Rolling Teenpop 2007 Thread

GENIUS. I might be seeing J0rdin Sparks at the American Idol show this week...I was planning on giving her a CD with Robyn/Annie/The Knife/Jacques Lu Cont tracks on it (in hopes that she'd recruit one of them for her record).

They pushed Tisdale for a while. Thing is, I think the groups really do live and die by the call-in votes, even when most of the material being offered is from Disney -- it explains why Cheetah Girls (comparatively) tank while Jonas Bros. won't budge from the charts and Hannah Montana (IIRC) still has like ten out of thirty tracks in the Top 30.

Came here to post that Hilary Duff has been covering Depeche Mode and Pat Benatar in concert. Duffeche Mode - Personal Jesus (clearer-sounding but shorter clip). And Duff is a Battlefield (no, I don't expect that to stop being funny).

(I think she's just sampling "Personal Jesus.")

"You Are the Music in Me" is a great song.

Coincidentally, I finally heard the Tisdale album for the first time yesterday. It's, um, solid. Few surprises until the end - the opening to "Suddenly" was unexpected and I would have liked more in the way of exposed singing of that sort. I expect more spins will bring out further highlights though.

More laffs from Brie Larson.

A somber statement from JoJo, via Idolator:

If you feel overwhelmed by what you are about to read, I am with you. When I take a step back, I sometimes feel ashamed by my materialistic nature as a young American and as if there is nothing that I can personally do to put an end to the monstrocities going on in the world, specifically in The Sudan. And I also find it alarming that we, as a nation, seem to be more concerned with a hollwood party girl's latest panty-less escapades than with the hateful and destructive plans of President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, Sudan's evil dictator. With so much wealth, opportunity, peace, and security around us as citizens of the United States, its so easy to forget that there is a whole world out there who does not live like we do. People inhabiting and assisting in The Sudan and surrounding countries live in CONSTANT FEAR. Not fear that us American children have, ( boogey-man under the bed ... Fear that the tooth fairy might only leave $1...) I mean the fear of having limbs blown off from random bombings, schools and entire villages being burned down, running to a supposed UN airplane ( they bring food and other vital supplies) which are painted white but discovering that it is infact a Janjaweed aircraft that was posing as the United Nations(it is illegal to have an aircraft painted in that fashion unless it is a UN craft) and being killed by the militants, being raped and expected to bear the product of a hateful conception, and other very harsh realities.

As I drove home from the gym tonight I realized that in the scheme of things, I have absolutely no idea what fear truly is. It is impossible to justify what is going on in The Sudan and just as impossible to relate to what the victims of the tragedies endured. But what we can relate to is that we are all HUMAN BEINGS. Living, breathing people with hearts, and feelings, and potential to change the world and evoke change in each other. Hope should not be lost.

New term: "psycho-bling," which is what happens when your brain short-circuits altogether and you say things like this. I had a psycho-bling moment when I was writing an essay about Paris Hilton. I just needed a glass of water and encouragement not to publish what I'd written.

But she's right!

Well, not about American children not knowing what fear is, but some of the other stuff.

(Not that I know how my paying less attention to Lindsay Lohan is going to help Darfur.)

(That was what I was referring to -- deleted a panties joke. Her stuff about Darfur seemed accurate, and I don't think she should <i>ignore</i> it, just wonder how she plans to follow through with her concerns.)

(Hm, someone at Idolator wrote: "Wow, do you all have the drive to snark so bad that you can't give her a straightforward 'well said'?" and now I kinda feel like an asshole. So apologies to Jojo, but I'm also not going to stop thinking about panties.)

GENIUS. I might be seeing J0rdin Sparks at the American Idol show this week...I was planning on giving her a CD with Robyn/Annie/The Knife/Jacques Lu Cont tracks on it (in hopes that she'd recruit one of them for her record).

Please do it!!!

American Idol Season Six winner Jordin Sparks, the show's youngest winner ever, has signed to 19 Recordings/Jive Records, becoming the first "Idol" winner to join the label group.

