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deadcactuswalking · 3 years

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REVIEWING THE CHARTS: 20/02/2021 (Lil Tjay & 6LACK, Taylor Swift, slowthai)

Okay, so we’ve got a busy week ahead of us, actually a pretty massive one to deep-dive through – and it’s immediately obvious from the second song on the chart, but for now, “drivers license” by Olivia Rodrigo hangs on for what I believe is its sixth week at #1, and we’ve got a lot to cover.

Rundown

First of all, why’s this a big week? Well, there is an album bomb – or at least all that the UK Singles Chart allows for album bombs – and everything that could have debuted... debuted high. So in the UK Top 75, which is what I cover, we’ve got an awful lot to discuss. First of all, our drop-outs, other than debuts from last week, include “Baby Shark” by Pinkfong, “Train Wreck” by James Arthur, “Golden” by Harry Styles, “SO DONE” by The Kid LAROI, “Therefore I Am” by Billie Eilish, “All Girls are the Same” by the late Juice WRLD, “All I Want” by Olivia Rodrigo and fittingly, “Skin” by Sabrina Carpenter. We also have a fair few losers, like “Bringing it Back” by Digga D and AJ Tracey down to #16 off of the top 5 debut and all of Fredo’s tracks skidding down off of the album bomb two weeks ago, like “Money Talks” with Dave at #19, “Ready” featuring Summer Walker at #37 and “Burner on Deck” with Young Adz and the late Pop Smoke at #51. We also have “34+35” by Ariana Grande not getting a remix boost at #30 (though it can get the album boost next week), “Love Not War (The Tampa Beat)” by Jason Derulo and Nuka collapsing at #39, “Regardless” by RAYE and Rudimental at #48, “willow” by Taylor Swift at #49, “Lemonade” by Internet Money and Gunna featuring Don Toliver and NAV at #50, “positions” by Ariana Grande at #52, “i miss u” by Jax Jones and Au/Ra at #55, “Midnight Sky” by Miley Cyrus at #56, “Be the One” by Rudimental featuring MORGAN, Digga D and TIKE at #58, “Martin & Gina” by Polo G at #59 (I’m surprised we didn’t get “GNF (OKOKOK)” debut, by the way), “What You Know Bout Love” by the late Pop Smoke at #61, “Watermelon Sugar” by Harry Styles at #62, “Loading” by Central Cee collapsing at #63, “No Time for Tears” by Nathan Dawe and Little Mix doing the same at #65 (probably both victims of streaming cuts), “Apricots” by Bicep at #68, “Really Love” by KSI featuring Craig David and Digital Farm Animals at #69, “Looking for Me” by Paul Woodford, Diplo and Kareen Lomax at #70 and “See Nobody” by Wes Nelson and Hardy Caprio at #73. What may be more interesting than our notable fallers are our notable gains and returning entries, however, as whilst only “Shallow” by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper returned to #64, we also have some inexplicable or just plain bad gains. “Roses” by SAINt JHN and remixed by Imanbek seemingly has a second wind at #67, along with “Perfect” by Ed Sheeran at #57 and “Someone You Loved” by Lewis Capaldi at #42, but our other gains are mostly recent debuts, like “Little Bit of Love” by Tom Grennan at #45, “Astronaut in the Ocean” by Maxed Wolf at #44, “Believe Me” by Navos at #43, “Arcade” by Duncan Laurence at #33 and finally, “Friday”, Riton’s ugly Nightcrawlers remix featuring Musafa & Hypeman dopamine re-editing itself into the top 10 at #10, becoming everyone’s first in that category, except the Nightcrawlers themselves getting their first top 10 since 1995, even if it’s just “Push the Feeling On” getting into the top 10 a second, separate time 26 years later... and it’s scary to think 1995 is indeed 26 years ago. Anyway, let’s start to make sense of these new arrivals.

