A hit song? Yes:
In April, Mr. Brown's record label, Jive, released the song to radio stations and digital download services as a single. After the song became a hit, Jive added it to his 2007 album, "Exclusive," and re-released the album in June. "Forever" reached No. 4 on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 chart last week.
It sounds muddled and cliched to me, but I'd probably say that about all R+B. So sure it's bad, but it's worse than you think. It turns out, the song is actually a stealth advertisement. Did you notice the chorus "Double your pleasure / Double your fun"? Sound familiar? The song is a corporate plant. Wrigley's Gum hired Brown to write and sing this song, paid to have it produced, and paid to release it as a single. All of which they'll be revealing at a press conference today - after it's already become a hit. Farewell pop music.
Maybe I should just sit back and smile at the punking of the American pop music scene - the types of people who listen to mainstream radio, maybe they deserve this. Maybe when you mindlessly tap along with whatever Clear Channel force feeds you, this is the natural product. Maybe this will teach pop music fans to start applying a critical filter to what they hear.
But don't count on it. What this will probably be is just another step in the long decline of our culture into a depressing commercial miasma. When movie theatres started showing ads before movies in the 80s, people booed, but after a few months, they accepted it. Most of our "culture" is already corporate-sponsored anyway - movies have been giant product placement vehicles for years (and now, so is the "news"), television has always been provided free by our corporate overlords, why should music have held out for so long? So, get ready for the billboard 100 to become a corporate derby, for commercials-only radio stations, for rap remixes of Head On's Apply Directly to the Forehead and country ballads asking you to Eat Mor Chikin. We'll get only what we deserve.
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