A Year In Pop: 18

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

A new month, a new poll! Get that tick rate going again!

[Poll #982157]

All previous polls are still open, etc etc. if you've "got into" any of the year's pop platters since their initial blushing entrance to the charts.

Comments

[blue-russian.livejournal.com]

Sheila is just now hitting the charts?

JAMIE T

[bengraham.livejournal.com]

Chavtastic or deserving of an ASBO? Discuss.

Re: JAMIE T

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Turns out JT was a hit last year and hence INELIGIBLE for consideration in these polls. Just as well since it's rub.

Re: JAMIE T

[lockedintheatti.livejournal.com]

He needs to release Salvador as a single. It's the best track on the album and his voice is much less annoying on that than on many of his other tracks.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

The Michael Buble is nice! The song is definitely One For The Mums but he has a lovely voice OH YES I AM A DEMOGRAPHIC WOT OF IT.

Hellogoodbye and Dada = marginal ticks, former for the vocoder, latter for the Benassi effect.

Jojo = great! Hurrah for Toto samples.

Funeral For A Friend = poor. No ticky. Didn't bother with Jamie T.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I really strongly hated the Hellogoodbye. Absolutely the kind of powerpoppy thing that infuriates me.

Dada I liked though I think I'd get bored of it quickly.

I didn't try Michael Bulbasaur - very remiss, I will investigate.

Jojo is indeed great! I sort of hoped the song would be a bit more TOTO MADNESS than it is but I think her bits are very good too.

[byebyepride.livejournal.com]

I really like the Hellogoodbye! Boston meets Benassi. Could do without the wimpy vocals in the verse, but the vocoder saves them.

Dada is good, but there have been lots of better things in that style.

Jamie T = rub.

JoJo great as ever.

Michael B. I am blatantly NOT in the demographic for this one. Clearly given my hellogoodbye love I should be listening to classic rock radio (and not mentioning recent Fleetwood Mac download spree). I am not ashamed of that, mind.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I just ordered two Fleetwood Mac albums off Amazon!

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Hellogoodbye - didn't expect this, was very annoyed; maybe a 5% possibility I'll turn round on it and grow to love it a la 'The Bad Touch', 95% though I will continue to loathe it

Dada - what Tom said, I am kind of bored of ticking all this bosh I will never hear or want to hear again

JoJo - couldn't remember this at all at first but when I went back to the album was pleasantly surprised. I like the way she gets out of the way for the good Toto bits and the sample gets out of the way for the good JoJo bits. Should have been credited to JOJO & TOTO a la NELLY & KELLY.

The others - you are joking

JoJo and ToTo

[blue-russian.livejournal.com]

She should've just sang "Africa" - v. little JoJo value added, IMO - just kind of her vocalizing over the sample.

[martinskidmore.livejournal.com]

I review singles for Stylus, and I don't recall hearing any of these. If I were home and could check, I might find I am forgetting one or more of them, I expect.

[koganbot]

To refresh your memory:

Martin Skidmore: R&Bish teen pop leaning heavily on the nice tuneful bit from similarly-named Toto's "Africa". She still sounds really young, as she is, and a touch awkward and rushed on the faster parts, but she sounds strong and confident on the slower lines, and when she opens up she's a first class R&B vocalist.
[8]

[martinskidmore.livejournal.com]

ha, whoops. It is a few weeks ago, and I am getting old (48 next month!). (I realise I am talking to one of the few people I know through LJ/ILX who is actually even older than me, and you remembered this...)

ok slight revision to my position

[byebyepride.livejournal.com]

have been listening to hellogoodbye on my itunes, where it is followed by the Hilary and Hayley Duff version of Our Lips Are Sealed, and the galz are totally pwning the boys.

[koganbot]

Well, I've heard all these but already forgotten most of em, except for the JoJo, which I rave about but manage to underrate here (it's a 9! a 9, I say!).

[koganbot]

Anyway, not counting the JoJo, this is what my notes tell me I thought.

Hellogoodbye - Singer puts on a dorky wanky whiteboy pop voice (which is not as bad as a dorky wanky whiteboy indie voice), which undercuts this a lot, the "this" that's undercut being an expressively tuneful U2ish melody not unlike "With Or Without You," but much weaker. Borderline nontick.

