A brand new term in music

As September comes, and the kids go back to school, so, metaphorically, do popstars. In the run up to Christmas and the prime selling period in the industry, everyone wants a piece of the pie. This year is no different with comebacks, sophmore albums and brand new campaigns all vying for your hard earned cash and attention.
So what better way to assess pop's latest efforts than to liken them to some familiar back to school cliches.

First off we have the Good Girl Goes Bad. Fresh from a hectic and eventful summer, miss goodie two shoes has decided that a squeaky clean image isn't for her, so she hooks up with a local low-key ruffian in order to gain a few popularity points and get herself notice by being consciously different from her obvious com temporaries. Enter Alexandra Burke, who with the aptly titled 'Bad Boys' has enlisted the help of Flo-Rida to ensure that she is not simply seen as some sort of sub-Beyonce / Leona hybrid.

The song itself is unremarkable, however catchy enough and a good start in the 'official career' of the latest X Factor winner.

Following on from that, we have the ying to Alexandra's yang, that of everyman's favourite voice - Leona Lewis. The Overachiever is back with another Tedder-tastic moment. Hailed as Bleeding Love's elder slightly different sister, 'Happy' is a song that has all the signature moments any Ryan Tedder track has, grand orchestra, soulful vocals, a killer middle-eight building crescendo, and a one word title.


Back from Holiday with renewed vigour and a more mature outlook, Robbie Williams releases his first single in a good few years. With the help of Trevor Horn, Williams has developed his style without loosing any Robbie-ness in it. In short, Bodies isn't like anything else he's done before, yet sounds like everything else he has ever done at the same time. His time in LA has meant he got over the whole 'Rudebox' fiasco and is now back to what he does best.


Our Foreign Exchange Students are out in force this September, with Sweden providing us with not one, but two prime examples of scando-pop. Alphabeat return with the addictive 'The Spell', whilst ginger ninja Erik Hassle shows Barbara Streisand and Neil Diamond how it's done with 'Don't Bring Me Flowers'. His effort is below.


The New Kids in class this year are Mini Viva, fresh from the Xenomania school of excellence. This international sounding tune has already been A-Listed by radio one and updates the September-esque club thomper.


Next up we have the first single from the Most Popular Girl from the Most Popular Girl Crew in School. Cheryl Cole's debut single drops on to the radio tomorrow, but the demo version of the track done by a guy called Andre Merritt, featured below, shows the song is one that will get stuck in your head. Now all we have to do is wait for that train wreck of an X Factor performance.


And finally we have the Van Wielder of pop herself: Madonna. Sounding like much of the Confession's album. 'Celebration' celebrates, geddit?, her career so far in the run up to another Greatest Hits. Not much else to say on her really!