Amerie is the source
July 5th, 2022
The go-go music soundscape of DC
AND HOW AMERIE’S EAR CREATED A UNIVERSE FOR WOMEN VOCALISTS TO EXPLORE
Current Favorites:
2. Hate2LoveU (2007) [Because I Love It]
8. Hatin’ On You (2002) [All I Have]
7. Come With Me (2005) [Touch]
Youtube channels “Empressive” and “honest” have well-curated retrospectives on Amerie’s trajectory in the music industry. These video essays dive into much of her background, including meeting her co-pilot, Rich Harrison who would marry her voice with go-go beats to produce the entirety of All I Have, which in my opinion is DANS (a term I coined meaning Debut Album, No Skips).
While writing this in haste, I won’t pretend to know everything about the full history of Amerie’s career, or the full extent of tribulations she dealt with while in her record deal with Sony. I won’t pretend to know the full history of go-go music, which is the DC-regional genre she leaned heavily into for her first three albums. I won’t even pretend that I knew how to correctly pronounce Amerie’s name (ay-marie) up until a week ago.
Thankfully, I do know how to articulate what I Love about her sound. Her tonality. Her vocal layering. Her beat selection. It is all uniquely her, which contributes to my haste in writing this. I feel this sense of urgency to reintroduce her presence and catalog into the 2020s, though I don’t have to try too hard because her influence still seeps into the pop and hiphop sound of many artists today. She is the go-go concentrate in every sip of Ariana and Mariah and Alicia and Beyoncé and Keri and Fergie and many others.
Though all of these aforementioned women have styles, cadences, and sounds entirely distinct from Amerie, there are apparent correlations throughout their respective discographies that can be traced back to the go-go, upbeat flair that is imprinted in Amerie’s early work.
I love the music artist Neon Indian, and it took me a couple years to realize that Neon Indian really loves Prince, and all of the sudden, I could hear the influence all throughout the N.I. discography. Learning that relation enhanced my ear and helped me better articulate why I like certain sounds and be able to identify where those sounds are coming from. I love the verses in “Problem” by Ariana Grande, “Your Girl” by Mariah Carey, “Teenage Love Affair” by Alicia Keys; the only Beyoncé album I revisit in full is B’day, which actually features production from Harrison. Though these women have excellent ballad and pop performances, the songs I happen to be stuck on from their catalogs are derivative of a common source. These songs share rhythmic intricacies and vocal melodies that are complementary and give an infectious energy akin to many of the songs on Amerie’s first few records.
Apart from her contemporaries in the early 2000s, Amerie is special in that almost every song on her debut and sophomore albums showcase that she knew exactly what she wanted. Her style wasn’t a phase, or experimental, but rather so refined and intentional, that it was retained even past her partnership with Harrison in 2005. I credit Amerie’s ear and attention to detail because of her ability to work with other producers and know what would build upon the sonic platform she created. Though other producers like Kanye and fellow DMV producers The Neptunes could make beats in the same world as Harrison’s, the pairing of pop female lead vocals with heavy hitting percussive instrumentals has an unmistakable origin.
I’ve found such joy in digging through Amerie’s catalog and finding banger after banger. It’s worth noting that she is active on her Youtube channel, where she shares updates about her book club, and announces new independently released music.
by Tim Mensa
via Billboard; shot by Mr. Nicholson
“1 THING” Live 2005
“Too Much For Me” DJ Kay Slay ft. Amerie (2003)
