Switched on Pop - "It's About Damn Time" for Another Lizzo #1

Episode Date: August 2, 2022

In the middle of a long, hot summer 2022, the people have spoken, and the people want to dance. Lizzo's "About Damn Time" just replaced Harry Styles's "As It Was" to become the top song on the Billboard Hot 100. Powered by retro instrumentation, a propulsive groove, meme-worthy lyrics, and a generous dose of slash chords (not the Guns 'n Roses guitarist, the harmonic voicing), Lizzo's hit song marks a deepening of the sound she established in past tracks like "Juice." But on other tracks from her latest album Special, Lizzo aims for new aesthetics. "Coldplay"—featuring a rare Chris Martin vocal sample—opts for emotional honestly over pithy affirmations. With the upbeat "Grrrls," Lizzo found herself in an online controversy: she had used a ableist slur in the song's lyrics. Taking the criticism as an opportunity to learn, Lizzo chose to replace the offensive line—but have other artists of pop's past always followed suit when met with fan feedback? Songs Discussed Lizzo - About Damn Time, Juice, Coldplay, Grrrls Daft Punk, Pharrel Williams - Lose Yourself to Dance Michael Jackson - Rock With You, They Don’t Care About Us Quelle Chris, Chris Keys - Sudden Death Coldplay - Yellow Beastie Boys - Girls, Sure Shot Taylor Swift - Picture to Burn Lady Gaga - Born This Way Orville Peck - Born This Way Ella Fitzgerald - How Long Has This Been Going On Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Switchon Pop. I'm musicologist Nate Sloan Sloan. And I'm songwriter Charlie Harding. And I'm producer Rianna

Cruz. Charlie, Rianna, do you know what the number one song on the Billboard Hot 100 is as of this recording. Does it happen to be Lizzo?

Well, about them time? I vote with Rihanna. Y'all are exactly right. It's about damn time for another Lizzo single to hit number one. Charlie, Rihanna, I want to break down why this song has risen to the top of the charts. I want to listen to a few other songs from Lizzo's latest album special and hear how her sound is evolving. And then I want to delve into one of the controversies that has come up around this album. I're ready to come on this Lizzo Odyssey with me? Let's do it. I'm on the boat. That's an

Odyssey reference, Charlie. That was continuing your metaphor. All right. Who's Telemachus in this situation? You are speaking a foreign language to me. Didn't it force you to read Homer in high school? No. The only Homer I know is Mr. Simpson. To begin our investigation, let's hit play at the very start of this smash hit about damn time. I don't know about y'all, but I hear this, and I feel like, okay, this is kind of a continuation of the sound that Lizzo gave us on her last album, Because I Love You. You can compare this track to one of the hits from that album, Juice. Similar kind of lyrical affirmations, pithy, memeable phrases.

What about the sound? Well, it's that disco funk vibe that has taken over pop music ever since the beginning of disco, but there's been a resurgence that I name back to like Daft Punk's random access memories. Like this new Lizzo track sounds a lot like the opening to lose yourself to dance, which Daft Punk did with Farrell. It's got that four to the floor drum groove, a relentless bass line. And of course, that funk guitar we know so well from Nile Rogers. That song, of course, was produced by Nile Rogers of Sheik, who helped innovate that disco funk guitar sound. So it's all coming very full circle.

Anyway, what else should we be listening for here, Nate? I love what happens when we get to the pre-chorus of About Damn Time. Slap bass! Yes, we have that funky slap bass, just slap into bass all over the place. And we have this exciting rhythmic contrast. It makes me think of something that the album's producer, Ricky Reed said in an interview with Vulture. He said that Lizzo told him, quote, I just want the drums on a Lizzo album to be leading the conversation.

And what that means to me is that she wants this song, this album, to just be rhythmically explosive. And I feel like this is one of those moments in the track. just comes alive through syncopation. It kind of catches you off balance. And it just gives this track that kind of extra energy and oomph. Yeah, I could see that. And I think every single part of the song is so rhythmically distinct.

I feel like Ricky Reed delivered exactly what Lizzo was asking for. Totally. One of the things that makes this track sound so old school is the way that all of the instruments are kind of layered together into this rich. tapestry of sound. And when we hit the chorus, we seem to hear everything at once. Give me some of the instruments y'all are hearing you. Bass. Charlie. Flute. Rihanna. Drums. Charlie. Tar. Rianna. Piano. Charlie. Shakers or tambourines? Reaching here.

