Rolling Teenpop 2006 Thread

The girls are all named (there are 9 of them) and they all get nicknames in the form of "___ Girl" like "Party Girl" and "All-Star Girl." Also, they get individual bios and the first thing is "Always Says" producing such answers as "Snap!" and "Guess what?" and "Whatever..." and "Oh yeah!" which I hope the girls will work on before they have to commit to a yearbook quote, because quite frankly those are super-indistinctive.

This may be one of our few major areas of disagreement!

I cannot see how stuff like "Coming Back For More", "Dancing Alone", "Burning Up", "I Am Me", "Eyes Wide Open" and "Kicking & Screaming" could be described as an "interminable sludge of guitars" with no hooks!

much much better - PARIS HILTON album. i will start a thread i think.

i have listened to this album LOADS in an effort to get it, it's worrying me as well, this is why i'm going on about it. but it's just so unremittingly uncatchy, it goes in one ear and out the other.

maybe if i skipped 'boyfriend' before listening to the rest.

[Sorry if this is a double-post; I'm getting poxy fuled all over the place]

Radio Disney is hardly the only word in teenpop; MTV-TRL is another concentration of teenpower, one that isn't committed to pushing Disney product (though for all I know they have the same parent corporation at this point). Cheyenne Kimball - with an MTV reality show - is hanging on at 35 in mainstream pop airplay with 1,248 spins, while Hannah Montana is getting a big fat zero. And JoJo's "Too Little Too Late" is getting 3,612 spins and rising on mainstream pop, while not showing in the Disney Top 50.

By the way, do any of you know what Nickelodeon is doing to promote music, and to promote itself among teenpop fans? I don't have a TV and don't know if Nickelodeon has a musical impact or not.

I'm surprised Hilary's old stuff isn't showing higher, or Avril's. My guess is that you find them around 3 or 4 plays along with "I Got You" and "Get Ready For This" and "Jumpin Jumpin" and "Who Let the Dogs Out." I wonder if the new Hilary will get much Disney play, given that it's going for a glossy Kylie Minogue Eurodisco sound. And I'll bet that "London Bridge" is getting lotsa lotsa lotsa kid play but that Radio Disney won't touch it.

That's because Jojo's new single just got added into rotation this week. Expect it to make a showing starting next week when the new top 30 comes out (although the positive response wasn't overwhelming for adding "Too Late," something like 73%).

what Nickelodeon is doing to promote music

The only Nick breakthrough is Emma Roberts, who was handled by one of the major labels with no affiliation w/ Nickelodeon specifically. IIRC Nick is part of Viacom, so I imagine the parent company is more interested in what's going on over at TRL, but they could make a little niche for themselves if they really wanted to, they have Jamie Lynn Spears, too (who as far as I know doesn't have any music available outside the theme song to her show, written by Britney!). Disney occasionally gives slight nods to Nick types but obviously their interest is in promoting their own artists...including Jordan Pruitt who I think is on Hollywood.

Avril might finally be burned out after god knows how long of "Sk8er Boi" (and nothing else) in the top 30.

Also re: the posted chart, keep an eye out for "I Got Nerve" by Hannah, it's probably her best. Doesn't seem to have much hope of crossing over...WBS, you might like "Nerve" better than theme songish "Best of Both Worlds"...it's streaming over at the Angry Samoans Myspace after Circle Jerks - "Red Tape"

It would be so great for the new Hilary to make it on RD, and I'm sure they'll do everything in their power to get it on the charts since it's still in house. But I'm pretty sure kids aren't going to be voting for it in "Wake Up"/"Beat of My Heart" numbers (I do expect it to do pretty well on TRL, though, maybe her stepping stone away from Disney?)

On Paris Hilton: I've only scanned the album, but I'm incredibly disappointed. People were telling me that the album was actually quite good - but even Storch's (very talented) production can't stop her vocals from grating on me. I can bear to listen to "Stars are Blind," but that's the exception. In general, she drones.

