I have never seen anyone sing with such a complete and utter lack of emotion. Take the passion out of pop music, replace it with stupid blank facial expressions and arrangements that’re self-consciously “interesting”, piling on the wank in a way that adds to the YouTube view count but brings absolutely nothing of relevance to the music, and you have… this pile of worthlessness. I generally can see redeeming values in just about anything - hell, I even like (moderately) St. Anger - but Pomplamoose seriously ignites my hatred.
It’s because they play covers. Beyoncé sings Single Ladies with a woman-done-wrong’s passion; Telephone’s lyrics are merely about being hassled by one’s partner in a club (just turn off your phone!), but Gaga makes it larger than life. On the other hand, Nataly Dawn could make Shakespeare sound like the phonebook. Problem is, I can totally see them being as some kind of +1 genre credibility for indie types who don’t actually listen to/appreciate music that’s self-consciously pop… and therefore overlook the original versions’ passion that Pomplamoose so deliberately suck the life out of, so they ACTUALLY ENJOY IT.
In an NPR article on their financial success via YouTube and iTunes alone, Pomplamoose’s instrumentalist Jack Conte says:
“I guess I kinda don’t like how there’s such a pedestal for music culture and especially for band culture. It just feels fake; it feels like smoke and mirrors. I feel like music doesn’t have to be like that. It can be something that’s very normal and very accessible.”
Does he realise the definition of “popular” is accessible - (generally) simple, comprehensible arrangements, not stacked noodly jazz as an excuse to split your YouTube video into more portions? When you sing like some kind of vocalising robot with twee as your only setting, isn’t that infinitely less authentic than a self-aware use of auto-tune? Granted, neither NPR nor the band are citing their example as any kind of “future of music” on a grand scale - but if word of mouth leads to enough success to live off this kind of emotionless, view-baiting music, give me so-called corporate, pop monoculture any day.
