Week 10: Uncovering the Undervalued POP Song
I am currently teaching 11th graders the 60’s alongside the fictional memoir The Things They Carried. I was curious at first about protest music and war ballads, etc; however, when I started searching, I found that the protest songs were not the most popular songs of the day. The year of the war that had the largest American casualties was 1968, and “Hey Jude” topped the Billboard Hot 100. The following year, a completely different kind of song held the title. Here it is “Sugar Sugar” by The Archies…
“Sugar, Sugar” The Archies #1 Billboard Hot 100 1969
Sugar, ah honey honey
I am currently teaching 11th graders the 60’s alongside the fictional memoir The Things They Carried. I was curious at first about protest music and war ballads, etc; however, when I started searching, I found that the protest songs were not the most popular songs of the day. The year of the war that had the largest American casualties was 1968, and “Hey Jude” topped the Billboard Hot 100. The following year, a completely different kind of song held the title. Here it is “Sugar Sugar” by The Archies…
“Sugar, Sugar” The Archies #1 Billboard Hot 100 1969
Sugar, ah honey honey
You are my candy girl
And you've got me wanting you.
Honey, ah sugar sugar
You are my candy girl
And you got me wanting you
I just can't believe the lovliness of loving you,
(I just can't believe it's true)
I just can't believe the one to love this feeling to
(I just can't believe it's true)
Sugar, ah honey honey
you are my candy girl
and you got me wanting you
honey, ah sugar sugar
you are my candy girl
and you got me wanting you
When i kissed you girl I knew how sweet a kiss could be
(I know how sweet a kiss could be)
Like the summer sunshine pour you sweetness over me
(Pour your sweetness over me)
Pour a little sugar on it honey
Pour a little sugar on it Baby
I'm gonna make your life so sweet, yeah yeah yeah
pour a little sugar on it yeah
pour a little sugar on it honey
pour a little sugar on it baby
I'm gonna make your life so sweet, yeah yeah yeah
pour a little sugar on it honey
Ah sugar, ah honey honey
you are my candy girl
and you got me wanting you
Oh honey honey, sugar sugar..............You are my candy girl
“Um, okay, yeah,” was my initial reaction here – we as a country have just suffered for years from the bloodiest war in our history and this is what we are singing about? “I just can’t believe the one to love this feeling to”?!? That doesn’t even make sense!
The lollypop dance beat and sing-song melody of “Sugar Sugar” seems like it belongs in a 1950’s poodle skirt dance off rather than on the lips of draftees and anti-war protesters. Take a look at the images that go along with the single (above).
“Um, okay, yeah,” was my initial reaction here – we as a country have just suffered for years from the bloodiest war in our history and this is what we are singing about? “I just can’t believe the one to love this feeling to”?!? That doesn’t even make sense!
The lollypop dance beat and sing-song melody of “Sugar Sugar” seems like it belongs in a 1950’s poodle skirt dance off rather than on the lips of draftees and anti-war protesters. Take a look at the images that go along with the single (above).
Checkered floor? Swoopy, teased hair? Comic book characters?
Rather than pouring out emotion and pain in song, the Archies have topped the charts in 1969 by retreating into a pre-war safety zone happy place where music and the expression of emotion is familiar, unoriginal, and even copies style from generations back.
There is nothing deep or disconcerting about the lyrics, just a guy who likes a gal and thinks she’s sweet enough to eat.
But, as it turns out, this pattern of unoriginality during times of suffering is not that unusual.
In Bread and Butter Songs: Unoriginality in Pop, Ann Powers points out that, after the 9/11 attacks, memorial websites played the nap-inducing notes of Enya’s un-astounding “Only in Time” (243) and youth sang to the strong but unoriginal notes and lyrics of Lifehouse’s “Hanging by a Moment” (241). She explains that times of tragedy call for the safe and familiar and “that’s why dull songs mean so much” (241).
So what can we learn from the 1969 Chart-topper Sugar-Sugar? Well, whether we want to consider it “literature” or “good music” is one matter that Ann Powers, music critic, does not feel is especially important; “arguing for its greatness is not the point. Respecting its attractions is good enough” (243). So why is it attractive and who cares?
I think that “Sugar Sugar” was attractive to audiences in 1969 because it was a form of Escapism. I way to take minds off of the war, civil rights, etc and place it on what was familiar and unintimidating. What’s more unintimidating than young love of a sweet girl? We all know that feeling and escape into its warmth and security. The implication that I feel is important here is that that Sugar Sugar being and escapist piece and occurring in 1969 only serves to prove that the general population had much to escape from. That’s right; there’s my thesis right there.
