Foster The People: The Indie Cross-over Curse

AUDIO AWESOMENESS

Foster The People "Torches"
Released: May 23rd, 2011

The Indie Cross-over Curse

Foster The People may seem like a rarity in today's mainstream music market, but the formula and trend they are following is tried, tested and true. Other indie-pop acts have used it for cross-over success with some notables examples being MGMT with their mega-hit "Kids", Peter Bjorn & John's "Young Folks" and M.I.A's "Paper Planes". I call this formula the indie cross-over curse and it looks something like this:

Indie band writes undeniably brilliant pop song, makes it catchy enough to whet the mainstream appetite but keeping it quirky enough for the 'cool kids' and 'hipsters'. Band gets some major plugging from all veritable sources of hype (commercial licensing, radio, YouTube, etc.) and gets signed to a multi-album deal. Band is then expected to re-write the winning formula a few more times to cash in on the initial success. Next thing you know, band becomes the current day version of MGMT in that they are still out there making music, but have not been able to generate enough buzz or success as that one cross-over song did and eventually fade into obscurity.

Foster The People are the current incarnation of this formula. Their brilliant indie-pop song is the heard-around-the-world anthem "Pumped Up Kicks" and don't even try saying you haven't heard the song, trust me you have. It was played in nearly every season finale on television last year and is probably being blasted on the radio, or on somebody's playlist or being hummed by someone at work as you are reading this. Basically, it has become that inescapable song.

Now to be fair, Foster The People have not faded back into indie-pop obscurity like their predecessors have. They are still riding the wave of "Pumped Up Kicks", at least for the next little while. The question with FTP, is whether they can maintain the hype and turn it into longevity, bringing us to the topic of their debut album "Torches".

There is no denying it, "Torches" is a brilliant pop record. The elements that the band have blended into the album make for an undeniable and exhilierating audio experience and FTP make sure they use every hand-clap and vocal enhancement for maximum effect.

What lends credence to the band is that while they are identified as an indie-pop band, the majority of their music is rhythmic, danceable and beat-driven with an under-lying groove allowing them to cross-over into different music genres. They are not loud and angry with noisy guitars. Instead, they have put together a hodge-podge of songs that boasts incredibly catchy hooks with effect-laden vocals that sounds like hundreds of play-ground kids singing in unison. This contributes to the band's whimsical, happy, quirky sound without compromising a single iota of melody. Putting aside "Pumped Up Kicks", the album contains a handful of other potentially massive singles in "Helena Beat", "Houdini" and "Call It What You Want".

The problem for FTP is that while they are the current "it" band, the impending indie cross-over curse is inevitable. Once the initial hype dies out for "Pumped Up Kicks" (and for many, it already has), it will be difficult to repeat the formula with another song. Just ask Peter Bjorn & John who enjoyed a massive, trans-atlantic hit with "Young Folks" in 2006. The song was featured on everything from "Grey's Anatomy" to achieving viral status on YouTube during that year. Fast forward to the current day and the only time their name is mentioned is at the end of the sentence "whatever happened to....".

So while "Torches" is a fantastic indie-pop album and the band are currently experiencing a taste of bona-fide success, it will be interesting to see how they will try to maeuver their way around the indie cross-over curse.

Brand Britney - The Illusion Behind The Music

Britney Spears.

For the past decade, it seems like the world has been orbitting in a pop-star universe that she created. Since her debut in 1999, Britney has experienced the gamut of mega-stardom. She's attained iconic status, fallen from grace, and mounted a successful comeback. She is to our generation what Madonna was to the 80s by acting as a lightning rod for controversy. She has been admired and scorned throughout her rise to the pinnacle of stardom, and in many ways, Britney has been through it all. She is a contradiction in the persona she has cultivated ever since she showed off her midriff in the "Baby One More Time" music video. Britney has made a career out of teasing the masses with a virgin/whore seductress and sex-kitten image contradicted by a blonde bombshell and all-wholesome all-American girl appeal. Over the past twelve years, Britney has transformed herself into not only a superstar, but a brand and an empire.

