By now, you’ve probably heard the Jessie J song, “Domino”. Currently, it’s peaked at number 17 on the Billboard Hot 100, which means a lot of people like it. Perhaps you’re one of them. I’m not going to talk much about Jessie J, because I don’t know a lot about her beyond this song and “Price Tag”. But if you’re interested in some observations about how she makes a claim on what kind of artist she is in the first ten seconds of the song, keep reading.
The song, itself, is totally unobjectionable. I like guitars. The central simile is pretty evocative, if a little unclear. (“Take me down like a domino”… Shouldn’t it be “Knock me over like a domino”?) But unfortunately for me, there’s a certain tic in the mix that I can’t get past: it appears Jessie J subscribes to the aesthetic of obvious effort.
There are lots of singers who do this, and it annoys the hell out of me. (Apologies if it will annoy the hell out of you now that I’ve drawn it to your attention.) On the one hand, it’s part of an overall experience for a performer to show that she cares, dammit, and she’s putting everything she has into a song. Pop music history is littered with artists — men and women, across many genres — whose stars shined brightest when sweat soaked through their clothes and their voices quavered with the weight of this moment: Janis Joplin, Tina Turner, Robert Plant… In recent years people from such disparate traditions as Bright Eyes and Jason Derulo have carried on the tradition.
The thing is, obvious effort doesn’t always signify caring, or an emotional urgency in the lyrics. Sometimes, it inadvertently signals that the singer needs grunts, heavy breathing, and lots of hand gestures as a crutch to hide an inability to emote within the melody. And the absolute worst offender is late-career Mick Jagger.
Here’s Jagger with U2 at Madison Square Garden, singing the U2 single that might be least suited to his abilities, “Stuck In A Moment”.
For a gentle, chill song, the histrionics — vocal and physical — are awfully out of place. It also doesn’t help that “Stuck In A Moment” is a country-influenced song, because while modern country music has its Obvious Effort People, they are few and far between, and a certain kind of vocal precision is much more highly valued in that sphere than obvious effort. In fact, there’s a strong tradition in country music of effortlessness, as you can see from this Buck Owens television performance in 1966. Note that while performers are smiling and enjoying themselves, everybody is putting on a “we’re just sitting around” air.
It’s a shame Jagger’s still running himself out there like that, because dude used to be the rare singer who was an ill wordsmith, had serious vocal chops, and made sure you noticed his obvious effort. (Don’t forget Michael Jackson!) Even when The Rolling Stones did their early-70s Gram Parsons thing, they showed off coked-up rock ‘n roll swag.
It’s unfair and ridiculous to trash someone for not being a young Jagger, so, to be clear, this isn’t a trashing in any way, shape, or form — she could be the next Christina Aguilera, Aretha Franklin, and Lady Gaga all wrapped up in one, for all I know. But whenever I hear the kind of breathiness and ululations Jessie J unleashes in the opening lines of “Domino”, especially around the word “free”, a small part of me goes on guard. Is this singer emoting for this particular song, or is she using a vocal shortcut to make a larger claim about what kind of artist she is that has nothing to do with the song?
3:30 pm - 18 Jan 2012
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Filed under: #music #Jessie J
