Rolling Teenpop 2007 Thread

Bruce is to Journey as

Dylan is to... ?

Rush, right?

I think that's the definitive answer, finefinemusic.

Today on Dr. Phil: "Nineteen-year-old Megan says her mom, Tracy, is nothing but her egg donor. Megan has been singing since she was a child and is now a rising star in the music industry, but she says all she wants is for her pushy stage mom to butt out of her life. Tracy says Megan's record deal is the worst thing that ever happened because it turned her sweet daughter into a stereotypical rock-and-roll singer who's into sex, booze, drugs and rebellion. Can this relationship be saved?"

Megan McCauley MySpace. Note third song, "I'll Pay You To Shoot Him." Megan really gets along well with her parents.

Mulla, what do you think of Megan's "Tap That"? Apparently, she's repudiated it, but it's up on her MySpace, and it's going to be on her album. Produced by Dr. Luke.

New in the Radio Disney incubator is (former?) Reggaeton Nino P-Star. Haven't heard anything by her yet, but if it's anything like the Ninos I'll probably like it. (Got their album recently, and I like how faithful their arrangements are.)

Newish on the charts there is the first crossover from Hannah Montana's "B" album (by Miley Cyrus) -- and it's not "See You Again" (it's one of the ones I don't like, "G.N.O. (Girls' Night Out)"). No sense in trying to find a logic in how Disney "releases" these songs, of course.

New Britney video: said on Poptimists that it reminded me a bit too much of that Nicolas Cage movie 8mm, supposed to be "in your face" but comes across as trying too hard (uncomfortable mix of gloss and grit), and winds up mostly pathetic (in an interesting but unpleasant way). But I do think that this is going to be a more interesting chapter in her story with hindsight, whether it leads to the end of her career or an eventual rebound. I hope there's a rebound, only so this whole mess isn't turned into some dumbass spiral into oblivion parable. (Even if it's true, it makes a shitty parable.)

So I saw the Aly and AJ video for potential breakup song yesterday. Its funny how the video seems all about the freewheeling creativity of the girls, seen playing guitars and apparently mixing the album themselves in a weird spinning control room. Even when dancing, piles of paint splashes from their hair. I think its part of a trend that includes early Avril, recent Pink etc where the "artificiality" of production has somehow become something pop musicians have to be ashamed of in some way. Now instead of the song projecting the personality of the singer, it seems as though the singer must also project themselves as the traditional auteur of the song. Just a thought.

Well, I think the "artificial" vs. auteur binary is a fake issue (meaning that I think that even the people who set "artificial" and "auteur" as opposites actually have other issues eating at them, such as whether they approve of the class of people who make or consume the music and generally whether or not they think the music kowtows to authority or to the listener); but yes, for a while there teenpop was home of the rock confessional, and it's not just recent Pink but anything from Missundaztood (which precedes Avril) onward, and Missundaztood was preceded by Michelle Branch and Nelly Furtado, and before either of them there was M2M - though M2M only had one minor hit in the U.S. so are more precursors than trendsetters; but Michelle Branch's "Everywhere" was the breakthrough, Michelle wielding her acoustic guitar prominently and appearing confessional. The song sounded great (co-written and produced by John Shanks), though to my mind Michelle didn't have anything particularly interesting to say. But Pink and Avril did, and subsequently so did Ashlee and Kelly C. and Lindsay and Brie and Aly & A.J. and maybe even Hilary.

But the thing is, it's true: these performers (except early Hilary) did at least co-write many or all of their songs, and I'm sure Aly & A.J. were totally involved in the production. In itself, all these girls writing the material wouldn't have meant anything one way or another except that it did mean a lot, because it changed the character of the music, generally for the better (which I wouldn't necessarily have predicted, my prejudice circa 2000 being that most music of value was going to come from hip-hop and dance). If you want adolescent content, a good way to get it is to find an adolescent to give it to you. And what we had for several years there, and still have with Aly & A.J., is something for which I don't think there was any precedent: girls in their teens and early twenties collaborating on the songwriting with adults in their mid thirties. Worked well, for whatever reason, better than when those same adults were working with adult performers.

We talked about this a lot on last year's thread, some of which I reiterated in the LVW.

