December 2011
42 posts
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Top of the Poptastic! →
For my final post of 2011, it’s my top 15 singles of December!
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The 100 Most Poptastic Singles of 2011 →
The full list of the top 100 most poptastic singles of 2011! It’s official (cos I said so).
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And the no.1 most poptastic single of 2011 is... →
Find out which song I have crowned the most poptastic single of the year!
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The 25 Most Poptastic Singles of 2011 - Part 5 →
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A hint of what's to come... →
Can you guess who has made my top 5 most poptastic singles of the year?
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The 25 Most Poptastic Singles of 2011 - Part 4 →
My Most Poptastic Singles of 2011 countdown reaches the top 10 with Lady Gaga, Tove Styrke, Robyn and Rihanna…
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The 25 Most Poptastic Singles of 2011 - Part 3 →
2NE1, Beyoncé and SoundGirl take their places in my countdown of the most poptastic singles of 2011…
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The 25 Most Poptastic Singles of 2011 - Part 2 →
The countdown continues!
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The 25 Most Poptastic Singles of 2011 - Part 1 →
My countdown of the 25 most poptastic singles of 2011 begins today with September, Jennifer Lopez, Wolf Gang & more!
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The Impossible Has Been Achieved! →
Click above to find out how YouTube star Alex Day has proven that it is possible to get into the charts without a record label or any support from TV, radio or the press!
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This Must Be Pop brings you Future Pop! (Issue... →
This week’s Future Pop features three exciting new female singers: Maiday, Kenzie May and Masha.
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Win a £50 voucher from Truffle Shuffle! →
Truffle Shuffle are sponsoring January’s This Must Be Pop Live and they’ve kindly offered me a £50 voucher to give away! Click above to find out how you can win.
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Song of the Day: We Were Evergreen - Penguins and...
This is more a Video of the Day than Song of the Day as I think the song is sweet enough, but not amazing. The video, however, is one of the best I’ve seen in ages! So many fun details and cute moments. We Were Evergreen are a French indie-pop group who have started to play gigs and promote themselves in the UK recently, so if you like a bit of twee pop then check out the rest of their...
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The Gossip →
Here’s some of the gossip I’ve picked up on my travels around Planet Pop this week!
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Song of the Day: Ash Koley - Apple Of My Eye
Ash Koley are a Canadian indie-pop duo who I hadn’t heard before this, but now I’ll definitely be investigating further. Lead singer Ashley, who was previously part of a Canadian ABBA tribute act, has a great voice and Apple Of My Eye is a really well-written, uplifting pop anthem. You can find out more about the band by watching this sweet introduction video.
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Song of the Day: DJ Fresh ft. Rita Ora - Hot Right...
Finally Rita Ora releases a single, and I couldn’t be happier with this track - it’s incredible and definitely going to be MASSIVE!! DJ Fresh had a no.1 hit earlier this year with his song Louder and I think this will go the same way. It’s the perfect launchpad for Rita, a British singer who was signed by Jay-Z a couple of years ago and will finally make her move on the...
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Popping The Question: Can The Major Labels Survive... →
How much has really changed for major labels and independent artists in the last ten years?
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A Very Poptastic Christmas! →
Now you can feel festive AND poptastic with my Christmas playlist!
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This Must Be Pop brings you Future Pop! (Issue... →
This week’s predictions for the future of pop include Luminites, Ester Dean and Sammy Adams plus some great new indie-pop.
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Song of the Day: Talay Riley - Fairytale
While Talay is doing quite well as a songwriter, with tracks on the Jessie J, JLS and Tinie Tempah albums, his own music career hasn’t quite taken off. After a few flop singles he randomly posted a mixtape online including 19 songs to download totally for free! Among them are his very good single Make You Mine and the super-catchy dance pop track Fairytale. Rumour has it Fairytale was...
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Song of the Day: Ariana Grande - Put Your Hearts...
I’ve found my new favourite pop-rock songwriter in Matt Squire, who brought the song Up All Night by One Direction into the world, and now (along with Linda Perry) he’s given us the debut single by Victorious star Ariana Grande. I wrote about Ariana a few weeks ago in my Future Pop mailer, and my high hopes for her turned out to be fair as her first release Put Your Hearts Up is...
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Song of the Day: Ashley Tisdale - How Do You Love...
One of the most underrated pop albums from the past few years has to be Ashley Tisdale’s second album Guilty Pleasure. As much as I prefer Ashley, the album would have been better off given to one of the higher profile Disney stars like Miley or Demi who could have given it the success it deserves. It’s brilliant from start to finish and I have a different favourite every time I...
