Friday, February 20, 2009

Recycle Round

I have no problem with artists doing cover songs, then can even turn a disco hit into heavy metal but why do they have to sample an old hit to create a tune? The obvious answer would be because most artists these days have no creativity.

The new #1 song on the Billboard Hot 100 is by macho rap artist Flo Rida called “Right Round”. I find it so ironic that it samples one of the gayest songs ever “You Spin Me Round (Like A Record)” by Dead Or Alive. Their lead singer Pete Burns was one of the biggest Transgendered stars of the 80’s next to Boy George. The song was a campy dance floor classic co-written and produced by the UK’s hit factory team of Stock/Aiken/Waterman, who catapulted people like Rick Astley, Kylie Minogue and Bananarama to superstardom.

The comments on Youtube on their respective videos is hilarious, people calling the Dead Or Alive version “faggy” but loving the new Flo Rida song, some don’t want to believe that the Dead Or Alive version came first. The original is a classic this new version is not.


The original “You Spin Me Round (Like A Record)” by Dead Or Alive




Flo Rida’s “Right Round”

Monday, February 9, 2009

Grammy Duets



The performances on the Grammy Awards last night were smoking, the odd pairings turned out to be quite interesting. My favourites included Justin Timberlake and Al Green singing “Let’s Stay Together” and Smokey Robinson, Jamie Fox, Ne-Yo and the last remaining member of the Four Tops paying tribute to the legendary group. Even pairing up Stevie Wonder and the Jonas Brothers proved fruitful. Katie Perry’s “I Kissed a Girl” was the pop portion of the evening, arriving in a giant banana surrounded by fruit. I felt her vocals were a bit off and I couldn’t help thinking this should be Kylie up their performing and not her. There were so many performances, that you almost forgot it was an award show. The Grammy’s gave out 108 awards this year yet they only showed about a dozen on air. I realise that most would rather see the performances but they could have shown at least a handful more.

I don’t understand the Album and Record of the year going Robert Plant & Alison Krauss for “Raising Sand”, they won 5 Grammys in all. Coldplay picked up 3 for Song of the Year, Best Rock Album and Group for "Viva La Vida". Jennifer Hudson picking up her first Grammy for Best R & B Album was the poignant moment of the evening, after losing her brother and mother who were killed this year. Best New Artist when to Brit singer Adele who won 2 Grammy’s last night for her song “Chasing Pavements”, and her fellow country-woman Duffy picked up the Best Pop Vocal Album for “Rockferry”. My biggest disappointment of the evening was Kylie Minogue not winning Best Dance Electronic Album, I was hoping that if Kylie didn’t win at least it would be Cyndi Lauper or Robyn but the award went to Daft Punk for their album "Alive 2007" they picked up another award for Best Dance Recording for “Harder Better Faster Stronger”. For a list of all the winners go to www.grammy.com

I’m not usually into gossip but for those wondering, Rihanna and her boyfriend Chris Brown both cancelled their performances. Brown is being investigated by the police for allegedly assaulting an unidentified woman Saturday night, the woman in question is believed to be none other then his girlfriend Rihanna.

Friday, February 6, 2009

New Pet Shop Boys

New Pet Shop Boys single "Love Etc" to be released March 16th from the forthcoming album "Yes" which drops March 23rd, co-written and produced by Xenomania.



Xenomania are the hot producers/songwriters in the UK at the moment, they have written many hits for the Sugababes, Sophie Ellis Bextor, Girls Aloud, Dannii and Kylie Minogue. Their leader and founder Brian Higgins co-wrote "Believe" for Cher before he started his own label.

The song was posted on Youtube but EMI Records pulled it off, you would think they would want it promoted no? Record companies are really stupid sometimes.

I really like the song, love the boys choir in the background, it's very catchy. Too bad that radio probably won't play their music. If you're not 20 or the sound du jour you'll never never get on a playlist or chart.

Party like it’s 2017 Bananarama at the Apollo Eventim London

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