Thursday 12 December 2013

Lorde "Royals" vs. Icona Pop "I love it"

Just recently I have discovered Lorde, a sixteen year old singer songwriter from New Zealand. Royals has a deep pulsating beat and lyrics that celebrate individuality and bucking trends. Lorde has a beautiful clear voice. Oh joy. Then there is the video which is, I think, a work of art. Picturing very ordinary spotty lads doing what lads do. Nothing glamorous or glitzy. My car speakers go up very loud when I play it. The rest of Lorde's album is also very good and I reckon there will be more tracks released in due course.

I am not sure how long Icona Pop's "I love it (I don't care)" has played as I have been aware of the refrain "I don't care" sung in a very poppy dance style which appealed to some part of me. That is, until the other day driving when it came on the radio and I heard each of the lyrics, not that there are many. Of course I shouldn't take it so seriously but I do. Dark lyrics that talk of crashing one's car into a bridge and being up in the milky way and then the flippant "I don't care, I love it". Suddenly I have a huge problem with the vibe of this song. It has a great dance beat but the lyrics say nothing positive and if anything it is ok to be reckless with one's life. 

2 comments:

rashbre said...

Thanks for pointing to the Lorde video, which avoids the typical jump-cut hand-held jiggling and seems to only have one tracking shot in the whole thing.

It sort of goes with the song lyrics which seem to be about the gap between most pop culture and normal living, in this case in New Zealand.

Did you see that series 'Top of the Lake', about New Zealand? Fascinating.

Doris said...

No, I didn't see that series Rashbre. I'll look out for it on the catch up/players.