All About Adele - A Review of Adele's Music, Career and Life

Her name is Adele.

If you turned on the radio at any time in the past several months, you probably have heard of this musical prodigy, who is currently dominating the radio airwaves, the Billboard charts, and the music industry as a whole.  The English singer-songwriter debuted a few years ago and instantly reached critical acclaim for demonstrating a masterful control over her raw, passionate, and powerful voice.  Her previous work "Chasing Pavements" became a cult favourite, but it was her recent hit single "Rolling in the Deep" that has sold over 2.5 million digital copies and climbing.  In addition, her sophomore album "21" recently reached 1 million in sales figures – the first of all albums to do so in the year 2011.  As the numbers indicate, Adele is clearly one of the breakout musical stars in recent times.

Nowadays, there are far too many young successful breakout stars emerging within our popular culture.  This is not surprising given the Youtube age, which brought us controversial teenage sensations like Justin Bieber and Rebecca Black, both of whom have questionable levels in talent at best.  Amidst these singers who are more famous for their celebrity status than their actual voices, Adele introduces a refreshing breath of fresh air for those who have lost hope in the young singers of our age and time.  She is one of the few rare exceptions whose growing popularity matches her immense talent.  Both her debut and sophomore albums, "19" and "21" (titled aptly to reflect her age at that specific point in life), received nearly unanimous positive reviews from professional critics and casual fans alike.  This is a feat accomplished by very few artists, let alone somebody at her young delicate age.

This article will cover Adele's life journey thus far, from her humble beginnings at a single-parent London home to her current international breakout success.  Her musical legacy has already marked at the young age of 22, and she shows no signs of stopping any time soon.  If there are any artists who can rejuvenate the music industry unlike any others before her, Adele has to be the one.  She truly is one-of-a-kind.

The Rebecca Black Story – A Commentary on the Pop Music Industry

Rebecca Black became famous for all the wrong reasons.

In the age of social media, where unknown artists are constantly discovered online, it is easy for anyone to post a music video on Youtube, but much harder to get noticed among the many others vying for the same ambitions. How does one distinguish themselves from all the wannabe musicians on the Internet? The thirteen-year-old Rebecca Black may have discovered an unlikely answer. This week, she became an instant online sensation after her debut music video "Friday" launched on Youtube. In the span of seven days, she achieved over 20 million views on Youtube, broke top records on Twitter, and quickly climbing the sales charts on iTunes. It is quite a feat for somebody so young and so inexperienced within the music industry.

The reason why Rebecca became popular is not because she sings extraordinarily well. In fact, being the exact opposite has propelled her to infamy across the world. She was brought to public awareness after a comedic segment on Tosh 2.0, which described it as the worst song of all time. Indeed, there are numerous elements about "Friday" that culminated to a cringe worthy experience. Whether it is the nasally voice, the banal lyrics, or the awkward dancing, the majority opinion is overwhelmingly unfavourable. Yet, like a train wreck in motion, our pop culture remained fixated with this aspiring starlet. After a while, you may become accustomed or even enjoy the catchy beat of the terrible song!

The Rolling Stone offered an intriguing perspective on Rebecca Black's recent infamy. One writer believes this song is an unintentional parody on the music industry. "Friday", which is a song that literally describes the days of the week, epitomizes the banality of pop music nowadays. Anyone can put together a commercialized music video, with little regards to the quality of the singing or the overall message. Who needs a good voice when there's auto-tune software? Who needs profound lyrics when there's a tedious yet catchy beat instead?

Rebecca Black's recent infamy reflects the increasing superficiality within the music industry, because it's all about the packaging nowadays. In fact, Rebecca's label "The Ack Factory" is an apt title to describe the prevalent issue at hand; the entire industry is indeed like a factory, churning out generic songs with little originality or depth. "Friday" might not be the worst piece of music ever in existence, but its notoriety is an indication that the pop music industry has hit rock bottom.

You Are Fired, Charlie Sheen - Analyzing Celebrity Notoriety

How will the fifteen million Americans survive without the uncouth presence of Charlie Sheen on their television screens?

It was the firing that took the entertainment industry and popular culture by storm.  The notorious Charlie Sheen, television's highest paying actor, was terminated from his employment at CBS/Warner Brothers after his multiple public altercations with Two and a Half Men executive producer Chuck Lorres.  Like two children slinging insults across the school playground, Sheen and Lorres used the media as a platform to express their obvious disdain towards each other, until Warner Brothers finally had enough and cut the 45-year-old actor away for good.  A scandal of this magnitude would have been the biggest public disgrace in any actor's career; but for Charlie Sheen, it was just a typical stumble among his many public wrongdoings in the past.

The story begins with our protagonist (antagonist?) Sheen checking into rehab for his drug/sex/take-your pick addition.  He is scheduled a temporary vacation from his regular taping of Two and a Half Men during the recovery.  All went well and CBS wished him the best, but the problem arose when Sheen felt patronized by his employers.  They did not truly care about his "ailment"; they are more concerned about keeping Sheen's problems under wraps so their moneymaker program will stay on the air for as long as possible.  Sheen begins to act out, demanding a salary raise to $3 million, and vocally broadcast all his dirty laundry with producer Chuck Lorres.  His unruly behaviour reached a point of unacceptability, where he was even accused of being anti-Semitic, and  so Charlie Sheen was officially fired from Two and a Half Men.

Of course, Sheen is no stranger to media notoriety in the past.  This is a man with an admitted drug (cocaine) addiction.  This is a man who also got busted in multiple prostitution scandals.  This is a man who even previously reported a murder to the police (it turns out to be a very realistic snuff film).  Charlie Sheen is already used to being in the spotlight.  He's used to being a topic of discussion in our pop culture.  Unlike other celebrities, however, he thrives on the negative publicity and becomes even more popular as the undisputed bad boy of the television industry.

