Rolling Teenpop 2007 Thread

Loving Veronicas' "Untouched" on the radio. I haven't actually heard the album, but I like the idea that they consciously decided to merge studio teenpop and confessional teenpop into a single shiny rush.

Hi Tim. The Veronicas' album is way better than their first, even if it has no "4ever." "Untouched" is the second-worst song on the album, but I don't think I'll get many people to agree with me there. One of my favorites is "Take Me On The Floor," which, despite its being on the floor, is really over the top - seems like a female version of Kid Rock's "So Hott" ("I wanna fuck you like I'm never gonna see you again"), though not as deliberately funny. But pretty funny.

By the way, do you receive those links I've been sending by email? I'm not sure I have your correct email address?

Matt, I still haven't confirmed that "See You Again" was intended as a single or just started acting like one owing to audience demand.

I do receive them and I'm shit about remembering to download and respond! Will try to follow up with yr latest though. And check out the Veronicas album.

I may like The Hood Internet's Lil Mama vs. Marnie Stern mashup "Absorb The Lip Gloss" more than the original "Lip Gloss." I may like Lil Mama's "Shawty Get Loose" more than "Lip Gloss." I definitely prefer the acoustic "Bullseye" to the original. Exact same Aly & A.J. vocals, but the acoustic chords make the song moodier and more obsessive, the "ha ha ha" not sounding fun this time, but ominous.

I'll try that link again: Shawty Get Loose

My Idolator ballot.

You were a little kinder to teenpop this year than I was, I think. (Both Kelly and Hilary took a nosedive to the near-bottom of my list at the last second.) In retrospect I think I'll slowly grow to like Aly and AJ's more, Hilary's even less. I can't imagine my opinion on Britney or Kelly changing too much over time (since I've come to understand/accept the flaws in both of 'em, which in Kelly's case means ignoring at least three or four songs).

The Lil' Marnie mash-up is nice, but I don't really think it works -- Marnie's too busy and Mama's too relaxed/assured. It's frantic, nervous, feels like it's moving too fast and it's about to crash. Although I can imagine if you're not totally enamored with the original you might enjoy that effect.

Also, out of curiosity (since you like the V's alb more than I do) what's the worst track on it? I love "Untouched," prefer it even to "Hook Me Up" as a single.

Catching up on a lot of non- and semi-teenpop stuff over the holidays, haven't been blown away by anything yet. I really don't understand why people like Against Me, who sound to me like the Offspring that wishes they were the Hold Steady (with some <i>American Idiot</i> thrown in, not intended as a compliment). Kind of liking Yelle, who reminds me a little bit of CSS, but with more bonkers sugar high style hyperactivity and less hipster detachment.

HSM alum #4 (#5 if you count Drew Seeley), Lucas Grabeel - You Got It. Um, not what I was expecting.

I'm so humiliated to admit that I didn't understand what's great about "All My Friends" until I heard Franz Ferdinand cover it. WHAT IZ TA RONG WITH ME?

I never understood what was so great about Barr (even though I reviewed him favorably) and Battles (whom I reviewed somewhat favorably) and Dan Deacon and Of Montreal (whom I like pretty well, actually) and Grinderman and Dinosaur Jr. and Justice until, um (some event in the distant future that causes me to reevaluate 'em).

(I'm working my way through the Paper Thin Walls year-end mixtape. Don't mean to imply that the ones I haven't mentioned have greatness and I understand it, rather that not a lot of people have asserted the greatness of the other bands, so I didn't feel compelled to assume that they had greatness that was beyond my ken.)

Airplay, Z-100 in New York City
lw TW Artist Title TW lw +/- Reach/Mill
4 1 RIHANNA Don't Stop The Music 95 74 21 8.7413
2 2 ALICIA KEYS No One 92 95 -3 8.5443
1 3 CHRIS BROWN Kiss, Kiss (f/T-Pain) 78 95 -17 6.9371
<b>7 4 MILEY CYRUS See You Again 78 57 21 7.4272</b>
11 5 ENUR Calabria 2008 (f/Natasja) 63 43 20 6.0612
5 6 PARAMORE Misery Business 62 62 0 5.9815
6 7 FERGIE Clumsy 57 60 -3 5.4613
10 8 FLO RIDA Low (f/T-Pain) 51 44 7 4.5005
13 9 JORDIN SPARKS No Air (f/ Chris Brown) 49 40 9 4.4648
12 10 JORDIN SPARKS Tattoo 48 43 5 4.2235

Woah, I just heard "Piece of Me" for the first time. The robots have won, haven't they?

