Once again, we present Rock-Critically Correct, a feature in which the most recent issues of Rolling Stone, Blender, Vibe, and Spin are given a once-over by a writer who's contributed to many of those magazines, as well as a few others! In this installment, he looks at the new issue of Blender:
More »
Over the summer, accordion-wielding parodist "Weird Al" Yankovic told Billboard that he was prepared to take advantage of the iTunes age by breaking free from the album mold, and using iTunes to release songs that were more of the moment than was possible during the era of "Eat It" and "Like A Surgeon." Last week, Yankovic took to his blog (!!) to announce that his first foray into rush-releasing his response songs would land on iTunes tomorrow, although he was cagey about just who would be his target: "I'm only supposed to 'tease' this release right now—I'll post more info about it in a couple days. But I will say that it's a parody of a song that very recently was (or perhaps still is) the number one song in the country. That would be another first for me—I don't think I've ever released a parody of a song while the original song was still number one!" Uh oh, are you thinking what I'm thinking?
More »
The just-launched MySpace Music is all about making money for the labels, right? So it would behoove them to have songs that the people want to buy available for purchase on the service, no? Come with me as I try to buy the top 10 songs on this week's Hot Digital Tracks chart by using MySpace's widgetry:
More »
Many people find it hard to tell the great from the godawful when it comes to 21st-century mainstream rock. To help figure out which is which, here's "Corporate Rock Still Sells," where Al "GovernmentNames" Shipley examines what's good, bad, and ugly in the world of rock and roll. This time around, he notes that rock radio has actually started playing songs sung by women after a long drought. (No, really!)
More »
I mean, not that i'm the type to defend Katy Perry and her "bi-curious until last call" ways, but doesn't the Hannah Montana star's response to a question about Miley and Katy sharing a girl-on-girl kiss at the forthcoming Video Music Awards smack of... well, something that's worthy to be smacked over? "No thanks.... She sang on my record. So I think she's kind of getting back at me, because she was doing harmonies and backgrounds." I don't even like Perry, but between this and the video Cyrus made where she tried to mock a video-blog made by her Disney-demographic successors Demi Lovato and Selena Gomez, I'm starting to think that Miley's inevitable denouement into D-list Celebreality hell is going to inspire a lot of schadenfreude. [E!]
About one-third of my Saturday was spent in the general environs of Long Island's Nassau Coliseum, whose parking lot played host to the New York area stop of the skate/punk/emo/exercises in branding festival known as the Warped Tour. Not only were there some 100 bands playing condensed sets during the course of those eight hours, there were merch tents (one for each band on the traveling bill), signings, acoustic sets, petitions to sign, skaters performing tricks, free energy drinks, pro-vegetarianism propaganda, shutter-shade vendors, and a store with Barack Obama-branded items. Not to mention the chance to play Rock Band alongside the session musicians backing up this country's current No. 1 song. After the jump, a rundown of the day. It will be somewhat disjointed, in honor of every single one of my joints aching after being subjected to parking-lot asphalt for most of the time.
More »
The first sets of nominees for this year's Video Music Awards were announced during FNMTV on Friday, and perhaps what's most impressive is the fact that bubblegum star Chris Brown got nominated in both announced categories, despite one of them being Best Female Video. (His duet partner Jordin Sparks' "No Air" got one of the nods.) But aside from that, the big, obvious question posed by both "Piece Of Me" and "I Kissed A Girl" being up for Best Female Video is this: Will Britney Spears be coaxed out of her hermitude and forced to kiss Katy Perry? And if the smooch does happen, does that mean the Madonna Curse will be passed on? We can only hope. The full list of nominees for Best Female Video and Best Male Video—complete with director info!—after the jump.
More »
We love charts here at Idolator, but sometimes they can be so elitist. Who cares what critics think, or what the program directors of America feel like shoving down peoples' throats? We want to know: What are the people demanding to hear? What songs inspire people to vote with their wallets, making them insert a dollar into a machine with one hand while holding a longneck in the other?
More »
I feel like we're already said our peace about Katy Perry and her artistic crimes, but the fine people at James Dobson's Focus on the Family are looking a bit deeper; their concern is her long-term—let's say eternal—path.
More »
Starting in October, the new CEO of EMI Records will be Elio Leoni-Sceti, an Italian advertising executive with no experience in the music industry. Terra Firma leader Guy Hands has been looking for someone forward thinking and informed enough to take over EMI's top recorded-music position since buying the company last August, and evidently no one available was more appropriate for the position than a guy who made his name pushing house cleaning supplies for Reckitt Benckiser. Chris Martin must be delighted! Will Leoni-Sceti have the same success with Katy Perry as he did with laundry detergent? Guy Hands sure thinks so!
