Rolling Teenpop 2007 Thread

Completely fail to see the appeal in this. Who freaking cares?

contra paris who IS the motherfucking princess and therefore doesn't need to say it - avril isn't any sort of proper princess, she's a punky brat who's staking an entirely illegitimate claim to princessdom (ie she is the kind of girl who says "motherfucking").

Is that Paris is the type of girl who says "motherfucking" (and more), and I don't see how her claim to princesshood is any more legitimate than Avril's. If anything, Avril's a better princess than Paris--she gets to spit on the paparazzi and then laugh about it, while Paris just thanks them for filling up her gas tank. (Plus they sell tiaras at Claire's now, and everybody's got a Balenciaga; "princess" as a female identity is commonplace; see My Super Sweet Sixteen for details.)

My favorite part of "Girlfriend" is the instrumental push at :09 and again at :21. The rest doesn't live up to that power for me. I can't feel her fully committing to anything within this track--the scrawly vocal is an affectation, and she doesn't seem entirely comfortable with the singsong and chanting, too halting or something. And the lyrics are dumber than usual ("she's like, so whatever"), to the point where this strikes me as a parody of...somebody. Not sure who. The opening shout and the instruments at :09 act like she's about to be a big deal, but they lie--she stays light and bratty through, vocally and lyrically.

Whatever. Now I'm just repeating myself.

I'm referring to her self-entitlement in the song. The fact that she's trying to steal someone's boyfriend. The very words: "I'm a motherfucking princess." Etc.

yeah, she's hanging out w/ the (can't quite make up her mind) the sk8er punks... unless it's the artsy fartsies she's hangin' out w/... or the singer-songwriters, the freaks, the quasi-intellectuals [it does get all mixed up].

But... OK, "Girlfriend" is generic "cheerleader" from 25 to 45 or 55 years ago; actual nowadays cheerleaders are going to be shakin' tushes to modern-day r&b. ("Girlfriend" draws on a long-ago r&b.)

(Hard to talk about being anti-mainstream when being anti-mainstream is so mainstream.)

xp

As for Avril, she's another teen-pop star I've never really got on board with, but I'm extremely surprised to find I may soon be changing my stance. What I don't understand is how she can sound younger and more fun now that she's grown up and married? Now she sounds about 12, like she's taken cues from Shebang, Kim-Lian, Shampoo or Blog 27! Certainly not what I expected from her new material. I don't know if any of you at all are familiar with Shebang, a female Swedish teen duo from a few years ago, but look them up if you like this. Romeo and Temple Of Love are amazing. How is she going to combine this with her new grown-up image? It's confusing but I'm not complaining. All singers should follow Avril in ditching all serious musicianship in favour of music aimed at the under-10s!

Damone - Out Here All Night
Young Love - Discotech (amazing song, surely has to be huge?)
The Hush Sound - Wine Red (old-ish but good)

Today's Washington Post has a rather sad profile of Amy Winehouse, the British soulstress whose voice sounds like it's been soaked in bourbon, and how she's made her way across the pond. (Idolator)

So we've narrowed it down...but Mordy gets the edge for not following up with this:

Sure, her label is going to try the Starbucks route, as well as the "blitzing every genre" route, but it's hard not to worry that her persona will overshadow all of those marketing initiatives---and that she'll become nothing more than the next Britney Spears, without even a "...Baby One More Time" under her belt.

(WashPost's sopping metaphor in "100-PROOF VOICE" -- "Hers is a voice marinated in regret and pulsing with pain, yet soaked in snarkiness while fully rooted in the saccharine sensibilities of '60s girl groups." -- is a distant third.)

Also - I was talking about Dorothy Parker (whom I love), and they were talking about Amy Winehouse (whom I don't). Also, I think I get an edge because of the Lucky Strikes, which Idolator totally missed out on.

I could see "Girlfriend" making a nice place for itself on the TRL countdown, actually, but I'm not sure how much life the show has left in it, either in terms of it sticking around or its power as a Top 40 crossover point. ...I'm also hoping that Skye didn't do anything remotely similar to this with Dr. Luke/Max -- ironic that by essentially moving closer to Skye (who was never actually Avril Lite), Avril might have put Skye in the position of seeming to be a copycat again!

Anyway, I liked that. But I haven't heard anything since then.

Or did Billboard suddenly decide to count Radio Disney plays in its Hot 100 formula? But then Hannah and Corbin and Vanessa would be up there, too.

"IT WAS A VERY GOOD 'YEAR': In 2003, the youthful U.K. band Busted had a No. 2 hit in Britain with "Year 3000," but the song, and the group, never crossed the pond to become a U.S. hit. Four years later, the song finally arrives on the Hot 100, but not by the defunct Busted.

This version of "Year 3000" is by the Jonas Brothers and is from their Columbia Records debut, "It's About Time," released in 2006. The act has already left the label and has signed with Disney's Hollywood Records. The brothers' Hot 100 debut at No. 40 is fueled by repeated broadcasts of the song's video on the Disney Channel. Only two songs have had higher debuts in 2007. Fall Out Boy holds the record, with a No. 2 bow for "This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race." In second place is Corbin Bleu's "Push It to the Limit," which jumped on at No. 14.

The lyrics to "Year 3000" have been updated for the Jonas Brothers' version. A reference to Michael Jackson in the Busted original has been changed to Kelly Clarkson. "

Apparently not "Be Good to Me." Footage of Ashley recording that with Kara here. (There was a podcast? When? All my iTunes can find is some karaoke thing.)

There is a mystery of Kara. For me to say "Oh, she wants someone else to work through" seems too... I don't know... clichéd? And I doubt that working with Ashley Tisdale is much like working with someone like Ashlee Simpson, since with Ashley with a y there doesn't seem to be any persona or self-expression at issue, or even a vocalist's identity (though I find Tisdale pleasing as a vocalist). Kara's got a stronger personality with Platinum Weird.

(But then, I made the decision to deprive myself of TV in 1999, which means I've never seen the Ashlee Simpson Show, and never got a glimpse of how she, John, and Ashlee created the woman who sang Autobiography.)

One line in Nothing in This World stands out in my mind: "I can do what she can do so much better." That line would be ironic in its arrogance for anyone else, but for Paris it's sincere! She is overwhelmingly confident about her attractiveness, and this is in fact the REASON she's considered attractive by the mainstream (she's certainly not attractive from an physically objective standpoint)*. There's Paris-ness all over that record, and in a very frank and real way.

The Avril single is as invigorating as music gets. There may not be that much to sink your teeth into, but it's a wonderful opening salvo.

I like With Love, but to me it sounds like it could have been taken off any Cassius album. Hilary had seemed to be building a sound of her own, and that's gone from this song. And, more worryingly, I'm not sure Hilary's voice is up to the task of handling aggressive dancepop. The guitar fills on it are wonderful.

*This sort of media manipulation would have delighted Warhol, and will likely result in gay icon status for Paris, if she doesn't have it already.