Loading ...Yesterday while wandering around New York City I saw a bunch of wheatpasted posters for Chinese Democracy, the latest sign that the seemingly apocryphal Guns N’ Roses album is, indeed, coming to a Best Buy near you (and me!) in six days. MTV News’ James Montgomery took the occasion to go back in time and remember what the world was like back on Sept. 17, 1991–the last date that an all-new studio release from GNR, the twin-disc Use Your Illusion, hit stores. George H.W. Bush was President of the U.S.; Color Me Badd had the No. 1 single; Britney Spears was nine years old; Emily Valentine was just arriving at West Beverly High. There are many more tidbits in Montgomery’s piece (including a nod to the hotness of Sonic The Hedgehog, which, uh, some of us still are trying to finish, albeit on a different system), but I figured I’d take the reminiscing in a more personal direction. Join me, won’t you?
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Soulja Boy: Is The Joke On Us?
The whole “Soulja Boy loves the slavemasters” controversy continued this week, when Toure–who elicited the controversial quote from the YouTube sensation/Segway fan, responded to SB’s allegations that he was just trying to bring the lulz when he was thanking those men for paving the way toward his sparkly jewelry and body art. Toure told HipHopDX, “Let me be clear: I was looking into Soulja Boy’s eyes when he said, ‘Shout out to the slave masters. Without them we wouldn’t be here to get this ice and tattoos.’ He wasn’t joking. That said, if he thinks shouting out the slave masters who owned, whipped, and raped our ancestors is funny, then that’s even more alarming. Either way he’s clearly not mature enough for a serious conversation.” But one writer wonders if the “not-joking” stance Soulja Boy put on is actually a manifestation of the fact that, thanks in part to his catchphrase-stuffed singles and self-congratulatory YouTube videos, he’s a performance artist of sorts, acting out the worst impulses of every nouveau riche teen as a commentary of sorts on the last gasps of the nu-gilded age.
The CMA Awards Nominees: Kenny Chesney Is Still Pretty Entertaining
Kenny Chesney’s penchant for soaking his fans in booze and good times was no doubt a factor in him picking up yet another Entertainer Of The Year nomination from the Country Music Assocation Awards, where he’s the current holder of that title. The CMA Awards committee also bestowed six more nods on him at this morning’s nomination announcement. (Said press conference was also the scene of the ick-inducing clutch between Rascal Flatts’ Gary LeVox and Taylor Swift at left, which took place when Swift was announced as one of the Female Vocalist Of The Year nominees.) Other nominees of note: the Eagles in Vocal Group of the Year; the AWOL-from-Zep Robert Plant and Alison Krauss in Musical Event of the Year; and Miranda Lambert’s excellent “Gunpowder & Lead” in Single of the Year. Full list of nominees after the jump.
Because She Got High: M.I.A.’s “Plane” Takes The “Express” Route To The Hot 100
For more than three years now, Interscope has tried a range of well-worn tactics to make singer/rapper/agitprop icon M.I.A. a best-seller in America: single releases with high-profile remixes; ads proclaiming her across-the-board rock-critic and blogger love; mixtape tracks; eye-catching and at times controversial music videos; and teaming her up with Timbaland for what turned out to be the weakest track on her latest album, Kala.
This week, seemingly out of nowhere and thanks to none of the above efforts, M.I.A. has her first hit on Billboard’s Hot 100, “Paper Planes,” which makes its debut all the way up at No. 55.
M.I.A. can credit the House Of Apatow for her sudden chart fortunes, as trailers and ads for the forthcoming Seth Rogen/James Franco stoner comedy Pineapple Express prominently feature the track.
I think M.I.A. fans knew last summer that this song was destined to become her crossover hit, and if it goes no further than this, it will have already fulfilled its destiny. Except it’s going to do better because, somewhat improbably, M.I.A. is apparently connecting with one of the most loyal music-buying audiences in history: stoners.
Can’t Touch This Werewolf: Kid Rock Brings Back The Sales-Free Chart Hit
A front-line act with a months-old album decides to push his most obvious hit-bound song to radio–a song heavily reliant on a prominent sample of a deathless pop hit. But, bucking the day’s prevalent trend, he decides not to release the song on the most popular singles medium, forcing most customers to buy his album.
It’s a risky move, because the Billboard Hot 100 is dominated by songs that scale the chart by amassing sales as well as airplay. But the song is so mindlessly catchy, the act’s people figure it’ll be a big chart hit anyway with radio alone.
I could be talking about M.C. Hammer’s 1990 smash “U Can’t Touch This,” the “Superfreak”-sampling hit that made the Top 10, even as Capitol refused to issue it as a cassingle.
But I could also be talking about Kid Rock’s “All Summer Long,” a mashup of Warren Zevon’s “Werewolves of London” and Lynyrd Skynrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama” that debuts on the Hot 100 this week at No. 80 despite his lack of interest in releasing it digitally.
