Nicole Scherzinger - 'Poison'
There's a latin expression which fans of the old TV show The West Wing will be aware of, and it's kind of relevant here so...
It's post hoc, ergo propter hoc, which means something like "after this, therefore because of this". And it refers to the assumption people make when something happens after something else. So if there's a dramatic drop in the sales of washing machines, but a huge rush to buy chocolate, you could make a reasonable claim that there was a trend to do less washing and eat more chocolate. You could even extrapolate that people were choosing to eat less crumbly, flaky chocolate, and therefore had less need to wash their clothes after eating than they had in the past.
It would be total codswallop, but SOMEONE would believe it.
In pop music, the relationship between certain songs is a lot more complicated, and you can't go claiming that a person has directly pinched the idea for something from something else, even if the one song came after the other, not least because there are definite legal connotations to making wild claims like these.
With that in mind, I shall just say this: if you're going to use the director of Britney Spears's 'Toxic' video, and you want to make a video which uses very similar themes, it is perhaps not the best idea for your song to be called 'Poison'.
It might just make people compare the two songs in entirety, and THEN where would you be?
(. Honestly! Same director and everything!)
Y'see, 'Toxic' enjoys the status of a modern classic of popular music. It's the kind of unbeatable perfect pop song that drastically damages anything it is compared to. You'd think a producer like RedOne would've kept Nicole an actual mile away from making a song which seeks to make that link between chemical things which are bad for you, and sexy things which are bad for you, and then illustrates this with a cartoony superhero video. Seems not.
And that just leaves us here with a song which is all stomp and huff, a dramatic bang of a thing, which seeks to drag all the bad girls to the dancefloor so they can holler their evil intentions to into the faces of nervous men. It's a song which makes the most of Nicole's unwholesome sexiness - as opposed to wholesome, you understand, I'm not saying there's anything gross about her - and has drama and fury on its side.
It is not, however, anywhere near as good as 'Toxic' by Britney Spears.
Download: Out now
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(Fraser McAlpine)
"The track is downright lethal and that chorus just kills with much-appreciated ferocity"
"Without a video to associate with it, the song itself is fairly generic electropop."
"Since when has the Hot 100 shyed away from generic pop tunes we've heard over and over again? This one could go either way, folks."
Comment number 1.
At 29th Nov 2010, Oliviaaa987 wrote:Thought she was marvellous on the X Factor, kudos to her for singing live (seemed it anyway, I suppose I could be wrong) and singing it well. Although not sure about the look, I couldn't get the image of Victoria Stilwell off It's Me Or The Dog out of my head...
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Comment number 2.
At 29th Nov 2010, kutox wrote:This is such a boring song. The only reason it's proving popular is because of who sings it, and because it follows the current dance-pop trend, despite being totally generic. If it was by an unknown name no-one would care about it. It's not even catchy, just completely forgettable and lacking in any personality. It will be forgotten in a matter of weeks.
Makes me long for the Pussycat Dolls again..
2/5
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Comment number 3.
At 29th Nov 2010, ShamanofSexy wrote:Long time reader but only registered now. I do think that RedOne has done amazing stuff and this is one of them. It may be generic for some but I do like it to be honest with all of you.
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Comment number 4.
At 29th Nov 2010, harrythedog10 wrote:You can call it alot of things but boring is definately not one of them. To me it feels like a big 80s pop song, like Holding Out For A Hero or Jump, with new sounding production and for that reason I love it. It's definately generic but it's by far the best thing RedOne has put out in ages.
4 STARS
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Comment number 5.
At 29th Nov 2010, kutox wrote:@ 3
Hi Shaman, please visit here often and join us on the Jedward thread!
/blogs/chartblog/2010/02/jedward_ft_vanilla_ice_under_p.shtml?page=4
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Comment number 6.
At 29th Nov 2010, OddOne wrote:4 stars.
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Comment number 7.
At 30th Nov 2010, ShamanofSexy wrote:@5
Sure, I will. I have actually seen lots of valuable insights in this 'forum.' I hope to have a good time.
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Comment number 8.
At 30th Nov 2010, kutox wrote:Thanks! Also, forgot to say, just in case you weren't already aware - the 'Topical posts' box at the foot of the page says which threads have new posts in them.
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Comment number 9.
At 30th Nov 2010, SamuraisShadow wrote:NO THIS IS NUMBER ONE ON ITUNES AND ELLIE IS NUMBER 2 TRAVESTY TRAVESTY.
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Comment number 10.
At 30th Nov 2010, kutox wrote:But that doesn't necessarily mean either of them were no.1 in today's midweeks...
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Comment number 11.
At 30th Nov 2010, OddOne wrote:Poor Wagner and Katie (vomit) won't even be there to celebrate the second week at #1 for '"Heroes"'.
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Comment number 12.
At 30th Nov 2010, kutox wrote:I wouldn't look that far ahead yet. There were no sales stats revealed today, so the gap between #1 and #2 could be a few hundred or several thousand, for all we know. And there's not much point looking at iTunes, because X Factor will get loads of CD sales.
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