Omnimaga

General Discussion => Music Talk and Showcase => General Discussion => Topic started by: SirCmpwn on June 13, 2011, 10:51:24 pm

Title: Katy Perry's E.T.
Post by: SirCmpwn on June 13, 2011, 10:51:24 pm


I haven't been too thrilled with popular music these days, but this song is the only one that stands out to the point where I actually want to take time to criticize it.  I haven't heard a worse song in a long time.  Let me explain.
First of all, the lyrics.  This song is seriously about having a relationship with an alien.  Let's put aside for the moment all the absurdities brought up by this to begin with, and just look at the simple fact that it is really damn stupid.  Why would someone even fantasize, much less sing about, xenophillia?  The song is supposedly about love with a foreigner, but I feel like the alien overtones outweigh this claim.  It is one of the strangest ideas I've heard of, especially when you consider that we are not presently aware of any alien species such activities would even be possible with.
Next, let's discuss the musicality, or lack thereof.  This song has absolutely no musical creativity.  The piece is in 4:4 time, which is the simplest of the time signatures (although admittedly some great songs are written in it).  However, it doesn't do the song any favors.  The drum beat is basically boom-boom-clap-rest for the entire song.  When they want to intensify the music, it changes to boom-boom-boom-boom quarter notes.  At one point, it has eighth notes on a snare for a measure.  That's as far as the drum beat goes.
Outside of the drum beat, it has a strange special effect that puts the listener into the mind of garbled screaming for a half-note duration each measure, only during the "intense" parts.  There is a constant quarter-note beeping present through the entire piece that remains unchanged.  There is also a strange solid synth note that is present at random times during the song and held out for a few seconds.  The only other instrument in use is Katy Perry's voice.  The song has absolutely no depth.
In addition, E.T. is not original whatsoever.  It is quite auto-tuned, and has a horrendous rap verse edited in, the lyrics of which are even more stupid that the original song's.  E.T. follows the generic pop model of "make it about sex and the music comes never."  This song is abhorrent, and I wish to never hear it again.

This is one in a long line of musical complaints I have, including many about several popular songs and artists, and MTV.  Music of late has disappointed me severely, and this is no exception.
Title: Re: Katy Perry's E.T.
Post by: TIfanx1999 on June 13, 2011, 10:56:14 pm
I haven't heard this one, but to summarize; Yea pop music and music in general has been rather lacking lately. The worst song I've heard recently was that gawd awful "Friday" song from Rebecca Black. It literally makes me want to kill myself. X.X I'll give this a listen and post my thoughts, but I doubt it could be worse that Rebecca  Black.

*Edit 1:* Just saw Kanye West's name in the title. It already became crappy...

*Edit2:*Watched and listened to it. What the hell is up with this video? Why is Katy Perry raiding Lady Gaga's wardrobe? While this isn't quite as bad as Rebecca Black I'll agree it is quite horrible. The lyrics were garbage, Kanye's rapping/lyrics were even shitter than usual(and that's saying something) and the composition overall was very simplistic. Very disappointing. Katy Perry is capable of better than this. Not that I think she's the best thing since sliced bread or anything mind you, but why she would produce such drek when she is capable of producing better is beyond me.
Title: Re: Katy Perry's E.T.
Post by: jnesselr on June 13, 2011, 11:08:27 pm
I got through 1:54 before having to rip my earphones out like someone was causing massive amounts of feedback in my brown.  And people wonder why I know more japanese songs than I do english ones. (well, sorta. I can't name them, because, well, they're usually japanese)
Title: Re: Katy Perry's E.T.
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on June 13, 2011, 11:21:19 pm
Well, at least it's slightly better than Rebecca Black's Prom Night and Friday songs. :p (Btw Prom Night is even worse than Friday)

