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

[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.