Posts
One is a solo artist whose UK chart career now spans almost 11 years, and now has a greatest hits album to celebrate the fact. The other are a band who have sold over 65 million albums worldwide and have their own broadway musical. But aside from a penchant for spiky hair and names destined for novelty versions of the Dulux Colour Chart, what exactly to P!nk and Green Day have in common? Ever the pop sleuths, we set out to find out.
First of all, cast your minds back to June 2001, when P!nk was still largely known as an RnB vocalist on the cusp of metamorphosing into the pop-punk stylings which she would go on to champion for the rest of her career. It was this Summer that, as part of the hype of the Baz Lurhman-directed mega-hit Moulin Rouge!, that P!nk was enlisted to collaborate that would not only bring together some of RnB's hottest vocal talents, but would give her her first UK Number 1 hit single. That single, of course was Lady Marmalade, and as well as constituting an unreconstructed diva-off, it effortlessly and sassily updated the blueprint set down by LaBelle in 1975
In addition to Christina Aguilera, Lil Kim and Missy Elliot (who, if we're all honest, only showed up to collect a few quid to introduce the video and then buggered right off), the track also featured Mya who had been undergoing her own career renaissance in 2001. Whilst also having a huge solo number 3 hit with the frankly-brilliant Case Of The Ex, Mya was also known for providing the vocal flourish behind this collaborative smash in 1998.
Pras Michel, also known as probably the sanest person ever to emerge from The Fugees, had his biggest "solo" hit with this genius reworking of the Dolly Parton/Kenny Rogers classic Islands In The Stream (which, lest we forget, was written by THE BEE GEES!). Far more successful, of course, was his tenure in The Fugees alongside Lauryn Hill and Wyclef Jean. Prior to attempting to become president of Haiti (despite not having actually lived there all that much prior to standing for election) Wyclef had carved out a respectable reputation as a producer and a solo artist clocking up such hits as Perfect Gentleman (about the life and times of a man who meets a stripper who is trying to pay her way through College), Gone Till November and this little gem with Claudette Ortiz of the short-lived City High: Two Wrongs. All this is grist to the mill, however, in light of our ultimate destination. So we want to pinpoint one particular stop on The Pop Web's Wyclef Jean Nostalgia Trip. That stop would be 911, Wyclef's duet with the RnB icon Mary J Blige.
Mary J Blige's own career has seen a bit of a mixed bag in terms of chart viablity and, indeed, quality. Despite undoubted highlights like Family Affair and No More Drama you've got the little-bit-dismal Just Fine. Blige's duet with U2, a cover of the band's seminal classic One we would argue falls somewhere in the middle (even if it is one of The Pop Web's guilty pleasures), even though it probably doesn't cater to hardcore U2 fans' tastes.
U2, conveniently enough, provide the final stepping stone on our way across the babbling fjord that is pop. Back in 2006, the world was collectively recoiling in horror in the wake of the humanitarian disaster that befel New Orleans in the aftermath of the devastating Hurricane Katrina. One of the most prevalent opinions that could be made out on the political stage at the time was of the disbelief that then-president George W. Bush wasn't doing nearly enough to help New Orleans' citizens to recover from the disaster. Enter U2, who teamed up with (you've guessed it) Green Day to record The Saints Are Coming, the video for which posed the question: what would have happened if the US Armed Forces had had their attentions redirected from Afghanistan and Iraq towards helping Louisianna recover from the hurricane's effects?
Powerful stuff, but, being the merciless scavengers we are, for our purposes it simply provides one more connection in the incestuous world that is dear old pop.
So there we have it, from P!nk to Punk Green Day. That wasn't so hard now, was it. And coincidentally, we're now in the mood for a trip to homebase to freshen up these walls a bit. We're thinking Banana Dream should be just the trick...
P!nk - Mya - Pras Michel - Wyclef Jean - Mary J. Blige - U2 - Green Day
0 comments:
Post a Comment
Thoughts???