Inside Nokia Music

More research into the listening habits of Nokia Ovi Music Store users again, but this time of a more generic nature.

With availability in 36 countries, Ovi Music is in a unique position to observe global music trends. An interesting yet unsurprising result shows that pop powerhouse Lady Gaga’s first Fame Monster single Bad Romance is on course to becoming the most popular single of the year, with the track spending an average of 7 weeks at No.1 in 13 countries including Russia, Brazil and Italy.

With 2 songs making it into the Top 10 list for most downloads between the 1st January and the 15th May 2010, Lady G “has been widely recognized as a critical factor in the rise in digital music sales since 2009, and has helped push the recorded music market into growth for the first time in 6 years” according to music revenue figures from music industry body the British Phonographic Institute (BPI).

Global Top 10 Downloads In 2010 According to Ovi Music

1. Lady Gaga - Bad Romance
2. Ke$ha – TiK ToK
3. Rihanna – Rude Boy
4. The Black Eyed Peas – I Gotta Feeling
5. Iyaz – Replay
6. Owl City – Fireflies
7. The Black Eyed Peas - Meet Me Halfway
8. Lady Gaga – Telephone
9. Jay-Z – Empire State Of Mind (Jay-Z + Alicia Keys)
10. Rihanna – Russian Roulette

Just in case you missed that, Lady Gaga, Ke$ha, Rihanna, The Black Eyed Peas, Iyaz, Owl City, Jay-Z and Alicia Keys are all available to download from the Nokia Music Store/Ovi Music and if you have Comes With Music get them all free.

Rated R has just gone Platinum in 9 countries and is getting the remix treatment with 10 exclusive tracks entirely by in-demand-man Chew Fu Phat. Chu Fu has built himself a highly reputable portfolio having remixed tracks for the likes of Black Eyed Peas, Kings Of Leon and Lady Gaga to name but a few.

1. Mad House (Chew Fu Straight Jacket Fix)
2. Russian Roulette (Chew Fu Black Russian Fix)
3. ROCKSTAR 101 (Chew Fu Teachers Pet Fix)
4. Wait Your Turn (Chew Fu Can’t Wait No More Fix)
5. Photographs feat. will.i.am (Chew Fu 35mm Fix)
6. Rude Boy (Chew Fu Bumbaclot Fix)
7. Hard feat. Jeezy (Chew Fu Granite Fix)
8. G4L (Chew Fu Guns In The Air Fix)
9. Fire Bomb (Chew Fu Molotov Fix)
10. Stupid In Love (Chew Fu Small Room Fix)

Serving as Rated R’s third international single, Te Amo is circulating radio stations with the Paris shot video due to drop any day now.

And in the US Rude Boy is #6(3) on the Billboard Hot 100. After 5 consecutive weeks at #1 Rude Boy is now the second most played record on US radio.

Rated R///Remixed is released today

Rihanna’s albums, singles and remixes are available to download at Nokia Music Store including the Nokia exclusive edition of Rated R featuring 2 bonus tracks. If you’ve got Comes With Music download them all for free!

Just got my tickets to Lady Gaga’s Monster Ball tour show at the O2 Arena and I’m pretty psyched as it’s only my second pop gig after the Rihanna Rated R launch party. Not my usual flavour, but then that makes it all the more exciting doesn’t it!

As we all know by now, Lady G’s new single made it’s UK video debut last week and I felt the Jonas Åkerlund directed video deserved an honourable mention for Gaga’s retaliation to the long-standing claims that she’s an hermaphrodite. Why something like that is so controversial is beyond me… but anyway, check it out @1:00, but be warned… this is the explicit version!

You can download Lady Gaga’s and Beyoncé’s music from the Nokia Music Store or if you’ve got a  ‘Comes With Music’ account, download it all for free!

Ah ha! A fourth video has just been released! This one is 1min and 3 seconds long and features even more close ups of the mystery mud caked blonde. Big eyes, bigger falsies (lashes, boys, lashes) crooked teeth, and a wavy voluminous barnet. Then at the end we have a big picture of a BEE. What could this all mean? Well I’m fluffed if I know, but so many people are speculating now the guesses are just endless. A little look through the comments on the video and the latest list looks like this: Lady Gaga, Christina Aguilera, Trent Reznor, Fennesz, MGMT, Goldfrapp, Fever Ray, Britney Spears etcetera, etcetera…

Personally this has completely thrown me from thinking it’s Christina, although I am still living in hope that it is. To me it kinda looks a lot more like Lady G (sob) but I still don’t see why she would bother with such a campaign. Surely her fans wouldn’t really care for this type of promo?

Well, enough conjecture from me, I could go on and on about this all day. I’m just glad the video has something extra that all other videos in the history of video making lack regardless of what they are actually about. DOGS. Chuck a dog in and I’m happy. Cheers then!

Oh yeah, If you have no idea what I’m going on about have a look at my previous post about this which will give you all the background info.

Having just featured a little piece on X factor, I thought I share some, um… thoughts

So I’m not a fan of X factor in the grand scheme of things but I’ll admit I do indulge in the audition phase for the sole purpose of observing the psychological behaviour of the competition hopefuls, and for the opportunity to see the overly confident yet completely delusional have their dreams come crashing back down to Earth, a little sinister I know, but it makes for great television.

Beyond this, I do also enjoy trying to pick the winner in the early stages of the game based on the group or individuals presence and personality, and to be fair, of all the seasons gone by, these have been easy choices straight of the bat, as a bit of clever video editing and focus on individuals tends to subconsciously influence us all.

