I just seen this today and its pretty alright actually. i was right about high school being the setting haha but its a cool video. gwens cheerleader outfit sucked. otherwise great video..anyone else diggin it?

haven't seen the video. don't mind the song too much, but BAD choice for single IMO.

saw her on letterman or leno (i forget which) doing this song
and though I pretty much love the album this track was WACK live. less tune than your average rap song even.

mrdespues said:

that bad eh? i havent seen her do the song live yet.

i think its a decent single choice...what would you rather have had her put out? id rather the song cool be released as a summer single.

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[Edited 4/5/05 19:24pm]

Christopher said:

Cool would be cool.

But I really think Luxurious is probably the best song on the album and it would be a great single. Harajuku Girls would work, too...or Crash. I think those three are better single choices. Hollaback Girl is probably the weakest song on the album IMO...it's barely a song...though I must admit I still kinda dig it, in a way.

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[Edited 4/5/05 19:10pm]

mrdespues said:

luxurious would be a sexy video i bet! and crash is one of the weaker tracks imo ...along with serious i dunno i just always end up skipping those two.

speaking of harajuku girls i found this

It was announced on TRL, that a contest will be held to find the "#1 Gwen Fan" to be a guest star in her upcoming music video "Hollaback Girl." The winner will fly to Japan to learn about the Harajuku culture, with one friend.

What's with the asian people in her videos? Is that some motif? They seem to be an exoticism like the backdrops in the R.Palmer videos to me.

lilgish said:

yep. the harajuku girls' street-fashion. that's her little gimmick.

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[Edited 4/5/05 19:57pm]

Christopher said:

i like "crash". "serious", i agree is a weak song.

mrdespues said:

The next single should've been

"Cool"

if not that...

"Serious"

paisleypark4 said:

wait, no...scratch that....I USED to think "Serious" was weak....I actually like it these days....I musta been on auto-pilot up there when I wrote that.



Not for a single though....way too 80s sounding. It's cool and all, but there is better "single-material" on the album, IMO....particularly "Luxurious"...though somehow I don't think it'll be a single. It's too much of a good song, or something (can't have that in today's market, now can we?).

mrdespues said:

to me... its cause they're the most 80-ish songs on the cd. i tend to skip'em.

mrdespues said:

"Luxurious" is the one with the Isley Bros. sample, right? I think people might actually be tired of that piece of music...hasn't it shown up in like 3 songs already? For the US market, at lest, Hollaback is a good choice.

mrdespues said:

I wonder what gimmick she'll have with her next album.....Massai-Girls?



Nairobi's coming into fashion, you know.....

Christopher said:

I think Luxurious would be pretty hot as a single and video and I think Serious would be another great choice. I bet she won't release any more singles though. It seems that most artists only release 3 these days.

abierman said:

Whoa! what's up with their ear lobes?!

mrdespues said:

Do you think that it could be insulting to asians, using them as props? I know she doesn't mean any harm but that line in rich girl where she says "I dress them wicked, I give them names...." it just sounds like she thinks of them as toys or something.

dancerella said:

I dunno, I’m tired of Asians being used as some sort of exoticism or novelty; they’re serious and intelligent people who have the ability to speak and function with out taking cues from their White observers.
It’s getting to be patronizing, just look at something like “Lost in Translation.”

lilgish said:

I've read some of the arguments about the portrayal of Japanese culture in Lost in Translation, and I cannot find a lick of disrespect in it. It was a beautiful movie.

RipHer2Shreds said:

I've never read any arguments. Other people had problems with the portrayl? Interesting. I find the subservient roles of these characters to be somewhat patronizing; it’s very old Hollywood.

RipHer2Shreds said:

C'mon...the crazy cartooon "me likey long time" masseuse was a little over the top. But, to be fair, I think Murry's character was portrayed as an American prick business man. The only saint in the film was Scarlett in her little pink panties or whatever. My, I'm off-topic suddenly....

MendesCity said:

Awful track, awful single choice. This could stall the record. The art of choosing singles is really lost on labels these days, huh?

Anyway, the Harajuku Girls thing is perhaps the dumbest running sight gag ever perpetrated on a bored public. So fucking lazy. Madonna would be ashamed.

i like the harajuku thing...its funny, cute, blah blah blah. if she had "hip hop" styled people hanging out behind her nobody would be saying anything. whatever. she likes their style and they like her. i think its cool.

hollaback was destined to be a single and its gonna be a hit simply because its catchy and there's nothing else on radio like it. give the people something different and they'll be happy. does ANYBODY here remember the early 80's?

Christopher said:

Those are 2 of my top 3 on the album.

Moonbeam said:

i'm with you, moonbeam!

SassyBritches said:

Ah....much better.

VoicesCarry said:

very clever...

but i still think you'll be proven wrong.

SassyBritches said:

We'll see. I thought What You Waiting For was infinitely better than this, and it was hella different than anything else on the radio. Peaked at #48, so I don't think your theory works anymore - maybe in the early 80's, when radio wasn't owned by one Corporation. I have to say, Cool, The Real Thing, or Serious should have been the next single.

lilgish said:

Now really I think you're taking things far too seriously to discredit a well-intended humorous movie like "Lost In Translation". I have a friend who is an English teacher in Japan and he LOVED that movie because it expressed a lot of how he has felt living there....the alienation of being in a totally different culture, etc....

As for Gwen, the lyric "I dress them wicked, I give them names" does teeter on the brink of patronising, but I hardly think Gwen is a bad person for saying that. It's obviously music for fun, not socio-political scrutiny.



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[Edited 4/6/05 17:03pm]