10. Selena Gomez – I can already hear people bitching about how she’s too low on this list but what has she really done this year? Besides getting her ass kissed by the media as the perfect role model? She had an under-performing movie out which didn’t exactly gave her the material to show off any acting talent. Wizards of Waverly Place has declining ratings and her album wasn’t a hit even though it got high praise (though I don’t know why). What has she coming up next year? One (pushed back) movie and the end of Wizards of Waverly Place. What will come after that? I don’t know but I hope it will be a bit more adventurous.

9. Emma Stone – An old newcomer on this list seeing she’s already 22 years old, got herself on the list for creating quite a hype around her movie Easy A. She also has a lot of movies coming up in the next two years so her place in Hollywood is set for a while, what worries me in this case is that there are a lot of comedies amongst them. Though maybe that’s the direction she wants to take so in that case it would be fine.

8. Taylor Momsen – This is a difficult one, her acting career is going downhill quite a bit due to her lacking appearances on Gossip Girl (not going to speculate as to why). However she is doing things to get herself noticed in the music industry, she actually does make decent music with The Pretty Reckless. It however is being overshadowed by her transformation within a year where she feels the need to shock people as much as possible to get herself noticed. I would prefer it if she let her music speak.

7. Dakota Fanning – In a way she’s still the go to teen actress in Hollywood, however she seems to have gone from quality actress more to blockbuster actress in a way, mainly due to the Twilight series. However she is also busy with going to normal high school so I can’t blame her for that, out of all the people on the list she’s the only one who became homecoming queen this year. After the Twilight movies it looks more promising again, so she’s still doing her thing in Hollywood.

6. Miranda Cosgrove – Miranda, just like a couple of others, is a bit safe. She doesn’t do any crazy things or things where you’d think that it would be a real challenge. The only thing she did which is a bit out of her comfort zone in a way is play a Disney star on The Good Wife for one episode. Her album did alright enough for a first effort though I don’t ever see her becoming a big seller, of course she doesn’t have to be. Her show iCarly is still going strong and she also had an animated movie that did well. Her future seems to be heading along the same lines as it is now.

5. Chloe Moretz – A lot of people would expect her to be higher up but I don’t see her as bit a hit as some other people. Yes, she did make an impact as Hit-Girl in Kick-Ass. Thing is, no matter how much people talk about that movie it really wasn’t the success they make it out to be. She has a lot of movies coming out in the next two years and they seem like a fairly balanced mix between starring and non-starring roles. So she’s just taking her time.

4. Elle Fanning – Higher than her sister yes and she hasn’t actually done a whole lot in the past year so why is she there? For her it’s more about the next year, she actually has quite a few movies listed and just like with Chloe there is a nice mix between starring and non-starring and bigger and smaller movies. I just see more potential in Elle than in Chloe, I think she actually might be able to take advantage of being in the shadow of a more famous sibling. There doesn’t seem to be that much pressure on her.

3. Taylor Swift – I sort of had to put her up this high even though I don’t actually like it. Despite her lack in development in a way and her general safeness she still makes good music. Yes, she did make her acting debut this year and even though I don’t like saying it; she sucked as an actress. It really isn’t something she was made out to do it seems but it doesn’t seem to be what she really wants to do anyway. Not that she’s never going to act again but music is still her main focus. Despite me having certain issues with her, I still like her music and actually have concert tickets to go see her next year.

2. Victoria Justice – She is the star of Victorious obviously and does a good job of it. She has the looks to make it in Hollywood and she also has the voice for a music career. Whether a music career will be successful for her isn’t guaranteed but she’s working on it. Just like her network mate Miranda it seems she’ll just continue what she’s doing now, focus on her TV show, at this time there are no other acting projects listed. People in general just seem to like her which is a good thing and she’s not afraid to show some personality in interviews.

1. Miley Cyrus – Did I put Miley on #1 again? Yes, despite the (in my eyes unfair) criticism on her acting performance in her first real role outside of Hannah Montana, despite there being tons of non-existent blown out of proportion scandals, despite the “failing” of her music career and who knows what else. You know what? She’s still there, isn’t she? For all the criticism she gets she still is teen star #1 out there. So what is winning there, her talent or her “bad” image? She’s focusing on acting for the time being (though I’m sure music will be back soon enough) and the movies that are coming up are nothing what people in her position would have done in the past.

