Rolling Teenpop 2007 Thread

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Well, I'm unconsenting to the consensus; find TashBed's vocal stylizations on "Babies" too stylized and irritating and lacking in feeling; which isn't to say I dislike the track or don't appreciate its ambition or "craziness" or whatever, though don't see what's so bonkers about jazz showoff vocals. It still ends up on the coffee table. And "Unwritten" is the Tashi song I look forward to hearing, so I guess I'm Greg in reverse.

― Frank Kogan, Thursday, 8 March 2007 20:28 (seventeen years ago) link

I do like how on "Babies" the Tashic One is giving herself big bashing trashbin beats to wend her way around.

Also, if we're talking about the Tashbed, I guess we can talk about Tunstall a little (though unlike Tashacles, KT has never gotten Disney play); just discovered over on Poptimists that KT used to sing for a London Jewish gypsy klezmer band, prefer that to what she's doing now. Linked the band on rolling country, will do it here too. Recommend "Ladino Song":

http://www.myspace.com/oivavoi

― Frank Kogan, Thursday, 8 March 2007 20:36 (seventeen years ago) link

oh god kt tunstall. so boring, klezmer band or no klezmer band.

― lex pretend, Thursday, 8 March 2007 20:42 (seventeen years ago) link

'these words' is mildly endearing but pre-BABIES BABIES BABIES BABIES SPRINGING OUT LIKE DAISIES, the only tashbed song i actively liked was 'single', her debut. and a few years later i can't even remember how it goes.

― lex pretend, Thursday, 8 March 2007 20:43 (seventeen years ago) link

I like the babies song. Don't hear the vocal style as showoffy.

― Tim Ellison, Thursday, 8 March 2007 20:49 (seventeen years ago) link

Don't like the video, though.

― Tim Ellison, Thursday, 8 March 2007 20:49 (seventeen years ago) link

"Girlfriend" still weak on Top 40 airplay over the last seven days: jumped a not very impressive 173 spins over the previous week to a not very impressive 257 spins (which incidentally puts her just ahead of a weak performing "Smile" by Lily Allen); compare to 9,669 spins for Nelly Furtado's "Say It Right." But I'll bet the digital sales will get the attention of some radio station personnel. Not sure the song fits any format very well, which could work for it (it's unique!) but probably won't. I'm cheering for it, however.

― Frank Kogan, Thursday, 8 March 2007 20:52 (seventeen years ago) link

I find it ironic that the three songs I've really enjoyed thus far this year have been batshit crazy. Avril Lavigne's Girlfriend (which is unabashedly about stealing someone's boyfriend), R Kelly's Flirt (which is unabashedly about flirting with someone's girlfriend), and Babies (which is unabashedly about wanting babies). Oh! And Stewie, the most batshit single thus far (which is unabashedly about making Stewie noises and going cRaZy!). Whew. What a year so far.

― Mordechai Shinefield, Thursday, 8 March 2007 20:56 (seventeen years ago) link

Am liking both of the Good Charlotte singles; haven't paid much attention to the lyrics, assume Mordy's criticisms will hold, though if I understand the lyrics correctly, they would find it refreshing to tune into the radio and hear a singer go "Put your hands on my girl."

― Frank Kogan, Thursday, 8 March 2007 21:15 (seventeen years ago) link

It's mostly the lyrics that I find bonkers about "Babies". For the record, Frank, "Unwritten" is my favorite TashBed song (it was on my top 10 singles of 2005 list that I distributed to friends).

― Greg Fanoe, Thursday, 8 March 2007 21:21 (seventeen years ago) link

Also I enjoy the symmetry of the fact that "Girlfriend" is the lyrical opposite of "Boyfriend" (by Ashlee).

― Greg Fanoe, Thursday, 8 March 2007 21:23 (seventeen years ago) link

re: "Babies." is it just me, or is TashBed incapable of correctly pronouncing words?

First example: "hyperbole" in "These Words"

Now: "nonchalant" in "Babies"

WTF?

― electroghost, Friday, 9 March 2007 03:09 (seventeen years ago) link

God. I can't get over the brilliance of "I wanna have your babies / You're serious like gravy." Greatest lines of the year. (And if that second line is something else, I don't want to hear about it.) I like the idea of Babies, gravy and Bedingfield being some kind of twisted Dada experiment.

― Mordechai Shinefield, Friday, 9 March 2007 06:05 (seventeen years ago) link

serious like crazy, surely?

― lex pretend, Friday, 9 March 2007 09:41 (seventeen years ago) link

Damnit.