Funeral For A Friend - Eight-to-the-bar beat that's dumb but OK, a high not-strong voice soaring above. If the tune were more tuneful I could be suckered into liking this, but the tune's not there, so I'm free to hate the voice.

Dada f. Sandy Rivera and Trix - One doesn't expect a song called "Lollipop" to be subtle, but the blatancy of the come-on here is irritating and unsexy and ultimately makes this feel real cold. Damn Brits. But this track works anyway, a strong functional beat and reasonably tuneful background riffs. Borderline tick.

Michael Buble - Don't think I'd heard him before. Was expecting aggressive normality à la Powter. My expectations were not totally wrong, but this is more of a throwback to pre-r'n'r "stylish" pop, w/ soul touches updating it somewhat. Terribly weak and dry. No tick.

Jamie T. - A style of indie dorkiness that has possibilities, like that Streets guy, the ordinary bloke thing pushed into intensity. 'Cept this doesn't make it. If it had any kind of a hook, the voice maybe could take off from it. But this is hook free and tickless. No tick.

(Now got to go pick the losers out of eleven tracks that are way better than any of these except the JoJo.)

[koganbot]

jo jo i think you are so good at singin and you are so young too and really pretty! all the best for the future luv nikitaXxXxXxxx

i think you are really good at singing and you are really pretty i love you're new song 'anything'!

Boys who like girls

[koganbot]

The sample is too small to be statistically significant, but so far my prediction (poptimist boys are more likely to like JoJo than poptimist girls are) is confirmed, though this isn't Kat's fault. (I assume that outside of poptimists and into the mainstream this reverses: mainstream girls love JoJo; mainstream boys are indifferent or hostile.)(So poptimist boys aspire to be mainstream girls.)

Jojo's image

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure if I made this point on the last Jojo discussion but I wonder if her lack of poptimist-lady love is due to her 'less exciting' persona? Xtina is clearly dirrrty, Bouncey is clearly bonkers, we know way too much about Fergie's humps and we all know Natasha is a mental god-botherer like her brother. All brilliant personalities that gossip mags love/love to hate.

I know NOTHING about Jojo except that she is very young and can sing quite well.

Re: Jojo's image

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

NB This Lack Of Fun also put me off Xtina pre-Dirrty.

I'm not sure why girls need to be more interesting as performers than boys for me. But then apart from Justin I can't think of a male pop solo singer I'd potentially get excited about anyway.

Re: Jojo's image

[koganbot]

JoJo seems anonymous to me, which I don't consider a musical defect at all but is why there will never be any JoJo posters up in my room. But I suspect that she's too girly for the Lady Poptimists; even when she's mad and telling the guy to leave, get out, he's too little and too late, etc., it's a girl finally pushed to her limit by mistreatment, and she's still sugar and spice amidst her wails and sad tales (and in her heart she would do anything for real love, even wrong love). For boys, appearing to be like this ourselves isn't really an option (or anyway isn't something boys are pressured to be), so JoJo doesn't represent a potential path to be followed or rejected, whereas I'm guessing that for girls she does represent a path, one that Poptimist Girls would likely reject, hence her sound might feel a bit icky to them (as opposed to Blowhard Beth's at the top of our chart).

Re: Jojo's image

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I said in my review (http://arts.guardian.co.uk/filmandmusic/story/0,,1993460,00.html) that her wholesomeness was v endearing.

Didn't you like Rachel though? Surely she is the dullest pop star of them all?

Re: Jojo's image

[koganbot]

I think I was the only person to put the JoJo alb on the Pazz & Jop/Jackin' Pop lists. Actually thought it was hit or miss but that it was very good where it did hit, and I was amazed that she actually pulled off the Note To God song, didn't sound either sappy or overblown, just straightforwardly wishful. Really proves she can sing.

Re: Jojo's image

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

I never really thought Rachel was that amazing tbh, great songs but dull execution. But at least she has a Thing: used to be in brill pop group that had a good tv show too. And the fact that she was the dullest but also the most successful is interesting.

Re: Boys who like girls

[blue-russian.livejournal.com]

Liking JoJo just seems a little too pervy to me. Not entirely rational (for a number of reasons), I realize, but given that her youth was used as a selling point on her first singles, I'm having a hard time getting around it. (Similar but not exactly the same to the way I hard problems swallowing the massive image changes that Xtina did with Drrrrty and Britters w/I'm a Slav 4 U.