There are some awesome pop/hip hop/dance songs since late 2010 IMHO, but about 90% of the stuff is crap IMHO
Title: Re: Katy Perry's E.T.
Post by: SirCmpwn on June 13, 2011, 11:22:35 pm
People seem to be pointing out Friday quite a bit, so I'll just leave this here:
Title: Re: Katy Perry's E.T.
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on June 13, 2011, 11:28:42 pm
Lol they actually made it sound kinda good! O.O Until tonight, I thought the best cover was this death metal version
Title: Re: Katy Perry's E.T.
Post by: SirCmpwn on June 13, 2011, 11:29:07 pm
I know!  It's amazing.
Title: Re: Katy Perry's E.T.
Post by: AGVolnutt on June 13, 2011, 11:29:19 pm
When did Katy Perry have deer legs? o-o

I find the song okay, but a little bit... Strange as well. Maybe the metaphor with an "alien" is more of a reference to how strange a person may be.

Off Topic: If you really don't like pop songs, a guy named CS188 has a series of music videos (called "Pooping the Charts") that *mutilate* today's pop hits to... *other meanings*. Of course, I'm not going to link it since it's probably not suitable for light-hearted people. XD
Title: Re: Katy Perry's E.T.
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on June 13, 2011, 11:33:26 pm
I often like to hear death metal versions of some crappy pop songs.
Title: Re: Katy Perry's E.T.
Post by: Juju on June 13, 2011, 11:47:28 pm
Well, IMHO, that song is actually pretty nice, but there's elements in the songs that makes it kinda shitty. Like, all the commercial stuff they put to make it commercial, like Kanye West and stuff like that.
Title: Re: Katy Perry's E.T.
Post by: Deep Toaster on June 14, 2011, 12:00:49 am
Still better than some songs I'd say, but they're definitely getting worse.(http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/classic.png) (http://xkcd.com/339/)sums it up :(
Title: Re: Katy Perry's E.T.
Post by: SirCmpwn on June 14, 2011, 12:03:35 am
(http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/keeping_time.png)
If you can read sheet music, your mind was just blown.
Title: Re: Katy Perry's E.T.
Post by: Juju on June 14, 2011, 12:06:18 am
OH GOD

Mind = blown
Title: Re: Katy Perry's E.T.
Post by: SirCmpwn on June 14, 2011, 12:09:45 am
OH GOD

Mind = blown
;D
Title: Re: Katy Perry's E.T.
Post by: rcfreak0 on June 14, 2011, 12:17:44 am
Too lazy to read this. Good song, old kanye songs were the shit. go listen to them sometime. Make sure you got good speakers too, cant deny Heartless by Kanye wasnt good. also E.T. love it. Video is trippy, songs good tho. Also currently my ringtone for a certain person. Also inb4 im bashing people, im just not reading before i post.
Title: Re: Katy Perry's E.T.
Post by: SirCmpwn on June 14, 2011, 12:19:29 am
Too lazy to read this. Good song, old kanye songs were the shit. go listen to them sometime. Make sure you got good speakers too, cant deny Heartless by Kanye wasnt good. also E.T. love it. Video is trippy, songs good tho. Also currently my ringtone for a certain person. Also inb4 im bashing people, im just not reading before i post.
It was not a supportive post.  Perhaps skimming would be a good idea?
Title: Re: Katy Perry's E.T.
Post by: rcfreak0 on June 14, 2011, 12:23:33 am
skimmed. XKCD was good as always. As for not liking ET, i see your points and i respectfully disagree. I personally like rap, tho the really heavy auto-tune sucks. But the older stuff was really good. I just like the song, and the beat. Im not bashing you or anyone else for not liking the song. I just respectfully disagree on some of the opinions stated.
Title: Re: Katy Perry's E.T.
Post by: SirCmpwn on June 14, 2011, 12:24:53 am
That's fair.  It was just a bit annoying that you tl;dr'd but didn't even get the general feel of the post.
Title: Re: Katy Perry's E.T.
Post by: rcfreak0 on June 14, 2011, 12:26:08 am
Yeah i pretty much scrolled caught a couple of words and posted. Plus the topic kinda also just caught my attention really quick.
Title: Re: Katy Perry's E.T.
Post by: TIfanx1999 on June 14, 2011, 02:27:21 am
Too lazy to read this. Good song, old kanye songs were the shit. go listen to them sometime. Make sure you got good speakers too, cant deny Heartless by Kanye wasnt good. also E.T. love it. Video is trippy, songs good tho. Also currently my ringtone for a certain person. Also inb4 im bashing people, im just not reading before i post.

