I have moved out of Europe, but it would be nice if the online banking and normal transition still works. I have this mastercard card which will expire soon. Will the IBAN also be deactivated after my mastercard expires?
does anyone know about this situation? many thanks
Hey,
I am currently re-listening to some 2000s stuff, Gwen Stefani, Jennifer Lopez, Destiny Child and Alicia Keys, because that was my childhood, in which I spent lots of time listen to these artists but never really understand what happened lol, partially because I was in another country across the ocean and raised in a more conservative household. But thanks to globalization I was there, hearing music from all over the globe.
Ofc I came across "In the Zone" by Britney Spears. I am blown away by the music, it is so good! Needless to say "toxic" is a classic, "breathe on me" and "early mornin" could be perfect chill dance floor music to dance to or even have sex to lol. They perfectly describe the midnight and early morning messy and degenerate feeling while having sex and after sex. The synth wall on bridge/last chorus of "Breathe on Me"? I haven't heard that kind of synth in a while!
So I don't think the album is any less interesting, sonically, than, say, Madonna's "Ray of Light" or "Music" or Lorde's "Melodrama" or Dua Lipa's "Future Nostalgia" or Lady Gaga's "Born this way" or Charli Xcx's "Brat".
But music critics despise this album so much because the hollowness of the lyrics, because it is mainly about having sex and partying/dancing. I mean I get that her lyrics on this album is not the most introspective thing on earth, but I think writing about sex itself in a hollow way is totally ok, who cares if the music is so good? Ofc I think Lorde's writing about drinking/partying/sex might be more complicated and profound because she talks more about all the whatifs after weekend party in Melodrama in song like "Sober". But we don't think that much while having sex, so I think "Breathe On Me" is totally fitting the sex theme lol. But I do want her to explain the line "Monogamy is the way to go" more lol.
And "early morning" hello? I hear so much Massive Attack here! I personally don't dance and have sex until morning, but I don't judge other people do it. And I think the lyrics(and the yawning) is fun here, just hook up people on street and club and on and on until morning. It feels exactly "on the verge of obscene" as Britney said in "Touch of my Hand", and it is exact the music tries to say: messy and degenerate and fun. Btw, "Touch of my hand" already stands out with the Chinese/Japanese sonic.
Yeah, i gotta say the album has some filler which feels really hollow and dated, which chased the music trends at that time. I know 2000s pop music was notorious for its party/sex/dance theme and its hollowness, but I kinda love and miss those in your face production and melody.
I am honestly shook that the big pop star back in the day was so bold about sex and masturbating lol!
I have read some music critics through years, I have noticed that music critics tend to view music as a whole, by which I mean the message singer/author wants to convey, the execution of it, the music itself, the lyrics and cultural implication.
So by cultural/societal implication, any maga/repulication/conservative musicians already fail in this category. And I think I have never seen any conservative artists are favored by music critics(Lana Del Ray/Taylor Swift might be outliers, because they are sorta in between. And M.I.A and Nicki Minaj before they later turned to maga.). So is this valid? Since we are leftists music critics so we just downrate their music based on political value?
Secondly, I have noticed that music critics couldn't care less about the music itself, but how the music convey the message. Or to say: execution of the music.
I have an example of Rolling Stone reviewing Madonna's "Confessions on a dancefloor":
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-album-reviews/confessions-on-a-dance-floor-190195/
where it said:
"The galloping beat and cascading acoustic guitar loop create an intriguing dynamic, evoking both African and Eastern European music, but the lyrics are elusive. “All of your life has all been a test,” she solemnly intones, and then there’s something about “wrestling with your darkness” — like too much of Confessions, it’s too indirect to add up to much.
A few other songs hint at the lessons learned from her religious awakening but fall short of revelation. On “How High,” Madonna claims, “I spent my whole life wanting to be talked about,” and asks, “Will any of this matter?” only to conclude “I guess I deserve it.” The closing “Like It or Not” is intended as a bold declaration of independence, but its string of cliches feels lazy (“Sticks and stones may break my bones”? Madge, you can do better than that). On the other hand, her willingness to rhyme “New York” with “dork” on the spiraling “I Love New York” is a flash of the old Ciccone sass — the album would have benefited from more.
Madonna’s songwriting has always been her most underrated quality. But while Confessions absolutely hits its mark for disco functionality, its greatest strength is also its weakness. In the end, the songs blur together, relying on Price’s considerable production magic to create tension or distinctiveness."
