This Must Be Pop

Signs of the apopcalypse

2012-01-24T11:00:00.000Z

The new Pitbull song sounds like E-Type.
Sia is the new Wynter Gordon.
A girlband won The X Factor.
The new indie heroine is releasing music written by David Sneddon.
Flava and Strider from Blazin' Squad are the new hot producers.

Things are getting weird around here... and I like it!

This Must Be Pop brings you Future Pop! (Issue #14)‏

2012-01-23T18:32:00.000Z

Future Pop is a weekly email featuring the hottest new pop songs and artists that you need to know about. Sign up here then read on, listen up and make sure you tweet me @poptastic to let me know what you think of my picks!

This Must Be Pop Live!

Thanks to everyone who came along to This Must Be Pop Live on Tuesday! It was a great turnout and the performers, Oh My!, Luminites and Katie Sky, put on a very poptastic show. Read all about it here and check out some photos from the night.

Future Stars

Youngman (Digital Soundboy/Polydor)

If Katy B is to dubstep what Ms Dynamite was to UK garage, who will be the Craig David? I think Youngman (aka Simon Smith), a singer/rapper from Derby, is a big contender. Who Knows? is his first single to be released through Polydor and Shy FX's label Digital Soundboy, and it's already on the Radio 1 B List. It's a bit repetitive but if he can follow it with a really strong, mainstream track then he could become a big star. He's a likeable, charismatic guy, a good live singer and he's got some of the biggest names in that area of music on his new album (Benga, Skream, Breakage and even UK garage producer MJ Cole) so if the dubstep trend does continue in 2012, Youngman could be one of the artists keeping it in the charts.

Simian Ghost (Playground Music)

If there are enough people who buy music simply on the basis of its loveliness, then Simian Ghost (originally just Sebastian Arnström, now a trio with two of his friends) should do quite well. Songs like Bicycle Theme and Wolf Girl are captivatingly sweet and uplifting, with the latter being my definite favourite and the current single. Plus they're Swedish, which always helps. Sebastian released an album, Infinite Traffic Everywhere, in 2010 and when Simian Ghost became a group, an EP called Lovelorn followed. The second album Youth is due on March 5th and there are UK gigs at Ja Ja Ja and White Heat coming soon. See you there!

OMG Girls (Grand Hustle/Atlantic)

This teenage girlgroup are already hip hop royalty, as one of them is T.I.'s daughter, and Lil Wayne's daughter was one of the original members. The other girls must really be hoping Willow Smith never wants to join a girlband! They released a track called Pretty Girl Bag in 2010 which racked up over 2 million YouTube views, but didn't enter the Billboard charts. Their new song Gucci This Gucci That (is there a Gucci kids department?) is playlisted on Radio Disney and the video is expected to go online very soon. It's cute, catchy and super-sassy, not as forward-thinking as Whip My Hair but the concept of the group is so fun I really hope they break through. With some help from their big name connections I'm sure they can.

Future Hits

This week's playlist features the songs I think will be the big dance hits of this spring:

Click here to watch

Tracklisting:

Madonna - Give Me All Your Love
Bob Sinclar ft. Pitbull - Rock the Boat
Flo Rida ft. Sia - Wild Ones
Martin Solveig & Dragonette – Big In Japan
Redlight - Get Out My Head

Thanks for reading - I'll be back next Monday with more Future Pop! In the meantime don't forget to email and tweet me with your thoughts on the songs and artists above, and any suggestions for next week. Plus it would be great if you could spread the word about Future Pop to anyone you think might enjoy it and encourage them to subscribe for more.

Sunday night quiz: Guess the popstar!

2012-01-22T21:38:00.003Z

Can you guess who these forgotten former popstars are?

Leave your answers in the comments. The popstars' identities will be revealed next Sunday!

New Pop On The Block

2012-01-22T11:00:00.000Z

Wonder Girls - The DJ Is Mine (Watch)
Dubstep can definitely be considered a worldwide trend now. There was a dubstep song in this weekend's Danish Eurovision qualifiers, and it's even been incorporated into a K-pop song! The DJ Is Mine is taken from the Wonder Girls TV movie which premieres on Teen Nick in America in February. Although the song is very westernised, it's not strong enough to compete with what's in the charts now. It's a good effort at trying to appeal to Americans, but I honestly think if any K-pop act is going to break through in English-speaking markets it won't be by imitating what English-speaking acts already do well. Instead it will be by translating what's great about K-pop into a form that western pop fans will love just as much. This track isn't bad but I think they could have put themselves out of the race for crossover success. Now, when is 2NE1's new English single coming?
62% Poptastic!

Heyhihello - Nothing At All (Listen)
I recently discovered this American group and I love all their adorable catchy music. Although they are positioned as a pop-rock group the songs are pure smiley bouncy pop, and they're not even annoyingly twee like similar groups such as Plain White Ts have been in the past. They're just good clean fun! Nothing At All is their latest single and it's a great introduction to the band as it's very typical of their sound. It's full of energy with a big sing-along chorus. I'd like to hear music along these lines from One Direction's second album, as I think this would be the perfect direction for them if they want to carve a real niche for themselves within the UK music scene. There's nothing around like this at the moment and I think we could do with a bit more jolliness in the charts!
73% Poptastic!

Dappy - Rockstar (Watch)
Rockstar is so similar to No Regrets (with a bit of Spaceship thrown in for good luck) that I suspect in the future it will only be remembered as "Dappy's second single", if it's remembered at all, but I actually think it's quite good. While the chorus isn't as strong as No Regrets, it's a more consistent song overall. It's a great example of the anthemic, rock-pop-rap sound which is what originally made N-Dubz, Tinie Tempah and Tinchy Stryder interesting within the UK urban genre. Their big sing-along choruses are suited to arenas, not dingy clubs, and the confidence these artists have in making music for a huge audience of all different ages and backgrounds shows how far the UK music scene has come. Genres are being combined and redefined constantly, not just for niche audiences but in the mainstream too, and songs like this are the product of that.
76% Poptastic!

My Songs of the Week

2012-01-20T12:00:00.000Z

Here are my songs of the day from this week, originally posted on Tumblr.

Review: This Must Be Pop Live ft. Oh My!, Luminites and Katie Sky

2012-01-19T13:58:00.000Z

On Tuesday it was the second ever This Must Be Pop Live and I have to say it was a great success! All three performers put on a brilliant show and everyone was stopping me to tell me how impressed they were with them.

First up was Katie Sky, who performed with her full band in a very cute dress. She sang songs from her debut EP including Paradise and Sweet Sweet Melody, plus a cover of White Nights by Oh Land and a new song she said she hoped would be her next single. I'm looking forward to hearing that one again soon!

Next up were Luminites, who impressed everyone with their unique performance style. Rather than having a drummer or backing track, they have beatboxer R-Tizt! The girls, Steph and Ella, are great pop performers and the other two boys, Corey and JJ, have interesting voices which help give the band their distinct sound. They look great together too!

The final act of the night were Oh My!, who performed Kicking and Screaming, Disconnect, Bad Date and Dirty Dancer, with loads of energy and their usual top notch dance moves. There was almost disaster when the sound cut out during Dirty Dancer, but the whole crowd joined in singing the rest of the song with the girls and in the end it was an amazing pop moment!

Check out more pics from the night on Facebook and watch out for details of the next This Must Be Pop Live coming very soon!

Today's the day!

2012-01-17T11:00:00.000Z

Hope to see you there!

This Must Be Pop brings you Future Pop! (Issue #13)

2012-01-16T20:24:00.000Z

Future Pop is a weekly email featuring the hottest new pop songs and artists that you need to know about. Subscribe here to get it in your inbox every Monday, then read on, listen up and make sure you tweet me @poptastic to let me know what you think of my picks!

This Must Be Pop Live!

It's now just one day 'til This Must Be Pop Live! Come down to The Workshop in Hoxton tomorrow from 7.30pm to see Oh My!, Luminites and Katie Sky perform and have a dance to some ace pop tunes. Click here to find out more and let me know if you're coming.

Future Stars

Maxine Ashley (Star Trak/Interscope)

Maxine Ashley is not a band named after the Coronation St couple, but a teenage girl with amazing hair, who you may recognise as the singer from the brilliant Alex Gaudino hit, I'm In Love. That song was written by Tim Powell, who Maxine met when she was part of a group formed by Xenomania which sadly never released anything. However, departing Xenomania led Maxine to her biggest break yet - being signed up by Pharrell Williams as his next protegée! She's now working on her debut album, from which nothing has been heard as yet. The Cool Kids song she features on suggests the new music will be laid back R&B, but having followed Maxine for a while I have good faith that it's going be much more poptastic than that.

Neon Indian (Mom + Pop)

The indie-pop revival continues with an interesting new track which is making Neon Indian a big name. Polish Girl is the latest single from the band's second album, and it's so far had over a million hits on YouTube. They're playing Coachella this year and recently performed on Jimmy Fallon's US chat show. The music is a combination of indie vocals and electro-pop production, the same formula that works so well for Bastille, but musically they are more similar to Ladyhawke, just with mumblier male vocals. I braved the rest of the album and it was pretty dull, but it's worth giving this one a listen so you can tick the "I know who Neon Indian are" box, should you ever be required to.

T. Mills (Columbia)

T. Mills released his first album on an independent label in 2010, but he's now signed to Columbia. He's getting more attention and his music's sounding more expensive, but personally I preferred his early stuff. The track that made his name originally was Stupid Boy, a super-catchy song in the 3OH!3 style, but his new song Scandalous is more urban and could be a Timbaland production. It also has very rude lyrics, with a video to match. Still, it is a good song, his voice is perfect for the current music trends (a little soulful but generic enough to mix well with electro sounds), and I will definitely be looking out for what he does next. The UK launch begins next month with a gig at XOYO in London.

Future Hits

This week's playlist features the songs that could make some of those 'big in 2012' predictions come true:

Click here to watch

Tracklisting:

Emeli Sandé - Next To Me
Lana Del Rey - National Anthem
Dot Rotten - R U Not Entertained?
Spector - Chevy Thunder
Niki & The Dove - DJ, Ease My Mind

Thanks for reading - I'll be back next Monday with more Future Pop! In the meantime don't forget to email and tweet me with your thoughts on the songs and artists above, and any suggestions for next week. Plus it would be great if you could spread the word to anyone you think might enjoy Future Pop and encourage them to subscribe for more.

This Must Be Pop Live: Introducing Luminites

2012-01-16T17:14:00.002Z

This Must Be Pop Live is nearly here and it's time to get to know another of the acts on the line-up... it's Luminites!

1. How would you describe your music in 5 words to someone who's not heard of you before?

Beat orientated, melody driven music.

2. You've recently been travelling the UK on a school's tour - what's the funniest thing that's happened on the road?

Too many pranks to mention but... worms in Corey's afro while he slept!

3. How do you think being in a mixed band compares to a girlband or boyband?

We get lots of advice from each other... but the girls have been put off boys for life!!

4. If you could have any famous person to star in your next music video, who would you choose?

Lee Evans

5. What can we expect from your set at This Must Be Pop Live?

SWAG beats and vocals!!

If that sounds good to you then come and check them out tomorrow night at The Workshop in Hoxton, along with Oh My! and Katie Sky. Click here to find out more and let me know if you're coming.

Major Labels: A Beginner's Guide

2012-01-16T11:00:00.000Z

One of the most confusing things about the music industry is how all the different record labels fit together. It's taken me years to get to grips with it and there are plenty of people working in the industry who aren't totally sure what's what. So here, for those of you who want to work in music or just want to understand more about how this all works, is a beginner's guide to the major labels of the UK.

Warning: There could be some mistakes as the relationships between labels are complicated and ever-changing - if you see anything that's wrong, please let me know!

Until recently, there were four major label groups: Sony Music, Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group and EMI Music. However, in November 2011 EMI Music was bought by Universal, meaning that there would now be just three majors. With Sony and Universal being much larger than Warner, Warner was given the name "the mini-major" by the industry press. So, let's start with the mini-major:

1. Warner Music Group

Here are the labels that are part of Warner Music Group in the UK, with Atlantic and Warner Bros being the two largest:

14th Floor - indie/rock e.g. The Wombats, Biffy Clyro

679 - indie-pop e.g. Marina and the Diamonds, Oh My!

Atlantic - a mix of commercial genres but their British artists are mostly bore-pop with Ed Sheeran, Paolo Nutini and James Blunt all signed

Within Atlantic: B-Unique (Kaiser Chiefs, Primal Scream), Elektra (Little Boots, Cee-Lo)

Also released by Atlantic for the UK: Big Beat (Skrillex, Wynter Gordon)

Rhino - mostly reissues, nothing exciting

Roadrunner - rock and metal ranging from Korn to Nickelback

Warner Bros - a bit alternative but not much, with lots of up and coming artists at the moment e.g. Clement Marfo, Stooshe, Marlon Roudette

Within Warner Bros: A&E (Muse, Peter Andre - weirdest combination ever?)

Also released by Warner Bros for the UK: Nonesuch (bands my dad likes), Reprise (Michael Bublé, Josh Groban)

2. Sony Music

Here are the labels that are part of Sony Music in the UK:

Columbia - Lots of big names, mostly quite Radio 1 e.g. Calvin Harris, Kasabian

Epic - Big pop and R&B names including JLS and Olly Murs

RCA - A mix of urban and mum music e.g. Will Young, Loick Essien

Within RCA: Phonogenic (The Script, Natasha Bedingfield), Major Label (Hurts)

Sony Classical - classical music released by Sony - simple!

Sony CMG - reissues and compilations

Syco - Simon Cowell's label, home of X Factor and BGT singers e.g. One Direction, Susan Boyle

3. Universal Music Group

Here are the labels that are part of Universal Music Group in the UK:

Decca - Universal's classical music division

Within Decca: Verve (jazz music)

EMI - technically owned by Universal but still run separately so far

Within EMI: Parlophone (Tinie Tempah, Kylie), Virgin (Laura Marling, Professor Green), Blue Note (jazz), Positiva (David Guetta, Nervo)

Also released by EMI for the UK: Capitol (Katy Perry, Lady Antebellum)

Island - founded in Jamaica, artists tend to be the cooler side of pop e.g. Amy Winehouse, Florence and the Machine

Also released by Island for the UK: Cash Money (Drake, Nicki Minaj)

London Records - this label, which has been dormant since the early '00s, is soon to be relaunched but there's been no news of any signings yet

Mercury - a mix of commercial genres e.g. Pixie Lott, Chase & Status

Within Mercury: Future (Gary Barlow's label - The Struts, A*M*E), Vertigo (Amy MacDonald, Noisettes)

Also released by Mercury for the UK: Def Jam (Rihanna, Kanye West)

Polydor - lots of pop here e.g. Take That, Girls Aloud

Within Polydor: Fiction (Snow Patrol, Elbow), A&M (Duffy, Nicola Roberts)

Also released by Polydor for the UK: Interscope (Nicole Scherzinger, Lana Del Rey), Hollywood Records (Selena, Miley)

UMTV - compilation albums, reissues and one hit wonders

Within UMTV: All Around The World (N-Dubz, Cascada)

Side note: Publishing

While record labels own the rights to recordings made by the artists they sign, they do not own the rights to the actual songs. A songwriter, whether they record the songs they write or write them for others to record, can choose to sign a contract with a publishing company which passes over the copyright of the writer's songs to that company. The publisher then makes sure the writer gets the royalties they are due, and helps them to earn more money by pitching their songs to artists to record and suggesting them for synch deals (to appear on TV shows, adverts etc).

Each of the major record labels shares their name with a publishing company, but the relationships between those companies differ. Warner Music Group owns the publisher Warner Chappell and Universal Music Group own the Universal Music Publishing Group. However, Sony/ATV Music Publishing is owned directly by the Sony Corporation, which also owns Sony Music as well as Sony Ericsson, Sony Pictures and many other Sony things. When EMI Music was sold to Universal, EMI Publishing was sold to a group of investors led by the Sony Corporation and is therefore expected to be merged with Sony/ATV in the future.

Phew! That was all pretty confusing, right? No wonder it took me so many years to learn. In fact, some of it I only just learned right now on Wikipedia. And we're just going to pretend that independent labels don't exist or we'll actually be here all week. Anyway, to make it a bit easier to understand, I've drawn a map. Click on the image to see a bigger version.

My Songs of the Week

2012-01-10T12:20:00.000Z

Here are my songs of the day from this week, originally posted on Tumblr.

This Must Be Pop Live: Introducing Oh My!

2012-01-10T11:00:00.000Z

It's now just one week til This Must Be Pop Live! That means it's time to get to know the performers a little better. I asked each of the acts five questions, and here's what the girls of Oh My! had to say for themselves...

1. How would you describe your music in 5 words to someone who's not heard of you before?

Fun, energetic, cheeky, playful, real.

2. You've just finished supporting The Saturdays - what was your favourite moment on the tour?

We loved being on the huge stages! But I suppose best of all was being Oh My! and having such a great team with us meant we had a great time!

3. Who is your favourite pop duo?

Salt-n-Pepa!

4. What would you most like to have achieved by the end of 2012?

It would be amazing to have lots more gigs under our belt and obviously lots more fans!

5. What can we expect from your set at This Must Be Pop Live?

Be prepared to jump!!!!! It's lively, we don't stop moving, it's definitely lots of fun!

Click here to check out Oh My! on Facebook, and here to find out more about This Must Be Pop Live.

This Must Be Pop brings you Future Pop! (Issue #12)

2012-01-09T20:38:00.001Z

Hello and welcome to the twelfth Future Pop mailer from This Must Be Pop! Future Pop is a weekly email featuring the hottest new pop songs and artists that you need to know about. If you haven't subscribed yet then do so here, then read on, listen up and make sure you tweet me @poptastic to let me know what you think of my picks!

This Must Be Pop Live!

As you may have heard, This Must Be Pop Live is back next week! On Tuesday 17th Jan, Oh My!, Luminites and Katie Sky will be performing at The Workshop in Hoxton and I'd love to see you there. Click here to find out more and let me know if you're coming.

Future Stars

Ready Set Go

Ready Set Go are a teen rock-pop group who recently signed to Warner Bros in the US, and posted the cutest video to announce it. They are three brothers and one sister aged between 12 and 18, the girl (Sydney, 14) being the Taylor Swift-esque lead singer. The two older boys, Noah (15) and Jamie (18), should appeal to the teen girl fans, but I think they stand a good chance of reaching a broader fanbase too as they have genuine musical talent, playing instruments and writing their own songs. The Hanson of the 2010s, perhaps?

Tinashe

Well, this is confusing - Tinashe is a new US female artist, who will not be appreciated by the UK male artist Tinashé if she becomes successful! Tinashe the girl was lead singer of a group called The Stunners (formed by Vitamin C!) from 2007 to 2010 and now, age 19, is launching a solo career. She is planning to release a mixtape with the lead single Chainless already on iTunes. It's a bit serious R&B for my tastes (I prefer the sweeter, poppier Can't Say No) but she's clearly got huge popstar potential.

L Marshall

L Marshall was featured simply as L on Wretch 32's Traktor, singing the hook of the song, and he also wrote Loick Essien's hit How We Roll. He's now signed up to Crown management and recently released his first mixtape for free online. The promotional single for the mixtape is called The Wait, and it caught my attention as it's a very interesting and original R&B track, which is certainly on trend at the moment thanks to Tinie Tempah and Labrinth. I actually think it's my favourite of this sub-genre, after the Labrinth-penned Love Drunk by Loick Essien.

Future Hits

This week's playlist is made up of songs that I think are going to put previous Future Pop picks on the map!

Click here to watch

Tracklisting:

DJ Fresh ft. Rita Ora - Hot Right Now
Angel ft. Wretch 32 - Go In, Go Hard
Ariana Grande - Put Your Hearts Up
Sub Focus ft. Kenzie May - Falling Down
Scissor Sisters ft. Krystal Pepsy (Azealia Banks) - Shady Love

Thanks for reading - I'll be back next Monday with more Future Pop! In the meantime keep reading the blog for loads more like this and don't forget to email and tweet me with your thoughts on the songs and artists above, and any suggestions for next week. Plus it would be great if you could pass the message on to anyone you think might enjoy Future Pop and encourage them to subscribe.

Free Mixtape: Now That's What I Call Poptastic! Vol. 1

2012-01-04T16:30:00.000Z

Giving away free MP3s is a brilliant way for artists to get their music onto the iPods of potential fans. These days it's not just a random remix or album filler track but some of the best songs of the year that you can legally download for free. I've compiled ten of the best tracks recently given away by some of pop's brightest stars to create a free MP3 mixtape just for you. Enjoy and make sure to research the artists more if you like them!

Download Now That's What I Call Poptastic! Vol. 1

Tracklisting:

Talay Riley - Fairytale
Oh My! - Kicking and Screaming
Tennis - Is It True
Amanda Mair - Doubt
Family of the Year - St. Croix
Diana Vickers - Music To Make The Boys Cry
Foxes - Youth
The Charlies - Let That Body Breathe
Icona Pop - Manners
CSS - Hits Me Like A Rock

Click each artist's name to visit their website.

NB: All of these tracks have been made available online for free. However, if you respresent one of these artists and would not like their song to be included in this mixtape, please email me and I will remove it.

Two Weeks to This Must Be Pop Live!

2012-01-03T21:37:00.000Z

January is usually the most boring month of the year, but not this time! This Must Be Pop Live returns on January 17th, two weeks from today, with performances from Oh My!, Luminites and Katie Sky.

Click here to find out more and let me know if you're coming.

The Next Big Thing: My Top 10 of 2012

2012-01-01T16:52:00.001Z

Usually I begin each January by alphabetically reviewing all of the acts predicted to be big in the year ahead. However, since I covered so many up-and-coming artists last year, I've already written loads about most of the acts in contention for 2012 success. Therefore I've decided instead to compile a top 10 of the artists I think are most likely to be huge stars by the end of the year, with links to my previous posts... and it doesn't look much like the BBC Sound of 2012 list!

1. Little Mix

The X Factor girlgroup are exactly what pop was looking for, and after their great work on Cher Lloyd's album I have confidence in SyCo to let Little Mix fulfil their amazing potential. Read more.

2. Bastille

Bastille led indie-pop's return to greatness in 2011 and now he's got his major label deal in place, I'm certain he will be one of the biggest successes of 2012. Read more.

3. Rita Ora

After almost three years in development, Rita Ora is finally ready to take her place as the British Rihanna. Her first step is featuring on the brilliant new single by DJ Fresh. Read more.

