45 REVELATIONS
After last month’s lambasting of critics who don’t cover or appreciate mainstream pop and rock sufficiently, I had a stray thought that I might be guilty of the same offense. It’d be quite a trick to top the obscurity quotient in this column.
45 REVELATIONS
Ken Barnes
After last month’s lambasting of critics who don’t cover or appreciate mainstream pop and rock sufficiently, I had a stray thought that I might be guilty of the same offense. It’d be quite a trick to top the obscurity quotient in this column. But as a singles reviewer, a nearly-vanished species, dealing with a configuration of music even more ephemeral than the LP, I’m obliged to call attention to worthy obscurities before they disappear entirely.
Nonetheless, I could be spending more time examining the hits, because they fascinate me, particularly the way their qualities appear to change with heavy airplay. Madonna, for instance— I’m her most avid fan (just short of dressing up to look like her), but “Like A Virgin” left me cold until about the dozenth time I heard it on the^ radio, whereupon it revealed itself as one of the most skillfully-wrought and relentlessly catchy pop tunes of the year.