Rolling Teenpop 2006 Thread

Tim, I'm not so hot on Hilary's "Alex the Seal." The greatest Hilary tracks are the two DioGuardi-Shanks numbers - "Come Clean" and "Fly," especially the latter, which is catchy of course but also sounds haunted, gorgeous, as if there is some distant snow-capped peak she's flying towards; her three new New-Waveish Go-Gos-like tracks are more enjoyable than "Our Lips" (well, two of 'em, anyway).

I recall "What I Like About You" as one of the better cuts on the Lillix album. I'll have to go re-listen, if I've still got it.

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Also, the word "safe," while not necessarily wrong, certainly is too simplistic. What's the dangerous chart pop that "Since U Been Gone" is making safe?

Jessica Simpson's "The Sweetest Sin" is still one of my favourite singles of the decade, though I imagine if anyone heard it and was turned off by it, they'd mostly be turned off by how "mature" it sounds. It's sort of an aching, grand piano-driven, bombastic elegance, a sound that, if it even exists in pop these days, I assume it would exist only in places like Josh Groban (places I assume I probably wouldn't care to visit)--much moreso anyway than in "teen" music. I can't think of a current pop song that less resembles Jessica's sister and Kelly Clarkson and Hilary Duff (or anyway, the little that I've heard by them). Not sure if this has anything to do with anything, but I agree with the point about teen-as-AC.

The teens I know listen primarily now to either (1) The Decemberists and Holy Modal Rounders and Nellie McKay and Baader-Meinhoff (2) Wu Tang Clan and Jedi Mind Tricks and Danger Doom and Kanye West.

Most slept-on teen-pop album of '05, by the way (unless Hope Partlow still counts): The *Darcy's Wild Life* soundtrack. Which goes like:

1 Take a Walk Sara Paxton 2:56
2 I Love Your Smile Tiffany Evans 4:17
3 Crazy Kinda Crush on You Nicholas Jonas 2:55
4 Bam Boogie Bent Fabric 3:15
5 We Need Some Money Brown, Chuck & The ... 4:28
Performed by: Brown, Chuck & The Soul Searchers
6 Hey Boy Fan-3 4:00
7 Walking the Dog Rufus Thomas 2:21
8 Monkey Man Specials 2:35
9 ABC American Juniors 3:22
10 Walking On Sunshine Nikki Cleary 3:41
11 Clothes Make the Girl Kristy Frank 2:42
12 There for You Sarah Paxton 2:07

Actually, Jessica's a subject for further research. I've got two singles: "I Think I'm in Love With You" and "Irresistible."

Chuck, Robyn's in the mail.

I won't even need the rest of ILM if this thread becomes successful.

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Girls Aloud are "pop" sure but "teenpop", I don't know - by origin they're a reality TV thing and would have been initially marketed to a wide-spectrum pop consumer, the latest album seems to be trying to crack a market I really do think is out there, a kind of pop equivalent of celebrity gossip-mag HEAT (which sells TONS here) - trashy, knowing, girl-about-town pop, aimed at a kind of just-post-student, first-job crowd (or that's what it makes me THINK of - being 23, not 13).

Their most teen thing recently was the song on their Xmas cash-in album about being "too old for Santa and too young for the sauce".

Heard on Smash Hits so far:

Brian McFadden - Irish Son - Catholic guilt confessional wimp-rock by ex-boyband guy.
Sugababes - Ugly - self-help R'n'B with strings
McFly - I'll Be OK - basically McFly are a powerpop outfit with a pop-punk accent. I don't like them. I loved some of their brother band Busted's stuff, though, who had no real 60s/70s influence.

Eppy, I don't know! I didn't know European teenpop was stylistically related to chart pop. Just commenting more from a U.S. perspective. I think there's a market for teenpop that's more like the A*Teens in the U.S. Not too hot on U.S. kids just getting "safer" blandness (just generalizing again! I'd like to hear those Hilary songs you mentioned, Frank - we don't have a Radio Disney station here anymore) or sexed up stuff that's kinda inappropriate for them IMO.

xp - Chuck, I don't know if you were referring to my comments, but no, as I say here, I think U.S. teenpop seems like a hodgepodge of "safer" chartpop (Hilary, Jesse) and sexy celebrities (Gwen Stefani, etc.) that young girls are supposed to like,

Any YSIs anyone wants to provide will be welcomes with open arms.

