Curio Cabinet / Song Curio

He’s been a star in his native Mexico for a while, but the recent VMAs have a lot of Americans asking: who is Peso Pluma? Was the song from his VMA performance actually about Lady Gaga? Oh, and why is the musician’s life being threatened by a drug cartel? As for the first question, Peso Pluma is a 24-year-old Mexican rapper whose songs began going viral on social media in 2022. Since then, he’s rocketed to fame in Mexico. Though the song he performed at the VMAs is titled Lady Gaga, it isn’t specifically about the pop star. Her name is a reference to a champagne she produced with Dom Pérignon. The song is a braggadocio track in which Pluma flaunts his money, fame, and drug-related exploits over surprisingly melodic instrumentation featuring violins, horns, and a cello. Not everyone is pleased by Pluma’s specific drug references, though. In some of his songs, he has praised the notorious Mexican drug lord El Chapo, leading the rival Mexican CJNG Cartel to threaten his life. Pluma has already postponed several concerts due to these threats. Here’s hoping he makes it to next year’s VMAs safe and sound.

It can’t be easy to live your whole life in the spotlight, but this star sure handles it well. Born on this day in 1981, American singer and actress Jennifer Hudson has been performing since she was a teenager. Center-stage life isn’t always pleasant, though. In 2004, before she was famous, Hudson competed on American Idol and was, unbelievably, eliminated. In 2006, she was cast in the movie Dreamgirls, in which she played a fictional member of a Motown girl group (though the group was heavily based on the real-life Supremes). The movie served as Hudson’s big break, and just two years later, she released her first album featuring the single Spotlight. The song has a classic R&B rhythm, complete with a repeating, choral, background refrain. Hudson believably croons over the top of the steady beat about an emotionally abusive, controlling relationship. The song helped secure a Grammy win for Hudson’s debut, self-titled album. Today, Hudson has yet another Grammy under her belt, and no less than eight nominations. Simon Cowell, eat your heart out.

On this day in 2016, English Indie Rock group Viola Beach’s self-titled, debut album reached number one on the UK charts. Unfortunately, all four members of the band and their manager had already passed away in a car accident several months beforehand. The album was released posthumously by the members’ families. Yet their best-remembered tune, Boys That Sing, had actually been released as a single before the accident, making it one of the few tunes on the album that didn’t have to be compiled from live performances. Boys That Sing is a jaunty song about young love, complete with poppy guitars and a catchy, repeating hook. Lead singer Kris Leonard’s vocals have a distinctly punk edge, lending the song a bit of grit to go along with its sweetness. By the time the 2016 Glastonbury Festival rolled around, Viola Beach’s album had grown so popular and mourning of their tragic deaths was so widespread that Coldplay saw fit to perform a tribute cover of Boys That Sing. Lead singer Chris Martin announced, “We're going to create Viola Beach's alternate future and let them headline Glastonbury for a song.” A fitting tribute if there ever was one.

We’re witnessing music history in the making…now if only there were enough tickets to go around. After announcing more concert dates, Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour is now on track to make a whopping $1 billion. That would make the Eras Tour the highest grossing music tour of all time, eclipsing Elton John’s Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour which has been going on since 2018 and has made $853 million. While the Eras Tour is known for its elaborate sets and costume changes, that’s not all that’s behind its incredible success. Those lucky enough to have gotten tickets have reported that there are several portions of the show in which Swift sings alone, without her band or backup dancers, a guitar or piano serving as her only instrumentation. This is when she sings her slower, less bombastic songs, such as 2020’s Champagne Problems. This ballad, about a failed proposal and the subsequent aftermath, features a sad, plunking mandolin and soft, sparkling piano. It’s an example of the intimate, lyrical songs that have gained Swift so many loyal fans, over the years. Her songwriting must be pretty good, to be breaking such an impressive record.

