Search Results for: DJs

Guns N’ Roses’ surprise performance at Thursday’s 19th annual MTV Video Music Awards was easily the night’s highlight presentation, even though P. Diddy, Eminem and Justin Timberlake had more pizzazz and Bruce Springsteen and Sheryl Crow had more heart. Click here for the complete 2002 MTV VMA Winners List. The group – which included longtime GN’R keyboardist Dizzy Reed and a batch of new faces like ex-Replacements bassist Tommy Stinson, ex-Nine Inch Nails guitarist Robin Finck and guitarist Buckethead – kicked off its medley with “Welcome to the Jungle,” the song that had thunderingly announced GN’R back on their first… Read more »

Justin Timberlake’s debut solo project is not only one of the most anticipated albums of the year, it is one of the most well guarded. The ‘NSYNC star has been in and out of recording studios all year, yet neither his record label nor his management will say anything about the record. Still, the music industry is buzzing and details are trickling out. Most are coming from collaborators – and there appear to be many – but Timberlake himself has spilled a few beans. Phoning in to Orlando’s WJHM-FM last week, he told DJs the album will be out “hopefully… 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 »

The Detroit Electronic Music Festival drew more than 1 million people in each of its first two years. This year, organizers are emphasizing a wider variety of performers – and wondering why techno, which is hugely popular in Europe, is less well-received in the United States. The lineup of nearly 70 performers represents a blend of urban music, and includes Parliament Funkadelic’s George Clinton and the Los Angeles-based hip-hop trio Dilated Peoples. The three-day festival starts Saturday. “What we’re seeing now is a combination between hip-hop music and electronic music, and I think the Detroit festival is capitalizing on that,”… Read more »

Those pesky streets. They just can’t wait for a proper release date. With bootlegs of Eminem’s new album already sold for as little as $5 on some avenue corners – as well as leaked for download on the equally vexing Internet – The Eminem Show’s release has been pushed up from June 4 back to May 28, its previously announced street date. “Due to rampant bootlegging and Internet piracy, Aftermath/ Interscope, in conjunction with Goliath Management and Eminem, have decided to move the release of The Eminem Show up one week,” the concerned parties announced in a statement. “The first… Read more »

“Girls of Summer,” the midtempo song Aerosmith debuted on mtvICON will be one of at least two new songs on a greatest-hits collection due June 25. Another new track, “Bad Enough,” will also be included. Both songs were written in Hawaii last month by vocalist Steven Tyler, guitarist Joe Perry and Marti Frederiksen, who wrote, produced and co-wrote the band’s last record, 2001’s Just Push Play. The still-untitled two-disc set will include hits from the band’s years on Geffen and Columbia. The upcoming album won’t be the only Aerosmith-related double-disc to hit shelves this year. Drummer Joey Kramer has just… Read more »

Eminem, Ludacris, Papa Roach and the X-ecutioners will tour together this summer on a still-untitled outing. Dates have not been finalized, but a spokesperson for Papa Roach said the tour will begin in July. Eminem and Papa Roach, who shared a bill on the Anger Management Tour in the fall of 2000, will both be promoting new high-profile releases. Slim Shady’s The Eminem Show is due June 4, while Lovehatetragedy, Papa Roach’s second major-label album, is due June 18. Ludacris, who recently finished a headlining club trek, will be supporting last year’s Word of Mouf, which features the hit single… Read more »

The first album spawned by Snoop Dogg’s Doggy Style Records partnership venture with MCA is about to hit. Welcome to Tha House Volume 1, featuring Bigg Snoop Dogg, Soopafly, LaToiya Williams, Mr. Kane and E-White (collectively known as the Doggy Style All-stars), will be released on July 30, according to a source close to the project. The first official single will be Williams’ R&B tune “Fallen Star.” That video is set to start filming May 1 in Los Angeles. “Locs at Night,” by Mr. Kane, and the camp posse cut “Doh’Doh’,” produced by Hi-Tek, will also be released to mixtape… Read more »

As the three-man DJ troupe X-ecutioners scratched through their hour-long set Monday, video images projected onto a screen above the stage. There, in grainy black-and-white, were jazz musicians straining away on trumpets and saxophones. It was an interesting choice because, like most DJs, the X-ecutioners never appear to exert themselves – their whole act is based around making daredevil wrist-flicking seem as calm as a hurricane’s eye. On a more formal level, the contrast between jazz and hip-hop DJing couldn’t be more pronounced: While most classic jazz improvisation hinges on a relatively steady beat, the X-ecutioners improvise the beat itself.… Read more »

More than two months before the album is officially released, listeners got a feel for the new Korn album Untouchable on Tuesday (April 2), thanks to syndicated radio personalities Opie and Anthony. The shock jocks, whose four-hour afternoon radio show is syndicated in 18 cities nationwide from New York station WNEW, played four songs from Korn’s fifth album, due June 11, at approximately 3:30 ET. After premiering the third, “Tear Me Down,” the show’s received a cease-and-desist letter from Sony Music Entertainment, parent company for the band’s label, Epic, threatening legal action if they continued to play the unauthorized songs.… Read more »