Helping Haiti

Last night, the "Hope for Haiti Now" telethon aired. It was amazing to see the list of people who came out to support the efforts put together by George Clooney and the execs at MTV. But some of the musical acts were lackluster and song choices depressing to say the least. I was disappointed. We all know that this tragedy is overwhelmingly sad, but as an audience, we needed to be uplifted. You want our support? Ignite us to give, don't drag us down.

There were a few stand out performances though. (Sadly, I can't embed all the videos because they play automatically. Please follow the links.)

Mary J. Blige was as composed and elegant as she always is. This is what a true diva looks and acts like. Her rendition of "Hard Times Come Again No More" showed her strength both as a singer and performer. Never overstated, but most definitely having the presence needed.

Jennifer Hudson also sang with as much gusto and prowess on the Beatles "Let it Be". It's a shame these two women have yet to perform together. That would be an amazing collaboration.

John Legend's "A Motherless Child" was beautifully scored with a string quartet supporting his haunting voice and delicate piano playing. Its wonderful to see that someone as busy as John (who is currently in the middle of a tour) take time out to do his part.

Christina Aguilera, with her trademark red lipstick and platinum blond hair, was vocally at the top of her game. The girl has vocal chords of steel. Her new ballad "Life Me Up" was a beautiful choice for the evening.

Does Sting ever age? It's kinda creepy. Thankfully, his voice isn't aging either. He sounds just as good as he did thirty years ago. His "Driven to Tears" was one of the few upbeat and musically interesting pieces of the night, that send a very strong message that we all need to heed.

And a few quick notes on what I believed to be some seriously poor choices:

Beyonce? What the hell were you thinking singing "Halo"? Hundreds of thousands of people DIED. We've all heard that song a million times over. You couldn't have found someone else's song to sing for once? That was a huge disappointment. HUGE.

Bruce Springsteen, I love you, really I do. But please don't ever sing that song again. Or any word that has the syllable "er" in it. I had to turn you off it was that bad.

Madonna, what were you wearing? You've always been on the cutting edge of fashion. Tonight? Not so much. And the vocals sounded truly forced. Thank god you had that chorus behind you. They saved it.

And most depressing song of the evening goes to my favorite artist, Dave Matthews. Along with Neil Young, he sang Hank Williams' utterly sad ballad "Alone and Forsaken". Hate the song choice, love the collaboration.

One of the most beautiful performance of the night though, surprisingly came from Justin Timberlake and his protege Matt Morris singing the Leonard Cohen classic "Hallelujah". This is where we see Justin at his best; quiet, subdued, emoting behind the piano. We see the performer that many have forgotten about due to his widely loved sex/pop appeal. The performance is beautiful to watch and listen to. This one deserves to be seen.



And on a personal note:
One of my dear friends from college, Jamie, lives in Port-au-Prince. The school where she was teaching is taking donations online through Paypal. See their website for more details. Her parents also have a mission there and are taking donations by check through the mail. If you'd like to support them, please contact me for information.

RIP Teddy

I woke up this morning to find the news that Teddy Pendergrass has died. It's a sad day, not just for music but for the world in general. He was a talented (and did I mention sexy?) man who was also a great role model after suffering a paralyzing spinal cord injury. He kept singing and recording, and started a charitable fund to help others with the same circumstances.

While this video only has one picture, it's easy to see why he had such a strong pull as a performer. His voice is pure sex and the girls are constantly screaming from ecstasy.



What many people of my generation don't realize is that If You Don't Know Me By Now, made popular by Simply Red in the 80's, was actually first released by Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, where Teddy was the lead singer. Take a look at this flashback from an old episode of Soul Train.



Man, I miss the Soul Train. Here they are again with Wake Up, Everybody.



Teddy also did collaborative work with amazing women. Here he is with Stephanie Mills in Two Hearts.



Before she became a legend (and tabloid train wreck), Whitney Houston also sang with Teddy. Hold Me from Whitney's first self-titled album.



RIP Teddy. You will be missed.

The Death of Pop

I'm seriously in shock.

This article claims that "rookie pop singer Ke$ha's "TiK ToK" shifted 610,000 digital tracks for the week ending December 27, according to Nielsen SoundScan. That's the highest weekly sum by a female artist since tracking began in 2003, and the second-best overall after Flo Rida's "Right Round" sold 636,000 this past February. Coincidentally, Ke$ha was an uncredited singer on the track."



Is this some bad joke? The girl barely sings. I will admit that the chorus is slightly catchy, but it sounds like a bunch of other choruses that I've heard before. There's no originality and no talent. How did Gaga get beat by this little blond nothing?

