You Oughta Blow: Kid-Detested, Hilton-Approved Eric Hutchinson

Posted at 12:30 PM Aug 28, 2008

By Kenny Herzog

It’s hard to say if any genre of commercial music is more deplorable than the post-G. Love, Jason Mraz-mired miasma of mellowed-out , semi-acoustic, faux-beatnik jam-tasticness. For lack of a more concise categorization. And while I’m equally leery of arty indieness for its own sake, I’ll take another flash-in-the-pan Pitchfork favorite any day over one more VH1 You Oughta Know-friendly artist like Eric Hutchinson, who’s “Rock & Roll” video is getting heavy rotation on the network, making weekday mornings that much more unmemorable.

Like the Starbucks locations his music no doubt inhabits, the recipe for a guy like Hutchinson is simple: Take the original, gritty concept behind an American institution (in this case, anything resembling resonant rock or R & B) and render it marketably soulless enough to lure in millions of busy consumers with a thirst for something communal without the time or inclination to develop a more meaningful relationship with it.

Watching the clip for “Rock & Roll,” you get the sense Hutchinson was awkwardly coerced into less-than-natural situations (dancing rhythmically, standing in front of a huge marquee with his name on it), but that doesn’t excuse its pandering “everyday people” motif of the artist swaggering and strolling across scenes of authentic city life (look! I’m doing a jig with a kindly old black man on the bus stop!). Nor does he engender any good-humored cred for featuring his biggest fan, Perez Hilton, in the clip (look! I’m talented but I don’t have a weird celebrity ego!). It just makes him look like he has shitty taste in people who have shitty taste. And the flannel-and-jeans, "I'm just an ordinary fella" routine? I'd buy it were it not for the Jonas Brothers haircut.