♥ girls ♥ girls ♥ girls ♥

title: Ladies Love [vols. 1-3]
format: CD-Rs
date: spring 2006; summer 2007; winter 2007
package: various. red and pink (and black) lettering, hearts, flowy letters, etc. folded notebook paper passed-note envelope for delux compendium version.
made for: martha, my sister, the opposite of hallelujah. 3-disc omnibus edition prepared for rebekah 10/08

Ladies Love
1. 4ever ♥ The Veronicas
2. Don't Say You Love Me ♥ M2M
3. Overprotected ♥ Britney Spears
4. L.O.V.E. ♥ Ashlee Simpson
5. I Will Be There ♥ Rachel Stevens
6. Behind These Hazel Eyes ♥ Kelly Clarkson
7. Whatever ♥ Brie Larson
8. First ♥ Lindsay Lohan
9. Round Round ♥ Sugababes
10. What's In It For Me? ♥ Amy Diamond
11. Stars Are Blind ♥ Paris Hilton
12. Like Wow ♥ Leslie Carter
13. Hypocrite ♥ Skye Sweetnam
14. Sweet Temptation ♥ Lillix
15. Graffiti My Soul ♥ Girls Aloud
16. Pull Shapes ♥ The Pipettes
17. LDN ♥ Lily Allen
18. Don't Let Me Get Me ♥ P!nk
19. All About Us ♥ t.A.T.u.
20. Pieces of Me ♥ Ashlee Simpson
21. Rush ♥ Aly & AJ
22. Hand On Your Heart ♥ Kylie Minogue
23. Should Have Known ♥ Robyn

Ladies Love Double Deuce [22nd birthday edition sequel]
1. Lip Gloss ♥ Lil Mama
2. So Do I Say Sorry First ♥ Stephanie McIntosh
3. Lose You ♥ Linda Sundblad
4. Potential Break-Up Song ♥ Aly & AJ
5. Never Again ♥ Kelly Clarkson
6. Everything Back But You ♥ Avril Lavigne
7. Crazy Chick ♥ Charlotte Church
8. Can't Behave ♥ Courtney Jaye
9. Love Story ♥ Katharine McPhee
10. Never Stop ♥ Hilary Duff
11. Me and My Imagination ♥ Sophie Ellis-Bextor
12. Don't Save Me ♥ Marit Larsen
13. Gunpowder and Lead ♥ Miranda Lambert
14. Because I'm Awesome ♥ The Dollyrots
15. I Get Around ♥ Dragonette
16. The Initiator ♥ Fefe Dobson
17. East Northumberland High ♥ Miley Cyrus
18. Headstrong ♥ Ashley Tisdale
19. Shut Up And Drive ♥ Rihanna
20. Will You Remember Me Tomorrow ♥ Margaret Berger
21. That's Life ♥ Amy Diamond
22. Teardrops On My Guitar ♥ Taylor Swift
23. I Want To Have Your Babies ♥ Natasha Bedingfield
24. Girlfriend (Lil Mama Remix) ♥ Avril Lavigne

Ladies Love 3
1. Music Is My Boyfriend ♥ Skye Sweetnam
2. He Said She Said ♥ Ashley Tisdale
3. Ah-Ah ♥ Bertine Zetlitz
4. Nobody's Perfect ♥ Hannah Montana
5. Gotta Work ♥ Amerie
6. Stay My Baby ♥ Amy Diamond
7. About You Now ♥ Sugababes
8. Revenge Is Sweeter (Than You Ever Were) ♥ The Veronicas
9. If I Could Have You Back ♥ Aly & AJ
10. The Math ♥ Hilary Duff
11. Our Song ♥ Taylor Swift
12. One Step At A Time ♥ Jordin Sparks
13. Music Box ♥ Keke Palmer
14. Is It You? ♥ Cassie
15. Pretty Rebels ♥ Linda Sundblad
16. Movie Star ♥ Roisin Murphy
17. Radar ♥ Britney Spears
18. Misery Business ♥ Paramore
19. Getting Ready ♥ Miranda Lambert
20. Blow My Fuses ♥ Lambretta
21. Breakin' Dishes ♥ Rihanna
22. Outta My Head ♥ Ashlee Simpson
23. Get You Off ♥ Fefe Dobson
24. Hot ♥ Avril Lavigne
25. I Like A Boy In Uniform (School Uniform) ♥ The Pipettes [unlisted bonus track]