All right. That's enough. That's enough. Y'all did real good, though. I'm proud of you. Now, after the chorus comes the moment that I think has been going viral on TikTok when we get this kind of spoken word rap breakdown. In a minute, I'm a need a sentimental man or woman to pump me up. Feeling fussy, walking in my balenciuses, trying to bring out the fabulous. And I feel like that's just a classic Lizzo move at this point. Her songs always seem to blow up on social media, whether it be for lyrics or the rhythm. And I think this song is incredibly catchy, and I think that has to contribute to part of why it's been so omnipresent on any social media platform.

Rihanna, absolutely. The production here is so immaculate. Every little moment responds to the next one, right? So when she says Fabulous, we get the guitar mimics the fabulous rhythm. And then there's all these just like little call and response moments to her rap and the production changes to meet her rhythm. Because I give a fuck way too much. I'm a need like two shots in my cup. It's so fulfilling. I think there's one more musical aspect that makes this song sound so effective and gives it that kind of old school retro vibe.

It's not just the groove, it's not just the instrumentation that we've talked about, it's also the harmonies. Like, the very first chord we start with in this song is a slash chord. I don't mean it's like played by Guns and Roses. Slash from Guns and Roses. I mean, it's two chords combined with one another. The reason it's called a slash chords, because when it's written, you see one chord and then a slash and then another chord.

It's like two chords combined. The very first chord we hear is a B-flat minor triad. And that's like a very kind of standard, typical sound. But then we take that B-flat minor chord and we add a bass note that doesn't belong to the chord at all. In this case, it's an E-flat. And then when we combine that E-flat and that B-flat minor triad, we get this whole new sonority.

It's the slash chord. Crunch, yeah. That's something new. Something new It's coming out To me that's like Luscious and rich And so

Rettolent of this moment That we've been talking about From the 70s and the 80s I mean just to pick one Of like probably thousands of examples We could use I think of a song like Michael Jackson's rock with you

That moment when he sings Sunlight And it's so good I mean it's just like Sounds amazing And it's because I think He's using two slash chords there. So Michael Jackson, or really the songwriter Rod Temperton, could have just used

triads here. But instead he takes those triads and he adds bass notes that don't belong to the chords at all. And then when you combine the two, again, you get this magical slash chord sonarity. And it literally, to me, sounds like sunlight. It's like the song has been shaded with clouds and then the clouds part and then sunlight, boom, boom, just pops right out. It's a really rich, distinct sound that you might not realize that you're hearing on this Lizzo track, but from the very first note, you are getting these slash chords that immediately put you in this moment of the 70s and the 80s. And then when you add all the instrumentation we were talking about, it just becomes this

kind of out of time moment. One little thing they do is I love how they use the piano in this track. there's just like sometimes they just have one piano note but it's such a good piano note it's not the high note it's not even the middle low note it's like that real deep bottom end of the piano and it sounds so good so to me about damn time is really continuing the sound that lizzo established on her previous album in a really excellent way Like, I think it's quite exemplary. But there's some moments on this album that I think stretch beyond what we might anticipate from her. And one of the songs that stands out in that respect to me is Coldplay. I mean, before Lizzo's vocal even comes in, there's like a lot to break down here.

Rianne, I saw your eyebrows go up. What were you hearing there? I'm hearing a sample seems of Coldplay's classic yellow. Yes, it's Chris Martin himself, sped up to this almost like kind of childlike tone. I mean, getting that sample in the first place is pretty impressive. I don't think many people could score a Coldplay sample. Lizzo had to ask Chris Martin permission directly, and he gave it. What a flex to play just a tiny little bit of it, too.

It's like the song isn't even based off that sample. It's just kind of there. It's like, here's a reminder. Coldplay, yellow. And then move on to the rest of the song. And then to call the song Coldplay at that, even though that has like no other reference to any of the lyrics. It's really smart. Oh, I totally agree, Rihanna.

This song is going to get a lot of clicks for that reason. But also because of another sample. The piano groove that kicks this off is sampled from Kelchris and Chris Key's track Sudden Death. And Lizzo uses this like really moving combination of the sped-up cold play song and this Kelchris Chris Keyes sample to give us, I think one of. of the more kind of unadorned and direct performances that we've heard from her. Like there's no kind of memeable lines here. There's no clever turns of phrase. It's just like pretty emotionally open and honest. Her vocal matches it. I find this really powerful and a kind of in some ways welcome departure from that familiar Lizzo sound. It's kind of like a bait and switch.

