Rolling Teenpop 2007 Thread

My daughter's junior high concert tonight featured the 6th and 7th grade choruses doing the following songs: "Breakaway," "My Boo," "We Go Together" (from Grease), a medley of "My Girl" and "My Guy," "Bless the Broken Road," "Rush," "A Whole New World," "Hurt" (Aguilera version), and "Live Like You Were Dying." It was awesome. That is all.

Uh, Idolator of all places just tipped me to the first <A href="http://idolator.com/ybtunes/mp3/leak-of-the-day-part-two-high-school-musical-2-is-out-for-the-summer-264614.php&quot;>HSM single</a>. Like the summer version of "We're All in This Together," basically. Coulda made a good S Club single, maybe? Why do they use such canned horns? Ah, now I'm remembering that I don't really care about 80% of the first HSM soundtrack, hmmmm.

Woops, new HSM single.

Jewish Novelty Hip-Hop Albums

Hip-Hop Hoodios. (Not great, but definitely Jewish, and novelty. With rock en espanol tossed in, too.)

And there was this one duo that Marc Weisblott (I think) reviewed for me at the Voice six or seven years ago -- they blew 2 Live Jews out of the water, but I'm forgetting their name, and google isn't helping. (Also, were Blood of Abraham a novelty?)

As for "Greatest Novelty Hip-Hop Albums Ever", I bet you could find all kinds of great ones that came out pre-1990 if you really looked--hell, at the beginning, lots of hip-hop was novelty music by definition. (And come to think of it, lots of it never stopped.) "Rapper's Delight" was totally a novelty hit, and so are "Lip Gloss" and "Party Like a Rock Star" and "Cupid Shuffle" and "Vans"! So no, Matisyahu and So-Called etc. don't come anywhere near close to that list; that's just silly. Though Wake Your Daughter Up by No Face might.

I assume Rodney Dangerfield would make the Jewish novelty hip-hop list as well:

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y216/swdavies35/RappinRodney.jpg

Also maybe Mel Brooks with "It's Good to Be The King" and "Hitler Rap" (though actually I'm not sure whether he or Rodney ever made full hip-hip albums per se'. I'm pretty sure Mel didn't, actually.)

Also Bob Dylan with "Subterranean Homesick Blues."

at the beginning, lots of hip-hop was novelty music by definition

as far as the (white) music industry was concerned anyway

Well, the concept of "novelty" is always relative, sure. (Things are only novel in relation to non-novelties, right?) But it's hard to think that, say, Frankie Smith didn't consider "Double Dutch Bus" (to name one obvious example) a novelty song in some way.

From Aly & AJ Myspace:

"We are getting into rehearsal mode for our upcoming tour and can't wait for you to hear our new songs LIVE! Our official track listing for Insomniatic is:

1. Potential Breakup Song
2. Bullseye
3. Closure
4. Division
5. Like It Or Leave It
6. Like Whoa
7. Insomniatic
8. Silence
9. If I Could Have You Back
10. Blush
11. Flattery
12. I'm Here
13. Chemicals React (Remix)

Just thought you'd want to know! We're stoked!

Love, Aly & AJ"

Is this Potential Breakup Song just a fluke moment of genius or is it a NEW DIRECTION?! I need another.

Crazy over-the-top cryptic Metal Mike Saunders email about crazy over-the-top bubbledance Europop songs; you'll have to cut and paste the youtube links (none of which I've actually looked at yet) yourownself:

-----
my Dutch pop-music pimp connection, 15 year punk rocker Sophia Zobel (who helped at the merch table w/several of their friends, the last gig day in Dusseldorf during its endless 10 crummy punk/ska/etc bands save ours at the end) dug around several record stores and scored the two key DUTCH POP / dancepop / girlpop / "Bubblegum Dance"
albums for us --
CHIPZ Greatest Hits and
DJUMBO JUMP the only Djumbo album so far
(both mandatory for any pop music fan, any age)
and the production values/songwriting on the poppiest songs is terrific. low-fidelity repros on YouTube below (for some of the songs). >>

to continue with e-mail (and the links/Youtube) to my pop music cohort, girlfriend Paige


paige --

this is the song from Krautland you are mentioning?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usSlUG3jvBM
by Junia, #1 german hit back in year 2000. yes, long preceding idiot Avril's song of the same title.

