Popjustice

Popjustice is a music website founded in 2000 and is the work of UK freelance music journalist Peter Robinson, who has worked for "NME", "The Guardian", "Attitude" and many others.

The website seeks to celebrate commercial popular music and does this using humour, user interaction, and contacts within the music industry. Its writing style has been compared favourably by a number of critics to that of the now defunct Smash Hits magazine, in that it mixes a passion for Pop music with a surreal and biting wit.

Support of Debbie Harry, Rachel Stevens, Kylie Minogue, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Jamelia, Busted, McFly and Girls Aloud prompted some to suggest financial links to Universal Music, although this was denied by Robinson who pointed out that Popjustice is run independently.

The website was relaunched in January 2006 with more features, music downloads and online shop. In November 2006 Popjustice won a Record of the Day PR & Music Journalism Award in the Best Online Music Publication category, with another individual award going to Peter Robinson in the Breaking Music: Writer Of The Year category.

The web site was thought to have been hacked and closed in April 2007, but Popjustice made a statement saying "We haven't actually been hacked, the truth is much more boring. Blame the work experience". During its downtime, viewers were kept entertained by Dumper, a robot created by PJ. On April 17, 2007, the website relaunched with a brand new design.

Popjustice £20 Music Prize

In 2003, Popjustice set up the Popjustice £20 Music Prize, in order to find the best British pop single of the year, as a parody of the Mercury Music Prize and held on the same night, usually at a bar in Central London. Girls Aloud won the first prize in 2003 with "No Good Advice", and "Some Girls" by Rachel Stevens won the prize in 2004. Girls Aloud then won the prize for a second time in 2005 with "Wake Me Up" before taking it home yet again in 2006 with "Biology". The 2007 prize went to Amy Winehouse for "Rehab". Girls Aloud won for a fourth time in 2008 with "Call the Shots".

Popjustice books and albums

A series of Popjustice books called "Popjustice Idols" were published in March 2006. They are illustrated by David Whittle. Drawing inspriration from Roger Hargreaves' "Mr Men" books, these feature amusing looks at the lives of pop stars. The initial titles were Madonna, Robbie Williams and Eminem with a Take That version released in April 2006. Four more were released in November 2006 featuring Pete Doherty, Elton John, Britney Spears and Michael Jackson, and there is talk of this range expanding into a TV format [* [http://observer.guardian.co.uk/omm/story/0,,1729851,00.html Observer newspaper article - Peter Robinson on Popjustice (March 2006)] .] A compilation album was also released in October 2006, titled .

External links

* [http://www.popjustice.com Popjustice.com]
* [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,170-1490692,00.html Doing Justice To Smash Hits - The Times]
* [http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/fridayreview/story/0,,1094552,00.html Guardian newspaper article - "Little things we like: Popjustice" (November 2003)]
* [http://observer.guardian.co.uk/omm/story/0,,1729834,00.html Observer newspaper article - "25 most amazing music sites on the web" (March 2006)]

References