#soon! Part Un - The 60s-00s Girl Band Debut Breakthrough Rate
- Thread starter berserkboi
- Start date
Island
Staff member
Poor Sophie Ellis-Bextor.
He/Him
Sorry my love, I must not have made it clear - the feeling of confusion and frustration with myself that is depicted in the inner monologue of the lyric is what I related to and felt true to moments of my adolescence. I do not endorse people pretending to be LGBTI as some sort of gimmick at all.
I am sorry to hear about that person's experience about the faux lesbianism. I had assumed it was the likes of I Kissed A Girl (which made light of the plea of lesbians) that were the problem as the content of All The Things She Said seemed a bit more serious and acknowledging the turmoil better but you are right - neither is truly genuine and on that level of appropriation - they are downright wrong! Thanks for sharing with us, @ohnostalgia!!
Good grief.
londonrain
Staff member
Thank you.
I remember watching this video when it came out and having a brief moment of wondering if this was a moment of true representation... and then I realised it was just a ploy for male attention (in the general “lesbians are hot, gay men are gross” viewpoint that seemed to characterise the straight male gaze at the time).
This is by far the most problematic song in the rate and to see it lauded in this way when it was cynically promoted at the time as the “video with the lesbian schoolgirls in it” is just... disappointing.
Both are iconic honestly.
ohnostalgia
Staff member
She/her
I personally find this song worse than I Kissed A Girl for a few reasons: it was clearly conceived by gross music executives to make money by titilating straight men, and they chose seventeen year old girls (younger when they first started out), contributing to a history of teenage girls being sexualized.
But don’t worry we shat on I Kissed a Girl too at the group.
Last edited:
londonrain
Staff member
My personal least favourite song in this genre is JC Chasez’s Some Girls (Dance With Women), which deservedly flopped. He was by far my favourite member of ’N Sync and so I was genuinely looking forward to his solo album... and then that atrocity happened.
Some girls dance with women
Knowing that it gets them attention
And I want to get in with them
So pass me a drink and let’s roll
Just... no.
I had been thinking this for around the last five pages... I mean, Morrissey has proven himself to be a generally unforgiveable, vile scumbag over the past few years (in ways even worse than Kanye without any similar public outrage, though don't let me derail this) and The Smiths are divisive at the best times.
How Soon Is Now remains a pop masterclass unlike anything else they ever recorded and should be loved by everyone.
Preferring the Tatu version is like preferring Umbrella when McFly covered it...
I'm glad that you didn't outright dismiss the GLORIOUS BOP that is Blowin' Me Up (With Her Love), not to mention Plug It In with Basement Jaxx...
Nervously awaits transcripts of problematic lyrics I'd never listened to properly before
I preferred the tatu song that had the speeding juggernaut in the video, yes it was trashy, but enjoyably so.
This however felt like overblown hype hidden behind a seedy video for the shabby mac brigade. The more I hear it since it first came out, the more it grates.
And now I hear they covered the Smiths? For all that Morrissey is currently doing to sully his reputation, he didn't deserve that!
This however felt like overblown hype hidden behind a seedy video for the shabby mac brigade. The more I hear it since it first came out, the more it grates.
And now I hear they covered the Smiths? For all that Morrissey is currently doing to sully his reputation, he didn't deserve that!
londonrain
Staff member
Their cover of How Soon Is Now isn’t a zero, but it’s telling that all the best things about it (including all the things @DJHazey mentioned) are either testament to the songwriting and/or things that were done better by both The Smiths and Love Spit Love. I just wasn’t a fan of tATu’s ersatz angst - it always felt like they never quite understood the emotion they were meant to convey and covered it up by shouting in a “MOM, you wouldn’t understand!” fashion.
Some Girls and All Day Long I Dream About Sex were the two trash fires in that singles run. The rest of it was fine, if not necessarily an accurate reflection of his potential, but any singles campaign that included TWO songs that bad deserved to die on its arse. If it had been a Chris Kirkpatrick solo album campaign I might not have been so disappointed (although Some Girls would still have deserved to burn in hell), but from JC, of all people...
Last edited:
londonrain
Staff member
You know what endless cycle I’d like to end? People excusing All The Things She Said with things like “oh, but I didn’t watch the video” and then someone like @ohnostalgia having to explain, on Popjustice, of all places, how the existence of this song is actually homophobia at its finest.
*cue this song going top ten yet again in the next rate it’s in*
Oh, and for the benefit of those of you who didn’t get what @Filippa meant by this:
this is part of what Yulia said in 2014 (in response to a question on a Russian talk show about how she would react to having a gay son):
“Yes, I would condemn him, because I believe that a real man must be a real man. God created man for procreation, it is the nature. The man for me is the support, the strength of… I won’t accept a gay son.
...
And a man has no right to be a fag. Two girls together – not the same thing as the two men together. It seems to me that lesbians look aesthetically much nicer than two men holding their hands or kissing. But I want to say that I’m not against gays, I just want my son to be a real man, not a fag.
I have many gay friends. I believe that being gay is all still better than murderers, thieves or drug addicts. If you choose out of all this, being gay is a little better than the rest.”
(Lena doesn’t share Yulia’s homophobic views, possibly because she isn’t a hateful bigot.)
Last edited:
D
Deleted member 29256
WHAT. THE. F**K!
Can we next time have this conversation BEFORE I rate artists this problematic! I had no idea they were on this level of fuktup. I just thought they casually admitted not being lesbian after a couple of years. I could have easily given this a 0 knowing the complete backstory, no mercy! Sorry guys.
londonrain
Staff member
I mean, I had issues with this song on the basis of its cynical exploitation of lesbian sexuality and teenage female sexuality long before I heard Yulia’s opinions on gay men, but sure, Yulia is problematic on many levels.
The worst part is that she actually has repeatedly said she is attracted to both men and women... so it’s not like she doesn’t understand how it feels to not be heterosexual. She just clearly has a different standard for “fags”.
Lena, on the other hand, has said she believes people should be free to love whoever they want.
It’s probably not surprising that they apparently haven’t spoken to each other in years.
he/him
Proven by the existence this bop.
Yeah, she's got a lot of issues, to say the least.
londonrain
Staff member
If you think I’m going to add to her YouTube play count by clicking “play” on that video... think again.
he/him
Point taken.
(The lyrics are all about wanting (or not sure she wants) to makeout with/get with another girl)