Trashy pop, radical sincerity?

Though I've never kept up with FOX's debut season of Glee outside catching some of the performance scenes, I've been tracking its vast popularity & have heard of commitment to the show from some unlikely followers. I stopped in for last week's "Journey to Regionals," in which the famous bad-band's biggest hits are medleyed in a climactic season finale performance. In realizing that Glee is clearly the only institution (save roller rinks & 8th grade formals?) giving the exact kind of curious reverie to Journey, I thought it would be important to introduce the topic to this blog, as there's an obvious roke-like question underpinning the show's appeal. The greatest karaoke kids are easily closeted show choir admirers, but rarely former members. And it's the same self-consciousness that occurs with bad TV when the characters speak in that show that you contend with as when you enter the karaoke room. But it's usually a quick journey until you give over & the bad song turns good.

This overthought Salon.com piece says to perhaps aggrandize the indulgence, "The difference between adequate escapist fluff and transcendent popular art is the difference between the moments where Glee characters talk and the moments when they sing.". A lot of words returning us to a replayed note, that there's a draw to pure singing over pretense on art that's tough to deny.

-G

Mistranslations: Like beautiful weeds in field of bad lyrics

Today, my co-rokers, 3 great museum educators with 3 extra dollars to spend on a 3:30-4:30 p.m. rainy-day roke, cued up that terribly strained ballad that had Steven Tyler ending verses with rooster call sounds in the theme to the film Armaggeddon. The song if you're pretending you don't know it, is I Dont Wanna Miss A Thing, & the "thing" is a reference to the remainder of Liv Tyler's life that will be missed by Bruce Willis, the geologist-driller turned astronaut dad who dies in martyrdom saving us from the impending asteroid threat. Luckily, she gets concurrently Afflecked by true love.

The lyrics are as atrocious as you'd expect, & the only thing that could make them a little better to guffaw at while the whiny Aerosmith mimicry is pouring out of a wonderful friend is the appearance of a few great English language mistakes made by the Karaoke Lyric Transcriber (a job that ought to not even exist for obvious reasons). See below excerpts of the strangely incorrect way that I.D.W.M.a.T. lyrics read on the screen today at Karaoke Shout in Astoria.

I could stay awake just to hear you breathing
Watch you smile while you are sleeping
Far away and dreaming
I could spend my life in this sweet surrender
I could stay lost in this moment forever
Well, every moment spent with you
Is a moment I TRACTION

I don't wanna close my eyes
I don't wanna fall asleep
'Cause I'd miss you, babe
And I don't wanna miss a thing
'Cause even when I dream of you
The SWEET STREAM will never do
I'd still miss you, babe
And I don't wanna miss a thing

Lying close to you
Feeling your heart beating
And I'm wondering what you're dreaming
Wondering if it's SMEAL you're seeing
Then I kiss your eyes and thank God we're together
And I just wanna stay with you
In this moment forever, forever and ever...

...I don't wanna miss one smile
I don't wanna miss one kiss
Well, I just wanna be with you
Right here with you, just like this
I just wanna HOLD YOUR CLOTHES
Feel your heart so close to mine
And stay here in this moment
For all the RESTTIME...

-G