web analytics

Pop Rock Nation

Tag: Britney Spears

  • MHW News Update: Kanye Contradicts Himself (Again), Drama Atop the Billboard Charts, and Britney’s Mom Sells Her Kid Out

    Kanye West. Photo by Tyler Collins.
    Kanye West. Photo by Tyler Collins.

    Dear Kanye: Didn’t You Say???…

    Guess who’ll be closing this year’s MTV Video Music Awards? If you guessed Kanye West, you are absolutely correct. One year after West vowed never to perform on or for the video network again, he will happily eat his words and prance across the stage when the show airs on Sunday night. While I’m certainly not shocked by Kanye seemingly putting his foot in his mouth, and might watch the show specifically for his performance (and the rumors of Michael and Janet Jackson appearing together on the broadcast), you have to figure that one day ‘Ye will learn to keep his trap shut just a little bit, eh?? (MTV.com)

    (more…)

  • Is Entertainment Weekly’s List of the 100 Greatest Albums of the Past 25 Years a Purple Mess?

    I actually meant to discuss this a couple weeks ago when it was actually current news, but hey, better late than never.

    I’m a list guy. I can spend hours, days on end attempting to make sense of lists of the best sitcoms of all time, or whether “Off the Wall” or “Thriller” is the Purple Rain Cover better Michael Jackson album (“Off the Wall” is), or…well, you get the picture. Anyway, the folks at “Entertainment Weekly” published their 1,000th issue a couple weeks ago (congratulations to them), and they posted lists of the 100 greatest TV shows, movies, books and records of the past 25 years. While the TV and movie lists were interesting (book lists don’t move me), I was most intrigued by their list of the Top 100 albums. Sitting pretty at the top of the list was…”To the Extreme” by Vanilla Ice.

    Obviously, I’m kidding. The album they picked for the #1 spot was Prince’s “Purple Rain”, which struck me as sort of a strange choice. I mean, it’s logical. Hell, it’s an incredible fucking album. It’s just not a standard or expected choice. I would have expected “OK Computer” or “Nevermind” (both of which would have been as deserving…”Nevermind” didn’t even make the list), or, if the EW folks wanted to be edgy, Winehouse’s “Back To Black” or any of the three qualifying Kanye West albums. But “Purple Rain” just seems like sort of a left-field choice, or as left-field as any album as huge as “Purple Rain” was can be, considering the damn thing spent damn near six months at #1 on the charts.

    (more…)

  • Rediscovering Robyn

    Has an artist that you liked ever fallen off the face of the Earth? I’m not talking literally, of course. I’m talking unexplained absences. It’s even more confusing when the artist actually has a hit and then disappears. I mean, I can understand if it’s a situation where you’re the only fan of a particular singer, but why would an artist who sells a shit-ton of records just vanish into thin air?
    Case in point: Robyn. Just before BSB and Britney hit the scene, Robyn scored big with a refreshingly poppy sound, honed by Swedish writers and producers like Max Martin. Robyn also had the benefit of actually being Swedish, so she was getting some of that homegrown. She also had a voice heavily influenced by soul singers (I seem to remember her touting Faith Evans as an influence), so she got love from the R&B crowd as well. Released in the summer of 1997, Robyn’s debut album, “Robyn Is Here”, sold a million copies and spun off three Top 40 pop hits, with the biggest one being “Show Me Love”…
    …which bears more than a passing resemblance to a certain song called “…Baby One More Time” (http://youtube.com/watch?v=_bsniYwSaWg) . The way I see it (and to protect the innocent, I’ll say that this isn’t necessarily the truth), the suits up at Britney & Robyn’s respective labels (who share a distribution company) figured why deal with Robyn when they could find a more pliable, American, and traditionally “sexy” star to promote? After only one album (and a successful one at that…I’m still scratching my head…), Robyn was doomed to a footnote in American pop music culture.
    BUT WAIT…Robyn didn’t exactly fall off the face of the Earth, she just fell off the face of America. The talented Swede has released several more albums in Europe, and they have been commercially and critically well-received. Sensing the time might be right for a comeback (after ELEVEN years), Interscope Records has signed Robyn and released “The Rakamonie EP” in the States in late January. This 5-song collection proves that Robyn has moved far beyond boilerplate Swedish dance/pop, featuring everything from songs that position her as a Missy Elliott/M.I.A hybrid to heartbreaking piano ballads to an uproarious cover of Prince’s “Jack U Off”. In a world where Gwen Stefani, Fergie and Nelly Furtado are among the top pop stars alone (and fading ones like Britney and Janet Jackson are desperately adapting their styles to fit in with the aforementioned three), Robyn provides a sound that doesn’t sound out of place among any of those artists while still managing to forge her own little unique lane.
    So, head to your local record store (or go online) and check out “The Rakamonie EP”. It only cost me 6 bucks and was well worth the money spent.
    For those of you who want another taste, check these clips out: