Did You Hear?

:: Madonna is launching a “lifestyle brand” (think clothes, shoes, handbags and fragrances) called Truth Or Dare By Madonna. “Over the past several years, I have been approached countless times to create my own brand,” the pop star said, adding that “the timing is right.” Of course it is — she’s about to drop a new album. [Just Jared]

:: Is Demi Lovato dating Wilmer Valderrama? More importantly, Wilmer Valderrama is still around? [Neon Limelight]

:: Marilyn Manson had one ka-razy night in Las Vegas, which included singing Justin Timberlake’s “Cry Me A River” six times in a row. [Huffington Post]

:: Kanye West shares some nice words about his ex-girlfriend Amber Rose while performing live. Wiz Khalifa, pretend you didn’t hear any of this. [PopDust]

:: Glee’s “sexual-awakening” episode titled “First Time” is said to be hot and heavy. Get the exclusive details on what will be going down in next’s week raunchy new episode. [E! Online]

Head below to find out which music acts will be taking over your tube today.

Music On TV:

:: Late Show With David Letterman (CBS) — Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit
:: The Tonight Show With Jay Leno (NBC) — Mute Math
:: Jimmy Kimmel Live (ABC) — Primus (repeat)
:: Late Night With Jimmy Fallon (NBC) — Childish Gambino
:: Last Call With Carson Daly (NBC) — Weezer

Did You Hear?

:: Latina lovelies Selena Gomez and Christina Aguilera were honored with three nominations each at this year’s Alma Awards. Xtina even got a Best Actress nod for Burlesque! Miracles do happen. [Just Jared]

:: Skylar Grey has roped in the services of Marilyn Manson for a zombie-themed song on her debut album, Invisible. [Pop Dust]

:: Independent record stores are up in arms about Kanye West and Jay-Z releasing the deluxe edition of Watch The Throne exclusively in Best Buy stores. [Entertainment Weekly]

:: Miguel’s “Quickie” video contains vampires and cigarette butts. We hope it was good for you as it was for us.  [Soul Bounce]

:: Ciara performs a Michael Jackson medley in Africa. [Rap-Up]

After the jump, find out which music acts will be appearing on the tube today.

Music On TV:
:: Tonight Show with Jay Leno (NBC) — Kelly Rowland
:: Late Night With Jimmy Fallon (NBC) — Big Sean
:: Last Call With Carson Daly (NBC) — Soundtrack Of Our Lives (repeat)
:: Jimmy Kimmel Live (ABC) — Owl City (repeat)
:: Tavis Smiley (PBS) — Barry Manilow
:: The Gayle King Show (OWN) — Rebecca Black

Did You Hear?

:: The Jonas Brothers are taking their women on tour—Kevin’s wife Danielle will be joining the boys, as will Joe’s girlfriend Demi Lovato, who coincidentally happens to be their opening act. You know what that means—all the groupies go to Nick. [PopEater]

:: Why yes, that is Pharrell wearing jean shorts at Cannes Film Festival. Pharrell, pants. Pants, Pharrell. I see you haven’t met yet. [Rap-Up]

:: WTF couple Marilyn Manson and Evan Rachel Wood will reportedly star in a movie together called Splatter Sisters, described as being “the first in a planned franchise and is a sexploitation-serial-killer-slasher-road-movie circa 1989.” We’re pretty sure “first” is a relative term, since they probably won’t make a sequel to a movie no one will go see. [Just Jared]

:: Not everyone shares our enthusiasm over news that Mary J. Blige has been cast to play the iconic Nina Simone. But we still have faith in our MJB’s big-screen career! [Soul Bounce]

:: Check out this list of the 50 greatest hip-hop samples of all time. Warning: reading this is going to compel you to spend a LOT of money on James Brown albums. [Complex]

Music on TV Today

:: Tonight Show with Jay Leno — Taio Cruz
:: Late Show with David Letterman – Zac Brown Band, Michael Lynche
:: Lopez Tonight (TBS) – Weezer
:: Last Call with Carson Daly — 311 (repeat)
:: The Ellen DeGeneres Show — Justin Bieber

Did You Hear?
:: Marilyn Manson and Evan Rachel Wood are not only back together, they’re engaged. As far as their honeymoon is concerned, we’ve got two words for you: bloody sex. [People]

:: Billy Corgan is starting his own record label, but is sadly unlikely to sign his purported, earwax-free girlfriend Jessica Simpson. [Spinner]

:: Rihanna’s Mexican vacation with new man-of-the-moment Matt Kemp continues, this time on a boat, on a boat, on a m-f’ing boat. [Celebuzz]

:: Spin unleashes its list of the Five Most Metal Movie Characters. Finally, a list without Harry Potter or those damn Twilight kids. [Spin]

:: In even more relationship news, Keyshia Cole is engaged to basketball star Daniel “Boobie” Gibson, and they are expecting their first child together. She decided to marry him after learning that he respected his mother enough to keep the nickname she gave him. [Concrete Loop]

Behind the jump: Nick Jonas is literally taking over our TVs.

Music On TV Tonight:
:: Jimmy Kimmel Live (ABC) – Colbie Caillat
:: Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (NBC) – Nick Jonas & The Administration
:: The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien (NBC) – OK Go
:: Last Call with Carson Daly (NBC) – Metric

Music Tomorrow Morning:
:: The View (ABC) – Nick Jonas co-hosts

VIDEO REWIND OF THE DAY: In anticipation of American Idol kicking off its ninth season next week, let’s take a look at the very first Idol winner’s very first post-show music video, Kelly Clarkson’s “A Moment Like This.” Not exactly the most riveting music video, but the tune is certainly the most memorable victory song bestowed forced upon an Idol winner.

Have a great day, everybody!

• ”Eclectic, I’m-gonna-devour-you-oh-yeah-the-world-is-ending love jams.” [Christopher R. Weingarten, 1000TimesYes]

• ”Manson may be the self-proclaimed God of Fuck and Antichrist Superstar, but he’s just another monster under the bed these days, a particularly non-scary monster at that. The transformation suits him when he embraces it–here’s to a new era where Manson can be his weird-assed self without pandering to the disaffected goth youth. He’s so much more interesting when he does it that way.” [Matt Schild, Aversion]

• ”Whip-smart intelligence and a staggering lack of self-awareness have always co-existed on Manson discs, and this one is no different. These days he has to labor much too hard to be a provocateur. He doesn’t seem to realize it, but he’s much more interesting, much more human, as a spurned lover than he is as a fusty culture war relic, rattling his chains.” [Allison Stewart, Washington Post]

• ”Musically, the new tunes mostly evoke warmed-over Nine Inch Nails crossed with mediocre ’70s metal, and occasionally, the results can be fairly satisfying. But unless you’re a very impressionable 15-year-old, Manson’s safe as milk doom metal is unlikely to leave even a superficial cut.” [Tom Sinclair, EW]

Sarah McLachlan, “I Will Remember You”

McLachlan’s song is mixed in jarringly with audio from news reports; the two don’t really blend, and it results in making the song sound sarcastic.  If like Negativland or something put this out, it would make total sense.

Evanesence, “My Immortal”

This video has a Christian theme to this one, and is ostensibly related to the Virginia Tech shootings as well.  Maybe that’s why people made these videos after the fact?  There’s a similarly themed clip using Roxette’s “Never is a Long Time,” as well.

Rufus Wainwright, “Hallelujah”

Another creepy one, this one mixing the song with audio of the goddamn 911 calls.  (”Hallelujah” comes up in tribute videos for sad events all the time, of course.)  Again, there’s a Christian theme; this clip has a particular focus on Cassie Bernall, the girl who, the story goes, was shot after saying she believed in God.

Anouk, “One Word”

This song seems to be about regretting that you did not help someone who committed suicide, which is kind of weird given that the shooters were the ones who killed themselves at Columbine, but I guess that’s cool too.

Amy Grant, “Behind the Eyes”

Writes the creator: “In April 1999 I was stunned by the tragedy that took place at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. I didn’t have access to any media programs back then, but I created a PowerPoint accompanied by a song on a CD. It was a way to channel my grief.”  So that’s why they’re still popping up, I suppose.

Marilyn Manson, “The Nobodies”

And at this point, the videos began to take an odd turn: They began to be pro-shooters.  Manson, of course, was notoriously blamed for the incident, and instead of an ironic juxtaposition here the idea seems to be that the killers had the right idea.  A comment: “RIP Eric & Dylan.  They were the true victims.  They were bullied like fuck.  And they must have been bullied like hell if they came to the point where they had enough and was filled with so much rage and revenge that they killed those kids that made them depressed and treated them like nobodies.”

