Pop gems not to be ignored anymore!!!. Enter Joey Lawrence and Jeremy JordanJul 23 '05 Write an essay on this topic.The Bottom Line Forget Abba, The Beatles, Queen, Bee Gee's et all. The era of late 80's-early 90's, gave us some even better gems. Feel that synth orchastra! Get over the image! Yep. These 3 songs (one by Joey Lawrence and 2 by Jeremy Jordan) are superb pop songs that got moderate chart sucsess at a time when pop was changing. They need to be dug up again. First off I'll talk about Joey "whoa" Lawrence, then Jeremy "beverly hills 90210" Jordan. Both songs dropped in that weird year of 1993, when new jack swing was dying or was already dead and Nirvana and the "grundge" scene, along with gansger rap (Dr Dre et all) were moving the top 40 with them. Tracks like Joey Lawrence's "nothing my love cant fix" and Jeremy jordans "wannagirl" got ignored. Teenagers wanted something deeper and more thought prevoking. So called immature songs like these 3 got swept aside and deserved better sales. It annoys me somewhat that whilst shameless pop music in the USA did come back with Britney, backstreet boys et all, rnb now is so image conscious about "thuggery" that you see pop stars like destiny's child, acting all hard in a ridiculous cut like "soldier". I want shameless pop back! Anyway....... Joey Lawrence came from TV show "blossem". A kids show which starred a teenage girl and her big butt'd friend Six. Joey was the hunk of the show. When "nothing my love can't fix" dropped, along with the very good self titled album, Joey was still in his late teens. I dont know what it is about myself and loving funky, positive pop songs, but the track is so upbeat and happy. But I can still dance to it. It has a hip hop sampled hook on the intro, but it's slick pop beleive me. The chorus should be used as a chat up line for guys and girls. If sung in Joeys moderate, but somewhat unique voice, the chorus has charm, as would your chatup line. It sounds cocky, but comes across very sweet. The verses are sung slowly, easy to hear and conjur up lovely imagry about a loved one you may have. Here is an example "why is my baby blue, can't see the colurs of a sunny day. Stuck in that point of view What can I do to take those tears away...." It is so sugery and bouncy. Joeys voice is perfectly suited to this sort of non-threatening, but dancable fluff. Pop fluff this good comes along so rarely, they should be re-listened to again. Teenaged girls did not know what how good they had it with Joey and Jeremy dropping 2 slick, but hook filled pop that year. Coldplay ain't nothing compared to the teams of people who wrote and crafted these pop songs. With an adlib filled ending, "nothing my love cant fix" is not to be taken too seriously, and makes you think Joey has a sense of humour aswell. It is not embarrassing, just cute and original in a stylised, goofy way. Jermey Jordan released an album that same year. Both Jeremy and Joey came from TV, both pinups and both had surprisenly consistant albums to boot. Jermey is more rnb based then Joey, though oddly his single "Wannagirl", is more cherry wine then Joey's "nothing my love cant fix". Jeremy had 2 awesome singles. "The right kind of love" was a slow, seductive, and original as hell slowjam! Big, loud drum snares may date the song, but yet the track now seems starkinly original these days. One time 80's pop singer Robbie "c'est la vie" Nevill co-wrote it and crafted some other cuts off Jeremy's album. So after that info, I can now see why this song is maybe so good. Jeremy even sounds like Robbie. With slight, but noticable vocoders on the breakdown of the song and Jermey singing the hell out of every line so well (in particular on the adlibs), this is a passionate, and hugly underated pop gem aswell. And is easily one of the best and most forgotten pop songs of all time. Think Iam overreacting? Maybe Iam, but as slowjams go, it is easily one of the best. The video had Jeremy hangin' as it were with the brothers. It looked silly, but somehow very much reflects a more innocent and naive time that back then, you think a pin up model boy, with blonde hair, could hang in a hood with b-ballers. Nice video But what about "wannagirl"? Robbie Nevill had nothing to do with this song, and as I already said, this cut is the poppiest off the album. Words cannot describe the pure pleasure the songs breakin' out, bustling opening gives me. Like a happy childhood memory, the sounds in your face production gives it a bold confident swagger. It assures the listener it does not want street cred like Joeys song, or like destiny's child do now. It wants to make girls happy, make me wanna dance and is credible for being so forcfully upbeat and simple. "Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!" goes the twinkly keyboard intro, etching out the hook of the chorus. Just seconds after, frenzied drum programming is added into the mix. This is uptempo, and should work you up into a sweat. Unashamed of it's sound, the verse comes in. The hook,"i want a girl", is repeated several times on the verse, before the bridge. It is not "wannagirl", but it is still phrased in a original way for a sentence that must of been sung for centuries now. The small, but prominant bridge deserves to be noticed. It is a great bridge bascially, and all good pop songs need one.... "This girl I'm describing, really does exist, baby have you noticed.. ". It may skip between different tenses, but seems perfect somehow. Maybe it being short is a bonus? It dives straight into the all singing, all dancing chrous. With the smooth mulit-tracked backing vox, repeatedly soothing ur ears with the words "girrrrrrrrl, girrrrrrrrrl", the chorus is so warm and sunny, I can see kids dancing to this at street parties. And myself, as a young kid, singing this to girls on my street and at school. Music and nostalgia go hand in hand, but newcomers or people who vaguely remember this song should still love it, if your a fan of well written pop that is. "I want make the words to say the most...I LOVE YOU, And your love is all I ever need... ". Those lines end the chrous. It stops quite abruptly which then sets it up to the more relaxed verse or later on, middle of song breakdown. This makes the verse and chorus, aswell as the bridge, very noticable and stand out from each other. This trait if you will is something that the multitracked chorus's these sort of songs quite often have. The multitracking, or piles of backing vox, give them a warm feeling. This is very missing in todays midtempo snorathons. The breakdown is intesresting as no rap is performed. Usually, back in the early 90's and still even today, a rap would break up a song instead of say a guitar solo, sax solo (if 80's) or a passsionately sung middle 8. "Wannagirl" uses samples of a random deep voiced man, giving a public service announcment through a tannoy like device... "This should be play at high volume, preferably in a residential area"..... .......Voiced in a deadpan way. the sentance sums up the song, atmosphere and high energy enthusiasm perfectly. It gives it a kick and wraps up the purpose of the song that maybe a standard rap would of failed. It goes back into the chrous and fades out. Perect way to end a forgotten pop song. All 3 need to be listened to know and again. Videos to all 3 do exist, but good luck in finding MTV, or now VH1 showing them. Thanks to the snobbery of these acts now being embarrassing pin up "wanna be singers", you an bet these videos will never be shown again unless stupid VH1 critics deside to literally garbage on these finely crafted, catchy pop tunes. SO, I hope I can get through to some of you. That maybe you can share your thoughts on these 3 songs, or any other now buried, but valuable pop gems from this era. Iam off to listen to one of my fav albums of all time. The album is Glenn Medeiros (1990). Incase you vaguely remember the name but not a song, it features "She ain't worth it" with Bobby Brown. Another song that is so simple, yet catchy and clever, it still personifies a good pop song. Again the album and song is "synthed up" to the 9's with multitracked vocals, keyboard parts, and loud as hell snare drum programming ("TWACK!"), that song and upbeat album, as Joey's and Jeremy's albums, remind me that pop use to be shameless and fun. Corny theymay be lyrically, but what good pop song is not? It is the melody and hook, along with what has to be a hummable chorus, is what makes a good pop song. ..and one day, I hope they get the credit they deserve!  |
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