NEW ARRIVALS

#72 – “MAZZA” – slowthai featuring A$AP Rocky

Produced by SAMO, slowthai and Kwes Darko

Now, the charts may be chaotic because of the general weakness of it all but it also allows for artists you wouldn’t really expect to do that well get #1 albums, and slowthai’s riding the waves of controversy, his well-received debut album and, you know, a genuinely very good quality of work, as his sophomore effort, TYRON, debuts at #1 on the UK Albums Chart, and we’ve got three songs from Ty on this singles chart, which is the highest amount the chart actually allows, meaning this is an album bomb. Yeah, an album bomb from slowthai – that’s the one thing you can guarantee ONLY ever happens on the UK charts... well, okay, there are many things, but we’ll get to those later. I’m surprised “MAZZA” didn’t debut higher given the music video, big-name feature, being one of the catchiest on the record and the fact that it’s getting radio play, but it’s still here, so who’s to complain? This track, from the emptier A-side of “bangers” in the first half of the album, relies on a quirky synth loop and a bouncy trap beat for slowthai and Rocky to individually prove themselves on and, yeah, the song is pretty great, with a really infectious hook and mostly really smooth flows, propelled by the charisma that just so easily spreads out of every word Ty raps. The title itself is slang that basically something is “mad” – that in, crazy and fun – and that is fitting for the song, which seems to be at a disconnect between the content, beat and feature. Ty flip-flops between flexing, depression and drug addiction, whilst A$AP Rocky just delivers some flexing... but when it’s one of Rocky’s best verses in years, I’m just glad to have him spitting here finally. This is far from the most interesting track on the record but it’s definitely an empty banger cruising on energy more than anything, which is good because it has that in spades. I’d like to point out though that much like the rest of the first half of this album, it is derivative: this is a beat you could see either Rocky or Playboi Carti on, and Ty seems to be doing mostly Rocky-esque flows with a definite attempt at doing the same ad-lib-focal song structure as Carti would. This is unfortunate by now but I can see him growing out of his influence as time comes, although it is a concern when it’s clearer on your bangers than it is your retrospective tunes, which are also pretty clearly Kanye- and BROCKHAMPTON-inspired. Speaking of...

#72 – “terms” – slowthai featuring Dominic Fike and Denzel Curry

Produced by Mount Kimbie, JD. Reid and Kenny Beats

It’s crazy to see production credits from Mount Kimbie and Kenny Beats on the UK Singles Chart... but with that said, you’d expect that to end up as one of the best songs on the chart, especially with this trio of artists. Sadly, the tracks that debuted this week are not close to my favourites off of the project, but if songs like “45 SMOKE”, “push”, “nhs”, “focus”, “PLAY WITH FIRE” and my personal favourite, “i tried”, aren’t going to chart, then I guess we can deal with this to show the more introspective side of the record and slowthai as a whole... except this song is exceptionally shallow in that lane, discussing the downsides of fame in a way that feels tired and done before, even on the same album – and we’ll get to that in a bit. Dominic Fike discusses his words being “jumbled” when in reality I don’t think anything Ty has said has been confused or taken out of context. It doesn’t help that this beat has a drowned-out guitar sample that just sounds ugly below a dark, menacing 808 and trap percussion that take Dominic Fike out of his element so much that he just sounds awful on the hook. Slowthai may have a faster flow here but he’s remarkably unfocused content-wise, and Denzel Curry doesn’t deliver more than a badly-mixed Memphis rap interlude that you can barely tell is him. This is far from bad, I do like the subtle vocal samples in the chorus and slowthai’s second verse about his daily schedule is genuinely really great, but it feels like wasted potential. Fun fact: This is actually Denzel’s first ever song to chart in the UK... if you can even call it his song. We’ll see Ty more later as we get higher on the chart.

#60 – “Cover Me in Sunshine” – P!nk and Willow Sage Heart

Produced by the Struts

Okay, so this is a song by P!nk with her young child daughter... Hmm, okay, so this is a ballad relying on acoustic guitar picking and some really ugly echoed percussion as well as two voices that go from meshing not at all to meshing too well together for voices 30 years apart. I’d like to end it here because this song really isn’t interesting past the novelty factor and some strange mixing in the first verse especially but as a bland uplifting “Fight Song”-type song, I guess it works though I don’t know about you but if I were going through a global pandemic right now with no real source of income, no end in sight and constant governmental error that’s killing thousands of people nationwide, I wouldn’t want a child who was born into millionaires telling me that it’s all going to be okay... oh, yeah, we are in that situation and I don’t want to hear this at any point, especially because this is generic and frankly, not worth anyone’s time.

#54 – “Mixed Emotions” – Abra Cadabra

Produced by TR the Producer

Okay, so when I said this would be a big week I did not mean or expect that it would be a good week, as we can tell already, but Abra Cadabra is here with a “thugs-need-love-too” track to drive that point home. Apparently a snippet of this went viral before its official release in a Valentine’s Day EP I didn’t know existed, which I honestly don’t get because there’s nothing stand-out about this song, like, at all. It’s got a guitar-based trap beat as Abra Cadabra croons in his admittedly pretty interesting, rich voice but he’s not saying anything interesting and this beat is just incompetent, with those badly-mixed swooshing sound effects that come in way too many times, and the fact that half the song is lacking percussion for no reason other than to make the beat sound busier than it is, even when it already has that ugly acoustic guitar lick playing through the whole thing in the front of the mix and... yeah, what’s the point in really critiquing this? Abra can’t even really hold much of a flow, especially in the meandering second verse, so not much of value is lost when this inevitably drops out next week.