Michelle Featherstone, “God Bless the Child”

This one is just a mess, mixing a sad piano song with 9/11 calls on the audio, and then mixing news footage with statistics about gun violence and, I shit you not, scenes from One Tree Hill.  The on-screen text says things like “Bullying is the most common form of violence in our society; between 15% and 30% of students are bullies or victims.  On April 20, 1999, two men fought hard against it, resulting in one of the most horrific days in American History.” (All [sic].)

Superchick, “Hero (Red Pill).”

Writes the creator: “I think it’s very fitting, bullying was one of the main reasons for the shooters to commit suicide and take as many lives with them as they could.  But that doesn’t mean Eric and Dylan’s actings are justified.  I’m sorry for my bad English.”  The song is certainly anti-bully, losts of violence and things.

What to make of all this?  A few things, I suppose.  One would be that making tribute videos seems to be a way for people to work out their feelings in general about events unrelated to those being paid tribute to, given that most of the videos here were made long after the fact.  To memorialize someone who died in a meaningful way seems like an opportunity to either mitigate or encourage your emotions. 

But another thing would be that Columbine still seems to be powerful iconography for teenagers.  It’s hard to think of another shooting where the killers are actually mourned by anyone who didn’t know them, and despite the brutality and horror and general craziness of the Columbine shooters, their rhetoric and justifications seem to have a continued resonance with today’s youth.  Teenagers are not known for their empathy, of course, but it’s still interesting that they seem to find some justification for murder, identifying only with the shooters rather than the random teenagers who were killed.  The Columbine shootings served as a catalyst for making bullying a cause worth fighting against.  And, of course, from another angle it very much is: recently a young boy killed himself after being bullied for being “gay.”

But at the same time, of course, it’s hard to see the Columbine shooters as heroes except from an action-movie kind of perspective.  And teens seem to treat them that way, as almost freedom fighters. 

I am no stranger to these sorts of attitudes; as you may have guessed from my post about the Butthole Surfers, I did not have the most pleasant middle school experience (though high school was mostly OK).  Columbine was a big deal to me when it happened, maybe just because I was not used to seeing people like me in the news.  Teenagers taking revenge on those who wronged them is an undeniably romantic image: that’s why it was so effective in Heathers, certainly one of the best movies ever made about being a teenager.  But I didn’t expect it to have such legs.  Ten years later, despite being eclipsed in scope and horror by other events, it remains resident in our national pysche.  Maybe this is because, unlike other shootings, this one didn’t seem like just senseless violence, mental illness transformed into death.  No, Columbine had meaning.  But as it turns out, of course, it was meaning created by someone suffering from mental illness.  The lucid insane have an odd ability to catch and hold our imaginations, and that, I suppose, is why they’re so dangerous.

Do We Blame the Columbine Parents? [NYT]

• Ne-Yo is going to bring his grown sexiness to the next Marilyn Manson album. [Hollywood Insider]
• There’s a Grammy Museum opening! It’ll be like a Hard Rock Cafe, except more self-important and with fewer franchises. [Variety]
• The latest ’90s band to have reunion rumors swirl around it: Faith No More. Don’t mess with my heart, you guys. [Blabbermotuh]
• And finally, lots of American breakfast tables were no doubt filled with confusing conversations about “this Internet thing” as Rick Astley came out to lipsync “Never Gonna Give You Up” during the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, much to the delight of the Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends cast. Clip after the jump.

(My dad knew what Rickrolling was thanks to the whole Shea Stadium thing a few months back. Yay Internet?)

Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade RickRoll [YouTube]

Me, I’m just hoping that Fred Durst’s mom comes back to weigh in on all this.

Marilyn Manson Interview Korea 08 [YouTube via Blabbermouth]

So what’s the grosser take-away from this story? The people chanting “USA! USA!” during Manson’s “subtle” hints that the crowd stomp this guy, or the fact that the forthcoming video for his new single “features several softcore sex scenes” between Marilyn and girlfriend Evan Rachel Wood? Let’s call it a draw.

Marilyn Manson Does Not Encourage Crowds To ‘Beat The Sh*t’ Out Of Bottle-Throwers [Blabbermouth]