Just because, a Friday-afternoon mixtape for all the ladies (and of course, all the cool guys out there, too):
1. "Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves," Annie Lennox & Aretha Franklin:
The awesomeness of this song cannot be underestimated. It's a great reminder of how terrific Annie Lennox's pipes are. She totally holds her own with Aretha here. To mix both metaphors and genres in a single sentence, any pop song that includes the phrase "the conscious liberation of the female state" and does not immediately descend into ridiculousness has me at hello. And the sexual implications of the song are not remotely subtle, which in this case, is a really good thing.
2. "Telephone," Lady Gaga:
So, Beyonce may have expressed these themes more thoughtfully, or whatever, in "If I Were A Boy." But you don't need to imagine switching genders to know that sometimes, you need to go out, dance, drink, and not spend all night talking things over.
3. "Girlfriend," Lil' Mama and Avril Lavigne:
When Avril Lavigne originally recorded this song, it was a fantastic example of girl-on-girl crime in pursuit of some man. With Lil' Mama doing the verses (and pushing Avril out with the fantastically pushy interjection "Please, 8 bars and stop") it becomes an assertion of female awesomeness that has nothing to do with tearing some other chick down. The line where she asserts her right to inherit the Notorious B.I.G.'s legacy, "So get it / Biggie / Mama / B-R-Double O-Klyn Drama," is fantastic.
4. "What Are You Waiting For," Gwen Stefani
Only the best song--and video--about conquering writers' block ever. There have been a lot of times recently when I desperately wished I could go to a writers' block clinic and spend a little time in Wonderland. "Look at your watch now / You're still a super-hot female / You've got a million dollar contract / And they're all waiting on your hot track" is a fantastic exhortation, hitting on both the need for self-confidence, and the fact that whatever it is you're stuck on, there are probably people who believe you can do it, and who need you to pull it together. That, and "Life is short, you're capable," which is just good common sense.
5. "1980," Estelle
Just a great, great song about developing an individual cultural canon, and discovering who you are in the process, with Estelle's typically wry, smart, tart take on femininity. "I touched Africa and came back darker," and "sexy boys walking 'round showing interest / In what, I don't know 'cause we all had flat chests" are sentiments that can coexist in the emotional universe of her songwriting, and it's an absurdly good thing.
6. "Glamorous," Fergie
The increasing terribleness of the Black Eyed Peas (about which I really want to write more at some point) makes me sad, because it imposes a correspondingly increasing taboo on my love for Fergie. And I do really love her. She survived meth addiction and girl-band ridiculousity to become kind of tiny and funny and charming. This song is utterly low-key, and is further proof that Ludacris should only make guest appearances.
7. "Biology," Girls Aloud
One of the side effects of my Anglophilia is a love for ridiculous British pop (see: Williams, Robbie). Everything about "Biology" ought to be terrible. Nobody can really sing. The "biology" framework is sort of sexist and weird, even as the "comes back to bite your behind" primness of the lyrics is laughable. The song has these odd bridges all over the place. And yet it's completely catchy.
8. "Family Affair," Mary J. Blige
I probably shouldn't give Mary J. a pass on this song. It's credited with popularizing the term "crunk." A lot of the album it's on is much, much better ("Flying Away," which sounds like the flip side to Cee-Lo's "All Day Love Affair" is great, and underlooked.) But much like "Biology" this song is an utterly irresistible anthem to having fun.
9. "Bad Influence," Pink
I think it's really important to have pop cultural images of girls who don't always behave perfectly, but nonetheless are not supposed to be pathological. This song is a perfect example of that rare balance. She does a bit of this in "U + Ur Hand," her anti-harassment-in-bars song that David Brooks hilariously misinterpreted as anti-romance, and prompted him to scold her for being "not in a Cole Porter frame of mind." But "Bad Influence" is a great song, in a more expansive way, about partying on your own terms. When she sings "Alright ma'am / Calm down i know your son said he was in my house / He was the captain of the football team but i turned him out / He wasn't the first and he won't be the last, to tone it down / This happens all the time / I'm a story to tell, the alibi / They wanna go home i asked them / It's daylight (not night) / They might need a break from all the real life (get a life) / It gets to be too much sometimes," she's combining John Mayeresque high-school revenge fantasy and articulate party psychology all in one.
Have a good weekend, everybody.