This time again, Abdullah made the genre posts, its one of the perks of having a music genius on the team.
For here onward, the words are Abdullah's
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“Otherside” is the first track from Perfume Genius’, a.k.a. Mike Hadreas’ fourth album, No Shape. It is tricky to label this song, and the album it is from, in terms of genre. The album fuses elements from all sorts of musical styles, including rock, psychedelic, pop, electronica, gospel, orchestral and just about everything else. The closest one can get to assigning this song a genre is to say it is art pop, which I think is a fairly accurate. In this post, I want to define ‘art pop’ and explore its origins.
Art pop has always been a relatively niche genre. Its origins can be traced back to the 1960’s, when artists like Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, The Beatles and The Who began incorporating elements of the pop art movement into their musical releases. I guess Phil Spector had something to do with the movement too, but we don’t like to talk about him. In the 70’s, art pop was closely associated with glam rock; art pop acts would incorporate outlandish visual themes, theatricality and artistic eccentricity into their star images. Prime examples include The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper.
This is around the time acts like Brian Eno, Talking Heads and David Bowie came into the industry. In the 80’s, there were artists like Grace Jones, Duran Duran, and Kate Bush.
After the 80’s, art pop becomes a little harder to define. In its early days, the term “art pop” was generally associated with elements of star image other than an artist’s musicality itself. I personally credit Björk with upending this criterion (though I might be partial, because, as mentioned before, I worship her). Justin Farago of The Guardian wrote: “The last 30 years in art history are in large part a story of collaborative enterprises, of collapsed boundaries between high art and low, and of the end of divisions between media. Few cultural figures have made the distinctions seem as meaningless as the Icelandic singer who combined trip hop with 12-tone, and who brought the avant garde to MTV just before both those things disappeared.”
What differentiated Björk, as is well put in the above quote, is that she was one of the first examples of a popular music creator who not only incorporated artistic elements into her visuals and image, but also in her music. Her melodic and harmonic structures, her rhythms, her lyrical themes, none of it was normal for a pop star.
I believe the rise of Björk marked a shift in the definition of ‘art pop’. In the 60’s and 70’s, art pop was defined as any kind of popular music focused on the fulcrum points of fashion and visual art. It literally meant the incorporation of art into the visual elements of musical releases, including artwork and videos. But since Björk, music is generally considered art pop if it has some of the tell-tale signs of pop music, but has certain sonic elements that are more artistic and off-kilter. I would consider contemporary examples of art pop artists to include Charli XCX, Grimes, FKA Twigs, Kanye West, Lana del Ray and St. Vincent.
What all of this indicates to me above all else, in terms of the project at hand, is that our visuals need to be striking. Maybe even campy. Something with a distinct visual signature, and something artistic. Perfume Genius, like other contemporary art pop artists, has very artistic music, accompanied by an overtly artistic image. Our imaginary artist must have a similarly artistic image. That’s a lot of “artistic”s.
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Back to my words, this perfectly summed up the genre of our new direction and in the post I will analyze the lyrics of Otherside.
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