#53 – “Big” – Rita Ora, Imanbek and David Guetta featuring Gunna

Produced by Mike Hawkins, Toby Green, Spenser, Sam Martin, David Guetta and Imanbek

This is the lead single – if you can call it that – from a trainwreck of a collaborative EP by COVID-19 super-spreader Rita Ora and everyone’s favourite Kazakh DJ, Imanbek, who seems to be chasing hits here with no real gain. You can already tell this is going to be hilariously bad, right? There are four primary artists seemingly picked out of a hat who had never collaborated prior to this EP, with two vocalists that would not mesh at all, and two producers... as well as four others to engineer this mix out so that the actual DJs and producers here become pretty much in name only. So, this is an already pointless song in all capacities, but then we find out that Ed Sheeran had a hand in writing this... this is just prepped for disaster. Fittingly, the song’s bad in a hilariously boring way. It starts with a bassy synth lead and some generic house production before Rita Ora comes in with a really unconvincing delivery that does not help to propel some genuinely bad singing in the pre-chorus and awkward songwriting. “Blame it on the city how I’m ballin’”? “Big tanks looking like Transformers”? It’s even funnier when you note that that line is where the beat cuts out (kind of) and it doesn’t rhyme with the rest of the verse at all. There’s some really bad vocal processing that makes Rita Ora sound overly digitised, much like a lot of Imanbek’s production, but also emphasises her in the mix along with the vocal mixing being generally overly loud compared to the rest of the production, which doesn’t really have a proper drop so it just goes nowhere other than a brief drum fill that comes out of nowhere and serves no real purpose. Rita Ora delivers rap clichés or at least lines I’ve heard before in the most generic possible way in the second verse, with as much charisma as Gunna’s literally phoned-in verse, mixed awfully, where the beat doesn’t even dignify his existence by just staying on the build-up and not even properly giving him the trap breakdown that it’s clearly going for. There’s this one stray kick or 808 note in that verse that goes nowhere. It’s honestly hilarious how dreadful this song is, lacking any groove or punch that it would need to become even a guilty pleasure... if you still use that term, anyway. Just fascinating. Anyway, let’s get to the top 40.

#39 – “CANCELLED” – slowthai featuring Skepta

Produced by SAMO, Kelvin Krash and Kwes Darko

Yeah, okay, so this song isn’t great either. Although I’m glad slowthai is in the top 40, it won’t be for long and it’s not because of Ty. It’s because this is a Skepta song through and through. He does the hook, has a verse and a presence on the intro and post-chorus. It’s probably good that it is as well because Skepta does the best he can with his menacing delivery over a pretty weak flute-trap beat that sounds as sleepy as Skepta’s flow on the chorus, which is even more awkward when it takes a left turn for an unnecessary post-chorus. Ty brings energy here and some pretty funny lines but is overall a non-presence on his own song, being over-shadowed by the bass knock and interrupted by Skepta’s hook at the end of his verse. Skepta brings a better verse, with some genuinely really fun flow switches but nothing content wise to make this song that’s already barely two minutes feel like it adds anything to... well, anything. The song itself is trying to prove a heavy-handed yet misguided point about cancel culture, which I don’t think even exists, and how it “kills art” when in reality anything further than stans or trolls on Twitter is probably deserved. When a book shop stops selling J.K. Rowling books, it’s not because they’re silencing or censoring art as much as they are not giving profits to a terrible person with too much time and money on their hands. Thankfully, neither of these guys are terrible people but what backlash they have had has been either from a deserved place or not from the left. There was an incident at an awards show with Katherine Ryan that didn’t get him cancelled but got Ty some brief backlash. Everybody swiftly moved on, and nothing changed except I think he delivered some kind of apology, not that I would remember because this song retcons whatever regret he has for it. He also got some backlash from the British news media – see: the right-wing – from displaying a severed head of Boris Johnson on stage, but again, if backlash “killed art”, you wouldn’t have a #1 album. As much as it wants to be a middle-finger to cancel culture, it ends up as a worthless flex track from rappers who’ve done much better. It’s not bad at all – and I’m glad the guy’s having success (I mean, after all, the album is overall good and he’s a fellow Northamptonshire resident). I just don’t think this song really works at all for what it’s trying to do.

