Ever since British soul sensation Adele released her early sophomore album 21 in January of this year, she's been lavished with praise by millions. When she's not being compared to countless soul music legends, she's being praised for making music that's more "deep" or "thoughtful" than the standard fare for pop music.
The first thing made sense. After all, Adele does have an amazing voice. I was, however, a bit taken back by how many people thought Adele's music was so meaningful. After all, she writes almost exclusively about relationships. There are no political causes or searches for the meaning of life in her music. Even Taylor Swift doesn't write about boys as much as Adele does. Maybe "Rolling In The Deep" has more depth than, say, "Like A G-6", but in terms of emotional depth she reminds me more of Phil Collins than anyone else.
That might sound like a bit of a stretch, but consider that both sang about the dissolution of relationships with surprising candor and both have a great love of metaphors. She rolls in the deep, he wished it would rain down. She wants to find someone like you, he wanted just one more night. You get the idea.
So, why is Adele hailed as a pop music savior while Collins is viewed as one of the biggest cheese balls in pop music history? A lot of it has to do with perception. In the 80s, when Phil was peaking, cheesy love songs like his were standard fare. Whether Lionel Richie was serenading listeners with "Hello", or Journey was telling you they'd be forever yours, faithfully, schmaltz was the order of the day.
As a result, Phil's mopey love ballads seemed dull and boring. All he was doing was fulfilling the order of the day. It didn't matter that his songs were relatable or that they came from genuine pain. He was just a typical bland musician, making music label execs and radio programmers drool. So he was part of the problem.
These days, just the opposite is true, as romantic ballads about finding that special someone have fallen out of favor, and been replaced primarily with songs about no-strings-attached sex.
When Prince embraced explicit sexual themes on songs like "Darling Nikki" and "Little Red Corvette," it was nothing short of revolutionary. When Ke$ha sings about her latest drunken escapade, it sounds a lot like everything else on the radio. It also sounds a bit boring.
So, with everyone letting us know just how into hooking up they are, someone singing a traditional one about how much their last breakup hurt comes across as truly refreshing. This is not to say that Adele isn't genuinely a talented songwriter, because I like a lot of her songs. I just can't help but think that in a different era, where songs like hers were commonplace, we'd be chastising her for not being more daring.
The way we perceive pop has a lot to do with what its current trends are. Anyone who deviates from the radio-friendly norm is praised for doing so, while anyone who aims for mainstream is greeted with scorn from music critics.
Make no mistake, Adele is a great talent, and deserves a lot of the praise she gets. It's just that she also benefits from coming around at the right time; a time when songs that sound like hers weren't dominating the airwaves.
If Phil Collins had come around at a time when he didn't represent the oppressive establishment of music, he might have gotten the same reception.
Keep on jamming to "Rolling In the Deep", but throw on "Against All Odds" once in awhile too. You'll hear a song that's a lot better than any critic in 1984 wanted to admit.
Email: john.hugar@ubspectrum.com