4. Azealia Banks

Azealia's already had a viral hit with 212 and she's quickly being immersed into the mainstream music scene, collaborating (quite bizarrely) with the Scissor Sisters. Read more.

5. Jake Bugg

Nottingham teenager Jake Bugg is straight out of the '60s and I predict he'll be a big mums/teens crossover act (see Adele, Ed Sheeran) in 2012. Read more.

6. Angel

Sirach Charles aka Angel could be the Craig David of the 2010s. He's already had success as a songwriter and is making his name on the urban scene. Read more.

7. Mohombi

Swedish-Moroccan Mohombi had hits all over the world in 2011, and this year his sights are set on UK success. His super-catchy single In My Head could easily make it happen. Read more.

8. EJ

There isn't much known about Edwina Johnson aka EJ so far, but the sneak peek I've had at her next single makes me think she could be huge in 2012. Read more.

9. iFFY the Bad Man

Do You is a mega-hit in waiting and I will not stop saying it until people listen! Bruno Mars needs to watch out for iFFY. Read more.

10. Ariana Grande

With Miley, Demi and Selena growing into proper adult pop stars now it's time for the next generation of teen-pop princesses and I think Ariana is our best hope. Read more.

For more future stars sign up to my Future Pop mailer.

Top of the Poptastic!

2011-12-31T18:39:00.001Z

For my final post of 2011, it's my top 15 singles of December:

Tennis - Origins
Ariana Grande - Put Your Hearts Up
Taio Cruz - Hangover
Pia Mia & Bella Thorne - Bubblegum Boy
The Storm - My Crown
The Vaccines - Wetsuit
Helena Paparizou - Mr Perfect
Linnéa Henriksson - Väldigt kär/Obegripligt ensam
Ian Carey & Rosette ft. Timbaland & Brasco - Amnesia
Liquid Kaos ft. Kirsty Hawkshaw - Back In Time
Lea-Anna - Murder
Adrian Lux ft. The Good Natured - Alive
Taylor Swift ft. The Civil Wars - Safe & Sound
Anniela - Party Crusher
Ross Lynch - A Billion Hits

See you in 2012!!

The 100 Most Poptastic Singles of 2011

2011-12-31T18:30:00.000Z

Here is the top 100 in full:

Cher Lloyd - Swagger Jagger
Avril Lavigne - What The Hell
Six D - Best Damn Night
Martin Solveig ft. Dragonette - Hello
Lady GaGa - Edge of Glory
Tove Styrke - Call My Name
Robyn - Call Your Girlfriend
Lady GaGa - Judas
Lady Gaga - Born This Way
Rihanna ft. Calvin Harris - We Found Love
2NE1 - I Am The Best
Soundgirl - Don't Know Why
September - Party In My Head
Darren Hayes - Bloodstained Heart
Beyoncé - Best Thing I Never Had
Lady Gaga – Marry The Night
Oh My! – Dirty Dancer
Loreen - My Heart Is Refusing Me
The Wanted - Gold Forever
Parade - Louder
The Wanted - Lightning
Iffy The Bad Man - Do You
Jennifer Lopez - On The Floor
Wolf Gang - The King And All His Men
September - Me And My Microphone
Kyla La Grange - Walk Through Walls
Tennis - Origins
Taylor Swift - The Story Of Us
Jacob Latimore - Like 'Em All
Cher Lloyd - With Ur Love
Eric Saade - Popular
Eric Saade ft. Dev - Hotter Than Fire
Destinee & Paris - True Love
Aura Dione - Geronimo
Frankmusik - No ID
Miranda Cosgrave - Dancing Crazy
Nicki Minaj - Super Bass
Dia Frampton - The Broken Ones
Taylor Swift - Sparks Fly
Selena Gomez - Love You Like a Love Song
Yasmin - Finish Line
David Guetta ft. Sia - Titanium
Sara Lumholt - Enemy
Taio Cruz ft. Kylie Minogue - Higher
Agnes - Don't Go Breaking My Heart
Tim James & Nevermind - Twist My Hips
The Wanted - Glad You Came
Linda Sundblad - Lucky You
Natalia Kills - Free
Vanbot - Make Me Break Me
Natalia Kills - Kill My Boyfriend
BEAST - Shock
Soundgirl - I'm The Fool
Bruno Mars - Marry You
Bastille - Flaws
Aqua - Like A Robot
Hurts - All I Want For Christmas Is New Year’s Day
Alexis Jordan - Good Girl
Oh My! - Kicking and Screaming
Wynter Gordon - Buy My Love
Eric Saade - Hearts In The Air
Olly Murs ft. Rizzle Kicks - Heart Skips A Beat
Alexandra Stan - Mr Saxobeat
Cash Cash - Victim of Love
Vincent - The Moment I Met You
Nicola Roberts - Beat of my Drum
Kyla La Grange - Heavy Stone
Ariana Grande - Put Your Hearts Up
Jodie Connor - Bring It
Anniela - Elektrisk
Jennifer Lopez - Papi
Love Generation - Dance Alone
Amanda Mair - Doubt
Britney Spears - Hold It Against Me
Justice Crew - Friday To Sunday
Katy Perry - Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F)
Nicole Scherzinger - Don't Hold Your Breath
Midnight Red - One Club At A Time
Maroon 5 ft. Christina Aguilera - Moves Like Jagger
Diddy Dirty Money - Coming Home
One Direction - What Makes You Beautiful
Kay - My Name Is Kay
Pixie Lott - All About Tonight
Caotico & Tove Styrke - Brains Out
Christopher S ft. Max Urban - Star
Sanna Nielsen - I'm In Love
Talay Riley - Make You Mine
Bastille - Icarus
Natalia Kills - Wonderland
Darren Hayes - Black Out The Sun
MNEK - If Truth Be Told
Mya - Fabulous Life
Donkeyboy - City Boy
Keke Palmer - Show Me
Family Of The Year - St Croix
Hurts - Sunday
Selena Gomez - Hit The Lights
Jenny Silver - Something In Your Eyes
Alex Winston - Sister Wife
Narcoleptic Dancers - Rastakraut

And the no.1 most poptastic single of 2011 is...

2011-12-31T14:40:00.001Z

When I pick my most poptastic single of each year, I try to go for something that I know I'll never regret when I look back on my choices in future years. Since this song was hated by many people, including those I usually agree with, I was unsure whether it was a safe choice, but in the end decided that was all the more reason to choose it. I've spent the last five months defending this song and I still love it as much as I did on first listen, so I'm going to stick with my decision and make a stand for this misunderstood pop masterpiece!

The No.1 Most Poptastic Single of 2011

CHER LLOYD - SWAGGER JAGGER!!!!

That's Avril Lavigne's skull on the floor

Released: 31st July
Writers: Cher Lloyd, Autumn Rowe, Jermaine Jackson, Andrew Harr, Petr Brdicko, Andre Davidson, Sean Davidson, Marcus Lomax, Clarence Coffee Jr.
Trivia: Not only has Cher released the best single of the year, but also the best album. Even those who hated Swagger Jagger have admitted that Sticks & Stones is amazing. Have a listen here.
Best bits: 1. Hiiii haters, kiss kiss, I'll see you later
2. Swagger jagger, swagger jagger, you should get some of your own
3. Get on the floor!

Bye haters!

The 25 Most Poptastic Singles of 2011 - Part 5

2011-12-30T19:04:00.001Z

The 5th Most Poptastic Single of 2011

Lady Gaga - Edge of Glory

An unfortunate moment to cough

Released: 9th May
Writer: Stefani Germanotta, Fernando Garibay, Paul Blair
Trivia: Last year Lady Gaga was the first artist ever to win first place in my Most Poptastic Singles countdown for a second time. She hasn't continued her run this year, but she does have the most songs in the top 25 of any artist.
Best bits: 1. I'm on the edge, the edge, the edge, the edge, the edge, the edge, the edge
2. It's hard to feel the rush, to push the dangerous, I'm gonna run right to, to the edge with you, where we can both fall over in love
3. There ain't no reason you and me should be alone tonight, yeah, baby! (Tonight, yeah, baby!)

The 4th Most Poptastic Single of 2011

Martin Solveig ft. Dragonette - Hello

Still trying to work out what this song has to do with tennis

Released: 7th Jan
Writer: Martin Solveig, Martina Sorbara
Trivia: Dragonette may have been established in our pop-loving hearts for a few years now (I even interviewed them when they were unsigned with just two songs online) but for many people this was their introduction to the band, and what a great introduction it was!
Best bits: 1. I'm not the kinda girl who'd get messed up with you
2. Yeah I think you're cute but really you should know, I just came to say hello!
3. You're alright but I'm here darling to enjoy the party, don't get too excited 'cos that's all you get from me... hey!

The 3rd Most Poptastic Single of 2011

Six D - Best Damn Night

The line-dancing revival of 2011

Released: 24th July
Writers: Wayne Wilkins, Antoine "T-Wiz" Collins, Priscilla Renea
Trivia: Six D's promo for this single included possibly the most exhaustive schools tour of all time, taking in over 200 schools in eight months.
Best bits: 1. It started with one wave hi and a bad goodbye, hard to be so sad when I'm having the best damn night
2. Ni-i-ight of my li-i-i-i-ife, I-I-I-I'm having the best damn night
3. Dance 'til we can't no more, hands in the air 'til our arms get sore

The 2nd Most Poptastic Single of 2011

Avril Lavigne - What The Hell

Chewing gum stuck in your hair again, Avril?

Released: 1st Jan
Writers: Avril Lavigne, Max Martin, Shellback
Trivia: I'm shocked to discover this is the only Max Martin song in my top 25 this year. I hope he'll be more prolific in 2012... and by prolific I mean writing for my favourite artists and not Pink or Pitbull!
Best bits: 1. All my life I've been good, but now... oh-ohoh-ohoh I'm thinking, "what the hell?"
2. If you love me, if you hate me, you can't save me, baby, baby
3. You say that I'm messing with your head, boy, I like messing in your bed

Come back tomorrow to find out my no.1 single of 2011!

A hint of what's to come...

2011-12-29T16:19:00.000Z

My countdown of the Most Poptastic Singles of 2011 is about to reach the top 5! You've seen which songs took the places 6 to 25, but what's missing? Here are some clues:

1. One is by a group no longer signed to their record label.
2. One was released on the very first day of the year.
3. One is by an artist who has already appeared in the top 25.
4. One is a collaboration.
5. One has been voted one of the most annoying songs of the year.

Leave your guesses in the comments below or tweet me @Poptastic!

The 25 Most Poptastic Singles of 2011 - Part 4

2011-12-29T16:03:00.000Z

The 10th Most Poptastic Single of 2011

Rihanna - We Found Love

Head of a superstar, body of a chimney sweep

Released: 22nd Sept
Writer: Calvin Harris
Trivia: Much like Example, the main problem with Calvin Harris is his attempt to be a popstar himself. This is proof that he'd be much better off behind the scenes, creating pop masterpieces for stars who can make them amazing.
Best bits: 1. We found love in a hopeless place
2. It's the way I’m feeling I just can't deny, but I've gotta let it go
3. Yellow diamonds in the light, and we're standing side by side

The 9th Most Poptastic Single of 2011

Lady Gaga - Born This Way

The motogaga will be top of everyone's 2012 Christmas list

Released: 11th Feb
Writer: Stefani Germanotta, Jeppe Laursen, Paul Blair, Fernando Garibay
Trivia: Born This Way was the fastest-selling song in iTunes history, selling one million copies in five days. However, as Gaga-mania has begun to fizzle out over the past year, it will be interesting to see how sales of the lead single from her next album compare.
Best bits: 1. Ooh there ain't no other way, baby I was born this way
2. I'm on the right track baby, I was born to be brave
3. My mama told me when I was young, we are all born superstars

The 8th Most Poptastic Single of 2011

Lady Gaga - Judas

Nice bracelet

Released: 15th April
Writers: Stefani Germanotta, Nadir Khayat (RedOne)
Trivia: I loved this article suggesting Gaga was inspired by Army of Lovers when she wrote Judas. The fact that she co-wrote it with RedOne, who is Swedish and therefore definitely aware of Alexander Bard, makes me quite convinced it's true. It's only a shame she wouldn't cite the group publicly as an influence so they could attract a new international fanbase.
Best bits: 1. Judas Judah-a-ah
2. I’m just a Holy Fool, oh baby he’s so cruel, but I’m still in love with Judas, baby
3. Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh I'm in love with Juda-as, Juda-as

The 7th Most Poptastic Single of 2011

Robyn - Call Your Girlfriend

Robyn gets a little too close to the fireworks

Released: 1st April
Writers: Robyn, Alexander Kronlund, Klas Åhlund
Trivia: Call Your Girlfriend, a single released when most thought was Robyn was ready to move on to her next album, has turned into one of her biggest hits. It's been playlisted by Radio 1 and she's performed it on shows such as Saturday Night Live and Jimmy Kimmel in the US. It even inspired one of the year's biggest viral video hits in Swedish group Erato's creative cover version.
Best bits: 1. The only way your heart will mend is when she learns to love again
2. But you just met somebody new, and now it's gonna be me and you
3. And then you let her down easy

The 6th Most Poptastic Single of 2011

Tove Styrke - Call My Name

The 80s are back AGAIN??

Released: 19th August
Writers: Unknown
Trivia: Swedish pop stars aren't great at giving out clear information to their international fans, so it's uncertain how soon we can expect a second album from Tove and whether this will be on it. I'm hoping she'll do the typical Swedish thing and spring it upon us without warning. Next week? Yes, that sounds good to me!
Best bits: 1. Ohhh when you call my name
2. I’ll be waiting, this ain’t over
3. I'll be two steps, two steps, I'll be two steps over

The 25 Most Poptastic Singles of 2011 - Part 3

2011-12-28T16:32:00.000Z

The 15th Most Poptastic Single of 2011

Beyoncé - Best Thing I Never Had

Who knew Beyoncé lived in a barn?

Released: 1st June
Writers: Antonio Dixon, Kenneth Edmonds (Babyface), Larry Griffin, Jr., Beyoncé Knowles, Caleb McCampbell, Patrick Smith, Shea Taylor
Trivia: When this song was first recorded it was more upbeat and 90s-influenced. You can hear the original version here.
Best bits: 1. Thank God I found the good in goodbye, I used to want you so BA-AD!
2. I guess it sucks to be you right now
3. What goes around comes back around (hey, my baby)

The 14th Most Poptastic Single of 2011

Darren Hayes - Bloodstained Heart

Could have written title in blood - poor effort

Released: 5th Sept
Writer: Darren Hayes, Carl Falk
Trivia: Bizarrely, this song was only a single in Australia, and has so far not been released in the UK apart from as part of the album. Why Darren, why???
Best bits: 1. Even when you fall apart, I'll pick up your bloodstained heart, and darling I'll follow you down to the ground
2. Oh-oh oh-oh oh-oh oh-oh
3. You hit me like a subway train and I will never be the same

The 13th Most Poptastic Single of 2011

September - Party In My Head

Didn't know September was a girlband!

Released: 11th July
Writers: Wayne Hector, Lucas Secon, Daniel Davidsen, Peter Wallevik, Mich Hansen
Trivia: Since this track, along with the album's lead single Resuscitate Me, was written by the same people who wrote Get Outta My Way for Kylie, it's extremely likely that these tracks were originally meant for Miss Minogue too. Although it's great that September gets to record such poptastic songs, I wonder how big this could have been with Kylie at the helm.
Best bits: 1. I don't care if the whole club is dead, cos the party's in my head, the party's in my head
2. I don't care about the VIP, cos every single DJ is inside me
3. I'm on a train again, jammin' on my own again, they think I'm insane, there's no music playin'

The 12th Most Poptastic Single of 2011

Soundgirl - Don't Know Why

A future where Vans are the only shoes

Released: 19th June
Writers: Miranda Cooper, Ant Whiting, Soundgirl
Trivia: I only discovered the original of this song via Soundgirl. Until then I thought Danish popstar Natasha Thomas' version was the first.
Best bits: 1. Why does your love hurt so much?
2. Ladi-dadi-da ladi-dadi-da, ladi-dadi-da ladi-dadi-da
3. I wake up and baby I’ve been dreaming about the way you make me smile, now everything you do just leaves me (wondering) wondering (wondering) wondering why

The 11th Most Poptastic Single of 2011

2NE1 - I Am The Best

Is that Little Mix?

Released: 24th June
Writers: Teddy Park
Trivia: If there's one thing I love in music it's unabashed egotism. This is the best ego-pop track since Velvet's The Queen. Read the translated I Am The Best lyrics here.
Best bits: 1. Naega jeil jal naga (translation: I am the best)
2. Oh ma gawd!
3. Bam Ratatata Tatatatata

The 25 Most Poptastic Singles of 2011 - Part 2

2011-12-27T22:23:00.000Z

The 20th Most Poptastic Single of 2011

Parade - Louder

Tie-dye is back! (maybe)

Released: 13th March
Writers: Alan Sampson, Kuk Harrell, George Hannides, Anthony Hannides
Trivia: This isn't Jessica's first experience of being in a girlband. Neither is it Sian's. Or Emily's!
Best bits: 1. Turn it up louder, louder, louder-oh-ohoh
2. Hold that bass under my feet, feel that rhythm, your heartbeat beat
3. Turn it up boy-boy, turn it up boy

The 19th Most Poptastic Single of 2011

The Wanted - Gold Forever

No shiny gold suits?

Released: 13th March
Writer: Steve Mac, Wayne Hector, Claude Kelly
Trivia: At last Siva got a part to sing on a single, and how glorious it was! He may not be the strongest singer but his parts always seem to be amazing when he gets to have a go. Give Personal Soldier a listen if you don't believe me.
Best bits: 1. I won't, I won't let your memory go cos your colours, they burn so bright
2. The memory of being here with you is one I'm gonna take my life through,
cos some days stay gold forever
3. Promise me you'll stay the way you are, keep the fire alive and stay young at heart

The 18th Most Poptastic Single of 2011

Loreen - My Heart Is Refusing Me

Red = the colour of hearts

Released: 11th March
Writers: Moh Denebi, Björn Djupström & Lorén Talhaoui
Trivia: Loreen was in the finals of Sweden Idol in 2004, the same year as Darin. In those days she was known as Lorén Talhaoui. If you're interested you can watch her entire journey from Idol to Melodifestivalen in a 49 minute YouTube video!
Best bits: 1. And I wanna leave but I'm looooooost!
2. Eh-eheh-eh eh-eheh-eh eh-eheh-eh
3. I never thought that I would be this helpless, I can't believe I'm giving in for you

The 17th Most Poptastic Single of 2011

Oh My! - Dirty Dancer

Home Alone face

Released: 11th November
Writers: Amir Amor
Trivia: Writer/producer Amir Amor told The Guardian in February he was working on a "Bananarama meets Fun Boy Three, but 2011 style" project. Was he talking about Oh My! and if not, when do we get to hear this amazing-sounding thing?
Best bits: 1. I want a Patrick Swayze, dirty dancer
2. You think you're special cos you got a special watch, but you're not
3. Err stop!

The 16th Most Poptastic Single of 2011

Lady Gaga - Marry The Night

Would you marry that face?

Released: 15th November
Writers: Stefani Germanotta, Fernando Garibay
Trivia: When Lady Gaga performed this song in India, she did a special Bollywood version. She's so cultured, that Gaga.
Best bits: 1. I'm gonna MARRY the ni-ight!
2. M-m-m-marry, m-m-m-marry, m-m-m-marry the night
3. Come on and ru-u-u-u-un

The 25 Most Poptastic Singles of 2011 - Part 1

2011-12-26T16:00:00.000Z

Another poptastic year is almost complete, so it's time for my annual countdown! To qualify the song must have been released somewhere in the world as a single this year, and must not have featured in the top 100 of a previous year. Now, let's begin!

The 25th Most Poptastic Single of 2011

September - Me & My Microphone

Awkward pose alert

Released: 11th July
Writers: Thomas Rusiak, Niklas Bergwall, Petter Alexis, Petra Marklund, Daniel Alexander
Trivia: This song has undergone quite a transformation in its history, from a rap song by Petter in the late 90s, to a dance-pop version originally in Swedish (one of the 100 biggest selling singles in Sweden of all time) and now, here it is in English!
Best bits: 1. I wrote it for you, you're the title of my song
2. Put you'ands up in the air! Put you'ands up in the air!
3. Love can you hear me? I want you near me

The 24th Most Poptastic Single of 2011

Wolf Gang - The King and All of His Men

Can't see any wolves

Released: 18th July
Writer: Max McElligott
Trivia: This song was originally released in 2009, but somehow it completely passed me by. I didn't hear of Wolf Gang at all until a year later, and didn't hear this song til this year. Then I heard it a lot!
Best bits: 1. Ooh-oohooh-ooohoooh, ooh-oohooh-ooohoooh
2. You took her soul, so incomplete, why don't you stop fighting me?
3. And if you're dealing a line of cards, won't you take me to the queen of hearts

The 23rd Most Poptastic Single of 2011

Jennifer Lopez - On The Floor

Is that the face of a human?

Released: 8th Feb
Writers: Bilal Hajji, Kinda Hamid, Gonzalo Hermosa, Ulises Hermosa, Achraf Janussi, Nadir Khayat (RedOne), Armando Perez, Geraldo Sandell
Trivia: Jennifer led this year's glorious anti-Cowell revolution, as her arrival on American Idol won back all the fans Simon had bored away. While X Factor's US final last week was watched by 12.59 million people, American Idol's final back in May had 29.29 million viewers!
Best bits: 1. Laaa lala-lala lala-lala-lala-lala-la
2. Brazil, Morocco, London to Ibiza, straight to LA, New York, Vegas to Afreeka!
3. Don't stop, keep it moving, put your drinks up

The 22nd Most Poptastic Single of 2011

iFFY the Bad Man - Do You

Black and white = retro

Released: 18th Oct
Writers: Unknown (please comment with info if you know!)
Trivia: If there's one song in the whole world that is totally unknown, yet I am totally sure will be a UK hit in 2012, it's this one. It just HAS to be!!
Best bits: 1. It's been a long time since I've seen you, oh I hope you didn't forget about me
2. Oh-oh do you, do-do-do you? Do you still think about me-ee?
3. I miss you more than before-ore

The 21st Most Poptastic Single of 2011

The Wanted - Lightning

There's a gate to your right, boys

Released: 14th Oct
Writers: Steve Mac, Wayne Hector, Ed Drewett
Trivia: The Wanted's US launch is being filmed for a TV series. Click here to find out why this is quite worrying news.
Best bits: 1. I know that it's a little bit frightening, we might as well be playing with lightning
2. When your lips touch mine, it's the kiss of life
3. The rush, too much, and here... it comes!

