Jay-Z and Ciara are embarking on a short tour of the U.S. this summer, with the hip-hop heavyweight being backed up by a live band as he works on the finishing touches for the long-in-the-works Blueprint 3. One thing, though; the press release that was sent out referred to the venues on this tour as “intimate,” even though the capacities for the venues announced so far range from 2,400 (The Pearl at the Palms in Vegas, where the tour will spend two nights) to 9,500 (Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn.). And the press seem to be copying and pasting that claim without abandon. Am I too much of a purist for thinking that an “intimate” venue is one where capacity is below the four-figure mark, or are these reporters just reflecting Jay being so used to his larger-than-life world that he’s forgotten what an actual club show is like? [Billboard] MORE »
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upcoming tours
Jay-Z Announces Summer Tour, Redefines The Word “Intimate”
the last word
Ciara Is Hiding In Plain Sight
Our look at the closing lines of the week’s biggest new-music reviews continues with a roundup of reactions to Fantasy Ride, the long-delayed third album by Ciara: MORE »
pointless listmaking
Twitter’s Most-Chatted-About Artists List: It’s Not As Trent Reznor-Heavy As You Might Think
The microblogging service Twitter has really taken off this week, thanks in large part to its ability to both refract the narcissistic impulses of the famous and allow anyone with an e-mail address to act Just Like The Stars. Sometimes, though, it is actually sort of useful! The music-chatter-charting site We Are Hunted released what it’s saying is a list of yesterday’s 85 most-mentioned artists on the 140-character-limited service, and what’s probably most surprising is its middle-of-the-roadness–Taylor Swift, who’s an avid Tweeter herself, tops the chart, and mainstreamy artists like Lady GaGa, Mariah Carey, and Britney Spears are all in the top 10 while Nine Inch Nails (No. 19) and Radiohead (No. 17) have to do with only making the top 20. Oh no, the not-cool people are taking over the Web! Guess it’s time to go back to BBSes. Full list after the jump. MORE »
noon as the news
Faith Hill Gets Re-Retouched By “Redbook”
In this edition of our noontime headlines roundup: Faith Hill’s “Comic Strip” poses, Billy Joel gets out of hand with a Sharpie, and Justin Timberlake returns to the Saturday Night Live stage for the 454th time. MORE »
videodrone
iTunes And Amazon Continue To Play “Name That Price”
When the iTunes Store introduced variable pricing earlier this week, 60% of the songs in the store’s top 10 had their prices hiked by 30 cents; as of this writing, eight of those 10 tracks are now priced at $1.29, with Kid Cudi’s “Day N’ Nite” and Jamie Foxx’s “Blame It” seeing price increases over the past two days. (Thanks, America, for keeping the top 10 pretty much static so a fair comparison between then and now can be made!) MORE »
the biz
iTunes’ Variable Pricing Launch: By The Numbers
Apple’s iTunes Store launched its variable pricing for music today, where certain songs will have their prices pumped up by 30 cents to $1.29. (Other songs will have their prices slashed to 69 cents.) A glance at the store’s top 100 songs shows that about one-third of the best-selling tracks have had their prices inflated—a number that includes the store’s top two songs as of this writing, the Black Eyed Peas’ “Boom Boom Pow” and Lady GaGa’s “Poker Face.” I’ll be checking back during the day to see if the inflated prices of those two songs results in their floating down the chart (or if the still-99-cent levy one has to pay for “The Climb” helps it out at all), but for now, here are a few other factoids I noticed about Day One of Apple’s experiment with economic theory: MORE »
100 and single
Lady GaGa Takes Slow and Steady Route to the Top
“Lady GaGa Scores Hot 100 Milestone,” a Billboard headline trumpeted yesterday upon the release of the new Hot 100.
What could this milestone be? you might ask yourself. Biggest self-aggrandizer since 50 Cent to reach the top slot? Most similar-sounding pair of hits since Rick Astley? Most successful pantsless act?
As it happens, GaGa’s achievement has to do with her Billboard batting average: two chart hits, two No. 1’s. This week, “Poker Face” follows January’s smash “Just Dance” into the top slot. She’s the first act to step up to the plate, swing just twice, and hit two homers since Christina Aguilera’s first pair of hits, “Genie in a Bottle” and “What a Girl Wants,” topped the Hot 100 in 1999–2000.
That’s nice for the Lady and all, but it masks a more notable achievement: her slowness in achieving those hits. The amount of time “Dance” and “Poker” took to reach No. 1 is literally unprecedented in recent chart history.
In a sea of hits that explode up the charts based on faddish bursts of iTunes sales, GaGa’s chart pattern is contrary to everything going on in pop music promotion right now, recalling the more languid runs by songs in the ’70s through the mid-’90s. It’s almost enough to make an old-school chart geek like me root for her. MORE »
top
“AMTV” Makes Me Wonder If The Recession Will Be A Not-Entirely-Bad Thing For Music Videos
The second episode of MTV’s attempt to bring the music video back to some of its programming hours, AMTV, aired in the wee hours of this morning. The six hours cut a relatively wide swath across the pop world, blending new clips (”If You Seek Amy” and “I Love College,” both of which were aired in full and as snippets) with vintage videos (”Let’s Go Crazy,” that really long live clip of “In Your Eyes”), a few pieces from MTV’s live-performance vault (mostly stuff from recent Spring Break trips, although the programmers did sneak in Jay-Z and the Roots performing “Big Pimpin” on MTV Unplugged), and bumpers with music that all but gave away the network’s demographic intentions (”Just Can’t Get Enough,” “Hangin’ Tough”). MORE »
It happened one weekend
Seven-Word Reviews Of Seven New Pop Songs
This was one of those two-day stretches where pop leak blogs were in overdrive, thanks to the songs leaking from every crevice in the music industry’s crumbling firmament (including its artists’ own blogs). Who wins? Well, the ad sales team at RapidShare, for sure. As far as listeners’ fates, the results are decidedly more mixed, as you’ll see from the brief reviews of new songs by Kanye West and T-Pain, Green Day, Dr. Dre and T.I., the Black Eyed Peas, Depeche Mode, Jennifer Lopez, and Ciara located after the jump. MORE »
listening station
Justin Timberlake Is Dreaming Of A Better Day
Last month, I wrote about R & B Kings 2009, a mixtape from Big Mike and DJ Neptune that featured new tracks from Rihanna, Justin Timberlake, and Bobby Valentino; over the weekend, a sequel to the mix leaked. This edition also has brand-new tracks by Ri-Ri, Justin, and Bobby, as well as premiere tracks from R. Kelly and Ciara. The standout is Timberlake’s breakup mope “Better Not Together,” in which he goes into bummed-out, velvet-voiced soul man mode, but Ciara’s aerobics-class-worthy “Turntables” is pretty bouncy and fun as well. A selection of tracks after the jump. MORE »
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