Rolling Teenpop 2007 Thread

I give up on all html formatting, btw. </thpth>

"Whereas "Potential Breakup Song" feels like new-wavey power pop that's having fun playing with electro machines - but ALSO, with complete aplomb, has worked in neo-1940s glitz and pizzazz."

Yeah Frank as per your subsequent post this is precisely why it reminds me of Xenomania! See also Girls Aloud's "Some Kinda Miracle", "Wake Me Up", "Love Machine", "Waiting", as well as Sugababes' "Hole in the Head".

Really good blindfold test writeup on My Chemical Romance's "Teenagers" over on Poptimists, but Michael Daddino:

A readymade teenpop snarl anthem as catchy as "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini" with a singer as cute as Aaron Carter (and cuter than Rob Thomas) and an us vs. them scenario that a good half-century of culture have prepared us to thoroughly understand after exposure to only a handful of cues. And thoroughly misunderstand, maybe. The chorus goes "They say 'All teenagers scare the living shit of me.'" Who's "they"? Well, the non-teenage, right? Meaning adults, specifically adults in positions of authority (parents, teachers, cops, doctors, etc.) as established in the first verse: "they" are gonna watch your every move, force you into the role of "citizen" and "cog in the murder machine," ply you with pyschopharmaceuticals, etc. BUT. In the second verse, the "they" are "the boys and the girls in the clique" who'll ensure "you're never gonna fit in much, kid" -- that is to say, the "they" sound like other teenagers. The next round of the chorus is the same as before, though, which implies that the clique-teens also hate and fear all teenagers, too, including themselves. So the whole first verse could be read as being about the clique-monsters, who enforce cultural mores with fear, who are so afraid of other teens they sleep with guns, who ply recreational drugs on other kids to screw them up. OK, another weird ambiguity: the second half of the chorus can equally mean (where x = a darkening of your clothes and y = a violent pose): "Do x or y, and maybe they'll leave *you* alone, but they won't leave *me* alone" or "Do x or y, and maybe they'll leave you alone, but I *won't* do x or y" or "Do x or y, and maybe *they* will leave you alone, but *I* won't." The first reading says the singer is a victim, too; the second, a rebel; the third, a bully, just like the adults and the clique-monsters. Another hole: what's the thing under your shirt that'll make them pay? A gun? Or your heart? And there are other things I could point to. Are these ambiguities deliberate or sloppy? Hard to say. But every way you cut into this song, there are many thin and flaky layers of extraordinary paranoia and cynicism about what it means to be a teen, both in the eyes of adults and the eyes of teens, and it's quite possible the song lets no one off the hook, not even the singer. Gross, compelling.

but Michael Daddino = by Michael Daddino

And despite Reba's limitations, this "Because Of You" is hitting me with the same emotions as the original. Not nearly as good as the original, but I keep playing it over and over.

with a singer as cute as Aaron Carter

I'm trying to figure out why I really am not getting into FOB but still really like MCR, and weirdly this might hit the nail on the head in a way...FOB dude isn't a big enough dork! If we're going with Mike Patton, he's like MP when he goes crooner (which is OK in small doses), but that's his natural voice. Whereas MCR dude (I know no names) is all over the map -- and can also carry a tune. You get the sense that he doesn't have a clue if he believes what he's saying, he doesn't trust himself (the edge of goof), but he believes just enough for his voice (1) not to grate and (2) to sell the song on its own terms, e.g. "Teenagers" as mentioned above, which isn't definitively sarcastic or "serious," it just sort of is. (Is pretty good, too.) Or to put it more eloquently, thin and flaky layers of extraordinary paranoia and cynicism about what it means to be a teen, both in the eyes of adults and the eyes of teens, and it's quite possible the song lets no one off the hook, not even the singer. Gross, compelling. (Only "Teenagers" is particularly "gross" on Black Parade though, and probably the most problematic -- and maybe challenging and worth digging into lyrically -- song on the album. Sounds goofier, but it's grosser and scarier, too; MCR's "I Am One of Them" but not half as scary.)

(The rest of Black Parade is more like "OMG WE MIGHT DIE AND THEN IT'D BE LIKE BEETLEJUICE AND THERE WOULD BE GUITAR SOLOS RAWK HEY HAVE YOU HEARD THE WALL.")

Posting from Rolling R&B, relevant here, but can you spot the connection?

But if early tracks are an indication, Metropolis will outstrip any expectations of Monae's budding career. It is an avant-rock concept album based on Fritz Lang's classic 1927 German expressionist film. Musically, she explores the future as Cindy Mayweather, an Earth girl who finds a dystopian universe full of androids, evil capitalists and oppressed workers... Interestingly, according to Monae, the Atlanta Ballet has agreed to perform her Metropolis in April 2008.

