Miley Cyrus is the daughter of Billy Rae Cyrus, her real name is Destiny Cyrus, but she was always smiling as a child and her parents nicknamed her smiley, so therefore she chose Miley Cyrus as her star name. This song charted at number 11 (one of three of Miley Cyrus' songs to get to that chart position, which is her highest charting position to date, the other two singles are "See You Again" and "The Climb"). Apparently, Miley Cyrus is ready to work on her next album, which is surprising since after her most recent album she released reports that she wanted to focus on her film career rather than music. But maybe she's come across inspiration to guide her back to music.
The song was written by Dr. Luke, Claude Kelly and Jessica Cornish (now known as Jessie J). These three are really well known, Dr. Luke has been mentioned on my blog more times than I can remember. Claude Kelly is a new person to my blog, but he has written songs for a number of X factor finalists and other well known British performers. Jessica Cornish (or should I say Jessie J) is a UK artist, who is getting high chart positions here in the UK and elsewhere. The song is about having a party and just having fun, dancing to the tune the DJ is playing and just enjoying it any way you can.
The music video is WOW. I love it and it reminds me of what I think America is like, I can just imagine it being this way, and it's understandable why this song was such a hit, because the song was aimed at teenagers. The video relates perfectly with the song and the editing was done really good.
I like her cowboy boots, and how the song references stilettos and how she must have missed the memo. It perceives her as a misfit, and that she is still enjoying the party the way she wants to. I like the USA flag behind her, it reminds me of "Moves Like Jagger" by Maroon 5 and Christina Aguilera. I also like how the song mentions Britney and Jay-Z. And suggests Miley Cyrus likes to party. Which is understandable for an 19 year old girl.
I really like the reference to Grease. Miley wanted to pay tribute to one of her favourite films and also her parents courting days. The grease reverence is the bit where John Travolta sings "Sandy", he walks over to a jungle gym, where he sits on a swing while projections goes on behind him. This is similar to what happens in Miley's video, except she's standing on the swing. For her parents courting days, they included a Drive-In Theatre, which they called Corral Drive-In, as that is similar to the Kentucky Drive-In, Miley's parents had their first date.
Overall, this is a great music video, to go with a great song. The video is simple but inspirational at the same time, and it could have been on of the reasons for why the song charted so high. I'm going to drop a star because there isn't much going on, it could have been bigger and better, but it works perfectly and I don't think it ought to be changed.
Freefaller is a band that received big success here in the UK, but they weren't around for long and subsequently split. The band consisted of David "Ollie" Oliver (who was in the band Point Blank, and also acted in Byker Grove), Dean Roberts, Gary Mahon and Rich Joy. They were definitely one of the first bands that introduced me to this pop/rock music and the music video is pretty good. No rumours have surfaced that they will be reforming, and I doubt they ever would, but we can always hope can't we? Personally I think this sort of music is doing pretty well in the charts at the moment, and I think if they were to return, they'll do well.
The music video fits in with this song amazingly. The song is about someone telling them what to do, personally I think it's a parent telling them how they should live their life, however it could easily be an older brother, or even a friend. It's all about living your life the way you want to. And this is exactly what Freefaller does in this video.
This music video is all about FUN! It's all the video is based on taking part in a house party. We start off in a park where Ollie is playing basketball (but he's way too interested in the camera, which sort of annoys me), and he's walking home. We are only given an instrumental at the start before the lyrics kick in. There's a stage they perform on and a food fight just starts, and they get covered in lots of food. I love the policeman, I like how it's the old style cop rather than what the cops look like nowadays, which suggests that maybe this video went to different countries and tried to perceive what others may think of the UK.
There is not a lot going on, I bet the clean up after the house party was a nightmare. And there really isn't a lot to comment on. Ollie's voice is amazing and is definitely suited to these sort of songs. So I do hope they return sometime.
Overall, I love the song, it's kind of teenager rebellion sort of thing which probably is the reason why the song charted at number 8 in the UK. The music video fits in nicely and reminds me of a lot of other rock band's music videos. Let's just hope they reform sometime.
I know you all have been waiting for me to review this music video, purely because of the amount of YouTube hits it has received. It currently has just over 169 million hits, and is currently the most watched video on YouTube.
I have been a fan of Avril since she first hit the music industry, but you already knew that from my previous Avril Lavigne posts. She recently returned to music but didn't do as well as she predicted. However she felt she needed to release "Goodbye Lullaby" because it was very emotional and personal for her. She is currently working on her fifth studio album which will see her return to her pop sound, apparently.
The song was written by Avril Lavigne and Dr. Luke, proving that such a collaboration definitely gives her the credibility she so deserves. The song made very high chart positions in a number of countries and she managed to get number one in more than 10 different countries. Unfortunately it missed out on the UK chart and only got to number two. At the time a charity single was at number one and never moved from the top spot. Preventing Avril from getting her first ever number one. At this current moment, she has still never reached that important top spot. The song is incredibly catchy and it's probably one of her signature songs, especially with that amount of YouTube hits.
The music video is really good, and it's really clever what they have done, and I reckon Avril enjoyed filming it. In this video she plays two different girls, one who has a boyfriend, but seems really needy, and the other girl is a rocker chick who will go out and get whatever she wants. In this she wants the other girl's boyfriend.
My favourite bit is the choreography that Avril pulls off, she does it so easily, and although they are purely simple dance scenes, there's something about them that makes them stand out. There are also a lot of fun bits in the music video, such as the miniature golf scene which was hilarious, and I love the scene near the end, I would be really interested in how they went about filming certain parts.
