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A Good Pop CD For The Teen In Your Life

One of the few guarantees you get in the music business is this: There’s almost always a teenage girl singer on the pop charts. We get tons of CDs from record labels hoping we’ll write about them & build some Internet buzz for their next teen pop sensation. As a rule we never review those CDs because that’s not what our audience is about. We do play them sometimes, just for a laugh — and once in a while, we’re actually surprised. We had that experience with Vanessa Hudgens.

Vanessa Hudgens Vanessa made her mark on High School Musical. It’s a movie tailor-made for those quiet, shy kids about to enter high school - we recommend buying it for the awkward tween in your life. The DVD & soundtrack built a huge cult following, as evidenced by her MySpace page. (233,000 people!) She followed that success with her first album, V. The songs on V are simple and fun, mixing standard pop fare with bits of R&B and hip-hop. Her voice is strong and shows a good range of emotions for her age; the lyrics touch on thoughts and feelings that most pre-teen girls experience. It’s a fun little CD, and a good pick for the young girl in your life.