― Mordechai Shinefield, Friday, 9 March 2007 10:16 (seventeen years ago) link

Ah, Greg, I see, I thought when you said "apart from that song" you meant "Unwritten," whereas you actually meant "Wild Horses."

― Frank Kogan, Saturday, 10 March 2007 06:56 (seventeen years ago) link

From MTV News:

Ashlee Simpson, busy writing her next album, said fans should expect a more soulful sound. "I'm from Texas, I come from that background," she said. "It's cool because on my last two records I was writing with the same people and now I'm writing with a bunch of different people. I'm writing with my guitar player Ray [Brady] and just seeing where it goes." Simpson is eyeing an October release.

― Frank Kogan, Saturday, 10 March 2007 07:00 (seventeen years ago) link

P!nk's "U + Ur Hand" had a sizable jump in Top 40 airplay (a jump of over 500 spins; it's now the 20th most played song on Top 40 radio) during the last seven days. Does anyone know why? (A couple of weeks ago a Billboard columnist mentioned its long-delayed rise but didn't speculate as to why.)

― Frank Kogan, Saturday, 10 March 2007 07:31 (seventeen years ago) link

So, I decided that I like the Jordan Pruitt album, pretty much all of it. Wouldn't say I love any of it, but it's consistently enjoyable to listen to. None of it hits me as especially super-cliched or especially non-cliched lyrically, but then again none of it inspires me to micro-analyze the lyric sheet under a magnifying glass, and I'm not sure how else I'd figure out the answer to said question. My favorite tracks are probably a couple of the more obvious (and I think somebody maybe said cliched up above) ones -- "Miss Popularity" and "Teenager", plus "Later," which is a slow one and at first I didn't think I'd like it much but the way its melody cascades (butterfly-like? that Michael Jackson song about butterflies-like?) is really pretty, and there's something interesting about how Pruitt's vocal rhythms in it split the difference between Beyonce' and K.T. Tunstall, two singers who I can usually either take or leave. (Actually, I could be wrong about that equation, but the equation occurs to me every time I hear the song.) If somebody made a strong case for "Outside Looking In" or "Who Likes Who" or "When I Pretend" or "My Reality" (which somebody may well have done somewhere up above; I haven't checked), I could probably be fairly easily convinced that one or more of those is better than the three I named as my favorites. "Jump to The Rhythm" has some rudimentary trace of Bo Diddley or Bow Wow Wow or something in its jump. What are the singles again?

― xhuxk, Saturday, 10 March 2007 15:09 (seventeen years ago) link

xhuxk, singles are "Outside Looking In" and "Jump to the Rhythm" and wikipedia is listing "Teenager" or "Miss Popularity" but who knows on that.

Eloquent case for "Outside Looking In" (this is xposted from my blog, about 7 months ago, which means it's long):

Some discussion of Jordan Pruitt on the teenpop thread, and I'll repeat here what I wrote there: I am really loving her song "Outside Looking In". In addition to a really nice vocal performance by Jordan Pruitt, and a nice laid-back melody, I really love the lyrics. It deals with the issue of teen rejection/loneliness (which isn't all that different from adult rejection/loneliness) in a way that totally works, and I don't think I've quite seen used in another song. Rather than attempting to paraphrase, let me quote directly from what I said on the teenpop thread:

"...one thing I really love is the "You don't know how it feels..." aspect to it. Of course, the reason the song works is that EVERYBODY knows how it feels to be on the outside looking in. But that feeling of loneliness can, in my experience, create a kind of self-pity, "Nobody has ever had to face this before me, I'm all alone" feeling. So not saying you don't know how it feels in an accusatory way (a la Tom Petty's "You Don't Know How It Feels to Be Me") but in a self-pitying way. I would guess this feeling is especially prevalent in the more self-centered teen world, which is why I think it works better as a teen pop song than it would in other genres."

Even though the verses have a really accusatory feel to them, like I said that's not how I interpret the chorus. I interpret speaking directly to her tormenters, the ones who are rejecting her, "YOU don't know how it feels..." in a way that feels just so real and raw. Not in a way of trying to blame them or make them feel bad, just trying to show them how much they've hurt her, and self-pitying as I say in the quoted passage above. I think this song is so great because virtually anybody can probably relate to the song, not just as the speaker, but also as the accused. Who here has not felt rejected/alone or made other people to feel rejected/alone? Not only that, but Jordan totally sells the vocals. Jordan's only 15, and her album comes out in early 2007, written entirely by her and her two co-writers on "Outside Looking In". I'm looking forward to it.