Talk about a psychedelic shift. In the late 1960s, hippie culture (and the drugs it involved) helped spawn a whole new subgenre of rock music featuring long instrumental sections, trippy sound effects, and lyrics that often made little to no sense. Love it or hate it, psychedelic music changed the rock landscape in a big way, and no one was more at the forefront of that change than American guitarist Ed King, who passed away on this day in 2018. As guitarist for the psychedelic rock band Strawberry Alarm Clock, King co-wrote and helped bring to life their best-remembered hit, 1967’s Incense And Peppermints. This psychedelic anthem had it all: nonsensical lyrics, repeating keyboard riffs, handclaps, cymbals, cowbell, and, of course, King’s signature fuzzy, distorted guitar. Let it never be said that King wasn’t a man of variety, though. After becoming acquainted with southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd when they opened for Strawberry Alarm Clock, King eventually went to play for them. He even ended up co-writing Sweet Home Alabama. That’s about as far from psychedelic as you can get.

[Image description: A digital illustration of a rainbow-colored guitar against a black background. The guitar is formed from trees and a cityscape.] Credit & copyright: GDJ, Pixabay
 

This song is young and sweet, but much older than 17. On this day in 1976, ABBA’s Dancing Queen premiered as a single in their native Sweden. It immediately topped the charts in 15 countries, and though ABBA went on to have more number one hits elsewhere, Dancing Queen was the only one of their songs to reach that spot in the states. It’s easy to see why the song remains popular to this day: it just doesn’t sound like anything else. While its beat and overall instrumentation have a disco feel, it’s punctuated with bursts of delicate piano, accentuating its lyrics about a young girl out dancing. Instead of chant-like disco vocals, ABBA opted for bombastic singing. Dancing Queen’s unusual sound has led some to call it the first europop disco song. ABBA supposedly knew that it would be a smash hit before it was even completed. In fact, when her bandmates played its backing track for the first time, ABBA singer Anni-Frid Lyngstad, better known as Frida, cried. “I knew it was absolutely the best song ABBA had ever done,” she told The Guardian, in 2014. You can’t get a better endorsement than that.

This classic 80s band was under a lot of pressure (you could say they were “under the gun”) but they kept their cool! On this day in 1981, MTV, which had only been on the air for a week at that point, broadcast its very first stereo concert. At the time, stereo sound was relatively new, so music lovers who had the right equipment at home could enjoy the concert in a way that had never been available before. The featured band was REO Speedwagon. The American rockers were performing in Denver, Colorado, as part of their Hi Infidelity tour. Their set included songs like Take It On The Run, which today is one of their best-remembered hits, but at the time was still relatively new. In contrast to the band’s first big hit, Keep On Loving You, Take It On The Run is a sad (but still fairly upbeat) song about gossip and possible cheating unraveling a relationship. The lyrics were based on the real-life relationship struggles of lead guitarist Gary Richrath, but it still managed to fit in all of REO’s signature cymbal crashes and dramatic, swelling harmonies. It was the 1980s, after all.

We’ve written before about Sinéad O'Connor’s best-known song, Nothing Compares 2 U. The Irish singer recently passed away at age 56, leaving us to reflect on her life of protest, including her protest songs. Despite the controversy surrounding her in the 1990s (thanks to her tearing a photo of Pope John Paul II on SNL) O'Connor wasn’t interested in keeping quiet about the things that mattered to her. In 1997, she released This Is A Rebel Song, a song focused on the horrors of the Troubles, a violent, 30-year conflict between those who wanted Northern Ireland to remain with the UK and those who wanted it to leave by joining the Republic of Ireland. At the time, Irish rock band U2 was performing their own song about the Troubles, Sunday Bloody Sunday, but would preface performances by announcing, “this isn’t a rebel song.” O'Connor’s choice of title clearly communicated how she felt about that. However, while U2’s song is a driving rock anthem with fairly literal lyrics, O'Connor’s is a sad, soulful, acoustic ballad that uses an abusive relationship between an Irish woman and an English man as a metaphor for the Troubles. Even while protesting, O'Connor always seemed to have a unique perspective.

