12 June 2023 - Jax - Victoria’s Secret

On June 12, 1977, Victoria's Secret was founded by Roy Raymond and his wife, Gaye, in Delaware.  The first store was opened in Palo Alto, California.  The Victoria in the name is a reference to Queen Victoria (because her undergarments would be classy, right?).

In 1982, the Raymonds sold Victoria's Secret to Leslie Wexner, founder of both Bath & Body Works and clothing company The Limited.  

Leslie Wexner is a dude.  

From Ohio.  

Who, by the way, was a friend and associate of Jeffrey Epstein (who didn't kill himself) and the subject of an not-so-complimentary documentary on Hulu, Victoria’s Secret: Angels and Demons.

Victoria's Secret is one of the few retail chains that has been the subject of scolarly research, but they probably wish they weren't.  For example, in a 2008 article sponsored by the University of Waterloo and authored by Erin J. Strahan, Adèle Lafrance, Anne E. Wilson, Nicole Ethier, Steven J. Spencer, and Mark P. Zanna, they state, ""Women's body dissatisfaction is influenced by socio-cultural norms for ideal appearance that are pervasive in society and particularly directed at women." Their study was quite interesting.  Participants were randomly assigned to the experimental or control condition. In the control condition, participants viewed four neutral commercials containing no people. In the experimental condition, participants viewed the same four neutral advertisements intermixed with two additional commercials conveying sociocultural norms. One commercial featured supermodels wearing Victoria’s Secret bras, and the other featured a very thin, attractive woman promoting Dove soap.  Their clear conclusion, based on their study, was that "[e]xposure to societal messages that reflect the socio-cultural norm for ideal appearance has a negative effect on women."

The article was titled "Victoria's Dirty Secret: How Sociocultural Norms Influence Adolescent Girls and Women" and yes.  I read it.  You can, too.  

So, fast forward to 2022.  3rd Place finisher on American Idol Jaclyn Miskanic, known professionally as Jax, co-wrote a song that was rather critical of body image projection by companies like Victoria's Secret. She made a lot of solid points about Victoria's Secret - Roy Raymond wasn't from Ohio, but a lot of their modern marketing sure was made up by a dude from Ohio - and it was Les Wexner who was Jax's clear target.  

Her larger target, of course, was the culture, not a brand.  It resonated, becoming a top 40 US hit in the summer of 2022, and also charting worldwide.  That is no surprise - the song is catchy and witty.  

Flash mobs featuring the song popped up in front of Victoria's Secret stores everywhere.  This one, led by Jax herself, may be my favorite. 

Of course, Victoria's Secret has tried to do damage control caused by the song, praising Jax for raising these issues, and has distanced themselves as far from Les Wexner as possible, but the damage is done.  And by damage, I mean their sales are up since this song came out.  That's true.  They dipped slighty year over year in the 4th quarter of 2022, but, really, this song was a net positive for them. 

9 June 2023 - Lionel Richie & Diana Ross (& Shania Twain) - Endless Love

What is the greatest song duet of all time?

Well, that something that I would call "subjective" but Billboard Magazine has other ideas.   In 2011, they named today's song, "Endless Love", a song written for a movie of the same name starring Brooke Shields, as the greatest duet ever recorded.  

They've got a pretty solid case.  Penned by Lionel Richie, it ended up being the biggest hit of his career.  It was also the biggest hit of Diana Ross's career, and it wasn't close in either case.   In a time before SoundScan, this song spent nine weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100, and surpassed "Wake Up, Little Susie" by the Everly Brothers as the biggest hit by a duet in the rock era i.e. post-1955, spending six MONTHS on the charts. 

It was even a bigger hit than the movie, which was a modest but not blockbuster hit. The song was a blockbuster.   It was nominated for the 1981 Oscar, losing to "Arthur's Theme" - but it was nominated from a movie that was nominated for six Golden Raspberries (none for the music), which is kind of like the opposite of the Oscars.  Richie was also part of a nomination for the 1982 Grammy for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media - losing to the team from Raiders of the Lost Ark, which, admittedly, deserved it even though it didn't have a love theme.  

The song is a monster, a ballad of epic proportions, a love song sung from both sides.  At the time, it was the most successful soundtrack single ever (The Bodyguard put that to rest).  There aren't enough superlatives for this song, which is a powerful duet showcasing two huge voices.

It is, of course, Lionel's song, and he has rerecorded it a couple of times.  Most notably, he recorded it in 2011 with country music superstar and noteworthy Canadian Shania Twain - and ended up turning it into an adult contemporary hit.   

8 June 2023 - The Naked And Famous - Young Blood

I'm not going to be able to do this blog forever.  Let's all be honest.  I'm nowhere near done, but sometime, I have to slow down.

I wanted to make sure I didn't forget this song before I did that.  This song was released soon before this blog started, and got a free US distribution in 2011 on iTunes, soon after we started.  I am embarrased to say I didn't know the song or artist name.

One day, a few weeks ago, I got this song stuck in my head.  So it became my goal - my mission - to figure out what this song was called and post about it.   Clearly, I was successful.

"Young Blood' was a big hit for The Naked and Famous, a 2-piece electronic band from New Zealand that relocated to Los Angeles after the success of this song and its follow-up single.   Their success hasn't been as stratospheric as this song, but it hasn't been non-existent, either.  

7 June 2023 - The Black Keys - Everlasting Light

This is the story of an RIAA Gold-certified song with a long shelf life.

In 2010, Ohio duo The Black Keys released an album called Brothers.  It had the best cover artwork.

