It's time to see what the most-played songs and artists on rock radio have been from January to June. And surprise, surprise, the drummer/singer/guitarist you can't get away from is in the top 5 of each list—twice. First, the top songs:

1. Seether, "Fake It"
2. Foo Fighters, "The Pretender"
3. Foo Fighters, "Long Road To Ruin"
4. Linkin Park, "Shadow Of The Day"
5. Puddle Of Mudd, "Psycho"
6. Bravery, "Believe"
7. Seether, "Rise Above This"
8. Finger Eleven, "Paralyzer"
9. Paramore, "CrushCrushCrush"
10. Rise Against, "The Good Left Undone"
11. Atreyu, "Falling Down"
12. Weezer, "Pork & Beans"
13. Three Days Grace, "Never Too Late"
14. Linkin Park, "Given Up"
15. Flobots, "Handlebars"
16. 3 Doors Down, "It's Not My Time"
17. Death Cab For Cutie, "I Will Possess Your Heart"
18. Jack Johnson, "If I Had Eyes"
19. Panic At The Disco, "Nine In The Afternoon"
20. Chevelle, "I Get It"

Almost every song here cracked the top 5 of Billboard's Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart, and the four that didn't—Rise Against, Jack Johnson, Death Cab and Panic—peaked elsewhere in the top 10. But these figures are all about longevity, songs that stay on playlists for months and months, not the ones that make a big splash and then quickly disappear. Therefore, we get plenty of the 2007 hits that refuse to die like "The Pretender," "Paralyzer," and "Never Too Late." And songs that broke in the spring and have been unavoidable ever since, like "Pork & Beans" and "Handlebars," will almost surely rate higher on the year-end list.

"Nine In The Afternoon," which I predicted would be a flash in the pan airplay-wise, has turned out to have substantial legs based on its placement here. That's not to say I'm ready to halt my sophomore-slump schadenfreude for Panic At The Disco—their album Pretty. Odd. has still sold below expectations, and the slightly more tolerable follow-up single "That Green Gentleman" failed to chart at all, which may have helped clear the way for the long radio shelf life "Nine" has had.

Now, let's look at the 20 most-played artists on alternative radio so far in 2008:

1. Foo Fighters
2. Linkin Park
3. Red Hot Chili Peppers
4. Green Day
5. Nirvana
6. Seether
7. Weezer
8. Pearl Jam
9. Stone Temple Pilots
10. Smashing Pumpkins
11. Three Days Grace
12. Offspring
13. Sublime
14. Incubus
15. Nine Inch Nails
16. Puddle Of Mudd
17. Paramore
18. Beastie Boys
19. Alice In Chains
20. Killers

Again, no surprises at the top, where the Foos and Linkin Park take their predictable spots, dominating with multiple singles from their 2007 albums and a comfortable bedrock of earlier hits. And Seether's two big recent hits get them plenty far up, despite a relative lack of airplay for previous singles. But overall you've got an interesting cross-section here, one that demonstrates just how much older recurrents dominate alt-rock radio these days. Less than half of the artists—nine total, four in the top 10—have had new singles out in the last few months. Three of the bands haven't been together for more than a decade, and the fact that those bands are Nirvana, Sublime, and Alice In Chains, all of whom have deceased frontmen, is a little creepy.

Even some of the still-active older bands get a negligible amount of their chart placement from recent material: Smashing Pumpkins have eight songs in the top 500 most played songs of the year, but last year's underwhelming comeback single "Tarantula" is the least popular of those; all 10 of Pearl Jam's entries are from no later than 1994; and even if Stone Temple Pilots came home from their reunion tour
tomorrow and recorded a smash hit, it'd struggle to get as many spins as "Interstate Love Song." Meanwhile, Green Day, RHCP, Weezer and Nine Inch Nails get healthy spins for songs from the '90s as well as those from this decade.

The enduring popularity of first-wave grunge bands makes the presence of umpteenth-wavers like Three Days Grace and Puddle of Mudd unsurprising. But it's impressive that a relatively new band like Paramore has inched up so high on the list—especially since its two big hits were released in '07, and the one single the band released this year, the Idolator fave "That's What You Get," pretty much tanked, barely cracking the Modern Rock chart. And though The Killers' Sam's Town, released way back in 2006, was widely deemed a disappointment, enough of the band's singles, including that album's "When You Were Young," have remained in recurrent play enough to keep them high up on the list. In fact, they're up much higher than bands who achieved comparable success around the same time and haven't had alt-rock hits lately, like My Chemical Romance (59) and Fall Out Boy (74). FOB might wanna keep that "Mr. Brightside" cover in their set for a while, because it might eventually be more familiar to the casual fans in the crowd than any of their originals.

As a purveyor of lazy and convenient rhetorical devices, I can by no means cast stones at Mr. Wentz. Nor do I think his simile was extraordinarily out of line. But you can't just let a person get away with comparing parenthood to producing an album. As a society, we must police each others' use of language to ensure that our discourse does not devolve into one ever-more-confusing metaphor after another, which is why I've compiled the following rather obnoxious—but necessary—list of all the ways parenthood is not like making a record.

• Babies don't have knobs that control their sound levels.
• There's hopefully no cocaine involved in raising a child.
• Kids cost more money than they bring in. (Though I suppose the same is true for many albums these days.)
• Vocoders frighten young children.
• No second takes.
• Timbaland can't come in during the tough teenage years to help out with the parenting process.
• When it's all said and done, you can't tour your child around to huge arenas and make millions off of over-priced t-shirts. Unless you're Billy Ray Cyrus.

Luckily Wentz does at least seem to have a good grasp on the realistic side of parenthood, too:

The Fall Out Boy bassist also revealed his new ambitions involve simply being a father and said he wants to "live in the suburbs and hang out with my kid."

Do I smell a VH1 Celebreality show in the making? God, I hope not.

Pete Wentz says parenthood 'is like making a record' [NME]
Pete Wentz: 'I'm Becoming My Dad' [People]

In London, runners will be treated to an exclusive performance by world-renowned American DJ, songwriter, musician and singer Moby in the city's famed Wembley Stadium. Other all-star artists confirmed to play at the Nike+ Human Race include chart-topping rock band All-American Rejects in NY; hometown favorite Fall Out Boy in Chicago; R&B songstress Kelly Rowland in Paris; dance-electro-pop duo The Pinker Tones in Madrid, Turkish pop sensation Kenan Dogulu in Istanbul; the Fantastic Four in Munich; Beijing-based singing duo Yu Quan in Shanghai and American rock band Boy Likes Girl in Singapore.

One has to wonder why Diddy isn't in on this.