Christina on the other hand, is a delight. I'll probably be listening to the album in the weeks to come - because that brassy, big-band sound she's got is fabulous.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4sJMcgeDe0

You be the judge!(If it's not old already)

I listened to Chemicals React. I like the consistency in the lyrical theme ("You make me feel out of my element / like I'm walking on broken glass."). She's talking about elements/glass/chemicals, both on the physical plane and also emotionally. I get the feeling listening to the song that the chemicals reacting aren't the classical love song chemicals. It's more physical, like their very physical properties (skin, blood, bone?). This isn't novel, but it's fun for the moment, and the implication of physical romance doesn't seem par for the course for Disney. Especially when one of the singers is still on a Disney sitcom (Phil of the Future). And my sister swears by it.

On that note, I found most of Aly + AJ's songs on the Intro the Rush album. But I couldn't find Chemicals React there (I ended up using Myspace). Is that coming out on the new album?

Also, I notice that the actual playlist doesn't altogether match up with what the Radio Disney site lists as its Top 30.

And if you check Mediabase you'll see that JoJo is neck-and-neck with Nickelback for the greatest increase in plays in the last 7 days on Mainstream Top 40, while Disney is still barely playing "Too Little Too Late" or not playing it at all. (But if you combine all charts I'll bet that Evenescence has the biggest increase in plays overall.)

I'm guessing that the part that seems "Avril/Gothy" to you is the droney verse rather than the chorus.

Yeah, the maid keeps calling in sick.

Writer credits on "Jealousy": Kara DioGuardi, Paris Hilton, Scott Storch. I'd credit DioGuardi with lots of the beauty.

And I guess it's time to say that I've had an advance of the Platinum Weird CD for almost three weeks, it has powerful moments and tuneful moments, but overall it's not taking me to the moon. "Middling MOR pop-rock" underrates it, but still, that's its neighborhood (as opposed to Ashlee's restless, pained, complex, ecstatic, glorious MOR pop-rock).

[For those new to the thread, Platinum Weird is Kara DioGuardi and Dave Stewart, Kara singing lead, prod. by John Shanks, who co-writes four of the songs. Shanks and DioGuardi, together and separately, have had a hand in a huge chunk of the stuff being drooled over in this thread. You can be sure I'll have more to say on the alb.]

PARIS by PARIS HILTON, track by track: album of the year!
In a shock move, people at the Other Place are being mean about this album. But it should be right up the Poptimist alley!

