Little Mix has come for all the boys and gals in the pop playground! The British powerhouse group has unleashed their brand-spankin' new single musique video "Bounce Back"! It's a bold and yummy fluorescent affair as the girls sample 1980s group Soul 2 Soul and their iconic smash hit "Back to Life (However Do You Want Me)".
The video is a love letter to the early 2000s R&B/Pop musique scene. "Bounce Back," is a full-on razzle-dazzle festivity with eye-gasmic pizazz. Little Mix has showcased one of the strongest, catchiest and most undeniable hits of their career to date!
The Soul II Soul's 1989 house hit adds just the perfect sprinkle to create a bonafide song of the summer candidate. Produced by stellar artists Stargate and Swiff D, rest assure that Jesy Nelson, Perrie Edwards, Jade Thirlwall and Leigh-Anne Pinnock are dipping and doing it just like the legendary groups that came before them such as En Vogue, Spice Girls, Labelle and Destiny's Child.
Dig out "Bounce Back", thee colorful, rainbow-esque, harmonious musique video and watch as thee foursome play literal toy dolls throwing a raging party in their owner's dollhouse right below!
Let's reminiscence some of Little Mix's past hits right below!
Young legend and revered singer-songwriter pianist Regina Spektor strutted thee Late Night with Seth Myers show to offer a saucy stellar rendition of her tune entitled “Loveology.” Regina was accompanied by a strings section, breathing a refreshed new life into the song.
The late night appearance comes ahead of Spektor’s Broadway debut happening this month of June. She shall unleash a career-spanning live residency over five days, playing June 20-23, 25th and 26th at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre in New York.
In a press release, Regina spilled saying, “I am so inspired as I plan these five nights on Broadway at the Lunt-Fontanne, a beautiful old theater with a rich history. One of the things I’m most excited about is the chance to explore theatrical elements within my concert show. This isn’t a ‘Broadway Show,’ and yet it’s not a tour concert, either. I’m revisiting all the songs I’ve ever written, to see how some of them might group together and connect into a show. I am thinking up some fun ways to incorporate special guests as well.”
She continued, “I’ll be rotating the solo songs quite a bit between the dates, and I’m finding ways to reimagine many of them. Some haven’t been played since my days of playing bars, cafes and open mics. So far the plan is to set up at the Lunt-Fontanne, and in my own small way, pay homage to Broadway!”
Without further ado get into the Spektor groove with Regina's smokin' live rendition of ‘Loveology'!
ItsNotYouItsMe Tuesday Textures celebrates young legends Christina Aguilera, Lil’ Kim, Mya, and P!nk. We're elated to announce that their live performance of Lady Marmalade at thee MTV Movie Awards has been professionally made available for streaming!
Last night thee 2019 award show aired their annual shindig. So in commemoration, after 18 long years, MTV's official youtube page have finally uploaded an HD version of thee iconic live duet performance!
Taking place at thee 2001 MTV Movie Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in our neck of the woods of Los Angeles, Christina, Lil’ Kim, Mya and P!nk hit the live stage to strut together for the very first time. 'Lady Marmalade' was thee lead single from thee equally innovative musical film Moulin Rouge.
Without further ado get ready to shake a tailfeather along with the trendsetting ladies right below! Here is Lady Marmalade at the 2001 MTV Movie Awards!
ItsNotYouItsMe "Back To The Future" Edition with the Queen Of Pop Madonna and her 10 greatest Hip-Hop collaborations. Dig it out right below gals gents!
"Madonna’s relationship with hip-hop has had its ups and downs. On one hand, there’s her early championing of the Beastie Boys, inspired sampling of Public Enemy (“Justify My Love”) and Main Source (“Human Nature”) and her sadly lost duet with Tupac. On the other there’s those “Mini Cooper/super-duper rhymes” in “American Life" and that Sex book image with Vanilla Ice.