Kanye West Announced as Grand Finale Performance for the Nike Human Race - the World's Largest One Day Running Event [Business Week]
I Run NYC [YouTube]

Pete said:

Please suggest a video you want me to play for the vintage/classic video segment. Maybe you can run a poll on your site (which is way more popular than my blog, meelikey.com, i promise you ive seen the numbers). I promise to watch your selections carefully but I must warn you that I may do so under the influence of some Coconut Juice.

Since there hasn't really been a channel showing only the videos I want to see since the demise of "The Box", I thought it would be best to take nominations from our readership, with a poll to determine our official suggestion for Pete's Big Music Show to follow later today.

First, my personal video preferences:

The Happy Mondays - Step On:

Really, how can you go wrong with the Happy Mondays (although my wife might disagree)?

Barnes & Barnes - Fish Heads:

This video was a big hit on Nickelodeon's music video program when I was a kid, which qualifies it as a classic, maybe.

Los Fabulousos Cadillacs - Matador:

Oh, MTV Latino, you gave me so much, it's all I can do to try to return the love.

Let the suggestions fly, and be sure to check in later for the poll.

a message from the most powerful man in music [meelikey]
Earlier: Do I Want My "F'N MTV" Hosted By Pete Wentz?

Are you sick of 30-second clips on TRL? Vexed by the one single hour of videos smashed between reruns of Made and Cribs? Pete Wentz knows your pain, and he's going to start himself a riot (although he's not quite mad enough to utilize the shift key.

i could only assume that you would be completely frustrated with the same things i am with mtv. it is a network called music television that does not play music videos. and when they do play videos it is in 30 second clips on TRL or underneath the credits of whatever reality show. the truth is we have a collective memory of videos. certain ones we can all sit and look back and say "oh i remember that" or "i cant believe axl rocked the nwa hat and the bicycle shorts in the same video". people say that with the a.d.d. generation people cant pay attention to a whole music video whenever we have asked. that people wont watch those anymore. i disagree. as most of you do as well. the truth is whole videos should be played. bands should play live. premieres should be a big deal like they used to be, not just a snippet of a video. artists should be able to let their imaginations go and know that people will be able to see what they have crafted. artists should talk about their videos. we should and can make the music video important again.

The music video should be important again! Pete Wentz is doing all he can, people. Did you see the Tyga video? He's pouring his heart into this business, and MTV can't be bothered to show FOB's "Beat It" cover more than five times this week?

In honor of Pete's (oddly timed...shouldn't he be on a honeymoon or something?) grandstanding, here is the video with an all-too-brief shot of Axl in a NWA hat, "You Could Be Mine":

Also, my personal favorite music video, "Lucas With The Lid Off":

the response to the most obvious poll ever: [meelikey.com]

A T-shirt. Fair enough. (I guess those people who have phototransfer-capable printers are a "technicality.")

A surround-sound experience. But given that the "experience" involves that you listen to a 3 Doors Down live album, would you really want to?

"The band—or the sweaty fans in the front row, or the merch guy, or the sound tech." The sound tech? Looks like someone knows their path to the land of backstage passes!

A smell. Oh, RealAroma, your time is coming, if only to help stop those who will give lazy quotes to newspapers.

A revolution and/or Motorbaby. As chief Motorbaby Sharon Middendorf proclaims in her song "You Can't Download Me":

In the defense of broadband-enabled people everywhere, um, isn't she being a bit presumptuous?

(P.S.: "You can't download a baby" is exempt from this, because it's still funny.)

Panic At The Disco Measure Their Success With Live Shows: 'You Can't Download The Concert Ticket' [MTV]

First up, Idolator's new BFF, Pete Wentz:
THE LOWLIGHT: We get it, Pete. You're a complex sea of emotion. But no one should have to sit through Bobby Vinton's "Mister Lonely," Simon & Garfunkel's "The Only Living Boy In New York," and a Bright Eyes track in a row. Things are going so well these days, buddy. Would it have killed you to throw Paul Anka's "Having My Baby" on there? It would have been a nice touch.
THE HIGHLIGHT: Hands down, it's "Young Turks."

Next up, Panic At The Disco's Brandon Urie—who, to his credit, didn't just copy Pete's list then remove its hooks:
THE LOWLIGHT: Really, who's still listening to Bright Eyes these days?

THE HIGHLIGHT: Supposedly, these mixes are supposed to be for the summer, and at least Brandon starts off with a Beach Boys track, although one with little connection to the summer in "God Only Knows." "American Girl," "I Want You Back"—all fine choices, but who couldn't have a good time at a summer barbecue where "Don't Stop Me Now" was heard blaring from a cheap stereo?

Finally, because I'd prefer to ignore the Jordin Sparks and Rihanna lists, here's everyone's third- or fourth-favorite country starlet of the moment, Taylor Swift!
THE LOWLIGHT: An appearance by the official shoeless songwriter of the summer, Jack Johnson makes sense, but at this point, the 15-minute timer should be expiring on Ingrid Michaelson, right?
THE HIGHLIGHT: While I applaud Taylor Swift for continuing to head up a Better Than Ezra resurgence by featuring "Our Last Night", my son's favorite song, "It's The Night Time" by Josh Rouse, makes a somewhat strange appearance. That almost makes up for the Corrs track.

It's nice that a few decent songs are making their way to Seventeen's readership, but there's no need to create another generation of Bright Eyes fans. No reason at all.

Jango Partners with Seventeen.com to Create Co-Branded Celebrity Music Widgets [Business Wire]

PW: "The red hair - I think it's awesome!"
AS: "Thanks, babe."
PW: "I had a super Jessica Rabbit crush when I was little. She had red hair like you..."


PW: "Sharing a bathroom with a girl is awesome 'cause I'm just like, 'Oh I'll try this thing.' I honestly don't really know what most of the stuff I use is. I did a facial [mask] today. I think the eye hole went over my nose. I don't buy those kinds of products [as gifts for Ashlee] cause I'm nervous I'm gonna screw up - she likes La Mer only."
AS: "You buy me good jewelry. And you bought me a good Dior bag the other day that I loved."
PW: "I was spending a lot of money at Dior so I kind of like -"
AS: "You were like, 'I feel guilty! I'll get something for her.' He's the best at surprising me. He always does little things here and there that surprise me..."


PW: "[Without makeup,] she reminds me of when I was little in the summer."
AS: "That's cute."
PW: "There's a very specific moment, like, when I was driving in the car with my parents. I don't know. It just reminds me of it. I don't know why."

Awwwwww! And he'll even protect her honor by throwing in some kicks when security pummels a heckler. Hey wait, did she dye her hair red while pregnant? That can't be healthy!