I find this pleasing.

Anyway -

Seems to me that in the UK new teenpop acts are few and far between at the moment, the pendulum is perceived to have swung and launches are all solo acts from groups or proven winners from somewhere else.

Would someone provide a URL for Smash Hits radio?

(I was once on the Smash Hits masthead, albeit the Australian one.)

The "Smash Hits Chart" is weird, it may be a year-end or ringtone list, or it may be that Tony Christie and the Crazy Frog are still the favourites.

(Maybe other teenpop does this too, I'm not saying it's just a UK thing, though I recognise the tradition in the UK)

Amy Diamond - What's In It For Me?

interesting point about the supposed Girls Aloud target audience. post teen, Heat, T4 i see the drill. possibly the biggest consumers in repect to surplus cash and from my experience seems to be the audience you'd most associate with alot of the top 40 albums of the year thou not of course all http://www.coolclarity.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=58888 no girls aloud but interestingly no frank fergusons oh and
38 The War of the Worlds - Jeff Wayne 446,000

back to teen pop the stuff i really liked last year that was teen pop was the sort of attempts of find a girl Busted, the teleological grail of all that is good, The Faders, Kim Lian and Lovebites especially The Lovebites but the teens said no it seems, perhaps sixth forms (moshercore! nmindie!) and "life style" (what girls aloud portray but James Blunt is actually a part of?) are more appealing than songs about beating up boyfriends and so forth.

I believe the kids still really like the pop punk, if I can judge by my 13-year-old half sister.

I've good feelings about this track, so far.

I've good feelings about this track, so far.

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.

I went to the EMAs last night because Hoot was nominated for "Best Feature with an Environmentally Conscious Plot With Cute Butts"

or something like that. I don't remember. They gave out free organic chocolate and Real Food Daily catered and thats all that matters in life so everything else is seemingly flat.

ANYCRAP.
we lost to Ice Age.

But Sara was there and won for "Darcy's Wild Life" but also lost at the same time with her H20 commercial (Feel free to bring up the part where she says "ITS NOT A QUANTITY, ITS ABOUT ACCESS!"). People dropped their awards and broke them. Many remarks were made that were, in fact, sexual. And the Wonder Pets sang a song about saving a tree for what seemed like 20 minutes (But it was the best 20 minutes of my life).

Best Group Made of Brothers / Sisters
Jonas Brothers
Aly & AJ
B5
Everlife

Best Song To Listen To While Getting Ready For School
Rush - Aly & AJ
Start Of Something New - Troy & Gabriella
Unwritten - Natasha Bedingfield
I Got Nerve - Miley Cyrus

Best Artist Or Song Your Teacher Likes
Crazy - Gnarls Barkley
Too Little Too Late - JoJo
Gonna Make U Sweat - C & C Music Factory
So Sick - Ne-Yo

(What was their criteria for choosing the "Teacher Likes" category?)Can't seem to figure out how to vote for the BONUS "Best Ringtone" category. Also, there should be a write-in option.

JT's "My Love" holds at #1 for the third week. "Fergalicious" stays at number 3, Beyonce's "Irreplaceable" jumps to number 4. Those two songs seem to be JT's biggest competitor for next week. "Irreplaceable" has been the Biggest Airplay Gainer 2 weeks in a row. Bowling For Soup's "High School Never Ends" debuts at number 97. Radio Diz is ahead of the curve yet again. I like it better than "1985" for what it's worth, though they are obviously extremely similar songs.

On the album chart, Hannah Montana falls to 5th, but still sold 136,000 copies, which is a very strong week. That would be enough to top the charts in some of the slow summer weeks. Now 23 debuts at the top of the charts.

NO WEB CAM YOU SAY?
no problem!

just hook up your video camera to your computer, along with headphone and a microphone(if you have it) and be happy, ya bitch.