She chooses movies for strong female characters than just a paycheck. To me that shows that she’s serious about the acting craft and wants to learn and expand herself. Whether the movies will be a success or not is something we will have to wait and see about, just like we have to wait and see whether she can hold her own in those roles. Oh yes people, now that she’s 18 could you give her a little slack and stop it with the prejudice? There are also a lot of people who don’t think that she’ll make it because she’s “ugly”. The worldwide excitement regarding a false rumor about her posing in Playboy tells me otherwise.

So as you can tell for a rising starlets list it’s quite negative compared to previous years but that’s all I could think of. They’re each busy building a career their own way. As I said, if you don’t agree with it, tough luck. Start your own blog and make your own list.

P.S. Before anyone starts bitching about Willow Smith not being on this list, it takes more than one over-hyped song to get on it. As for the other group of people who are going to criticize me for not putting Bella Thorne on there; I just don’t see it.

Taylor is often accused of using the same themes over and over again and yes this is true. Almost all of her songs have some past relationship. When I hear a new Taylor Swift song I really wonder sometimes how many men that woman has dated in her life, there seem to be a lot. Including older men, makes you wonder about things that are said about other young celebrities who have steady relationships but that’s a different subject.

Taylor isn’t the singer out there with the best vocals in the business, in fact they’re rather limited and the live performances I’ve seen of her weren’t exactly good. So she has to rely on lyrics, music and has to make sure she doesn’t do things vocally that she can’t do. Thankfully she doesn’t do the last thing as for the first two I’d say it’s very Fearless. I can’t say that I get the feeling that this is the album of an artist that has grown the past two years. Most of it is a bit the same as her earlier work.

I do like songs on there though but I like the ones that stand out, the ones that don’t really have the country vibe, like The Story Of Us (could you even say there is a bit of a dance beat to that song?), Better than Revenge, Enchanted and Haunted.

I can’t say that there are bad songs on the album but I do have critical points. Some of the songs are just too long, with some of the songs that are longer than five minutes long you get the feeling that you’ve heard the song now, that you don’t need it to be any longer. Then there is also the song Innocent which, as admitted by Taylor, is about Kanye West. I cannot help but feel that releasing that song is a mistake, last year she wanted everyone to get over what he did at the MTV VMA’s and a year later it’s Taylor herself who brings up the subject again. Combined with all these songs about past relationships it just makes Taylor seem bitter and I don’t think that that is a good thing to go for.

So the final conclusion is that this is another Taylor Swift album; it’s just safe. There is nothing new on it, no sense that there is a lot of musical development. I’d say it’s at about the same level as Fearless really, there is no other way I can put it. I’m sure fans will love it but is there really a need to buy it when you’ve already heard it? So no, it’s not a bad album, not by a long shot seeing there’s nothing really bad on it. It’s just a solid album and that makes me feel what I’ve felt for a while about Taylor now; it makes her boring. Rating still comes to a four out of five because I just don’t have enough reasons to give it a low rating, in the end it matters whether it’s good to listen to or not and it is. A musical highlight however it’s not.

Simple enough solution, here is the annual list of rising starlets so now the 2009 edition. So young actresses and musicians in Hollywood who I feel have done the most improvement in their career rated by projects, popularity etc. Yes, it is full of my opinion so no one can tell me I’m wrong. Here we go.

10. Victoria Justice – Is getting quite a bit of attention for someone who isn’t on TV all that much. Sure she has her guest spots on Nickelodeon shows her and there and she did the TV movie Spectacular! She is getting an own show on Nickelodeon though for some reason it went a bit quiet around that.

9. Demi Lovato – Personally I think she should be up higher on the list, however I also think that she won’t get the same chances as other people might get. People see her too much as just another Disney star while I think she has more potential than that. This year saw the premiere of her show Sonny With a Chance which gets good ratings, however it doesn’t quite match up with other shows on the same channel. Her second album outsold her first album so that is going in the right direction, she’s developing her own sound.

