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The lead Pussycat Doll is apparently the latest person to attach herself to Slash’s forthcoming solo album, which comes out next year and is set to feature a Love Boat-worthy cavalcade of cameos by the likes of Iggy Pop, Flea, Stacy “Fergie” Ferguson, Adam “Maroon 5″ Levine, and Jason Bonham. But why not just go all the way and re-record La Scherz’s forever-in-turnaround solo effort Her Name Is Nicole as a collaborative effort between the Pussycat Dolls’ chief vocalizer and the still-in-search-of-a-frontperson semi-supergroup Velvet Revolver? Let’s face it—both projects need a big shot in the arm, buzz-wise, and this could maybe almost do it in a “so crazy, you have to check out the MySpace page at least once” sort of way… [AceShowbiz / Photo: Getty] More »
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I Have An Idea: Let’s Make Nicole Scherzinger The New Lead Singer Of Velvet Revolver
Esmee Denters: 2007’s YouTube Sensation, 2009’s Pretty Decent Song For Working Out
Two years ago, the Dutch singer Esmée Denters was a YouTube phenomenon who got snapped up by Justin Timberlake’s label, thanks presumably to her covering “What Goes Around… Comes Around” in full-on Webcam confessional mode. Well, since then Timberlake’s been trying to get her name out there, first putting her singing up for charity, then taking her around the country on showcases where she flaunts her new single “Outta Here.” I actually became acquainted with this song at the gym, where it was one of the many semi-anonymous dance tracks blaring on the TVs that weren’t tuned to (sigh) the YES Network, mixed in with endless plays of all those failed Pussycat Dolls singles and “Single Ladies.” “Outta Here” is not groundbreaking by any stretch—it’s pretty much perfectly paired to being played while people sweat out calories and hangovers—but it’s pretty punchy, and her growly tendencies make the track even better. Clip after the jump. More »
The Sugababes’ New Direction Is Causing People To Get Lost In This Club
A note to the Sugababes: It’s probably not a good sign that someone just came over here searching on “pussycat dolls new song too sexy for this club” while presumably looking for your bombastic new single “Get Sexy.” And said Internet sleuthing was from someone inside the UK—your home turf—at that! More »
The Sugababes Continue Their Star-Spangled Makeover
Over the weekend, the Sugababes played the Midlands Music Festival in Staffordshire, England, and they previewed a couple of new songs from their seventh album, a.k.a. their forthcoming attempt to break America with the assistance of Jay-Z. “About A Girl,” penned by the Moroccan-Swedish Lady GaGa collaborator RedOne, and “Thank You For The Heartbreak,” written by the Norwegian Ne-Yo collaborators StarGate, are both way better than the Pussycat Dolls-ish mess that was the album’s first single “Get Sexy.” But will it be enough for them to catch the ears of fickle U.S. radio listeners? Decide for yourself after the jump. More »
What About Their Friends: Top 10 Debutantes Have Famous Pals to Thank
The charts are in a bit of a Dog Days slumber, so let’s try a little trivia: What’s the most oft-recurring word on Billboard’s Hot 100 over the last decade? I’m thinking of a word that appeared virtually never prior to, say, 1990 and eventually became ubiquitous. “Remix”? “Tha”/“Da”? “Dre”? “T-Pain”?
No, the most common word on the chart, pretty much every week, is “Featuring.”
This week, for example, 16 songs with “featuring” credits are on the Hot 100—17 if you count a “duet with” credit on Keyshia Cole’s latest single with Monica. (But then it goes back down to 16 if you exclude the craven Pussycat Dolls single “featuring” existing lead singer Nicole Scherzinger, a la Diana Ross in ’67 or George Michael in ’85.)
A dozen of these tracks, unsurprisingly, come from the worlds of R&B and hip-hop – genres where the team-up is standard operating procedure for both emerging acts (Drake, Kid Cudi) and veterans (T.I., Mary J. Blige). On this week’s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, “featuring” appears no less than 37 times.
Back on the Hot 100, three of this week’s “featurers” are in the Top 10, and two are brand-new to the winners’ circle. Examining just these three tracks, you get a sense of the power of the featured-artist credit. Simply put, in pop music, there are friends, and there are friends. All three of these singles benefit to some degree from the name(s) to the right of the magic word. More »
2009 Video Music Awards Nominations
Nominees for the 2009 Video Music Awards, which will be presented on Sunday, Sept. 13 in New York City:
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The Pussycat Dolls Throw A Hail Mary Pass
Last night’s Critical Karaoke event was pretty rousing success, and thanks to everyone who came out. Apparently there will be video of the whole night online soon (which is a good thing, because everyone’s performances were stellar), but for now my piece—which looks at the Pussycat Dolls’ current attempt to recapture the zeitgeiest, “Hush Hush; Hush Hush”—is after the jump, with a video so you can listen to the song while reading along, as the performative nature of the evening dictated. Just imagine it being read by someone whose arms are flailing a lot. More »
Nobody Is Happy About Kelly Clarkson’s “Already Gone”
Kelly Clarkson’s third single from All I Ever Wanted is the weepy ballad “Already Gone,” and the inaugural American Idol has already shown off a superior rework of the track on late-night TV. Could that rearrangement be the result of the recorded version of “Gone,” written by OneRepublic caterwauler / inexplicably in-demand songsmith Ryan Tedder, sounding a lot like another pop song of the current moment—Beyoncé’s “Halo”? Which, what do you know, was also written by Tedder! How about that! More »
Lady GaGa Wants To Look Her Leakers In The Eye
Yesterday, a new track purportedly by Lady GaGa made the rounds, and oh man was the pantsless pop star peeved. “I wrote ’second time around’ recently for a current recording artist,” she Tweeted. “I don’t know why people insist on leaking my work.” It’s pretty obvious once you hear “Second Time Around” that it wasn’t going to be a solo track for GaGa, at least in its current form; it’s a wrenching, piano-heavy song that has an aggressively generic quality about it, and overall it seems more appropriate for a re-re-release of the Pussycat Dolls’ Doll Domination than anything branded with the GaGa mark. Hear for yourself after the jump. More »
A Very Special Mix CD: Ten Songs That Kelly Clarkson Should Listen To That Aren’t “Pork & Beans”
Kelly Clarkson had her turn in the New York Times‘ “Playlist” chair yesterday, and the results were, well, mixed. Weezer’s red album got a shoutout, as did the Irish band The Script, who Clarkson described as–eek!–”OneRepublic meets rap.” Kelly, Kelly, Kelly. Aw, Kelly. Listen. In honor of you being my favorite American Idol (and having one of my favorite albums of the year) (well, except for all those songs by the OneRepublic guy, which are just plodding and terrible and tuneless and ugh), I decided to craft a mix CD for you. Because girl, there is there is so much music out there that you would love–and that would probably love you back! More »