chronicling, obviously, for anybody who cared to listen (which turned out to include a few people beyond me and my sister, though not many), my discovery and exploration of teenpop, specifically girlpop, which have been almost entirely coterminous for my purposes. (if these comps weren't gender-exclusive, i would have wanted to include the backstreet boys' "just want you to know" and a couple of songs from the jonas bros' debut, but probably not much else.)

these were a good bit influenced (at least the first one) by dave bedbugs' teenpop mixes for stylus: confessional jamz and the five-disc bluffers guide, even though i never had copies of either and i still don't know about half of the songs on there... anyway, that's where i got the m2m>britney opening sequence.

vol. 1 is vaguely historical, covering 2000-06 as viewed from my then-unfolding sense of so-dubbed "confessional" teenpop historiography as filtered through/created by the ilx rolling teenpop crowd and specifically dave, who was my gateway to most of this stuff in the first place. the song that started it all out for me was the veronica's "everything i'm not," which i have very vivid memories of listening to in my carpeted attic bedroom at 6th and fairmount on my grade-school boombox, although the song doesn't stand out to me nearly so much now except as a smashing pumpkins faux-rip ("4ever" is clearly the more distinctive, tho i had forgotten until tonight that "when it all falls apart" was the one that really broke as a hit in the states.)

some of the stuff - the british electropop - comes from a slightly different place for me; i was into it earlier (starting with kylie's fever, though when i made this i had started delving back into her early days, when she was actually a teen herself, hence the inclusion of "hand on your heart," from 1989 though also recently notable famous by josé gonzalez.) i'd have hardly thought to include lily allen, or at least the pipettes, now, since they so clearly have an "indie" rather than "pop" audience, but at the same time they equally clearly fall into the rubric of "girl-pop." (though so do rilo kiley and hello saferide, i guess.) no r&b here, though there's no reason a bit of blu cantrell or nina sky wouldn't have fit right in.

vol. 2 is semi-strictly limited to just the year roughly preceding its creation, and perhaps as a result (though not necessarily) it suffers a bit in quality. actually, the only real issues i have with it (apart from tracks 4-6 turning out to not be very good songs, after all) is that it's somewhat rock-heavy, and the lil mama and rihanna inclusions feel slightly tokenistic. whatever. still great. "east northumberland high," "so do i say sorry first" and especially "can't behave" (though i know nothing at all about courtney jaye) are all great songs that i rarely think about otherwise.

vol. 3 is similarly trying to keep it strictly '07, though there are some obvious exceptions/concessions (scandi-pop retro-grabs bertine zetlitz - even though she's really too old - and lambretta, which is linda sundblad's old band - i'd just written them up - and hilary duff deep cut "the math," i guess because i was saving "dreamer" for new years, and plus it's an awesome track that fits perfectly coming out of the aly & aj.) not sure why i picked all of those and nothing from the new kylie. in any case i think this is a strong mix even though it starts of kind of weird ("music is my boyfriend" is an obvious opener but an uncomfortable one, and the next three tracks don't really find a groove)

"if i could have you back," "our song," "hot," and of course "is it you?" are all utter brilliance. "gotta work" and "misery business" not far behind. girl-pop was alive and well last year.

this year? well... i'll save that rant for a future post, when i will hopefully compile and document two more volumes of ladies love - one current (07-08) and one catching other historical loose ends (00-06-ish) and just good songs that have not made it to the series so far... should be good!