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Post by Kapitan on Aug 11, 2023 14:16:39 GMT
The shoutbox posts over the past few days got me thinking about novelty songs--not specific ones, but the idea in general. I'm not sure it warrants a thread, but I'm not sure it doesn't, either. And you can't stop me. (Well, technically The Cincinnati Kid could, but he has no reason to...) The thread can go any number of ways, but I wanted to start with a question: What is a novelty song? How would you even define them? Because in our discussion of what percentage Hot 100 #1s were novelty songs, and whether that number is increasing or decreasing or remaining the same, depends on knowing what a novelty song even is. For example, I think it was Sheriff John Stone who asked whether a foreign-language song would be considered a novelty song. (I didn't think so, but I could easily imagine they're more prone to it, as the singers might be so stereotypical as to caricature the language/culture in question.)
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Post by kds on Aug 11, 2023 14:30:46 GMT
Here's KDS taking the easy way out, but I think it's all really subjective.
I know a lot of people would consider somebody like Jimmy Buffett a novelty artist. After all, some of his most notable songs are about cheeseburgers and margaritas. Some might write off Cheeseburger in Paradise as a novelty song, and maybe it is, I don't know.
I mentioned in the Shout Box, All About that Bass by Meghan Trainor, which sounded very much like a novelty song to me. Was it?
Are these novelty songs, or just fun songs?
I know The Chipmunk Song in the Top 100 Thread got the ball rolling on this, and it's hard to dispute that as a novelty song. It's got singing rodents on it.
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Post by Kapitan on Aug 11, 2023 14:59:51 GMT
But is there a definition, or is it only an "I know it when I hear it" situation?
Here is my stab at it. (And I will actually look to see if I can find a good definition later. I just thought I'd start with trying to come up with one among the group.)
"A novelty song is a song that not only isn't high or serious art, but that includes some comedic or particularly of-the-moment subject matter or style that makes it stand out even among pop art--but not last as a (relatively) serious contribution to its pop art form, either."
In other words, it isn't necessarily just a joke (though it might be a joke), but it has something unserious about it. Maybe it is "by" a fictional character (the Chipmunks, the Archies, Bart Simpson), maybe it is about a toy or fad ("Do the Bartman" [this is a double whammy], "Barbie Girl"), maybe it uses over-the-top sound effects or in-character voices ("The Monster Mash").
Where I do think it gets into a grey area is when you're following a fad. When does a fad or a trend go from a novelty song to a genre? (For example, surf music.)
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Post by kds on Aug 11, 2023 15:07:08 GMT
I also think that an artist going way outside of their genre could be under the novelty umbrella.
One example that comes to mind is Anthrax's send up / piss take of rap I'm the Man.
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Post by Kapitan on Aug 11, 2023 15:19:48 GMT
But that might actually go into my question of when novelty bleeds into genre. (This is an off-the-cuff argument, I am not necessarily standing behind it. Just throwing it out there.)
Anthrax weren't anti-rap. They were having fun, for sure. But they were also friends of the Beastie Boys, and around the same time they guested on a hip-hop group's album. Scott Ian was also a big fan of rap, and often wore NY rappers' t-shirts, like Public Enemy.
This would've been not too long after Run-DMC's "Walk This Way" (feat. Aerosmith), which is another individual example that could be considered a novelty song.
So first, is it REALLY a novelty song, as opposed to something of a tribute? But more...when does rap-rock stop being a novelty and start being a genre? Certainly within the subsequent decade, it was a full-blown reality.
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Post by kds on Aug 11, 2023 15:32:01 GMT
But that might actually go into my question of when novelty bleeds into genre. (This is an off-the-cuff argument, I am not necessarily standing behind it. Just throwing it out there.) Anthrax weren't anti-rap. They were having fun, for sure. But they were also friends of the Beastie Boys, and around the same time they guested on a hip-hop group's album. Scott Ian was also a big fan of rap, and often wore NY rappers' t-shirts, like Public Enemy. This would've been not too long after Run-DMC's "Walk This Way" (feat. Aerosmith), which is another individual example that could be considered a novelty song. So first, is it REALLY a novelty song, as opposed to something of a tribute? But more...when does rap-rock stop being a novelty and start being a genre? Certainly within the subsequent decade, it was a full-blown reality. I think I'm the Man is a novelty song as it's really more of a piss take than a tribute. I think it became genre a few years later when Anthrax did their collaboration with Public Enemy with Bring the Noise.
