oh dear...

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

...it transpires that Aly & AJ didn't just fail to make the top 10, they missed the top 20: 'Potential Breakup Song' languishes at No 22, and that's with physical releases. Sadfaces all round. What doomy conclusions can we draw from this? Personally, I think if that song can't be a big hit, nothing of its ilk can, and the UK can officially be declared a pop wilderness.

On the plus side, that nasty Sex Pistols reissue thing is nowhere to be seen.

Comments

[friend-of-tofu.livejournal.com]

"To have one over-hyped comeback may be regarded as a misfortune: to have two looks like carelessness."

[koganbot]

[I'll try again]

and the UK can officially be declared a pop wilderness

As can the USA, for the same reason. Except it's not so simple. The USA created Aly & A.J., after all; but my guess is that the U.K.'s general audience embraced them more than the U.S.'s did. A&A got up to #17 on the U.S. Hot 100, but that was owing to the built-in Disney audience. Hitting #22 in Britain without such an audience (at least not one of that size) may indicate a better quality of nonchildren in the U.K.

In any event, this is how we smart people will recognize one another, through our love of Aly & A.J. (and of Ashley Tisdale's "Not Like That").

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I think there's an inbuilt Disney audience here as well - I don't know what channels they use, and even the HSM PR was surprised at their existence, but they're out there. But it's not surprising there's been some non-Disney crossover - apart from the fact that it's a REALLY GOOD SONG, they've been getting quite a bit of positive press from what I can see. It's quite dispiriting - of course I can see how and in what ways Aly & AJ are considered to lack credibility (people can become very stupid with their assumptions when they see blonde American girls) but this never stopped us accepting Britney or Xtina or any of their ilk! Why, suddenly, is this sort of thing unacceptable?

[koganbot]

2001. Teenpop stopped crossing over, so you had to have already been established plus go through an image change like Britney and Justin or you had to be perceived as more serious like second-album Pink and first-album Avril. Hilary never hit big in the U.S.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I guess what I'm really wondering is why, but I kind of feel I've answered this question a few times in the past myself. Funny, I remember the years immediately after 01 as being quite the golden age for pop, because so many of the image changes were in the hip-hop/r&b direction - but in retrospect the price we paid is, well, this.

Speaking of "Oh Dear"

[koganbot]

Speaking of "oh dear," skyecaptain just sent me an email with "oh dear" on the subject line but the content of the message was that Ashlee's next album is to be called "Color Outside The Lines."

Oh dear.

(Perhaps the title indicates that Ornette Coleman will have a guest shot on the LP.)

Re: Speaking of "Oh Dear"

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

That's not such a bad title! I mean, it's not a GOOD title, but it's acceptable. I do await her work with Timbaland with trepidation though - I've never enjoyed Ashlee on a dance/hip-hop beat yet, really not convinced it suits her voice, and obv I have a love/hate thing going on with Tim these days.

What's more..

[thenipper.livejournal.com]

Roisin entered the chart at 28... two places below some Big Brother cover of "Barbie Girl"! I listened to the Top 40 for the first time in about 20 years to discover this dispiriting news.

Re: What's more..

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

That was actually slightly BETTER than I expected, sadly :(

I hope 'Cry Baby' or 'Movie Star' or 'You Know Me Better' is the next single, I like them all better than 'Let Me Know'.

Re: What's more..

[thenipper.livejournal.com]

I had to completely revise my P4k review based on this underperformance.

'CB' and 'MS' are my least favourite tracks on the album :/

Re: What's more..

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

#28 is pretty good considering!

if 'Let Me Know' was by Sophie Ellis Bextor it would've got a bit higher but still maybe not top 10 - there's something about it which doesn't quite gel for a real smash. I do like it tho.

Re: What's more..

[umlauts.livejournal.com]

"Primitive" is easily my favourite but obv it is not a single. I think "You Know Me Better" has to be next, if they do another one.

Re: What's more..

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

I listened to the Top 40 for the first time in about 20 years to discover this dispiriting news.

I listened to the Top 40 and failed to get any news at all, as they've scrapped the rundown before the #1 entirely! Fearne Cotton must die.

[bengraham.livejournal.com]

Perhaps a lack of publicity harmed the song's chances? Apart from one article in the Observer, I didn't see or hear any advertising for the single at all. Nor did I hear the song on radio more than a couple of times last week.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Yeah radio rejected it because people who work in radio are idiots, but apparently it was all over the music channels...

