1 Thing I Love About Pop

This is a rather sad column today. Firstly, I have flu so looking at this laptop screen is about the 177th I would like to be doing right now. Secondly, the great blues singer Etta James passed away yesterday. She died from complications from leukemia at the age of 73. There aren’t many ways to say ‘I’m really upset about this,’ and sometimes simplicity is key. Thus: I’m really upset about this. James was a singer whose voice was at once instantly recognisable and identifiable as well as completely unique. It’s funny (if I can use that word) that two major pop songs right now (Avicii’s Levels and Flo Rida’s Good Feeling) both sample James’s ‘Something’s Got a Hold on Me’. If that introduces a whole new generation to James’ magic, then the world’s all the best for it. More gushing after the jump:

The Year In: Chart Toppers

Topping the charts, winning our hearts: Nicki, Adam, Adele and Cee Lo.

Ah, pop music. I hope 2011 was as good for you as it was for me. We’ve had hits from Rihanna (somehow managing to string singles from Loud while releasing new material from Talk That Talk), a few hits from KP and one massive Party Rock Anthem from LMFAO. As per, DJ Earworm has releaseed his end-of-year remix, featuring some of the year’s 25 biggest tracks. It may be a fairly cheap way to garner attention by joyriding on others’ commercial success but it’s a helpful way to view the year that was. We’ve decided to highlight some of our favourites from the remix:

First things first, the remix:

Cold Shoulder – Adele

I hate to rain on Adele’s parade but I really do prefer her first album. I’ve said this before but there’s a raw quality that is missing from the finesse of 21. That’s not a negative remark on her sophomore effort- it’s just what floats my particular boat. It’s nowhere more evident than it is here on Cold Shoulder. So Bluesy:

There’s a live rendition after the jump (normally Adele’s live performances are worth jumping for):

10 Things I Love About Pop: Week 8

Pink Ladies: GaGa, Nicki and KP.

Don’t hate me because this is a short post, let your eyes thank me for all the reading I saved them! Brevity is all:

Ten Things I Love About Pop: Week 5

Pop Pantheism: The chart-toppers getting through the week, this week.

The thing about being obsessed with something more than the average observer, pop music being as good an example as any, is that when something major happens, you have fewer people to talk about with. If I had wanted to talk about Italian politics or American presidential debates this week, I would have been fine. But I didn’t. I wanted to talk about seismic shifts within the pop music industry. It just seems that that’s not something anyone around me wants to take seriously yet. And so 10 Things I Love About Pop could probably have been renamed 10 Things I Wanted To Discuss All Week And Will Rant To You About. Don’t you feel like the luckiest people in the world?

Eff, Marry or Kill: Summer Music Edition

Eff, Marry, Kill: the rules are pretty simple. Out of three options which would you eff, marry or kill. Pretty playground huh?  Perhaps but indulge me, I’m a school kid and this has a point. In honour of Nymag’s rather excellent Eff, Marry or Kill: Summer Movie Edition, I thought I’d do one especially for the tracks we’re likely to be hearing this summer. In what other format could you legally kill Bruno Mars?

Crazy In The Deep – Divide & Kreate

Rolling In The Deep by Adele has taken the UK by storm. One of England’s most exciting homegrown talents, the single was released on the 29th of November last year, and has gone on to be critically acclaimed by almost everyone who is lucky enough to listen to it. Personally, I love Adele because she can actually sing. There’s really no debating the fact that she has a mesmerising voice, and it’s great to see someone with huge natural talent being justly rewarded. To those of you who aren’t so keen on mash-ups, I’m sorry. I know that we seem to have gone a little bit mash-up mad at the moment, but I just had to post this.

We all remember Crazy by Gnarls Barclay. For a while that was the song. We heard it everywhere. Well, just sit back and gawk at how well Divide & Kreate have done to pick these two out and put them over each other. Pretty awesome huh? Drop us an email if you want the mp3, and we’ll try and sort you out. Also, if you haven’t heard the original Rolling In The Deep yet, here’s an awesome live performance by Adele:

The State of the UK Top 40

The Top 40 represents everything that is wrong with our commercially driven music industry. Fact. It’s full of Simon Cowell-influenced clones that don’t have a modicum of integrity between them. Fact. There’s no creativity, just monotonous pop. Well, is this true? I thought it might be interesting to examine the Top 40 in more detail and come to a conclusion on whether we can gain some inspiration from the most popular tracks in the country.