Rolling Teenpop 2007 Thread

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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."

dabug, Monday, 20 August 2007 20:38 (eighteen years ago)

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

dabug, Tuesday, 21 August 2007 03:05 (eighteen years ago)

So Tape Store, what's Jordin like?

Frank Kogan, Tuesday, 21 August 2007 17:47 (eighteen years ago)

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.

Frank Kogan, Tuesday, 21 August 2007 17:53 (eighteen years ago)

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

Frank Kogan, Tuesday, 21 August 2007 17:59 (eighteen years ago)

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

Mordechai Shinefield, Tuesday, 21 August 2007 19:30 (eighteen years ago)

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.

Greg Fanoe, Wednesday, 22 August 2007 21:48 (eighteen years ago)

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

Tape Store, Sunday, 26 August 2007 06:04 (eighteen years ago)

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).

Tape Store, Sunday, 26 August 2007 06:21 (eighteen years ago)

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.).

Tape Store, Sunday, 26 August 2007 06:25 (eighteen years ago)

Oh, ILM

Tape Store, Sunday, 26 August 2007 16:08 (eighteen years ago)

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.)

xhuxk, Sunday, 26 August 2007 17:13 (eighteen years ago)

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

Tape Store, Sunday, 26 August 2007 18:43 (eighteen years ago)

generic drums...

Tape Store, Sunday, 26 August 2007 18:53 (eighteen years ago)

NO REPLIES

Tape Store, Sunday, 26 August 2007 22:22 (eighteen years ago)

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

Tape Store, Monday, 27 August 2007 00:38 (eighteen years ago)

Why are you talking to yourself?

Tape Store, Monday, 27 August 2007 01:31 (eighteen years ago)

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.

dabug, Wednesday, 29 August 2007 14:40 (eighteen years ago)

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.

dabug, Wednesday, 29 August 2007 15:18 (eighteen years ago)

Woop, article's here

dabug, Wednesday, 29 August 2007 15:18 (eighteen years ago)

GAH Rich Cronin...Spent half a year trying to get an interview from him; when it finally happened (in email form), he only answered, like, 6 of 10 questions, and 4 of those answers were made up of ~1-4 short sentences. Needless to say, the Q&A column sucked ass that month.

Tape Store, Thursday, 30 August 2007 03:44 (eighteen years ago)

There's apparently some new Ashlee here

Nia, Thursday, 30 August 2007 04:06 (eighteen years ago)

OMG, she might actually get away with this. Can't really tell from the clip. (Still don't recognize her.)

dabug, Thursday, 30 August 2007 04:10 (eighteen years ago)

Oh wait, that wasn't a "clip," it was my computer messing up. Hm. Undecided. Didn't hear the rap verse first time 'round. ("I'm your sunshine concubine"?) Some Gwennish weird for weird's sake, kind of works, but it's pretty much a mess. (I imagine this would tank pretty hard if it's supposed to be a single, but who knows.)

dabug, Thursday, 30 August 2007 18:10 (eighteen years ago)

One single dose of your medicine
You tell me to leave but I come back again
I dont see what all the fuss is about cuz I'm okay
Soon you will see that I got ability to get my ways

So don't keep me in the dark cuz I'll the find the light (find the light)
Don't keep me in the the dark cuz I'll find the light (dont dont dont)
I said don't keep in the dark cuz I'll find the light (find the light)
Don't keep me in the dark , don't keep me in the dark...

I was alone until I found Johnny
He was a good boy until he got behind me
No she didn't, yes she did!

I got a monkey on my back
He helping me get it off, he helping me get it off
I got a monkey on my back
He helping me get it off, he helping me get it off

Seriously, though, WTF is this all about, anyway?? I AM CONFUSED. Is this a good mess or a bad mess? Someone provide an opinion for me.

dabug, Thursday, 30 August 2007 18:14 (eighteen years ago)

Music good, lyrics an in-between mess, but Ashlee can do far better lyrics than these.

The track is called "Get Away With Murder," was deleted from zshare, but is streamed here:

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

(recording too soft in relation to the ad voice in front of).

Her singing is authoritative, which doesn't surprise me, fits fine with the Afro-Caribbean rhythms, actually, which does surprise and please me. But the lyrics aren't taking me very far.

"He was a good boy until he got behind me"

Well, that's risque, but so what? And mixing sex talk with implications about "good boys" and "bad boys" is very conventional-minded and doesn't impress me. "I got a monkey on my back, he helped me get it off" is a double-entendre on "get it off," but again, so what?