8. Dakota Fanning – Dakota just had success with Twilight: New Moon of course though that isn’t really down to her. She however is continuing to show that she has some acting talent, the coming year however will be in the shade of Kristen Stewart a bit as she co-stars her twice, in both cases Kristen has the bigger role.

7. Selena Gomez – Continues to do well with Wizards of Waverly Place ratings wise, also has a movie coming out next year. Not too confident in her music career honestly but the main public seems to like her and the media makes her out to be bigger than she actually is. The media however is also of major influence in entertainment so that’s why she ranks higher than for example Demi Lovato.

6. Taylor Swift – Basically one of the best selling artists of the year if not the best selling one. For 2010 I however am not to sure, right now she is still milking the success of Fearless which was released in 2008. Even though it had a re-release with new songs she has to do something bigger fairly soon. Though she is now broadening her horizon into acting as well, so career wise that probably is a good thing.

5. Miranda Cosgrove – iCarly is pretty much the highest rated show in its age category, simple as that. She seems fairly settled at Nickelodeon though maybe just a bit too settled. She’s also recording an album, I hope it won’t be what she has been producing so far. So far she’s only been doing soundtrack work so I’m still hopeful that she can develop her own sound.

4. Jennette McCurdy – I’m probably the only person who ranks Jennette above Miranda in a comparison like this. She is also a major part in the success of iCarly, so in that part of the success I actually rank them equally. I however see more promise in her music career, unlike what most people would expect she didn’t sign to a pop label. She’s going into country music, with her voice I think she has potential there (if you haven’t heard her sing, just youtube her).

3. Kristen Stewart – Twilight, that’s what sums her up right now at the moment. Though she’s also doing The Runaways but I don’t think that will be that big a box office hit, don’t think it’s really supposed to be either. Twilight is also her problem though, right now she’s nothing but Twilight. Even I can see what it did to her name in Hollywood, despite me not actually liking Twilight.

2. Sofia Vassilieva – Visitors to this site (even though there aren’t that many) will know that I have a soft spot for her. In the past year however she has starred in a well received movie (My Sister’s Keeper) and not just because she shaved her head and eyebrows for it. Her show Medium also moved channels and what did that do? It only made ratings for the show either, quite an achievement for a show that has been on the air for that much time already. Is it due to her? Not in particular but she turns eighteen next year, which means producers for the show will be able to do what I think they have been wanting to do for a while. Give her a bigger role as she can start to work more hours. Only flaw I see is that she doesn’t really have any new movie projects lined up at this time.

1. Miley Cyrus – Yes, yet again I put Miley on the top. Why? Well, think about it. Who was the person with the most blown out of proportion scandals in the past year that weren’t actually true scandals? That’s right it was Miley. Did it hurt her career? If it did, I don’t want to know what would have happened if she didn’t have any of those scandals. We’d most likely be visiting churches devoted to Miley by now. She managed to crash Twitter (though there is no real proof for that, just rather curious Twitter crashed right after she deleted her Twitter) and expanded her career to include that of successful clothing designer. She however managed to do one major thing which is the most important; she managed to be Miley Cyrus. People keep saying she’ll have Hannah Montana branded on her forehead the rest of her life (though maybe that’s due to the show itself going down in quality), I think she already passed that point though. Next year will also see a movie in which she isn’t Hannah Montana and another album release. Nothing to suggest that she will go downhill, even if that is what certain media are trying to make people believe.

So what does this have to be with celebrities or starlets in particular? Well, people tend to think only about themselves. Celebrities are there to serve a purpose, to entertain them. In this process it seems that people forgot that celebrities are one main thing; they are human. This isn’t the case for all people of course but at times it seems to be that way.

When people are fans they have some empathy for a certain celebrity, when they don’t like a celebrity they tend to act the same way as everyone else though. They get mad when someone says something bad about their favorite but they won’t hesitate to say something bad about another celebrity. Though I guess you can qualify that under general fan behavior, it’s not always a pretty sight.

The media is a bunch of selfish people as well, though there is a difference between media outlets. A media outlet however wants people to read their stories, sad thing is that a lot of media outlets use that as an excuse to twist, misinterpret, misquote and do whatever they want. Doesn’t matter if it hurts the feelings, reputation or entire life of a celebrity.

