Sunday, November 27, 2005

A girl I used to love...

Years and years ago I used to like Shakira a lot. I thought she was witty, I thought she had spunk. Then she got a boyfriend.

Some years ago I used to write for a particular magazine. The target marget for this publication was supossed to be urban, trendy, 20-something females. My Editor was this woman who had recently gotten married and for whatever reason she was under the impression that the goal of EVERY SINGLE 20something female in the face of humanity was to get a ring. Neeless to say that as a result of this particular viewpoint of hers she wasn't very popular among most of the staff. But as our publisher used to say: all good writing comes from what you experience, and her marriage had become the bulk of her experience. She single handedly drove the magazine from its #1 spot.

Shakira, before she did the cross over bit, used to write songs about things, she celebrated life, and she wrote about how love reflected itself in life. Now she reminds me of my editor. Listening to Laundry Service I couldn't help but feel like I was part of a relationship that wasn't my own and like I was seeing shots of the depersonalization of a woman who had succombed herself to love. In some ways it was nice, in others it was kinda gross and just like with any relationship, I hoped that the novelty of it would wear off and that she would go back to celebrating life.

Then came Fijacion Oral. I read the lyrics before I heard the CD and I was just like, "again?!?" Granted, I must admit that going back to Spanish was a plus because she is far more elequent in her native tongue; but I wonder if she hasn't experienced anything other than self serving wanna-kill-myself type love in the past 4 years. Since I've been in Santo Domingo I've heard most of the CD and the music didn't impress me enough to overlook the lyrics. I only like the song "NO"... It reminds me of someone I used to know...

Oral Fixation Volume 2 I haven't heard in its entirety but that's probably for the best...I first heard "Don't Bother" while watching the video and I couldn't help but remember some article I read a few weeks back on
PerezHilton where she said something about how she would never be like Britney or something or other. Meanwhile, not a minute and a half into the video she is half naked humping the steeering wheel of a car. Nice one. Anyway, yeah...linguistically speaking, someone should let her know that "deception" is not the same thing as "decepción". Generally speaking, she used to be empowering...what happened to her?

Once upon a time I used to like
Shakira...I hope some day I do again.

7 comments:

androidette said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
androidette said...

_I tried to make the same point in the PH Boardroom, perhaps not as eloquently, & I agree with you.

But I've never loved her [never even liked her], for some reason she always seemed like she was trying too much to be deep.

Jonas said...

At least you're not bitter..HAHA! More importantly haven't you noticed the 80's influence of all this new music. It's like a freakin' nightmare. The angry songs. I saw her new video with the retro mustang and you know what I thought of?

"We are young, heartache to heartache we stand
No promises, no demands
Love is a battlefield"

I was alive during that crappy decade and now it's back. With the big hair, big black boots, and crappy, crappy, music. Shakira is just following trend. Don't worry a few years will go by, we will leave the 1980's and everything will be fine. I just hope that when the 90's are revisited, flannel doesn't come back. Because that was hot enough living in Florida the first time.

Cindy St. Onge said...

The first time I saw Shakira it was on the Spanish speaking channel. She was astounding, passionate, visceral.

The commercial entity she's become is a shell of the artist she once was. Maybe it's love, maybe it's money, but something isn't there now that used to be.

MAD Mike said...

Annushka ! :D I don´t want to get started on Shakira. I still love her old mojo "Conmigo nada es fácil, ya debes saber, me conoces bien..."
People evolve, and sometimes they do in different directions from where we do, for example, when it stopped raining, you wouldn´t go with your stepfather, now, was it the sun, or you evolving into somehting else? Nice 2 meet u.

Anonymous said...

Damn girl! What a difference two days has made in your posts, but I have to agree with you. The first album of hers that I didn't like was 'Laundry Service' and from what I have heard the trend lives on.

See you again soon, and Charley says "Arff!" (I think he means hi)

vicpichardo said...

anybody that will stoop as low as to record regueton to conquer more of the masses is shameless.