Seemingly Intractable Questions In Pop, No.1 in a Series

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

How do you make pop work on TV?

Comments

[mooxyjoo.livejournal.com]

i used to LOVE to watch 106+park four or five years ago, which must've been when they were at a nice turning point, still some listenable east+west coast stuff coming out, and the south was coming up (and i'm sure there were much better periods to watch, too). it had all KINDS of stuff:

a COUNTDOWN
an AUDIENCE who would introduce themselves, and also sing along and dance (it was v. exciting when they all knew the words to BONECRUSHER)
aj + FREE (swoon)
freestyle competitions
occasional live performance
new videos, as well as classix

i really liked the nightly countdown show on the radio when i was a kid. it was good to feel some of that excitement again as a grownup, with music that i either had just barely heard elsewhere before it made it onto the countdown (usually via early notice on the interweb), or music i had heard plenty because it was doing well on the countdown. and mostly all music that was being touted for its currency, too, that i actually liked. so i was meeting it all on the pop timescale. also, it seemed like it put r+b in a context i could appreciate more readily.

three pop smashes from this period i would hurry home to be able to see every day (even when i had them on my ipod on the way home): 'still tippin', 'breathe', and that xzibit one produced by tim.