I could never imagine working at places like Star Magazine, I would honestly just feel like a dirty asshole. I often wonder about the moral standard people that work there hold themselves to. People who work there and say that they don’t really mean it and are only doing their job are the problem really, they have lost the perspective that celebrities are human beings and not objects.

I am not perfect but I have my moral standards. I won’t deny that I have said things about celebrities that I probably shouldn’t have said. At least I know that I have done that and try to avoid doing it again. I won’t say that the people that do work at Star are bad people, they have to really think for a bit, look themselves in the mirror and make their own mind up about that. Though I have to add that the media should never do one thing: lie. We have enough of that in oppressed countries.

Now if this is a bit vague, I think I should throw a couple of examples in there. First of all, lets use the Taylor Swift and Kanye West example. Everyone knows by now what happened at the VMA’s and I’m not going to comment on that, a lot of talking and writing about that was done though. Taylor Swift did a radio interview, of course there were questions about the event. Taylor chose to not respond, she felt she had said everything that cold be said She asked to move on to another subject. He of course did not, Taylor had to ask him twice more to move on before she walked away from the phone. A bit of complaining followed from the DJ but we’ll just leave it at that.

Now to me it’s quite clear that the DJ didn’t respect the wishes of Taylor in that, the person from Big Machine Records who commented also said that it was on a list of subject that wasn’t to be discussed. The DJ denied ever getting this list, the fact that he was the same DJ Miley Cyrus’ people hung up on makes me wonder about that. If the DJ had respect Taylor’s wishes, he would have gotten his interview He was set on what he wanted and he didn’t seem to care about what Taylor wanted. Doesn’t matter whether he plays her records a lot or not.

So what do I read the next day in a newspaper, Taylor Swift hung up on the DJ after only three questions because she didn’t like the kind of question. If I hadn’t heard the interview myself I would start to think that Taylor is a stuck up bitch. This however was the work of someone working at that paper who cut down the piece to the bare minimum and completely removed the context. Why? Don’t think it would make that good a story if the celebrity wasn’t the one at fault.

Example two, Miley Cyrus is currently ill with strep throat. Almost everyone must have had it at one point I’d think, if not; it pretty much makes it impossible to talk. Don’t even want to know what it does to a singing voice. Because of this she postponed three concerts until later on in the tour. Amazingly enough there are people (it seems these are parents of kids who were going to the concerts and they now feel that they are inconvenienced by a changed schedule) that think she should just perform. They want someone who isn’t even an adult yet, perform while she is sick? I would like to see what they would do if their child is sick. I’d expect them to stick their kid in bed and call a doctor.

Miley however is not their kid, she is a celebrity. She is there for the entertainment of themselves and their kids. So what if she is sick? They don’t know her personally so what do they care. Sure, she isn’t terminally ill and it will pass soon enough but they still forgot that one important thing: To think about someone else for a moment.

Now I don’t expect anyone to change after reading this posting, I would be deluded if I thought it did. Just felt that it needed saying. I believe that if you look at a celebrity like a human being it’s far easier to relate and even like them. If you only care about yourself you see a movie and music producing object. Sure, in the first place it is about their work but what makes them the artists they are? It’s the humans they are, especially with musicians there is a lot of soul that is put into something like an album (depending on the artist though). So looking at them as human beings makes them far more enjoyable I’d say.

Lets start with the Hannah Montana songs (which are of course are performed by Miley Cyrus, I doubt there is anyone left in the world who doesn’t know that); the quality of the songs varies immensely. While You’ll Always Find Your Way Back Home is actually a fun song even though it falls in the category of Bubble Gum pop. The more surprising is that Taylor Swift is one of the writers of the song. Let’s Get Crazy is just a Hannah Montana song just nothing special. The Good Life is ruined for one simple reason; it sounds like someone turned Miley’s voice into a chipmunk in parts of the song.

