The Voice thinks M.I.A. needs to coin a genre:
Fannypack are like M.I.A., who hops her own scotch and shakes her own jumprope, and they’re in a similar predicament, which is that they don’t quite fit pre-existing genres, dance or hip-hop… Fannypack and M.I.A. should hold a joint press conference and simply declare themselves a genre, invent some name, Jumprope or Streetrope or Boohall or Favela Bratty Beats or Bow-Wow Booty Bop or something… M.I.A. and Fannypack are in dance-club bohemia, which means on the one hand that they’ll be surrounded by preciousness, but on the other that, being bohos, they might stick to their vision, keep doing the jumprope not just for fun or for the moolah but for the art of it, persist long enough and obstinately enough to still be jumping when the world is finally ready to jump with them…
everyone’s hyped up about this girl, but i’m not sure i get it. the songs are catchy and mixed well, no doubt, but where’s her part in it? from what i’ve seen and heard, she has an ok-pseudo rapping voice with no inflection, and she can’t dance to save her life.
or is that gwen stefani.
i dunno. something about the over-hyped “artists” always gets me…
how about outkast too? to pigeonhole them as “hip hop” is ridiculous except in the broadest definition of hip hop. they’re gloriously eclectic.
I think the writer missed the broader trend that there’s more genre-busting music nowadays (or, at least, that I know about).
actually, i think the genre name we’re looking for is “pop”. it’s not necessarily a bad term – i think it covers the kinds of entertainers who come up with something simple, fun, and catchy. “pop” doesn’t always have to equal white and bubblegum, you know. i think it’s shifting now such that even a lot of “hip hop” is really more pop than ever before.
MIA is STILL in my car stereo, she’s remained there ever since she arrived in the mail from NPR. for musical magpie me, that speaks volumes. but then, i could give a rat’s ass whether or not someone’s a good dancer (britney, anyone?) since that has nothing to do with singing/rapping/writing/designing awesome album covers…
/end MIA defense
p.s. fannypack BLOWS. now THAT is $15 and twenty-five minutes of my life i will never redeem. i’m almost insulted that they lumped MIA w/them…i don’t care WHAT any music writer says– “camel toe” does not equal “cars that go boom” and it never will. gah.
I’ve seen her videos and I’ve seen her live. She’s actually a pretty good dancer, in a style you’re maybe not recognizing.
Innovation is welcome, this is how every new genre started.
Thanks for the permission, Manish 😛
Innovation is welcome to me (but not in a racinated way, in a discourse that would imply a rigidly stereotyped matrix of social relationships, class, race, sex, gender, sexual orientation, what have you, or in any way that would imply simple oppressor/oppressed dichotomies). In addition, I abase myself in apology for being male, straight and of a majority community in a particular province in India. Please accept these qualifications for any past, current and future posts I may write.*
* Your apology acceptance privileges may vary according to the laws of the state in which you reside.
I have to say this because it’s been bugging me: shouldn’t it be “IS”? Fannypack IS etc. etc. By analogy, when you talk about the Wu-Tang Clan, it’s in the singular.
Be advised that I am embarassed by language nerdery, but it’s a compulsion.
And, I’m with Anna on this one – MIA gets a big thumbs-up…Fannypack – not so much.
-D
‘Fannypack are’ is correct usage if the author is British, which is unclear.
🙂
I was reading the latest issue of VIBE magazine yesterday, lo and behold, there is a huge pic of MIA on the fifth page (or somewhere in the very beginning of the mag). She is also featured in a pretty well written article about her too. I was pleasantly surprised to see it. Although, the pic of her wasn’t the most wholesome, though she was fully clothed. I dunno, something about her mouth made it seem a little ‘sexed-up’. Anyone else see it?