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This Must Be Pop Live: The Next Act Announced! →
Find out who it is & listen to an exclusive song from her EP…
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Song of the Day: Tennis - Origins
If you spend enough hours on Hype Machine you will eventually strike gold, and I certainly did with this discovery. At first when listening to Origins I thought Tennis were just another Camera Obscura, but by the end of the track my thoughts were more along the lines of “Camera Obscura WHO?” This is the best female-vocal indie-pop track I’ve heard in ages! As it progresses...
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Song of the Day: Diana Vickers - Music To Make The...
I know many of you are fans of hers, but this is the first song by Diana Vickers I’ve ever liked. It was also Song of the Day today on Popjustice and they revealed that it’s the work of Donkeyboy, who I featured here last week. Now the poptasticness makes sense!
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Song of the Day: Helena Paparizou - Mr Perfect
Eurovision winner and Mambo singer Helena is back with the lead single from a new album. Helena is a Swedish-Greek singer who was part of a group called Antique before entering Eurovision for Greece. She’s had a few pop triumphs since but she’s not done anything exciting for a few years. Although this new track is a bit dated I’d still say it’s a return to poptastic...
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Song of the Day: 2NE1 - I Am The Best
Last night I went to see some of the biggest K-Pop groups at the United Cube concert in London and because of that I’ve been researching K-Pop quite a lot recently. The band everyone seems to favour is 2NE1 and after listening to their Collections album on Spotify I understand why. Not only are their videos spectacular ideals of how pop videos should be, but their music transcends...
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BBC Sound of 2012
Here’s the actual longlist, with stars next to the ones I predicted:
A$AP Rocky
Azealia Banks*
Dot Rotten
Dry The River
Flux Pavilion
Frank Ocean
Friends
Jamie N Commons
Lianne La Havas*
Michael Kiwanuka*
Niki & The Dove
Ren Harvieu
Skrillex*
Spector*
Stooshe*
Only 6 out of 15 were correct, but the 5 I put as my top 5 were all included! I wonder how many of them will end...
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Against All Odds, A Moment Like This? That's My... →
What do you think the X Factor finalists’ winner’s singles should be? Here’s what I would pick…
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BBC Sound of 2012
Tonight at midnight the Sound of 2012 longlist is revealed. I took part in a prediction game organised by Partisan PR and this is what I guessed the list would look like:
Lianne La Havas
Spector
Azealia Banks
Michael Kiwanuka
Skrillex
The Weeknd
Bastille
StooShe
Jess Mills
Angel
Willy Moon
Tribes
Lucy Rose
MNEK
Madeon
Can’t wait to see how many I got right!
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Song of the Day: Dia Frampton - The Broken Ones
I’ve been a fan of Dia for quite a while thanks to her band Meg & Dia, so it was great to see her get wider recognition when she entered and eventually came second in the US version of The Voice this year. This week she will release her debut solo album, Red (on which she has worked with Gregs both Kurstin and Wells, and a member of Foster The People), and the lead single from it is...
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Bumper Album Review Post →
My thoughts on the new albums from The Sats, Taio Cruz and Eric Saade.
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Song of the Day: Eric Saade - Explosive Love
Swedish pop prince Eric Saade released his new album Saade Vol.2 this week and I’m still getting to know all the new songs, but this was my early fave of the album tracks. The lead single Hotter Than Fire is still the standout by far and overall I feel like there’s nothing new here or distinct from Saade Vol.1, but Eric fans will enjoy it nonetheless and I am one of them.
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New Girl Bands On The Block →
My thoughts on some of the new girl bands hoping to be big in 2012.
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This Must Be Pop Live IS BACK!! →
Find out who will be headlining January’s This Must Be Pop Live!
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Song of the Day: King Charles - Mississippi Isabel
I first heard of King Charles at last year’s Great Escape Festival and even though he was new to me he ended up being my third favourite performer of the weekend. He was great fun to watch as he’s full of character and his songs are very catchy in a quirky indie-pop way. If you like Wolf Gang or Patrick Wolf (or just wolves in general) you should give King Charles a listen....
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And the winners are... →
Find out if you won tickets for The Saturdays arena tour!
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Top of the Poptastic! →
My top 20 singles of November.
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Song of the Day: CSS ft. Ssion - City Grrrl
Great video and a total return to form from CSS! Hooray! NME may have stopped talking about them when New Rave failed to take off, but CSS are way more than a New Rave band. They’re fun, colourful indie-pop with energy and humour. I hope the new wave of indie that’s expected in 2012 also brings some great new indie-pop acts like CSS.