Loading summary
Transcript46 lines
- [00:00]
Chris Melanfi
You're listening ad free on Amazon Music.
- [00:04]
Narrator/Host
Hey there Hit Parade listeners. What you're about to hear is Part one of this episode. Part two will arrive in your podcast feed at the end of the month. Would you like to hear this episode all at once the day it drops? Sign up for Slate Plus. It supports not only this show, but all of Slate's acclaimed journalism and podcasts. Just go to slate.com hitparadeplus you'll get to hear every every Hit Parade episode in full the day it arrives. Plus Hit Parade the Bridge, our bonus episodes with guest interviews, deeper dives on our episode topics, and pop chart trivia. Once again to join, that's slate.com hitparadeplus thanks and now please enjoy part one of this hit Parade episode. Foreign. A Podcast of Pop Chart History from Slate Magazine about the hits from coast to coast. I'm Chris Melanfy, chart analyst, pop critic and writer of Slate's why Is this Song Number One? Series on today's show 21 years ago, in March of 2002, the latest single by a platinum recording artist was marching into the top 40 on Billboard's Hot Hot 100. Only this song didn't much sound like the tracks that had made her a hit maker. It did have a thumping, syncopated beat, making the song radio friendly at the peak of glossy hip hop and millennial teen pop. But the primary instrument on the track was rock guitar, and the singer sounded a whole lot like a rocker herself. Alicia Moore, the singer who called herself Pink, was pulling off a brazen act of music business rebellion. She was abandoning the sound that had made her name and scoring a big hit. Anyway, Pink had to fight her own record company president to do this. How could you tell? She called him out right in the lyrics of the song.
- [02:39]
Chris Melanfi
LA told me you'll be a pop star. All you have to change is everything you are.
- [02:49]
Narrator/Host
This would not be the last time Pink threw shade at fellow artists in a hit song.
- [02:56]
Chris Melanfi
What happened to the dream of a girl president? She's dancing in the video now.
- [03:06]
Narrator/Host
Or presented herself as a rock star. By the way, sometimes she said that right out loud in her lyrics too. What made this remarkable was that Pink started out not trying to be a rocker at all. At first she was marketed as a hip hop diva in training. And even racially ambiguous. But P Nk soon realized her music could encompass a little bit of everything. At a time when other pop acts were copping rock moves to get over on the charts. And even the rock acts were preening and boogying like pop stars.
- [04:25]
Chris Melanfi
Well, somebody told me you had a boyfriend who looked like a girlfriend that I had in baby.
- [04:33]
Narrator/Host
Pink was ahead of the curve. She anticipated the merging of rock back into millennial dance pop, scored a string of hits and found her own lane, even if she sometimes confounded the marketplace. Or sent radio programmers reaching for the censor button. Today on Hit Parade, we get the party started with Pink, the pop fans rocker gal and the modern feminists talker. She has never been a shrinking violet. Whether she's commanding you to leave her alone at the club.
- [05:31]
Chris Melanfi
I'm not here for your entertainment. You don't really wanna mess with me tonight. Just stop and take a se?
- [05:40]
Narrator/Host
Or demanding that you join her on the dance floor. This individual was established two decades ago when Alicia Moore took on her record label, fought them to a draw and was told they would give her the freedom to fail. Only she didn't fail. And that's where your hit parade marches today, the week ending March 23, 2002, when Pink passed herself on the Billboard Hot 100 with two very different singles. At number 27 that week. On its way down, her recent top five dance floor smash, get the Party Started, and at number 26 and rising, Her future top 10 hit don't let Me Get Me, which established Pink as the new millennium's open hearted, filter free icon. From then on, the guitars got more prominent as Pink threw her powerhouse vocals at rock, R B, dance, torch songs, hip hop, even country, all of it infused with her bravado and capital A attitude. How did Pink create her own multifarious pop genre and become everybody's favorite sassy but sensitive badass? Before we go deep on Pink, let's consider a previous dance floor diva who occasionally wanted to rock. Here's 1983's Burning up, one of Madonna's earliest singles.
- [08:16]
Chris Melanfi
Come On Let Go.
