Very Late Review Special: Black Eyed Peas – what is going on, exactly?
Hi there.
Just did my first night in Melbourne. A bit shabby in places. I was nervous. It wasn’t bad, though.
I just wanted to briefly open a discussion about the Black Eyed Peas. Two people mentioned them scathingly in the Comments regarding faffing, etc. I wondered what people generally think of them. I suppose you could see this as a one-issue Very Late Review.
To put my own cards on the table, I find the Black Eyed Peas very baffling. Most of the songs I’ve heard by them, I did not like at all. That Tonight’s Gonna Be A Good Night business is pretty inane (as well as being a certain harbinger of a really bad night if you ever hear it in a nightclub or any other social context). Where Is The Love? seemed pretty much like dross. Their recent mashup of (I’ve Had) The Time Of My Life struck me as a bit of a racket. I didn’t mind Meet Me Halfway, but in general – purely based on their singles – I have little in common with them sonically.
Yet they can’t quite be dismissed as just a band I don’t like (there are plenty of those), because as a musical and cultural phenomenon I feel there’s something about them I’m just not getting. How come Will.i.am is allowed to look quite so weird and have such a cheesy name yet he’s seen as cool, not try-hard? Why do their dancers dress and move in such mental ways as if they were deliberately trying to screw your brain by splicing together the 80s, 90s, and some period of the future? Who are the people who buy – in their millions – this cacophonous dance/rap/pop/electronica hybrid stuff? Is it cool kids? Does anyone in reality dress like them? Are they genuine role-models? Who are their fans?
They’re the first huge musical act that, rather than thinking I Like That or I Don’t Like That But I Understand What It Is, I find myself thinking I Don’t Really Even Have A Context For What This Is. This makes me feel old and more musically illiterate than I am. This must stop.
So in short, can someone explain the Black Eyed Peas? Or at least tell me what you think.
Thanks.
Posted by Aislinn on April 8, 2011
Little addendum to my comment on BEP on the other blog post: bloody hell, people don’t half hate them, do they!? I do realise you pointed this out, but I’ve only just read these comments.
I can understand that a dislike for one band can make people appreciate their fondness for a band they do like, but… it all seems a bit over the top.
I can only really describe my theory best through films. Films for me fall into three categories, one being ‘like’ and one being ‘dislike’. The third category, which is rare, is ‘films I will verbalise my dislike of’. Twilight is one of these. I will happily complain about it because of the values: so many of my friends take it very seriously when the morals I can gather from reading the book and watching the film are:
‘if you don’t have a man you may as well go jump off a cliff’ (this literally happens at one point).
‘if somebody has the urge to kill you but they’re also dreaammmmy then it’s totally fine to go out with them’
‘you can be completely dead behind the eyes with no distinctive personality traits whatsoever and be the most popular girl around’
I don’t understand or agree with any of those things. Obviously. And I don’t think any of them are particularly good values to be putting across to the hordes of teenage girls that love the franchise. Hence my spoken dislike of the film.
Thus: These are what I feel are genuine, decent reasons for what is essentially going around slagging something off that other people get enjoyment out of. Because there’s nothing worse than really getting into a particular album, for example, and then someone walking up and saying ‘Haaaa. You don’t really like that, do you? That’s a load of shit.’
Look at this as one big, combined, two-weeks-worth-of-writing comment.
Sorry.
Posted by Rachael on April 5, 2011
I can’t understand them at all either, but I know I hate them.
Posted by MusicalLottie on April 2, 2011
Huh. And here I thought I was the only one who reserved that kind of rage for the absolute inane rubbish the pop industry is so adept at spewing out.
I liked on of their songs ages ago (I don’t know that I ever knew the title of it – ‘Mas Que Nada’ rings some bells but probably only because I had great fun playing a piece with the same name in jazz band) and I have to confess a fond spot for ‘I’ve Got A Feeling’ because for me it holds wonderful memories of the summer camp at work last year, when I thoroughly enjoyed myself – not that I even knew it was by them, and I will concede it’s not musically great …
I concur with Sam about the physical reaction – I get it mostly with Rihanna and … oh, whatever those ‘artists’ with the stupid/weird names are. I probably get it with the BEP too; I rarely stick around long enough to find out what songs are called, let alone who the ‘artist’ is.
I was discussing something along these lines with my music geek friend (he works with people all over the world so naturally has quite an open mind in general towards different styles of music); we worked out that a large part of the ‘ARGH NO! RUN!!’ reaction is because we’re told by the media what we’re supposed to like, and it’s forced down our throats. If we could listen to things on our own terms, our reactions would often be quite different.