I'll give you heartless, as I do enjoy that song... but that's it. Most rap I liked was mid 90's to early 00. There is some stuff here and there I like today, but not much.
Title: Re: Katy Perry's E.T.
Post by: rcfreak0 on June 14, 2011, 11:23:02 am
Too lazy to read this. Good song, old kanye songs were the shit. go listen to them sometime. Make sure you got good speakers too, cant deny Heartless by Kanye wasnt good. also E.T. love it. Video is trippy, songs good tho. Also currently my ringtone for a certain person. Also inb4 im bashing people, im just not reading before i post.

I'll give you heartless, as I do enjoy that song... but that's it. Most rap I liked was mid 90's to early 00. There is some stuff here and there I like today, but not much.
Yeah, I like rap, but ill admit a lot of the better stuff was 90-00. I have a lot of music from that time and its my favorite. Every no and again a good new one will come out. But not a lot.
Title: Re: Katy Perry's E.T.
Post by: Deep Toaster on June 14, 2011, 03:34:50 pm
People seem to be pointing out Friday quite a bit, so I'll just leave this here:


That's actually not that bad. Maybe it's the lack of words.
Title: Re: Katy Perry's E.T.
Post by: Deep Toaster on June 19, 2011, 11:05:44 pm
^ Bump. It's on the radio pretty awfen now.

If you listen to it enough without paying attention to the words, it's actually not that bad.
Title: Re: Katy Perry's E.T.
Post by: BlakPilar on July 15, 2011, 10:53:59 pm
If anyone's interested...
Title: Re: Katy Perry's E.T.
Post by: SirCmpwn on July 15, 2011, 11:00:53 pm
Welcome to the forums!  You should Introduce Yourself (http://www.omnimaga.org/index.php?board=10.0).  That is certainly an interesting version.
Title: Re: Katy Perry's E.T.
Post by: Juju on July 15, 2011, 11:01:34 pm
Agh wat the hell is that? Oh well it's slightly better than the original. In fact I liked it.

Welcome to the forums!  You should Introduce Yourself (http://www.omnimaga.org/index.php?board=10.0).
He did.
Title: Re: Katy Perry's E.T.
Post by: yunhua98 on July 15, 2011, 11:03:14 pm
Welcome to the forums!  You should Introduce Yourself (http://www.omnimaga.org/index.php?board=10.0).  That is certainly an interesting version.
http://ourl.ca/12105

He already did.  ;)
that said, I'm gonna listen to these now.
Title: Re: Katy Perry's E.T.
Post by: BlakPilar on July 15, 2011, 11:12:45 pm
Lol, thanks for the reminder SirCmpwn, but as it's been made clear, I have. :)

@Juju, I prefer this to the original lol

@yun, enjoy ;)
Title: Re: Katy Perry's E.T.
Post by: XVicarious on July 15, 2011, 11:15:10 pm
Okay. I read SirCmpwn's post, and watched like half of the video. I didn't think it was *that* bad. I don't really listen to that kind of music though.
On the outside it is about an E.T., but my opinion is that it is about a relationship between two people who aren't from the same country, nation, nationality etc. The ET thing is used just to make it more interesting (though I don't think its that interesting), and different from a normal song about just two people. The problem with music is (as well as television and movies) after so so many years of music and songs themes are getting stale and it needs to be freshened up (movies really need to as well, look at all these remakes of old movies).
Overall, not terrible but not my style. As I said I really don't think it is about a relationship between a human and an ET, but just different (and fresh) way of portraying a relationship between two people from different countries.