What's going wrong with pop music

BY JOSH DRIMMER

GENE SMILANSKY/YH

Have you listened to "What's Going On" lately? No, I'm not talking about the classic Marvin Gaye album or its title track—I'm talking about the overproduced all-star remake organized by U2's Bono and hip-hop producer Jermaine Dupri featuring the limited talents of P. Diddy, *NSYNC, and the Backstreet Boys drowning out a few more gifted artists. Though originally organized to fight AIDS in Africa, the all-stars are now splitting the proceeds of "What's Going On" between AIDS relief efforts and the United Way's September 11 Fund. Limp Bizkit's Fred Durst even added a rap to the song including lyrics about the WTC tragedy. The "What's Going On" CD, to be released on Tues., Oct. 23, will surely make a lot of money for two good causes, and it is a well-written song.

Unfortunately, this song was written 30 years ago by Marvin Gaye, and comparing the remake to Gaye's original is like comparing Gaye's voice to Dan Aykroyd's. Hate it or detest it, "What's Going On" is a fair representation of the derivative, unoriginal, and bland music that has dominated late-'90s/early 21st-century pop music. And it's a sign of things to come.

Ever since the Twin Towers collapsed, every magazine from Sports Illustrated to Rolling Stone has speculated on how the catastrophe will affect their now-irrelevent points of focus, but amid such intelligent pieces as Jack McCallum's call for an end to war metaphors in sportswriting ["Fighting Words," SI, 10/1/01] and David Fricke's exploration of song as comfort ["Shelter From the Storm," Rolling Stone, 10/18/01], other, more ridiculous theories have found outlets. In this paper, for example, MTV C.E.O. Tom Freston was quoted as saying that that Sept. 11 marked the end of narcissistic entertainment ["Art in the aftermath: what happens next?" YH, 9/28/01]. Bullshit. One of the most narcissistic albums of all time, Jay-Z's The Blueprint, is still topping the charts largely because of one of the most narcissistic hits of all time, "Izzo (H.O.V.A.)," which uses yet another sample of the Jackson 5's "I Want You Back" to spell out his new name: Jay-Hova. Yes, as in Jehovah, as in God. Others have gone further and predicted a death to the current pop music scene's cheery teen-pop dominance—it was one such prediction by a friend of mine that originally inspired this column. Unfortunately, I can't share his optimism.

We may be heading for another recession, much like the one under which the Seattle grunge scene boomed, but that alone won't create another Kurt Cobain. We may be headed for another war, a little like the one that inspired such late-'60s/early-'70s masterpieces as What's Going On, but that alone won't create another Marvin Gaye. No, the truth is simple, even if wannabe prophets will never accept it: pop music is utterly unpredictable, and quality pop music only comes from a combination of an intelligent record-buying public and excellent artists. Right now, we don't have the former, and, with assistance from a record industry that likes its artists well-manufactured, there are damn few of the latter.

So, what's going on? Not much, really: bad times might bring great art after all, but considering the dearth of great songs about the 1987 stock market crash, not to mention the excellent jazz music of the Roaring '20s, bad times aren't really a sign of anything. At the risk of making myself a fool, I will make one prediction and one promise. My prediction is that the upcoming remake of "We Are Family" featuring Busta Rhymes, Aerosmith, and Macaulay Culkin (no, really) will be godawful.

My promise is that I will make donations to AIDS relief efforts and the September 11 fund by sending a check, rather than by buying a CD. Consider doing the same, lest you encourage a "We Are The World" remake.

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