Search Results for: AVOID

Eminem (real name: Marshall Mathers III) has received a visa from the Australian government to perform at a pair of concerts in the country next week. But along with the approval came a warning to respect the country’s values and its multicultural society. As previously reported, lawmakers and community groups opposed allowing the Grammy-winning rapper into the country with his group D12, saying his songs contain foul, violent, and racist lyrics demeaning to women and gays. Critics said the artist’s repeated brushes with the law should exclude him from a visa on the grounds of bad character. Immigration Minister Philip… Read more »

Microsoft Corp. said Monday it is enlisting three companies to sell plug-ins to enable its upcoming media player software to record music in the MP3 format and play DVD movies. Microsoft’s Windows Media Player, a new version of which will debut in the software giant’s new Windows XP operating system in late October, has not supported high-quality music recording in MP3, the most popular format for storing songs and CDs as digital files on a computer. Critics have said lack of MP3 support was evidence that Microsoft was trying to drive users to its own format, called Windows Media Audio,… Read more »

The electronica artist kicked off his “AREA:ONE” festival at Atlanta’s Hi-Fi Buys Amphitheater on Wednesday, an eclectic music gathering that was pure energy from start to finish. The show began on a high note with Nelly Furtado, who charmed the crowd straight away, grooving barefoot in flare-legged jeans and a black tank top. Strong dancehall/dub influences were laced in and out of her set, including her hit “I’m Like A Bird.” The Canadian singer even offered a snippet of “Get Ur Freak On,” the Missy Elliott song which features Furtado on the remix version. Moby said he created AREA:ONE with… Read more »

Compared to a year ago at this time, MTV and Eminem are locked in a very reluctant embrace. MTV has agreed to play a new video by Eminem’s group, D12, but only during the overnight hours and only after several days of negotiations with the rap star’s record label, Shady Records/Interscope Records. The video for “Purple Hills,” the album’s lead track, had to be cleaned up to minimize overt drug references, MTV spokeswoman Jeannie Kedas said on Tuesday. “We had a dialogue with the label and they provided us with an acceptable version for our air,” she said. MTV will… Read more »

In return, the RIAA withdrew its attempt to have the company removed from the standard Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel (CARP) rate-setting policy. In a move that ends a complicated series of lawsuits and counter-suits for embattled online music concern Listen.com, the company has withdrawn from a suit filed by Digital Media Association (DiMA) and a group of music sites. In doing so, Listen made a pact with the RIAA to remove some features from its service that record labels find objectionable. Two interactivity features, one that allow listeners to either skip a song entirely, and another that allows users to… Read more »

The MTV Movie Awards are raunchy and irreverent, and while they have a reputation for being outrageous, they’re also quite canned. When Tom Cruise’s publicist was spotted nervously pacing outside the Shrine Auditorium, gossip fans knew the 2001 Movie Awards would be rich with fodder. It was more than an hour into the show, and the star still hadn’t appeared.   When Cruise finally showed up in a chauffeur-driven SUV, he was dateless and slumped in the passenger seat, looking glum and listless. When he got out, his publicist Pat Kingsley gave him a long, affectionate hug. “How are you,… Read more »

Alanis Morissette has returned to the jagged little sound that made her famous. The Canadian singer debuted eight new songs during a show Friday night, providing a generous preview of her next album, which is sitting in limbo while she fights a contract dispute with Maverick Records. Much of the new material harked back to the edgier pop-rock of Morissette’s 1995 smash, Jagged Little Pill, and steered away from the moody, Eastern-influenced sound of its follow-up, 1998’s Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie. Accordingly, the two-hour performance – the first of two consecutive nights at Los Angeles’ El Rey Theatre – was… Read more »

Pamela Anderson has settled a lawsuit over another sex tape she made with an ’80s rocker, her lawyer said Wednesday. The porn company Internet Entertainment Group agreed to pay the actress and Bret Michaels, lead singer of the band Poison, a seven-figure sum and destroy all copies it acquired of a homemade sex video featuring the couple. The Seattle-based company previously settled out of court with Anderson over a similar video it distributed showing her having sex with her ex-husband, Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee. The video became a best seller that continues to spread through the Internet. Unlike that… Read more »

Two words of advice to struggling musicians who can’t get a record contract: Don’t bother. Or rather, take a page from the book of Uncle Kracker, the 26-year-old pop singer whose debut record hit the top 10 on U.S. album charts even though he calls himself “probably the least ambitious person you’ll meet.” Many budding rock stars dream of great power and wealth in the music business. Uncle Kracker – real name Matt Shafer – dreams of a life changing tires, fishing and gardening. For the time being, though, he is playing a bemused accidental rock star and is on… Read more »

Bob Dylan, who gave voice to the youth revolt of the 1960s and revolutionized rock ‘n’ roll in the process, turns 60 on Thursday with many arguing that he was the most influential musician of the second half of the century. With his entry into the world of senior citizens, one thing remains certain: Dylan’s inner core and personality remain as elusive today as nearly 40 years ago when he burst onto the folk music scene in New York City’s Greenwich Village. “What he achieved was a reinvention of popular music – a maturation of postwar popular music,” said David… Read more »