Alanis cover...

[onib]

I'd like to thank Jonathan Coulton for pointing out Alanis Morissette's cover of The Black Eyed Peas' "My Humps." I've embeded the video below for everyone's optimal enjoyment. Usually, I find out about something like this through Amy, so I'm surprised that either (1) I heard about it first, or (2) she saw this weeks ago and never got around to

Comments

[dotcombabe]

I honestly don't get what the fuss is about this video or this song ;)

[onib]

Well, the original song got a lot of airplay, but also just seems remarkably demeaning to women in general. I feel that in the way Alanis performs it, she is taking back a little bit of that and mocking the original (and the way it makes women into two dimensional beings that must accept the roles as pieces of meat in order to get money and jewelry from men). I may be overly harsh on the Black Eyed Peas here, but I'm just speaking from my gut. It also reminds me of Tori Amos' "Strange Little Girls" CD in which she remade songs about women originally sung by men. Hearing the originals turned on their ear makes the lyrics suddenly uncomfortable and ironic (as opposed to Alanis' early hit song which was not ironic despite its title, but merely unfortunate).

[vovat]

I think Strange Little Girls is better in idea than in execution, in that I probably wouldn't even get that Tori was attempting irony if I hadn't read descriptions of the album before hearing any of the actual songs.

I'm not generally a fan of Alanis, but I think the cover is interesting, and it's cool that Alanis did it herself instead of waiting for some Internet impersonator to take on the song. You know, like those people who think that slurring the lyrics automatically makes a song "in the style of Bob Dylan." It's definitely a case of the words sounding ridiculous when taken out of context. But then, in this particular case, they were pretty ridiculous IN context, too. I sort of wonder if the Black Eyed Peas were kind of making a joke in the first place, since I'd have a hard time coming up with less sexy terms than "humps" and "lumps."

[onib]

For me, Strange Little Girls immediately seemed ironic after hearing "'95 Bonnie and Clyde." With that in my head, the rest of the album kinda fell into place. Although I agree that the album is still better in concept than in reality.

I have to admit I get a great deal of joy out of singing songs "in the style of Bob Dylan." Although I aim to not just slur the words, but capture the stereotypic rhythm and inflection he uses.

[gwalkmaur]

I say option 2....well, for me at least, since the cult posted it a couple weeks ago.