My blurb for will.i.am/Britney over at the Jukebox contains 4 buts, 1 yet, and 1 except.

I started at 5 points but then realized I was enjoying playing it over and over.

But the low-budget vid's a bore from second number one.

Here's HyunA displaying her Pikachu voice (segment begins 26 seconds in), anticipating how a year later she tells Psy he's just her style. But what's striking me now about the clip is Jihyun saying, right at the start, "We're famous for not having talents." I can't tell if this is just a quick quip, a "talent" merely meaning a special side ( Read more... )

Trevor says, in his writeup about JJ Project's "Bounce," that:

"For me, there's nothing sadder than, say, a couple of self-described 'punks' arguing about what 'real punk rock' is and is not."
Guess you have to count me among the sad, then, since that's exactly what I was doing the other day when talking about Screeching Weasel and Britney in my " ( Read more... )

I remember Gene Wilder in a TV interview putting forth an insight that went something like this: He recalled an old Charlie Chaplin clip where the tramp, famished, was standing behind a burly man holding a baby. The baby was eating a partially peeled banana. Whenever the burly man looked away, Charlie would bob his head forward and take a bite, ( Read more... )

Been saying that these days the voice of adventure in popular music is young and female, though so far my argument is more loose ends than fabric, and I find counterexamples as soon as I find examples (e.g., male EXO is certainly adventurous, I just wish I liked them more).

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To put it negatively, pop music doesn't seem to have a viable adulthood, ( Read more... )

( How to get Maura Johnston interested in K-pop )

Unfootnoted text that I hope is never deleted from Wikipedia:

Soyeon fostered her dreams of becoming a star even before she could stand in front of a mirror. After getting into an arts high school, she became a trainee at a top name agency in her senior year. Every single day, she rehearsed to the point of sweating through three different t-shirts ( Read more... )

Didn't get a review in on time for the Jukebox, but I'd have given "Criminal" a 9. Has an emotional pang way beyond anything the lyrics set up. It's as if Britney's own sorrow is trying to sing away her mother's sorrow: a reverse lullaby, Britney cupping Mommy in her arms and singing her to sleep.

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Galaxy Dream ft. Turbotronic, "Ready 4 Romance ( Read more... )

So far. And three of them are holdovers from last year, which I justify down in the wonky notes. I've already posted about Jeremih, the gorgeous tenuousness of the sounds seeming to have nothing to do with the booty-gazing lyrics. You likely already know about the Britney, and if you haven't heard " High High" yet, that's hardly my fault. "Knock Out ( Read more... )