[hoshuteki.livejournal.com]

I also wonder, wrt physical copies available, whether there were issues with marketing at other levels? My personal experience (admittedly this holds absolutely no empirical value, but is merely an observation) was that when I went into HMV Oxford Circus last Monday afternoon, the copy of Aly & AJ's single I bought was one of the last 4 on the shelves. Perhaps they just hadn't restocked the shelves quickly enough, but there was certainly no lack of copies of other singles...

[hoshuteki.livejournal.com]

(PS I was a bit loose with words: I think I meant to say my observation only has empirical value, i.e. not any scientific or statistical basis.)

[bengraham.livejournal.com]

That's interesting, especially as I experienced the same thing today with the new Underworld album, which was released this morning. Only worse... I went into the big HMV at Bond Street to buy a copy and was told that they've had a problem with their suppliers and none came in. Shocking to think that a CD by an act as well known as Underworld would be unavailable in one of London's largest branches of HMV on the day of release.

Is this possibly related to the postal strike? I wouldn't have thought HMV receive their stock by post, but stranger things have happened!

[andthatisthat.livejournal.com]

I was going to ask about radio airplay (before bengraham beat me to it) - I don't listen to the radio much, but I didn't hear it getting played at all. Perhaps I'm wrong, but it seems like Radio 1 has such a chokehold on what's successful in the singles Top 40 and what isn't - if Radio 1 won't playlist you, it seems like you can kiss your chances of a hit single goodbye (unless in extreme cases, like when they failed to playlist 'Since U Been Gone' and it went Top 10). And given that Radio 1's playlist seems to favour the same old artists time and time again, just updating it every time they bring a new single out, I can't see this changing in a hurry.

I'm disappointed with '#22 if that ends up being the peak position for 'Potential Breakup Song', but it's better than I expected, to be honest. Part of me didn't expect the song to make the Top 40 at all.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I think the problem is that commercial radio will very rarely playlist you unless you've got a big hit (or unless yr last single was a big hit) - so the problem isn't that Radio 1 favours old artists, it's that R1 is the gatekeeper for new acts.

So for instance on the current playlist - http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/playlist/ - you have Kate Nash, 30 Seconds To Mars, Scouting For Girls on the A List who were all broken this year by R1, and then other new acts on the B and C lists.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Somewhere out there is a person or persons who took the executive decision that Kate Nash, Scouting For Girls and...whoever the 30 Seconds people are, were worth breaking, and Aly & AJ weren't. Let's hunt them down and kill them.

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

killing is no good. they must suffer in this world as we do.

attn: byebyepride

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

(right at the bottom of the R1 sub-C-list list)

T2 & Jodie - 'Heartbreak' - available 19/11 (altho' isn't the title 'Heartbroken'?)

Re: attn: byebyepride

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

'Heartbroken' is seriously going to be MASSIVE, you hear it everywhere now...my grime crew really picked up on bassline (or niche or 4/4 or whatever) this year.

For all that R1 can be really crap I am pleased that they're playlisting minimal techno and bassline house...feels weird in a good way that 'Heater' and 'Heartbroken' are imminently big hits.

Re: attn: byebyepride

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

srsly dude even better than 'Heartbroken' is the track that knocked it off the 1xtra #1 slot after 17 weeks - X5 Dubs 'Nicole's Groove'!

Re: attn: byebyepride

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

do u have an mp3 of that

Re: attn: byebyepride

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

not yet! but i heard some good stuff on Mistajam's 1xtra show tonight this evening too but they haven't updated the tracklist on the website yet. something ft. yung joc stood out.

Re: attn: byebyepride

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

i'll swap u with h20/platnum's 'what's it gonna be' that is heavy as well!

[andthatisthat.livejournal.com]

Yes, I think that's much fairer. Although I would still argue that Radio 1 is unlikely to give the keys to acts who don't fit in with the sort of music that Radio 1 is already playing, and therefore the new acts that get through are the ones that sound sufficiently like the acts that have already broken.

[lockedintheatti.livejournal.com]

There was an interesting article in the Guardian by Mr Popjustice arguing that in the current climate the only way to really break pop acts is to repackage them and remarket them as Dance acts (or something that is Not Pop) - which explained the success of Robyn & Booty Luv.