Published on Aug 9, 2001
When I lived in Ethiopia in 1989 there were zero record stores.
That’s not an approximate number; that’s what happens in socialist
regimes. I am now living in ultra-capitalist Korea, it’s 2001, but
despite these facts I still can’t find a copy Stevie Nicks’
Trouble In Shangri-La, released two months ago to the rest
of the world.
So when I see anti-globalization protesters on television, I am
thinking, WHAT COUNTRY ARE WE FROM??? I want to be able to use my
Korean credit card (with its lower rates) to make Amazon.com
purchases. I want to eat Ethiopian injera in Seoul. Above all, I
want to have more than Destiny’s Child, NSync and Britney Spears as
my “Overseas Pop” selection in the local record store.
How to explain the success of Destiny’s Child? It’s related to
the concept of choice underlining my above rant; when you’re an
R&B fan and you walk into a record store these days, you won’t
find much of a choice out there. Sure, both Janet Jackson and
Aaliyah have recently dropped new albums, but there was a huge
stretch of sheer nothing before that. It was the polar opposite of,
say, winter of 1994, when Michael Jackson, Janet Jackson, Mariah
Carey, Whitney Houston and Madonna charted simultaneously.
Survivor doesn’t live up to its chart position (then again,
what does nowadays?). There’s one excellent track: with its “Edge
Of Seventeen” sample, “Bootylicious”, the album’s second number one
after the overplayed title track, takes bounce to a hyper new
level. Then there are a bunch of OK tracks, ones that would serve
as last-minute fillers in a TLC album: “Independent Women Part I”,
a track that went number one due to lack of competition, dancy fun
with “Apple Pie A La Mode”, the layered title track, the fun
bitchiness of “Fancy” where they (apparently) slag off former
members of Destiny’s Child, the hypocritical “Nasty Girl” about a
girl who dresses too scantily (and a song many a music critic has
taken target practice on). “Perfect Man,” originally seen on the
“Romeo Must Die” soundtrack, is also a good song but any group
could’ve pulled it off so no extra points to DC.
The ballads aren’t good, despite the fact that they’re
well-written songs. DC doesn’t have the extra “I have survived”
magic to pull of soulfulness and their attempts at profound
emotions are as teenage ditty-ish as they come. “Emotion”, a Bee
Gees cover, and “Dangerously In Love” should’ve been done with
coolness of expression and restraint but they have the embarrassing
heat of teenage desperation (well, they *are* technically
teenagers). Beyonce makes the mistake of being all alone for “My
Heart Still Beats” which sounds exactly like your next door
neighbor imitating Mariah Carey.
Carey has recorded not a few duds in the past but at least her
voice made it interesting; the annoying fact of the matter is that
Destiny’s Child just aren’t that special. Replace them with any
three girls who can somewhat harmonize and you’ll have Destiny’s
Child… in fact, tellingly, the current version is not 1.0
(they’ve gone through two members so far, in a sinister Supremes
sort of way; this is currently the third version).
A friend of mine recently said, “Let’s see what happens when TLC
releases another album. Anyone remember En Vogue?” I don’t know
about the other industries but the commercial music sector could
use some of that high competition of a globalized society.