2B — Thursday, January 30, 2020
b-side
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Youth is everywhere in music. Everyone wants
it, remembers it, aches to return to it. In music,
youth is the time when life is the fullest and
the most exciting — late nights, hijinks, drugs,
sex, crying and dancing. The days are short;
the nights long; the years even longer. In song,
youth is the perfect storm of irresponsibility and
impressionability. You can do everything and
anything, and it all feels important.
There are so many songs about youth, about
both living it and remembering it. Youth is visual,
like all memories are: the fashion, the people and
the places. But, of all the songs surrounding the
idea of youth, those with particularly interesting
music videos stuck out to me while trying to
compile a best-of list. Which songs had videos
that seemed to accurately reflect on some aspect
of teenagerhood in the era in which they were
produced? I narrowed it down to five songs
about youth, all of which have music videos that
feel especially “of their era,” acting as a visual
record of the song’s subject.
1) John Mellencamp, “Cherry Bomb” (1988)
“That’s when a sport was a sport, “Mellencamp
sings, “And groovin’ was groovin’ / And dancin’
meant everything / We were young and we were
improvin’.’” Who doesn’t want to be improvin’?
The song is everything you want: sentimental
but upbeat, with lyrics begging to be karaoked.
There’s the requisite melancholy for days gone
by, but what’s most palpable is Mellencamp’s joy
at remembering the wonder and excitement of
his adolescence.
The music video is a moving collage of
absurdity and sincerity: Found footage of teens
in the ‘50s and ‘60s, accompanied by shots of
a suspender-clad Mellencamp singing next to
a jukebox as a teenage couple dances and feels
each other up. Sometimes, the camera even
cuts to Mellencamp doing his best Neil Young
impression on a beach, wearing a denim jacket
with no shirt.
2) Lauryn Hill, “Doo-Wop (That Thing)”
(1998)
Is this song about being young? I think so.
I think it’s about the competing interests of
youth — dressing right, having fun, falling in
love without getting your heart broken. She’s
instructing youth on how to find self-worth
within impossibly challenging conditions. The
problem, of course, is that the hot desires of
young adulthood often run in opposition to other
longings. Can you be cool and true to yourself?
Respected and silly? These are the questions
Hill addresses. The song could be considered
preachy, but instead it’s moving. “Now, Lauryn
is only human,” she sings. “Don’t think I haven’t
been through the same predicament.”
And the music video! It’s something else — a
split-screen extravaganza of the late ‘50s, early
‘60s sock hop aesthetic on the left and ‘90s
Afropunk on the right. The video’s concept
drives home the central point of the song: The
same struggles will follow men and women
through every generation. Youth are prone to
compromising their values in search of love
or a cure for loneliness, and they always have
been. “How you gonna win, when you ain’t right
within?” she asks. “Come again, come again,
come again, come again.”
3) Wheatus, “Teenage Dirtbag” (2000)
BBB wants us to think he’s all about rebellion
and angst, but this song is about something far
more tender: a crush. Do you remember the
innocent fantasies of high school infatuation? It
was a secret thrill — hoping that special person
would sit next to you at lunch, or that they’d
come up to you at a party, or that you’d be put in
the same homeroom class. This is that feeling —
a delicate hope, mixed with fear and self-doubt
— wrapped up in a gleefully screamy alt-rock
package.
The music video is a melding together of
original footage from the 2000 movie “Loser,”
starring none other than Jason Biggs of
“American Pie” fame. In the movie, Jason’s
character has a crush on a girl who’s having an
affair with a terribly pretentious English teacher
(played by Greg Kinnear, of course). Problematic
source material aside, the music video is such
an embodiment of the early 2000s that, when
watching, it feels as if long-dormant memories
are surfacing rather than being created. The
plot of the video is a daydream in which a boy
discovers his crush is also a teenage dirtbag who
loves Iron Maiden. “She’s walkin’ over to me,
this must be fake / My lip starts to shake,” sings
Brown. Biggs wakes up and the fantasy ends, but
the world of the song — being a teenager and an
outcast, hoping that the person that you love will
reveal themselves to be just like you — lingers.
4) Bronski Beat, “Smalltown Boy” (1984)
One of the top comments on the music video
for “Smalltown Boy” is “I forgot the name of the
song, so i searched ‘Gay train song 80s’ and this
was the first video.” Yes, this is the seminal gay
train song of the ‘80s, and it’s earned its place
in the canon of music surrounding the struggles
and joys of LGBTQ+ identity. “Smalltown Boy”
is the sad prequel to “Take Your Mama” by the
Scissor Sisters, cataloguing the grief of a teenage
boy who must seek his fortune outside the
prejudices of his hometown. “Mother will never
understand why you had to leave,” sings Jimmy
Somerville. “But the answers you seek will never
be found at home.”
Somerville’s signature falsetto, supported
by a synth-heavy beat, narrates the story in
terms vague enough that the song’s meaning
isn’t always obvious. The music video, however,
makes it painfully clear what the song is about.
Somerville plays a gay teenager, riding a train
and reminscing about his emerging sexuality
and the reactions of his peers and parents. The
song’s subject was especially groundbreaking at
the time of its release in 1984, when the AIDS
crisis was in full swing. The video, a nosedive
into mid-‘80s Britain, is a moving portrait that
ends on an unexpectedly happy shot of the
protagonist stepping off the train with his new
friends. The scene freezes, Somerville grinning
at last.