Could we follow “dumb” chart toppers and consistently find national tragedy in its wake? I don’t know, but for 1969, it seems clear to me that the nation retreated into the familiarity of the 1950’s musical paradigm to escape the realities of its war.
David Sanjek, in his article “All the Memories Money Can Buy: Marketing Authenticity and Manufacturing Authorship” makes the argument that even music that seems paradigmatic is often a re-make or a re-make of a re-make, or draws from folk music (160). So perhaps he would argue that even “Hey Jude,” the 1968 chart-topper, was unoriginal… as much music seems to be under close inspection. But to me there is a difference between drawing from roots of the genre and literally stepping back generations to a previously popular formula like we see in “Sugar Sugar.”
If you play “Sugar Sugar” before any audience, asking what era of music it belongs in, I would guess that the vast majority would guess 1950’s, certainly not late 1960’s! I know that this guess would be based on prior knowledge of the “prototypical characteristics” of the 1950’s and its music. To quote Richard Beach, “in studying the prototypical features of […] popular music, students are learning to understand how these features not only reflect historical and cultural forces, but also shape perceptions of these forces.”
“Sugar Sugar” speaks less to the Vietnam War and more to the perception of it… the experience of it. By topping the charts with unoriginal content and years-old style, we can tell that, In 1969, people needed something the escape from.
Rather than pouring out emotion and pain in song, the Archies have topped the charts in 1969 by retreating into a pre-war safety zone happy place where music and the expression of emotion is familiar, unoriginal, and even copies style from generations back.
There is nothing deep or disconcerting about the lyrics, just a guy who likes a gal and thinks she’s sweet enough to eat.
But, as it turns out, this pattern of unoriginality during times of suffering is not that unusual.
In Bread and Butter Songs: Unoriginality in Pop, Ann Powers points out that, after the 9/11 attacks, memorial websites played the nap-inducing notes of Enya’s un-astounding “Only in Time” (243) and youth sang to the strong but unoriginal notes and lyrics of Lifehouse’s “Hanging by a Moment” (241). She explains that times of tragedy call for the safe and familiar and “that’s why dull songs mean so much” (241).
So what can we learn from the 1969 Chart-topper Sugar-Sugar? Well, whether we want to consider it “literature” or “good music” is one matter that Ann Powers, music critic, does not feel is especially important; “arguing for its greatness is not the point. Respecting its attractions is good enough” (243). So why is it attractive and who cares?
I think that “Sugar Sugar” was attractive to audiences in 1969 because it was a form of Escapism. I way to take minds off of the war, civil rights, etc and place it on what was familiar and unintimidating. What’s more unintimidating than young love of a sweet girl? We all know that feeling and escape into its warmth and security. The implication that I feel is important here is that that Sugar Sugar being and escapist piece and occurring in 1969 only serves to prove that the general population had much to escape from. That’s right; there’s my thesis right there.
Could we follow “dumb” chart toppers and consistently find national tragedy in its wake? I don’t know, but for 1969, it seems clear to me that the nation retreated into the familiarity of the 1950’s musical paradigm to escape the realities of its war.
David Sanjek, in his article “All the Memories Money Can Buy: Marketing Authenticity and Manufacturing Authorship” makes the argument that even music that seems paradigmatic is often a re-make or a re-make of a re-make, or draws from folk music (160). So perhaps he would argue that even “Hey Jude,” the 1968 chart-topper, was unoriginal… as much music seems to be under close inspection. But to me there is a difference between drawing from roots of the genre and literally stepping back generations to a previously popular formula like we see in “Sugar Sugar.”
If you play “Sugar Sugar” before any audience, asking what era of music it belongs in, I would guess that the vast majority would guess 1950’s, certainly not late 1960’s! I know that this guess would be based on prior knowledge of the “prototypical characteristics” of the 1950’s and its music. To quote Richard Beach, “in studying the prototypical features of […] popular music, students are learning to understand how these features not only reflect historical and cultural forces, but also shape perceptions of these forces.”
“Sugar Sugar” speaks less to the Vietnam War and more to the perception of it… the experience of it. By topping the charts with unoriginal content and years-old style, we can tell that, In 1969, people needed something the escape from.
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