Friday, January 15th 2010

New Video: JLS – One Shot

The video for JLS’ third single ‘One Shot’ premiered literally a few moment ago. Aside from the song being awful, its accompanying video is a boiling hot mess! A recession special if I’ve ever seen one, the dated choreography and all-round atrocious performances turned in from all involved make this cheese-fest that much worse. Most perplexing, however, is the fact that with these guys being so big (here in the UK), this will likely be a hit. SMH…

Tidbit: Why does JB never sing? (“Merry Christmas” LMAO!!!!!!!)

What do you think of the song / video?

Posted By: Sam

17 Comments

Monday, November 9th 2009

JLS Hit #1

Pop group JLS will be celebrating this week after scoring their second #1 on the Official UK Singles Chart with their second single ‘Everybody In Love’. Ironically, the guys knocked off UK-media darling Cheryl Cole from the top spot; ironic in that it was Cole who judged them on last year’s X-Factor.

Though I wasn’t the JR Rotem produced song’s biggest fan, it has kinda grown on me. I guess if there’s one song the guys could ever drop in America, video en-toe, it would be this. Very slickly produced and the video possesses enough ‘gloss’ for the US audience. Perhaps I’m jumping the gun a little, as in no way do I feel the guys are ready to crack the US market.

In any case, much congratulations to them! It’s very refreshing to have a UK group of an ethnic minority being so successful and having this much marketing £££ pumped into their brand. Things really are changing for the better on the UK scene.

Your thoughts?

Posted By: Sam

7 Comments

Sunday, November 1st 2009

JLS Perform ‘Everybody In Love’ On X-Factor

Pop group JLS made their return to the X-Factor (the very show which launched them into stardom) tonight to perform their new single ‘Everybody In Love’. Peep the performance above.

Judging the performance by the group’s standards (which aren’t very high, to be honest), the guys did quite well. Backed by the show’s in-house troop of dancers, their live showing had the spectacle and pizazz which seems to have become a staple feature of the show’s special guests this season (see: Whitney Houston, Cheryl Cole).

I do wonder what would have been the case had the added extras not been tacked on (what separates good performers from the rubbish ones); judging by the cheesy (and out-of-synch) dancing and at-times off vocals, I doubt there’d be much of substance at all. In any case the guys look a cert for the #1 spot this week…who buys this stuff?

What do you think of the performance?

Posted By: Sam

4 Comments

Friday, October 2nd 2009

JLS Talk Gay Rumours

The UK’s biggest boy band (sad, but true) JLS have finally addressed the rumours about their sexuality in October’s Gay Times Magazine. UK’ers, unless living under a rock, will have no doubt been aware of the mass suggestion that some, if not all, of the four-piece are interested in guys. Here’s what the guys had to say about it:

Talking to Gay Times magazine about the rumours that one or more members of the band are gay, Aston says, “We always get the same thing from straight guys. Just because we like to take care of ourselves and get a lot of female attention, they’re first response is ‘you’re gay’.”

Marvin: “I met a girl in a club recently who was convinced that we were all gay – just because none of us tried it on with her! We were like ‘yeah whatever baby…’ We don’t care, though. We’ve got loads of gay friends anyway. All of mine fancy JB!”

Aston chips in with “whenever we do meet do meet and greet with gay fans, I’m the one they sling over their shoulders and run off with.”

Kudos to their PR team; it was actually an ingenious idea to combat the rumours – which they didn’t actually deny – by doing a feature with this magazine.

While their sexuality shouldn’t be as big a deal as folk are hyping about, my gripe centres solely on the fact they are crap lol; IMO their brand of crappiness represents all that is wrong with the industry today (shoddy music at the top of the charts). Perhaps contradicting myself, however, is my stance that I can’t hate on the guys for trying to live their dream…even if it has been pre-formatted to last approximately 15 minutes.

Your thoughts?

Posted By: Sam

12 Comments

Saturday, September 19th 2009

JLS – ‘Everybody In Love’ Video

The video for ‘Everybody In Love’, the follow-up to JLS’ #1 ‘Beat Again’, premiered today. I’d be lying if I said I never thought the group were atrocious from the get-go (hence why you next-to-never see anything about them around this neck of the woods). Despite having pretty decent (albeit 2002 sounding) production courtesy of J.R Rotem on this one, the lyrics are a melted-cheese-fest. As is the choreography. As is the overall everything about these guys!

While some complain about the group being singled out for “not-forming to the black male artist stereotype” or appearing a little…erm…yeah (LOL), my gripe is a hell of a lot simpler…they’re just crap. Point-Black-Period. In an industry that tries these days to pride itself on (pretend)authenticity, JLS really are the poster-children for the puppets-on-a-string formula that was all the rage about 10 years ago. The worse thing is, I’ve actually met the guys and they all seem genuinely nice and are having a blast ‘living their dream’. Yet when the dream seems pre-set to only last 15 minutes, and a good 9 of those minutes feel spent already, then there’s a problem. Gone are the days where Pop(ular) music automatically meant ‘cheesy and formulaic’, something which makes watching the irreparably dated and cringe worthy way the group are being presented all the more worse for their long-term prospects.

Did I actually write all that much on JLS? Boredom is a b*tch!

What do you think of the song / video?

Posted By: Sam

4 Comments

Thursday, June 4th 2009

Girlicious Axes Tiffanie; Now A Three

To say things have not been smooth since the start with Girlcious would be an understatement; no release in their native US, singles which fail to chart etc. Well now the foursome are down to three, after member Tiffanie (the darker skinned member…second from left) was thrown out.

While the details, as at present, are sketchy, all photos of her have been removed from the group’s MySpace page, with Tiffanie’s most recent Twitter status reading:

“Just got off the phone with my lawyer and feeling hell of betrayed now”.

As blunt as it may sound, this may actually be a blessing for her. The group aren’t really doing much of anything (and haven’t before). What’s more, I maintain will find it harder to be taken seriously in the industry with such a name and sound. It’ll be interesting to see how this one all pans out…

Your thoughts?