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In The Number Ones, I\u2019m reviewing each single #1 single within the historical past of the<\/em> Billboard Hot 100, beginning with the chart\u2019s starting, in 1958, and dealing my method up into the current.<\/em><\/p>\n Does Pink depend as a rock star? The time period \u201crock star\u201d has been mainly meaningless for so long as I can bear in mind, so I don\u2019t have an issue with Pink claiming rock-star standing, particularly within the 12 months after the Shop Boyz\u2019 \u201cParty Like A Rock Star\u201d and Nickelback\u2019s \u201cRockstar\u201d have been each top-10 hits. Pink first rose to fame by making R&B-adjacent teen pop within the Destiny\u2019s Child mode, and she or he\u2019s by no means actually gotten play on rock radio. As quickly as she reached the purpose the place she might assert some profession management, although, Pink reinvented herself as a husky-voiced growler of laborious emotional truths \u2014 one thing not altogether in contrast to a rock star.<\/p>\n Maybe Pink was being intentionally provocative when she known as herself a rock star on \u201cSo What,\u201d her first solo chart-topper. But every little thing<\/em> that Pink did in these days was some kind of provocation. In an period when rock stars have been turning into an endangered species, perhaps Pink mirrored some new evolution of the time period.<\/p>\n When Pink calls herself a rock star on \u201cSo What,\u201d the \u201crock\u201d half is perhaps up for debate, however the \u201cstar\u201d half will not be. Pink has had an extended, unusual profession, however she\u2019s a remarkably constant presence. At this level, Pink hasn\u2019t had a large chart hit shortly, however she will nonetheless pack arenas at any time when she desires. Anyway, the road about being a rock star isn\u2019t actually the level<\/em> of \u201cSo What.\u201d Instead, it\u2019s a music about happening a hedonistic bender after a nasty breakup. There\u2019s some severe emotional stuff taking place on \u201cSo What,\u201d however the music stays huge and shiny and foolish. Pink recorded \u201cSo What\u201d when she was going by a heavy time, however she nonetheless turned the music right into a fists-up singalong. Maybe that\u2019s what rock stars do.<\/p>\n \u201cSo What\u201d sounds nothing just like the music that Pink made when she first appeared on the pop panorama, however the music continues to be philosophically aligned together with her earliest materials. Pink arrived within the wake of the late-\u201990s teen-pop increase, and she or he made a direct influence on TRL<\/em>, the place she was offered as a clubby and racially ambiguous R&B singer. Even at first, although, Pink was making hits that dismissed clueless chumps and materialistic women. Pink co-wrote most of these hits, too. One notable exception was \u201cMost Girls,\u201d the largest hit from Pink\u2019s 2000 debut Can\u2019t Take Me Home<\/em>, which peaked at #4. (It\u2019s an 8.) Pink didn\u2019t have something to do with writing that music, a Babyface manufacturing. Even on \u201cMost Girls,\u201d although, you possibly can see an early model of Pink\u2019s persona. The music modified, however that persona stood sturdy for many years.<\/p>\n Pink has already been on this column as soon as, as one of many 4 singers on the model of \u201cLady Marmalade<\/a>\u201d from the 2001 Moulin Rouge<\/em> soundtrack. Pink did good work on that file; her vocal might be my favourite of the 4. But Pink wasn\u2019t terribly snug amongst her teen-pop friends on the time; she and Christina Aguilera famously butted heads. Later that 12 months, Pink would dramatically reinvent herself, taking pains to distance herself from everybody else within the TRL<\/em> ecosystem.