5) Asher Roth, “I Love College” (2009)
The lyrics of “I Love College” are probably
not going to win any awards. “Man I love
college (Hey!) / And I love drinking (Hey!) / I
love women (Hey!) / Man I love college (Hey!).”
It’s a silly romp of frat-rap about partying and
drinking and weed and girls. But the music video
for “I Love College” is a gem, displaying the
conspicuous carelessness of party culture in full
swing. Roth makes his way through the rooms
of a house where a burn-it-down party is in full
swing.
Revelers make out, throw a mattress off a
balcony and play strip poker. Someone dressed
in a dinosaur costume simulates sex with a keg.
Roth grins next to an unconscious, Sharpie-
covered partier getting a buzz cut, singing,
“Don’t pass out with your shoes on.” It’s dumb
and dangerous and it feels weirdly familiar, like
this 11-year-old party could have happened last
weekend.
It’s hard to say anything about being young
without falling into the dangerous territory of
aphorisms. These artists say something new, but
they also say all the old things. Run away, find
yourself, fall in love. “When I think back about
those days / All I can do is sit and smile,” sings
Mellencamp. Go West, young man — you’re only
young once.
B-SIDE: MUSIC NOTEBOOK
Teenage dirtbags, cherry bombs: Youth in music videos
MIRIAM FRANCISCO
Daily Arts Writer
“Everything I
Wanted”
Billie Eilish
Interscope
MUSIC VIDEO REVIEW:
‘EVERYTHING I WANTED’
Right before the final
award of the night was
announced
at
the
2020
Grammys, Billie Eilish could
be seen whispering, “Please
don’t
be
me.”
Moments
later, her name was called
— making Eilish the night’s
biggest winner. Her music
video “everything i wanted”
details the fear that comes
with her kind of fame.
Eilish has never been
one to shy away from dark
subject matters. However,
“everything i wanted” feels
distinctly
personal.
Not
only did Eilish direct the
video herself, her brother
and collaborator, FINNEAS,
is her only co-star. It opens
up
with
Billie
driving
Finneas through a sunset
San
Francisco-esque
cityscape. Yet as the pattern
of
skyscrapers
repeat,
blinking along to the music,
it becomes clear that she’s
really driving through her
dreamscape.
According
to an interview with BBC
Radio 1, the song itself is
based on a dream Eilish had
in which she committed
suicide and everyone turned
on her. As horrifying as that
sounds, Billie drives blank-
faced. She doesn’t need to
acknowledge the lyrics that
weave together her image-
related
anxieties,
they
already feel present — and
heavy.
“everything
i
wanted”
ends ominously. Billie and
Finneas drive onto the beach
and then floor it into the
ocean, where the car sinks.
In these final scenes, it’s
obvious that this video is as
much about Eilish’s mental
health as it is about her
relationship to her brother.
He mouths the lyrics “they
don’t deserve you” and takes
her hand with a smile as they
go deeper into the water.
This allows for a glimmer of
optimism. Although they’ve
both been consumed by the
darkness of being in the
spotlight, they still have
each other — and a lot more
success — ahead of them.
— Katie Beekman,
Daily Arts Writer
DARKROOM AND INTERSCROPE
“B.I.T.C.H.”
Megan Thee Stallion
Roc Nation
SINGLE REVIEW: ‘B.I.T.C.H.’
Hot Girl Meg marks her
return this winter with a
new single: “B.I.T.C.H.” The
new single will appear on her
upcoming studio album Suga,
named after Stallion’s new
alter ego. The song samples
Tupac’s All Eyez on Me song
“Rather Be Ya N**ga” (a track
that samples Bootsy Collins’s
single “I’d Rather Be with
You”). “B.I.T.C.H” embodies
the same swagger and groove
as its throwback inspiration,
but with Megan’s own sexy
twist. Whereas Tupac wants
to get with his muse, Megan
maintains her independence
and commands respect on
her track. “I’d rather be a
B.I.T.C.H., ’cause that’s what
you gonna call me when I’m
trippin’ anyway / You know
you can’t control me, baby
/ You need a real one in
your life,” she asserts in the
chorus.
Despite the vintage bubble
wrap, “B.I.T.C.H.” does not
run the risk of sounding out of
place from Megan’s standard
discography. The tune is just
as sexy and fun as it was
when Tupac first introduced
it in 1996, but with a raunchy
twist;
this
rendition’s
twinkly, romantic plinking is
a lot more downplayed under
slight trap inflections. With
“B.I.T.C.H.” Stallion doesn’t
want to appeal to anyone
so much as she strives to
position herself as a force
worth reckoning with. She is
cool, calm, talented and sexy
without having to comply
with anyone’s standards.
The banger flourishes over
a bouncy, funky beat. Sultry
whispers of “I’d rather keep
it real with ya” echo to signal
the
delicate
vulnerability
that tinges the track. Despite
Megan’s
reputation
and
her assertion of dominance
and
independence,
she
recognizes
her
man’s
ignorance of her feelings.
It’s not that she’s drawing
his attention so much as
she’s pushing him away; she
refuses to waste her time on
someone who won’t devote
any to her.
— Diana Yassin,
Daily Arts Writer
ROC NATION
In song, youth is the perfect
storm of irresponsibility and
impressionability. You can
do everything and anything,
and it all feels important
SPOTLIGHT OTTAWA
COLUMBIA RECORDS