the mikey-clone intern on the trip brought back shitloads of stuff as i mentioned. once i unpack it all, who knows what's in there. there is definitely stufffffff for you spanning all eras 1969 - 2007 so we'll see when we see it fall out of the box(es). your "little box of stuff from europe" will be all sorted and put together by the end of this weekend for sureski. it's a nice tidy box because there are no 12" things, just 7" and CD-size! (Middle of the Road lp dupes will go into my master MOTR case, which gets dupes for you pulled out a little later this weekend or next week when i pull your late-birthday 12" album sets by LUV and Middle of The Road to go with the american band w/girl-singer that you apparently wanted a set (of my dupes) of.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ye8MY2YcL9w
Djumbo on stage
you were aware of this 47 second excerpt/live clip? now they have to be one of your favorite Top 10 girlpop singing groups, huh!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PE0w_UfpNmc
Djumbo Jump video. is this lyric related to the Dutch "jumping dance" you mentioned?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtIm2umbOKc
the Eyahe single, great song on the album in full stereo volume

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQCaOEKUtCc
supermarket in-store
good lord the dancing is so godawful it's almost cute. skinny white chicken arms flailing -- euros living up to their "worst dancers in the world" rep, yep.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcTTyci3Pa0
Undercover but not the orig video, a pastiche live-candid thing.
this was their most recent single, and didn't place nearly as high (Dutch pop charts) as the earlier hits. #13 i believe it said in Wikipedia.
this was the vid clip i terrified Manu, Daniel, and Astrid with for 90 seconds in Wiesbaden at D&M's apartment on the PC, before A. went back to her mobile-motel known a car backseat w/giant dog on the floorboard, and D&M smoked more hash in private. annnd right, i regrouped with the four Swedes led by Markus who all crashed in my two-small-single-beds hotel room (after we finally got a cab large enough to house 5 bodies). and they got tons of free downstairs breakfast food too < 10:30am when it shut down the serving bins. and that and free A*Teens CDs too, wow. that was one productive 12 hour shift from 5pm to 5am.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAB0PdSZ2FY
TOTP of single Boya Boya Bay (they have far fewer novelty singles than Chipz, ie this one only which is forgettable). man. i have no constructive criticism for this clip. it's a wonder they haven't poked each others' eyes out with all the arm-waving, aka "dance steps." ahem, uh, uh, uh don't you have to move your feet occasionally for it to be "dancing"? just wondering. the curly hair ringlet girl is the gemini. the other two are the smiley Scorpios (prob have some Libra planets in the personal planets, ie mercury or venus which can only place one ahead/behind/same as the sun sign) and nope, sorry, i have no interest in ever again in this lifetime seeing any dutch girl nekkid. one GF of that nationality was enough. and they were a early era jockette who did NOT have no skinny chicken-arms.

gwen is going to love the DJUMBO and CHIPZ albums so much i should save her (eventual) copies for christmas so that her mom is job-situated and settled down in that respect, when G drives her mom nuts with them. fortunately, the kids' personal boomboxes/players in their rooms don't crank a lot of volume.
----------------------------------

CHIPZ section yeahhh baby yeah
the CD album/greatest hits has awesome loud mixes and really slamming rhythm tracks/drum machines, it shows massive Max Martin / swedish pop influence jacked into the kid-pop girlpop sphere. see Chipz' Wikipedia page. "radio stations would not play their tunes because they were considered too childish, so they instead found exposure on "Fox Kids" aka the Fox Family Network in holland it sounds like. don't know if they have Disney Channel in that country.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gErEAyoR97Q
One Day When I Grow Up video, sublimely retarded. this is my favorite song ever, or at least of the month.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDXUvnsJhZY
dutch TOTP spot for same. dude this is awesome pop music at its goofiest, just sublime.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UabqZJhoZm8&mode=related&search=
store promo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5Hmw0gB1RA&mode=related&search=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hFBXyqLnUE&mode=related&search=
TV clips of One Two Three
wow, these guys can dance! they must be gay or why would they be in a girlpop band? but then, there's the A*Teens guys (friends w/the girls since grade school) who were totally hetero. huh.
and the flip-the-guy dance move, rad shit man. this totally ranks on groups like Backsteet, Steps, etc, who couldn't dance at all. Djumbo are in another league of can't/couldn't/never will so they're exempt from being rated against the actual professionals. Djumbo's clothes also have a taint of "got it at the thrift store" i think. hand me downs from previous girlpop acts i bet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYEK4vdPSs8
Rock Star here's your song, TV clip

