media classification of t.a.t.u.

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New stories on them -- of which there have been many lately -- seem invariably to classify them as "bubblegum," "dancepop," or something along these lines. Personally I have only heard "How Soon is Now" and "All the things She Said," but the former is a cover of a rock song and the latter strikes me, genre-wise, as being far closer to a Linkin Park single than anything else.

Of course, in terms of packaging and presentation and possibly fandom they probably do fit in with bubblegum or dancepop or teen-pop, and beyond that there's the Glaringly Obvious Reason people would use those touchstones either way. But I find something about the classification interesting and telling (of what, I have no idea) so we should talk about it!

― nabisco (nabisco), Thursday, 6 March 2003 07:53 (twenty-three years ago)

why is no one talking about the new yorker article? get to it then!

― Mary (Mary), Thursday, 6 March 2003 07:59 (twenty-three years ago)

all the things she said is so not linkin park. the remix sorta is, maybe.

they're totally dancepop.

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Thursday, 6 March 2003 08:01 (twenty-three years ago)

You really think so? Unless it's the remix I've been hearing all this time, there is something desperately different about the way we're hearing this.

― nabisco (nabisco), Thursday, 6 March 2003 08:26 (twenty-three years ago)

I would say they are sophisticated trance pop.

― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Thursday, 6 March 2003 10:03 (twenty-three years ago)

sophisticated boom boom!

the russian stuff is all eurotrancepop, i dont know about sophisticated though, at least in relation to the other stuff in this genre. all good though!

― gareth (gareth), Thursday, 6 March 2003 10:22 (twenty-three years ago)

Yeah, I guess the sophisticated bit was a way of getting at the Trevor Horne issue. It's his attempt at a trancey kind of sound, but there's some trace of his stylistic signature (I think it's the drum sound) that distinguishes it - for better or worse - from the generic.

(Here's a thought: Horn trying to do eurotrance is like Spielberg trying to do tight little genre pics - you sense a kind of straining at the leash.)

― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Thursday, 6 March 2003 10:34 (twenty-three years ago)

just wait til you hear the new Belle and Sebastian...

Trevor Horn just signed on as producer of their new lp.

― jack battery-pack (Jack Battery-Pack), Thursday, 6 March 2003 15:07 (twenty-three years ago)

I liked the New Yorker article, Mary, but it's really about Russian kulcha as a whole now, with tATu as the frontispiece.

― hstencil, Thursday, 6 March 2003 15:27 (twenty-three years ago)

I didn't know that "jailbait lesbianism" implied "bubblegum teen-pop".

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 6 March 2003 15:29 (twenty-three years ago)

what planet do you come from?

― jess (dubplatestyle), Thursday, 6 March 2003 15:34 (twenty-three years ago)

I think there's a big rock element to their music - also the Eurotrancepop we tend to get imported over here isn't as big on the panic and angst; it tends to hint at non-eurphoric emotions if it encounters them at all. I like them.

― Tom (Groke), Thursday, 6 March 2003 15:35 (twenty-three years ago)

jailbait lesbianism is SO bubblegum teenpop it hurts

― Neudonym, Thursday, 6 March 2003 15:37 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm sure I'm on some list now for saying that

― Neudonym, Thursday, 6 March 2003 15:38 (twenty-three years ago)

I was thinking more of the "lesbianism" than the "jailbait", but point taken.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 6 March 2003 15:38 (twenty-three years ago)

The synth runs and the processed vocal on the bridge definitely remind me of Linkin Park, etc. But the lyrics don't have the groaning would-be specificity of the nu-metal bands.

Nabisco are you implying that teenage girls don't get 'nuff respect, hence their instant bubblegum categorization?

― Amateurist (amateurist), Thursday, 6 March 2003 16:13 (twenty-three years ago)

I was mostly wondering whether genre classifications tend to have more to do with the package than its contents. Not that the news writers covering tatu claim musical expertise, or anything -- but based on those two singles, I was a bit mystified by descriptions using Britney Spears as a musical (as opposed to I guess social) touchpoint.

I was surprised by a "dance" description for "All the things She Said" because, umm, it doesn't really have a dance beat -- but I guess the stuff I haven't heard leans back in the other direction?

― nabisco (nabisco), Thursday, 6 March 2003 16:44 (twenty-three years ago)

Define "dance beat".

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 6 March 2003 16:47 (twenty-three years ago)

Oh man, that's where we get difficult and technical. Let me listen to it first so I can figure out how to say it.

― nabisco (nabisco), Thursday, 6 March 2003 16:59 (twenty-three years ago)

Actually the processed vocals sounds halfway b/t Linkin Park and Britney's "Oh babybaby."

― Amateurist (amateurist), Thursday, 6 March 2003 17:03 (twenty-three years ago)

Okay, to start obvious, it's not a flat 4-beat, so it doesn't grid out like trance. The bass and snare sounds are both very rock, particularly the way the snare cracks instead of having the actual snare trap on. And it's basically a slow lope, enough that the drum fills work off of a shuffle-beat instead of the gridded roll you'd get out of trance. (If you sped it up a bit it'd be a hip-hop beat.)

