I just spent 45 minutes writing a post for CS, and scrapped it. It was too verging on a rant to not be considered for the Pit, but far too benign to actually go there. I wanted to ask questions in CS that could spark discussion, maybe make me see merit where I believe there to be none. But that’s the problem: it’s a topic I’ve already written off and can’t approach it objectively.
In short: 14 year old lolita pop singer Jojo sang the Star Spangled Banner to start the Orange Bowl. And it reminded me how much I could not stomach the simple fact that she is in the music business.
Dang it, started ranting (and deleting) again.
Anybody with more tact want to try saying what I wish I could? Who is her target audience? Is it her voice or other qualities that attract them? How is this pap the state of popular music today?
(should I feel like my life is a waste at 22 because I don’t have media saturation?)
It’s all marketing and artifice. I don’t know how a Top 40 is measured these days considering that everyone listens to ripped CDs on their iPod, and they don’t buy singles. My guess is the Top 40 is dictated by some governing body somewhere manned entirely by marketing and broadcasting executives.
On my 44K-average dialup, that site is slow as glaciers on Pluto with the sound off, and absurd with it on. So I have no comment on her talent or lack thereof. But it appears that she is the typical adolescent singer, marketed to younger people, and doing what she does to found a career. I don’t think she’s being marketed as a “lolita” particularly – obviously boys of a certain age will find her a particularly attractive performer, and she’d be a fool not to target that market. But from what little I saw of that website, she’s the latest in the distaff side of the Ricky Nelson/Leif Garrett/Cassidys/boyband music business gimmick. Only time will tell whether she has the talent to make a going career out of it, or not. (But remember that the first “teen idol” was Francis Albert Sinatra, who certainly outlived his teenybopper-pleasing image to become a central figure in vocal music for nearly 50 years.)
Wasn’t LeAnn Rimes (sp) like 14 when she got her start? That was what… ten years ago now? IIRC, she seemed pretty mature for her age though, you couldn’t even really tell she was all that young from her voice and style.
I looked at the pics on the site… this girl still has that kind of kiddie look to her face, I don’t know how to describe it… I’m a 24 year old chick and I found it kind of oogie. It seems horribly forced.
Yeah, and that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, too: just exploiting his kiddy-boy arse to sell piano sonatas to horses of screaming Viennese pre-teen girls. Of course, it’s just a fad, you know: just wait until that bad-boy Ludwig Van Beethoven comes along with his sneering good looks.
I had no idea the equines of late 18th century Vienna were so crazy-mad after music.
I’ve never heard of this Jojo character, but then I’ve been trying my best to ignore pop culture since “grunge” ousted hair metal. Who’s her target audience? Offhand, I’d say it’s dreamy teenage girls who want to be like her and who feel like her lyrics “speak” to them and express just what they’re feeling. You know, like Debbie Gibson in the eighties.
See, the “d” key is next to the "s’ key, and…oh, never mind. I love these Boards: you can go from some teen-pop sensation I’ve never heard of to pictures of a young Mozart in about four posts.
I watched Love, Actually on HBO last week. Towards the end they have a young girl sing, Olivia Olson, who was maybe 10-11 years old. Her voice was pretty incredible, particularly given her age, so I looked up some stuff about her on IMDB (she was also one of the “love interests” in the film; she was a cute young girl but not made up to look older than she was). According to the IMDB:
It’s too bad the music industry doesn’t promote people like her if they have to have stars that appeal to kids.
My friend and I were discussing mademoiselle Jojo the other day, and especially her first single “Leave (Get Out)”. Here is a 13-year-old girl singing “I gave up everything I had/for something that just wouldn’t last”. When you think about it, what does a 13-year-old have to give up? Afternoons at the mall? And who in their right mind thinks that a junior-high love interest will last for longer than three weeks? Who would actually find any relevance or content in this music?
Of course, once we started thinking about our own teen angst years, the answer became glaringly obvious: other 13-year-old girls, of course. The discussion quickly degenerated to semi-embarrassed reminiscing and several fits of uncontrollable laughter. If Jojo had been lalaing in 1996, she would have been playing on repeat at least on my cassette player (not that I’d have admitted it, of course).
My 15-year-old brother displayed quite an admirable point of view (for a 15-year-old man, as viewed by his older sister) when he expressed discomfort and a certain level of “ooginess” in the way that young singers like Jojo are marketed. “Yeah, some of my friends see pictures of her and they’re like ‘Look at her, she’s so hot’. And I’m like ‘Geez, guys, she’s what? 14? Give her a couple of years to grow up, ok?’” Way to go, bro. And to think that this is the same guy who, four years ago, was dreaming up inventive methods of torture using Christmas ornaments…
The discussion quickly degenerated to semi-embarrassed reminiscing and several fits of uncontrollable laughter. If Jojo had been lalaing in 1996, she would have been playing on repeat at least on my cassette player (not that I’d have admitted it, of course).