Take Me Home
The following is an introduction from Aurgasm, a music blog I got into last summer (the music was better, then):
"I once spent a week in Madrid, feeling more comfort there than any place I’ve ever been. Leaving on a whim, having never thought of Spain before, I learned words and phrases concerning food and direction after arrival. Most of this trip I was alone, wandering in pursuit of distant intrigue: a hill, a park, a museum, or the oldest restaurant; with curiosity fulfilling me. Nourished by surroundings, I found heightened sense of romanticism, joy, wonder, play, friendship, detail... so much vibrant detail in art and life; flourishing endeavors, hellos and goodbyes, zest and woe. Lourdes Hernández’s I Love Your Glasses encompasses all of my experiences in her hometown; dazzling me in abundance, and passionately reminding me of a time felt dearly like home."
Essentially, what this writer is getting at, is that this band called Russian Red has a new album out suitable for the American tourist. I would imagine that, for someone who lives in Spain, they aren’t exactly “fulfilled” with curiosity about a distant hill or the oldest restaurant. Lourdes Hernandez is Russian, not Spanish, yet sings in English with an echo effect applied to her voice, occasionally accompanied by a steel guitar, sounding like another Neko Case. (Just what we need.) So unless the above-referenced writer happened to be listening to Neko Case on his iPod during his week in Spain, I’m not quite sure how this Lourdes can remind him of being fulfilled (can’t stop saying it) with curiosity in Spain.
But maybe Lourdes does remind him of Spain. Why not? Britney Spears can remind someone of Paris (though the reverse doesn’t work). We are revisiting a previous subject of this blog, which is the loathed Adult Contemporary. Also on the subject of being "fulfilled," maybe the most despicable fact about AC is that it couldn’t exist without the old-tyme religious gospel song (though this could be said about any rock song), which morphed into a few different directions during the 1930s; one of which was the white man’s blues (country and western). With the women of the Carter family being a rare exception (and they sang their fair share of gospel), it took another three decades for the white woman to adapt the white man’s blues into her own sound, which retained the Christian purity of a virginal voice (coughjoanbaez) with the “rustic” acoustic guitar. Thus was birthed the sound of the adult contemporary.
This is not to say that I am completely blaming this on the white woman’s blues. After all, she deserves a chorus for her woes, too, despite what it becomes. So much of this is predicated on marketability (if not all). But I’ve gotten a little off track. In 2009, adult contemporary is not about giving the reflective/melancholic/sensitive human a voice. Instead, AC is about soundscape, like almost every other kind of music (exceptions: anything that jolts you). AC isn’t popular because it’s a steaming hot plate of good music with a side of ambience. It’s popular because it’s a martini glass of ambience with a garnish of neatness (this word indicating the organization of a compulsive sock drawer). Think American Eagle and Pier One. A place for everything and everything in its place. Verse goes here, bridge goes there, a little vocal styling at the end of the second chorus, throw the olives you didn't eat into the trash and end on the Tonic.
Congratulations to us! We managed to employ all the trappings of viral music while still holding onto our religious roots. Virginal voice, steel guitar dripping with desire, hetero-normal lyrics. It's the mix of sexuality and restraint that is found everywhere in American culture. No wonder AC makes it.
Leftovers to Examine:
1. Radio and TV advertising bears the brunt of cultural synesthesia.
2. Fashion (or clothing style) is inseparable from its music, and vice versa.
