Search Results for: against the current

Judy McGrath, President, MTV Networks Music Group, today announced that Brian Graden will take on additional programming, production, and development responsibilities for VH1, becoming President Entertainment, MTV and VH1. Graden will report to Judy McGrath in this expanded role at VH1 and will partner with Christina Norman, just named General Manager of VH1. Graden will continue to report to Van Toffler, President, MTV and MTV2 in his continued role at MTV and be based in both Los Angeles and New York. In making this announcement, Judy McGrath said, “Brian is uniquely suited for this role in taking VH1 to the… Read more »

Pink is sick of business managers, lawyers and talking to radio disc jockeys, and you definitely won’t find her singing about chocolate. The themes of her current album, “M!ssundaztood,” find Pink fighting against bad relationships in her strident, sorely independent ways. “To me, it was all about freedom,” she told the Las Vegas Review-Journal of her music. “Life is not always flowers and chocolates, and I figured people could relate to that.” She’s happy, she says, although she’s sick of the politics of music. Pink, 22, broke onto radio and MTV in 2000 with the hit “There You Go.” In… Read more »

Universal Music is in talks with its best-selling rap artist Eminem to deploy copy protection technology on all upcoming CD releases of “The Eminem Show,” marking the biggest move yet to protect its top acts from music piracy, a label official told Reuters Wednesday. Discussions are under way between Universal, a division of French media conglomerate Vivendi Universal, Eminem and his Universal-owned label Interscope Records to make the anticipated top-selling release copy proof, thwarting the industry’s biggest concern – piracy. Universal and Eminem would need to strike an agreement on whether or not to release the security-enhanced CDs in the… Read more »

C. Michael Greene has resigned as the head of the organization that hands out the music industry’s most prestigious award, the Grammys, following an emergency board of trustees vote to remove him from office. Greene resigned Saturday night at an emergency meeting attended by more than three dozen trustees of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. Greene, 52, had three years remaining on his contract and will receive a severance package of $8 million, much of which will be covered by insurance and includes his bonus from the CBS Grammy contract. He is… Read more »

Prince and his Paisley Park Enterprises are the subject of a defamation lawsuit filed by his former girlfriend, Charlene Friend, in Los Angeles Superior Court on Friday (April 19). The plaintiff, Friend, was “romantically involved” with Prince in 1991, and was the recipient of several gifts from the singer, including a jacket worn by him in a 1991 concert, an audiocassette, a Christmas card, a comic book, and the video Gett Off, according to court papers. Friend claims in the suit that she retained ownership of the items after the couple “discontinued their relationship,” and that Prince had never requested… Read more »

The parents of the members of Dream Street have filed a lawsuit against the teen boy band’s creators, alleging that their children were exposed to booze, women and pornography. The lawsuit, filed in state Supreme Court in Manhattan, alleges that Louis Baldonieri and Brian Lukow “have engaged in a wide range of conduct and activities that plainly threaten and impair the minors’ well-being,” according to an affidavit from band manager John Stuart. Baldonieri and Lukow denied the charges, with Baldonieri saying the parents were the ones setting a bad example. The adults were “teaching kids you can sign anything, then… Read more »

Since the alleged R. Kelly sex tapes first hit the media two months ago, the primary question has been if the girl featured on the 27-minute tape, currently under investigation by the Chicago police, was actually underage, since her identity had been kept hidden. While her immediate family – as well as the girl herself – have yet to step forward, a former protégé of R. Kelly has told a Los Angeles radio station that the girl on the tape is her niece, whom she says was 14 at the time the tape was made. Sparkle, who had a hit… Read more »

Even in a world saturated by mass-marketed hard rock bands, no one can accuse Flying Tigers of manufacturing angst. The band’s tuneful, turbulent self-titled debut was born of frustration and hard times, and the group profits from the pain. The disc chronicles the former lives of frontman Ryan Martin and drummer Gary Benson in their grungy power-pop band Frankie Machine, and what happened in the days following the release of that band’s debut album, One, in 2000. “The week it came out everyone at the label got fired, then we got dropped,” Martin recalled. “At the time we thought it… Read more »

It’s been five years since the murder of Notorious B.I.G., one of Los Angeles’ most infamous unsolved crimes. Biggie’s family, however, doesn’t consider it such a mystery. His widow, singer Faith Evans, and his mother, Voletta Wallace, along with other heirs, filed a federal civil suit including wrongful death charges on Tuesday, accusing current and former police chiefs of interfering with the murder investigation because it would have revealed corruption within the force. The theory behind the suit isn’t a new one. In June it was the subject of a lengthy feature in Rolling Stone: “The Murder of the Notorious… Read more »

Web music firm FullAudio on Thursday said it reached a licensing deal with the Harry Fox Agency Inc., a licensing agent representing more than 160,000 songwriters, for the online subscription service FullAudio plans to launch within weeks. Under this nonexclusive agreement, FullAudio will have access to every musical work authorized by participating publishers licensed by Harry Fox, a subsidiary of the National Music Publishers’ Association. Terms were not disclosed. The agreement also allows FullAudio subscribers to transfer tracks from their PCs to portable devices. FullAudio earlier this week announced it had licensed Warner Music, clinching its third licensing deal with… Read more »