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Monday, Mar 21, 2011 10:22 PM UTC2011-03-21T22:22:00Zl, M j, Y g:i A T

Five beloved pop songs with lyrics more derivative than “Friday”

Rebecca Black isn't the only singer whose songs are the musical equivalent of a lobotomy. Why blame only her?

Is Bieber's "Baby" so brilliant?

Is Bieber's "Baby" so brilliant?

While the rest of the world was busy debating how much worse 13-year-old Rebecca Black’s song “Friday” was than the current situation in Japan or Libya, Cord Jefferson from new media magazine Good was putting things in perspective. “Calling ‘Friday’ disastrous is akin to The New York Review of Books tearing apart The Berenstain Bears,” wrote Cord, “Sure, it doesn’t meet your standards. It’s not for you.”

Then again, a lot of pop songs don’t really have the most thought-provoking lyrics. Leaving aside the fact that Rebecca didn’t write “Friday” (though maybe it would have been better if she had), most of our Top 40 songs are catchy because of – not despite – their repetitiveness. Cord gives the example of Katy Perry’s songs, but honestly compared to some of the crap out there, “Teenage Dream” is friggin’ “Finnegans Wake.” Below, five pop hits with the most stupid lyrics imaginable, and why they are worse for our culture than “Friday.”

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Drew Grant is a staff writer for Salon. Follow her on Twitter at @videodrewMore Drew Grant

Tuesday, Feb 21, 2012 4:40 PM UTC2012-02-21T16:40:00Zl, M j, Y g:i A T

Adele: The new Kurt Cobain

A Grammy sensation is cheered for her "authenticity." Coming next: Dour, humorless copycats invade the pop charts

Kurt Cobain and Adele

Kurt Cobain and Adele  (Credit: Reuters)

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With her armload of Grammys, three nominations for tonight’s Brit Awards and a stack of platinum albums, England’s Adele reigns over pop music at home and abroad. “Someone Like You,” the closing track of her 17-million-selling album “21,” is arguably the past year’s signature song, widely hailed – as is all her music – for its “authenticity.” But beyond its piano-and-voice starkness, it sounds like, well … 1992.

The song’s quiet/loud structure, its nakedly personal lyrics, and Adele’s aggressive, cathartic yawp in the chorus are all hallmarks of grunge-era rock. And authenticity, that elusive concept, is what Kurt Cobain was said to embody 20 years ago. As a resolutely working-class singer who penned songs about psychological pain and refused to conform to a stereotypical pop-star image, he was seen as a beacon of “realness” in an era of manufactured pop. The same could be said of Adele. If her success is any gauge, we’re entering a new era where displays of “authenticity” will be de rigueur. Let’s just hope it doesn’t do away with fun.

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Saturday, Feb 18, 2012 5:00 PM UTC2012-02-18T17:00:00Zl, M j, Y g:i A T

Quick Hits: Yuja Wang plays live

This elegant young virtuoso pianist (and not-so-secret Rihanna fan) is on track for a dazzling career

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Quick Hits

 (Credit: Sound Tracks)

At the age of 24, Chinese-born Yuja Wang is one of the most exciting concert pianists in the world. Onstage, she cuts an elegant, sometimes provocative figure. Backstage, she’s more like a teenager, noshing snacks and listening to Rihanna on her earphones. But there’s no doubt that Ms. Wang, now a resident of New York, has captivated audiences and critics, from Beijing to Berlin. Her “virtuosity is stunning,” says the New York Times. “An artist of dazzling genius,” raves the San Francisco Chronicle. She’s earned praise for her almost “superhuman keyboard technique,” as well as her sensitivity and fearlessness.

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Monday, Feb 13, 2012 4:13 PM UTC2012-02-13T16:13:00Zl, M j, Y g:i A T

Whitney Houston’s lessons in love

As a girl, the late diva's songs taught me about love. As an adult, she showed me about loss and pain

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Whitney Houston at Wembley Stadium in 1988.

Whitney Houston at Wembley Stadium in 1988.  (Credit: Reuters)

In seventh grade I owned the cassette tape of “Whitney,” the second album by Whitney Houston, which was true of pretty much every 12-year-old female in America. I played the hell out of that tape. I used to spend afternoons in my bedroom, lip-syncing those songs to my bedroom wall, because that’s the kind of kid I was. Always longing for an imaginary audience. I did not want to be a writer back then, or the president of the United States. I wanted to be a pop star. And in 1987, there wasn’t any pop star more elegant or talented than Whitney Houston. Daughter of a gospel singer, niece of an R&B legend, smashingly beautiful — she was practically anointed by the gods for greatness.

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Sarah Hepola is an editor at Salon.  More Sarah Hepola

Sunday, Feb 12, 2012 1:54 PM UTC2012-02-12T13:54:00Zl, M j, Y g:i A T

A voice that touched us all

Like Michael Jackson, another icon lost to addiction and fame, Whitney was an awe-inspiring, genre-crossing pioneer

Obit Whitney Houston

Whitney Houston performs during the Billboard Awards at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on Dec. 7, 1998.  (Credit: AP)

On Thursday night, Whitney Houston appeared at the Kelly Price & Friends Unplugged: For The Love of R&B pre-Grammys event. Amateur YouTube footage of the singer’s performance hinted at hysteria: Audience members screamed her name and flashbulbs exploded as she crooned the Christian hymn “Jesus Loves Me” in a sultry lower register as a duet with Price. The version of the song was gentle and tempered, although Houston’s beatific looks and animated gestures imbued it with quiet jubilance.

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Annie Zaleski is the managing editor of Alternative Press magazine.  More Annie Zaleski

Sunday, Feb 12, 2012 3:15 AM UTC2012-02-12T03:15:00Zl, M j, Y g:i A T

Whitney Houston dies at 48

A look back at the glorious career and biggest hits of the troubled pop diva

VIDEO
Singer Whitney Houston is shown during the Whitney Houston "I Look To You" CD Listening Party held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Thursday July 23, 2009 in Beverly Hills, California.

Singer Whitney Houston is shown during the Whitney Houston "I Look To You" CD Listening Party held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Thursday July 23, 2009 in Beverly Hills, California.

Before the tragic tabloid headlines, the “crack is wack” denials and the tumultuous marriage to Bobby Brown, pop/soul diva Whitney Houston towered over the music world in the mid-1980s and early ’90s.

Houston died Saturday in Beverly Hills, on the eve of the Grammy Awards. She was 48.

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