Frank Kogan

Brie Larson just won "Best Actress In A Drama" at the Golden Globes. I haven't seen the movie,* but this makes me happy because she'd impressed me a lot as a writer and singer back in the teenpop days; I'd subscribed to her semi-fanzine and regularly read her witty MySpace. She was personable and very smart in an interview by my buddy David Cooper Moore in Stylus in 2007.

Bunnies, Traps, and Slip 'n' Slides: An Interview with Brie Larson



*Room, playing at the Chez Artiste if you happen to live in Denver.

( My Interests Collage! )

But they didn't have the right Paul Zimmerman, so here he is, Dr. Z:

Surely there needs to be an Indie Teenpop Award. Eligible for the award will be: (1) performers who are going for a teenpop sound but are on indies or who are strictly MySpace or CDbaby, (2) performers who are somewhat or formerly teenpop but are also going for a somewhat indie sound, whether they're on indies or not, (3) performers who are not necessarily eligible under 1 and 2 but whom we talked about on the teenpop thread for who knows what reason and who aren't obviously too old or too NOT teenpop and who can be rationalized as having indie elements or who just, you know, seem eligible.

Also, they need to be pretty good. You can be teenpop by association. You can be indie by association. I've put qualifying criteria after the performers' name.

These are potential nominees, but I will hear arguments as to who else should qualify and who else should be disqualified. Here's a list:

Lily Allen (3)
Fefe Dobson (1)**
Flyleaf (3)
Jonas Bros. (2)
Jena Kraus (3)
Marit Larsen (2)
Brie Larson (2)
Lillix (2)
Megan McCauley (2)
Meg & Dia (1)(2)
Hope Partlow (1)**
Marion Raven (1)*
Sammy & Sasha (1)
Skye Sweetnam (2)
Lucy Woodward (1)(2)

Some of these should be bumped by performers who are more obviously eligible. I decided that Jonas Bros.' kiddie-punk tendencies and the fact that they're promoted by Girlie Action make them eligible until we can find someone more eligible. I decided that the fact that Megan McCauley was so obviously goth up to 2 minutes ago makes her a wee bit indie, but she is quite bumpable as well. Probably all the others in category 2 are bumpable except Brie, and the category 3's as well. It's hard to argue that Marit is teenpop anymore, though she has the pedigree. And Flyleaf's teenpopness can be challenged, and Skye's and Lillix's indieness (though I don't know how secure Lillix's status is at Warners, now that Maverick is no more).

skyecaptain will most likely provide more nominees.

*Yup, Marion is on an indie; she broke with Atlantic, who never released her album in the U.S., where she now lives. E.P. due in about a week, alb due next year.

**Getting dropped by your label makes Fefe indie, I'd say, or at least the fact that she has no label and her unreleased music is being bandied about the Net. But I'm not counting Christina Milian since I'm assuming she'll make her way back to a major, and her music is out there on a major. I don't know if I should count Hope Partlow, either, since the only music we know of hers came from a major label and I don't know if she's got any new current music. In January she said, "I needed to get out of the house so I got a job! I'm a waitress at a local restaurant!! I'm really loving it!" In March she said, "I will be back on tour, hopefully to promote a brand new album."

I will decide a final list of contestants sometime or other. There will probably be 12, unless there are 16. I don't know when I will actually get around to this.