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Your support makes all the difference.Global sales of Shania Twain's Come On Over apparently now exceed 34 million copies – a figure unchallenged even by the Madonnas and Alanises of the pop industry, and one that gives some indication of the changes afoot in the market-place, particularly with regard to female vocalists. Until recently, the top runners came mostly from the soul-diva stable (Whitney, Mariah, etc), whose elegant pop-soul stylings connected with the materialist aspirations of a freshly independent generation of young women, both black and white. The greediest of these has since been lured away by the more nakedly money-oriented approach of hip hop's "bling-bling" tendency, while the glaring inconsistency between those materialist pipe dreams and the more impecunious realities faced by listeners has ultimately found a more accurate echo in the tough-love attitudes and hard-luck stories of country music.
Hence the rise of über-country divas such as Shania, whose blend of glamour and self-reliance comes with less bitterness and more cheery resolve than most soul divas can muster. And, it must be admitted, less mud on the boots than Tammy, Loretta and Patsy.
It helps having a husband such as "Mutt" Lange, whose production track-record overshadows even that of Dr Dre. A notorious perfectionist, Lange has devised for his wife a style and sound that bears only a passing similarity to the country music she was performing a decade ago. Make that two styles and sounds – no, make that three: for, in order to leave as few demographic avenues untrodden in the search for more sales, the 19 tracks of Up! are available in three different formats. There's the basic country (or Green) format, mercifully available only to the US market; the standard pop (Red) format; and an international (Blue) format aimed at Shania's presumably sizeable Third World fan base, featuring world-music arrangements of the same songs.
The UK release includes both Red and Blue CDs, allowing one to compare how, for instance, the Dire Straits-style guitar and "Mamma Mia" keyboard chorus of "I'm Gonna Getcha Good!" are replaced for the Blue edition by puttering tabla, Bollywood strings and flute; or how the country-funk-lite of "Ain't No Particular Way" takes on harmonium and a gentle reggae beat.
There are some obvious ironies and anomalies – most notably when the already understated Latin character of "Juanita" all but disappears in the international version – and it's clear that songs such as "Forever And For Always" and "It Only Hurts" are fundamentally country songs adrift in alien waters in both Red and Blue formats. But the most brazen irony of all comes in the track "Ka-Ching!", which finds Shania chastising our "greedy little world" for being so money-driven. Clearly, a message that comes straight from her heart.
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