#35 – “Siberia” – Headie One featuring Burna Boy

Produced by TheElements and AoD

This is an awfully rap-centric episode, huh? Well, this is from the deluxe edition of Headie’s album Edna, because that trend’s not going away any time soon... and I think Abra Cadabra could learn from this because this is how you do a low-key guitar trap single, with those watery, almost Blink-182-esque acoustic loops under a somewhat off-kilter trap beat as Headie mumbles in his smoother voice and faster, fun flows that do remind me too much of Gunna but overall sound pretty great. The cadences, especially in the chorus, are pretty infectious, and honestly the song could just use with some refinement in the mixing category and with Burna Boy’s verse, as whilst the singer definitely delivers the energy here, his voice is particularly muddy in this mix and his flow is more janky. With some multi-tracking or backing ad-libs, this could have definitely sounded better. The strings and electric guitar that come in at the final chorus were a welcome surprise though, and Burna Boy’s soulful delivery on the final outro verse sounds better than his actual verse, so I don’t really know what went wrong here. The content isn’t all too interesting, but I’m a sucker for geography references so the hook would have always made me chuckle and that’s before the shallow but deserved political commentary in Headie’s verse as well as Burna Boy making... perhaps insensitive references to infections in his more Young Thug-like inflections that do sound fun and more out-there as a contrast to Headie keeping it a bit tighter. Yeah, this isn’t perfect but it’s a pretty good trap banger so check it out.

#27 – “UK Hun?” – United Kingdolls

Produced by Freddy Scott and Leland

And now in stark contrast, drag queens. I don’t follow RuPaul’s Drag Race at all but I very much understand its appeal, especially now that it’s come to the UK on BBC Three, with I believe Graham Norton at the helm. This is a song from its second season that apparently takes homage from Eurovision for a song which has a title that is literally a pun. “You okay, hun?” but because it’s Britain, it’s UK. Very, very clever. At least it’s up-front right out of the gate so you can expect what will end up as pretty dumb fun... and this is immediately obvious from the intro which introduces you to the chorus: “bing, bang, bong, sing, sang, song, ding, dang, dong, UK, hun”. Okay, so this wasn’t ever going to be a prowess in songwriting, although you’d think there’d be something more here given MNEK’s involvement. Each contestant in the race gets a rap verse here over a pretty rote late 2000s dance-pop beat, with varying levels of charisma but ultimately a lot of energy from people who pretty clearly can’t sing, not that it matters when there’s the Auto-Tune slathered on top of the pre-chorus and chorus. I do feel like I’m separated from the show enough to be completely mystified by this, but really, the song’s not bad, and I can dig the upbeat synths in the chorus, even if the childlike novelty of it makes it a lot less enjoyable to me, personally. At the end of the day, it’s a sugary pop song about confidence with a pretty great fourth verse about loving yourself for who you are, so I can’t hate that. Also “gender-bender, cis-tem offender” is kind of a bar.

#25 – “We’re Good” – Dua Lipa

Produced by Scott Harris, Emily Warren and SLY

Future Nostalgia is a great album, and like all great albums, it needs a mediocre deluxe edition with snippets of leftover, unfinished tracks and remixes... no, wait, no album ever needs that. Sadly, life doesn’t go my way all of the time, so Dua released a “Moonlight Edition”, the fifth version of the album to be released as far as I know, and other than a hilarious JID collaboration in the form of “Not My Problem”, it’s not worth listening to past the first 11 tracks that were already on the standard edition. This track is the worst of them all, stripping away any of the disco groove and grandiose strings that defined the vibe of the album for a really bland, vaguely tropical trap-pop tune. The only remnant of the disco theme is the chorus referencing cocaine, which seems bizarrely out of character if anything, although it doesn’t help that Dua sounds checked-out, especially on the verses but also on the chorus which definitely takes some inspiration from emo-pop in those guitar tones but not in those awkward, first-take vocal deliveries that make the chorus flow pretty awfully. This songwriting is consistently janky too, with the overly short bridge serving no real purpose and the song itself feeling like an under-written, over-produced waste of everyone’s time. I’m surprised Dua couldn’t debut higher than #25, but at the same time I understand why people aren’t enjoying this as much as the prior singles, because this is bad.