Ok, so now that I've told you everything you already know about her, let’s turn towards the main topic of this article. Is it about Britney? Partly, but it is more an observation on what she stands for and what her monster level of fame says about our current popular culture and society.

Before I get into it, I must pre-face with the following disclaimer: I got nothing against her. As an individual, she has achieved so much in her career that one has to give it to the girl. I may not be a huge fan, but I will give credit where credit is due. Britney has worked her butt off and her career is a testament to her drive and willingness to work hard. With that said though, would I call myself a Britney fan? A casual one, at best. Do I own a Britney album? No, I do not. Have I purchased some of her tracks on iTunes? Yes, I have. Would I pay to see her live? Not really. I enjoy her and welcome her presence in my life, but I keep it at a peripheral level, for the following reason.

Britney is one of the few music stars that can trigger an inner conflict when I listen to or watch her perform. It is a bit like watching something you are told to believe is real, when you know you are being duped. Or when you are dealing with a sales-person trying to sell you something you know you should not buy, but you are hooked in. It is that unsatisfied feeling you get after watching a movie that starts off promising, but you wind up feeling cheated out of your time and money.

Something about her and her relevance in the world today does not add up for me and I think the following example effectively illustrates why:

Earlier this year at the Billboard Music Awards, Britney appeared onstage to perform twice. Once alongside Rihanna for a duet version of her hit "S&M" and as a surprise guest with Nicki Minaj for the remix of "Till The World Ends". Both times that she appeared onstage, the crowd went wild, but the only thing that stuck out for me was how painfully evident it was that not one line that she sang was coming out of her mouth. It was all pre-recorded. She had a microphone and did a great job of moving her lips to the words, but none of it was real.

Are you starting to see where the conflict comes in?

For a woman who can get up onstage and radiates a thousand-wattage of star quality, yet does not demonstrate anything that can be considered musical showmanship and have millions of fans worldwide is a bit unsettling. Anytime I hear Britney being referred to as an 'artist' or a 'singer' I have to cringe. Britney is none of these things, yet she is celebrated all over the world as such. This is where my contention with Britney lies.

None of this changes the fact that I find some of her tunes catchy and hard to resist. I will admit that some of her songs (most notably "Til The World Ends" and "Criminal") are on my regular playlist, but, nonetheless, my intelligence feels insulted when I see her performing onstage with that ridiculous headset microphone wrapped around her ear. It is so blatantly obvious that she is only using it for show, that I would rather her not wearing that it at all. It would be more authentic, if she were to take it off and do the show lip-synching, because she is not fooling anyone.

I know I'm sounding harsh on Britney, but I’m only pointing out facts. Truthfully, I don't fault her for any of this because her music and performances rely on theatrics and spectacle. Just like her pop-star peers, she needs to rely on backing vocals to dance and maintain the endurance for the over-the-top shows she is known for. However, while most other notorious lip-synchers combine some live singing in their stage-show, Britney does not seem to care. She continues singing along to pre-recorded vocals knowing that the crowd will eat it up.

Why do I take issue with this? Because, I don't like being lied to and that is what it feels like when I see Britney onstage. I almost find myself waiting for her to say "Gotcha!" because the idea of her as an artist, musician or singer is such a joke.

So, I decided that it is time to shed some light on those responsible for this big sham. So that begs the question, who is to blame?

The obvious answer would be the girl herself. But would it be accurate to say that Britney Spears is entirely at fault here? It would be very simple and convenient to blame her, but there is always more to what meets the eye. As easy of a target as she is, the blame does not lie in Britney. I mean really, cab we blame her for following her dream and making it happen? No one can blame her for having the drive, gusto and energy to enter the music industry. Britney may have played her part, but she is not to blame.

But if not Britney, then who?

In order to answer that, we have to look past Britney Spears, the pop star. Behind the illusion of the icon and singer is a team of music industry professionals and marketing executives working towards promoting a product.