Especially when you compare it to other Hannah songs like Let’s Do This where Miley’s voice sounds much lower, where she pretty much sounds like Miley. The song still isn’t anything special and neither are the other Hannah songs Spotlight and What’s Not To Like. It’s not that they’re bad songs but they’re just the same kind of descriptive songs as on the other soundtracks. There is no hidden meaning, they just mean what they mean. There’s no real emotion to them. Oh yes, they also stuck another remix of Best of Both Worlds on There.

Steve Rushton is someone I’ve never heard of before this soundtrack but apparently he comes from a UK band known as Son of Dork which I’ve never heard of either. He has two songs on the soundtrack being Everything I Want and Game Over. Based on those songs I can’t say that I’m impressed by the guy though I don’t know if this is his usual style of music. Again the problem with these songs is that they’re nothing special and you can’t help but think he’s on there because he’s a new signing to Hollywood Records.

That’s the less impressive stuff of the Hannah Montana soundtrack out of the way; it gets better from here. Rascal Flatts is on the soundtrack with two acoustic versions of their songs; Backwards and Bless The Broken Road. Though Bless the Broken Road is a song which has been recorded by a lot of country artists. Backwards is actually slightly modified to include certain aspects from Hannah Montana, like changing name from Jack to Jackson and things along those lines. It’s just a fun country song while Bless the Broken Road is more of a heartfelt song.

Taylor Swift didn’t just write one of the Hannah Montana songs but she’s also on the soundtrack herself with a song she wrote herself. Crazier is in Taylor’s classic style and thankfully not in her new pop style which seems to be something her label is trying to create. It’s just a solid song which isn’t really surprising seeing it comes from Taylor Swift.

Billy Ray Cyrus of course can’t be left off the soundtrack; in this case he’s on it with the song Back to Tennessee which is also the title of his next album which comes out next week. Compared to his other recent work which has been lacking in the last couple of albums; this song is actual quite good. It’s not his only song on the album though, he also sings the duet Butterfly Fly Away with Miley. It’s not really the way you’re used to hearing either of them as it is a very slow paced song with only very subtle music track in the background.

The main problem with the song is that there is also a version on the internet where Miley sings it solo. Though I can see the point of them singing it together and no offense to Billy Ray. There’s no doubt it’s also related to the narrative of the movie it just works better solo. It makes the song feel more heartfelt; even more simple than the version on the soundtrack giving it a bigger impact.

So we get to the four last songs on the album; the four Miley Cyrus songs. Lets start of with the first one and the only one Miley wrote herself (she’s less involved in the Hannah soundtracks than her own albums). Don’t Walk Away actually leaked almost a year ago and a lot of people liked it, it just didn’t make it onto Breakout. Which makes it rather strange to see it on here all of a sudden, unless it was always intended for the movie. The song is still the same as back then except for some tweaks to the music but that didn’t really improve the song but didn’t make it worse either. The song just leaves you with a feeling that this is an old song and that Miley could probably do a lot better now as far as writing is concerned.

Now to Hoedown Throwdown or Miley’s Macarena as it is being called; the song even made it on the Billboard Hot 100 as a single. I’m sorry but it’s just silly; Disney should know better than anyone else that fads are often created by accident. The success of Hannah Montana was a surprise itself and the Macarena is just one of those songs where no one would ever have imagined that it would become a hit. So why does Disney think they can create a fad like that? Not to mention the dance that goes with it seems overly complicated to learn quickly though it helps that the description is in the song itself.

Leaving the Hoedown behind comes Dream which is a cover of a song previously recorded by Diana Degarmo of American Idol “fame”. Miley’s rendition of the song is far superior to that; it’s actually a nice song though some critical points could be made about the music. The last song is The Climb which is already Miley’s biggest hit to date and it’s just a good song. Nothing more really needs to be said about it.

So to the final conclusion and it’s not an easy one. How do you rate an album which on one end has bubble gum pop on it and country on the other? The country part is good while really nothing special can be said about the pop part. Also raises the question who is going to buy this album? No doubt the Hannah Montana and Miley fans will but will it be able to appeal to a bigger crowd due to the other songs on it? We’ll know next week when the sales numbers come in. If the final verdict were to be from the Hannah music fan perspective it would be good but from a sheer critical view it can’t go higher than three out of five. Miley being on the album herself with songs besides the Hannah songs just shows the weakness in them.