<\/p>\n \u201cGet The Party Started\u201d was the bridge file. Pink had at all times been an enormous fan of 4 Non Blondes, the \u201990s alt-rock one-hit wonders. When she started working on her 2001 sophomore LP Missundaztood<\/em>, Pink known as up former 4 Non Blondes chief Linda Perry, who was stunned that Pink wished to work together with her. (Pink likes to inform the story about how she stole Perry\u2019s cellphone quantity from her hairdresser.) Perry wrote and produced the funky, cartoonish club-jam \u201cGet The Party Started,\u201d which wasn\u2019t too removed from Pink\u2019s first-album singles and which peaked at #4. (It\u2019s an 8.) But \u201cGet The Party Started\u201d was additionally a crimson herring. Most of Missundaztood<\/em> was Pink within the honest singer-songwriter confessional zone, and plenty of the album is even about how laborious it was to get the album made.<\/p>\n On her follow-up single \u201cDon\u2019t Let Me Get Me,\u201d Pink sang about not eager to be \u201ccompared to damn Britney Spears\u201d and concerning the imaginative and prescient of pop stardom imposed by her label boss LA Reid, who gamely appeared within the video. Pink fought to file songs like \u201cDon\u2019t Let Me Get Me,\u201d which feels like an especially shiny and polished tackle \u201990s Lilith Fair music. \u201cDon\u2019t Let Me Get Me\u201d is nearer to what you\u2019d think about from a Linda Perry music than \u201cGet The Party Started,\u201d however Perry didn\u2019t have something to do with it. Instead, Pink co-wrote \u201cDon\u2019t Let Me Get Me\u201d with producer and TLC collaborator Dallas Austin, who reached deep into his \u201cUnpretty<\/a>\u201d bag. Dallas Austin additionally produced and co-wrote Pink\u2019s likeminded follow-up \u201cJust Like A Pill.\u201d That\u2019s a pleasant little encapsulation of how Pink\u2019s profession would go \u2014 making pop songs with rock producers and rock songs with pop producers.<\/p>\n \u201cDon\u2019t Let Me Get Me\u201d and \u201cJust Like A Pill\u201d each peaked at #8 on the Hot 100. (\u201cDon\u2019t Let Me Get Me\u201d is a 6, and \u201cJust Like A Pill\u201d is a 7.) Those songs obtained folks emotionally concerned in Pink\u2019s entire story, and Missundaztood<\/em> offered greater than twice as a lot as Pink\u2019s debut, ultimately going quintuple platinum. Pink\u2019s comparatively dangerous decisions had paid off. But when Pink tried to push issues additional on her subsequent file, she fell on her face, although she did it in a cool method. Pink\u2019s most important collaborator on her 2003 LP Try This<\/em> was motherfucking Tim Armstrong from Rancid, my favourite band of all time. Armstrong has hooks for days, nevertheless it takes actual gumption to listen to that man\u2019s broken-tooth gurgle-slur and to assume that he\u2019s going that can assist you crank out some hits. (Rancid, it\u2019s price mentioning, have by no means as soon as been on the Hot 100.)<\/p>\n I take into consideration Try This<\/em> on a regular basis. It\u2019s a captivating what-if album, a wierd look into an alternate world the place Rancid\u2019s adrenaline-smashed gutter-punk fashion might work as juiced-up pop music. But that\u2019s not what occurred. Try This<\/em> bricked, barely limping to platinum standing. Tim Armstrong produced and co-wrote lead single \u201cTrouble,\u201d and that music solely obtained to #68. (Good music, although.) After that large profession setback, Pink felt compelled to name her subsequent album I\u2019m Not Dead<\/em>. She bounced again a bit when the not-very-good lead single \u201cStupid Girls\u201d made it to #13, largely by pulling the favored transfer of concentrating on the Paris Hilton\/Lindsay Lohan varieties who have been so prevalent in popular culture on the time.<\/p>\n I noticed Pink open for Justin Timberlake when he was on the FutureSex\/LoveSounds<\/em> tour, and the pairing appeared bizarre. Timberlake was dominating the pop universe, whereas Pink\u2019s profession appeared to be on the wane. Her set was actually spectacular, and it included a model of the aerial-gymnastics act that she\u2019d later deliver to awards-show phases, however an excellent stay present gained\u2019t get you again on the radio. Instead, Pink obtained again on the radio because of her work with Justin Timberlake\u2019s outdated *NSYNC collaborator Max Martin. Martin and his protege Dr. Luke had already made some main hits with Kelly Clarkson, and so they\u2019d developed a model of Martin\u2019s gleaming teen-pop sound that introduced charged-up guitars into the combo. That mixture turned out to be excellent for Pink.