Robyn. I’m half Swedish; so excuse me for being slight bias. Maybe really bias, but who cares? Back to Robyn. Why isn’t she the biggest singer right now and selling out stadiums all around the world? I mean, her music is like what crack was to Whitney Houston (Ok, I know she’s sober now, but the voiced is still majorly cracked up to nearly the point where Ke$ha would get a standing ovation at the Grammy’s) for me. It’s addictive, it’s emotional and it puts you in this tranquility place when the pop-electronic beats are still rapidly attacking your ears. Why? Because Robyn has been a genius creating this “Tears on the Dance floor” musical movement where it’s turning into a pop-cult. We associate pop music to Top 40 radio and Miley Cyrus singing like a horse, but Robyn has managed to make her “Pop” type of music elevated into this culture cherished by club kids and people who says “I’m proud that computer produced pop music can heal my soul”. Listen to the lyrics of her first single from the Body Talk album, ‘Dancing On My Own’ (the song on Gossip Girl that Chuck fucks Blair on the piano in Season 4), on full volume and you could literally shed tears. I know I had my moments. It’s sad. It’s therapeutic, but it gives hope for you to say to your soul destroyer “Fuck you. I can live. Will live and live in the most positive human mode possible without you. So fuck you again”. It’s the same with her second single from the Body Talk album, ‘Hang With Me’. The song has a more positive outlook on life with its bouncy beats, but still the lyrics are inspiringly deep. Robyn just really knows how to capture this raw emotion with her really plain pop vocals. It’s just magic you can’t describe frankly.
Every music magazine praised her in 2010 and I’m praising her and pimping her out on Facebook like crazy with countless posts (maybe I have only 150+ friends and I’m not the ‘I need 700 friends to validate my popularity’ type of person), but she’s still a no one. Only Europe and New York City gets her where she’s playing Radio City Hall this year (aim for Madison Square Garden!). The issue with her is simple-her music is too glam sophisticated. Her music is build on creating a vibe with the club scene in mind, but Top 40 music today are music which are produced commercially for people driving their cars to Rodeo Drive for lunch, but then turns into a club hit. Look at Rihanna or Ke$ha. They hire top-notch mainstream producers who craft instant hits. However, Robyn is experimenting with Swedish producers like Kleerup to create sounds that you sort of need to have an intellectual liking for electronic music. What's also special about Robyn's sound is that she subtly fuses many old-school sounds of funk, hip-hop and disco from the 80's that still sounds relevant today and this translates into her live stage persona which I describe as an intense swagger with grimy yet acrobatically sultry qualities. Still, Robyn recorded a track called ‘Time Machine’ with über mainstream Swedish producer Max Martin (Britney’s go-to producer) and the final result was fucking irresistible. It sparked this new pop record which I believe could finally give her the crossover appeal to mainstream territory if she does decides to release it.
Some may say that her silent popularity could be because of her live concert skills are too club-orientated…. Watch. Lady Gaga could be shaking.
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