Search Results for: EUROPE

The 2001 Warped tour came to a relatively subdued close on Sunday (August 12) in front 15,000 mosh-pit friendly fans at the Phoenix Plaza in the Detroit suburb of Pontiac, Michigan. Despite trepidation that the hip-hop acts D12 and Esham-booted off the tour a week and a half ago for fighting-might surface at their hometown stop (some D12 stickers were quietly distributed), the show went off peacefully and without a hitch. Some fans, however, were disappointed that Alien Ant Farm, currently hot thanks to its hit cover of Michael Jackson’s “Smooth Criminal,” wasn’t on the bill as expected. The group… Read more »

The music industry is escalating its crusade against Napster-style music swapping with a plan to place stringent controls on compact discs – including, perhaps, the one you bought last week. Some of the world’s major record labels – Vivendi Universal’s Universal Music, Sony Corp.’s Sony Music, AOL Time Warner Inc.’s Warner Music, EMI Group Plc, and Bertelsmann AG’s BMG – are already running quiet field tests of CDs that cannot be copied, or “ripped,” to a personal computer. Using technology from companies such as Sunnyvale, California-based Macrovision Corp and privately held Israeli firm Midbar Technologies, the labels hope to staunch… Read more »

Following European festival dates and an arena tour with U2, acclaimed artist PJ Harvey returns to the U.S. for an intimate headline tour in September. Harvey will perform in Boston, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles and other cities in support of her current release, Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea. Harvey will also make a guest performance on The Tonight Show on September 19th. Stories has received tremendous critical praise in the U.S. and internationally since its release last October. In addition to numerous press accolades (the release was on the Top 10 lists of premiere… Read more »

The U.S. Justice Department has launched an antitrust investigation into two online music services, both scheduled to launch this fall, that are backed by the world’s largest record companies. According to two senior executives in the record industry, federal investigators notified the record labels that they intend to examine possible anti-competitive aspects of the digital music ventures created by the music industry’s big five: Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music, EMI Group and BMG. The Justice Department does not comment on ongoing investigations. The two online services under investigation, MusicNet and pressplay, are the record industry’s best effort… Read more »

In the years since August 1, 1981, when MTV first went on air by broadcasting a song presciently called “Video Killed the Radio Star,” the cable channel has helped to turn musicians as different as Duran Duran, Guns ‘N’ Roses, Tupac Shakur, Marilyn Manson, and Britney Spears into cultural touchstones. MTV helped to mainstream rap music and to pioneer the trend toward reality television with shows like The Real World. And the channel has been at the center of any number of pop culture brouhahas, whether involving cartoon bad boys Beavis and Butt-head, sexually provocative and spiritually outrageous videos by… Read more »

Had Russell Watson followed some early career advice, the classical tenor might be singing ‘N Sync-like pop tunes instead of arias. “I was told, ‘Oh Russell, join a boy band, leave the opera to the Italians,”‘ the 27-year-old Brit recalls hearing from agents. “That just made me more determined.” His determination has paid off handsomely. Watson, who is not classically trained and who got his start singing Meat Loaf and Lionel Richie songs in the pubs of Manchester, has become an opera sensation with the release of his debut disc, “The Voice.” Already a best-seller in Britain, the album has… Read more »

With their ubiquitous hit “Drops of Jupiter” continuing to rain down at pop and rock radio, Train show no signs of losing steam anytime soon. Drops of Jupiter, the band’s second album, has been firmly planted in the top 20 on the Billboard 200 albums chart since its March 27 release, climbing from #18 to #15 this week. Two more music videos are scheduled to hit the air soon, and a tour with Matchbox Twenty kicks off next week. “It’s really incredible,” guitarist Jimmy Stafford said from his San Francisco home shortly after returning from a tour of Europe. “From… Read more »

RealNetworks today announced the immediate availability of commercial content offerings for Symbian OS-based mobile handsets, demonstrating a new generation of media applications for users of advanced mobile devices. European content providers are making audio and video programming available for consumers in English, French, and German. These content providers include Virgin Radio, BMG Entertainment, Kirch New Media, TF1, Darker Than Blue, Aestheticom, and Supersoni.com. Today’s announcement marks the industry’s first commercially available offerings for the Symbian OS platform. RealPlayer Mobile ships with the new Nokia 9210 Communicator, which is available for purchase in Europe. “Virgin Radio has always sought to be… Read more »

Try as they might to display a more mature side as songwriters and lyricists, the members of Green Day – a third, fourth or maybe even fifth-generation punk band – are still working the same schtick that powered them to rock supremacy in the mid-1990s. It’s snotty and obnoxious, a blur of three- and four-chord rockers strung together in a manner that puts exclamation points after every barre chord and chorus. But when it’s working, Green Day is far and away the head of the class. Green Day delivered an involving, career-spanning show that included five tunes from the new… Read more »

When it comes to riding the boy-band wave in pop music, nobody has done it better than Lou Pearlman. The Backstreet Boys, ‘N Sync and O-Town are just a few of the groups the Orlando-based impresario and his company, Trans Continental Entertainment, have launched on the road to hormone-fueled success. But in the past few months, Pearlman has hit some sour notes. About 15 key executives and staffers, including company vice presidents, the chief operating officer, a tour manager, accountants and publicists, have left or been laid off. O-Town, Pearlman’s latest breakout success, recently left for a management firm run… Read more »