#23 – “Commitment Issues” – Central Cee

Produced by mokuba

This guy is just releasing a bunch of singles and squandering any potential I saw in him, huh? Well, okay, this is from an upcoming album but that doesn’t make its acoustic guitar loops any more interesting or the content any more dissonant from its hard-hitting UK drill beat and his aggressive delivery. Like, there’s nothing about his flow or the instrumental that makes sense for a song where he’s apologising to his ex and trying to convince her to come back to him... at all. I’d get annoyed by a song that’s not cohesive in its content, but this one is annoyingly so, with the content never giving a reason for the dark, menacing 808 slides other than the... arguments with the woman he describes in the hook? It does kind of work with the flow there, but, like... why? Why does this exist? This isn’t convincing, it can’t be a banger because of its overly-specific break-up themes and it’s just a mess of a song, not helped by the fact he goes off trailing in the second verse about how many “hoes” he has, which is honestly kind of funny given in the first verse, he acknowledges that his ex hates those types of lyrics. Man, Central Cee was onto something with the jazz-drill on “Loading”, where did any of that go?

#12 – “Love Story (Taylor’s Version)” – Taylor Swift

Produced by Taylor Swift and Christopher Rowe

The original “Love Story” is one of my favourite Taylor Swift songs. There’s something so sweet and Mew Mew Power about it. I don’t know if that’ll work as an adjective for anyone else but what I’m saying is it really emphasises the inner “white teenage girl in the 2000s” that many have hidden in them, with its cute banjo intro and honestly kind of funny misinterpretation of the original Romeo & Juliet text, none of which has been fixed in this new version. Out of the stuff I’ve heard from the country-pop era of Taylor’s work, it’s definitely one of the catchiest, most melodramatic choruses, probably second to my favourite from this era, “Mine”. Well, this new version has to be made so that Taylor Swift can own the rights again to her music that Scooter Braun sold after she left the Big Machine label. Honestly, I think I prefer a younger Taylor Swift in the context of such a cutesy, pretty song with all its childlike novelties – I mean, a 30-year-old Taylor Swift won’t misremember details from Shakespearean texts. Not to say that she sounds bad here because she sounds great, especially over the more refined, modern production and the incredible strings in the chorus that are emphasised in this mix. I can’t say that much of a cover that takes the original and does exactly the same thing with it, just with a more modern instrumental that honestly has a pretty epic instrumental bridge. Ultimately, this is taking a great song and making it sound better and more accessible for an audience a decade or so detached from the original “Love Story” and it sounds pretty great doing it.

#2 – “Calling My Phone” – Lil Tjay and 6LACK

Produced by Non Native, Bordeaux and G. Ry

This chart week ended up being less of a beast to tackle than I thought it was, mostly because there are a couple good fun songs sprinkled in the range of mediocrity here. Now this is the final song to discuss and... this is just as inexplicable as “drivers license”. If it weren’t for the streaming numbers, I’d be convinced this is an error and this should have been switched with the second-highest debut, as it makes no sense for Lil Tjay and 6LACK to debut at the #2 spot in the UK. For context, Lil Tjay is an Auto-Tune crooner from the Bronx, in a similar vein to a Lil Tecca or A Boogie wit da Hoodie, who I thought would completely disappear post-“Pop Out” given he seemed to be on the Lil Tecca route as most of his other singles just couldn’t stick the landing other than I guess “F.N.”. Admittedly, that might be because they were pretty bad, and I think he actually kind of ruined “Pop Out” by killing its momentum with his non-existent presence and gross Auto-Tune whine, but he seems to have gotten a lot of traction since then from a posthumous Pop Smoke record as he wastes time on “Mood Swings”, which became a pretty massive hit for Tjay and the late Pop Smoke, with a lot more longevity than I expected, even though it was my personal least favourite on that posthumous album. 6LACK is more for the alternative and hip-hop head crowd, known less for his street bangers than he is for his smooth alternative R&B collaborations with guys like J. Cole. He has mainstream attention and has tried to cross over before, but ultimately he’s probably better guest-starring on robotic Gorillaz singles with Elton John of all people... or at least that’s what I thought, because they seem to have just released a single with no real promo other than TikTok previews and a music video, and it blew up immensely almost immediately. Maybe it’s good timing given Valentine’s Day but this seems like a combination of weak charts and a genuinely organic sudden hit, pushed by a label of course but not without word of mouth and... I don’t know, I’m kind of clueless on why this is so big here, and seemingly everywhere, but I’m not complaining. Wait, no, I am complaining because I’m not a fan at all. I can go for smoother, more soulful R&B but something about this is way too jagged for it to work for me, with Tjay delivering some pretty bored, mumbled crooning over melancholy pianos and an infectious but off-beat chipmunk vocal sample that acts a refrain because nothing Lil Tjay does is catchy enough. His verse is really sloppy, as is the piano, and the percussion is kind of just gross in how it’s mixed. Thankfully, 6LACK is here for some brief relief on the second verse, as he actually has a presence with his cruising, subtle multi-tracked delivery that sounds genuinely pretty great and would be at better use with bass that isn’t mastered like this and maybe an actual chorus. In fact, I think this would work as a UK garage song with that vocal sample if you speed up the whole track and add some actual groove to it, so someone please get on that because otherwise I don’t see any reason why this is so high. It’s just lethargic R&B, really just basic and tired.

