Rolling Teenpop 2006 Thread

Slumber Party Girls album is yet more evidence for the detrimental effect of Destiny's Child math-r&b "complex vocal rhythm" tedium bullshit on teen-pop/dance-pop catchiness, or lots of it is anyway, but I'm starting to kind of like "Carousel," "Summer's Gone," and the fake Miami Sound Machine track, whichever one that is (High School Musical had one of those too.) (Slumber Party Girls' one is probably "Salsa"; just a guess. I was in the other room at the time. Some other promising titles include "Bubblegum," "Eavesdroppin'," and "The Texting Song." "I Got Your Back" and "Back To Basics" were a couple of the Destiny's-style ones, I think. Lalena says "Dance Revolution Theme" is the least revolutionary sounding revolution song she's ever heard.) ("Eavesdroppin" on now - sounds kinda funky!)

I still think that latter day Curve were the top guns of goth-girl pop--especially the seldom doted-on The Gift.

Not that I have anything against sheen in principle. I haven't worked out yet what I find off-putting about Beyoncé's sheen. She's a great songwriter and producer, and I think she's done a good job of making her co-stars sound good. I love Sean Paul on "Baby Boy." And I certainly put Beyoncé on the like side of the like-dislike ledger.

I wouldn't say that JoJo's "The Way You Do Me" is better than "Ring The Alarm" (both Beatz 'n' Garrett tracks) - maybe I wish "The Way You Do Me" were more of a "song" than a track - but I'm more willing dance and snuggle and giggle with it.

Funny thing is that I find JoJo's and Brooke Hogan's voices fairly characterless, and that doesn't seem to be a flaw. (It's not a virtue, though, and Paris alb is way more forceful in all sorts of ways.)

Bunch of versions floating around the net of Nelly Furtado doing Gnarls' "Crazy," BBC one being the best*. Nelly F. is a subject for further listenings and ponderings. A trouble I have with her is that she only seems to do one mood per song - I'm achy on this one, I'm flighty on that one, etc. - though again I don't see why that should necessarily be a flaw. Can't say there were a lot of variations in the mood and texture of the Kingsmen's "Louie Louie." Maybe Nelly wears out the mood before the song is finished. Anyway, she's almost moodless on "Crazy," and I think that helps, let's the song sing itself through her.

*Most ridiculous is the duet with Charlotte Church, but I can't say it's devoid of fun. (Bear in mind that I'm the person who loves the Celine Dion-Anastacia version of "You Shook Me All Night Long.")

(ILX search is broken, but as far as I can tell, unaccountably there's never been an "Explain Me Charlotte Church" thread. So, explain me Charlotte Church.)

Or maybe I just mean worthy of Weezer before they started to suck? Somebody else decide. (I'm definitely not saying it's near the level of "Saturday Night" or "Rock N Roll Love Letter," I'm sure of that.)

And yeah, that Charlotte Church clip was wtf?-worthy for sure. Wow.

Oh No! "The All New Charlotte Church Show"

here's her wiki page although tbh you'd be better off insight-wise reading any issue of the News of the World:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlotte_Church

her TV show is supposed to be silly btw (first series went out 10pm on Fridays in order to catch at least the first wave of the "just got home from the pub" audience). I'm sure she's "botherd" if the accents are off

also the duets tend to be exercises in trying to outsing her guests

Miley has a really strong southern accent in her speaking voice. I hear country in her voice. I might be predisposed to hearing country in her because since I watch the show, I've heard her speaking voice a lot.

*One does tend to pronounce one's accent, doesn't one?

chaz is popular because she's perceived as very down-to-earth (authentic, even!). she's hard-drinking and gets into fights but not so much that she's thought of as a mess - just a normal young woman. she hasn't noticeably slimmed down at any point so is seen as striking a blow for normal-sized women (while still being attractive to str8 men). she's very straight-talking and funny in interviews. she didn't move to london after she got famous and still hangs out with all her old cardiff mates.

these things count more than having good songs in britain at the moment! though the new chat show has received such slatings that the pendulum may be swinging back (i haven't seen it yet).

