Fresh from a show stopping performance at the Weekends American Music Awards, and announcing her pregnancy on the Ellen TV show, the top popstress Pink is back with a new album, however, UK Student Steve Dawson ask's - Why is P!nk so underrated?
Last week Pink (or P!nk) released her greatest hits album in the UK, in amongst the media frenzy and continuous promotional work from Take That and Rihanna. And whilst the return of the famous five, Take That, and the undeniable superpower that is Robyn Fenty (more commonly known to you as Rihanna) is to be greatly praised and welcomed with open arms, one cannot, and should not, forget about Pink.
A 21 track album, lasting roughly 1 hour and 20 minutes, from an artist that nobody really seems to give much thought to. What’s the big deal? Everything. From the off you realise that practically every Pink track is something you have loved but never realised; it’s an album genuinely made up of hit after hit and ending with four outstanding fresh tracks that almost eclipse her previous work with their brilliance.
Emerging on the pop scene back in early 2000, Pink’s care free and punkish attitude was a world apart from other leading ladies Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera who were also just coming into their own at that time. While Britney pushed the boundaries on sexualising her provocative image and songs, and Christina sang about the perfect man and what a girl wants, Pink sang about the real life crap that boys put girls through and the real life troubles of everyday life. Pink’s songs were real, pushy and opinionated – a kind of music that would not be fully embraced until the arrival of British star Lily Allen six years later.
Nowadays, music is different. Britney had a breakdown. Christina’s career collapsed. And there was movement amongst the youth of the world, people were suddenly proud to be different. Lady Gaga seems to be the embodiment of this. She sings and performs everyday for the rights of the gays and the mainstreaming of the weird. Just recently her contemporaries Kesha and Katy Perry have joined the bandwagon, releasing songs that tell the world you are perfect just the way you are. Being weird is now cool.
So why is it that even now Pink is still seemingly in the background? She has been singing for the underdog since the very start of the century. Her everyday activities include campaigning actively for gay and animal rights in America. She released the huge hit single “Dear Mr President” that confronted world leaders for their mindless destruction of the world. She released the somewhat hilarious video “Stupid Girls”, parodying the talentless dumb blondes of the MTV generation. Pink speaks up and is proud to be different. She’s not stick thin and sexy in that conventional, and frankly boring, way that teenage girls strive to be like. She doesn’t care to fit in and be the perfect little popstar. Her latest single “Raise Your Glass” proudly proclaims an ecstatic joy at being the minority as she sings in the chorus to “raise your glass if you are wrong in all the right ways” and gives the listener a sense of comfort and pride to be an outsider just like her, “all my underdogs, we will never be anything but loud and nitty gritty dirty little freaks”.
When you inevitably go out this week to buy Take That or Rihanna, take a moment and consider Pink. Listening to the Greatest Hits... So Far!!! you will not only be treated to the pleasure of new tracks “F***ing Perfect” and “Heartbreak Down” but also 17 superb tracks that not only define a remarkable career, but a decade of music and an attitude that came a little too early for some of us. Pink is the ultimate underdog, and she’s fucking proud of it.
From Steven Dawson
© 2010 Copyright Jason Shaw
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