P!nk

Normally people say that there is an existential crisis at 40, others say it is at 30 or 50 or 60 ... anyway. I think that at different moments of our lives we all go through crises that sometimes leave us frozen, make us feel melancholic and almost always cause us to repent for what was done wrong and for what was not done. It is common that we call ourselves cowards and that we reproach ourselves for everything that we believe was wrong in the past. However, everything that has happened in our life, the good, the bad and the trivial, is part of our growth as a person and is, precisely, what we are, for better or for worse. Interestingly, part of these crises is also the feeling that all past time was better, paradoxical do not you think? Listening to P!nk's album, Hurts 2B Human, I find many elements of which I have mentioned. The singer is in her forties and maybe because of it and, because she knows very well what many of her followers; who share age with her surely, are thinking, living and feeling right now. If we add to that the difficulties of the new reality that we are living (suffering?) in the world, several songs on the album make sense for many who have heard it, but not so much for those who criticize their music. And it's not that people of other ages can not hear it and feel identified with the lyrics; on the contrary, and as I mentioned at the beginning, we all go through moments in our lives in which, in one way or another, we seriously question what we have been doing in our lives so far. But, to be honest, if you've never liked P!nk´s style in the last few years, you'd better stay away from its new release, it is exactly the same as in previous occasions. Now, if you are her number 1 fan, embrace this record and listen to it as many times as you want because you will love it, since it is the same musical medicine that P!nk has been giving you for a long time. In Hurts 2B Human we can listen to an artist who wants to return to the past, who breaks before reality and who, despite everything, wants to hold on to someone to keep walking, wants to dance, wants to be happy and at the same time, knows that everything could be a simulation.

I don’t know why P!nk has never bothered to come and visit Manila for a show. All of music’s top acts have already descended on our chaotic and “hellish” city (that’s according to novelist Dan Brown) and performed before their own sets of adoring fans – and most of them have had great memories with the audience reception here (if we base it on their interviews and social media reactions). Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, her contemporaries whom she has been made comparisons to have performed here several times. I am saying this because Beautiful Trauma, P!nk’s seventh album, released in 2017 has come and gone and still no P!nk tour descending in my city. She has a new album out Hurts 2B Human so let’s see if that gets some traction in the US that would be enough for her to start a tour. Anyhow, going back to Beautiful Trauma, it’s interesting how P!nk has survived the onslaught of new female acts who have consciously or unconsciously followed her template – Halsey, Alessia Cara – come to mind. They don’t belong to the “it” girl category of music but have capitalized on their ‘outsider’ or ‘renegade’ image to establish a following. For P!nk though, she had solid music to back her up since her debut in 2000 and she has sustained it through the years with a mix of danceable hits (“Raise Your Glass”) and power ballads (“Just Give Me A Reason”). However, I only learned about Beautiful Trauma because our dance teacher used “What About Us” as his dance track for hisclass that day. When we were doing the choreography for the song, I suspected it to be a P!nk song but couldn’t point out from which album of hers it came from. He confirmed after the class that it was indeed P!nk’s new song from the Beautiful Trauma album. 2017 was a polarizing year for America with President Trump at the helm so “What About Us” sounds like her big plea to the Donald to listen to “us” – whichever minority group it might be. That the song still reached #13 in the US charts is amazing considering how rap and urban the top echelons of the US music charts have been these past few years. “What About Us” sounds good and hopeful and we interpreted it in my teacher’s dance class but there are several other songs in this album which I like very much.

In a sea teeming with pop princesses, pop queens, pop divas, and pop wannabees, it’s interesting to see how P!nk has managed to stay above water and maintain her fan base who have solidly stood with her – unlike some of her contemporaries whose fan base expand or recede, depending on the popularity of the songs they have released. This year marks the 20th year of P!nk’s pop career and her latest album, Hurts 2B Human is as plucky and uncompromising as her earlier work. The aptly titled M!ssundaztood is P!nk’s second studio album, and it comes at the heels of Can’t Take Me Home where she burst into the mainstream at a time when Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera were ruling the female pop roost. She was immediately noticed because some of her songs were the antithesis of that pop princess image and she was not afraid to poke fun at the overt sexuality that the images of those so-called pop princesses exuded. She shattered the idea that a pop princess had to be blonde, curvaceous and with pouty lips to succeed in the music business. P!nk’s image is feisty and a bit tomboyish and it shows in some of her songs. Good thing is, she also knows how to have her own brand of fun – and all of those facets of her persona shows in M!ssundaztood!

Though I’ve never quite considered myself a fan per se of Pop icon P!nk’s particular brand of spunky Punk-adjacent music, I’ve always held a marginal respect for her place in the industry, finding her to be a refreshing break from the mainstream norm even if her arrangements did feel a bit kitschy & embarrassing by comparison. I can distinctly remember watching TRL back in the day when she first released “Get The Party Started” in advance of her then-upcoming album Missundaztood, my LINKIN PARK-loving middle-school self appreciating the exposure Punk-ish music was receiving in the public consciousness & frankly finding her to be someone hot I could fawn over in my adolescence, that song continuing to pervade my existence for years to come as my dad – who’s a professional musician – adopted the tune into his repertoire for events & weddings over the next decade or so. All things considered, I probably should’ve loved her music seeing as I had a soft spot for Teen Pop from cute girls in-between sessions of Metal & Hardcore music, but I just couldn’t bring myself to align with the subculture she championed, her whole circus-freak, tortured-youth aesthetic just coming off trashy & unimaginative, falling into the same off-kilter category of fake-Punk sensibilities as Christina Aguilera & Britney Spears in their rebellious blonde-girl periods – Unfortunately, this initial impression never faded, with P!nk suddenly becoming this sort of ring-leader for the damaged-goods movement in the mid-noughties & her subsequent albums getting more & more generic with each release, eventually leading to her turning into a joke in the industry equivalent to Nickleback or Train, which naturally fell far from my sonic interests as I came to terms with what true musicianship actually sounded like in less-visible subgenres within the industry. On a whim, I decided to give her 2017 record Beautiful Trauma a listen just to see if age had refined her music to the point where I could actually appreciate it once more, but sadly my preconceived notions of the artist she was were overwhelmingly true, so uninspired & formulaic even that I almost feel bad for her as she’s clearly lost sight of just who it is she wanted to be.