http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sei-eEjy4g

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQwm1v1R-qM

Hmmmm.
I'm really surprised that this hasn't come up all that much yet.
This really makes me angry. The Clash wrote about real problems; poverty, depression, war crimes, and injustice. Things that actually matter and affect the world.

Taking samples from songs is okay, but M.I.A. took one of the most serious Clash songs and wrote lyrics about getting high and selling weed and all this other bullshit. It's incredibly disrespectful to both the band and the message that they were trying to convey.

Can you believe that Spin named this garbage the number one song of the year?
People need to stop calling her song "deep" or "inspiring".
It's not even hers to begin with.


/end rant

I fucking hate M.I.A. more than any of you can imagine.

It's fucking Rihanna for people that think they are too cool or hip to listen to Rihanna but still like garbage.

[quote="Sawao Yamanaka™"]The Clash wrote about real problems; poverty, depression, war crimes, and injustice. Things that actually matter and affect the world.[/quote]

Her lyrics are often about terrorism, drug trade, crime, revolutionary politics, the life of a young person in Sri Lanka...you know, stuff that kind of matters.

The furthest most people go with M.I.A. is Paper Planes. It was used in Pineapple Express, got a ton of radio play, and pretty much put M.I.A. on the scene. So people download it, blast it, and don't even consider checking out either of M.I.A.'s albums, Arular or Kala.

This is a problem, because when people complain about M.I.A., they're really just complaining about the one song. Therefore, these critics actually don't know shit about shit.
Yamanaka™, did you actually bother to investigate the lyrics from an unbiased perspective?
This is a quote from Arulpragasam herself:
" I was going to get patties at my local and just thinking that really the worst thing that anyone can say [to someone these days] is some shit like: ”What I wanna do is come and get your money.” People don’t really feel like immigrants or refugees contribute to culture in any way. That they’re just leeches that suck from whatever. So in the song I say All I wanna do is [sound of gun shooting and reloading, cash register opening] and take your money. I did it in sound effects. It’s up to you how you want to interpret. America is so obsessed with money, I’m sure they’ll get it. "

And the lines about drugs ("lethal poison through the system") - she's not glorifying any of this. She doesn't glorify violence and drugs in the way that so much main stream hip hop does. If that's what you think you're just taking the words at face value. Are you saying that any songs that deal with weed (smoking it, selling it, buying it, trafficking it etc.) are immediately trash? Are you kidding me? If you're going to disallow the discussion of drugs and violence through music (or any other artform), you're stuck in the past. Sure lyrics about war crimes and poverty might sound a little more profound on paper - but trying to discriminate what is "good" music based on lyrical topics is just [b]dumb[/b].

You approach M.I.A. with such a clouded mind because you think The Clash and their song is somehow holy. Do people get pissed off when James Brown is sampled? Hell no, why should they care?

This entire interview is great, but it speaks to exactly what we're talking about at 6:30
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuLymQuO ... re=related
Check it out.

Love her or hate her, M.I.A. is making music that sounds like nothing else out right now. The lyrics can sometimes sound shallow*, but I think if you give it some thought, you'll see there IS some real depth there.

*Remember, it's hard to be be overtly political and preachy and still make a hugely popular song. Rage Against the Machine is almost an exception...but they never hit the charts like M.I.A. is doing now.

[quote="StevenB130"]It's fucking Rihanna for people that think they are too cool or hip to listen to Rihanna but still like garbage.[/quote]

Everyone, take note how Steven owns the thread in a sentence rather than an essay.

Right. Let's not actually put thought into the topic at hand.

As we all know, smugness >>>> thoughtful discussion.
I think it'd be cool if Steven could back up his reasoning why M.I.A. is "garbage."

"Oh shit! This music is both unique and popular at the same time!? There must be some catch...I'll just dismiss it as being shitty and not worth anyone's time. ::EGO-STROKING JUSTIFICATION COMPLETE::

[quote="GoldenRhino"][quote="Sawao Yamanaka™"]The Clash wrote about real problems; poverty, depression, war crimes, and injustice. Things that actually matter and affect the world.[/quote]

Her lyrics are often about terrorism, drug trade, crime, revolutionary politics, the life of a young person in Sri Lanka...you know, stuff that kind of matters.

