Y&RWorldTurner

Even in the last episode, it felt like they only included her to appease longtime fans of the character, not because she's one of she show's biggest characters. She felt like such a dayplayer/afterthought.

I knew Fulton could be "difficult," but she did maintain a consistent presence on the show until Goutman, I just don't think he cared for her/Lisa.

People, it's Dennis RICKMAN, not Watts.

You may go back to your regularly scheduled programming now. :-)

I hate her (both actress and character). A lot of my least favorite storylines during periods where I loved the show involved her.

While her relationship with Carol is relatively unexplored, I think Sonia was burnt out by the time she left and there's nothing left to explore with her at this point.

I guess the upside is that we have someone with the Fowler last name on the show again...

Come on YRBB, her album covers have never been great. But this is probably a marginals step up from the atrocity that was the Born This Way album cover.

My fav parody so far is the one where someone superimposed Miley Cyrus on the blue ball, like in her Wrecking Ball video. It was probably done to throw shade at Gaga and her fanatical fanbase - since Miley and Katy Perry have been kicking her ass on the pop charts (both US and worldwide) lately.

David's return is pretty decent so far, he's seemed to fit back in almost seamlessly. I did like that little scene with Sharon and Carol in yesterday's episode, it was the most in-character I've seen Sharon from the stuff I've seen of her return too.

I don't know if they're going to attempt David/Carol again. I don't know if I could ever see those two long-term given their history, and they're not really in the Pat/Frank vein.

This could either be a good thing, or it could be another Eddie Royale situation. If this couple has no chemistry with each other, or with the wider community, the whole thing would be a gigantic flop. Other the other hand, if it works, it could be the kick on the arse the show needs.

I don't mind Shirley, but she's always squarely a supporting character, I really don't see the point in tying her to the new owners. They seem to be casting loads of family around her, I don't think she works as a front and center type character, but will have to see to judge.

I've not found the show to be amusing in like 15-20 years. It's painful for me to sit through an episode these days. Like, really painful.

Newman's era just seemed deathly boring with a series of really terrible new characters. I don't know what it will be remembered for in the long-run, or if it will be a completely forgotten era of the show.

It's a shame she never worked out given her long history with the show. I didn't want her stuff consistently, I think she made an effort, she just didn't know how to properly execute some of her ideas. I did notice that Kat was more like her 2000-2005 self in the episodes I recently watched (and Jessie is back to her 2005 hairdo), and there seemed to be more of an effort made for diversity (even if not well realized).

I think the exit was planned and written before DTC was hired. The fact that the character lasted this long is purely down to Gillian Wright, IMO.

Jean was never supposed to be a permanent character, but each regime seemed to take to her (even if they considered writing her out at one point or another).

I didn't know Jean was leaving.

I was surprised and happy to see they actually bothered to give her a happy exit, complete with a Julia's Theme ending!

She was easily one of those supporting characters they could have given a rushed exit too (or not bother to give her one at all), so it's nice they gave the character a fitting exit. 

 

I already expressed all the ways this is different (Also will.i.am didn't produce this. Otto Knows did) this doesn't sound like The Black Eyed Pea's music. As I said this utilizes a lot of dance style production called glitch, electronic house music and rave music, which is not something any one else in pop music is doing right now. This is very different for the US and none of the recent pop artists have experimented with this particular dance style.

I see very little difference in this than say what Lady Gaga has been passing out for some of her music in the past 5 years.

EDM is very popular right now, especially as many of those EDM DJ's are becoming more and more mainstream. This single isn't starting any trend, it's riding the waves of one.

Rihanna's commercial viability has hit a snag and it's been that way since Talk That Talk (2011). Gaga's career has been on borrowed time since 2010.

Rihanna is not an albums artist, TTT gave her the biggest hit of her career and another single was a top 5 hit. Her career has been inconsistent if anything else, but in less than a decade, she's still managed to equal Madonna for #1 singles, and has already racked up more #1's and top 10 hits than anyone this millennium.

The only reason people really compare Britney to the newer pop females is because none of her musical contemporaries are still around or relevant to compare her to, so she gets added in to the newer "it girls."

She's not comparable to them, but it's fair to say that her career is pretty much passed its peak and people have moved on to a whole new slew of female pop acts, many of whom are making the same type of music that appeals to the same market as Britney's.

I think Britney is one of the few pop artists who is generally ahead of the trend musically speaking. This single for instance features a lot of electro-house, glitch and rave elements that a lot of pop artists haven't touched yet, even though dance has been building on popular airwaves since 2006.

I do not understand this, there is nothing innovative about this single and nothing Will.i.am hasn't been dishing out for years, both solo and with BEP.