Her first single, "Tattoo," will be released to U.S. radio on Aug. 27. Her debut album is due out in November. "Tattoo" was produced by the hit-making duo Stargate (Beyoncé, Ne-Yo) and co-written with Amanda Ghost, whose impressive credits include James Blunt's "Beautiful" and "Beautiful Liar" with Beyoncé and Shakira.

Have you guys spoken about this yet?:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=PxOaZiHw0Xo

I've never heard of half of these people. You can stream the rest of the soundtrack here -- nothing new that's better than that Prima J track that I can hear, but I can say (1) nice to hear so much teenpop throwback stuff in one place, even if most of it's pretty forgettable (dopey boyband NLT "oh baby she's heartburn!," dopey pop-punk with Sean Stewart, slight shades of Hoku in Chelsea Staub) and (2) do NOT say anything bad about Clique Girlz (formerly Clique, mentioned way above somewhere). They sound better than they used to after signing to Interscope, but their fans (and possibly family members) rigorously google them.

(That's the Bratz movie soundtrack, btw.)

YEAAHHHHHHH. The American Ido1 PR people are freaking me out...But yeah, it looks like I'll get to talk to her for a second time...Bad news is I have terrible selection for said CD...

If anyone can help me out with "Chewing Gum," you'd be a major pop hero (I have "Heartbeat"). Also, I can't find ANY of my favorite Jacques Lu Cont remixes (I like "What Else Is There," but it's definitely not my favorite). Here's what else I have (suggestions? I have lots of stuff on CD...this is just from my tiny mp3 collection):

Robyn - "Be Mine!"
Kleerup feat. Robyn - "With Every Heartbeat"
Annie - Heartbeat
The Knife - Heartbeat
The Knife - Silent Shout
The Knife - You Make Me Like Charity
Royksopp - What Else Is There (both Trentemoller/Thin White Duke remixes)
M.I.A. - Jimmy
M.I.A. - $20
M.I.A. - Boyz
The Field - Everyday
The Work - Givin' It Up
The Gossip - Standing in the Way of Control (Soulwax Nite Edit)
Mahjongg - The Rrabbitt

ooooh. I should put some DFA stuff on here, amirite?

ANONYMOUS AWESOME ILXOR HELPED OUT/SAVED THE WORLD. THXX!!! :)

Does this look OK? It gets especially messy towards the end.

1. "Since I Left You" - The Avalanches
2. "With Every Heartbeat" - Kleerup feat. Robyn
3. "Heartbeat" - Annie
4. "Heartbeats" - The Knife
5. "Be Mine!" - Robyn
6. "Jimmy" - M.I.A.
7. "Boyz" - M.I.A.
8. "Chewing Gum" - Annie
9. "Let's Make Love and Listen to Death From Above" - Cansei De Ser Sexy
10. "Fix Up, Look Sharp" - Dizzee Rascal
11. "How Long Do I Have to Wait For You" - Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings
12. "Pull Shapes" - The Pipettes
13. "Panis Et Circenses" - Os Mutantes
14. "Digital Love" - Daft Punk
15. "Power is On" - The Go! Team
16. "Lazy Line Painter Jane" - Belle & Sebastian
17. "Teardrops on My Guitar" - Taylor Swift
18. "A Toast to the Month of July" - Shirrelle C. Limes
19. "Poor Old Soul Pt. 1" - Orange Juice
20. "The Rrabbitt" - Mahjongg
21. "I'm a Flirt (Remix)" - R. Kelly feat. T.I. and T. Pain
22. "What Else Is There?" (Thin White Duke Remix) - Royksopp
23. "If I Were Your Woman" - Gladys Knight and the Pips
24. "Silent Shout" - The Knife

Why are you trying to turn Jordin Sparks into a hipster? lol

To un-hipster it, I now offer the following songs as possible replacements:

LCD Soundsystem - All My Friends
The Rapture - House of Jealous Lovers
Justice - DVNO
Justice vs. Simian - We Are Your Friends

If Jordin covers the hipster favorites, won't she de-hipster them herself?

lol wait mahjongg? i'm v. confsued.

also, giver "huddle formation" over "the power is on!"

OK, so, with some help from another ILXor savior, I added a Dolly Parton track...I changed a few others, too...

