Every once in awhile, it's good to stop and take stock of..talent. Vanessa Hudgens has it and it's expressed in this video. Now, I'd not known of her until I decided to click on her YouTube video and that was because it was on the front page of YouTube. Then I realized Hudgens was at the center of the Internet photo scandal a while back.
Ok. It seems there are so many of those.
She can sing and dance. Her voice is soulful and reminds me of Paula Abdul or any one of the Pointer Sisters. I'll be one of the half-million MySpace friends she has who puts their sneakers on!
But from a Zeitgeist perspective, Vanessa's one of the emerging young women who aren't African American, but have the soulful voice that Black female singers have been known for. She's part Irish American and Filipino American. But her style is emblematic of the diversity that Hip Hop has for all practical purposes forced on America. Because Hip Hop and Rap are the dominant music culture forms, American Culture, including what kids listen to, and who they try to sing like, have been litterally controlled and shaped by them.
Vanessa is the end result of this process.