As for the BEP themselves … I have no idea. I probably wouldn’t even recognise them if I saw them on the TV, so I can’t comment on why it is they’re supposed to be great.
Posted by Helen on April 1, 2011
If you don’t like them, don’t listen. It’s odd that there’s so much rage about something that’s so very avoidable. If you’d prefer to listen to something credible and intellectually worthy, please enjoy it with exactly the same enthusiasm that some people enjoy the Black Eyed Peas. Just don’t bang on about it so much or assume that your music taste elevates you above anyone else…
Posted by Lisa D on April 1, 2011
Cathy,
The Dropkick Murphys RULE!!! They’re also my heroes for storming into muddle age while still being badass…and for being a punk band with a bagpiper. Hometown pride!
Posted by cymruangel on April 1, 2011
Like Lisa D, I rather like their work on Mas Que Nada, and I don’t mind the track they did on the soundtrack for “Dirty Dancing 2: Havana Nights” either.
When I did some student party DJing a fews years back, they went down really wel after 11 o’clock when everyone had consumed enough beer… I think the point of them is that they produce mindless dance-along tracks. If you don’t listen too hard to the words, everything’s fine!
Posted by Andrew on April 1, 2011
1) Madeleine, if you’re going to send a follow up message excusing/decrying your own bad spelling and grammar, it’s probably worth using the correct spelling of grammar. I wouldn’t normally pick anyone up on this sort of thing, but in this instance it was too good to let pass. Sorry.
2) Lisa D, thank you for agreeing with me, and also in a way that was slightly arousing.
Posted by Lora on April 1, 2011
I am yet to fathom the Black Eyed Peas. A number of my friends seem to enjoy them for some reason though.
Posted by Sam Jennings on April 1, 2011
I find their music so annoying it actually brings out a physical reaction in me. I find myself tensing up, grinding my teeth and irritation rising from my gut until the time that I can make the noise go away. Usually the only time I have the misfortune of hearing them is if I’m in a shop which is blaring their music.
I have the same reaction whenever I hear Rhianna – her voice is the human equivalent to nails down a blackboard.
I don’t know what it is about their music that brings out this reaction. There are loads of other bands/artists I think are shit and do not voluntarily listen to but can manage to tolerate for the 3 minutes their song lasts. Maybe I’m just too old to ‘get’ it. Maybe it’s just spectacularly awful. Maybe it’s both.
Posted by Catherine aka Cathy on April 1, 2011
BEP is not really the kind of music I listen to. I do know that Fergie’s husband is really hot and he used to be on a TV show about Las Vegas, but they killed off Tom Selleck so it couldn’t have been a very good program. I think it’s quite funny how much emotion Noel Fielding puts in to hating the BEP on NMTB (almost as much as he hates Coldplay).
I am old and from the states. I like Jimmy Buffett, Dropkick Murphys, and Frank Turner. I’m going to bed. Been up way too long.
BTW, Mark, looking forward to seeing you on the Adam Hills show. He just twittered his guests and listed you first, of course.
Posted by Madeleine on April 1, 2011
Ah, that was also full of spelling and grammer mistakes. It seems I got so angry I was just mashing keys indiscriminately.
Posted by Madeleine on April 1, 2011
What follows is a long, angry rant. I don’t know why I even bothered to spend the time doing this, it may have something to do with the 3 assignments I’m supposed to be doing.
The Black Eyed Peas are probably the worst popular band in the world right now.
Fine if you’re just making music for people to dance to, but you can do that without being inane, incredibly derivative and the horrible mix of both mind numbingly boring and ear shatteringly annoying.
Calvin Harris, Passion Pit, The Bloody Beetroots, Pheonix, Delphic, The Wombats (sometimes) and plently of other bands manage to make dance music, that isn’t so repeditive and unoriginal that it makes you want to stick your head in an industrial fan to just. make. it. stop.
For me, the worst thing about the Black Eyes Peas is how blatantly commercial they are. You can just see whoever wrote “tonight’s gonna be a good night” (It definately wasn’t them) thinking, “The label needs a song for people to play at their highschool formals and teenage girl’s birthday parties”. It’s the most shallow, manipulative, synthetic shit of a song.
(And yet, it was played at my graduation. I pushed for LCD soundsystem’s “Someone great”, but not dice. Almost ruined the entire ceremony for me)
Fergie is a terrible singer, Will I am or whatever a mediocre at best producer and the rest of them don’t seem to have jobs.
Sure, I didn’t hate they’re first album, but as they got more popular, thay just got shitter and shitter, as obviously the label was pushing out any kind of originality they had out to craft this band that have nothing to say making songs that mean nothing at all.
