Idolator: Whoops

Gary Glitter Is Too Gross For School

Maura Johnston — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 15:30:00 EST

A music exam given to high-school students in the UK is causing quite the row for suggesting that the kids listen to a song by Gary Glitter, who just returned to the country after spending 27 months in a Vietnamese jail on sex-with-minors charges, to prepare for writing a track of their own. "Leader Of The Gang" (above) was recommended to students as an example of a song that changed tempo and/or style alongside "Reviewing The Situation" from Oliver! and Meat Loaf's "I Would Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That)." The organization that administers the exam has since ordered that all references to the track be removed, although given that said exam is aimed at teenagers—the demographic that loves to figure out what's behind the bleeps more than any other—and the news about this song being included is splashed all over the papers, the exact opposite of the ban's desired result will probably happen.

This comes on the heels of Hewlett-Packard dropping an ad that featured Joan Jett's version of the Glitter-penned "Do You Wanna Touch Me," so I guess the outcry have been as loud if the version of "Gang" that was on the test wasn't Gary Glitter's, but the Spice Girls'.

Glitter hit removed from GCSE paper [PA]
Gary Glitter - Leader Of The Gang [YouTube]
Spice Girls - Leader Of The Gang [YouTube]

Dru Hill Set Record For Shortest Reunion In History

Al Shipley — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 18:35:54 EST

I channel surf back and forth between a few local Baltimore stations during my morning commute every day, but obviously this morning I made a mistake by not listening to 92Q. For the first time in years, hometown R&B heroes Dru Hill appeared on the air together to announce a reunion of all four original members, including onetime solo star Sisqo. But not ten minutes into the interview, Woody Rock started to explain that he feels he's been "called by God on an assignment," and Sisqo, in disbelief, asks, "the group, right?" Once it becomes clear that Woody doesn't mean the group, Sisqo very reasonably retorts "dude, you could've told us this yesterday" and storms out, followed by a physical altercation between Woody and Nokio. I'm torn between feeling incredibly embarrassed for Baltimore right now that these guys are possibly the biggest stars we can claim as our own, and too entertained by this footage not to share it. [YouTube]

QTrax: The "Legal P2P" That Isn't Quite Legal

Maura Johnston — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 10:00:28 EST

After putting up a pretty Web page on Friday and having a splashy launch event at the MIDEM conference yesterday, QTrax—the long-in-the-works ad-supported peer-to-peer system that was supposedly going to have all four major labels on board—was supposed to launch its client at midnight ET. But there's one small problem: Three of the four major labels don't actually have deals in place with the service, thus throwing the "legal" part of the company's whole "legal peer-to-peer" claim in serious doubt.

"Warner Music Group has not authorized the use of our content on Qtrax's recently announced service," WMG spokesman Will Tanous told SAI via e-mail. Universal Music Group, the world's biggest music label, doesn't have a deal with QTrax either but is in talks with the company, says a person familiar with the situation. The LA Times quotes an EMI pr person saying that they're not in either. We haven yet to hear back from Sony-BMG, the fourth big major.

Here's the QTrax response, as of 9:57 pm eastern Sunday night: ""We are in discussion with Warner Music Group to ensure that the service is licensed and we hope to reach an agreement shortly."

QTrax officials had previously said they had deals with all four majors, which would give them access to a catalog at least as big as the 5 million tracks that Apple sells through its iTunes service. But we're told that the service's previous deal with Warner, signed in 2006, expired last year.

Launch delays strike again! Although it's probably not a good sign that they decided to go through with the press blitz despite not having 75% of the major-label population on board. (Didn't anyone learn the lessons of AnywhereCD?) The site's sort of up, although people have been reporting issues with downloading the client to me. (I'm locked out until March 18 at least since I'm on a MacBook.) You can see its inner workings (no download required!) at music.qtrax.com; right now they appear to be offering albums from the labels they're currently squabbling with, although given the delays that I've heard about I wouldn't be surprised if those pages were just placeholders. At least they give you the option of buying digital copies of said albums through their Amazon affiliate links, right? I bet they'll make tens of dollars off those today!

Warner, UMG, EMI: No Deals With Free Music Service QTrax (WMG) [Silicon Alley Insider]

Amazon's Music Store Gets A Little Bach-ed Up

mjohnston — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 15:00:31 EST

Via MetalSucks, here's the AmazonMP3 listing for Sebastian Bach's Angel Down. But Sebastian probably gets that a lot. (It certainly fooled my mom at first, back when I was buying Skid Row records.) And who's to say that, buried within the 8,934 tapes of Chinese Democracy out-takes, there isn't a new version of "Oh My God" that actually samples the St. Matthew Passion?

AMAZON MUSIC STORE GAFFE: PREVIEW "JOHANN" SEBASTIAN BACH'S ANGEL DOWN [MetalSucks]