Since bursting onto the charts late last year (and ruling them ever since) singer-songwriter Ke$ha has somehow managed to replace Britney Spears and Ashlee Simpson as the poster girl for everything that’s wrong with today’s music, attracting a slew of criticism that at times has almost rivaled her immense popularity.

Before moving to L.A. and teaming up with hitmaker Dr Luke though, the electro-pop princess was living in Nashville and had dreams of becoming a country singer, clearly inspired and influenced  by her mother who’s an accomplished country songwriter who’s written for Dolly Parton before.

Most of Ke$ha’s pre-electro music remains locked away, but early last month a acoustic-ballad titled “Goodbye” hit the net, giving listeners a glimpse of a different Ke$ha that hasn’t fully seen the light of day yet. The self-penned song sounds similar to something Michelle Branch other short-lived band The Wreckers would’ve recorded, showing off a singing and songwriting talent that many people assumed Ke$ha didn’t have.

In many interviews the 22-year-old stated that she made her debut album Animal wild and fun because it reflected her past few years in L.A. and was something she wanted to do while she was still young, but she’s made no secret of her plans to change her style in the future, even going as far as to say that she’d love to record a full country album.

Ke$ha strikes me as the same type of artist as Kelly Clarkson, as they both seem to genuinely love all genre’s of music from indie to mainstream and Kelly has experimented with a ton of different genres over the years which is something I see Ke$ha doing in the future.

What do you think Ke$ha should do in the future? I want a country album!

In case you haven’t noticed by now I’ll use any excuse that I can in order to post a picture of Pamela Anderson.

Anyways I’ve done several lists to cap off the decade so far, and here is my final one “The top 21 best songs of the decade”.

This is more of a personal list rather than me trying to say that this is the be all and end all of best songs, so that’s why you won’t see the obvious choices like Alicia Keys “No One” and Britney Spears “Toxic” etc.

I hope you enjoy it and leave a comment to let me know your personal list!

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You can’t cap off the end of a decade without laughing at the worst songs to pollute the airwaves, so here’s my official list of the top 15 worst songs of the decade.

Now before the stans throw a hissy fit just remember that this is all in good fun so try to stay calm if your fave was mentioned. Trust me, some of mine made the list!

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You’ve gotta take the good with the bad, so after I did my greatest albums of the decade post I decided to make a list of the of the decades biggest one hit wonders.

I can’t believe how many of my faves made the list!

Check it out below the cut.

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After working on this for over twelve hours straight I’ve finally compiled my list of the top 35 albums of the past decade (2000-2010).

Obviously there are going to many great albums that didn’t make the cut, but I only included records that I’m familiar with, I didn’t just name good albums for the sake of it and I’m digging way back to the year 2000 so there’s a hell of a lot to choose from.

I was 12 years old in the year 2000 and my taste has changed dramatically since then (and still is changing), but I’ve tried to be fair and include everything.

I’ve listed them all below the cut with a short review as well as an essential song that you should listen to if you’ve never heard the album.

Let me know your personal list in the comment section.

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Unless you listen to Arabic pop music you probably don’t know who Haifa Wehbe is, but she’s one of the biggest stars in Lebanon and one of my personal favourites, so I thought I’d take advantage of the lull in news to do a quick post on her.

The now 35-year-old diva is often ridiculed across her homeland for her barely-there outfits, lip-syncing, scandalous personal life and her increasing love affair with plastic surgery, but it hasn’t stopped her from scoring countless chart topping hits and lucrative endorsement deals, including becoming the official face of Pepsi across the Middle East. Come to think of it she’s the Lebanese Britney Spears, but not as nice.

One of my favourite things about Haifa is her bizarre fascination with children, which has led her to release a children’s album called Baby Haifa. Whoever told you that you can’t turn a ho into a housewife has obviously never met Haifa, who easily has both mastered down to a near perfect art form.

Check out the trashtastic video for one of her most recent pop singles “Yaben El Halal” below, which shows the singer resembling what looks like a plastic Beyonce blow up doll as she applies layers of makeup in a sky-high glittery trailer before shaking her ass in a local marketplace and stealing fruit from a local stall.

Then check out her ridiculously adorable clip for “Baba Fen”, the first official single from her upcoming childrens album. The sugary-sweet clip depicts Haifa trying to put her little brat to bed as the pair drift in and out of some candy coloured dream world.

