The Next Big Thing?

IM5
This project has been threatening to happen for a few years and finally it’s here: My least favourite person on the internet (except for maybe paedophiles) Perez Hilton is launching a boyband, and Simon Fuller is apparently having some kind of midlife crisis as he’s agreed to also put his name to it. Individually some of the boys are cute (especially the little hat-wearer) and there are some good voices here, but the performance style is utterly ridiculous and the band members don’t match each other at all. It’s good to have different looks and personalities in a boyband, but they shouldn’t look like a bunch of random kids who just met and were told to sing a song together.
Poptasticness: TBC (no original songs yet) Hit potential: 42%

Chris Rene
Chris was one of my favourites on X Factor USA and his performances of original songs were some of the series’ highlights, so it’s good news that he is able to release them. However it does feel like the label are just trying to make some quick cash off songs they know people like, rather than actually investing in and developing Chris as an artist. His EPK seems to be a compilation of X Factor clips with visual effects straight out of 2002. Chris is a great performer and songwriter whose style is very commercial, so I think if he’d been signed outside of X Factor and had a good promo push he could have been very successful, but sadly because of X Factor’s negative reputation in the US now he doesn’t stand much chance.
Poptasticness: 72% Hit potential: 40%

Chord Overstreet
Ridiculously-named Chord plays the character of Sam in Glee and after he was cut from the show last year he decided to give a career as a pop star a go. Glee fans demanded he came back, so he was written back into the current series, but it seems like he still intends to release an album despite the fact that he doesn’t seem to even have a record deal. What he does seem to have is connections, as he’s been working with at least two of my favourite writers, Lucas Secon and Emanuel Kiriakou. The one track that has leaked, Beautiful Girl, is pretty middle of the road, but I have a great vision of him doing something like this or this. I’m not expecting wonders from Chord as a popstar, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he did come out with at least one jolly boy-pop classic.
Poptasticness: 66% Hit potential: 55%