Idolator, All About the Music... If Only It Were

where are they now

The Bee Girl Tries To Pollinate The Celebrity Press

The New York Post nearly redeemed itself last month when it tracked down Heather DeLoach, a.k.a. "the Bee Girl from that Blind Melon video," n.k.a. a 25-year-old aspiring actress who lives in Southern California and whose previous credits include stints on Reno 911! and ER. "When I casually meet people, they don't know and I don't display it to them," DeLoach told the Post. "But within an hour, someone is bragging about it, like my boyfriend or my friends, and they're like, 'Oh my God, that's you?' " No word on whether or not she's forced to do her tap dance as proof that she's the real deal, alas. [NYP / YouTube]

3:45 PM on Tue Dec 2 2008
By Maura Johnston
1 view, Comment

The end of irony

The Used-MP3 Marketplace: It's Not A Joke Anymore

One of the running gags those of us who follow the music world for a living has had focused on the idea of the used-MP3 store. "Ha ha!" we laughed. "This is when we know that people are really trying to make money off anything on the Internet, and when we all close up shop and learn a trade." Well, my friends, I give you Bopaboo, which, while cloaked in a ready-to-carry-yuppie-babies name, offers those people who want it "an online marketplace that allows you to legally transfer and resale digital music." "Legally," huh? More »

3:00 PM on Tue Dec 2 2008
By Maura Johnston
113 views, 4 comments

Latest by Audif Jackson Winters III: It's actually a really interesting legal question. What constitutes a chattel? The owner of a chattel -- such as a CD -- generally has a legal right to transfer the chattel by selling it to a third party. The only more »

casting notices

Ray Winstone To Join Steven Soderbergh's Guided By Voices-Singing Professionals

Last month, we told you about Cleo, Steven Soderbergh's musical about the life of Cleopatra that will supposedly star Catherine Zeta-Jones, Hugh Jackman, and the songs of Guided By Voices. (Also it's in 3-D.) Today, a new castmember was announced for the flick: Ray Winstone, whose musical-acting chops can be seen in the above scene from Ladies And Gentlemen The Fabulous Stains. He'll play Julius Caesar in the film, which is bringing together '70s rock operas, former Spin writers, the music of Robert Pollard, and backlots trussed up to look like ancient Egypt in ways that I don't think any of us have ever seen, except maybe during Theraflu hazes. More »

2:30 PM on Tue Dec 2 2008
By Maura Johnston
74 views, 4 comments

Latest by Lucas Jensen: @Ned Raggett: I will get my friend to write it up for Idolator. more »

We're heading to dallas to get aerosmith tickets

Live Nation And Blockbuster Team Up To Frustrate Ticket Buyers

From the "Who actually purchases tickets in a store these days?" department, Live Nation has signed an agreement with Blockbuster to house ticket outlets in 500 Blockbuster locations "strategically located" near Live Nation venues come 2009, when Live Nation sets up its own ticketing system. Still, you have to see a few flaws in this plan. One, the tickets won't be available at all Blockbuster locations, which seems to be a logistical nightmare for store staffers who will be forced to redirect those looking for tickets. Two, Live Nation will be granting "exclusive blocks" of tickets to the store outlets, thus keeping even more tickets out of the general pool for buyers who might not want to hang out in front of a Blockbuster waiting for the on-sale time. On the other hand, the companies are sharing marketing databases and planning cross-promotions for the ever-shrinking cross-section of Americans who have the extra scratch to rent videos and attend large scale concerts. [HITS Daily Double]

1:45 PM on Tue Dec 2 2008
By Dan Gibson
77 views, 3 comments

Latest by Jupiter8: Finally! Something for Blockbuster employees to do! more »

listening station

Lily Allen Shows Off Newish Song, EMI Shows Off Newish YouTube Strategy

Yesterday, charming blogabout Lily Allen debuted "The Fear," the lead single off her forthcoming album It's Not Me, It's You. The song is a brighter version of a track she previewed on MySpace back in April, and it burbles along nicely, with shiny synths underscoring Lily's simple singalong melodies. But I'm also interested in how Parlophone, her label in the UK, decided to treat the pre-video period on YouTube, because it actually represents something of a smart move. More »

1:00 PM on Tue Dec 2 2008
By Maura Johnston
230 views, 7 comments

Latest by Nunya B: I think the album is receiving a simultaneous release in the US and in the UK, though of course the fact that that isn't being publicized is just stupid. more »

the biz

What Should The Suits Blame: The Economy Or The Leaks?

The hand-wringing over Kanye West's and Guns N' Roses' disappointing sales figures last week has begun, and lots of fingers seem to be pointing toward the economy, the decline of the music industry as a whole, and Axl Rose's reclusive nature. But should someone maybe point out that people aren't buying the discs because they heard them already and felt like they could live without the return of Axl and the rise of Autotune? More »

12:00 PM on Tue Dec 2 2008
By Dan Gibson
507 views, 21 comments

The 2009 installment of Bonnaroo will take place June 11-14, 2009, and tickets go on sale this Thursday. Following the lead of K-Mart and Stagecoach, the Bonnaroo organizers are offering a lay-away plan for people who want to head out to Tennessee, but don't feel like running up their lines of credit; the price of your ticket—whether general admission or VIP—can be split up over five payments. (NB: This is all provided that the world doesn't fall into complete and total chaos before then.) [Official site]

Comment

The occasionally reliable NME is reporting that Britney Spears' Circus has so far sold 24,000 copies, leaving the album in third place out of the gate. The Killers are hanging on to second place n their second week out, but the real success story is the new Take That disc—titled The Circus—which has the biggest first-day sales of 2008. Yes, even more than Coldplay. Those figures are courtesy of the band's management, so it should be taken with a grain of salt, but the idea that Take That might possibly have England's biggest album of 2008 on their hands is surely something to behold. [NME]

3 comments

Revenge of the '90s

The Macarena: The Song That Will Never Go Away

Los Del Rio's "Macarena," despite being one on the most irritating songs ever created and a constant curse on the ears of anyone who is forced to attend multiple elementary school dances each year, is a nice success story for an Andalusian folk act with 40 years of toil in the notoriously tough Spanish music biz under their belts. Apparently the money from 14 weeks at No. 1 ran dry, because they're back, and ready to party like they're turning 15. More »

11:00 AM on Tue Dec 2 2008
By Dan Gibson
184 views, 2 comments

Latest by Tenno: Frankly if you have to sing about the award you're gunning for, you've already lost the game. Just feels like begging is all. more »

Yahh trick uh... wtf?

Soulja Boy Keeps Opening Mouth, Inserting Self-Branded Shoe

Continuing his elaborate metacommentary on the 21st century couched in saying really stupid shit to the press, Soulja Boy gave a new slew of bon mots to former Idolator guestblogger Jeff Weiss for New York's Vulture blog. In addition to saying that "everything is going digital" while hawking his decidedly carbon-based shoe line, he expounded further on why he put up the "How to 'Crank Dat'" video on YouTube, how he'd never actually supermanned a ho, and the metaphysical implications of swag: More »

10:30 AM on Tue Dec 2 2008
By Maura Johnston
268 views, 3 comments

Latest by Maura Johnston: @encyclopediablack: i am so in favor of both these movements, but moreso for 'hater,' because all it does is shut down any possibility for discussion. more »

who charted

The Record Business Celebrates The Bad Kind Of Black Friday

If anyone in the music business was hoping that the one-two punch of a holiday weekend and big-name releases would magically convince people to pay for music one last time, they may want to pour themselves a stiff drink, or at least spike their morning latte: Billboard is reporting that the No. 1 album, Kanye West's 808s & Heartbreak, sold 425,000-450,000 copies over the course of last week, while Guns N' Roses' Chinese Democracy woefully underperformed, moving between 250,000 and 260,000 copies during its first week on Best Buy's shelves. And that's not all: Depending on who you ask, overall music sales were down anywhere between 10% and 30% when compared with last year's holiday weekend, although online numbers were OK. Meanwhile, a UK tabloid is claiming that bigwigs at Universal Music Group are blaming the soft landing of Chinese Democracy squarely on Axl, because he didn't do enough press for the album. Even though it probably received more free press than any other record this year. Yeah, it couldn't be that people currently see Guns N' Roses as something of a novelty act, and that people who liked Appetite probably aren't so into the new sound, and that even those people who wanted to give Axl a shot were a bit weirded out by the whole preserved-in-1999-amber feel of the final recorded product, could it? More »

10:00 AM on Tue Dec 2 2008
By Maura Johnston
450 views, 18 comments

Latest by LiquidHeaven: @Lucas Jensen: I think Duff wrote many of the arrangements on all the albums. more »

the last word

Introducing Akon, Pop's Newest Sad-Sack Balladeer

Our look at the closing lines of reviews of the week's biggest new music continues with a look at reactions to Akon's Freedom, which arrives in stores today: More »

