Spook season is upon us, so we’re taking a look at some scary former music choices…
Timberland is not only the make of a fashionable boot. To an eleven-year-old version of myself, Timbaland meant Shock Value, the 2007 album I had downloaded onto my iPod shuffle when I first figured out how to use iTunes. Dad jokes aside, I think the main factor that defines my consumption of this album – and indeed, Timbaland as an artist – was passivity. Passive listening: I would often play this album on particularly long car journeys, with no concept of its beginning or its end (ah, the good old iPod shuffle). Passive recognition of the lyrics: some act of registering, no comprehension. Sure, I could certainly tell you the lyrics of ‘Bounce’, but I could also guarantee that I would not be able to maintain the kind of deadpan delivery a child version of myself could while iterating the line, “All you haters on that hoe shit miss me“.
Pre-recorded lyrics delivered by pop giants, ripped onto a CD, then to an iPod for mass consumption. Consumed, in this particular instance, by a small child. Transported logistically via moving vehicle to all parts of the United Kingdom. Manufactured beats thudding into the ears of someone in an otherwise quiet vehicle: parents sitting in the front, listening to Smooth radio, while raindrops stream down the window. Which raindrop would win the race?
I have fond memories of this, in all honesty. It was a real good time. But, looking back, I can’t shake the notion that my obsession with this album was somewhat cursed.
Relive the horror of Timbaland on Spotify and Apple, if you dare.
