Your one-stop candy shop

Well, Madonna's new album leaked yesterday. I've been listening to it, and I must say, I'm enjoying it quite a bit. It's not what it was advertised as, which is a thumping hip-hop album, but you know, I'm glad. Sure, she dabbles a bit in heavy beats and other hip-hoppy things, but for the most part it's a dancy pop album. I'd put it in the same grouping as Nelly Furtado's Loose. It's definitely a lot better than I was expecting after having heard the first single.

Which brings me to my next point, which is somewhat related to Stin's complaint about Hollywood. Pop music has no subtlety, and people put WAY too much emphasis on star power. I'm 90% sure that 4 Minutes was the first single from Madonna's album purely because it features Timbaland and Justin Timberlake. People go immediately for the song with names that they recognize associated with it. And this is sad, because those aren't necessarily the best songs. In fact, they tend to be disjointed and mediocre, because they tend to cram together several incompatible vocal and musical styles. And usually, the most popular songs are the ones with the heaviest beats or the cheesiest lyrics. It's really annoying, but possibly the worst thing is that I fall for it. I realize how inane most pop music is, but still, as soon as the beat starts going I immediately start bobbing my head/strutting/dancing/whatever else is appropriate at the moment.

And now I have a huge confession to make: I actually like Ashlee Simpson. This is associated with all sorts of guilt, because she represents everything that I hate about pop music. She's only successful because her sister was famous first. She has absolutely no talent (have you ever heard her try to perform live? ewwww), and most of her music is pretty inane. Also, she's WAY too artificial (remember how her nose used to look completely different? And she's had a completely different hair color for each of her albums) However, I think that her voice translates very well on records and most of her music is very catchy (the majority of her second album not included). Also, she's spunky. Spunk goes a long way with me.

y'know, I tried really hard at first not to make this into a music blog. However, I spend about 8 hours a day with my iPod plugged into my ears, so it's kind of inevitable that I end up thinking about music a lot. Whatev.