web analytics

Pop Rock Nation

Tag: Natasha Bedingfield

  • Chart Chat 7/20/08: ABBA/”Mamma Mia”, Natasha Bedingfield & More!!!

    The soundtrack to the motion picture \"Mamma Mia\".

    After taking a break to look at the mid-year charts, we’re back on our weekly grind. Here are this week’s Top 20 singles and albums, as compiled by the good folks at Billboard magazine.

      Top 20 Albums

    1) “Tha Carter III” -Li’l Wayne
    2) “Viva La Vida or Death & All His Friends” Coldplay
    3) “Camp Rock Soundtrack” Various Artists
    4) “Modern Guilt” Beck
    5) “Rock & Roll Jesus” Kid Rock
    6) “Now That’s What I Call Music Vol. 28” Various Artists
    7) “Mamma Mia Soundtrack” Various Artists
    8) “Good Girl Gone Bad” Rihanna
    9) “T.O.S. (Terminate on Sight)” G-Unit
    10) “Where the Light Is: John Mayer Live in Los Angeles” John Mayer
    11) “Here I Stand” Usher
    12) “One of the Boys” Katy Perry
    13) “Indestructible” Disturbed
    14) “Taylor Swift” Taylor Swift
    15) “Spirit” Leona Lewis
    16) “Last 2 Walk” Three Six Mafia
    17) “Definition of Real” Plies
    18) “Revelation” Journey
    19) “3 Doors Down” 3 Doors Down
    20) “Two Men with the Blues” Wynton Marsalis & Willie Nelson

      Top 20 Singles:

    1) “I Kissed a Girl” Katy Perry
    2) “Take a Bow” Rihanna
    3) “Lollipop” Li’l Wayne feat. Static Major
    4) “Bleeding Love” Leona Lewis
    5) “Forever” Chris Brown
    6) “Pocketful of Sunshine” Natasha Bedingfield
    7) “Viva La Vida” Coldplay
    8) “A Milli” Lil’ Wayne
    9) “7 Things” Miley Cyrus
    10) “Bust it Baby Pt. 2” Plies feat. Ne-Yo
    11) “Leavin’” Jesse McCartney
    12) “When I Grow Up” The Pussycat Dolls
    13) “Burnin’ Up” Jonas Brothers
    14) “Dangerous” Kardinal Offishal feat. Akon
    15) “Disturbia” Rihanna
    16) “Shake It” Metro Station
    17) “Closer” Ne-Yo
    18) “Get Like Me” David Banner feat. Chris Brown
    19) “Lolli Lolli (Pop That Body)” Three Six Mafia feat. Project Pat, Young D & Superpower
    20) “I Luv Your Girl” The-Dream

    *Geez, looking at hip-hop’s presence on this week’s singles chart almost makes me ashamed to be a fan of rap music!

    *Speaking of the Top 20 singles, it’s obvious from looking at it that there are very clear ways to get yourself a hit single in summer 2008:

    1) Be a hot chick (or a group of hot chicks, in the case of PCD).
    2) Be Chris Brown or Date Chris Brown (the Brown/Rihanna axis is responsible for 1/5 of this week’s Top 20 singles chart)
    3) Be a terrible rapper, be a mediocre rapper with a lot of hype and charisma (Lil’ Wayne) or be an articulate, political emcee and sell your ass for a hit single (David Banner)
    4) Be Ne-Yo (who has two entries as an artist and also co-wrote Rihanna’s “Take a Bow” at #2.
    5) Have a Disney channel tie-in (Miley Cyrus and The Jonas Brothers are joined by former teen titan Jesse McCartney).

    *Geez, that top 20 singles chart makes you appreciate Coldplay all the more, huh? Is this really what radio plays these days? (I’ll admit that I haven’t listened to a Top 40 radio station in literally five years if not more).

    *Wynton Marsalis scores his highest chart entry ever and Weeded Out Willie lands in the Top 20 for the first time since the Reagan administration. Let’s hear it for odd collaborations!!

    *Who green-lit a movie based on a Broadway play featuring the music of ABBA? Seriously??!?! And Meryl Fucking Streep is in this movie!! If we do a Duran Duran musical, do you think we can get Dame Judi Dench?