'Turn It Up' - a typical Scott Storch crunk'n'b banger which starts off with Paris yelping "yah! that's hott!" over minimal bleeps and beats, before it turns into this incredible super-polished Britney-fronting-Pussycat Dolls thing, breathy yelps and whispers for the verses and elegant lift-off synths for the chorus
'Fightin' Over Me' - even more minimal, plinky-plonky synths and not much else as Paris sets Fat Joe and Jadakiss at each other's throats for the honour of, it turns out, being rejected by her. "All those boys, all those silly boys," she rolls her eyes, before inexplicably giggling "Welcome to Paris!" - pronounced the French way
'Stars Are Blind' - you know this already. Gorgeous, yearning, boundlessly hopeful
'I Want You' - even more plastic fantastic, underpinned by a massive horn sample which careers along like an unstoppable force over some sterling chord changes
'Jealousy' - the one about Nicole Richie which I talked about yesterday
'Heartbeat' - absolutely gorgeous ballad which drifts along on a cloud of dreamy, very 80s synths before bursting into a chorus which is, again, really, genuinely moving in its hopefulness and yearning. It reminds me of a cross between Annie's 'Heartbeat' and 'Time After Time', it's that good
'Nothing In This World' - comes on like 'Since U Been Gone', having got the angst out of its system and able to breathe for the first time, donning its zip-up boots and heading down to the local disco for some whirlwind romance. If this means stealing another girl's man then so be it - Paris makes the line "I can do what she can do so much better!" sound like the most innocently optimistic thing ever. She doesn't mean to be mean! (Also, this album is the first I've heard which ties both strands of current teenpop - guitar-based confessional Lohan/Lavigne/Clarkson/Simpson Jr teenrock, and hott beatz'n'braggadocio r&b - together again - a really important accomplishment)
'Screwed' - an absolute stormer, much better than the remix which got leaked last year. The tune is just unstoppable, the 4/4 kick under the chorus awe-inspiring, and the lyrics excellent - in the first verse it's all about "the same old story: boy meets girl and she falls much harder than him", in the second "boy falls under the spell of a woman from hell". Somewhere in there she would like intimacy over getting screwed but until then she'll merrily dance the night away. I have lobbied for this to be the next single!
'Not Leaving Without You' - more amazing pop goodness; starts with thrumming disco synth and twanging country guitar before it explodes into an irresistible prime-80s-Madonna chorus of "We can dance! We can dance! We can dance!", a TICK-TOCK TICk-TOCK moment (surely now mandatory for all female popstrels) and a stomping, whirling conclusion PLUS RAP - "I wanna know what you dream about! I wanna know what you're thinkin' now! And when the lights go down and you come around, let me see what it's all about!"
'Turn You On' - back to the Storch crunk'n'b for a tongue-firmly-entrenched-in-the-bubblegum-lodged-in-Paris's-cheek tease of a song. "I'm sexy and you know it - clap your hands!" she orders before declaring "tonight I'll be your liquid dream" (nice, Paris, nice) and "Girls and boys are looking at me! I can't blame, I'm so sexy!" This is what I envisaged Paris's pop career to be like and she has not let me down
'Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?' - initially I just thought this was funny, shoved on to the end of the album at Paris's insistence even though everyone else involved is slightly embarrassed, and backing away from her like everyone tries to pretend the drunk girl doing horrid karaoke isn't in their group of friends, oh no, we don't know her at all. But I think I like it properly now! I never thought I'd hear a version of this hitherto appalling song which made it not only tolerable but good

So, overall: POP ALBUM OF THE YEAR! Hurrah!

1 "Turn It Up" Bowden, Hilton, Magnet, Storch 3:12
2 "Fightin' Over Me" Fat Joe, Hilton, Jackson, Jackson, Jadakiss, Magnet, Storch 4:01
3 "Stars Are Blind" Garlbay, McCarthy, Solomon 3:56
4 "I Want You" Bogart, DioGuardi, Gibb, Rotem 3:12
5 "Jealousy" DioGuardi, Hilton, Storch 3:40
6 "Heartbeat" Alexander, Steinberg, Storch 3:43
7 "Nothing in This World" Gottwald, Solomon 3:10
8 "Screwed" DioGuardi, Wells 3:41
9 "Not Leaving Without You" DioGuardi, Hilton, Wells 3:35
10 "Turn You On" Hilton, Jackson, Jackson, Storch, Triggs 3:06
11 "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy" Appice, Hitchings, Stewart 4:34

Um, P!nk certainly had these moments. And Clarkson too, though I wouldn't call it braggadocio, and it would be hott beat dance-pop more than hott beat r&b. Kelly was dance-pop before she was rock. But maybe in her case she alternates different types of songs rather than running them together.

dancepop and confessional rock sit together more easily than r&b and confessional rock - even ashlee does it! while i can imagine any given teenrock singer doing an upbeat dancepop song, it's harder to imagine a clarkson or a simpson jr over storch productions like 'turn it up' or 'buttonz'.

Anyway, the bigger news is that Skye's track with Dr. Luke and Max Martin is confirmed, called "Girl Like Me." The only description of it so far is "rock" (duh) so probably Kelly C/Veronicas variety. Album pushed to next year, hopefully the single will come out before then.

Also, there's a little bit of the R&B past running through Pink's new stuff, U + UR Hand is like some weird union of GTPS and 4ever

(From Brooklynvegan)

Since when did Bob Dylan become such a blowhard? I'm reminded of when Woody Allen said that movies like American Pie are rubbish. Frank, don't you see Dylan as a part of the teen-pop tradition? I suppose Ashley Simpson will be dismissing pop music 30 years hence.

"U + Ur Hand" seems like it's going to be a great song, "4ever" given chopped-up beats, but then goes awry with forced singing. Irritating.