Che'nelle and MIA 's latest pop hits and videos

Che'nelle's "I Fell in Love with the DJ" and MIA's cover of Bollywood Disco Dancer Hit "Jimmy" (see last two ilogs for you tube links) are interesting meta readings of pop genres. Equally as good-you can dance to them. These song and video texts demonstrate the kinds of layered, knowledgeable, witty deconstructions women artists of the Indian-Asian-Western diaspora are offering pop culture.

Born in Sabah, Malaysia of Chinese-Malay and Indo-Dutch parents, raised in Perth Austrailia, Che'nelle brings a range of rich, fascinating reference points to her work. According to wiki.org, Che'nelle has been singing since childhood, starting in her father's karoake lounge. Having had songwritten and worked in bands for several years, she has developed the sharp ear and skills of a producer.

This keen intelligence is put to delicious use in her hit "I Fell in Love with the DJ", a sly homage to the dancehall genre. The song is a fast moving, wry narration in which the protagonist yes, falls in love with a club dj. This plot line works on two levels, the first being the dancehall discourse of monogamy and the second, Che'nelle the artist giving the dj props, another tradition in club music. (See Bally Sagoo, Mad Professor, Lee "Scratch" Perry, DJ Spooky, Eclectic Mash, Rehka, etc. for evidence of the DJ as the musician-artist.)

Che'nelle references female dancehall narratives, musical spaces where the female voice is pre-eminent, offering the counter narrative to male boasts and claims of sexual conquest. Che'nelle engages in this aspect of the genre; her protagonist sings her account of irrestible attraction to someone other than her boyfriend. The second layer, the business and creative relationship of the artist and dj is alluded to when Che'nelle reminds her partner at the closing of the song to craft marketable samples so that they can both make money. The dj makes a guest appearance, suggesting reciprocated regard and invites the narrator to meet. Che'nelle tips her hat to narrative device of the fraught confrontation that almost inevitably occurs once the transgressive partner is caught transgressing. In "I Fell in Love With the DJ" a chorus of female backup join fully in the last stanza a full vocal spectrum, a lush, exultant sound reminiscent of 1950-60's African American "girl groups" like the Shirelles. Only, in an ironic twist, the narrator is threatened by a cukolded and weapon bearing boyfriend. The narrator maintains her agency by ribaldly elbowing us and confessing she lies to the ex, saves her and the dj's life and throws the ex out of the song.

MIA's "Jimmy Aaja" is no less satirical, challenging and dementedly catchy. I can't stop replaying it. The song is pure pan Asian pop with its Middle Eastern stringish flourishes, and at times almost atonal vocal lines. It dares you to be able to hum along for more than a line. Sing along lines flash in and out of the song-too bad, Maya seems to sing to the listener. Lovers of Bollywood pop genres-particularly those of the 60s-70s, will find much to appreciate in the kookiness, spaciness and breathiness of the vocals. MIA reinterprets the intensely feminine sound of Bollywood, the cheesy charm of Bollywood disco and Western club and makes it purposefully whiny, authoritative, and trippy. In true thumbing at club convention, Maya throws in some funny heavy breathing-a loopy feminist raised eyebrow if we've ever heard one. I've heard the original Jimmy from Disco Dancer and MIA's cover is as cool.

The video to "I Fell in Love with the DJ" depicts a typical dancehall song with lots of lovely young people grooving. "Jimmy" is just hynotically hilarious-Indonesian female and ghetto fabulous drag as abstract and surfaced as the song.