Talking Heads - Once In A Lifetime

"You may say to yourself...MY GOD, WHAT HAVE I DONE??"

This video used to be considered very weird and strange...

30 years ago, pop music may have been homogenized strains of disco, new wave, synth pop, country lite, and arena rock bands...but one thing they were not yet, was visual. MTV came out the year after this, and this was one of the first videos the channel played in their first few hours of broadcasting. Long before the terms "indie" or "alternative" the Talking Heads were pushing the boundaries of experimental art music and redefining pop music in the unlikeliest combination of styles. Growing beyond their Jonathan Richman influenced straight white angular art rock, they merged influences and actual band members from the Parliament-Funkadelic collective, even incorporating progressive rock guitar god Adrian Belew for their breakthrough "Remain In Light" album....All brewed up inside the hypnotic influence of Brian Eno's "Oblique Strategies"

Adding further influences to the mix of this music video, are lead singer David Byrne's "preacher character" and director Toni Basil who pioneered hip hop dance moves and popularized the infamous "white background" music video style. They came up with the idea of his movements being a confluence of hip-hop dance moves, obscure religious rituals, and epileptic seizures..


S a m e a s i t e v e r w a s . . . S a m e a s i t e v e r w a s . . .

2 years later, after MTV was well underway, the director of this video had her own hit song that received copious amounts of airplay on the channel...

F i v e E a s y R i d e r P i e c e s

In 2009, Toni Basil Accepted an award as a 'Living Legend of Hip Hop' for her accomplishments in dance and choreography.

David Byrne did lots more stuff, including only a few years later interviewing himself about the greatest concert film ever made...

Billie Piper - Walk Of Life

"Can you be the one who sets my shadow free...?"

Back in the darkest days of the all too prevalent 9-11 postpartum depression, I was in contrary motion, rediscovering my love for pure pop music. Despite the onslaught of America's plethora of various Britnae and Aguilerii, my focus was on the uncharted charts of the rest of the world. Post mp3/Napster period, the encoding of videos were being perfected online. For the first time, I started collecting music videos in digital form. As a result, I was exposed to the rest of the world's music, ever after, since..! Thanks, Internets..

Billie Piper (UK), now largely forgotten as having a pop music career, captivated me with her music video that moved me in that particular moment and time. I was still longing to find someone out there in the wide web world of Earth... And here was a video of a young woman growing out of the first stages of her life, and expressing the want of a mature lifelong relationship to an unnamed someone..Wanting a love that was deeper, based in truth, beyond the fears of the past...a partner to walk hand in hand with together to a better future. I am sure many people would take exception seeing any such depth in a song like this or in the lyrics, but don't all of us infuse our own meanings in the songs we take a liking too? In the less than 10 years it has been since making my own connection with this song, so many lifelong dreams have now come true..and the words of this song resonate even more now..




A n o r a k

I found out that after this last single ever, Billie Piper ended her pop music career and switched full time to acting. She is now more well known for 2 major roles:

The "companion" to the new 21st century incarnation of Dr. Who:

And also as the role of Belle de Jour in the TV series "Secret Diary of a Call Girl"

Uffie - ADD SUV

"Schizophrenic, photogenic, psychogenic, hallucinogenic..."

I never heard of her until today, but I like her now for sure... According to Wikipedia, Uffie is a "Miami-born, Hong Kong-raised, Paris-based underground electro artist, vocalist, rapper, entertainer, songwriter, producer and fashion designer..." Wow, how could I miss that?

Apparently when she visited Paris for a holiday and decided to stay permanently, some people encouraged her to do some music. The first song she created, became an underground but massive hit.. That was when she was around 18 years old...now she is 22 and after so many personal life changes she is releasing her "long awaited" debut album. Before you think she is derivative of any of today's current female artists, I have seen the proof that she originated many of the current qualities long before these other artists...so I welcome her to 2010 in this moment, by appreciating her current electro/hip-hop single and video in advance of her new/first album "Sex Dreams and Denim Jeans" - seen here with producer Mirwais and Pharrell Williams riding shotgun on the streets of LA..

W h i c h c o l o r p i l l d i d s h e t a k e . . . ?

(here is a modern day interview with her in 2010)

Here is that first song she ever did...Coming off all "gangsta" and "auto-tuned" but so distinctive and fresh and intense. My 2006 self only wished I knew of it then.




(Here is an interview with her back then in 2006, when she was only 18)

Sara Bareilles - King Of Anything

"You got the talking down, just not the listening..."

Out of all my previous blogs, Sara Bareilles is the one that still gets the most hits out of anyone.

Sara is now back with a new song and music video, a segmented wall of moving picture Polaroids. In this fragmented montage, she sings the often unsung female response to the male tendency to dominate conversations and be a "know-it-all" on even the most trivial conversational topics..

Despite my implications of a gender issue interpretation, here's what Sara has to say for herself about the song and video: