The twee troubadors
Zooey Deschanel’s musical career feels less like a side project and more like an expansion of her own offbeat universe. Star vehicle television show New Girl is just one point on a cute, hand-embroidered map of Zooey-world that includes the pop culture website she founded, Hello Giggles, and her musical partnership with M Ward, She & Him. Joining Deschanel in the twee troubadours is beanie-wearing Juno actor Michael Cera, who earlier this year released on bandcamp 18 eclectic songs of lo-fi piano pop, and Scarlett Johansson with her atmospheric album of Tom Waits covers.
The jazz crooners
Hugh Laurie was best-known – at least outside of the UK – as the irascible doctor on television show House in which he adopted a wonderful, growling American accent. For a while he was one of the highest-paid actors in the US. And his relationship to the nation doesn’t stop there, with his musical passions lying deep in the blues and jazz of the rolling south, in particular the sounds of New Orleans. Earlier this year Guardian Australia gave the piano-tinkling crooner a four-star review for his gig at Melbourne’s Palais Theatre.
The lead singers of rock
Russell Crowe and his 30 Odd Foot of Grunts, Juliette Lewis and the Licks, Jared Leto and Thirty Seconds to Mars, Keanu Reeves and Dogstar: together they share A-list Hollywood lead singers in B-minus musical projects. Yes, perhaps some of these are best lumped under the term “vanity projects”, but who among us doesn’t have that unpublished novel they’ve been working on forever, or invited every Facebook friend to their amateur improv theatre performance? Rather than cast a snark-spiked stone, let’s breathe a sigh of relief these men and women were limited to preternatural talents in acting alone.
The hip-hop heroes
Talking of the preternaturally talented, now is the perfect time to introduce young, unstoppable juggernauts like Donald Glover. Best known for his role in Community, Glover is currently trading in his serious star-on-the-rise career as a stand-up comedian and television actor for a serious star-on-the-rise career as a hip-hop artist. Known by his rap moniker Childish Gambino, Glover is proving he has the midas touch – he could probably take up figure skating and excel at it. Standing tall alongside Glover is Canadian rapper Drake, who was initially known as Jimmy Brooks on television series Degrassi: The Next Generation.
The pop songbirds
Before Australian Idol and The X Factor, soapies like Neighbours seemed to act as proxy pop star factories. And during that era, for every Kylie Minogue and Delta Goodrem there were far too many Stephanie McIntoshes and Holly Valances. In the US, the Disney Channel has been responsible for grooming many a tween star for musical careers, although Hillary Duff is one of the few who didn’t actually have to sing as part of her television role. Final mention must go to actors Robson Green and Jerome Flynn of British television show Soldier Soldier, for their chart-topping, critically panned cover band Robson & Jerome.
The novelty acts
The line between avant-garde and practical joke is razor thin. Somehow William Shatner has managed to keep audiences intrigued as to which side he’s sitting on for six albums. His karaoke cover songs blend singing with spoken word and have attracted big-name musical collaborators like Ben Folds, Peter Frampton and Brian May of Queen. Also sitting in the novelty bin is Joaquin Phoenix’s truly terrible 2008 turn as a rapper (in contrast to the musical talent he showed in the Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line). Of course, it was just too bad-therefore-good to be true, and he later revealed the stunt to be a part of a mockumentary called I’m Still Here.
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