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Column 24: The Oscars, Best Original Song, and Dreams of What Could’ve Been

January 21, 2015

And so Oscar season officially begins. With the announcement of last Thursday’s nominations, the annual awards campaign has kicked off. While there were notable surprises and snubs in every category, let’s get to the one that matters to readers of this blog though, Best Original Song. Lost Stars – Adam Levine (Begin Again) Grateful – Rita Ora (Beyond the Lights) Glory – Common & John Legend (Selma) I’m Not Gonna Miss You – Glen Campbell (Glen Campbell : I’ll Be Me) Everything is AWESOME!!! – Tegan & Sara and The Lonely Island (The LEGO Movie) That is the field for this year’s Best Original Song winner, which to me, could not be more depressing. In a year that was so uncommonly great for music in movie, to look at that crop as the “best” of the year seems so falsely representative of what the year was. There’s been a lot of[...]

Best Case/Worst Case: Up-and-Coming Pop Stars

June 16, 2014

Pop music is in a transitional stage right now. New performers keep sprouting up with mega-hits faster than we can keep track of them. So, with that mind, let’s look and some of the bright new faces in pop and determine what would be the best ways for their careers to play out, and what scenarios would leave us sick with disappointment. Lorde Best case: Continues to embrace weirdness, and largely ignores what’s going on with contemporary pop stars. In a perfect world, she could keep making the music she wants to make while staying a force in the mainstream, but if she fades out of view of the Billboard Hot 100 and continues to do her own thing, that would be fine, too. Really, just as long as she stays weird, and continues to grow as a songwriter without blatantly seeking out huge pop hits, that would be great.[...]