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kd2EPaLGnH0&mode=related&search=
CHIPZ hitmix which i'm not clear about w/o seeing the discography

annd BANAROO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcKObYcPXx4&mode=related&search=
Dubi Dam Dam
which is still a big item on my german want list

sophia and someone else thought we would like belgium singing girlpop group "K3," but their songs are nowhere as melodic as Djumbo and Chipz. (there's many on Youtube). didn't make any impession at all. Djumbo's writer/producer/allinstruments 2-man team are REALLY good songwriters. they never overdo a chorus with unecessary repeats.

Wow, I was wrong! The links work!

Well "I know, right?", the short answer is that I have no idea. But looking over that tracklist, I see a lot of probable break-up songs, which if nothing else is a stark break lyrically from album one. (And one I'm not too happy about, though "Potential Break Up Song" has really great lyrics). My guess is the album will have a lot more "Potential Break Up Song"s than "Rush"s

I don't think they'll go in a "Break-Up" direction simply because it's not the kind of music they usually write. I imagine that they're basically singer/songwriters (guitar and piano-based) with a rock edge coming (primarily) from a more hard rock sound in Christian rock. This is basically speculation, but I imagine there are major secular <i>and</i> Christian rock influences in terms of how they write their songs (not to mention their parents, also Xtian folk/rock types if I remember correctly). So I'd bet that they view electro as something of a diversion. They aren't particularly eclectic anyway (so far), and their best songs are actually kind of hard and oppressive ("Rush," "I Am One of Them," "Not This Year"). If they have "serious things to say" (and I think they do), they'll probably use guitar-based rock to do it, with maybe the occasional foray into a piano ballad. But I could be wrong.

(Then again, titles like "Bullseye" and "Like Whoa" suggest they're lightening up a little. But "Division" and "Closure" could be heavy...hm, no idea, really.)

Hey, Jessica P to thread...what's yer take on DJUMBO? Haven't listened yet myself but I never really got into Chipz aside from like two songs. (Are there any big Eurobubbledance types that they've missed over on this site?)

I'm curious to see the Jukebox take on "Potential Breakup Song." I just sent in a review that said that I like "Rush" better, but that "Breakup" is still pretty fun.

(If a whole lot different from what I imagined from Aly & A.J., given "Rush.")

i am talking to aly & aj in three quarters of an hour, for 10 minutes. i will ask them whether 'the potential breakup song' is a NEW DIRECTION or not - though i love 'rush' as well; they're good doing fizzy electro bubblegum AND moody popgoth, as long as they do it with some vigour, which they don't always on into the rush

have i said before that what i love about TPBS is how lyrically sharp it is? entire situation, dissected and laid out for the boyfriend with no bullshit, in 3 minutes, her position made absolutely clear, but with a twist of hope at the end.

Lex, if you can't talk about it here don't worry bout it, but how long is your piece and how general is the focus?

it'd be nice to have when/(if!) it will run confirmed first!

(was going to be published today but aly & aj couldn't do interviews last weekend) (just as well given the endless parties i found myself at)

(it will be short and general though)

jaymc I can tell you for a fact that TPBS got at least one 9/10 in the Jukebox...

At this point, I'd say TPBS is around my 3rd or 4th favorite A&A song:

Not This Year, Rush, TPBS, Speak for Myself, Greatest Time of Year, Shine, Chemicals React, Protecting Me...approx. that order for me.

jaymc I can tell you for a fact that TPBS got at least one 9/10 in the Jukebox...

I think it will do fairly well then, since I gave it a 7, and I can't imagine that dabug didn't write a blurb.

Ah, but dabug was busy having a strange argument about "My Humps." Still time to review it? I'll send in my score anyways and see what happens (8-ish).