Conclusion

Yeah, this was a big week but sadly I think it is shrouded in a lot of mediocrity that I think will be gone by next week, so whilst the UK chart chaos can be fun, especially when I’ve got nothing else to do, I’m not sure if any of these songs really stick. Best of the Week goes to Taylor Swift’s re-recorded “Love Story” with a really close Honourable Mention in slowthai’s “MAZZA” featuring A$AP Rocky, just hedging out Headie One. With the worst, we have a lot to choose from but because of its high debut and hence the expected hype, I’ll give Worst of the Week to “Calling My Phone” by Lil Tjay and 6LACK, with tied Dishonourable Mentions to “Big” by Rita Ora, Imanbek and David Guetta featuring Gunna, and honestly Central Cee’s “Commitment Issues” for not working on any level, though it really easily could have gone to Dua Lipa, P!nk or Abra Cadabra. Here’s this week’s top 10:

Honestly, I have no idea what’s coming for next week other than Ariana Grande’s deluxe edition. Maybe Trippie Redd’s pop-punk album can make somewhat of a splash? I don’t know, I don’t think anything too big is coming but I’m probably wrong. I just know that a lot of this’ll be gone by next week. Follow me on Twitter @cactusinthebank if you feel the need to do so and I’ll see you next week.

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freenewstoday · 3 years

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New Post has been published on https://freenews.today/2021/01/28/analysis-the-next-taylor-swift-is-not-what-the-world-needs/

Analysis: 'The next Taylor Swift' is not what the world needs

That’s why there are a ton of movie sequels and TV reboots galore. Because if something makes money, why wouldn’t you want to replicate that?

Following that pattern in the music industry is not always as easy.

That’s why I often chuckle whenever I hear someone referred to as “the next (fill in the blank).”

Music is so personal that it’s virtually impossible to create a carbon copy of an artist, even if the singer sounds like the artist.

In the case of Taylor Swift, it’s a bit more complicated.

Swift’s confessional songs, some inspired by her high-profile romances, musicality, girl-next-door-ness and connection to her fan base, have led to the kind of royalties — and royal treatment — any aspiring singer-songwriter would want to replicate.

Here are just a few of the new artists who have been compared to her:

Olivia Rodrigo: The Disney star used to be best known for her starring role in “High School Musical: The Musical: The Series,” but the 17-year-old has expanded her resume.

Her recent debut song, “Drivers License,” has been burning up the charts and breaking Spotify records.

The Taylor Swift comparison came into play because plenty of fans theorize that Rodrigo’s song of heartbreak (which she co-wrote with producer Dan Nigro) is about her co-star and speculated former boyfriend, Joshua Bassett.

Penning a cathartic tune about an ex is peak Swift.

Grace VanderWaal: When VanderWaal auditioned for “America’s Got Talent” in 2016, judge Simon Cowell declared her “the next Taylor Swift.”

It made sense. The then-tween was adorable as she played the ukulele and sang a song she had composed herself.

Her performances kept impressing the audience as well as the judges, and the 12-year-old was crowned the winner of the show’s 11th season.

Now 17, and a seasoned performer with both an album and a starring role in the Disney+ film “Stargirl,” VanderWaal is living the dream.

But she’d rather you not compare her to Swift, according to a 2016 report in Teen Vogue.

Priscilla Block: One singer-songwriter who probably wouldn’t at all mind a Swift comparison is Block.

The up-and-coming artist has long admired the musical superstar — so much so that Block moved from Raleigh, North Carolina, to Nashville, Tennessee, to pursue a career in country music. In a twist of fate, she ran into her role model in 2014 while wearing a shirt from Swift’s Red Tour.

“As I’m leaving work, I hear honking and see waving! Who is it? Taylor Swift herself,” Block wrote in a Facebook post. “She pulls her car over … and says, ‘I love your shirt!'”

The pair chatted and took selfies. “This girl has been my idol since I started writing music, and I think that today was a wink in the right direction!” Block wrote.

