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Pop Rock Nation

Tag: Britney Spears

  • Chart Chat 2/1/09: Taylor Swift, Kelly Clarkson, Mariah & More!!

    kellyIt’s been a while since we’ve done one of these: enough for the usually slow-moving charts to change appreciably, thank goodness. Anyway, here’s the latest action on the singles and albums chart, with the charts (as usual) used courtesy of the good folks at Billboard magazine.

    Top 20 Albums:
    1) “Fearless” Taylor Swift
    2) “I Am…Sasha Fierce” Beyonce
    3) “Dark Horse” Nickelback
    4) “808s & Heartbreak” Kanye West
    5) “Twilight Soundtrack” Various Artists
    6) “A Different Me” Keyshia Cole
    7) “Circus” Britney Spears
    8) “Intuition” Jamie Foxx
    9) “Notorious Soundtrack” Various Artists
    10) “The Ballads” Mariah Carey
    11) “Now That’s What I Call Music 29” Various Artists
    12) “Noble Beast” Andrew Bird
    13) “Merriweather Post Pavillion” Animal Collective
    14) “David Cook” David Cook
    15) “Funhouse” P!nk
    16) “Blood Bank (EP)” Bon Iver
    17) “Freedom” Akon
    18) “Paper Trail” T.I.
    19) “Slumdog Millionaire Soundtrack” Various Artists
    20) “The Fame” Lady GaGa

    Top 20 Singles

    1) “My Life Would Suck Without You” Kelly Clarkson
    2) “Just Dance” Lady GaGa feat. Colby O’ Donis
    3) “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)” Beyonce
    4) “Heartless” Kanye West
    5) “Love Story” Taylor Swift
    6) “Gives You Hell” The All-American Rejects
    7) “Live Your Life” T.I. feat. Rihanna
    8) “You Found Me” The Fray
    9) “Circus” Britney Spears
    10) “I’m Yours” Jason Mraz
    11) “I Hate This Part” The Pussycat Dolls
    12) “Let it Rock” Kevin Rudolf feat. Lil Wayne
    13) “Hot ‘n Cold” Katy Perry
    14) “Dead & Gone” T.I. feat. Justin Timberlake
    15) “Womanizer” Britney Spears
    16) “Sober” P!nk
    17) “Untouched” The Veronicas
    18) “Whatever You Like” T.I.
    19) “Mad” Ne-Yo
    20) “Gotta Be Somebody” Nickelback

    *First thing I notice is that the amount of artists who repeat themselves on the singles chart has decreased significantly. Only T.I. (three songs) and Britney Spears (two songs) have more than one song in the Top 20.

    *Taylor Swift spends a seventh consecutive week at the summit of the Albums chart, the longest run in quite a few years (I think the last album to spend that much time at the top was Usher’s “Confessions”). Springsteen’s debut next week will end that run, but either way that’s Pretty impressive.

    *Check out Andrew Bird, Animal Collective and Bon Iver in the Top 20…making a great showing for indie music and artists.

    *Kelly Clarkson zooms to the top with “My Life Would Suck Without You”. Jumping from 97-1, it’s the largest move to the top in history. It’s also Kelly’s first #1 single since her debut, “A Moment Like This”. It also means Clive Davis is in an office somewhere, smiling smugly.

    *Who are The Veronicas?

    *Well, I was right in assuming that they were an all-female band. Let’s hear it for educated guesses. They’re not very good, though.

    *Mariah makes an impressive showing at #10 with a collection of older ballads. Only one track on this compilation dates from this decade, proving in the light of the blah chart showing of “E=MC2” that folks still love Mariah, they just love her more when she’s making good music.

    *Err…I got nothing left. Enjoy the charts,the videos,and the Super Bowl! No titties this year!!

  • Not Necessarily The News – 50 Cent, Britney, John Legend, And Of Course, Kanye

    More crazy music/gossip news.

    50 Cent Says He’s All Over Eminem’s New Album
    That’s reason number 25 why Eminem’s album is probably going to be a disappointment. Won’t we hear enough of 50 on his own album? And on Dre’s album?

    From MTV.com:
    50 said he’s planning to be “all over” Relapse. “You don’t think I’ll take advantage of that opportunity for everybody to look at me and listen to me?” he asked. “Yes, I will.”

    I might have to take the zero on that one.

    Kanye Is Sensitive
    Kanye says that it hurts him when 50 Cent talks mess about him. According to Mr. West, 50 Cent became his favorite rapper when Mase left. While Kanye has bad tastes in favorite rappers, he just needs to see 50 for what he is and that’s a hype machine. Don’t be sensitive Kanye. Dude is just trying to sell records.

    Is Britney 2 Live For Radio?
    Britney’s latest single, If U Seek Amy might have to be edited in order to make it to radio. Let’s say they change it to If U See Amy. Is it really more nonsensical than the song is originally? It doesn’t make sense at all as it is. The song did the job they wanted it to do. It gained more press for the album. Well done, even if the song is terrible.