The Impossible Has Been Achieved!

2011-12-19T23:00:00.000Z

Last week I wrote about how the major labels are still managing to block independent and unsigned artists from success, even with the amazing promotional opportunities the internet provides. By total coincidence just a few days later I opened up iTunes to find out who was in contention for the Christmas no.1... to discover an unsigned artist at no.4 in the singles chart! And not just that but one who, despite the majors' recent efforts to control the site, has made his name through YouTube.

The person who has achieved this incredible feat is a 22 year old from Essex called Alex Day. He is a singer-songwriter who posts music videos as well as video blogs on YouTube and, with 470,000 subscribers, he is now the most popular independent UK solo artist on the site. He is close friends with fellow YouTube star Charlie McDonnell and together with two other charismatic nerds, they formed a band called Son of Admirals last year. They released a single which was licenced through Universal Music, ironically one of the owners of Vevo, which is now making YouTube success much more difficult for independent artists. The single release was a disaster, as Alex told me over email: "They made a number of huge mistakes, including incorrectly naming our EP and one of our songs, pricing the tracks higher than we wanted, and failing to put up the EP for pre-order as we'd asked them to, so it was generally a pretty rubbish experience from a company you expect to know these things."

Alex has also been part of several other bands, including the BBC project Chartjackers who got a song into the top 40 to raise money for Children In Need, and he's used all this experience to promote his new solo single, Forever Yours. As well as getting the track into the top 5 on iTunes, he's also had it played on Radio 1 and all of the stations which broadcast the Big Top 40. Plus he's been featured in many articles about the Christmas no.1 contenders which is great publicity, although he'll need to work hard to make sure he doesn't become a one hit wonder in the style of the equally twee Nizlopi.

While Alex's success does prove that it is possible to create a hit purely through the internet, without any help from TV, radio or even the press, I do wonder if the same could happen for someone starting out on YouTube right now. When Alex started building a fanbase via YouTube in 2006, there was no such thing as Vevo. As I explained in my previous post it wasn't until this year that changes were made on YouTube that gave Universal and Sony artists priority over unsigned and independent acts. Alex also had the advantage of being an early adopter. When he started there were only a small number of YouTube bloggers and naturally out of those only a few were both entertaining and web-savvy enough to promote themselves into the most viewed charts.

Now everyone who has a talent for music, comedy or just talking about their lives in an interesting and charismatic way has a YouTube channel. Although more people are visiting YouTube overall nowadays, there are far more video bloggers and musicians using the site too, so you have to be very clever to get noticed. The fact that YouTube visitors looking for new music now have to make a real effort if they want to see anything other than major label acts certainly doesn't help either. However, I asked Alex if he would like his videos to be on Vevo, and he wasn't keen. For the artists it means a loss of creative control, from the name of the channel (Alex's would have to be AlexDayVevo) to the descriptions of the videos (only the copyright info for the song is usually allowed). Also, as an artist with a big YouTube following already, he wouldn't benefit from having his videos promoted on other artists' channels as much as those artists would benefit from being featured on his.

Now that Alex has a song in the charts, unsurprisingly he has already been contacted by representatives from all the major labels. However, since he's gotten much further without a label than he did when he supposedly had the support of a very influential one, he is understandably dubious but has said that he would consider signing to a major label if the deal offered him enough freedom to do things his own way. Either way, I am very excited to find out whether Alex will be the first of many artists to have a hit with a song only promoted online. I think it's very unlikely to happen again with a YouTube artist, except perhaps another who built up their fanbase before Vevo came along. But it is possible that new artists could use other social network sites which the majors haven't yet worked out how to manipulate. So there's a bit of positive advice to end on - if you're an unsigned artist, get onto new social network sites as soon as they start getting popular and make yourself the next Alex Day!

This Must Be Pop brings you Future Pop! (Issue #11)

2011-12-19T17:30:00.000Z

Future Pop is a weekly email featuring the hottest new pop songs and artists that you need to know about. Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Monday. Then read on, listen up and make sure you tweet me @poptastic to let me know what you think of my picks!

Future Stars

Masha

Masha is the new protegée of top pop writer Claude Kelly, who co-wrote Party In The USA, Grenade and Price Tag and is often spotted on X Factor USA. She is currently building up a following on Youtube where she has so far had almost 100,000 views on her cover videos of tracks by artists such as Adele, Alanis Morrisette and Demi Lovato. She plays acoustic guitar and is definitely a bit of a rock chick, with potential to be the new Michelle Branch/Vanessa Carlton-type singer I think the world will be looking for in 2012. She's also very pretty with a quirky fashion sense, although this old photo shows she didn't quite look like that when she was first discovered.

Kenzie May

I've been a fan of 19-year-old London-based American singer Kenzie May for about a year now, thanks to the brilliant YouTube videos she has sadly now taken down. It's exciting to finally see her releasing something, albeit only as a featured artist. I'm not too keen on the song, Falling Down by Sub Focus, but it's already getting Radio 1 support which should help to get Kenzie's name more widely known. To hear her own music check out her Soundcloud. Standout tracks include Scars (which will appeal to fans of Marina and the Diamonds or Diana Vickers) and Heartbeat. She is signed to Sony ATV for publishing and a record deal is sure to follow soon.

Maiday

As a writer/producer Maiday, who is signed to Atlantic, had her first no.1 hit this year with Don't Go by Wretch 32 and Josh Kumra, but as an artist she's largely unknown. Although she featured on some UK urban tracks under her real name of Rachel Moulden a few years ago, it will be her appearance on Josh Kumra's new single Call Off The Search that puts her in the 'ones to watch' category. Of her own music all she's put online so far is two covers: Missing by Everything But The Girl and Come As You Are by Nirvana. Not the most poptastic choices but she has collaborated with Mojam (aka Strider and Flava from Blazin' Squad) so maybe there'll be an unexpected Flip Reverse on her album. Well, you never know!

Future Hits

This week's playlist features five songs I think will be among the first big hits of 2012:

Click here to listen

Tracklisting:

Kelly Clarkson - Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)
Michael Kiwanuka - Home Again
Roll Deep - Picture Perfect
Lil Wayne Ft. Bruno Mars - Mirror
Dappy - Rock Star

Thanks for reading - next Monday is boxing day but I'll be back the week after with more Future Pop! In the meantime don't forget to email and tweet me with your thoughts on the songs and artists above, and any suggestions for next week. Plus it would be great if you could pass the message on to anyone you think might enjoy Future Pop and encourage them to subscribe for more.

My Songs of the Week

2011-12-19T15:11:00.002Z

Here are my songs of the day from this week, originally posted on Tumblr.

Win a £50 voucher from Truffle Shuffle!

2011-12-19T11:30:00.000Z

Note: This competition is now closed and the winner is... Michael Richardson whose fave popstar was Cher Lloyd - correct answer!

Super-cool fashion store Truffle Shuffle are sponsoring This Must Be Pop Live on January 17th, and they've even been so kind as to give me a £50 voucher to give away to one of you lucky people! Truffle Shuffle sell clothes for men and women and loads of fun accessories and gadgets too, so if you win you can treat yourself to something special or even grab some last minute Christmas presents.

To enter the competition you need to like This Must Be Pop on Facebook and leave a message on the wall telling me your fave pop star and what you would buy them for Christmas from the Truffle Shuffle store. You have until midday on Wednesday, December 21st to enter.

To give you a bit of inspiration, here are some of my favourite popstars wearing things from Truffle Shuffle:

Cher wore this Buffy t-shirt in the new Dub on the Track video

Random pop combo alert: Rochelle from The Sats and Debbie Harry have both worn this!

My current girlband idol Jade from Little Mix in a cute Red Riding Hood t-shirt

And OK, I'm not sure if any popstars have worn this but... it's a FLUMP RING!!

The Gossip

2011-12-17T11:47:00.000Z

Here's some of the gossip I've picked up on my travels around Planet Pop this week!

Spotted watching The Saturdays at Wembley: Parade, MNEK and Jay from S Club Juniors. Another former Junior, Aaron, was one of the dancers!
According to reliable pop blogger Trixie this year's X Factor single was almost With Every Heartbeat by Robyn. Little Mix's version would presumably have sounded a lot like this.
Poor Nickelodeon star Keke Palmer - the song Show Me, which she recently released as the first single on a new label, has appeared on boyband Big Time Rush's new album! This is her second record deal at the age of 18 so let's hope the label have something else spectacular up their sleeves for Keke.
Mr Popjustice told me this week that he didn't get his vote in on time for the BBC Sound of 2012 poll. If StooShe win I'm holding him responsible!
I saw Brian Harvey perform at 90s pop club Zig A Zig Ahh last night. He was tiny and still wearing the same clothes as when he was last famous! He performed a rubbish new version of Stay Another Day but a great remix of It's Alright.

The full line-up for This Must Be Pop Live is announced!

2011-12-16T15:00:00.000Z

As you may have heard, This Must Be Pop Live is returning on January 17th and so far scheduled to perform and make the night poptastic we have Oh My! and Katie Sky. Now it's time to announce the third and final act, therefore completing the line-up...

LUMINITES!

I introduced Luminites, a new mixed-gender pop group, in this week's Future Pop and they're going to be giving us a glimpse into the future when they perform at This Must Be Pop Live in January! The group, made up of JJ, Ella, Steph, R-Tizt and Corey, have spent the past few months winning fans all over the UK. They've been touring schools, busking in London and performing to thousands at Britain's Next Top Model Live, and they already have almost 10,000 fans on Facebook!

Luminites posted their first official music video for catchy pop track All Dressed Up last month and last week followed it with their new single, a lovely ballad called Streets of London which raises money for the Centrepoint charity. Click here to watch both videos and find out more about the band.

So now we have the full line-up, that means I can reveal the amazing poster Emmie has designed for the event!

As you will notice, January's event is in association with Truffle Shuffle, a rather ace online fashion store. Watch out for more about this on This Must Be Pop soon, including a competition you won't want to miss.

Head over to Facebook to let me know if you're gonna be coming along on the 17th, and don't forget to invite your friends too!

Popping The Question: Can The Major Labels Survive In The Internet Age? (Part Two)

2011-12-16T11:00:00.000Z

Click here for part one of this discussion, where I talk about the effect illegal downloading has had on the music industry and how the major labels have responded.

Illegal downloading is a problem that all record labels and artists have had to face, but what has really challenged the major labels' dominance is the endless variety of music that is now available. Before the internet, unless you lived near a record shop that was able to order or import obscure releases, your music purchases were limited to what was available in your local HMV, Virgin, Our Price or Woolworths. It used to be a glorious moment to discover an old flop album you'd always wanted in the Woolies bargain bin, but now you can find it for 99p on eBay or discover exactly why it flopped by listening to it on Spotify.

As for foreign music, ten years ago you wouldn't even know an artist who only had domestic success existed, unless you'd visited the country they were from. Now, as I know I have a tendency to enjoy Swedish pop, I can immerse myself in the Swedish music scene so much that I'm as likely to know who's no.1 in their charts as in the UK. For those of us who are open-minded and understand the basics of Google (it is shocking how many people still don't seem to!), there's enough amazing music out there for us to discover a new favourite every day if we want to. It's a dream world for us intrepid music explorers but for the major labels and even the larger indies it means they have to compete for our attention against not just each other, but also foreign labels and the increasing number of artists who independently fund and release their own music, cutting out the record labels altogether.

Thanks to the emergence of social network sites such as MySpace, Facebook, YouTube and SoundCloud, which allow musicians to upload their music and promote it to an unlimited international fanbase, every artist now has the chance to become a worldwide success regardless of whether they've attracted the attention of a major label A&R department, or even if they've never tried. As these sites became popular, artists who successfully used them to build a fanbase used this achievement as a marketing tool, but it was usually quite hazy whether these artists' major label deals came before or after their online fanbase. I noticed that all the supposed online success stories of the mid-2000s seemed to involve acts who either had the help of a major label using PR and advertising to make sure their MySpace got plenty of visits, or totally made up their online fame as a marketing ploy (we all remember Sandi Thom). Therefore I wasn't convinced that the music industry had become as open and democratic as the media were leading us to believe.

However, the major labels' attempts to dominate the musical elements of social network sites dramatically faltered as unsigned and independent musicians took the idea that they could be worldwide stars by simply posting their music online and ran with it. As social networking has become the most popular means of online communication, it has seeped into every step in the journey of an artist, whether they sign to a major label, release music independently or simply record music to share with their family and friends via the internet. Artists use social network sites to build up a fanbase, to communicate with that fanbase and, if they do believe that signing to a major label is their path to success, then their social network sites are their method of showcasing to those labels every reason why they should be signed.

As social network sites are open to everyone and there are examples of unsigned or independent artists accumulating millions of views/followers/friends, many people have wondered whether signing to a major label holds any benefit for an artist in this new internet era. However, the ratio of major label to independent artists in the charts has not changed, and because of this there are few unsigned artists who wouldn't jump at the chance for a major label deal. If you're wondering why this is, perhaps you should take a look at the YouTube homepage. While anyone can upload a video to the site (so far so democratic), only those who can afford it can pay for their video to be featured or advertised on the homepage or on relevant videos, which is proven to generate a large number of views. And recently Universal and Sony, the two largest major labels, have taken their control over YouTube (which now sits alongside TV and radio as the most common means of discovering new music) to a new extreme by founding Vevo, YouTube's partner for music content.

Through their partnership with YouTube, Universal and Sony are able to ensure that any music video they want to promote is put in front of exactly the people they want to promote it to. Next to any Vevo video (see screengrab above), where you once saw a selection of videos popular with people who watched that video, you will now see a playlist of Vevo videos, which are all of course Sony or Universal acts. YouTube have also changed their most viewed music video chart to one which I can only deduce is completely made up. While the top 100 most commented and most liked video charts (which used to be almost identical to the most viewed chart) show a mixture of official videos, fan-made montage videos and performance videos by unknown acts we've come to know as "YouTube stars", you will only see official videos by the world's biggest artists on the new and certainly not improved YouTube most viewed chart. What used to be my favourite way of discovering new unknown talent has now been removed, and for those unknown artists their avenue for reaching a huge captive audience has been blocked.

As anyone who has spent time browsing YouTube cover videos will know, there's a strong and inspiringly supportive community of artists promoting their music through the site. Due to the changes made since YouTube partnered with the major labels via Vevo, these artists no longer have the opportunity to top the most viewed chart or to compete with the Katy Perrys and Justin Biebers of the world in viewing figures. The explanation for this is that the major labels got jealous and blocked it. And this is why the major labels won't be losing their grip over the charts any time soon, whether you mean the CD sales charts, the iTunes chart or the YouTube chart. The independent artists who depend on the internet for their success will always be a step ahead in finding the next way to reach new audiences, but major labels are always on their tails chopping off their figurative fingers every time they reach for the success that they, especially in tough economic times, also depend on to survive. Only a lucky few (including, of course, Justin Bieber) manage to escape with five fingers intact, and those usually end up rewarded with a major label contract. If you can't beat them, join them - or in this case, sign them!

While the internet has given independent and unsigned artists a new way to find fans and make a successful career out of music, every benefit they get is also received by major label artists, and usually they use their money and influence to get ten times more of it. It's unfair, but it's nothing new. Any artist can upload their music online, just like any artist can send a demo to a gig promoter, a radio station or a TV booker, but independent artists don't have the same relationships with those gate-keepers as major labels do. It would be fantastic if regulatory measures could be put in to prevent the majors from dominating social network sites, but no such measures are in place to make sure independent artists get played on the radio, given support slots on big tours or advertised on TV, so it's idealistic to expect this new avenue of promotion to be any fairer.

However, what the internet does bring is scale. You could tour for ten years and not play to a million people, but with clever marketing you could have a million YouTube hits overnight. And the majors don't have the monopoly on cleverness, so if you're an independent artist don't be disheartened, just get those brain cogs turning and go for it!

Popping The Question: Can The Major Labels Survive In The Internet Age? (Part One)

2011-12-15T03:30:00.000Z

It's amazing to think about how the music industry has transformed in my lifetime. I first got into music at around the age of ten. I bought cassette singles from Our Price, was a religious reader of Smash Hits and watched Top of the Pops every week. Thirteen years later none of those things exist, but one thing has not changed at all: The major labels still control the music industry and dominate the charts. Some weeks there will be a few independent artists in the top ten, others there will be none, but this was no different in 1998. Bands like Faithless and The Beautiful South broke through on indie labels before moving into the majors as their success grew, just as we see artists do in 2011.

The internet revolution and the financial downturn we have experienced in the past decade have forced everyone in the music industry to adapt in order to survive. While the majors may have made some big mistakes and shown massive misunderstanding of the music-buying public on several occasions, they continue to be responsible for the majority of the biggest music success stories both in the UK and worldwide. Sometimes they have genuinely found ways to cater to the needs of a new generation of music fans, and sometimes they have used their wealth and influence to bulldoze through the largely un-regulated online world in order to secure their acts' success. Either way, they're showing no sign of losing their grip any time soon.

My first attempt to download an MP3 came in early 2000. My dad had informed me you could get music for free online so I requested my favourite song of the moment, Steal My Sunshine by LEN. Unfortunately we could only find it on MP3.com, a site you had to pay to download from, and the thought of paying for a song when you didn't even get a cassette with pictures and lyrics seemed ridiculous, so I forgot about the idea. It wasn't until about two years later I discovered a site called Audiogalaxy and my life was complete. I was soon filling my My Music folder with Amy Studt, Sita, Anniq and other artists no-one cared about (I had a taste for the obscure even at fourteen). We had dial-up pay as you go internet, so each song took around twenty minutes to download. Yes kids, twenty minutes!

As the years went by my MP3s came from many different sources, ranging from Soulseek, Limewire and Kazaa to a selection of brilliantly curated MP3 blogs. Remember when MP3 blogs used to be a showcase of the blogger's favourite underrated tracks, rather than Hulkshare links to the latest big name releases which get deleted after a few hours anyway? Even now, when the majority of music sales are paid downloads, I still find it hard to justify spending the same amount of money on music that doesn't come with pictures, lyrics or (the best bit for me) credits, or any physical proof of ownership. It's also difficult to feel morally obliged to pay for downloads when I have thousands of songs I have already broken the law to obtain on my hard-drive. And it took me so much time and effort to accumulate this music library, I'm hardly going to delete it now in order to re-purchase it legally!

As illegal downloading went from being a nerd hobby to a very obvious (yet unmeasurable) trend, panic began to set in within the music industry. The record labels tried to shift responsibility to the internet service providers, who in turn panicked and fined random teenagers, their irrational response unsurprisingly doing nothing to inspire downloaders to pay for their MP3s. Concerned artists, mainstream and indie alike, joined in the fight to stop this runaway train. In Sweden, one of the countries where illegal downloading was (and is) most popular due to an earlier roll-out of high speed broadband, pop stars including Alcazar, E-Type and Amy Diamond signed an open letter to convince the public to return to paying for music. Their argument that they deserved to be paid for their work, and needed to be paid for it in order to continue, was entirely fair, but their hope that they could guilt-trip people into paying for something they knew they could get for free was quite misguided.

In the mid-2000s, it really did feel like the days of artists making money from selling music were over. However, as Apple's iPod helped MP3 players to become the personal music player of choice, people who hadn't a clue how to find music for free online wanted MP3s. And what they did know was how to click Store on iTunes, search for the song they wanted and download it for 99p. For these people, who soon became the majority, paying for downloads was the norm and the right thing to do. This doesn't mean people who know how will stop downloading music for free, but the same went for those who knew how to make copies of cassettes and CDs. Now that we are settling into the internet era, it's clear that just like home taping didn't kill music, neither will illegal downloading. And for those like me who find it difficult to part with cash for something we have already obtained thousands of times without paying, there is Spotify!

Come back tomorrow for part two of this discussion, where I will be considering whether the internet has allowed independent artists more chance of success, and revealing the lengths the major labels go to in order to defend their rule.

This Must Be Pop brings you Future Pop! (Issue #10)

2011-12-13T00:18:00.002Z

Hello and welcome to the tenth Future Pop mailer from This Must Be Pop! Sign up here for the weekly email featuring the hottest new pop songs and artists that you need to know about. So read on, listen up and make sure you tweet me @poptastic to let me know what you think of my picks!

Future Stars

Luminites (Unsigned)

There's one thing the current wave of pop is sorely lacking, and that's a good girl-boy band. There have been a few attempts and although Luminites are currently unsigned, they definitely have the most potential of any mixed group launched this year. They've perfected their live performance and won over fans by busking around London, and now they're travelling the UK for a good old schools tour. With some of the big players from the late 90s/early 2000s pop scene involved with the group, it'll be exciting to see how they bring what they did ten years ago up to date for a 2010s audience. Check out their debut music video All Dressed Up for a taste of what's to come.

Sam/Sammy Adams (RCA)

I'd never heard of him until a few weeks ago, but apparently Sam or Sammy Adams (he seems to be known as both) is already a figure of hate among hip hop fans. However, as they always say, all publicity is good publicity and the fact that Sam(my) had made such a big impression before even releasing his proper debut single suggests we'll be hearing a lot more of him in the future. And his new single Blow Up should certainly cause more controversy as it samples Where Is My Mind by 'proper music' favourites The Pixies. Personally I think it sounds like a huge hit in waiting, especially considering the popularity of Chris René on X Factor US, who has a very similar sound.

Ester Dean (Interscope)

Ester is one of the most successful urban-pop songwriters of the past five years so there will naturally be high expectations for her debut album as an artist. Her writing credits include huge hits such as Super Bass, Firework and Rude Boy, and she is also responsible for underrated faves of mine such as Rose Coloured Glasses by Kelly Rowland and Outta Here by Esmée Denters. Her singing voice is famously raspy and seems to split opinion with some saying she can't sing. You can hear her for yourself on the new Tinie Tempah track Love Suicide. Her success really depends on whether she's done a Taio Cruz and reserved her best tracks for herself, or a Priscilla Renea and given them all away. Fingers crossed she's been keeping some gems aside.

Future Hits

I've got high hopes for the return of good quality indie-pop in 2012. Here are 5 songs that I hope we will be hearing more of, or at least more like:

Click here to listen

Tracklisting:

Tennis - Origins
Bastille - Flaws
Summer Camp - Down
Family of the Year - St Croix
Foxes - Youth

Thanks for reading - I'll be back next Monday with more Future Pop! In the meantime don't forget to email and tweet me with your thoughts on the songs and artists above, and any suggestions for next week. Plus it would be great if you could recommend Future Pop to anyone you think might enjoy it and encourage them to subscribe for more.