Can the erstwhile Robert Richie pull off in 2008 what one Stanley Kirk Burrell pulled 18 years ago?
Should Writers Tell Rappers About Girl Talk?: A “Post-Millennial” Dilemma
MTV’s James Montgomery recently found himself in a bit of a kwinky-dink when he realized he was listening to Girl Talk’s Feed The Animals on a plane while LL Cool J, whose “Mama Said Knock You Out” is sampled with impunity, sat in first class, oblivious to the lift. Should the writer leave coach and (if he doesn’t get tackled by a member of L’s entourage or an undercover agent) reveal this thievery to the superstar? “It’s an entirely post-millennial dilemma, one that’s right up there in the minds of today’s music journalists with ‘If you are talking to Paris Hilton on a red carpet, do you acknowledge the fact that you have seen her naked?’ and ‘Do you tell a band that you’ve downloaded their new album from LimeWire to prep for this interview?’” Yeah, what could be more “post-millennial” than using an uncleared sample? The idea of using someone else’s hook without permission would undoubtedly blow LL Cool J’s mind in its post-millennial audacity. What ’80s rapper wouldn’t be shocked to hear of such a thing?
Pete Wentz Brings Music Back To MTV, Keeps Network’s Celebrity Glorification Quotient Intact
After a lot of buildup that stretched all the way to an Idolator reader poll, I watched Pete Wentz’s effort to bring videos back to MTV, FNMTV Premieres, on DVR-delay Saturday morning. And it was… OK. Friday night’s premiere didn’t result in ground-breaking TV by any stretch, but it wasn’t completely awful despite the musical presence of both will.i.am and the Pussycat Dolls. The biggest complaint I had, really, was that the show was full of filler; Anthony’s prediction last week that the hourlong show would air seven videos in toto was actually over the night’s tally by three. (A few older videos got a bit of screen time, but most of the music within was papered over by Wentz’s explaining the clips and the collective “whooooo”ing of the well-manicured crowd.)
Lil Wayne Has The Hot 100 Locked Down
Ed. note: Chris “dennisobell” Molanphy, our resident chart guru, looks at the upward, downward, and lack of movement on this week’s Billboard charts:
Lil Wayne is expected to triumph on next week’s album chart, but this week, he has locked up a remarkable percentage of the Hot 100 singles chart: seven songs, starting with his five-week No. 1 champ “Lollipop.”
This is the second time in three weeks that a single artist has laid claim to nearly a tenth of the chart; the other recent chart dominator was American Idol winner David Cook, who scored a mind-blowing 11 Hot 100 hits at the end of May. But Cook’s feat was short-lived–he was down to three songs last week and is down to only one this week.
What makes Lil Wayne’s feat impressive is not only that he could keep most of these seven songs on the chart for several weeks yet. It’s that, a little bit like all-time record-holder the Beatles, he earned it.
Coldplay Cries “Viva,” Rules iTunes’ World
Ed. note: Chris “dennisobell” Molanphy, our resident chart guru, looks at the upward, downward, and lack of movement on this week’s Billboard charts:
If only Chris Martin were holding an iPhone 3G: then his band would be atop the charts.
As it stands, Coldplay’s “Viva la Vida,” fueled by Apple’s latest saturation-play TV commercial for iTunes, makes a bid for the top of Billboard’s Hot 100 and lands at No. 3. They storm Lil Wayne’s “Lollipop” fortress armed with blockbuster digital sales and sparse radio airplay. If Steve Jobs’ minions keep that sleek ad on the air a couple more weeks, Coldplay could yet see the summit.
And even if I were among the Coldplay-haters out there, I’d be rooting hard for Martin & co., because the next U.S. No. 1 single is either going to be theirs or Idolator’s early pick for worst single of 2008.
John, Paul, George, Ringo, And Cookie: “Idol” Winner Sets (And Sells) Records
Ed. note: Chris “dennisobell” Molanphy, our resident chart guru, looks at the upward, downward, and lack of movement on this week’s Billboard charts:
As I look at this week’s charts, I recall a 1994 interview in which Paul McCartney assured the world that the highly anticipated, ultimately anticlimactic 1995 Beatles single “Free as a Bird” would have a “grungy” guitar sound.
As with so many things, Sir Paul was just ahead of his time–14 years later, one of the Fab Four’s most cherished chart records would be nearly equaled by a dude who can make anything, even “Eleanor Rigby,” sound like grunge.
That record is for most songs on the Billboard Hot 100 by a single act. It was set on April 11, 1964, by the Beatles, who were credited on 14 of that week’s 100 songs. The Fabs still hold this record, for now.
But thanks to a confluence of chart-tabulation quirks, this week a former bartender from Missouri–who until now had never appeared on any Billboard chart–comes close to tying it, placing 11 songs on the Hot 100 all at once. In so doing, David Cook sets a new, blowout record for most debuts, comes within spitting distance of the Fabs’ record, and generally makes the chart grungier than it’s been since Paul gave that interview.
