From Arcade to Ashlee

[koganbot]

"Here's Frank Kogan, here's Chuck Eddy, and here's this dude!"

Dave Moore has posted a transcript of his rockcritics.com interview - had originally been a podcast (Scott Woods the interviewer):

(When I saw there was a third vote for I Am Me, I said to myself, "Must be the father of a couple of pre-teen girls. What other critics listen to this

Comments

[koganbot]

I myself was late to the game when it came to teenpop's Ashlee-style rock confessional. Back in '01 I'd reviewed Pink's Missundaztood favorably and referred back to Michelle Branch and Nelly Furtado in the review, but I'd pretty much shrugged when Vanessa Carlton and Avril came along, and subsequently barely even noticed that there was a Hilary Duff or a Lindsay Lohan. When Chuck sent me the Skye Sweetnam album I thought it was pretty generic; I didn't get as far as "Hypocrite," its greatest song, on my first play, and don't think I made it back to the album for a year. I'd liked Jessica Simpson's "Irresistible," and so clicked on "Pieces Of Me" and thought, "Hey, this is likable," and then forgot about it, the teen song that was really exciting me being JoJo's "Leave (Get Out)."* 2004 was the year of Big & Rich and a lot of interesting permutations on crunk, so it wasn't as if I was casting about for things to listen to. When Mikael Wood compared Ashlee to Courtney in his Voice review I should have immediately run slobbering to the

[koganbot]

And of course I've revised my opinion of Vanessa Carlton and Avril Lavigne upward, as well.

[koganbot]

I just posted this on a rockcritics.com comment thread, in response to Scott saying "the thrilling and frequently surprising evolution of what has come to be known as 'teenpop' (yeah yeah, I'm old - still prefer 'bubblegum' myself)":

Scott, a lot of teenpop isn't remotely bubblegum (Ashlee's "Shadow," Kelly Clarkson's "Because Of You," Aly & AJ's "Not This Year," to name a few obvious examples), and at least some bubblegum isn't particularly teenpop: for instance, there's a whole slew of silly Italodisco and Europop going back to "Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep" and continuing on through Aqua and "Mambo No. 5" and modern bosh like Cascada that's gum-smackingly chewy without being marketed specifically to kids.