JB

2 Posts
18 Feb

Fame: The New Pop Commodity

JBEssay
Many would point to Britney Spears as the symbol of the End of Pop.Grossly unfair. Britney Spears is a classic pop icon: she can sing, in this interesting-sounding rasp which is frankly more nuanced and emotive than Christina Aguilera's Mulan-murdering aaaa-aaa-a-a-aaaa-aa-aa. Spears' concerts are fun to watch, and you can put down money for her albums and expect pop satisfaction, instead of feeling ripped-off and more determined than ever to support the filesharing masses. She also has good taste in choosing songs, more so than we can say for Jessica Simpson or (recently, alas) Mandy Moore, and please can we…
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01 Jul

I Know What You Want

JBFeature
There are two distinct sides to Mariah Carey. One side makes good music. The other makes American Idol fodder.The side that makes good music basically invented the pop/hip-hop cross followed by countless big-name recording acts; Jennifer Lopez went so far as to steal a sample idea from Carey's Glitter album and scored a huge hit (ironically titled "I'm Real"). Carey was supposed to be a footnote, an obscure yet influential artist that was considered cool to like, with her immense library of samples, her obsessive songwriting and producing, her vocal phrasing replete with influences from jazz, hip-hop, and R&B.Instead they…
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