The furthest most people go with M.I.A. is Paper Planes. It was used in Pineapple Express, got a ton of radio play, and pretty much put M.I.A. on the scene. So people download it, blast it, and don't even consider checking out either of M.I.A.'s albums, Arular or Kala.
[/quote]

Yes, but this isn't about her other material, it's this song by itself that bothers me. When I said "the Clash wrote about..." I meant for "Straight to Hell" in particular.

[quote]
This is a problem, because when people complain about M.I.A., they're really just complaining about the one song. Therefore, these critics actually don't know shit about shit.
Yamanaka™, did you actually bother to investigate the lyrics from an unbiased perspective?
This is a quote from Arulpragasam herself:
" I was going to get patties at my local and just thinking that really the worst thing that anyone can say [to someone these days] is some shit like: ”What I wanna do is come and get your money.” People don’t really feel like immigrants or refugees contribute to culture in any way. That they’re just leeches that suck from whatever. So in the song I say All I wanna do is [sound of gun shooting and reloading, cash register opening] and take your money. I did it in sound effects. It’s up to you how you want to interpret. America is so obsessed with money, I’m sure they’ll get it. "

And the lines about drugs ("lethal poison through the system") - she's not glorifying any of this. She doesn't glorify violence and drugs in the way that so much main stream hip hop does. If that's what you think you're just taking the words at face value. Are you saying that any songs that deal with weed (smoking it, selling it, buying it, trafficking it etc.) are immediately trash? Are you kidding me? If you're going to disallow the discussion of drugs and violence through music (or any other artform), you're stuck in the past. Sure lyrics about war crimes and poverty might sound a little more profound on paper - but trying to discriminate what is "good" music based on lyrical topics is just [b]dumb[/b].

[/quote]

I don't think it's trash if it's about drugs, I never said anything like that. You do have a point as far as the lyrics go, I didn't realize that the lyrics could be taken as sarcasm. I was looking at her lyrics strictly at face value. I just got angry that (I thought) she was just talking about drugs, which, in contrast to the lyrics that the Clash wrote, is pretty trivial.

[quote]
You approach M.I.A. with such a clouded mind because you think The Clash and their song is somehow holy. Do people get pissed off when James Brown is sampled? Hell no, why should they care?
[/quote]

I don't think they're holy, but I DO think that they are one of the most influential bands of modern music. I'm not angry that they were sampled, But from what I've heard, she doesn't even credit them (although that could be wrong). And the sample isn't for just part of the song, it's the whole foundation.

[quote]
This entire interview is great, but it speaks to exactly what we're talking about at 6:30
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuLymQuO ... re=related
Check it out.

Love her or hate her, M.I.A. is making music that sounds like nothing else out right now. The lyrics can sometimes sound shallow*, but I think if you give it some thought, you'll see there IS some real depth there.

*Remember, it's hard to be be overtly political and preachy and still make a hugely popular song. Rage Against the Machine is almost an exception...but they never hit the charts like M.I.A. is doing now.[/quote]


I'm just angry cause everyone is going around saying, "OMG, I love M.I.A.'s song. It's so creative and catchy" when they have no idea that it's even based on a sample, but that's society in general, I guess.

On the flipside, "Straight to Hell" is a very obscure Clash song, so she must be an avid listener to have thought to sample it, which gives her some respectability in my book.

I guess we're good then. I guess the main thing now is if she credited them or not. I bet she did...if she didn't, she'd probably have a fat lawsuit on her hands.
I dunno how I'd feel if a popular artist I didn't really care for sampled, like, the TMYT MIDI melody. On one hand, it might be irritating that no one knows the origin of the sample and probably doesn't care...but also...B.F.D.

I don't see what's so creative and original and unique about looping the same 4 measures of somebody else's song and adding a shittier sounding midi drum track and lame sound effects for 3 and a half minutes.

And even if she has some great message to pass along (and I don't think that she does, especially something that already hasn't been said more clearly by somebody else), I don't get why she has to make it sound so shitty. Some shit pop song is the most horrible way to explain how you feel about a political or other similar issue. You're constricted to a couple minutes and you have to make sound a certain way to cater to one particular group of people's music tastes.

M.I.A needs to stop what she's doing or find a better way to do it.

[quote="StevenB130"]M.I.A needs to stop what she's doing or find a better way to do it.[/quote]

Why would she ever stop what she's doing? It's a formula that works for her, and tons of her fans. Done, end of discussion on that note.