    I’ll end this with John Legend’s latest video for Everybody Knows. I wish you the best, I guess.

  • Britney Spears’ Circus – A Different Point Of View

    Our own Paul Lorentz wrote a fantastic review of Britney Spears’ new album, Circus. He loved the album. Here’s a different perspective.

    While Britney Spears and her people would like you to believe that Circus is her comeback album, they can’t fool anyone who has heard, or bought Blackout, which was released last year. Blackout was an attempt to get Britney back on the music scene despite her already existing place on the pages of Perez Hilton and other gossip sites because of her out of control behavior. Britney herself didn’t even really promote it, and while it wasn’t a good album, there were good things about it. With a bit of promotion it probably would’ve sold much better than it did.

    Is Circus better than Blackout?
    I’d say yes, but barely. They had a money in the bank single sitting in their hands, but it was never released to my knowledge. Break The Ice was a supreme banger and had it been released to the clubs, I’m sure it would’ve been a huge hit. There’s no song that matches it on Circus, but the album as a whole is probably just a tad bit more consistent.

    But what stands out as the difference between the two albums is Britney herself. On Blackout, she sounded like a robot. She was Robo-Britney. Her singing, while never her strong point, was flavorless and emotionless. She sounded sedated. But on Circus, you can hear the energy back in her voice. If anything, she sounds like someone who is at least faking some happiness.

    About the music …
    At this point, I think Britney’s music is going to sound similar in sound and feel no matter who produces it. The hottest producers will try to catch her ear with thumping production and thus, nothing really stands out. For some reason, Womanizer is being lauded as a great comeback single, even though they were saying the same thing about Gimme More last year. (I think I’d take Gimme More by a nose.) I think the press is buying into this comeback business just as much as the fans. Circus is actually the much better single because your ears aren’t ringing after listening, but also because it shows a little bit of the sexiness and teasing that her music is famous for, rather than the straight up bedroom talk that she’s been moving towards of late.

    The mysterious Unusual You is sensual and yet at the same time, a little disturbing. This could either simply be the world of Britney Spears, or the writers thought it’d be an interesting take on her love life, but the song is about Britney expecting to get her heart broken, but doesn’t and this is unusual. It’s as if she’s simply unable to be loved. But it’s also the biggest surprise on the album. There’s a certain quality in both the production (Bloodshy & Avant) and in her singing that stands out and is missing from most of the rest of the tracks. If U Seek Amy is built as a “guilty pleasure” track, except, after first listen, I figured out the gimmick and the pleasure was gone for me. If you say the phrase “if you seek Amy” and think of letters that would stand for the words, you’ll understand the gimmick to the entire song. Now, I’m not sure how many records Britney sells to young girls anymore, but if mothers and fathers bought their young daughters this album without first listening to it, they’re in for a surprise. And it’s a really unnecessary track.

    Mmm Papi is hilariously bad, but at least you can tell she’s having fun with the track. And it’s the one song that she actually receives a writing credit. I wonder if she wrote the squeals in herself or if they were improvised. Out From Under is a very straight laced Britney ballad. You get the feeling that she’s probably done this song at least five other times over the span of her career. Mannequin is one of the few throwaway tracks. There’s nothing original about it at all.

    Look but don’t touch, unless you want to lose your innocence …
    That line is from Lace And Leather and I’m probably nit picking the heck out of her at this point, but that line is from a 27 year old woman singing to who you’d imagine to be 27 year old men. I think that if Britney wants to achieve an adult career, her direction needs to go away from trying to pretend that she’s still 18 years old. While the young teenage girl really carried her career early on, her image also catered to this older guy demographic who saw a young sexpot. I guess you should try and cater to any and all demographics when you’re trying to be the biggest star in the world, but it always bothered me that she was so young and yet was pushed with this beyond sexy image. Nowadays, she’s old enough to push whatever image she wants, but let’s stop trying to pretend that she’s still a teenager.

    And the extras …
    Depending on which version of the album you have, you may or may not have the bonus tracks. If you have Blackout, you already have Radar so I’m not sure why it’s included again as an extra track on the new album. Phonography is another song that tries to play on words. She says that she’s into “phonography”, but it really sounds like she says she’s into “pornography”. So really, it’s a song about phone sex without really saying phone sex. At this point, Brit having phone sex with someone is probably much better than her doing the real thing. I just thought the lyrics were silly. Rock Me In is nothing special, but Amnesia has a Cyndi Lauper she-bop kind of feel to it that makes it a fun record.

    Don’t believe the hype. If you’re a Britney fan and you want to hear her happy again, this is right up your alley. But don’t be persuaded by those who think this is an enormous leap over her previous record. The music is almost exactly the same. She just sings it in a little more of a happy voice.

    Photo of Britney Spears by jonathanhstrauss and shared via creative commons.