Spotlight Tuesday: One Direction

I'm sure many of us have heard about One Direction by now, but how much do you really know about them?

The boy band comprises the Irish Niall Horan and Brits Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Harry Styles, and Louis Tomlinson. Their age range is only from 18 to 20. The group was organized when all five boys had auditioned and were accepted to the prelims of the UK's X Factor. Nicole Scherzinger, an X Factor guest judge, suggested the boys form a group when things weren't looking up for them individually in the competition. Styles suggested the name One Direction, because he thought it would sound good when X Factor announcer Peter Dickson said it at the live shows. Simon Cowell took them on his team, and they made it to third place in the competition.

Cowell signed the group to Syco Records after X Factor, and their career has taken off. After joining the X Factor live tour, they released their smash debut single "What Makes You Beautiful" in September 2011. It reached #1 in the UK and #4 in the U.S. and earned them a Brit Award for Best British Single. Debut album Up All Night made them the first UK group to debut at #1 in the United States. Up All Night reached #1 in fifteen countries. The first four tracks of the album have been released as singles, three of which reached the top 10 in the UK. Up All Night consists of upbeat teen pop and dance pop. They went on the Up All Night Tour that circled the globe and came to the U.S. from May to July 1 of this year.

They have recently been recording their next album, of which they hope to contribute to some of the songwriting, and plan to release its lead single in September, followed by another world tour starting in February.

Monday Review: Believe by Justin Bieber

Justin Bieber’s latest release Believe is nothing short of what would be expected from an international pop icon with polished songwriting appropriate for a pop-hungry audience. He even contributed writing talent to most of the tracks. The album is really good and plays well as a next step in Bieber's career journey. The production sound is at par with the pop-perfect songwriting, containing every electronic fizzle and beep popular in modern dance-pop. Entertainment Weekly stated, "It's the rare album that tries to be everything to everyone and largely succeeds." What can you expect when the album’s producer and songwriter list includes enough names to run a Wal-Mart? There’s enough insight to go around to cover all bases. This also explains why the album is so polished.

Bieber’s vocals have deepened and matured, as well as his beautiful R&B flavoring (this may dismay every guy who enjoys making Bieber puberty jokes; the lad’s growing up). The eighteen-year-old still sounds like a teenager but has shed his tweenie voice. All comparisons he’s getting to Justin Timberlake are understandable, even if Bieber isn’t taking kindly to what’s said. It doesn’t seem he’s tried to sound like Timberlake, but rather, in his exploration of his voice, he has happened upon a product that is strongly akin. Still, he comes across as a definitive pop star.

Standout tracks include opener and promo single "All Around The World," a club-ready dance track that sounds cousin to Britney Spears' "Till the World Ends" and welcomes another collaboration with Ludacris; the gorgeous, acoustic-guitar-featuring "Catching Feelings;" Nicki Minaj collaboration "Beauty And A Beat;" and "Thought of You."

A downfall of the album, though, is that Bieber sounds bored in a few tracks, especially near the end of album.

If you question his talent, check out this album to give Bieber Fever at least some legitimacy.

I give Believe 4 out of 5 stars.

Katy Perry "Wide Awake" on Dance/Club Play

Katy Perry achieves her tenth #1 (in a row) on Billboard's Dance/Club Play Songs Chart with "Wide Awake" on the song's eighth charting week. Congrats to her! This is her ninth run atop the chart from Teenage Dream. The pop princess's first #1 was One of the Boy's "Waking Up In Vegas" in 2009. "Wide Awake" also remains #3 on the Hot 100 and has been announced as the last release from her Teenage Dream era, as reviewed in its incredibly vivid music video that explores the journey of her dream for worldwide pop success all the way to her divorce from Russell Brand.

The top spot will likely be taken by fellow pop princess Aussie Kylie Minogue with "Timebomb" next week.

The "Wide Awake" video is wrought with symbolism. Videos like it are candy for me. Personally, I can't help but feel some Madonna influence in the song's production and video. The melody and lyrics are very Perry, though. The production is consistent with the rest of Teenage Dream, but, perhaps, it is the echoing synths that recalls Madonna for me. As for the video, part of me (heh heh) can't help but be reminded of Madonna's "Bedtime Story" and "Frozen." The Pop Queen's influence would not be surprising, since Perry has announced Madonna as one of her idols.

On another note, I recently watched Madonna's vid for "Open Your Heart" and felt like I could see Perry doing something similar. Does anyone else feel that?

"Call Me Maybe," "Good Time:" Summer of Carly Rae Jepsen

Carly Rae Jepsen continues to rule the summer with "Call Me Maybe" atop the Hot 100 for a seventh week. This song is everywhere--from memes to compiled Obama speeches to athletes on Youtube. It is only one week shy of tying Gotye's "Somebody That I Used To Know" for the chart's longest-running #1 of the year and seems to likely have the steam to do so.

The 26-year-old continues her feel-good vibes with her Owl City collaboration "Good Time," which will be featured on Owl City's upcoming album The Midsummer Station to be released August 20. The single charts at #23 this week. Four weeks ago, it debuted at #17.

The "Good Time" fun-summer music video debuted three days ago.

Madonna's MDNA

Madonna released her twelfth studio album, MDNA, on Monday, March 26. MDNA, used as an entendre for the drug MDMA but more rightfully for Madonna DNA and an abbreviated spelling of the singer's name, reminds that she is the source of controversy that has paved the way for many pop stars, by infusing references to religion and sexuality, often irreverently. At times, this feels like a forward stab to Lady Gaga, especially considering her recent "reductive" words about Gaga. She wants everyone to know that she is "Queen"--that she is what brought pop to what it is now. Fittingly, Madonna's performance beneath the heavy electronic alterations (especially in "Gang Bang") sounds much like it did twenty years ago during her times of greatest controversy in her Like a Prayer-Erotica era, before her vocal training for Evita. She has continued exploring this, revisiting the black-and-white music video for "Girl Gone Wild," like she did with "Justify My Love" and "Erotica." Similarly, "Girl" has met censory with an 18 and older age stamp on Youtube.

While the album's production sounds good, most of the lyrics seem forced. Madonna set out to make an album, and that's what she did--she made an album, when she needed to create one. However, production all-around is nothing short than what she wanted--a full ride in the dance genre for a non-stop party, as she did with Confessions on a Dance Floor but without revealing lyrics and cohesive beats (without brilliance, basically). An issue with the album is that there are little standouts for single releases. The track that comes closest is "I'm Addicted," which, besides the lyrics, sounds very close to Pet Shop Boys cuts. A potential promo release for club play is "Gang Bang," which sounds darkly fantasy-filled enough for Gaga, screwball co-writer Mika, or a metal arrangement. It isn't until near the end of the album that lyrics start to take meaning, on the tracks she collaborated with William Orbit, who brought introspection out of Madonna in 1998's Ray of Light. "I'm a Sinner" even rings a sound similar to the Orbit/Madonna collaboration "Beautiful Stranger."

MDNA is good but not great as it could have been. It contains tracks that people will want to hear again but that won't stick with them.

I give it 3 ½ out of 5 stars.