While alterna-indie-rock goddess, Liz Phair, garnered critical acclaim and creditability for her legendary 1993 LP, Exile in Guyville (not that I’m familiar – I’m just parroting what I’ve picked up from conversations with Ace), her trip into Top 40 territory a decade later would ensure that she’d lose most of that Pitchforkian good will. It’s not that Liz Phair, her eponymous major label debut, and the associated hit single, “Why Can’t I?”, are particularly substandard as far as mid-oughts guitar-driven pop is concerned, but they are decidedly conventional in their conception; a result, perhaps, of Capitol Records’ insistence that their new recruit collaborate with certifiable hit-makers, The Matrix. Music journalists saw red. A “Liz Phair” releasing a Liz Phair in our current age of “poptimism” would not suffer the same sort of critical backlash, but in the immediate aftermath of the early-noughties bubblegum explosion, Liz Phair’s shimmery reinvention was seen as the worst kind of “selling out!!!1” and spawned (meant-to-be) scathing headlines like “Liz Phair’s Exile in Avril-ville”. Oh, the horror of becoming commercially viable!
“Mickey”, with its jaunty cheerleader cadence, is usually lumped into the category of “novelty hits” – songs which succeed on the back of a good gimmick – but its larger, still-palpable, influence over contemporary pop music might contradict this categorization. In recent memory we’ve recruited the pep squad to help dispel rumors of our hollabackishness, help us call out the dorky girlfriends of our unrequited crushes, help us appear youthful and exuberant as we approach 60 (or 40, in the case of Miss Basil’s chart breakthrough), and help us flirt in the 22nd century. At what point does a musical trope, having proven its effectiveness time-and-again become more than a gimmick? And if the cheerleader chant works as more than mere gimmickry, does Toni Basil, by extension, become more than a novelty act? She will never be more than a one hit wonder, that much is certain.
Not really a huge fan of this. Ace could probably offer pretty a detailed history of “freestyle” music, starting with Shannon’s beloved hit and the groundwork it would lay for the development and spread of the genre, then, maybe, wrapping things up with loving tribute to Jocelyn Enriquez. He’s so knowledgeable.
At what point does a musical trope, having proven its effectiveness time-and-again become more than a gimmick? And if the cheerleader chant works as more than mere gimmickry, does Toni Basil, by extension, become more than a novelty act? She will never be more than a one hit wonder, that much is certain.
Haha! This is why I love you.
That's really an astute point, though. Is it possible that "Mickey" itself has transcended gimmickry into genuine pop iconography while Toni Basil remains a novelty act?
Leona is my fourth.