Featuring contributions from Swae Lee and Quavo, her forthcoming 14th studio effort, Madame X, suggests that her interest in the genre is still as strong as ever. On the eve of its release, we take a look back at ten of the Queen of Pop’s most successful hook-ups with rappers.
10. “Revolver” feat. Lil Wayne
This second release from 2010’s Celebration retrospective was also Madonna’s final single with the Warner Records label that had been her home for 28 years. Ignore Lil Wayne’s tired sex machine metaphors and “Revolver” has plenty to offer. There’s a certain symmetry to the fact that its robotic electro-pop sound borrows heavily from her one-time protégé Britney and her Blackout opus, while its main “do you wanna die happy” hook proved Madge still had the power to create an almighty earworm.
9. “Into the Hollywood Groove” feat. Missy Elliott
A fun-filled mash-up which gave one of the best ‘80s pop songs a new lease of life? Or a cash-in which wasted the coming together of two bona fide musical innovators? Opinion sure was divided over Madonna and Missy Elliott’s joint efforts for a 2003 Gap commercial, which aired just weeks before the pair famously joined Britney and Christina on stage at the MTV VMAs. First given away free to the clothing outlet’s customers (but later released officially on the Remixed and Revisited collection), this melding of “Into the Groove” and “Hollywood” is infectious enough: you can’t really go wrong when it comes to the former. But Missy’s plugs (“you’re going to love us in our new Gap jeans/Walk by, people ask, where’d you get those jeans”) mean you’re always aware it’s essentially a glorified commercial.
8. “Give Me All Your Luvin” feat. Nicki Minaj and M.I.A.
With its Toni Basil-esque chants and colorful pom-pom-shaking video, “Give Me Your Luvin” appeared tailor made for Madonna’s 2012 Super Bowl halftime show. And yet the head cheerleader herself appears strangely short of peppy spirit here, as does -- less surprisingly -- M.I.A., another pop provocateur far more likely to give the middle finger than perform the Spread Eagle. Instead, it’s left to Nicki Minaj’s breakneck-speed rhymes and Martin Solveig’s effervescent production to bring the energy on the catchy lead single from MDNA.
7. “Future” feat. Quavo
Following Madge’s brief appearance with Cardi B on his debut album cut “Champagne Rose,” Migos’ breakout star then returned the favor by lending his signature monotone to this chilled reggaeton effort. Just like her guest star, Madonna also drowns her vocals in so much Auto-Tune she’s almost unrecognizable. But with echoes of regular Diplo collaborator Santigold, “Future” brings the Mad Decent Block Party vibes.
6. “Waiting” feat. Everlast (Remix)
Mariah Carey’s 1995’s “Fantasy” remix may have pushed the pop star ft. rapper concept into the mainstream. But two years previously, and with much less fanfare, Madonna also joined forces with a hip-hop artist on the B-side to Erotica single “Waiting.” There’s little here of the future emo-rap style that would predate Post Malone by a good two decades. Instead, Everlast is in full-on cocksure House of Pain mode, spitting slightly ridiculous rhymes like “I'm a stud like Captain Kirk and it's your body that I'm workin’” over some seductive New Jack Swing beats.
5. “Crave” feat. Swae Lee
“I’m tired of being far away from home/Far from what can help/Far from where it’s safe,” coos Madonna on this surprisingly subdued second single from Madame X. It’s a rare display of vulnerability which perfectly complements the subtle acoustic guitars, muted trap beats and relaxed lyrical range of Rae Sremmurd’s Swae Lee. On paper, “Crave” sounds like a misguided attempt to gatecrash the mumblerap movement, but instead it’s one of those rare Madonna hip-hop moments which seems relatively effortless.
