the most important pop things this week

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

OK all I can see on my last.fm friends page is Radiohead Radiohead Radiofvckingboringhead and I want y'all to STOP IT NOW it is hurting me in my heart! Here is a list of BETTER THINGS.

1. New Sugababes album released on the same day. I haven't heard it yet and would like to hear more about it, but I grow more in love with the single daily and frankly it should have far outstripped R****head as a topic of poptimist discussion. SHAME!

2. 'Bean Pop' by KP is an addictive bouncing southern hip-hop thing. The dancing in the video is brilliant; I like the girl whose top says GO AWAY, and the dance move where they mime popping a pill.

3. I have been waiting for a proper video to emerge for Cassie's 'Is It You?' but have resigned myself to this never happening - nevertheless the song is one of the most fantastic bubblegum things of the year. If you liked Cassie's album you will like this.

3. New Alicia Keys single! I think Alicia has one of the greatest voices around - her albums are both a bit samey but she has a really magnificent string of singles going. 'No One' is no disappointment - she's added a bit of a Mary J rasp to her voice which works very well, the bridge is amazing and the oh-oh-oh-oh-ohs of the outro are finally what make me fall hard for this. Google alicia keys no one site:zshare.net and you'll find it, here's the video.

4. I first heard Durrty Goodz's Axiom EP mixtape last week and it has totally blown me away - nine tight, focused grime bombs, not a wasted moment on the whole thing. This is the only song on youtube, 'Keep Up', and it's terrific - that sing-song flow! That incredible beat! - but there's even better on the album eg 'The Youngers' on which Goodz creates a schoolkid persona and feeds his voice through a machine for it accordingly, 'Give Me The Music' which is this glorious closing track featuring Ny, 'The Weather Man' which is a true banger...

5. Chamillionaire's new video is a MUST-SEE - a nine-minute concept video combining his new single 'Hip Hop Police' (straight-up irresistible hip-hop banger) and 'The Evening News' which is all CURRENT AFFAIRS and POLITICAL - and which works! We get commentary on racism, the Don Imus "nappy-headed hos" incident, Dubya and climate change, and it ends by calling for the APOCALYPSE. It is mad and brilliant.

6. And lastly, Miss Ashley Tisdale is what Aly & AJ would be if they REALLY wanted to take us back to the golden age of Britney copyists - not in sound per se but in aesthetic. 'He Said She Said' features an intro cribbed off Bach, a bubblegum rap chorus and a totally catchy melody. Five years ago this would have been a shoe-in for the top 10, now it appears we have to murder Jo Whiley for this to happen. I'm up for that!

There! No excuses now.

Comments

Existential debate: "being vs. moving"

[koganbot]

The Radio Disney "clean" edit, if you're interested.

So, taking sides:

Ashley: "Girl walk in the spot she stop traffic (uh huh)
She blowin' your mind with her asset (uh huh)"

vs.

Disney: "Girl walk in the spot she stop traffic (uh huh)
She got everything you can't pass it (uh huh)"

or

Ashley: "Baby I can see us movin' like that (like that)
Baby I can see us touchin' like that (like that)
Baby I can see us kissin' like that (like that)
We don't need no more than he said she said"

vs.

Disney: "Baby I can see us bein' like that (like that)
Baby I can see us dancin' like that (like that)
Baby I can see us chillin' like that (like that)
We don't need no more than he said she said"

Existential debate part two: if a song falls in a forest, did anybody hear it?

[koganbot]

OK, an hour of strenuous searching on the Web reveals that: (1) There was a previous video for "He Said, She Said" but I can't find it. It's probably somewhere on YouTube, but I didn't want to wade through several hundred videos to find it. (2) The original push for the song was in December or January but was called off in favor of a push for "Be Good To Me" (I'm presuming because Radio Disney was willing to play the latter). (3) In the U.S. the song is getting virtually no airplay on Top 40 (Mediabase reports 27 spins total in the entire country last week). (4) It's getting no play on Radio Disney (or fewer than 8 spins at any rate); possibly Disney is waiting on it (and maybe there's work on a "clean" video for the Disney channel). (5) It may be getting some play on TRL, or at least TRL is featuring it in its "premieres," but the TRL Website is so confusing I'm damned if I can figure out what's going on. (6) I didn't check to see if any Sharpay songs from HSM2 are getting much attention. (I don't even know if there are any Sharpay songs from HSM2, which I haven't seen [or heard].) (7) So if "He Said, She Said" is getting any kind of push, it hasn't really happened yet. Or maybe it did happen but no one felt it. (8) I can't figure out if Ashley is singing "We don't need no more than he said she said" or "We don't need no more that he said she said." Semantically it makes a difference, but not to me. (9) Her days are all about her hair, because straightening it takes a couple of hours and only then can they style it. (10) J.R. Rotem is not as good looking as Kara DioGuardi.

Re: Existential debate: "being vs. moving"

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

That anyone felt the original had to be censored in any way is quite alarming, actually. Where is this hyper-sexualised society supposedly being shoved down our throats?

Re: Existential debate: "being vs. moving"

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

This is the problem with niche marketing to tweens tho lex - sex absolutely ruled out here but then outside the corral it RUNS WILD.

Re: attn: jauntykat

[koganbot]

skyecaptain passes along this news, I'm not sure from where:

"Ashley Tisdale's music video for He Said, She Said has taken the top spot on MTV's TRL making her the first performer from High School Musical to reach that status."

So we'll see what push this gives her. Billboard is now counting online video plays as points in its singles formula, so if "He Said, She Said" gets a lot of plays on AOL and Yahoo this could, oh, I don't know, launch it into the 60s rather than the 70s? "Potential Breakup Song" is currently #5 on AOL and #8 on Launch Yahoo. TRL and online video sites may be the only line of crossover out of Disney to the broader market that Tisdale or A&A really have in the U.S.

Re: Existential debate: "being vs. moving"

[koganbot]

It's that they're kissing! And touching! At the same time! Children don't know about such things!