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theotherpress.ca

When pop music was meaningful

» Yay for yé-yé

Idrian Burgos
Senior Columnist

Wire you turn on
the radio nowadays,
especially on the Top 40
stations, the music is mostly
electronically generated, the
words are mostly plain and
shallow, and the lyrics are
largely about relationships and
partying. The best songs lie
outside the pop genre like rock
or R&B, but even these genres
are being infiltrated by the
dried-up pop logic.

However, it hasn’t always
been this way. :

During the ’60s and into the :
early ’7os, the French-speaking
world saw the rise and flourish
of a pop music attuned to that
world’s sensibilities. It was
called yé-yé, from the Gallicized :
form of “yeah.” While similar to
the Anglophone pop music of
that era, the French-language
version departed from it in both :
melody and lyrics. Musically, it
was more diverse and artistic,
ranging from gentle, lonesome
melodies to joyful, carefree
rhythms, even mad guitar
strums. Lyrically, the nature
of the French language (at
least from a non-Francophone
perception) gave even the most

: mundane songs a sense of
culture, not to mention those

: songwriters whose words made
: their songs perhaps one of the

: most creative in Western pop

: music. :
: Although yé-yé is connected :
: to the more youth-oriented :
: genre of that period’s French-

: language pop music, it can

: arguably be extended to

: encompass almost the whole of
: the language’s pop music in that
: period. The existence of yé-yé

: proved that pop music need not
: be dumb and monotonous.

The period saw the

: appearance of artists who

: eventually became some of the

: most representative figures

: of Francophone pop music.

: Leading among them is the

: controversial singer-songwriter
: Serge Gainsbourg, whose genre-
: breaking musical career and

: influence is matched only by

: his notorious personal life.

: He wrote many of the songs

: that would define the genre,

: writing for many yé-yée singers

: such as the iconic France Gall

: and the most iconic of them

: all, Francoise Hardy. Hardy

: arguably matches Gainsbourg

: in the song-writing department, :
: having written many of her

: own songs, many of which also
: defined the genre.

The existence of yé-yé
proved that pop music
need not be dumb and
monotonous.

Other singers of the period

: include Johnny Hallyday

: (another yé-yé star), Sheila,

: Sylvie Vartan, Richard Anthony,
: Michéle Torr, and Frank Alamo.
: What these artists did was adapt
: the prevailing English-language
: pop music of that time to their

: culture, shifting its elements

: in accordance to their cultural

: distinctiveness, and in the

: process making an important

: contribution to pop music in

: general.

While yé-yé has since

: mostly faded away, its influence
: can still be felt today, especially
: through artists like April March
: and in the indie pop genre.

: More important is the lesson

: that it offers us: it is possible

: to create music that expresses

: ourselves in an original way

: and that explains our everyday

: lives ina more imaginative

: style beyond the superficial and

uninspired.
Yé-yé shows us that music

can be both popular and
> educated.

 

 

A twisted surprise

» ‘Juliet Was a Surprise’ book review

Joshua Grant
Senior Columnist

I: hard to know what to make :
of the oddball protagonists:
in Bill Gaston’s latest collection
of short stories compiled under
the title Juliet Was a Surprise.
They’re undeniably compelling,
but simultaneously disturbing,
pathetic, or at least slightly
deranged. This isn’t so bad. I
wouldn't have it any other way. :

In “At Work in the Fields of:
the Bulwer-Lytton,’ an ice-rink
manager labours over entries
to the Bulwer-Lytton worst
sentence contest while his sister :
threatens suicide; in “House
Clowns,’ a middle-aged loner
overreacts (severely, violently)
to the double-booking of his
holiday cabin; and in “Any
Forest Seen From Orbit,’ a
virginal arborist is seduced by
desperate housewife Juliet, with :
maiming results.

This is all rendered in
dense and twisted prose,

 

: demonstrating Gaston’s ear

: for sound and image. As the

: lonely arborist considers Juliet’s
: attitude towards a ruptured

: pipe, he thinks: “I find not

: unsexy those women who own

: up to their own dirt, as it were.

: Not throw it crassly in your face, :
: but smile in admitting they do
: indeed poop.”

The collection is also a

: (rare) good piece of Canadiana.
: Characters appear in Canadian
: locales, with Canadian props

: and attitudes. One story,

: “Geriatric Arena Grope,” hinges
: on national hero Leonard

: Cohen’s sexual reputation. It’s

: not easy to write about Canada
: and remain interesting, but

: Gaston does a stellar job.

Juliet Was a Surprise,

: stuffed to bursting with dark
: laughter, is certainly worth a
: read for anyone interested in
: short fiction, Canadiana, or the
: imaginative use of language.

/

Bil:
Ua
atti
ea a

YouQi'l'/3 Music Video Classics

"Weird" Al Yankovic - Amish Paradise
F

   

Jerrison Oracion
Senior Columnist

his year has been a big year for “Weird Al” Yankovic. He

released one of his most successful albums, Mandatory Fun,
and performed his version of various TV theme songs at the
Emmy Awards. For anyone who does not know who Yankovic is,
he’s the person behind some of the best-known parody songs
out there.

Here is the music video for one of his famous songs, “Amish
Paradise,” a parody of Coolio and L.V’s “Gangsta’s Paradise”
from the Michelle Pfeiffer film Dangerous Minds. The video
depicts the Amish lifestyle from churning butter to raising a
barn and features a cameo by Florence Henderson, who portrays
an Amish version of Michelle Pfeiffer’s character from the
“Gangsta’s Paradise” video.

One of the most interesting parts of the music video is
when Yankovic walks towards the camera but everything behind
him walks backwards. The whole scene was shot in reverse and
Yankovic had to phonetically speak his lines backwards during
the filming.

LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOfZLb33uCg