The return of fun.

That boyband love songs post will come, I just have to get my head around making it. While waiting, lemme just write some thoughts down.

I know I'm not the first to notice but I thought I'd say it anyway, pop is certainly coming back this year. It took me a few more listens to convince myself that it's real but I'm delighted by the return of fun, perky and upbeat pop songs amidst all those I-Hate-Your-Guts rock or heavy R&B stuff that had been coming out. Even with the deteriorating record sales and piracy all over the place, the return of pop will make me want to go out and buy albums even more now.

It feels like 2005 again (of course I don't really know what 2005 felt like music-wise but by the albums and the songs from 2005 that I've heard, it was a pretty good year for pop.) or even 2006.

Pop may never be like what it was five, six years ago but I can confidently say that it's getting somewhere thanks to the acts who stuck by the label during the 'down period' so to say and yes, even Disney. I wouldn't say 2008 was a bad year for pop, but I do think that there was very little of it reaching mainstream audiences but this year is different, I just know it.

Kelly Clarkson's now number one single is perky, fun American pop. Of course it's not the BSB/90's pop but it's something that when you hear it, you know it's American. It's a characteristic American song and even though I think that nothing will come close to Since You've Been Gone, this is pretty close. It's SYBG but not.

Corbin Bleu's Moments That Matter made me smile when I first heard it, and I think that's something important in a pop song, it has to somehow make the listeners happy, not just because the song is brilliant but because it's happy and it's perky and it's worth smiling for, worth supporting.

The Saturdays' Comic Relief single is fun, it's a song I want to play over and over again but I don't get sick of. Nearly 60 plays already and I'm still listening to it, it's infectious, it sticks to my head and it's brilliant. As much as I love the GA+ Sugababes Comic Relief thing, it just wasn't fun for me. I loved the Boyzone song and obviously the Westlife one because they were fun, they were uptempos with actual melodies and they sold a heck of a lot for charity.

In comes Tania Christopher, who has brilliantly made 2009's Forever. Like all the other songs I've mentioned, it's fun but what sets it apart is its obvious mainstream sound. R&B is obviously a big thing in the US and although I absolutely adore the genre, it can get repetitive. You have all these generic Usher/Beyonce wannabes coming and going with all these mediocre songs. Once in a while though, someone with all the right things shows up with the right song and blows us away. I think Tania is just that.

The song that inspired this post is the new offering from Mandy Moore's upcoming album. With the demise of perky pop, her 2007 album sounded like a bland Lily Allen without the tongue-in-cheek lyrics. Don't get me wrong, the songs were gorgeous but I feel like she went from this late 90's/early 2000's pop princess to a bland "folk" singer. I Could Break Your Heart Any Day Of The Week is close to what I thought she'd be doing in 2007, and I sure as hell am glad that she's doing it now. I do hope she gets the chart success she deserves, the song is brilliant.

I believe that pop songs are songs that make you want to turn the volume up and be happy, carefree and not think for those three minutes(or more..) and these songs just prove my point.

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