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The Secrets of a Hit Summer Song

posted by martyb on Sunday July 09 2017, @06:58PM   
from the bam!-bam!-I'm-a-lamb! dept.

cafebabe writes:

On a slow news day, the BBC "reports" some rules about a summer hit tune. In summary:

1. It has to be simple.
2. It should make you feel like you're on holiday.
3. Novelty is everything.
4. Radio-friendly songs make bigger hits.
5. It should be released before the summer.
6. But it should have the word "summer" in the title.

If simplicity and novelty are the most important then this summer's hit could be Beep! Beep! I'm A Sheep!

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Original Submission

• Re:It's easy Re:It's easy (Score: 2) by n1 on Monday July 10 2017, @12:36AM (3 children)

  by n1 (993) on Monday July 10 2017, @12:36AM (#536983) Journal

  I'm assuming the point you're making is that... Throughout history artists pioneering or adapting culturally and socially significant forms of musical and artistic expression, have almost always been derided and dismissed as talentless hacks by proponents of the more established and traditional art of the day.

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• Re:It's easy Re:It's easy (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 10 2017, @12:45AM (2 children)

  by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 10 2017, @12:45AM (#536985)

  Street criminals grabbing their crotches while they complain about their own self-inflicted situations is art?

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  • Re:It's easy Re:It's easy (Score: 2, Troll) by n1 on Monday July 10 2017, @02:26AM (1 child)

    by n1 (993) on Monday July 10 2017, @02:26AM (#537007) Journal

    I'm sure you're trolling but anyway...

    One of my homeboys did a ten straight in the box in yard
    Now what’s he doing? Passin’ his doctorate
    Don’t tell me that it’s too hard!

    Akala - Fire in the booth [youtube.com]

    Besides I ain't rapping about dope nor did I sell it
    I guess the story of a country boy just ain't compelling

    Big K.R.I.T - Dreamin' [youtube.com]

    This war veteran knows what a hard time is
    He needs his pension, dementia and half blind is
    The reason he rides the train with no car license
    So he boards with an expired ticket has a swipe
    Gets a fine 'cause the change he got don't add up right
    We're talking about a man who never lived a lavish life

    Hilltop Hoods - Stopping All Stations [youtube.com]

    Escaping my selfish ways
    With my brain spread on a page
    So I put my soul in a song
    So it may linger on

    Shogun - Vulcan [youtube.com]

    The most impressionable minds get molested and informed by manipulating forces
    Don't fret little man, don't cry
    They can never take the energy inside you were born with
    Knowing that, understand you could never be poor
    You already won the war, you were born rich
    You can only take the energy you had going back to the realm or the home where your lord is
    Whoever whatever that lord is couldn't give a fuck if you ever made fortunes

    [...]How you raise a whole human single parent, no marriages no sense of heritage
    Planned Parenthood helping plan miscarriages
    But I'm lucky mommy already had a narrative
    Product of a teenage love, my arrogance to rise from the pride and the job my parents did
    Named Mike I was told it was godlike
    Even danced with the devil, came out alright

    Run The Jewels - A Christmas Fucking Miracle [youtube.com]

    They had a rally for police brutality up at the park
    But when we killing ourselves don’t nobody want to march
    We got to start to take a look in the mirror
    If we don’t respect ourselves then they always gone fear us
    If black lives matter then black lives matter
    And the color of the killer shouldn’t even be a factor

    Murs - No More Control [youtube.com]

    We brag on having bread, but none of us are bakers
    We all talk having greens, but none of us own acres
    If none of us own acres, and none of us grow wheat
    Then who will feed our people when our people need to eat
    So it seems our people starve from lack of understanding
    Cause all we seem to give them is some balling and some dancing
    And some talking about our car and imaginary mansions
    We should be indicted for bullshit we inciting
    Hand the children death and pretend that it's exciting

    Killer Mike - Reagan [youtube.com]

    I am curious though, in this troll persona, do you have the same disdain for folk songs that talk about the self-inflicted struggles of their chosen occupations in mining and farming? After all they could have taken personal responsibility for their situation and sought to improve it rather than writing songs bitching about it.

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    • Re:It's easy (Score: 3, Funny) by Magic Oddball on Monday July 10 2017, @06:42AM

      by Magic Oddball (3847) on Monday July 10 2017, @06:42AM (#537050) Journal

      Don't forget, though, that hip-hop wasn't always insightful social criticism — if you go back to the early days, the performers more often just aimed to be entertaining:

      Ever went over a friend's house to eat and the food just ain't no good?
      I mean the macaroni's soggy, the peas are mushed,
      And the chicken tastes like wood!
      So you try to play it off like you think you can
      By saying that you're full
      And then your friend says, "Mama, he's just being polite
      He ain't finished, uh-uh, that's bull!"
      So your heart starts pumping and you think of a lie
      And you say that you already ate
      And your friend says "Man, there's plenty of food!"
      So you pile some more on your plate
      While the stinky food's steaming, your mind starts to dreaming
      Of the moment that it's time to leave
      And then you look at your plate and your chicken's slowly rotting
      Into something that looks like cheese.
      So you say "That's it, I gotta leave this place
      I don't care what these people think,
      I'm just sitting here making myself nauseous
      With this ugly food that stinks!"
      So you bust out the door while it's still closed
      Still sick from the food you ate
      And then you run to the store for quick relief
      From a bottle of Kaopectate.

      (From 1979's Rapper's Delight [wikipedia.org])

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