Video Killed The Radio Star

Well, I never thought I'd be posting a video with the Kerrang! logo in the corner, but it seems the day has come. Of course, this is a popular European band covering an excellent 80s electropop classic, so it shouldn't be that surprising that I like it. It's certainly not as brilliant as Within Temptation's cover of Running Up That Hill, but that is a song that very little can beat at all, not just in the category of Eurorock cover versions. If you like a bit of crazy Eurorock, you should definitely watch the video for Lacuna Coil's most famous original single, Swamped - I won't give too much away but it is quite a masterpiece!

Any true pop fan can tell you how legendary this girl group were, although they rarely seem to be mentioned without a reference to the Spice Girls. Here is a performance I'd never seen before I found it on YouTube, of Carrie and Jacqui performing their most famous single Trouble on the recently deceased Top of the Pops. Shampoo encapsulated the spirit of their time with garish outfits, tuneless singing and everything that annoys the boring old men who think they can manipulate the public into buying the subtle, sensible music they like. But pop music is the music of the youth and Shampoo represented teenage rebellion better than any 'controversial' rapper or drugged-out rocker. They were unique and overflowing with personality and, of course, girl power!

The Dixie Chicks might be a country act but they sure ain't boring, y'all! In 2003 they caused controversy when they criticised George Bush. It all began at a concert in London when singer Natalie said "Just so you know, we're ashamed the President of the United States is from Texas" - the remark was mentioned in a review in the Guardian and quickly picked up by US press. Madness ensued as fans and radio stations boycotted their music and there was even a mass bull-dozing of their CDs! They gained support from Madonna and appeared on front of an American magazine almost naked with the names they had been called printed on their bodies. Finally Bush responded saying that he didn't really care and they were free to speak their mind - rather a contrast to the reactions of his supporters. The girls had upset many of their conservative American fans but won respect from many people who felt the same or just supported their right to free speech. The band have been making music for only a couple of years less than I've been alive but they look pretty sprightly for their age and their 7th album, released last month, has wielded this surprisingly excellent song. It's their response to the George Bush debacle, and the lyrics (including my favourite - "How in the world can the words that I said send somebody so over the edge that they'd write me a letter saying that I better shut up and sing or my life will be over?") and video are pretty interesting in that respect. It retains the country style of singing but there's definitely a more commercial approach, and I know they worked with Rick Rubin (producer who has recently worked with Shakira and Justin Timberlake). There's something really poignant and stirring about this song in both the lyrics and its overall sound, so forget about the country and give it a chance!

This is the brand new single by Vanilla Ninja, their first with only 3 members and with a new manager replacing David Brandes, who they cut ties with when his bulk-buying of the music of the acts he worked with (also including German singer Gracia) caused them to be banned from the German charts for 3 months! You may know Vanilla Ninja from their appearance in last year's Eurovision representing Switzerland, although they are actually Estonian. This single comes from their fourth album Love Is War and despite David Brandes claiming their career is over and their new management are amateurs (no bias there at all, I'm sure), I think it's a great song. It's not a huge departure from their earlier work but it's catchy and I prefer it to many of the other singles they have made in a rocky style (they began as more of a pop act). I hope they can prove their old manager wrong and continue to be one of Europe's most popular female acts. Meanwhile, original Vanilla Ninja member Maarja is soon to release a solo single named Could You, which you can find out more about here.

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Bodies Without Organs are BACK and they may have had Eurovision snatched out from under their noses by a woman who refuses to admit that she has had sex despite the fact that she has given birth, but that does not stop them from being better than ever! This video is a little more sane than the previous BWO visual offerings, since it does make some sense with there being pictures of temples in the background, although I have absolutely no idea what table tennis has to do with it all - my only suggestion is that the "Love" in the title is in fact referring to tennis rather than a feeling of great affection, which would in fact make some sense if the words were "we are one love" as I first thought and not "we all want love" as I have been told they are. Maybe I was right and this is a song about tennis scores! It's a certainly an original choice of subject, that you can't deny. Martin looks equal parts beautiful and ridiculous, Alex provides us with some jolly smiles and Marina looks lovely if a little bit annoyed at having to do such ridiculous dance moves. But aren't all great things a little bit ridiculous?

