Musical Deja Vu

So what’s up with the music the kids are listening to these days? I've noticed three extremely popular songs on the radio right now that really don’t seem like they belong. It's like they come from a different era or genre and don't blend in with what you normally hear on the radio today. They are as follows:

1. Rehab—Amy Winehouse. This sounds like what the Supremes would sing if they were still performing and if Diana Ross hadn’t gone all bat-shit crazy. Actually, it might have been better suited to the Shangri-Las, they were more the bad girls of girl groups. Their song Remember (Walking in the Sand) is one of my very favorites [although, I must now digress into an lengthy and ranting aside—why do bands insist on putting parenthesis into song titles? It really bugs me. A lot. Like a lot. To an unnaturally disturbing degree, in fact. Like, (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction. I mean, what is that? Either call it “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction” or just “Satisfaction” Make up your damn mind already. Or The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy). Or I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch). People don’t need to have the entire chorus of the song included in the title. Or Buy U a Drank (Shawty Snappin). Again, just pick a name and go with it. I always kind of liked New Order song titles because they didn’t actually seem to have anything to do with the song. OK, end digression]

{wait, secondary digression. I highly recommend clicking on the "Buy U a Drank" link above. So stupid, yet so funny. I also like the debate at the bottom of the page over whether this is racist or not by the always well informed YouTube community. It's an old gag, people, the uptight white dudes talking like black dudes, and vice versa. I mostly just like that the guy's delivery comes off like Chevy Chase doing Weekend Update.}

2. Beautiful Girls - Sean Kingston The description of this song says that it “samples heavily from Stand by Me by Ben E. King” Actually, it sounds exactly like Stand by Me, just with different lyrics. I mean, sampling usually indicates that the music or beats from an old song is played with like rapping or something over it. The old and new stuff is mixed together in an interesting way so that you recognize the old tune, but still identify the work as a new song. But this just seems so similar to the sound and style of the original song. It's like this could actually have been on the radio in 1961. There is also a remake of the song by someone named JoJo, which really sounds like a straight up 60’s girl group number. Is this the influence of Dreamgirls? Damn, that Beyoncé is powerful.

3. Thanks for the Memories—Fall Out Boy. This one, especially the first part, really sounds like a Broadway show tune. The verse anyway, more so than the chorus. It’s like what you would get if the guy who wrote Rent was still alive and started a rock band. [Oh another aside, one of my guilty secrets is that I love Fall Out Boy. I know, just…shut up.]

So what's the deal? I'm not complaining, mind you. Any digression from the normal radio fare of crappy slow jams and boastful raps about shortys, rims, Cristal, and bling (or some combination thereof) is OK by me. And actually, I really kind of like all three of these songs. I don't change the station when they come on. And catchy is catchy, you can't fight that.