Tom Ewing The Decade in Pop : ‘The Class of ’99 Helped Transform the Sound and Status of Pop’
In The Decade in Pop, Pitchfork’s Tom Ewing looks at the incredible transformations pop music as a whole has made since the emergence of the class of ’99.
Though stylistically the genre may seem to have stagnated in certain places, there is little doubt that as a whole, American Idol, Twitter, iTunes, and the Pirate Bay (among others) have forced pop music to change in many ways that Britney and Justin’s predecessors are still having trouble fully grasping. Whereas Janet and her brother the King of Pop may have had the luxury of disappearing for years at a time to re-emerge with a whole new look, sound, and ‘era,’ the Britneys, Justins, and Beyoncé’s of the world must constantly be out in the public eye, immersed in the online world, and putting out some kind of material to keep themselves from fading in the background.
As Ewing points out however, even with all of these hurdles in their way, each member of the class of ’99 has faired exceptionally well and risen to the top of the mainstream pop heap setting a standard for all of those that have come after them. Though they may have only been around a short while in comparison to their idols, Britney, Christina, and Justin, for better or for worse, have become a template for the post-modern pop star:
Breaking through behind the Backstreet Boys on 1999′s pop roster were a crew of former Mouseketeers: Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, and ‘N Sync’s Justin Timberlake. Even the commentators who loved their records didn’t give them a hope of longer-term success. But 10 years on, Spears is midway through the year‘s highest-grossing tour, Aguilera is lining up M.I.A. and Santigold to work with, and Timberlake can pick his hip-hop collaborators as he wishes. (Not to mention snaring a Pitchfork Single of the Year.) It’s fair to say the class of ‘99 exceeded every expectation.
Though Britney, Christina, and Justin may be the gold standard of pop stars, Ewing, like many other critics recognizes that Kelly Clarkson’s monster 2004 single, Since U Been Gone, was the gold standard for pop singles in the first decade of the 21st century. The single utlizes transparency Ewing constantly refers to in The Decade in Pop, in that Clarkson and Co. made little secret of Max Martin‘s involvement in the decade-defining single. At the same time, it was Clarkson’s performance on a breakup song that dabbled into much a more rock sound than her previous lead single, Miss Independent, that fit the changing pop trends so well – she dabbled in a previously unexplored genre for an American Idol while still working unabashedly with one of the great pop maestros of the decade, all the while crafting one hell of a breakup song through her undeniable vocal abilities that would become the template for all pop songs to follow:
What does the “Pop Mix” do to it? It adds an alt-rock bassline, compressed buzzsaw guitars on the chorus, and a power-pop solo in the middle eight. “Pop” in this context means “sounds as much as possible like ‘“Since U Been Gone‘”.
Ewing uses the Black Eyed Peas as a perfect embodiment for the trajectory of calculated pop in the first decade of the 21st century:
When Justin Timberlake and the Black Eyed Peas called out the CIA as terrorists on 2003′s smash “Where Is the Love?”, the combination seemed a whimsical surprise– a new-minted solo star lending a hand to a mostly forgotten group. If they‘d collaborated in 2000, though, it would have been a baffling sell-out by a worthy, boho rap troupe. And if they‘d started working together in 2009 it would have been a backwards move for one of music‘s more enigmatic and respected stars, ill-advisedly teaming up with the world‘s biggest and goofiest pop group.
Ewing on the controlled power handed to the masses through American Idol and the like:
“American Idol” and the whole global merry-go-round of reality TV pop properties are more than just hit shows– they’re the largest and most public acts of rock criticism ever committed. They take the “everyone’s a critic” truism and say, “Yes, and what’s more, we trust you to be good critics on our terms– to an extent.”
What Nelly Furtado’s Timbaland collaborations, and more importantly, Timbo’s work since, proves is that pop music has become surprisingly predictable. Since Nelly first hit the scene in 2001 people had been saying that she should collaborate with the likes of Timbaland and Dr. Dre. Three years later, Nelly finally teamed up with Timbaland for 2004′s Loose. Though the resulting album was pop brilliance, nothing on it matched the in your face lyrical genius of the criminally slept-on Powerless (Say What You Want) or the ballsiness of a pop star writing a track called Fresh Off the Boat. Loose was great, but not nearly as inventive as Timbaland’s output for Aaliyah, Ginuwine, and Missy Elliott. As Timbaland’s work post Loose, most notably Madonna’s so formulaic it hurts, Hard Candy, a Timbaland collaboration could still create some pop magic, but by and large the result was fairly staid on pop’s evolutionary scale. The great had become good and so the world of pop was teeming with good singles by once great artists.
Nelly Furtado, on the other hand, illustrates the Faustian bargains Timbaland and others could offer. “Maneater” and “Promiscuous Girl“, the opening shots from her 2006 comeback Loose, were superb– the hardest and best singles she‘d ever made. But at the same time they erased all the whimsy and rootsiness of her early material: Those beats and songs would have worked for anyone. Other Loose material– reggaeton-based banger “No Hay Igual” and the aching “Say It Right“– showed her famous producers could play to her earlier strengths just as effectively. Even so, the fresh sounds of millennial pop had stopped standing for the future and become simply omnipresent. They thrilled but did not surprise.
The class of ‘99 helped transform the sound and status of pop. Reinventing its relevance is the next great challenge.
The Decade in Pop [Pitchfork]