― Greg Fanoe, Saturday, 10 March 2007 18:53 (seventeen years ago) link

Speaking of "Outside Looking In", here is the "Outside Looking In" contest: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ibL_lWgNRM

Whoever had the best story on what the song means to them and how they've felt on the outside looking in. "Don't be afraid to tell us your thoughts and feelings". Hah, the best videos uploaded to Youtube will be personally interviewed by Jordan Pruitt for a 30 minute documentary on the making of the song. Should be interesting.

― Greg Fanoe, Saturday, 10 March 2007 19:06 (seventeen years ago) link

Are the Fratellis still teens? They are close, I think. They are also apparently the "best new band in Britain," according to the NME. And they have a song called "Flathead" in both an ipod commercial apparently (not that I've seen it, seeing how I don't watch TV) and in the U.S. Hot 100 (or at least it was there last week.) Also they apparently start rows in the loo, or something. Not that you can actually hear any row-starting in their music (just like the Libertines before them and Oasis before that.) Album, which I lasted through a few songs of, shambles in a politely energetic way at times. It's better when they try to music-hall than when they try to rock, though not much better. Best thing I can say about it is that I didn't hate it as much as I expected to.

― xhuxk, Saturday, 10 March 2007 23:11 (seventeen years ago) link

Fratellis have a couple of tracks entering, leaving, and reentering the British charts; I listened to "Whistle For The Choir" a couple of weeks ago and then forgot what it sounded like, but fortunately I took notes: "This isn't terrible. Lennonesque melody, acoustic." (What's a Lennonesque melody? I probably meant the late '60s, slightly aggressive slightly pained tunes like "Instant Karma" rather than the early '60s exuberantly pained tunes like "Not A Second Time." Assuredly I did not think "Whistle For The Choir" was as good as either of those two.) "I feel that I am recognizing this song's merit rather than liking it. The way the singing Fratelli goes 'A boy like me is irresistible' has a nice 1920s feel, but it would be better with a 1920s arrangement and a 1920s (or 1890s) singer, someone capable of a singer totally at ease with offhand show tunes like 'Yessir, that's my baby.'" (So a think that's my thumb sitting on its thumbs rather than it being a thumbs up. Of course, I'd go listen again if I were more conscientious.)

― Frank Kogan, Sunday, 11 March 2007 00:17 (seventeen years ago) link

"someone capable of a singer totally at ease" - to make sense of this, delete the phrase "capable of a singer."

― Frank Kogan, Sunday, 11 March 2007 00:24 (seventeen years ago) link

A teenpop threader creates a Platinum Weird fansite.

― Frank Kogan, Sunday, 11 March 2007 05:56 (seventeen years ago) link

Re: Jordan Pruitt. At least in Outside Looking In, I hear something in her voice I like. There's a tremble, like it could almost break that reminds me of Dashboard Confessional. But my friend said it best: Her voice isn't strong enough to carry on with so little accompaniment. I'd only addendum that slightly: If the lyrics were just a bit better, just a bit more diverse and interesting, she could've pulled it off. As it is now, the only really interesting thing is that quiver in her voice, and the potential that it could turn into something more. I suppose there could be something interesting in terms of the reaction to the song (the way that the people she's referring to in the song hear the song) and that kind of reminds me of Jimmy Eats World's The Middle. (Particularly Greenwald's critique of the music video for The Middle in Nothing Feels Good - he writes that it's about isolation, but it speaks to everyone. It lets everyone feel that isolation, but is still a mainstream, cross-denom phenomenon. At least, that's what I remember him saying.)

― Mordechai Shinefield, Monday, 12 March 2007 06:42 (seventeen years ago) link

Rolling RD 3-12-07: Year 3K takes the top spot, Hilary stalls around 25-ish (haven't checked against KDIS airplay yet), in the Incubator is an Xtian pop band with some kinda link to Jump 5 (they share a Svengali or something), Pure NRG label MySpace here: http://www.myspace.com/ferventrecords, "Live My Life for You"...elsewhere AnnaSophia Robb has a boring ballad from that movie whose name I don't remember (Narnia-ish) and in the Mailbag is the Truth Squad doing a Peter Pan song. Veronicas get as close as they'll ever get to RD with Everlife's cover of "I Could Get Used to This." Not finding a heckuva lotta reasons to listen very much lately.

― dabug, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 03:11 (seventeen years ago) link

Way tardy thoughts on "Chemicals React" (been lost in multi-features-ville.)

