Ok, so Daneeeboy.com had a little hiatus for September. That hiatus is now over. I have addressed some stuff and had a think about the direction this blog shall take. There will be some minor changes you may notice - starting with updates again. Yippeeee!
In yesterday’s Independent, Peter Saville, the legendary album cover designer, declared the album cover “dead”.
Speaking from his studio this weekend, Mr Saville believes that cover art is dead, not just because of technology, but because the youth culture in which albums once operated has changed: “We have a social disaster on our hands,” he said. “The things that pop music was there to do for us have all been done… there’s nothing to rail against now.
“When I was 15, in the North-west of England…. the record cover to me was like a picture window to another world. Seeing an Andy Warhol illustration on a Velvet Underground album was a revelation…. It was the art of your generation… true pop art.”
While I agree, to an extent, the individual image on the cover of an album holds less importance than it once did, to say that album artwork is “dead” is to miss the point of this new multidimensional, multimedia, multisensory world we live in.
With the death of the LP, album artwork took a blow, being reduced from large and eyecatching works of art, to small, CD-jewel-case filling bits of paper. The album packaging went from being a treasured piece of art, to being a small and manufactured artifact. Now, with iTunes and the iPod, the album cover itself has been reduced to a 5cm square lit up on a screen. It is disposable, intangible, and ultimately, less important to the musical experience.
But the problem with album artwork goes deeper than that. Saville argues that today’s youth have nothing left to rebel against - sex, drugs, rock and roll - they’ve all been done. He calls this a “social disaster”. This could be Saville’s age showing, having little or no relation to today’s youth. But it could also hold some truth - rock and roll was the revolution of the baby boomer generation. Elvis, The Beatles and The Sex Pistols were the first acts to use rock and roll to communicate their message of revolution to the new teenage generation. War was over, young men and women were no longer drafted into service, and they now had money and the freedom to express themselves. Music was the vehicle of choice for our parents to find and define themselves.
What Saville fails to realise is that whilemusic remains a revolutionary vehicle for today’s pop culture junkies, the 10 track LP is but a grain of sand on a beach of possibility. Since the 1980’s, the way we interact with and consume pop culture has been changing and evolving at an amazing pace. Teenagers today have the same thoughts, worries, insecurities, interests and pleasures that the teenagers of the 1960’s, ’70’s and ’80’s had, but their options for expressing and sharing these thoughts are much wider, faster and more diverse. Pop culture for today’s youth is about the convergence of music, video and technology, and the ability to express yourself through interactive mediums like the Internet. Read the rest of this entry »
Mini-Knowles, Solange is currently jetting around the world promoting her new single “I Decided”. I have got all jizzy about this before, so I won’t bother now. But this made me smile.
In a recent performance of the single, Solange was joined on stage by a grooving stage crasher. Rather than going nuts at the situation, or panicking, Solange told security to leave him be. ”He ain’t hurtin’ nobody.” She then began dancing with him. Go Solange! Check it out:
And it’s not just music Britney is working on. She confirmed she is interested in doing more acting, following her successful appearance on “How I Met Your Mother,” which helped the show achieve its best ever ratings.
“I’d love to, if I can find the right movie,” Brit said when asked about continuing her thespian streak. “Actually, I have a part that just came up. We’re just trying to work it out with my schedule, with the children.”
Though it was unclear from the excerpts released at press time by OK! whether Britney addressed her hospitalizations of early 2008, her run ins with the paparazzi or the conservatorship protection she is under until the end of October, her father and co-conservator, Jamie Spears, provided some answers to OK!
Jamie said the conservatorship of his daughter will come to a close, though he hopes it will last just a bit longer, for Britney’s sake.
“I would hope it stands until the end of the year, and then we’ll sit back and evaluate where we are at that time, where Britney is at that time,” he said.
The conservatorship reunited father and daughter, who in the past had moments where they were estranged from one another.
“It’s wonderful,” he said of their relationship. “It is new for both of us. She sometimes calls me 50 times a day and asks me things that light my life up. But like all daughters, she is very manipulative and cunning. So she gets what she wants a lot.”
Jamie also said that despite the troubles that previously affected the pop star, there was a silver lining – their new relationship and his relationship with his grandsons.
“God has a way of taking something bad and turning it into something good,” Jamie told OK! “If this hadn’t happened, I would never have been able to get back with my daughter and have this relationship I have with these two little boys.”
In related news, Jamie also explained why Britney and her ex-husband, Kevin Federline, settled their custody dispute over their two children, without going to trial.
