Surely there needs to be an Indie Teenpop Award

[koganbot]

Surely there needs to be an Indie Teenpop Award. Eligible for the award will be: (1) performers who are going for a teenpop sound but are on indies or who are strictly MySpace or CDbaby, (2) performers who are somewhat or formerly teenpop but are also going for a somewhat indie sound, whether they're on indies or not, (3) performers who are not

Comments

Second Stage at the Indie Awards

[skyecaptain]

Second stagers are the Myspace finds who aren't quite ready for big-time indie, the club league to indie's minor league: Katie Neil, Colette Trudeau, Shut Up Stella, Bec Hollcraft, a few others. Maybe shemo group Paramore

Re: Second Stage at the Indie Awards

[dickmalone]

Second Daphne and Celeste but I'd say no on BYOP--they're so far toward punk they're barely even indie, really. I mean they're still indie but since this is ostensibly some sort of genre-specific thing I don't know how you could really judge them against the other folks listed. Maybe other people find them poppier?

Re: Second Stage at the Indie Awards

[koganbot]

Well, the question isn't whether something is "too damn indie" - and for our purposes, punk can be indie, since punk helped create indie - but whether it's "too damn not teenpop." And the one song Smoosh song I've heard - "Rad" - makes them eligible, almost Aaron Carterish. They talk about being on soccer teams!

Wait, are Daphne & Celeste still a current act, and are they on an indie? I didn't specify, but the award is for current performers, not for Hall of Famers (and anyway, D&C were major label in the Britland, though nonexistent here). Oh, looking at Wikipedia, there may be tentative plans for doing something, but I couldn't tell if either of the women is really putting much energy into the idea of a reunion. There has to be recent product for the duo to be eligible. "Daphne and Celeste are currently considering a comeback, after top Euro DJ Ötzi released a 2006 mix of 'Ooh Stick You!' This has yet to get a release, however it has had dancefloors bouncing all across Austria."

Re: Second Stage at the Indie Awards

[koganbot]

Also, the fact that Lex made Smoosh his entry (representing the USA) in the Pop World Cup makes them teenpop. I should have listed them. Speaking of Hope, let's not forget Hope 7 (except they're probably not good enough for the top 12/16).

If we can get a good enough list of 12 that excludes Skye and Lillix and Marit, I would be happy. Flyleaf are borderline for being not teenpop enough, and adding that to the fact that they're now major label probably should make them ineligible - their album is on Octone, the promo said it was distributed by Sony BMG but Billboard didn't seem to concur, but now they've signed a joint deal with Octone, J Records, and RCA, the latter of which is owned by Sony BMG.

[dubdobdee]

do you need someone to make this into an actual real poll at some point?

[koganbot]

Yeah, but not for a while as I'm procrastinating like crazy working against deadline on a Platinum Weird piece. I want input from Poptimists and from the teenpop thread before we come up with a final list. skyecaptain doesn't know this yet, but he and I are going to create the list together, as he knows the territory better than I. I might want to take the poll to Poptimists if there's ever a lull in their festivities. Maybe we'd have YouTube and MySpace links for every contestant, and write-ups, as in the Pop World Cup.

[koganbot]

By the way, I'm totally comfortable with the idea that there are absolutely zero good male teenpop acts at the moment, major or indie. Haven't heard any Ashley Parker Angel except the single. He seems to be the only real candidate, though I do think there's reasonably good stuff on the Jonas Bros. album. I heard an OK Westlife song once. Busted are Busted, and from what I've heard weren't any better than the Jonas Bros. are. Jesse McCartney has his merits. If we count current emo, which is the real male teenpop, well, um... I think I'm still coming up w/ zero. Maybe continental Europe can help us out.

[skyecaptain]

Racking my brain for boys and all I can come up with are a very select handful of Myspacers, almost all of whom aren't very good...Disney has had some funny kid-rap boy entries in their incubaTor series, Lil' Josh prude-rap; Lil' J Xavier is Prince of the South, 2Krayze sez "STAY IN SCHOOL"; 3D has a 3D party...in fact, you could pull a lot of potential candidates from there, almost all of them are indie. (There are exceptions, like Cheyenne Kimball and Emma Roberts.)

Katy Rose! Definitely counts and takes the place of D&C on my list.

[poptasticuk]

This is all a bit American! I'll have to think up some UK/Euro acts for you. All I can think of so far is Lambretta (brilliant) and Tokio Hotel (awful), who are both teen-rock bands with teenage singers.

[koganbot]

Both Lambretta (which broke up) and Tokio Hotel are on major labels. Is there anything indie about either of them, other than Tokio Hotel's black nails (which I'd assume would be glam, not indie)?

I've heard one song by Tokio Hotel, "Durch den Monsun," which I think is a very pretty guitar ballad, the sound feels singer-songwriter romantic, would be one of the best songs on Radio Disney should it ever get there. But I'm prejudiced in its favor because the version I've heard/seen has Gang Oscypa lipsynching to it, and Gang Oscypa are wonderful. This is the first I've heard of Lambretta.

[poptasticuk]

They are more alternative than indie, I suppose - an alternative to traditional pure pop teenpop. I know Lambretta broke up but Linda, the singer, will continue with a solo career, apparently in the style of Gwen Stefani although I'm sure she'll bring an ace Swedish twist to it.

[poptasticuk]

Oops, that was me.