Bingo! Now, we are starting to unravel this mystery. Britney Spears is first and foremost a product. She is the face of an elite fleet of highly-paid music industry executives, top-notch DJ's and producers that have all come together to create an audio and visual product with Britney Spears as the physical package.

So now the answer becomes a bit clearer.

This makes it a bit easier to reconcile the inner conflict I mentioned earlier, simply because I know where the credit goes. It is the producers and sound mixers that deserve the honours and accolades. It is the team of back-up dancers, choreographers, lighting crew and sound board professionals that provide her onstage magnetism and create the image of Britney the singer and artist. The truth is that Britney Spears is a cog in a web of workers that have created a final product.

I like to call this web Brand Britney.

What is Brand Britney? It is like a multi-national corporation. Its main product is the packaging and dissemination of a global pop star in the form of Britney Spears. What is Britney’s role in this? Well, just like how every Starbucks product has the green-lady logo, Britney is the face and logo for Brand Britney. So when we purchase tickets to go see Britney Spears live or spend our hard-earned money on her music, it is not accurate to say that we are buying HER music, we are buying a product created by Brand Britney.

But is it fair to say that Brand Britney is solely responsible for this illusion? Again, it would be very simple and convenient to point the finger, but if Brand Britney is a corporation selling a product, they could not have gotten successful without a public that buys into it. So as much as we can rant against Britney Spears and how she is the overly-marketed face of a corporate machine, we must also recognize that we have also played a part in this.

Britney Spears, the performer and the brand may be a product created by Brand Britney, but she is also a reflection of the cultural values of our society. Her rise to stardom mirrors the overall central dumbness that has been permeating through so many aspects of our culture. Going back to my original question of how did all of this happen? Well, it is because we let it.

By breeding a culture where we settle for flash rather than substance, we played a part in the creation of Brand Britney. We live in an age where everything revolves around instant gratification and it has drastically dulled our ability to engage critically and intelligently with the world around us. So no, it is unfair to point the finger entirely at Brand Britney because all they are doing is giving us exactly what we want.

Looking at the whole topic of Britney Spears from this perspective makes me see her in a different light. When we seperate Britney Spears, the individual from Brand Britney, it is hard to ignore the toll being taken on her. Look her up on Youtube under "Britney Spears, paparazzi" and observe how viciously she is hounded by photographers. Watch her documentary "For The Record" and the measures she is forced to take to ensure some normalcy in her life and the detached reality she lives in. Now I can see how she suffered a very public and embarassing meltdown a few years ago. Britney Spears, the individual, may have made her dream of being a star come true, but it has come with a very heavy price.

When you look at her lyrics, there is a strong parallel to her life. Many of her hits, like "Slave 4 U", "Gimme More", "Me Against The Music" and "Piece Of Me" contain a theme suggesting she is a slave to something demanding more out of her. At the core of many Britney tracks are messages of relinquising control and releasing her inhibition. In her music, Britney does not want to think, she wants to party and be a slave to the music. This is the under-lying message that Brand Britney is filtering to all the Britney fans around the world because they do not want people to think. They want people to remain easily duped and complacent and disseminating generic pop music with subliminal messages is an effective way to do this and the alarming thing is that we are allowing this to happen.

So when I think of my original question about Britney Spears and how all of this happened, the answer lies beyond what her music and celebrity image presents. Britney Spears as an internationally renowned pop-star is a giant illusion created by a corporation looking to gain power and keep us asleep. Rather than buying into this illusion of Britney Spears, I say that it is time we shake ourselves awake and start engaging with the world and everything around us with a more critical lens. Had we been doing this all along, we wouldn't have Britney Spears and all the other useless celebrities out there (Kim Kardashian and the entire cast of Jersey Shore to name a few), nor would we live in a world where we are so distracted by celebrities, tabloids, reality television and the countless other things in our lives that take up so much of our priorities and attention. Simply put, we could focus more of our time and energy towards the things that really matter.

I'm just sayin'