Pop Shots: The First Shot
By: Adam Bernard
Last updated June 24th , 2009

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 Chris Brown (err, perhaps "hitting you" was a poor choice of words) to Lady Gaga to VH1's Charm School.  All seasoned with a little bit of attitude.
  
 
* On Monday Chris Brown received a slap on the wrist while Perez Hilton received a punch to the face.  Anybody else think those punishments should have been reversed?  As a compromise, can we force these two industry pariahs to hang out together?  Perhaps they can be required to be each other's bodyguards so the next time will.i.am's manager wants to hand out a "Boom Boom Pow" he can take care of two birds with one stone, or in this case two dirtballs with one swing.

 
Lady Gaga* Lady Gaga is pretty much queen of the pop world right now and there are plenty of people, myself included, who are very happy about that.  Her label, Interscope Records, however, never saw it coming.  In fact, they originally thought of her as nothing more than a niche artist that might get play in gay clubs.  Almost all of her album listening parties were held in gay clubs, which is why she didn't get a ton of mainstream press when her album was released, and one press release I received even had the headline "Lady Gaga to Make Gay-Fest Even Gayer."  The question remains, if they weren't planning on banking on Lady Gaga, who were they planning on banking on?  Did they really have high hopes for that Chris Cornell record?

 
* Further evidence that Lady Gaga is at the pinnacle of pop superstardom right now - she has her own midget impersonator.  Yes, that's right, the midget entertainer that was formerly known as Mini Britney has switched her game up and is now Mini Lady Gaga and as Dr. Evil proved to everyone, there is no greater sign of power than having your own mini me.  I'm still holding auditions for mine.

 
Flo Rida* I have been known to have some strong opinions about music and strong opinions can, at times, lead to being wrong.  The career of Flo-Rida can definitely be filed under the "boy was I ever wrong" header as I was convinced he would be a one hit wonder.  His first single, "Low," had a danceable beat, a high profile guest doing the hook (T-Pain), and lyrics about nothing that were peppered with product placements.  It screamed one hit wonder.  Flo-Rida, however, is no one hit wonder, he's the new MC Hammer, and it wouldn't surprise me at all to see him making hit dance pop records for at least the next calendar year.  If he really follows in Hammer's footsteps I'll also be looking forward to his eventual Behind The Music, although I doubt he's paying all of his friends 50 G's just to stand around.

 
* The Pussycat Dolls have an excellent song on Doll Domination titled "Halo."  Who wants to bet they're not exactly thrilled at the success of the Beyonce song of the same name?  Any chance we could get Nicole Scherzinger and Beyonce to mud wrestle over it?  It could possibly bring a whole new meaning to Doll Domination.
 
 
brittanya* Finally, I want to take a minute to talk a little bit about VH1's Charm School.  At first I was slightly upset that this season's house wasn't going to be filled solely with Rock of Love girls, but was going to include Real Chance of Love girls, as well.  My worries were all for naught, however, as the diversity of the cast has worked to make things even more interesting.  There have been some pretty impressive verbal fights and Ashley is still the queen of the mean comment, most notably telling Bubbles that talking to her was "like talking to a retarded child."  ("People who eat basil are lame" will still be her greatest comment ever, though)  My personal fave, Brittanya, has managed to fly relatively under the radar so far.  Here's hoping she pulls out the win and VH1 eventually hooks us up with Brittanya of Love.  Now that's a show I'd try out for!

 
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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