-- r|t|c, Monday, 21 May 2007 01:51 (18 hours ago) Link

Unlike Tim F, I don't think there will be anything "secretly" good about this whatsoever. Cindy Mayweather cannot fail, any more than an adorable android child could go crazy and try to cut mommy's hair while she's sleepi--uh oh. (MyTropolis)

WOW. The Rihanna album is just spectacular. I'd be surprised if it wasn't my album of the year.

Yeah same here. I'm really shocked that Rihanna, Ms. "Pon De Replay", put out an album this good.

OOOH. I want to hear it. Is "Umbrella" the best track?

BTW, Lil Mama is really awesome...She just posted a MySpace bulletin with a poll question about high school dress codes. I'm in luv! To take to prom:
1. Lil Mama
2. Jordin Sparks
3. Tiffany Evans

BTW, Lil Mama is EVEN AWESOMER, having done a remix to "Girlfriend," taking out all those annoying parts where Avril is saying stuff. Except the "wrapped around my finger" bit! Sorry to break the ILM rules but here it is. She's a pro, been doin' it since Hop on Pop. (h/t Jimmy Draper (again), I don't have many more firstborn children to promise him for all these things.)

New Jordin Sparks single "This Is My Now." A good straightup emotional version of it, but it's just not my type of it.

Speaking of which, I missed the finale last night, except for overhearing Ruben Studdard singing "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" and I thought they musta gotten Gnarls Barkley to do a guest spot for like a half a second.

Anyway, Jimmy Draper sez re: Kelly Clarkson:

1. her rendition of "never again" on idol last nite was AMAZING. she switched up a few lines (not lyrically, but the notes/delivery) and it was brilliant

2. her snake-charming vitamin water commercial is hilarious. "don't do
that!"!!!! LOL

Who saw this? Heard I missed Green Day singing their "Working Class Hero" cover, oh shucks. ("This Is My Now" seemed pretty bland when I heard her Tues night.)

I saw it. Lots of random performances. Blake beatboxing/performing with Doug E. Fresh was really fun. Former Idols did a tribute to "Sgt. Pepper": Kelly performed "Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" and was amazing, Taylor Hicks did "A Day in the Life" and meh (Brie is better), Carrie did "She's Leaving Home" and I liked it, Ruben b/w the top 12 did "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" and as dabug intimates it was a weird arrangement. Then the entire top 12 did "With a Little Help From My Friends". Kelly's "Never Again" was great.

This is just going off my head: Gwen did her new single and *yawn*, Carrie did "I'll Stand By You" and she was great as ever, Sanjaya reprised "You Really Got Me"...other stuff too but I don't remember! Top 6 guys did a medley of Smokey Robinson that was great, top 6 girls did Gladys Knight.

Jordin won as expected; I'd be surprised if the final vote was even remotely competitive. I remember in season 1 Kelly destroyed Justin 58%-42%, and I bet this season's results looked a lot like that.

Anybody looking forward to any of the Idols' CD's? Have v. low hopes for most of them, but am rather interested to hear what they are gonna do with Blake. Jordin COULD release a great album, but I somehow doubt it. "This Is Me Now" is bad, worse than "A Moment Like This" and "Inside Yr Heaven" but better than the seasons 2, 3, and 5 winners songs (in my opinion).

Not really feeling the new Rihanna album...when the song doesn't require her to do anything, it's pretty good (the songwriting/production is great). Occasionally, she'll even do something interesting (like in "Breakin' Dishes," which is probably the most forceful personality she's had since "Unfaithful" and maybe her best song ever) and most of the time she doesn't have to (like weirdo Eurodancey "Don't Stop the Music" that quotes "Wanna Be Startin' Something"!) but for the most part I'd rather hear, like, Ciara or somebody either more androidish (or at least less wallpapery) sing almost all of these. But I'll give it some more time.

Hannah Montana - "Make Some Noise": Wow, really boring. Goes on way too long and the melody doesn't have nearly enough kick to it. Extremely disappointing. [4]

New Jordin Sparks single "This Is My Now." A good straightup emotional version of it, but it's just not my type of it.

Frank, to clarify, do you mean it's not your type of SONG or it's not your type of PERFORMANCE. Because I think it's a great performance of a really mediocre song.

Actually she gets through some personality in "Question Existing" (also weird... ethereal 6/8 ballad...album's certainly all over the place in a good way, I'll give it that) listening again on Josh Love's rec.

