For the longest time, I had shut off my radio and completely devoid myself from Pop music. Around this time, I was heavily invested in SoundCloud music and Spotify was starting to ring a buzz among the social media heathens, so it wasn’t an issue for me. From time to time, whether strolling through a department store, or idling through an outside shopping mall in the midst of Summer, I’d hear the blips I’d nearly forgotten.
Around 2009, the tides of synchronized and auto-tuned Pop singles were the ringing the chimes of commercial enthusiasm. I was in middle school around this era, so the eye-popping visuals on my television screen to the countless number of YouTube ads were enough to entice me. Along with the commercials were the jovial noises of Ke$ha and Lady Gaga.
This was back in 2010. Time had seemed to surpass the days of the radio, making it harder for Pop stars of that era to stay under the limelight. Listening to a track like ‘You’ from someone with a dope moniker as Shaggy had me flustered with recollection. This single from the Jamaican, upcoming American Idol performer features the whole preface from the era. Also featured in this single is a young voice hailing from Canada, Alexander Stewart.
‘You’ is a playful, sappy single from a talent that still understands Pop music.
The single is a clean source of Reggae-ton-inspired grooves with reverbs and prancing drums. Stewart’s voice is just as instrumental, serving as appropriate filler for the beat transitions. Shaggy’s dialect is something to enjoy. His deep fluctuations from moderately-low to very steep is playful and goes well with the samba.
I can hear the immaculate production value handed to this single. Assuming Shaggy’s impressive experience within the music industry, dating back to the early 1990s, it would be assumed that he knows how the music industry plays. This is exemplified with his other music reaching millions upon millions of nostalgic views.
‘You’ is a playful, sappy single from a talent that still understands Pop music. Perhaps our ears have been grown old at this point. I’ve been recently enjoying shamanic and enchanting grooves from Shafiq Husayn’s new album. I was also inadvertently transported back to my rage-induced youth with the thumping and adrenaline-rushed album from New York band Show Me The Body.
Regardless, this single shows that a musician with his experience has the ability to revive the Pop music industry, or at least, show us how it used to sound like back in the glory days.