Utada Hikaru Pwns Tetris

This is another reason why I love Utada Hikaru <3

Tori Amos vs Lady GaGa

So… in a recent interview (here), Ms. Amos called GaGa’s fame temporary and that she won’t be around in 20 years. This caused some bloggers to respond in GaGa’s defense, or to at least mock Tori’s comment and put them down to pure jealousy. I felt like I wanted to respond to these comments.

Firstly, Lady GaGa’s music is rubbish. It’s full of awful lyrics that reference pop culture in the most cliched, trite way. Secondly, the thing that irks me the most, Lady GaGa is a fool. She’s style over substance. If you are a true artist, it should not matter whether you get your vah jay jay out for the stage or wear a costume made from kermits. I can’t stand how obnoxious and ridiculous she is. What pisses me off is that she acts like a messiah to the pop world when she’s not. She’s made it full of awful, second-rate electro-pop music by artists that really shouldn’t be doing that kind of music. Ever. Lady GaGa is a good entertainer, don’t get me wrong, but is she a true, credible artist? She will never truly gain the respect of the music industry – not because she’s a woman, not because she’s a skank, not because she gets her vah jay jay out, but because she simply is not an artist in the realms of Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Aretha Franklin and, yes, Tori Amos.

You can knock Tori for being jealous. You can say that she’s saying this just because she has a tour and an album to promote. But I don’t quite buy that. Tori’s outspoken and has always commented on the media. She is a social commentator (and often does this through her songs). It’s not that Tori’s jealous, she’s just telling it how she sees it. And I respect her for it. In a world where the media is fickle and everyone wants to be omigosh bffs with the hottest young starlet, Tori has balls for calling GaGa’s sell-by-date.

I, for one, am already getting bored with Lady GaGa. In fact, I find her rather 1 dimensional, deluded by her own hype and just a fucking joke. Go be inspired by monsters in your bedroom behind a closed door! Until Lady GaGa writes a song as beautiful as Winter or as haunting as Me and a Gun, she will never have longivity. Tori has had a career spanning decades and 10 studio albums. Let’s just see whether Lady GaGa will be around in 20 years. Just as the media is fickle, the music industry gets bored easily. Could the Duffys, Kate Nashes and Adeles of last year succeed in the electro-pop sound of 2009? You already know the answer.

The Saturdays – Forever Is Over

I always feel a small amount of shame when someone looks at my ipod track listing. It’s really gay. That’s not to say that I only listen to girly pop music, far from it, but lots of stuff that I listen to is exactly that. I love me some Girls Aloud and Wonder Girls. One girl group that has really taken me by surprise is The Saturdays.

I can remember first hearing the debut single, If This Is Love, ages ago on a music channel at like 1am. I should have been sleeping but heard this new song. I heard it again a couple of days later – roughly at the same time too. They make really catchy pop songs and are unashamed about it. Pop music is cool! It has such a bad stigma. Anyways! I’m going off track.

They’ve barely finished touring for their first album but already have a new song out from a second album. I guess their record company, Polydor, want to capitalise on the fact that there is no Girls Aloud release this coming year. The lead single from their sophomore album is called Forever Is Over. It’s less pop, more club, more edge. It reminds me of Call The Shots by Girls Aloud, not just sonically. It has the feel of: ‘look, we’re growing as an artist’ when they’re not really growing at all, just a slightly different sound.

I’ll probably end up listening to this loads. So much cool new music coming out of Britain at the moment! Where to find time to listen to it all?

Jade Ewen – My Man Video

A while ago I posted a video for Jade Ewen’s new single, My Man. The song is a big departure from her Eurovision song. It’s got huge beats and Jade gives a powerful vocal. Recently, the official video has been posted.

I just want to say… I’m a bit annoyed with British music videos at the moment. Granted, Jade isn’t a big start so I guess it’s fair that she doesn’t have such a big budget but the music video is pretty awful. It reminds me of the new Sugababe’s video which is equally awful and cheap looking. Random girl standing in front of a camera whilst some strobe lights flash in front of them? It’s a bit boring… and a bit 90s…

CoCo Lee – BYOB

I was having one of those reminscient moments where I think: ‘Mmm, what happened to X’. Normally it’s someone I’ve not thought about for ages. This time it was none other than Chinese pop diva, CoCo Lee. For those that don’t know her (granted, I always get the feeling that CoCo Lee is more ‘remembered’ than ‘known’; if that makes sense). I just wanna say, CoCo has an amazing voice. It rivals Mariah’s, Christina’s, Leona’s, Celine’s and so on. She’s had a stab at English music but didn’t quite go anywhere with it. As much as I love her, she has had a few dodgy songs… well, a lot of dodgy songs. And she’s a bit of a hussy… But! Nothing could quite prepare me for this:

O… m… g…

Yep! That’s right! CoCo’s latest song is about recycling! BYOB stands for Bring Your Own Bag! What?! Why? Why would you do that to yourself as an artist? Okay well fair enough, National Geographic wanted her to do it – so it’s a pretty big thing. Maybe they were just like: ‘hey, China’s a big pollutant, let’s get a popstar to sing a song about it!’. The song’s okay… Her other new single is conventional CoCo fair (dance, party, Chinese pop music).

Just wanted to say… omg! *freaked*

BoA is Beautiful

Akon is going to be releasing his album, Freedom, in Japan and has slightly altered it and renamed it Freedom+2. As part of this, he has remixed his hit song, Beautiful, to feature BoA. BoA gives a pretty sweet vocal. I’m always left feeling a bit weird about BoA’s voice. She can sing, but I think she sings from a weird place… her voice sounds very mouthy or something. I think she uses her head voice a lot. Anyways! I still <3 her (don't bash me!). Oh, and fact finders, if you ever wondered why Japanese releases of Western albums always have bonuses, it's because the Japanese record companies put it into their contracts that they want some kind of bonus material. A bit annoying for us, I want the bonuses too dangnabbit!

平 和 愛

T-ara – Lies

My soon to be favourite K-pop girl group T-ara’s MV has been out for a little while now. Apparently it’s getting lots of attention in Korea. Woot for them! It’s very catchy. The thing that I think seperates T-ara from their contempories is their obvious vocal ability. When they go for the notes, they really go for them! There might be a little bit of strain in their voice, but I think they can sing really well. They’re not the most charismatic of performers yet, but hopefully that will come. Anyways… Lies!

平 和 愛

Ssemy – Because He’s My Man

Just a quick post before I go to visit my friend; heard this new song by newcomer Ssemy. At first I was like: ‘eh… this doesn’t sound too good…’ but it’s so catchy! Definitely has influences from Victoriana and doo-woping. Catchy~

平 和 愛

Top 25 Most Played Songs #1

So below is a list of the 25 most played songs I have. The number of plays isn’t wholly accurate but oh well. What does it say about me?! Oh dear…

Girls’ Generation – Gee (276)
Candie Payne – One More Chance (218)
See Ya & Davichi & Tiara – Female Generation (93)
Chae Yeon – Shake (91)
BoA – DOTCH (84)
Chae Yeon – 위험한 연출 (81)
Utada – Me Muero (76)
Girls Aloud – Can’t Speak French (72)
La Roux – Bulletproof (66)
Delta Goodrem – In This Life (65)
Martha and the Vandellas (62)
Girls Aloud – See The Day (57)
Taylor Swift – Love Story (57)
Tiara – Good Person ver. 1 (53)
Wonder Girls – Nobody (52)
BoA – Obsessed (50)
Hilary Duff – With Love (50)
Jolin Tsai – 愈慢愈美麗 (49)
Utada – Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence – FYI (45)
KOKIA – Siuil a Run – (43)
La Roux – Cover My Eyes (42)
Florence and the Machine – Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up) (41)
Solange – I Decided [Part 2] (42)
The Saturdays – Work (40)
Beyonce – Hello (38)

Granted, a large majority of these songs aren’t the ones I would call my favourites. And most of them are just the more recent songs I have where I would listen to them on repeat for ages. Regardless, a whole lot of gay going on there.

Chae Yeon – Shake

Now, I love Chae Yeon for being a sassy confident performer. Lord knows she isn’t the best singer or dancer but she has a lot of personality and seems friendly, but also a bitch. I bet she’d claw Hyori’s eyes out to be considered the sexiest Kpop star. That’s beside the point though; Chae Yeon recently came back with a mini-album (everyone in Korea is releasing mini-albums, why?) with her first song called Shake. Shake is pretty catchy but less dancey than her older songs. I wasn’t really blown away by her new stuff, it all sounds very similar and not that catchy. But! The best thing about her most recent work is her live performance dance routine. Oh my god, I will never get over it. It’s major epiq lols – especially if you use it as a victory dance. Check it out below~

平 和 愛