Tag: music

‘Rona Rock:’ I’ve Seen The Face Of Pop Rock And Its Name Is Olivia Rodrigo


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’ve written at length about this before, but Olivia Rodrigo’s release of her album “sour” has me thinking about it again — now that the United States is getting out of the pandemic, maybe it’s time for pop rock to return.

I call this neo-pop rock, “Rona Rock.”

Let me give you some context. There are millions of old farts like me who love rock that has a beat and you can dance to. Maybe a few dozen million. And, at the moment, they are forced to listen to “classic rock.” Not a lot of new pop rock is coming out and that which is coming out is almost exclusively Miley Cyrus doing covers of old pop rock songs.

Sour is so close to being a traditional pop rock album. It still, however, lacks the edge of a true pop rock album. It’s more a POP rock album. So it seems to me that of all the popular acts out there that Rodrigo is the most likely to come out with an album produced by someone like Butch Vig of Nirvana’s “Heart Shape Box” and the band Garbage.

In fact, I would go so far as to say if Rodrigo did go that route that a lot of GenZ people would experience a significant amount of musical future shock. They wouldn’t know what hit’em.

There is another, safer, direction that Rodrigo could go that would be almost just as good — the Nelly Furtado option of teaming up with someone like Timbaland. The album they did together is one of my favorites of the Before Times when some form of pop rock still existed.

And, yet, I doubt this will happen in any way. It’s too risky for an established act to make such an abrupt break with existing musical tastes. If my dream of “Rona Rock” is going to happen, it’s going to happen because a pop rock song becomes unexpectedly popular on Tik-Tok.

Deconstructing Phoebe Bridgers’, ‘Kyoto’


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Ok, as always, I’m extremely late to the party with a new artist. This time, it’s Phoebe Bridgers. The one song of hers that I love, love, love is Kyoto. But to my ear, there are a number of other songs floating around in this one song. So, let’s go through them, shall we?

First up, The Velvet Underground:

Then, add in a little bit of The Polyphonic Spree:

And, lastly, throw in Paul Westerberg

It’s rare that the influences of a song are so stark to my ears. But those three songs together and you get this:

Lyrics To ‘Arni’s Resistance:’ ‘Nothing Is Real’


I have no idea what I’m doing. But it’s a challenge to at least try to fit lyrics to music. Techno is good it’s easier to find instrumentals of it on Soundcloud.

Nothing Is Real (But The Way You Make Me Feel)
Music from Arni
lyrics by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
please give credit if you produce or perform

nothing is real
nothing is real
nothing is real
nothing is real

but the way you make me feel
but the way you make me feel
but the way you make me feel

Bridge
your look is hard as ice
making me strive more
to warm you in the night
to end this blight of hate
because nothing is real

but the way you make me feel
but the way you make me feel
but the way you make me feel

Mixed Media — The Significance of Music In This Novel


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I have no idea what I’m doing with this novel. I’ve been working on it for about three years now — so long, in fact, that the era it was meant to rant about is over — and the one constant has been I want music to be an important part of the storytelling process.

It’s so important to me that I’ve come up with a rather elaborate — if intuitive — reason for music to be something that ties the hero and heroine together on an emotional level. And, really, the only thing I worry about when it comes to this aspect of the story is not everyone will know the songs I reference simply from their titles.

This is a novel, not a screenplay I’m writing, after all.

But I’ve gone out of my way to use songs that are either so well known that the average person wouldn’t have to look them up or their titles are pretty much self-explanatory in the context of how they’re referenced. At least, that’s what I’m thinking about as I pick songs. I see this novel as something of a High Fidelity meets The Girl Who Played With Fire in how important music is to the progression of the plot. And given that I’m writing this thing with “woke Park Slope moms” at the forefront of my mind, I’m hoping that will be something the audience really gets into.

The more I grow consumed by developing and writing this novel, the more I continue to allow myself to be the “delusional” phase of development. I am finally, however, allowing myself to admit that at a minium I’m not going to embarrass myself with this novel if I just keep going and do the hard work.

The musical aspect of the novel is one that I’m including because of how personal this novel is. What gets me is I’m throwing myself completely into this novel and it’s not even meant to be literary — it’s just meant to be a fun thriller that uses subtext to rant about the Trump Era.

But the Trump Era is (hopefully) over and, as such, I have to use the Lady Bird Gambit to keep it relevant. Yet I have to admit that even though I feel some serious existential angst about any of this, I feel as though maybe, just maybe, things are going to move a lot fast with this novel.

‘Night Monsters’ — #Lyrics To A Pop-Rock Song About #Covid19 Symptoms


I know nothing about music. I’m just letting off steam. This would be a slow, dark, methodical pop rock song.


