BLOG (comma) MUSIC: pharrell williams

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For the few of you who haven't seen Avengers: Infinity War yet, I'll provide a quick debrief. In short, our villain in the story, Thanos, would like to restore order in the world by eradicating half of its population. Thanos (plus the infinity stones) has the ability to do this with a simple click of his fingers. This is relevant because in this new feature, I will have Thanos' ability to click people away, figuratively speaking. I will put two artists and their entire bodies of work side by side and, at the end of deliberations, will decide which one of them would cease to exist. The artists will be up for consideration under four main categories and today in the ring we have Timothy 'Timbaland' Mosley and Pharrell 'Skateboard P' Williams.

DISCOGRAPHY

Pharrell as a solo artist has had 2 albums, In My Mind and G I R L. I have to say that as a cohesive piece I enjoy the first album better than the second, however the shining moments in G I R L undoubtedly override the shining moments in IMM. Beats and rhymes-wise, Pharrell had it just right the first time. Given his popular culture success with the latter album though, I suspect that many would disagree. I, however, feel like the originality and energy on that album fell a little bit flat for me.

Timbaland has put out 3 solo albums to date and I have to say, the year that it came out, Shock Value II was one of my favourite albums out that year. That album took on a new level of overplaying from me. Before that Shock Value did capture a lot of my attention and put Timbaland on the mainstream map as a solo artist. Listening back to Shock Value I & II I can see that had those been released now I would be far less inspired than I was at the time. However, that's more to due with the evolution of music and my personal taste than the content itself.

PRODUCTION

Timbaland has been producing since 1993 and his production discography will make your eyes water. The man is basically the key to music as we know it. Spanning across genres and genders, most things that Timbaland touches turn to gold. People like Jay Z, Missy Elliott, Nelly Furtado, Justin Timberlake, Keri Hilson, Aaliyah, Ginuwine, and the list goes on and on, would not have seen the same success that they did without Timbaland's influence. No question.

Pharrell on the other hand, started producing in 2005 but only really began to make an impact and a signature for himself in 2013. Since then, he has had a hand in some of the biggest Pop bangers we've seen to date, by both himself and collaborators, and has worked with some of the biggest artists on some of the most memorable albums. No doubt, Pharrell is a household name in production too. The most notable thing about his production is the signature four count intro pattern but as he keeps building I assume there'll be more.

PUBLIC IMPACT

Timbaland is known to support several charities and causes including Chime For Change, Designers Against AIDS and UNICEF. Outside of philanthropy Timbaland has been fairly quiet within other entertainment spheres despite also producing music for TV and Film. Timbaland has struggled publicly with a variety of issues from plagiarism accusations to dealings with addiction and has battled through these whilst also reinventing himself in the process. Although, it's mean that he hasn't had his hand in absolutely all of the pies, it has made him a role model to many without even taking artistry into consideration.

As well as being impactful in music, Pharrell has also been extremely influential in fashion circles and philanthropical ventures. His charity 'From One Hand To AnOTHER' was developed for at-risk youth between the ages of 7 and 20. In addition to this, Pharrell has had a hand in broadcasting with his multimedia creative collective 'i am OTHER', which brought us shows like Awkward Black Girl and Nardwuar. Pharrell has been known to dabble in most facets within the entertainment industry and continues to make an impact in each one.

ORIGINALITY
Pharrell and Timbaland actually came up in the high school group together, Pharrell rapping whilst Timbaland was on the decks. This template obviously had a hand in bringing the two to the places they're in today. Pharrell's voice is not the only distinctive thing he brings to the table in the industry. However, one small croon or ad-lib from him and you're aware of his presence or influence on any track. Pharrell bring a clear level of originality and uniqueness to everything he puts his hand to, fashion, music or media.

Timbaland's style of production originated around the idea of warped records and distorted sounds. Whilst working on Ginuwine's "Pony", Timbaland was famously quoted saying that it was birthed by putting a record out in the sun to warp. He shaped beats around that sound. As well as being a very outside of the box way to begin looking at beats, it was also a starting point filled with an abundance of possibilities moving forward. He's evolved and diversified over the years and every time he branches into something new it switches up the game, and in his own words, he's not done yet.