- [08:18]
Narrator/Host
Burning up is hard to pigeonhole. It's a club record with prominent rock guitar. Madonna was inspired by her years in New York City punk clubs. She'd even recorded some early demos with a punk band. And it has a sinister edge that's less like disco and more like post punk or new wave. Indeed, a quarter century later, Blender magazine would rank Burning up as one of its 40 quintessential new wave songs alongside electro rock classics by the likes of Gary Newman, Devo and New Order. You could imagine an adventurous rock station in 1983 playing Madonna's rock and jam alongside those new wave bands. But because Burning up had dance beats and because Madonna was not only a new artist in 1983, but a woman. The only Billboard chart it touched was the club play chart. It didn't make the Hot 100, and it certainly didn't make the rock charts. Of course, Madonna did just fine on the hot 100 later with poppier hits like Holiday, Borderline and Lucky Star. But she never really recorded anything like Burning Up Again. Generally, female vocalists of earlier generations who wanted rock credibility had to rock pretty hard. Whether it was Janis Joplin, They don't own me, tina turner, Joan jett, Or pat benatar. Rocker gals like Turner or Benatar would only move toward poppier songs after they had established themselves at album oriented rock or AOR radio. Benatar's late 83 hit Love is a Battlefield doesn't sound far removed from Madonna's earlier single, Burning Up. But unlike Madonna, who was never played by rock stations, Benatar remained a fixture on rock radio. Now, all of these, these artists I've named have long been cited as influences on Pink's career, some of them by Pink herself. But here's the thing. Janis Joplin, Tina Turner, Joan Jett, and Pat Benatar have all made Billboard's rock tracks charts. Pink, however, like Madonna, has not. This is fairly remarkable because few female pop stars of her generation have done more to integrate rock back into post millennial, post hip hop popular music than Pink. Ask the average Pink fan to describe the artist, and that fan might well call Pink a rocker. Heck, even Grammy voters gave a best female Rock Vocal performance statue to Pink nearly two decades ago for her minor hit Trouble. But when it comes to radio formats and Billboard charts, Pink somehow does not qualify for the rock category. It's hard for any artist to overcome a first impression, but it seems especially hard for women who record danceable pop music like Madonna. After Burning up, You might say that Pink had to create her own bespoke sound, one that encompassed multiple genres. And so, like Madonna, she's learned to stand her ground. Speaking of which, the ladies have met each other. Here's Pink talking about Madonna with Howard Stern in February just a few weeks ago. I'm a polarizing individual, but Bandana's a polarizing individual.
- [14:09]
Chris Melanfi
She is. Man, I loved her. I love Madonna. I love her no matter what. Like I. I still love her. I love her no matter what.
- [14:17]
Narrator/Host
Right?
- [14:18]
Chris Melanfi
She was such an inspiration to me, but it sort of got twisted around that I was like fangirling and was dying to meet Madonna when in actuality she invited me into her dressing room.
- [14:29]
Narrator/Host
Listen, I got a Surprise for you. Madonna's here and she's gonna fight you. Now you're gonna go three rounds. Pink has never been shy about speaking her mind. But before she could invent the genre we might now call Pink music, she had to fit into a very specific sound that was ruling the airwaves in the years of the 20th century. Alicia Beth Moore, born in 1979 to a Catholic father and Jewish mother in the Philadelphia suburb of Doylestown, Pennsylvania, developed a potent voice at an early age when she wasn't focusing on gymnastics, which, by the way, would come in handy later in her career. Young Alicia was singing. As we discussed in our hall and Oats episode of Hit Parade. Philly was a melting pot of multiracial sounds, and Moore grew up around both white and black music. By her early teenage years, Alicia Moore, a troubled teen who, after her parents divorced, often ran away from home, was already performing at Philly nightclubs. One club gave her a regular Friday singing slot after she wowed the crowd on an open mic night with a Mary J. Blige song. You. There are several origin stories for Pink's nickname. One of the more plausible was that Moore, as the only white girl in her friend group, was dubbed Pink. After serving as a dancer and then a vocalist for such local R B acts as Schools of Thought and Basic Instinct, neither of which wound up recording with her, Pink was recruited to join the white R B trio, Choice. Choice recorded Key to My Heart when Pink and her fellow vocalists were just 16 years old. On the strength of the song in 1995, the girl group was flown to Atlanta, Georgia for a meeting with the man we discussed in our Outkast episode of Hit Parade. La Reid, the producer turned president of LaFace Records, the label he co founded with his songwriting partner babyface. In the mid-90s, LaFace was riding high not only with Outkast, but with R B acts like the girl group tlc. L A Reid did indeed sign Choice. The teen trio's parents had to co sign the contract with them and issued their one and only single on the 1996 soundtrack to the family film Kazam. By the way, that's the actual movie Kazam starring basketball player Shaquille o', Neal, not the misremembered movie Shazam, starring comedian Sinbad. Bad Shazam didn't exist. It's a collective fake memory and an example of the Mandela effect. Google it if you don't believe me, but I digress. Anyway, Choice recorded a whole album for LaFace that would never see release. Pink, however, showed promise in the studio when producer Daryl Simmons asked Pink if she could help write a song she co wrote, Just to Be loving you. Here's a small snippet of that unreleased.