4. “Bitch I’m Madonna” feat. Nicki Minaj
The third single from Rebel Heart became Madonna’s first Hot 100 hit in three years, largely thanks to a dizzying star-studded promo featuring everyone from her sons David and Rocco to fellow pop icons Beyoncé, Katy Perry and Miley Cyrus. As you’d expect from producers Diplo and PC Music pioneer Sophie, the track itself is just as deranged, blending elements of EDM, dubstep, rave and happy hardcore with nursery rhyme melodies, abrasive dog barks and that most hip-hop of instruments, the kazoo. In fact, the rapid-fire rhymes of Nicki Minaj sound positively quaint amidst all the organized chaos. Whether “Bitch I’m Madonna” makes you want to “go hard” or “go home,” it’s certainly never boring.
3. “Veni Vidi Vici” feat. Nas
“I came, I saw, I conquered,” boasts Madonna on an intriguing collaboration with a rapper no stranger to blowing their own trumpet. The self-proclaimed King of New York appears to be competing with the superstar about who experienced the tougher rise to fame on one of several Rebel Heart bonus songs that deserved to grace the main track list. Nas acquits himself well over a Diplo production which veers from sweet acoustics to hard-hitting bass pop. But “Veni Vidi Vici” is perhaps most notable for how many past Madonna hits it manages to reference (we’re counting at least 13!).
2. “Iconic” feat. Chance the Rapper and Mike Tyson
If anyone’s earned their right to be self-aggrandizing, it’s Madonna. This self-empowerment anthem sees the world’s biggest-selling female artist truly embrace her legendary status over a chaotic blend of throbbing EDM beats, ominous synths and crowd cheers, while Chance the Rapper justifies the personal recommendation from Jay-Z with his typically melodic flow. Mike Tyson’s inclusion remains problematic but his improvised mission statement (“I'm the best the world has ever seen/I'm somebody you'll never forget cause I work hard and sweat in my tears/I'm never falling again and if I did, I'd come back”) made “Iconic” the perfect choice to open the Rebel Heart Tour.
1. “Beat Goes On” feat. Kanye West
A standout from Madonna’s Hard Candy, “Beat Goes On” isn’t miles away from her comfort zone -- there are definite shades of the post-disco funk that she conquered in early '80s New York on this cut. Of course, it would be interesting to hear what the far more confrontational Kanye West of today would do with a Madonna guest spot. But although Yeezy’s contribution lacks his familiar bite, it still complements the chunky grooves and space-age synths that once made the Neptunes the producers du jour." - Billboard.com
John Lennon was the first Beatle to join the group. (Lennon didn’t meet Paul McCartney until the Quarrymen, the pre-Beatles skiffle band that Lennon founded, played their second show.) Lennon was also the first Beatle to release a solo single, and the first to leave the band. But he was the last Beatle to hit #1. That must’ve been weird.
The nascent rock-critical industry certainly regarded Lennon as the most important, poetic, and generally great Beatle, and much of the public probably agreed. But Lennon wasn’t making hits. All of Lennon’s former bandmates had multiple #1 singles before Lennon ascended to that summit. By the time he got there, Lennon didn’t even think it was possible. He’d spent his immediate post-Beatles years carving out a different path, becoming the world’s loudest and most visible protest performance-artist, staging public stunts with his wife Yoko Ono. He and Ono had done what they could to inject rock ‘n’ roll with avant-garde sensibilities — sometimes successfully, sometimes not. He’d become a public voice against the Vietnam War and against Richard Nixon, and Nixon spent years trying to get him deported as a result.
Lennon was still a commercial force in the post-Beatles years. A couple of his solo singles, 1970’s “Instant Karma!” and 1971’s “Imagine,” had both made it as high as #3. (“Instant Karma!” is a 7, and “Imagine” is a 4.) But Lennon had other stuff going on, especially in 1974. A year earlier, Lennon and Ono had separated, and Lennon took up with Ono’s former personal assistant May Pang and went off on the year-and-a-half period that he called his lost weekend. Bouncing between New York and Los Angeles, Lennon spent this time drinking and drugging himself into a prolonged stupor, making a hedonistic spectacle of himself with buddies like Harry Nilsson. He was also depressed from missing Ono and stressed out from fighting his own deportation. But somewhere in all that fog, Lennon managed to make “Whatever Gets You Thru The Night,” the only John Lennon solo single that hit #1 while John Lennon was still alive.
