The world is fair—it's ugly to everybody

Mix 20: Blindsided by Le Sserafim and Sexyy Red, amused by Conan O'Brien in Norway, and the brief life and untimely death of A-pop Theory

Another one bits the dust

After grappling with three different posts in a tentative A-pop series—and being dissatisfied with all of them—I’ve decided the problem is the concept. I kept beginning essays with phrases like “any theory of A-pop begins with the banal observation that America is not the only country in the world,” but then the idea functionally kept ending there, too, as I weaved in various related ideas that never seemed to add up to a capital-T theory, and didn’t seem very interesting as scattered observations forming theory in the negative space.

So instead, A-pop will remain a capital-B bit: a tongue-in-cheek shorthand for imagining American (and broader western Anglophone etc.) pop music as a regional concern competing with other ascendant global styles.

Anyway, if you needed any evidence that America (and English-language western pop music generally) is not the only game in town, you could just skim one of the 65 and counting mixes I’ve done since starting this newsletter and call it a day.¹ My other major essay in the works will be about the People’s Pop Polls, which I don’t plan to tackle until after the current poll has concluded in a few weeks. That one I know I’ll eventually write, though, because its thesis (“a good time was had by all”) is much easier to defend.

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Mix 1 // Mix 2 // Mix 3 // Mix 4 // Mix 5 // Mix 6 // Mix 7 // Mix 8 // Mix 9 // Mix 10 // Mix 11 // Mix 12 // Mix 13 // Mix 14 // Mix 15 // Mix 16 // Mix 17 // Mix 18 // Mix 19

MIX 20: THE WORLD IS FAIR—IT’S UGLY TO EVERYBODY

1. Maude Latour: Too Slow

I struggled mightily to find a lead track this week, during which time I decided reluctantly that Camila Cabello’s “He Knows” and Tommy Richman’s “Million Dollar Baby” are both just on the wrong side of [6.5]. I was all set to just promote NewJeans to the top spot, but then at the last minute I got a recommendation from Isabel, who wondered if this song qualified as WHAT?! Rap. I’d say not quite, but it’s got the right energy — now this is how you do disaffected cheerleader-pop. Sounds like skipping class to drive to the mall.

2. NewJeans: How Sweet

NewJeans continue to mine the dnb/Atlanta bass continuum (see below) with a song that’s not as indelible as most of their 2023 material, but nonetheless might give them a shot at having a second consecutive Song of the Summer.

3. Poppy C.: Try Me (ลองดู)

OK, the dnb/Atlanta bass continuum: Kayla Beardslee shared this on Twitter with the commentary “The year is 2024 and every pop song sounds like this now.” Before I even listened to it, I responded: “Me waiting on the decaf dnb and chunky synth chords.” The ingredients are 90s breakbeats, as “crate-dug” by PinkPantheress, mixed with K-pop synth chords — which have never been afraid of a jazzy ninth or major seventh — converging on the ur-vibe of Ghost Town DJs’ “My Boo.” This appears to be the distinctive axis of whatever wave of K-pop we’re currently in (technically “Try Me” is Thai pop), following Frank Kogan’s categorization of c. 2012 K-pop as the Austral-Romanian empire.²

4. E.D.A. f. Conan O’Brien: Velkommen Til Klubben

About a year ago, Conan O’Brien featured a Norwegian fan on his side podcast Conan O’Brien Needs a Fan, who mentioned that he was in a jokey Norwegian funk group called E.D.A.³ When Conan O’Brien launched his travel show Conan O’Brien Must Go, he used the pilot episode (“Norway”) as an excuse to collaborate with the group and record a hook for their new song: “I’m lookin’ at the fjord / There’s salmon in the sea / My baby says she’s bored / She’s not in love with me / Ahhh!” Between this and Hot Ones, Conan O’Brien seems to be working out the acronym for his own alternative EGOT scheme.

5. Morgenshtern: Последняя Любовь

I alluded to this Blur-ish rock song by Russian rapper Morgenshtern a few weeks ago, and then wouldn’t you know it, the thing grew on me. The 90s slacker speak-sing verses pair well with…

6. Le Sserafim: Good Bones

…Whatever this is. “Good Bones” wins the Miley Cyrus Handstand award for song whose sound I would not have guessed in a hundred tries. One of two recommendations this week from Frank Kogan’s ongoing 2024 list. His description:

Le Sserafim's "Good Bones" is as close as idol pop has ever come to the Butthole Surfers (though if the Surfers were to cover it, it'd be with different lyrics and a different emotional tenor to the vocals: snide and sideways rather than earnest).

7. Ditonellapiaga f. Whitemary: Non resisto

Glad that a week after my Italy recap, I stumbled on some nice Italian dance-pop to feature. I have successfully avoided a post-vacation caffeine relapse (that’s that de-espresso), so I suppose this will have to be my source of Italian pep.