Fight fallout: Wentz sued [Chicago Sun-Times]
Ashlee Simpson & Pete Wentz's Rock'n'Romance [People]

I can't tell if the homage is intentional—and if so, is Pete Wentz the Nikki Sixx of the band?—or if it's just a case of sets being reused 25 years apart, but either way, I figured that we all could use a little Shout At The Devil-era Crue this morning.

Beat It [icecreamhdaches]
Motley Crue - Too Young To Fall In Love [YouTube]

Now, I don't really know anything about Fall Out Boy, but I understand that I'm expected not to like them. They wear hair gel, and one of the guys in the band dates Ashlee Simpson, so it's fair to assume that they suck and that their fans are vapid teeny-boppers whose heads would explode if they heard what real rock 'n' roll sounds like. What kind of lame middlebrow loser do the Roots take me for?

I don't know, one that thinks "real rock'n'roll" would make "vapid teeny-boppers" heads' explode? Yeah, if these kids heard "Johnny B. Goode" it would be Back To The Future all over again. Or did you mean the Hold Steady?

Why do rappers whose work I hold in such high regard have such terrible taste in rock? The answer started to become clear when I gave "Birthday Girl," the Roots-Patrick Stump song, a courtesy listen and was greatly disturbed to discover that I liked it. It's catchy; Stump has the right voice for the mellow hook, and the Roots' estimable rhythm section gives a sharp edge to what otherwise would have been a straightforward mid-tempo rock song.

...Stump et Al. are seen by their hip-hop collaborators, I think, as living samples, picked out of the musical spectrum because their voices have some distinctive quality that the Roots or Kanye West or Dr. Dre want on their track. And, indeed, all three of those artists are known for eclectic record collections—the first person sampled on Kanye's last album is Elton John—and for perfectionism. Stefani has spoken about recording and rerecording her two lines on "Let Me Blow Your Mind" for hours before Dr. Dre was satisfied, which is illustrative. He was perfecting a Sassy Temptress effect, just as Kanye used Chris Martin to add a little Gripping Melancholy to his track about returning to his hometown of Chicago. Adam Levine has an indisputably fantastic voice for the wistful soul of "Heard 'Em Say." In fact, our civilization would be better off if he sang only hooks and covers, though his projects should still be subject to regulatory oversight.

My god, is he grudgingly beginning to accept that how music feels is a little more important to some people than how cool it is? Has the rebirthing begun? Well, not quite.

If any major hip-hop producers are reading this, get in touch; I have lots of great ideas! Songs like Jay-Z's "99 Problems," Dead Prez's "Hell Yeah," and countless Beastie Boys tracks demonstrate that distorted guitar riffs can make for a great hip-hop sound, provided they're kept sparse and inserted into a song with surgical precision—and, come on, Johnny Greenwood and Jack White can't even tune up without laying down the most killer sparse-surgical riff you've ever heard! On the vocal side, Wayne Coyne and Thom Yorke could contribute ethereally beautiful and ethereally nightmarish hooks, respectively. (The Roots actually do sample Radiohead on Game Theory's "Atonement," but it's not at the front of the mix.)

In these last days of the record business as we know it, established indie-rockers are as good a sales bet as anyone else. So why not get the best rap acts and the best indie acts in the studio together? It might produce some great songs, it could move a lot of units, and—I say this with significantly less condescension than I would have a few weeks ago—it might introduce some vapid middlebrow teeny-boppers to bands they'll like even more than Fall Out Boy.

A) They're not doing this for your whiny, self-conscious ass, and B) indie-rock collabos with rappers will not sound like "99 Problems." They will sound, at best, like this.

Falling for Fall Out Boy [Slate]
R.E.M. - Radio Song (Film Is On Version) [Youtube]

After a few sluggish months of slow-rising hits, the past few weeks have seen some major movement on the Billboard rock charts, with several new entries making big impacts. And the biggest comes from Disturbed, the Chicago nu-metal band distinguished primarily by frontman David Draiman's resemblance to Howie Mandel with multiple facial piercings, as well as his usually annoying, occasionally awesome Korn-meets-Shudder-To-Think vocal tics. "Inside The Fire," the lead single from their forthcoming album Indestructible, entered the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart at a staggering No. 5, and moved up to No. 4 last week—pretty impressive, considering that even the biggest monsters of rock tend to take at least a few weeks to reach that high on the chart. This marks the band's tenth consecutive top 10 hit, and it's also quickly becoming one of its biggest hits to date on Hot Modern Rock Tracks, where it's historically had less traction. But since Draiman neither goes "oooh-wah-ah-ah-ah" nor covers Genesis on "Inside The Fire," the song is not one of the rare instances where I will refrain from changing the station when a Disturbed song comes on the radio.

Elsewhere on the Mainstream chart, a number of recent entries suggest the following theory: rap-metal is back, just without the rapping. The chart is still littered with holdovers from that widely maligned subgenre's turn of the century heyday, but right now three of those acts have hits rising up the chart without busting a single fresh rhyme: Linkin Park's "Given Up"; P.O.D.'s "Addicted"; and Kid Rock's "All Summer Long." Now, don't get me wrong. Mike Shinoda, Sonny Sandoval, and Bob Ritchie are not among my top five MCs of all time; they wouldn't even make my top 10. (Sorry, Sonny!) But these bands' early hits were at least a lot more fun than listening to these jokers and their bandmates decide to get 'melodic.' Please, nobody tell Fred Durst that all he has to do to get back on the radio is start earnestly crooning. He might cover The Who again.

As Chris Molanphy noted in his last 100 And Single column, the other big Modern Rock debuts come from the Raconteurs and Death Cab For Cutie. "Salute Your Solution," the lead single from the Raconteurs' Consolers Of The Lonely, is at No. 11 after entering the chart at No. 26 for the first week that anyone, including radio stations, had a copy of the song, given that the album it comes from was made available in "EVERY FORMAT AT ONCE" on March 25. Although Jack White's insta-release stunt was ostensibly done in part to circumvent the major-label "first-week sales" mentality, both the album and the single got off to very strong starts. Still, "Salute Your Solution" is one of my least favorite tracks off the album, and I can't see it topping the chart like "Steady, As She Goes" did in 2006. Death Cab, whose 2005 album Plans was just certified platinum this February, are right behind the Raconteurs at No. 12 with "I Will Possess Your Heart," an ambitious eight-minute single that most stations are presumably playing in its four-minute radio edit.