I wonder who made this album or what it's called.

That album also won a Grammy.  So did this album packaging.  That's a true story.  

They released three singles off that album.  The first was a minor hit, making it to the Billboard Hot 100 and achieving Gold status - a notation celebrating 500,000 sales of the single by the Recording Industry Association of America (the aforementioned RIAA) in late 2011.   

That song was, of course, called "Tighten Up" - itself a Grammy-winning song - and was not this song. In fact, none of the three singles was this song.  

  

This song was the leading track on the Brothers album but not released to radio as a single.  And, in 2010 and 2011, since singles (mostly digital at this point) got radio airplay, and that was what determined song longevity, as well as chart performance, that was that.   

Two years later, that was different.  Billboard put less weight on single sales - no longer making a physical single a requirement - and more on streaming, with YouTube streams and others including the song being included in the charts. This means that songs could hang around longer, and different songs could get attention.

In late 2014, Electronic Arts released their yearly version of their NBA video game.  This game was NBA2K15 and it was a hit.  

I figured at this point, you'd want to see the Dunk of the Year from that game.

Yes, this song featured prominently on that soundtrack, and videos from that game got shared to YouTube, which means this song got listens, which translated to listens on services like Spotify and iTunes, which led to sales of the single.

In 2019, "Everlasting Light" was finally certified gold (a year after "Tighten Up" was certified platinum) and remains a fan favorite song.  

Let's talk about this song.   It's a bluesy three-chord masterpiece, with a lot of fuzzy guitar.  But what is the song about?  Some people think it's a love song, and I can see that intepretation.   I see it differently.  I point you to Isaiah 60:19

The sun will no more be your light by day,

    nor will the brightness of the moon shine on you,

for the Lord will be your everlasting light,

    and your God will be your glory.

The song is about God.  In fact, many of the songs on Brothers were clearly about the band's faith.  

However you see the song and its meaning, it's an absolute masterpiece.  

6 June 2023 - Demi Lovato - Heart Attack & Cool For The Summer (Rock Versions)

In 2013, Demi Lovato would release what would be a top 10 single - "Heart Attack".  Scott WROTE about this song in 2013.  

In 2015, Demi Lovato would release what would be a top 11 single - "Cool For The Summer".  I WROTE about this song in 2015.

I have to say, in the spirit of Wicked Guilty Pleasures, I love both of these songs.  We could have just as easily based this blog over our mutual appreciation of Demi Lovato as we could have over Ashlee Simpson.

Fast forward to 2022. In anticipation of changing styles, Demi held a funeral for her pop career.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Demi Lovato (@ddlovato)

That does not mean that she forgets all her old music, though.  In celebration of the 10th anniversary of one of her biggest hits - "Heart Attack" - Demi rerecorded and rereleased it, in her new style.

I have to say, it works.  Clearly, you can hear the song's old style, but also, you can hear a new reading of the lyrics, sung by someone who, in 2023, has a lot more life experience.  In 2013, she was 20, a kid with a Disney career and not much life experience.  Now, she's 30, and she's had some struggles - in love, with drugs (she famously overdosed in 2018 and I'm quite thankful she pulled through), and in life.  She's singing from a different point of view now.  She, quite literally, has HAD a heart attack.  And it is, in many ways, a better song for it.

So, why rerecord ANOTHER song on its not-as-momentous 8th anniversary?

The rock version of "Cool For The Summer" was released on May 25, 2023 - just in time for Memorial Day and the summer season.  Having already expressed a desire to rerecord this song in a rock format for her last album, Holy Fvck, she finally did it - and as a song that pop-rocked in its original version, I didn't have high expectations that this would be better.  Or that she'd still be whispering "don't tell your mother" in a rock style.  

Holy Fvck, this song absolutely rocks.  The synthesizers from the original are gone and replaced with fuzzy guitars.  I was completely blown away by this.  It's a mature take by an adult on a matureish song sung by a not-quite-adult.  

By the way, I was right.  She changed the lyrics to "Go tell your mother", which is a more mature lyric. 

5 June 2023 - Donna Summer - I Feel Love

Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte (with Donna Summer herself) wrote AND produced this disco classic.  It helped cement Moroder's status as the King of Disco and Summer's as its Queen.

The song is pretty much a synth loop with simple vocals and a bangin' bassline, which seems pretty standard, but it was about a decade ahead of its time from a musical standpoint.  The combination made for a huge hit, hitting top 10 charts worldwide throughout 1977 and playing in clubs for decades after disco "died".

The song, in a remixed version, would once again be a chart hit in Europe in 1995 following the release of a remix by Rollo and Sister Bliss, with rerecorded vocals by Summer. Remember that I said that the song was a decade ahead of its time.  Here, nearly two decades later, it still sounded modern and in-place.  

2 June 2023 - Kim Petras - Coconuts

In a prior post, I mentioned that Kim Petras had a cancelled album, and once that happened, she started leaking the music from that album.

Since I posted that, Petras won a couple of Grammys for her collaboration with Sam Smith, "Unholy".  

The single she released between "Future Starts Now" and "Unholy" was a song about her tits.  

Yeah.  I said it.  "Coconuts", in this song, do not refer to the tree fruit known for its white flesh and creamy milk.  There's no tree mentioned at all.  She is very much encouraging you to take a look at her margarita-tas.  

There are a ton of double-entendre jokes made throughout this song, which is super dirty - but because of the rapid-fire jokes, I felt sharing the lyric video was wisest.