May 15, 2017

Music Discovery: May 2017

This month our Music Discovery is brought to you by one of our Associate Music Supervisors, Hallie Sloan, who has decided to break down the evolution of music’s pillow talk starting with the master, Marvin Gaye to the modern day masters such as Miguel and John Legend. And, as always, our May BrandRadio playlist has been hand picked by our entire music team to refresh your spring playlist.

Let’s Get It On // The Evolution of Pillow Talk from Marvin Gaye to Modern Day

Let’s reminisce on our parents’ notion of “simpler times”. This baby-booming generation romanticized direct communication, when carnal encounters were supposedly not contingent on a slide right. We hear their stories of love and lust and we hear it in their songs. And questions you may have asked such as, “Mom, tell me how you met dad?” “Well, one day he was leaving tennis practice just as I was starting my swim lesson, we locked eyes and…” let me stop right there. Many of us are left wondering, could this generation be more passive in curating their ideal playmate?

Marvin Gaye says it loud and clear “Let’s Get It On.” And while that kind of boldness might score you a pity point or two today, I think it’s safe to call it like it is. My generation, the millennials, are not so impressed by your fleeting copulation. To me, “Let’s Get It On” has a completely different meaning, no different from a cat call on the street – yet we hear this theme (Al Green, Barry White) repeated time after time through the R&B hits of the 70’s. It’s not to say we are ignorant about casual encounters and good old-fashioned fun in the sheets. In fact, my peers are redefining what love, romance and casual encounters mean–and if they intersect at all. We need something more than a simple suggestion of the act.

Forget being direct, this temporary act of coitus paints a picture of fantasy, an apparition of human intimacy that is only understood between two bodies of flesh in their most animalistic state. The fact that it will only happen once, or a few times, is utterly irrelevant and this is the distinctive shift in modern day R&B. Regardless of what gets you hot and bothered, it’s undeniable that Miguel’s ballads prescribe the graphic imagery of our innermost desires and release a cathartic reaction in which hormones domineer and our usual senses fall astray.

The following six tracks are evidence of the symptomatic re-romanticized modernism of being born into a curatorial generation where you can hand-select your utopian mate (obviously, another iteration of yourself) based off height, income, your Spotify playlist AND still get a free 6-month trial. Plus, if all that goes well, then maybe, just maybe, we’ll consider a relationship one day.

Artist: Miguel

Twitter: @Miguel

Track: Coffee