Shoving, throwing things, handing celebrities wheels of cheese…this isn’t normal concert behavior! If you’re a fan of live music, you’ve probably noticed that concerts seem to have gotten strange lately. From a fan gifting Pink a wheel of brie in the middle of a show to Drake, Bebe Rexha, and Kelsea Ballerini getting pelted with phones, it seems that some fans may have forgotten concert etiquette during the pandemic. One mid-concert incident is currently causing some controversy. At a recent Vegas concert, country star Miranda Lambert paused her show to confront a group of fans whom she said were taking selfies. The event occurred during Lambert’s Tin Man, an emotional ballad about the pain of heartbreak. The song has a soft, melodious, acoustic sound with bittersweet lyrics referencing the titular character from The Wizard of Oz. Some are arguing that it’s always wrong to take selfies during concerts, while others say it was only wrong in this instance because it distracted from the song’s quiet, contemplative vibe. Still others argue that it’s normal to take photos during concerts, and that Lambert was in the wrong. Either way, at least no one was hit with a phone this time.

It wasn't exactly a high-class venue, but it launched a long musical career. On this day in 1978, famed British rock band Def Leppard performed their very first live show…at a local high school. The band had just formed a few years prior, when its members were teens. In fact, lead vocalist Joe Elliot had come up with the band’s name during art class. It was somewhat fitting, then, that their first show was in the dining hall of Sheffield’s Westfield School during a disco event. They even received an encore, though their biggest hit didn’t come until 1987, with the release of Pour Some Sugar on Me. With a title and beat inspired by The Archies’ Sugar, Sugar, the song was highly danceable for a rock and roll anthem, and great for headbanging. Its lyrics drew inspiration from the nonsensical style of T. Rex’s Bang A Gong (Get It On), with lines like “Livin' like a lover with a radar phone” that seem salacious yet make little sense. Audiences don’t seem to mind though, seeing as how the band is still touring to this day—and in much larger venues.

Try not to dance along, just try! When it comes to Ricky Martin’s 1999 smash hit Livin' La Vida Loca, it’s practically impossible. On this day that year, the song reached number one on the U.K. singles chart, where it stayed for three weeks. In the U.S., it remained at number one for a whopping five weeks. Its famed Latin-inspired beat and chorus full of blasting horns stood out from the rest of the pop landscape at the time, and helped kick off a Latin pop craze that would come to include songs like Santana’s Maria Maria, Marc Anthony’s I Need to Know, and, of course, more songs from Martin himself. The song was unique in another way, though. It was the first song ever to be created entirely on a digital audio workstation. The song was recorded, mixed, and edited entirely in Pro Tools, which was quite a feat since, up until then, separate equipment was needed for each part of the process. Within two years of its release, digital recording and editing had become the industry standard. Who knew Ricky Martin was so ahead of his time?

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Happy Fourth of July! In honor of the holiday, we’re looking into the origins of one of America’s most beloved patriotic tunes, Yankee Doodle Dandy. Most Americans learn the tune in elementary school, but few really examine its strange lyrics. What does “stuck a feather in his cap and called it macaroni” even mean? Well, this jaunty ditty wasn’t written by Americans, but British troops during the Revolutionary War as a tongue-in-cheek way to make fun of colonials. “Macaroni” was a term for a fancy, well-dressed gentleman, so the song implies that Americans, or “yankees” thought very highly of themselves—all they had to do was stick a feather in their cap and they’d think they looked amazing. “Doodle” was also an insult, as it could refer to either a fool or a man who was shamelessly promiscuous. Unfortunately for the British, Americans didn’t really mind the idea of being well-dressed Casanovas. Although British troops played the marching tune to make fun of Americans as they approached the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the colonials ended up wholeheartedly embracing the song. There’s no such thing as a backhanded compliment if you accept it with open arms!