Like, I feel like she drops the sample at the beginning of the song trying to lure you in. You're thinking, oh, okay, this is going to be a play on cold play, right? No fun intended. But once you start listening to the song, it's actually a really sweet meditation on relationships. Elsewhere on the album, Lizzo is back on her grind. On the song, Girls with Three R's, she gives us another sample this time from the Beastie Boys. and we're kind of back to this mode of like empowerment anthem with catchy hooks and memorable lyrics.

But while this song might sound kind of light and fluffy on the outside, this is the song that plunged Lizzo into controversy and backlash and actually led her to re-recording the track. We're going to get into all that after the break. Convierte your passion in a business with Shopify and bathe records of ventas with the form of pay with a better conversion of the world. the best conversion of the world.

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They don't like the idea of having no idea who's coming into the United States at any given time. The view on immigration from the bottom up instead of the top down. That's this week on America Actually. Every Saturday in your audio and video feeds. Before we dive into the second half of today's episode, I just want to offer a heads up that we're going to be talking about how artists have dealt with regrets that they have around using offensive language in their songs, and some of that language does show up in this episode. When we listen to Lizzo's track, Girls Now, when I play it from Spotify, at least, this is what we hear in the first verse.

Hold my back, bitch. Hold my bag. Do you see this shit? Hold me back. I'm about to nut somebody. We hear her say, hold me back. But if we had heard the original release of this song, she would have said, I'm about to spas. That lyric created an online controversy. People like the disability advocate Hannah Divini tweeted that the word is an ablest slur. She said, my disability, cerebral palsy, is literally classified as spastic dysplegia. Your new song makes me pretty angry and sad. Lizzo did something maybe surprising.

She re-recorded the song. She made a statement, quote, Let me make one thing clear. I never want to promote derogatory language. As a fat black woman in America, I've had many hurtful words used against me so I overstand the power of words can have, whether intentionally or in my case unintentionally.

Unquote. And so now when we stream the song on Spotify, we don't hear that word. we hear a new version of the song that Lizzo recorded where she says, Hold me back. I think it's really important that Lizzo did that, both for the sake of raising awareness of people who might be unaware of ABLES language, but also because her message is so much about empowerment.

And I think of her rise as a major celebrity figure has been the connection to her being a very positive figure in pop music. Something like this reminds me a lot of Kanye West's album Life of Pablo, where it was being updated in real time. And there were no slurs that he had to re-record, but I feel like he established a precedent for going back to an already released album, refixing, in his words, a song like wolves,

and then re-releasing it out into the world. Rihanna, I'm so glad you said that because I found it really interesting that a lot of people took issue with the fact that Lizzo re-recorded the song. They said, no, you have to be true to your artistry. You can't be censored by fans. like why wouldn't you want to just put music out there that made people feel good and not bad?

And secondly, it's like, it's not like this hasn't been happening going back to Kanye West and even further back. Even the song that Lizzo samples here, Girls by the Beastie Boys, has some incredibly offensive lyrics itself. Later, the Beastie Boys were so embarrassed and mortified by these lyrics that they made multiple public apologies for them. they've never performed this song live and in the track Shurshot they even kind of make a mea culpa man I find that really funny

because I always thought girls was kind of campy like I thought that was intentional like because I've been listening to that song since I was a kid and I was always like yeah like it's ironic but I really appreciate them I guess remedying those those terribly offensive lyrics because Beastie Boys are

inherently offensive. Like I have a Beastie Boy shirt that on the back in big block letters says get off my dick. So I feel like that's part of their ethos as a band. My sense is that in that song and in other songs where they used the F word to refer to gay people,

they just felt that they had crossed the line that they weren't comfortable with. But what's interesting is they didn't have the option that Lizzo has. They couldn't at that time just re-record and re-release their song. and just have it disappear from streaming platforms. People were buying these on vinyl and CD and cassette tape,

and you can't just kind of replace a song with new lyrics that way. Send Santa Claus down everyone's chimney, take the vinyl, put the new record on. After this controversy embroiled Lizzo's song, a number of outlets like Billboard, Too Fab, and BuzzFeed, created lists of other artists who have also gone back and changed a few. offensive lyrics in their songs. And I thought we could listen to a few of these that I think are pretty remarkable and maybe even ones that you haven't even noticed or thought of before.

The first is from a favorite of Charlie and I's Taylor Swift, one of her early songs, Picture to Burn. This is what the original sounded like. Go and tell your friends that I'm obsessive and crazy. That's fine. I'll tell mine you're gay. Is that played okay in country music in the early 2000s? Yikes.

