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We swear, this Cee-Lo song is hot
August 24, 2010
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/music/article/852006--we-swear-this-cee-lo-song-is-hot
Cee-Lo Green's catchy but expletive-laden new song quickly went viral.
RUSSEL A. DANIELS/AP FILE PHOTO
The hottest song in America at the moment is a catchy little ditty whose title and lyrics are so cheerfully foul that polite newspapers won't be publishing it anytime soon. You probably won't be hearing it on a radio station, either.
Suffice to say, the tune — by Cee-Lo Green, formerly of the pop group Gnarls Barkley — is a two-word, Anglo-Saxon, hortatory phrase whose first word is typically rendered by dashes or a string of nonsense characters from the upper levels of a keyboard. Some of Cee-Lo's other lyrics are what might be described as “problematic,” as well.
Despite this (or perhaps because of it) the song — we'll just call it That Song — has become a bona fide underground phenomenon in literally just a few hours. Since being released last Thursday, That Song's video, a simple animation of its profanely direct lyrics, has burned up YouTube. By Saturday afternoon, adventurous souls had viewed the video more than 200,000 times. By early Monday, it had picked up an additional million more, crossing 1.2 million views.
By midday Monday, it was already the subject of an “answer” song, a rhyming reply done by none other than 50 Cent.
By now, the thrill is probably already gone.
Such blindingly fast viral velocity suggests that George Carlin's famed routine about the ephemerality of pop music has moved from parody to near reality. Carlin imagined a fast-talking Top 40 deejay speaking about the latest hit: “Here's a tune that's really moving fast. When I say fast, it was recorded at 9 o'clock this morning. At 12 noon it was No. 15. At 3 o'clock, it was the No. 1 sound in town. And now it's a golden oldie!”
Set to a kind of neo-Motown beat, That Song takes the point of view of a jilted lover, watching his former girlfriend hit the town with a new, wealthier man. The lyrics include such couplets: “Yeah, I'm sorry I can't afford a Ferrari/That don't mean I can't get you there. /I guess he's an Xbox and I'm more Atari/But the way you play your game ain't fair.”
The verboten phrase is both the song's title and the singer's rebuke to the couple.
Professional pop music critics and other hard-to-please online commenters have been nearly unanimous in their praise of the infectious song, which admittedly combines both shock value and a bit of humour. No less than The Wall Street Journal said it “may be the best rock and pop single of the year.”
No station has dared to air an unexpurgated version of the song yet. However, BBC radio was apparently the first to air an edited version on Saturday — with the most pungent phrase replaced by the bland translation into nonprofanity: “Forget you!” — plus other profanities masked or edited out.
Naughty language in pop music has a long and proudly sordid history, dating back to the earliest days of rock, R&B and jazz. Complaints and controversy have followed in the wake of such classic pop provocations as The Kingsmen's “Louie, Louie,” Chuck Berry's “My Ding-a-ling” and Elton John's “The Bitch is Back.” Rap and hip-hop songs have been criticized for decades for the defiant frankness of their lyrics, too.
What's more, Cee-Lo's new song carries the same title as a bouncy recording by the British pop singer Lily Allen, released last year. That one attracted a following on the Internet, and even climbed the British sales charts, but didn't get very far on American radio stations.
The Washington Post
CAUTION WARNING WARNING
:stop:
I have provided a link to You-Tube with the attached warning. Why...because I find it a catchy tune.
"This video or group may contain content that is inappropriate for some users, as flagged by YouTube's user community."
http://www.youtube.com/verify_age?next_url=http%3A//www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DCAV0XrbEwNc
We swear, this Cee-Lo song is hot
August 24, 2010
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/music/article/852006--we-swear-this-cee-lo-song-is-hot
Cee-Lo Green's catchy but expletive-laden new song quickly went viral.
RUSSEL A. DANIELS/AP FILE PHOTO
The hottest song in America at the moment is a catchy little ditty whose title and lyrics are so cheerfully foul that polite newspapers won't be publishing it anytime soon. You probably won't be hearing it on a radio station, either.
Suffice to say, the tune — by Cee-Lo Green, formerly of the pop group Gnarls Barkley — is a two-word, Anglo-Saxon, hortatory phrase whose first word is typically rendered by dashes or a string of nonsense characters from the upper levels of a keyboard. Some of Cee-Lo's other lyrics are what might be described as “problematic,” as well.
Despite this (or perhaps because of it) the song — we'll just call it That Song — has become a bona fide underground phenomenon in literally just a few hours. Since being released last Thursday, That Song's video, a simple animation of its profanely direct lyrics, has burned up YouTube. By Saturday afternoon, adventurous souls had viewed the video more than 200,000 times. By early Monday, it had picked up an additional million more, crossing 1.2 million views.
By midday Monday, it was already the subject of an “answer” song, a rhyming reply done by none other than 50 Cent.
By now, the thrill is probably already gone.
Such blindingly fast viral velocity suggests that George Carlin's famed routine about the ephemerality of pop music has moved from parody to near reality. Carlin imagined a fast-talking Top 40 deejay speaking about the latest hit: “Here's a tune that's really moving fast. When I say fast, it was recorded at 9 o'clock this morning. At 12 noon it was No. 15. At 3 o'clock, it was the No. 1 sound in town. And now it's a golden oldie!”
Set to a kind of neo-Motown beat, That Song takes the point of view of a jilted lover, watching his former girlfriend hit the town with a new, wealthier man. The lyrics include such couplets: “Yeah, I'm sorry I can't afford a Ferrari/That don't mean I can't get you there. /I guess he's an Xbox and I'm more Atari/But the way you play your game ain't fair.”
The verboten phrase is both the song's title and the singer's rebuke to the couple.
Professional pop music critics and other hard-to-please online commenters have been nearly unanimous in their praise of the infectious song, which admittedly combines both shock value and a bit of humour. No less than The Wall Street Journal said it “may be the best rock and pop single of the year.”
No station has dared to air an unexpurgated version of the song yet. However, BBC radio was apparently the first to air an edited version on Saturday — with the most pungent phrase replaced by the bland translation into nonprofanity: “Forget you!” — plus other profanities masked or edited out.
Naughty language in pop music has a long and proudly sordid history, dating back to the earliest days of rock, R&B and jazz. Complaints and controversy have followed in the wake of such classic pop provocations as The Kingsmen's “Louie, Louie,” Chuck Berry's “My Ding-a-ling” and Elton John's “The Bitch is Back.” Rap and hip-hop songs have been criticized for decades for the defiant frankness of their lyrics, too.
What's more, Cee-Lo's new song carries the same title as a bouncy recording by the British pop singer Lily Allen, released last year. That one attracted a following on the Internet, and even climbed the British sales charts, but didn't get very far on American radio stations.
The Washington Post
CAUTION WARNING WARNING
:stop:
I have provided a link to You-Tube with the attached warning. Why...because I find it a catchy tune.
"This video or group may contain content that is inappropriate for some users, as flagged by YouTube's user community."
http://www.youtube.com/verify_age?next_url=http%3A//www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DCAV0XrbEwNc
