What's some good Third World-core?
>>65683137
it's interesting that the theatrical opulence of Bollywood appeals most strongly to the more disadvantaged around the world
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzcv52Zi7-M
>>65683137
No artists acts as a mediator between first and third world, east and west like MIA does. She has that role nailed.
The Third World by Immortal Technique
Ravi Shankar
Anoushka Shankar
>>65683137
i thought mia was a shitty pop musician but im listening to her now and im definitely wrong. this is way ahead of it's time. downloading whole discography
>>65684236
I had a similar experience with M.I.A. Knew of Paper Planes, thought of her as a one hit wonder, heard Sunshowers, downloaded her discog, realised she is fuckin GOAT.
>>65684236
And Matangi is her least inventive album too
i like a lot of mia's earlier stuff, but i can't be the only one here to think she is cringe as fuck now a days? "borders - what's up with that?!".
it's just her whole appearance, aesthetics and music that's annoying as fuck
now she's just COUNTERCULTURE XD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-B4Q5_I_mI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J43T8rEOg-I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgIZElJdNiI
I've been living in West Africa (Senegal and Guinea) for the last 3 years, so this is the kind of stuff I've been hearing.
>>65683265
I can think of one person... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mVY30buW4Q
>>65685413
>it's just her whole appearance, aesthetics and music that's annoying as fuck
>now she's just COUNTERCULTURE XD
sounds to me like you just don't like MIA anon?
>>65685574
no, no, you don't get it. i think some of her earlier stuff was exciting, but seriously, don't you guys think that's 'borders' song was cringe as fuck?
she is just a fucking tool now. i don't mind shallow pop stars, i have no problem enjoying Drake, Future or whoever else, as long as they're not pretending to be SUPER COUNTERCULTURE XD
>>65685734
Borders is a fine artistic statement. If you're artistically retarded and isolate the lyrics and taken them as 100% literal then I guess it'd seem pretty stupid yeah. But you do realise that "borders, what's up with that?" isn't M.I.A. asking you for the definition of a border, right?
I don't see her as pretending to be anything. She's making art with the same ethos that she had when she started. Comparing her to Future or Drake is stupid.
>>65685893
Not the guy you're talking to, but I gotta say, I'm a big fan of all 4 of MIA's major albums AND I'm very much for helping the Syrian refugees and taking them in, but I thought her Borders singles was fucking awful. It just completely lacked power.
>>65685893
Are you kidding me? of course i know that she's not asking about the definition of a border and fuck you for trying to make it seem like i'd believe anything as stupid as that.
if you seriously think the matangi and borders mia is the same as the old mia, there's something wrong with you.
"Freedom, 'I'dom, 'Me'dom
Where's your 'We'dom?
This world needs a brand new 'Re'dom
We'dom - the key
We'dom the key'dom to life!
Let's be 'dem
We'dom smart phones
Don't be dumb!"
i'm not really the kind of person to listen to music for lyrics, but with the way mia delivers them it's impossible not to notice
>>65686021
Thank you, i was losing all my hope. also, i'd like to clarify that i'm also all for helping refugees, it's in no way because I don't agree with the message. but it just seems cringe in the same way as when a politican tries to rap: "yo yo, yeah, borders, yo, we should not be selfish yo yo"
>>65686091
The song and video are pretty clearly attempts to juxtapose pop culture with "real" world events and call into question the separation people put between the two, while also attempting to put things like "police shots" and Syrian refugees on equal footing in the mind of the lay consumer as things like "slaying it" and "being bae." Its essentially a metonymic song about the contemporary relationship between media, digital connections, struggle, and pop culture. Verse one is all abstractions and "issues." Verse two is inane aphorisms. Verse three is hardcore moral terrain.
Its form reminds me a lot of Louis Zukofsky's "80 Flowers" poems. Its not a unique formula, but to imply that she isn't saying much of anything is pretty clearly untrue if you look at the piece in any sort of artistic context (and especially the context of postmodernism).
Look, I'm not delirious about the beat, but on the whole (meaning, including the video) I thought it displayed the classic tenants of an M.I.A. piece of art, that is catchiness, subdued leftist politics and refined aestheticism. It's another in the long line of M.I.A.'s agitprop style pop pieces. That's why it kind of puzzles me to hear this talk of the 'old M.I.A.'. Yeah, it doesn't sound and look like Arular, but spiritually and conceptually it's still very much in that kind of territory.
Totally cool if you don't like the song and all m8. It's not my favorite either. But I don't think "lol! cringe xd" is an entirely fair response either.
>>65685497
I was hoping you guys would like this...
>>65685527
Dusty Foot Philosopher is a great album. Then he started making songs with Coca Cola and Adam Levine and wrote an article about how he is sad about selling out :(
>>65686774
oh - I haven't really kept up with him. I'll have to go find that article
>>65686526
I do understand the basic meaning of the song. Yeah, she juxtaposes the seriousness of world events with pop culture, and yes it's metonymic, but so what? Does she do it in an interesting way? She just lists a lot of buzzwords and generic left-leaning talk about greed, egoism, etc.
What really bothers me here is that first of all she is a musician. Now, if she actually wrote very creative lyrics that'd make people think about these issues in a new or just slightly different way, I'd be able to acknowledge that, but the music has gone way down hill since (and including) Matangi, and as I said above, the lyrics really AREN'T anything special. I honestly don't think her lyrics are any better than any generic rapper's, at least when only looking at 'Borders'
>>65686526
man you're almost as autistic as those vaporwave fags that write diatribes about how its a statement on mass consumerism
>>65687000
I don't disagree about Matangi, I found it rather inconsistent and certainly not as good as the previous three. But I think pursuing the lyrics thing will only get you so far with M.I.A. Her lyrics have always only served to confirm the ideas that are articulated primarily by her sounds and visuals. It's those aspects of M.I.A.'s creativity that differentiate her from the likes of Future and Drake. M.I.A. is more like Kanye, an artist of absurdly inventive aesthetics that sometimes fails to match their ideas with lyrics (matangi, life of Pablo). Both are great artists though and one iffy album doesn't negate that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdr3G9oEudQ
>>65687471
I think you misunderstood me. I'm that kind of person who doesn't rate rap artists for their lyrics, but solely for the way the whole thing sounds. Now, if there's also some funny, interesting or just good lyrics, I can appreciate that as well.
What I was trying to say is that MIA is primarily a musician, so even IF the lyrics of "Borders" were as interesting as you tried to make them seem in your former post, THEN I'd have been able to appreciate that, BUT it wouldn't change much because the music is weak and that's what I care about.
MIA's aesthetics are not very inventive, please don't compare her to Kanye. Kanye's lyrics don't really matter, not to me at least.
I'd rather hear Future telling me about how he just took a piss and saw codeine coming out, than listen to MIA spurt out some generic left-wing bullshit.
>>65687847
Name one artist that has aesthetics like M.I.A (outsider biters). No one sounds or looks like M.I.A. Don't act as if Kanye is above M.I.A., he literally cites her as one of his creative idols. They're similar in how they function, creatively.
>>65685497
>>65686564
I feel like you're one of the only people ITT who actually answered the question. Thanks for sharing ! :)