<\/p>\n Max Martin and Dr. Luke produced three of the songs on I\u2019m Not Dead<\/em>, and so they co-wrote all of them with Pink. Two of these songs turned hits. \u201cWho Knew\u201d is identical sort of rousing anthem that Martin and Luke made with Kelly Clarkson, whereas the raunchier \u201cU + Ur Hand\u201d is about telling some jerkoff to go jerk off. Both songs peaked at #9, and I\u2019m Not Dead<\/em> went double platinum. (\u201cWho Knew\u201d is a 7. \u201cU + Ur Hand\u201d is an 8.)<\/p>\n Those two hits fueled a serious Pink comeback, and so they set her up properly for the second when Max Martin and Dr. Luke took over the charts. But Pink hated<\/em> working with Dr. Luke. Years later, Kesha, an artist who will ultimately seem on this column, accused Luke of all types of abuses. Pink stated<\/a> that she didn\u2019t know what had occurred between Luke and Kesha however that Luke, in her expertise, was \u201cnot a good person\u2026 I have told him that to his face, and I do not work with him.\u201d Pink has saved working with Max Martin persistently over time, however she by no means did something with Dr. Luke once more.<\/p>\n \u201cSo What,\u201d the music that took Pink to #1, is a Max Martin observe, however Martin didn\u2019t make it with Dr. Luke. Instead, Martin and Pink co-wrote the observe with one other Martin protege. Karl Johan Schuster, higher identified to the world as Shellback, is one other Swede. Like Max Martin earlier than him, Shellback got here up in metallic, although his model of metallic wasn\u2019t something just like the Bon Jovi-type stuff that Martin made in his outdated band It\u2019s Alive. When Shellback was a teen, he had a solo black metallic mission known as Meriah. Eventually, Shellback turned the singer for Blinded Colony, a band who made melodic dying metallic of the distinctly Swedish At The Gates\/In Flames selection.<\/p>\n Max Martin heard one thing within the metallic stuff that Shellback was making, and he introduced the 21-year-old Shellback to file demos at his studio in 2006. A 12 months later, Martin signed Shellback to his Maratone manufacturing firm. \u201cSo What\u201d was one of many first songs that Shellback labored on with Martin. Shellback got here up with the primary \u201cSo What\u201d riff, which feels like a bully making enjoyable of you on the playground, whereas he was touring with Blinded Colony. Martin and Shellback put a backing observe collectively and despatched it to Pink, and she or he beloved it. The music turned a car for Pink to speak some shit.<\/p>\n In 2001, Pink began relationship the motocross racer Corey Hart, and so they obtained married in 2006. Early in 2008, although, Pink and Hart separated, and \u201cSo What\u201d is all about going uncontrolled post-breakup. Even when she\u2019s writing about robust, emotional conditions, Pink usually doesn\u2019t take herself too critically. \u201cSo What\u201d is nearly a cartoonish model of the way it feels to snap into fuck-you mode whenever you all of the sudden end up single once more. Pink simply misplaced her husband; she don\u2019t know the place he went. So she\u2019s gonna drink her cash; she\u2019s not gonna pay his hire. She\u2019s obtained a brand-new perspective, and she or he desires to put on it tonight. She desires to get in hassle. She desires to start out a battle.<\/p>\n Pink will get knowingly bratty and infantile on \u201cSo What,\u201d and that\u2019s the enjoyable of it. The music is self-aware. Pink is aware of<\/em> that she\u2019s being ridiculous, and she or he cranks that as much as Looney Tunes<\/em> ranges within the video. On the second verse, Pink will get pissed off at a waiter giving her desk to Jessica Simpson; she will\u2019t resist another shot at a former TRL<\/em> peer. She\u2019ll go sit with a drummer, and I at all times took that line to imply that she might at all times go fuck Tommy Lee, although perhaps I\u2019m studying an excessive amount of into it. On the bridge, Pink all of the sudden will get uncooked and wounded, howling that this man was by no means there for her. By the time the music ends, although, she\u2019s again to clowning him; the final sound on the observe is her blowing a literal raspberry.