Again, I don't see how you're making this "it's not original, therefore it's bad" argument whilst on a forum for the pillows. Fuck, I can't think of a band that does "formulaic pop rock song" more consistently than the pillows.
Just to clue you in on the musical tastes of people other than yourself, many don't see repetition as a necessarily bad thing. Sure, it loops the Clash sample through the entire song...but that's the point. It's effected slightly, changed up a little bit throughout the song, but it's consistent - that's the point. It takes the sample and uses it throughout to establish a certain feeling, making the sample more than it ever was*.

How many songs do you know of that have a chorus like the one in Paper Planes? With the gunshots/reload/register sound effect with a childlike chorus like that? As for the message, if you bothered to listen to any of M.I.A.'s other tracks, I think you'd come to the conclusion that the music comes first - not the political intent. Just because you're an artist with a lot of political views doesn't mean you have to express every last bit concisely, clearly, and exhaustively through your work. You should know this. If you really want to lay it down, it's obvious that doing so through music won't be as...thorough.

Then again, this conversation is probably totally pointless. If you're the type of person who shuts himself off from anything that remotely sounds like hip hop, then I shouldn't even be trying here. No, it's not jazz. It doesn't have multiple key changes or mode shifts or whatever you're yearning for. There's no G3-style shredding or pinch harmonics. What a damn shame.

Oh, and I'm also wondering why you decided to compare M.I.A. to Rihanna. Aside from their popularity, I don't know of any similarities.

*Wait, I forgot you're strongly averse to any music created using tools other than string, brass, wind, or traditional percussive instruments. Forget I mentioned it.

[quote="GoldenRhino"]"Oh shit! This music is both unique and popular at the same time!? There must be some catch...I'll just dismiss it as being shitty and not worth anyone's time. ::EGO-STROKING JUSTIFICATION COMPLETE::[/quote]

I think the unique part was blown away in the opening post. There's something to be said about there not being anything new under the sun, but ...

[quote="Jomei"]I think the unique part was blown away in the opening post. There's something to be said about there not being anything new under the sun, but ... [/quote]

I think the way M.I.A. used the sample does give it some uniqueness in itself. It's stretched through the entire song, as sort of a backing "hum." The only songs I can think of that do something like that are...maybe Maria by Rage Against the Machine, and probably a few songs by Cypress Hill. You know, old-school hip hop stuff. Sure, it's a sample from a classic band, but invalidating the entire song's uniqueness based on that goes a bit too far, I think. I don't see anyone complaining about the pillows' chord progressions, which I'm sure have been used many different times by many different bands in many different ways. Same thing with James Brown samples, as I mentioned.

Personally, I think the bigger deal is in [i]how[/i] you use sound, not the actual sound itself. Maybe that's just me.

For god's sake, it's impossible to judge a chord progression by "originality." Unless you just string random chords together. Which would sound like shit.

Haha I listen to a hip/hop and many other styles of music. And it's never about how complex music is, it's the quality of it. Chick Corea's elektric band has some crazy songs that are really complex but they suck because it sounds like shit and there's no reason for the complexity. Some people can pull of making more difficult music while retaining the quality and meaning of the music. On the other hand, music can be too bland and stupid. Listen to any MIA song and it will be made up of a repeating sample or some shit bass line with rowdy programmed drums and some phrase that is kept repeating while there are very subtle or no changes at all to the "beat" (or another word that describes how bland and tasteless the music is). The music tracks to every song of hers, when combined can easily be referred to something as simple as a "beat". The beat plays and she sings. So it goes.

And it's not it's lack or originality that makes it so bad, it's just the stupidity of the music itself in almost every way. The lyrics are idiotic and there is no poetic quality and there is never a clear melody and there is absolutely no depth to any of the music itself, and it just plain sucks dick. I listened to several other tracks from her and most of them are borderline unlistenable. Galang is the biggest piece of shit song I've ever heard.

I like when Stephen gets riled up enough to write out a full analysis of stuff, because it tends to make sense yo.

Everybody shut up.

First, it's good to see that most of you are still idiots.

Now, onto Maya. You all seem to forget that music doesn't necesarilly have to be good, to be good. It isn't that black or white. Sure- it ain't that incredible- but you know what? She is a very cool girl, she does her own thing, she has her own style, and she has fun- for herself because it's what she loves. She does it with confidence, and with a humble heart. And that's as genuine as could be.

If you don't like it, don't buy the fucking record- but don't be a jackass behind your sticky keyboard because you're still sitting in your room playing you're mediocre bullshit that YOU KNOW, but won't admit to yourself, will NEVER get anywhere. Ever.