Ever since their breakup, she’s suffocating, and he feels lost at sea. Both wonder how they’re supposed to breathe without each other.
That’s the musical question posed by Jordin Sparks and Chris Brown in their current smash duet, “No Air.” Hearing the intertwined voices — the anguish! the drama! — of these two teen soul-pop sensations is a reminder of previous hit duets throughout the years, when singers would come together to create a fusion either playful or romantic.
From Diana Ross and Lionel Richie rhapsodizing about “Endless Love” to Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder using the keys on the piano as a metaphor for racial harmony on “Ebony and Ivory,” duets have represented some of the most popular R&B, pop and country songs of the past 50 years.
But if it takes two to make a thing go right, then something hasn’t been quite right for a while. Of the 24 entries on the current Billboard Hot 100 chart that have two names attached to them, only two technically are classified as duets. “No Air” continues to cling to the Top 20, and “This Is Me,” the new single from Demi Lovato and Joe Jonas, from the duo’s Disney Channel film “Camp Rock,” made a splashy debut at No. 11 this week.
For the sake of satisfying our definition of duet — two people trading sung vocals — we’d also include “4 Minutes” by Madonna featuring Justin Timberlake and “If I Never See Your Face Again” by Maroon 5 featuring Rihanna in our accounting.
So what happened to the hit duet? Following a peak in the 1980s — when more than 30 twosomes claimed spots on the year-end Hot 100 chart — the form began to fade as musicians started to team up in new ways as mainstream tastes shifted from conventional pop to hip-hop.
From 2000 until the present, a meager seven traditional partnerships have made the year-end grade, including “Picture” by Kid Rock and Sheryl Crow and “Beer for My Horses” by Toby Keith and Willie Nelson.
“I think what happened in the ’90s was the definition of a duet changed,” says Chuck Taylor, senior correspondent for Billboard. “The way that we personified what a duet was became something different. Since hip-hop was so pervasive as the pop music of the ’90s, I think in large part you lost a lot of the melodic music that once would’ve commanded the top spots on the charts and radio.”
That evolution fed into our increasingly accelerated culture. So what we have now are duets for the shuffle generation where pop songs are lent a dash of edgy cool by hip-hop cameos, like “Crazy in Love” by Beyonce featuring Jay-Z. Gruff-voiced raps are broken up by hooky, softer choruses, like “Over and Over” by Nelly featuring Tim McGraw, and, presumably, no one gets bored.
“The audience nowadays is different, and their attention span is very short, so rap songs are usually much more aggressive. So the duet thing probably doesn’t work,” says Michael Mitchell, an executive at Time-Life. “That’s how society is now: Everything’s compartmentalized.”
Although the “featuring” phenomenon had already begun to make its presence known — notably in 1991 with “Good Vibrations” by Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch featuring Loleatta Holloway — Taylor points to the 1997 hit “I’ll Be Missing You,” a rap-sung collaboration between Puff Daddy (as hip-hop mogul Sean Combs called himself then) and singer Faith Evans as the critical juncture.
“I think if you’re pinpointing a song that made everyone’s eyebrows raise, that would be one,” Taylor says of the tribute to rapper Notorious B.I.G.
Another reason these potential partnerships have been on the wane is record-company red tape.
“In the ’80s it was funny. I guess there was more reciprocity you’d call it between the labels,” says Harvey Mason Jr., co-writer and co-producer of “No Air” and a huge fan of duets. “People would cooperate and say, ‘You can use my artist, and I’ll use your artist.’ Now if they’re not on the same label, it’s really hard.”
Taylor sees the success of “No Air” paving the way for future traditional twosomes on the charts. The fact that there are four near the top of the Hot 100 at the moment, the most in several years, suggests audiences are warming up to the idea of two peas in their iPod.
“When a song like [that] hits No. 1 on iTunes, radio is now getting with the program and realizing they need to put that on the air,” Taylor says. “So I think we are seeing a turn toward more variety, and thus we are getting some of those traditional-style duets again. And ‘No Air’ is a perfect example. It’s contemporary with enough of an R&B edge to appeal to youth, but it’s also entirely melodic.”
DOUBLE YOUR PLEASURE
Duets used to dominate the charts. Here are some of the most notable and notorious duets from years past. [THE BOSTON GLOBE, REDEYE]
Jackson
JOHNNY CASH AND JUNE CARTER CASH
The Man in Black and his spicy bride at their most playful.
Proud Mary
IKE TURNER AND TINA TURNER
Ike and Tina’s take on John Fogerty’s song about a steamboat is the reason anyone cares about them today.
You’re the One That I Want
JOHN TRAVOLTA AND OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN
Travolta takes his turn with the hottest pop diva of the era and churns out an instant classic that still sends girls shrieking.
Guilty
BARRY GIBB AND BARBRA STREISAND
OK, this is the most aptly titled entry on the list. It oughta be illegal.
Endless Love
LIONEL RICHIE AND DIANA ROSS
The Brooke Shields movie may have faded from memory, but not this tender ode to first love.
Leather and Lace
DON HENLEY AND STEVIE NICKS
The one-time first couple of ’70s rock join in raspy-voiced bliss to compare closets.
State of Shock
MICK JAGGER AND THE JACKSONS
Seriously odd but totally funky, and how can you beat Jacko and Jagger trading lines like “you got me deep-fried”?
Kingdom of Rain
SINEAD O’CONNOR AND THE THE
Feel the chills of the lyrics from this one: “Our bed is empty/the fire is out.”
Candy
IGGY POP AND KATE PIERSON
The Stooge and the B-52 make a surprisingly pretty pair on this touching tale of yearning.
Henry Lee
NICK CAVE AND PJ HARVEY
Dark, sexy and a little scary. We’d expect nothing less from these two tackling a murder ballad.
I’ll Be Missing You
PUFF DADDY AND FAITH EVANS, 1997
It’s been said this song was the one that “killed” all duets. After 1997, duets were few and far between– “featuring” artists became more popular than duets.
The Boy is Mine
BRANDY AND MONICA
Oh, no she didn’t! Oh, yes she did.
As
GEORGE MICHAEL AND MARY J. BLIGE
Wham, a hip and fresh read on a Stevie Wonder treasure.
IT TAKES TWO
There have been some memorable and utterly forgettable duets in music, but here are a few we think would stand the test of time. For a little while, at least. [REDEYE]
* Kanye West and Amy Winehouse. They need to make up.
* Lil Wayne and Carrie Underwood. Talk about an uncomfortable pairing.
* Paris Hilton and Benji Madden. Could they make good music together — or just look good together?
* Britney Spears and T-Pain. The battle of the computer-assisted voices.
* Chris Daughtry and David Cook. Would you be able to tell which “Idol” is singing which lines?
txt
SINGING WITH JACKO
Michael Jackson was one of the more prolific duet singers during the 1980s and 1990s. Which one of these artists did he not duet with? Text “duet” and the number of your answer to 47383. You’ll get a message in return telling you if you got the answer right or wrong.
(1) Madonna
(2) Stevie Wonder
(3) Mick Jagger
(4) Paul McCartney