<\/p>\n \u201cSo What\u201d veers in several instructions emotionally, however Pink sells the entire music with gusto. She sounds nice, leaning laborious into the raspy and Pat Benatar-esque grain of her voice. You should act<\/em> to sing a music like \u201cSo What.\u201d It\u2019s a enjoyable music, so it’s worthwhile to sound such as you\u2019re having a blast singing it. But you additionally must sound such as you\u2019re one flat tire or misplaced cellphone invoice away from a panic assault. Pink sells all of that. I don\u2019t actually like all her goofy little asides \u2014 \u201ccheck my flow,\u201d the Jessica Simpson line \u2014 however she throws herself into that melody.<\/p>\n As with each Max Martin observe, the melody lands more durable than the lyrics. The observe is all hooky, maximal precision. This was a pop second when even a halfway-rock music like this one didn\u2019t sound something like musicians in a room collectively. The sound on \u201cSo What\u201d is hermetically sealed; you possibly can virtually scent the ProTools. The beat is identical sort of gleaming glam-rock stomp that Martin and his collaborators dropped at Katy Perry\u2019s \u201cI Kissed A Girl<\/a>,\u201d and all of the little manufacturing decisions \u2014 the rising guitar drone main into the refrain, the rave-style keyboards on the hook \u2014 heedlessly mash all my pleasure receptors.<\/p>\n I respect that sort of sugar-bomb building. I don\u2019t should do any work to get into \u201cSo What.\u201d The music exists fully to jam an adrenaline needle into my coronary heart. That sort of observe has a sensible utility; there\u2019s a cause why body-pump lessons at all times use songs like \u201cSo What.\u201d If you\u2019re in search of an sincere have a look at the fallout from a breakup, then \u201cSo What\u201d won’t be just right for you. That\u2019s not the purpose. The level is the sudden burst of empowering vitality.<\/p>\n With the \u201cSo What\u201d video, director Dave Meyers places Pink in all essentially the most ridiculous conditions. The clip opens with what have to be a George Jones homage: Pink piloting a driving mower to a Sunset Boulevard liquor retailer. Then Pink smashes a guitar in a music retailer. She chops a tree onto her neighbor\u2019s entrance garden and humps the air together with her chainsaw. She will get bare and does the \u201cThriller\u201d dance in entrance of red-carpet paparazzi. She eggs a newlywed couple\u2019s automobile and methods some rocker guys into ingesting piss. Pink\u2019s efficiency of \u201cSo What\u201d on the VMAs isn\u2019t on-line anyplace, however she sang the music on a Hollywood backlot, and it climaxed when she blew up a constructing. In the video and that efficiency, Pink is a ridiculous chaos agent, a Tasmanian Devil or a Cookie Monster.<\/p>\n In the video, when Pink hits the \u201cSo What\u201d bridge, her husband Corey Hart reveals up, trying about as 2008 as one man might presumably look. Pink and Hart have a candy little second collectively. That tiny scene makes \u201cSo What\u201d really feel that rather more real, and it additionally takes a few of the sting away from Pink repeatedly calling Hart a device. Years later, Pink informed Entertainment Weekly<\/em><\/a>, \u201cI had to drink a beer at 7AM, I was so nervous the day of the shoot. I hadn\u2019t seen him in six months. I looked good that day! I made sure of it.\u201d Pink and Corey Hart obtained again collectively quickly afterward, and so they\u2019re nonetheless collectively right now.<\/p>\n \u201cSo What\u201d solely topped the Hot 100 for per week, nevertheless it was nonetheless an enormous second for Pink. She was almost a decade into her profession, and she or he all of the sudden had her biggest-ever hit. None of the opposite songs from Pink\u2019s Funhouse<\/em> album made the highest 10. The LP\u2019s second single, the comparatively severe \u201cSober,\u201d got here closest, peaking at #15. Still, the album went triple platinum, and it took Pink to a complete new profession excessive. Pink didn\u2019t fall from that top. We\u2019ll see her on this column once more.<\/p>\n GRADE:<\/strong> 7\/10<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n