Sunday, August 31, 2008

Why I'm not 'singing alabama all day long'

Kid Rock (pictured) has released a new track titled All Summer Long.  I'll share a sample of the lyrics with you:
Splashing through the sand bar
Talking by the campfire
It's the simple things in life, like when and where
We didn't have no internet
But man I never will forget
The way the moonlight shined upon her hair

I'm impressed that Kid Rock will never forget 'her hair' even though he couldn't blog about it (I presume that's the scatological internet/forget couplet, as surely he wouldn't mock listeners with lazy rhyme for the sake of it....)

Anyway, if you're familiar with the arrangement, you'll know just how mercilessly derivative it is.  The piano riff is from Werewolves of London (and this really bugs me, because I experience a momentary frisson of anticipation when I hear it on the radio before grim despair sets in); guitar, chorus - who knows, maybe cover art and offset printing - from Sweet Home Alabama. If folks like sirloin steak and blueberry pie, try our blueberry steak pie!

Most of all, I get the sense that we - the listeners - are being taken for a ride.  This isn't appropriation or clever re-presentation.  There is something nasty in the sense that this pastiche is just thrown together to order, to fool and manipulate.  It makes a mockery of creativity.  In my book, Kid Rock is the Today Tonight of musical entertainment.

1 comment:

Sam said...

Mike, I couldn't agree more. I despise this growing trend 'artists' have when 'writing' songs. I now switch stations immediately upon hearing this song, or rather once I've figured out that it isn't really Werewolves of London coming on. Please, when is creativity and originality going to come back into the music industry? Surely by trying to appeal to everyone, they are really just annoying their audience ... aren't they?