– If you haven’t done so already, check out the contest to win one of three Noisettes CDs. The winners will be announced this weekend.
– Current songs that sound really good on the radio: Alphabeat’s “The Spell”, which is up on Radio 1 in advance of its release on October 18th, and REALLY needs to see a US release; Britney’s “3”, which I heard coming out of David Guetta’s “Sexy Bitch”, making for a pretty impressive (and surprising) one-two punch; and Carrie Underwood’s “Cowboy Casanova”, which needs to see a pop radio push at some point in the near future. Even in its original form, it is incredibly catchy.
– Who decided that Crazy Frog needed a new album, let alone one that’s an exclusive to Wal-Mart? And how disturbing is it that “Cha Cha Slide” is among the tracks covered? Or “Last Christmas”? Thankfully, there aren’t samples on the website, or I might be typing wounded right now.
– Idolator has some detail on FTC regulations going into effect in December which will require bloggers to disclose anything that they have received from a third party that was utilized for writing a post. Many of you may recognize the unfairness of this, as TV, radio and newspapers have received promotional materials for years and don’t have to disclose this information. Between this, and a current law rolling through Congress that defines a protected journalistic source as someone that works and receives a paycheck for what they do (hence, no indy bloggers), the old establishment is doing everything it can to tie new media’s hands behind their backs.
So for the record, how many bloggers even collect a paycheck for what they do, let alone get freebies from a record label? Personally, I can count on one hand the number of times I have received promotional material from a label, and even then, I let them know point blank that I will not promote anything that I do not believe in. I can see the potential for a class-action lawsuit against the FTC on this, but when was the last time you paid money into the music blog lobbying fund? Yeah…me either.
– The new Usher? Good, but not great, although it’s a definite return to Confessions-style slowjams.
Remember the 80s, when European acts stood just as much of a chance at charting in the US as native-born acts? That’s not quite where things are at right now, with 8 out of 10 acts in the Top 10 fronted by Americans, and a ninth (Drake) hailing from Canada. The sole European at the top of the Hot 100 this week is Jay Sean, who had to get signed to an American label to chart, features American rapper Lil Wayne, and hasn’t even hit the UK charts yet with his hit “Down”. In fact, you have to go all the way down to #57 to find an all-European act (Cascada). That’s pretty pitiful, but these things go in waves if you look back at the history of the American charts. So do the Europeans have any shots at making it big in the US any time soon? Well, maybe…
One of the top contenders for “Club Jam of the Summer” has to be David Guetta’s collaboration with Kelly Rowland on “When Love Takes Over”. Who knew that it would take a dance track to make Kelly Rowland relevant again? Well, that actually wasn’t as far of a stretch as you might think, given the fact that it was her remixes of “Work” and “Daylight” that made her last effort relevant. The single is at #6 on the Club Play chart and #53 on the Pop 100 Airplay chart, so this is shaping up to be a mainstream smash. Check out the video and leave some feedback. If this isn’t your jam for the summer, what is?
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Pop Music Notes 