I'm not sure that I've ever heard one of her songs. At least if I did, I didn't know it at the time. But then I live under a rock.

The thing that surprised me from that article was that Mariah Carey's "Daydream" sold over 10 million copies in the US. I did not know that and now that I do, I am sad.

Also, between commercials featuring it, news broadcasts ending with it and catching it while surfing radio stations, I am as sick of "Firework" as any song I have ever heard. And I am pretty sure I have never even listened to the entire song from start to finish.

I like Katy Perry. I guess she grew on me because my kids listen to her. I just watched the Firework video for the first time and there are fireworks coming out of her chest. Mariah Carey had a couple songs I liked but the majority of her songs did not appeal.

The fifth graders at my kid's school are singing Firework in music class. My kid, a fourth grader, is in a combined 4th-5th class. He told me that none of the boys want to sing Firework. The music teacher says if they don't sing along with the group they'll be forced to sing it solo. I thought that was kind of funny.

I just tried to listen to Firework. I got about halfway through the first chorus. I never heard it before and I have no desire to hear it again. Whatever metric Billboard measures no longer has any relevance to my life.

I guess I should shut up instead of bad mouthing Katy/Mariah/whoever. The pop I like from the late 80s/early 90s is probably just as bad. If I was ten years older I'd probably hate it as much as I hate most of what has came out in the last ten to fifteen years. In fact I went to Amazon and listened to samples of Mariah's first two CDs a few minutes ago out of curiosity (as I really liked those CDs when I was 14 or whatever) and I could still listen to those. It probably isn't any worse really than her later stuff which makes me want to gouge my eardrums out.

Hell, I like Never Gonna Give You Up. *shrugs*

I've been singing Teenage Dream (which I heard first on Glee) to Oliver and he loves it. Crazy cat.

No, don't worry, weretable. Bad mouth them. Honestly, I like when Mariah just used her "normal" soulful singing voice (not often) instead of showing off her range so much -- it's too high sometimes and piercing if that makes sense. A lot of her songs were bad -- because of that voice going up, up, up. eeeee babeeeeeee. eeeeeee. ai ai ai ai

I like a lot of bad music, it's true. There is this rap song by Wiz somebody that one of my kids listens to and I just listened to the lyrics more carefully and the song pretty much sucks but I like the sound of it. I told my neighbor friend that I liked the song Firework and he said, "my mom listens to that song over and over." I had to laugh because it's something I would do. There is a new song by Bruno Mars on the radio -- something about a lazy day. It's a mediocre song that could be cute but he ruins it with a line about sex. Not that I'm against sex, or mentions of sex in songs. This could have been one of those songs that all ages would love. Too bad he mentions that he's going to screw his girlfriend tomorrow. And she's going to like it. He's scratching his testicles and planning on sexing up a girl in this song, among other things.

Adele's 21 album has been out for 11 weeks and with little air play and no TV, movie or advertising placement has sold more than 1.5 million copies. Katy Perry's Teenage Dream has been out for 37 weeks and has sold less than 1.5 million copies despite the fact that is has been pushed on radio and been sold over and over for TV, movie and advertising placement.

Clearly Perry is making a lot more money but I bet Adele is building a real fan base. I guess it's a question of wanting to make big money or wanting a career in music because you really want to make music.

Maybe those end of the world are on to something.