1. "Since I Left You" - The Avalanches
2. "With Every Heartbeat" - Kleerup feat. Robyn
3. "Heartbeat" - Annie
4. "Heartbeats" - The Knife
5. "Be Mine!" - Robyn
6. "Jimmy" - M.I.A.
7. "Chewing Gum" - Annie
8. "House of Jealous Lovers" - The Rapture
9. "How Long Do I Have to Wait For You" - Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings
10. "Pull Shapes" - The Pipettes
11. "Panis Et Circenses" - Os Mutantes
12. "Digital Love" - Daft Punk
13. "Bottle Rocket" - The Go! Team
14. "Lazy Line Painter Jane" - Belle & Sebastian
15. "Chelsea Morning" - Joni Mitchell
16. "Teardrops on My Guitar" - Taylor Swift
17. "Coat of Many Colors" - Dolly Parton
18. "Big City" (Merle Haggard cover) - Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin
19. "Postcards from Italy" - Beirut
20. "A Toast to the Month of July" - Shirrelle C. Limes
21. "Poor Old Soul Pt. 1" - Orange Juice
22. "What Else Is There?" (Thin White Duke Remix) - Royksopp
23. "If I Were Your Woman" - Gladys Knight and the Pips
24. "All My Friends" - LCD Soundsystem
25. "Silent Shout" - The Knife

Tape Store, the Taylor Swift I'd choose would be "Should've Said No." If you aspire to less hipness you could try Travis Tritt's "Too Far To Turn Around" and Deana Carter's "The Girl You Left Me For."

tape store, tag the album as yr phone number.

OK, in regard to the JoJo paragraph: she's being very lovable and very teenage, which is to say that she's questioning the reality of her own experience in comparison to that of someone who's suffering seems unimaginably more intense than her own (and in doing so she's unintentionally exalting the suffering of the black children in Darfur); and she's doing it in a good cause, trying to motivate us to do something about the suffering. Still there's an insidious self-destruction here, her saying that her own fears and our culture doesn't rate in comparison to the suffering in Darfur - and a very interesting irony in her seemingly arbitrary reference to celeb crackup culture. (How is Britney's no-panties thing any more of a distraction than worrying about the price of gas or talking about art and literature or watching a tennis match or discussing your child's grades? How are these things distractions at all?) The irony is that Lindsay Lohan's life expectancy might well be worse than that of a black child in Darfur, and her suffering and fear may be greater. At least, it's a failure of the imagination not to consider this.

Which isn't to say that Lindsay's pain makes her of any more interest than you and I are. But then, you and I are of interest; but then again, without Lindsay's pain she wouldn't be in the tabs.

I gave it to her...had to cut a couple songs...She now has my contact info.

I deserve credit for her forthcoming "House of Jealous Lovers" cover.

New Veronicas single, "Hook Me Up" -- written by the V's, Shelly Peiken, and Greg Wells -- is really great. Dark electro, kinda "Sweet Dreams"-ish, confessional lyrics (the second dance song this year that's about not really enjoying going out to clubs). Seems like UK/Euro dance stuff might be the path to angst-rock lyrics these days (Hilary, Ashley Tisdale, new V's single).

But I really came here to post 17 THINGS YOU DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT ASHLEE SIMPSON:

1. I'm really grumpy in the morning.
2. I'm a huge fan of female singers like Etta James and Courtney Love.
3. I don't like going to the dentist, so I listen to my iPod while I'm there.
4. My first TV appearance was a Kohl's commercial.
5. I have three closets in my bedroom.
6. My favorite snack is Little Debbie Zebra Cakes, yellow cakes with vanilla and chocolate-striped frosting.
7. I collect handbags (my favorite is Yves St. Laurent) and hats.
8. I dyed my hair orange when I was 11!
9. I'm really good at the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater game.
10. I want to design a clothing line one day -- a Marc Jacobs-meets-vintage look.
11. My favorite drink is an ice-blended vanilla coffee.
12. I can do a front handspring.
13. My favorite vacation spot is Hawaii.
14. My first celeb crush: Jonathan Taylor Thomas.
15. I never wear matching socks (except when I'm doing a photo shoot)!
16. My favorite movie is True Romance.
17. My best guy friend is my guitar player, Ray Brady.