God bless Britney, but she's never been in complete creative control of her career. She only got saddled in with Will.i.am because Scream & Shout became one of her biggest global hits in years (it was the first time she had part of a #1 single in the UK since 2004, for instance, though it wasn't really HER song).

Well Britney isn't really of this time period in general anymore, so of course she is going to stick out compared to women whose careers started in 2007/2008. She's been in the industry for 15 going on 16 years now. She's not in the same place as them. It would be like comparing Janet in 2002 and Madonna in 1999 to Britney, Christina, BSB and Nsync when they first started out. Britney is in a completely different career phase than Rihanna, Katy Perry and Gaga are. For what it's worth Gaga isn't that big of a deal anymore either. Her career has been sliding since 2010. Same with Rihanna since 2011.

As I said, she's an aging pop star at this point in her career (though she's only in her early 30's). She's still young enough to get radio airplay, but her impact culturally is just no longer there, and likely won't have much of a sustainable impact with the rest of the singles off this album. It's kind of an awkward era that most female pop stars go through (see Madonna in the mid 90's before her comeback with Ray of Light, or Janet since her Super Bowl music career ending incident). She's not really a legend yet, but no doubt, her past success was huge and left some sort of impact behind.

Rihanna has never been an albums artist, but she can still score #1 hits more than anyone else, only Katy Perry has come close to her singles success in recent years. Yes, she's had some flops, but the only reason she releases albums every year is because no one would be interested in her if she didn't. I do think Lady Gaga's career has been a mess since The Fame Monster though.

Even though he's EP, apparently, this is the only song he has actual producing/writing credit on.

I actually appreciate Blackout more as time goes by. It really is the soundtrack to her breakdown - sex crazed, flippant, and unapologetic, yet she's literally a ghost in the machine on it.

I felt like the writers and producers on that album were intentionally giving her material that they wouldn't give to her if she was in her right mind. They knew she out of her mind at that point and they didn't have to produce a typical Britney Spears record, and they could get away with it. If her life wasn't in personal turmoil at the point, the public probably would've embraced it much more than they did. Britney has never had a very good album from start to finish, IMO, but I think Blackout probably stands as her most cohesive album in a strange way.

Hold It Against Me sounds like an Ace of Base reject from 1995.

At least this one sounds like a reject from 2002.

I mean, it's better than the putrid sh!t that was Hold It Against Me, but it really lacks a hook and isn't really all that catchy.

I think it will do well for her as a first single though. At this point, Britney is pretty irrelevant to general pop culture anyway. The likes of Katy Perry, Rihanna, Lady Gaga, and even Miley Cyrus pretty much have the pop world on lock, while Britney is seen as more of an aging star at this point in her career.

She'll never recreate the relevance or success she had from 99-04, but she's a familiar face that can still sell a lead single at least.

ETA: That single cover is atrocious, I don't think even Cher would be caught in something like that.

David Wicks returns on the 27th:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/eastenders/posts/Photo-Spoiler-Cashback

Samantha Womack did this interview on her return:

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/soaps/s2/eastenders/scoop/a511616/eastenders-samantha-womack-on-ronnie-return-and-new-storylines.html

I guess it was only a matter of time as Collinson is gone:

She had potential at one point, but I think she's far too lost in her own hype at this point in her career.

The idea of what she wants to be has impacted her music, and I don't think in a particularly positive way.

This review from SPIN actually sums up what I've been thinking.

I actually think there was a playfulness about her debut, but then it was just overdone pretension which has guided her career ever since, which this single still carries the torch on, IMO.

The production is just so ..... 2002. It doesn't sound like a lead single, it sounds like something you'd keep as album filler material.

The first single leaked, and as expected, it's quite sh!t.

For an artist that tries hard to sell herself as an experimenting pop artist, it sounds like a reject from her last album and something that's been done before and done better by others.

She's truly made a career out of hyping lackluster material and creating rabid fans who think this is somehow groundbreaking work. I'm happy more people seem to be catching onto her shtick.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/music/2013/08/12/lady-gaga-single-applause-officially-released/2643393/

Even as just an instrumental, Live To Tell works so great for me.

The top 3 picks are often the albums that get the most recognition from her diehard fans, so I'm not surprised by that.

And I personally do agree, the Like A Prayer album was her best work. I think that whole Like a Prayer/Blonde Ambition era solidified her as a pop cultural icon and solidified her as the premiere female pop artist of her era.

Capaldi is a terrific actor, though I've only ever seen him in dark comedies.

He's certainly very different from Smith and Tennant, which is a good thing, IMO.