So what isn't on the Modern Rock chart? Two big rock hits currently in the upper reaches of the Hot 100 and the Pop 100.
• Three Days Grace's actually-kinda-good "Never Too Late" was one of the most-played Modern Rock hits of 2007, but it dropped off the chart well before its current crossover to VH1 and adult top 40 stations. That crossover was helped by program directors being made less squeamish about the song's anti-suicide theme through a new edit that changes the chorus line "you want to end your life" to "you want to change your life."
• Meanwhile, Fall Out Boy's cover of "Beat It," which has already been hailed by one Idolator contributor as potentially the best rock song of 2008, is all over pop radio, but it has yet to crack the rock charts. I'm not shocked, given that one of the big theories put forth in my '07 wrap-up was that FOB are quickly losing their rock radio support. But I wonder if those stations will keep holding out on this one, considering that many of them still play that damn Alien Ant Farm version of "Smooth Criminal." Personally, I think the band's take on "Beat It" is weak sauce—Patrick Stump earns his better-than-your-average-emo-frontman bona fides much more easily when he's not held to the higher standards of pop and R&B vocals. Nonetheless, when he hits the Rod Stewart Great American Songbook phase of his career in a couple of decades, he'll have a head start thanks to this cover, not to mention his previous work interpolating Supertramp and Jermaine Stewart with Gym Class Heroes and covering Go West with New Found Glory.

With Fall Out Boy's cover of Michael Jackson's "Beat It" a top iTunes hit, and the group's Pete Wentz saying they'll make a video to go along with it, lots of people are wondering what the video will be like. Well, we get word that the group's going all out — with an homage to the former King of Pop's library of past videos.



Casting was in full swing last week for a bunch of familiar-sounding figures, including various dancers, jump-roping girls, sumo wrestlers, nerds and "a hot Puerto Rican girl."

It sounds like too much of a casserole, frankly, so we propose a clip based on one specific Michael Jackson video, namely "Leave Me Alone." The band would cruise through a cavernous underwater museum full of paparazzi, rhinoplasty exhibits, childhood photos of the Simpson clan, and a dancing Ryan Cabrera before FOB is shot out of what's revealed to be Ashlee Simpson's crotch. The defiant Ashlee would then rise and shake off the imprisoning rollercoaster track while the band—joined by a pet monkey—flies off into the sky.

Pete Wentz and Fall Out Boy Readies Video Homage to Michael Jackson Classics [National Ledger Via Absolute Punk]

• If Guitar Hero has inspired Fall Out Boy and John Mayer to rock hard and fast, imagine what it will do to musicians who already kind of do?

• Emo kids already dress hair-metal; this cover may inspire them to play it.

• Fall Out Boy now has three hits that aren't ballads. Perhaps established rock bands will realize there is actual commercial potential for songs that aren't slow, turgid, or any other quality we associate with Nickelback.

• This song's success might keep Fall Out Boy from putting out so many damn ballads themselves.

• Patrick Stump can sing pretty well, and he avoids that anonymous, butt-cleching nasal tone we associate with most emo acts. Hell, in the world of emo this kid is Teddy Pendergrass or something.

• The return of the instrumental solo to pop music. Today the guitar, tomorrow the saxophone!

Beat It - Fall Out Boy ft. John Mayer - Guitar Hero [YouTube]

So momentous was the news of Mariah Carey's triumph on the Hot 100 with "Touch My Body" that Billboard leaked it on Wednesday, a day early. Chart freaks talk about acts beating small records all the time. But it's not every day that someone beats a mark on the all-time list that involves something as iconic as career No. 1 hits. And it's even rarer when that record is four decades old and involves the King of Rock & Roll.

And hey, Elvis was only ranked second on the list for total No. 1 hits. (He was, until this week, first place among solo acts.) Even sadder for Presley fans, this same week, another lady bests a record he had all to himself—this time, for most Top 10 hits. As "4 Minutes" makes a 65-point leap to No. 3, Madonna pulls out of a tie with the King, leaving him all shook up with 17 No. 1's and 36 Top 10s, to Carey's 18 chart-toppers and Madge's 37 smashes.

There's no joy in Graceland today. And if you're near Abbey Road right now, don't be surprised if folks there look a bit twitchy, too.

As Carey's "Touch My Body" rises to No. 1, Billboard is already speculating that she will at least tie the Beatles' all-time record of 20 No. 1 hits before Island Def Jam is even done with her new album.

Two more chart-toppers off E=MC²? It's fair to discuss, but as mighty as she looks this week, Carey's not the unwavering hit machine she was a decade ago. Whether she beats the Fabs before 2008 is over will depend on a lot of variables.

As recently as two albums ago, Beatle geeks like me had all but written off this possibility, so deep was Carey's early-millennium slump. As of 2000, she had stalled at 15 No. 1's. Then Glitter, um, happened in 2001; and even after IDJ picked up her mangled career a year later, they couldn't seem to rid her of the stink of failure. 2002's Charmbracelet produced no Top 40 hits, let alone No. 1's.

But 2005's massive, summer-dominating "We Belong Together" changed all that. And by early '06 she'd tied Presley with a 17th No. 1, "Don't Forget About Us." (Carey could have beaten the King right then and there, if the song that came between those two hits, fall 2005's "Shake It Off," hadn't been bested by Kanye West's "Gold Digger," which shot to No. 1 the week she was supposed to and held her back at No. 2.)

You can review the complete list of Carey's No. 1 hits, broken down by album, thanks to this very helpful Idolator commenter. As you see, on each album, when Mariah's on a roll, her chart-toppers seem to multiply. Not counting the forthcoming album, only two of Carey's discs have produced a lone No. 1 hit; she usually gets two or more, or none at all. (It could even be argued that the two CDs with a sole chart-topper were aberrations. Her 1991 sophomore album Emotions was clearly released too soon after the first one, a tactical mistake; and 1992's MTV Unplugged was a live EP, impressive for producing any hits at all.)

Still, the other pattern that emerges is that Carey is long, long past the days when three No. 1s per album were de rigeur. Butterfly (1997), Rainbow (1999), and The Emancipation of Mimi (2005) each produced only two. And that last one is a cheat: IDJ reissued Emancipation in late 2005 with "Don't Forget About Us" added to it. If they're going to pull three No 1's from the new album, they're going to have to get even luckier than they did in 2005, which was very lucky indeed.

If it seems like the Pop-Industrial Complex is impatient for Carey to take the all-time record this year, it's probably a bit of longing for the days when the industry spun hits—even forgettable hits, like "Thank God I Found You"—and broke records regularly. Also, and it's rude of me to bring this up, this will likely be the last studio album Carey releases before she turns 40 in March 2010, and not even L.A. Reid knows how marketable she'll be in early middle age.

