I’m a hypocrite

Hi, I’m Marcy and I am a hypocrite. How are you ?

Loyal readers will remember my not so nice critique of “Happy” by Pharrell. If you are new to this blog you can read it here à Music .... it's love and curse

I don’t know how to explain this so I’m just going to do it. I hate Happy, I still do, even after the revelation I am about to share. I hate everything about it, from the beat behind it, to the content of the words being said, and most important the fact that it burrows into my brain and tries to eat my soul. It also drove me insane how it was on the radio 24/7 like it was the greatest song in history. That’s the thing that really kills me about radio, it takes a song and rams it down your throat and people think it’s good cause it’s always on. I just can’t deal with it, and listening to it for this blog post made me want to murder someone. Thanks Golden !

I tell you all of this because ……… I LOVE Justin Timberlake’s new song Can’t Stop The Feeling. I heart it just ohhhhh so much. That’s not to say I’m not critical of it, if I never hear him say the word Dance again it would be too soon, the video was goofy and playful but honestly made my head hurt, and I also think it’s far to long but I think that’s a JT thing. If I could tell him one thing and he listen to it or give a damn what I thought about his musical direction moving forward I’d tell him to make a song then back it back at least 2 minutes. It’s really his only flaw. PS for full disclosure I was not an Nsync fan, do I have some of their music in my MP3 library, sure but 9 times out of 10 when their music comes on its a skip for me. I tell you this so you know I'm not blindly following JT here.

So I’m rocking out to Can’t stop the Feeling and Golden’s all, it’s just like Happy, her exact words were “I think it’s crazy you like that song but hate Pharrell’s Happy when they are the same bred of song” I stood there for a moment with my mouth open thinking that can’t be true … is it? I replied “well it’s true if it gets overplayed it will quickly get on my nerves but dude Happy just makes no fucking sense when you read the lyrics.” She said “neither does JT’s, you can’t put sunshine in your pocket no more than a room without a roof makes me happy” which I admit made me laugh.

Since this conversation however every time I hear Can’t stop the feeling this conversation rolls around in my head….DAMN YOU GOLDEN (Happy Birthmonth BTW) !!!!!!  A perfectly enjoyable song that you have just ruined with your stupid logic! She’s apparently not alone in this, I’ve heard people call JT’s song “this year’s Happy!” which made me cringe. So I’ve decided to set the record straight. Let’s just settle this once and for all …. Are these songs “really” the same? Am i a hypocrite? I dont believe that they are, in my humble opinion of course, if you want to share your opinion … get your own blog, or tell us in the comments below. (hint)

Ok … what makes them similar …… Can’t Stop the Feeling is for the animated new movie Trolls, Happy was for Despicable Me 2. So basically they are the same in that regard. Now sit down Golden I’m not finished. Hey at least JT is IN Trolls! Point JT.

Justin’s 1^st verse

“I got this feeling, inside my bones

It goes electric, wavey when I turn it on
All through my city, all through my home
We’re flying up, no ceiling when we in our zone”

Pharrell’s 1^st verse

“It might seem crazy what I’m about to say

Sunshine she’s here, you can take away
I’m a hot air ballon, I could go to space
With the air, like I don’t care baby by the way”

---- what the literal fuck is that?

Pharrell’s song … still seems like a schizophrenic having a conversation with someone and we only hear half of it, at least to me. I can’t even fathom what he’s talking about in this verse I can’t get a picture into my head, and I love songs that are not only lovely for my ears but paint this great picture in my head while I’m listening to it. I admit the first verse of Justin’s song is ok it’s setting the stage it’s catchy but that’s about it. The picture it conjures up for me is Memphis but I’m not sure that’s what he was going for … let’s call this one a draw as well.

We are going to skip the chorus for now … don’t worry we’ll get back to that.

Justin’s 2^nd verse –

"Ohh, it’s something magical

It’s in the air, it’s in my blood, it’s rushing on
Don’t need no reason, don’t need control
I fly so high, no ceiling, when I’m in my zone"

Pharrell’s 2^nd verse

“Here come bad news talking this and that

Yeah, give me all you got, don’t hold back
Year, well I should probably warn you I’ll be just fine
Year, no offense to you don’t waste your time
Here’s why…”

Let’s talk Justin’s song first, cause I admit this verse much like the previous one is catchy but that’s about it. I agree with Golden that you can’t have sunshine in your pocket and if you did it would hurt like hell cause it would burn. However, I get what he’s doing here, he’s not being literal, he’s talking about how music makes you feel when you are really into a song, when it’s drilling down into your inner being and you just really get into a song. Point JT. 

Pharrell’s verse I’m going to let it speak for itself, I can only imagine that the conversation he’s trying to have includes two guys walking towards him and he’s pretty sure they are going to rough him up and take his lunch money but he’s got a girl watching so he’s gotta stand his ground. These guys walk up and tell him his hat is stupid, and he decides to respectfully decline but decides he has other business to attend to and needs to walk away. Yes that’s right people I create this random scenario to play in my head so that I don’t have to pay attention to this stupid .... stupid song.

