I’ll confess a guilty pleasure: I love Gwen Stefani. Ah, there were days, when I was much younger, when I tried to cloak it in respectability: “yeah, I know they’re on a big label now, and gee, I guess that new record does sound pretty mainstream, but they have some cred, man – those first couple albums, they were a real ska band!”
I’d even bang on a bit about the third wave of ska in hopes of sounding like I had a clue what I was talking about, to prove that I wasn’t just listening to (horrors…!) bubblegum pop.
Hell, much younger nothing – I was defending No Doubt’s indie respectability right up through the last album, saying moronic things like “yeah, so she’s got a little R&B, but I respect her going in a new direction as an artist. She doesn’t feel tied to her roots. That’s cool. And when you think about it, there’s some reggae influence in there yet.” If I said something like this to you personally, I’d like to apologize. Please understand that I was desperate, and clutching at straws.
I didn’t want to face the fact that my hero – and one of the hottest women in rock and roll - had become just another pop act, so I vigorously defended her independent spirit. I eagerly awaited the day that her detractors would have to eat their words: the day she released her solo album and showed the world just what an alternative force to be reckoned with she was.
Apparently Gwen doesn’t want my help anymore. She probably never did. I see that now. I’ve got the message loud and clear, because “Love, Angel, Music, Baby,” the new solo record from Gwen Stefani is a big, honking pop album. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that there’s nothing alternative about this disc. In fact, the majority of it is thematically and stylistically similar to the filler tracks on a Madonna disc.
Article comments
1 - Sandra Smallson
I might need to be enlightened. Other than "Don't speak" and "Hella Good"...I am wondering what other No Doubt songs you are thinking of that would allow you to use the term "iconic" with anything relating to No Doubt's music.
Now, I have only heard the first single and it's alright. Gwen made it clear when she embarked on this journey that she was desperate to make a pop album. She even hoped to make timeless pop music. The type that people still listen to a decade later. The type that packs the dance floors. I am paraphrasing but these comments are practically from the horses mouth.
Now, say what you want but I am not sure how many people will be bobbing their head to "I'm slim shady , no other slim shady" 10-15 years from now but I can assure you that many will still be bobbing their heads to the truly classic pop songs. It is trendy to knock pop..call it bubblegum pop or what you will but time tells us, if you are willing to open your eyes and ears to see and listen, great pop music lives forever.
Stefani according to you has made a pop Album. I don't know if it's a good pop Album. The first song has some nice catchy bits. We'll see. I am still curious though, as to what great things you expected from stefani and what on earth made you expect those great things? She penned "Don't Speak". For that alone, she deserves my unflinching respect. Still, when she embarked on this solo move and hoped for timeless pop songs, I wasn't optimistic. Contrary to people's beliefs, those types of songs are not easy to do.
2 - chelsea-alannah
i love you gwen you are my idol i had to do a music progect on someone i chose you i love you i live in canada so i cant find ur fashion line so i was sad when i found that out maybe get it in canada
3 - chelsea alannah backhurst
well i want to find information about you and it is increadably hard but i dont think you are a geek i think you are really pretty i dont have ur new c.d but i have like alot of ur songs on my mp3 player i listen to you alot it cheers me up when i down in the dumps and i got my step mum and my real mum into it some morning i will wake up to her in my room listening to my mp3 player listening to hollaback girl that song is my favorite in the whole wide world you are a big role models for teenagers like me now i am upsest with that song i havent had enought money lately but i am going to get a poster of you cuz i have one of hilary duff and orlando bloom(he is so hot) but my dad is as english as they get so he likes your husband does he have a english acsent i dont think i spelt it right but o well my hair is a natural blonde kinda like the colour you die ur hair and then i died it brown but it is not permantent i am only saying stuff like this cuz i am well board i guess but i love you so i want to go to one of your concerts if you come to cananda love ya
4 - kiki
No amount of makeup, however skillfully applied, and no costume, however 'couture' (if that word even has meaning any more), can hide the desperation in and crows' feet surrounding this woman's eyes...and that is where the Harajuku Girls come in. They are the latest and possibly most offensive in a very long line of gimmicks to bolster an otherwise bland entertainer's sense of individuality. I'm sorry to GS fans out there, but bland IS the word: Dressing bizarrely--and expensively--and alternately hopping about breathlessly or cooing like a bad parody of a phone sex operator does not make her original. It only makes her visible, as do her ever-rising hemlines and decision to finally do away with the bottom half of that peskily modest middie top. (Incidentally, am I the only person who recalls an interview with her and *that band* about concepts they were offered for the "Just A Girl" video? Apparently someone had an idea that they'd shoot Gwen, skimpily attired, handcuffed to a bed. At the time, she said no way in hell. Not so inconceivable now, is it?) Working with every hot name around at the moment also speaks to her pervasive insecurity. Stefani has clearly never mentally graduated from teenhood, probably by choice; it should come as no surprise, then, that she has no more sophisticated material to offer than a typical freshman might.No amount of makeup, however skillfully applied, and no costume, however 'couture' (if that word even has meaning any more), can hide the desperation in and crows' feet surrounding this woman's eyes...and that is where the Harajuku Girls come in. They are the latest and possibly most offensive in a very long line of gimmicks to bolster an otherwise bland entertainer's sense of individuality. I'm sorry to GS fans out there, but bland IS the word: Dressing bizarrely--and expensively--and alternately hopping about breathlessly or cooing like a bad parody of a phone sex operator does not make her original. It only makes her visible, as do her ever-rising hemlines and decision to finally do away with the bottom half of that peskily modest middie top. (Incidentally, am I the only person who recalls an interview with her and *that band* about concepts they were offered for the "Just A Girl" video? Apparently someone had an idea that they'd shoot Gwen, skimpily attired, handcuffed to a bed. At the time, she said no way in hell. Not so inconceivable now, is it?) Working with every hot name around at the moment also speaks to her pervasive insecurity. Stefani has clearly never mentally graduated from teenhood, probably by choice; it should come as no surprise, then, that she has no more sophisticated material to offer than a typical freshman might.v