Ben Marcus Rules

"Anger is an energy!" Thus spake Johnny Lydon-Rotten with PiL way back in 1986. And he’s right. There’s a lot of good songs in anger and female anger has spawned a sub-genre you could call “femmotional” or sometimes “fauxmotional.” There is music in women singing songs of heartbreak and revenge and bad choices and bad vibes inspired by being manipulated and turned right ‘round by nasty bad men.

This genre goes at least as far back as Ettas James’ I’d Rather Go Blind (1968) and then forward through decades of male/female battle to produce some of the greatest songs of this century and the last: Aretha Franklin’s Chain of Fools (1968). Carly Simon’s mysterious You’re So Vain (1972). Alanis Morissette cranked the anger - and language - to 11 in You Oughta Know (1995). Carrie Underwood feminized the angry for country in Before He Cheats (2009).

Kate Bush, Alicia Keys, Christina Aguilera, Pink, Dua Lipa, Lorde, Rihanna, Beyonce, Billie Eilish, Lily Allen, Kylie Minogue, Lady Gaga, Avril Lavigne have all dipped their pen in the inkwell of anger and come out of it with chart toppers and Spotify-busters.

You don’t like Britney Spears? Give Toxic a spin. Good song.

And now of course there’s the Queen of Payback - Taylor Swift has verified the line “The best revenge is living well” raking in a Queen’s Ransom leaving everyone guessing who she’s singing about in songs like We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together and Better than Revenge.

(This is being written at Whole Foods Malibu, which features (?) a soundtrack of women singing/whining/wailing/emoting songs of love and love lost. A lot of it is repetitious/formulaic/derivative/ forgettable and not so good. And there’s a LOT of it. Hence the disdainful handle “fauxmotional,” because a lot of it just sounds phony and not pleasant to the ear.)

Payback is a bitch. Bitchy payback makes good music. Angry women singing hurt and angry about bad men, bad decisions, bad relationships. There’s music in it, there’s money in it.  Like a lot of rap and modern country, songs sung furiously by scorned women can be formulaic and same-sounding. Some call this genre “fauxmotional” because some of the anger seems contrived and the shrill emotion can be grating.

But from time to time an artist comes along who breaks the mold, turns a genre upside down and shakes it and picks up on something real - something that inspires chills, adrenaline, tears, smiles.

Downloads, dollars and Grammys.

SunnRaayy is the Instagram handle of a young American/Brazilian woman who is driving from Mexico to Alaska solo with her faithful dog Fado. She is detailing her adventures on Instagram and a couple of days ago she had a protest post - all the nasty things people (mostly men) have commented or DM’d her. The soundtrack was chilling. An operatic female voice, angrily using harsh words of accusation against a fella: “Bloooooodsucker, faaaaaame fucker! Bleeding me dryyyyy like a godamn vampire.”

Wow? Who dat? She angry! She can sing!

Catchy. Chilling. Fauxmotion brought to the next level. Anytime a singer can inspire chills in a human by hitting the right notes - well that’s the goal isn’t it?

That Instagram soundbite is from the chorus to Vampire - a song by Olivia Rodrigo, only 20 years old and a graduate of the same Disney Channel gladiator school of the performing arts that nurtured superstars from Aguilera to Zendaya: Vanessa Hudgens, the Jonas Brothers, Hilary Duff, Selena Gomez, Demi Lovato, Justin Timberlake, Miley Cyrus and Britney Spears.

Vampire is the lead single - if that word even applies anymore - to Rodrigo’s dreaded, make or break sophomore album GUTS after the 2021 SOUR featured the Spotify-busting Driver’s License. 

In a word, this gal is talented. Olivia Rodrigo wrote Vampire, on piano, at 19 years old: “I was upset about a certain situation and went to the studio alone and sat down at the grand piano, and the chords and melody and lyrics just poured out of me — almost like an out-of-body experience,” Rodrigo said in a statement about Vampire. “It’s a song about feeling confused and hurt, and at first I thought it was meant to be a piano ballad. But when Dan and I started working on it, we juxtaposed the lyrics with these big drums and crazy tempo changes. So now it’s like a heartbreak song you can dance to.”

Dance to it. Break furniture to it. File a restraining order to it. Slash tires to it. Vampire is raw emotion set to music. Chills and even tears - like listening to Israel Kamakawiwo'ole singing Hawaii ‘78.

