Growing up is hard for most of us but it’s especially challenging for actors and singers. Trevor Jackson is a seventeen-year-old Disney star who is trying to break out of the child image just like Miley Cyrus, but without a complete makeover (or a wrecking ball). Jackson is trying to appeal to both young and older adults with his new style, proving he is leaving his Disney past behind.

Jackson’s songs are R&B, which is not what I usually listen to but I did try to keep an open mind. However, I only found two of the five songs to be interesting on his New Thang EP.

At first I felt the title song was irritating, but upon listening to it a couple more times the song grew on me. Lyrically the song is somewhat repetitive, but that’s what makes the song catchy and the beat was slightly similar to Dubstep. When I was listening to Jackson’s songs I realized he reminded me of Chris Brown (before his legal affairs with Rihanna) with his voice and at times with the dancing in his videos.

His EP #NewThang contains a total of five songs and the two music videos for the two top hit songs. All the songs talk about love and they make you feel like dancing when you are alone in your room. Jackson performed a handstand on top of a van showing off his athletic abilities in his music video “Drop It”. The beat in the song is similar to that tapping of a pencil when you find yourself bored or in need of inspiration. “Like We Grown” I found to be too romantic for me with the video focusing on Jackson and his new crush being together. The lyrics were what I found mushy but the beat was decent just not that great so that it would make up for the lyrics.  Jackson’s song, “One Girl”, was too cheesy with “You and me would be perfect” and “I could have two or three but I’d rather have you and me” although the beat did work for me. “In This Crowd” reminded me of Usher with his song “DJ Got Us Fallin’ In Love” since Jackson not only mentioned the “DJ” lyrically but the beats seemed to relate to one another.

If “New Thang” and “Drop It” happened to pop up in the radio I wouldn’t change the styation, but the others are debatable. The songs couldn’t keep my attention for long and probably won’t be played on the radio in the future. However, I will be part of those that will run into his songs by shuffling the songs on their ipod, iphone, or ipad since I have his album. I would give the album three stars since I only found one song to be catchy with both lyrics and beat whereas the others either had the beat but lacked the lyrics or vice versa.