed to the 85 percent back at the 2008 peak. The nature of the debt has shifted. Americans owe less on their homes and credit cards and more on student and car loans, the latter being a bare necessity in most places in the country, while the former is the declared ticket to prosperity. While this debt may be more sustainable in the short-term it probably has led to a drag on demand. Personal-spending growth has averaged only 2.4 percent since the recession ended, less than previous expansions. Much ink has been spilled in recent times lamenting Americans’ new lack of mobility. According to the Census Bureau about 10 percent of Americans moved in the past year, down from the 1950s through the early 1980s when more than 20 percent of the population moved.  Tyler Cowen laments in his book The Complacent Class: The Self Defeating Quest for the American Dream that the interstate migration rate has fallen 51 percent below the average rate from 1948-1971. Kevin Williamson of National Review surely took the prize for this last year, writing about the plight of the white working class: There is more to life in the 21st century than wallboard and cheap sentimentality about how the Man closed the factories down. The truth about these dysfunctional, downscale communities is that they deserve to die. Economically, they are negative assets. Morally, they are indefensible…The white American underclass is in thrall to a vicious, selfish culture whose main products are misery and used heroin needles. Donald Trump’s speeches make them feel good. So does OxyContin. What they need isn’t analgesics, literal or political. They need real opportunity, which means that they need real change, which means that they need U-Haul. Trump himself got into the act recently telling the Wall Street Journal “people are going to have to start moving.” Leaving aside questions about family and community, not to mention issues of vastly uneven development, this despair about mobility and labor flexibility seems to run into another longstanding issue. For well over half a century it’s been government policy to favor homeownership over renters, suburban sprawl over cities. Since the 1940s 90 percent of new housing has been in low density areas. If the impetus for this was the severe housing shortage in the aftermath of World War II, the adjoining motivation was the incubating and reinforcement of a conservative status quo. A 1946 Fortune survey, citied by Rosalyn Baxandell and Elizabeth Ewan in In Picture Windows: How the Suburbs Happened, revealed: The U.S. people are strikingly in favor of positive government action to end the severe housing shortage. A majority of those with opinions want the government to embark on a large scale building program, and that more people, particularly the young, veterans, the poor, and those living in large cities, and especially North Atlantic States; i.e. most people preferred renting an apartment to owning a house. Unfortunately such a solution wouldn’t have made big money for the master builders and the bank and loan associations. The automobile industry and highway lobby had same understanding. While the suburbanization of the country largely solved the housing shortage and fulfilled the mythology of ‘homeownership’ (actually mortgage holding) and picket fences, in the long run it has contributed to a less fluid workforce as many are now tied to their mortgages or property. It’s also a fact that the cities where the movers are supposed to head have astronomical housing costs and growing homeless populations. Along with the new lack of mobility, the other despair of working class critics is the state of the family. Obviously the decline of the nuclear family has been red meat for conservatives for decades. However, now the consensus is broader. Political rhetoric may require musings about “the family”, but the true subject of derision is the working class family, most especially the great increase in out of wedlock births. For those with college degrees the years since 1980 haven’t seen such an increase (the divorce rate overall has declined from its 1980 peak with a steeper decline for the college educated. Currently it’s at its lowest level in 40 years). For the other two-thirds of the population the increase has been substantial. According to data from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2015 was the eighth straight year 40 percent of births in the U.S. were to unmarried mothers, the great majority of these births to working class children. While acknowledging the causes of this are complex, critics put much of their emphasis on culture. Amy Wax, professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, recently found herself at the center of a storm for an op-ed she coauthored for Philly.com titled “Paying the price for breakdown of the country’s bourgeois culture”. Thirty three of her colleagues at the University signed a letter condemning Wax’s claims. Wax writes of a late 1960s cultural flip that “encouraged an antiauthoritarian, adolescent, wish-fulfillment ideal- sex, drugs, and rock-and-roll- that was unworthy of, and unworkable for, a mature, prosperous adult society”. The op-ed goes on to say: All cultures are not equal. Or at least they are not equal in preparing people to be