Welcome to your weekly dose of pop world musings. Covering all things pop culture, this week Pop Shots is hitting you with thoughts on everything from the battle Rihanna's new single sets up, to the battles with the law Lil' Wayne and Kanye West recently lost, to the battle over tickets to Taylor Swift's 2010 tour, and since it's Pop Shots you know everything is seasoned with a little bit of attitude.
* Rihanna made her fans giddy and her detractors even more detracting this past week with the release of "Russian Roulette," a single that was clearly made in order to create controversy. Before I get to the meat and potatoes of the song, you can bet on at least one family suing her, her label, and anyone associated with her, if a kid shoots themselves anytime in the next six months and happens to have it on their hard drive. Vocally, Rihanna actually sounds decent on "Russian Roulette." Maybe she wanted to make up for her voice cracking really terribly at the end of "Run This Town" (and we have to assume that was the best of all the takes). When it comes to the actual content of the song, however, I'm just not buying it as something uber-personal as it was written by Ne-Yo and the last time I checked Chris Brown never beat Ne-Yo up. Then again, if this sets up a possible cage match between the two of them it will change my opinion of the song entirely.
* The aforementioned Chris Brown, on the same day Rihanna's single was released, announced a 19 city "fan appreciation" tour. Getting over the initial shock that Brown still has fans, a portion of the tour's proceeds will be split between the Jenesee Center, which is a domestic violence intervention charity, and Best Buddies International, which is an organization that provides friendships and jobs for people with developmental disabilities. A nice gesture, but do you know what would have been an even nicer gesture... not beating the crap out of your ex-girlfriend!
* Lil' Wayne has truly begun his fall from grace as last week he pleaded guilty to gun charges and will spend up to a year in prison. Personally, I think he got off easy being that he was only given jail time for the gun and nothing for the stepladder he would have had to use to shoot anyone above the knees.
* Taylor Swift reportedly sold out four of her 2010 concert dates in two minutes, while tickets to the other thirteen shows didn't last much longer. To put that in perspective, in the amount of time it takes the average person to get out of bed and brush their teeth, Swift can sell out a concert. This has been a huge breakout year for the teen star (breakout in a good way, not in a Proactiv way) and I think it's safe to say pop music has a new queen.
* Kanye West was sentenced to 50 hours of community service this past week stemming from an altercation with members of the paparazzi at a Hawaii airport in September. I heard the first two minutes of it were spent taking orders for Taylor Swift tickets.
* British pop star Robbie Williams just had a pretty good week. Last Tuesday he set a world record by having the largest number of screenings of a live concert in theaters (the total number being over 250), and two days later the BRIT music awards announced he will receive a career prize at the 30th BRIT music awards in London next year. As a soloist and a member of Take That, Williams has already accrued 11 BRITs, so this will give him an even dozen. And to think, most American audiences only know him for "Millennium" (which, incidentally, was a really dope song!).
* Google is jumping into the digital music game... sort of. The search engine giant is partnering with major labels to make it easier for people to buy music when they do Google searches. According to a Reuters report, "Start-ups iLike and LaLa will facilitate the new feature, which will enable songs to be streamed on the Google page that will also include a ‘buy' button. This will help reduce the number of steps fans need to purchase their favorite songs or albums." So apparently major labels think sales are hitting record lows (pun intended) because people can't figure out where to buy music. Talk about a head up your ass kind of theory. Yeah, nobody's heard of Amazon.com or iTunes. At some point the music industry is going to have to wake up and realize the reason they aren't making money like they used to is because they aren't putting out anything people want to buy.
* The video I'm leaving you with this week is La Roux's "I'm Not Your Toy." It's one of the odder clips I've come across in recent memory. I can't really make heads or tails of it, or the androgynous singer, but its originality can't be denied. Enjoy (or have it haunt your nightmares... either way)!
And with that, my time is up for the week, but I'll be back next week with more shots on all things pop.
* Rihanna made her fans giddy and her detractors even more detracting this past week with the release of "Russian Roulette," a single that was clearly made in order to create controversy. Before I get to the meat and potatoes of the song, you can bet on at least one family suing her, her label, and anyone associated with her, if a kid shoots themselves anytime in the next six months and happens to have it on their hard drive. Vocally, Rihanna actually sounds decent on "Russian Roulette." Maybe she wanted to make up for her voice cracking really terribly at the end of "Run This Town" (and we have to assume that was the best of all the takes). When it comes to the actual content of the song, however, I'm just not buying it as something uber-personal as it was written by Ne-Yo and the last time I checked Chris Brown never beat Ne-Yo up. Then again, if this sets up a possible cage match between the two of them it will change my opinion of the song entirely.* The aforementioned Chris Brown, on the same day Rihanna's single was released, announced a 19 city "fan appreciation" tour. Getting over the initial shock that Brown still has fans, a portion of the tour's proceeds will be split between the Jenesee Center, which is a domestic violence intervention charity, and Best Buddies International, which is an organization that provides friendships and jobs for people with developmental disabilities. A nice gesture, but do you know what would have been an even nicer gesture... not beating the crap out of your ex-girlfriend!
* Lil' Wayne has truly begun his fall from grace as last week he pleaded guilty to gun charges and will spend up to a year in prison. Personally, I think he got off easy being that he was only given jail time for the gun and nothing for the stepladder he would have had to use to shoot anyone above the knees.
* Taylor Swift reportedly sold out four of her 2010 concert dates in two minutes, while tickets to the other thirteen shows didn't last much longer. To put that in perspective, in the amount of time it takes the average person to get out of bed and brush their teeth, Swift can sell out a concert. This has been a huge breakout year for the teen star (breakout in a good way, not in a Proactiv way) and I think it's safe to say pop music has a new queen.
* Kanye West was sentenced to 50 hours of community service this past week stemming from an altercation with members of the paparazzi at a Hawaii airport in September. I heard the first two minutes of it were spent taking orders for Taylor Swift tickets.
* British pop star Robbie Williams just had a pretty good week. Last Tuesday he set a world record by having the largest number of screenings of a live concert in theaters (the total number being over 250), and two days later the BRIT music awards announced he will receive a career prize at the 30th BRIT music awards in London next year. As a soloist and a member of Take That, Williams has already accrued 11 BRITs, so this will give him an even dozen. And to think, most American audiences only know him for "Millennium" (which, incidentally, was a really dope song!).
* Google is jumping into the digital music game... sort of. The search engine giant is partnering with major labels to make it easier for people to buy music when they do Google searches. According to a Reuters report, "Start-ups iLike and LaLa will facilitate the new feature, which will enable songs to be streamed on the Google page that will also include a ‘buy' button. This will help reduce the number of steps fans need to purchase their favorite songs or albums." So apparently major labels think sales are hitting record lows (pun intended) because people can't figure out where to buy music. Talk about a head up your ass kind of theory. Yeah, nobody's heard of Amazon.com or iTunes. At some point the music industry is going to have to wake up and realize the reason they aren't making money like they used to is because they aren't putting out anything people want to buy.
* The video I'm leaving you with this week is La Roux's "I'm Not Your Toy." It's one of the odder clips I've come across in recent memory. I can't really make heads or tails of it, or the androgynous singer, but its originality can't be denied. Enjoy (or have it haunt your nightmares... either way)!
And with that, my time is up for the week, but I'll be back next week with more shots on all things pop.
[Tags] POP
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