A Very Poptastic Christmas!

2011-12-11T12:26:00.000Z

A few years ago I posted a Christmas mixtape here including all my fave festive pop songs. Since the link no longer works I've brought it into 2011 by creating a Spotify playlist.

Click here to listen

Tracklisting:

1. Britney Spears - My Only Wish This Year
2. Darren Hayes - Last Christmas
3. Hanson - Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)
4. Girls Aloud - Not Tonight Santa
5. Mew - She Came Home For Christmas
6. Mariah Carey - All I Want For Christmas
7. Raveonettes - The Christmas Song
8. Girls Aloud – Christmas Round At Ours
9. Sugababes - New Year
10. Michael Learns To Rock - Frostbite
11. Pet Shop Boys - Always On My Mind
12. S Club 7 - Perfect Xmas
13. Girls Aloud – I Wanna Kiss You So (Christmas In A Nutshell)
14. Steps - Merry Xmas Everybody
15. *N Sync - I Don't Wanna Spend One More Xmas Without You
16. Hanson - Merry Christmas Baby
17. Sufjan Stevens - Come On! Let's Boogie to the Elf Dance!
18. Girls Aloud – Count The Days
19. Scissor Sisters - Filthy/Gorgeous
20. Hurts - All I Want For Christmas Is New Year's Day

Bonus tracks (amazing Christmas songs not on Spotify):

Shirley Clamp - Do They Know It's Christmas (Listen)
Siobhan Donaghy - Iodine (Listen)

This Must Be Pop Live: The Next Act Announced!

2011-12-09T15:00:00.001Z

Last week I revealed that This Must Be Pop Live will be returning on January 17th, and the headline act on the night will be girl duo Oh My!. They are currently playing huge arenas on The Saturdays tour so this could be the last chance to see them up close and personal! Now it's time to announce another act on the line-up:

KATIE SKY!

Katie's built up a strong following on YouTube after posting videos of herself performing covers and original songs. Signed to indie label Lab Records she released her debut EP this week, which includes my fave of her songs, Paradise. Have a listen to this exclusive stream of the studio version:

KATIE SKY - Paradise by labrecords

Katie also has a music video out for her single Sweet Sweet Melody which can currently be seen on music channels such as The Box, and of course on YouTube.

With Oh My! and Katie Sky it already looks like This Must Be Pop Live is going to be unmissably poptastic... and there's still one more act to announce! Make sure you come back next Friday to find out the third act and the rest of the details about the event.

If you're already sold, click here to let me know you're coming on Facebook!

My Songs of the Week

2011-12-09T13:16:00.003Z

Here are my songs of the day from this week, originally posted on Tumblr.

The Gossip

2011-12-06T11:30:00.000Z

Here's this week's fun (not malicious!) gossip picked up on my travels around Planet Pop...

Spotted: Parade chatting to Oh My! after their gig at The 100 Club. Can we have a girlband supergroup collaboration please?

I went to a showcase for ropey new mixed band NVS on Thursday. They were introduced by Liz McClarnon and in the audience I saw Michelle Heaton, her HUGE baby bump and Lemar from afar (well, a few metres away).

Pop fact: Lemar has a personalised numberplate.

I've heard from a few sources now that Britain's Got Talent are looking for some good pop groups for next year's series. A pop group has never been launched from BGT before (only soloists have seen success) - will it happen in 2012?

The manager who brought Blue into the pop world is launching a new act called Luminites who aren't signed yet but look pretty promising. Check out their video All Dressed Up and let me know what you think!

This Must Be Pop brings you Future Pop! (Issue #09)

2011-12-05T17:30:00.000Z

Hello and welcome to the ninth issue of Future Pop from This Must Be Pop! Sign up here to receive this as a weekly email featuring the hottest new pop songs and artists that you need to know about. Then read on, listen up and make sure you tweet me @poptastic to let me know what you think of my picks!

Future Stars

Lawson (Polydor)

Lawson's lead singer Andy Brown (the one in the hat) already knows a bit about the pop star lifestyle - he was in the boyband Avenue alongside Max from The Wanted, and he's also the former boyfriend of Mollie from The Saturdays. As the Lawson lads write their own songs, it'll be interesting to see if any of them are about failed boyband careers or dating famous popstars! Andy and his equally attractive instrument-playing bandmates, Ryan, Adam and Joel, played gigs all over the UK, built up a following online and even toured with The Wanted before at last Polydor signed them this summer. The music online at the moment is a little bit lacklustre in my opinion, but they've been working with some top writers since being signed and I've heard a few songs which are much stronger. Hopefully they have a hit up their sleeves for when they eventually launch in 2012.

Mateo (Krucial Noise)

If you want to be the next protegée of a major star, there are worse things to do than cover one of their songs. Mateo attracted blog attention with his lovely ballad version of Alicia Keys' Empire State of Mind in early 2010, and a few months later was signed to Alicia's producer/songwriting partner's label, Krucial Noise. He releases his first EP for the label tomorrow, and the lead single Say It's So features both Alicia and her producer husband Swizz Beatz. Mateo has a gorgeous voice, perfect for his radio-friendly R&B sound, and Say It's So is a great start. There aren't many people talking about him yet, but with his voice and star connections he surely stands a very good chance of success.

Conor Maynard (EMI)

19-year-old Conor is in an unusual position at the moment. He is a huge star and yet a total unknown at the same time. His videos get millions of YouTube hits and he has nearly 200,000 Facebook fans, but neither adults nor your average British 13 year old would recognise his name. Even people in the industry are rarely heard talking about him. I was quite surprised to find him acknowledged on MTV's Brand New For 2012 list the other day. Although he has those great online numbers, stats show his fanbase is spread around the world. If he released a single right now without any TV, press or radio support, I think he'd get it in the top 40 but it certainly wouldn't be a massive hit. However, if his debut single is strong and the YouTube success story is used cleverly, he could have that massive hit in 2012, even though he's not that cute or a good singer. We all know the public can be pretty dim.

Future Hits

This week's theme for my Future Hits playlist is songs I think will be worldwide hits:

Click here to watch

Tracklisting:

Sean Paul - She Doesn't Mind
Mohombi - In Your Head
Lloyd ft. Andre 3000 & Lil Wayne - Dedication to My Ex (Miss That)
Nicki Minaj - Roman In Moscow
Snoop Dogg & Wiz Khalifa ft. Bruno Mars - Young Wild & Free

Yes, I could have just called that Future R&B/Rap Hits, but what else achieves worldwide success these days? Fingers crossed an amazing pop song is a surprise hit too to balance things out a bit!

Thanks for reading - I'll be back next Monday with more Future Pop! In the meantime check out This Must Be Pop for loads more like this and don't forget to email and tweet me with your thoughts on the songs and artists above, and any suggestions for next week. Plus it would be great if you could spread the word to anyone you think might enjoy Future Pop and encourage them to subscribe.

Against All Odds, A Moment Like This? That's My Goal!

2011-12-04T22:19:00.000Z

The X Factor final is nearly here and there are many rumours going around about what song the winner will release as their single. For ages a Gary Barlow-penned track seemed likely, but now that we have the finalists it's pretty clear that this won't be suitable. Damien Rice's Cannonball has also been rumoured, but I reckon this was only an option for Janet when she was expected to win (I'll be surprised if it doesn't turn out that she was in the lead for the first few weeks of voting).

The winner's single really could be anything this year, so I decided to put forward some suggestions. Here's what I think the final three contestants should each release if they win:

Little Mix - Don't Know Why by Soundgirl

Marcus - Upside Down by Paloma Faith

Amelia - The Only Exception by Paramore

Leave a comment to let me know what you would pick for them!

Bumper Album Review Post

2011-12-04T11:30:00.000Z

Eric Saade - Saade Vol. 2
Eric's third album, but the second in the Saade series, seems to be pitched as a party album. There's only one ballad which is dreary and pointless, so clearly was only included to tick the ballad box. Like Eric's previous releases it's a very inconsistent album, with a few brilliant songs and a lot of just quite good ones. The lyrics are also typically Eric e.g. "you're fly-er than wind", "so I'm putting on my image", but this is all part of his terrimazing charm. The standout track is definitely the lead single Hotter Than Fire but I also highly recommend Fingerprints, Explosive Love and for ultimate ridiculousness, Backseat. Earlier this year Eric signed to All Around The World in the UK, and while I don't think he stands a chance of UK success (his inherently cheesy voice is the main problem) I'm hoping an album will be released of just the best tracks he's produced so far, as that would be 5 CDs out of 5.

Taio Cruz - TY.O
After being possibly Taio's biggest fan when he'd only released his first album, Departure, I was massively disappointed with the hit-deficient follow-up Rokstarr (remember Higher and Dynamite weren't originally on it). TY.O lacks the variety of Taio's previous albums, as his success has clearly led A&Rs to encourage him to play it safe and stick to the style of his hits. Lead single Hangover, despite questionable lyrical content, is extremely strong but most of the other tracks suffer from the same issue as his second album, containing some great hooks but within otherwise dull songs. Some have great verses (Make It Last Forever), some great choruses (Shotcaller), but he never manages to put both in the same song. Overall it's an improvement on Rokstarr, but with no Break Your Heart/Higher/Dynamite-size hits I don't think it will earn him anywhere near as much success.

The Saturdays - On Your Radar
I've never seen The Sats as a great girl band, but I truly loved their album Wordshaker and the new songs on Headlines were pretty good too. From the start I always felt they lacked star quality and the oomph it takes to make it big, but the one thing that had always been good about them was the music... until now. My feelings toward the first two singles Notorious and All Fired Up were tepid, and I really wasn't impressed with their attempt at a winter ballad with My Heart Takes Over, but I still held out hope that the album would be up to their usual standards. Sadly, it's not. There's only one song (Get Ready, Get Set) that matches up to their previous hits, and even that is not a patch on Higher, Ego, Up and the rest. I gave the album a few listens to make sure I wasn't missing its secret brilliance, but I had no such luck. Now The Sats don't even have good songs on their side, it's going to make it very easy for Little Mix to obliterate them in 2012.

New Girl Bands On The Block

2011-12-03T11:30:00.000Z

Here are my thoughts on some of the new girl band contenders marked, of course, in Spice Girls out of five!

Little Mix
In October I wrote an article stating it was time for a new Type A (see: Spice Girls, Girls Aloud) girl band to emerge, and my wish was almost immediately granted. X Factor's history with girl bands put me off the scent, but considering how few pop groups have succeeded without X Factor in the past few years, I should have guessed the group I dreamed of would be birthed the same way. Although there are only four of them Little Mix are typical type A: they're a group of genuine friends with individual looks and personalities who focus on appealing to girls, not boys, but are still pretty and glamorous enough to be aspirational. As a Type A group they have the potential for stratospheric success and to go down in history as the great girl band of the 2010s, but we'll have to wait til their debut single and album next year to see if that potential is fulfilled. FYI: Jade's my fave.

Vanquish
Another day, another act hoping to prove that it's possible to successfully launch a pure pop group without a major label. These girls seem to have made the best out of their situation, though. They've gotten some properly good pop writers to give them songs, including Wayne Hector and even Nick Dresti/Space Cowboy, who is now working closely with Xenomania. The Harder You Love is a catchy little number, but unfortunately the look and sound is very girlband-by-numbers. I will be listening out for more from them as I don't really mind if my pop music sounds like it was made in 2003 (that was a good year!) but I don't think they can compete with the new 2011 brand of girl band as exemplified by bands like Little Mix and Oh My!.

StooShe
You may be surprised to hear that I've never blogged about Stooshe before. When they first appeared on Popjustice in March I thought they were mildly entertaining, but they were not an act with any potential for mainstream success so I didn't think they were worth writing about. Therefore I was very surprised to see them signed to Warner and even more shocked to hear that they'd been playlisted by Radio 1. I like the idea of a lairy, rebellious girlband but Stooshe's music is pretty average and their image doesn't appeal to me at all. Neither can I imagine it appealing to anyone who doesn't go out in Dalston. If they release a fantastic pop song (Betty Woz Gone is not it) they certainly could have a hit, but I think they're more likely to be just another Ruff Diamondz - a good idea simply not executed well enough.

From Above
Now here's a music video I never thought I'd see! Around the same time as The Saturdays, Daisy from S Club 8 also joined a girlgroup. In fact I couldn't remember which was which for a while! They seemed ill-fated until quite bizarrely they were spotted by Matthew Knowles, Beyoncé's dad and Destiny's Child svengali, who signed them up for management. He left them pretty much to rot until MTV decided to make a documentary on them this year, which is currently showing around the world. Unfortunately, no-one is watching or talking about the show, so their debut single doesn't hold much promise. It's actually quite a catchy little R&B number but no song will save these girls from the same fate they faced three years ago. They finally got around to saying hello and now it looks like they'll be saying good bye in the same breath.

This Must Be Pop Live IS BACK!!

2011-12-02T15:00:00.000Z

Last month I organised my first ever live music night and everyone had a jolly good time, so I decided that I should definitely make it a regular event. The next gig will take place on 17th Jan at the same venue, The Workshop in Hoxton, and today I can announce the first of the acts who will be performing on the night...

OH MY!

Yep, the amazing girl duo Oh My! will be headlining January's This Must Be Pop Live! If you haven't heard of them yet (where have you been??), Alex and Jade are the latest signings to Warner's 679 label, which brought us Marina & the Diamonds, Little Boots, Spark and Annie. They've worked with producers such as MNEK, Amir Amor, Future Cut and their mentor, Example, and right this moment they are setting off on The Saturdays arena tour where they will be the main support act.

If you haven't had the chance to see them live, then I can definitely recommend coming along to check them out. They always put on a great show as they're talented singers as well as trained dancers, and you'll get to hear previews of some of the tracks they've been working on with those genius producers too.

More info on the line-up and ticket prices (including special discounts for TMBP fans) coming soon, but for now sign up to the Facebook event to let me know you're attending... and see you on January 17th!!

Top of the Poptastic!

2011-11-30T21:21:00.001Z

Here are my top 20 singles of November:

September - Me And My Microphone
Eric Saade ft. Dev - Hotter Than Fire
Natalia Kills - Kill My Boyfriend
Family Of The Year - St Croix
Dia Frampton - The Broken Ones
CSS ft. Ssion - City Grrrl
The Wanted - Warzone
Donkeyboy - City Boy
The Pipettes - Boo Shuffle
Katie Sky - Sweet Sweet Melody
Simone Battle - He Likes Boys
Tanya Lacey - Letter To My Ex
Paulina Rubio - All Around the World
King Charles - Mississippi Isabel
Lauren Bennett - I Wish I Wish
Taylor Swift - Ours
Patrick Wolf - Together
Stooshe - Betty Woz Gone
Kosheen - Get A New One
Nikos Ganos - This Love is Killing Me

My Songs of the Week

2011-11-30T14:25:00.001Z

Here are my songs of the day from this week, originally posted on Tumblr.

Whatever Happened To... The Pop Idol Final 10?

2011-11-30T11:35:00.001Z

Can you believe it's now been ten years since the beginning of Pop Idol? The show may have only lasted two seasons in the UK, but its popularity has completely changed the world of pop and brought us some of the greatest pop acts of the past decade. Now seems like a good time to check in with the final ten contestants from the original series, and see what they've been up to since their Saturday night stardom...

1. Will Young (Twitter)

Life's come full circle for Pop Idol winner Will. Next year, on the anniversary of his win he will be taking part in a TV talent show not as a contestant but as a judge! Will has just been announced as one of the judges for the BBC's new show The Voice. I think he'll be brilliant and it will be great to have him back on TV regularly. He also recently released the slowest dance album I've ever heard, which did however have one brilliant bonus track, The Way I See, and the album was a big success, even debuting at no.1.

2. Gareth Gates (Twitter)

Gareth was dropped by BMG in 2006 (after 3 years of preparing his third album for the label!) and was then signed to Universal. A documentary Whatever Happened To Gareth Gates?, where he seemed heartbreakingly insecure, was shown on ITV (watch it here). He released a new album, which actually got to no.23 - better than I remembered! Since then he's made his name in musicals, starring in Joseph and Les Mis, and took part in Dancing On Ice in 2008. In a quite bizarre casting, his next project is the 2012 national tour of Hair. Never had Gareth down as a hippy...

3. Darius (Twitter)

Darius released two albums after Pop Idol, and like Gareth he wasn't instantly dropped from his label after the second didn't match up to the success of the first. Also like Gareth, he moved into musicals, starring in Guys and Dolls and Chicago. Between 2008 and 2010 he disappeared from the public eye, but made a comeback when he entered and won Popstar To Operastar. He followed this by performing in Carmen at The O2... and then in panto in Glasgow! He's now back in Chicago and working on a new album, which almost went wrong when he lost all his songs (he found them).

4. Zoe Birkett (Twitter)

Zoe's first single Treat Me Like A Lady reached no.12 and the planned follow-up Never Gonna Happen literally never happened. Unlike Gareth and Darius, she was immediately dropped and went back to normal life, taking A Levels and going to university. Zoe spent a few years performing in touring musicals and pantos, and almost got married to Mark Rhodes from Pop Idol 2... only to dump him for Anthony Hutton from Big Brother! After performing in the West End in Thriller Live and Priscilla Queen of the Desert, she will reunite with Gareth for the 2012 tour of Hair. How lovely!

ETA: Since this post Zoe has tweeted to let me know most of the info (which was taken from her Wikipedia) is wrong! She didn't do A-Levels or university, didn't go back to normal life (she's lived in London since Pop Idol) and wasn't nearly married. She's never heard of the song Never Gonna Happen. But she is definitely going to be in Hair! Phew, something was right!

5. Hayley Evetts (Twitter)

Hayley didn't get a record deal after Pop Idol, although she did feature on a rather good dance track called More by Mareeko. She became a TV presenter, most notably presenting Pop Idol Extra during the second series alongside Dane Bowers. Since then she's inevitably gone into musicals, touring with Thriller Live, and this year she finally released her debut single, Waste My Time. She used a lot of capital letters when promoting it to her 152 Twitter followers. And she's now back on TV in the form of Caroline Flack!

6. Rosie Ribbons (Twitter)

Rosie was an early fave in Pop Idol but crashed out after this famously disastrous ABBA rendition. She was however signed up for a record deal rumoured to be worth £1 million and recorded, but never released, an album called Misbehaving. She released two singles, Blink and A Little Bit, the latter later covered by Jessica Simpson. My fave Rosie song was Good Thing. After being dropped she moved to Australia, and quite remarkably auditioned for Australian Idol in 2007, but she only made the top 24. She's now back in the UK where she's been performing and recording new music.

7. Laura Doherty (Facebook)

I'd forgotten Laura came seventh as she was hardly heard of after the series ended. She decided that London life wasn't for her, so she returned to her home town of Derry in Northern Ireland. Back in Ireland she set up her own chain of dance schools, and in 2008 she married a man called Kevin who she had been dating since her Pop Idol days. In 2009 she became the lead singer of a jazz band called The Fontelles who play "weddings, parties and all functions". You can read more and check out some pics here.

8. Aaron Bayley (Website)

Elvis-loving Aaron wasn't heard of much in the immediate years after Pop Idol, but he eventually released a single Guardian Angel and album of the same name in 2007. The song's actually quite pleasant. After that, like Laura, he wound up working as a wedding singer. He is the lead singer of the Aaron Bayley Band. He did release another single, however, as part of a group called G*Mania last year. They toured the UK in a Glee tribute musical, and other stars included Stacey from S Club 8, Kavana and Andy Scott Lee! The video's quite a treat for pop/reality TV nerds.

9. Jessica Garlick (Website)

Although Jessica didn't get very far in the Pop Idol finals, she was remembered positively which helped her win the public vote to represent Eurovision in 2002. Her song Come Back was a classy pop ballad and gave us our best Euro result of the decade, coming joint third alongside ace Swedish singer Sahlene, who represented Estonia. She's now married with a daughter, but did make a comeback attempt in 2009. She released a single with a hilarious cheap video, and hasn't updated her website since.

10. Korben (Facebook)

Korben (real name Chris Niblett) made history in Pop Idol, as the first reality TV singer to come out as gay in the newspapers. He recorded some dance tracks soon after the show but had no success. He also made the local news in Bedford for drink-driving. At the time he said he was working for an "entertainments company" in Devon. Holiday camp, perhaps? He is now a make-up artist who has appeared on QVC and travels the world promoting Jemma Kidd's Makeup Academy. He has a terrible new hair-do.

Win tickets for The Saturdays tour AND see the future of pop!

2011-11-29T13:46:00.001Z

NOTE: This competition is now closed and the winners are... @_poplovedance @randomfurlong and @adammarkrobson!! Well done and I hope you enjoy the show!

If you love a good girlgroup then you may be interested in the competition I'm running this week on This Must Be Pop. I've got tickets to give away to The Saturdays' upcoming arena tour, where they will be supported by ace new girl duo Oh My! That's seven girlband members for the price of five!

To enter to win, simply sign up to my Future Pop mailer, which informs you of the most exciting new pop talent every week. Once you've done so, tweet me @poptastic to let me know. Or if you've already signed up just tweet your followers encouraging them to sign up using the link http://bit.ly/futurepop and mention @poptastic to make sure I see it. There will be three winners who will receive a pair of tickets to their choice of the following tour dates:

Mon 05-Dec-2011 - Cardiff Arena
Tue 06-Dec-2011 - Brighton Centre
Fri 09-Dec-2011 - Manchester MEN Arena
Sat 10-Dec-2011 - Newcastle Arena
Mon 12-Dec-2011 - Nottingham Arena
Thu 15-Dec-2011 – Sheffield Arena
Fri 16-Dec-2011 - London Wembley Arena

You have until Friday 2nd Dec at 12pm to enter. Good luck!

The Gossip

2011-11-29T13:08:00.000Z

I've decided to start up a new occasional feature on This Must Be Pop, sharing some of the interesting gossip I pick up on my travels around Planet Pop. Nothing malicious, just fun!

This week I've heard that the following pop stars are nice: Little Mix, Mohombi, Jamie from One True Voice. I also met the brothers from Twenty Twenty who were much nicer than their music (sorry boys), and Michael Kiwanuka who seemed very friendly.