[Image description: A patriotic-themed table including star-shaped cookies decorated with red, white, and blue sprinkles on a red plate, and a flag-themed decoration that looks like dynamite.] Credit & copyright: JillWellington, Pixabay
 

Way to go, Garcia! On this day in 1970, Grateful Dead frontman Jerry Garcia was instrumental in calming a violent clash between protestors and police in Toronto, Canada. The band was one of several playing the The Trans-Continental Pop Festival, better known as the Festival Express, a novel music festival in which rock legends like the Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, and The Flying Burrito Brothers rode trains across Canada, partying and jamming in between official concert stops. However, trouble was brewing when the tour kicked off at the CNE Grandstand in Toronto. Over 2,000 protestors, angry about the $14 ticket price, began clashing with police outside the venue and trying to crash the gates. To calm things down, Jerry Garcia, along with Metro Police Inspector Walter Magahay, arranged a free, on-the-fly “rehearsal” concert in nearby Coronation Park. The protestors dispersed to the park, where The Grateful Dead played on a flatbed truck. After the CNE Grandstand concert was over, the show at Coronation park grew and continued, with the official bands and local Toronto musicians playing to a crowd of thousands until 4 a.m. the next morning. That’s one long jam session.

[Image description: The Toronto skyline at night.] Credit & copyright: StockSnap, Pixabay
 

1981 might seem a late for a Beatles hit, but anything’s possible in the music industry. On this day in 1981, a group of studio musicians called Stars on 45 released a medley of re-recorded Beatles songs that managed to reach the top of the U.S. pop charts and start a short-lived medley craze in both the U.S. and UK. The project was the brainchild of Dutch record producer Jaap Eggermont, who had heard bootleg medleys of popular songs in nightclubs. He brought together Dutch musicians Bas Muys, Okkie Huysdens, Paul McCartney, and Hans Vermeulen to imitate the Beatles’ voices for the recording. Eggermont also included snippets from the popular 1970s song Venus and underlaid the entire medley with a disco beat and sound effects like hand-clapping. The result is a highly danceable, fairly cohesive mashup of much-beloved hits with an extraordinarily long title. While the song was simply known as Stars on 45 in the UK (and the group that created it was called Starsound), the U.S. title listed every tune included in the medley, making it a whopping 41 words long. Hey, credit where credit is due!

[Image description: A vintage record plays.] Credit & copyright: chienba, Pixabay
 

Miley may be today’s reigning Cyrus…but what about Billy Ray’s heyday? On this day in 1992, Miley’s father, Billy Ray Cyrus, was enjoying a 17-consecutive-week run atop the U.S. Billboard 200 album chart with his very first studio album, Some Gave All. It was the first album from a debut artist ever to top the Billboard Country chart immediately, and it was all thanks to the album’s most beloved single: Achy Breaky Heart. This twangy, upbeat breakup song was unapologetically pop-country, and its steady beat made it perfect for line dancing. In fact, a new line dance, fittingly called “The Achy Breaky”, was even created to perfectly match the tune. With his sleeveless flannel shirts and famous mullet, Billy Ray Cyrus represented a new style of country music that resonated with young people in the 1990s. This “new country” focused less on storytelling and social issues, and more on personal relationships and fun. Hey, it’s just too hard to dance to breakup songs when they’re sad and slow!

[Image description: A cowboy hat leans against a guitar.] Credit & copyright: Raventhorne, Pixabay
 

Tina Turner was known as the Queen of Rock n’ Roll, but she was also royalty when it came to lending her personal voice and style to already-recorded songs. Over her decades-long career, Turner put her own spin on tunes like Led Zepplin’s Whole Lotta Love and Dan Hill’s Sometimes When We Touch. In fact, it was a cover that pulled Turner out of relative obscurity after her divorce from Ike Turner upended her career. Her 1983 version of Let’s Stay Together, originally by Al Green, ended up on her 1984 album Private Dancer, her first truly successful solo album. Her rapturous, sometimes-sultry vocals were a perfect fit for the song. Turner’s version also leaned more heavily into the beat than the original, which helped its danceability and popularity. Private Dancer may be best remembered as the album on which Turner released What’s Love Got to Do with It, but the fact that Let’s Stay Together made it into the Top 40 doubtlessly encouraged Turner to continue releasing covers throughout her career. There’s more than one way to be iconic!

