Old... are you ridiculed and fumed away
I know I go on about the Sound of... polls and how pernicious they are, but the 2011 edition has become a real tipping point for me. Consider first Jessie J (if that is indeed her real name): the video to demented debut single Do It Like A Dude succeeds in being simultaneously provocative and terrifying. The tired old chestnut of whether white middle-class kids should really be singing "do it like the mandem" like Yardies doesn't really concern me; that boat sailed long ago. But this tune, to borrow a phrase, is some next level shit. It seems designed to repel adults completely. Well that's fine, if this is what "the kids" are listening to nowadays then I'm happy to admit defeat - I hereby declare myself Old, and utterly baffled by a piece of popular music. It's actually something of a relief. (Having said that, the follow-up Price Tag is a harmless bit of R&B, so perhaps Jessie's not so hardcore and is - gasp - just another major labe...