I often make attempts to appreciate the more popular aspects of popular music - on the basis that billions of people can't all be wrong - but I usually fail miserably.
My musical tastes are pretty catholic and eclectic (from punk to electronica to Irish folk to so-called alternative), but I tend to go more for the strange and slightly off-kilter, for something that shows some originality, whether that be in terms of lyrics, chord progressions, voice, arrangement or just the overall feel. So, it is perhaps not too surprising that I don't get on well with Top 40 style pop music, which mainly means rap, hip-hop, generic dance music and "R&B", largely by black artists, and usually Auto-Tuned to within an inch of its life, so that it all sounds pretty much the same (at least to me). Now, I get it: this is the Zeitgeist, for whatever reason (even if the biggest reason is the marketing/publicity machinery, and not talent as such), and I'm not really resentful, although it does seem a shame that more talented and interesting artists don't get much of a look in. But, thus has it ever been.
Anyway, what I am blathering about at tedious length relates to my recent attempt to understand the hype around Beyoncé/JAY-Z ("The Carters")'s latest video single Apeshit. Like pretty much anything Beyoncé produces (and, to a lesser extent, JAY-Z), the critical press is just salivating over it. It seems that the woman can do no wrong (Rolling Stone's review is just one example among many similar ones). Now, I do have a certain grudging respect for Beyoncé. She's a good dancer with a commanding stage presence. It's hard to tell whether she is actually a good singer in this age of AutoTune, but I think so. I appreciate that she is a powerful woman who uses her position to talk (albeit indirectly) about race and gender in modern America, although she is far from the first or the best at it. And JAY-Z? Well, he's just hanging on her coat-tails, certainly on this song, and just generally.
So, what is all the fuss about? Well, I'm not really sure. The lyrics reveal nothing special: it's mainly just another hip-hop song about how cool it is to be rich and famous. The music is generic and, although Beyoncé probably CAN actually sing, she makes little attempt to do so here, content to do little more than talk into an AutoTune machine. JAY-Z is, well, JAY-Z: gratuitous swearing, cryptic references to the hip-hop in-crowd, clichéd mannerisms, all the usual stuff.
The video itself IS above average, it has to be said, with high production values and a big budget. It is filmed in that cathedral of European white culture, the Louvre, and features some of that museum's most famous pieces, juxtaposing black singers and dancers against the predominantly white subject matter of the paintings (well, go figure: it's a gallery devoted to old masters in a white European country - what do you expect? Jean-Michel Basquiat? Yinka Shonibare?). It appears to suggest, none-too-subtly, that Beyoncé, JAY-Z and all the semi-naked, gyrating black dancers are greater works of art than anything white Western art has ever produced. Yawn... The internet's music reviewers have analyzed and deconstructed the video to death, pointing out every little reference and irony, lest the punters miss them. One other irony: the video was produced by Ricky Saiz, a white guy as far as I can see (possibly Latino, judging by the name) - could they really not find a black guy to do it, if they are so intent on making a point?
Anyhoo... Where does that leave us? Pretty good video + mediocre song = fulsome and extravagant accolades. What's wrong with that picture?
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