Thanks to TikTok, Block is well on her way with songs such as “PMS,” and her body-positive anthem “Thick Thighs,” which captured the attention of record labels.

Ultimately, there is and only ever will be one Taylor Swift. And given how much music she has already given us and will hopefully continue to, there doesn’t appear to be the need to have another.

For your weekend

Three things to watch:

‘Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer’

Don’t watch this if you are home alone.

The Netflix documentary about the case of Richard Ramirez, who terrorized California during the summer of 1985, is both well done and scary as hell. The true-crime series focuses on the work of homicide detectives Frank Salerno and Gil Carrillo.

I thoroughly enjoyed it and my CNN colleague Chloe Melas said, “I wasn’t expecting much more than a crime doc. I was wrong. This is what I’ve been craving since the network’s ‘Making a Murderer.’ It’s terrifying, binge-worthy content that kept me up all night. And oh yeah, lock your doors, y’all.”

“Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer” is currently streaming.

‘Wendy Williams: The Movie’

The radio host turned talk show queen executive produced her own biopic.

“Wendy Williams: The Movie” is billed as “a revealing look at Wendy’s journey, from her scrappy upstart days in urban radio to the success of her own syndicated talk show. Despite all the naysayers and obstacles Wendy encountered throughout her life, her strength and determination have allowed her to thrive.”

The TV movie starring Ciera Payton debuts Saturday on Lifetime.

‘Saturday Night Live’

We have a new US President and vice president now, so it almost feels like we have to watch “Saturday Night Live” this weekend.

The late-night sketch show returns Saturday with John Krasinski hosting and Machine Gun Kelly making his “SNL” debut as a musical guest.

I can’t wait to see what the cast does with recent current events!

Two things to listen to:

The rock band Weezer kind of lucked out with its new album, “OK Human.”

“This is probably the best possible time for this album,” the band’s frontman, Rivers Cuomo, told NME. “It’s about feeling isolated and alienated and secluded, so it’s the perfect album for now.”

It was originally scheduled to be released after the planned “Van Weezer” album, but like with everything else, the pandemic changed all that.

“OK Human” drops Friday.

With a title like “Heaux Tales,” you know Jazmine Sullivan’s latest album is raw and real.

The R&B singer wrings every bit of emotion from her songs of sexual freedom, love and love lost. This time around, she has an assist from fellow artists including Anderson .Paak, H.E.R. and Ari Lennox.

“Heaux Tales” is out now.

One thing to talk about:

Was this a blooper or a smart marketing ploy?

Some eagle-eyed viewers of the Regency-era Netflix series “Bridgerton” caught a historical inaccuracy in the show, which is reminding folks of the “Game of Thrones” water bottle and coffee cup oopsies.

Social media was abuzz after a viewer posted they “spotted a single yellow line and a telecoms manhole cover” in a since-deleted tweet.

Turns out those weren’t around in the 19th century, when the series is set.

The cynic in me can’t help but wonder if the gaffe was intentional to further help the show go viral — not that it needs it.

Something to sip on

Parenting can be tough in normal circumstances, so my hat is off to Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel for trying to balance their need for privacy with the public’s desire to know.

Timberlake, who along with his actress wife recently welcomed their second son, talked to Dax Shepard on Shepard’s “Armchair Expert” podcast about the level of exposure they want their two kids to have to fame.

“I try to be conscious of making sure we can live a life where we’re not weirdly private but we’re conscious of making sure they can be kids for as long as possible,” Timberlake said. “And not have the weight of somebody else treating them differently because of something that their parents do.”

As much as we often admire stars for their fame and wealth, imagine if everything you did — good or bad — was fodder for others to consume?

The trade-off for sharing their art with the world isn’t necessarily allowing the world all access to these celebs’ lives.

Source

#Analysis: &039;The next Taylor Swift&039; is not what the world needs - CNN #entertainment

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girlsbtrs · 3 years

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Tiktok & The Music Industry

Written by April Bredael. Graphic by Moira Ashley.

The music industry, while ever changing, has changed fundamentally once again thanks to Tiktok, an app made popular by users for it’s ‘For You’ page and trends. While being a home to trending content and viral dance videos, the app is also key in the launching of many artists' music industry careers. From a video going viral, to a trend accidentally created, to an artist's entire discography trending in the Tiktok viral charts, the app has played a key role in the music scene. It’s no coincidence that every trending song right now is also (or has been) popular on the app. We at Girls Behind The Rock Show sat down with some of our favorite Tiktok users to discuss their entrance to the app and their music careers, favorite trends, and their thoughts on the app in the future.

