Pop corner

AILBHE MALONEponders upon Katy P's dancing universe

TRACK OF THE WEEK

iLL Manors by Plan B

Slightly out of our remit, this one, but it’s worth a listen. This is Ben Drew’s repsonse to last year’s London riots, and he’s ditched the soulful Strickland stuff and gone back to his grime roots. With a chorus of “oi, posh boy!”, it’s not one for grannies, Neither is the video, which is full of fire-bombed cars, happy-slapping and looting. Drew’s got some salient points to make, though – check out the TED talk he did earlier this month.

Bieber’s been 18 for almost a month now, and his first way to showcase his maturity was to get Lil Wayne and Ke$ha on his new album (Believe). The first single from the album will be Boyfriend, and it’s nice to see that thematically he hasn’t taken a huge leap. Though he’ll sing and rap on the song, he hasn’t ditched the nice-boy image.

Bieber explains that on the track “basically I’m talking to this girl [saying] if I was your boyfriend I would never let you go”. We hope it was written pre-Selena.

Katy Perry’s been pondering the link between her personal life and her songs. Though break-up anthem Piece of Me is definitely in no way related to Russell Brand (it was written before the split), Perry told Access Hollywood that “it feels like my life plays out with these songs. I feel like I’m in some kind of weird Truman Show where I’m like, ‘Why is this single appropriate now and it wouldn’t have been appropriate then?’ It’s just so crazy. I guess the universe is kind of – we’re kind of like, dancing together in some weird way.”

She added: “Does that make sense or am I being too hippie? I think it’s really important for me to write songs that are still honest and relatable because that’s what everyone else is going through.”

We can’t relate to a dancing universe, but maybe some Pop Corner readers have experienced something like that. In which case, Katy’s the singer for you.