I mean, it sort of sounds to me like someone set everything up to do a trance single, then used that set of sounds to approximate a gloomy rock sound -- which interests me because I've never really heard anyone work in that direction.

― nabisco (nabisco), Thursday, 6 March 2003 17:07 (twenty-three years ago)

(Oh and Amateurist, REALLY sorry I haven't gotten back to you, email forthcoming!)

― nabisco (nabisco), Thursday, 6 March 2003 17:08 (twenty-three years ago)

Anyway this song has somehow wandered into my brain and taken up residence very near the space occupied by Linkin Park's "In the End" (same beat and format, really), and I can fully imagine some goateed shouter popping up and screaming the "this is not enough" line.

― nabisco (nabisco), Thursday, 6 March 2003 17:11 (twenty-three years ago)

I actually see where Nabisco is coming from -- loud guitars and beats and all. It's very Linkin Park, no matter how much Sterling may deny. ;-)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 6 March 2003 17:46 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm waiting for the dancehall version...

"All da tings she said, all da tings she said, ronnin' tru' mah head..."

― Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Thursday, 6 March 2003 17:59 (twenty-three years ago)

I hear it more as one of those lazy lovers' rock tracks they play on Sunday afternoon reggae shows.

(Imagine Dennis Brown:) "All the things that she said / They are running, oh through my he-a-ad / This is, not enough (cue horns)"

― Amateurist (amateurist), Thursday, 6 March 2003 18:01 (twenty-three years ago)

Followed by awkward segway to a candyfloss lovers' version of "Old Man" by Neil Young.

― Amateurist (amateurist), Thursday, 6 March 2003 18:02 (twenty-three years ago)

Great, now I've got "In the End (Calypso version)" running through my head.

― nabisco (nabisco), Thursday, 6 March 2003 18:08 (twenty-three years ago)

Nitsushi's "All the Things She Said"/"In the End" comparison - like it. Similar dynamics. Some vocal gliding going on.

(Has anyone heard the Linkin Park remix CD? It's really good, they take the phaser [?] off the chorus vocals on "In the End" and he sounds really ordinary. Good, like.)

― Cozen (Cozen), Thursday, 6 March 2003 18:09 (twenty-three years ago)

(Who is goog with referral logs? Can someone check this and find where this site has linked to me? Probably some dissin'.)

― Cozen (Cozen), Thursday, 6 March 2003 18:11 (twenty-three years ago)

I liked the Linkin Park remix CD a bunch, as I mentioned on some LP thread. I totally hear the Linkin Park/TATU similarities. The TATU song doesn't to me seem to have a dance beat (couldn't give you specifics, but although it sounds electronic it also sounds like a live drummer).

― Vinnie (vprabhu), Thursday, 6 March 2003 18:16 (twenty-three years ago)

(re:Site Meter, s'cool, got it.)

― Cozen (Cozen), Thursday, 6 March 2003 18:19 (twenty-three years ago)

One of the great things about t.A.T.u. - they can totally change the speed of their songs just by affecting their voice in a very slight way. Listen to the third track on the album, the verse makes the song sound like a 'slowish' song even though it eventually has those crazy frenetic pounding drums lashing everywhere, it still feels slow. And a bit of emphasis later, and the chorus feels like the songs speeded up three fold.

Note: this is not as good as the new Scooter song.

― Cozen (Cozen), Thursday, 6 March 2003 18:28 (twenty-three years ago)

If you like them at all try finding the Russian versions of their songs... they sound far better.

― Bobby D Gray (bedhead), Thursday, 6 March 2003 18:31 (twenty-three years ago)

Agreed with Mr. Gray. Well worth it.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 6 March 2003 18:34 (twenty-three years ago)

They're not the same arrangements with Russian lyrics?

― Amateurist (amateurist), Thursday, 6 March 2003 19:17 (twenty-three years ago)

Yes, but the Russian lyrics seem to suit the song more naturally. I'm a sucker for songs in foreign languages.. partly because they seem exotic, and partly because.. well, sometimes the lyrics are better off not understood.

― Bobby D Gray (bedhead), Thursday, 6 March 2003 19:36 (twenty-three years ago)

the overlapped vocal runs "althethingshesaid runningthrumyhead" are totally 80s dance-pop.

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Thursday, 6 March 2003 19:39 (twenty-three years ago)

'nas ne dogonyat' (er...'they wont catch us'?! im guessing)is a better representation of tATu than 'ya soshla c uma', or 'all the things she said'. so check that. its 'dancey' in a prodigy way, and has got some 'trancey' synths on it. but all russian pop has trancey synths on. not sure about gareths 'all good' tag though. its been a while but there is a load of shit out there last time i heard: ruki vverkh, ivanushki international. at least theyre kinda funny in an steps kida way. the real villians are fillipp kirkorov and all pugacheva, the awful dinosaurs who hang around (pugacheva has gotta be 50 by now) making awful accordian-led hard house (almost.). they really piss me off.
more russian pop: ALSU!!!!! why dont we talk about her shes well kool
http://www.celebs.ru/celebs/?p=020010006

― ambrose (ambrose), Thursday, 6 March 2003 22:41 (twenty-three years ago)

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