Pop Shots
Bringing The New
By: Adam Bernard
Last updated May 12th , 2010

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 new roles for Miranda "iCarly" Cosgrove and Jordin Sparks, to new goals for Bret Michaels, to the new, untamable, video by Miley Cyrus, and since it's Pop Shots you know everything is seasoned with a little bit of attitude.

* It looks like Disney may have some competition in the teen actress/singer market as Nickelodeon's Miranda Cosgrove, who most people know as iCarly, landed at number eight on the Billboard Albums chart this past week with her full length debut, Sparks Fly. Hey, does anybody else remember when singers would get big and then try to be on TV, and actors having albums was an oddity? When did that get totally reversed? I think once all of this devolves into Snookie Sings The American Standards we'll see the ship start to right itself again.


* Now that he's back on his feet again, Bret Michaels tells People Magazine that he has a new mission in life - to compile a Bucket List filled with positive goals he wants to accomplish after surviving his near fatal brain hemorrhage. Some of his goals include getting back to 100%, being a good father, and possibly even marrying the mother of his kids, which would be the ultimate Rock of Love twist. Whatever he does, VH1 better ink him to a developmental deal ASAP because it's going to be worth watching.

* Jordin Sparks will be making her Broadway debut this August as a member of the 2008 Tony and Grammy award winning musical In the Heights. Hey, Broadway casting directors, we get it, you watch American Idol. You don't have to hire every single former contestant. At least this time you hooked a former winner, but damn, at what point are we going to have a Broadway Actors Against American Idol group created by the hordes of out of work actors whose jobs have been taken by former Idol contestants?

* As hard as it might be to imagine in the first place, don't expect Vanessa Carlton to be singing along to DMX barking "Where My Dogs At?" anytime soon. This is because Carlton was bit by a dog the other day while jogging near her father's Pennsylvania home. One might have thought Carlton would have been able to lose the pooch with her skills at going "1,000 miles" at a time on foot, but I guess it really isn't 2002 anymore.

* Fans will be hearing the nonsensical ramblings, and trademark "Gucci" being used to close verses again sooner rather than later as Gucci Mane was released from prison today after serving six months of the one year jail sentence he was given for violating the terms of his probation for a 2005 assault conviction. With the Rihanna song he's on having been in rotation for what seems like six months, did anyone even notice he was gone?

* 73 year old Merle Haggard made the highest chart debut of his five decade long career when his most recent effort, I Am What I Am, {insert your own Popeye joke here} landed at number 18 on Billboard's Top Country Albums chart. Even if it had debuted at number one, though, his greatest moment, in my mind, will always be being mentioned in the first line of Bloodhound Gang's epic tale "A Lapdance is so Much Better When The Stripper is Crying," which starts "I was lonelier than Kunta Kinte at a Merle Haggard concert." Congrats to Merle on his TWO great accomplishments.

* Miley Cyrus debuted her latest video this past week and it caused quite the stir. Critics are making claims that it's too sexual, that she's being too racy, and that it sets a bad example for her young female audience. These are the same tired arguments that get raised EVERY time a teenage pop artist does anything that isn't Church-like. Maybe I'm missing something here, but in my estimation the clip isn't any wilder in terms of sexuality than what most her peers release. Check out the clip and see for yourself. Incidentally, somewhere, Britney Spears is watching this wishing she had been offered the song.


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]