THE PICO PICO SHOW WILL INCLUDE:
1.) Brie Larson.
2.) Costumes.
3.) Friends and fellow contributors(i.e. golie, travis, matt, sorry guys that I didn't tell you about it first, but you are doing it dammit! even if it costs me a tray of rice crispies with extra butter)
4.) Photos!
5.) Pictionary!
6.) Titties! ask darren for more info.

The reason I tell you about this now, my lovelies, is because this Zine will cost you a pretty penny. So start saving now and be part of the fun!

http://suziblade.com/thecolorguard/Scraps.html

Clips from three songs to appear on the upcoming album fromKatharine McPhee posted to one of her fansites. Kat was, despite her horrible inconsistency, my favorite of the contestants on American Idol 5. She was always classy and old-timey jazzy/bluesy on the show and so I had assumed they were going to go in that direction for the album. But it's very R&B-ish. "Open Toes" is pretty much standard fare current uptempo R&B, but pretty good. "Over It" is a ripoff of JoJo, but I again think it's a good song. "Each Other" is a white R&B ballad, kind of boring. Album could be successful or could be a huge flop, I'm not really sure at this point.

KDIS-AM
Los Angeles - 1110 AM (Radio Disney)
LW: Nov 4 - Nov 10 TW: Nov 11 - Nov 17 Updated: Sat Nov 18 2:18 PM PST

lw TW Artist Title spinsTW spinslw +/- Reach/Mill
2 1 HANNAH MONTANA If We Were A Movie 77 77 0 0.3417
4 2 VANESSA HUDGENS Come Back To Me 75 74 1 0.3349
1 3 ASHLEY TISDALE Kiss The Girl 75 78 -3 0.3163
3 4 JESSE MCCARTNEY Right Where You Want Me 74 75 -1 0.3155
5 5 JONAS BROTHERS Year 3000 73 73 0 0.3134
10 6 JONAS BROTHERS Poor Unfortunate Soul 72 32 40 0.299
7 7 HANNAH MONTANA I've Got Nerve 72 72 0 0.2963
6 8 HANNAH MONTANA Best Of Both Worlds 68 73 -5 0.2854
13 9 B5 Keep Your Head In The Game 33 30 3 0.1353
14 10 BOWLING FOR SOUP 1985 33 30 3 0.1481
24 11 NATASHA BEDINGFIELD Unwritten 32 26 6 0.1346
18 12 RIHANNA SOS 32 30 2 0.1359
19 13 ALY & A.J. Chemicals React 31 29 2 0.1284
9 14 JOJO Too Little Too Late 31 34 -3 0.1378
17 15 RIHANNA Pon De Replay 31 30 1 0.1267
23 16 CHEETAH GIRLS The Party's Just Begun 30 28 2 0.1273
22 17 CHEETAH GIRLS Amigas Cheetahs 29 28 1 0.1368
34 18 CHEETAH GIRLS Route 66 29 17 12 0.1265
8 19 HANNAH MONTANA Who Said 29 72 -43 0.1111
20 20 CHEETAH GIRLS Step Up 28 29 -1 0.1143
15 21 CHEETAH GIRLS Strut 28 30 -2 0.1232
16 22 HAYLIE DUFF Material Girl 28 30 -2 0.1232
21 23 HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL We're All In This Together 28 29 -1 0.1156
29 24 DANIEL POWTER Bad Day 28 24 4 0.1263
12 25 ALY & A.J. Rush 27 30 -3 0.1295
28 26 CRAZY FROG Axel F 27 24 3 0.1069
96 27 ALY & A.J. Greatest Time Of Year 26 1 25 0.1244
11 28 CHRIS BROWN Yo (Excuse Me Miss) 26 31 -5 0.0942
27 29 BOWLING FOR SOUP High School Never Ends 24 25 -1 0.1074
30 30 CRAZY FROG We Are The Champions 22 23 -1 0.0943
25 31 EVERLIFE Find Yourself In You 22 26 -4 0.0833
32 32 HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL Breaking Free 18 18 0 0.0833
31 33 BELINDA Why Wait 17 20 -3 0.0605
36 34 HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL Start Of Something New 15 13 2 0.052
35 35 EVERLIFE Look Through My Eyes 14 17 -3 0.0591
-- 36 SMASH MOUTH So Insane 13 0 13 0.073
-- 37 SMASH MOUTH The Crawl 9 0 9 0.0434
37 38 B5 Who's Afraid Of The Big Bad Wolf 7 8 -1 0.0553
47 39 BLACK EYED PEAS Let's Get It Started 7 5 2 0.03
63 40 KELLY CLARKSON Walk Away 6 4 2 0.016
65 41 HANNAH MONTANA Pumpin' Up The Party 6 4 2 0.0288
54 42 NELLY Over And Over (f/Tim McGraw) 6 5 1 0.0178
67 43 SIMPLE PLAN Shut Up 6 4 2 0.0204
43 44 ASHLEE SIMPSON Boyfriend 6 6 0 0.0226
56 45 ASHLEE SIMPSON Pieces Of Me 6 5 1 0.0244
69 46 RAVEN SYMONE Backflip 6 4 2 0.0173
58 47 WEEZER Beverly Hills 6 5 1 0.0111
45 48 B5 Dance For You 5 5 0 0.0148
60 49 B5 U Got Me 5 4 1 0.0135
48 50 BOWLING FOR SOUP Almost 5 5 0 0.0219

