"Schlock is music that subjugates all other values to brute emotional impact; it aims to overwhelm, to body-slam the senses, to deliver catharsis like a linebacker delivers a clothesline tackle. The qualities traditionally prized by music critics and other listeners of discerning taste — sophistication, subtlety, wit, irony, originality, 'experimentation'— have no place in schlock. Schlock is extravagant, grandiose, sentimental, with an unshakable faith in the crudest melodrama, the biggest statements, the most timeworn tropes and most overwrought gestures. Put another way: Schlock is Rodgers and Hammerstein, not Rodgers and Hart. It’s 'Climb Ev’ry Mountain' and 'You’ll Never Walk Alone,' not 'Manhattan' and 'My Funny Valentine.'"
From a long New York Magazine article by Jody Rosen titled "In Defense of Schlock Music: Why Journey, Billy Joel, and Lionel Richie Are Better Than You Think."
And here's the companion piece, "From Journey to Beyoncé: The 150 Greatest Schlock Songs Ever." #2 is "Purple Rain." "We Are the Champions" is #59. "Without You" is #100.
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Is "schlock" the same as "ham"?
If so, what of Vincent Price?
Be he ham or schlock, he is ripe, is he not? Is he then what some might call "cheese"? Are ham and cheese indistinguishable? What of the Miracle Whip and the white bread upon which it is slid?
Schlock, so imagined, was exemplarized by Peter Schickele, the satirist who created P.D.Q. Bach.
"150 greatest..."? Maybe 50 of them. The 'lister' seems bent a bit toward diversity and inclusiveness. #3, Seriously??? I don't want to talk about it...
Everybody's talkin' 'bout the new sound
Funny, but it's still Billy Joel to me
Man in the Mirror should be #1. And Jump by Van Halen should be #2 (it's not even on the list).
I think the article makes some pretty good points. Music can be a pretty primal experience and subtlety is not necessarily a useful tool. He didn't use any of the obvious examples from classical music (e.g. Verdi.) I like the point about Punk as "anger schlock."
Well, she did manage to include three Jim Steinman songs in her list: "It's All Coming Back to Me Now," "Total Eclipse of the Heart," and "I'd Do Anything for Love..." I would have expected to see more, though it would have made the list quite a bit longer.
The list is not the top 150 schlock songs, but the top 150 schlock performances of schlock songs, as you can tell from the description of Over the Rainbow. Although the long article (which I only skimmed) seems to recognize some value in "schlock", the descriptions of the 150 performances are almost universally smart-ass: Aren't I more sophisticated and discerning that the boobs that like these things!!!
Seems like a determined attempt to box "passionate", "operatic" and "sincerity" into a safely-ignored ironic pig-wallow. Notice how often he uses the term "vulgar", and recall how often Wagner gets dismissed under than rubric.
Me, I was watching Amazon Women on the Moon with old college friends last weekend, and found myself wanting a Don "No Soul" Simmons CD. Maybe Neil Diamond will scratch that itch...
Billy Joel? Schlock? Brilliant pop, OK, schlock? I don't think that word means what you think it means.
She throws in Vera Lynn and John McCormack with this lot? What was she thinking?
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