Now considering X Factor, of all the winners to date there’s an obvious recurring theme, Steve Brookstein, Shayne Ward, Leona Lewis, Leon Jackson, Alexandra Burke, Joe McElderry, of which only 1 has managed a successful career (the jury’s still out on the last 2). For the most part this could be attributed to the lack of nurturing beyond the show buck stop, but I believe there’s more to it than that…

What ever happened to good old fashioned stage names for solo performers?… nothing, anyone smart enough is still using them, Lady Gaga… Stefani Germanotta couldn’t break into the industry until she invented a suprficial character, one that I’m still convinced she’ll kill-off to reveal herself as the performer she’s always wanted to be. Or how about Rihanna… as talented as she is, I doubt she’d have had the success she’s enjoyed if she was performing as Robyn Fenty, there’s power and influence in a name, I know this, you know this, the industry knows this, and even Homer Simpson knew this when he changed his name to Max Power, so why, year after year do they churn out the same formulaic photo shoot (you know, the one in the tunnel with the extraction fan in the background) and with the name/surname format? It’s almost as if it’s only about the viewers recognising the X Factor brand… but then I guess maybe the contestants are to blame for not bringing any originality to the show, perhaps they need to start bringing a name rather than just playing desperate putty for the molding.

Steve Brookstein, Shayne Ward, Leona Lewis, Leon Jackson, Alexandra Burke, and Joe McElderry, Rihanna, and Lady Gaga are all available to download from the Nokia Music Store and are completely free to ‘Comes With Music’ subscribers.

Catching my attention this week has been one of those annoyingly clever viral campaigns. Three videos posted on YouTube over the last month, by a curious creature going by the name of ‘Iamamiwhoami’ have had a staggering 366, 797 views, so at least  I’m not the only one who has noticed.

For me, not normally one to be intrigued by stuff like this, there are a few reasons why this has caught my eye. First up, I genuinely do like what’s going on in these clips – the images: a mud caked skinny blonde licking trees, a haunting singing whale mouth, sexual sap, and a live birth; the sounds: minimalistic electronic bleeps, dirty bass lines, and futuristic obscured vocals; and the production:  professional, slick and  captivating. Secondly, the guessing game as to which artist it is has seemingly sparked global interest and lively debate.

There’s also a sneaky combination of coded titles (which are sending people into a decoding frenzy) and the strategic, staggered posting of the clips.  Very clever Mr Marketing Man, bravo!

The most guessed artist is Christina Aguilera, and I hope to God that this is correct. I really want Christina, the little pop princess of yesteryear to return with her new album and become a bona fide ‘credible’ artist. These clips seem to ooze style, substance and a darker, more mature sound than I ever would’ve thought Christina was capable of. It’s like when you see a monkey smoking a cigarette, it just shouldn’t happen and so when it does, you are then utterly compelled to watch. Aguilera simply shouldn’t be doing this. But there are many hints out there to suggest she is. She’s collaborated with Sia, Le Tigre, Goldfrapp and Ladytron for her new album and has said in a recent interview “My new [album] is just about the future – my son in my life, motivating me to want to play and have fun …Things that maybe I’ve been afraid to do in the past, to allow myself to go to a place of ‘less singing’. I’m more vulnerable and stronger at the same time.”

Other ‘could it be’ artists doing the rounds include Nine Inch Nails, also planning a 2010 new release, Lady Gaga ‘cos she’s just like weird and that ( ditto The Knife and Bjork), Goldfrapp due to all the owl imagery and the fact Alison Goldfrapp’s album is also due for release soon. Even those pesky little hippy dudes MGMT have been included in the guessing game.

You know what though, this could turn out to be one of the best ever ad campaigns for say, a treatment for fungal infections of the feet, or a weekend away at Centre Parcs, and if it does, then wont the whole of the blogosphere feel rather silly indeed?! Keep your eyes peeled for the next installment (I can’t wait!) and in the meantime, here they are in all their gooey glory:

Who do you think it is? Answers on a postcard please.

The Fame Monster Superdeluxe physical release certainly is a bizarre piece of collectable memorabilia as it’s set to include a lock of Lady Gaga’s hair. I once kept a lock of my own ill fated attempt at growing natural dreadlocks in a box and I must say it’s not the most appealing piece of keepsake… let’s just hope they’ve done the smart thing and had it laminated or you may find a few million less-than-famous monsters nesting inside.

It may seem unusual for someone like me to be excited about new Lady Gaga material seeing that I’m primarily into Indie/Rock music but it’s true. A performer like Lady Gaga is something in pop music that in my opinion has never existed and is in desperate need of… a sort of pop anti-Christ in disguise. I find that on the surface her lyrics appear shallow and superficial, but in being so they highlight these negativities by subversity. Lady Gaga is an artist of substance with a meaningful point to make and she’ll be having the last laugh at her detractors when it becomes apparently clear that she’s pulled the wool over their eyes.

This is all speculation based on my perceptions, but I get the impression that the Lady Gaga character is about to have a very public death only to be reborn as a new artist. The hints are all there, the Fame Kills tour that was so suspiciously pulled and the pending release of The Fame re-issue The Fame Monster which just too conveniently features 8 new theme relevant songs to extend the albums lifespan when it’s known that she’s been writing for the next album for some time now. This all hints at a carefully executed strategy for album number two and I’m predicting a surprise release immediately after the Lady Gaga character is found dead in a hotel bathtub under suspicious circumstances.

Perhaps I have an overactive imagination and I’m giving her more credit than is due, but what a brilliant idea I think.

The Bad Romance single features remixes of Poker Face and Paparazzi and like re-issue The Fame Monster is due for release on 23rd November.