Poptimists 2006 Poll: Act of the Year!

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Today's category is the slightly nebulous Act of the Year - six acts got more than one vote and we present them below: interesting to note the Poptimists heavyweights who didn't get multiple nominations.

Girls Aloud put out a Greatest Hits record.
Lily Allen MySpaced her way to stardom.
Justin Timberlake brought sexy back.
Paris Hilton was much talked about.
Aly and AJ were the salvation of teenpop.
Cassie stripped R&B down.

[Poll #899559]

Lifetime achievement and Track of the Year to follow!

Comments

Not much has changed but they live underwater

[koganbot]

I keep mentioning this here to almost zero response, but of the few males with any presence in American teenpop, the most popular this year - the Jonas Brothers - are coming on just like Busted, and their biggest Radio Disney hit is a cover of a Busted song.

Re: Not much has changed but they live underwater

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Do they come complete with the secret desire to make awful grunge rock?

I wonder if the Busted fans remain silent because the betrayal still aches.

Re: Not much has changed but they live underwater

[koganbot]

Their first hit - "Mandy" - deliberately starts off exactly like "Anarchy In The U.K" and then turns into a total boyband song. I think this is a good thing (for this song, not necessarily for their future). Knowing little about Busted, I'm wondering if the grunge desire might have improved their pop until the desire won. (Btw, the Matt singles didn't sound so bad the one time I listened, when piratemoggy linked 'em. If it's the same Matt we're talking about, that is.)

Re: Not much has changed but they live underwater

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Yes, the Matt singles weren't the problem - search YouTube for "Fightstar", Charlie Busted's post-Busted band, for which he split Busted.

I think the tension and grunge desire DID improve them, definitely, except when it was allowed to drive the pop out (as on most of their slow ones). I don't think they'd have had as good a grasp of dynamics if they hadn't been into 'proper' rock. (The knottiness of "Crashed The Wedding" is an example of what I'm incoherently thinking about)

Re: Not much has changed but they live underwater

[koganbot]

Wikipedia: "AJ Michalka is currently dating Joe Jonas of The Jonas Brothers. AJ stated this in M Magazine." But that's in the cached version, not the current, so they perhaps broke up. Or maybe never were. Jonas Brothers were home-schooled too, like Aly & A.J., and I'm guessing - therefore - are evangelicals. Which didn't stop them from starting with the "Anarchy" chord. Did probably hold them back from saying "I am an antichrist," however.

Re: Not much has changed but they live underwater

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

Naw, they broke up, I think. Pretty sure I read that over on Tommy2 (http://www.tommy2.net), anyway, where they have their RD parallel universe top 5 lists up. Jesse McCartney as male artist of the year, Miley Cyrus as female artist.

Re: Not much has changed but they live underwater

[koganbot]

Didn't realize Jesse was doing so well. I rather like "Right Where You Want Me," as a nice sort of bleached r&b/*NSync thing (like it a lot more than the Vanessa Hudgens single). Miley's no surprise. Did they have a "best duo or group" category?

Re: Not much has changed but they live underwater

[koganbot]

Wait, I'm looking at the lists now. Is Tommy an individual as well as a publication? He listed Marie Serneholt! And apparently neither he nor the T2 people knew or were willing to admit that "Year 3000" was a cover. Real interesting that they acknowledged (An)Drew Seeley as first or second best vocalist of the year (he sang Zac Efron's high parts on the High School Musical tracks). And up until 10 minutes ago I had never heard of Katelyn Tarver much less realized she was vocalist of the year.

Re: Not much has changed but they live underwater

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

I think I featured Katelyn Tarver on one of the Myspace things once, decent Xtian bubblegum pop now getting slight Disney treatment. Tommy2 started as a personal site (of a guy named Tommy) and has become something of an underground publicity arm of Disney/Hollywood. Not sure whether this is payolaish or just a matter of taste (not like you'd really be able to tell either way, although they seem to get lots of Disney concert/promo freebies) but they do have the best updates on the world of Disney. They're also way more in touch with Christian rock radio than any other pop site I pay attention to (I'm sure there are plenty devoted exclusively to CCR, but I need secular dilution).

Drew Seeley tried to launch a solo career (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=am_iC7KN-ps) without much success ("Chicken" Corbin Bleu is doing much better, but then he has his own DCOM to back up his single), so I'll bet that's partially what they're basing that placement on.

Tommy2 was a major A*Teens fansite when they (the A*Teens) were still going strong -- them and Jump5 pretty much had daily coverage a few years ago. So that would explain the love for Marie but the lack of any other great Europop on the list. I wish they'd find Rolling Teenpop or Teen Cultural Revolution or Poptimists or Bedbugs already, since their own site isn't comment-friendly.

Re: Not much has changed but they live underwater

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

Well, technically Drew's single was part of Cheetah Girls 2, but Corbin's the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDzsqUOwO4A>star of the show</a>.

Re: Not much has changed but they live underwater

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

woops (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDzsqUOwO4A).

Re: Not much has changed but they live underwater

[koganbot]

http://www.myspace.com/jonasbrothers

Busted vs Jonas

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

1. Synths on intro and 'middle-ought'. (Win for JB)

2. "Took a trip" has become "Took a ship" (Neutral - presumably this is a drugs change?)

3. The great-great-great grandaughter is now "doing fine" not "pretty fine" (Win for Busted).

4. "Triple-breasted women swim around town, totally naked" has become a line about girls with Star Wars hair that I couldn't make out. (Big win for Busted - this is one of the best and best-delivered lines).

5. Hanson-esque "Huuuuuh yeah!" before last choruses. (Win for JB)

6. "It had outsold Michael Jackson" becomes "It had outsold Kelly Clarkson", presumably because outselling MJ isn't that difficult these days. (Win for Busted, as "Jackson" at least has one vowel sound in common with "Platinum")

Re: Busted vs Jonas

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

But Kelly Clarkson is more of an act of solidarity on the part of Jonas Brothers (even if the line itself doesn't work...but it DOES work contextually in a sort of "orange you glad I didn't say banana" way, even though I heard JB first). So when they say "and another one and another one...and another one!" with respect to boybands, you feel like they might be THRILLED with this future, instead of more neutrally semi-sarcastic (semi- since both of 'em are boybands themselves). Triple-breasted women (plus the Busted video (http://youtube.com/watch?v=2FJXF6qdyIg) vs. Jonas (http://youtube.com/watch?v=kUaKBrdMGec)) ultimately puts Busted on top, though.

Re: Not much has changed but they live underwater

[jauntyalan.livejournal.com]

any sign of a YSI or should i capture from youtubes?

Re: Not much has changed but they live underwater

[koganbot]

Well, the MySpace is better sound quality than YouTube. (Think my promo is copy-protected; anyway doesn't contain "Year 3000.")

Re: Not much has changed but they live underwater

[jauntyalan.livejournal.com]

oddly i can't get myspace to play. i think this is an intel mac / flash problem

Re: Not much has changed but they live underwater

[koganbot]

MySpace has frequent technical problems anyway. (The Cassie tracks were giving me grief earlier today.) If AOL Music lets Brits in, you can try here:

http://music.aol.com/artist/jonas-brothers/778430/main