I suspect a lot of what has made Charlotte a popular celebrity is her willingness to fuck up in public and her complete lack of pretension. (edit: i.e. what The Lex says + also she's still v. close to her family)

I think you can argue that CC isn't really a pop star - or at least is less of one now than in her Voice of An Angel days. Making records and singing on her TV show is now just one element of the CC package. Same with Cher, now that you mention it. (So I would certainly answer your question above in the affirmative.)

despite her mother being a mentalist fame-hungry cow! (both v obviously in public, and also the PA of the student mag i edited was a long-time acquaintance of m4ri4 church and told us this.)

jeff is right that the chaz brand isn't popstar per se, it's more...all-round entertainer. why she is given 'permission' to be a popstar as part of this and someone like paris hilton isn't is interesting! (with chaz her early career is proof that she has the singing chops, which is a fairly unassailable argument for the british public. there was a mini-spat between chaz and cheryl tweedy of girls aloud a while ago - cheryl accused chaz of biting their style, chaz responded "when she can sing the fucking ave maria she can talk to me".)

Or work forwards. You know what I mean.

new look web site www.robyn.com launched 1st November!

The Hannah Montana phenomenon mystifies me. The first time I heard "Best of Both Worlds" I thought, "WTF? A song about what life's like when you're a rock star (by someone who isn't yet, but that's different WTF) who goes to high school during the day? What exactly is a kid supposed to identify with here?"

Well, clearly there's something there. But I still don't know what it is. Any advice?

My guess is the Cheetah Girls, for example, serve as a (re)assurance that the teenagerhood that's looming can be a fun, friend-filled experience. It's a different deal when you send that message to kids who aren't yet in that age group, as opposed to kids who are.

That's what I based my review on, anyway. I didn't much like the show, but since they drew 3,000 people in Providence less than a year ago and around 10,000 last week, I was intrigued.

This may have been covered upthread, but after 1,000 posts I can't give every one the scrutiny it deserves.

(Of course I can't let a discussion of teen TV go by).

Miley's southern accent on the show comes and goes. She talks like she has a retainer in her mouth. It's weird. But her acting has markedly improved over time.

Hannah Montana IS a ripoff of Lizzie (not just a group of friends, but one girl friend and one guy friend + one brother, etc, etc). Of course, just about every Diz/Nick show post Lizzie is the same. Actually Phil of the Future followed more in the vein of Even Stevens. Disney Channel is hardly noted for being original. I've written way more about HM on my blog, so I'm just gonna stop here.

I think Hannah has about a 50% success ratio (and yeah, the only obvious accent is in the theme song, but it was first, hence the lasting impression despite her getting progressively "Sk8er Boi"-by-way-of-Hilary, which means ditching the accent...I mean, Hilary's from Houston fer cryin' out loud).

But the reason it's huge, as has been said a couple of times, is that Disney has given it a major media blitz through its own outlets, which is enough -- almost without any outside recognition at all -- to make a dent on the Billboard charts. (Disney kids wouldn't have a WTF reaction to "Best of Both Worlds," because they were introduced to it as the theme song to the show; it simply outlines the premise). Disney Channel plays Hannah/Aly&AJ/Vanessa Hudgens on alternating commercial breaks, and there's some major deck-stacking going on with Radio Disney's "democratic" voting system. I.e., in any given month, three out of four (if not four out of four) artists introduced into rotation (via the "Music Mailbag") are from Hollywood. I think Cheetah Girls have had about four new singles introduced in a little under two months.

Which isn't to say none of the music's any good (some of it is great), but at some level the popularity of it has little to do with how good it actually is.

So was Lizzie a ripoff of Clarrisa Explains It All in the first place (except for, you know, the songs part) (and the part about Clarissa being sort of a weirdo) (among other stuff?) (actually i'm not even sure the girlpal + guypal + brother applies.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxQYV9Uo5mw

Stabbing Westward shout-out to their favorite brands. Really grown on me.

Lizzie and Clarissa aren't great comparisons, but they are OK. Did Clarissa have a girl friend? I don't recall. Lizzie was much more of an everygirl with very simple and every day plots. Like for example not wanting to spend time with parents, doing badly on a test, being made fun of by popular girls, etc., etc. Whereas Clarissa seems much wackier. I can't really think of a touchstone that Lizzie drew off of enough to call it a "rip-off". At least not among tv shows. It's kind of like a younger and tv version of a Hughes movie though. Whereas Hannah (which I do like by the way) rips off both Lizzie AND The Famous Jett Jackson.

That's So Raven, Unfabulous, Naturally Sadie, Read It and Weep.

May not seem like much, but well more than half of the shows Diz has developed since, plus a Nick show that came out right after Lizzie broke out, plus their most recent hit original movie. The formula seems to work for them.