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Post by jk on Aug 11, 2023 20:47:23 GMT
You could make a distinction between songs recorded as a novelty and songs the record-buying public comes to regard as a novelty. Pat Boone's "Speedy Gonzales"...
...falls into the first category, while Kyu Sakamoto's "Sukiyaki"...
...only became a hit in 1963 because the record-buying public embraced it for its novelty value. Why else would an average song in Japanese hit #1 in the US?
It's just another angle on the subject...
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Aug 11, 2023 22:53:48 GMT
I think when you discuss novelty songs, two words usually come to mind - "different" and "humorous". Obviously, a novelty song isn't always humorous or funny, though many are. It is safe to say that a novelty song is different, meaning it's not like normal songs, whatever "normal" means, but you know what I mean. I think another term might apply to novelty songs and that is "gimmicky". The novelty song is applying something - a gimmick...that makes it humorous or different or makes it stand out from your typical songs. Maybe it's sound effects, or weird-sounding instruments, or processed vocals, or funny vocals, or different languages, or maybe simply lyrics. I think a song could be a joke or a put-on or wacky - lyrics-wise - that it goes over the line into novelty territory. I think it'll be fun as we come across some of them in this thread as we offer our opinions where the song falls on the novelty spectrum.
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Post by jk on Aug 12, 2023 12:21:20 GMT
Thinking aloud (again)...
I wouldn't describe "Barbie Girl" as a novelty song. It caught on because the subject was novel, not the song.
One the other hand (and while on the subject of dolls), I'd say the 1986 charity remake of Cliff Richard's "Living Doll" with The Young Ones has all the hallmarks of a bona fide novelty song:
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Post by Kapitan on Aug 12, 2023 12:28:26 GMT
Thinking aloud (again)... I wouldn't describe "Barbie Girl" as a novelty song. It caught on because the subject was novel, not the song. I disagree. I think that the subject was novel, yes, but the performances were also cartoonish enough to be in novelty territory. I'd call the plasticky lead vocal too cute by half, but it's too cute by more than half! And the guy's part, "come on, Barbie, let's go party"...this is not serious at all. It is gimmicky and jokey, which is novelty territory. The video of course plays into it.
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Aug 13, 2023 13:25:14 GMT
February 5, 1977...there were some good songs on the radio:
- I Wish - Stevie Wonder - Livin' Thing - ELO
- Walk This Way - Aerosmith
- Somebody to Love - Queen
- Hard Luck Woman - KISS
- Night Moves - Bob Seger - Go Your Own Way - Fleetwood Mac - More Than A Feeling - Boston
- Free Bird - Lynyrd Skynyrd
- Dreamboat Annie - Heart - This Song - George Harrison
...and this song came in at #40 on the Billboard Hot 100:
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Post by lonelysummer on Aug 13, 2023 19:40:06 GMT
"Go For Soda" by Kim Mitchell, 1985, struck some as a novelty song, I guess just because he sang about going out for a bottle of pop instead of beer. A friend of mine thought it must be a MADD song. The greatest rock and roll songwriter of the 50's had his biggest hit with a novelty song. Should i provide appropriate links?
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Aug 13, 2023 19:41:21 GMT
"Go For Soda" by Kim Mitchell, 1985, struck some as a novelty song, I guess just because he sang about going out for a bottle of pop instead of beer. A friend of mine thought it must be a MADD song. The greatest rock and roll songwriter of the 50's had his biggest hit with a novelty song. Should i provide appropriate links? Chuck Berry perhaps?
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Post by lonelysummer on Aug 13, 2023 19:45:50 GMT
"Go For Soda" by Kim Mitchell, 1985, struck some as a novelty song, I guess just because he sang about going out for a bottle of pop instead of beer. A friend of mine thought it must be a MADD song. The greatest rock and roll songwriter of the 50's had his biggest hit with a novelty song. Should i provide appropriate links? Chuck Berry perhaps?
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Post by lonelysummer on Aug 13, 2023 19:56:30 GMT
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