andPOP » Music

New Music: Jason Derulo – In My Head

Michael Levine — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 01:32:19 +0000

Jason Derulo has a brand new single out called ‘In My Head’. We’ve got the brand new track for you below. Don’t forget to check out our Jason Derulo Interview!

Rihanna Box Set to Hit Shelves

Vanessa Baker — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 16:31:26 +0000

Singer Rihanna is releasing a box set containing her first three hit albums, Music of the Sun, A Girl Like Me and Good Girl Gone Bad, reports Perez Hilton.

The collection will hit shelves Dec. 15, while her latest album, Rated R, is scheduled for release Nov. 23.

Taylor Swift Doll

Vanessa Baker — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 20:30:11 +0000

American toy company Jakks Pacific has created six Taylor Swift dolls, reports Perez Hilton. Three of the dolls sing either “Teardrops on My Guitar,” “Our Song” or “Picture to Burn.”

The other three do not sing, instead focusing on the songstress’s fashion. The “Red Carpet Ready” doll sports a dress similar to the one by Reem Acra that Swift wore to last week’s Country Music Association Awards in Nashville, Tennessee.

Justin Bieber Fans Get Rowdy

Vanessa Baker — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 19:47:13 +0000

Thousands of Justin Bieber fans nearly caused a riot at a Long Island, NY mall waiting for the 15-year-old singer, reports E! News. One girl ended up in the hospital, and a member of Bieber’s crew was arrested as a result of the frenzy.

Bieber, from Stratford, Ont., ended up not showing up because of the hectic scene.

“They are not allowing me to come into the mall,” he tweeted. “If you don’t leave, I and my fans will be arrested as the police just told us. The event at Roosevelt Mall is cancelled. Please go home. The police have already arrested one person from my camp. I don’t want anyone hurt. I’m sorry to everyone who was in Long Island at the mall today. I was just trying to come meet fans and never meant to disappoint anyone.”

His debut album, My World, was released Tuesday by Island Records.

“Unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond our control, 15-year-old pop-singing sensation Justin Bieber was forced to cancel today’s CD signing at the Justice store at Roosevelt Mall in Long Island,” the label said in a statement. “Over 10,000 screaming fans showed up and the police and fire marshall concluded it was an unsafe environment and prohibited the event from taking place. Justin made every effort to enter the mall but was turned away by the police. Justin appreciates his fans and promises to make it up to them soon.”

Beyonce And Lady Gaga Team Up For ‘Video Phone’

Joelle Tomlinson — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 06:44:44 +0000

What do you get when you mix cameras, music, video phones, and two of the biggest divas in the U.S. music industry?

A music video with Beyonce and Lady Gaga, remixing Beyonce’s original “Video Phone” score. In the newly-released video, the two larger-than-life diva’s storm around in trench coats, bathing suits and heels. It opens up with a scintillating scene of Beyonce and her all-male posse marching down a seemingly-deserted alleyway with a purpose in mind.

Gaga and Beyonce are an interesting combination that makes for a unique music video. Azcentral.com says that the director, Hype Williams, “shoots a video in his trademark electrifying colour schemes and high-shine lighting, resulting in a fantastical pop mirage.”

With a combination of Beyonce’s trademark outlandish costume choices- and Gaga’s trademark outlandish behaviour, the new music video is sure to make heads turn. The “Video Phone” collaboration debuted Monday night on MTV and VH-1.

Miley Cyrus’ Tour Bus Accident Leaves One Dead

Joelle Tomlinson — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 05:16:46 +0000

In a fatal road accident last night involving one of Miley Cyrus tour buses, it seems the show must still go on for the ‘tween popstar.

TMZ reports that the accident has left one person dead and several more injured, though Cyrus herself was not on the bus that was involved in the accident on the Virginia highway. It seems the group of people injured are the singer’s lighting crew, so it will be interesting to see how the singer will manage on her scheduled show (that is still happening) on Sunday evening.

According to dose.ca, there were eyewitness reports stating that the bus drifted off the road before being led to flip. Apparently, the roads were slippery due to a previous bout of rain, and there is an ongoing investigation into whether the bus driver died previous to, or after the crash.

Cyrus tour has not been cancelled as of yet, and she is touring through the U.S. during the first week of December.

Dave Grohl Admires His Led Zeppelin Band Member

Sara Harowitz — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:50:47 +0000

Dave Grohl is admired by many. The Nirvana drummer, turned Foo Fighters lead singer, and most recently, Them Crooked Vultures drummer, has had quite the music career. Still, he has his idols too. And one of them is in his new band.

Playing with Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones in his new super-group Them Crooked Vultures is a dream come true for Grohl, reports rollingstone.com.

Grohl’s Led Zeppelin love goes all the way back to when he was just a teenager. He’s got three Led Zeppelin-inspired tattoos – the John Bonham three-circle Led Zeppelin IV logo in three places – the first of which he did himself when he was just a teen.

“I did the first one myself when I was 16,” said Grohl. “I tried to get different coloured ink to make it seem pro, but now it looks like someone put a cigarette out on my fucking arm.”

The second tattoo was a bit more professional: he had it done at an illegal squat in Amsterdam.

“It was done by an Italian guy named Andrea whose tattoo gun was made out of a doorbell machine,” he said. “When my mother saw it, she was like, ‘David!’ I was like, ‘Mom, I’ve done a lot worse shit than this, believe me. Look at my other arm.’”

And Grohl paid for his third and final Led Zeppelin tattoo with his first cheque, $400 U.S., from being in Nirvana.

“Kurt and I were living with each other in Olympia,” he said. “The place was so depressing.”

