Britney Spears’ new Pop magazine photoshoot with famed Japanese artist Takashi Murakami already caused a small online stir due to it’s surprising and unique style, but now it’s set to make waves for a whole different reason, after popular gaming website Kotaku published an article today claiming that the shoot is actually a political protest around manga art that could possibly be labeled as child porn.

Britney’s two Pop covers depict the superstar dressed in a skimpy wedding gown in one and wearing a blue bathing suit in another, carrying a red backpack while striking an eerie, Lolita-esque pose. The same image is used on the cover of controversial manga “My Wife Is A Grade Schooler”, which was almost banned due to it’s depiction of underage characters engaging in sexual acts. Take a look at an excerpt from the Kotaku article, below:

Back when the Tokyo Municipal government was looking to ban the questionable depictions of underage characters in anime, manga and video games, My Wife Is A Grade Schooler, an out of print manga, was fingered as an example of a work that depicted young characters in an inappropriate manner.

When the manga was shown on television, yellow Post-its were used to cover the suggestive bits. However, the Post-its made the manga appear more suggestive than it actually is. The manga itself is considered a “gag manga” and even social criticism. It apparently isn’t as bad as it looks, and some said the way it was handled on TV was political scapegoating. The cover of “My Wife Is A Grade Schooler” (pictured) echoes the imagery used in the Spears’ photographs. Same red backpack, same blue bathing, wedding dress.

The references to “My Wife Is A Grade Schooler” are no mere coincidence either: Takashi and the author of the manga, Seiji Matsuyama, have been seen Tweeting each other about the relations between the shoot and the erotic Grade Schooler art. Matsuyama even referred to the Takashi shoot as, “Takashi Murakami x Britney Spears x My Wife Is A Grade Schooler collaboration”.

However, the most surprising part of the whole saga is that Britney herself may have been aware of what was going on. Not only do Pop Magazine directly refer to the shoot as “inspired by the manga artist Seiji Matsuyama”, but Britney herself even reveals in the accompanying interview that she was involved in the photoshoot and looked at certain manga chracters to get “a feel” for the vibe of the shoot.

“I loved working with Takashi…,” says Spears. “We looked at a lot of manga characters and artwork before we shot, so I could get a feel for what he was looking for. It was one of the most interesting shoots I’ve ever been on. He’s a genius!”

Certainly there would be none better than Britney Spears to make this type of artistic statement, considering that she began her career as an underage school girl channeling Nabokov’s Lolita.

The question that Kotaku are posing, is did Britney know how deep the connotations behind these photos ran? Was she trying to creative controversy, like she has so often done throughout her 12 year-career, or was she unknowingly used as the face of a political statement that was much more serious than she could have originally known?

I’ve never seen a single one of Disney’s High School Musical movies in my life, but as a brand, the HSM franchise is so powerful that it would be virtually impossible not to have come in contact with at least one aspect of the multi-million dollar machine at one point or another.

While the closeted Zac Efron may be the biggest name to emerge out of the franchise, you can’t deny Disney’s other diamond diva’s – Ashley Tisdale and Vanessa Hudgens. Both girls managed to release successful pop album’s during the peak of High School Musical fever, but by the time they released their sophomore albums, the HSM buzz had started to die down, and it didn’t take long for both albums to sink without a trace.

Not to worry though, because I’ve gone and found the trashiest must-have tunes from each disc that were just too good to leave rotting away in the bargain bin!

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“It’s the truth, it’s a fact, I was gone and now I’m back,” states a confident Kylie Minogue on the title track from her eleventh studio album Aphrodite. “I’m fierce and I’m feelin’ mighty… I am the original!” Thankfully for Kylie, she can back up what she boasts in her lyrics, as Aphrodite heralds a stunning a return to form for the international pop princess.

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“I’m not myself tonight. I’m not the same girl!” crows chameleon Christina Aguilera on her single ‘Not Myself Tonight’, a sentiment which pretty much sums up the theme of her fourth studio album Bionic.

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Last night I had the pleasure of getting to watch everybody’s favorite chart topping party animal Ke$ha perform live, and although it was just a free promotional show that lasted for five songs, it was actually better than half of the pop concerts that I’ve actually paid to go and see!

Check below the cut to read all about my exploits with K$, including pictures and video.

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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!

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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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?