One of the most popular to note is superstar on the rise, Tai Verdes. From working at Verizon to pay his rent less than a year ago, to releasing his debut album “TV” and signing with Arista Records, a division of Sony Music, Tai has proven his place in the industry and credits his success to Tiktok. With a following of over 1.5 million on the app and numerous viral videos, Tai has taken up the place as arguably one of the most popular artists on the app. In a viral video reaching over 22 million views, Tai features one of the most popular tracks on the album, “A-O-K.” Other notable releases including “Drugs” and “Stuck In The Middle” have been used by tens of thousands of users on the platform. With the Tiktok growth and a Spotify following growing at exponential rates, the singer-songwriter has quickly become a notable global sensation with his videos, infectious personality, and catchy tracks.

Another Tiktok sensation is all girl group SZNS, who accidentally created a viral Tiktok trend with their single “Tequila w Lime.” After posting a video using their audio and each taking a shot (3 water, 1 tequila), the hashtag #tequilawlime saw over 10 million views, and received thousands of recreations. The original video seen by millions kickstarted a global trend in an effort to promote the new track. The ladies of the band shared with me that a new trend is to come with their new track “Build a Boy.” SZNS, consisting of Spring, Summer, Winter, and Autumn, post videos on the app daily. Originally downloading the app over quarantine, the girls quickly found their niche within the seemingly limitless content and began producing videos that they loved, and partaking in trends that brought them all closer. With a Tiktok following of nearly 150,000, the girls success has quickly transferred to music platforms, bringing them opportunities in the music industry that they credit to Tiktok. The girls shared that, “You never know who is watching your videos, or who’s ‘For You’ page your content lands on.”

21 year old Regan Aliyah’s journey with Tiktok in music looks a little different. With a following of over 182,000, she has seen immense success on her Tiktok journey. Popular for posting original, freestyle, and integrated raps, her fanbase is quickly growing despite not yet having released content on music platforms

such as Spotify or Apple music. Comments of fans requesting more places to listen to her content can be found on every video, viral or not. The rapper is popular for adding in rap sections to songs lacking them. With viral content like “How it would sound if I had a feature on a Dua Lipa song,” and “If I was on a song with Olivia Rodrigo,” the rapper has proven that she’s not here to play. Popular for her freestyling rap as well. Regan Aliyah saw nearly two million views on a viral video of her freestyling to a Cardi B. beat. The rapper shares that transition videos are some of her favorites to create and that she loves the fanbase she’s created within the app. While her original content is not yet on most streaming platforms, she does have a mixtape on Soundcloud and hopes to expand onto other platforms soon.

Spoken word artist and content creator Ethan Jewell has acquired a following of over 765,000 on the app. With content ranging from original poetry to introspective and emotional videos, Ethan has built his name and quite a following on the app. From his debut to Tiktok in September 2019 to growing a dedicated and loyal audience in only a few months, the singer-songwriter has seen countless success within the app.

Popular for his poetry and piano skills, Ethan’s videos have been seen by millions throughout the world and have gravitated towards mental health awareness. One of the most monumental moments in his career on the social media platform was the rise in popularity of 2019 single, “Bouquet,” off debut album, “Live From Planet OK.” Fans gravitated to the track instantly, earning him a niche reputation as a popular Tiktok poet. Ethan shares that as his platform grows it can be intimidating, “Especially with my vulnerable form of content, it’s scary putting your true self out there to thousands of people.” However whilst facing this fear, the reward for him is tremendous. Seeing people’s reactions, thoughts, ideas, and expressions of emotions in his comments has been life changing for the young poet and encouraged him to continue his pursuit of a music career.

After just releasing her debut single “Sirens,” Mia Giovina has seen immense success on and off of Tiktok. With a following of over 166,000, the singer-songwriter has acquired nearly that amount of streams on her recently released debut single. Known for rewriting popular songs from other perspectives and posting original content of her own unreleased work, Mia Giovina is on the rise and one to watch for. Often seen filming with guitar (or Starbucks) in hand, Mia’s content is real, authentic, and 100% relatable. With a built up catalogue of unreleased music, Mia is definitely one to watch for; her career in the music industry is just beginning and she is anticipated to continue to excel in the near future. From her multiple viral alternative POV videos to relatable Harry Styles content, Mia has acquired quite the established following. With content centered around songwriting, her specialty has shifted from writing from other perspectives to finally discovering her own voice and sound. Tiktok has put the young artist on the map, and her loyal fanbase continue to advocate for her success.

Get to know all of these artists and more TikTok viral tracks in our playlist here!

#april bredael

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