- [18:56]
Chris Melanfi
Demo, Just to Be.
- [19:03]
Narrator/Host
Simmons was impressed, and he notified LA Reid that Pink was the member of choice with star potential. So by 1998, Reed had given Pink an ultimatum. Go solo or go home. Pink chose the former. Choice broke up and their album was permanently shelved. Pink had proven she could sing and even potentially write in an R B mode, so that's what LaFace set her up to do for her debut album. It wasn't just a good time in 1998 for R B on the charts. It was the peak of teen R B. Like destiny's child, the early years or brandy and monica. Or Aaliyah. Of course, teen pop by white acts was also ruling the charts in 1998 and 99, including Britney Spears. And Christina Aguilera. La Reeves, Reed and his team felt Pink could play both sides of the fence, not unlike their flagship girl group, tlc. No Scrubs, TLC's number one smash from the spring of 1999 with its sleek, chiming, percolating hip hop sound, was a template for what Pink did on her debut album. Pink was set up with the same producer and songwriters who'd worked on no Scrubs, Kevin Shakespeare Briggs and Candy Burruss, and together with Pink, they wrote and produced her first hit. Even if There you Go sounded an awful lot like no Scrubs, the song was full of Pink's personality. There you Go was a kiss off to a former lover who didn't measure up, a foreshadowing of later Pink hits.
- [22:28]
Chris Melanfi
If you won't talk, I'll walk. Yes, like that. I got a new manny way now back now, Whoa, what you think about that?
- [22:34]
Narrator/Host
Now released In January of 2000, There U Go appeared on Billboard's R B Hip Hop Songs chart first, where it eventually reached number 15 on the Hot 100 pop chart. The song debuted a week later and topped out at number seven. In April, just as There youe Go reached its peak, LaFace Records released Pink's debut album titled Can't Take Me Home. On the COVID in an over lit photo, the 20 year old pink wore reflective sunglasses and very close cropped hair, a look that made her efficient ethnicity hard to discern. This was definitely LaFace's intention. Millennial music fans were beguiled by Pink's early identity. Two decades later, in an article titled Soulful Vanilla Child when Pink was black, Jezebel culture writer Ashley Reese wrote, quote, can't Take Me Home was an undoubtedly R B and hip hop influenced vehicle. That was an odd preamble to a very different career. When I saw the music video for the album's first hit There youe Go, in which Pink is out for an early aughts version of Empowered Revenge, I assumed she was a black woman. She tells her ex boyfriend off in what can only be described as a bit of a black scent.
- [24:29]
Chris Melanfi
I thought I told you not to call. Is that bitch still with you?
- [24:33]
Narrator/Host
No, she's gone. She's out of my life.
- [24:36]
Chris Melanfi
Well, I'm busy. What do you want?
- [24:39]
Narrator/Host
Stupid carbs. Busted.
- [24:40]
Chris Melanfi
Can I bum a ride? Still don't have a ride. All right, I'm gonna hook you up.
