Sometimes I think about how for whatever reason there’s at least three radio versions of Katy Perry’s Dark Horse. One that’s the full version, one that replaces the rap part with some made-up interlude that samples the rest of the song, and one that just completely cuts off right before the rap so the song is really short. I just think it’s a bit weird and overkill if for whatever reason they think the target demographic is “afraid” of rap. But maybe the rap part felt out of place to some regardless. That just makes me wonder about how all these pop songs have some rap stuck in the middle.
Whether the core artist is just starting out or is established, they seem to be adding a rap to those songs just because. And yet all the versions end up getting airplay, with or without. It just makes it seem pointless to make multiple versions, except that the individual stations that play each version are apparently very picky about how much rap they can play. Rihanna’s Umbrella song has Jay-Z in it but I hardly hear him in the version on air. You might at least hear the rapper make some noises but they don’t get their verse, announcing themselves to exist but then they’re not heard from again.
When Rebecca Black had a song, there was a rapper on there. When Conan parodied that song, he claimed the rapper made it a “real song”. Do songs need to have rap or similar now to be “legit”? Where does that put Heavydirtysoul? What about all that dubstep-kinda-sorta-trance-with-random-noises that’s in Rocket League and all the top streamers seem to play those songs constantly when they’re not leaking rap albums?
Then there’s how Sean Paul keeps appearing on songs. He sort of sings, though. There’s this Sia song that, depending on the station, has him on there. There’s also this song about a single mother trying to heat up her baby but Sean Paul just shows up for some reason. And then rappers show up on other rap songs. Sometimes to the point where the first five minutes is just entirely everyone’s intros, and then each rapper gets one line. At least it seems like that would happen.
On a not entirely related note, I’m not sure which version of Safety Dance is the “real one” now. One version sounds more like a dance remix and spells out all the words with beeping, and that seems to get all the airplay now, and was also referenced on Futurama. Another version has none of those weird dance beats and is just regular synth, and that plays in the regular music video.