Even with S. Korea having canceled spring on account of the ferry disaster (as Subdee says), I'm woefully behind on K-pop, and my listening elsewhere has been too random and intermittent even to be called scattershot. But anyway, int'l dance cheese goes strong at its most opportunist (Chainsmokers, Orange Caramel, Badkiz [the "Party Rock Anthem" ( Read more... )

Let's see, charts, that's where stuff that is popular is designated popular, and you observe this and get all excited or all depressed because... (some reason or other)...

( Dr. Dre )

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... )

Most disappointing event of 2010:

Nobody on Rolling Country responded to my Rihanna/Flynnville Train joke. (Repeated it on poptimists, and no one responded there, either.)

My P&J ballot is due in less than a week, and while I'm struggling to keep my singles shortlist under 100, I'm also struggling to come up with a really good albums list (though it's already way better than last year's). ( Dishwasher )

Is the music world ready to return to the normality of two years ago? Rihanna's got two songs in the top four. But is it the same Rihanna?

( Rihanna )

Far East Movement's "Like A G6" featuring The Cataracs and Dev is now in the top ten, the rigor of its electro being such a contrast to the dancepop mulch of its fellow winners that Dev's cheap bitchy vocals almost seem like wisdom. So, can last year's queen of brains Rihanna build on this bright news? Check under the cut.

( Rihanna )

If you want to join in there or here, I'm in an interesting convo with someone named Petra over on a comment thread on one of Tom's Tumblrs in regard to how or even whether angry songs by women are perceived (convo inspired by an incompetent and incoherent Jude Rogers trend piece in the Guardian).

Peas do what Haiti couldn't, displacing Ke$ha at the top. Rihanna hits the chart again, but not with the song that would seem to be her album's obvious next single, "Te Amo," an excellent combination of lilt, catchiness, and burning regret. Maybe she or the record execs fear that its subject inhibits popularity: a woman coming on to Rihanna, with ( Read more... )

Last month I linked the "radio edit" of my decade's end piece, the version that was printed in the Las Vegas Weekly. Here under the cut is the "extended freestyle mix" (a.k.a. director's cut), a full one thousand words longer - that's 60 percent more, for the same price! To put it in brief, I'm suggesting that the musical story of the Web is words, ( Read more... )