Pop stars I've heard aren't so nice this week: Cher Lloyd (but I still love her!), Janet Devlin, Daniel from One True Voice. Luckily, I haven't met any not nice pop stars this week.

Swedish pop fans may soon have a new fave British band. The Face (formerly Pandering and the Golddiggers) have been working with Anders Hansson and Alexander Bard this week, and they've been hanging out with Le Kid! I'm sooo jealous!!

At last week's Showcase Live I got mistaken for a member of ace girlband Parade, and was even made to have my picture taken with this very confused lady. I think she must have had quite a few drinks!

The burgers at the Record of the Day awards could have done with a bit more sauce.

This Must Be Pop brings you Future Pop! (Issue #08)

2011-11-28T12:54:00.001Z

Hello and welcome to the eighth Future Pop mailer from This Must Be Pop! Sign up here for the weekly email featuring the hottest new pop songs and artists that you need to know about. Then read on, listen up and make sure you tweet me @poptastic to let me know what you think of my picks!

Future Stars

Naomi Scott (TBC)

Super-talented singer/actress Naomi had a few close calls with UK success, even recording with Xenomania, but she's probably glad that didn't work out now as she's fast becoming a huge teen star in the US. A small part in a UK Disney show led to a bigger role in Disney's TV musical Lemonade Mouth, and now Naomi plays a main character in Spielberg's latest TV drama Terra Nova. She's sure to get many more big acting roles after this, but I hope her music isn't put aside. She's got a strong, soulful voice and is a great performer. Here's a school performance that really shows her talent. Her career's progressed so much in the last year I can't wait to see what will happen for Naomi in 2012.

Mohombi (Island)

Last time I wrote about Mohombi it was in shock/amusement at his reinterpretation of The Cranberries' song Zombie, where he replaced the chorus lyrics with "who's in your bed? Mohombi!" The ridiculousness has been toned down since to "who's in your head? Mohombi!" and the production of the track has hugely improved since the leaked demo. In fact, I think In Your Head could actually be a hit. As a RedOne protegée I had high expectations for Mohombi and he's certainly more on the Akon than Gaga side of RedOne's work, but it's good fun catchy music and I do think we're going to be in need of a bit of silliness in 2012 so there could well be a place in the UK charts for Mohombi.

Chelcee (RCA)

I've been following Liverpudlian teen singer Chelcee Grimes for almost two years now and it finally looks like she might be ready to release something in early 2012. After building up a YouTube following she was signed to RCA in 2010 and played pop festivals all over the UK in 2011. You can hear some of her brilliant urban-pop songs on her MySpace which will definitely appeal to anyone who liked Soundgirl's singles, and get to know her better on YouTube. It's great to see her transform from a normal girl singing in her bedroom to a polished performer, and she's got a lot of personality so I think she will make a great fun pop star. Now we just have to wait to hear her debut single and hope it's as good as the demos!

Future Hits

This week's playlist features five of the songs I think will be post-Christmas hits:

Click here to watch

Tracklisting:

Lana Del Rey - Born To Die
Gotye ft. Kimbra - Somebody That I Used To Know
Cover Drive - Twilight
One Direction - One Thing
Professor Green - Never Be A Right Time

New Pop On The Block

2011-11-23T11:00:00.000Z

Vox Halo ft. La Dolla - Criminal (Watch)
I've been going on about her for months and finally we got to hear La Dolla's debut single and get a glimpse of her popstar persona last night as the video for Criminal was released! Although Criminal is very pop, it seems EMI are positioning La Dolla as a dance act. They appear to have invented an act called Vox Halo to release this song with La Dolla as the featured vocalist, rather than actually billing it as La Dolla even though the video was uploaded to La Dolla's YouTube channel. I was particularly excited about this song as it was written by Thomas Troelsen (this excitement is explained here) and to be fair it's not his greatest accomplishment, but I'm very happy to see him working with UK artists and Criminal has potential to be a big dance hit.
76% Poptastic!

Professor Green FT. ED DREWETT!! - Never Be A Right Time (Listen)
After reaching no.1 with his Emeli Sandé duet, Professor Green goes down a more acoustic-y route for the next single, similar to Don't Go by Wretch 32. It lacks the drama and punch of Read All About It (written by Sparx from Triple 8, fact fans!), but it will be great to hear the fantastic Ed Drewett on the radio again and his bits are lovely. It's only a shame that now Ed is no longer with EMI (also Pro Green's label), he isn't credited as featuring on this track like he was when he was an EMI artist and featured on the Professor's breakthrough hit I Need You Tonight. I hope he will get the recognition for it anyway and will be able to perform on any promotional TV appearances, although the fact that he doesn't appear in this video isn't promising.
68% Poptastic!

This Must Be Pop brings you Future Pop! (Issue #07)‏

2011-11-21T17:30:00.000Z

Hello and welcome to Future Pop! Sign up here to receive the weekly email featuring the hottest new pop songs and artists that you need to know about. Then read on, listen up and make sure you tweet me @poptastic to let me know what you think of my picks!

This Must Be Pop Live

Thanks to everyone who came down to This Must Be Pop Live on Tuesday! It was great fun and the acts performing, Rachel Furner and The Jess Hall Band, definitely won over lots of new fans. Read more about it here and look out for news coming soon about the next event, which will take place on January 17th.

Future Stars

Angel (Island)

MTV recently announced two of the nominees for their Brand New for 2012 award and fans of UK urban music should already be aware of one of them, a singer, songwriter and producer known as Sirach Charles to his family and friends, or Angel to his fans. The 23 year old has been building buzz for the release of his debut album About Time by writing for other artists, including Roll Deep, Pixie Lott and Jason Derulo, and putting out mixtapes and singles such as Julie and Popstar. Musically you could certainly call him the 2010s version of Craig David, but his tough, street look makes him much edgier. He could easily be as big as Craig was, though.

Wonder Girls (Major US label TBC)

K-Pop is starting to seriously make waves outside of Korea and a few acts are set to aim for international success in the next year. One of those is Wonder Girls, who since their launch via an MTV Korea reality series in 2007 have earned 12 billion South Korean won (£6.7 million). They have supported the Jonas Brothers on their US tour and were the first Korean act to reach the Billboard Hot 100, with their 2009 single Nobody. In 2012 they will release their first US album, which they've been recording with Claude Kelly and Rodney Jerkins, and star in a TV series for the US channel Teen Nick. I'm dubious whether the US teen market will lap up a K-Pop act but it's great to see them being accepted and promoted by such a mainstream brand as Nickelodeon.

Lianne La Havas (Labour Of Love/Warner Bros)

Since Corinne Bailey Rae's second album sunk without a trace, the music industry has been in want of a charming mixed-race female singer of sweet, radio-friendly soulful pop. Luckily for mums and people who need to buy Christmas presents for their mums, although not so luckily for Corinne, Lianne La Havas has arrived. The 22 year old former backing vocalist has been signed for two years but only released her first EP last month and flew pretty much under the radar until she performed on Jools Holland a few weeks ago and instantly became The Next Big Thing. Her music is enjoyable on its own but her captivating performance style is what will make her a star, as long as she gets a few more high profile TV spots so the public can experience it.

Future Hits

This week's theme for my playlist is hits for the party season... and the aftermath!

Click here to listen

Tracklisting:

Will I Am feat Mick Jagger & Jennifer Lopez – T.H.E.
Swedish House Mafia vs. Knife Party - Antidote
JLS - Do You Feel What I Feel?
Taio Cruz feat Flo-Rida - Hangover
Chase & Status & Sub Focus - Flashing Lights ft. Takura

Thanks for reading - I'll be back next Monday with more Future Pop! Subscribe here so you don't miss out, and don't forget to email and tweet me with your thoughts on the songs and artists above, and any suggestions for next week.

The K-Pop Takeover Is Coming!

2011-11-21T16:30:00.000Z

The number of international fans of Korean pop (aka K-Pop) has been growing for the past few years and it looks set to explode in 2012. This article by MTV's pop expert Sam Lansky is a great introduction to what it's all about and how the trend is spreading in the US. K-Pop groups are also building up a huge following in the UK now - you might even say it's replaced metal as the geek's favourite musical genre, and for that we have to say THANK YOU KOREA!!!

In December one of the biggest Korean talent agencies, Cube Entertainment, will be bringing a selection of their top artists to the UK to perform at The Brixton Academy (find out more and get tickets here). I'm hoping to go along so have been researching the acts on the line-up, and here are my reviews of them all:

4Minute

This girl group were the only act on the line-up I'd heard of before. They've been around since 2009 and have released three mini albums and one full length album. They have caused controversy with some provocative dance moves and lyrics, but compared to typical Western artists they seem fairly tame. Their music videos are colourful, sometimes with a storyline (the one for Heart To Heart is hilarious), and although the group has one lead singer the others show their different characters through their outfits. My favourite is the rapper Sohyun, the youngest at age 17, who brings the most personality to her parts in the songs (such as listed here).

BEAST

Originally known as B2ST (Boys 2 Search for Top), this boyband changed their name to BEAST (Boys of East Standing Tall) and played on both names for their debut album Beast is the B2ST. They broke through in 2009 and in 2010 got their first no.1 in Korea with Shock, which I think is one of the best male K-Pop songs I've heard, although my favourite BEAST video has to be Bad Girl which is brilliantly camp. They call their sound "rocktronic" as it's a mix of rock and electronic music, but they also sing ballads which have gotten them a reputation as one of the best male vocal groups in K-Pop. They even released a slowed down version of one of their hits, Easy, called Easy (Sincere Version)!

G.NA

G.NA is a Korean-Canadian girl named (you guessed it) Gina who was originally set to be part of a girlgroup, but when that project fell apart she was taken on as a solo act. Her positioning is quite sweet and girly, with shiny pink outfits and ballads that sound like Martine McCutcheon. Of the three acts I would say she's the least interesting as her music is a little bland compared to the others, although recent single Top Girl is a bit more poptastic so could be the beginning of a more fun G.NA. Also I did enjoy this video interview where she talks about her experience as a Korean popstar having grown up in Canada.

My Songs of the Week

2011-11-21T15:32:00.001Z

Every day I post an amazing pop song on my Tumblr and call it my Song of the Day. Here are this week's picks:

Review: This Must Be Pop Live!

2011-11-16T14:04:00.001Z

After much preparation and excitement last night saw the launch of my live pop night, This Must Be Pop Live. Everything went to plan and the venue was packed with pop fans checking out some ace new talent. Here's what went on...

First up we had a live performance from indie-pop newcomers The Jess Hall Band:

They played some new tracks off their EP (released next month), their lovely single Play Shy and a cover of a song by Angus and Julia Stone. It was one of the group's first London gigs but they were super-professional and everyone was stopping me to say how talented they were after the performance.

Next on stage was solo pop singer-songwriter Rachel Furner:

I'd previously only seen Rachel perform at The Roundhouse so it was great to see her at a more intimate venue, and her powerful vocals blew everyone away! She played a mix of fun pop songs and belting ballads, and won over the crowd with her between-songs banter. She's definitely got some new super-fans after last night.

The night ended with a DJ set by Gwenno from The Pipettes who played a mix of big pop tunes and new indie-pop tracks, including Buffalo Stance by Neneh Cherry and I'm His Girl by Friends.

Thanks to Tina for the photos (check out more pics on her blog very soon!) and to Jon and Jules who helped on the night. And everyone who came along of course - I hope you all had a great time. Now I need to get planning the next one!!

Today's the Day!

2011-11-15T12:23:00.001Z

Hope to see you this evening!

This Must Be Pop brings you Future Pop! (Issue #06)‏

2011-11-14T18:34:00.001Z

Hello and welcome to the sixth Future Pop mailer from This Must Be Pop! Sign up here for your weekly email featuring the hottest new pop songs and artists that you need to know about. So read on, listen up and make sure you tweet me @poptastic to let me know what you think of my picks!

This Must Be Pop Live

Tomorrow is the big day - This Must Be Pop Live is finally here!! Come along to The Workshop in Hoxton from 7.30pm to see ace new acts Rachel Furner and The Jess Hall Band perform live and catch a DJ set from retro-pop royalty The Pipettes. I can't wait! Click here to find out more and let me know if you're coming.

Future Stars

EJ (Epic)

EJ is Edwina Johnson, born in Sweden but now based in London, set to put all the other wannabe Neneh Cherrys of 2011 to shame. Her stripped back gospelly debut single Mama I'm Gonna Sing is now available to preview online, and it gives listeners a glimpse of EJ's talent. Don't be fooled by this simple, subtle first move, however - I've had a preview of what is likely to be her second single, and it's a huge bombastic urban pop track which perfectly answers the question of where pop music should go next. And if it's the massive hit I think it could be, every other pop act will be following EJ's musical lead in 2012.

Azealia Banks (Unsigned)

Azealia may be currently unsigned but she's certainly not undiscovered. Her London gig last week was attended by all the major labels and it's rumoured she'll sign to Interscope very soon. My rap expertise is limited so I can only describe her style as fast and very rude. If they tried to edit buzz track 212 for daytime radio it would end up either an instrumental or about 30 seconds long. Perhaps because of her music's innovative production or because Azealia is a pretty girl who sometimes raps in a wet swimsuit, her popularity seems to be stemming from indie blogs more than the rap community. Although indie fans may have a stronger voice in the media, it's rap and hip hop fans who get songs in the charts so she'll need them on side too in order to achieve any major success.

Mindless Behaviour (Interscope)

It's only a matter of time before America follows the UK in welcoming back the boyband phenomenon, and of the current contenders the adorable/ridiculous Mindless Behaviour have to be my favourite. They're an urban boyband rather than pure pop which may mean their appeal isn't as broad as the Backstreet Boys or *N Sync, but they've been building up a fanbase through school gigs, support tours and of course social media. Their music isn't just for kids - although the lyrics are PG and the autotuned vocals a little higher pitched, you couldn't otherwise differentiate their music from that of grown up urban-pop artists. Like Justin Bieber and Willow Smith they manage to be cool with their cuteness and their album recently debuted at no.7 in the US charts. Not as high as BSB or *N Sync's debuts but only by a few chart positions!

Future Hits

This week's theme for my Future Hits playlist is songs that I predict will be hits in the US.

Click here to listen

Tracklisting:

Big Time Rush - Music Sounds Better With You
Mateo ft. Alicia Keys & Swizz Beatz – Say It’s So
Rihanna - You Da One
Katy Perry - The One That Got Away
Drake ft. Nicki Minaj - Make Me Proud

Hopefully I'll see you tomorrow for This Must Be Pop Live and I'll be back next Monday with more Future Pop! In the meantime check out This Must Be Pop for loads more like this and don't forget to email and tweet me with your thoughts on the songs and artists above, and any suggestions for next week.

My Songs of the Week

2011-11-07T18:31:00.000Z

Every day I post an amazing pop song on my Tumblr and call it my Song of the Day. Here are this week's picks:

This Must Be Pop brings you Future Pop! (Issue #05)

2011-11-07T17:04:00.000Z

Still not signed up to my Future Pop mailer? Here's a taste of what you're missing!

Future Pop is your weekly email featuring the hottest new pop songs and artists that you need to know about. So read on, listen up and make sure you tweet me @poptastic to let me know what you think of my picks!

Future Stars

Ariana Grande (Universal Republic)

Her name may so far only be known to kids and Nickelodeon employees, but the signs are already in place that Ariana Grande could be the next big teen star. The 18 year old singer/actress started her career on Broadway 3 years ago and has since made her name in the kids TV world as one of the main characters in Victorious. She has also cleverly cemented her teen popularity by posting cover videos on YouTube which have huge viewcounts, one even reaching 14 million views! She's pretty with personality, glamorous but normal, the perfect teen star. It's no surprise she's already the idol of an army of young girls. Ariana's currently working on her first single and album to be released in 2012.

Rita Ora (Roc Nation)

If you're looking for the new Rihanna then there can be no better bet than Rita Ora. Although she was born in Kosovo and grew up in London (including studying at Sylvia Young's) she was spotted and signed up by Jay-Z's label Roc Nation in 2009. Since then she's been recording her debut album with some of the world's best, including Rihanna collaborators Stargate, Tricky Stewart, Drake (she even starred in his video for Over) and Chase and Status. Although her incubation period seems endless, with such huge names involved there's no chance her label will give up on her now. Plus she's got a great look, a great voice and is still only 20 years old. Remember this girl's name!

Beatrice Eli (Unsigned)

Although Beatrice is Swedish she's been signed up by Levels, the British management company who look after Yasmin and Wretch 32. Her sound certainly fits better with the UK music scene than the Swedish one at the moment, but taster track The Conqueror has a powerful, memorable melody that any Swedish songwriter would be proud of. She says she likes "strong lyrics and hooks" with "an interesting production" and it shows in The Conqueror. The song was co-written with Astma and Rocwell, who've worked with top Swedish pop acts like Vincent, Amanda Jenssen and September. Beatrice's mysterious cool combined with her collaborators' pop credentials has created something pretty special, so I hope they continue to work together on her debut album.

Future Hits

This week's theme for my Future Hits playlist is album tracks that I think should be released as singles.

Click here to listen

Tracklisting:

Alexandra Stan - Bittersweet
Demi Lovato - Hold Up
Cher Lloyd - Playa Boi
The Wanted - Last To Know
Birdy - White Winter Hymnal

See you next Monday for more Future Pop! In the meantime check out This Must Be Pop for loads more like this and don't forget to email and tweet me with your thoughts on the songs and artists above, and any suggestions for next week.

The Next Big Thing?

2011-11-04T18:14:00.000Z

Spector
I was going to save writing about Spector until my A-Z of 2012 (my judgement on all the acts predicted for new year success) in January, but as more and more people are blogging and tweeting about them they are becoming the elephant in the indie-pop room. If I had to compare Spector to any musical era I would say they sound most like 2005, but it's not cool to be 6 years out of date so Spector are wisely going with a 50s image in their band photos and music videos so far. While there's nothing particularly exciting about Spector's music, it is a) hotly tipped and b) accessible for the average listener, allowing Mr and Ms Average to like something they are told is cool. That's a pretty good recipe for a hit, or at least for a slot on the Radio 1 playlist and a weekly appearance in the NME for the next few months.
Poptasticness: 56% Hit potential: 80%

Family of the Year
Now here's an indie-pop act I can really get behind! As soon as I heard the chorus to their new song St Croix, which rhymes ocean with motion and potion, I was totally on board. While Family of the Year are signed to an indie label and getting rave reviews from all sorts of indie blogs, their music's so catchy and uplifting it fully deserves to be labelled as pop. There have been several similar acts in recent years who've achieved varying levels of success, my favourite being Music Go Music and the best known being Polyphonic Spree. The timelessness of Family of the Year's music could hold them back as they can't be marketed as part of any trend but I'm confident that fans of happy-clappy indie-pop will be besotted with their new album when it comes out early next year.
Poptasticness: 82% Hit potential: 30%

New Pop On The Block

2011-11-03T17:29:00.000Z

Cover Drive - Twilight (Live)
Recently Cover Drive played one of their first ever UK shows at London urban night I Luv Live and the audience were treated to a performance of the band's new single Twilight. The performance is now online here to watch. Amanda is a great frontwoman but being part of a band helps set her apart from the many female urban-pop soloists trying to be the next Rihanna. Twilight has a catchy chorus but as a whole isn't as strong as their debut single Lick Ya Down, so I think they'll have a hard time recreating its top 10 chart success, but I hope they achieve enough to at least get their album released. With great writers such as Wayne Hector, Steve Mac, Ina Wroldsen and Future Cut involved, there's bound to be some great pop songs on there.
70% Poptastic!

Amy Winehouse - Our Day Will Come (Listen)
This is the track approved by Amy's family to be released as the first single from the new album Lioness: Hidden Treasures, a compilation of unreleased or little-known songs Amy worked on during her music career. Our Day Will Come is a cover of a 1960s hit by a band called Ruby & the Romantics, and was recorded by Amy back in 2002. It's great to hear her vocals at their best, but sad to think of what was ahead for Amy when this recording took place. I've always liked Amy's music but was nowhere near her no.1 fan, so I would feel a fraud to pretend I was now she's dead, but I think this is a great choice of song to release. With proceeds going to the charity set up in Amy's name for young addicts, the Lioness album is sure to be a huge seller this Christmas - maybe it will even stop Adele from getting the Christmas album no.1!
76% Poptastic!

This Must Be Pop Live: Introducing The Jess Hall Band

2011-11-03T15:32:00.000Z

One of the acts performing at the first ever This Must Be Pop Live on 15th Nov is The Jess Hall Band. They are a group of Wiltshire teenagers including singer Jess and her band, Stefan, Alex and Andy, and their song Play Shy is currently the BBC Introducing song of the week on the Radio 1 playlist! I did a little Q&A with Jess to get to know a bit more about them...

For those who haven't heard of you before, can you sum up The Jess Hall Band in 5 words?

Young, acoustic-ish, best-mates, folky-popish-indie (I've merged all that into one word), fresh!

If you become huge famous popstars in 2012, what will you buy your mums for Christmas?

Jess - Mum would be happy with a candle that smells nice or something, dad however would definitely request a big ol' boat that goes really fast!

Stef - A house pig. It's a pig, that lives in your house.

Alex - A house, straight up.

Andy - According to Jess, he'd probably completely forget to buy anything for Christmas regardless of how much money he had!

What is your favourite song in the charts at the moment?

I'm really liking Charlene Soraia's cover of Wherever You Will Go, s'pretty nice! I think we all agree that we are loving everything Ben Howard's putting out there!!!

If you could have one famous person to star in your next music video, who would it be and why?

Karl Pilkington from An Idiot Abroad! He'd refuse to do anything but stand there and look grumpy, but that would be the beauty of it hahaha, would be too funny.

What can we expect from your set at This Must Be Pop Live?

Hopefully you'll enjoy it, and hopefully you'll go away humming a tune of ours! Hope you like us!

For more details on This Must Be Pop Live click here.

This Must Be Pop Live: Less than 2 weeks to go!

2011-11-02T10:30:00.000Z

Just a little reminder that in 13 days from now your presence will be expected at the following event - yes, even if you live in Australia. £1000 is a fair price for a Pipettes DJ set, right?

Thanks to Emmie for designing that amazing poster!

Click here to find out more and let me know if you're coming. And remember if you want half price tickets simply tweet the link http://bit.ly/tmbplive and you will be automatically added to my guestlist!

A1: Still First In The A-Z Of Pop!