The boyfriend, for people who want to know, is played by Bryan McMullin. Also Evan Taubenfeld once again appears along with Avril's brother Max Lavigne. I'm interested if Avril will ever make another music video as good as this one, purely because of the amount of YouTube hits, will she manage that? Or will this music video always be the one to try and beat?
Overall, I love the song and it's music video fits in perfectly. I like the video, and I think everyone does, it fits in with the song and has the perfect storyline, that makes sense. You can't help but laugh at some of the scenes in the music video, and I wonder if Avril will ever make a video as good as this?
This is the X Factor Finalists' charity released song, every single year the contestants create a single with all proceeds going to a certain charity, over the past few years it's always been the "Help for Heroes Charity", however this year they've changed the charity. Now all proceeds are going to "Together for Short Lives" charity.
Differently, this year the finalists have collaborated with One Direction and JLS, making this one of the most ultimate line-ups ever, and begs to question why Simon Cowell decided to make it a collaboration... Rumours suggest that he doesn't think this years finalists are good enough, however in my opinion I think he wanted to make sure the charity got the most amount of money possible, and in this case managing to get One Direction and JLS fans to also buy the single.
The X Factor Finalists include: Jonjo Kerr, James Michael, 2 Shoes, Nu Vibe, Sami Brookes, Sophie Habibis, The Risk, Johnny Robinson, Frankie Cocozza (doesn't appear in the video, or radio edits, but does appear in the single as he recorded his part before being ejected from the show), Kitty Brucknell, Craig Colton, Janet Devlin, Misha B, Amelia Lily, Marcus Collins and Little Mix. One Direction and JLS also feature on this single. But will it reach number one? With all those high charting positions and those incredibly talented artists right at the top at the moment, will they have a chance at getting to the top spot? We'll just have to wait and see.
The song is "Wishing on a Star", first released by Rose Royce, and it became quite a hit in the UK managing to get to number 3. It has been covered by a number of artists including: The Cover Girls, Jay-Z featuring Gwen Dickey (the most well-known version), Beyoncé and Seal. The X Factor Stars perform it amazingly, but I do feel sorry for the ones who were evicted early and who didn't have their own solo part, and I think it's a little unfair how some of the finalists who were evicted early got a solo part, whereas others who went further in the competition didn't.
The music video is definitely pretty good, it's nice to watch and I like how it's been edited, although sometimes I dislike it because of the editing. It's definitely one of those music videos you'll watch if there's nothing better on, and one of those videos you'll probably only ever watch once, I definitely wouldn't go out of my way to watch it again, and although it isn't rubbish, it's not amazing either. It's just your typical average multi-collaboration music video.
I like the idea of the video footage of "Together for Short Lives" in black and white, it makes it more emotional and you can feel what they want to get across. However black and white videos annoy me, purely because we have colour now and they can film in colour, so why not make it as emotional in colour. Personally I think they use this effect because they don't think they'll get the message across as clearly enough. So they try to make it sad and upsetting using the black and white editing tool.
The finalists in the music video are displayed really good, and you know that they mean every word they are singing, I like the fact that they went to visit some of the children, which makes it more personal to them. However the editing got on my nerves. During some points a new finalist would start singing, and the video wouldn't cut back to the finalist who was singing, and so at some points you haven't got a clue who actually sung a certain part.
Overall it's an average music video, and a really emotional song, but it's not much of a collaboration as each of the finalists do not have a solo part, which isn't their fault as they all deserve to be on the single. The music video is okay but I wouldn't watch it any more than I have to. I'm sorry to give this rating, but this definitely could have been a lot more.
So it's Sunday, and I was struggling to think of an artist to do my revisit on. But then I realised that I have reviewed Katy Perry's most recent single, so why don't I review her first ever single to even it out.
Katy Perry released this song in 2008 and was written by Katy Perry, Dr. Luke, Max Martin and Cathy Dennis. Once again Max Martin and Dr. Luke have popped up, and it's no wonder such songs are made because they are most definitely an unstoppable force. Cathy Dennis is a British songwriter and has written a lot of known songs released by pop stars such as Kylie Minogue, Britney Spears and The Spice Girls. Apparently the song is about having a really close friendship when you are young. This song is very controversial, but luckily the music video is pretty fine, it could have been a hell of a lot worse.
To be totally honest, I'm not entirely sure what to think about this music video, it is okay and links in with the song to an extent, but I've previously stated in past reviews that if the narrative is similar to the song then it's usually a really good thing, but in this case, if the storyline fitted in with the song, then it would have caused a lot more controversy and it really wouldn't be a good idea, so I'm pretty much torn.
There really isn't a lot to say about this music video, I don't understand what a cat has to do with anything, and even though it is quite cute it sort of looks out of place. For people who, as of yet, are unaware, this music video features a then-unknown Ke$ha, but it wasn't long until Ke$ha made a name for herself, could being in this music video help her career?
Katy Perry and the other women are dressed like they are burlesque dancers, and they are dancing to the song (if that's what you want to call it). I like the mirror where they draw "I 'heart' Katy", and I think it's Ke$ha who draws it with her "cherry chapstick", but I'm not totally sure. I think if they were aware of 'heart hands' they definitely would have used them, but I'm glad they haven't as it's kind of dying off at the moment, in my opinion. I also love the ending, which is really clever, and I think a lot of people like the ending too.
Overall I like the song because of the very catchy music, although the lyrics are a little over-the-top, but what do really expect from Katy Perry? The music video links in very well, without it being too narrative to prevent controversy. The reason I've dropped a star is that there really isn't a lot going on, I'm not suggesting she should have "kissed a girl and liked it", but I am saying that there could have been more scenes that took place. But for a first single music video, this is definitely one of the good ones!
