2011 In Pop: FEBRUARY

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Cor, plenty of chart action this February! Get stuck into this month's tick fest underneath the cut...

[Poll #1711338]

*The Official Charts Company SCORN her dollar sign!
**Charming.
***Sauce!
****POLITICS, y'know.

January's poll saw plenty of love for Adele and Martin Solveig, whereas it seems the Glee Cast have become totally Toxic, o-ho. It also seems that the Diddy Dirty Money album comes highly recommended by you lot - I can now add my voice to the throng despite not least because of the large amounts of ride cymbal on Last Train To Paris remind me of the first DJ Shadow album! Blimey!

Comments

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

My ticks, most of them 6/10:

Chase & Status: lovely noises and a good vocal but TOO SLOW too be awesome
Gaga: lovely noises and a good vocal but TOO MESSY too be awesome
Yasmin: lovely noises and a good vocal but TOO BORING too be awesome
Lethal B: lovely noises and a good vocal but TOO 2004 too be awesome
Modestep: have only listened to this once but it was alright
Nicki Minaj: minus several points for Drake, not enough jokes, otherwise great
Bieber & Willow Smith The Boy Version: this is actually very charming!
Tinie & Ellie: awesome, for reasons outlined in the box above

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

Oh god I for totes lied in the poll (sry Kylie but you are not new) as the best NEW NEW thing I heard was Prelude To A Telltale Heart, the Dawn Richard mixtape, which is just IMMENSE.

Also whilst lying awake in the early hours of this morning I heard the new-new N-Dubz (ie: post-this Loick Essien one) and it was electro BEAUTY. No, I really wasn't expecting to like them this much, either.

Alexis Jordan

[meserach.livejournal.com]

I need to talk to someone about this one!



I love 2/3rds of it! Verses: "you wanna have some cake", v.good. Pre-chorus "HEEEEEEEAAAAAARTBREAKER", v.good.

However I have RESERVATIONS! about the chorus, specifically its particular place on the whole good girl/bad girl thing which is pop's usual transliteration of the virgin/whore dichotomy.

i know i can be a good girl/but I've been bad before

See when RiRi was a Good Girl Gone Bad she managed to make that seem empowering, like by going "bad" she was stepping outside of societal expectation and becoming more her own person? (It also helps she was becoming like 2x better musically at the same time.)

But what then are we to make of an aspiring Good Girl who has been "bad before"? Is this a way of having one's cake and eating it too, a Good Girl who flirts with being bad but never really commits to it and so is still safe to take home to your mother? Is she really looking at being "bad" as well, a bad thing, and that now she is on the path to REDEMPTION?

I am super conflicted about this?

(For reference:
RiRi: Good Girl Gone Bad
Britney: Good Girl Gone Bad, Then Mad
Katy Perry: Good Girl Gone Bad, But Not Like, Really, Just Trying It On, You Know?
Ke$ha: Bad Girl Gone Out)

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Pls defend your Enrique tick!

[meserach.livejournal.com]

Enrique is AMAZING! Whenever I think about it I laugh and laugh and laugh.

It is best heard along with the video, which is poised so precisely on a line between astonishing hubris and self-parody that you keep expecting Enrique to wink at the screen or something.

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

IT IS AMAZING.

No, I thought it was a bit tinny and rub when I first heard it but it's incredibly catchy and I've found myself wandering around singing it quite a lot. Also, Enrique takes a childish joy in swearing that I immensely approve of, especially combined with his usual heartfelt style.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

I think my problem might be that I've only heard the radio edit, "Tonight I'm LOVING You" which is UBER TOOTHLESS :( :(

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

(I am also sad that I have deleted my Enrique Being Emo icon)

Re: Alexis Jordan

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

If only we had some sort of GRAPH representing various popstars' transitions between GOOD and BAD?

[meserach.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the swears make it.

It is simply wonderful how it explodes the whole "latin lover" Enrique-mystique that he has traded in so heavily his whole career and brings it straight down to earth with a bathetic bump.

Re: Alexis Jordan

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

Yes, not "OMG amazing" but definitely "tick VG". I can't say I've studied (or indeed listened to) the lyrics at all but the music is great in a why-don't-they-make-pop-like-this-anymore way.

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, there's no point in that. It is, as no one has said outside of a Belgian prawn studio, all about the fvcking.

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

Bieber & etc: this is actually very charming!

Yes! The first Bieber record to actually appeal, as opposed to generate a "well, I don't hate it exactly, but...". A lot of this may well be down to Jaden though.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Yes! Jaden is basically going 'my arms are shorter than the school bully's but the school bully is not on a record with Justin Bieber is he, so NER' = ♥

Re: Alexis Jordan

[pippaalice.livejournal.com]

I like the cake bit but the whole 'hey don't you like my lean body' bit is mental. it makes her sound like a side of beef. maybe she's being satirical?

[pippaalice.livejournal.com]

kidz is actually pretty damn good as well isn't it?

Re: Alexis Jordan

[pippaalice.livejournal.com]

also I super hate her voice which I think is problematic in liking her.

[meserach.livejournal.com]

I ticked this on the basis of the Brits which is the only time I have heard it and I remembered positive things from that, so.... yes, I hope so?

[credoimprobus]

Thanks for alerting me to the existence of that Dawn R. mixtape! It is, indeed, excellent.

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

Tiesto vs Diplo/Busta Rhymes - C'mon (Catch Em By Surprise) 0 (0.0%)

This week's highest climber. Gonna be massive said Pete Tong on the Chart Show yesterday. I can't remember a note of it this morning, mind - which probably explains the 0.