2011-11-01T20:44:00.000Z

Last night I got to be part of something pretty special. After 10 years, one of pop's greatest boybands returned to the UK for their first gig as a reformed group. A1 broke up in 2002 after Paul left the group, and none of the members saw solo success in the UK. However, as Norwegian member Christian remained popular in his home country, the band (except for Paul) reunited in 2009 for a few gigs, which eventually led to a brand new album and four hit singles in Norway. Last night, two years after reforming, they finally performed again in the country where the group originated, and while they may not be selling out The O2 like Take That or Steps, the response from the audience showed there's definitely still a lot of love for A1.

When Ben, Mark and Christian took the stage, playing their second no.1 hit Same Old Brand New You to an ecstatic crowd, I felt oddly emotional knowing how much this moment must mean to them. Since A1's heyday I've learnt a lot about the ups and downs of pop. When I loved A1 and their contemporaries I looked in from the outside, but now I know people who are currently part of successful groups, and others who have had it and lost it. Anyone who watched Steps' recent Living TV series will know how quickly a pop career can be taken away. Only the most established band members can succeed alone, and even then that solo success doesn't tend to last long - see Gary Barlow, Rachel Stevens and Brian McFadden for just a few examples.

With A1 only releasing three albums and lasting for three years, there was little chance for them as soloists, but as a group they had gone out on a high with one of their biggest hits, Caught In The Middle, as their penultimate single. It may not have felt like it when the follow-up Make It Good (which I actually loved!) entered the chart at no. 11, but the doors were always open for A1 to make a comeback when they and their fanbase were ready. And when Same Old Brand New You began to play last night, both parties were more than ready.

Usually when bands reform and record a new album, they play more of their new material than their hits, especially if their earlier music could be considered dated or cheesy. But not A1! They knew exactly what their fans would want to hear, and made sure no-one went home disappointed. I couldn't believe it when they played their first two cheese-tastic singles Be The First To Believe and Summertime Of Our Lives, and later ditched their instruments for dance routines to perform Ready Or Not. They even played fan favourite album tracks Learn To Fly and One More Try, and their one rubbish single Like A Rose, which Ben confusingly introduced as their best song. On reflection, I have concluded that he must have been joking. The gig ended with an encore including their biggest Norwegian hit from the new album, Don't Wanna Lose You Again, and the songs they are most remembered for: Take On Me and Caught In The Middle.

While A1 weren't my biggest obsession the first time around (I was more of a BSBs/*N Sync fan), I listened to their music regularly in the intervening years and was even more impressed by their 2010 album Waiting For Daylight. I reviewed it on release and have been persuading people to listen to it ever since. It's a great comeback album as the new music acknowledges that they and their fans are now ten years older, while also retaining enough of the sound that made them successful in the first place. Plus it was produced in Norway, which automatically puts them a couple of years ahead of the musical trends. The first thing I thought when I heard The Wanted's music was "ooh, it sounds like the new A1 album!" and no-one can deny that the vocals on the new One Direction single sound just like Ben.

Although last night's audience were naturally not as enthusiastic for the new music as the classics, every conversation I overheard on the way out was about how to get the new album and whether it would be released in the UK. While I think Waiting For Daylight is a great pop album, A1 don't have enough clout to simply put it out in the UK and expect success, especially as most of their big fans will already have it. They will need a platform to make sure that all their old fans (and hopefully some new ones) know they're back, and that the new music is worth a listen. I suggest getting themselves on the Steps tour as a support act, and getting a few new songs on the album for the UK release. This will ensure hardcore fans buy another copy and give them a chance to find a lead single, as the album is currently full of 8/10 tracks but no 9s or 10s.

Regardless of what happens next for A1, whether their new album is released here without fanfare or leads to a great new chapter of their pop story in the UK, they have made a dignified return and found a place for themselves on the current musical landscape. Not one person could have left last night's gig without thinking it was a success, so there will undoubtedly be more UK gigs and I'll definitely be in attendance. I highly recommend you join me!

This Must Be Pop brings you Future Pop! (Issue #04)‏

2011-10-31T17:00:00.000Z

Want to get a weekly email featuring the hottest new pop songs and artists that you need to know about? Sign up to my Future Pop mailer! Here's this week's, in case you need a bit more convincing...

Future Stars

Amanda Mair (Labrador)

Swedish female singers are perhaps the only artists loved equally by indie and pop blogs, and Amanda Mair has already found herself featured by Popjustice and Scandipop as well Largehearted Boy and The Line of Best Fit. She's not yet well known in her home country, but the success of Swedish artists at home and abroad does not often correlate. Signed to Labrador, the Swedish label that houses a selection of indie artists whose fans somehow consistently mistake them for pop, Amanda Mair is certainly not the next Agnes or September. Her songs are pleasant but not life-changing, however Amanda herself is a beautiful 16 year old girl with a lovely voice. Paired with a great songwriter, her potential would be limitless - I just hope her label and the snobbier side of her fanbase don't hold her back.

Zuzu (Unsigned)

Punk is back! Well, maybe. It's been a while since we last heard from Sum 41 and every 15 year old girl in the country has a pair of DMs these days, so it could be a good moment for an act like Zuzu to break through. Zuzu is currently unsigned but managed by Big Life (Scissor Sisters, La Roux). She makes punk-influenced music with well-constructed, catchy choruses. She's a pretty girl and performs with panache, as shown in this YouTube video where she sings her best song Liverpool, an ode to her hometown, in the suitably punk location of a friend's house party. Check out the studio version and a moodier but still melodic track called Don't Do That (Breadcrumbs) on Soundcloud.

Courtney Bennett (Unsigned)

You may not have heard of her, but this 17-year-old singer/rapper already has over a million views on her YouTube channel. She's part of an emerging scene of young black artists making innovative urban pop in their bedrooms and I expect she will soon follow fellow London teens like MNEK and A*M*E in signing a major record deal. Courtney's currently working on a mixtape and I've noticed that Miranda Cooper of Xenomania, who rarely tweets, is following Courtney on Twitter. Could they be working together, I wonder? Historically not many British female rappers have done well in the charts, but with Courtney also being a talented singer and producer she could be the new generation's Ms Dynamite.

Future Hits

Here are my predictions for the songs we'll be hearing a lot of over the Christmas period. Could one of these even challenge the X Factor winner for the Christmas no.1 now that X Factor is losing viewers?

Click here to watch

Tracklisting:

One Direction - Gotta Be You
James Morrison feat Jessie J – Up
Justin Bieber - Under The Mistletoe
Rebecca Ferguson – Nothing's Real But Love
Flo Rida - Good Feeling

See you next Monday for more Future Pop! In the meantime don't forget to email and tweet me with your thoughts on the songs and artists above, and any suggestions for next week.

Top of the Poptastic!

2011-10-31T12:24:00.000Z

Here's this month's top 20 most poptastic singles according to me:

Lady Gaga – Marry The Night
Oh My! – Dirty Dancer
Eric Saade ft. Dev - Hotter Than Fire
Rihanna ft Calvin Harris - We Found Love
Selena Gomez - Hit The Lights
Tim James and Nevermind - Twist My Hips
Demi Lovato ft. Dev - Who's That Boy
Beyoncé - Love On Top
One Direction - Gotta Be You
Hafdis Huld - Pop Song
Blondfire - Where The Kids Are
Nicole Scherzinger - Try With Me
Taio Cruz - Troublemaker
Queen of Hearts - Shoot The Bullet
Arash - Melody
Shane Harper - Rocketship
Summer Camp – Down
Mindless Behavior ft. Diggy Simmons - Mrs. Right
Will Young – Come On
These Kids Wear Crowns - Jumpstart

My Songs of the Week

2011-10-30T13:48:00.000Z

Every day on my Tumblr I post a song I want to share with the world, whether it's new or old, a hit or a flop, a lead single or a demo that never got released. Any song qualifies, as long as it's poptastic!

Here are this week's choices:

Enjoy and make sure you follow me on Tumblr for more!

One Big Reason Why You Should Care About La Dolla!

2011-10-29T15:53:00.000+01:00

I've written about La Dolla a few times this month but we're yet to hear her first single. The anticipation is going to drive me crazy now as I've just found out it's written by Thomas Troelsen. Yes, you read that right: THOMAS TROELSEN!!!

OK, I know that doesn't mean anything to most of you, so it's time for one of my trusty YouTube playlists to get you acquainted with his work:

It's almost unbelievable that one person could be responsible for all that greatness, but Thomas Troelsen is. And I think we can all now agree that La Dolla is a very exciting prospect indeed. Her first single Criminal, written by Thomas, will be released in January and the video has already been filmed so should be online soon. If you're open to spoilers, check out this UK garage-ish remix and club mix (from 21:30 mins) of the track I just fished out of Google, which have been sent around to DJs as Vox Halo featuring La Dolla.

Bumper Album Review Post

2011-10-29T14:59:00.001+01:00

Patrick Stump - Soul Punk
I'm not a fan of either Fall Out Boy or Michael Jackson, so why I'd want to listen to the lead singer of Fall Out Boy impersonating Michael Jackson is beyond me... but I do! It all started with Patrick's debut solo single Spotlight, which I fell in love with last December, not even realising who the singer was. The ensuing obsession even inspired one of my most popular blog posts. His debut album was finally released this month, and while most of the tracks are just OK (which is still a huge improvement from the FOB days!) there is one in particular I'm obsessed with called I in Lie. It's dramatic, complex and ridiculous. It starts just interesting but builds into quite a pop masterpiece. Along with Spotlight, I in Lie shows what a great modern pop album this could have been if it was consistently at this level. Many of the other tracks have flashes of greatness too, so the album as a whole is worth checking out, but give Spotlight and I in Lie a listen first.

Aqua - Megalomania
Aqua's comeback album won't go down as a classic Europop album but in a year that's so far been quite lacking in catchy Euro goodness, it's a very welcome release. This album doesn't stand a chance of achieving the same success Aqua had in their heyday, but for fans who appreciated their two first albums (not just the comedy value of Barbie Girl) it's a very enjoyable combination of the band's original sound and the sound of 2011. You can see the RedOne influence in tracks like Viva Las Vegas and How R U Doin is exactly how you'd imagine David Guetta-inspired Aqua to sound. However, tracks such as Kill Myself and Sucker For A Superstar are classic Aqua. It's hard for any act to release a new album ten years after their original success, but I think Megalomania is a great follow-up to Aquarium and Aquarius, even if its name disappointingly doesn't begin with Aqua. Surely they could have gone with Aquatics or Aquaduct?

Nicola Roberts - Cinderella's Eyes
A Nicola Roberts solo album was something I never even dared to imagine could exist. She was my favourite in Popstars: The Rivals and remained my fave throughout Girls Aloud, but she was always known as the unpopular one (even if she was the clear fave among us pop nerds) so it seemed impossible she would get the chance to record a solo album. However it did happen and my dream that it would sound like Siobhan Donaghy wasn't even too far off the mark! If I'm honest, I'm not too keen on Nicola's newfound love of falsetto, but I love the style of music she has chosen for her solo work and I like every song on the album. I just think it would be perfect without the annoying high bits, so it's a bit sad that the opportunity for perfection has been missed. I've had the album for a few weeks and am no closer to picking my favourites, but recommend you listen to Say It Out Loud and Fish Out Of Water to get a taste of the fun and more mature sides of the album. Then buy it and support Nicola so next time, she can make that perfect album she's capable of!

Natalia Kills - Perfectionist
I was completely ambivalent toward Natalia Kills (apart from loving the fact that she used to be Verbalicious) until one day I had a random urge to listen to her album. I was surprisingly impressed and ended up listening to nothing else on my iPod for the rest of the week. While I still don't like Natalia as a pop persona, she's actually released a fantastic album. It's much more fun than she is and it's quite a shame it wasn't recorded by an artist who could take it to a wider audience, but at least those of us who bother to investigate can enjoy it. Most of the tracks have the dark themes Natalia is known for, but never at the loss of a catchy chorus. Girly shopping anthem Free sounds quite out of place, but is good enough that it doesn't matter. There's a hint of Gaga in most of the tracks and a definite 90s dance influence. For those who miss the days when we didn't have to share Gaga's music with everyone but the world's grumpiest losers, Perfectionist is a great album that we will probably never have to share with anyone but the most hardcore pop obsessives.

This Must Be Pop Live - half price entry!

2011-10-28T15:15:00.001+01:00

Help me spread the word about This Must Be Pop Live and get in for half price! The first 20 people to let their Twitter followers know about the event, which takes place on 15th Nov at The Workshop in Hoxton, will be added to a special guestlist so they can get in for just £2 on the night. You can tweet whatever you like, as long as it includes the link http://bit.ly/tmbplive. Get tweeting, and see you on the 15th!

This Must Be Pop brings you Future Pop! (Issue #03)‏

2011-10-24T16:40:00.001+01:00

If you haven't signed up to my Future Pop mailer yet, here's a taste of what you're missing:

Future Stars

Aleks Josh (Unsigned)

Every new artist I find at the moment seems to have an Ed Sheeran cover on their YouTube channel, but Aleks Josh's version of The A Team is the first to really impress me. Aleks is a confusing prospect, a muscly Serbian-British 17 year old boy with a gun tattooed on his arm and a fantastic voice. He would shoot through the rounds of X Factor but will do even better without it. Aleks is managed by Lou Al-Chamaa (who'll always be Leona Lewis' electrician ex to me) and has been recording with Talay Riley and Jester but there's no sign of a record deal or publishing contract at the moment. I doubt that will last long as this guy is far too talented to fail.

Daley (A&M)

This Mancunian hipster with a ridiculous haircut may be the best shot at creating a male Adele, with his strong soulful voice and strategic straddling of the UK urban and adult contemporary scenes. The Jools Holland crowd will love him but he's had strong support from sites like SBTV, RWD and Pinboard Blog too. Daley is best known so far for appearing on Gorillaz's Doncomatic and is working with Bernard Butler and Beyoncé collaborator Shea Taylor on his debut album. Although he appeared in the BBC Sound of 2011 top 15, he's yet to make his move on the UK charts but I reckon he could end up much more successful than James Blake or Jamie Woon, similar artists who both made the same list's top 5.

James Anderson (Unsigned)

12 is young to start any career, let alone one as tough as music, but James has the talent and confidence to do it, and of course his age is a great selling point in the Bieber era. James was a member of cute Britain's Got Talent boyband New Bounce, and has since built up a following on YouTube, even earning himself an A64 from SBTV. What impresses me is that he tackles songs like Nobody's Perfect and 1+1 without falling into the trap of turning the song into one big warble. Even many accomplished adult singers can't resist that temptation! If a record deal doesn't come his way, there will undoubtedly be a role for him in Thriller Live.

Future Hits

This week's theme for my Future Hits playlist is songs that could be hits if they were re-recorded by a different artist.

Click here to watch

Tracklisting:

The Pusher - Blinded By The Dark
Cash Cash - Victim Of Love
GCC - Mind It
Ulrik Munther - Fake It
Kerli - Speed Limit

See you next Monday for more pop from the future!

My Songs of the Week

2011-10-21T21:50:00.001+01:00

I've started a new feature on Tumblr this week, posting a great pop song every day whether it's a new fave, an old classic or something totally random that I just fancied sharing.

This week's picks:

Enjoy and make sure you follow me on Tumblr for more!

This Must Be Pop Live!

2011-10-21T16:16:00.000+01:00

Today I can finally announce that I'm doing something I've wanted to do for many years: Launching my own pop night! This Must Be Pop Live will take place on 15th Nov at The Workshop in Hoxton. The night will include live performances from two exciting new pop acts, Rachel Furner and The Jess Hall Band, a DJ set from pop legends The Pipettes and loads more fun stuff that will be revealed when you get there!

For full details and to let me know if you're coming, here's the Facebook event.

And here's an intro to each of the acts:

Rachel Furner

Rachel is a 19-year-old singer-songwriter signed to Mercury Records. Her music is intelligent, quirky pop, and has been heard in support slots for acts such as Pixie Lott and at festivals all over the UK. Rachel is set to release her debut album in 2012 and you can get a taste of what to expect from her performance on her YouTube channel.

The Jess Hall Band

This fun young group fronted by super-talented teenage singer Jess Hall have been playing gigs all over the UK for the past year and are now preparing to release their first EP Play Shy on December 5th. There's already lots of buzz about the group and their song is even going to be the BBC Introducing song of the week on Radio 1 at the end of this month.

The Pipettes

The Pipettes are a group I've supported for many years on This Must Be Pop so it's an honour to have them DJing at my first live event. They're set to release one of my favourites of their songs, Boo Shuffle, as a new single very soon and have just recorded the video. Check out all their fab videos so far in this YouTube playlist.

New Pop On The Block

2011-10-18T19:24:00.000+01:00

The Ting Tings - Hang It Up (Watch)
The Ting Tings are back... again! When a band's debut album is as successful as The Ting Tings' was, you expect there to be a fair bit of interest in the follow-up, however dull it is. Yet The Ting Tings' second album has been delayed continually after lead single Hands, despite being produced by Calvin Harris and being far from terrible, was a total flop. They're presumably hoping no-one remembers that as they now make another attempt to launch their second album with a new single called Hang It Up, the video for which has just gone online (despite their Wikipedia saying the next single would be a track called Silence). Hang It Up emphasises the band's punky side, which could be a cool direction for them if it wasn't quite so unsubtle. They look like they're in Sum 41/Avril Lavigne fancy dress and have clearly had the Beastie Boys on repeat for the whole year since their last comeback attempt. While this new sound and style at least makes more of a statement, I don't think it's the right one unfortunately. Ting Tings, meet the dumper!
46% Poptastic!

Rebecca Ferguson - Nothing's Real But Love (Listen)
Rebecca's debut single is exactly what I expected from her, but I'm still a bit disappointed. She could have emphasised her disco diva side, as demonstrated in her X Factor performances of Show Me Love and Sweet Dreams, or if she has to go down this Duffy route she could at least release a Mercy rather than a track that could have been released at any point in the last fifteen years, and in none of those years would it have been relevant. It's a perfect fit for regional radio and artists like James Morrison have done well enough releasing songs of this sort album after album. If she gets an X Factor performance and the label spend a lot on TV advertising, she could do pretty well in the Christmas present for mum market. But will anyone remember this song in a year's time? It may be enough to coast her through a reasonably well-selling debut album, but an artist of this sort needs at least one classic under their belt to keep selling albums and tours off the back of for years to come, and this definitely isn't going to do that for Rebecca.
51% Poptastic!

This Must Be Pop brings you Future Pop! (Issue #02)‏

2011-10-17T15:00:00.000+01:00

I've just sent out my second ever Future Pop mailer! If you sign up every Monday you will receive an email from me featuring the hottest new pop songs and artists that you need to know about. I've posted this week's here so you can get a taster of what to expect. So read on, listen up and make sure you tweet me @poptastic to let me know what you think of my picks!

Future Stars

A*M*E (Future)

You may be forgiven for not knowing that Gary Barlow has his own record label imprint as none of the acts so far have achieved much success (Aggro Santos is the closest), but his new status as X Factor judge may bring more interest to his 2012 launches. One of them is a tiny, pretty 16 year old singer called Amy, going by the artist name A*M*E - yep, she's bringing back the asterisk! There are no songs online yet but the fact that she's working with some very poptastic names, including Quiz & Larossi, Tim Powell and MNEK, is enough to make me very interested. Her list of influences, such as Janelle Monae, Rihanna and Madonna, also suggest she's on track to be one of my big faves of 2012. Let's just hope it doesn't turn out too VV Brown.

Kay (Interscope Canada)

Canadian singer/rapper Kay has to be the most fun new popstar I've discovered recently. She exudes charisma and attitude in her music, interviews and performances, and her blog shows she has a clear vision for where she sits in the pop world, a halfway point between Cher Lloyd and Robyn. Although Kay has only released one single, the brilliant My Name Is Kay, so far she has supported Ke$ha on tour and featured on a Tiesto track. She is working with dance producer Steve Aoki and M.I.A collaborator Blaqstarr on her debut album, as well as big pop names like Ryan Tedder and Evan Bogart. So come on Kay, when can we hear it??

Zernell Fontaine

The Bieber effect continues with more and more teen singers being signed by major labels, one example being Zernell Fontaine. This 14 year old is already a seasoned streetdancer so dance will certainly be a big part of his performances. He's cute and charismatic, and reminds me of US singer Jacob Latimore, but there are no live singing videos online yet so we'll have to see if he can carry off singing and dancing at the same time. It seems like Polydor are expecting big things from Zernell as they've even had him over in LA working with Bieber collaborators Stereotypes and August Rigo. If his first single is strong and he builds up a big fanbase in the months up to release, I could see him doing quite well, especially if he can keep the balance between his urban connections and teen appeal.

Future Hits

This week my top tips have a theme: International songs that could, and should, be hits in the UK. I've compiled them in a YouTube playlist for your enjoyment.

Click here to watch

Tracklisting:

Iffy the Bad Man - Do You

Christopher S ft. Max Urban - Star

September - Party In My Head

Parachute - What I Know

Gail Scott - Jack n Jill

See you next Monday for more pop from the future! In the meantime don't forget to email and tweet me with your thoughts on the songs and artists above, and any suggestions for next week.

Popping the Question: Is There Room For a New Girlband on Planet Pop?

2011-10-11T12:41:00.000+01:00

Girls Aloud are on hiatus, the Sugababes are on the verge of being dropped (for the third time) and The Saturdays aren't even getting no.2s anymore, let alone the no.1 that's always eluded them. Evidence would suggest that now is the perfect time for an amazing new girl group to step in and take over Planet Pop. However, over the past two years we've seen girlband launches of every conceivable kind (Parade, Soundgirl, Girls Can't Catch, Dollyrockers, RD, Mini Viva, Belle Amie...) and although some of them have had a bit of TV and radio coverage I'd be surprised if the average person on the street had heard of even one of these bands. So will this gaping girlband hole be filled and if so who is going to fill it? And can they hurry up? This is a pop emergency!

To work out how we might be able to solve this traumatic issue we must, as usual, look back at the pop of the past. The biggest British girlbands in my lifetime have been the Spice Girls and Girls Aloud, both five piece groups where each member stood out individually yet would never be seen without her gang of girls (until the "hiatus", obviously). We'll call this type of girlband Type A. These bands are all about having fun with your mates and their music fills that purpose too. It's music by girls for girls, and when it connects it has the potential to genuinely change the world. Similarly, the biggest international girlgroup of my lifetime, Destiny's Child, wove strong female empowerment messages into party anthems. If it was my choice, I would absolutely love for a new Type A girlband to come along right now, but as acts such as The Saturdays and Girl Thing have shown this phenomenon can't be easily manipulated.

