Isn't Miranda Cosgrove a character on "Sex and the City"?

The next Jeannie Ortega?

Factoids from this sorta-interesting Forbes article on the next up from the Disney cross-platform assembly line, Demi Lovato.

"Move over, Miley Cyrus. Demi Lovato is the next big thing. The reason why is simple: The Walt Disney Co. says so."

Um, no. Walt Disney Co. can't seem to make a star worth a damn without a TV show and an even more insane level of promotion than Demi is already getting (supporting role on the Jonas Brothers tour). I'm guessing that "Rock Camp," the movie she's starring in with the Jonas Brothers, will do OK, but with any luck it'll also show signs of the Jonases finally starting to fade out, what with all of their music being terrible, especially in comparison to a lot of the non-Disney pop that's starting to sneak back on the Radio Disney charts. (My prognostication skillz tell me that Miley will do pretty well for herself when she finally goes solo, and she'll be the last major cross-platform success of the Disney brand, followed by lots of much smaller successes.)

"And, oh yeah, she just signed with Hollywood Records (a Disney record label, of course) and hopes to release a debut album this fall."

So is Jordan Pruitt's career basically over already?

"For those deemed worthy, Disney and Nickelodeon rev up the star machine, starting with their much-watched television projects. Nickelodeon's popular Miranda Cosgrove-star vehicle iCarly averaged 7.4 million viewers in the 6- to 11-year-old demographic in recent months, while the Disney Channel still rides high from its High School Musical 2 premiere, which nabbed a record 18.6 million viewers."

I thought these stats were interesting compared to these:

"It adds up fast. According to SNL Kagan, Nickelodeon raked in $342.8 million from DVDs and related gear in 2007, up from $306 million in 2006. And while the Disney Channel brought in only $35.6 million in 2007, down from the $72 million it yielded largely off the success of the High School Musical brand in 2006, it's expected to garner $77.8 million in 2008."

A good reminder that Nickelodeon is major competition outside the music bubble. Disney makes a ton of its money from theme parks and other (non-Disney-identified) TV and film distribution companies. Which, as I don't think a whole lot of people have mentioned, means that their risk for music projects is (comparatively) pretty low, and would likely be the FIRST place to decrease marketing dollars, promotion effort, etc. Which is another reason I think the current hyper-amped Disney megasuccess model is more or less a fluke -- in the scheme of things, even the powerhouses can't compete with ESPN (or, in the case of Viacom/Nickelodeon, MTV, which -- as I was told last week -- handily makes more money than any kid-geared media outlet).

Which is all to say, I guess, that it's important to remember the social organizing strands of Disney music, maybe moreso than its corporate origins; the interesting thing about HSM/Hannah Montana isn't just the money it rakes in, but the insulation of its audience. I watched a clip of the most recent Nickelodeon's Kids' Choice Awards the other day and the interaction of Nickelodeon with the wider pop culture world (MTV-with-training-wheels) is starkly in contrast to the isolated niche bubble of Disney media. Whether or not that gives Nickelodeon an edge over time is unclear, though: if the Disney bubble were to collapse somehow, the company doesn't have as many avenues to reach out to for support -- hence the paradox that it's both healthy and threatening for Disney to allow outside artists onto their radio station in fuller force at this point -- but it also isn't in any great danger of collapsing yet.

Hey, maybe I should actually listen to Demi Lovato.

Shadow: Ummmm why am I identifying this as like the Disney Dismemberment Plan? Musically a bit indier than usual Hollywood Recs fare, lyrics pretty bad, voice good but unremarkable.

Stronger: I'm glad that I made the observation in the Bluffer's Guide that kids can probably graduate from Disney to the Shins directly now -- so maybe Demi will push things in that direction. Might continue in the singer-songwriting pseudo-"pulled-from-MySpace" vein of Marie Digby (I never followed the story about her phony grassroots support, and so never learned that, surprise, it was likely masterminded by Hollywood Records) from the sound of these (I'm assuming) demos.

An update (sort of) from the last post: I've been a litle outta the loop lately, and good teenpop can be found mostly in hip-hop and R&B this year, from Teyana Taylor, Soulja Boy-connected VIC, and Karina Pasian.