"My fears go black in the moonlight" is a powerful line, the one here that makes me really feel that I'm hearing an Ashlee Simpson song. Throw in the reference to "monkey on my back" and the good beats and the good minor-key eeriness of the singing, and maybe this is, like, an evocative poke of a stick at love addiction, risky passion, identity-destroying obsession. The lyrics aren't as random as I'd originally thought, nor as negligible. Maybe they matter, even. But it seems to me that I'm having to do all the work to get the mattering out of her opaque references to handcuffs and addiction and anal sex and fears and struggle. I'd rather she be articulate than that she poke sticks, rather she tell a story than toss saucy little hints, rather she be analytic than "shocking."

I suppose, if Gwen or Nicole or Madge did those lyrics I wouldn't complain, they're just words to a song and the music could be great, and maybe this is a work in progress anyway. If Bob Dylan sang them it would be a lunatic change of pace, quite refreshing. But Gwen and Nicole and Madge never wrote any lyrics remotely as great as, for instance, "Love Me For Me," and Dylan's never done a relationship song as good as that one.

(Yeah, and you could say that maybe it wasn't Ashlee who's most responsible for the "Love Me For Me" lyrics, since we don't know, but has Shelly Peiken ever had her writing credits on any other lyrics half as good as those? Well, I don't know, not having heard most Peiken songs, so I ought to be genuinely open-minded, but I'm not betting on it based on what I have heard.)

This couplet from Travis's rap is genuinely funny:

"They told me to get my muthafucken hands up
But I was handcuffed to the bed and couldn't get em up"

So, initial evaluation: music and singing good, maybe very good, much like her "Burnin' Up," which was also funny and sexy though more full-bodied and big-bosomed in its humor. Idiots who think her singing needs more "cred" and who bother to listen will probably grant it to her for this. Shows great versatility, like tracks five through ten on I Am Me. And hearing it loud and for real will no doubt make it powerful. I might give it a 7.5. Maybe more at full volume. Good solid club track. On its own terms, if I forget that it's an Ashlee Simpson song, as a tough-vulnerable-funny-sexy caught-up-in-desire song, it's good. You know, the way that something like Nelly F's "Promiscuous" is good. And it's also somewhat bullshit in the way that "Promiscuous" is somewhat bullshit. And on its own tough-vulnerable-funny-sexy caught-up-in-desire terms it quails in comparison to Corina's searing, flaming, hilarious Temptation, which actually I'd love to hear Ashlee do because she could burn it through the walls.

But as an Ashlee Simpson song, who needs Ashlee Simpson to do high-quality club tracks that don't express her complicated soul, when she's already put more fire and feeling into a single couplet like "I'm the one who's crawling on the ground/When you say love makes the world go 'round"?

(Which isn't to say that she can't do higher-quality club tracks that either do or don't express her soul, and this is good enough to make me think that her going "dance" won't be the total mistake I'd feared.)

Frank Kogan, Thursday, 30 August 2007 19:15 (eighteen years ago)

Dave, you left out the rap and the bridge:

Rap:
They told me to get my muthafucken hands up
But I was handfuffed to the bed and couldn't get em up

[Then a whole bunch more that you can't make out behind the voiceover]

Bridge:
I'm your sunshine, sunrise.. (you're my sunshine)
you make it sound easily for me to cry (so easily for me to cry)
I'm your sunshine, come get by
My fears go black in the moonlight

Frank Kogan, Thursday, 30 August 2007 19:19 (eighteen years ago)

'Cept I got those from that stupid website, and I'm pretty sure she's singing "sunshine <i>concubine</i>" not "sunshine, come get by</i> (and Hazel R. thinks so too, so this isn't just my mind). And she's definitely singing "easy" not "easily," and it's don't keep <i>me</i> in the dark, and Travis was told to <i>put</i> his mothafucken hands up.

Frank Kogan, Thursday, 30 August 2007 20:35 (eighteen years ago)

Hope Hazel doesn't mind if I report from our livejournal convo that she originally heard the line in "La La" as "I'll be your fresh meat when it's meat you're looking for."

But anyway, JORDIN SPARKS. Yes, I was rooting for her, to the extent I was rooting for anybody this year. So, "Tattoo," I like the singing quite well, it combines sweetness and heft; song is like Faith Hill pop country but prettier, no big fuss to it, but I wish it had some hook or twist; nothing about it is lodging in my brain after it's gone, at least not yet. And nothing in it approaches the mammoth emotion she got out of "I Who Have Nothing" last March on Idol (though I don't suppose it's trying for that).