Not a great interview (from Seventeen), but when asked about how she learns from heartbreak, her answer is "For me, I write, but everyone can find little things to do to make them feel better." When asked what she does with her girlfriends, she says, "I have a balcony outside, and everybody sets up her little station and we all paint. It's so funny to see the different styles of your friends' painting. Mine's usually pretty...dark. Abstract stuff, faces, and things like that. I'm not good, but I just do it 'cause it's fun and it's a release."

New Tommy2.net headline: JONAS BROTHERS OUTSELL KELLY CLARKSON.

So Tape Store, what's Jordin like?

A.R.E. Weapons are totally absurd. I mean, they're beatniks. They romanticize teenagers ridiculously (hence their eligibility for this thread). They play this godawful shitty garage rock. And most of the time it's GOOD godawful shitty garage rock, at least on their new one, Modern Mayhem. I'm listening to "Have You Ever?" - these scuzz pulses, while the singer gargles earnestly in front of them. Quite engaging, somehow.

There's a photo shoot on her reality show in which Ashlee's wearing unmatched shoes.

My HSM2 review is posted. feedback enjoyed, as usual. http://www.villagevoice.com/music/0734,shinefield,77577,22.html

How did I just realize now that Hannah Montana and Amy Diamond both have songs called "Life's What You Make It"? Weird, I guess that's just one of the Amy songs that never really stuck with me, and somehow I never connected it.

Anyways, I never really liked that Hannah song (prefer "Nobody's Perfect" and way prefer several of her other songs ["See You Again" forever!]), and the Amy Diamond song is on my favorite album of 2006, tho it is one of the less memorable songs on it. I'll give the edge to Amy D.

I really can't tell much of a difference between TV Jordin and real life Jordin. I mean, I guess it's possible that she's fake in both cases, but my friends don't think so (several of them went to camp with her...). She's really charming and cute. I have a bit of a crush on her.

And "Tattoo" rocks! The introduction is a bit of a letdown, (all synths or no synths at all, plz), but the chorus is hella catchy. Temporarily here

I've listened to this song 15 times in a row! It's grown on me quite a bit in the past eleven minutes...not a big fan of the production (apart from the intro, it's very, very Stargate), but the song itself is great. It needs to be remixed ASAP (if I ever find the acapella, I'll definitely create one).

BTW, I hope when I wake up tomorrow, there are, like, 30 posts discussing this song (even if they're criticizing my first-15-listens opinion, which might change at 9 a.m.).

Oh, ILM

What I wrote about teen-romanticizing A.R.E. Weapons and their new album on the metal thread (in three early July posts):

Oh yeah, I've also been liking the commendably plainspoken but cynical but oddly warmhearted mix of noise and rhythm on A.R.E. Weapons' new Modern Mayhem, espeically when it reminds me more of Suicide doing "96 Tears" (did Suicide ever do "96 Tears"? They should have, and actually I'm pretty sure they did, but I'm too lazy to check) than, say, Cake or Soul Coughing or whoever "I Just Can't Get Started" sounds like. Anyway, they are coke-and-heroin-identified Lower East Side hipster scumbugs with despicable celebrities in their families, let's get that out of the way, and I hated their second album a couple years ago after loving their first one, and they put on the most disappointing excuse for a live show I ever saw in New York, so I'm defintely not predisposed to like the new album (put it on purely out of professional responsibility), but I do, because it rocks. Favorites so far are probably "We Don't Care" and "Weird Wild and Free," which both really convince me in their defiance, but they're only the beginning. "Heartbeat" has real funk to it, "Do You Wanna Hang Around?" is as good a ballad as Alan Vega ever did solo probably, "Keys Money and Cigarettes" is an entertaining Throbbing Gristle facsimile, "Hey Joey" has sax in it, "Sweet Jesus" has blasphemy in it," "Too Low" has handclaps in it, "Dreamers" asks where all the dreamers went and I want to strangle them for asking but it find it kind of moving anyway, and I can't think of many bands this noisy and arty who write songs this good (or write songs at all, really), and in the long run they don't seem that arty after all. Didn't one of their sometime-members overdose a year or two ago? Maybe that brought them back down to earth somehow.

btw, A.R.E. Weapons to my ears sound beefier and less emaciated (= more metal) than Suicide ever did.

