A New Decade In Pop: Week #11

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Tinie Tempah still at #1, Goldfrapp fail to make the top 40.

[Poll #1538308]

Remember to go and vote for Slovenia in the Pop World Cup over on Freaky Trigger!

Comments

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

'On A Mission' is truly awesome - hi-nrg Pointer Sisters bosh that is about as far away from 'Sweet About Me' as it's possible to get:

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

^this

Who'd a thunk Gimli would make the single of the year so far?

Shame about "Rocket" flopping. The curse of the BBC Radio 2 Playlist strikes again. :(

[jauntyalan.livejournal.com]

er, wow. wasn't expecting that.

pretty awesome. even tho the vide implies the title is: i am a woman (and here are my boobs)

something flat about the main power chorus tho - maybe repeated 'proper' listens rather than on my work mac is called for.

[strange-powers.livejournal.com]

This is pretty brill, really. I'd quite like disco to come back, and this wouldn't be a bad way to usher in the revival.

[meserach.livejournal.com]

Hrm, I' heard this a month or so back and wasn't really convinced by it then; the few listenings I have had since then haven't really improved matters.

[koganbot]

Justin Bieber "Baby": Sweet-voiced young'un who doesn't push too hard - though maybe he should have pushed a tad harder to get this bit of Tricky-Terius landscaping to rise above pleasant. But pleasant it is. BORDERLINE TICK.

Gabriella Cilmi "On A Mission": I was surprisingly sweet on the sly bit of ball-bustin' Cilmi hit us with a couple of years ago. This time her quirky throat adds less than nothing to a vintage Hi-NRG shoulder shaker; fortunately, if you can make it through the verses, the chorus adds plenty to her, pulling her and us up over the mill-wheel and into the current. BORDERLINE TICK.

McLean "My Name": Another sweet-voiced anono man who falls into an AutoTune slot so predictable it overshadows the voice's better-than-average sweetness. NO TICK.

Steve Aoki ft. [[Zuper Blahq]] "I'm In The House": I'm never one to shun super obvious techno dance, but this is a total botch, klutziness upon clumsiness. What was will.i.am thinking? Or is this the fault of Aoki and his beats and shears? NO TICK.

[rechabite.livejournal.com]

Justin is a borderline no-tick for me; nice enough but studium through and through and the industry needs to stop the habit of cutting and pasting in off-the-rack rappers to bolster up mediocre songs (see the US mix of "Break My Heart" which clearly needed Luda to sell anything over there).

"On A Mission" is an unqualified no-tick; appallingly tacky rubbish which would have been laughed out of the charts even in miserable years like 1976 or 1985. Arguably worse than "Star Trekkin'." Is British pop capable of doing anything any more other than bad imitations of American music? And it really could be anybody doing this; at least with "Shit About Me" you knew who it was (a bad Winehouse impersonator).

Maybe Gabby Climatefreeze will go on to doing country music; I hear it's going to be quite big over here in the second half of 2010.

Or maybe Goth will make a comeback in 2011 and she can redo "On A Mission" as a Wayne Hussey tribute.

Oh, and Fischerspooner would quite like their bassline back.

McLean - call centre robot "pop"; were there any human beings involved in its making?

Steve Somebodyorother and Will.I.Am on an afternoon off - like so much in 2010 pop, it just doesn't click. Or swing, or anything useful.

Meanwhile, cynical necrophiliac marketing means Boyzone get to number one in the albums above the brilliant Plastic Beach. Imagine using a dead person to promote Mother's Day sales. Perhaps the rest of them should all jump off Beachy Head in time for next March and they might stay at number one/in the top ten for more than one week.

And in the States, "I'mma Bee" is the number one single, Sade is having her biggest album ever and Melanie Fiona and Robin Thicke top the R&B lists.

Who's not doing their job? Who's not promoting and playing this music on the radio?

Radio 1 - unlistenable if you're over fourteen; 6Music - unlistenable if you're under fifty.

The whole thing needs to be smashed down and rebuilt.

[rechabite.livejournal.com]

Just had the early midweeks come through; top two unchanged, "Telephone" up to 3, not an awful lot else happening. Highest new entry appears to be the abysmal "Hot" (no it isn't - more cheap Eurodance crap) by Inna at #11. Glee 2 predictably top of the albums, pushing Boyzone and Gorillaz down to second and third respectively.

Just as well that nobody except us gives a shit anymore about what's in the charts.

The Cruz mystery

[koganbot]

see the US mix of "Break My Heart" which clearly needed Luda to sell anything over there

I don't think so, actually, since "Break Your Heart" made it to number one in nine days, which is astonishingly fast for a debut single. Luda on his own has only had two number ones in his life, and the last was four years ago.

That said, I have no idea how "Break Your Heart" rose so quickly, given that it's Cruz's first U.S. single, its airplay is doing a normal rise (19th rhythmic, 26th top 40, 53 overall), it's not getting played on Radio Disney, and it has no tie-ins to anything else that I know of, though maybe there's one I don't know. The nearest equivalent, Jay Sean's "Down" ft. Lil Wayne, took four months to hit number one; Jason DeRulo's "Whatcha Say" took three; Iyaz's "Solo" peaked at number 2; and none of those guys' followups did as well.* So I'm baffled by the sudden success here of "Break Your Heart." It's a catchy song in a popular style, just like a lot of others.

*The most dominant recent debut single, Ke$ha's "TiK ToK," took three months from when it started getting airplay to when it reached number one, and she'd previously done vocals on a Flo Rida number one.

[koganbot]

Iyaz's "Solo" peaked at number 2

I meant "Replay." "Solo" hasn't done nearly as well.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Gabriella is Australian, I think.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

There is a proper filter-bosh remix that I just heard playing in the chip shop a few minutes ago - will try and dig that out.

[rechabite.livejournal.com]

The song was written, produced and recorded by British writers and producers in Britain and indeed I have since been reminded that the original proponent of the bassline was Joe Jackson ("Steppin' Out"). British pop music really has become the laughing stock of the world, much like Britain itself.

Interesting stats about Mr Cruz; the song has definitely been remixed and beefed up for the US market - none of that migraine-inducing midrange synthesised gloop which makes the current chart largely unlistenable.

Either that or Lucien Grainger's making himself known over there.

[rechabite.livejournal.com]

As for "Rocket" stalling at #47, see my radio comments above. Wonderful Misogynistic/Ageist BBC funded by the taxpayer.