Finally... The chorus, the part of the song that's suppose to bring everything together with a nice bow..... BOTH chorus feel like unnecessary noise to me, both feel like a repeat of the same say 20 words over and over again.I’m not retyping the lyrics here cause frankly I don’t want to. Again it’s my blog!  They both annoy me, and frankly in Justin’s all I hear is DANCE DANCE DANCE, and of course with Pharrell’s all I hear is HAPPY repeated a billion times. No points awarded for either here! Actually I may deduct some....yes lets do that.

so in conclusion, while I fully agree that GOLDEN isn’t wrong that they are similar songs, both kind of eat at my soul and make my ears bleed a little bit In My Defense I have decided that at least Justin’s song tells a linear story, if you pay attention to it. When I listen to it I can picture him and some female (ok in my head it’s usually Jessica cause well it makes sense) dancing and having a great time and he having a much better time cause she’s having a good time. Dare I say it …. They sound crazy happy. Ha! His song describes perfectly that moment when it’s you and your significant other together and the rest of the world kind of fades away. It’s cute, I like thinking there are couples that still have those moments.

So that’s it, that’s how I justify that I’m allowed to like CSTF (damn thats a long song title) and still hate Happy. I live with this decision, and I stand by it. I may be a hypocrite, but I have at least given this some thought which is far more than Pharrell can say about how he wrote Happy. I also have to admit the amount of effort JT is putting into this song and getting people excited about it and how he's enjoying the ride of another single and being back on the radio makes you want to root for it, you want it to succeed cause frankly he looks like he’s having a blast and well that’s what summer is all about.

So I repeat …. My name is Marcy and while I might be a hypocrite I’m HAPPY about it (see what i did there?) and im going to continue to  dance my tail off while driving to and from work listening to it, even if as Golden says "THEY ARE THE SAME GODDAMN SONG!!!!!!"

-marcy

Music … it’s a love and a curse

I consider myself a music schizophrenic, my MP3 player can go from country, to rap, to classical music, to soundtracks, to Broadway musicals, to rock, and pop all in the course of 10 minutes. I love shuffle, it may be the best thing ever invented in life. I get tired of listening to the same thing over and over, that’s partly why I hate RADIO, they seem to play the same 12 songs every hour or all the songs they play sound the same to me. It’s important from the beginning that you understand all of that because while I LOVE music sometimes I also LOATHE it!

 

Today after church my family and I decided to go to dinner. It was a new place we’ve heard about but had never been. I was having a perfectly enjoyable time, laughing with the family when the first few beats of the Pharell Williams Happy came on over the radio speakers. I immediately dropped my head to my chest disgusted. My family on the other hand had zero idea of what was going on. Mom thought there was something wrong with my food, Dad thought someone came in the door that I didn’t want to see. If only it could have been those things, or an alien ship landing on the roof, anything other than what it was I’d have been happy. That song ruined for me a perfectly enjoyable time and it was ALL I could hear, I know…I know don’t give it the power… just don’t listen…but that’s not possible. I know it’s on it’s being played around me and there’s nothing I can do. I can’t temporarily go deaf -- oh my god that would be a fantastic superpower -- if you could turn it on and off like a light switch.

As you can tell… I HATE that song. I was told I just didn’t understand it which is basically a giant middle finger waved in my face. So I gave it a chance, I read the lyrics, I listened to the song several times. I even sat through the video more than once. I have watched perfectly intelligent people enjoy the song and dance around with their kids to it all laughing and having a perfectly wonderful time … I just don’t get it. At best it sounds like we are listening to a dude on the bus having a phone conversation and we only hear his side of it making him sound even more schizophrenic than a businessman in terminal 3 talking on a blue tooth device.

I hold music in high regard, musicians are these amazing poets who see the world differently that most and should be respected but I just…that song…I can’t. It just eats away at my soul and makes me want to scream! If a brand new artist walked into his first meeting with a record company with this song he’d have been laughed out of the room and his contract ripped up and thrown away right in front of him/her.

However all that aside what really gets me about this song, and most pop type songs, is that days from now I’ll still be singing that damn hook in my head. Just randomly in some meeting or driving to work it will pop up and I’ll start singing it in my head and start looking for a blunt instrument to hit myself with. That happens yet I can’t remember important things like pick up milk two minutes after I leave the house to get milk. I hate that effect music can have on people, especially since there’s nothing I can do about it. I guess I just wish if a subliminal message were going to be implanted into my brain that it’s be something useful in everyday life… I don’t know like the name of the 7 dwarfs or the quantities of ingredients from say cups to quarts or even birthdays of family and friends, hell the digits of Pi, anything remotely useful in life would be great but no…that’s not what I get…what I get is … “Cause I’m happy!” over and over in my head…and now dear reader you have it too and thus I’m no longer alone, so thanks for reading and thanks for listening. Rant is now over resume your Sunday activities.

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PS a friendly reminder to connect with Golden @TheOnlyGolden and I @beaslma via twitter and let’s chat. We like meeting new people and we like hearing that people other than us are reading this page. Remember use #SayWhatMG