See You In Hell: Why Make Meaningful Art When You Can Just Be a Talking Head?

And I think I invented a new genre called New-Retro Pop!

When I was 19 I fully improvised a creative writing essay in my Moral Choices in Literature class in cégep. In retrospect, the entire thing was so ironic. The class was obligated to read Dante The Divine Comedy, a 700+ page book in one month while we all had about 5-8 other classes with assignments and projects going on all at once. I had a part time job to attend to help finance my leisure activities and future schooling so I did not read the book at all! I feel very guilty about it because after basically busking this assignment, I won the best paper of the semester and had to read my creative writing essay out loud to the class and it was featured in the school newspaper. At the time, in order to pursue the assignment I Googled and did my research on the leading themes for Dante The Divine Comedy and came across my top three favourite themes that I wrote a faux ‘Mel in Wonderland; the Musical Addition’ type of fictional tale. 

The themes I chose to write about were: limbo featuring my favourite singer Maynard James Keenan from the band’s Tool, A Perfect Circle and Puscifer, lust featuring Amy Lee the leading star of Evanescence and fraud featuring Lady Gaga. At that time, they were all equally my idols. The story was about me finding Maynard sitting on the edge of Hell singing his lyrics as he was the character in complete utter limbo but also the most true to himself person torn between Christianity, spirituality, transcendence, self expression and the end of the world. I wrote, “... it’s about appreciating life the way it is, the way we live it, the way we want to live it and staying true to our beliefs as we are all one, and we must roll with the punches to get to our destination. No one but our own selves can destroy that. And his lyrics do not ruin his career because freethinkers live naturally and thrive in the music industry, and no one will tell him what and what not to do.” My point here was that Maynard found success in the music industry by being completely authentic and rebelling against a lot of taboo and controversial themes in his lyrics such as Jesus Christ and religion, the war on drugs and that his ability to project the feelings of anger, lust, disgust and deceit through his vocal performance was hauntingly incredible.

Moving past limbo and entering a brand new realm, in my story I came across Amy Lee who was being tortured by a beast in the second circle of Hell. The beast in my story had the intention of killing her but ran away as soon as I approached them. In my story, Amy Lee in tears explained that she is a sinner of lust and the beast will return to check up on her. I asked why she is a sinner of lust. Her response was quite sad as she told me the story of all her previous lovers and how she mainly writes music about these tragic breakups. (Looking back I should have put Taylor Swift here instead!) Basically, lust was in complete control of Amy’s mind and will power. She did not know the difference between lust and love. Despite her refusal to rely on sex appeal in her music and image, her mindset remains strongly influenced by lustful emotions. Not necessarily lustful as in sexual desires, but as in weakness; an eternal craving and longing for something more, never feeling fulfilled.

One of the final scenes of my story possessed a colony of bats dropping off a tiny juke box playing the classic Queen song: ‘Radio Gaga’ with a marching band shouting, “the queen is here!” Of course, this was the grand entrance of the enigma Lady Gaga. In my story she started singing about her love for Judas surrounded by tons of gipsies, tramps and thieves. I made a huge statement in this part of my story where I discussed how she has been credited for her originality, however, she has been clearly copying well known performers such as Freddie Mercury, David Bowie, Cher, Cyndi Lauper and Madonna and it was quite obvious. Thinking back, this statement was cute. I wrote “...the thunderbolt across her face was first done by David Bowie. Dynamite masks and wigs that belonged to the amazing Cher, over-the-top metallic outfits that Michael Jackson started as well…all these talented musicians helped the Monster rise to fame!” A final point in my paper was that I voluntarily will be joining Lady Gaga in the 8th circle of Hell for fraud because what makes me who I am is not only my personal life experiences but influences from others who created and invented the things that I like. I’ll take what I like and make it my own. That is why people create things, so others can learn or be inspired by the things. What I really should have added if I wanted to be clever in the writing assignment was that the song ‘Poker Face’ should be changed to ‘Crazy 8’s’.

Being an artist means you are deliberately placing yourself in Hell, similar to the original Dantean point. Everyone puts themselves in Hell because they want to be there. The devil takes the hindmost. Of course this is all just a silly fiction story but it seems to be extremely relevant today. To become the artist that I am today, I channelled in all of the themes and concepts I wrote for that assignment. 

For as long as I can remember, I have written poems and lyrics. Some on paper, some in a Google doc, and some just in my head. For the first time in 2015 I began recording demos, and producing music with another artist in 2016. At the time I must admit that I did not have a real vision. It has always been difficult for me to find a ‘niche’ because I enjoy genre-bending a little bit too much for a Pop artist and I completely go against the mainstream norms sonicially and politically. All I knew at the time was that I wanted to just try different things, experiment, and this would lead me to discovering my true musical identity. It did. In 2022 I gained clear insight and had an epiphany of what exactly it was that I have been doing with music this entire time. I have been creating a music genre that I now call New-Retro Pop. To be clear, Retro Pop has already been a thing; Retro Pop is a genre that blends elements of retro and vintage styles from previous decades like the 70s, 80’s and 90’s with a more up to date production style. The musical genre embraces nostalgia as a central element which leads to some songs/artists in this genre cosplaying the past. New-Retro Pop is different. This genre that I put in place and gave it a name (there is no official definition online for New-Retro Pop so there must be very few artists if not only me) still blends the sounds of previous decades, however, it is more inspired by the early and mid 2000’s and it does not follow any of the current Pop music production trends at all. Instead, it's a quirky and raw reinvention of Retro Pop with a focus on being more experimental, blending the past and creating the future. It's always been a focus of mine to push the producers I collaborate with in a direction of ‘new territory’ instead of copying. Ironically the Y2K aesthetic and nostalgia craze emerged online as well. This ‘Y2K’ sound is something I have been doing unknowingly for a long time. I remember submitting a song through Submit Hub in 2018 and the A&R person said the song sounded ‘dated’ and overly inspired by the 2000s.

