Making noise

Britney Spears was one of the most talked-about pop stars of the year, for all the wrong reasons, including a disastrous performance at the MTV Video Music Awards in Las Vegas on Sept. 9. (Kevin Winter/Getty)

Few people are naive enough to believe pop stardom has anything to do with the music anymore. In terms of outlandish stunts and stupidly successful gimmicks, pop stars really stepped it up in 2007.

Britney Spears dropped a hugely anticipated album this year. Don’t remember? You’re not alone. It was easy to miss the part where the erstwhile teen queen releases actual product — so captivated were we by the ongoing soap opera of her custody battles, struggles with addiction and habit of flashing her naughty bits. The ’07 version of Britney Spears was a sobering lesson in the aftermath of child stardom. We watched the addled diva ambush a California hair salon to self-administer a cueball coif in February and followed her be-wigged journey through rehab while her skeevy ex, Kevin Federline, won custody of their two kids.

In addition to Clippergate, Brit rolled through Umbrellagate (in which she attacked a photographer, Mary Poppins-style) and Hit-and-Rungate (in which she ran over feet belonging to two paparazzi and a cop, in three separate incidents). Saddest of all was her performance at the MTV Music Video Awards in September. That comeback bid, a physical and psychological meltdown in front of millions of viewers, felt like watching a dancing bear who’d forgotten her choreography. In spite of all this, Britney’s new album, Blackout, received remarkably favourable reviews.

Also vying for the title of Most Public Pop Star Collapse, Brit soul singer Amy Winehouse became a sensation as much for her debacles as for her ’60s-inspired girl-group sound. Perhaps it’s no shock that a woman whose breakout hit was a scorcher about rejecting rehab made headlines with public brawls, arrests for drug possession and wandering the streets half-naked. Winehouse’s relationship with bad-boy husband Blake Fielder-Civil seemed to exacerbate her troubles.

Following their wedding in May, Winehouse’s performances became more misses than hits; she cancelled shows throughout the year and called off the remainder of her tour in November. While some cynics claim Winehouse’s behaviour is merely an effort to shore up her R&B rebel persona, it’s hard not to wince while watching a tremendous talent struggle with such deep-seated issues.

Police bandmember Sting. (Chuck Stoody/Canadian Press)

Pop music wasn’t all about white powder and DUIs. A parade of dinosaur acts previously thought extinct mounted surprisingly successful reunion tours. The tone for the year was established back in January, when Sting and his Police announced they’d do a one-off performance at the Grammy Awards. They proceeded to commemorate the 30th anniversary of their mega-hit Roxanne with the highest-grossing tour of 2007. Sting and his mates also set up millions of Led Zeppelin fans for staggering disappointment. When legendary rockers Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones reunited for a tribute show on Nov. 26, Zep heads waited with bated breath for the icons to follow up with the announcement of an international tour. No such luck.

Another unprecedented comeback? The Boss. OK, Bruce Springsteen never really went away, but 2007’s most surprising trend was the wholly unironic Springsteen love in pop music. Along with the release of Magic, his best-reviewed disc in years, New Jersey’s favourite son was anointed a god by Win Butler, frontman for Montreal’s Arcade Fire. The Arcade Fire’s hugely anticipated sophomore album, Neon Bible, was rife with rambling workingman narratives in the vein of Born To Run or Thunder Road. After sharing the cover of Spin magazine with Springsteen, Butler and wife/bandmate Regine Chassagne joined the Boss onstage during a show in Ottawa. Even for non-Springsteen fans, the performance was magical.

The word “magical” could also apply to the return of French house duo Daft Punk (Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem Cristo), whose first tour in a decade helped re-establish their role as one of electronic music’s most influential acts. The addition of a monolithic illuminated pyramid to their live act helped convert blissed-out dancefloor throngs to the Daft mission. Bangalter and de Homem Cristo also illuminated the existential crises of robots with a ponderous, retro-futuristic art film (Electroma), released a fantastic live album (Alive 2007) and provided the catchy sample (from Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger) for Kanye West’s Stronger, one of the year’s best singles.

Rapper Kanye West. (Nathan Denette/Canadian Press)

Kanye, on the other hand, concocted one of the year’s most ingenious sales schemes when he rescheduled the drop date of his Graduation album to coincide with the Sept. 11 release of 50 Cent’s Curtis. 50 vowed to retire from the rap game if West beat him in sales. The head-to-head competition drove first-week purchases through the roof — no small feat in a tanking industry. For the record, Graduation outsold Curtis (951,000 copies to 691,000), but West’s opponent has yet to retire. In fact, 50 revised his original statement less than a week before Curtis dropped, claiming he’d release a “new 50 Cent album every time [Def Jam puts out] a major release.” The backpedaling seemed to confirm that the hip-hop face-off was a well-orchestrated marketing ploy.

One of 2007’s most unexpected successes was Montreal indie label Secret City. The start-up was a relatively unknown offshoot of established Quebec jazz label Justin Time before Secret City’s two inaugural acts — orchestral popsters Miracle Fortress and cinematic rock ensemble Patrick Watson — were nominated for Canada’s Polaris Music Prize. Secret City gained valuable cachet after Watson snagged the award.

Simply being Canadian was enough of a gimmick to bolster the image of some of our artists. When indie pin-up Leslie Feist appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman, the gap-toothed host emphasized her Canadian identity. Not that Feist needed much help in boosting her profile. Thanks to prime commercial placement, her bouncy little tune 1, 2, 3, 4 was unavoidable this year. Though other tracks from her superlative new album The Reminder were far stronger (my top three: I Feel It All, The Park, My Moon, My Man), 1, 2, 3, 4 became the official soundtrack for iPod’s video-equipped Nano, which beamed the singer-songwriter into living rooms across North America.

Singer Leslie Feist. (Richard Drew/Associated Press)

Pop music lost a number of legendary performers in 2007. Among them: Canadian-born Mamas & the Papas singer-songwriter Denny Doherty; Don Ho, who brought the world Tiny Bubbles; iconic jazz drummer Max Roach; opera legend Luciano Pavarotti; soul-funk vocalist and James Brown sideman Bobby Byrd; country king and one-time Dolly Parton duet partner Porter Wagoner; crooner Robert Goulet; Kevin DuBrow of glammy metal outfit Quiet Riot; Chad Butler, a.k.a. Pimp C of pioneering southern rap crew UGK; German composer and music visionary Karlheinz Stockhausen; troubled soul singer Ike Turner — Tina’s ex and the alleged inventor of rock ’n’ roll; and easy listening tunesmith Dan Fogelberg.

Few would have bargained that 2007 would mark the return of Girl Power. Quicker than you can say “Zigga-zig-ah,” Brit fivesome the Spice Girls roared back with an astoundingly popular reunion tour. After their June 28 press conference, tickets for the Spice Girls’ shows started selling out in under a minute. In the tradition of profound Spice statements like 2 Become 1 and Spice Up Your Life, their saccharine new single, Headlines (Friendship Never Ends), became an instant hit in early November.

While Spice Girls tickets sold out in seconds, it’s nothing compared to the feeding frenzy caused by tween icon Miley Cyrus. The offspring of achy-breaky heartbreaker Billy Ray Cyrus, the 15-year-old actor-singer turned her Disney Channel alter ego Hannah Montana into one of the year’s top-grossing tours. Little girls went bonkers over the show, forcing their parents to perform outrageous stunts to win tickets — one report had dads sprinting in drag. Clearly, the stunt-driven nature of pop music is no longer restricted to performers.

Sarah Liss writes about the arts for CBCNews.ca.

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