Pop Music Will Never Be Lowbrow

Selena Gomez Gets a Release Date!

2009-08-06T11:38:00.003-04:00

Disney cutie, Selena Gomez, just twittered that her debut album is going to be released on September 29th! Selena fans have been waiting for this for a long time now! Demi and Miley released their own solo albums pretty quickly, while Selena's been recording odd tracks here and there. For a moment I thought Selena would never get a deal (kinda like Brenda Song). But this is very good news, even better than it's being released so soon. Just think about it: September isn't that far away! You know, not like Christina Aguilera, whose album we probably won't see until sometime next year!

Madonna' "Celebration": Song of the Summer?

2009-08-05T13:11:00.006-04:00

From upcoming compilation album of the same name, "Celebration" is sure to make Confessions on a Dance Floor fans very happy. It has all the European dance appeal that was absent from the trendy, hip-hop-inspired Hard Candy.

Make sure to buy it on iTunes now so we can give Madonna the end-of-summer smash.

Jordin Sparks Radio Release Date

2009-08-05T09:16:00.008-04:00

Jordin Sparks' "S.O.S (Let the Music Play)" from her new album, Battlefield, goes for radio adds on September 1st...not like it matters. I don't see this song blowing up and I don't think anything will save Jordin from dropping off the Billboard 200 like a rock. When your album opens up with 48k, that means people don't care. There's no room for longevity here. Normally, I don't care for Jordin's brand of pop music, but I really enjoyed Battlefield. It's an album filled with well-crafted and respectable pop tunes, but she can't sell this without an actual fanbase.

Source: AllAccess.com

What's the state of the music industry?

2009-08-04T18:13:00.000-04:00

Anyone who pays attention to Nielsen SoundScan can see the pitiful state of record sales in 2009. In fact, most artists today are lucky if they'll see a Gold certification at the end of the day, and industry juggernauts who once sold several million copies in the U.S. alone are happy enough if they can hit Platinum in this era.

Single sales, on the other hand, are through the roof. Flo Rida, in only 11 weeks, sold 3 million digital copies of his hit single "Right Round", but his album only sold over 200k? Albums are nothing but filler nowadays. Why should people fork over the money for an entire album when all they want is the latest single? It may sound shoddy and superficial, but most people are simply casual music listeners, and music is so much more accessible in the internet age (legally and illegally). Digital single sales are way up and album sales are way down.

So how do we "save" the music industry? Well, quite frankly, I think record labels need to let go of this antiquated ideology of striking down music pirates in order to maintain physical sales, because even if you could do that, I can't imagine sales will increase much. More people are just interested in singles, not albums. Perhaps you should blame iTunes for that, since you can just purchase specific songs, rather than the whole album. My suggestion is that iTunes prevent buyers from being able to purchase select songs from an album. Make the entire album an "Album Only" purchase and section off any singles the label decides to release from an album on to its own page. But even by that logic, listeners can still buy only the latest single, and cutting them off from singles, forcing them to buy the album just promotes further piracy.

While I think labels would probably prefer my first suggestion, my real suggestion is to just let sales die. I don't think we'll ever see the kind of sales we had in the 90s, and I can only imagine that sales will fall further than what they are now. People like Madonna have got it down: record a new album as an excuse to go on tour. That's where all the revenue will be. Madonna knows that her albums are promotional vehicles for a new tour with new material for it. Have you noticed how she really doesn't promote her albums much lately? Madge records a new album, promotes it for a minute or two, then says "Hey, I'm going on tour and it will be the best tour ever!" That's all the Queen needs, because each new tour grosses more than the last, and she becomes even richer. Worrying about album promotion is wasting time and money.

Big labels may not like it, but the only realistic way to salvage album sales is to, like, destroy the internet...yeah, right...

Cici's 'Fantasy Ride' slays

2009-08-04T14:01:00.000-04:00

Despite the fact that "Go Girl" flopped so hard, Jive had to cover up their shame by labeling it a "promo single", Fantasy Ride is definitely Ciara's best work to-date. Nevermind that "Never Ever" was a poor second single choice and that Justin Timberlake couldn't keep this album above sea-level, Ciara's junior effort is truly a pop extravaganza. I'm entirely serious when I say that despite the fact Fantasy Ride won't even be certified plastic, it's probably one of the best albums of 2009.

All of the pushbacks really helped her craft something good. For a pop album, I think it's pretty well-rounded. "Ciara to the Stage" is a perfect opening track, a slow and sensual R&B jam that gets you in the mood for Justin Timberlake's electro-gem reject (graciously given to Princess Cici) "Love Sex Magic". Fantasy Ride continues to keep the listener interested with "High Price", the fierce anthem of grandeur with a sick bass line.

The album has a good supply of silky dance songs for the club like "Turntables", "Pucker Up", and "Work", and urban lovers are complimented with slow jams "Like a Surgeon", a bizarre sexual monologue over thick, luscious synths, and "Never Ever" as Ciara attempts to contemplate the complications of being in love. "G Is for Girl (A–Z)" should reap some star recognition for the level of arrogance buried within its thudding drum machines.

Fantasy Ride was the 13-track roller coaster of my life, and I managed to pick up the extra prizes. The best song ever, floptastic "Go Girl" (featuring T-Pain's intellectual raps) is offered to Japan as a bonus track, but it doesn't even compare to the hidden treasure "I'm On". Why Jive omitted this from the main list, I'll never know. The fact that low-expectational "Lover's Thing" made the album and not "I'm On" is disgusting.

It's a shame Fantasy Ride had to bomb as hard as it did. Pop lovers ignored her because they don't care, or was it because her label handled this project very poorly? Either way, it doesn't matter. While those other "pop stars" are out recording crap for a quick hit, Ciara smashes those haters with her Grade A material.

BoA Keeps Trying

2009-08-04T13:08:00.001-04:00

BoA is a pop "superstar" from South Korea who also maintains a career in Japan (she abandoned Korea once she released she could make more money in Japan). Her record label will be re-releasing her debut American flop album on September 1st.

BoA's American album is nothing more than a vanity project of her ~~slave driver~~ manager Lee Soo Man. The album initially came out in March, and the only people who bought it were fans she had prior to it. It hasn't made a dent anywhere in the U.S., regardless of what her stans might tell you.

So why should you care? You shouldn't unless you were a fan of her prior to her U.S. debut. I've got strong feelings that the motive behind this project stems from the fact that BoA's career is pretty much dead in both Korea and Japan. She's been inactive in Korea since 2005 and she's lost major steam in Japan. I like this girl, but trying to promote her as the "Best of Asia" is a joke. BoA will never establish a serious career in the U.S., especially when top tier mainstream singers can't even break 50k in our crappy market.

The problem with BoA is that she'll never distinguish herself from the plethora of pop singers trying to get into the market. She's generic. She's the literal definition of a soulless vessel, and she's essentially a carbon-copy of Britney Spears (except that Britney is 10 times better than her).

The problem with her label is that they're rookies to America. They don't have the knowledge or the tools that are necessary to make her big. They're wasting time and money that's better put in trying to rehabilitate her career in Asia. It doesn't make sense to push BoA into unfamiliar territory with sub-par English-language skills and a volatile market.