Don't know if shame is much of an issue with Aly & A.J. (I mean, shame in relation to songwriting, which they've been doing from the get-go; shame in relation to bullies and in relation to sex, on the other hand...). For Pink, the issue wasn't just that she wanted in on the songwriting and the sound but that she wanted the "personality of the singer" to be chosen by her, not by L.A. and Babyface. She didn't want to be an r&b vixen. Ashlee didn't want to be a Hilary doll. So you got lyrics from these girls that were about identity, and therefore about conflict with record companies, conflict with family, conflict with boyfriends - and therefore about trying to reject and embrace people at the same time. (Classic Ashlee: "Shut up/Come back/No I didn't really mean to say that/I'm mixed up/So what/Yeah you want me so you're messed up too.") But the Ashlee reality show, for instance, wasn't reticent about showing that the record company had veto power and that producer, co-writer, and main musician John Shanks had a big part in creating the album. The show tended to emphasize drama over anything else, but that means that you get to hear Ashlee promising original collaborator Steve Fox that she'll fight for him, then you see her not doing so (at least not on camera) when she meets with Geffen guy Jordan Schur. After the Fox-Frazier demos have been rejected it seems as if no one knows what the alb is going to sound like, and Schur is sending Ashlee off to meet with a lot of producers to, he says, help her find out who she is. I can't really tell much from the few Fox-Frazier scraps I've heard, but my guess is that w/ those two she was going for Green Day/No Doubt pop-punk. In contrast, the album she ended up doing w/ Shanks was like Hole and Alanis, though cuter, smarter, and dancier than Courtney or Alanis, and w/ Gwen scampiness left in.

I just looked again at the video for "Pieces Of Me," and the basic setup is Ashlee (hair dyed black) in the studio recording the track backed by what I assume is her touring band - which of course isn't how it was actually recorded. But the video also intersperses lots of scenes from the show (and briefly, a tantalizing shot of Stan Frazier's drum set) including her - back when she was blonde - working with John Shanks in his studio, Shanks being the guy who actually played most of the instruments on the song.

I haven't gone looking for many Aly & A.J. interviews and docs, so don't know if Antonina Armato & Tim James (their current producers and sometimes co-writers) get much mention.

smarter... than Courtney

Well, I think Courtney can sometimes be very smart, but she allows herself too much inarticulateness.

I mean, shame in relation to songwriting

I think "Not This Year" touches on this, but undermines an argument about songwriting (as opposed to just sort of "expressing yourself" because it's by far one of their best songs! But it's very much about your words coming out as garbage no matter what you do -- and admittedly they might just be talking about the falseness of trying to fake happy and cheerful when you're really sad.

NPR review of Aly & AJ: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14290554

I thought it was pretty interesting.

Specifically: The reviewer does a lot of lyrical analysis, likes the wordplay in the lyrics, and the depth in the lyrics, and talks about their feminism.

Only problem is where he says that it's OK to listen to it 'cause the girls wrote or co-wrote every song on the album. (and implies that it's not OK to listen to music which the artist did not write or co-write)

And he gets Antonina Armato's name wrong, and he thinks of the early Michael Jackson '80s as an "innocent" time (sometimes you wonder how it is that culture critics managed to graduate kindergarten), but he's got a good ear for the music and the lyrics. Ken Tucker is a long-time smart guy; the "not record-company puppets" thing is a lazy way to say that, look, Aly & A.J. had a lot to do with what this album is about. I'd assume his thoughts on the issue are smarter than that line makes him seem, but he should be smarter still, smart enough not to take that line at all.

(Also, feminism is a stretch.)

New Skye: <a href="http://youtube.com/watch?v=1XRbsb2RbpU";>Music Is My Boyfriend</a>. This album's gonna be all over the place and 1x total mess, but I'm still pretty excited for it.

Bah, Music Is My Boyfriend

Another thing about Aly & A.J.'s video strategy for "Potential Breakup Song" and "Chemicals React": By choosing to make the subject of those vids the girls' performance and creativity, the video makers [which I assume include Aly & A.J.] keep boys off the screen - in other words, they keep the objects of their own sexual desire out, evade the issue that the songs like "Chemicals React" and "Blush" are specifically about, and that "Potential Breakup Song" suggests subterraneously (the narrator sneaks in the point at the end that she really doesn't want a breakup): it's the girls own chemicals that are doing a big part of the reacting.

I suspect their evangelical Christianity has something to do with this evasion, but the term "evangelical Christianity" covers (up?) a whole range of nonmonolithic doctrine and behavior, and I don't want to stereotype the girls, especially given that the songs themselves aren't evasive ("we cannot deny how we feel inside"). I talk about some of this in my column this week.

Hey hey hey, Amy Diamond has a new single out "Is It Love?". This single was released almost a month ago and I just found out about it now! If this thread was like last year's, I would have known about it instantly :(.

Anyways, it's only OK, a bit of a disappointment, though I've only heard it once or twice so maybe it'll be a grower. I like the bridge. The full album is out in November.

