Nosey

Fave: Razorlight Worst: P Diddy

His promotion has been atrocious. As far as I am aware, he's only managed to do The Wright Stuff and Loose Women and the odd bit of local radio. He needs to get on GMTV, which shouldn't be hard because they have a constant stream of the X Factor 2 lot doing pointless little features. Steve is a big embarrassment to Simon and X Factor, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if pressure has been applied onto shows like GMTV not to have Steve on, and instead to plug the new X Factor like mad. I never did like Steve much, so don't care all that much whether he has a deal or not, but Simon did drop him rather pathetically after just one single and is now claiming that he didn't sell 500k albums, so tough! Interestingly, Shayne has yet to sell that many either, despite having had a lot more money spent on him and releasing his album more quickly off the back of the show.

Novelty records might be a bit embarassing, but having the guts to get the ones you enjoy doesn't mean you have poor taste in music. It means you buy what you like! Being fun doesn't mean it's of no value. Taste is incredibly subjective, but IMO good taste means that you aren't bound by genres or fashions, but seek out the best music to suit your moods. I like a wide range of music, including classical, chart and non-chart, but not jazz. I don't like it when artists produce the same album again and again either, but that's because I get bored easily. I'm very happy that I like the kind of music that I like, but I don't see it as something to be proud of or ashamed of. People who are keen to show-off about owning cool and trendy CDs are more interested in looking cool and being seen as fashionable than they are in the music itself.

Alesha's official forum is saying Knockdown has been pushed back to the 30th.

Apparently the Lee dropped story was quashed by his label and it was just The Sun being The Sun. Duncan's attempt at a solo career was all a bit pointless, but I don't remember him slagging off the rest of Blue.

I was torn between Nelly and Gnarls, but went for Nelly in the end.

I guessed there must have been some kind of promotion. Didn't Elton John chart high on downloads once because of a text-based competition that also included a 'free download', but presumably wasn't counted as free as you had to pay a pound or so for the text.

I have warmed to Matt a lot since he's gone solo, and I hope he gets more of a chance, but one of Matt's big limiting factors is that he's not a very good singer. In fact, he's not much of a singer at all, with both singles to date relying on the production and electronic effects to compensate. I don't think he can pull off a ballad, no matter how good it is, and it's normally ballads that rescue careers, because they break out of genres.

There's no doubt that Madonna is the Queen of pop, but every royal family has room for more than one princess and both Kylie and Britney are deserving. Shakira's great, and I'm really happy that Hips Don't Lie has done so well, but she's not been consistent enough in the UK charts to call her Queen. Perhaps she can be a princess from the neighbouring kingdom of latin music. Ricky Martin can be Crown Prince. :yahoo:

He seems to be struggling a bit, but he's got another single in him, which means they'll release the album. It would be a shame if he got dropped just as I'm warming to him. His solo material has been much better than the recent Busted stuff, and he seems a lot less annoying as a person too.

I think a lot of people feel the same way and she's going to pay the price for her bad attitude. IMO this is the best song on the album, and it will be a big hit, I'd say it could be top 5, but it's not going to be as big as it could have been.

Agreed. It makes a mockery of the charts and didn't gain Elvis any respect. If anything, it undid the boost to his image gained by the JXL track a couple of years earlier. It could be good to have an extra couple of weeks where downloads count towards the charts, but not too many. This way it might encourage shorter promotional campaigns too, which will help to keep things fresh as well as making it more plausible for a track to climb the charts gradually and build up a bit of momentum. I'm not too sure about the video thing. It will give the big name acts on big labels who can produce gimmicky videos too much of a boost over smaller acts focusing on good music. Perhaps a separate video download chart would be an option so that creative videos would still gain some acknowledgement? It would be intresting to see it broken down anyway, especially as so many music channels don't play the most requesed videos as often as their personal favourites.

They only say that because it makes her sound more credible, but she's still a pop star, releasing pop records, some of which have an r'n'b influence, which if we are going to get picky, applies to most popular music, including rock! Beware of the Dog is much better, more interesting and exciting than Something About You. I think it's an excellent use of the sample, in particular the bit where she incorporates the 'Reach out and touch me' lyric.

I think that quote came from before the second single bombed, but it was almost inevitable. His presenting skills are not the greatest, but GMTV seem to love having him on to do their competitions. Inbetween that girl from The Bill. ^_^

It was also used as part of a major advertising campaign in the UK a few years ago, and I think in some other countries. In the UK at least, I'd be shocked if people thought it was entirely new.

It's a fantastic album, but I'm guessing the people criticising her or anyone else for doing something different and/or being inspired by artists that have gone before them are people that just don't like those artists or what they've produced this time around. I loved Nelly's first album and bought that, and I love her new sound, and will buy this album. If I can love both these sounds, then so can she. Critics will always say someone they don't like is jumping on a bandwagon, whilst fans will say they are influenced by the music around them that they love. The only problem I have is with acts who do music they don't like, and that's mainly because it shows. When a singer or band perform music they love, the performance is so much better. If you aren't respectful of your music then you aren't respecting the fans who love that music. One recent example of that would be Charlie from Busted complaining about how their music.

That's half the story, but pop stars and singers should be people who are interested in music, so are bound to become interested in new sounds and trying out something new. What's worse is when they never let their sound progress at all.

I wasn't at all keen at first, but it's grown on me and I've caught myself singing it a few times. I think it could be a big radio hit, but I'm not too sure if I'm inspired enough to buy it. Beware of the Dog sounds much more exciting.

OK, thanks, lol. :blink: :wacko: I'll probably stick to the normal version. I'd be interested in seeing the DVD, but only once.

I think I'll be getting this one too. Is the difference between the basic and limited edition version the version of You Came? I've not heard the 2006 version yet - not sure which I'd rather have. :D

And presumably why Sam and Mark are down as a duo, as that's how they released. Same for all the groups, such as Girls Aloud, Liberty-X etc.

Fave: Matt Willis Worst: Stacie (I think she's great, but this song is boring)

Thanks. Justin stands a fair chance of getting his first UK number one, but if it's not, they aren't too far out. Agreed about Pink, the Jaxx and Sandi being too high, but this seems to be what Woolies do. I'm sure it's to make the new releases look more exciting and easy to find.

Hear'say: 6 Liberty X: 8 Will Young: 5 Gareth Gates: 11 Darius: 5 Zoe Birkett: 6 (loved her on the show, but one duff single makes it hard to give her anything more) Rik Waller: 0 Sarah Whatmore: 7 Rosie Ribbons: 6 (hated her on the show, but the leaked album tracks were great) Jessica Garlick: 7 Girls Aloud: 9 One True Voice: 1 Kym Marsh: 3 Clea: 4 (Download was quality, but their recent stuff is terrible) Phixx: 2 David Sneddon: 3 Sinead Quinn: 8 Lemar: 5 Ainsle Henderson: 6 Alex Parks: 4 Alistar Griffin: 3 Michelle Mcmanus: 3 Sam & Mark: 4 Steve Brookstein: 3 G4: 4 Shayne Ward: 2 Andy Abraham: 3 Journey South: 3 Chico: 3 (for entertainment value) Cheeky Girls: 4 (as above) Maria Lawson: 3 (great singer, but her new song is dull)

And yet her music is pop! :wacko: Maybe people feel uncomfortable liking 'pop' music? If anything, her new single has a slight rock feel to it!