The opening Linn drum kick and Roland 120 chorus guitar makes me wonder if those sounds, utterly emblematic of the 80s, are now official pop kitsch quotation tones ala a Shaft wah-wah figure.

The guitar approach: An interesting gambit, making it wall of treble with almost no mid-rage. one assumes the idea was to make room for the snare and the vocals, which it does. And to render what's basically a Ramones sort of guitar attack sound less offputtingly punk. But the buzzzz treatment also robs the chords of some of their piquancy, and these are mighty tasty chords.

Vocals: Brilliant! The harmonies are using the robo-simulacra effect of Paris' vox to super smart effect--their sheer robo-ness is a lovely sonic and conceptual spar with Aly's impassioned, very bio lead vox. I have to wonder if somebody in the control booth is a major Beatles fan--the hold-the-root-note thing with occasional switches to thirds is class Fab Four and delightful; in this unexpected context.

The final fist-pumper vocal vamp is a delight: it's like the arena rock Bic-lighter thing trimmed to 2:46 seconds of pep.

Wondering how the lyrics jibe with the whole Christian thing.

Whatever--a terrific song, rendered in the main terrifically.

― i, grey, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 13:58 (seventeen years ago) link

The thing about the babies song for me is that, while it does sound like "a nice summery hit," there's something lame about the casualness with which she's talking about the subject. I can't help hearing it as being kind of phony.

― Tim Ellison, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 19:10 (seventeen years ago) link

RIP Betty Hutton

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/14/movies/14hutton.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClGNm89GZBE

― dabug, Wednesday, 14 March 2007 03:59 (seventeen years ago) link

I have to wonder if somebody in the control booth is a major Beatles fan

Producers and songwriters (w/ the Michalka girls) are Antonina Armato and Tim James, who also collaborated with Aly & A.J. on "Greatest Time Of Year" and "Not This Year," and did the very different-sounding (to my untrained ears) "Come Back To Me" for Vanessa Hudgens (r&b rather than Beatles-Ramones); and seven years ago did Hoku's great "How Do I Feel (the Burrito Song)" - and all the other Hoku songs, including "Another Dumb Blonde." Ian, if you ever get the chance I'd love it if you could analyze "How Do I Feel" and "Come Back To Me," since neither sounds much like the other, or all that much like Aly & A.J. - but you might be able to draw out some similarities that I wouldn't have the knowledge to hear. (Hoku has a much lighter sound than Aly & A.J., but there are probably melodic and harmonic similarities.)

I wouldn't think that Armato and James and the Michalka would be referencing the '80s, even if they're deliberately copying the '80s, since few of the kids in Aly & A.J.'s prime audience would get the reference.

― Frank Kogan, Thursday, 15 March 2007 06:11 (seventeen years ago) link

YouTube will be forced to take down the Betty Hutton video sooner or later (that's what happened last time it was up); I recommend it enthusiastically.

― Frank Kogan, Thursday, 15 March 2007 06:14 (seventeen years ago) link

Re: "Chemicals Ract" 80s sounds/Beatles haromies.

I'm always very interested in production fashion. Like couture, it depicts a conversation with Now and the past and the interstices where Then becomes revitalized in morphed form. (Really, I'm not a theory freak.)

Just noticed that "React" also has pop-and-slap bass in the verse, which is uber-80s. Meanwhile, the Linn kick was absolutely verboten in any sort of pop for the last 15 years.

I don't think the producers are referencing--I think they've just decided the statute of limitations on all of these songs is over. It's part of what makes the song so frackin' exciting--you literally, on some level, have no idea what going to be thrown at you.

― i, grey, Thursday, 15 March 2007 17:44 (seventeen years ago) link

er--"sounds", not "songs"

― i, grey, Thursday, 15 March 2007 17:45 (seventeen years ago) link

The sound fashion thing is one reason I find most indie stuff so stulifying, so deadly dull.

Especially the official Indie Drum Sound/Style, that flat, low ambience, boxy sound and playing style that signifies "I'm too cool to give a crap about how this is played" or something.

twenty years, and it hasn't changed a fuckuva lot.

― i, grey, Thursday, 15 March 2007 17:48 (seventeen years ago) link

Word on the street is Skye Sweetnam's getting dropped in the aftermath of the Capitol/Virgin merger. Not confirmed yet though.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/buzzbands/2007/03/like_a_lot_of_f.html

― dabug, Thursday, 15 March 2007 22:00 (seventeen years ago) link

Shit, that makes me unhappy.

― Frank Kogan, Thursday, 15 March 2007 22:34 (seventeen years ago) link

But this makes me happy. It makes me proud, because my grandmother was born in Odessa.