The Veronicas are definitely twins, possibly poor video editors.

Speaking of the Veronicas, they played "4ever" in the gym as I was working out yesterday. Weird.

Music Is My Boyfriend, now with excellent <a href="http://youtube.com/watch?v=pQ20JosnbwQ";>batshit video</a>.

Gah, BATSHIT VIDEO.

Brie Larson is sick of Myspace. She is now on Blogspot.

MAN UNKIND

The new Carrie Underwood was underwhelming on first listen, but I'll certainly try again, since I like her.

The Veronicas' new alb, Hook Me Up, has no "4ever" but overall is vastly better than their first. Same probs as always (their two basic vocal styles are (1) a thin piercing wail and (2) a thin subdued wail, and lyrics add nothing interesting to the themes of wanting sex, wanting a man, wanting to get rid of the man, and hating the man) but melodies are good and arrangements even better, baroquely restless, confessional synth-rock dance, and the twins actually do break vocal patterns a few times: some nominal metal moves where they go Lita Fordish and a great, totally unexpected moment of angry agonized Kelly Clarkson phlegm-shrieking vengeance in "This Is How It Feels" where, damn, they're gonna tell the fucker how it feels. And a great Ciara-worthy line in "Popular": "My name is my credit card."

In livejournal news, the following interchange took place on poptimists in regard to Roxette:

zenith:
Not enough love for 'Sleeping In My Car', which features my favourite euphemistic use of the word "bless" ever (and pre-dates the same usage in hip hop?):

Sleeping in my car, I will undress you
Sleeping in my car, certainly bless you

Roxette were oddly obsessed with cars and driving.

offensive_mango:
Maybe the person sneezes when they get undressed because they catch a cold.

stevem78:
i thought it was 'suddenly press' you. she is talking to the trousers he's just taken off.

Off-topic, maybe I should bring this to Poptimists, but I like raising things here better. This relates a bit to the lengthy ILX thread on Sasha Frere-Jones recent New Yorker article

http://community.livejournal.com/poptimists/461829.html">Poptimists-http://community.livejournal.com/poptimists/461829.html

Frank Kogan--I'd say that the basic split is the old one of boho versus mainstream, but in this instance the mainstream - the U.S. Top 40 (incl. Fergie and Justin, for instance) - is crawling w/ "miscegenation," and to the extent that what SFJ is pointing out is even true, it's the indie guys who are resisting the commandment to dance. But my point is that this split isn't necessarily upper-middle vs. others, but rather upper-middle-niche-bohos-who-are-rapidly-being-accepted vs. mainstream, and the mainstream itself has its divisions between preps (who I'm guessing - emphasize the word "guess" - are veering emo and indie these days) and skaters etc. (who I'm guessing are going pretty emo these days)(mmm). Btw, the social reasons to resist the commandment to dance are kind of understandable.)”

Frank, do you think today's indie rock kids who are not into dancing are any greater in percentage than in 1976 or 1981 or 1993 or whatever kids that we could analogize are their boho equivalent? And why, if so? And do you think bohos always more adverse to dancing than teenpoppers (in whatever era be they preps or skater kids, American top 40 radio listeners--painting here in a broad brush stroke ala Sasha's indie-rockers that includes both beat-using LCD and non-funky beat using groups)? I haven't really researched this but am curious what you and others think.

do the bump

Steve, I should make it clear that I was responding to Carl Wilson's Slate piece, not SFJ's thing, which I haven't gotten a chance to read. Carl was specifically talking about a certain type of indie that - I take it - SFJ was bringing up. There are definitely bohemian-types who dance to house and techno and progeny, and the term "indie dance" gets bandied about, probably in relation to the Gossip and the Kooks and the Pipettes etc.; the Swede dancepop that resonates w/ Brit and Murrican critics - Annie, Robyn, Linda Sundblad, the Teddybears' STHLM gang - tends to veer left, and then there's M.I.A. and Klaxons etc. etc. What I think we get with bohemian alienation isn't a particular aversion to dance so much as it's not wanting the mainstream dance-dating-popularity thing rammed down your throat.

The point I was making was in relation to Carl identifying a subset of indie with upper-middle-class liberal-arts knowledge workers as a class. My problem with Carl's formulation is that he was talking about this in relation to what he sees as a growing disparity between economic classes, whereas to my mind indie kids aren't differentiating themselves from the working class but from other middle class kids, the ones who aren't indie. And of course there's never a strict correlation between who you seem to be and what you listen to...

