Nosey

I think there will always be people who want to have music in a physical form, so I don't think CDs will die-out altogether, but they might become harder to buy, much like vinyl.

I love it. It's brilliant and better than I could have hoped for. The video is perfect too.

It's got a strong Kelis vibe to it, but a bit classier. I don't think I like it as much as Lipstick, but I want it to be a big hit for her so we can get the album. The UK music scene needs Alesha!

I'm sure the comments by Simon were said to dismiss Steve's criticisms of him rather than giving us insight into the world of music accounting. Steve's first album was put together very cheaply and there was next to no promotion beyond what happened on X Factor and their tour, so I don't think it can have made a loss. Simon just assumed Steve's second album would make a loss. Fortunately for Simon, most people think that Steve's complaints about his unfair treatment are down to sour grapes, and they are half right. Long before he fell out with Simon Steve was falling out with large chunks of the media because he didn't think they were showing him enough respect. It was incredibly short-sighted of him to think that the gossip columns would be kind to him. They should have seen it coming, he never took criticism well during the show either.

That's a strong entry for Amy Winehouse, better than I expected. I can't believe Gnarls is still hanging around.

Alesha's not releasing on the 23rd anymore. Knockdown is now scheduled for 30th October. It says so on her MySpace http://www.myspace.com/aleshamusic

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.

I'm really loving Rudebox now!

That's it. It sounds as fresh as ever, which is quite an achievement. Did anyone else think Lily sounded strange when she rang in? I know she'll have recorded it like an answer-machine message, but she sounded really sheepish and down. So much for her being a great injection of personality into the UK pop scene. Do you think she's realised everyone hates her now?

Lilly had excellent word of mouth, which was how I got to hear about her. Granted, some of that was because she was considered 'cool', but without all the positive and negative hype her music is good. However, to transfer her to the mass market has required a hell of a push from her label, who presumably also encouraged all the right journalists to find her MySpace page etc.

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.

It's fantastic and well deserved.

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.

It's a good recovery from the midweek position. Making the top 10 makes it all sounds sound like a decent hit and will make promoting the follow-up and album so much easier.

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.

Amazed, but in a good way about The Killers. Those tickets are going to sell fast tomorrow. I had expected Jamelia to chart at least in the top 10, but as catchy as the current song is, there's nothing remarkable about it. Beware of the Dog is much stronger.

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.