I'm not a huge fan of the song, but it sure sounds pretty darn human to me, so I'm not sure I get the robot claim. Anyway, here's what I wrote about it on the country thread last week, even though it has nothing whatsoever to do with country music:

has anybody pointed out that Britney's "Piece of Me" is sort of her version of GnR's "Get In The Ring"? A lot better though. But not nearly as good as "Positively Fourth Street," and it won't make my (overall) top 10 singles list because I like the idea of it more than I like the actual record; I feel like it's better in theory than in actuality. Also, I wish she enunciated the line "I'm Mrs. Extra Extra This Just In" better; that line was driving me crazy -- kept hearing it as "extra delicious icious" or some thing. (Honestly, maybe this is obvious, but who it really reminds me of is Eminem. They would have made a lovely couple. Can't think what song of his is the most obvious equivalent, though. And I have no idea why I'm posting this on the country thread.)

-- xhuxk, Friday, December 21, 2007 1:00 PM (6 days ago) Bookmark Link

And okay (bringing it back to country), probably another one of my problems with "Piece Of Me" is the same problem I had with the Dixie Chicks' "Not Ready To Make Nice" last year, where you totally have to understand the artist's back story to understand the record. And I know, I know, it's fairly impossible not to know Britney's back story. But maybe that impossibility is what bugs me; maybe I wish I could get away from the back story. (And so does she, I'm sure, which is part of the song's point -- This gets complicated!) And maybe in five years I'll think "Piece Of Me" is as great as, say, "Public Image" (the lyrics of which, though, I'd say, are less dependent, specifics-wise, on knowing precisely who Johnny Rotten was, though maybe I'm wrong.) Also, I'm not sure why the "back story knowing" requirement never seemed to bother me with certain Eminem songs; on the other hand, it's not like I've really gone back and listened to those lately either, so maybe they weren't as great as I thought they were at the time. And I have no doubt that Britney is the real Slim Shady, all the other Slim Shadys are just imitating. But I'm still not voting for her single this year (or, so far anyway, searching out her new album to hear.)

-- xhuxk, Friday, December 21, 2007 2:01 PM (6 days ago) Bookmark Link

I feel like it's better in theory than in actuality.

This is very much what I get out of it.

Also, I wish she enunciated the line "I'm Mrs. Extra Extra This Just In" better; that line was driving me crazy -- kept hearing it as "extra delicious icious" or some thing.

That's the way I heard it, too.

Weirdly, "Piece of Me" is both the first Britney song I've ever loved (I've liked a few, but never without reservations) as well as the first thing that's ever made me remotely interested in Britney the Person, and I suppose her "back story" too (though really, it's not the back story per se that interests me, but her perspective on it).

Anyone have any thoughts about "Heartbroken" by T2 Feat. Jodie? Saw this on Tom Ewing's Pitchfork singles list, downloaded it and am totally enamoured with it today (enough so that it may sneak into my Top 10 for the eye weekly poll, which I still have a week or so to finish). It has great cut-up vocals--almost like Stacey Q's "Two of Hearts" meets "Piece of Me." All I know from Wikipedia is that it is British and that Jodie Aysha wrote it when she was 14.

Britney's "Piece of Me" is sort of her version of GnR's "Get In The Ring"? A lot better though. But not nearly as good as "Positively Fourth Street"

I also kind of hear "Don't Believe the Hype," and in its vocal fucked-upness, There's a Riot Goin' On.

... specifically "Family Affair," maybe, the way she bends her voice--I don't know, reminds me a little bit of Sly Stone (of course, their means of achieving this effect are entirely different). I remember as a kid the first time I heard "Family Affair" I thought it was really twisted and inhuman and scary and elfin-like or something.

I've probably said this enough, but it can't hurt to say again: I absolutely love Piece of Me, and all my friends love it, and we can't can't can't get enough of it.

T2 f. Jodie Aysha "Heartbroken" is quite excellent. It is the 31st best single of the year. It used to be 30th, but then LeAnn Rimes' "Nothin' Better To Do" passed it. It is in a genre that they call "bassline," "they" being Lex and maybe some other people too; except sometimes the genre is called "niche," which would be a great genre title (just as "scene" is a great title for a particular scene) (and surely a genre called "genre" is just around the corner), though "Niche" turns out merely to be the name of a nightclub.

In related news, I saw this headline a couple of weeks ago:

Northern Rock Board Seen Eyeing Internal Rescue

I was disappointed to discover that "Northern Rock" was the name of a British bank. I'd thought that there was a board charged with overseeing rock in the north. Northern rock is facing a liquidity crisis, part of the fallout from the U.S. subprime loan debacle. I wrote a letter to Northern Rock's board suggesting that the name of the bank be changed to Northern Soul. (This joke has probably been made thousands of times in Britain. But I'm not in Britain.)

Here's a question for you all:

What surprised you in popular and semipopular music this year (you don't need to limit your answer to stuff that's teenpop)?