Then again, her fellow Elvis-beater on the charts this week is months away from the half-century mark. So if, like me, you're futilely hoping Carey doesn't ever beat the Beatles, let's at least not be spiteful enough to wish the curse of ageism on her.

Here's a rundown of the rest of this week's charts:

• About that 49-year-old Elvis-beater: "4 Minutes" is not just Madonna's first Top 10 since "Hung Up" in 2005, it's her biggest hit since "Music" went to No. 1 in the fall of 2000. Apparently, 2000 wasn't just a start-of-slump year for Carey, because Madge has been stalled at 12 career No. 1's ever since, tying her in fifth place on the all-time list with the Supremes. If she and new bump-n-grind pal Justin Timberlake can claw their way to No. 1, she'll move up to fourth, tying Michael Jackson with 13 chart-toppers. But I wouldn't count on that happening anytime soon: airplay for "4 Minutes" is growing strongly but is a fraction of what "Touch My Body" or Usher's "Love in This Club" are receiving.

• Last week's No. 1, Leona Lewis' "Bleeding Love," takes a pretty sizable hit, falling to No. 4. Clearly her Oprah-fueled sales are starting to tail off—digital downloads are down 17% this week—and her airplay still has to catch up. She'll probably have a bit of a comeback in a couple of weeks, after the album drops and gives the single a pop on iTunes. It's notable that the song she ousted from No. 1 last week, Usher's, holds at No. 2 thanks to his strong airplay, while she drops past him. As we say here all the time: sales give you a big hit, but you need airplay to hold onto it.

• Actually, Usher has a pretty good week in general—not only does "Love in This Club" hold at No. 2 on the pop chart amidst the Mariah/Madonna onslaught, it also ascends to No. 1 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop chart, ousting seven-week ruler Keyshia Cole's "I Remember."

• This week's song-booster from the world of TV isn't Oprah, it's the Donald. After taking second prize on Trump's Celebrity Apprentice, Trace Adkins has a big week in both sales and airplay. "You're Gonna Miss This" blasts to No. 12 from No. 40 on the Hot 100, fueled by more than 72,000 downloads; and on the all-airplay Hot Country list, which is unaffected by iTunes sales, Adkins ousts Alan Jackson from No. 1.

• Songs boosted on iTunes thanks to performances on American Idol's "Year You Were Born" week: "Billie Jean," both the original by Michael Jackson (up 24% to 12,800 copies) and the David Cook-bitten cover by Chris Cornell (14,900 copies, its first time on the list); "Alone" by Heart; and "Total Eclipse of the Heart" by Bonnie Tyler (each up nearly 250%, to about 8,000 copies each). We're pretty sure that the obscure, cruise-ship-quality David Foster tune sung by David Archuleta is out of print; otherwise, God only knows how many doting grandmas would've downloaded it...

• The top debut on the Hot 100, based entirely on iTunes downloads, is Fall Out Boy's cover of Michael Jackson's "Beat It," which features everyone's favorite we-like-you-but-not-your-schlocky-music guest star, John Mayer, on guitar. Debuting on iTunes just ahead of the band's wittily-titled live album ****: Live in Phoenix, the track sold 88,000 downloads in its first week. Expect it to drop back next week, now that the initial wave of FOB fans have purchased it—but the forthcoming release of a music video might fuel a comeback in a few weeks, once the TRL set starts voting for it in droves. Then we'll have to see if it can eventually outdistance the No. 12 peak of the all-time greatest version of "Beat It."

Top 10s
Last week's position and total weeks charted in parentheses:

Hot 100
1. Mariah Carey, "Touch My Body" (LW No. 15, 7 weeks)
2. Usher feat. Young Jeezy, "Love in This Club" (LW No. 2, 7 weeks)
3. Madonna feat. Justin Timberlake, "4 Minutes" (LW No. 68, 2 weeks)
4. Leona Lewis, "Bleeding Love" (LW No. 1, 7 weeks)
5. Jordin Sparks with Chris Brown, "No Air" (LW No. 6, 13 weeks)
6. Ray J & Yung Berg, "Sexy Can I" (LW No. 3, 9 weeks)
7. Lil Wayne feat. Static Major, "Lollipop" (LW No. 9, 3 weeks)
8. Chris Brown, "With You" (LW No. 4, 18 weeks)
9. Sara Bareilles, "Love Song" (LW No. 5, 22 weeks)
10. Flo Rida feat. T-Pain, "Low" (LW No. 7, 23 weeks)

Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs
1. Usher feat. Young Jeezy, "Love in This Club" (LW No. 2, 8 weeks)
2. Keyshia Cole, "I Remember" (LW No. 1, 22 weeks)
3. Mariah Carey, "Touch My Body" (LW No. 8, 8 weeks)
4. Ray J & Yung Berg, "Sexy Can I" (LW No. 5, 12 weeks)
5. The-Dream, "Falsetto" (LW No. 3, 17 weeks)
6. Alicia Keys, "Like You'll Never See Me Again" (LW No. 4, 23 weeks)
7. Mario, "Crying Out for Me" (LW No. 6, 31 weeks)
8. J. Holiday, "Suffocate" (LW No. 7, 26 weeks)
9. Mary J. Blige, "Just Fine" (LW No. 9, 27 weeks)
10. Chris Brown, "With You" (LW No. 10, 18 weeks)

Hot Country Songs
1. Trace Adkins, "You're Gonna Miss This" (LW No. 2, 17 weeks)
2. George Strait, "I Saw God Today" (LW No. 4, 8 weeks)
3. Chris Cagle, "What Kinda Gone" (LW No. 3, 37 weeks)
4. Alan Jackson, "Small Town Southern Man" (LW No. 1, 21 weeks)
5. James Otto, "Just Got Started Lovin' You" (LW No. 6, 24 weeks)
6. Jason Aldean, "Laughed Until We Cried" (LW No. 8, 34 weeks)
7. Taylor Swift, "Picture to Burn" (LW No. 9, 12 weeks)
8. Rodney Atkins, "Cleaning This Gun (Come on in Boy)" (LW No. 7, 28 weeks)
9. Carrie Underwood, "All-American Girl" (LW No. 5, 18 weeks)
10. Phil Vassar, "Love Is A Beautiful Thing" (LW No. 10, 22 weeks)

Hot Modern Rock Tracks
1. Foo Fighters, "Long Road to Ruin" (LW No. 1, 23 weeks)
2. Puddle of Mudd, "Psycho" (LW No. 2, 22 weeks)
3. Atreyu, "Falling Down" (LW No. 5, 10 weeks)
4. Seether, "Rise Above This" (LW No. 6, 6 weeks)
5. The Bravery, "Believe" (LW No. 4, 26 weeks)
6. Linkin Park, "Shadow of the Day" (LW No. 3, 26 weeks)
7. 3 Doors Down, "It's Not My Time" (LW No. 10, 6 weeks)
8. Foo Fighters, "The Pretender" (LW No. 8, 35 weeks)
9. Seether, "Fake It" (LW No. 7, 31 weeks)
10. Panic at the Disco, "Nine in the Afternoon" (LW No. 12, 9 weeks)

The social networking component gives fans a reason to hang out on a site and visit more often than they would a standard Web site. And artists can sell advertisements on their sites and offer downloads and merchandise for sale — options they don't have on MySpace or Facebook. Plus, they own the content and data on how fans use their site, which they don't get on other social networks.