“I took the $400 and bought a Nintendo, a BB gun – mind you, I was 21, not 12 – and got that tattoo,” Grohl continued. “One of my fondest memories of living in that rat-shit-hole apartment was buying a dozen eggs at the A&P, bringing them to Kurt’s backyard, and me and Kurt and Buzz [Osbourne] from the Melvins shooting at the eggs. Those were the days.”

Grohl says that playing with Them Crooked Vultures is like “being in the most incredible luxury car, driving on the Autobahn, flying by the seat of my pants.”

Their self-titled debut album is now out.

Beck Responds to Fiery Furnaces Jab With New Song

Sara Harowitz — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:41:49 +0000

Beck has responded to the comments made by The Fiery Furnaces’ Matt Friedberger by writing a song, according to nme.com.

In the original attack, Friedberger jabbed at alternative band Radiohead, calling them “bogus” for releasing a song about the last surviving British World War I veteran, Harry Patch.

It later became clear that Friedberger could have misinterpreted the song, confusing the war hero Harry Patch with the experimental music composer Harry Partch. But instead of letting the whole charade just blow over, Friedberger chose to continue the feud by then taking a stab at alternative singer Beck.

In the attack, a statement said that “Matt would have much preferred to insult Beck but he is too afraid of Scientologists.”

Now Beck has responded to the attacks, fighting back against Friedberger. But, he has done so in a different way.

Beck has written his own tribute song, called “Harry Partch,” which was uploaded to his website yesterday (Nov. 18).

“It’s a tribute to the composer and his desire to make the body and music unified into what he termed ‘corporeality,’” said a statement on Beck’s website, www.beck.com. “[The song] employs Partch’s 43-tone scale, which expands conventional tonality into a broader variation on frequencies and resonances.”

Oasis is Back… Sort Of

Sara Harowitz — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:05:39 +0000

Now that the long-time popular band Oasis are officially finished, lead singer Liam Gallagher is finally free to start a new band. And he’s doing so… with the members of Oasis who aren’t his brother Noel, reports rollingstone.com.

Bassist Andy Bell, drummer Chris Sharrock, and guitarist Gem Archer are currently working with Liam on new songs. In an interview with an Italian radio station, Liam promised fans that this new revamp of “Oasis,” which will perform under a different name, will return with music and performances soon.

“I’ll be back doing that, playing live, within a couple of months,” Liam said. “I’ve just done a tour, I always miss singing songs. I miss the people.”

Noel Gallagher left Oasis in late August, following a backstage fight with his brother before a performance at a French music festival. In the Italian interview, Liam revealed that the argument started when Noel poorly treated a guitar that was given to Liam as a present from his wife. In angry response, Liam took one of Noel’s guitars and smashed it.

“I didn’t smash the guitar on him,” Liam said. “I wish I had, man.”

“To be quite honest, I think Noel wanted out,” Liam continued. “We had an argument – but we’ve had bigger ones, about more important people. Basically, I think he wanted out, wanted something different, but he hadn’t got the bollocks to tell the band or the fans.”

Liam singularly wrote Oasis songs such as “Songbird,” “I’m Outta Time,” and “Little James,” but the music he creates in his new band will definitely be different without the intense yet creatively brilliant song relationship with his brother.

To really drive home the point, Liam repeated one more time, “Oasis is done.”

How Oprah is Helping the Music Biz

Sara Harowitz — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:08:33 +0000

Thanks to illegal digital downloading, album sales are on a continuous decline. And as sales keep sliding, the music industry keeps looking for ways to make big events out of record releases. There have been partnerships with big retail companies (such as Walmart’s exclusive with AC/DC’s Black Ice), large-scale live shows (such as Jay-Z’s event before the release of The Blueprint III), and exciting fan contests (such as Pearl Jam’s artwork scavenger hunt for Backspacer). But as rollingstone.com reports, one sure way to guarantee an album’s success is Oprah Winfrey.

For example, Canadian singer Michael Buble’s new album Crazy Love went to the top of the charts after he appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show, which led Variety magazine to examine what they are calling the “Oprah Effect.”

“Oprah is the one thing everyone wants,” Diarmuid Quinn, president of Reprise Records, told Variety. “If you get that call back from her production people, my god, it’s the Holy Grail.”

For years, Oprah’s Book Club has been credited for pushing under-the-radar books to the top of the bestseller lists. So, it’s no doubt that the daytime TV queen’s level of promotion power has made the easy transition into music. Recent success stories credited to Oprah include Whitney Houston’s I Look to You and Barbra Streisand’s Love is the Answer, the latter of which beat out new albums by Paramore and Mariah Carey to the top of the charts.

Variety also suggests that Oprah saved Journey. About a year after the band’s album Revelation was released, they appeared on Oprah’s Oct. 5 episode. The next week, Revelation sales increased by 681 per cent.

However, one of the biggest beneficiaries thanks to Oprah is perhaps the young, deep-voiced Josh Groban. In October 2007, the musician’s Christmas album, Noel, debuted quietly on the Billboard Top 200. However, after appearing as one of “Oprah’s Favorite Things” on Oprah’s show seven weeks after its release, sales of Noel skyrocketed, and the record topped the charts in early December. Noel spent five consecutive weeks at the top of the charts, a new record for a Christmas album. The CD experienced a sales increase each of those five weeks following its appearance on the Oprah show. By the end of the year, Noel ended up with just over 3.5 million in sales, making it the best-selling album of 2007.

So what’s next on Oprah’s promotion schedule? Movies? TV? Fashion? No doubt tons of people will tune in to find out.