HAHA their favourite band is HEART

(they were lovely, kind of alternated between being as pat and corporate-positive as ciara, and being really quite perceptive)

So - will PBUS be their 'state of mind' or what?

oh yeah i did ask that - yes they are experimenting much more sonically, synths and beats and so on, and excitingly i think aly said WALL OF SOUND

(and i asked them what their favourite song this year was - it was UMBRELLA-ELLA-ELLA-AY-AY-AY)

(also: in 10 years' time they are SO going to be the mega-rich songwriters behind whatever teenpop act needs songs in 2017)

Kara's of the future!

Whoah... Esmee sings Timberlake (wait 'til the end)...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69Grnh7Qin8

Uh, did anything more, er, controversial come up at all?

(xpost)

Never a truer word spoken by Justin there. (Also, I was completely distracted by the guy in the mirror during that vid.)

Lex - which publication *might* this be for? If you can say.

For any curious onlookers, Stylus Jukebox review of "Potential Break Up Song" is http://stylusmagazine.com/jukebox/?p=550 . Average score was 6.71, BUT it received a higher score from the teenpop denizens. (Do Martin Skidmore, Jonathan Bradley, or Hillary Brown post here?)

Thank you lex, this is what I wanted to hear!

Greg, if by "here" you mean the Teenpop thread, then no. If you mean on ILM in general, then ... Skidmore used to post on ILM a fair bit, but I haven't seen him around in the past year or two. Hillary Brown used to post very sporadically, but I think she's amenable to teenpop if threads entitled In Praise of... Pretty Ricky and Why hasn't Avril's "Together" been released as a single? are any indication. I don't think I've seen Jonathan Bradley here at all, unless he's using some screen name I don't recognize.

Also, this is what I said about PBUS, since the blurb got cut:

Having only been familiar with “Rush,” in which Aly & A.J. wail their wholesome little hearts out about the pangs of first love, I’m surprised at the cynicism here. Not only do they cheerily lash out and act petty like the privileged daughter of a British comedian, but they underscore their alienation by slathering their voices in AutoTune! I think I prefer the raw eagerness of “Rush,” but this song’s fizzy, go-get-‘em bounce does have a certain charm.

The Lily Allen reference might've been a stretch, i.e., she's obviously not the only singer whose relationship woes make her petulant in a chipper sort of way -- although I think she'd also be attracted to the title "Potential Breakup Song."

"Rush" is not about the pangs of first love, it's about drug use, as proved by Mr. Dabug

In relistening to it this morning, it also made me think of religious ecstasy: seeing the light and embracing Jesus.

<i>"Rush" is not about the pangs of first love, it's about drug use, as proved by Mr. Dabug</i>

Damn, I say some crazy shit sometimes. When'd I say that (I really don't remember!)?

Frank wrote a lot more about "Rush" on last year's thread, I think, and he was probably fairer to it than I was until I revisited Aly & AJ later in '06 (around the time "Chems React" came out I guess). I like A&A better when they really throw me for a loop, like in "I Am One of Them" and "Not This Year." They've got the wide-eyed intensity of Christian rock (that I've listened to) -- the overwrought ecstasy embracing Jesus-y stuff, but totally undercut by crippling self-doubt and a hint of skepticism (or general confusion). Needs more monkeys, tho.

Stupid tags. Jonathan posts over at Bedbugs occasionally, don't know if he's on ILM at all.

I could have sworn I saw you write that somewhere Dave but maybe it's an interpretation I just made up myself. I mean COME ON "Into your head/into your mind/out of your soul/race through your veins/you can't escape/you can't escape" - That just sounds like drug lyrics or early punk lyrics or something.

i'm pretty sure the averaged score should have been 6.85. um.

NO Ross that's 6.86 you fool!

OK, the Hilary video for Stranger is one of the most incoherent videos I've ever seen. Well, no, but seen lately. There is Hilary as "gypsy woman." There is Hilary as J-Lo. There is a dinner party. There might be nudity at one point (under the covers). I'm not sure what's going on. Actually, it looks like someone took a movie starring Hilary and mixed it up randomly over "Stranger" a la YouTube montage.