July 11, 2010: Khia - My Neck My Back

Khia - My Neck, My Back: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMCMlNyySvo

I’ve never understood the popularity of Britney Spears in the late 1990s. I suppose it’s because I’m not American. I’ve read a lot of arguments as to why she was so appealing during that time, it seems to me that she embodied an aspect of American life that people in the US could understand and associate with during that time, being a high level of outward aesthetic surrounding a mess of contradictions and vanity. That’s not to say that I personally think that America is a country with a high level of outward aesthetic surrounding a mess of contradictions and vanity. I haven’t been to the US in 13 years, I like the idea of America and certain areas of the country seem full of life and vital, appealing and full of wonder. New York, for example. Or Austin, Texas. The Grand Canyon. However, America in the late 1990s (and up to today, I think) has little to no self-awareness.

America prides itself on being a bastion of freedom and possibility though it was an apartheid state until about 50 years ago (and, in ways, still is today). America is the wealthiest country in the world yet it has the highest deficit. America considers itself a Christian society, largely, based on high morals yet it has no problem invading other countries, destroying populations and suppressing rights. And Britney Spears claims herself an untouched, pure being while wearing a school girls uniform and singing thinly veiled songs about sex. There is a strong divide, it seems, between the face and what is behind it. I think this is why people there understood. Despite the dissection on my part, though, all the theory, I will never truly understand because I've not been there.

I had a conversation with a friend the other night. We had gone out to a show where this terrible band got on stage, played out countless cliches both in their music and performance; they were such a bad, terrible band they hurt me inside. On our walk away from that ridiculousness my friend said that had the band had funny lyrics he might have actually liked them. We got into a conversation about art and how low art can become high art if only it is self aware.

And that is why I love “My Neck My Back” by Khia. So much. It is the most up front, honest and self aware song I know. Khia knew what she was doing when she made this song; she didn’t bother with thinly veiled innuendo, she just went straight to the point and so masterfully so. And there is a humour to it all. I imagine when they made this song in the studio they laughed at the disbelief that they actually made this song. I still can’t believe this song was made. It’s glorious. It takes those things that are considered low by conservative societal standards (dance music, ghetto glamourization, dirty sex) and heightens them to celebratory and unapologetic. It's rebelliousness in the best way. And so good.

Later in that same night that my friend and I left the terrible, terrible show, we walked past an art gallery, very small in size, that had on each wall a drawing of a dick and balls, not unlike something I’d see in a shitty bathroom stall. It made me laugh and I loved it.