I love this woman!

I was having a discussion with one of my friends yesterday about Beyonce’s work ethic, and before I knew it I had realised something about the singer that I had never really thought about properly before, so I decided to write a huge article on it.

It’s pretty lengthy so I’ve split it into three parts. I’ve got an introduction to state my point, then the middle is mostly just a close look at chart positions and sales, and the conclusion is the basically the middle condensed down with some extra stuff added and some questions and observations.

Check it out below the cut.

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[Listen "Time of The Moon" above]

Although many people threw t.A.T.u. into the forgotten one-hit-wonder pile once the buzz of their faux-lesbian relationship and single “All The Things She Said” died down, I’ve remained a loyal fan for years so I’m delighted that the girls have finally released an English version of their third album Happy Smiles.

Under the new title of Waste Management, the album is essentially the same as it’s Russian counterpart but with a few remixes and interludes tacked on to re-energise the project. It is however still worth a listen though, with the girls delivering their unique brand of alternative-pop in a way that nobody else can.

Their best album will always remain their 2002 debut 200 km/h in the Wrong Lane (as well as it’s original Russian edition) but Waste Management is a great edition to the library of any t.A.T.u. fan, or any fan of alternative-pop in general.

Above under the post picture you can check out my personal favourite song from the album “Time of The Moon”, and below you can watch the English version of their shocking video for the albums lead single “White Robe”.

My girl Denise alerted me today to this interest blog entry by Next Selection consultant Steve Graham, which seems to have been triggered from a recent song of Cassie’s that leaked online last week titled “Shakespeare” (listen above).

Next Selection of course is Ryan Leslie’s music-media company to which Cassie (formerly known as “the princess of Next Selection”) is signed to and released her debut album through in a partnership between the company and Bad Boy Records. Anyways check out the blog post below.

Cassie – Shakespeare

I love Cassie no matter what they say…

can’t believe all these demos leaked. her 2nd album was going to be crazy

Word, Ryan played me some joint with Brandon Hines on it, some joint called “Better Off Apart” or something, and another insane un-vocalled beat by Mario Winans.

That album could have been fucking INSANE. However, apparently everything was shutdown by…

Any guesses who the mystery dot-dot-dot person could be?

Cassie has now been working on her sophomore album since 2007. Originally she started off with Ryan Leslie on the track “Sometimes” which was the first official song from her sophomore recordings, before then heading into the studio with Swizz Beatz, Kanye West, Pharrell Williams, B-Cox, and Darkchild. There was even talk at one point of getting Lenny Kravitz on the album.

Shortly after rumours began to swirl that Cassie had given Ryan Leslie the cold shoulder for Bad Boy boss Diddy, and the two were spotted by paparazzi getting cosy on several occasions. With Cassies new relationship came a brand new sound and a host of new producers, including Danja, Eric Hudson, RedOne, Akon, The-Dream, Surf Club, and Fernando Garibay.

So why don’t we have an album yet? To say that there’s no interest in the project would be a lie considering that Cassie still makes front page news on the gossip and music blogs despite the fact that she only has one hit to her name which is now almost five years old. UK newspaper The Guardian even ran an article on Cassie’s leaks and missing sophomore album under the title “Cassie’s unreleased classic”.

Now it’s almost 2010 and all we have to show for the 23-year-olds current career are three failed singles, almost thirty leaked songs, some nude photos, and a love triangle complete with accusations from Ryan Leslie himself that Cassie unexpectedly cut all ties with him, the man who made her a star.

If Cassie hadn’t mixed with business with pleasure would things be different? Will an upcoming move to Interscope Records help salvage what’s left of the Electro Love project, or has too much damage been done?

Despite planning to listen to Chris Brown’s Graffiti properly all that went out the window as soon as I saw that Snoop Doggs tenth studio album Malice N Wonderland had leaked online.

I’ve only skipped through it so far, but from what I can gather Snoop is onto another winner and there really isn’t one bad track on the whole album. Malice N Wonderland is full of old-school and new-school, fresh & innovative beats, club & radio friendly bangers, and even some harder street records.

Most importantly though the album is fun.

You can peep the track “Different Languages” above, which features everybody’s new favourite R&B songstress Jazmine Sullivan.

After more than fifteen years in the game Snoops still got it. Malice N Wonderland hits stores December 8.