So, nobody has talked about the Megan McCauley album on Wind-Up yet? Or did I just miss it? Either way, I like the record a lot. "Tap That" is by far the best song, and my press release says it's going to be the first official "single," too, which means I can put it on my 2007 top ten this year; everything else on the album lacks a sense of humor in comparison, but Megan's emotion almost makes up for it in a lot of cases. Mainly I get the idea she's going for the Evanescence/Flyleaf pop-dark-metal angst crowd, or maybe what's left of the Alanis (in "I Realize")/Pink (in "See Through") shemo angst crowd. Second best song, which I know I've also heard people talk about before (I assume it was up on her myspace ages ago?), is probably the closer "I'll Pay You To Shoot Him," where she hires somebody (as near as I can tell) to kill her dad; hence, a cross between "Janie's Got a Gun" and "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap," though the riff comes from Nirvana. As do the riffs in most of her other best songs. (With Aly & AJ's "Bullseye," teen-poppers stealing Nirvana riffs is clearly a trend this year, assuming Megan has ever really counted as teen-pop.) Anyway, most of the other Nirvana swipeage, which (especially in opener "Migraine," where her vocal reminds me of the guy in Placebo) is way more tuneful than I'd have guessed, happens in the first few songs: The album opens really solid. A few cuts are kinda bleh, and I cringe when she makes her Norah Jones (or whatever) nostalgic-grownup-music move in "Porcelain Doll," but it's still nice that she attempted it I suppose.

Tried listening to the Naked Brothers album, too. Didn't get all the way through it, though I like the British invasion tuneage of "Taxi Cab", and some of the other melodies (in the fake reggae "Crazy Car" for instance) vaguely remind me of Abba/Boney M Europop (though nowhere near that good.) Sometimes I'm convinced a grown woman is singing instead of an adolescent boy, but closer "Alien Clones" is clearly a seven-year-old-ish kid saying he's going to feed snakes and spiders to his annoying older brother--kind of cute the first time through though I'm not sure what alien clones have to do with his brother. And the Coldplay or whatever attempt in "L.A." is pretty wretched, and lots of the rest is just dull.

Xhuxk, I had the impression that Megan was trying to disown "Tap That," but then again she seems to be trying to disown her parents, too, so maybe this is a general habit of hers. I interpreted "I'll Pay You To Shoot Him" as her telling a cop who's come to break up a domestic disturbance that she'll pay him to shoot her dad, the perpetrator of the disturbance.

I didn't know the album was out. The promo single that has "Shoot Him" is at least two years old.

her Norah Jones (or whatever) nostalgic-grownup-music move in "Porcelain Doll,"

Ha, this is the one she sang on "Dr. Phil."

British invasion tuneage of "Taxi Cab", and some of the other melodies

I liked what I heard of Naked Brothers Band (two or three songs), but I didn't know they had a full-length album out. Are they being promoted at all, like, as a band? Miley and Jonas are in the Billbaord Top 20, NBB never cracked 20 and are currently at 74. I'd bet from your description that NBB's batting average is about the same as Jonas Bros., half dull, a few wretched tracks, one or three worth keeping -- Jonas Bros. appeal has decreased considerably since Nick's voice changed and they decided never to attempt "Mandy" again.

"Crazy Car" was tested on Radio Disney but didn't really go anywhere, seem to remember hearing at least one other song ("Taxi Cab" maybe) somewhere (probably Youtube).

And speaking of stuff I didn't know about, Katy Rose has a new album available thru CDBaby and iTunes -- it's darker/weirder than her first one (and more consistent, I think). Goes disco at the end, goes dance throughout. Lower rent production all around (I think these are basically demos she's written since her first one came out).

Hoku's new album is sophisticatedish dance-pop/R&B, very personalityless.

Skye's new album is out in Canada, haven't gotten a copy yet but listened once. Pro: not a disaster, con: trying too hard. But I think there are probably enough good songs on there to consider it basically successful. Probably won't sell given the release so far -- maybe she will go back into the basement w/o pros and not fuss so much over some of her ideas. More when I give it a better listen.

Miley and Jonas are in the Billbaord Top 20, NBB never cracked 20 and are currently at 74.

They are being promoted decently, but NBB are Nickelodeon, Miley & Jonas are Disney. When music is concerned, that makes a huge difference.

Jordin Sparks: s/t
"Tattoo"
"One Step at a Time"
"No Air" (featuring Chris Brown)
"Freeze"
"Shy Boy"
"Now You Tell Me"
"Next to You"
"Just for the Record"
"Permanent Monday"
"Young and in Love"
"See My Side"
"God Loves Ugly"
"This Is My Now" (Bonus Track)
"Worth the Wait"

It's like Good Girl Gone Bad 'cause "Tattoo" sounds kinda similar to "Umbrella" and "No Air" will soon replace "Hate That I Love You." Also, "Freeze" sounds sorta like "Question Existing" (but not as good).

