Commander
Kelly Rowland
Beginning with Rihanna’s “Disturbia” in 2008, a niche genre of overly filtered, urban-turned-dance pop emerged, characterized by tight, digital sounding vocals without the typical Auto-Tune warble, and the same kind of watered-down club production that European dance artists adopted in the mid-‘00s to appeal to the pop market. After artists like Wynter Gordon, Heidi Montag and Luigi Masi made names for themselves with this sound, Kelly adopting it for her new David Guetta-produced single just seemed like a logical move. Kelly’s got the pipes to sing without any post-production modification, but the sound is such a novelty at this point, even decent vocalists are using it just to remain relevant. And with this move, Kelly’s truly found her new sound. She attempted doing Urban, but after the Freemasons’ mix of “Work” in 2008, any doubt over where she should be putting her efforts was thrown to the floor like a dirty condom. “Commander” is a party song, straight up, based on simple catchy lyrics, a power chorus and rubbery zigzag synth line; Kelly’s the commander, and she’s commanding you to dance. Wham! Supported with remixes by Ralphi Rosario, Chuckie & Neve, Max Sanna & Steve Pitron and Redlight, this one began making the rounds at Pride this year and will continue telling everyone what to do all throughout the summer. Listen to her. She’s got a point.
Reader Comments
Heck yeah this is exactly what I neeedd.
By Maribeth on 07-21-2011
This piece was cogent, well-wrtietn, and pithy.
By Alexavia on 07-22-2011