Some of the most iconic instrumentals, samples and trademarks originated in Timbaland's studio, and although the same can be said for Pharrell, taking into consideration the sheer volume of work and musical development that Timbaland has had an effect on across genres and generations; on this occasion I think that Timbaland may just have won out.

WINNER: TIMBALAND

If you had told me that this album was going to be in my Top 30, let alone Top 10, at the beginning of the year I would have laughed in your face. However, my eyes were opened this year and in at my number 8 spot is Ariana Grande with Sweetener.

My first brush with Ariana was in Victorious on Nickelodeon years ago and I love her in that. Not particularly her character but her voice - wow. I'm not sure why that same sentiment didn't translate when she came over to the mainstream, I was definitely sceptical of the quality of her actual music. Some of my friends were singing Ariana's praises all through this but it wasn't until after I listened to one of her live performances, that I just had to give her album a chance. If I'm honest, about 5 tracks in I had to admit, Ariana Grande is one of the best things to happen to Pop music in a very long time.

Her vocal control, range and overall malleability are astonishing. My favourite tracks on the record right now are "blazed (feat. Pharrell Williams)", "God is a woman", "breathin" "no tears left to cry" "borderline (feat. Missy Elliott)" and have stayed as such pretty much since first listen. However, every now and again I listen back and discover more things about the rest of the album that catch my attention. These heavy hitters accompanied by the softer moments of experimentation come together to make a very solid body of work. My biggest concern on first listen was that it would be an album of 3 singles and half-hearted fillers. Let's just say that I've since learnt to stop doubting Ariana Grande.

Ariana's personality wins all of the battles that her lyrics perhaps weren't strong enough to fight. Although some of the songs aren't particularly lyrically challenging or inventive, the simplicity and candour in her lyricism win points across the board. This has been a big year for Ariana both professionally and personally filled with change and growth but I suspect that this is only the beginning for her in a lot of ways. I'm just happy that I finally jumped on the bandwagon in time to witness it.

Here's a look at what chimed in at number 8 last year.

There was no way that I could make this list and not have this album on it. In at number 28 is The Carters with EVERYTHING IS LOVE.

Let me just start off by saying... Beyoncé. Now with that said, this album arrived in true Carter fashion - with no fanfare nor warning, just a link. You can already guess how I started my day when this announcement was made. Sweeping in with the expansive and typical to a Beyoncé and Jay-Z collaboration "SUMMER", then giving the listener a millisecond to breathe just before the rumbling "APES**T". By track 3 I was already thoroughly invested. Aside from the fact that it gave us 9 new songs from Beyoncé and her husband, there are lots of other things that go into making EVERYTHING IS LOVE a good album.

The 90's R&B boyband harmonies on "BOSS" or the shout-out from Blue to her siblings Sir and Rumi are just a couple of the little touches that add so much to this album. As grand as portions of the record are and as grand as they have the ability to make their projects; it's the little bits of wordplay and catchy ad-libs that sit with you long after first listen. Beyoncé flexes her rapping muscles with many quotable lyrics on this record and Hov as always adds his witty and confident bars.

Now of course this was a good album. It was made by two of the greatest musicians/performers of the last few decades as well as a team of fantastic producers and collaborators. However, ultimately it's a lazy album for them for two key reasons (and a plethora of smaller reasons). Firstly, they speak over topics that they've both already covered substantially both together and separately. Secondly, they play heavily towards the favour of the mainstream, rather than looking into less conventional and accessible instrumentals. I would have expected a collaboration of this magnitude to produce something mind-blowing and memorable, but if I'm honest with myself I don't think that this album is better than either Beyoncé or Jay-Z's most recent solo projects.

Despite that, there are a few songs that really stood out for me on this album and will continue to make me smile whenever I think about the first time I'd listened to them. "BOSS", "NICE", "FRIENDS", and "HEARD ABOUT US", both lyrically and instrumentally caught and held my attention. I really hope this isn't the last collaborative piece that we see from The Carters and I also hope that it isn't the best.