This is the Radio Disney Top 30 as posted on its site today, though they played the list on-air yesterday morning, so I'm guessing the week runs either to the 17th or the 18th. I'm not sure how they compile the Top 30, but requests must have a lot to do with it. I've bolded anything that's at least 10 places lower than the airplay standings, italicized anything that's 10 places higher.

For November 20, 2006

1 2 Hannah Montana "If We Were a Movie"
2 1 Ashley Tisdale "Kiss the Girl"
3 8 Hannah Montana "Best of Both Worlds"
4 3 Vanessa Hudgens "Come Back to Me"
5 9 Jonas Brothers "Year 3000"
6 5 Hannah Montana "I Got Nerve"
7 7 Jesse McCartney "Right Where You Want Me"
8 4 Mr C The Slide Man "Cha Cha Slide"
9 12 Hannah Montana "Who Said"
10 20 Jesse McCartney "Beautiful Soul"
11 6 Jonas Brothers "Poor Unfortunate Souls"
12 13 Crazy Frog "Crazy Frog (Axel F)"
13 10 JoJo "Too Little, Too Late"
14 -- Cheetah Girls "Cinderella"
15 15 Hannah Montana "Pumpin' Up the Party"
16 -- Jonas Brothers "Mandy"
17 11 Bowling For Soup "1985"
18 28 Hampton the Hampster "Hampsterdance Song"
19 21 High School Musical Cast "We're All In This Together"
20 24 Cheetah Girls "Amigas Cheetahs"
21 16 Aly and AJ "Rush"
22 26 Akon "Lonely"
23 debut Hilary Duff "Material Girl"
24 27 Aly and AJ "Chemicals React"
25 -- B5 "Get'cha Head In The Game"
26 18 Troy and Gabriella "Breaking Free"
27 23 Rihanna "S.O.S."
28 19 B5 "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf"
29 25 Cheetah Girls "The Party's Just Begun"
30 17 Cheetah Girls "Step Up"

I was assuming that most of the bold would be Disney product and most of the italics would be non-Disney. The numbers I get for BOLD are Disney 4, non-Disney 1. The numbers I get for italics are Disney 4, non-Disney 5. This is not as strong a result as I'd expected, esp. since I'm guessing that the non-Disney "Cha Cha Slide" is getting uncounted airplay. Also, notice some non-Disney product that's getting airplay but not making the site list (Tashbed, Powter). But then again, "Strut" and "Route 66" are Disney product that's in the Top 30 in airplay but isn't making the Disney chart. Basically, the Cheetahs are getting more airplay than requests, and that's the difference, if my assumption is correct about how they compile the site's Top 30 (but notice that "Cinderella" is an exception, getting more requests than airplay).

(Um, are the Hilary and Haylie versions of "Material Girl" different recordings, or is that a mistake?)

Thanks for posting both lists, I checked both today and didn't see huge discrepancies, but the Cheetah Girls gap suggests that the online votes aren't tampered with (which probably wouldn't be too hard to do).