“Dan” is Daniel Nigro, the artistas co-writer and producer who transformed what could have been a simple, sad piano ballad into something way cooler. Something lusher.

There is a YouTube version recorded June 30 where Rodrigo sits down at the piano and just belts it with that million-dollar soprano. This girl can sing. Her operatic notes inspire chills and that’s all a singer can ask for. No frills here, just a girl and her pain at the piano. Same tempo, no orchestration. Nothing but Olivia and the 88s.

She is the real deal. The pianonly version of Vampire is excellent - nothing faux in her emotion. But the Nigro-produced version is more complicated. Inspired. In a video online directed by Petra Collins, Rodrigo starts out slow, pianonly, with some familiar-sounding Boomer chords - American Pie? Billy Joel? - and sings almost exactly like Lorde. Homage or plagiarism? It’s a thin line.

Hate to give the satisfaction asking how you're doing now
How's the castle built off people you pretend to care about
Just what you wanted
Look at you, cool guy, you got it

Slowly, painfully, shamefully she crawls into the chorus, where she’s enabled/empowered by some orchestration: 

'Cause I've made some real big mistakes
But you make the worst one look fine
I should've known it was strange
You only come out at night
I used to think I was smart
But you made me look so naïve
The way you sold me for parts
As you sunk your teeth into me, oh

And then kaboom! The shocking, soaring, anguished, angry, chicken skin, F Bombing killer couplet - best use of the F Word since Chrissie Hynd’s Precious - which lets the world know this is closer to Alanis Morissette than Tay Tay:

Bloooooodsucker, faaaaaamefucker
Bleeding me dry like a goddamn vampire

(According to Insider.com, Rodrigo and Nigro went into the studio to record a “radio-friendly” version of Vampire: “To replace the expletive, they tried a few straightforward options like "fame-lover" and "fame-hunter."

But the video also includes a few absurdist rhymes, including "tree-hugger," "whale blubber," "garlic butter," and "Mark Zucker" — aka Mark Zuckerberg, who gave the lyric his stamp of approval on Meta's new Twitter rival, Threads.

"Dream crusher it is," Rodrigo wrote in the video's caption.”)

Some say that chorus and killer couplet are a riff on High Infidelity by Taylor Swift:

Lock broken, slur spoken
Wound open, game token
I didn't know you were keeping count

Along with Avril Lavigne, Alanis Morissette, Cardi B, Fiona Apple, Kacey Musgraves and Lorde, Olivia Rodrigo has no problem admitting she is inspired by Taylor Swift: “I love ‘Cruel Summer.’” Rodrigo told Rolling Stone. “That’s one of my favorite songs ever. I love the yell-y vocal in it, the harmonized yells she does. I feel like they’re super electric and moving, so I wanted to do something like that.” 

And she has, with Vampire, cranked the angry woman deal up to 11. This gal is wounded and pissed, but anger is an energy and anger energizes this song. The second verse speeds up, with a thumping kick drum and some backing vocals. And another quick F Bomblet.

Oh, what a mesmerizing, paralyzing, f@#$ed up little thrill
Can't figure out just how you do it and God knows I never will
Went for me and not her
'Cause girls your age know better

Background music on the second chorus, very nice. Go listen to soprano Maria Callas singing O Mio Babbino. Similar chills from Olivia Soprano.

And then it gets rocking. Big drums and piano for the Big Finish:

You said it was true love
But wouldn't that be hard?
You can't love anyone
'Cause that would mean you had a heart

And then full speed, full orchestra, full on everything into the final chorus and an a capella couplet, pyrocussion on the outro and that’s that. Super electric and moving indeed.

Vampire cranks the whole chick-singer, emotional payback, femmotional deal to 11. This is Next Level.

It’s a You’re So Vain mystery as to the identity of the blood-sucking vampire, but that dude better move to Mongolia or Moscow if his name ever gets doxed. Rodrigo has 32,300,000 followers on Instagram and that number is going to skyrocket if the rest of Guts is as good as Vampire.

This girl is pissed and hurt. But there’s money in payback and she’s going to win Song of the Year by channeling that angry energy into a sophisticated, elegant, quality song.

The pianonly version is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V47DIezVpD0

The fully-produced version with a video by Petra Collins is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlPNh_PBZb4