More »
Today's USA Today has a big piece on rock merch, talking about how $55 concert T-shirts are purchased by people who are "style-conscious and socially conscious" (oddly, the word "suckers" is not used), how being sold at Target hasn't hurt the alleged cool factor of Beatles and Rolling Stones shirts, and how the ever-annoying Katy Perry designed her merch in such a way that's inspired by (her apparent non-reading of) Lolita and "fruit motifs, especially strawberries and cherries." (Because eating them is, like, just like kissing a girl... plant!) It even finds some poor sucker to trot out the already-old-and-reliable "you can't download a T-shirt" notion! But perhaps the best part of the story is Edna Gudnersen's guide to "t-shirt etiquette," which seems to have been taken out of some sort of sidebar storage unit that was last replenished in 2004.
More »
Todd Martens of the Los Angeles Times is taking a midseason look at the contenders for the Grammy Awards' fourth or fifth most prestigious award: Best New Artist, which has been given in the past to such luminaries as Paula Cole, Arrested Development, and A Taste Of Honey. Looking at all the exciting music produced by those who qualify for the award, it's really anyone's guess who will take home the prize next February. No wait, the winner's definitely going to be Duffy, isn't it?
More »
Ed. note: Chris "dennisobell" Molanphy, our resident chart guru, looks at the upward, downward, and lack of movement on this week's Billboard charts:
EMI is the Bear Stearns of the music industry—once mighty, now declining rapidly and ripe for takeover and obliteration. But you'd never know it looking at the new Billboard Hot 100: two singles on EMI's U.S. flagship label, the 66-year-old Capitol Records, sit in the top two positions.
The chart is crowned by Coldplay's "Viva la Vida," the band's first-ever chart-topper and arguably the first No. 1 hit fueled entirely by Apple Inc. One lip-smack below them is Katy Perry's "I Kissed a Girl," which reaches No. 2—the latest leap in an inexorable march that will probably put her atop the chart before you fire up your July 4 barbecue.
Whether Perry ousts Chris Martin & co. from the penthouse next week or the week after will depend on the public's buying behavior this week, following the release of Coldplay's new blockbuster album. The interplay of song sales and album sales in the iTunes era is hard to predict—as shown by Lil Wayne's drop from No. 1, which we called wrong in a major way just last week.
More »
Most people figured that Coldplay would have the top-selling album on next week's charts, but would Viva La Vida reach Lil Wayne's cool million in first-week sales? Looks like the answer is no, but the 700,000-sale tally that HITS is projecting brings back brief memories of when albums had impressive sales, and a week where 200,000 copies were sold wouldn't necessarily result in a spot in the top ten. Weezy looks to add another 300,000 to his total, while the Jonas Brothers-accented Camp Rock soundtrack is set to begin its stay on the charts at No. 3, likely selling around 200,000 in its first week. After the top three, it's back to reality: NOW 28 is on pace to just break the six-figure mark; Usher and Piles will likely sell in the 60,000-copy range; The Offspring continue to befuddle me with their continued popularity by selling a projected 55,000 albums; Judas Priest and Katy Perry fight over Nos. 8 and 9 spots, with each on track to move about 50,000 copies; and the Rihanna screw-the-consumer reissue and Disturbed fight it out for tenth place. Only 50,000 album sales for Katy Perry, after all we had to suffer through? I'm simultaneously disappointed and pleased. [HITS Daily Double]
From time to time, we like to round up the all-important, all-summarizing last sentences of the biggest new-music reviews. Under consideration in this installment is One Of The Boys, which is Christian pop singer turned Girl Gone Mild Katy Perry's Glen Ballard/Dr. Luke-assisted effort to break out of one-hit-wonderdom:
More »
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.
More ».jpg)
Lily Allen, who's in LA recording her new album right now, is apparently ticked off that Capitol Records is putting all of its weight behind Girl Gone Wild of the moment Katy Perry, including—oh, the humanity!—a big picture of Allen being taken down and one of Perry being put up in the halls of her label, Capitol Records. Picture replacements, having to downgrade her LA hotel room out of concern for expenses... it all sounds lifted from the end of Soapdish, except I would definitely consider Perry more of the blowhardy Montana Moorehead type. (Look for her at a dinner theater near you soon!) [Page Six / Lily Allen's MySpace Blog / Photo: WENN]
Idolator