"The thing that separates Thisis50 from MySpace is we control the e-mail database," says Chris "Broadway" Romero, director for new media at G-Unit Records, which handles Thisis50. "We can e-mail members if we want to."



Thisis50 isn't meant to be a fan club, but rather a platform for 50 Cent to showcase his music and music he likes, and comment on news and user profile pages. Ludacris' WeMix.com, on the other hand, is more of a hub for aspiring artists to upload their music.



The artist networks aren't meant to replace MySpace or Facebook, which tend to attract a broader audience and more users.



"(Artists) think about MySpace and Facebook as funnels for their own social networks," says Gina Bianchini, CEO of Ning, a company that provides social networking tools for Thisis50, Sara Bareilles and others. "They take and use services where they don't know the users, don't have access and don't have full control, and funnel those fans to something they do control."

With the idea supposedly being that those fans will eventually only want to hang out in those artist-controlled spaces, at least until the promotional cycle for the artist's current album ends. (Can you imagine what the Sara Bareilles social network will look like once November rolls around?) But I have to question the long-term viability of these sites for the simple reason that people only have so many hours in their day—wouldn't they want to be in a space where they can interact with as many people as possible? (And in the case of Radiohead, don't they already have a thriving fan community, albeit an unofficial one?) It just seems like "branded social networks" is the Web 2.0 iteration of the "official site with message boards and chat rooms and free e-mail," and if anything it's giving some programmers and "community managers" a chance to keep their jobs for another couple of months, which I guess isn't a bad thing given that the economy's in the crapper right now. But I wouldn't bet on them for anything resembling a long-term strategy for keeping music fans engaged (that's code for "spending money") on a long-term basis.

Musicians start social networking sites [Reuters]
Waste Central [Official site]
Friends Or Enemies [Official site]
This Is 50 [Official site]
KylieKonnect [Official site]

With time and money growing tight, they have admitted defeat. Pete Wentz could barely contain his disappointment: "It's the worst feeling I've felt in Fall Out Boy. [We were,] like, two hours away from being able to do it. ... I read that someone compared it to Geraldo opening Capone's vault, but it's worse than that, because, like, Capone's stuff is in there, you just can't get the light on. There's no spin for it; we got two hours away from Antarctica and we can't go." No word from the unrocked, stormbound researchers who might give a rat's ass.

Fall Out Boy Cancel Antarctic Trip [MTV]
[Photo: Getty Images]

If you have an additional $2,500 floating around, you can fly with the band from Puntas Arenas, Chile, to Antarctica on their "Whisper Jet." Total duration of this excursion? One day. Yep, 24 freaking hours. I guess the news of Social@Ross' failure hasn't traveled down to that continent just yet.

During Live Earth, Nunatak warmed our hearts the same way humans managed to melt the glaciers, but I wouldn't be on the Internet if I didn't tell you that the concept of playing Antarctica is old news. The IceStock festival has been held on New Year's Day since 1990:

"The stage every year is built temporarily and it's just two flatbeds from the back of tractor trailers next to each other, and that's the stage," Krauss said.

"On top of that they put part of an old military Jamesway — what used to be used in the MASH units, like in World War II and stuff," Krauss said. "That provides a little bit of coverage from the side from the wind. There are big parachutes behind the stage to help block out the wind a little bit and also just to look cool."

Antarctica Rocks Out on Ice [Wired]
Victory Adventure Expeditions [victory-cruises.com]
Buzznet Update From Pete [icecreamhdaches]

ONE-LISTEN VERDICT: Purportedly the first single of their upcoming Rising Down, the Roots team with Fall Out Boy's Patrick Stump... and it kind of sucks. Which is too bad, since everything else that's leaked from their 3,579th album has been pretty excellent! Remember the all-the-way-live, ridonkulous, distorted "75 Bars (Black's Reconstruction)" that got us through the cold throes of late February? And the deliciously moody, horrorcore-era Dre squeak of "Get Busy," which lit up our early March? (It's been 22 years, and we never get tired of hearing Joeski Love getting scratched.) And now we get this Cody ChesnuTT-meets-Gym-Class-Heroes emo-love jam?

Lame, sure, but fuck it. We'll gladly swallow a sell-some-records tactic if it means another album as solid as Game Theory (and, hey, we already established today that critics and the public have different tastes). So once I buy the album (or some kindly saint at Def Jam sends me a promo), I'll just quietly skip this like I did "Back Like That" on Fishscale or "I Know" on American Gangster. And by "quietly," I mean "make this blog post and be a huge dick about it."

Plus Kip Winger already proved that writing a song about wanting to bang a 17-year-old is kinda gross. Thankfully, we didn't have to see Black Thought's chest hair this time around.

WHERE TO FIND IT:Nah Right.

More interesting, perhaps, are two names that are being bandied about for Nikolai; he's the leader of the Satanic emo band that starts all of the problems that turns Needy into an ass-kicking monster fighter. The production is looking at two legitimately emo dipshits - Pete Wentz of Fallout Boy and Joel Madden of Good Charlotte. These names horrify me, and just typing them out has awoken some kind of genocidal monster in me - I want to torch your home if you own a Fallout Boy record. I want you removed from the Earth (Ron Paul supporters are next). Here's to hoping that the third name on the list, One Tree Hill's Chad Michael Murray, is who they go with.

Us too! Hell, we'd probably even be cool with one of the Madden brothers. Because just in case you think I'm being too hard on Cody's screenwriting abilities, or Pete Wentz's acting chops, please avail yourself of some of the dialogue from the leaked script from Jennifer's Body, and then imagine Pete saying "Slow down tardy slip. You sound like a sped" in a Clandestine Industries-branded hoodie-cape. Sigh.

