Pop Shots
Gone, But Not Forgotten
By: Adam Bernard
Last updated February 23rd , 2011

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 two pop stars being killed off on television shows, to an unexpected inspiration for an opera, to a former American Idol runner up getting the boot for a second time, and since it's Pop Shots you know everything is seasoned with a little bit of attitude.

* It was a bad week to be a pop star with a guest starring role on a television show. Last Monday Nick Lachey, playing a kidnapper on Hawaii Five-0 with his soon to be wife Vanessa Minnillo, was gunned down by the good guys, and later in the week Justin Bieber, playing a troubled teen, was shot to death on CSI. This follows a recent trend as in 2010 we witnessed the big screen murder of Christina Aguilera when she decided to star in Burlesque.

* Having a couple hit singles has its privileges. Just ask Bruno Mars, who was essentially told stardom is a green light to sniff coke in Vegas bathrooms. Mars, who pleaded guilty to cocaine possession charges after being caught enjoying a little bit of the nose candy in a Sin City restroom, was handed his sentence last week - 12 months probation, a $2,000 fine, 200 hours community service, and an order to attend drug counseling. Oh, and if he stays out of trouble for a year the charge will be wiped from his record, just like the white stuff was wiped from his nose. In a related story, Lindsay Lohan is REALLY trying to get her singing career back on track.

* Because nothing makes for better theatre than the story of a drugged out former Trimspa pitchwoman, the Royal Opera in London has commissioned an opera on the life and death of Anna Nicole Smith. I guess the old saying really is true - one man's trash is another man's opera.

* Rod Stewart, at age 66, has welcomed his eighth child into the world. The baby boy, Aiden, was born on Thursday, and will quickly go from having his diapers changed to changing the diapers of his father. The good news for Stewart is now that he has eight kids he's guaranteed an NBA contract, and he's lining up a gig with the Wu-Tang Clan as a possible replacement for the ODB.

* Readers of The New York Times were greeted by a not-so-happy full page advertisement this past Sunday as longtime record executive Steve Stoute decided to take readers for a ride on his waaambulance. Apparently Stoute was none too happy with the results of the Grammys. In the advertisement, he stated "over the course of my 20-year history as an executive in the music business and as the owner of a firm that specializes in in-culture advertising, I have come to the conclusion that the Grammy Awards have clearly lost touch with contemporary popular culture." I've never been a fan of awards shows, but if Stoute is going to insult the Grammys, he might want to remember what they're supposed to be about. The Grammys have never been a barometer of pop culture. That's what MTV's VMAs used to be. The Grammys are supposed to be about who's best musically. I disagree with their results quite often, but the fact that Stoute doesn't understand what the award show is about, and seems to only care about "contemporary pop culture," is indicative of why the major labels are failing at a record (pun intended) rate. Don't be mad that your artists didn't win, be mad that you're putting out artists that don't stack up musically. Or, you know, use the money that you could have spent on studio time to take out a full page add in The New York Times complaining about an award show.

* In the least surprising news of the week, Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" became the fastest selling single in iTunes history, moving more than one million downloads in its first five days of release. Madonna is probably somewhere whispering to herself in her fake British accent about wanting royalties.

* All those crying girls who were upset when David Archuleta came in second to David Cook on American Idol have yet another reason to shed a tear. Archuleta has been dropped by his label, Jive Records, after moving only a little more than 63,000 copies of his, in retrospect, highly ironically titled 2010 release The Other Side of Down. Don't worry, David, you're still part of one of the greatest Tosh.0 web redemptions of all-time.


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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