YOUR FAVORITE LOGO TV SHOWS ARE ON PARAMOUNT+

Cher Lloyd's New Single 'Oath': Why It Could Be Better

[caption id="attachment_57835" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Cher Lloyd can't believe I said that![/caption]

Call the United Nations, y'all, because there's been an international art crime. And it's way worse than someone defacing some old Rothko painting.

The criminals are Dr. Luke, Cirkut, and Robopop, who produced Cher Lloyd's latest single "Oath." Most of the time, I love Dr. Luke's thundering pop anthems and sassy electro kiss-offs, but sometimes, he gets too damn indulgent with his layered vocal effects and avalanches of digital sounds. Sometimes, he and his producing partners eradicate any sense of the artist in a song, or rather, they insist on making themselves the artists, showing off their technical prowess at the expense of the singer.

That's less offensive when they're burying someone like Britney Spears beneath a mountain of sound, as Dr. Luke and company did on "Hold It Against Me" and "Till The World Ends." Spears' personal issues destroyed her creative vitality a long time ago, and at this point, she's a blank mannequin for producers to project their ideas on. They have to manipulate her voice and hype up the beat because she simply doesn't have enough charisma to make a song on her own. I've seen Spears in concert twice, standing about 30 feet away from the stage both times, and from what I saw, she's robotically walking through the motions of her work with absolutely no spark in her eyes. I'm not saying I'm happy about that. It's  really sad. My point is that her situation justifies the excess of producers who have to maintain her brand.

However, there's no need for Dr. Luke and his team to treat Cher Lloyd the same way. She's got tons of personality and she can actually sing. But listen to how she sounds in "Oath:"

Sure... she's spunky when she's rapping the verses, but what about the chorus? Her voice has been overdubbed so many times, and the track is just so loud, that she sounds anonymous. It may as well be me singing. Or a cat.

Compare that to her recent acoustic performance of "Oath" for Ryan Seacrest:

Without all the production, you can actually hear the personality in Lloyd's voice. It's a little Avril and a little Ke$ha, and even if it isn't your favorite thing, at least it's identifiable.

So bad on you, Dr. Luke! The trends of pop music may "demand" all those bells and whistles, but when an artist can actually express herself in an interesting way, she should be given the space to do it.

---

Mark Blankenship wasn't anticipating how mad he was going to get about this, but now... righteous fury! He tweets as @IAmBlankenship

Latest News