Two thumbs up for that "Girlfriend" remix. Is Lil Mama going to re-work every big hit of '07? ;)

Daughtry ft. Lil Mama - "Home"

Green Day f. Lil Mama "Working Class Hero (Umbuberella Mix)"

They hurt you at home and hit you at school
I'll hit you with lipstick, you'll be my poo-poo
Till you're so fuckin' crazy you'll swallow foo-foo
A working class hero is something to be
A lip smacking hero is better, it's me

Greg, Jordin sings it the way one does sing it, she gives it warmth, and the harmony arrangements give it unexpected prettiness, but I dislike the song so much that the dislike carries over to that style of emotional expression. In any event, Jordin's personality gets canceled out. I mean, if you heard it on the radio, would you know or care who it was? Whereas the same basic emotional style on "I Who Have Nothing" is absolutely right. (I wouldn't be surprised if that performance in March of "I Who Have Nothing" won the competition for her; haven't yet listened to Tuesday's performance, though I'm about to.) That said, "This Is My Now" isn't awful to listen to by any means. It's just shrugworthy.

Whisperin' Edd Hurt over on the rolling country thread:

so this guy I know here had hiccups, for a day, and it was getting worse, nothing helped, and they tried everything: scare tactics, ice cube on the neck below the ear (that almost always works). what eventually cured them was the ultimate scare tactic: a montage of Amy Winehouse close-up photographs, some with fangs drawn on them, others just as they are/she is. scared the hiccups right out the guy, for real, the curative picture is up on the wall at Grimey's Records in Nashville, so if you have hiccups that won't go away or just need a jolt in general, check it out. I'm still trying to figure out the appeal of Winehouse myself.

The reason Amy Winehouse is a good cure for hiccups is that she's so dripping with soul, drenched in Motown, soaked in various alcohols, and swimming in praise that she's basically just a glass of water with a Ronnie Spector wig. (Neo-traditional Cure for Hiccups, w/ gloss, but not poppin'.)

Actually she gets through some personality in "Question Existing"

yeah 'question existing' sticks out on one listen as being particularly weird and interesting.

i might be talking to aly & aj in a couple of days! on the phone!

in fact i might stop listening to the rihanna album and just listen to 'the potential breakup song' again instead.

(the album is apparently not out until oct in either US or UK - they're releasing into the rush here in a week or two but not doing much promo, saving the big push for later. i mentioned 'the potential breakup song' and the PR was all like BUT NO ONE'S SUPPOSED TO EVEN KNOW ABOUT THAT YET)

Haha, we're like the outside world bringing Lord of the Flies to a crashing halt (but actually serving as a telling parallel of how these themes play out in the adult world as well).

OMG, Lex, you need to send around a mass email to a few folks 'round here for questions. Ask them about Amber Watches(R) and "pervs" and monkeys (on second thought, um, no). (My suspicion is that "gay male" falls under their umbuberella of "pervs"; not sure how one would ask that tactfully.) Also ask 'em how they write songs so good.

this is my (potential) mass email!

ie i am asking you to email me ideas innit, alex dot macpherson at gmail dot com GO.

yeah cos i don't get any of those references basically - will listen to into the rush this weekend.

"Girlfriend" remix is great! AHHHHH!!!! When's the album coming out?

And I just found out that two of my friends spent more than a week in a cabin with Jordin Sparks at some summer camp a year ago. CRAZY.

the GF rmx is SOO AWESOME - i suppose in one sense it's less interesting, but i'll gladly take a great pop tune/potential killer club track over a curio (though i wouldn't nec. call the original a trainwreck - and i love that too.) Lil Mama is just so much more a enjoyable AND credible as a braggadocious brat. and i don't miss the verses at all.

most of all the remix makes it clear that GF is actually a hip-hop track - Av's just not a very good rapper. so i guess it's not the 1st rock #1 since '01 anymore?

--rosso'love

(I was the one who called the orig. a trainwreck...hyperbole, I guess.)

Has there been any discussion of kerenann.com yet? Ms. Keren Ann is apparently an Israeli chanteuse. OR something like that. What do you guys think? It's a bit too wistful (?) maybe to be teenpop, but she's young and maybe in Israel she's teenpopish. I know - having peripherally followed Israel music - that there's not much in the way of traditional teenpop music. Anyway, I'll ask some friends, but I'm curious what your immediate takes are. Esp yours, Frank. Is this music Jewish in any way?