[Image description: A microphone in a dark recording studio.] Credit & copyright: Pexels, Pixabay
 

Glory, glory, hallelujah. Just about every American has heard at least the chorus of Battle Hymn of the Republic, even if they don’t know the verses. The song, while highly religious, isn’t exactly a traditional hymn, as it wasn’t written for religious purposes alone. Rather, it was meant to inspire and honor Union troops in the Civil War—particularly their fight against slavery. The song’s tune was taken from the folk song John Brown’s Body, which was written to honor the titular abolitionist. The Battle Hymn…’s lyrics were also penned by an ardent abolitionist, Julia Ward Howe. They refer to the cause of Union Troops as a holy errand, even referring to their nightly campfires as “altars.” They also lay bare Howe’s hatred of slavery, particularly in the last verse, where she wrote, “As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free.” You can’t be much more direct than that.

[Image description: A black-and-white photo of Julia Ward Howe, wearing a lace collar and head-covering.] Credit & copyright: Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs division, Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain
 

La da de da da da la da da. American folk music has gone through a lot of changes over the years, none more glaring than its sudden appearance on top-40 lists in the mid-1990s. A key figure responsible for the genre’s post-1960s resurgence was Jewel. With her throaty voice and penchant for melancholic yodeling, the young star helped usher in a new, if brief, era of pop-folk with songs like 1994’s Who Will Save Your Soul. The ambitious song, which Jewel wrote when she was just 16 on a hitchhiking trip through Mexico, deconstructs the wild consumerism of the 90s and takes aim at the (often harmful) celebrity worship of that same era. While it is still one of Jewel’s best-remembered songs, Who Will Save Your Soul didn’t find success until two years after its initial release, when it was re-worked as a single and added to radio playlists alongside the music of other folksy artists, like Alanis Morissette. The song did earn Jewel a Grammy nomination in 1997, though. And it proved that folk still had plenty of useful social commentary to make!

[Image description: A black-and-white photo of a guitar against a wooden door.] Credit & copyright: Antonio Prado, Pexels
 

Bob Dylan was never famous for being chipper. The famed American singer rose to stardom during the 1960s thanks to his powerful folk music written to protest racism and war. Still, you wouldn’t expect Dylan to sing the blues. That is, until this month in 2009, when his 33rd studio album, Together Through Life topped the Billboard album charts in both the U.S. and the U.K. One of the album’s most celebrated songs, Beyond Here Lies Nothin', is a blues song in which Dylan’s famously nasal, Midwestern voice becomes a deep, gruff growl. The soulfully twanging guitars come not just from Dylan himself but also Mike Campbell, of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, who has collaborated with Dylan several times in recent years. While Dylan’s changing voice may be attributed to his age and his past smoking habit, his change in musical style may be just as surprising for those who were still expecting the folk singer of decades past. Then again, Dylan has always evolved over the decades. As he pointed out, “the times, they are a-changin'.”

[Image description: A black-and-white photo of a guitar lying on a wood surface. This image is not associated with Bob Dylan in any way.] Credit & copyright: Jan Kroon, Pexels
 

When it’s cold outside, I’ve got the month of May. What better song to play during springtime than The Temptations’ My Girl? This romantic earworm of a song remains a part of pop culture to this day, despite the fact that it was released in 1965. Yet one question remains: who was the beguiling woman whom the song was written about? Songwriter Smokey Robinson actually answered the question: it wasn’t written about anyone; rather, it was written for The Temptations' voices. Robinson was struck by the light, airy voice of Temptations’ backup singer David Ruffin, and wrote My Girl specifically for him. It went on to become one of Motown’s biggest-ever hits, and the first Motown song to ever be nominated for a Grammy. Still, Robinson never regretted giving the song to The Temptations. “No, I don’t wish I would have kept it for myself,” he told Oprah’s Master Class. “[The Temptations are] the ones who brought it out of me.” A truly magnanimous music mogul.

[Image description: A vintage record player.] Credit & copyright: Skitterphoto, Pixabay