My immediate answer is Britney Spears. I'd previously loved some of her music ("And Then We Kiss" made my Jackin' Pop ballot last year; "...Baby One More Time" is one of my favorite songs of the Nineties) without giving much thought to her as a human being or a personality or a performer. Starting with the head shave, but even more with her unexpectedly clear-eyed savage mockery of Hilary and the media when she posted her "album title poll" on her website (we talk about this upthread), then the nonapology apology for the umbrella incident, then the intense "Gimme More" single, then the awful walk-through performance on the VMAs while glazed over and fucked-up, then the moxie in calling her album Blackout, then the album itself being mischievous and scrappy and scratchy and angry and cheerful all at once, and really powerful, all in a way that got under my skin.

Another surprise: Miley Cyrus "See You Again," both for the song itself sounding unexpectedly rich and for its breaking onto top 40 radio (up to 1,322 plays, though it's starting to lose steam). And for Radio Disney not playing it.

My #1 surprise (and this is kind of obvious to say at this point--I think others have been registering likeminded surprise) is realizing just how much I like Fergie. I've generally been in the camp of Black Eyed Peas haters, and except for "My Humps," which I NOW assume is the blueprint for "Fergalicious" (which, in my first review of the song in Las Vegas Wkly, I rated 1.0--what an ass!), I don't think I need to go back to find out that I was wrong because I'm pretty sure I still hate "Let's Get Retarded" with a passion bordering on psychosis. But I've liked/loved every single one of Fergie's singles, and even think her latest is good despite it feeling like the well's running a little dry. I regret not listing Fergie (or anyone) on my Idolator ballot as "artist of the year," which I didn't have time to think about.

One thing that surprised me this year was that I tried so hard to squeeze stuff from last year (and previous years) into my list consideration. Not just borderline late releases like Taylor Swift (whom I'd heard and liked in 2006 but didn't really click with until after ballots were due last year) but Justin Timberlake singles and Fergie singles and Marit Larsen singles (I waited for "Robot Song" to be released as a single to no avail, as far as I know). Even a couple of MCR singles.

Other negative surprise came this past week, when I listened to about twenty albums and was disappointed with all of them. I'm looking over year-end lists and I'm not even remotely interested in listening to 99% of what's being repped. And the stuff that piqued my 1% interest for the most part...well, it doesn't suck, it's just really dull, even when it shows promise of not being totally dull (like Battles).

Positive surprise is that Enrique's album (or about half of it) is a good contender for male confessional dance album of the year. I'm not sure if he had any competition, though.

*I could add Robyn and even Rachel Stevens's album (2007 US release via itunes) to the list of things that were technically eligible to vote on in 2007.

i think it's more the production than brit's lack of enunciation, but in break the ice i hear something like

"put your wall hooks/walnuts/wallets in me"

rather than

"but you warm up to me"

doesn't really bug me though.

Oh, another nice surprise, Cassie's second album is shaping up to be as good as (possibly better than) her first. The three songs I've heard so far are gorgeous.

See Cassie: The new Ciara?

I second (third?) being shocked by Britney. I never loved her much, and "Piece of Me" blew me away. Also, I was shocked by how amazing Insomniatic was. I was prepared for something good, but I wasn't prepared for that. I was always shocked by Fall Out Boy. I absolutely hatedhatedhated their last album, and I really liked Infinity on High.

I listened to about twenty albums and was disappointed with all of them

Thought you liked A-Trak's Dirty South Dance.

The power of radio:

Perez Hilton discovers Miley Cyrus's "See You Again" about six months after everyone else does.

Yeah, I'm being too dramatic. A-Trak was great, I liked the Low album OK, Vanessa Carlton's has good qualities. A few others. But the ratio was pretty low. (Also I get Scroogey around the holidays.)

The A-Trak album kept hitting me as more disjointed than I wanted it to; not seamless enough. Or something. Still real good, and when I submitted a top 150 albums of the year list to Idolator with my ballot, it should have been on there, possibly even in the top 50, but somehow I accidentally left it off, oh well.

I listed some country stuff that surprised me this year on the country thread. A few non-country things that surprised me: (1) I wound up liking a song by Avril Lavigne more than I ever thought I would (even though people here mostly seem to hate it now); (2) I wound up liking a song by James Blunt (namely, "1973") more than I ever thought I would (which is to say, I never expected to like one at all); (3) I wound up liking a Christina Aguilera song more than I ever thought I would again (even though, again, the consensus here seems to be against it); (4) I wound up liking black metal (which can be quite gorgeous, surprisingly enough) more than I ever thought I would (though actually, come to think of it, I initially came to that realizion more in '06 -- so let's say my big '07 surprise is that I now probably "black metal" more than merely "dark metal"); and (5) Just in general, I guess I'm surprised by hip-hop increasingly turning back into a music of catchy goofy novelty hits, which is a development I very much welcome.