    *Hey, I don’t hate ABBA. After all, Swedes have a knack for great pop music. Plus, ABBA lend themselves well to covers, as this Erasure cover from my high school years will attest to.

    *Think Fiddy has trashed his record company’s offices yet? I wonder what publicity stunt he’ll plan for his *next* album?

    *Natasha Bedingfield has somehow finagled herself into a long-running Top 10 hit with “Pocketful of Sunshine” (a song I’m admittedly lukewarm about), and her album of the same name darts back into the Top 40 six months after it’s release, approaching Gold status. Hmm. Who’d have thunk?

    *Also on the “he’s hanging in there better than I thought he would”, Jason Mraz. His third effort, “We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things” has hung around the Top 30 for 9 weeks now and is on pace to outsell his previous effort, “Aren’t I Just A Little Full of Myself” “Mr. A-Z”. “I’m Yours” is a cool little summer song, too.

    *Finally, check out that Beck album. You won’t be disappointed.

  • Chart Chat 5/11/08: Usher, Colbie Caillat, Plies & More!!


    Happy once de Mayo, ladies and gentlemen!! Let’s travel into the land of the Top 20 singles and albums, courtesy of Billboard Magazine!!

    Top 20 Albums:

    1) “Hard Candy” Madonna
    2) “E=MC2” Mariah Carey
    3) “Spirit” Leona Lewis
    4) “Lyfe Change” Lyfe Jennings
    5) “Songs from the Sparkle Lounge” Def Leppard
    6) “Rising Down” The Roots
    7) “Third” Portishead
    8) “Mudcrutch” Mudcrutch
    9) “Now That’s What I Call Music Vol. 27” Various Artists
    10) “Greatest Hits-Limited Edition” Tim McGraw
    11) “Taylor Swift” Taylor Swift
    12) “Nine Lives” Steve Winwood
    13) “Juno Soundtrack” Various Artists
    14) “Alvin & The Chipmunks Soundtrack” Various Artists
    15) “This Kind of Love” Carly Simon
    16) “Sleep Through the Static” Jack Johnson
    17) “Flight of the Concords Soundtrack”Flight of the Concords
    18) “Troubadour” George Strait
    19) “Coco” Colbie Caillat
    20) “The Best of Both Worlds Concert” Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus

    Top 20 Singles:

    1) “Bleeding Love” Leona Lewis
    2) “Lollipop” Lil’ Wayne feat Static Major
    3) “No Air” Chris Brown & Jordin Sparks
    4) “Love in This Club” Usher feat. Young Jeezy
    5) “Sexy Can I” Ray J. & Yung Berg
    6) “4 Minutes” Madonna feat. Justin Timberlake
    7) “Touch My Body” Mariah Carey
    8) “Pocketful of Sunshine” Natasha Bedingfield
    9) “Love Song” Sara Bareilles
    10) “Leavin’” Jesse McCartney
    11) “Damaged” Danity Kane
    12) “Low” Flo-Rida feat. T-Pain
    13) “Say” John Mayer
    14) “See You Again” Miley Cyrus
    15) “Forever” Chris Brown
    16) “With You” Chris Brown
    17) “Stop & Stare” OneRepublic
    18) “Don’t Stop the Music” Rihanna
    19) “Bust it Baby” Plies feat. Ne-Yo
    20) “Realize” Colbie Caillat

    *Colbie Caillat might be the most befuddling music purchase I’ve made in the past year. I guess it was one of those “let me see what the fuss is all about” purchases, and the fact is, she’s the most boring, white bread girl with an acoustic guitar in the history of music. She makes Jack Johnson (who I love, by the way) sound like freakin’ Mastodon by comparison.

    *Hmmm…so I thought Plies was going to be a one-hit wonder. Thanks to Ne-Yo, “Bust it Baby” becomes his second hit. Too bad I can’t even remember what the first one was.