10:00 AM on Tue Dec 2 2008
By Dan Gibson
89 views, Comment

Like a karate kid

Britney Spears To Take Her Circus On Tour

This morning, Britney Spears was on Good Morning America to celebrate the release of her "comeback" album Circus and her 27th birthday, as well as preview her just-announced tour; above, she performs the album's title track in a performance that will no doubt have reams of textual analysis written about it by the time lunch rolls around. (Me, I think she looks a little tired, and I'm wavering back and forth between the reason being jet lag or a sudden realization that the cycle that brought her to the point where she needed a big splashy comeback is beginning anew.) Tour dates after the jump. More »

9:15 AM on Tue Dec 2 2008
By Maura Johnston
193 views, 13 comments

Latest by ObtuseIntolerant: @janine: OK, that is fair. I don't know from Smithson, but I will admit to being impressed with Scherzinger's troupe's dancing on the AMA's, to my true surprise. Not that I intend to follow up with them and I think more »

With arms wide open

The Creed Reunion Is Almost A Go!

Scott Stapp! Scott Stapp! The name like music to the ears of any red-blooded American. And now, it looks like that Creed reunion is actually going to happen! More »

4:00 PM on Mon Dec 1 2008
By Mike Barthel
1,605 views, 12 comments

the new model

System Overload: How Not To Get Ahead In Music

"Doing traditional PR for independent artists is really difficult, and handling PR on a national level is the most challenging and one of the most discouraging tasks I have ever undertaken," writes Ariel Hyatt of Ariel Publicity, and based on a long post at Music Think Tank where she lays out the obstacles to getting an album covered, you can see where she's coming from. 40,000 CDs are released every year, which means that in an average week, there are almost 800 albums vying for the 3-10 review slots in any publication. Hyatt rightly points out that music critics keep demanding physical copies when many of them just turn around and sell them to record stores, and when digital copies would do just as well, this seems ridiculous. But from the critics' perspective, they're being asked to sort through 800 CDs a week to find the ones worthy of coverage, and that's more or less physically impossible for one person to do. More »

3:00 PM on Mon Dec 1 2008
By Mike Barthel
695 views, 8 comments

Latest by Lucas Jensen: @M--N: This is pretty myopic. Labels sign people based on politics and who they know as much as they do the quality of the music. Sure, Kranky's got a great track record, but plenty of people pass on more »

Breakups

Annie Tosses Island Records Aside, Like It's Yesterday's Gum

After seeing her album Don't Stop put into endless turnaround despite it leaking over the summer, the Norwegian retro-popper Annie has announced that she's leaving Island Records: "I think it's a great label, but I never felt they were that positive to my ideas...so we decided that we're not gonna work together anymore. After Nick Gatfield, who was the head of Island left the label...a couple of months after I signed, things changed. I'm an artist with lots of ideas, plans...so I'm gonna do things my own way from now on." The first order of business under "her own way" is putting out a single on knob-twiddler Richard X's label. hurrah. Maybe now that she's left the label, someone will put an embeddable copy of the "I Know Ur Girlfriend Hates Me" video up on YouTube? (Ha, hahaaha. Just kidding.) [Annie's MySpace Blog via Pitchfork / YouTube]

2:45 PM on Mon Dec 1 2008
By Maura Johnston
245 views, 14 comments

Latest by bcapirigi: @Nunya B: I think from now on I'm going to start calling people I don't like "such a bad troll." But in a cutesy voice. more »

OG musicbloggers from Chromewaves, Largehearted Boy, Fluxblog, and Said the Gramophone, along with Ryan Catbird and Matt LeMay, are launching a group blog called (somewhat confusingly) MBV. There's MBV-specific content mixed in with posts aggregated from the founders' other sites, and more stuff to come over the ensuing weeks and months. [MBV]

13 comments

Done with mirrors

Will Video Games Save The Music Industry? Dream On

"Can Guitar Hero Help Save the Music Industry?" asked a post to the New York Times' "Freakonomics" blog recently. And while our natural inclination is to yell "we hope so," it's worth examining the claims made before we go down that path—especially since the author of the piece is "the worldwide games portfolio manager for Xbox Live Arcade" and thus not really that unbiased an observer. While it makes logical sense that a massively popular video game would help increase the sales of the music featured within, the article throws in another claim to bolster its argument for the gaming industry's eventual overtaking of the music biz: that the Aerosmith edition of Guitar Hero "resulted in more revenue for the band than any individual Aerosmith album." Well! But how much revenue is that, exactly? And does it really make up for lost sales? More »

2:00 PM on Mon Dec 1 2008
By Mike Barthel
378 views, 3 comments

Latest by owenmeany: This piece got it wrong from the title. The music industry doesn't need to be saved. The RECORD industry does. And honestly? Who the fuck cares about the record industry? more »