Katy Perry E.T. & t.A.T.u.’s All the Things She Said Acoustic Guitar Mash-Up

I finally got around to making a YouTube video of my mash-up, please enjoy!

2011: The Year of the Female Pop Star

I’ve been wanting to say that for a few months now, but I wasn’t sure if I was too hasty in making that remark. The year isn’t over yet, and hip hop is all over the radio station, so much it’s nauseating how much I can switch back and forth from Eminem to whatever the hip hop artist of the month is.

Not to bash hip hop, I do like good hip hop and Tinie Tempah is definitely refreshing, also Diddy and Kanye West have made good hip hop albums, and Eminem did make some good hits, what’s playing on the radio… just feels like I am losing brain cells just listening to it.

But, what IS happening in music, and on the charts is the female pop star. Hip hop may be dominating radio, but the girls are dominating the charts, on iTunes, every time I look, I see Adele, Katy Perry, Britney Spears, Rihanna, Lady Gaga with their latest hit. Even Jennifer Lopez, Black Eyed Peas (ok, not, a solo pop star, but Fergie does get a lot of attention), Nicki Minaj, Selena Gomez, Ke$ha, Jessie J, Taylor Swift are making the charts and making a team of female singers not to be messed with.

This year, the number one artist seems to rotate between Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry and Britney Spears and Adele. The Fab Five in 2011. Their singles get leaked, or audio only samples are shown on Vevo before the official music video is released and their latest dance pop hit can’t help but make number one or a lot of noise on the internet.

What’s so intriguing about these artists? They all have an edge, their music is catchy, danceable and they all have some kind of scandal in one way or another. Maybe not so negative a scandal, as Katy Perry, with a wedding to Russell Brand, but definitely interesting and gossip-worthy, and Adele is too new to the scene to have any scandal. She’s also the credible singer, and not a dance pop star, but her music is making waves.

New starlets are crawling into the cracks, it seems like daily. Kerli, Adele, Oh Land, Clare Maguire, Ellie Goulding, Skylar Grey, Naomi Scott are these new up and comers that are making a splash in their own way.

I decided to do a little experiment. For today’s iTunes 200, I counted up the hits of all the female pop artists (excluding Country, so Taylor Swift and Carrie Underwood aren’t in this recording, but should be noted as they each have a position on the iTunes 200 as of today), and I wanted to calculate who was on top as of this moment.

Female pop solo artists make up 20% of the iTunes 200 as of today.

Adele and Katy Perry both have 6 songs on the charts, making them the leaders as of this moment. Adele, Katy Perry and Britney Spears round up the top 3 positions. Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Adele, Katy Perry and Britney Spears all together have 21 songs in the Top 200.

It’s interesting to see the numbers, I thought I would see more of a percentage, but when you think about it, just for female pop stars alone, it’s a big percentage. There is also a lot of country and hip hop and Glee songs (Glee has 7 songs on the chart).

Which Pop Star will reign supreme? Wait until the end of the year to see how it all goes down. For now, I’m enjoying this pop explosion, and looking forward to following up all the newbies on the music scene.

Remixes of the Top 3 Songs right now.

Katy Perry’s “E.T.”

Britney Spears’ “Till the World Ends”

Adele “Rolling in the Deep”

Katy Perry’s “E.T.” New Music Video

I’ve already commented on how Katy Perry’s latest single, “E.T.” sounds like t.A.T.u.’s “All the Things She Said”. You can check out that blog here.

Now, moving on, I wanted to comment on this beautiful music video. The video starts in a junkyard and a faint old-fashioned song is heard in an echo. Can’t help but think of Disney’s Wall-E, where a robot is alone in a junkyard, looking for love. Katy Perry plays different aliens, floating in the air, and also on Earth. The make-up and colors are amazing. Music videos are blowing up lately. Lady Gaga, Britney Spears and Katy Perry have all recently released music videos with amazing colors, visuals, out-of-this-world effects and strong club anthems.

I’m loving it, I love pop, I love music videos, and the “music video” is back in style now. Now there is a ton of money poured into these music videos. I hope this lasts, because this is the ultimate art-form; to pair music to moving images.

I really don’t like Kanye West rapping graphically about sex in the music video. The lyrics that Perry sings isn’t so graphic, and West just seems like he doesn’t know what to say. And I’m sorry, but that sunglasses plug is just as subtle as the sun itself. @_@

Anyways, love the music video, I like the song, but as I mentioned in my other blog, I wish it didn’t sound so much like t.A.T.u. But I do see a trend in music videos and I really hope it lasts and continues to push boundaries in the arts.