Night Monsters
lyrics by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
please give credit if you produce or perform

night monsters
night monsters
come out at night
just out of sight
night monsters
night monsters

night monsters
knock you out for delight
the aches are there
the fear rears its head
at night with all its might
what are you going to do
when they’re let out of the zoo

night monsters
night monsters
comout out at night
just out of sight
night monsters
night monsters

night monsters
stare at your body
make you can’t move or make a sound
you feel like a clown
won’t allow a twitch
without some sort of hitch

(bridge)
when dawn arrives
we let out a sigh
hoping they’re gone
knowing they’ll be back
leaving us out of whack

night monsters
night monsters
comout out at night
just out of sight
night monsters
night monsters

Miley Cyrus, Please Cover These Songs


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m really digging Miley Cyrus’ latest album. Even though absolutely no one listens to me, here are songs for her to cover for her next hopefully even-more-rock album.

The above song is duh. I keep suggesting different modern female vocalists cover it and nothing happens. Anyway, this song is perfect for Ms. Cyrus because she could scream at the top of her lungs and it would make total sense. It would make a lot of sense for this cover’s rock guitar to come from St. Vincent’s Annie Clark.

This is another great song for Ms. Cyrus because she could scream all she wanted to and it would work with the song, something that can not be said for her cover of Blondie’s “Heart of Glass” which simply made no sense for it.

The above is another great scream-at-the-top-of-your-lungs song that Ms. Cyrus might do a good-to-great job with.

Given how — apparently? — Ms. Cyrus is a big old mo as they say, it might be fun for her to sing the Meatloaf side of the above duet. The more I think about it, that would be pretty great. Maybe get Ariana Grande to sing the traditionally female part?

Anyway. No one listens to me.

‘Rona Rock:’ Miley Cyrus Is Making The Best Pop-Rock Music Out Today


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m shocked how great the music Miley Cyrus is producing right now is. It blows my mind. It’s actual…gasp…pop rock! She seems to have finally figured out how to use her particular vocal style in the pop rock genre. I call this New Sound, “Rona Rock” but that’s just me.

In particular, I really like her duet with Dua Lipa “Prisoner.” That’s what I’m talking about. That’s a pretty traditional pop rock banger. It’s got a beat and you can dance to it, as they say. Keep doing that! Go that direction!

I could do without the allusion to period cunnilingus in the video. Jesus Christ, ladies. But the song itself is great. I love it. I’m probably going to listen to it a zillian times over the next few weeks.

The question, of course, is this just a blip or a trend? I continue to be astonished by the cultural ignorance younger people. It’s like they barely know any music outside of The Beatles that’s older than 30 years old. It makes you wonder what happens if they suddenly discover the entirety of The British Invasion. Or punk. Or whatever. Good music.

Anyway. Keep up the good work Miley!

The Curious Connection Between Busta Rhymes’ ‘Gimme Some Mo’ & Basement Jaxx’s ‘Smoke Bubbles’


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Has anyone else noticed the connection between this song:

And THIS song.

I didn’t do Google search, but if you listen to the background of Smoke Bubbles about, maybe, 2/3rds of the way through, you hear in the background the sound that is fucking IDENTICAL to the iconic wooo–wOOOO–wooOOOooo of Gimmie Some Mo.

If I wasn’t so indifferent, I’d figure out which song came first then figure out who took from whom. I guess that’s why I’m a failed reporter who couldn’t get an internship at Vox. It’s possible that what I’m hearing is the performers share producers or something — again, just looking at the songs’ Wikipedia entry would solve this mystery, maybe.

I Hate Being Old: I Could Write A Pop Hit, Given The Opportunity


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I used to write lyrics all the time because it was very, very relaxing. But I wrote them very quickly. And I don’t know anything about music. I might write some more soon because it’s so relaxing, but it’s also a huge waste of time when I could be working on my novel.

I don’t know guitar. And even if I became a middle-aged cliche and learned how to play guitar now, I would still have to overcome the ageism. The entire music business is designed from the ground up to prevent people like me to break into it.

But maybe once I finish the two books in this novel story I’m working on right now I’ll learn guitar. I like how writing lyrics force an economy of words on you that is very challenging.

Save Us, Miley Cyrus, From Adult Contemporary’s Tyranny


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I don’t know what what’s going on with Miley Cyrus. Even though she wants to scream her songs for some reason, she is obviously searching around for a “new sound.” What’s so weird is she wants to do this within the context of the dreaded Adult Contemporary.

Why can’t we have nice things in music anymore, like regular old pop rock? You can update it anyway you want to, but give me a rock sound that’s got a beat and you can dance to. Here are a few songs that I think, if you modernized them, would serve as a great source for the “New Sound.”

Now, let me point something out. There is plenty of rock music out there, I know, but it’s not pop rock and it’s not Top 40. I want that vibe we used to have of a pop rock Top 40 hit. It makes you wonder if the death of rock is existential or if it’s just that our new Lennon is only 13 and hasn’t gotten his heart broken yet.

Or, it could be that I’m just old and all this talk of a “New Sound” is really just my way of telling Zoomers to get off my musical yard. But I will note that it is…odd…that we’ve suffered under the jackboot of Adult Contemporary for so very fucking long.

I wish Miley Cyrus — of all people — would hook up with Butch Vig and come out with a Garbage-like sound. That would be sooooo cool.