Music For Your Life

Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine

So the story goes like this. Inspired by their work on the Leon Russell duet album The Union, producer T-Bone Burnett encouraged Elton John to return to making albums like he used to in the old days for 2013's The Diving Board, harking back to the days when he wrote quickly and recorded with little more than a rhythm section. This all sounds like a major shift in aesthetic for John, but Elton has been on a decade-long quest to tap into that old magic, beginning his voyage into the past with 2001's Songs from the West Coast and getting progressively elliptical with each subsequent release. The Diving Board does indeed evoke ghosts of Elton past but it never suggests the hits. It's an album consisting almost entirely of songs that riff on "Sixty Years On" and "Rotten Peaches" -- long, languid ballads or open-ended blues-rockers where atmosphere trumps hooks. Occasionally, Elton musters up elongated melodies that eventually catch hold, but The Diving Board isn't a collection of finely sculpted pop; it's a set of song poems and ballads, all placing emphasis on mood, not immediacy. This is an exceptional idea in theory; in practice it is ever so slightly gormless, floating whenever it should be taking root. There are moments where the tempo gets ever so slightly sprightly -- "Take This Dirty Water" has a dirty gospel shuffle reminiscent of a toned-down "Take Me to the Pilot," "The Ballad of Blind Tom" is faithful to the spirit of Tumbleweed Connection, "Mexican Vacation (Kids in the Candlelight)" not only rocks but has a welcome gust of tastelessness -- but that only emphasizes just how ponderous the rest of the record is. There is much that is admirable about The Diving Board -- the feel is spacious and haunting, the ambition is commendable -- but the emphasis on tone over song means it leaves only wistful wisps of melancholia behind with the actual songs seeming like faded, distant memories.

Source : http://www.allmusic.com/album/the-diving-board-mw0002558809

Related : Elton John - The Diving Board Review

Musik pop (istilah yang awalnya berasal dari singkatan dari "populer") adalah sebuah genre musik dari musik populer yang berasal dalam bentuk modern pada 1950-an, yang berasal dari rock and roll. Istilah musik populer dan musik pop sering digunakan secara bergantian, meskipun yang pertama adalah deskripsi musik yang populer (dan dapat termasuk gaya apapun), sedangkan yang terakhir adalah genre tertentu yang mengandung kualitas daya tarik massa.

Sebagai genre, musik pop sangat eklektik, sering meminjam elemen dari gaya-gaya lain termasuk urban, dance, rock, latin dan country. Musik pop umumnya dianggap sebagai sebuah genre yang komersial dicatat dan keinginan untuk memiliki daya tarik audiens massa.

Sumber :
Wikipedia

Terkait : Apa Itu Musik Pop ?

Musik pop telah menjadi industri menguntungkan di Amerika Serikat sejak abad ke-19. Pada akhir 1950-an muncul genre pop/rock sesudah memudarnya era rock and roll. Pop/rock tahap awal dipengaruhi oleh susunan beat dan gaya rock and roll (dan kadang-kadang doo-wop), tapi tidak terlalu keras seperti rock and roll. Menjelang berakhirnya tahun 1960-an, genre pop/rock mulai dipengaruhi psikedelik dan blue-eyed soul. Pada tahun 1970-an, pop/rock makin cenderung lembut, misalnya seperti musik pop yang dibawakan Burt Bacharach. Artis pop/rock terkenal dari tahun 1960-an misalnya The Beach Boys, The Four Seasons, The Everly Brothers, The Association, The Rascals, The Righteous Brothers, The Walker Brothers, dan Petula Clark. Komposer Burt Bacharach, produser Phil Spector, dan tim pencipta lagu dari Brill Building seperti Barry/Greenwich dan Goffin/King termasuk di antara tokoh musik pop/rock tahun 1960-an.

Sumber :

Wikipedia

Terkait : Sejarah Musik Pop