Putting On The Louche
.
louche
adjective
1. disreputable or sordid in a rakish or appealing way
If you are one of today's female pop singers with very modest talents, the surefire way to feed the insatiable synergy between publicity and sales is to Put On The Louche.
Madonna, Lady Gaga and Miley Cyrus are perfect examples of using an endless variety of louche in an futile effort to cover up their lack of talent.
Putting On The Louche is just another example of Madison Avenue's First Commandment: Sex sells!
So let us drop some names and mention a few artists who actually have great talent and did not have to resort to putting on the louche. Edith Piaf, Billie Holliday, Lena Horne, Barbara Streisand, Judy Collins, Joan Baez, Nana Mouskouri, Monika Zetterund and Dolly Parton come to mind.
Most of these ladies have a legacy of memorable hits. They established their reputations long before today's music videos that beg for female artists to put on the louche. Today's artists are fashioned for the video audiences by the big corporate record labels.
Recently we noticed what one artist could do for herself when she broke away from the mold and made her own artistic decisions. And this girl is eighteen years old with braces on her teeth!
That lady is Zara Larsson who is best known for the music video, "Lush Life," with 350 million YouTube views. The "Lush Life" video is fashioned around some completely forgettable tweeny lyrics and Zara's dancing. Did I mention it had 350 million views?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tD4HC...
Zara is not Putting On The Louche with her dancing in this video, but you can see where this record label will eventually take her. Corporate fruit flies are corporate fruit flies. It is all about squeezing that last dollar into the bottom line. It is not about the artist.
Zara has a voice and this petulant flicka is not afraid of her own opinions. It remains to be seen whether or not she will dance the dance of artistic death with the boyz who manage her label.
Judge for yourself.
Recently, Swedish television arranged for some of that country's biggest stars to appear at the Apollo Theatre with The Late Show's Gospel Choir.
Zara chose Roberta Flacks' classic, "Killing Me Softly With His Song."
Please slide the time bar to 39:40. Take notice of her crafted diction of certain words like the single syllable "boy" and remember that English is not her native language. Sinatra took pride in sweating out that kind of enunciation with endless rehearsals.
http://www.svtplay.se/video/10035740/...
Now, slide back to the rehearsal at 14:14 and get a glimpse of this teenager's persona.
Hopefully, Zara Larsson will continue to make her own career decisions instead of wasting that great voice by singing kiddie lyrics for big labels.
Follow your own star, Zara. You own it for now, but you may not own it for very long if the corporate fruit flies have their way with you.
After the kiddie songs run their course, they will expect you to start Putting On The Louche.
BTW-
*Our apologies to "Putting on the Ritz…"*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OG3Pn...
louche
adjective
1. disreputable or sordid in a rakish or appealing way
If you are one of today's female pop singers with very modest talents, the surefire way to feed the insatiable synergy between publicity and sales is to Put On The Louche.
Madonna, Lady Gaga and Miley Cyrus are perfect examples of using an endless variety of louche in an futile effort to cover up their lack of talent.
Putting On The Louche is just another example of Madison Avenue's First Commandment: Sex sells!
So let us drop some names and mention a few artists who actually have great talent and did not have to resort to putting on the louche. Edith Piaf, Billie Holliday, Lena Horne, Barbara Streisand, Judy Collins, Joan Baez, Nana Mouskouri, Monika Zetterund and Dolly Parton come to mind.
Most of these ladies have a legacy of memorable hits. They established their reputations long before today's music videos that beg for female artists to put on the louche. Today's artists are fashioned for the video audiences by the big corporate record labels.
Recently we noticed what one artist could do for herself when she broke away from the mold and made her own artistic decisions. And this girl is eighteen years old with braces on her teeth!
That lady is Zara Larsson who is best known for the music video, "Lush Life," with 350 million YouTube views. The "Lush Life" video is fashioned around some completely forgettable tweeny lyrics and Zara's dancing. Did I mention it had 350 million views?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tD4HC...
Zara is not Putting On The Louche with her dancing in this video, but you can see where this record label will eventually take her. Corporate fruit flies are corporate fruit flies. It is all about squeezing that last dollar into the bottom line. It is not about the artist.
Zara has a voice and this petulant flicka is not afraid of her own opinions. It remains to be seen whether or not she will dance the dance of artistic death with the boyz who manage her label.
Judge for yourself.
Recently, Swedish television arranged for some of that country's biggest stars to appear at the Apollo Theatre with The Late Show's Gospel Choir.
Zara chose Roberta Flacks' classic, "Killing Me Softly With His Song."
Please slide the time bar to 39:40. Take notice of her crafted diction of certain words like the single syllable "boy" and remember that English is not her native language. Sinatra took pride in sweating out that kind of enunciation with endless rehearsals.
http://www.svtplay.se/video/10035740/...
Now, slide back to the rehearsal at 14:14 and get a glimpse of this teenager's persona.
Hopefully, Zara Larsson will continue to make her own career decisions instead of wasting that great voice by singing kiddie lyrics for big labels.
Follow your own star, Zara. You own it for now, but you may not own it for very long if the corporate fruit flies have their way with you.
After the kiddie songs run their course, they will expect you to start Putting On The Louche.
BTW-
*Our apologies to "Putting on the Ritz…"*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OG3Pn...
date
newest »
newest »
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rst96...