Lopez Blogs

If one good thing happened in 2007, it was that it became clearer than ever that pop music is alive and well. Occasionally it’s right in front of your nose, with acts like Sugababes, Westlife, McFly and Girls Aloud all defying the 3 albums/greatest hits/split rule of pop acts and soldiering on with some solid materials. Sometimes it is with songs that are exactly the right song by the right person at the right time and a little bit of magic happens (see Bleeding Love, Umbrella ~ the top two selling songs of the year ~ and even With Every Heartbeat, inexplicably down at 24th best selling song of the year. Well explicable to me, but not to 90% of the world). But most of the time, the great pop music is that you have to search a little bit harder for. It’s probably in Sweden or some spanish boyband or some finnish song bird, but it’s there. Remember when guitar bands were considered “fringe” because their fans had to really search out music. Well now all that is mainstream and pop has gone underground. See how obsessive people are over at the PJ forums, chattering excitedly about some unreleased Faye Tozer b-side or the nth remix of a Girls Aloud track. Sites like Digital Technique, Poppostergirl and You Don’t Know Pop positively sizzle with their salivating for good pop music. Simon Curtis has built up a huge internet following without even officially releasing a thing. The biggest thing I realised in 2007 about pop music was that it doesn’t really have to be defined or specific. It’s in whatever melody you find attractive, whatever string arrangement makes you a little giddy or whatever beat gets your feet tapping. However, i’m getting bored of the charts being full of timbaland clones, gwen/fergie wannabes and the latest band to sound a little bit like the arctic monkeys. So here is why a brother and sister from Plymouth are absolutely going to save pop this year in the UK…

• They have a little bit of a dark side ~ in a recent interview with the X Factor finalists, Sean was asked the most bizarre place he had ever had sex. He answered some random loo in Spain. Yeah, i bet it was at the yumbo in Gran Canaria and it was some German bear named Hans…
• Their first single might not be Breaking Free (HSM). Simon Cowell is allegedly looking for the right song for them. If it has to be a cover, it really should be All Stars Love Is - it is absolutely perfect for them.
• The charts need some clean cut living in them, what with Britney and jamie lynn getting knocked up constantly, Amy Winehouse injecting heroin into her eyeballs (probably), Pete Doherty getting arrested all the time, Biffa Tweedy on the lookout for more bathroom attendants and Darren Hayes abusing restaurant staff, it’s time for calmer waters…
• What with 8 years of George Bush, the Express ignoring every single important story in the world for the sake of more news about how Diana is dead, Gordon Brown being an absolute gibbon and the flop of Stardust/Golden Compass, I need to live in a world where Same Difference have a number one single.
• After the utter catastrophe that was the Spice Girls comeback single being the worst charting Children in Need song ever, how about getting Same Difference to do it this year? They could release a nice ballad from their album (something along the lines of Never Had A Dream Come True, but not that!) and back it with a cover of Electric Youth. Imagine the dance routines! The video! The outfits! The royalties for poor starving Deborah Gibson…
• The marketing possibilities are endless ~ their own tv show (suggested pilot episode coming soon to thezapping!), dolls, comic magazine series and the SD clothing line, where Sean makes everyone realise it’s only ok to wear cardigans if you wear a shirt underneath and you don’t let them ride up to reveal your belly…
• There. I have said my piece. And I am sure I will say it many more times in the coming weeks. And just in case you think I have gone utterly bonkers, here are some more suggestions for what might save pop in 2008…

The new Feeling album, Join With Us/Alphabeat/The return of the B-52s/Kylie getting to number one with WOW/Simon Curtis getting a record deal/Blake Lewis releasing his album in the UK/The Sugababes finally realising that releasing ballads at Christmas gets them nowhere…