Although I don't think they have the potential to connect in as big a way as Type A, there is another type of girlband who can be extremely successful. These bands, who I shall call Type B, are the alternative girlbands, whose appeal works in two ways: 1) Girls like them because they're not intimidatingly glamorous and suggest any girl can be in a girlband, 2) They are considered acceptable by cool-driven media such as Radio 1 and the music press. Individually these factors aren't that powerful, but combined they have proven enough to propel acts such as All Saints and the Sugababes to the top of the charts. These alternative groups tend to flourish at around the same time as a major Type A group, but in All Saints' case they followed the Spice Girls, providing a calmer, cooler equivalent, while the Sugababes' edginess gave Girls Aloud the opportunity to present the public with a more light-hearted option.

While Type A and Type B represent the most successful girlbands we've seen in the past two decades, there are plenty of other categories of girlband which can wield at least a one or two album wonder. The girlband-for-boys (e.g. Pussycat Dolls, Paradiso Girls), the girlband-for-mums (e.g. Dixie Chicks, Wonderland) and the trend-of-the-time-girlband (e.g. Mis-teeq - UK garage, The Faders - punk-pop) are just a few examples. As a girlband really is just a band made up of only girls, you could even call non-pop acts such as Hole, Salt N Pepa or Escala girlbands, though personally I'd rather save the title for those who appreciate it.

Of the recent slew of girlbands, we've had a mixture of attempts at Type A and Type B, and some such as Parade and Mini Viva who got off to a good start but suffered by being stuck in between the two, a confusing proposition when it comes to the point after the first hit single where the public are meant to get to know the band. If the music, the image and the personalities don't fit together there's no group identity for the public to buy into, and since pop groups function more like brands than any other type of music act, this is likely to be a fatal flaw. I believe for a new girlgroup to succeed, whether they are Type A or B, they need to know which type they are and run with it. But they also need to bring something new to the girlband genre because pop may work in patterns, but pop fans are cautious about who they'll put their bet on and no-one's going to pick a tired old cliché when they can have the new generation of exciting pop sensations.

We're certainly not short of contenders to fill the role of the 2010s' great girlband, and the job may or may not go to one of the current contenders. The WooWoos are in with a shot at Type B, and maybe even Parade could turn things around and be the Type A phenomenon I've always believed they should be. We must remember that both Girls Aloud and the Sugababes took a few albums to warm up. Perhaps there's an amazing new group just around the corner, or it could be that we've still got a while to wait for our next major girlband fix. But with Girls Aloud set to make a big comeback in 2012, I'm hoping that they'll get the public in the mood for a girlband revival, just like Take That's re-emergence signified the end of the 2000s boyband drought. Come on girls, the future of female pop is resting on your return!

The Next Big Thing?

2011-10-10T18:35:00.000+01:00

La Dolla
Back in 2009 I blogged about a new girlgroup called Silhouettes who had some serious pop potential, but sadly they faded into obscurity soon after. One of the members, Yulanda Lindsay, appeared on MySpace a while later under the name of DollFace and her music was featured by Popjustice among others, with Ms Jamaica being the clear stand-out track. However, she once again faded into obscurity... until now!! It turns out Yulanda was signed by EMI, has changed her stage name to La Dolla and is set to reveal her new music at any moment. Hooray! For now all we have is a sparse blog and a picture where she looks like Rochelle from The Saturdays meets Scary Spice, but there's definitely not enough scariness in our pop divas today so I'm feeling quite hopeful about this one.
Poptasticness and hit potential TBC

Bebe Black
With a voice that sounds like Shingai Shoniwa (if you're being optimistic) or Duffy (if you're being cynical), Columbia's recent signing Bebe Black is the next Radio 2 postergirl. The few photos I've found suggest Bebe is a little older than your average pop starlet but that won't matter to her target audience. And she's still probably younger than Paloma Faith, to be fair. She's clearly a talented singer and the tracks on her MySpace are well-written and reasonably poptastic. However, I can see her just as easily being the new Candie Payne as the new Adele. I'd be more likely to bring up One More Chance on Spotify than I would Chasing Pavements, but I think we can all agree I'm in a very small minority there. Just me and Mark Ronson, basically.
Poptasticness: 59% Hit potential: 64%

This Must Be Pop brings you Future Pop! (Issue #01)‏

2011-10-10T14:44:00.000+01:00

Today I sent out my first ever Future Pop mailer! Woohoo! In case you missed me going on about it over the past few days, this is a brand new email newsletter I've set up which will go out every Monday from now on. As a subscriber you will receive an email from me featuring the hottest new pop songs and artists you need to know about. And if you're not yet convinced, you can check out the first one right here in blog form. So read on, listen up and click here if you wanna sign up for more!

Future Stars

WooWoos (Island)

With a band name like WooWoos and a song called Fizzy Lettuce, I was expecting this new girlgroup to be a 2011 version of The Faders but that turned out to be far from accurate. Fizzy Lettuce is a bit too serious for my tastes but gets pleasantly Siobhan Donaghy-esque as it goes on. Speaking of Siobhan, there's a clear attempt to recreate first album Sugababes with WooWoos, and many of the same people are involved. Fizzy Lettuce suggests they'll come a lot closer than any of the other recent girlbands who've tried. However, it has been proven many a time that pop hits are not achieved by following formulas so WooWoos will need to find their own path if they want to match the Sugababes' success. And their label needs to remember not to drop them too quickly if they don't sell millions on the first album!

Sinead Harnett (Unsigned)

Any label searching for the next Jessie J should take a look at Sinead Harnett. She has a fantastic voice, similar to Jessie's, and model looks - all she needs is some good songs and a USP. As acts like Yasmin have shown, being talented isn't enough even if you're pretty too. However, if Yasmin had released a track like Emeli Sandé's Heaven, I think a star would have been born. That combination of talent, looks and a great song is what Sinead will need to stand out from the rest. She's already recorded a video for SBTV and appeared on a Wiley album track, so her name is becoming known in the urban world, but I think she has potential to be a major crossover artist if the right place can be found for her on the pop landscape.

Jake Bugg (Mercury)

While his music is not something I'd put on my ipod, I had an instant feeling when I came across one of Jake Bugg's performances on YouTube a few months ago that he was a star in the making. And it seems I wasn't the only one to think so, as I later found out he'd been signed to Mercury Records around the same time. He'll probably be usurped into the "new boring" trend simply by being a young guy whose music should be on Radio 2 yet somehow finds itself on Radio 1, but he's got a bit of swagger despite his youthful shyness which keeps him interesting. His music could do with a few more hooks, but he's got the raw talent and unique musical persona (a teenage lad from Nottingham who performs like a Rolling Stone) so all he needs now is a couple of songs good enough to get on the Radio 1 playlist and he'll have a no.1 album within a year.

Future Hits

Here are my top tips for future hits, compiled in a handy YouTube playlist!

Click here to watch

Tracklisting:

Taio Cruz - Troublemaker
T-Pain feat Wiz Khalifa & Lily Allen - 5 O'Clock
Pixie Lott - What Do You Take Me For
Lucenzo featuring Don Omar - Danza Kuduro
Sneakbo - The Wave

Please note, these are my hit predictions, NOT the songs I want to be hits! But that was probably obvious from the extreme terribleness of most of them :(

See you next Monday - hopefully with some better songs to predict for success! In the meantime don't forget to email and tweet me with your thoughts on the songs and artists above, and any suggestions for next week.

Future Pop: Coming To Your Inbox!

2011-10-05T22:08:00.000+01:00

If you want to be the first to know about all the most exciting new pop songs and artists then you might be interested in signing up to my new mailing list! As a subscriber you will get exclusive tips from me in your inbox every Monday including signed and unsigned acts, hot pre-release tracks and the best new singles from around the world.

Click here to sign up and look out for the first email on Monday!

The Next Big Thing?

2011-10-04T15:51:00.001+01:00

Foxes
With Marina, Yadi, Alex Winston and more, Neon Gold is getting a reputation for signing female singer-songwriters with long dark hair and electro tendencies. For some people another of the same will be too much, but in my world there's always room for more if they've got some good pop songs up their sleeve, and all four of the tracks on Foxes' website show great potential. Make sure you listen through to the fourth song, Night Owls Early Birds, as it's my instant favourite. Not to be confused with the Brighton band Foxes! who I wrote about back in January last year, this Foxes is a 21 year old Londoner called Louisa Allen. No relation to Lily as far as I can tell. Her inspirations include Bat For Lashes and Kate Bush, which certainly shows, but it's exciting to have a new Bat For Lashes type on the scene as I felt that her last album could have done with a lot more poptasticness. It looks like Foxes could be the one to fill in and provide it for us.
Poptasticness: 79% Hit potential: 42%

Delilah
She's getting a lot of buzz at the moment, but I really can't even feign an interest in Delilah. Since people started murmuring about the return of trip-hop the release schedules have been filled with girls whimpering over snoozesome electro music. Yasmin had a promising moment with Finish Line, but otherwise I think we'd all be much happier if Siobhan Donaghy's career was resurrected instead. Her music sounds like this but much better, so it makes perfect sense! Delilah seems to be the most boring of this genre yet. She even manages to make Chaka Khan's Ain't Nobody, which she takes lyrics from for her current single Go, sound dull. She's a good singer but that means nothing without good songs or charisma, and Delilah has neither. She's already hanging about on the Radio 1 A List, and there are plenty of people out there who will find this music enjoyable, but I don't think it will appeal enough to the average music buyer for Delilah to have any real mainstream success or longevity.
Poptasticness: 34% Hit potential: 55%

New Pop On The Block

2011-10-02T14:23:00.000+01:00

Loick Essien - Me Without You (Listen)
Loick Essien's career started so well with the brilliant Love Drunk. I thought I'd finally found a Tinie Tempah type that I actually liked. Labrinth-produced Love Drunk was the perfect mix of cool, catchy and confusing. Its unusual structure kept it interesting for many listens. This new single isn't interesting even for one listen. Loick's second single Stuttering was pretty average, his third How We Roll was a grower and unexpectedly became his breakthrough hit, and I really hoped Love Drunk would be re-released next to make Loick exciting and relevant again. It seems in fact that Love Drunk was just a blip and this insipid Lemar-esque music is what he's really about. I have to give in and believe it now. It's a sad day but I'm afraid Me Without You will send Loick swiftly on his way to being a one hit wonder.
37% Poptastic!

Keke Palmer - Show Me (Listen)
Keke is a US teen star who's never really made her mark outside the world of Nickelodeon, but she did have a fantastic hidden gem of a song called Bottoms Up on her debut album in 2007. She was dropped when that album flopped but was re-signed last year and Show Me will be the lead single from album two. It's a very generic R&B-pop song, but a well constructed one - the work of super-talented pop writers Lucas Secon (who I interviewed here) and Wayne Hector. The problem is whether Show Me is distinctive enough to get Keke the attention she needs to stand out from all the other teen stars wanting to break into the mainstream. It's very pleasant and radio friendly but not interesting enough to get people talking about it, so its success really depends on how persuasive Keke's radio pluggers are. I like Show Me and Keke herself but she's going to need more than one good song on the new album for me to call myself a fan.
70% Poptastic!

Life Can Be Bright In America

2011-10-02T00:12:00.001+01:00

Every year I look forward to X Factor being back on TV, and I waited years for X Factor USA to begin. But now it's on I can barely be bothered to keep watching. It's not that it isn't an enjoyable show, but it's stayed so true to the British X Factor template that even this year's UK series seems fresher than the US show. Also having both series on at the same time means around 8 hours of X Factor per week. That's equal to a whole working day! Can someone pay me to watch X Factor please?

The talent on the US show is much stronger than the UK, as is to be expected in a country with half as many inhabitants as our entire continent. I already prefer 14-year-old Belieber contestant Drew Ryniewicz to our similar Ellie Goulding-wannabe Janet Devlin and energetic mini-rapper Brian Bradley will make the show interesting, although the lower age limit (US contestants can be as young as 12) could lead to a very Got Talent-esque final. The star of the show so far, however, has to be Gaga-esque Tora Woloshin who I can't wait to see more of. I'm also excited to see what groups are out there in the US undiscovered. There's got to be some great vocal harmony groups as the Americans are so good at that, but no-one in that category has really grabbed me yet.

So far the only memorable group was a girlband called Jada (pictured below looking typically ropey!) who certainly weren't undiscovered. In fact they released my 4th favourite song of 2009, a RedOne track called American Cowboy. If they'd performed that on X Factor, perhaps they'd have made it through at least to bootcamp. Considering they are signed to Universal Motown (the rival of the label that the X Factor winner will sign to) and released a new single only one week ago, it's pretty embarrassing that they got a resounding no from the judges!

The auditions round of US X Factor has now been completed and this week bootcamp begins. There are a few contestants I'm looking forward to seeing again, and I'm sure there'll be some great talent that randomly pops up from nowhere, as always seems to be the case. I'd love to see some new elements to the format that make it bigger and more exciting than the UK show, just as American Idol was always ten times more dramatic than Pop Idol, but so far it's all been pretty formulaic. I can only hope that the talent level of the contestants will be enough to make X Factor US as exciting as the years we spent waiting for it demand!

Top of the Poptastic!

2011-10-01T16:23:00.000+01:00

My top 20 singles of September 2011:

The Wanted - Lightning
Frankmusik - No ID
Wynter Gordon - Buy My Love
Agnes - Don't Go Breaking My Heart
Kyla La Grange - Heavy Stone
David Guetta ft. Sia - Titanium
Cher Lloyd - With Ur Love
Aura Dione - Geronimo
MNEK - If Truth Be Told
Sunday Girl - Love U More
Darren Hayes - Black Out The Sun
Anna Abreu - Stereo
Caotico & Tove Styrke - Brains Out
Ronika - Only Only
Rizzle Kicks - When I Was A Youngster
Pixie Lott ft. Pusha T - What Do You Take Me For
Britney Spears - Criminal
VV Brown - Children
Pegasus - Technology
Velvet - Love Struck

New Pop on the Block

2011-09-30T22:05:00.000+01:00

James Morrison ft. Jessie J - Up (Listen)
I remember when I first heard James' duet with Nelly Furtado, Broken Strings, I presumed it was only chosen as a single because it featured a famous popstar. In fact it was, as we now know, by far his best work and one of the best things songwriter Fraser T Smith has ever done too. So when I heard that Jessie J was featured on James' new album, I hoped to be presented with the new Broken Strings. Unfortunately I should have known this was too optimistic, especially as the singles from the new album so far have been remarkably dull, even for James. Up is inoffensive and probably will get a fair bit of radio play thanks to the involvement of two of the UK's most radio friendly artists, but it's really just a moody ballad with no particular hook. I'll be surprised if it troubles the top ten.
52% Poptastic!

The Pipettes - Boo Shuffle (Live)
The first Pipettes album is one of my faves of all time and when I saw them perform songs from the follow up in June 2008 I was convinced it would be great. Boo Shuffle was the song I expected to be the big single and perhaps even the group's breakthrough hit. Ridiculously, it wasn't even included on album two, let alone released as a single. In fact, the studio version of Boo Shuffle has not emerged at all in the time since I first heard it, although the song has been performed quite often. With the disappointing response to the band's second album, Earth vs. The Pipettes, the chances of Boo Shuffle taking the girls to the top of the charts seem pretty slim, but I hope at least it will put them back on the radar for their once very dedicated fanbase. And if nothing else, I get to put it on my iPod at last!
88% Poptastic!

VV Brown ft. Chiddy - Children (Listen)
Poor VV Brown seems to be most famous these days for trying every possible way to become famous and still failing. Wherever you looked in 2009, she would be there... apart from the charts. She only had one top 40 hit in fact, with her best single by far Shark in the Water, which reached the dizzy heights of no.34. However, her debut album was actually rather good and she built up a small following in the US and France. The internet seems unsure as to whether VV is still signed to Island, her UK label, but new single Children is being released by US label Capitol. It features Chiddy, half of the rap duo Chiddy Bang, and is a strong, punchy track with a catchy chant-along chorus. VV's lack of success despite endless attempts suggests nothing she does will ever achieve what she wants in the UK, but this track is enough to keep me interested for now.
74% Poptastic!

The Next Big Thing?

2011-09-28T19:05:00.004+01:00

Oh My!
I tweet about Oh My! all the time, attend their monthly club night and have seen them live three times, so I was surprised to realise I've never blogged about them before. For those unaware, Oh My! are a female pop duo signed to the same mini-label as Marina and the Diamonds and Little Boots. There is something of an indie approach to the way the band are being presented to the public (small gigs, free downloads etc) but the music is proper pop. I'm not a fan of Example myself, but he has produced some of Oh My!'s songs and it demonstrates that he does have talent - it's just in being a producer, not a popstar. So far the girls, who are trained dancers as well as talented singers, have released two free downloads (which you can find here) and have their first proper single, Dirty Dancer, on the way soon. They're already carving out their own unique sound which is a blend of Example-style rave-pop, cute indie-pop and full on girlband pop - all things that have a big place in the public's hearts. Now we just have to wait and see whether people like those things combined into one colourful and energetic package. I'm really hoping they do!
Poptasticness: 85% Hit potential: 64%

My Little Pony
I've been getting back into Scandinavian indie-pop lately. It's a great haven to visit when mainstream pop is uninspiring, as you can always find something lovely and untarnished by trend-chasing in the Scandi indie-pop world. My latest discovery is My Little Pony, a Norwegian band who I loved as soon as I heard their name, and luckily they didn't turn out to be moody metallers ironically naming themselves after a children's toy. My Little Pony actually are as cute as My Little Pony! They've been around a few years and in that time released several fun songs with great videos, which you can check out in this playlist. Cute Norwegian boys, balloons, old people looking confused - they've got it all! My Little Pony are not at all groundbreaking so I think there's very little chance of them gaining any substantial success outside of the Scandi indie-pop scene, but they are one of the best in this genre that I've discovered recently so they're definitely worth a listen if you're a fan of I'm From Barcelona, Hello Saferide etc.
Poptasticness: 72% Hit potential: 15%

The Next Big Thing?

2011-09-23T15:00:00.000+01:00

Nina Nesbitt
A pretty girl, a good voice, but my god she's boring! So far Nina's only posted cover videos on YouTube but she's attracting lots of buzz, already set to support Example on tour, and with her looks and talent is sure to be a big major label project in 2012. I may be wrong, but I think a lot of money is going to be wasted on this girl. If she wants to release singer-songwriter type music, she's going to need to be a good songwriter herself, and so far we have no proof of that. Of course we have no proof that she's not a good songwriter either, but anyone who can make a no.1 dance hit into a totally snoozetastic mumblefest isn't off to a great start. Even if she is given great songs by other writers, she doesn't have the energy or personality to do them justice, and that's actually much more important in an artist than being pretty or even being talented. If you don't stand out you won't be noticed, let alone remembered.
Poptasticness: 24% Hit potential: 45%

Jordan Jansen
Another day, another Bieber. This one's kind of cute, in a terribly precocious way. He seems more the type to be playing the part of Oliver Twist than hanging out with Usher, and he really cannot pull off a sideways baseball cap. He can't even pull off a woolly hat. He really just needs to stay away from hats altogether. Jordan is 13 and Australian, but has nonetheless been signed up by top US-based producer Toby Gad and David Sonenberg, the manager of the Black Eyed Peas. This is all down to his hits on YouTube, which are approaching 15 million. As I wrote a few weeks ago, signing up a YouTube star always seems like a great idea as you have a ready-made audience, but what works on YouTube doesn't necessarily work in the wider world. In fact, YouTube could be described as the Britain's Got Talent of the Internet. It's about entertainment, not music, and when Jordan's fans are deciding what to buy on iTunes there won't be a cute little kid in front of them, there'll be an average Bieber-esque song that doesn't stand a chance in the charts.
Poptasticness: 40% Hit potential: 27%

Follow Me All Over The World

2011-09-23T09:42:00.000+01:00

If you enjoy This Must Be Pop then you might be interested to hear that you can get much more poptasticness in other places around the internet!

http://www.facebook.com/thismustbepop

I just post links to blog posts here but if you live your life on Facebook then you better make sure This Must Be Pop is in it!

http://www.twitter.com/poptastic

This is my Twitter account where I tweet links to posts, pop trivia, hot gossip and occasionally other things not related to music. But that's pretty rare as I am Poptastic by name and nature!

http://poptastic.tumblr.com

I post links here too but also new videos and songs that I don't have enough to say about to warrant a proper blog post. Pics of cute boys will sometimes be found here too - it is Tumblr after all.

Get stalking!

New Pop On The Block

2011-09-22T19:25:00.002+01:00

Rihanna - We Found Love (Listen)
Did I misunderstand or is Rihanna supposed to be a boundary-breaking popstar? I don't exactly dislike We Found Love, there's just nothing to it. The chorus sounds like the fade out of a song, rather than its centrepiece. Has she just picked the Calvin Harris-produced track as her lead single because she wants to get one up on her ex Chris Brown, who unintentionally sampled Calvin on Yeah 3x? I've never been a Calvin fan, but even I know he's capable of better than this, especially when tasked with creating a hit for one of the world's biggest stars. This is his opportunity to make a huge worldwide breakthrough, and just the fact that Rihanna chose to release his song will be a massive boost to his career, but he definitely could have made more of this opportunity. Then again, American pop fans aren't as used to this sound as we are in Europe, so perhaps they will lap this up. I don't think it'll be remembered as one of Rih Rih's best though, however well it does.
66% Poptastic!

Ximena Sariñana - Different (Video)
I'd never heard of this Mexican singer until I read just now that she's got a gig in London tonight. I'd quite like to go after seeing her new video, but alas I'm feeling lazy, so hopefully she will return for another visit soon. Ximena's music is described on Wikipedia as adult contemporary pop-rock/vocal jazz, none of which sounds very appealing apart from the pop bit, but in fact it's all rather jolly. She's a quirky poppet who would fit in well with the type of female singers Australia seems to produce a lot of recently - Kate Miller-Heidke, Lenka etc. It's jaunty indie-pop but the silly dance routines and synchronised swimming in the video make it seem much more pop than it really is. Different is actually the first single from her second album, so there's two albums worth of Ximena to delve into if you like what you hear. I don't think she stands the slightest chance of mainstream UK success (artists like this never do, except for the odd one hit wonder) but I can see her picking up a following as there's always an audience for these fun foreign pop ladies with slight indie leanings, just not a very big one.
73% Poptastic!

Popping The Question: Can a British Boyband Make It In The USA?