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Those of you who haven't known me very long (or if this is your first visit any of my sites and you've noticed that everything is cheesy pop) will probably be very surprised to hear that I was a huge fan of Snow Patrol's last album. They do seem to get a lot of criticism from pop lovers, and I can understand why - they're not the most attractive of bands, they're not particularly familiar with the synthesizer and they tend to wear a lot of dark colours. However, somehow these random blokes manage to make really fantastic music, and when I'm calling music of this type "fantastic", it must be true. This is their brand new single, it's not much different to their last album's sound, but it doesn't sound like the stuff they did before which is the good news, cos that was as rubbish as I had expected their last album to be. Go on, give them a chance - you might just be converted!

What with Kate Ryan's fanastic Eurovision entry and now this, the Francophones are really outdoing themselves this year so far. This is the latest single by 24 year old French lady singer Najoua Belyzel, and it's absolutely excellent. In the video she dresses as an angel in search of a statue which I guess must be of Angel Gabriel. When she finds him she kisses him and he becomes real, but sadly the opposite happens to Najoua and she ends the video as a statue, just like that poor girl in Lionel Richie's hilarious Hello video.

At the risk of turning into a Melodifestivalen fan site (but would that be such a bad thing?), here is my favourite performance from last Saturday's show. You may recognise Magnus as one of the boys from fabulous Swedish pop group Alcazar - this is actually Magnus' 4th or 5th (I can't remember which) attempt at Eurovision success. Will this at last be Magnus' year? He's doing well so far, with a pretty good song and a dance routine channelling Rachel Stevens.

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To see the video scroll down past "Se allt från galan" to "Bodies Without Organs uppträder". This is a performance from a recent awards show in Sweden where BWO won Best Swedish Group, a fantastic achievement for a band whose first single, Living In A Fantasy, was hardly noticed by the Swedish public and their 2005 Melodifestivalen entry Gone failed to even get through the first round. However, their fortunes have been improving constantly since then, and this year - this week in fact - they return to Melodifestivalen for a second try with their brand new single (also the first release from their hotly anticipated 2nd album), Temple Of Love. I am more excited than words can say! I hope that any Swedes reading this will be kind enough to vote for BWO this weekend, and I in turn will be voting A LOT if they do become the Swedish Eurovision entry. Most of all I cannot wait to hear their new song, as I've not disliked a single thing they've done so far and I highly doubt I'm about to start now!

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The semi-finals of Melodifestivalen, the Swedish Eurovision selections, have begun and the first week welcomed back the singer of one of last year's best entries, Linda Bengtzing. She sings in Swedish but manages to make this not matter in the slightest. As this video shows, she has really grown in professionalism since last year, she looks fab and as she, along with Andrea Johnson (yes, the guy who had a hit with Glorious in 2000), is through to the finals, she has a good chance of doing very well out of this and perhaps even becoming the Swedish Eurovision entry for 2006. However, Bodies Without Organs are also entering so I sadly have to say I hope she doesn't.

I posted a new song by Amiel (vs A Tribe Called Quest no less!) on Into The Groove recently, but I still think this, her first solo single, is her best work. If you know the song, you will notice that the version used in the video is the one with slightly less lady-like language.

Scooch were a band launched in the hope of finding the next Steps, but they never quite managed it and this was their only really good song. They had one top 5 hit, More Than I Needed To Know, which was alright, but this one only got to no.15 which was a travesty. Although that is still higher than Annie has ever got with her UK single releases, so I suppose it was a triumph of sorts. They released an album, cleverly entitled Four Sure, because there was four of them and it had this song on it. You can get it quite cheap on Amazon Used & New. Amazingly, their web site still works, despite not having been updated since the year 2000.

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Sebastian was the runner-up in the 2005 series of Idol in Sweden (won by Agnes Carlsson - who also shares her surname with Robyn and Magnus from Alcazar, suggesting it is the Swedish equivalent of Smith) and he seems to be a very good singer. The only problem is, his debut single sounds like a cross between Daniel Powter and Ronan Keating, which really does not bode well for his future releases. Considering the runner-up in 2004 was Darin, this is quite a disappointment!