The Ashlee song is sticking; fifteen plays on, its gentle tune and island lilt are getting real easy to live in. Good music. And someone online said that someone said that Ashlee says this is a very rough version and she's miffed it leaked and the record company is trying to catch the culprit. So I underrated it, maybe an automatic defensive way of trying to forestall the pain I'll feel when she eventually breaks my heart. The lyrics still seem cut and paste, though there's something pleasingly goofy about all that "behind" and "concubine" stuff, actually.

Frank Kogan, Thursday, 30 August 2007 21:25 (eighteen years ago)

I stopped rooting for Jordin when the stuff came out about her knowing the judges beforehand and her holding certain Evangelical beliefs that I can't personally stomach. I don't know if that's fair... but I switched to rooting for Blake near the end.

Mordechai Shinefield, Thursday, 30 August 2007 22:04 (eighteen years ago)

about her knowing the judges beforehand

Huh?

Tape Store, Thursday, 30 August 2007 22:34 (eighteen years ago)

So, how fucking HOT is that new Britney Spears song "Gimmee More"? Danja totally laced her with a great track, I totally didn't see this coming at all.

The Brainwasher, Friday, 31 August 2007 00:13 (eighteen years ago)

Quickest link I could find, Tape Store, but I'm sure there are better pieces about it: http://www.buddytv.com/articles/american-idol/is-jordin-sparks-american-idol-6436.aspx

Mordechai Shinefield, Friday, 31 August 2007 00:36 (eighteen years ago)

Mordy, here's another related article, but those accusations seem pretty weak, or not particularly relevant (I mean, do you seriously think the judges were favoring her over Melinda and Lakisha?), though I'm not sure I understand what the accusations are, exactly.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/tv/300279_tv19.html

As for her religion, she's an evangelical Christian, she wears a purity ring (meaning she's going to save herself for marriage), and she's sung at anti-abortion rallies - none of which makes me think she's a bad person (or a bad singer), but then I don't know the details of her beliefs, or her personality, for that matter, after a thirty-minute Google search. I looked but didn't find anything anti-gay. Is there anything specific about her that you had in mind?

Frank Kogan, Friday, 31 August 2007 04:45 (eighteen years ago)

Britney's "Gimme More":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqY5JJHAVIE*

Good, sexy, Britney. I'm thinking I might want more song in the track, though maybe the voice as it is, embedded in the rhythm, is sufficient. Might take a while to sink in.

*Assuming this is the right track; there are a number of fakes posted on YouTube today.

Frank Kogan, Friday, 31 August 2007 05:16 (eighteen years ago)

OK, better sound quality here, and it's seeping into me the more I listen:

http://concreteloop.com/2007/08/gimme-more-britneys-back

Frank Kogan, Friday, 31 August 2007 05:27 (eighteen years ago)

Britney song is great, still undecided on Ashlee, will just wait until it comes out properly.

this silly bipolar chick needs to get her life in order before she makes a comeback….SHE’S NEEDS TO SETBACK AND LET JESUS TAKE THE WHEEL!!

Since when do pop stars need to get their act together before they go into the studio? (This is one of many examples on that site, among plenty other places.) Is this a relatively recent audience reception development thingy?

dabug, Friday, 31 August 2007 05:36 (eighteen years ago)

Seems to be specific to people like Britney. I don't think anyone's said it about Keith Urban, for instance. (But I have no idea if he's gone back into the studio since rehab. And to be fair, the posters on that site might be worrying - fed by the tabs - that if Britney tries to come back too fast she'll hurt her chances to pull herself together personally. Some of 'em are also upset about her opening the VMAs, as they seem frightened of what she might do. Makes her seem pretty riveting.)

Musically I'm fine with both the Ashlee (new stream here, as they've taken the other two down) and the Britney, may even prefer the former, just disappointed in Ashlee's scattershot lyrics, because she's Ashlee Amazing Simpson and she should do better.

However, Nia, who has more penetrating eyes and ears than I, points out that Travis in his rap, in the parts that are hard to decipher, says "we could get diplomatic immunity," also says "curiosity killed the cat," and claims that "OJ's my favorite Simpson" (!), and then Ashlee's singing about getting away with murder, so there's more unity than I'd said, though that's mostly from the rap, and I still think she's basically throwing implications around for the fun of it. (She also thinks Ashlee's singing "my tears turn black in the moonlight," recalling "so easy for me to cry," which makes sense, though I still hope it's "my fears go black in the moonlight," since that image is more novel and intense.)