2011-09-17T22:16:00.001+01:00

Take That, Westlife, Five, Busted, McFly, JLS. They all tried to replicate their British success in the USA and not one of them succeeded. I've decided to investigate why the Yanks don't care for British boys, and why the Brits keep trying regardless.

Last night I chanced upon some clips from the TV series America or Busted on YouTube, which showed British mid-00s boyband Busted attempting to break the USA. They were one of the biggest bands in the UK at the time, but they couldn't stop there. As all pop acts know, if you break America you break the world. Sadly for Busted (but not so sad for me... or McFly!), the title of their TV show turned out to be prophetic. They messed up their own chances of US success by believing that because they had earned "a bit of cred" in the UK, they somehow had the right to skip repeating the early stages of their UK career where they had been marketed to the young teen audience. Their bad attitudes would have made the US label send them packing if the lack of public interest hadn't done it for them. And the experience was so traumatic for poor misunderstood indie boy Charlie that he quit the band a few months after returning to the UK, so Busted were indeed bust.

With Busted's faux-American accents, Dawson's Creek references and Blink 182 influence, you'd expect them to stand a better chance than a more typically British band. Unfortunately the US punk-pop connoiseurs and even the teen-pop fans saw right through them. Why would they need British imitations when they already had the real thing? The same mistake is frequently made with UK R&B acts, such as JLS. Although British urban music increasingly has its own individual charm these days, JLS are among those UK R&B acts who still look to the US for inspiration. It's simple logic that if you want to sell someone something they already have a lot of, it needs to be better than what they already have.

While the track that was chosen for JLS's US launch, Everybody In Love, is a strong commercial song which fit with the sound of the US charts at the time, that was exactly the problem. When asked to choose between an American or a foreign artist releasing very similar songs, Americans will almost always go for Americans. The reasons for this reflect the difference between American culture and that of other countries. The USA has ingrained its own superiority into its culture and the public are conditioned to believe that they are at the cutting edge, despite the fact that anyone who follows trends in music, fashion, technology or any other area can see that they are typically several years behind the UK and the rest of Europe. Because so much American media is seeded out to the rest of the world, this ideology is believed by non-Americans too. Whether you're in the UK, Russia, Australia or Japan, everyone wants to make it in the US and that's where everyone looks for the next international superstar.

One of the ironies about Busted's failed US launch was that a few years later two of their biggest UK hits, Year 3000 and What I Go To School For, were used to very successfully launch a new band: The Jonas Brothers. It turned out that an instrument-playing boyband was exactly what the US wanted - just a little more American and a little more Christian too! Another interesting link between British and American boybands is the fact that the Backstreet Boys and *N Sync owe their success to Take That. Both bands got their first record deals in Germany to a label desperate to find the band to take the boyband baton from Take That, who had just broken up at the time.

There is also the very important element of attainability when it comes to boybands. The belief that one of these boys could be your boyfriend is integral to a teenage girl's boyband fandom, and that is far more believable when the boy in question lives in the same country as you. I believe this was one of the main reasons why the Backstreet Boys and *N Sync were never as big in the UK as the British boybands who were around at the same time. Acts like Five and Westlife released similar music, but it wasn't a patch on the quality of their US counterparts, yet in the UK they far outsold the American boys. For example, the BSBs album Millennium went platinum (over 300,000 sales) while Westlife's Coast To Coast went 6x platinum - that's over 1,800,000 sales!

Although there is a history of huge boybands in the US, with groups such as The Jackson 5, The Osmonds and NKOTB playing big roles in boyband history, America hasn't yet contributed anyone of note to the current boyband wave. While JLS, The Wanted and One Direction are all achieving no.1 hits in the UK, in the US the only new boybands on the scene are acts like Midnight Red (a pointless imitation of the BSB boyband style) and Mindless Behaviour (who have huge potential but it's so far unfulfilled). I find it hard to believe that with the boyband trend having made such a strong return in the UK that it won't be replicated in the US, but apart from Mindless Behaviour I've not heard about any new American boybands who stand a realistic chance of serious success. Is there a group waiting on the sidelines about to take over at any moment, or could this be an opportunity for one of our British groups to step in and take the crown?

The two main contenders, since JLS have pushed their attempt quietly under the rug, are of course The Wanted and One Direction. The Wanted have already begun their US launch, with a re-produced version of All Time Low released last month. So far it's appeared on Radio Disney and not much else, but with the boys not yet having spent any serious length of time over there this is to be expected. Personally I'm hoping that they take the fact that the song's not gone anywhere at all without full promotion to suggest that it probably won't be worthwhile wasting some of the most important months of their career in the US for the tiniest chance of success. Look at the historic examples and it's obvious why they shouldn't bother. I might even email them this article to persuade them!

As for One Direction, they have some big factors against them (in particular their lack of vocal or dance talent, both attributes that US boybands are known for) but they have a few things in their favour too, one being Simon Cowell. They're the first X Factor act that Simon has been fully behind since Leona, and that suggests to me that if they do get a US launch Simon will be name-dropped at every opportunity. And with The X Factor US about to begin, that will also help American audiences to understand what 1D represent. However, if they were to perform on The X Factor US or any other show where they had to sing live I think they'd end their chances in a moment. While they're a fantastic pop proposition, they don't have the basic talent level necessary to compete with the standards that American audiences will expect.

So there's a little hope for a UK act to buck the trend, and it would be great for One Direction or The Wanted to prove that it is possible, but I wouldn't bet 5p on it happening. It's not such a bad thing, though. There's something special about the insular British pop world which we've all grown up with, and if we don't have to share our best acts with the rest of the world, well... it's all the more for us!

The Next Big Thing?

2011-09-17T11:10:00.000+01:00

Ronika
I'd heard lots of good things about Ronika, but the music I'd heard was not strong enough for me to jump on the bandwagon quite yet. It all changed, however, when I heard one track on her MySpace called System Error. It just clicks as a pop song in a way that the other songs don't as it's well constructed from start to finish, whereas the other tracks have strong, poptastic sections mixed in with weaker parts which distract from their potential brilliance. Forget Yourself is a particular example of this - it starts brilliantly then gets gradually less interesting, and even when the chorus comes back in it sounds nowhere near as exciting as it did when it welcomed us to the song. There's definite potential for poptasticness here but I'll need a few more songs like System Error before I'm fully on board, as it's the only track where I feel she has fully thrown herself at being a popstar. We don't accept any half-heartedness in pop!
Poptasticness: 70% Hit potential: 35%

MNEK
Listen to MNEK's new single If Truth Be Told on its own and you could imagine a cheesy Swedish pop boy like Eric Saade or Danny singing it. It would be a huge hit for them too as it's really strong slightly R&B pop. However, MNEK is not a fake-tanned blonde Swedish heartthrob - he's an overweight teenage trendster from London. I know this all sounds very shallow, but in the pop world the artist and the music come as one package, so the connection between the two is more important than in any other genre. Just from the fact that MNEK's voice has been computerised out of recognition on this single, it's clear that this is a case of trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. As a writer and producer he's already working with some of my absolute favourite behind the scenes types (Brian Higgins, Miranda Cooper, Anu Pillai etc) and he has a credit on The Saturdays' All Fired Up. He's clearly hugely talented, but he needs to create music that fits his persona or write for artists who suit his songs a little more than he does.
Poptasticness: 74% Hit potential: 37%

Popping the Question: Does the music industry still need A&R?

2011-09-12T00:16:00.001+01:00

I wanted to work in A&R even before I knew what it was. I'd just turned 13 when the TV series Popstars began, and my dream of being the editor of Smash Hits (which by then was going rapidly downhill anyway) was straight out the window. What could be more exciting than discovering new talent and guiding them on their way to success? A year later Pop Idol brought us Simon Cowell, and after reading about his day job, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. Only I wouldn't be encouraging any children's TV-presenting puppets to launch pop careers.

Wikipedia describes A&R as "the division of a record label that is responsible for talent scouting and overseeing the artistic development of recording artists." These people find talent and convince the record label they work for to bet a significant amount of money on them being a success. In the past this has meant travelling to dingy bars in random towns to find the hot new band or the superstar of the future. This still does happen, but nowadays there are two other ways in which most pop success stories begin: 1) On a TV talent show and 2) Right here on the Internet.

Many people have drawn the conclusion from these phenomena that the public have taken over the role of A&R from the record labels. And yes, the labels do sign acts who have proven public support - they'd be stupid not to! As nice as it is to believe that A&R is all about giving deserving talent a chance, the reality is that signing an act who comes with a ready-made fanbase is a dream come true for a label, especially now that most labels simply can't afford to take a risk. It's not all easy from there though, as only the most carefully calculated decisions will make your act the next JLS or Arctic Monkeys. Make one mistake and you'll be lumbered with a Leon Jackson or a Sandi Thom. And that's one reason why A&Rs still exist and still play a vital part in the career path of all your faves.

Another reason why I think A&R is still important is this: Imagine what would happen if artists got to choose their own musical direction. Or just look at Kelly Clarkson. It was all going along fine when she took her label's advice - her music was good, her chart positions were high. But she mistook the public's appreciation of a timely pop song for unconditional love, and she was soon hanging around at number 110. She said at the time "I've sold more than 15 million records worldwide, and still nobody listens to what I have to say." But Kelly, it wasn't just you who was responsible for those 15 million sales. In fact, if it hadn't been for the person who got songwriters such as Max Martin on board for her previous album, I have a strong suspicion that the only people who would have bought it would have been moderators on her fan forum. Maybe some family members.

There are of course some artists who are capable of understanding their own audience and providing them with the music they want, but it's a rare talent to be able to be so objective about your own work. There are also fans out there who would prefer their favourite artists to create the music they love, irrespective of its potential for success. There are plenty of artists who say they make music for themselves and if people like it that's a bonus. But I think that shows a real lack of respect for the fans who have given them the opportunity to make a living from music, and the Kelly Clarksons of the world prove that attitude gets you nowhere. A successful artist is one who makes music which connects with the public en masse, and this will only be achieved by artists who care about what the public want and take the advice of those whose job it is to know.

The existence of the internet has enabled people to make a name for themselves and their music who might not have normally had the opportunity. It's definitely possible to use websites such as YouTube, MySpace and Twitter to build up a fanbase without any help from a record label, but once that audience is attracted the only way to make sure they keep buying the music, gig tickets, merch etc is to keep making the music they want to hear. Whoever it is that decides which new song will be posted online next and which musical direction the artist will take is playing the role of A&R, even if that person is not a record label employee.

At the moment, the level of success it is possible to achieve exclusively through promoting an artist online is limited by the number of people who look to the Internet to discover their next big fave. More traditional media such as radio and TV are still the primary method of discovering new music for the majority of the public, but this era is undoubtedly in its last throes. YouTube provides a fascinating glimpse into what the future might look like. Anyone can post music and use the functionality of the site (such as commenting and friending other users) to get attention for their work, but this is still far from democracy. If you're wondering how that new major label artist no-one really cares about still gets more views than the incredibly talented teenager singing genius reinterpretations of current hits... it's called advertising.

Unless you're extremely good at promoting your music online, posting songs on YouTube will get you no closer to success than playing at an open mic gig or sending around a demo CD. If you look at some of the artists who have built up huge followings online, you will see that being a YouTube sensation doesn't automatically lead to mainstream success. Anyone seen Joe Brooks or Mike Hough in the charts lately? Their YouTube popularity demonstrates how easily the site can be manipulated. Post the right cover version at the right time and you'll get all the hits from people searching for the latest big song. Reply to all the comments on your video and you'll soon have a legion of fans who all believe they're friends with someone famous - well, internet famous anyway, but any celeb will do when you're 13 and living in Inverness.

If the future is going to be like YouTube, then we are definitely going to need A&R. Whether that comes from the managers and small labels who you tend to find attached to anyone with talent and ambition, or from bloggers like me who get such a thrill from discovering a hidden gem that they will scour the pages of YouTube endlessly to find the next big thing, or from record label talent scouts who've simply swapped their nights down the Barfly for a night wading through MySpace. It could be any or all of them, but I'm really hoping it will be at least one. If not, Mike Hough will be at number one. And we really don't want that.

Idol ft. Bard part 3

2011-09-09T23:06:00.001+01:00

A little delayed but here is the third episode of Idol 2011 for your enjoyment. Click here to watch the show in full and read on for my top 5 best bits...

Weird Swedish humour of the day: Surprising a wannabe singer by blindfolding her and plonking her in front of the judges. Luckily she was good and got through or else that girl would have been scarred for life.
Crowd dance-along to J-Lo.
Alexander Bard telling a male contestant "you are a visual catastrophe… but you can sing!"
One boy did an unintentionally hilarious impression of a British accent when he sang Naive by The Kooks, but it was reasonably tuneful so he got through. I look forward to hearing his Australian in the next round.
What I thought was a montage of rubbish singers actually turned out to be a montage of people who got through. Hopefully the fact they were shown so briefly meant the judges immediately regretted it and they didn't get any further.

I won't be reviewing any more episodes here (I don't want to just be an Idol fanblog) but I will continue posting comments and links to watch the shows on Tumblr and Twitter so make sure you're following if you don't want to miss them.

Idol ft. Bard part 2

2011-09-06T17:05:00.000+01:00

Last night the second episode of Idol was aired, and since I'm off work today I had time to do another review for you. It's also mysteriously appeared on Megavideo here.

Cutest boy of the episode has to be Hampus, who also put on a pretty good performance. I think I met a Hampus once, but I'm not sure when or where. It's been bothering me all day.
Jessie J-obsessed Roshana's a bit of a warbler but definitely looks and acts the part of the popstar. It was close but Alexander made sure she got through. It's nice to know we can count on him to fight the corner of pop.
This episode's soundtrack highlight? Nicola Roberts! I didn't even know her music was known in Sweden.
The most poptastic song choice of the week so far came from a contestant called Dounia who sang With Every Heartbeat. She did a good job, but I'll need to see more to determine if she's worth getting excited about more than praising her good taste.
They've already found their 2011 novelty contestant, a guy called Oleg who sang a very catchy song called Elektropop - or El-ek-tro-POP! as it would more accurately be written. It's gone straight to no.1 on iTunes, but this seems a bit dodgy to me as it was released back in June by Universal, the same label who sign the Idol winners. Are they just using Idol to promote their new novelty artist?

The series continues tonight with episode three.

Idol + Bard = ?

2011-09-05T18:16:00.000+01:00

Since pop genius Alexander Bard has joined this year's judging panel, there's more reason than ever to forget about X Factor and get obsessed with Swedish Idol instead. You can watch both if you want, but you will soon find yourself wishing that even 5% of the Swedes who make it through the Idol auditions had come to the UK to try out for X Factor instead. Where we get Diana Vickers, they get Tove Styrke. We get Shayne Ward, they get Måns Zelmerlöw. I think that's explanation enough.

The new series began last night and "someone" has kindly uploaded it for your viewing pleasure. Click here to watch.

If you think watching a TV show in a foreign language will be boring and still need a bit more convincing, here are the top five best bits of episode one...

The surrealness of seeing Alexander Bard with his big ginger beard and short trousers in the middle of the judging panel. He seems to be living up to his reputation of causing controversy as he is proving to be pretty argumentative, but also a pleasingly tough judge, avoiding putting through the usual 'well they might get better later' contestants. Only the best for the Bard!
The first contestant to get through was more interesting than any of this year's X Factor contestants so far. Olle is a cute, cool and super-smiley boy with a huge afro. His voice has that sound that only Swedish men seem to be capable of (very Christian Walz) and could be a little annoying but he has great popstar potential. I also liked his pronunciation of "Michael Bubbly".
Crowd singalongs during the episode include Britney's Till The World Ends and one of my favourite Swedish-language songs, Känn Ingen Sorg För Mig Göteborg by Håkan Hellström. The soundtrack also featured Robyn, Lisa Miskovsky and Nicki Minaj.
Contestants can apply by posting videos online, and presenter Cissi goes to surprise the best ones to let them know they've got an audition. Rather than just going "surprise!!" she likes to dress up as the contestant and impersonate them. Yep, the Swedish sense of humour is a bit weird.
Sweden as a country is all about individuality and although the "look how quirky I am!" card is occasionally played on X Factor, in Sweden being different is the norm so there is true variety among the contestants. One example is dreadlocked acoustic guitar-playing Moa. A British person of this description would be insufferably self-aware but Moa is a typical Swedish girl with a really nice voice. Her teeth and eyebrows are a little off-putting though.

And the next episode is tonight! Woohoo!!

New Pop On The Block

2011-09-03T12:05:00.001+01:00

Wynter Gordon - Buy My Love (Listen)
Wynter seems to have a different single coming out every few weeks somewhere in the world, whether it's solo or a featuring slot, but she is still not well known either in the UK or her home country of America. Most people wouldn't have a clue who she was or recognise any of her music either, and although I've heard at least ten songs by her (and I'm a huge fan of her solo singles Surveillance and Dirty Talk) I wouldn't recognise her if she walked past me on the street. With Buy My Love she starts to set out who she is a little more as it helps to establish a distinct Wynter Gordon sound. It's a light, fun song with a great chorus, which could have fit well on Lady Gaga's first album. Although it doesn't pack the same punch as the incredible Dirty Talk I can imagine it being a hit if promoted well. It'll be huge in Australia and Europe at the very least.
79% Poptastic!

Kyla La Grange - Heavy Stone (Listen)
This new trend (in signings more than success, so far) for female singers making dark music is not something I encourage, as an ardent supporter of the happy-go-lucky side of pop. However, when these artists use their dark sides to create dramatic, passionate pop music they can win me over, and Kyla La Grange definitely does that. I loved her debut single Walk Through Walls and was content enough with the follow-up Been Better, but I think Heavy Stone will be the one that really gets her attention. In contrast to Wynter Gordon she's had a distinct sound from the start. I was concerned that Walk Through Walls was the perfect example of her sound, and everything else she released would just be similar but not as good. Heavy Stone certainly does fit in the same emotional Kate Bushy folk-pop slot as Walk Through Walls, but it's just as strong and possibly even stronger. This should be her breakthrough single, but there definitely needs to be a re-release of Walk Through Walls if it succeeds.
84% Poptastic!

Top of the Poptastic!

2011-09-01T22:25:00.000+01:00

My favourite singles of August 2011:

Ola - All Over The World (UK release)
Tove Styrke - Call My Name
Bruno Mars - Marry You
Narcoleptic Dancers - Rastakraut
Oh My! - Kicking and Screaming
Darren Hayes - Bloodstained Heart
Lady Gaga - You and I
Le Kid - We Are the Drums
Carolina Liar - Drown
JoJo - Disaster
Iffy The Bad Man - Do You
Alex Metric & Charli XCX - End Of The World
Olly Murs ft. Rizzle Kicks - Heart Skips A Beat
The Saturdays - All Fired Up
RD - Got Me Burnin'
Destinee & Paris - True Love
Young London - Let Me Go
Sojo - I Remember
Vincent - Put Your Money Where Your Money Is
Cady Groves - This Little Girl (Murder)

New Pop on the Block

2011-08-29T23:00:00.002+01:00

JoJo - Disaster (Listen)
After 5 years and what feels like hundreds of leaks and rumoured singles, we finally have the official first single from JoJo's third album! Considering how long ago her previous hits feel, at 20 years old she's actually still as young as the average new popstar, so I hope the music industry will give her a chance to find her feet as a grown-up artist. However, the fact that her new single sounds just like her old stuff will be a blessing and a curse. It's great for me and other fans of her previous hits, as she's giving us the kind of music we want from her, but the fact that it sounds so similar to songs she released 5 or even 7 years ago will automatically let her in for criticism that the song is dated. And it's fair to say that this isn't futuristic innovative music, but it's good quality, well-written urban-pop music. Still, it's not as strong as Leave (Get Out) or Too Little Too Late, which will undoubtedly be her continual problem. When you start your career so well you're always going to have a lot to live up to.
76% Poptastic!

iFFY the Bad Man - Do You (Watch)
iFFY isn't featured on a big artist's single, he's not part of any cool new scene and he hasn't worked with anyone especially exciting. There's nothing about him that's of note, apart from the fact that his new single is really quite good. Now there are two questions we await the answer to: a) Is it possible to have a hit without being 'of note' in any way? and b) Is the song good enough that its quality alone makes it 'of note'? Do You is a catchy, soulful track, but it doesn't have the gimmick that similar songs which have been successful recently have i.e. it's no I Need A Dollar, Billionaire or Forget You. Its retro feel and strong vocals make it very radio friendly, but will there be a place for an unknown un-noteworthy artist on the radio playlists which get smaller and less adventurous every year? Despite his ridiculous name, iFFY seems to be a cool, charismatic guy, so I think he'd make a pretty good popstar if he gets chance to be one. I look forward to finding out!
74% Poptastic!

The Next Big Bieber?

2011-08-21T22:00:00.003+01:00

Ulrik Munther
Considering Ulrik Munther is often described as the Swedish Justin Bieber and got his start representing Sweden in Junior Eurovision, you'd think I'd be documenting his every move here on This Must Be Pop. But sadly so far he's been giving Sweden a pretty bad reputation in the race to provide the next Biebs. His debut single Boys Don't Cry and the other songs he's posted on YouTube have all been incredibly boring, and he's not even very cute. However, some new tracks leaked this week and finally he's showing his Swedishness. Some of them even sound a bit like Erik Hassle! Check out The Box and Fake It via Swedish Stereo, both really strong current-sounding pop-rock tracks. His voice even sounds quite Hanson-esque, which is always a good thing. If this is what we can expect from Ulrik's debut album then I'll definitely be getting a copy.
Poptasticness: 76% Hit potential: 90% (in Sweden)

Tyler Medeiros
This new Canadian Bieber on the block may be the least inspiring yet. His current single Say I Love You (Please Don't Go) has the sound of Jesse McCartney and the sentiment of Aaron Carter. Teenage girls do love a cheesy romantic message in their male idols' music, but it needs to be a little more genuine and heartfelt than this. Their reactions to missing out on concert tickets may suggest otherwise, but the Beliebers are not totally stupid, and the more artists that are targeting their affections, the more discerning they will be. When Bieber came along, he had little competition and could get away with such cringe-worthy manipulation fodder as One Less Lonely Girl, but now teenage girls have choices... and they're not going to choose Tyler Medeiros. I do, however, think there could be a great career ahead for mini rapper Lil Twist. OK, he does sound a bit like a cartoon character, but he is super-cute and super-cool. And his voice will break soon enough...
Poptasticness: 51% Hit potential: 35%