Great Music - Semifinals: 1945-1949 (Bracket 1 of 2)

[mae]

For this playoffs poll, please choose one track to move on to the Finals.

IMPORTANT! Please do not simply vote on name recognition (or lack thereof) alone. Please do listen to each nomination and then make your choice. Even if you think you know a track well, it's still worth giving it a listen for a refresher.

The poll will run for seven days. Discussion is greatly encouraged!

The nominees are (please let me know if any video doesn't play for you):


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FjVR-HQwaM


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uy5KyTSFOKA

[St. Troy]

Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!

[mae]

It's a X-Mas showdown!

[Tommy]

And both of them say more about Winter and really nothing specific about Christmas at all. It's funny they are considered Christmas classics.

[mae]

And one of them is obviously a pro-rape anthem :unsure:

[Tommy]

And one of them is obviously a pro-rape anthem :unsure:

I was thinking something along those lines but was too chicken to say it. :redface:

[mae]

An article published just today:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/stevens/ct-baby-its-cold-outside-feminist-remake-balancing-1207-20161207-column.html

I can imagine a time when it seemed darling for a husband and wife to go around singing a little Christmas ditty about a randy man trying to seduce his reluctant date, as composer Frank Loesser and his wife, Lynn, apparently did in the 1940s.

And I can give thanks that I didn't live in that time.

"Baby, It's Cold Outside," which sets a creepy, wintry scene to music (I ought to say no, no, no sir/ Mind if I move in closer?), sounds hopelessly dated (Say, what's in this drink?) in an age of informed consent and egalitarian relationships, wherein pleading and plying women with alcohol is frowned upon.

Sex, after all, is a dish best served mutual.

So the song was ripe for either retirement or an update, and Minnesota couple Lydia Liza and Josiah Lemanski settled on the latter.

"At this point in time, the original song is totally unacceptable," Liza, 22, a Twin Cities musician, told me. "It's got pretty predatory undertones. There's no way around it, especially with our generation."

Lemanski, 25, agreed.

"The 'What's in this drink' line? Our generation hears that as roofies."

Last week, they decided to write a new version of the song, which uses a light touch to make the song more palatable, but still playful.

I really can't stay/ Baby I'm fine with that

"We wrote it exactly 50/50," Lemanski said.

My mother will start to worry/ Call her so she knows that you're coming

As soon as they posted the song on Sound Cloud, listeners began to weigh in on the site with passion.

There's "This is precious!" and "Love this! Thank you!"

And then there's "You god-awful, easily frightened and addicted to victimhood morons" and "Feminism is cancer."

Lemanski's manhood is repeatedly questioned, and they're called names I can't repeat here.

The song couldn't be more innocent (Say what is this drink?/ Pomegranate LaCroix), so the hostility is curious, to say the least.

But Liza and Lemanski aren't fazed.

"We've had way more beautiful, inspiring, positive feedback than anything negative," Liza said.

Plus, they've drawn national attention from the likes of CNN and People, and they landed a recording deal with nonprofit label Rock the Cause. They recorded the song professionally Tuesday at Pearl Recording Studio in Minneapolis, and they expect it to be widely available by Dec. 16 on iTunes, Spotify, Tidal and other streaming sites.

They plan to donate the proceeds from the song to charities that aid battered women and survivors of sexual assault.

"It was important to us to open a conversation about consent and make sure people's stories get told and the rhetoric gets changed," Liza said. "We thought this was the best way to show how far we've come."

Now, if we could just get someone to tackle "Santa Baby ..."

[St. Troy]

:wtf:

Thank God for 22 year olds to tell us what the world is and how it can be improved!

Classic Dworkinesque "flirting = rape" overreaction.

[divemaster]

The the art of seduction will soon become a lost art.

[mae]

The poll has closed. "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!" will face Vaughn Monroe - Riders in the Sky (A Cowboy Legend) (1949) in the Finals.