His latest employment scandal should not come as a surprise to anybody familiar with his past track record.  One must wonder though if Sheen truly crossed the line this time.  By engaging in such a nasty altercation with his boss, did he sink to an irredeemable new low?  The millions of viewers who tune in to watch Charlie Sheen on Two and a Half Men may forgive his past indecencies with drugs and escorts, but will they continue to put up with his delinquent behaviour?  When does the lovable bad boy become the unlovable media scoundrel?  

How much bad press is too much?

Old Ladies with Spunk – A Love Letter to Betty White

Dear Betty White,

I was not part of the Facebook campaign. I was not part of the movement that pushed you to a hosting gig on Saturday Day Live. Regrettably, being part of the ignorant and self-absorbed generation, I was not aware of your presence or your legacy until recent times. I have caught glimpses of you though - you were the scene stealer in The Proposal, you starred in that Super Bowl commercial which became a viral classic, and you popped up here or there with a guest role in numerous sitcoms. Of course, this was the same Betty White who starred in The Mary Tyler Show and The Golden Girls, so the comedy genre had always been your forte.

Dare I say that 2010 is the year of Betty White? Whether you are Hot in Cleveland, or dancing dirty with Jon Hamm during the Emmy Awards, or insulting Facebook users worldwide on Saturday Night Live, it is clear that the public loves your humour, the Internet admires your spunk, and the media just can’t get enough of you. You’re writing two memoirs. You have a saucy 2011 calendar coming out. You are probably getting movie offers and television guest gigs left and right. There is even a Betty White clothing line (of hoodies), I kid you not. At 88 years old, Betty White is not the first popular senior entertainer in the industry, but how many aging stars have been celebrated to this extent? We parade her from show to show, we laugh at her bawdy jokes, and we treasure her like she is America’s Sweetheart. The upsurge in her popularity is quite astonishing, since a celebrity past his or her prime tends to be overlooked until their sad but inevitable eulogy, followed by the in memoriam montage during awards shows. Fortunately, Betty White is still alive and kicking, and one can argue that the busy actress is still very much in her prime.

The Betty White mania does not seem to be slowing down any time soon. However, fame is fickle and fleeting; and like all popular icons, I have started to witness some backlash against Betty White. People are getting tired of her grinning mug, tired of her geriatric sex jokes, and tired of the relentlessness in promoting her across the media. In their opinion, she is overexposed, overrated, and overused. She is preferable in small doses - the one Saturday night hosting gig was a triumph for the Internet - but the naysayers are wondering when she will exit the stage and leave the limelight.

When will people get tired of Betty White?

Explaining the Bieber Fever – Who is Justin Bieber?

Seriously, what is the deal with Justin Bieber?

The sixteen-year-old is technically a singer, but he is better known as an unstoppable online icon and prodigious teenage sensation.  Recent Twitter studies have shown that 3% of the microblogging servers are dedicated to him, and his name is mentioned 60 times per second during peak hours.  To put this statistic in perspective, co-founder Evan Williams reported that Twitter averages 90 million tweets per day, which means there are approximately 2.7 million mentions of Justin Bieber on any given day.  In simpler terms, it appears as if Bieber’s online fandom has the influence and prevalence measurable to a small country. 

How could a single person, let alone a harmless and inoffensive teenager from a small town in Canada, warrant so much attention?  What could possibly be so fascinating about Justin Bieber?  Although his two albums (titled My World and My World 2.0) skyrocketed in sales, he hardly lit up the music industry with any interesting or innovative songs.  And with all due respect to teenagers, his life experiences at the age of sixteen are virtually non-existent. Despite his lack of accomplishments, the Internet’s ongoing conversation about Justin Bieber is growing more prominent each day.  The discussions often revolve around his helmet hair, his eight-year-old girl voice, or his tendency to attract water bottles hurling at him on stage.  Nobody said he was an interesting guy, but the Internet sure has taken an unhealthy interest to him.  In any case, the mundaneness of Justin Bieber has not stopped his popularity one bit.  While his celebrity status may seem very fortunate, I do not believe his success is entirely accidental.  In an attempt to rationalize the ‘Bieber fever’, this article will analyze the numerous factors that contributed to his massive appeal.

The Lady Gaga Phenomenon – Attention Please!

Lady Gaga sure loves the media attention.

    Several years ago, the phenomenon that is Gaga barely registered on anybody’s radar.  She was an unknown entity in the music industry, performing at small public arenas with little recognition.  It took nearly three years of struggle before her first album The Fame was released.  True to the title, this marked the beginning of Lady Gaga’s stardom.  The singer, still in her fresh twenties, quickly rose as a prominent leader in pop and dance music.  She also became an iconic figure in fashion and accessories, for better or for worse.  Unlike most one-hit wonders, Gaga followed up with an equally strong sophomore album called The Fame Monster, thus solidifying her status as a widely successful artist in the 21st Century.

    Lady Gaga not only received attention in radio airplays, but she also attracted both good and bad publicity across the different media platforms.  In particular, online blogs love documenting her every move.  It helps that she has a magnetic presence, especially in the wardrobe department.  Her wacky costumes have been the central topic of many pop culture discussions, and the creative inspirations for Halloween parties.  In fact, Gaga is so defined by her unique fashion sense that her name became synonymous with crazy clothing and a crazier persona.  This type of attention is either a celebrity’s best accomplishment or their worst nightmare – her identity as an artist is dictated by her outward appearance.