Ashley J – Dare Ya’ Single
URL: https://ashleyj.net/
Ashley J brings a fascinatingly diverse background, artistically, musically and otherwise, to her emergence into the pop-world.
Growing up in Orlando, the multi-talented singer/songwriter held her own with her four brothers and friends by achieving a Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do at age 5, and First and Second Degree Black Belts not long after. When she wasn’t training with her brothers and father, she was off with her mom to ballet classes. In her spare time, she was found writing song lyrics on her bathroom wall that her parents had to continuously repaint. Later attending the Dr. Phillips High School of Performing Arts in Orlando, she scored leading roles in theatre, dance and musical productions. From country to pop, Ashley J delivers and all around hit with “Dare Ya.” And it’s sort of a challenge song which pushes anyone that hears it.
This is good for motivating anyone’s day with its “get up and go” vibe. It clocks in at the classic three minute’s even, which is just another indication of the efforts put into it on all levels. Even if you’re like me and not familiar with her, you will instantly want to look more into her music. While other female artists seem to struggle to make such authentic pop music, she makes it sound so easy. And being from Texas, her transition into pop was a lot smoother than one might expect. There is still a little of that country essence to be heard, but if you didn’t know she had been singing country before, you probably wouldn’t notice. It’s that clean in every sense of the pop genre, but she still somehow maintains a little southern appeal. The song is based around some text messages she made, so it’s one from personal experience. The lyrics don’t take much examining to get the song in one listen, so this isn’t ordinary or pedestrian. It’s true blue all the way. There are no huge critical points to get into. This music should be widely distributed and she should see world stages. No question about it, those are the hurdles of the day. Labels don’t have everything it takes to to help the artist make it. They have to have distribution power and it isn’t what it used to be. It can be a struggle or a success in the digital world, depending on many factors. And I think this should go all the way, but then much that should, never does. While she deals mostly in the social-political here. Most pop usually does. It doesn’t fail in any area, as there is a sort of perfection going on that all pop demands. And on top of it there is an intelligence to it all, and these elements don’t often come together so well, call it “pop” or not. This happens whenever something perfect comes along. You can’t fault it in any way. So, perhaps suggesting that full albums are really where the listener is best served, no matter what genre. That is all there is to take away, and just hope that sinks in. We aren’t living in the age where albums are popular and that is where a lot of reviewers can struggle, as one song isn’t hardly ever much to really write a lot about. It’s all just opinions and artist bio. But there is always hope for more, especially when someone is this good. You don’t have to like pop of this sort all that much to still identify with this, as any self-respecting music lover can use a sense of non-bias very easily here. That is well worth describing about Ashley Ja and this particular single. But it’s also no gripe either, because even though it has that ever familiar pop ring to it, there is still something enormously original to offer.
You just don’t get this excellence every single day, but you do get a lot of general pop music of both good and bad quality. Ashley makes pop her own somehow, and it could be her country roots because that has taken on quite a pop sense over the last 20 years as well. Whatever it is, she is doing something right, especially if you listen to more of her, which hearing “Dare Ya” is sure to result in.
I-TUNES: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/dare-ya-single/id1103031772
Larry Toering
10/10