Yet Another Year In Pop: 48

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Peter Kay and chums climb up to the number one spot; double entry for Su-Bo; absent-minded moderator finally remembers to include ancient re-entry in poll three weeks late.

[Poll #1492336]

Nominations for the 2004 poll close at 5pm on Thursday. Please comment with your nominations on the original post, not this one!

Adam Lambert: Poptimist of the Year?

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

Not really. But yeah, new Adam Lambert strikes me as a rare instance of a mainstream US artist taking on what I can only think of as "Eurovision style," a hodgepodge of hyper-glam, synth-pop, torch songs, and soarin' male falsetto. Somewhere between BWO and the Ark, or something?

Anyway, dramaqueenage abounds and the whole album is worth a listen -- as girlboymusic put it, "simultaneously mediocre and fabulous." Its mediocrity scans to me as workmanlike, but it's a different sort of work than I'm used to from American artists.

Do any other major American artists from the past few years sound anything at all like this? All I'm coming up with is Scissor Sisters -- but anyway they're way more popular in Europe.

Obvious echoes of Lady GaGa, who probably deserves some mention in this convo, in fuh-fuh-fuh-"Fever":

Synth-struttin':

No-that's-not-The-Feeling pop in "Pick U Up":

Etc. So what the heck is going on?