Being called ‘outdated’ has been a recurring theme throughout my struggling music career. My singing range and tone sits in the alto/mezzo soprano area very similar to Cher, Annie Lennox, and Tracey Thorn. My style of singing is more Pop and Contemporary, very similar to Madonna and Lady Gaga. Some people coined me as the Electropop version of Celine Dion which is a huge compliment, I think. For the singing and lyrical aspects of my music persona Melotika, all of this makes sense for the New Retro Pop genre. It is retro, soulful, yet has a lot of the newer vibes we got from the late 90’s early 2000s dance music. That being said, the sound of my singing voice is not current enough and I have been told to try and sing higher in which I physically cannot do. When it comes to the production style of my music, a lot of the A&R folks just don’t get it. The same words fly around like, “it needs to sound more current,” or, “why not be extra futuristic like Grimes!” I would reply, “Well, we already have Grimes so why would I do what she is doing, and we have a lot of current-sounding Pop artists who often sound similar. Why not try something new?” While participating in this music sync licensing-song listening party online back in 2021, one of the sync agents listened to my music. It is something I will never forget. She said the song was really great and catchy but was very surprised that a female composer produced such a track and compared me to the likes of Adam Lambert and Sam Smith, two talented artists who are part of the LGBTQ+ community. What a strange thing to say, especially since we are supposed to be in the most progressive woke times ever, right? So a man can be a woman and that's acceptable, but a woman cannot have a manlier vocal tone or singing style? Rude!

As much as possible I try to avoid writing songs about love and breakups because those are such easy go-to themes. But when done right, it can be really fun and empowering. I’ve done a few songs in these themes but I challenged the concepts a little bit more like turbulent coming of age love stories, break-up revenge tales, forbidden love, or obsession. Many of my songs revolve around defying social norms, addressing toxic ideologies, exploring coming of age struggles as a woman, the dark side of the party scene, critiquing government and thought control and discussing social media. I’ll admit, some of my songs are just pure fun party songs because sometimes we just need a song about nothing really important to stop overthinking. Last year, I was so pumped about these two specific releases I had coming up. I paid and signed up for a virtual chat and review with the well known music producer Timbaland. He hated my songs. After 10 seconds he stopped the song and called my sound outdated. Then, he listened to the second track for a few seconds. It was such a coincidence, the intro to this track had me talking in a sarcastic tone “They told me my shit is outdated but I said F* it, this is New Retro baby!” He listened a bit more and flipped his narrative saying something like “...your production sound isn't the problem, it’s your writing.” He turned me down and the interaction with one of my idols was over. Never meet your heroes; it can hurt. For the record these two songs were influenced by him. This seemed to backfire. Timbaland later released a new collaboration with Justin Timberlake and Nelly Furtado. If I can be completely honest, this track actually sounded outdated. It sounded like b-sides or unreleased demos from a 2007 project. When I was on TikTok I saw a lot of people disappointed with the track calling it outdated. (Lol). It's all subjective, honestly. Nothing matters.

I don't think you can be a successful music artist in 2024 if you are authentic. I wrote about this in my previous article that you can read called, Be an Iggy Pop in a World of Ziggy Stardusts: We Are In The Authenticity Crisis Era. There was a time when it was notable to be defiant, edgy, and controversial. Now, people mistake having these traits for an alternative aesthetic rather than an alternative personality. The music industry and mainstream society is obsessed with image, assimilation and false perfection. I cannot be convinced otherwise that everything on the radio and playlists sound the same making it hard to distinguish the individual artists in their niche. The people even all look the same, as per my article in Having Experience in 2024 Means Selling Out. Being relatable in music means you have to write about break ups and teen angst, cosplay genres, and be woke. What is worse than all of this is now complete trash is acceptable in music. You don’t have to know how to either sing, write, or play an instrument - just be a talking head with a microphone and sound like a complete buffoon and you’re in for a record deal. You can even sing about poop and farts and make it real big. Check this out for best reference: 

Performer Sexy Redd at Rolling Loud 2024: signed with Gamma Records - launched by Former Apple exec Larry Jackson

I don’t know what is going on.

The professor that gave me that assignment back in cégep was really cool. She had a pep talk with me then because I was conflicted about pursuing music or going into the psychology field. She told me I can help others and do music at the same time whether it's by being a social worker, a counsellor, a therapist, etc, and that she didn't believe I had to pick just one thing. Believe it or not, I was an outreach worker for a brief period of time at an addiction centre and learned and saw many things that changed me. Now, I want to share my ideas and stories in hopes that it can help others who feel like they are in limbo in this insane world. 🙃

I may have rambled with this one but I hope you discovered the purpose behind this article.

M xo