Jennifer's Body Is Going Authentically Emo [CHUD]
Diablo Cody's Next Catchphrase? "Fried Bologna Is The Bomb!" [Defamer]

^* And seriously, how happy was I to read Maura's post and see how many Idolator readers also broke out in quirk-related hives during Juno? (Not alone! Not alone!) I have deep, deep issues with this whole 21st-century "Tracy and Hepburn diluted through bong water, a half-finished BA, and back issues of Sassy" aesthetic, but I'm holding back because before I know it I'll be dissing Arrested Development and everyone will suddenly turn on me.

First the opinion of the more subdued, casual Mr. Pete Wentz of Fall Out Boy:

"I've been an Obama supporter from day one," says Wentz. "After watching the New Hampshire primary, I couldn't just be an observer anymore - I had to act. Barack is the first politician who's ever made me feel like our voices actually matter."

And now the slightly more impassioned Mr. Win Butler of the Arcade Fire:

Barack is the first candidate in my lifetime to strip some of this bullshit away, and I just hope we don't blow this chance. man if we miss this opportunity we don't deserve it...how bad does it have to get?
fuck!!!!!!!!

Yes, it must really be terrible up there with your socialized medicine and ample basketballs. Don't waste all those government-funded exclamation points on us, defector.

Who's in for Team I Supported Obama before Pete Wentz Endorsed Him for Little Girls [icecreamheadcahes]
Arcade Fire [Official Site, but you gotta click "Win" and then "Win's Scrapbook" because of course the Arcade Fire are too frou-frou just to have a damn blog]
Related: The Indie Rock Presidential Primary [torr.typepad.com]

The very left-hand side of the picture is cut off, but other than that this is of sufficient quality. The sound is good, and the camera is steady. There are a few faint and cryptic reflections in the screen—the one to the left of the picture that looks kind of like a robot face is particularly distracting—but it's a small price to pay for such clear and audible footage of Stump emoting sans hat.
Would I buy it for $5 in the subway? Yes, but I'd try to bargain it down to $3.

While this one's got the framing down better, it fails in almost every other way. The buzzing high-frequency sound overpowers the dialogue, and the picture quality is grainy and high-contrast. What's a Law & Order bootleg if we can't see Jeremy Sisto's beautiful face?! Then again, this person did go to the trouble of adding a text intro and fancy transitions with Windows Media Maker. This either somewhat redeems the video or puts the final nail in its coffin, depending on your perspective.
Would I buy it for $5 in the subway? No.

Shaky camera, off-kilter framing, and too short. But the picture quality is excellent. Is it better to see Patrick Stump's sideburns clearly for thirty-eight seconds, or view them at a lower resolution for two-and-a-half minutes? Tough call!
Would I buy it for $5 in the subway? No, but only because it's too short.

This one's really got that authentic bootleg feel: the volume being adjusted, the annoying light reflection in the middle of the screen, the tinny sound quality. It's just a tad too bunko for comfort. Plus, it doesn't include the courtroom scene.
Would I buy it for $5 in the subway? Absolutely not.

Best for last! Not only is this one poorly framed, and completely inaudible, there's actually a running commentary from the videographer, complete with weird sneeze-like sound at the very beginning. She takes issue with the detectives picking on Patrick Stump, telling them to "Shut up! Don't say that to him!" She also can't contain her general Stump love, exclaiming, "Oh my God, he's adorable." The crazed whispery voice is downright creepy, and for all practical purposes this video is useless.
Would I buy it for $5 in the subway? You couldn't pay me to take a copy.

So now you have a representative sampling of your Law & Order bootleg options. I hope it's helpful, though if you cared enough about seeing Patrick Stump without a hat, you probably would have just watched the episode on TV last night. You're probably just a stupid prep who doesn't really care about Fall Out Boy anyway.

So when Idolator started I was pretty lukewarm-to-bitchy about Fall Out Boy, but over the course of this year, thanks in part to the ravings of ex-Idolator boss Brian Raftery and the whole shared adoration for the Josie & The Pussycats soundtrack thing—not to mention the fact that in the year that Indie Rock Broke it was kinda nice to hear songs with guitars that didn't sound like they'd been forcibly neutered before they were committed to tape—I relented. Especially after hearing the ferociously epic pop song "The Take Over, The Break's Over." You've got the pogo-stick guitar and ratatat drumming that usher in the proceedings, the chorus that is never going to not make me think of Pebbles' "Girlfriend" in an abstract way^*, the swooping hoisted-fist-worthy dual-axe action at the end, and the line about conjugal visits. It's audaciously all over the place in a "let's see if this will stick" sort of way, but (probably for that reason) it went pretty much nowhere as a single, garnering a fraction of the spins that even the old (and way inferior!) "Sugar, We're Goin' Down" did over the course of this past year and being pretty much a hit only in the alternate musical universe that is TRL. (Dear bands out there: This is a(nother!) sign that I should never, ever pick your singles. So don't ask, because it'll just be too painful for all of us.)

Fall Out Boy - The Take Over The Breaks Over [MySpace]
Fall Out Boy [MySpace]
Idolator's 2007 Top 40 List Of Awesomeness
[Photo: Getty]

^* Yeah, I have no idea. Maybe it's a lasting effect of sleeping through my clock radio a lot back in the late '80s.

Billboard's end-of-year lists, as always, provide a feast for those of us who care to painstakingly analyze not just popular music, but exactly what was the most popular and why. While Chris Molanphy made a meal out of the stats—including the Modern Rock numbers—last week, he left plenty of meat on the bones for me to dig into. And the Top 40 Hot Modern Rock Songs of 2007 chart is a mix of the usual suspects with some intriguing surprises.

As is generally the case with Billboard's year-end charts, which start in December of the previous year and end in November, this one heavily favors hits from the first half of the year and holdovers from 2006. Pretty much the entire Top 10 had impacted radio by the spring, giving the shaft to songs that have been inescapable over the last few months like the Foo Fighters' "The Pretender" and Paramore's "Misery Business," which had to settle for Nos. 14 and 25, respectively. Unsurprisingly, if depressingly, the top spot is held by Linkin Park's "Another Version of 'Numb,' This Time Without Jay-Z," with Finger Eleven's unlikely dance-rock smash "Paralyzer" (a personal favorite) taking runner-up status.

