12.17.11 BTIKM lyrics, full song, Shanghai

I want to respond to smokeyvera from last nights thread.

I am not and likely will never be a fan of synth/electronica of any sort and as an old fart I blame it all on Keith Emerson, LOL, who did way too much of it for way too long during my formative years.
But I LOVE the layering of Adam's voices and do think BTIKM has a real shot at going Top 10 CHR. BTIKM has beautiful vocals and the harmonies he does with himself are astounding and even better, they hint at what he will do with this song live.
He will transform this song just like he did Sleepwalker which I hated on the album but came to call one of my favorites live.
The live performances of BTIKM are going to KNOCK OUR SOCKS OFF.

That said I am certain there will be other songs I love more. I want edgy Adam pushing limits as well as pushing buttons with mad abandon.
But it is not the time for that.
Here is what I think went down (more or less)-

For Era1, FYE, I think Adam managed to somehow persuade RCA to allow FYE to be the first single.
I think he was still in his WeHo bubble where edgy is more common than in My Town- the S&M imagery to him was playful and fun but to My Town it was The Scary Gay OMG DNW.
I think that the Post AMA period saw Adam rethinking his perceptions a bit- he is still all "if it's not for you go listen to the other guy" but he does want to be successful and appeal to the masses and I think that when he fully understood what that would entail it was a bit of an epiphany for him.
Between WWFM hitting and his GNT tour I think he was more able to understand that what plays well in his WeHo circle does not always play well in Mainstream USA- we can be a backward bunch, LOL.
What Rihanna can get away with does not equal what The Scary Gay can get away with.
Not fair but true and as such it figures into any decisions.

So... this time around I do believe he and RCA did massive focus groupish things and in the end he decided that it would be best to start off with something a tad more safe and accessible to CHR. Other than the voice IMO it sounds like everything else out there and I think that at this point that is a very good thing.
It is not groundbreaking and most certainly does not reinvent CHR and I think that was a calculated move by Adam and RCA together.
Personally I applaud him for being able to grok what radio wants and perhaps adjust his song choices and presentation to fit. I think he would FAR rather be out there dancing on the edge of a razor blade and wailing a mad vocal in a song from Planet Fierce. He will do that.
But in order to be "allowed" to do that he needs to be fully accepted as a legit popstar first- not as gay novelty act. WWFM got his foot in the door and hopefully BTIKM will get him the rest of the way in.

So I do understand a certain level of disappointment when we all know he is capable of doing shocking, edgy, WTF sorts of songs that combined with his vocals could set the music world on its ass.
But I do not think this is the time for that.
This is the time for him to cement his spot as a viable CHR artist with a huge presence on pop radio and whose songs are earwormy plus killer vocals.
I think BTIKM is the right song to do that.
So while you, I, and likely Adam himself would personally have chosen something edgier with more BAMM, in the long term this was the right choice.
It's like bringing home a boyfriend- let him get comfortably settled in the living rooms of mainstream America and hang around long enough that they can see he's a non-threatening fun guy who is a welcome addition to their circle of friends. Then when he comes out with a doozy of a mindbending WTF song they will laugh and say "Oh, that's just Adam being edgy" as opposed to OMG The Scary Gay.

Those of you in larger metro areas will laugh and think I am being overly dramatic.
But lemme tell you- I moved from a major metro, very gay friendly area to uber-small town red state America and I am certain that "safe and just like everyone else" can be a Very Good Thing in terms of how he presents himself this time around.
I think this single will do it's job, and I think that job is to be another Top 10 song on CHR, following on the heels of WWFM and appealing to a very broad audience.
Then in spring when the album drops we will get our BAMM WTF single.

I'm typing on one cup of coffee here and hope I make sense with all my ridiculous analogies.
Hope I didn't derail the Adam shopping goodness, but saw the conversation on the tail end of last nights thread and wanted to respond to it.