"Boom Boom Pow" by the Black Eyed Peas has now been the most popular song in the country for nine weeks and counting with no end in sight, making it the weirdest and most outlandish song to work up that kind of batting streak since ... what? "Hey Ya!" (nine weeks, 2003-2004)? "Macarena" (14 weeks, 1996)?? "Bette Davis Eyes" (nine weeks, 1981)??? Mighty impressive, either way, and what cannot be denied is that it is also the most shamelessly ridiculous and unabashedly catchy confection to hit the radio this year (only competition: "Poker Face"), and it's inescapable for primarily that reason.
So you know what? If you're not among the millions (if not billions) of human beings who've already surrendered to the song, you might as well. Otherwise, you'll certainly regret it 99 years from now (2108!), when you hear it on the intergalactic oldies station wired into the computer chip in your brain and it reminds you how life felt in the summer of 2009 the way no other song possibly could. And if that's not enough of a reason to embrace "Boom Boom Pow," here are 10 more.
1) People who think B.E.P. are "just trying to do what's popular" these days (as opposed to when they were, er, serious political artists or whatever) are nuts. If the group was merely trying to be popular, why would they come up with a song so over-the-top it's incomparable to anything else on the air? Doesn't make sense!
2) R&B and hip-hop artists are somehow under the insane delusion now that Auto-Tune is appropriate only for dreary "emotional" songs. Okay, maybe T-Pain's an exception when he rides on boats with the Lonely Island, but have you heard that Kanye album? Jeez. At least B.E.P. know how goofy funky robots are.
3) Speaking of robot funk, it's somewhat clear from the sound of "Boom Boom Pow" that B.E.P.'s "future" isn't so much 2108 as the freak-a-zoid early '80s glory days of "Planet Rock" and "Jam On It" and Zapp. Whose own electro-polyrhythmic future was, in turn, '70s Kraftwerk. Who just wanted to be the 1960s' Beach Boys but didn't know how, since they were German. Neat, huh? (Also worth a mention, since Will.i.am does: early '80s Detroit techno pioneers Cybotron.)
4) Chickens are jacking Fergie's style. Chickens! Real ones!! With beaks and feathers and everything! (Also, she used to be in Wild Orchid -- how cool is that?)
5) Nobody ever rhymed "8-bit" with "apes***" before, I don't think. Which pretty much cancels out the part where they quote Kanye quoting Daft Punk, right?
6) My wife opines that the Black Eyed Peas are now the B-52s of hip-hop, which is probably true when you think about it. She also says the beat of "Boom Boom Pow" reminds her of "Can't Do Nuttin For Ya Man" by Public Enemy.
7) Other people have compared the rhythm to the subcultural genres "hyphy" and "funky house." How about we just take their word on that one.
8) It was very courageous, I believe, to risk the shamrocks and shenanigans and drunken Irish-American hip-hop wrath of House of Pain by stepping on all those pesky leprechauns. Boom shalock lock boom indeed.
9) The phrase "boom boom pow" appropriately suggests something from a comic book. And honestly, has there ever been a bad "boom boom" song? Pat Travers' "Boom Boom (Out Go the Lights)"? Paul Lekakis' "Boom Boom (Let's Go Back to My Room)"? John Lee Hooker's "Boom Boom"? Trio's "Boom Boom"? Outhere Brothers' "Boom Boom Boom"? Vengaboys' "Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom!!"? The Jimmy Castor Bunch's "Bom Bom"? Living Things' "Bom Bom Bom"? Nope, those were all great, too!
10) This kid, who analyzed the song in even more detail than I have, is clearly wrong!
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- Portions of Album Content Provided by All Music Guide © 2008 All Media Guide, LLC.
I agree. I surrendered to "Betty Davis Eyes" recently once again after hearing it as the original country song on the radio. Pop is pop. It's yummy. Can't deny it!
cool music. loved the stunt by fergie