I think it basically says that the music is relying on production to make it good, but the lyrics/ideas behind music are not well carried. So hence my question: isn't the music itself to be analyzed more before we combined them with lyrics? Furthermore, it is dance music. It is meant for dancing and movement, where music should carry a few more weights than words. At many cases, electronic dance music don't have lyrics, how do we write critics about them then?
Shouldn't the critics analyze how different sub-genres influences this album? shouldn't they analyze why this piece of music/production is good or not well conveyed? shouldn't they tell the readers why this piece of music makes people certain ways?
When we compare it to literature: we only care the message and ignore the words itself or the writing itself, isn't it absurd?
I think there are some highlights of this album like the new wave sound in expectations or my way. And i really really love the Old school adult contemporary sound in what's wrong with me. But i have recognized a pattern in olivia production and songwriting: She also always follow this simplified/stripped down first verse and chorus, then more production added to the second versse and the second chorus, then she came to the bridge, which is most of the time, not very seamlessly and effortlessly. And then finally she goes to the final chorus, where she added max producttion on it. I think i have no problem with this pattern on vampire in guts, because i feel that was the first time that i listened to this kind of song from her, But she repeatedly used this pattern over and over again, so i just got very very tired of it.
But i I do love you + me <= 3, which adds kind of different rock vibe(the guitar intro is very refreshing, but i cannot describe what that style is). Overall, i think this album just really lacks versatility.
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Her singing also lack of variety：Her singing style is mostly just very straight forward and without much complexity and twist. Just to name an example to compare, when i hear a lana del ray song or bille eilish song, the singing is not straight forward all the time, they have their twist in the singing and it adds flavor to the song make it more like an exciting journey.
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But overall I know that for an artist like oliver rodrigo, only to talk about music iteself is not really fair for her, because a lot of the artistry is from her lyrics right?, But the problem with me is that i cannot get into lyrics when the song is not interesting engough
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现在梯子都是先买才能用，结果很多买了之后发现用不了。。。
Taylor herself says we all got crowns, but is it obectively true in industry or is just a wishful thinking? i have heard so many times that women in industry saying we don't need to pit women against each other, there is enough room for all of us. but is it true tho?
if i go back to the 80s, we only have big names like madonna, Janet Jackson, Whitney Houston. of course in that period of time we still got Paula the dancer, Newton the physical, and flop cyndi lauper, but they all somehow didn't make it.
and for 90s we have mariah, Janet, Whitney, Celine, madonna. basically the same three people with two newbies.
00s we see tons of rnb black girlies and only Beyonce really sticks out(Alicia keys too, but she flopped hard in 10s), white girls we saw Britney, Christina, pink, Hillary duff, ashlee Simpson, Avril. most of them cannot even make it till their fourth album, or they flop so hard after their 3rd album.
10s is even worse, we only got Taylor, Rihanna, Katy, gaga, ariana, Adele (btw gaga and katy were half of the time flopping)
so do we really really think there is enough space for everyone? i mean, business is business, in business we can put others down as long as it's legal, why in music industry we have to pretend that we are nice? and as far as i see there is not much audience for female artists compared to male rappers/country artists. it's such a small pound but there are lots of fish.
i personally don't like Taylor's ruthless strategy when it comes to competition, but i also dont want to picture the industry with personal emotions. i don't think we can simply say "oh she is insecure" as it is a bad thing in industry, mind you a lot of successful business women/men are driven by their fear and they are very successful.
from what i recall, in 2013 i still see lots lots of indie acts, grimes, vampire weekend, sigur ros, etc etc, But 2014 we got Justin Bieber?? (as a guest tho with Chance the rapper) and Beyonce and Jayz(i like their music, but why are they there?? )
since then we got more and more main pop stars and influencers, from what i can recall, i remember in 2016 taylor swift attend coachella and it was hitting the headlines.
i remember the founder(Paul Tollett and Van Santen) of coachella intentionally don't want the big names to be there.
source: i came accross this article, and it says:
"Tollett and Van Santen brought a sense of innocence and integrity to the concept -- they were naive enough to think a festival would work if they booked quality bands rather than simply the popular ones, and if they paid attention to fan comfort. Clean toilets and reasonable prices ($2 water bottles, for instance) were as important as the music."