12:12 Tune Of The Day: Foot Of The Mountain — a-ha
Posted By Ben W. on August 10, 2009
Here’s a peculiar conversation starter:
So I was listening to the new a-ha single the other day at work.
Yes, you heard me correctly. A-ha. 2009. Yep.
Now just so we don’t have too many shock victims on our hands, let’s temper that stunner with a less-surprising follow-up:
The new a-ha single isn’t particularly good.
I mean, come on. It’s 2009, for God’s sake. What do you expect from a-ha? “Take On Me Pt. 2?”
“Foot Of The Mountain” is not “Take On Me Pt. 2.” However, it managed to spark my interest for another reason. The new a-ha single is a perfect example of what we’ll call Inbred Influence Syndrome. Though not as common as swine flu nor as deadly as bird flu, I.I.S. nonetheless is a malady no band wants on its tour bus.
Let me explain:
Inbred Influence Syndrome occurs when an artist’s music begins to be influenced by music that was influenced by that artist. That didn’t make any sense at all, did it?
Perhaps an example — a-ha’s “Foot Of The Mountain” — would help.
A-ha scored a series of massive hits in the mid- to late-1980s using epic soundscapes, simple-yet-catchy riffs and soaring melodies sung by a pretty male voice.
(And don’t let anyone tell you they were a one-hit wonder. It was most definitely a series. Take On Me, The Sun Always Shines On TV, Train Of Thought, Hunting High And Low, I’ve Been Losing You, Cry Wolf, Stay On These Roads. They’ve sold more than 30 million albums worldwide! 30 freaking million albums!) Of course they were written off at the time as teeny-bop pop crap. And some of it was. But time has proven a-ha to be one of the more talented and influential of the ’80s synth bands.
Just ask Coldplay.
Chris Martin and the boys came along in the early part of this decade and rose to prominence with a sound heavily influenced by a-ha. They used the same basic formula of key adjectives — epic, simple, soaring and pretty — and by their third album were even utilizing the same synthesizers as their Norwegian predecessors. Exhibit A: “Talk.”
And that’s fine. That’s great. That’s normal chronological influence. Standard pop music breeding there.
It’s this next step where things get a little complicated, and the Inbred Influence Syndrome starts to rear its hideous head.
A-ha, still kicking 25 years later, now is making music that sounds like Coldplay. See? Band A’s music influenced by Band B’s music that was influenced by Band A’s music. It may not sound so bad. But believe me, it’s a sick cycle. It’s musical inbreeding.
I can’t think of one case where it worked out OK.
* Michael Jackson and Prince trying to sound street in the modern hip hop landscape? Nope.
* And have you heard Paul McCartney’s synth-pop phase? Simply Having A Wondeful Christmas Time, anyone?
Feeding off those who fed off of you just doesn’t work. I mean, any time an artist graduates from trend-setter to trend-chaser they are in serious trouble anyway. But the biggest problem with the Inbred Influence Syndrome is that the process of influence is almost always bungled along the way by the artists in question.
In this example, Coldplay didn’t take the good parts of a-ha at all. They took the vapid synth patches and the hollow arena-sized productions void of emotion. But they left behind the sleek new-wave style and insanely catchy melodies. So the a-ha in Coldplay that the new a-ha heard and tried to build upon was a bastardized version of a-ha; an a-ha that was missing its best elements.
But of course a-ha returned the favor. They lifted Coldplay’s penchant for generic anthems, whilst forgetting the forays into intimate melancholy that actually make Coldplay an occasionally tolerable band.
The end result: “Foot Of The Mountain.” A fine case study in Inbred Influence Syndrome and your 12:12 Tune Of The Day for Monday, August 10, 2009.
Enjoy.
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