Panda Pops

CLASSIFICATION, WITHOUT THE CLASS

I'm appalled by the people out there who are utterly unable to classify a song into the correct genre. For the uninitiated, I'm pointing my finger squarely at the TV advert for the latest New Woman compilation CD. The announcer glibly states that the CD contains "some of the greatest modern love songs", in between clips of Katie Melua's 'Closest Thing To Crazy', Blue's 'Guilty' (I could also rally against the thoughtless deployment of the word "greatest" here, but I'll grind that axe another time) and 'Thank You' by Jamelia.

A quick lesson for the hard of thinking. 'Thank You' is not a love song. Even the most cursory of glances at the lyrics would make it very obvious that 'Thank You' is not a love song. 'Thank You' is pretty much the exact opposite of a love song. 'Thank You' is not a love song. Are we all clear on that?

It's not as if there was a shortage of love songs released over the past 12 months (if they wanted a love song by Jamelia, 'Superstar' would have at least been in the right ballpark), or as if there is any need to bill the CD as a collection of love songs (why not a collection of anthems for the modern woman?). It may be petty of me, but this assumption that any song that stands downtempo of 'Me Against The Music' must be a love song is absolutely brainless.

Perhaps we can look forward to more CDs of modern love songs, including DJ Casper's 'Cha Cha Slide', the Black-Eyed Peas' 'Shut Up' and 'Iodine' by Siobhan Donaghy. And perhaps that can be followed by a CD of modern rock, including 'Toxic', 'Red Blooded Woman' and the 'Fast Food Song'. Or perhaps we're heading for a future where we have to abandon the whole concept of genre because no one could be bothered to use it properly. I'll book its funeral straight after the ceremonies for correct grammar and punctuation, shall I?

posted by Steve @ 1:12 pm