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The singer Pink is as colorful as ever
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Pink has bad news for feminists: She thinks the movement failed.
“In the `50s, women were supposed to just smile and stay in the kitchen,” the singer says. “Now, we’re supposed to just smile and run around and look sexy. The big difference is, instead of men telling us to do this, we’re telling it to ourselves.”
If all this sounds like a teaser for an “Oprah” episode on women’s self-esteem, welcome to the new world of Pink. The always outspoken star (who hardly shies away from wearing sexy duds herself) has gone from singing about her own issues on her first three albums to addressing what she sees as our screwed up society on album No. 4, “I’m Not Dead,” which comes out this week.
“I’m just more aware,” says the 26-year-old who was born Alecia Moore. “There’s so much happening in the world, so many reasons to take the blinders off.”
Which explains why her album includes an acoustic protest song called “Dear Mr. President,” which critiques not just Bush’s war in Iraq, but his view of children, education, the homeless, gay people and abortion rights.
Of course the song that has gotten the most attention so far is the single “Stupid Girls,” which addresses what Pink calls “the porno paparazzi girls” – those ditzy dames who shop at Fred Segal in L.A. for T-shirts barely big enough to drape a baby, drop star names, and dance to 50 Cent videos instead of doing something meaningful with their lives. It’s impossible to hear this ditty without thinking of folks whose names include Paris, Lindsay and Mary-Kate – especially since they’re directly lampooned in the song’s video. Still,
Namely: that it’s considered cool to be dumb these days. “There’s just not a lot of smart, sexy women out there,” she says. “I don’t even think these girls I’m talking about are stupid. I think they act that way because that’s how to make money.”
It only seems to prove the song’s point that it hasn’t struck as deep a commercial chord as Pink may have wished. It only got to No. 13 on Billboard’s Hot 100 Song list. This week it dips to 31. That’s representative of Pink’s career at this point. She needs to pull off a comeback with this album, a reality she cheekily alludes to with her “I’m Not Dead” title. Her previous album, “Try This,” sold a tepid 700,000 copies. Its predecessor, “Miss Undaztood,” moved 5 million.
Pink claims not to be fazed. “I had my goals for (`Try This’),” the singer states. “It was respected critically. I got my Grammy and I got a break as well. I got to go home and see my dogs instead of being on tour.”
In the time between, Pink also had the chance to mature. She married her boyfriend, motocross champion Carey Hart. S
“That’s the way it’s been for us for the whole four or five years we’ve been together,” the singer says. “We meet in hotel rooms. How fun is that?”
Pink pronounces that last line with a cackle, her most common punctuation. For all her new seriousness, it seems, Pink has thankfully not turned into preach-queen Madonna. In both conversation and music, she still seems to be having a blast. Most of “I’m Not Dead” boasts the catchy pop rock that fired her previous CDs. And she’s as lyrically sassy as ever, evidenced in the kiss-off to a guy, “U and Ur Hand,” or the song “Leave Me Alone,” in which Pink sings about bristling under any lover who crowds her space.
Better, the album offers yet another showcase for her powerhouse voice. Combined with her “in your face” character, that quality made Pink a good choice to play Janis Joplin in a proposed movie about the legend. Right now, the film’s fate is up in the air. “I believe Janis is up in the sky pulling the strings,” Pink thinks. “If she wants it made, it will be.”
In the meantime, the singer took a part in the horror flick “Catacombs” (from the same sadists who brought you “Saw”). Pink hasn’t seen the final flick. “Too scared,” she says, though it’s not clear if that statement refers to the content or to her own performance.
Either way, Pink says she feels encouraged to do more acting, given some of the films gaining acclaim these days, like “Transamerica” and “Good Night, and Good Luck.”
With such works resonating in the culture, Pink says she isn’t ready to give up on her generation just yet _ no matter how much goofiness and apathy she sees around her. “There still are a lot of smart, (angry) kids out there who are not taking this crap,” she says. “So there’s hope.”
Jim Farber
Knight Ridder Tribune