Frank Kogan, Friday, 31 August 2007 06:28 (eighteen years ago)

Skye's new single, "Human," is getting some airplay on various Canadian radio stations. Haven't heard it yet.

dabug, Friday, 31 August 2007 22:50 (eighteen years ago)

It's September, and the school year just started...It feels like the year just shifted, so I thought I'd re-evaluate 2007 tracks...

Obviously Missing Stuff and Likely to Change:
1. Rihanna feat. Jay-Z – Umbrella
2. Kleerup feat. Robyn – With Every Heartbeat
3. LCD Soundsystem – All My Friends
4. R. Kelly feat. T.I., T. Pain – I’m a Flirt (Remix)
5. Lil Mama – Lip Gloss
6. The National – Fake Empire
7. Kelly Clarkson – Never Again
8. Pink – Who Knew
9. M.I.A. – Paper Planes
10. Lloyd feat. Lil Wayne – You
11. Timbaland feat. Keri Hilson – The Way I Are
12. Lil Wayne – La La La
13. Avril Lavigne – Girlfriend
14. Panda Bear - Bros
15. Natasha Bedingfield – I Wanna Have Your Babies
16. Mahjongg – Those Birds are Bats
17. LCD Soundsystem – Someone Great
18. White Rabbits – The Plot
19. Taylor Swift – Teardrops on My guitar
20. M.I.A. – Bird Flu
21. Arcade Fire - Intervention
22. Grinderman – No Pussy Blues
23. Mighty Infamous – Turn the Radio Off
24. Kanye West feat. T. Pain – Good Life
25. Shirrelle C. Limes and the Lemons – A Toast to the Month of July
26. Battles - Atlas
27. Avril Lavigne – When You’re Gone
28. Natasha – Hey Hey Hey
29. Britney Spears – Gimme More
30. Justice – DVNO
31. Jordin Sparks – Tattoo
32. Cassie – Sometimes
33. M.I.A. – Jimmy
34. Jens Lekman – And I Remember Every Kiss
35. Timbaland feat. Justin Timberlake, Nelly Furtado – Give It To Me
36. Aly & AJ – Potential Breakup Song
37. The Go! Team – Flashlight Fight
38. Bjork – Innocence
39. Cassie – Is It You?
40. Rapper’s Delight Club –When We Were Kids
41. R. Kelly – Double Up
42. Pink – U + Ur Hands
43. Carrie Underwood - Before He Cheats
44. Ciara – Like a Boy
45. Robin Thicke – Lost Without U
46. David Lynch – Ghost of Love
47. Chaka Khan feat. Mary J. Blige - Disrespectful
48. Kanye West feat. Chris Martin – Homecoming
49. 50 Cent feat. Robin Thicke – Follow My Lead
50. Fabolous feat. Ne-Yo – You Make Me Better

**FutureSex/LoveSound singles disqualified in 2007, 'cause I don't want three JT tracks in the top 15

Tape Store, Sunday, 2 September 2007 00:12 (eighteen years ago)

"A song by a new band called the Gossip." This piece in the New York Times Magazine about Rick Rubin represents everything I hate about journalism. Has maybe three paragraphs about the supposed subject of the article (what Rubin hopes to do to save the record company, which is to promote subscription services and to get people to manipulate word of mouth by blogs among other things); the rest is just reams of rot, as she swabs the guy in sugar and cream.

(Actually, this type of puffball writing represents only half of what I hate about journalism. The contrasting style is just as bad: sneering snarky saracasm; ignorant toughies casting a cynical gaze and playing to the reader's prejudices while pretending to moral courage.)

Frank Kogan, Sunday, 2 September 2007 03:38 (eighteen years ago)

Frank, I think what I bought into with Jordin was her innocence and her youth. Now, even after that particular revelation - she's still young and she's still just as (or not as) innocent. But it felt much more tainted by industry and inside-dealing than before the revelation. I guess the narrative of the aw-shucks big-voiced girl does more for me than the big contest winner who went in with the deck stacked. Of course, she's still aw-shucks, but it seems disingenuous now.

Mordechai Shinefield, Sunday, 2 September 2007 10:16 (eighteen years ago)

TapeStore, none of the New Pornographers tracks? I'd think Challengers would be up your alley.

