So what, I’m still a rockstar, I got your dead mom

First time commenter! And I decided to make THIS song my first comment because I frequently make bad decisions. Like Usher did when he decided to release this song!

Okay, I’m (kinda) joking. I mean, this song didn’t kill Usher, and it got number one, so it’s a win in his book. I agree with Tom when he calls it a “break glass in case of emergency” song, cause that’s the only logical explanation for it.

Will.i.am as a producer is someone I should like more; I love me some minimalist electronic beats. But the beat to OMG just kinda exists. Which forces Usher’s AutoTuned to the max voice (not bad, actually!) and will.i.am’s mumbly sing-rap to the forefront, and those elements just aren’t something worth building a song around.

DJ Got Us Falling in Love Again should’ve been the lead single! Even if it has a mediocre (by Pitbull standards) Pitbull guest verse. That beat is just too good and Usher matches the energy to perfection. Fully agree on the 9 with the 1 point deduction being the Pitbull verse.

First album was named “Sour”, this one is named “Guts”. Confirmed Olivia Rodrigo is the 2020s’ answer to The Jesus Lizard.

end of discussion? How about Clanton can do whatever he wants with his festival so fuck John Maus. The end.

Not listening to this. I hope they mentioned Harambe.

Why the fuck was this dude packing in the first place when he knew he was going to be using psychedelics?

But of course, in his mind he was a Good Guy with a Gun, until he wasn’t.

God, fuck gun nuts, fuck their lobbyists, and fuck the Republican politicians who cower in fear of both of them (literally, in many cases). This turned what might have been a domestic violence incident that his girlfriend could have gotten past into one that’s crippled her for life and left innocent people dead. Fuck this guy. I hope he dies in prison alone.

don’t understand why Rina’s comments are controversial: “I’ve had enough” seems like the most sane reaction to Matty Healy, regardless of the context, lol. He’s really carving out a nice niche for himself as the Ricky Gervais of Urban-Outfitters-dressing-room rock.

Growing up as a too-smart, somewhat socially outcast kid in the 2000s in a very high pressure and low sleep schooling system, listening to music on the hour long bus ride to and from school became one of my primary means of releasing tension, finding joy, developing my own reasoned opinions, and connecting with my peers. Combining my mother’s love of simple pop music, the basic interstitial fluid of our American culture that brings people together by hitting all our shared neural pleasure centers, with my father’s understanding of groove, the connection to the deeper undercurrents of life that music expresses profoundly in our souls, I honed my ability to identify and articulate that ineffable quality that makes some music feel “good” – that it gets somewhere deep that needs to be expressed, and delivers it to the masses.

All that is to say I was a precocious kid with a lot of opinions about popular songs in 2010. I had started reviewing the iTunes top charts while deciding what tracks to download to my iPod and listened to much pop radio in the car/bus, so felt that I had a pretty good finger on the pulse of what was most popular. But it wasn’t until the summer of 2010, the week of my 14th birthday to be precise, that I discovered the Billboard charts. And since then, rarely has a week gone by that I haven’t checked them for an update- it’s become perhaps the only weekly routine I’ve carried into adulthood. And the number one song that first week was of course Katy Perry’s California Gurls.

My entire family loved California Gurls. Personally, I was a fan as well. Hot N Cold had been a huge hit among my age group, and my sister and I had played it and the other One of the Boys tracks to death on Tap Tap Revenge on our shared iPod Touch. And the hooks were truly undeniable. How could you not buy in to the sugary rush? I did agree with Katy herself and others that the song became quite annoying on repeated listens, though, and I rarely choose to listen to it these days.

At time of its peak popularity, I saw a mashup on YouTube of California Gurls and Tik Tok, a song I liked marginally more, thus exposing Dr. Luke for repeating essentially the same chorus in both songs. That sparked an interest in getting to understand the behind the scenes creation of pop music, which led me to the Billboard Charts, an AVClub column following the pop music of the day (which I believe no longer exists), and eventually Stereogum. It was around this time as well that I began branching out on the internet and exploring my own music tastes beyond what I heard on the radio, from my parents, or through my peers. Within a couple of years I became a big fan of different forms of indie and alternative rock and pop, and eventually electronic and dance music, disco, and afrobeat as well, all of which sites like Pitchfork and Stereogum were key guides for.

But I never stopped paying attention to pop music, rooting for the songs and artists I liked and hoping the ones I didn’t would go away more quickly. To this day it’s still one of the background pleasures of my life. And, for better or worse, attaching ratings to the different Hot 100 number ones scratches a great internal itch for order, value judgment, and appreciation of beauty, and has kept me hooked on this column since before Tom’s investigating and writing became the beloved cultural institution it is today.

Anyway, California Gurls is an 8. Thanks for reading.

I would say that maybe it’s time for Matty to make a quiet trip to rehab, but what use is rehab when his entire personality is a Cocaine Idea?

is this as good at it sounds like it will be?