By far the most unexpected and inexplicable stats on the chart are the respective placements of Nine Inch Nails' two hits from Year Zero. "Survivalism" landed at No. 37, with "Capital G" coming in eight spots above it at No. 29. "Survivalism," the album's lead single, was out longer and peaked at No. 1 on the Modern Rock chart. But follow-up "Capital G," released just before Trent Reznor began his very public divorce from Interscope, didn't have a video or even a remix single with a "halo number"; it peaked at No. 6, making it the first NIN single to not top the Modern Rock chart since 2001. And the song itself, aside from a drum pattern that was eerily similar to Michael Jackson's "The Way You Make Me Feel," sure didn't smell like a hit, with Reznor's goofy vocal delivery and heavy-handed indictment of the Bush administration. I'm totally open to any theories on how this song, which I scarcely remember hearing on the radio at all, not only racked up more airplay than "Survivalism," but apparently became one of the biggest rock hits of the year. Perhaps it became a favorite on West Coast stations I don't listen to, or a few liberal DJs got a kick out of playing the song as much as possible during graveyard shifts? I'm stumped.

What the list demonstrates most is that modern rock radio in 2007 operated in its own sphere, with a limited amount of pop culture crossover. Fall Out Boy may have been crowned by media outlets like MTV as the biggest (or at least the most visible) young band in the world this year, but their tabloid-fodder relationships and numerous hip-hop collaborations cemented them as pop stars, not rock stars. Their sole entry on the list, "This Ain't A Scene, It's An Arms Race" (No. 26), reflects the fact that this year's Infinity On High skewed far more pop than their 2005 breakthrough, From Under The Cork Tree. All of Infinity's singles peaked higher on the Pop 100 and iTunes sales charts than on rock radio, and only "This Ain't A Scene" scraped the Modern Rock Top 10, at a lower peak than earlier hits like "Dance, Dance" or "Sugar, We're Goin' Down." Meanwhile, FOB was beat out on the year-end list by bands like Three Days Grace, Breaking Benjamin, Sick Puppies, and The Almost, none of whom you were likely to see on television this year (unless you watch Fuse, maybe).

While a handful of bands land on the list twice, including Muse and My Chemical Romance, only one is there three times, and you probably wouldn't be able to guess who it is: Incubus. Though their highest spot is a modest No. 12 for "Dig," the first three singles from the band's late 2006 album Light Grenades wound up on 2007's top 40. When Light Grenades debuted at the top of the album charts last November, I figured it was just the usual case of a band's diehard fans coming out in full force on the release date, coinciding with an otherwise slow week for new releases. But Billboard's list reaffirms that Incubus still has a tight grip on Modern Rock radio, even if they're a long way out from their peak of mainstream popularity in the late '90s, when frontman Brandon Boyd was the token rocker pin-up on TRL, a spot currently occupied by FOB bassist Pete Wentz. Unless Fall Out Boy plan on completing their transformation into this generation's Duran Duran with their next album, they might want to consult the guys in Incubus for some advice on how they can avoid losing rock radio's support entirely.

Said performances ranged from stadium-pro competent (Fall Out Boy) to so forgettable that even detailed notes wouldn't have helped (Boys Like Girls), but the show was invariably at its weakest when the girls in the stands exuded more pep than whoever happened to be on stage at the time (Avril Lavigne, we're looking at you), with Jordin Sparks resorting to a Christmas song (because even a spunky American Idol winner knows better than to bait a packed MSG with an album cut) and soft-rocking harridan Colbie Caillat mercifully only allotted the time to nervously strum through the excreable "Bubbly." (Her "backing band," especially the guy keeping time with the egg shaker, have the sweetest gigs that a lazy session guy could ask for at the moment.)

The grownups and the survivors, Alicia Keys and the warmly recieved Backstreet Boys (side note: when did AJ start looking like the emo Dave Attell?), unsurprisingly proved to be the only performers who had the biz-honed ability to command a crowd that size, but even with Timbaland interminably padding out three songs with the kind of between-song rambling that you'd expect from a pop genius with an entitlement complex bigger than his neck rolls, Jingle Ball still intermittently offered the rally-esque rush you get from the arena-sized pop show. During the hits, everyone sang. During the songs yet (or never) to be hits, everyone tapped out mash notes to the Jonas Brothers on their phones.

And at the end of the day, we were watching a Jonas Brothers show that just happened to feature some former (and current) Billboard chart-toppers as openers. There are all sorts of marketing and promotional reasons to help explain Disney's current chokehold on pop, and no svengalis will ever go broke banking on three nonthreatening, babyfaced cuties playing uptempo bubblegum. But the Jonas Brothers could have spent their set armpit-farting into their mics and the little girls still would have collapsed lungs and shredded vocal chords to show their approval. You could almost see the industry on its knees, thankful for another tweener bandage on hemorrhaging sales. There will come a point when even the well-scrubbed middle school idols can't control the bleeding, but based on Friday night's reception, the Jonas Brothers should keep the body from flatlining at least through 2008. So, um, hooray?

Jingle Ball 2007 [Z100]
[Photo: Getty]

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2007 Jingle Ball [Z100]

Mr. Reznor:

While the music industry is doing everything they possibly can to go out of business, can we all make sure to rid ourselves of the Grammys, too? Out of touch old men jacking each other off.
ENOUGH!
Have a nice day.

Mr. Wentz:

the first reaction is jealousy mixed with a slight sense of entitlement. we just want to be a part of your club. we feel like the orphans in the movie the warriors, when we are just dying to be the baseball furies. the truth be told though when you explore it further than that you realize much more. other than the fact that we play the events for you and the right parties all the time (which is a bit embarrassing either for you or us, not sure which, possibly both. its kind of like being invited to a birthday party and then not allowed to eat the cake.)- it shouldnt mean much. (almost) noone in this industry has vision beyond the fear that this week is their last paycheck. we want our songs to be immortal and a statue doesnt do anything to help them live forever. it is the people that live and die with them in their ears and throats that give them life. we wont lie to you, accolades from our peers feel great. however, a fifty year old white man shouldnt decide whether we are relevant or not- and he doesn't. we wanted to thank you for making us feel relevant- for sitting up all night to get into our shows and for buying our music. it means more in the wake of moments like this. we know who we are based on those who would walk through hell with us. this is not a disappointment, rather a revelation on what is truly important. thanks.

Well, with Reznor this anti-academy ire feels slightly more credible/less sour grapes-y, especially considering the dude's been on a burn-down-the-industry tear for years now. Plus he's succinct. (Though at 42 he should probably be careful throwing around the words "old men" as an epithet.) On the other hand, Wentz comes off like the expected whiny wanker, though in keeping with emo fashion he does admit to the jealousy angle up front, and to further cover his ass he did go on to tell MTV that he didn't, like,really care. But whereas Reznor wants to ditch the awards entirely, you do get the impression Wentz would be more than happy to keep them if the nominees were being decided by 15-year-old white girls rather than 50-year-old white men.

Got Bitterness? [Fall Out Boy]
A Suggestion [NIN Blog]