Video Killed The Radio Star

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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!