- [24:47]
Narrator/Host
Whatever the motivations, crass or clever, Pink's black adjacent presentation worked on the charts. Can't Take Me Home debuted on the all genre Billboard 200 album chart at number 26 and on the R and B hip hop album chart at number 23. It rode both charts for more than a year. At the peak of MTV's Total Request Live and its melange of millennial pop and be, Pink came across as TRL's newest all audiences flavor. She did not want to be pinned down. You're sort of image wise, like the rebellious sort of badass. And what are your thoughts on maybe these other TRL artists? So what do you think of them?
- [25:38]
Chris Melanfi
I respect anybody that gets up in the morning and works hard and follows their dream. I love artists like Janis Joplin and four Non Blondes and Mary J. Blige. I'm all over the place. I just, you know, she's a regular.
- [25:51]
Narrator/Host
Kid box, that's for sure. Good music is important. We need to get to the number six video. More with Pink after this. This is Christina Aguilera. I turn to you up a couple of spots on trl. Pink's debut CD continued spawning hits on both the pop and R and B char including Most Girls, co written by Babyface, which reached number four in the fall of 2000. And you Make Me Sick, produced by Baby Face, which reached number 33 in the winter of 2001.
- [26:36]
Chris Melanfi
You make me Sick.
- [26:44]
Narrator/Host
By the start of 2001, can't take me Home was double platinum. Pink was now an established enough star that she was invited to join a supergroup to record a song from a movie, Baz Luhrmann's retro nuevo pastiche Moulin Rouge. The song would wind up as Pink's first number one hit and the last gasp of her career as a crossover R and B star. Perhaps then, it was appropriate that this song was a cover of a 70s soul classic. Lady Marmalade, the delightfully raunchy LaBelle classic about new Orleans sex workers, which we discussed in last year's R B Queens episode of Hit Parade, had already gone to number one on the Hot 100 once, way back in 1975. Tom Bryan, writer of Stereogum's the Number Ones column, eloquently notes that the song exists at some genre free netherrealm where disco and soul and funk and rock all intersect. Did Lady Marmalade need to be remade? Not really. LeBell's version was already pretty perfect, but could it be remade into a chart topping millennial blockbuster? A four Diva pileup up oh my yes. Where's all my soul sisters?
- [28:33]
Chris Melanfi
Let me hear your flow sisters. Hey sister.
- [28:40]
Narrator/Host
For the remake, producer and mistress of ceremonies Missy Elliott recruited teen queen Christina Aguilera, raunchy rapper Lil Kim, dancer singer Maya and the newest hit maker of the bunch, Pink. The reboot was pure Hollywood synergy, even swapping the original lyric about old New Orleans for the name of the titular Parisian cabaret from Luhrmann's film. For maximum promotion, Each of the ladies took turns on lead vocals and reportedly Aguilera and Pink didn't get along, either in the studio or during the shooting of the lingerie clad video. Though the rebooted song had been shepherded by Aguilera's management as a showcase for her, critics generally agreed that Pink might have done the all around best job. Vocally. Released in the spring of 2001, the 4 Diva version of marmalade took less than two months to reach number one, spending five weeks weeks atop the Hot 100. Later that summer, its music video took Video of the Year at the MTV Video Music Awards. Finally, it was also the last Pink affiliated song to make Billboard's R B Hip Hop chart, where it only reached number 43. As it happened that summer, Pink herself was already rethinking her carefully marketed multi genre profile as Lady Marmalade was commanding the Hot 100. She was working on the follow up to her Can't Take Me Home album and fighting for more creative control. She felt that her debut, successful as it was, had misrepresented who she really was. Accordingly, Pink would title her second album Misunderstood. The creatively misspelled album title Mi S S U n D A Z T O O D would go down in history as the first great self reinvention by a pop star of the new millennium. But it wasn't easy. LaFace President La Reid heard Pink's early demos and was convinced she was committing commercial suicide. Mostly he was confused by the collaborator Pink had approached entirely on her own. A woman who hadn't had a hit in nearly a decade. Linda Perry was the lead singer songwriter of the short lived lived all female rock band 4 Non Blondes who scored a number 14 hit back in 1993 with what's Up? A strummy Don't Worry, Be Happy mimicking Sing along. Perry left 4 Non Blondes after just one album, Uninspired by their follow up recordings. She later told Rolling Stone quote, I wasn't really a big fan of my band. Hey Linda, that makes two of us. You know who was a huge fan of 4 Non Blondes though? A very young Alicia Moore.
