There’s a growing disconnection between audience and performer within the realm of American Top 40. Right now, as is often the case towards the end of a decade as people’s tastes begin to shift and a new generation comes into the record purchasing market. In order for aspiring artists to gain the trust of the listener is to go to the drawing board and start grinding out a new sound, a new style to shake things up on both FM and online radio and aid in shedding the dead skin of the last ten years in favor of a new identity.
Right now, “One Sided Love” by MkX is catching fire quicker than any of us could have expected. It’s thanks in part to this young entertainer’s inspired inventiveness and uncanny knack for creating organically memorable beats. There’s a sexually charged nuance to the song’s sway that makes this a perfect track for late summer Saturday nights at the club, or even for the engagements that can happen as a result of a long night of dancing together passionately.
All year long I’ve felt a collective desire for more music that makes feel good, dance and embrace the lust and love that makes life so fun. There has been a lot of pain this year, and a lot of tragedy in the news every time we turn on the television or go online to check our email. In these times when we never know what to expect next, what evil could be looming in the distance and what old divisions we’ll have to undo somehow, artists have the enormous burden of getting us out of our own heads and back to a place of peace.
On the surface, a dance-oriented ballad like “One Sided Love” might seem like a small start to making things a little better for all of us, but at least it’s something more than what we’ve got now. More importantly, it’s colorful music like this that openly embraces diverse influences from genres that we all love that will be the future of the charts. People don’t want to hear music that is so predictably blasé that we aren’t able to decipher one song from another, that album by this artist from this record by that one. It’s boring, and it’s not reflective of our culture, and it’s an archaic approach to progressing the evolution of mankind aesthetically and intellectually.
Thankfully, MkX doesn’t appear to care much about what the media, his scene, his rivals or even critics like me think about what his music should sound like, and that couldn’t make me happier as a fan and lifelong aficionado of music. We need more artists who aren’t caught up in the drama and stay focused on what set them on their career path in the beginning. That’s the passion that sets kings aside from the peasants, and now that the pop music throne appears to be vacating, MkX is going to make sure that his campaign remains untarnished by any external negative influence.
Find more MkX on his WEBSITE
-review by Jodi Marxbury