As a modern music industry rock & roll journalist that loves reggae, punk rock, rap and industrial music, one might believe I don't like or listen to American pop. Nope. Like any 80's kid we grew up on soulful paeans, postpunk poetry and plenty o' pop music. Some tracks on those albums were bubble gun. Others were doorways into mental mindscapes you didn't want to visit for long.
While popular music gets kicked around by more extreme musical mavens who obsess over ballads that sound like people being run over by heavy machinery while chainsaws roar to life (I'm talking about you, Charlie's Family by Download...or "Chainsaw" by Skinny Puppy) I've always loved pop for being able to be depressingly poetic, where other genres are afraid to do that too much.
Don't listen to this album in the dark alone high
on sativa cannabis joints, like I do.
"Live to Tell" by Madonna is pure, unadulterated American pop. I love it. That's why you are reading about Tara Macri and her music, here. I see musical roots worth appreciating, especially because of the humanity suffering can demonstrate. (Trust me, I work in Hollywood. We know.) Every emotion has it's place in modern music, it's just that when you read the very oldest literature on Earth, it's about what "Grace" is saying.
The haunting loneliness within "Human Nature" by Michael Jackson and Madonna's "Live to Tell" goes beyond spacetime. Like "Grace," those songs are about the wisdom and understanding that you get from losing something you loved that will never return. You can't talk to anybody about it. Nobody has the time to hear it. Besides, what they went through is probably worse.
Madonna's song is about loss. She remembers something. It's not repeated. Must be horrible, though! While the lyrics can be a mystery, that's what makes "Live to Tell" relatable. We ALL have a history of agonizing something that can never be expressed, only hidden from others until the happy guests have left and you are alone in the dark, where it's always there.
"Why," by Annie Lennox, is one of those ones.
The mournful agony expressed in the song "Why" by Annie Lennox is soul breaking. It's not just about loss and regret...it's the weight of it that never goes away, even with wisdom, experience and understanding. In the music video for the song, Lennox is a total queen, expressing a dozen emotions in a fraction of a minute most film actors can't. There is a visual glorious power in the final visual act she deserves.
That's beyond American pop, or post punk synth pop. It's timeless, tragic poetry. This is why the kind of music "Grace" embodies with the lyrics it has can stand up to any ancient ballad, poem, or play, whether it's "King Lear" or the Japanese kabuki play "Shunkun" which ends with an image on the stage of psychological trauma you don't want to know firsthand. It ain't always easy, being kabuki.
"Shunkun"
Consider the ancient love ballad, "Greensleaves." We don't know who wrote it. We don't know who it's about. Listen to the song. You'll notice something. It didn't end well for the songwriter. Centuries later, that tune is still rather popular. It was probably pop for it's time! Love can be pain, and pop can be about the admixture. "Grace," by Tara Macri, is that and more. It is also timeless.
"Grace" achieves a sort of perpetual motion machine energy by being uplifting, yet grounded in loss, suffering, spiritual anomie, and more. Tara Macri channeled her own heartache to create a song that has roots in rock, gospel, soul, synth, hip hop and jazz. Her own personality spiritualizes the work, taking the words, music and visuals to celestial heights only humans who have suffered can imagine.
Not to give away too much about Tara Macri's song and music video, just listen very carefully to the chorus. The song speeds up. There are back up singers. High tonal notes like serenading angels. Except. Listen to the words. They aren't happy. It's pain. Because that's the real truth. Dorian playwrights would have loved to sing "Grace" during the height of the Hellenistic Era. Most of their popular plays featured these miserable themes, where the hero loses everything except understanding.
MEDEA...the tragic, absolute lower depths of
isolation, loss and mortal misery timelessly
expressed in words, written by Euripides centuries ago.
(Actress Emőke-Katinka Márton from
The International Festival of Ancient Greek Drama.)
The music video for Tara Macri's cool creation ends with a message of hope. Similar to the very important "We," within "We will get by," in the epic song "Touch of Grey" by The Grateful Dead, sure, life can be misery. The world can seem worse. Every day might seem darker. At least you are not alone. Look around. Nobody is always having a good time, either. "We will survive." At least Macri has friends who empathize.
By the way, I'm not saying Tara Macri's music is merely pop. Or any genre. She's complex, like any inspirational, expert symphony. Read on to enjoy this awesome interview featuring her own wise words about life, "Grace," and living with music, today!
Tara Macri, on IMDb
“Grace” is about being thankful for the people supporting us. Did something happen that helped inspire that idea? Or was it just furthering enlightenment?
"Grace" actually started as something very personal that I was doing on my own. I lost someone very close to me and writing became a cathartic way for me to work through what I was feeling. I wasn't really thinking about releasing a song or what it was going to become. I was just trying to make sense of the loss and put some of those feelings somewhere.
Tara Macri takes the stage as
"Amber" in HAIRSPRAY.
Somewhere along the way "Grace" became less about the pain of losing someone and more about being grateful that you had that person in your life at all. It became about love, connection and the people who leave a mark on us.
That's really where “Who's your Grace?” came from. We've been asking people that since the song came out, and I love hearing their stories. Your "Grace" can be someone who's still here, someone you've lost, or even a pet. It's really anyone who has changed your life and stays with you in some way.
From the music video for "Grace."
Your incredible, vast career in entertainment doing everything else too really stands out. Does this give your songwriting more depth, compared to an average musician who just sings and writes?
I don't know if I'd say it gives me more depth than another songwriter, because everybody brings their own life experience to their music. There are so many amazing songwriters out there that I look up to.
But I definitely think everything I've done as an actor and performer influences the way I write. As an actor, you're always looking for the story underneath the words that aren't being said, what the person really wants where the emotion changes.
I think I naturally do that when I'm writing songs too. And then performing on Broadway taught me so much about how music and storytelling can work together. So, for me, acting, singing, performing and songwriting don't really feel like separate things anymore. They're all different ways of telling a story and connecting with people.
Another shot from the music video, featuring Tara Macri in a
dance sequence which is a dire threat to the Bollywood industry.
Your music carries such a strong sense of positivity and inspiration. Do you think there’s a place for more uplifting music in today’s landscape, or do you feel that darker, angrier themes naturally have a stronger presence in the industry?
Yeah, absolutely. I think there's room for all of it. Music should reflect what people are actually feeling and sometimes that's anger, heartbreak, or frustration. Those songs can make you feel understood when you're going through something.
But I also I think people really need hope and joy right now. And uplifting doesn't have to mean that everything is perfect. "Grace" actually came from something painful. For me, the positivity is about what you do with that pain and finding some light on the other side of it. I've always loved music that can make you feel something and still leave you feeling a little better than you did before.
