PSY vs Maroon 5

It was not that I was excited to watch PSY dance without his shirt on but I, too, was among those curious to find out if his recording of Gangnam Style will make No. 1 in Billboard Magazine’s Hot 100. The Korean rapping sensation was in a hot race for the top slot in the US charts last week with Maroon 5. PSY promised he would dance topless if he makes it. Sorry to his fans. He did not. PSY got to keep his shirt on and Maroon 5’s One More Night from the album Overexposed stayed at No. 1.

Had Gangnam Style made No. 1, PSY would have been only the second Asian and the first K-Pop act to reach the coveted spot. The first was Japanese pop star Kyu Sakamoto who accomplished the feat twice in 1963. His songs were the English language million seller, Sukiyaki, which has become a well-covered pop staple and Ue o miute aruko, which is the only Japanese song to make it to the top berth.

So will PSY become the second? I have a feeling it will be difficult but there is still that chance. That would be a great boost for all Asian artists. It would mean widespread acceptance in the US market. But realistically, I am not really counting on it. This is because I see Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine looking more and more charming every week as judge and coach in the reality TV show The Voice, and I cannot help but imagine how many CDs he is selling with every smile and exposure of his tattooed, muscled arms.

Maroon 5 is no stranger to hit songs. The pop/rock band from L.A. has been making them since over 10 years ago. Remember This Love, She Will Be Loved, Makes Me Wonder, If I Never See Your Face Again and Misery. Those are some examples from the early years. A low point occurred three years ago and I thought that was it for the group. But then just as I began thinking that Maroon 5 has exhausted its creativity and was beginning to lose steam, the band made this 180-degree turn that enabled it to give a huge 1-2-3 punch that clobbered all the competition.

The first of this trio was Moves Like Jagger, a collaboration with one of Levine’s co-judges in The Voice, Christina Aguilera. She and Levine sounded great together. While doing a collaboration with Christina was nothing far-fetched, remember Maroon 5 had earlier done If I Never See Your Face Again with Rihanna, Moves Like Jagger was still a huge surprise. A song about how to impress girls by moving like the legendary Rolling Stones rocker, Mick Jagger, it was an electropop dance tune. It was very good, very commercial, an eight million seller that made No. 1 in the US and other countries.

The phenomenal Moves Like Jagger was followed by Payphone, also a dance tune but hip-hop influenced. It was also another collab, with hip-hop artist Wiz Khalifa. It also sold big and just as Jagger introduced Maroon 5 to Aguilera’s pop following, Payphone also opened new markets for the band. So by the time, One More Night, its current No. 1 seller and the first solo song from its latest album, Overexposed, came out, Maroon 5 was bigger than ever.

Everything about Maroon 5 these days is a pop artist’s dream come true. Truth to tell, I have started looking at the band as the successful product of a marketing genius, whose clever moves have brought about these astounding results. I will not also discount the effect of Levine’s ongoing stint in The Voice. Television has already surpassed radio as the best medium for music sales. Levine and Aguilera launched Jagger in a big way by performing it in, where else, but The Voice and look at what happened.

Is there a downside to all these? I am afraid there is. I fear that because of all these million sellers, we have lost Maroon 5, the alternative rockers with some of the most refreshing sounds we have ever heard. Where are they now? Maroon 5 has now become one of those synthesized, techno-heavy, overproduced pop groups.  

Here now is how the Top 10 listing of the Hot 100 looks like this week: One More Night by Maroon 5; Gangnam Style by PSY; Some Nights by Fun.; We Are Never Getting Back Together by Taylor Swift; Blow Me (One Last Kiss) by Pink; As Long As You Love Me by Justin Bieber featuring Big Sean; Begin Again by Taylor Swift; Whistle by Flo Rida; Too Close by Alex Clare; Good Time by Owl City & Carly Rae Jepsen.