Future Pop is a weekly email featuring the hottest new pop songs and artists that you need to know about. Sign up here then read on, listen up and make sure you tweet me @poptastic to let me know what you think of my picks!
This Must Be Pop Live!
Thanks to everyone who came along to This Must Be Pop Live on Tuesday! It was a great turnout and the performers, Oh My!, Luminites and Katie Sky, put on a very poptastic show. Read all about it here and check out some photos from the night.
Future Stars
If Katy B is to dubstep what Ms Dynamite was to UK garage, who will be the Craig David? I think Youngman (aka Simon Smith), a singer/rapper from Derby, is a big contender. Who Knows? is his first single to be released through Polydor and Shy FX’s label Digital Soundboy, and it’s already on the Radio 1 B List. It’s a bit repetitive but if he can follow it with a really strong, mainstream track then he could become a big star. He’s a likeable, charismatic guy, a good live singer and he’s got some of the biggest names in that area of music on his new album (Benga, Skream, Breakage and even UK garage producer MJ Cole) so if the dubstep trend does continue in 2012, Youngman could be one of the artists keeping it in the charts.
If there are enough people who buy music simply on the basis of its loveliness, then Simian Ghost (originally just Sebastian Arnström, now a trio with two of his friends) should do quite well. Songs like Bicycle Theme and Wolf Girl are captivatingly sweet and uplifting, with the latter being my definite favourite and the current single. Plus they’re Swedish, which always helps. Sebastian released an album, Infinite Traffic Everywhere, in 2010 and when Simian Ghost became a group, an EP called Lovelorn followed. The second album Youth is due on March 5th and there are UK gigs at Ja Ja Ja and White Heat coming soon. See you there!
This teenage girlgroup are already hip hop royalty, as one of them is T.I.’s daughter, and Lil Wayne’s daughter was one of the original members. The other girls must really be hoping Willow Smith never wants to join a girlband! They released a track called Pretty Girl Bag in 2010 which racked up over 2 million YouTube views, but didn’t enter the Billboard charts. Their new song Gucci This Gucci That (is there a Gucci kids department?) is playlisted on Radio Disney and the video is expected to go online very soon. It’s cute, catchy and super-sassy, not as forward-thinking as Whip My Hair but the concept of the group is so fun I really hope they break through. With some help from their big name connections I’m sure they can.
Future Hits
This week’s playlist features the songs I think will be the big dance hits of this spring:
Click here to watch
Tracklisting:
- Madonna – Give Me All Your Love
- Bob Sinclar ft. Pitbull – Rock the Boat
- Flo Rida ft. Sia – Wild Ones
- Martin Solveig & Dragonette – Big In Japan
- Redlight – Get Out My Head
Thanks for reading – I’ll be back next Monday with more Future Pop! In the meantime don’t forget to email and tweet me with your thoughts on the songs and artists above, and any suggestions for next week. Plus it would be great if you could spread the word about Future Pop to anyone you think might enjoy it and encourage them to subscribe for more.