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Jax Panik - so overly pop, it's anti-pop?
4 Nov 2010
Jax Panik is trying to do something revolutionary with his latest album "I am Jax Panik". Supposedly a tongue-in-cheek pastiche of today's contemporary popular music employing deliberately cheesy poppy lyrics and beats, but ultimately, tongue or no tongue, the music still sounds like any of those Katy Perry, Adam Lambert dumbed down, banal-lyric hits that plague the radio. I just don't get it.
And what of the whole mystery and suspense advertised about Jax Panik undergoing a transformation that would gradually reveal itself to his fans? I was wildly thinking that he was coming out or a sex change perhaps (his music is the type that I'd imagine would go down a storm in any gay club) or he was actually a folk singer stuck in a electro nightmare, but no, he's going to wear black and white, and a hockey mask displaying his album logo, and from now on he isn't one person in particular, but is an amalgamation of all the contributors to the Jax Panik movement. Like we didn't see that coming.
This theme however acts as a call for interaction with his fans, who are encouraged to generate their own content and versions of Jax Panik. "Followers are encouraged to develop the story of Jax Panik in real time by contributing to daily discussions and/or submitting their own 'I am Jax Panik' videos, photos, or stories." Jax Panik press release. This is a brilliant marketing move by the Jax Panik team, by utilising social networking sites as Facebook and Twitter the Jax Panik movement has garnered somewhat of a cult following.
However this marketing tactic comes across as a little forced and I feel the DIY bedroom project and elusive appeal seen in the beginning of the existence of Jax Panik, created by Jacobus van Heerden, has been lost somewhat. The beauty of his live online performances and shifting identities has become far to polished and manufactured, and all that noise about never performing live has come to an end, with the debut live performance (if you don't count Loeries 09) at the forthcoming Synergy Live festival in Cape Town, and then with Akon in Jozi.
Jax Panik describes the album as anti-pop, because it is so overly pop, in an online heat interview, but that doesn't make it sound any less like all that pop music that it is anti about. The most redeeming quality about the new album and version of Jax Panik (which harks back to earlier times) is that a healthy dose of humour is still employed, as seen in his album booklet art and blog. But, unfortunately, it's not enough to save this album from being pretty awful. Each track blends into one squashy electro-pop-candyfloss-bubblegum pulp with silly lyrics and distorted vocals. Even if it is super clever and subversive, I still don't enjoy listening to it. There I said it: "Don't throw me with things".