The thing that most caught me by surprise, though (which I already mentioned on the country thread) was Kid Rock's album -- just way, way better than anything I ever imagined he would come up with again.

I played "See You Again" for a few friends and all they had to say about it was that it was ripping off "I Wear My Sunglasses at Night." Which means they ignored the chorus and the fact that "See You Again" is much better.

I like "Candyman," just don't really like Xtina's makeover in a general sense.

xpost - yeah, that Kid Rock album is really good! I forgot I listened to that.

xp I regret not listing Fergie (or anyone) on my Idolator ballot as "artist of the year,"

For whatever it's worth, I abstained on that category as well, though I'm not as sure I regret it. Last year I voted for all websites (pandora.com, cdbaby.com, etc.), since I couldn't figure out what else to do, and that seemed like a clever-enough solution. I suppose that some years I could see listing a producer, if one seemed ubiquitous enough. (This year, maybe Lil Wayne would have made a lot of sense, if I'd made any attempt to keep up with him.) But generally, to be honest, I kinda hate the category -- just think it's really vague. So I listed my top 10 '07 EPs in the comments section instead!

C'mon, T. Pain was the obvious answer!

Yeah, that occurred to me -- T-Pain or Akon. May have voted for them if I'd actually cared about any songs either of them did this year. But I didn't.

xp John Waite, Blue Cheer, and Alvin Lee all put out better albums than I ever expected them to again as well, so I suppose those count as additional small surprises. (I'd list Ted Nugent, whose album also turned out way better than I'd thought it would be when it was sitting there on my shelf untouched for months after I heard he'd said something typically asinine on stage and I didn't feel like dealing with him, but his last few have been pretty good, too, so I don't know why I'm still surprised by the guy.)

I split the difference and listed Anteres Autotune as my artist of the year.

xp

And oh yeah, I was also surprised that I liked Tiger Army's album -- they'd never done anything for me before, so I didn't expect it to wind up the 85th best album of the year (more or less), but it did!

My biggest surprise was, on 9/11, liking Animal Collective more than 50 Cent and both of them more than Kanye. I would've assumed the opposite order. Or maybe 50 at the bottom. Of course, I haven't heard any of them since so I can't really explain why, except that AC was catchy and weird, 50 was bangin', and Kanye gets progressively more annoying and less weird or bangin'.

Also, second being pleasantly surprised by Fall Out Boy.

I have all kinds of problems with that "Best Artist" category. I ended up voting for Fania Records because they were probably responsible for the most good music issued this year, even if none of it was actually created this year. Then The-Dream, because he wrote "Bed" and "Umbrella." Then T-Pain, Akon, and Wayne, because I typically liked whatever they did and they maybe affected the sound of the year more than anyone else? But it seems like a chump's game. I feel like a chump. But I'd feel more like a chump just voting for the top 5 from my album list.

xhuxk, Tiger Army placed 40 spots higher on my albums list :-P

Possibly under best artists we should have voted for painters (except I have a really poor eye - or anyway, poor attention span - when confronted by "the visual arts," so I wouldn't have known what to vote for).

My five were:

1. Britney Spears
2. Brie Larson
3. Antonina Armato and Tim James
4. Kelefa Sanneh
5. Danja

I voted for Britney partly based on her Website writing, and for Brie pretty much entirely based on her Website writing and the one short story of hers I read in her lit mag. (I just got the Hoot DVD from the library, but I haven't watched it yet. I've never seen her act.)

I voted for Kelefa Sanneh on the basis of his writing. And my votes for Armato & James and for Danja were based partly on their songwriting.

Actually, I was thinking of voting for Poptimists and for The Rolling Country Thread, but I decided against voting for anything I was involved in, or anyone I was friends with.

One of my artist slots went to OiNK. R.I.P., buddy.

This was Akon's year, for sure.

I tried to shy away from people who were involved in my albums/singles, although I did vote for Elias de Leon exec. produced about four of my favorite reggaeton albums of the year, and for the Clutch, but I added them to my ballot before I added "The Way I Are", and Autotune, which makes a few appearances here and there. So guess only Swizz Beatz and Danny Fornaris got away scott-free.

...de Leon who...

By the way, do we want to have a rolling teenpop thread next year? My basic feeling is that the spark is long gone and that the good pop convos are happening elsewhere, not on ilX. An argument in favor of keeping the thread going would be that some people post here whom I might not get to see otherwise, or info gets posted I don't know about, etc.

So, if someone else wants to start one I'll probably contribute, but I'm not going to be the one to start it.

I know a bunch of jerks joke about the seriousness of this thread, but it's been thought-provoking and fun to read all year. Thanks, dudes. You'll be missed if you go, Frank.

Of course there should be one.