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The Danes have been getting a bit of a bad press lately, so here to win back any lost Dane-lovers is Natasha Thomas, one of their surprisingly few (considering they are so close to Sweden, although they are also near Belgium) good pop acts. This song was released in 2003, when Natasha was only 16, and was a big hit in Germany where I went on holiday that summer. I loved Why becase it sounds a bit like Ace of Base, so I wasn't surprised to learn that she had worked with some of the same producers as them. You may recognise Natasha as the girl from the Lacoste adverts, and soon you should see her on the music channels if you have them because her new single (the first to get a UK release) has just been added to a few of them. The new song is called Skin Deep and is a cover of a brilliant flop pop single from a few years ago, originally sung by a rather mysterious female singer called Anniq who was never heard of again. Natasha plans to release her album in the UK this month, but I don't think I'll be buying it since I've heard she has taken a cheap r'n'b direction! However, it does include songs called State of Mind and Curious so I'll be interested to find out if either or both of these are the Holly Valance tracks of the same names.

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A few years ago I was absolutely obsessed with the Dutch pop group K-otic and I still absolutely love them, yet I hadn't seen many of their videos until I found them on YouTube today. They were the Dutch version of Hear'say, but they were blessed with some utterly fantastic little pop songs. As you'll see from the video they weren't the prettiest pop band ever but I think they were cute and had character and so did their voices and therefore their music. They really are one of the most underrated pop acts of all time in my eyes. Sadly they only lasted 2 albums (like Hear'say they were mocked by the media) but they were 2 brilliant ones, and they spawned the acetastic popstar Sita who has had reasonable success in France and recorded songs written by Robyn and Alexis Strum! I Can't Explain and Damn (I Think I Love You) are both also well worth watching.

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I was alerted to this band by Arjan Writes earlier this month and the song has really grown on me. They're a bit cool, a bit rude, and a lot 80s! If The Modern are the Human League of 2006, these guys are the Frankie Goes To Hollywood. Luckily the rude bits are blurred out in the video so any sensitive young readers can't blame me for corrupting them!

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I had never seen this video before I found it this morning so I thought the story may be the same for some of you and it therefore needs posting! They look and sound far more sophisticated than the days of Cleopatra's Theme, and in fact it was on their second album Steppin' Out, which was never released in the UK but did come out in America. This song sounds more like something Christina Milian would do - in fact this bears a striking resemblance to her sound. U Got It is catchy r'n'b pop, it would have never changed the world but it could have possibly saved them in the UK, or at least done better than Come And Get Me, which was the only single they released from the album in the UK. Their appearance on Hit Me Baby One More Time last year proved how talented and excellently fun they were and still are - we need a group like them in 2006 who will stick around rather than appear on TV for one night only.

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Protocol are one of the bands I mentioned in my Big In 2006 post on Dirrrty Pop, and their video s just starting to get played on the music channels. The single took a few listens to grow on me, but now I absolutely love it and have decided they are my new favourite band. Well, for January at least. What first attracted me to them was their similarity to Swedish electro pop/rock group Melody Club, who released one of my favourite albums of the last 2 years, Face The Music. Not only does Where's The Pleasure sound exactly like Melody Club, but the bands look quite similar and the style of Protocol's video is just the kind of thing Melody Club, whose videos you can watch here, would do. So, my advice to you is if you like Melody Club, listen to Protocol and pretend Melody Club are getting another chance at UK success, and if you like this but haven't heard of Melody Club, go and check out their back-catalogue a.s.a.p, because there's little chance of the whole Protocol album being as magnificent as Face The Music so you might as well just pretend they made that! The other great thing about Protocol is their view of music - their biography claims they want to make pop music cool again (a slight discrepancy is the fact that pop music already is the coolest form of music, but the intentions seem to be good) and they say "there's no point in being obscure or indie-schmindie" - spot on!

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Will has clearly decided that the next audience he wants to charm are philosophy teachers, as this looks like all of the films my philosopher has shown our class combined. This is no bad thing though - I love philosophy (not that this video really has anything to do with it) and artsy foreign-language films are super-ace, especially when they involve Will Young, a boy who slightly resembles Nathan from One Tree Hill, scary chanting, melodramatic courtroom scenes and old men eating ice creams. The last part is especially essential. In other Will news, doesn't this picture look like the cover for his first single? But actually it's from his 2006 calendar, which I most definitely need to buy because the pictures are lovely.

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The vocals on this song don't kick in for quite a while, so I suspect that many people unknowing of the band's actual aceness might stop listening before the great bit arrives, and that would be foolish. The vocals sound very much like Junior Senior, which is a huge compliment considering the work of brilliance that is their latest album (only available in Japan and Scandinavia so far, but if you see it, buy it!). There is a bit of live footage within this video clip and although I wouldn't count the Go! Team as one of my absolute favourtie acts, it really makes me want to go to one of their gigs. They are great fun and cool to the extreme!