ghostwriter

She is very good. It's great that we have someone like her constantly pushing the boundries when it comes to her albums. Her videos are fantastic too. She is a decent actress too. She was excellent in 'Dancer In The Dark'.

It's interesting to view old commentaries and see how things have changed since. For example, I bet a lot of people will have thought Shakira wouldn't have one of the biggest chart toppers of the year after Don't Bother only limped in at number 9. I agree with him about Charlotte Church's Moodswings actually. That was a pretty good pop record. The video was certainly very good. Wouldn't have minded that song to do better.

I went for Chico. Obvious choice maybe, I geniunely think it's the worst one out of that list. After all this is what this topic is about right? Your personal least favourite number one of 2006 so far?

There have been some great number ones so far this year. I went for Gnarls Barkley. Crazy is a brilliant song. My other favourites of the year have been Maneater by Nelly Furtado and No Tomorrow by Orson. The worst three for me are Chico and Sandi Thom- both nolvelty one-hit-wonder garbage- and Meck- Thunder In My Heart as it is just a cheapo remix on a cruddy old '70s tune.

Limp Bizkit... now that really was a mistake I made when I was in high school. I never bought a T-shirt, but I did buy their Chocolate Starfish And The Hot Dog Flavoured Water album... and I ended up giving it away! As did the person who I gave it away to. :lol:

As far as I can see, it's just a trend or a subculture like any other. Typically teenage I suppose. I think it's actually become somewhat fashionable to hate emos now though. Personally I couldn't care less about them. It's just another subculture, and frankly there are worse sorts of teenagers out there.

Just to play devil's advocate here, Keisha "sang the Tracy Beaker theme tune" White is hardly a "serious" artist either. Whether anyone will pick up Keisha's records in five years time remains to be seen, but it seems very few people are picking up her records now. I'm not defending Jamelia by the way. She is well known for her bitchiness and shooting her mouth off. I'm just saying I don't think Keisha is an angel in all this either.

In my experience, women and gay men in their 30s and 40s. They probably listened to this sort of music the first time it was around. But I suppose considering the huge sales then there will be lots who don't fit into those demographics that have bought it. While their music isn't really my cup of tea, the Scissor Sisters are alright in my book. Plus, regardless of what the album is like, strong sales are good news for the music industry.

I think this is good news. I hope they get rid of those stupid 52 weeks/2 weeks after deleted rules as well. But even if they do get rid of those old rules, they'll probably introduce some other stupid rule, like they always do. I also think it's unlikely any changes will come as soon as 1 January.

I think he means 'Bout, which featured US rapper Rah Digga. :lol:

The duet with Nelly Furtado covering Crazy was very good. It might be a good idea if one of them releases that as a B side or something. But three shows in a row by far the best part of all has been her singing with the guest band/singer at the end. The show in general is a bit poor really. Maybe Charlotte should stick to singing.

On a side note, I'm also glad the US chart is shifting away from urban music now. The reason it is is to do with download sales being included and so different genres of music are doing better instead of the chart being dominated by the same urban songs in the top ten all year long. I think the shift now shows just how flawed the Billboard Hot 100 was a few years ago. Because of extremly low physical sales it was pretty much an airplay only chart, so any song that got played endlessly on Rhythmic and Urban radio stations would be in the top 10 all year and any non-American Idol winner single that wasn't urban would have barely any chance of doing well. The lesson for all this for the UK I suppose should be- never start including airplay in the charts.

:o I think all download sales should eligle for inclusion in the chart, especially as those are all selling enough to make the top 75. It's a more acurate reflection of which songs are popular with people after all. The OCC really get on my nerves with making up all these stupid "52 weeks then starred out/if deleted starred out after 2 weeks/has to be physically available the week after" rules.

Mariah Carey- now there's someone who's overrated. That whole "7 octave vocal range" hype turned out to be just that- hype. I can't stand her. Singing about butterflies and rainbows one minute and then making out she's ghetto the next. Her voice is supposed to be technically fine, it really does my head in. She just seems to wheeze through her songs till the end when she starts screeching. Her music isn't anything special either. It's completly generic. A bimbo who's career would probably have been far less successful if she hadn't married an ancient but rich record company boss.

I think deleting singles is a really dopey idea, but it's more to do with the OCC and their stupid rules. If a song is still selling then it should be reflected on the chart. It just makes things look really inaccurate. Look at Snow Patrol. The chart run of You're All I Have is 21 weeks on the chart and counting, while Chasing Cars will only get 10 weeks on the chart at most despite being a much bigger hit. The same thing is true with Gnarls Barkley- Crazy only got 11 weeks on the chart because of deletion and was still in the top ten, while Smiley Faces is on 9 weeks now and is just leaving the top 40. Don't get me started on Nelly Furtado only getting 9 weeks on the chart for Maneater despite being at number one for 3 of those weeks. Sick to death of all these big hits getting deleted and not getting a fair reflection of weeks on the chart. This whole "starred out" rule is, against some stiff competition, one of the worst rules the OCC has thought up.

