Fridae

From Alicia Keys to Mary J Blige, and from Celine Dion to Kylie Minogue. While listening to all these new albums, I have been thinking a lot lately about innovation in pop music.

What is truly fresh out there that pushes the envelope? A lot of change and innovation in popular music happens gradually. A little synth effect here and a punchy new beat there, it is hard to really notice anything drastically. I'm not a musical elitist who argues that pop music has to be innovative to be good. Not at all. Those are two different things.

But I find myself looking for more sounds to really wow me. I remember the sensation when I first heard Fischerspooner's "Emerge" and I was sure that I was hearing the future. For a moment I was lost in translation. It broke me down and put me back together with a whole new appreciation for music.

I have been listening to a lot of hip hop music lately. Some of the things The Neptunes did five years ago was so novel and still sounds so ahead of its time. I'm not so much into the raps, but I find their production stylings incredibly exciting. Hip hop is such a producer's playground and it seems other rules apply to the genre. Rules that can be broken, redefined and for those reasons may be more open to innovation.

What we need is more artists challenging each other, and listeners challenging artists. Like a dance off. If you think you got it, then bring it. Anyways, I digress. This is an ongoing debate so if you want to chime in with your thoughts go right ahead. Meanwhile, let's serve up a fruity punch today for your clicking pleasure:

� I was kicked out of the Gay Bloggies Battle, but you can still vote for me in the Billboard/Nielsen Music Blog Contest. I'd love your vote!

Congrats to Mitzi and David for winning the Darren Hayes contest, and Tobias for winning the KT Tunstall/Shure headphones.

Talking about innovation... Kenna was featured this week as MTV Artist of the Week and getting a lot of airtime with live performances and his alter-ego Kip Kennedy. He deserves all that love.

Kaskade (pictured above) has launched a special MySpace page to highlight all of his most current remixes. Currently, he is streaming his revamps of Britney Spears' "Gimme More," Seal's "Amazing" and Justin Timberlake's "LoveStoned." Emerging Canadian pop singer Will W shows off his sense melody and does a live mash up of Britney's "Gimme More" and Madonna's "Into The Groove." It's swirly.

Who knew that American Idol runner up Blake Lewis is close friends with Oscar-nominated producer BT? They recorded together before and after Lewis started his run on the FOX television show. See the video here. (Edit: Original video I linked to was removed from YouTube.)

Beyonce will be recording a country album together with songwriter Amanda Ghost.

Free MP3s: Scissor For Lefty "GhettoWays" (Baron Remix) and Justice "D.A.N.C.E." Benny Blanco remix featuring Mos Def & Spank Rock.

Just in case you missed it. Stream Kylie's entire new album "X" on MSN Australia (Thanks Raphael).