Home
News
In Focus
Business
Metro
Nation
World
Sports
Feature
Opinion
View more »Opinion Columns
Wan LixinOpinion deputy editor of Shanghai Daily
Restaurants get off to a quick start thanks to game-changing policies
High service charges on event ticket refunds call for further regulation
Sunday
- Subscribe
Related News
Home » Feature » Art and Culture
Peas dancing to a different drum
July 2, 2009, Thursday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
THE Black Eyed Peas' club-driven fifth studio album is something of a departure for the foursome. Mark Kennedy gets the lowdown on the new sound from the band itself. The leader of the Black Eyed Peas has some helpful suggestions about when exactly to crank up the group's latest CD. "In the club. Getting ready for the club. After the club," says will.i.am, smiling. "At a party. Before the party. After the party. When stressed out - to escape." Got it. Any other times?
"After you've escaped and you want to party," he says with a laugh.
If you haven't guessed by now - and the massively successful first single "Boom Boom Pow" is a major tip off - the Peas' sound has taken a booty-shaking turn.
The band's club-driven fifth studio album - "The E.N.D," which stands for the Energy Never Dies - is something of a departure for the foursome, known more for their pop-inspired hip-hop tunes like "Let's Get It Started" and "My Humps."
The 15-song, Interscope-released CD is a beat-heavy party soundtrack, filled with tempo changes and distorted voices, careening from synth soul to electro funk.
"This record is our most focused," will.i.am says after the group performed recently on NBC's "Today" show. "It commands people to the dance floor, rather than suggesting that dancing would be cool idea."
The command is being heard: The album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard charts last month and its first single has been downloaded more than 2,800,000 times, spending 11 weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 - the first time the band has cracked the chart's No. 1 spot. A second single, "I Gotta Feeling," debuted at No. 2.
Rolling Stone called the album "the best thing the Black Eyed Peas have ever recorded" and Entertainment Weekly raved, "pure Top 40 nirvana." The Associated Press said it is "sure to be the soundtrack to many a summer party."
High school
"It just takes me back to going to raves in high school," says Fergie, 34. "I used to be the girl on the stage with the glow stick, twirling it. And now I'm still the girl on stage with the glow stick."
Steve Berman, the president of marketing and sales at Interscope Geffen A&M, credits will.i.am for savvily tapping into the worldwide explosion of DJ culture.
"He really saw that there was a lane here that artistically had been explored for a long time but commercially was just starting to be tapped into," he says.
Will.i.am was inspired to yank the band in a new musical direction while in Australia, filming his role as a teleporting mutant in "X-Men Origins: Wolverine."
The 34-year-old sonic guru naturally wanted to check out the hip-hop clubs Down Under. Locals told him he was out of luck: Hip-hop, he was told, was dead. To prove it, he was taken to a massive club in Sydney and was greeted by a blast of hard-core electronic music.
"I was like 'Whoa. What is this?' It felt like hip-hop but there were no vocals," he says. "It reminded me of when hip-hop was dance-oriented."
Will.i.am soon pulled out his DJ gear and began experimenting with his own monstrous beats. Other DJs were consulted, other clubs were visited and the rest of the band soon followed.
"Hip-hop is forever changing and growing, borrowing, reinterpreting, expanding," says will.i.am. "This sound that we have now is paying homage to where hip-hop came from."
One of the first stops on the band's world tour didn't go smoothly. Perez Hilton filed a civil lawsuit against the Peas' road manager, accusing him of hitting the celebrity blogger outside a Toronto nightclub.
The three-time Grammy Award winners are to tour Europe next and plan to hook up with U2 on the road before hitting Japan this summer.
There had been fears the band would never get to this point: In the four years since their last album "Monkey Business," the individual Peas had set out on their own.
"We all appreciate and realize how strong the unit is and that unit is what allows us to go and do those separate things. You still need a base," will.i.am says. "You still need to come back and refuel."
"After you've escaped and you want to party," he says with a laugh.
If you haven't guessed by now - and the massively successful first single "Boom Boom Pow" is a major tip off - the Peas' sound has taken a booty-shaking turn.
The band's club-driven fifth studio album - "The E.N.D," which stands for the Energy Never Dies - is something of a departure for the foursome, known more for their pop-inspired hip-hop tunes like "Let's Get It Started" and "My Humps."
The 15-song, Interscope-released CD is a beat-heavy party soundtrack, filled with tempo changes and distorted voices, careening from synth soul to electro funk.
"This record is our most focused," will.i.am says after the group performed recently on NBC's "Today" show. "It commands people to the dance floor, rather than suggesting that dancing would be cool idea."
The command is being heard: The album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard charts last month and its first single has been downloaded more than 2,800,000 times, spending 11 weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 - the first time the band has cracked the chart's No. 1 spot. A second single, "I Gotta Feeling," debuted at No. 2.
Rolling Stone called the album "the best thing the Black Eyed Peas have ever recorded" and Entertainment Weekly raved, "pure Top 40 nirvana." The Associated Press said it is "sure to be the soundtrack to many a summer party."
High school
"It just takes me back to going to raves in high school," says Fergie, 34. "I used to be the girl on the stage with the glow stick, twirling it. And now I'm still the girl on stage with the glow stick."
Steve Berman, the president of marketing and sales at Interscope Geffen A&M, credits will.i.am for savvily tapping into the worldwide explosion of DJ culture.
"He really saw that there was a lane here that artistically had been explored for a long time but commercially was just starting to be tapped into," he says.
Will.i.am was inspired to yank the band in a new musical direction while in Australia, filming his role as a teleporting mutant in "X-Men Origins: Wolverine."
The 34-year-old sonic guru naturally wanted to check out the hip-hop clubs Down Under. Locals told him he was out of luck: Hip-hop, he was told, was dead. To prove it, he was taken to a massive club in Sydney and was greeted by a blast of hard-core electronic music.
"I was like 'Whoa. What is this?' It felt like hip-hop but there were no vocals," he says. "It reminded me of when hip-hop was dance-oriented."
Will.i.am soon pulled out his DJ gear and began experimenting with his own monstrous beats. Other DJs were consulted, other clubs were visited and the rest of the band soon followed.
"Hip-hop is forever changing and growing, borrowing, reinterpreting, expanding," says will.i.am. "This sound that we have now is paying homage to where hip-hop came from."
One of the first stops on the band's world tour didn't go smoothly. Perez Hilton filed a civil lawsuit against the Peas' road manager, accusing him of hitting the celebrity blogger outside a Toronto nightclub.
The three-time Grammy Award winners are to tour Europe next and plan to hook up with U2 on the road before hitting Japan this summer.
There had been fears the band would never get to this point: In the four years since their last album "Monkey Business," the individual Peas had set out on their own.
"We all appreciate and realize how strong the unit is and that unit is what allows us to go and do those separate things. You still need a base," will.i.am says. "You still need to come back and refuel."
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