It reminds me of Katie Perry's not so hit. You're so gay. Right. And maybe also Billy Elish's Wish You Were Gay. Yeah. And I don't know how those artists feel about their songs, but Taylor Swift must have had second thoughts because she re-recorded picture to burn to sound like this. And if you go listen to the song on Spotify or other streaming services, that's what you'll hear. Wait, so that's not the Taylor version recording, as she's been going back and recording all of her.

songs because she doesn't own the masters. You're saying that even the original recording has been replaced? Yes. Michael Jackson, again, his song, They Don't Care About Us. On the original version of the song, this is what Michael Jackson said. Yikes. Wow. Now, there was a lot of backlash when that song was released. Michael Jackson defended himself. He said, how can these lyrics be offensive? I'm not racist. Oh, that's the worst card in the deck. I know. That's a go-to. for people that are actually racist. Now, this was before streaming technology existed. So Michael Jackson had to go out and distribute updated physical copies of his album,

actually print new cassettes and CDs with the following change. Rihanna, you're dumbfounded. I have listened to this song so many times, and I always just thought that was a production choice. I didn't know there was actual intention behind it, because it does obstruct the lyrics. And I don't know. I always thought that was an individual.

intentional move from the beginning. I know. It's a really interesting choice. So he's like, I'm not going to re-record this, but we're just going to put in these weird distorted sounds over the lyrics, and they're just going to obscure them. So it's not even a re-recording. It's an after-the-fact production choice. That's almost the equivalent of a song being played on MTV

that then had to be beeped because of curse words on it. Another artist who met some censure for their lyrics was Lady Gaga in the song Born This Way. sorry Rianna we know that you are the number one Gaga fan on the planet Nate I'm surprised the Lady Gaga selection you chose was born this way and not the song that's directly named after a derogatory slur for Roma people well I'm glad you brought that up Rihanna and there's probably a lot to say about that but until Gaga or someone else does a re-recording of that I think we have to listen

to the original born this way don't be a drag just be a queen whether you broke or evergreen you're blue Rihanna did a full face palm. And I think that's the reaction that many Gaga stands and casual fans alike felt upon hearing that. Yeah, me and all my roommates are all little monsters and we were watching her old tour videos the other night. And every time that she said that lyric, we all were kind of like, oh, come on. And we were discussing. We were like, we're seeing her in a few months.

Is she going to perform that lyric live? We don't know. Maybe she'll perform the version that Orville Peck did on the Born This Way 10th anniversary edition. I love that Orville Peck version of the song. And it signals to me how we're constantly revising songs. We're rewriting them. We're re-harmonizing them. We're coming up with new lyrics to reflect our changing times

and perhaps our earned wisdom. So props to Lizzo for redoing her song Girls. And, you know, I think I challenge everyone out there to find the songs that they take an issue with. and see if they can't come up with their own new lyrics. Like, there's this George Gershwin song called How Long Has This Been Going On? And I think it's one of the most beautiful songs in history. But there's this one lyric in the bridge that always bums me out.

How long has this been going on? Oh, I feel that I could melt into heaven. her i know how columbus felt finding an i mean that's sung so beautifully by ella fitzgerald but that line i know how columbus felt finding another world it's just like no that's not what happened i mean you could just be honest how columbus stole the world i was thinking about that charlie but i kind of want to keep the original intent of the lyrics. So how about we sub in someone else?

Maybe Maria Mitchell, who discovered Mitchell's comet in 1847. I know how Maria Mitchell felt finding another world. That has a good ring to it. That's a song. So everyone out there listening, go find the songs with the lyrics that you can't stand and give them new ones and tag us in them on Twitter, Instagram, or email us.

I really want to hear what y'all come up with. Katie Perry's, you're so gay. I'm coming for you. Switched on Pop is produced by Rihanna Cruz, engineered by Brandon McFarland, edited by Jolie Myers, illustrations by Ira Scott Leeb, community management by Abby Barr.

Our executive producers are Nashat, Kroha, and Hannah Rosen, a member of the Box Media Podcast Network and a production of Vulture. Check out more episodes of our show anywhere you get podcasts, or alternatively, on our website,

switch on pop.com. Hit us up on Twitter or on Instagram at Switched on Pop and tell us your lyrical rewrite. We'll be back next week with a brand new episode breaking down the album of the moment. Of course, it's Beyonce's Renaissance and we're going to be doing that with a very special guest. Also, in our last episode, Charlie said we would be talking about Demi Lovato this week. Obviously, that didn't happen. But stay tuned because Rihanna will bring us the Demi content you've been waiting for in just a few short weeks. Levotics. Get ready.

Levotics unite. And until then, thanks for listening.