Collabs (abbreviations are the only way that this post is going to be written with a trace of coherency before I collapse into my bed surrounded my holiday prep and Hardy) came into their own this year. We’ve had some inspired pairings and some purely marketed for number 1 status (I’m looking at 2/3 of yours, KP.) Let’s take a gander at some of the best:
So as you may have read, I was in New York last week, meaning I didn’t do any posting for the blog. Apologies, I’m sure you missed your dose of pop-vitamins. So now I’m up to date with all things American (snowstorms, Occupy Wallstreet and taxis) and ready for another week of high-brow musical analysis. It also means I wasn’t able to post my weekly Glist (here’s the first, and the second), but you can crawl out of your respective corners because there’s one heading at you right now. For my (slightly compressed) list of Glee’s top ten (we’ve come so far, you guys!) songs, read on!
It’s a fast, fast world out there. And by world I’m talking about the music video industry (it’s my world okay? It’s a happy place.) They’re released at ever-dizzying speeds and sometimes it’s hard to keep on top. We’re treated/subjected to Twitter pictures, news updates and coy spoilers. Those pop-stars eh? Such teases. ‘You will get excited by this,’ they tweet. ‘You will comment on our Youtube video’ they retweet. Have no fear though, I’ve trawled the internet for all the latest videos that are worth checking out. Because really, sometimes I need to take a break from stalking celebrities on Tumblr.
Welcome to my second column of 10TILAP (here’s last week’s) where I’ll be counting down what’s great, good and pretty gruesome in the world of popular music this week. This week we have: whinging from Matt Cardle! New Radiohead music! And a celebration of my supreme stalking abilities. As my latin teacher once said, ‘you’re only as good as your search engine terms.’ Hope you enjoy!
In the spirit of weekly traditions, I’m adding my own two cents to Can You Hear This with the weekly column, 10 Things I Love About Pop (wordplay, making lazy journalism acceptable forever). Here at 10TILAP, I’ll be running down what I’ve been loving, listening to and finding out about popular music this week. I listen to pop and I like it. I hope The Libertines don’t mind it.
Photos From Last Night: Beyoncé runs down a hill in a wedding dress… Katy Perry passes out.
A journalist once told me that the advent of blogging and the rise of amateur journalism led to a sloppy attitude to writing and a lack of thorough research. As a writer for Can You Hear This, I was reminded of these words earlier this week. On Thursday, there were misinformed articles about Katy Perry’s Last Friday Night and the singles record that she broke. She did indeed break a record of having the most Number 1s from a single album with Teenage Dream, singing her way past Lady Gaga and Justin Timberlake’s 4 Number 1s from The Fame and FutureSex/LoveSounds. A considerable achievement but not the one to which most headlines alleged. Despite what many articles claimed, she has not yet tied with Michael Jackson’s record of 5 Number 1s on the Hot 100, only the Top 40 which is compiled through radio plays. In fairness, most of the articles have been adjusted and footnoted appropriately. And earlier this year, Perry did surpass a significant milestone as she became the only artist to spend an entire year in the Hot 100 Top 10; an impressive feat for a singer who many thought would simply kiss a girl and then retreat to one-hit-wonderdom.
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Birthday Wishes: It’s been an action packed year for us and the music world.
As you will now know, Can You Hear This is now a year old; congratulations once more to Devan Carlton for winning our competition and choosing a great album as a prize. Nowadays a year in music is a long time, different reviews, news and music-related scandals becoming a daily occurrence thanks to the Internet. I’m not complaining because as a music blog we contribute to this, but sometimes it’s good to take a step back and look at the music and events that have really made a different to the industry, and more importantly to ourselves. It’s been a year of exciting collaborations with Jay-Z and Kanye exciting us with news of their own royal wedding. It’s been fantastic year once more for up and coming artists from Britain and internationally. We chose to vest our pop music interests in Jessie J, while more alternative acts (Two Door Cinema Club, The xx) have also flourished. Recently, we’ve been saddened by the loss of a fantastic female artist, Amy Winehouse whose loss will be felt for years to come. Having created such stirring singles such as Love Is A Losing Game, Back To Black and Rehab, that rare example of a candid, open pop song that achieves massive commercial success, Winehouse was truly inspiring. I hope her wonderful female presence continues to influence new artists and live on.
Upgrade U: Beyoncé's latest single, deemed an improvement over Girls.
Sometimes (very regularly), I make mistakes. In my Eff, Marry or Kill: Summer Music Edition post, I claimed we should kill Beyoncé’s Girls (That Run The World), calling it ‘overblown, overhyped and overly experimental.’ Yeesh, what was my problem? While it’s not a classic, I now appreciate what Beyoncé was trying to do and experimental is good in pop music! Take back everything I say Miss Knowles and please carry on*. I do however have a problem with songs that have brackets in them, they’re pointless (unnecessary, vacuous, meaningless). Before I move onto 4, I wanted to share my favourite Beyoncé single with you guys, please share yours in the comments! It’s from B’day and is the awesome Upgrade U, featuring Beyoncé at her best:
As you might have guessed, I’ve had a bit of a Beyoncé epiphany since my last post. I still maintain that B’day was her highlight, but I’m really looking forward to giving 4 a proper listen once I’m home in London. I find it far more enjoyable to listen to albums than singles and from the reviews, 4 seems intriguing. It’s easy to forget just how weird a singer Beyonce is, although Rolling Stone reminded me in their review. Sometimes, her crazy awesome voice makes you forget her little indiosyncracies that made her such a prominent member of Destiny’s Child (although we shouldn’t forget that Kelly Rowland’s latest single, Motivation sold far more records than Girls). From what I can tell from Best Thing I Never Had, Beyoncé seems to be more, well… Beyoncé (that’s its own adjective, right?). As many of the YouTube commenters note, this is a far stronger single. Far more commercial anyway. As far as break-up songs go, it’s nice. Okay, it isn’t Irreplaceable (a B’day alumnus), ‘sucks to be you right now’ doesn’t live up to ‘to the left, to the left.’ And I have a slight problem with:
You showed your ass and I saw the real you
But this is Beyoncé, and as a recent convert, I’ll take it. Once I buy the album, I’ll do a review for the blog (there’s little else to do on plane journeys afterall.) Here’s the video:
* I say this with the complete delusion that the awesome Beyoncé cares what I, or anyone thinks.
Michael Crewe
Elliot Taylor
Henry Ellenthorpe
Jonah McGowan
Kishen Vora
Can You Hear This 