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Headstrong

Review

by Heather Phares

The High School Musical soundtrack was so popular that it was inevitable that all of the stars of the Disney Channel phenomenon would release albums of their own. Ashlely Tisdale, who played Sharpay Evans, the queen of her high school's theater department, became the first female artist to debut with two singles on Billboard's Hot 100 at the same time, so expectations were high for Headstrong, her first post-High School Musical work. Unfortunately, Tisdale had more character singing in character as Sharpay: her voice is pleasant enough, but it's not especially distinctive, and she's not helped by a batch of songs that aren't nearly as charming as High School Musical's tunes. Attempting to give Tisdale an identity outside of High School Musical, Headstrong's sound is much more mature than the soundtrack's teen pop-meets-musicals vibe, incorporating heavy hip-hop beats, dancehall's call-and-response, Middle Eastern elements, and other mid-2000s pop music trends into the Disney pop sound. "Positivity"'s syncopated beats and old-school synths make it one of the best examples of this approach, and one of the best songs on the album. Gwen Stefani's hip-pop is another major influence, …  » Read more

Tracks

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Releases

Year Type label Catalog #
2007 CD Warner Bros. 44425
2007 CD Warner Bros. 9362499995