Two weird bits of Schreiberdelia today.

Re: No Doubt--OK, I get pretty annoyed at "Spiderwebs" and "Hey Baby" at times, too, but "Southside"? ""Let Me Blow Ya Mind"? Horrors? I think not. Those are fabulous songs, m'friend, and if you can't see it--well, you don't spend enough time in your car.

Ryan's WATW posts provide a nice case study of what happens to indie-snobbism when it tries to adapt to popism--it gets snobbish about liking the right pop songs, and this particular ability of taste becomes more worthwhile than the artists involved; the ability to pick out one particular No Doubt song is more admirable than actually being in No Doubt, and never do they get those beautiful realizations, those flashes of light wherein a particular song working for you for whatever reason allows you to go back and appreciate songs you had overlooked before.

As for the Baby Bash entry, it again deploys what must be one of the weirdest critical standards ever: catchy = bad. We saw this in the Fountains of Wayne entry, too; matter of fact, that's where this standard was first proposed. Oddly enough, it hasn't been widely embraced since then.
posted by Mike B. at 3:56 PM 0 comments