The music of silence

That's the Pussycat Dolls sealing their lips. Not for the good of humanity, you understand, but to promote their Shhh lingerie range back in 2008.

Despite (or perhaps because of) the Pussycats' inexplicable decision to keep singing, I've become preoccupied with musicians being quiet. Let me tell you why...

A couple of weeks ago, my colleague at the BBC News Website Tim Masters dropped me a line saying he'd interviewed author Jennifer Egan about her new book A Visit From The Goon Squad. One of the chapters in this Orange Prize-nominated novel takes the form of a Powerpoint presentation, which details 12 of the greatest pauses in rock music - those little, unexpected moments of calm that are guaranteed to ruin any game of musical chairs. Here they are in no particular order.

• Foxy Lady - Jimi Hendrix
• Please Play This Song on the Radio - NOFX
• Good Times, Bad Times - Led Zeppelin
• Bernadette - The Four Tops
• Young Americans - David Bowie
• Mighty Sword - The Frames
• Supervixen - Garbage
• Long Train Runnin’ - The Doobie Brothers
• The Time of the Season - The Zombies
• Faith - George Michael
• Closing Time - Semisonic
• Roxanne - The Police
• Rearrange Beds - An Horse

Tim sent me a chunk of his interview and suggested it might make a decent feature on 6 Music... I agreed, and set off to ask some musicians about the science of silence, and along the way I bumped into Dr Victoria Williamson (who runs an excellent blog on the psychology of music). It all turned into this radio package, which aired yesterday.



Sometimes I love my job...


Footnote one: The chapter in A Visit From The Goon Sqaud also works as a standalone short story. It's available for free online - just click on this link.

Footnote two: Jennifer's list is far from exhaustive. I'd have included the "STOP!" moment from Britney's Crazy, or the almighty gap before the first verse of The Foo Fighters' Monkey Wrench. Any more ideas out there?

Footnote three: Tim's interview with Jennifer Egan can be found here.

Tweet

Britney Spears' totally finished videogram

That didn't take long, did it? 24 hours after the trailer, Britney's released the full video for Til The World Ends. Here's a still.

"Important" observations about this image

1) Britney has employed an old Hollywood trick called forcing focus. Just before the camera rolled, she pointed at the ceiling and said "look everyone, a spider". Result: Everyone except Britney is staring out of frame, and she becomes the main subject of the shot. Genius.

2) Britney has been forced to wear gay Spider-Man's cast-offs.

Here is the video "in full".

Britney Spears - Til The World Ends


According to choreographer Brian Friedman says another edit, which he calls "a full dance version" will be out soon. That should be interesting, given Popjustice's accurate observation that the director has been forced to cut around Britney's ropey dancing in the original.

(NB: Just noticed that Popjustice took a screengrab of the same part of the video as I did. How strange is that?)

Tweet

Britney Spears' partially-complete videogram

It's been in the "shops" for a month now, but Britney Spears has only just got around to shooting a video for Til The World Ends. A teaser clip hit the internet this morning and, to be honest, everyone involved should just stop work now - because you could put these 30 seconds on a day-long loop and I'd be perfectly happy...

Or at least, I'd be happy if someone hadn't pointed out the similarity between Britney's "woah-oh-oh" chorus and Baltimora's Tarzan Boy. Now I can't listen to one without hearing the other. After this, you won't be able to, either.


Britney Spears - Til The World Ends (trailer)


Apparently there are two versions of this video on the way. You can insert your own joke about the frequency of buses here.

Tweet

Girl, you've got a wonderful ass

Catch this while it lasts... A Prince fan has started uploading rare and unreleased material to YouTube, including the deliciously funky Wonderful Ass. First recorded in 1983, then revamped for the Dream Factory project, which in turn morphed into the Sign O' The Times album, this is one of the shiniest gems in Prince's vault.

Prince - Wonderful Ass


Prince is famously litigious. He recently issued a cease and desist order to all former members of The Revolution, instructing them not to talk to the press about their time in the band. With that in mind, I expect the YouTube account "The One U Wanna C" will disappear in a matter of days, or even hours.

While it's still there, you should also check out the trailer for an unreleased Prince documentary, which was made around the recording and release of 3121 five years ago.

Prince - 3121 trailer

Tweet

"Interesting" news from Euro-land

Lena, a tiny brunette mad woman, is representing Germany at this year's Eurovision Song Contest.

Nothing out of the ordinary, you might think, except she won the competition last year. Apparently the rules allow it, though, and Lena is the third winner to return to defend her title (but the first to do so in 50 years).

Now, I was quite a fan of Lena's song Satellite when I went out to report on Eurovision last year. I'm even quoted on Lena's Wikipedia page as saying it was "the first contemporary pop hit Eurovision has produced in decades". Well, we all get carried away sometimes.

This year's entry is a very different kettle of water (I don't put fish in my kettle. Makes the tea taste funny). Sparse and trippy, it sees Lena's wispy vocals accompanied by little more than a lone plucked double bass.

The hook line, and title, is Taken By A Stranger, suggesting a lyrical telegraph about Europe's sex trafficking trade. Or it would, if the rest of the lyrics weren't "hey, mind if I take this chair?" repeated over and over again, for no apparent reason. Maybe something got lost in translation.

Lena - Taken By A Stranger


Not a particularly obvious choice for Eurovision. I wonder how it'll fare in Dusseldorf next month?

Tweet

The Single Life

It is Friday afternoon, and you certainly don't want to hear me wittering on with my "theories" and "jokes" about pop music. Here instead is a huge collection of videos for forthcoming singles and "jukebox classics".

I have arranged them by category. Select the one that suits your mood and press play. Or press play on them all at once for a groundbreaking mini-mixtape mash-up.

STONE COLD FUNK
The James Brown-produced, devilishly saucy Sweet Charles.

Sweet Charles - Yes It's You



MINIMALIST INDIE DISCO
Why, it's Nicola Roberts-collaborators Metronomy with their slyly groovesome new single The Look. How exciting.

Metronomy - The Look



SPARKLY ELECTROPOP
The "official lyric video" (urgh) for that Sky Ferreira track I was banging on about last week.

Sky Ferreira - 99 Tears



ANYTHING WITH KANYE WEST IN IT
Hooray! It's Katy Perry's expensive video for her underwhelming new song, ET. The CGI hooves are particularly unconvincing.

Katy Perry ft Kanye West - ET



ONE OF THE BEST SONGS OF ALL TIME
This was recorded at the first ever MTV Awards. It'd be fair to say they've upped their game in the intervening 20 years.

En Vogue - My Lovin' (Never Gonna Get It)



UNCOMFORTABLE-LOOKING INDIE BAND
My favourite is the feckless Shaun Ryder lookalike in the background.

Deerhunter - Memory Boy



SUPERLATIVE HIP-HOP SPIN-OFF VANITY PROJECT
This is Gnarls Barkley supremo Danger Mouse, with Jack White and Sergio Leone's spaghetti western orchestra. From a new project called Rome, which hits the shops later this month. Genuinely terrific.

Danger Mouse and Daniele Luppi - Two Against One starring Jack White



DAVE PEARCE O'CLOCK
It's a Freemason's mix of Yasmin's new single. It's "massive", or something.

Yasmin - Finish Line (Freemasons Pegasus Club Mix)




And now that I've exhausted a week's worth of potential posts in a single article, I am going to have some beer. I hope you have some beer, too.

Happy weekend,
mrdiscopop

Tweet