A Year In Pop: Week 12

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Avril! Hilary! The UK charts turn teenpoptastic this week with a #3 debut for La Vigne (and a #29 cameo from Hilary). Meanwhile the comical relief Proclaimers thing is number one.

[Poll #954743]

*the Pink record was left off last week's poll. I am reasonably sure I have not forgotten any more!

Comments

[koganbot]

Was going to challenge this "lead singles" claim, since the Ciara album is on its third single and the Hilary and Avril albums are each on their second, but then I checked Wiki and discovered that "Get Up" and "Promise" and "Play With Fire" weren't singles in Britain. WHY WEREN'T THEY? Nor was "Keep Holding On," but I'm less aghast at its not crossing the Atlantic. Does seem to me that "Play With Fire," which went nowhere here, would have had more of a chance in Britain, with its Kylie sound.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Hilarity, like Ashlee and Lindsay, never been marketed particularly heavily or even with any degree of commitment in the UK. A UK-friendly sound has only barely changed this (she came over and did a live PA at G-A-Y and I think maybe a TV show).

For whatever reason Sony really held back with the Ciara push here - the UK Sony rep didn't really seem to know why. The logic may have gone: ignore 'Get Up' as it's not really the Big Lead Single; Ciara's profile isn't high enough to launch her in December here, and in any case 'Promise' not a particularly UK-friendly single compared to 'Like A Boy'; January would have been logical but I understand that's when she was filming the 'Like A Boy' video.

I'd completely forgotten about 'Keep Holding On'. It was so bad!

[koganbot]

"Like A Boy" seems to be sputtering in the U.S.: doing OK on Urban and Rhythmic stations, barely getting anywhere on Top 40, only up to 44 so far on the Hot 100. Don't know if it's available for download yet; if not, that could be holding it back a bit. "With Love" is actually higher on the Top 40 stations, though it's not tearing 'em up. "Girlfriend" is finally jumping in airplay - 1,000 more spins this week than last on Top 40. Still not sure how high it'll go on the radio; it got huge downloads right off the bat. Oh, and "U + Ur Hand" is in the top ten in Top 40 airplay, a fact I find real interesting.

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

I swear I heard Gambaccini on BBC Radio 2* say a couple of days ago that "Girlfriend" was #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 (and #1 in Canada).

Both Duff and Lavigne were on Charlotte Church's chatshow recently. I didn't watch. But no doubt clips are on YouTube by now.

(*he does a US charts show every Saturday evening. Have now heard Carrie Underwood and the Dixie Chicks for the first time ever!)

[koganbot]

Which Underwood? "Before He Cheats" is the one to listen for, though its chart run may be over (giving way to "Wasted"). "Girlfriend" leapt into the Hot 100 at #5 almost entirely on the basis of downloads, then fell to 9 in the second week as downloads dropped off from the initial rush but airplay picked up, is now climbing again - up to 8 with a bullet, so could be hanging around for a long time. The thing is, it doesn't really match anything else on the radio right now and the adult contemporary stations will probably stick with "Keep Holding On" and Disney won't touch it (they could easily take out the "motherfuckin' princess" but they'd still have to deal with playing a song that tots would then go and buy with "motherfuckin princess" intact). So airplay is unpredictable. Daughtry, Nelly F., Gwen, and Justin are dominating top 40 airplay at the moment. Fergie, strangely, isn't as high; I think downloads are what are keeping "Glamorous" atop the Hot 100.

10 Girlfriends

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

Can't remember which Carrie U. I've heard Gambo play two songs from the album actually - one I liked, one I didn't care for at all. That's really helpful, huh? Sorry. (Actually, the one I liked might have been "Before He Cheats")

When Gambo played "Girlfriend", he described it as the 'Clean version' and it went "I'm the mother[silence] princess" BUT the version Radio 1 are playing is a specially re-recorded radio version that substitues "I'm the one and only princess". Add in these 7 versions (http://www.cbc.ca/arts/music/story/2007/03/09/lavigne-girlfriend-languages.html?ref=rss) and I make that 10 different "Girlfriend"s doing the rounds. ;-)

Re: 10 Girlfriends

[koganbot]

Quite promiscuous.