"My Humps" - A Song So Awful it Hurts the Mind (Slate, Dec 2005)

[swag]

via shamus at omni-bb.

http://www.slate.com/id/2131640/

By Hua Hsu
Posted Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2005, at 12:53 PM ET

"Taste has no system and no proofs"—this much we know. But some 40 years after the critic Susan Sontag made this and other observations on the good, the bad, and the in-between, the times have a-changed: Irony and camp have recast taste as an ethical shell game and we feel no guilt celebrating things that are, in the parlance of VH1, Awesomely Bad. But are there still songs that qualify as "bad"? Consider the Los Angeles hip-hop quartet the Black Eyed Peas. Their current single, "My Humps," is one of the most popular hit singles in history. It is also proof that a song can be so bad as to veer toward evil.

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This is what makes "My Humps" such an inscrutable pop moment. It's not Awesomely Bad; it's Horrifically Bad. The Peas receive no bonus points for a noble missing-of-the-mark or misguided ambition (some of the offended have responded with parody videos and snickering anecdotes about how the group uses Hitler-approved microphones). "My Humps" is a moment that reminds us that categories such as "good" and "bad" still matter. Relativism be damned! There are bad songs that offend our sensibilities but can still be enjoyed, and then there are the songs that are just really bad—transcendentally bad, objectively bad.

As a piece of music, "My Humps" is a stunning assemblage of awful ideas. The song's playful pogo and coke-thin, ring-tone synth line interpolate Sexual Harassment's 1982 left-field electro hit, "I Need A Freak". But where the original trafficked in something icky, sinister, and darkly sexual, the Peas' call-and-response courtship fails to titillate—in fact, it's enough to convince one to never, ever ogle again. The "humps" in question belong to Fergie, who brandishes her "lovely lady lumps" for the purpose of procuring various gifts from men who, one would assume, find the prospect of "lumps" very exciting—one lump begetting another lump, if you will.

[asthmaticeog]

1. She has to call attention to her chest.

It keeps people from looking down.

[_testify_]

2. I still think she's hot.

[asthmaticeog]

3. How fast do you think you could get her Depends off?

[_testify_]

4. Apparently she doesn't wear them.

Besides, EVERYONE I know urinates on stage. It's very common.

[asthmaticeog]

5. Wow, you know a lot of performance artists, huh?

:P

[Yavin4]

14. How Do You Know It's Urine?

Could be any number of liquids.

[DS1]

7. Sig:

New Tool out May 2nd

[_testify_]

12. No shit?

I'm embarassed to say I didn't know that.

[ghostsofgiants]

6. That article is pretty generous to the song, I think.

[tigereye]

9. oh

:rofl:

:thumbsup:

[Yatar]

8. Let's hope it'll be on the Snakes on a Plane soundtrack

N/T

[ghostsofgiants]

11. That is heresy and you know it.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

17. "Snakes on a Hump"

:D

[tigereye]

10. I'm guessing they aren't talking about Fergie

the English ex-duchess.

Sorry. But, to play devil's advocate for a bit....

I can understand that most people think the song is catchy... is it really that much different from, or worse than, Who Let the Dogs Out or the Macarena or whatever pop innuendo of the moment, though?

[blondeatlast]

13. It sounds as if they deliberately tried to make a crappy song--

and failed miserably at it.

No points for trying just to make a catchy pop song, either--as the article states, "Humps" transcends that awfulness.

It's just a lousy song that some will like like "Old School" was a crappy movie that some will like--but both are intolerable to many of us who can still revel in a bad song or movie, as long as there is some real heart involved in the creation of same.

"Humps" fails at every turn,

[Beaverhausen]

15. I wouldn't even call it a "song"

it is the absolute lamest piece of shit that ever was. EVER.

Even worse than anything by MariahCelineMadonnaBritney.

[Blue_Tires]

16. not a fan of the ladies' lumps,

EH, TREBEK?


:evilgrin: :rofl:

[AlCzervik]

18. i die a little everytime i hear that song, i missed the black eyed peas

boat, i've tried to listen to them but i just don't get it.

[Cannikin]

19. I love that song. I have no idea why

[Beware the Beast Man]

20. That song makes me break things.