    *Record industry folks, take a look at this stat. Of this week,s Top 20 singles, only five are by artists who have been around for 10 years or more (Li’l Wayne, Usher, Mariah Carey, Madonna and Ray J.). It also might be worth noting that of those five, Wayne, Usher and Ray J, are all under 30. Now, check out the album chart, where of the 16 albums that are not soundtracks or compilations, 10 of the artists/bands have been around for 10 years or more (and yes, I’m counting Mudcrutch, Tom Petty’s latest side project). Of the 6 remaining artists, all except Miley Cyrus are considered more “adult”-type artists. That should provide the world’s simplest reasoning for the fact that kids are buying singles (possibly because they can’t *afford* albums…hello??) and adults are buying albums. Can it get any more simple?

    *Usher finds himself in the bizarre position of having the same song on the Top 100 twice…sort of. “Love in This Club Part II”, which features Beyonce, is hanging out at #51. I don’t think the Billboard folks have explained yet why the two songs aren’t combined on the chart, assuming “Part II” is just a remix of “Part I”. Even if the songs sound completely different…the two versions of J. Lo’s “I’m Real” were completely different and they charted together.

    *Is Lyfe Jennings, who debuts in the Top 5 for the second consecutive time, becoming the 21st century Gerald LeVert…a consistently-selling R&B crooner that mainstream radio and media COMPLETELY ignores?

    *On their Def Jam swan song, The Roots tie “Things Fall Apart” with the highest debut of their career, at #6 (granted, with about half the sales, but still…)

    *”Idol”‘s ratings might be declining, but it’s influence is still strong. A performance of “Pocketful of Sunshine” moves Natasha Bedingfield into the Top 10 for the second time (following the ridiculously overplayed “Unwritten”), and the album also takes a huge jump. Meanwhile, Neil Diamond, who mentored the contestants in the same episode, is poised to score his first #1 album EVER next week, with “Idol” runner-up Gay…uh, Clay Aiken trailing at #2. In non-“Idol” debuts, look for big singles chart splashes from Rihanna and Coldplay’s new songs.

    …why do I feel like i should now be saying “keep your feet on the ground, and keep reaching for the stars”? Damn you, Casey Kasem!!

  • Vital Idol: Paula Abdul Doesn’t Predict The Future Tonight

    Last night’s show was hard to watch. From Paula screwing up and analyzing a singing performance that hadn’t happened yet, to Simon being very grouchy, to the unorganized flow to the entire show, it was a hot mess. Neil Diamond didn’t really get a lot of air time and was low keyed because of the lack of time. The reason for the lack of time was because they decided to have each singer perform twice. Ryno Seacrest mentioned several times that they had to speed through things in order to get everyone done on the one hour show. No one wants to miss that 9 o’clock news.

    Paula’s Screw Up

    Brooke White and Jason Castro were again the worst of the bunch. But at least Brooke had great, shiny, silver pants. But they were also the worst of the bunch last week too. And neither of them went home. Syesha Mercado has been great these last few weeks, but she’s also been in the bottom more often than not. If she goes home tonight, it will be a second straight week where someone undeserving went home.

    On to the show …

    – Ryno just showed Idol alumni Gina Glocksen and Constantine in the audience. I think he buttoned up the very bottom button on his shirt. He was all chest hair tonight. Ryno also made him do the perv face.

    – Ryno just set the record straight on Paula. He said that she’s not addicted to Vicodin and she’s still a part of the family. Ok, he didn’t say anything about Vicodin.

    – Jason Castro is safe. Syesha just cringed.

    – The two Davids are predictably safe, and deservedly so, since they are the most consistent out of the entire group of contestants.

    – For some reason unknown to me, Natasha Bedingfield is singing Pocketful Of Sunshine. A little research showed me that it’s her new single. She then went over to hug David Archuleta who giggled like a little school girl, I mean, excited young man.

    – Neil Diamond looks pretty sharp in his leather jacket and black slacks. But not as “pretty amazing” as Brooke’s pants from last night.

    – In the bottom two are Brooke and Syesha and you can tell that Brooke expects to leave just by looking at her face. And she’s right. Big Rube is celebrating Brooke home tonight.

    – I’ll miss two things about Brooke. I will miss watching for how she wore her hair, either with the natural curls, or straight. And I will miss those great pants she wore last night. What I won’t miss is her fumbling the lyrics, as she did tonight on her go home song.

    What is the theme for next week? If it were up to me, it’d be New Kids On The Block night. David Cook would turn Step By Step into a grungy rock song.

    Seacrest Out!