A.R.E. WEAPONS -- Maybe a little harder to take than I suggested above if you try to play the album from start to finish, but still a way better third album than I ever would have expected from them. Faves include but may not be limited to "We Don't Care" (...if you like us, basically, and I kinda believe them, and there's a good short reprise of it at the end), "Sweet Jesus" (has he ever been bored? and the guitar sounds almost African), "Heartbeat" (a rap about an acquaintance "lying in bed on a morphine drip" in New York City, where else?) and "Do You Want To Hang Around" (sweetly sung to some girl.)

I like the background yelping in "Tattoo" (reminds me of "Say It Right")

generic drums...

NO REPLIES

Wait, why are they rushing her release? Do they really think people will forget her that quickly?

Why are you talking to yourself?

Sorry to be late to the "Tattoo" convo, but I still don't know what I think of it!

Came to post a short anecdotal survey of the PRINCESS genre (Avril not included):

The Insider decided to talk to young girls to find out what it is that makes Disney Princesses as appealing in 2007 as they were in 1937. Here's what they had to say.

Ellie, 4, loves Aurora from "Sleeping Beauty" because she likes "her pink sparkly dress." Her sister Hazel chose Mulan as her favorite because "she is sporty and I like her black hair."

Like Ellie, many girls are drawn in by the sparkly dresses and princess couture. Let's face it, these ladies have outfits to envy! Whether it's Ariel with her crimson hair and pearls fresh from the ocean adorning her neck, or Cinderella in her shimmering blue ball gown and glass slippers, there is a look for every aspiring fashionista.

There is more to these princesses though, than stylish wardrobes. They teach kids to be kind to others, to be true to themselves, and to never stop dreaming. They aren't just living the life any little girl would dream of - they're also great role models.

Ruby, 6, said her reason for loving Disney Princesses is that "every princess is very helpful and nice. Sleeping Beauty helped the fairies and the fairies helped her because she was nice to them."

While all Princesses might be nice, they aren't all alike. Mulan, Pocahontas, and Jasmine are all princesses who show little girls that no matter what culture you come from or what you look like, you can embrace what makes you special and still be a princess. They send the message that "It's great to be unique," both in how you look and what you choose to achieve.

According to Cameron, that is exactly why Ariel from "The Little Mermaid," is her favorite. At 9 years old, Cameron identifies with this princess of the sea because "she believes in herself. If she dreams something, she makes it happen." She says that she likes Ariel because "she's sort of different from all the other princesses because she's a mermaid - and she has a great voice."

It's no wonder these princesses have such a following. In the end, the message the girls are getting is that you don't have to dress in a tiara to be a princess. You can be you and be a princess just the way you are.

Interesting article from the Boston Phoenix from 2001 about LFO ("Summer Girls") leader Rich Cronin.

Meanwhile, Cronin is hoping that as one of the few teen-pop stars who does write his own songs, he'll be able to bring some of his old fans along and find some new ones as his writing begins to reflect his growing maturity. It's not like I'm intentionally trying to be more mature on the new album -- I don't buy into that stuff. But I've been through a lot of things and learned a lot about life and about music in the last couple of years. And if you're not writing about yourself and what you know, then you're not writing about much. So that's what I write about. Sometimes it's just girl problems. Sometimes it's problems in life. In that respect it probably is a little more grown up, because I'm more grown up.

This is right on the cusp of (or maybe at the beginning of) the Michelle Branch craze --> Avril dominance in 2002. Most people think of LFO as total goofballs (which they were), but they <i>don't</i> tend to think of them (as far as I know, anyway) as totally self-aware goofballs. "Summer Girls" was a demo they cut with Danny Wood from the New Kids in his basement, and what's interesting is that it kind of gives some insight into the transitional phase where coauthorship starts becoming a major issue/trend in teenpop music.

Woop, article's here