I Wanna Be A Popstar!

The brilliant Title sequence/Bop Bop Doo Waaah (mp3)

On my mp3 player is a multitude of songs from around the globe and over the Christmas period I escaped the insanity of moving house to the safe-haven of the ipod. Without internet connection and most of my belongings in boxes tucked away in storage or out of reach it was great to focus on something absolutely poppy and random. I then constructed a playlist. This playlist was decidedly titled the “The History of Popstars”. The T.V show that cynics cried out as the final nail in the coffin for pop music. I ruled out all acts that partaked in the spin-off shows (Fame/Star Academy, Pop Idol, X Factor) as the playlist would’ve enveloped my entire ipod. I’ve ended up with roughly 42 tracks consisting of the winning groups and those groups that teamed up and created a career despite not being in the final act.

The result? A very surprising and varied sounds coming out of my earphones. While some veered towards traditional pop there was not one hegemonic strand of pop that reigned above the others. One moment you’d be skiing down the cheesy mountain of “Whole Lot of Lovin” by Irelands Six and then you’d be glamrocking it up with the German group Nu Pagadi with their brilliant track “Poison” which sounds like a tribute to Black Sabbath. Germany has really taken to the notion of Popstars with each act doing something unexpected, new and tantalising. It is the vocals of No Angels that blast every other Popstar act apart. Check out their 2007 comeback album track “Back Off”. It literally reinvigorates the feminist anthem-the type we’ve not seen since those power ballad days of Cher and Bonnie Tyler. They’ve certainly got the strongest lungs amongst the genealogy of Popstar acts. Another German popstar girlband, Monrose, took another route and produced two electro rnb albums that sit very well next to Timbalands recent experimentations. Indeed, their no.1 single “Hot Summer” is a brilliant side-kick to Nelly’s “Maneater”. Then there was the band Preluders who took the 1950’s and 1960’s bubblegum approach.

Popstars and their acts faced-and continue to-far too much negative criticism by those who failed to actually listen to the overall and multiple sounds consequently produced. For sure, I can understand the tension that the show brought as it unveiled the music industry for what it was-completely managed. All acts whether it be the grand gods of music or the wannabes are constructed and Popstars simply exposed the cogs that make the magical wheel of pop keep turning. It was unfair to level this at the bands though.

Still, the cynics attacked and went for the lack of originality citing the impact on those talented songwriters who would somehow be blocked by this novel format. However the producers and songwriters of Europe have done very well out of “Popstars”. Take the song-writer Linnea Handberg whose song “This is Who I Am” was first released by her, then by the French Popstars band L5 and then by the Swiss girlgroup Tears on their LP “En Rouge”. On the very same album, “I Tatoo You” later appeared on the Preluders album. The recent comeback album by No Angels contains no less than six songs that were previously given to other acts. The Swedish singer Robyn once said a good pop song is a good song and the acts of Popstars know this moto only too well. In the age of recycling, Popstar acts and their AnR teams constantly sneak a peak at their fellow bands and record their version for their own. The “Veneno No Olhar” by the Portuguese girlband NonStop just happens to be one of Australia’s biggest singles by the Australian Popstars group Bardot albiet with the title “Poison”.

There is however one aspect of the format which one can make a successful critique and that’s perhaps the many examples where in which bands failed to get beyond the initial burst of stardom. To my knowledge only 5 acts ever achieved a greatest hits package (L5, No Angels, Girls Aloud, Rouge, Liberty X) and many failed to release a second album and if they did it was their last. The fact that the final band OneTrueVoice never released their album puts the three albums by the runner-up girlgroup Clea in perspective but also reveals their belief in themselves and those people around them and ultimately attests to their staying power. However, generally speaking this does not just occur with acts not only from Popstars shows but evidence of longevity amongst pop acts from T.V reality shows is sadly rather rare.

The truth is, the T.V show produced a myriad of great and versatile pop products, sounds and acts. All of which kept the world of pop very much alive...Moreover, Popstars brought the music directly to the consumer and revealed its DNA. It was a brand new way of "doing music" much in the same revolutionary ways Myspace and Protools are currently allowing singers live out their dreams and gain fans....

Key Popstars Bands/Videos:

Nu Pagadi (The Sweetest Poison)
Bandana (Sigo Dando Vueltas)
Rouge (Brilha la Luna)
Lollipop (Batte Forte)
EyeQ (The World Outside My Door)
Diadems (Celle que je Suis)
Tears (M.u.s.i.c)
L5 (Reste Encore)
Whatfor (L'amor n'a past de loi)
No Angels (Someday)
Supernatural (Supernatural)
True Bliss (Number One)
Girls Aloud (No Good Advice)
Monrose (Hot Summer)
Hear'say (Pure & Simple)
Excellence (We Can Dance)
Liberty X (Just A Little)
Eden's Crush (Get Over Yourself)
Clea (Download it)
Bardot (Poison)
Bro'sis (I Believe)
Scene 23 (I Really Don't Think So)
Hi-5 (I Will Rise Again)
Phixx (Love Revolution)
Nonstop (Tudo Vai Mudar)
T'De Tila (Dejarte Ir)