- [33:05]
Chris Melanfi
4 Non Blondes was my favorite record for so long when I was like 12 and 13 and I found her number and I was like, this is too weird, I have to call her. I don't know what I'm gonna say. I don't even know what I want. I just wanna tell her I love her. So I called her up and I left her the 10 minute long message. I knew that I loved her music, I loved her voice. I wanted her to sing on a song with me. It was so much easier than I thought it was going to be.
- [33:25]
Narrator/Host
The first song Linda Perry presented to Pink in their writing sessions was an up tempo jam that didn't sound much like 4 non blondes. Perry had been deliberately trying to write a dance pop song. It had funk rock guitar but also hip hop syncopation. Pink took one listen and decided she had to have it. This song would, she later said, serve as a bridge between what she'd been doing on her debut album and what she wanted to do on her sophomore album. Even L A Reid liked it. It was commercial and full of attitude, perfect for Pink and Linda. Perry had given it a dead obvious commercial title. Get the Party Started.
- [34:27]
Chris Melanfi
Coming up. So you better get this party started.
- [34:34]
Narrator/Host
Reed agreed that Party could be the first single from the new album. But he didn't much like any of the other material. Perry and Pink were co writing and producing in Perry's home studio rock flavored cuts with trippy titles like Gone to California, Lonely Girl and My Vietnam.
- [34:59]
Chris Melanfi
This is My Vietnam.
- [35:08]
Narrator/Host
But in the end, Reid couldn't talk Pink into recording more R and B tracks or out of her new direction. After weeks of fruitless arguments, he relented and said he was giving Pink the opportunity to fail in A later interview with the LA Times, Pink said she knew what she was signing up for and was grateful to read quote I knew the risk involved. I'd seen artists change styles and fail miserably, but I've also seen artists change and continue to do well. That's why Madonna has always been an inspiration for me. I told LA I had faith in my ability and was willing to take the chance. And I have so much respect for him because he turned around during that meeting. By the end, he said, okay, let's do it. In a kind of teasing homage to L A Reid, Pink wrote him into the lyrics of another track that wound up on Misunderstood, the future hit Don't Let Me Get Me. She also made clear in that lyric what or whom she did not want to be.
- [36:32]
Chris Melanfi
LA told me you'll be a pop star. All you have to change is everything you are tired of being compared to. Damn Britney Spears. She you so pretty that just ain't me.
- [36:52]
Narrator/Host
Ironically, despite its rock flavor, Don't Let Me Get Me was not co written by Linda Perry. It was instead co written by Pink with Dallas Austin, a journeyman R and B and pop songwriter who'd penned hits for Boyz II Men, Madonna and especially tlc. Doubly. Ironically, Austin had originally been invited to contribute to Pink's debut Can't Take Me Home, but demurred, saying he didn't like the R B direction the label was taking her in. Pink admired Dallas Austin's sense of principle and asked to work with him again, and this time they co wrote four songs, including two of Misunderstood's most rock leaning hits, Don't Let Me Get Me and Just Like A Pill. In short, Misunderstood was top to bottom, Pink's vision. She she was, if you will, its auteur. She still worked with experienced hitmakers, but she aimed them in the direction she wanted to go. The album still had R B and pop flavor, but it was crossed with rock. Linda Perry, a rock songwriter, gave Pink the album's big dance hit, get the Party Started, arrived in the fall of 2001 and shot to number four on the Hot 100. And Dallas Austin, the R B songwriter, helped Pink craft the most rock forward hit, Don't Let Me Get Me. In the spring of 2002 it went to number eight, I'm a hazard to.
- [38:56]
Chris Melanfi
Myself don't let Let me get me.