Posted by Britt on April 1, 2011
I’m glad I’m not the only one who, whenever presented with the Black Eyed Peas, immediately thinks about the time Fergie went to the toilet, on stage, in the middle of a song. I think that one action sums them up perfectly: quite gross, and very childish.
That said, my younger sister likes them. But she likes anything that the tv and radio tell her is cool.
Posted by Alex on April 1, 2011
Reading a few of these comments has reminded me that Boom Boom Pow (if that’s what it’s called…) is a Black Eyed Peas offering, and therefore makes the Black Eyed Peas truly excellent, as this is possibly the most amusing song ever written (amongst my group of friends).
Fergie is still scary though
Posted by Clembear on March 31, 2011
Well they started as quite a beardy, backpack hip-hop group who took a huge direction change when talented mastermind will.i.am wrote catchy hip-pop.
There’s a fun theory that they’re either the most commercially cynical band in existence – selling out, taking any corporate sponsorship, general shills. Or they’re a avant-garde comment on commercialism in pop music. Given the “Let’s get retarded” song, hiring a meth addict to be the eye candy and writing a song about tits and ass “My Lumps” that manages to be completely unsexy, i think its possible.
Will.i.am wore blackface to the VMA’s. I have no idea how to interpret that.
Posted by Sarah Sutherland on March 31, 2011
They’re shite
Posted by Neil Dickson on March 31, 2011
I was at your gig last night. Don’t think you were that shabby at all. Re: the Black Eyed Peas, nothing a good knife wouldn’t sort out. I could shell some peas with a knife
.
Posted by Rachel/Pandora on March 31, 2011
I think they’re quite fun. Their songs are OK if you’re in the right sort of mood, and their newest one, Just Can’t Get Enough (I think) is quite nice to sing along to in the car. That, and shouting BOOM BOOM POW at your friends when you’re a bit drunk is just plain hilarious.
Posted by Katy on March 31, 2011
I love this blog a lot. I’ve quite often wondered what is up with the Black Eyed Peas. We rather “amusingly” call them the Black Eyed Beans in my house. I dont care for their music at all, and all I ever think of is that time Fergie wet herself on stage. Whats that about? And doesnt she always have massive sweaty pits or am I thinking of someone else?
Posted by mark john on March 31, 2011
The same millions who listen to radio 1 I guess!
I moved over to radio 2 and 4 and 5 away from the mindless noise when I was about 22…but an entire industry of Now That’s What I call Music pap still exists, although I find myself wondering how it can; one of the certanties of growing old I guess – eventually boombastic pop music becomes the devils music.
Posted by Josie on March 31, 2011
The Black Eyed Peas are really a joke, just like N Dubz are a joke. Really people make fun of them behind their backs but, of course, the media say “The Black Eyed Peas are TRENDING on TWITTER! They MUST be cool!” and so they start writing about how popular they are and they get radio air play and all that nonsense, when in fact people are just making fun of Fergie’s whining and Will.I.Am in general.
There, a genuine teenage view for you! So it definitely isn’t the cool kids listening to them…
Posted by Laura on March 31, 2011
I don’t think even they know what they are supposed to be. I believe that, once upon a time, they were supposed to be a fairly serious and well-respected hip hop act. But then the woman joined and all their original fans deserted them.
The only people I know who like them are women who listen to radio stations like Heart and who only own one album. Which is a compilation with that terrible Black Eyed Peas song on it. They will then proceed to shout about how much they love that song and then sing along, telling everyone that tonight is indeed going to be a good night. Uurgh.
I had forgotten the travesty that was the I’ve Had the Time of My Life thing. God, I hate them even more than I thought I did.
Posted by lisan66 on March 31, 2011
I like Black Eyed Peas, but I can’t listen to one of their albums straight the way through because it’s all a little too similar. Their stuff before The End is much better than their current stuff. My dad is the one who listens to their music most in my house though, and he’s the reason I have their albums (Christmas presents for me that were really for himself). I find this strange because my dad is a big Irish folk music/sixties music kind of person.
Posted by Misha on March 31, 2011
Personally, I categorise Black Eyed Peas into “things that vaugely amused my mum but which neither of us ever did understand”.
They sit there along with ugg boots, the KT Tunstall and slimming drinks.
Posted by Tom Beasley on March 31, 2011
I could literally talk about the Black Eyed Peas for hours, of which only about 30 seconds would be favourable. I used to be a big fan many years ago when they released Elephunk and “Where Is The Love?” is still their best work by miles.
