I love the Susan Boyle story. I really, truly do. I think it's the greatest thing that a woman who stands outside the "norm" of what we look for in terms of stardom these days came forth with her own talent and blew everyone away. It's just fantastic.
But I was looking at her new CD the other day, and I was struck by some of the song choices on it. In truth, it's full of songs that I like, so maybe I'll give the album a listen someday. But it struck me as funny to see a song like "I Dreamed a Dream", a showtune in which a single mother who has just lost her factory job because everyone found out she's been turning to prostitution to make ends meet tells her sad story about the guy who "took her childhood in his stride" but then "was gone when autumn came", on the same album as "Amazing Grace", in which the grace "that saved a wretch like me" is extolled. No real point here, but I found that juxtaposition interesting.
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4 comments:
Your music insights are second to none, but this one has me confused. It seems to me Amazing Grace is the redemption found after the fall from grace experienced in the I Dreamed a Dream song.
I agree that the Susan Boyle story is fantastic. I always thought that the worst thing to ever happen to modern music was MTV. Looks became more important than talent.
The worst thing to happen to football was the helmet, as it became a weapon.
The worst thing to happen to Americas middle class was NAFTA.
The worst thing to happen to liberal agendas was bureaucracy
It's like a big mix cd to American Idol fans. Nobody is supposed to like all of it, but almost everybody is supposed to buy it for a few songs that they like.
I know that you're correct about looks being too important, Jaq, but there have always been exceptions. See also: John Popper, Tom Waits, Tom Petty, the Rolling Stones, Wilson Phillips, Aretha Franklin (although that was before MTV), various rappers...and many more were successful despite their physique or odd/ugly facial features (in the eye of some beholders, at least).
-Mark (The mix cd comment is mine, too.)
I dare say it's more than the AI fans buying it. 701K in the first week in the US alone? Those are practically Beyonce numbers. In fact: "That's the biggest debut for 2009, and the highest debut ever for a female solo artist in the SoundScan era, according to Billboard.com. Only one other album has seen a bigger debut opening than Boyle's since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking sales in 1991. That album belongs to rapper Snoop Dogg whose "Doggystyle" sold 803-thousand copies in its first week in 1993. Boyle, a frumpy 48-year-old Scottish spinster, easily outsold highly-anticipated releases by controversial "American Idol" runnerup Adam Lambert and scandal-riddled pop star Rihanna. Lambert's debut album "For Your Entertainment debuted at number three on the Billboard 200 with 198-thousand copies sold, while Rihanna's latest, "Rated R," sold 181-thousand copies to debut at number four.
But Wild Horses couldn't drag me to buy it.
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