“Britney and Kevin wanted to settle… The trial that was coming up was for permanent custody. It made no sense for that trial to proceed so we worked out an agreement. The agreement says that on Oct. 1 we’ll probably get another overnight, and that will stay in place until the end of the year or the end of the conservatorship,” he said.
As for how Jamie feels about Kevin, he offered a mixed answer.
“Kevin has a wonderful heart. I don’t agree with giving him more money,” Jamie said.
From her nasty divorce and custody battle to her now-infamous performance at the 2007 VMAs to the dark period under the control of “manager” Sam Lutfi, it’s safe to say that the last two years were not the best in the young life of Britney Spears.
And now, one year after an erratic and distracted Brit stormed out of an OK! photoshoot, a very different woman sits down to talk openly about her two adorable sons, her father and the future of her nearly sidetracked career.
Having spent her young life in the spotlight, the 26-year-old mother of two tells OK! that she hopes her boys choose not to choose a career in entertainment. “I’d love them unconditionally if they wanted to,” she explains. “I’d just as soon they have a more normal childhood.
Perhaps some of Britney’s reluctance comes from seeing her little sister, Jamie Lynn Spears, have to face so much public scrutiny over her recent pregnancy. “I was shocked a little bit,” says Brit. “She’s always been the baby, and now the baby was having a baby. It was mind-boggling.”
The pop superstar also tells OK! that she wants her boys to be close to her newborn niece. “I’m sure the boys will be like big brothers to Maddie,” she says.
In an unexpected twist, Britney’s downward spiral in recent years ultimately helped to heal the bonds between the singer and her parents, Lynne and Jamie Spears.
“God has a way of taking something bad and turning it into something good,” explains Jamie, who also spoke exclusively to OK!. “If this hadn’t happened, I would never have been able to get back with my daughter and have this relationship I have with these two little boys.”
Another positive that’s risen out of her darkest days is Britney’s new album, which she expects to hit stores in six to nine months. “I think it is more urban,” she tells OK!. “I’m writing every day, right here at the piano in this living room… This is my best work ever.”
For the complete interview and exclusive at-home photos of Britney and her boys, pick up the new issue of OK! — on sale everywhere Thursday!
If you only had access to Daneeeboy.com, you could be forgiven for thinking that Lady GaGa is the only woman recording electro-pop goodness at the moment. Sorry about that.
So here’s a nice alternative from the lovely little town of London. They are a band called The Ultrasonics, an unashamedly electro pop bunch headed up by a bleach blonde lass called Johanna. And they are very good. They sound a little bit like US west coast electro groups Ultraviolet Sound and Stefy (two fantastic bands to sound like, if you’re asking me). They are set to release their debut single, “Perfect Girl” via iTunes and other digital stores this summer.
According to their press release thinger…
“Already championed by the likes of Popjustice (the UK’s number one pop music site) and EQ, ‘Perfect Girl’ is a true electropop gem. The track draws influences from classic ‘80s pop, with a nod towards the synth-laden sounds of The Human League and Depeche Mode.
‘Perfect Girl’ acts as a perfect introduction to the group’s fusion of retro and 21st Century electro.”
Oh right, then. I’ll add a Daneeeboy quote: “They make me feel dirty in a good way. Also the lead singer sounds a bit like a more talented Jenny Frost.“
In all seriousness, I hope The Ultrasonics are a band we will be hearing more from over the coming months. They will be performing alongside Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Alphabeat and Client at Manchester Pride on the 25th Of August, the same day “Perfect Girl” hits digital stores.
Oh dear. Generally when I see the words “featuring R. Kelly”, something inside of me dies. Every album needs a stinker, on PCD it was the schmultzy “Stickwitu”, on The Pussycat Dolls’ newest album, “Doll Domination”, it appears to be this track…
Pussycat Dolls - Out Of This Club (feat. R. Kelly)
Pop culture can be so dull and drab, but it can also be like an orgasm in an ice cream shop. Daneeeboy is about celebrating the stuff that makes your clit tingle, and not the other stuff. Simon Cowell is not welcome here. If you are Simon Cowell, please fuck off.
I like stuff that is independent. Stuff that speaks for itself. Stuff that makes me want to dance. Stuff that makes me want to cry. Stuff that's cheap and tacky. The glamorous, the dirty, the over the top and the insane.
Contact
Hints, criticisms, tips, and any kind of feedback is welcome to dan@daneeeboy.com.
Kylie and Dannii Minogue have teamed up to record a cover of the ABBA song, “The Winner Takes It All”