I side with Ozzy on this. I was smacked when I was a child, but only when I did something bad, and it never did me any long lasting harm. Yes, it hurts for a while, but that's very transient. I think parents who aren't able to raise their kids properly will do much more long lasting damage than parents who smack their children. There is a major difference between beating a child to smacking them. Personally I'd draw the line on beating kids with a belt or a stick. If nothing else, I think that's when it becomes less about discipline and more about sadism. I also agree there should be more discipline for chav kids. They literally get away with murder. There was a story in the news not so long about some guy who got shot by some after months of intimidation from them. A friend of mine was beaten up by them once and apart from two getting ASBOs they got off scot free. It isn't fair on decent people that become victims of these scumbags that those things they do go unpunished. While I'm not sure about bringing back the cane, there should be more done to control kids in schools as well. The kids when I was at school got away with everything, and it isn't fair on other kids who want to learn having it disrupted.

Well, the risk of meeting up with dangerous blokes aside, prostituion also carries a greater risk of getting an STI. I suppose as crimes go, prostitution is a very minor one. As has been said, it's been around since the earliest human civilisations. I think most people tolerate it, or at the very least accept it as a fact of life. I'm not sure it should be legalised though. I agree I wouldn't like the idea of any female relative of mine working as a prostitute. Selling and indeed paying to have sex with someone is quite seedy really. I suppose if it was legalised it would be safer for the prostitutes though.

It's odd how your opinions can change. I used to be have a really negative view on age gap relationships. I thought that they tended to be made up of dirty old men paired up with gold diggers. I thought that was the only way an age gap relationship would work, as people of different ages are often at different stages in their life and have different points of reference. But I'm 21 and am now seeing a 34 year old. I'm surprised that so far it's gone a lot better than some of my recent relationships with girls my own age. However, the woman I'm seeing at the moment doesn't have any kids. Like Ozzy says I think it would be very difficult if she had a kid that wasn't much younger than me.

Weird how Chasing Cars climbs to a peak of number 6 on the Billboard charts around the same time it's climbed to a peak of number 6 on the UK charts.

I find it shocking some people actually think that different race relationships are wrong. I don't understand why some people have a problem with them.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who doesn't get the fuss about this track. I don't think it's anywhere near as good as Somebody Told Me, Jenny Was A Friend Of Mine or Mr. Brightside. If anything I find it bland. I've gone off so many bands I used to like a lot recently. Muse used to be my favourite band, but I don't get the hype of their latest album. I think they've done far better stuff with their previous albums. Similarly The Zutons, Scissor Sisters and Goldfrapp are doing better than ever chartwise, but I thought their older stuff was much better. They all seem to have reached their commercial peak with their blandest material, but I guess that stands to reason.

Somehow I don't think the Scissor Sisters would take that as an insult! :lol: Any, my favourites in order are: 1) Snow Patrol- Chasing Cars 2) Nelly Furtado feat. Timbaland- Promiscuous 3) Shakira feat. Wyclef Jean- Hips Don't Lie I don't like any of the rest of the top ten. I'm also getting very bored of this particular Shakira song now. Roll on La Tortura finally being released over here.

Oddly, I've never considered those bands ''underrated'' as they always seem quite highly rated in my experience. I get what you mean though. None of them get the mainstream recogniton in the UK that most get in their home countries. Shame that the British band in that list, Halifax lads Paradise Lost, are fairly unknown over here though. I never thought of Maximo Park as underrated either. I like them, and I always thought they were pretty highly rated... I can't think of any off the top of my head that I think are underrated, but some of the examples here are quite good. Cyndi Lauper's early stuff was much better than Madonna's, and I'm surprised that so few people have picked up her influence on Gwen Stefani's solo stuff. Beverly Knight is an odd one. A lot of people seem to like her and her albums always do OK-ish, but her profile is very low. I'm surprised how well her Greatest Hits album seemed to do.

Yes, I really like Black And White. Not so sure about their other stuff though.

Kelly Clarkson is very overrated, but to be honest I don't mind her. I agree that she is just a generic pop-rock singer, but at least she doesn't seem to be making out she's anything other than that, unlike some of her pop peers. (Justin Timberlake for one...). Whether she, or anyone else, will be forgotten or remembered remains to be seen, but if we're saying Will Young will be remembered for being the first Pop Idol I reckon the Americans at least will remember Kelly Clarkson as the first American Idol winner. As for Dido, I don't really care how much she's sold. I just don't 'get' her. Perhaps I'm looking at it the wrong way. She probably sells because she's inoffensive rather than any special quality she has. Her voice may be "beautiful" to some, but to me it sounds like someone wailing because they have a bit of a toothache. That will probably be the inspiration for Dido's next single.