[Disclaimer: The following opinion is that of a trashy 90's pop fan]
I agree with you that Carly Rae Jepson's "Call Me Maybe" could have come out any time during the last few decades, but I don't think that makes it bad. Generic, maybe, but in mainstream pop that isn't really a bad thing. "Anywhere in the World" was an Olympic anthem, so being generic meant it kind of didn't really do what it was supposed to do. "Call Me Maybe" was just meant to be a cute, bouncy pop song to entertain people and make money. I think it did both of those quite admirably.
I have to say though, my favourite part of it is the film clip for two main reasons. Firstly, she parodies the oversexualisation of pop culture, which I think is a good thing. She seems a middle ground between the semi-naked gyrating-for-male-viewing-pleasure that seems so common (kedollarsignha), and the purer-than-pure, no-sex-before-marriage that seems to be the only counter movement (Taylor Swift). Carly Rae, in parodying the whole sexy-car-washing thing, shows how ridiculous it is, without going to the opposite extreme which forbids any kind of sexual flirtation at all.
The second thing was the ending to the film clip, where it not only subverts the expectation of the girl getting the guy, but in a sit-com-esque moment shows the guy instead giving his number to a male band member instead. Not only do I find the guy-gets-girl (or girl-gets-guy) trope irritating because it is so incredibly, immensely, unbelievably overused that it influences people's opinions of how reality should work (I've met people like that), but the appearance of homosexuality in mainstream media - especially a non-condemning or non-erotic manner - is still really, really new.
Basically, none of these are things that *should* be things, I shouldn't be praising a video for *not* doing it wrong - that should be a base level. And yet there are so many examples that fall short of that base level that I find myself singing the praises of the few that meet it. And I think her music is similar - it's nothing groundbreaking or wonderful, but it's catchy and pleasant to listen to. It may be generic enough to have come out any time in the last 30 years, but that just means it's not progressing the genre forward - but neither, I think, is it holding the genre back. It's not a paragon of everything that is good with the genre, but neither is it bad. It meets the base level. Just because it's not worthy of the huge reception it's received doesn't mean it's worthy of a dishonourable mention.
[Disclaimer: The following opinion is that of a trashy 90's pop fan]
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that Carly Rae Jepson's "Call Me Maybe" could have come out any time during the last few decades, but I don't think that makes it bad. Generic, maybe, but in mainstream pop that isn't really a bad thing. "Anywhere in the World" was an Olympic anthem, so being generic meant it kind of didn't really do what it was supposed to do. "Call Me Maybe" was just meant to be a cute, bouncy pop song to entertain people and make money. I think it did both of those quite admirably.
I have to say though, my favourite part of it is the film clip for two main reasons. Firstly, she parodies the oversexualisation of pop culture, which I think is a good thing. She seems a middle ground between the semi-naked gyrating-for-male-viewing-pleasure that seems so common (kedollarsignha), and the purer-than-pure, no-sex-before-marriage that seems to be the only counter movement (Taylor Swift). Carly Rae, in parodying the whole sexy-car-washing thing, shows how ridiculous it is, without going to the opposite extreme which forbids any kind of sexual flirtation at all.
The second thing was the ending to the film clip, where it not only subverts the expectation of the girl getting the guy, but in a sit-com-esque moment shows the guy instead giving his number to a male band member instead. Not only do I find the guy-gets-girl (or girl-gets-guy) trope irritating because it is so incredibly, immensely, unbelievably overused that it influences people's opinions of how reality should work (I've met people like that), but the appearance of homosexuality in mainstream media - especially a non-condemning or non-erotic manner - is still really, really new.
Basically, none of these are things that *should* be things, I shouldn't be praising a video for *not* doing it wrong - that should be a base level. And yet there are so many examples that fall short of that base level that I find myself singing the praises of the few that meet it. And I think her music is similar - it's nothing groundbreaking or wonderful, but it's catchy and pleasant to listen to. It may be generic enough to have come out any time in the last 30 years, but that just means it's not progressing the genre forward - but neither, I think, is it holding the genre back. It's not a paragon of everything that is good with the genre, but neither is it bad. It meets the base level. Just because it's not worthy of the huge reception it's received doesn't mean it's worthy of a dishonourable mention.