After another mildly decent album, they disappeared until 2009. Then they returned… and had gotten shit. During their hiatus they seemed to have discovered that they would sell more records by churning out electronic noise rather than actually writing songs.
“Boom Boom Pow” is one of the most annoying songs of recent years, especially the weird bit halfway through where Fergie starts screaming the words as if she’s being raped as she sings them. “Meet Me Halfway” is equally vomit-inducing for anyone blessed with the gift of ears. “I Gotta Feeling” is fun, but even though you find yourself liking it, you know that what you are listening to is absolute dross.
Then we move onto the most recent song, their “re-imagining” (it could never be called a cover) of “(I’ve Had) The Time Of My Life”. I cannot recall myself ever being so enraged after hearing a song. They take what is a beautiful song from an iconic movie and bludgeon it in the face until it is a steaming pile of autotuned shit. Every time I hear the phrase “dirty bit”, it makes me want to kill people… particularly those in a band with a fruit or vegetable in the name (sorry Red Hot Chilli Peppers).
Anyone who has heard will.i.am (henceforth William) or Fergie attempt to sing live will know what I mean when I say it makes me want to cry. Their appearance on X Factor performing live was excruciating and the sounds coming out of their mouths certainly did not resemble anything even close to song. William even made Cher Lloyd look good when they dueted on the show with William’s live singing voice being worse than most of the hopefuls that got laughed off the stage during the X Factor auditions.
So basically, I have gone from really liking the Black Eyed Peas to comparing them to this dude: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rm9jBH7ufRU
God help the music industry if that lot can be successful.
Posted by Lisa D on March 31, 2011
Wow…where IS the love? Ok, I’m not the biggest fan of their last album–it’s a bit too electronic for my tastes–nevertheless I’m kind of shocked by the vitriol. First of all it’s pop music. Secondly, it’s (mostly) good pop music. I agree that “Tonight’s Gonna Be a Good Night” is lame, but I dislike it because it’s too much of a departure for them, not as an example of their work. Still I respect them for trying new things, which many pop acts cannot be bothered to do (mixing an old Sergio Mendes samba is still one of my favorites) while keeping in mind that their main obligation is to keep the beat. I mean honestly, Arcade Fire is all well and good, but sometimes I just wanna dance! And I don’t mean pogo-ing or swaying vaguely while concentrating on the lyrics, I mean fast, pulse-pounding, booty-shaking, mind-numbing, it’s-just-you-and-the-song dancing. The Peas are awesome at that, while still managing to include stuff about their heritage and upbringing neither forgetting where they come from or forgetting the hook.
Also, Andrew is right: Fergie is crazy hot.
Posted by amycool on March 31, 2011
I don’t know of anyone who likes them and personally I find everything about them annoying, which means I know almost nothing about them as I turn over the TV/page whenever I see them.
Posted by Anji on March 31, 2011
I have to say I just don’t get it. I did buy their album. Which I had forgotten about, until packing up my belongings and found the cd case – minus the cd. Which must mean I took it out and presumably listened to it. Where is that cd?! I have no idea. Can’t have been that great. I stuck the empty cd case back on the shelf and left it for my ex. Says it all I think.
Posted by Kathryn on March 31, 2011
I think of them as another band that everybody likes because everybody likes them. ‘Popular music’ as a phenomenon at the moment makes no sense to me.
Posted by Rhian on March 31, 2011
No, no I can’t explain them. I’m not sure what their target demographic is, but it definitely isn’t me.
Posted by Lydia on March 31, 2011
There is no explaining, they’re just crap.
Posted by Alex on March 31, 2011
I don’t really understand them either, and I find Fergie quite scary.
Posted by DiB (Sue) on March 31, 2011
I think we all want to dance like Fergie… I suspect if drunk at a nightclub dancing to Tonight’s The Night, we all think we dance like Fergie?
Posted by DiB (Sue) on March 31, 2011
Perhaps they are such a mish-mash of fashions and music styles, there is someone or something thing there for almost everybody?
Posted by Simone on March 31, 2011
I find them individually fascinating. I would quite like to be able to dance like Fergie.
Posted by Andrew on March 31, 2011
This is a rather shameful admission, but I can’t be alone in not really worrying unduly about their music so long as the girl with the curves features prominently in their videos. I know, I know… I’m just being honest though. Anyway, perhaps that explains a small proportion of their success.
Posted by DeborahF on March 31, 2011
Nope – can’t help at all. I’ve heard of them and probably heard their music on the radio but not connected the two together to form a conscious opinion. However, this doesn’t worry me in the slightest