Search Results for: AVOID

Popular music has been upended by every technological advance from electricity and the phonograph to cassette tapes and recordable CDs. The switch from analog to digital accelerated the pace of illicit duplication and distribution, sounding the loudest alarm yet. As Napster struggles to survive, other sites from Gnutella to KaZaa are filling the void. Last week, labels and music publishers sued Audiogalaxy, a booming file-swapping network that lured 3.5 million users in March. The complaint: The Recording Industry Association of America, on behalf of labels, is vigorously seeking to stamp out proliferating Web sites that permit free downloads of music.… Read more »

Radio remains one of the most powerful marketing tools available to the recording industry, despite skyrocketing costs of gaining access to the airwaves via independent promoters. While word-of-mouth, video and Internet brush fires occasionally catapult unknowns to stardom, radio remains the most reliable and efficient means of enticing listeners to record stores. Yet many fans surfing the airwaves are far from satisfied. The complaint: Consolidation has made radio even more cookie-cutter bland, with narrow, unimaginative playlists. Demographic targeting and audience testing eliminate variety, stifle regionalism and foist the least objectionable music on the public. Failing to recognize that an individual’s… Read more »

Glazed-eyed rapper Snoop Dogg might want to avoid Cleveland when he’s drawing up tour itineraries – he’ll wind up in the slammer next time he’s caught there holding a bag. On Tuesday, Snoop, a.k.a. Calvin Broadus, pleaded no contest in Ohio’s Oberlin Municipal Court to possession of marijuana, a fourth degree misdemeanor, and was fined $250 plus court costs, which totaled $398.30. The crime normally carries a 30-day stay in Lorain County Jail. However, the court suspended the sentence provided Snoop stays out of trouble for the next two years. He will do time if he’s caught with weed in… Read more »

Elvis Costello and his band, the Imposters, were nearing the end of a rousing, rocking set at a Manhattan club when the audience’s attention began to wander. As he started his final encore, the chilling tale of a jilted sociopath, “I Want You,” loud conversations and laughter could be heard from the Bowery Ballroom bar. Costello didn’t say anything, or even look annoyed. Instead, a malice-filled reading of the song did the work for him. The music quieted to a whisperlike level as Costello stepped away from the microphone to shout the line, “Did you call my name out as… Read more »

For those who think rap-rock is just about tapped out, Quarashi would like to present their spin on the genre. “We’re trying to do rap music the way Joey Ramone would have done rap music,” said Sölvi Blondal, the band’s producer and drummer. “What we are trying to do is punk-rock rap music, but a little bit more 1990s, like when Public Enemy was doing Fear of a Black Planet and when Cypress [Hill] was coming up with their first album. We tried to approach that style…. We didn’t want to be like Limp Bizkit or these bands that are… Read more »

The Who invented it. Nirvana perfected it…. And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead got accountants thinking about it. Closing a show in a bout of destruction is one of the great traditions of rock and roll, but when it becomes a routine the spectacle isn’t exactly priceless. Fender bass guitars (approximately $900), Marshall amplifiers (approximately $800) and run-of-the-mill drum sets (approximately $600) – the instruments behind Trail of Dead’s beloved rock – make expensive confetti. So when this buzzed-about band of multi-instrumentalists toss drum and guitars around like balloons waiting to be popped, they are conscious… Read more »

Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake love each other very much and have not broken up. At least that’s still the “official” stance a spokesperson for the couple takes when asked of the status of their relationship. And if you believe that, some might think you were born yesterday. The official media statement is in direct opposition to a month’s worth of unconfirmed reports and anonymous eyewitness accounts that say the king and queen of the teen-pop prom have ended their reign. While public opinion favors the notion that the romance is kaput – gossip columnists citing Britney shakin’ it with… Read more »

With nearly a decade of hits to their name and a command of large audiences that would put Tony Robbins to shame, Green Day are a hard act to follow. No wonder, then, that Blink-182 took a page from one of rock’s biggest bad boys Wednesday night in an attempt to avoid being overshadowed. Facing an opening-night Pop Disaster Tour crowd that had expended most of its energy during Green Day’s set, Mark, Tom and Travis found that even their onstage fireballs were no match for the ones their elder peers had singed the Centennial Garden with less than an… Read more »

Four young men accused of burglarizing Britney Spears and her former sweetie, ‘N Sync crooner Justin Timberlake, are off the hook. A Florida judge sentenced Salvador Martinez, 19, Richard Olivarez, 20, Marcus Cook, 19, and Matthew Daily, 18, each to three years’ probation Thursday after they pleaded no contest to raiding the ex-couple’s rented vacation home in the Panhandle town of Destin, Florida, the Northwest Florida Daily News reports. The four had been facing up to 20 months in jail but managed to avoid the harsh penalty. And they can literally thank their lucky stars. Circuit Court Judge G. Robert… Read more »