I have tried several times to like Keren Ann, but ... too wistful is putting it mildly. She does have Israeli family connections, yes, but has lived all over the place. I think her first couple of albums were recorded in French - she was based in France in the early 00s, and was fairly successful there actually. (I was living in Belgium at the same time, and so got exposed to quite a bit of her music.) Then she went off to New York, I think. She comes across really interestingly in interviews, but her music bores me TBH.

However, I know there are quite a few fans on ILM of her English language records (check the archives).

While I'm here, in case you missed it, William Bloody Swygart has just finished reviewing the entirety of this week's UK Top 40 singles chart elsewhere on the ILM Rolling UK Charts thread. Starts here.

Includes his take on a number of records discussed here. Good stuff.

Daniela & Sharona Pik are not only Israeli teenpop, but twin-pop!

xpost, yeah loved the WBS write-ups. I'm thinking about taking "Give It to Me" off my "2007 singles" list altogether after his review. I was wavering as it was.

(I think this is still them. But it probably counts as teenpop, right?)

From the sound I wouldn't call Keren Ann's music Jewish. Then again, from the sound I might call the Animals and the early Beatles and Joni Mitchell and the Stooges Jewish - my use of the word "Jewish" is as ad hoc as my use of the word "teenpop" (in fact teenpop has some Jewish parentage) - but if Keren is Jewish I guess that makes her music Jewish. Is my writing Jewish? Anyway, Keren Ann sounds like something I'd give last place to in my League Of Pop writeups, while finding some way to compliment it: "Manages to combine new age and twee, not an unnotable achievement. Drifts and dribbles nicely; in fact I don't mind listening to it. Except I probably won't ever again." In other words I enthusiastically endorse Jeff's boredom.

Is your writing Jewish? It's probably Talmudic. ;)

Really liking Rihanna's "Shut Up And Drive": sounds like Mutt Lange remixing one of Blondie's Moroder tracks. Um, not sure what I mean by that. Maybe just that it's dance-oriented rock, with catchy poppiness in the vocal harmonies. I'd say that Rihanna's involvement-detachment ambivalence sounds differently flavored from Blondie's involvement-detachment ambivalence. (And now what the hell do I mean by that?)

Hey Frank, did you post over at the Pop Open that you've got exciting news to share?

OMG

My exciting news keeps getting postponed.

Hurricane Chris's "A Bay Bay," which Kelefa mentioned in the Times a few days ago: Novelty hip-hop on an independent label, getting "rhythmic" and "urban" airplay, huge in Dallas, big in San Antonio, Memphis, Montgomery, Birmingham, Little Rock, southern Louisiana, Atlanta, and Indianapolis, might or might not go national. Calls out to the babes, enlists an actual baby to help. (Not teenpop, though teens and toddlers will like it. But Disney, not to mention youth-oriented pop that isn't hip-hop, has created very little in the way of interesting novelty tracks recently - snap and hyphy do it much better - so we might as well talk about novelties here.)

Er, actually Shreveport is in northern Louisiana. But the song's getting spins in Baton Rouge, too.

Speaking of pre-preteens, Kidz Bop 12 comes out in June. Normally, I wouldn't give a shit, but last year's take on "Crazy Frog" was brilliant.

The tracklist:
01 Girlfriend | Kidz Bop Kids
02 The Sweet Escape | Kidz Bop Kids
03 It's Not Over | Kidz Bop Kids
04 Say It Right | Kidz Bop Kids
05 Never Again | Kidz Bop Kids
06 What Goes Around...Comes Around | Kidz Bop Kids
07 Umbrella | Kidz Bop Kids
08 Cupid's Chokehold | Kidz Bop Kids
09 Glamorous | Kidz Bop Kids
10 If Everyone Cared | Kidz Bop Kids
11 Beautiful Liar | Kidz Bop Kids
12 How To Save A Life | Kidz Bop Kids
13 Makes Me Wonder | Kidz Bop Kids
14 Don't Matter | Kidz Bop Kids
15 Boston | Kidz Bop Kids
16 With Love | Kidz Bop Kids
17 Ice Box | Kidz Bop Kids
18 Home | Kidz Bop Kids

snap and hyphy do it much better - so we might as well talk about novelties here

Hyphy Hitz might be teenpop album of the year.

Top 10 Greatest Novelty Hip-Hop Albums Ever. Has ILX done this one yet? My nominations: 2LiveJews, BlackHattitude, Remedy, Socalled and Solomon, Y-Love and Matisyahu.

I'm inspired. Top 10 Greatest Jewish Novelty Hip-Hop Albums Ever. And yes, there are at least 10 of them.

Depends how you define "novelty" (and "Jewish," for that matter), but Beastie Boys and MC Paul Barman spring to mind. Those may be the only two I've heard albums by.