Il Genio
Pop Porno

Hello guys/girls, welcome back to the music section of the site, from which I've been absent for quite some time now! Reflecting these days on my "mission," and considering some criticisms and observations from site users and friends, I've asked myself whether it's useful to talk about "minor" arts in purely descriptive terms, accepting the existent for what it is, resting on it as a form of consolatory awareness of the world, or whether it's possible to use the little knowledge gained these months in a different "deontic" key, telling contemporaries how "minor" contemporary Italian music "should be": perhaps a presumptuous move on my part, but no less fascinating, to avoid always being nostalgic victims of the past and to take on the responsibilities of the present, as well as the future.

What I propose to do in this sort of test review, hoping for your benevolence, is to critically tackle a piece that's currently "on top" but will inevitably be categorized as "minor" within a few dawns and sunsets, like "Amico è," "Tre parole," "Un'estate al mare," "Sei troppo bella," and other curiosities from our colorful Italian world, checking if it is consistent with the aesthetic canon that has guided us these months or if it is, instead, the foundational seed of a different conception of popular music that cannot escape our investigative eye.

I am, of course, alluding to "Pop Porno" by the appreciated electropop duo Il Genio, which spread thanks to the internet, the derived buzz, and the stints of Simona Ventura on "Quelli che il calcio" and an intriguing epiphany of contemporaneity in this gloomy autumn 2008.

The image of the duo, first of all.

It’s about the established pair alternating a particularly fascinating Her - according to the parameters of most - even if not very gifted in terms of vocal extension and octaves, and a more nerdy and serious Him, devoted to electronic manipulations and musical weaving: an altogether predictable yin and yang, where image and pop talent mix and mingle, to please the public both aesthetically and melodically, similar to what's been happening for at least three decades, with pairs like the Carpenters, the Eurythmics, the Roxette, our Al Bano and Romina, the Pet Shop Boys on the gay front, or Bananarama even though they were three. Basically, it's a trite and reassuring cliché, that of Il Genio, which stands in a certain continuity with the melodic pop tradition, albeit with a touch of elegance (the young lady's attire is beautiful, no doubt) and charm, as captured by Verdone in "Sono pazzo di Iris Blond," if you notice.

All this, it seems to me, to intercept a specific consumer segment: the over-thirty-year-olds who are the age of the duo members, who, from former "Generation X," have now become a mature, and somewhat disillusioned, generation for a six or seven o'clock aperitif with oysters or shrimp, for lunch and for lounge where the image and music, as we'll see better below, of the duo, serve as a melodic and reassuring background, without bearing concerns or disharmonies. In an economic crisis period like this, a kind of reassuring message that wants to take us almost to a yuppie-ism without yuppies, a return to the '80s without the (relative) certainties of those years.

The music of the duo and the single we're reviewing here, now.

The lyrics of "Pop Porno" play on the consonant exchange with "po’ porno," which emerges clearly in the chorus, talking about a still charming girl who laments the partner's inattention, who, around three in the morning, gets out of bed instead of keeping her company, to revel in the view of beauties, both artificial and artful, from the adult films probably broadcast by local TVs. She feels bad, but in the melodic bridge preceding the last chorus, where the influences of much '60s music are strong and, in my opinion, certain insinuations to Gigliola Cinquetti, the loving glance He throws at her makes her feel a bit porno and thus desired on par with the actresses of the mentioned films (with all the implications therein, here implied elliptically).

The moral seems, on one hand, not very consolatory for the female audience, emphasizing the subordination of a woman's happiness to the desire a man can have for her (but also, mischievously, her ability to dominate the man and his instincts simply by being a bit porno), and, on the other hand, ambiguous for the male audience: almost telling the average man not to feel guilty for watching naughty films at three in the morning neglecting his partner, since the male half of Il Genio does it too, in front of a person with all the curves and the style in place! Therefore, it seems almost a parallel invitation to be satisfied with the existing (no deontic moral here!!), legitimizing the mediocrity of the daily life, and, at the same time, if no suitable subject is available, to limit oneself to dream of a "bit porno" woman like the singer in question, who is anything but ugly or devoid of charm, according to your trusted de-reviewer.

The musical accompaniment of the track and the melodic texture are impactful and, at the same time, not very original: playing on the aforementioned exchange and crescendo in major, the chorus becomes easily memorable, with the near certainty of being a catchy tune, while the nobility of the music would like to be saved by the electro insinuations and the insistent polyrhythm of the keyboards, with an almost European, decadent, and erotic tone. A chamber pop, therefore, if not exactly bedroom pop. We've written about the '60s style melodic bridge, remaining to add something about the overlap of the verse and chorus melodies, precisely, at the end of the track, with the usual canon effects, already theorized and practiced by Mogol and Battisti in the early '70s. All well packaged, awaiting the Sunday afternoon disco remix, which will project the track into the heads of the many sixteen-year-olds who move on the corresponding stages and experiment with their first approaches, in the name, indeed, of this pop porno.

Drawing conclusions from what has been observed, I can only express concern for a track like this, a real Trojan horse for the fate of Italian "minor" music of the current year: melodicism and aesthetic allure as tools to overcome a certain simple tradition, whose standard-bearers remain, fortunately, Gigi d'Alessio and Giusy Ferreri, and to convey in this last glimpse of the decade a sort of fake modernism that tastes of old and a return to a disengagement unlinked from the true values of our music and our little country. This is not the minor Italian music we need, despite due compliments to the singer's mother.

Deontically Yours,

Il_Paolo