Pop Shots - Girls On TV

Welcome to your weekly dose of pop world musings. Covering all things pop culture, this week Pop Shots is hitting you with thoughts on everything from Miley’s prime time TV special, to Linda Perry’s new venture with VH1, to Ariana Grande’s well-timed award show appearance, and since it’s Pop Shots you know everything is seasoned with a little bit of attitude.

* Last night NBC aired a two hour special on Miley Cyrus' Bangerz tour. The special ran from 9pm to 11pm, so if your grandfather tuned in early for the 11 o'clock news, it's the reason you now have to explain twerking to him.

* Soccer players, with their constant flopping, lie all the time. The performer who will be headlining the closing ceremonies of the World Cup, however, knows a thing or two about the truth, as non other than "Hips Don't Lie" singer Shakira will be the main event for a third straight World Cup. Shakira, whose soccer connections include having a child with Spanish soccer star Gerard Pique (her current beau), and creating the last two World Cup anthems... oh, f*ck it, let's be honest, I just wanted an excuse to post this gif


* Nicki Minaj sparked controversy with her BET Awards acceptance speech eight days ago. Well, actually the internet took her comments and created a controversy out of them. Nicki simply stated she writes her own lyrics. The internet decided this was a shot at other female emcees, specifically Iggy Azalea, who still has the #1 song in the country, with “Fancy” spending its sixth week at the top of the chart (the longest stay at #1 ever for a female rapper). Nicki took to Twitter to dispel the rumor, and Iggy suggested people, "Just let it go." Sadly, she did not follow this up by doing a rap remix of "Let It Go" from Disney's Frozen.

* Linda Perry, whom some of you may know from 90s one hit wonder band 4 Non Blondes, and others may know as the writer of numerous pop ballads for Christina Aguilera, has a new VH1 series, titled The Linda Perry Project. The show will debut July 16th, and throughout the ten episodes Perry will coach artists she's handpicked, eventually selecting one to sign to her label. If the winner ends up a woman, you can just refer to her as "the chick Sara Gilbert is giving the side eye to."


* Death Grips made a name for themselves by being noisy, brash, and unapologetic. From an album cover that featured the title written on band member's, err, member, to the show they didn't show up for, which resulted in fans trashing the entire place, to releasing private emails from their record label, their "just don't give a f*ck" attitude was the heart and soul of the act. With that in mind it should come as no surprise that just two weeks before they were supposed to hit the road to open for Nine Inch Nails and Soundgarden, which would have been Death Grips' biggest opportunity to date, the band called it quits. Death Grips made the announcement via a picture of a hand written note on a napkin. Hopefully this will inspire a new slogan for Bounty, who can now claim to be "The band breaker-upper."

* Ariana Grande has found the biggest stage possible to promote her next album, My Everything, as she'll be performing at the MTV VMAs on August 24th, one day before My Everything hits stores. Grande will sing her latest single, "Break Free," and generally be completely adorable.


* Because DJing, despite being an actual craft that takes years to learn, has become the least respected form of musicianship around, every celebrity is taking to their laptops to give it a go. Since douchebag club owners know celebs bring in money, they're willing to sacrifice a night of actual good music to have some famous person behind the quasi turntables. Shaq has become the latest in a long line of DJ impersonators to get one of these club gigs as his reported "months" of practice landed him a spot at Chateau Nightclub & Rooftop at the Paris Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. In his first time spinning live (or choosing songs live, which is most likely what he was doing) he reportedly did better than people expected, which basically means his DJ career is the equivalent of him shooting better than 60% from the free throw line.

* Finally, for those of you out there who’ve been desperately missing the short lived TV show Cop Rock, girl group G.R.L. seems to have based the entire video for their latest single, "Ugly Heart" around the concept. Really, I’m not kidding.


And with that, my time is up for the week, but I'll be back next week with more shots on all things pop.