― Frank Kogan, Thursday, 15 March 2007 22:36 (seventeen years ago) link

it depicts a conversation with Now and the past

When I first read this, I - truly - thought that the "Now" referred to was the album series [Removed Illegal Link].

― Frank Kogan, Thursday, 15 March 2007 22:41 (seventeen years ago) link

Oops, a catastrophic appostrophe: let's try again:

[i]it depicts a conversation with Now and the past

When I first read this, I - truly - thought that the "Now" referred to was the album series Now That s What I Call Music.

― Frank Kogan, Thursday, 15 March 2007 22:45 (seventeen years ago) link

But this makes me happy.

Perhaps one day I will learn to smile again.

― dabug, Friday, 16 March 2007 00:51 (seventeen years ago) link

This might help a little.

― dabug, Friday, 16 March 2007 03:09 (seventeen years ago) link

No wait, This might help a little

― dabug, Friday, 16 March 2007 03:10 (seventeen years ago) link

Joe McCombs says that the chart rebound of Pink's "U + Ur Hand" was due to the song's being belatedly serviced to dance radio in remix form and then taking off from there. As of today it's number 16 on Mediabase's Top 40 airplay list, and is also getting additional action on Hot AC. (Maybe the fact that a couple of Skye's producers are on this late-breaking hit will convince Capitol Records to spare her the guillotine.)

― Frank Kogan, Friday, 16 March 2007 05:16 (seventeen years ago) link

Reviewing The Dollyrods album and it *should* be teenpop; it sounds like what every Disney network girl band should sound like, all sugary sweet yet cracklingly poppy (which makes it sound like a breakfast cereal!) with fun infectious choruses that still 'rock out' kinda like '80s poof metal bands did or Joan Jett (it is on her label) playing in Morningwood if they did surf music for the new generation. Loud cover of "Brand New Key" makes me want to go skating. xhuxk would either approve or be disappointed, I never know for sure, but I like it okay.

― NYCNative, Friday, 16 March 2007 19:52 (seventeen years ago) link

Finally got a copy of the Good Charlotte album. Still working on my review about it, but Teenpop specific observations: lot of songs about being depressed and dark ("All Black") though that song also namedrops Johnny Cash. Also, Frank, I find that "Keep Your Hands Off My Girl" single incredibly disturbing. On a couple different levels.

― Mordechai Shinefield, Friday, 16 March 2007 21:32 (seventeen years ago) link

The only recent thing I heard from the Dollyrots (who counted as teenpop last year) was from their Myspace called "Because I'm Awesome," which reminds me of something that could have been on the Clueless soundtrack.

― dabug, Friday, 16 March 2007 21:50 (seventeen years ago) link

I don't think I've mentioned Stephanie McIntosh here, though I've been liking "So Do I Say Sorry First" for a while; it's now getting its push as a single. The opening riff could be Sixties progressive rock, such as Cream's "Tales Of Brave Ulysses," a psychedelic scream from the guitar; but McIntosh sings "dit dit dit" above it, as if the rock were generating pop, and then what follows is totally Eurobosh love-pained poppiness in melody and lyrics - "If I cry would you hold me just like we rehearsed/So do I so do I say sorry first?" smart words, about a couple's love quarrels turning into shtick, into routine - while the guitars go for the same rocking loudness that Luke and Max have been inserting into their pop lately. (I think there is some Martin and Rami input on the album but not this song, which is co-written and most likely produced by Tom Nichols.)

Over on Poptimists they've been using "bosh" to mean your basic Europop Eurodance and also for Eurodance covers of rock songs, while this I'd call "bosh rock," meaning that it's a pop song with a lot of guitar crunch that is nonetheless totally dancepop.

― Frank Kogan, Friday, 16 March 2007 22:12 (seventeen years ago) link

Stephanie McIntosh is Aussie soap star Jason Donovan's half-sister, and Stephanie herself is in the cast of Neighbours (which never aired here and which I've never seen, even when Kylie was on it). There was a making-of-the-album reality show, modeled I suppose on Ashlee's, that is possibly going to air on U.S. MTV this year. Her first single, on the heels of the show, did very well in Australia, and the next two did progressively worse, which is too bad, because actually they've been getting better, the "So Do I Say Sorry First?" being the best of the three.

― Frank Kogan, Friday, 16 March 2007 22:19 (seventeen years ago) link

(Sasha Frere Jones calls "Because I'm Awesome" the 5th best song of the year so far)

― dabug, Saturday, 17 March 2007 00:13 (seventeen years ago) link

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