Robyn wrote "See My Side." In my heart, I feel responsible for this (see, when I met her this summer, I gave her a mix cd with songs to inspire this album, and I circled two Robyn tracks and put a note about her history/awesome songwriting ability...I did the same thing with Annie, but she didn't work on the album), and I'm happy with the results.

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b361/tapestore/sadface.jpg

Bullshit!

I mean, I'd rather she say, "I've only been asked by this one loser" than that.

So, uh, that Lil Mama album...

Hahahahahahaha!

So your campaign to turn her into a hipster was partially successful, your campaign to go out with her, less so.

;_;

She took my Converse and left my heart.

That didn't actually take me a half an hour.

No britney discussion yet?

I think the album is solid but not spectacular. Surprisingly, the strongest track is the confessional, tabloid-bashing "Piece of Me." Surprising because I didn't suspect that this sort of song would work from Britney, since reality has never been a part of her better songs.

The New Kylie is better. I actually prefer the earlier demo of "In My Arms" that leaked a few months back (they teased the hook longer), but all the songs I liked in demo form are still great. In typical Kylie form, the "bonus tracks" are a blast- "I don't know what it is" is the kind of inspirational, driving pop rock she's so good at.

and come on, Jordin is hot. Boys know this. But they also know she's way into Jesus, and probably super high-maintenance.

Commentary by a couple of teenpop thread regulars...Frank and Tom on the album. And I wrote about it all over the place (except here).

Amy Diamond's new single w/ Max Martin deserves a mention, I think (h/t Jessica Poptastic). I think this is the closest he's come to old-school Max since...what, 2002 or before? And weirdly, I think Amy might have had more of an influence on him than he had on her.

Ummmmmm other things. Keke Palmer's album is officially underrated teenpop album of the year, I think (other contenders? Megan McCauley? Lil' Mama -- haven't even heard this yet, woops). I'm going to put it (Keke) in my Top Ten just because no one else will.

Feel the opposite Matt, think that Britney's alb is spectacular but not...solid. It's uneasy, there's something a little off about it. I dunno.

Britney had her own thread.

The Teenpop thread bows to no one.

Publicist: Jordin, if you mention that Tape Store kid one more time, I swear, I'm walking straight out of here.

Jordin (in whiny voice): But I want to go with him...

Publicist: Tell the newspapers no one asked you. We're still working on your virgin image.

Britney just forged past Miranda Lambert as my number two album of the year. Both Brit and Miranda are hitting my Velvet Underground buttons.

I wonder what Jordin would think of Stacey Q?

Keke Palmer album looked promising if you can judge a book by its cover, I thought; isn't it supposed to have one song that applies to that newfangled Chicago subgenre that Kelefa talks about sometimes -- juke or whatever it's called? But anyway, I haven't heard the record -- along with Skye Sweetnam, the Venonicas, Britney Spears, Hanna Montana, Rihanna, Kelly Clarkson, Kate Nash, and High School Musical 2, it falls into the category "teenpop-associated 2007 albums there's a very good chance I might like but I haven't got ahold of a copy yet and I've been too lazy and/or busy to seek one out."

I do like "It's My Turn Now," Keke's track on the Jump In! compilation (which I finally, after it's been out for like 11 months or something, got around to paying attention to this week), but I like it more for the background party voices than for Keke herself, I think. Good album, though. (The soundtrack, I mean.) Favorite track is probably the J-Faddish electro-girl bubble-rap "Gotta Lotta" by Prima J, whoever she is (anybody know?), followed by "Jump To The Rhythm" by Jordan Pruitt (whose own album really hold up and looks like it may actually squeak its way into my year-end top 10 as things stand now) and the double-dutching Kris Kross update (but not cover) "Jump" by Lil Josh. (Three songs about jumping on the album -- four if you count "Go! [Jump In mix]" by Jupiter Rising, which has cute gang-shout-type things that go "go! go! go!.") "Let It Go" by Kyle is a sweet, vulnerable gospel-pop closer; "I'm Ready" by Drew Seeley has more aerobic electro beats underneath. Anyway, what do other people think of this album? Tried to search, but looks like it was barely discussed on this thread...

(Maybe I should add Jordin Sparks to that might-like-if-I-heard -them list too, come to think of it. Frank, are you saying she's Stacey Q-like? If so, how?)

And I meant J-J-Faddish, obviously.