I came across this song All About That [Upright] Bass by Postmodern Jukebox, featuring Kate Davis. Probably found it on a Facebook page for the podcast Coverville. The goal of Postmodern Jukebox, according to pianist/bandleader Scott Bradley, is to get the “audience to think of songs not as rigid, ephemeral objects, but like malleable globs of silly putty. Songs can be twisted, shaped, and altered without losing their identities–just as we grow, age, and expire without losing ours–and it is through this exploration that the gap between ‘high’ and ‘low’ art can be bridged most readily.”
Oddly, I had somehow missed the original All About That Bass by American singer Meghan Trainor, her debut single released in June 2014, which was co-written by Ms. Trainor and Kevin Kadish, until it had already reached #1 on the Billboard Top 100 chart; it’s been six weeks at the top and counting. It is considered “a pop and doo-wop song that contains lyrics of body-positive themes.”
Shortly afterward, I come across Jimmy Fallon, Meghan Trainor & The Roots singing “All About That Bass” (w/ Classroom Instruments) from September, then a PARODY of the Fallon/Trainor/Roots performance, “All About the Books, No Trouble” from the Nashville Library, plus a few other like takes.
I’m always fascinated when a song becomes so popular that groups of people feel the need to emulate it; see Happy by Pharrell Williams, Call Me Maybe by Carly Rae Jepsen, and others. Even if I’m slow to the party. To that end, Siren’s Crush covers Meghan Trainor’s “All About that Bass”; yes, that’s the niece, Rebecca Jade on the right.
That was a very good version by your niece’s group – a capella, when done well, is wonderful.
I actually hate that song – Trainor’s voice is not good, and it sounds auto-tuned, which makes her message about not worrying about what people say about you a bit less powerful. Plus, it seems like the script has flipped, and now it’s okay to make fun of skinny people? Can’t she celebrate her own body without bringing others down? It seems like that’s the trend in pop culture these days – you can’t be happy with yourself unless you’re bringing someone else down. It’s disappointing.
Trainor apparently never intended to be a singer: she got a songwriting contract while she was still in high school, and then moved from New England to Nashville to be closer to the action. L. A. Reid, on the basis of her demo of “Bass,” signed her to Epic Records.
She has two self-released albums from 2011, which I suspect were also intended as demos. Her EP Title (that’s the, um, title) is due after the first of the year on Epic.
Your niece is very good! Also did not catch until just now that her stage name “Jade” is a play on Green.
I have no problem keeping up to date with music because I usually workout to the radio. However, I often have trouble identifying singers by sight because I have no TV. I had no idea what Trainor looked like until about two weeks ago; I pictured something very different. It was the same with Nicki Minaj, whose face I had seen countless times but never connected back to Minaj.
In fact, Jade is her given middle name.