Search Results for: daughtry

Wolf Blitzer is a John Legend fan. After CNN aired a live performance of Legend’s new song, “If You’re Out There,” from the floor of the Democratic National Convention, Blitzer promised to continue to interrupt the network’s reporting or analysis for musical acts as good as Legend. Legend was the most visible of the entertainers who flowed into Denver for the convention, which opened Monday. A choir backed him for the song that fits neatly with Barack Obama’s campaign themes. “We’ve been looking for the world to change,” Legend sang. “If you’re out there, sing along with me. Stand up… Read more »

Rocker David Cook won the coveted title of “American Idol” on Wednesday, dealing an unexpected but decisive defeat to a silken-voiced teenager, also named David, on the most popular U.S. television show. Cook, 25, who was tending bar and playing in a band before he auditioned for the singing competition, stood back to applaud rival David Archuleta, 17, and then bent over crying after host Ryan Seacrest said he had won by 12 million votes. “This is amazing. Thank you,” said the Blue Springs, Missouri, native, who in addition to being crowned this year’s “Idol” will receive a recording contract.… Read more »

The term “singer-songwriter” makes Gavin DeGraw cringe. “It makes you feel like a weakling the way all the singer songwriters are marketed, you know what I mean? … It’s not masculine enough for me. I don’t feel like I fall into that category in a lot of ways,” he said about his “typecasted genre.” Maybe it’s because he was seen as the sensitive songwriter dude that the gregarious 31-year-old is anxious to break out of that mold. DeGraw – who sings, writes his own songs and plays multiple instruments – debuted his skills as a pop artist on his 2003… Read more »

Troubled British singer Amy Winehouse is the perfect poster girl for the current state of the music industry. Music isn’t her problem. Everything else is. That’s exactly the same situation that the music industry – faced with lagging sales, a lack of star power and defection from its biggest moneymakers – finds itself in these days. And when the music industry has problems, the Grammys – celebrating their 50th anniversary Sunday – do as well. Winehouse and her stunning R&B revivalist debut “Back to Black” (Universal Republic) are up for six awards; she’s the only artist nominated in all four… Read more »

The stars of “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Pirates of the Caribbean” were among the fan favorites at the 34th annual People’s Choice Awards on Tuesday, as CBS scrapped its usual live broadcast of the show in favor of a strike-friendly, pre-taped program. The two-month-old Writers Guild of America strike has taken a toll on Hollywood’s awards season, leading to the cancellation of the Golden Globes and the scaling-down of People’s Choice. The fate of other shows, including the Oscars, remains in question. The People’s Choice Awards announced last month that it would replace its traditional live show with “a new format”… Read more »

Kanye West and Amy Winehouse each have had a rough year. He weathered the death of his mother last month, and she has been battling health issues that forced her to cancel scores of shows. But West and Winehouse may at least get some good news at Thursday’s Grammy nominations, where industry insiders predicted they were likely to garner multiple nods. Grammy-nominated producer Sean Garrett said West was a sure bet. The rapper’s third album, “Graduation,” had the year’s biggest debut, selling nearly 1 million copies in its first week, an amazing feat during the industry’s current struggles. Winehouse, though… Read more »

Hawthorne Heights have written two dozen songs and have a producer ready to hit the studio to start recording them, but the Dayton, Ohio band have to get out of legal limbo before they can move forward. The emo/punk quintet have done some pre-production work for their third album with producer Howard Benson (Daughtry, Hoobastank) and are hoping to start more extensive work on the tracks as soon as they can, but they’re still entangled in a legal battle with Victory Records. Hawthorne Heights filed a lawsuit against Victory in August 2007, citing fraudulent accounting practices among their accusations. At… Read more »

If it seems like you are listening to music more but enjoying it less, some people in the recording industry say they know why. They blame that iPod that you can’t live without, along with all the compressed MP3 music files you’ve loaded on it. Those who work behind-the-mic in the music industry — producers, engineers, mixers and the like — say they increasingly assume their recordings will be heard as MP3s on an iPod music player. That combination is thus becoming the “reference platform” used as a test of how a track should sound. (Movie makers make much the… Read more »

Avril Lavigne was the best damn thing on the charts this week. Literally. The Canadian pop-punker debuted atop the Billboard 200 for a second consecutive time as her latest, The Best Damn Thing, sold 286,000 copies for the week ended Sunday, according to newly released Nielsen SoundScan numbers. The singer previously topped the charts with 2004’s Under My Skin, which followed the number two opening for her 2002 debut, Let Go. Powered by the hit single “Girlfriend,” The Best Damn Thing sold more than 1.5 million copies worldwide, opening at number one in 11 countries, including the U.K., Japan, Germany,… Read more »