“Whatever Gets You Thru The Night,” like a lot of other Lennon singles, is full of nonsense. It’s a structure-free vamp, a string of non-sequitur lyrics. Pang later said that Lennon got the title from the black televangelist Reverend Ike; Lennon had heard him use the phrase while channel-surfing one night. If there’s a point to the lyrics — a big if — they’re about what I guess you’d call self-care now: “Whatever gets you through your life it’s all right, it’s all right / Do it wrong or do it right it’s all right, it’s all right.” Maybe Lennon is reassuring himself from the depths of his own bender, telling himself that there’s nothing wrong with his coping mechanisms. Or maybe he’s preaching in his own way, putting forth the idea that we make up our own moral codes and that they don’t need to overlap with anyone else’s. But if those are the ideas, then Lennon doesn’t really explore them. He just lets those words sit inert, filling space.
But “Whatever Gets You Thru The Night” does have ideas. Those ideas are musical. “Whatever Gets You Thru The Night” is a simple vamp, but it’s a wild and funky one. Supposedly, the beat was inspired by George McCrae’s “Rock Your Baby,” the early disco hit. You can’t hear too much of “Rock Your Baby” in the final product, but there is a bit of disco peeking through in “Whatever Gets You Through The Night” — in the speed, in the steadiness, and in the relative lushness of the orchestration.
Elton John sings backup and plays piano on “Whatever Gets You Thru The Night.” The song is really a duet, with John and Lennon singing every line together, each of them mixed about as loud as the other. That piano stays busy throughout — a glammy sort of boogie-woogie that keeps the song free of empty space. But even without that piano, there would still be a lot happening on “Whatever Gets You Thru The Night”: a rumbling and relentless backing band, a whole lot of handclaps, plenty of old-timey sax-squawk solos from Rolling Stones sideman Bobby Keys. There’s barely any intro, barely any build. Instead, these musicians all launch into a big and silly groove right away, and they keep it going throughout.
While they were recording the song together, Elton John loved what he was hearing, and he told Lennon that it was a #1 hit. Lennon said that it would be nice but that he was “out of favor” in the US. So Elton made a bet: If “Whatever Gets You Thru The Night” hit #1, Lennon would have to come out and do a guest appearance at an Elton John show. Lennon agreed, even though he’d never toured as a solo artist and almost never played anything that could be described as a show, at least since the Beatles had stopped touring. And 12 days after “Whatever Gets You Thru The Night,” Lennon made good on his promise.
On Thanksgiving night of 1974, Elton John played a show at Madison Square Garden. About halfway through, he introduced Lennon, and the two played “Whatever Gets You Thru The Night” together. Lennon stuck around onstage for a little while, doing “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds” and “I Saw Her Standing There” — Paul McCartney’s song, not his. (“We thought we’d do a number of an old estranged fiancee of mine called Paul. This is one I never sang. It’s an old Beatle number, and we just about know it.”)
That would be John Lennon’s last real live performance. Other than a few songs at a TV taping in 1975, it was Lennon’s last time playing music onstage anywhere. That night, backstage at the Garden, Lennon made up with Yoko Ono. And soon after, he spent five years away from the music business, taking that time to raise his son with Ono, the former Cibo Matto bassist Sean. Lennon will appear in this column again, but he wasn’t around to see it.
GRADE: 6/10
BONUS BEATS: Here’s the cover of “Whatever Gets You Through The Night” that the lo-fi UK post-punkers Television Personalities released as a B-side in 1994:
THE NUMBER TWOS: BT Express’ high-stepping, sex-positive disco-funk squelcher “Do It (‘Til You’re Satisfied)” peaked at #2 behind “Whatever Gets You Thru The Night.” It’s an 8." - Stereogum.com
Art, Musique, Fashion/Styles and Contemporary Culture created and curated by Anthony De La Cruz.
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