8. Sexyy Red f. Mike Will Made-It: Outside

Glad I’m not a betting man, because I wouldn’t have put much money on an amazing Sexyy Red album coming right on the heels of several stumbles at the end of her banner 2023 — like kind words for Trump and diminishing returns on retreads of her hits from Hood Hottest Princess, which to my ears didn’t really hang together as an album. But In Sexyy We Trust isn’t just the better album, it might be the rap album of the year: all killer, no filler, and even the terrible ideas (a Drake feature!) work—that Drake song, “U My Everything,” sees Sexyy Red in her funniest piss-taking songstress mode, and when Drake finally starts rapping the beat switches up to “BBL Drizzy.” And that’s not even the highlight—I’d give that distinction to this millennial Brazilian funk pastiche from Mike WiLL Made-It.

9. La Joaqui: San Turrona

Argentine reggaeton stomps around with blithe disregard for its surroundings and occasionally slows to a molasses crawl after a misstep into a mud puddle.

10. Dj Brunin XM, MC Pipokinha, Bibi Babydoll: Os Novinhos Que Trabalha de Gp

The other Kogan pick, a meeting of what may eventually prove to be two-thirds Brazil’s very own “bimbo summit,” with MC Pipokinha’s Britney being joined by Bibi Babydoll’s Paris Hilton. (“Who is the baile funk Lindsay Lohan?” is the kind of question I was born to ask.) The music works: the insistent mecha-clave is fuller and prettier than other hard-edged funk without blanding out as EDM, with something like an 8-bit approximation of a horror film theme keeping things tense.

11. Saweetie: Nani

Satisfying sell-out fare from Saweetie, with a song that sounds like it’s been collecting dust since pre-pandemic times. (Its datedness seemed obvious to me even before she says “mention me, you get them retweets.”)

12. Moonchild Sanelly: Scrambled Eggs

Moonchild Sannelly offers one of my favorite pop tropes — charmingly literal lyrics about food. (Avo and eggs is just the breakfast she kept getting in upscale hotels on tour and she wanted to let everyone know.) When she wants you to do your god-given duty to appreciate her booty, she won’t couch it in metaphor.

13. Peso Pluma, Junior H, Eslabon Armado: La Durango

I need to study this one a bit to discover why the style has turned from irritating to soothing, the brass finally carrying me along instead of shutting me out. (As I mentioned over at the Jukebox on a different Peso Pluma feature, this is a me problem; I’m genuinely interested in what the problem is!) It seems obvious that Peso Pluma is doing something to make regional Mexican music more palatable for his global takeover, I just haven’t quite worked out for myself what that thing is yet.

14. Chaii: Night Like This

Persian-New Zealand artist sounds a bit like Doja Cat, but mostly gives herself over to the beat, featuring a pleasing mix of clinks, creaks, and Middle Eastern strings.

15. L’Impératrice f. Fabiana Martone: Danza Marilù

Feather-light French disco—is there any other kind?

16. Roxy Rosa: Gelini

Dutch R&B artist, daughter of a professional footballer. Couldn’t find much more about her in a quick google.

17. Clavish: Vartry Road

Not sure what attracted me to this UK rap track compared to anything else like it I get in a given week — there’s something I like about the repetition of the phrase “Vartry Road” that achieved earworm status, though most of the rest of the words made less of an impact, perhaps to my benefit given the ho-hum misogyny that occasionally breaks through.

18. Kee Avil: Felt

Moody, droning Montreal art-pop.

19. Micha Volders, Miet Warlop: Go যাও

Interesting collaboration between a Belgian producer and Bangladeshi artists singing/chanting in Bengali. More info, and one regrettable use of the adjective “angular,” at Bandcamp.

20. Rory Sweeney, Keanu the Pilot, Emby: Pull Up

Idiosyncratic Irish DJ provides this underground hip-hop number a cheap-sounding PG-13 horrorcore backdrop (maybe it’s “cerebral thrillercore”) but steers clear of outright experimental. Not sure whether that helps or hurts, but the song made it through.

21. Kiefer, Luke Titus, Pera Krstajic: Fast One

Wild live performance from the Kiefer Trio with bassist Pera Krstajic and drummer Luke Titus, who gets a few well deserved shout-outs in the outro.

22. Djy Biza, Shakes & Les: Jazz6

Shakes & Les (& co., with collaborator Djy Biza) bring back the piano in amapiano, providing plenty of space for the keyboards in a cloudy instrumental jam that never goes wispy.

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That’s it! Until next time, try not to force any of your best bits into the square peg of theory if you can avoid it.

—Dave Moore (the other one)

Title from Le Sserafim’s “Good Bones” (“세상은 누구에게나 공평하게 추악해”)

1. A back-of-the-envelope calculation puts a little over a third of songs to date in the American and/or western Anglophone category across all mixes so far.

2. He was identifying the twin influences of bounce-thump Europop via “Mr. Saxobeat” (Romania) and trot via “We No Speak Americano” (Australia) in that year’s K-pop music.

3. Pronounced eh-da, which in Norwegian sounds like the word for “is it…?” making all of their artist/song title combinations sound like questions: “is it endorphins?”