- [39:03]
Narrator/Host
When Just Like a Pill followed in Summer O2 and also reached number eight, Misunderstood became Pink's first album to generate three top 10 hits. Pill also became her first UK number one hit. Fast as I Get each Misunderstood single was more personal than the Last Pill was a metaphor for Pink's previous experiments with drugs, thinly disguised as a gripe about a toxic relationship. For the fourth single, Family Portrait, co written with hip hop producer Scott Storch, Pink bared it all, recounting the violence of her parents divorce. Even that harrowing song was a hit, reaching number 20 by early 2003. By then misunderstood had been riding the album chart for more than a year and had sold millions. It would eventually be certified quintuple platinum. Pink's label defying experiment had become her biggest album. It is still to this day her top seller. It should also be noted that Pink had gotten ahead of a shift in pop music, Britney and Backstreet Boys style. Teen pop was on The Wane by 2002 and 03 and teen music began to move in a more rock oriented direction, symbolized best by Avril Lavigne, whom we discussed in our pop punk and emo episode of Hit Parade. Funnily enough, L A Reid had signed Levine while Pink was working on her second album and months after Misunderstood dropped, Levine's album Let Go blew up. In essence, Pink had opened up the market for Avril. By 2003, Pink had enough hipster credibility that folk funk alt rocker Beck gave her a song produced by electronica DJ William Orbit and recorded for the soundtrack to the Charlie's Angels sequel Full Throttle. Feel Good Time only reached number 60 on the Hot 100 but was remarkable just for existing. It was basically an electro rock Beck song with Pink's vocals on it. Looking to see just how far she could push into rock, Pink doubled down on her third album, 2003's Try this. Though Linda Perry did come back for a couple of tracks for the bulk of the album, Pink worked instead with this guy. Tim Armstrong, frontman for the Bay Area punk band Rancid, produced and co wrote two thirds of Try this. Keep in mind, on Misunderstood, Pink had worked with a former rocker dabbling in pop, Perry and R B hip hop producers who were dabbling in rock. Austin and Storch. What would it sound like when Pink recorded a full album with a full time rock dude? Well, Try this rock pretty hard. Though there were still traces of hip hop and soul on the album, by and large, the LP moved in Tim Armstrong's direction. Several critics even pointed out that the album's first single, trouble, Bore a stranger strong resemblance to Nirvana's cover of Molly's Lips by indie rockers the Vaselines. The bad news was the pop world was not entirely ready for Pink's shift toward hard rock, Though it did make the top 10 in the UK and Australia. In America, Trouble was kind of a bomb, peaking on the Hot 100 at number 68. For the album's second single, Pink went with the more dance rock sound of God Is a dj, But it didn't right the ship. Even though it appeared on the soundtrack to the hit 2014 movie Mean Girls. God is a DJ missed the Hot 100 entirely, bubbling under the chart at number 103. As for the album, thanks to the goodwill generated by Misunderstood, Try this did crack the top 10, peaking at number nine. On the strength of Pink's loyal fans, it did quickly go platinum, but it was off the chart in just 15 weeks. Misunderstood had rode the chart for nearly two years, non stop. The pushback L A Reid had feared for Pink's second album came instead on her third. She had tested how far she could evolve and gotten the first negative feedback of her career. Perhaps Pink was finally too far ahead of the curve. Within a year, other hybrids of rock with pop would storm the charts. But before she could fine tune the contours of her sound, Pink would have to prove to the marketplace that she was, in her own words, not dead.
- [46:21]
Chris Melanfi
Stupid girls, stupid girls, stupid girls.
- [46:28]
Narrator/Host
When we come back, Pink works with new pop Svengalis and succumbs to the song machine. But on her terms, could she make a chart comeback while still being herself? Hey, it's Pink. How could she be anything but herself.
- [46:53]
Chris Melanfi
Of2and3 with their itsy bitsy doggies in.
- [46:56]
Narrator/Host
Their teeny weeny non Slate plus listeners will hear the rest of this episode in two weeks. For now, I hope you've been enjoying this episode of Hit Parade. Our show was written, edited, and narrated by Chris Melanfi. That's me. My producer is Kevin Bendis, Derek John is Executive Producer of Narrative Podcasts and Alicia Montgomery Gummery is VP of Audio for Slate Podcasts. Check out their roster of shows@slate.com podcasts. You can subscribe to Hit Parade wherever you get your podcasts, in addition to finding it in the Slate Culture feed. If you're subscribing on Apple Podcasts, please rate and review us while you're there. It helps other listeners find the show. Thanks for listening and and I look forward to leading the Hit Parade back your way. We'll see you for part two in a couple of weeks. Until then, keep on marching on the one. I'm Chris Melanfi.