productive in an advanced economy. The culture of the Plains Indians was designed for nomadic hunters, but is not suited to a First World, 21st-century environment. Nor are the single-parent, antisocial habits, prevalent among some working-class whites; the anti-“acting white” rap culture of inner-city blacks; the anti-assimilation ideas gaining ground among some Hispanic immigrants. These cultural orientations are not only incompatible with what an advanced free-market economy and a viable democracy require, they are also destructive of a sense of solidarity and reciprocity among Americans. If the bourgeois cultural script — which the upper-middle class still largely observes but now hesitates to preach — cannot be widely reinstated, things are likely to get worse for us all…But restoring the hegemony of the bourgeois culture- the academics, media, and Hollywood- to relinquish multicultural grievance polemics and the preening pretense of defending the downtrodden. Instead of bashing the bourgeois culture, they should return to the 1950s posture of celebrating it. Absent that sentiment is any economic analysis of the beloved 1950s, which for all the racism and McCarthyism, was a time of economic growth, rising wages, and strong unions- perhaps what many of those working class voters who fell for the charms of ‘Make America Great Again’ had in mind since these things have been gone for decades. Writing in the New York Times back in 2014, Isabel Sawhill, of the Brookings Institute and author of Generation Unbound: Drifting into Sex and Parenthood without Marriage, acknowledged the need for educational and job opportunities, and correctly pointed to the need for greater access to quality birth control, but says: But government alone can’t solve this problem. Younger people must begin to take greater responsibility for their choices…Well-functioning democracies are built on the premise that government has an obligation to promote the general welfare. But so do citizens. More support for those drifting is in order, but less drifting is also essential. The emphasis on culture leaves one with an obvious question:  if destructive cultural influences, such as Hollywood and academics, are persuasive then why is much of their seductive power only taking hold over certain segments of the population whom it just so happens have been the same segments that have dealt with deindustrialization, stagnant wages, drug abuse epidemics and, in the case of the black working class, taking the brunt of draconian anti-drug laws and crime bills? More than half of all black children born to less educated parents in 1990 experienced parental imprisonment. It calls to mind what Oscar Wilde placed into the mouth of Algeron in The Importance of Being Earnest: “Really, if the lower orders don’t set us a good example, what on earth is the use of them.” One of the sharper points Andrew Cherlin makes in his Labor’s Love Lost: The Rise and Fall of the Working Class Family in America is that the much romanticized period from the late 1940s through the 1960s, the period where still much of our cultural and economic expectations derive from, is a historical anomaly. And as Cherlin points out, the fall in marriages has been seen before: The marriage gap we see in the New Gilded Age today is similar to the gap during the Old Gilded Age of the late 1800s.  Sharp inequalities in income and in marriage characterize both eras. …In both eras, men in professional, managerial, or  technical positions were most likely to marry, and the probability of marriage dropped substantially toward the bottom of the occupational hierarchy. The Great Depression saw the same trends. Birth rates fell sharply in the 1930s. According to a 1940 survey (cited Robert D. Putnam’s Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis), 1.5 million married women were deserted by their husbands and as result more than 200,000 vagrant children were said to be wandering the country. Cultural mores were certainly different 125 years ago but as both the original Gilded Age and the present day show, the saviors of the traditional family, as well as single parents, aren’t pious harangues about moral decline or odes to personal determination but good paying jobs. Good paying jobs are what American capitalism has been unable to provide since the 1970s. For all Trump’s bluster, it’s always been obvious that a working-class populism wasn’t in the works. The Democrats are too weak and in the thrall of big money ‘centrism’ that emphasizes cultural issues above all else, as if things like gun violence and immigration are independent of economics. The beauty of culture for those who wield power is that when an issue becomes ‘cultural’ it also becomes unsolvable The endlessly analyzed “rural-urban” divide becomes a matter of who goes to church, owns guns, or drinks craft beers and not on the overall economic stagnation that affects so many rural and urban areas alike. Without a serious movement against unchained capital one can expect that divide to grow even larger and the underlying economic trends to continue to stir bitterness and conflict. http://clubof.info/

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janet jackson ☆

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