Four On The Floor

   Believe it or not, I am still alive. Between the end of a semester, recording music with my own band, holidays, and travel I've been slacking heavily on the blogging side. But the other day I got into a conversation about how the good 'ol "four on the floor" beat - you know, that dance beat that every pop song has now - has been around strong for a few years now. And it doesn't seem to be going anywhere. SO I'm here to talk pop, rather hip-hop, for a second. If you think about it, "radio music" has definitely taken a turn for the dance in the "Lady Gaga Era", if you will. It's and easy beat, and it's super popular, but here's two nice examples of people diverging from that beat. Maybe we've found an out.
   The first comes from our beloved T-Pain. His new song, aptly titles Rap Song, throws out this dance beat for some more classic In Love With A Stripper feel. The song actually shows some strong writing too. And a ton of layered vocals. I'm enjoying it currently, but I'm sure this one will blow up soon. It is T-Pain, after all. Here's the video:

   I've always had a thing for Keri Hilson. She's gorgeous and talented and, well, that's all my check boxes. I was a bit skeptical of Pretty Girl Rock when I first heard it, but I'm into it for sure. The song has some lyricism, an interesting beat, and a very well done video. I should mention that with both these songs there are strong videos, which is great. It's awesome to see someone thought outside the box for what was becoming pretty monotonous hip-hop video. Check it out:

As a bonus, here's DJ Earworm's new mashup of the year of 2010 in pop. Not too bad.