Someone please explain. I'm seriously at a loss for words.

A Real Boy Band

I used to have a thing for boy bands. Well, one in particular (Lance Bass will always make my heart sing, gay or not!) But here in the US, they have become a thing of the past as is per our lousy next bigger, better, louder, faster, one-hit-wonder custom. Lucky for me, the US isn't the only country putting out pop music.

I've spent time actually living in other countries. It's a sad fact to state that the US is completely wrapped up in their own music. When I lived in Germany, I heard French pop on the charts. I listened to German pop when I lived in Poland. Trust me, there are borders in Europe, but they are not quite as thickly defined as our own.

So where is the next generation of real pop coming from? Asia.

I've followed the Korean boy band machine that is Super Junior. They began as a 13 member all-boy super group. Due to their popularity (and smart business moves of their label) they have also been divided into smaller sub groups, simultaneously targeting different music industries and audiences. Super Junior KRY target a more mature audience using R&B ballads, Super Junior T use Trot music for their fanbase, and Super Junior Happy is all about the bubble gum pop. (You want to see real bubblegum pop? Check out their video for Happiness. It's so sweet it'll make you sick.) Super Junior M focuses on the Chinese market (they're actually the first international music group in the Chinese music industry to have members of both Chinese and Korean descent.)

What I love most about Super Junior is their simple style. They dance. They sing. Nothing is ever over the top. Story lines in their videos are never complicated or over-sexualized. Their music is fun and catchy. They are truly what pop is meant to be.

Here is the latest video from Super Junior M, Super Girl

Another Hopeful Fallen Idol

Katherine McPhee...what the hell happened to you?

She was the runner-up on the fifth season of American Idol (sadly losing to Taylor Hicks). Her first single, Over It, did well on the U.S. Billboard charts, and topped the charts in both India and Asia, eventually going gold from digital downloads of the song. McPhee had stated however that it was not "[her] favorite song" and she did not want her "song to be something that [she] was a part of." The video, while cute and singer-centric, is nothing but a few boring shots of her in cute clothes, lamenting or following around her ex-boyfriend.

What I remember most from Cathering McPhee however was that she could sing. The girl had a phenomenal voice and a natural grace and ease to her stage presence.

Her Idol audition:


And who can forget this:


Now, this was all back in 2006-07. She released a video for Love Story which showed off much more of her R&B sound, and while still singer-centric, was much more fun to watch with its Tina Turner/French Beatnik throwbacks.

And here we are in 2009. McPhee has released a new single, Had it All.


What. The. Hell.

She looks like some coked-up blond model. The red lipstick is ridiculous. Her voice sounds like a hot mess. Where is the powerful singer we once knew? Is this new McPhee supposed to be pop or country? What kind of boring cross-over shit is her label making her produce?

'Tis a sad day indeed. The death of a career from McPhee.

GaGa does it again

She is the queen of all that is weirdly talented. You know you can't ignore her. She was the musical guest on SNL this past week and honestly, this is just fun to watch.



The thing that really gets me about her though is that she can sing in tune. It's a sad pop state we live in where everything is so mass produced that it doesn't matter whether you can really carry a tune. And here she is, singing, performing, dancing. Doing it all but always the music comes first.



Best of all though...she knows how to have fun. Even with Madge in the picture.

Because who doesn't love watching a boy run around in his underwear?

Oh, Mika. You have always had a big place in my heart. Ever since this video, Big Girl (You are Beautiful), I have loved everything about you.

Mika is not one to shy away from going against popular culture. He has this wonderful playful quality to his music and his videos have an almost careless freedom to them. There is no glitz and glamor. It's just Mika being himself. And his newest video, We Are Golden, is exactly that. I mean, who doesn't love to watch a boy in his underwear run around his room like a maniac?



And just for nostalgia's sake, here's his first video, Grace Kelly. It was designed to be a mocking satire of musicians who try to reinvent themselves to be popular. Mika claims the song was inspired after a bad experience with a record company executive, in which he was told to be more like Craig David. The lyric "So I tried a little Freddie" is a reference to Queen's Freddie Mercury, to whose singing voice Mika's has been compared. On at least one occasion, Mika confirmed that he used the main melody from Figaro's famous aria Largo al factotum in the opera The Barber of Seville by Rossini.

Bonus! Here's a great interview interspersed with my favorite Mika song, Lollipop. He actually wrote it for his younger sister which is actually kinda sweet.