Mordechai Shinefield, Sunday, 2 September 2007 10:17 (eighteen years ago)

Wonderful new DaHV track called "Suburbia Disturbia." Just as goofy, but DaHv is growing fangs (I think she's like fifteen now).

Suburbia disturbia
Suburbia disturbia

There once was a teen from suburbia who had a little case of disturbia
She pulled her shirt up for all of the boys in her classroom

There once was a man from suburbia who had a little case of disturbia
He came home drunk and drove his car into my bedroom

CHORUS:
These are the people in your neighborhood, most of them have kids
They babysit, they carpool and do pilates (5,6,7,8)
These are the people in your neighborhood, shopping at the GAP
They drive around in SUVs and are always full of crap

Starbucks is the place where divorcees and soccer moms stand on common ground
(Finally!)
There are mini-mansions in suburbia
But the mortgages are disturbia
Yet they always find a way to have a party

CHORUS

There once was a mom in suburbia, who had a little case of disturbia
She ran off with the pool guy and now lives in Brazil (real nice)

dabug, Monday, 3 September 2007 16:19 (eighteen years ago)

The Veronicas would like to be t.A.T.u. - y/n?

Nia, Monday, 3 September 2007 22:18 (eighteen years ago)

No: Endearing accent only occasional. Actual sisters. Not pretending to be in love with each other. Interested in men; this does not cause a great crisis in their relationship (a la "Loves Me Not").

Yes: Hair color now differs. There are two of them. Touchy-feely videos. Wrote a t.A.T.u. song.

I think "no" wins out.

dabug, Monday, 3 September 2007 22:48 (eighteen years ago)

I think the new Britney would be like the 8th best song on Dignity. I'm disappointed.

best of pop 2007 (so far):

1. R. Kelly feat. T.I. and T-Pain- I'm A Flirt
2. Rihanna feat. Jay-Z- Umbrella
3. Jordan Pruitt- Over It
4. Ashley Tisdale- Be Good To Me
5. Natasha Bedingfield- I Wanna Have Your Babies
6. Aly & A.J.- Potential Breakup Song
7. Amerie- Take Control
8. Ashley Tisdale- So Much For You
9. Ashley Tisdale- Goin' Crazy
10. Avril Lavigne- Girlfriend
11. Hilary Duff- Outside of You
12. Audio Club- Sumthin' Serious
13. Robin Thicke- Lost Without U
14. Musiq Soulchild- Buddy
15. Timbaland feat. Nelly Furtado and JT- Give It To Me
16. Ashley Tisdale- Over It
17. Sophie Ellis-Bextor- Catch You
18. Justin Timberlake- What Goes Around (a 2007 single, I believe)
19. Ashley Tisdale- Headstrong
20. Katherine McPhee- Over It
21. Fergie feat. Ludacris- Glamorous
22. Rihanna- Shut Up and Drive
23. Jordan Pruitt- Jump To The Rhythm
24. Enrique Iglesias- Do You Know
25. Gym Class Heroes- Clothes Off!

Matt Armstrong, Monday, 3 September 2007 23:06 (eighteen years ago)

Dave: They dress in same girlschool clothes as t.A.T.u. And the touchy-feely stuff seems... I don't know... edgy? (Unlike, say, Aly & A.J.'s.)

Frank Kogan, Tuesday, 4 September 2007 05:17 (eighteen years ago)

ok if you're talking about "gimme more" this is wrong.

the production alone on "gimme more" runs circles around basically anything on dignity.

Jordan Sargent, Tuesday, 4 September 2007 05:19 (eighteen years ago)

xpost
"Gimme More" gets stronger with every listen, brilliant, a work of art, though maybe I want something warmer and better than a work of art. The This Is A Sexy Dance Track attitude is irritating me under my skin; I can't say why I'm irritated, though, given that I've heard several million This Is A Sexy Dance Track tracks in my life and I have nothing in principle against sexy dance tracks or even sexy Britney Spears dance tracks. Also "irritating me under my skin" may not always be an aesthetic drawback. In fact, may have to do with the sexiness being in your face rather than seductive, and given that basically I wanted her to come back as a punk, this is may be her way. Lyrics (which the unreliable Wikipedia says she did not write) are exhibitionist and I hear an anger in it, "You want more, I'll give you more," but then I've been priming myself to hear anger from Britney so maybe I'm just hearing this the way I want to.

Frank Kogan, Tuesday, 4 September 2007 05:52 (eighteen years ago)


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