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Madonna's Super Bowl Score


One ticket to the Super Bowl: $2,000. Thirty seconds of advertising during the Super Bowl: $2.7 million. Five seconds’ worth of Madonna in a Super Bowl ad: A heck of a lot more than that. Sources tell E! Online that the Material Girl was paid $10 million to appear in a new advertising campaign for Sunsilk hair-care products, including a commercial that will premiere during the the fourth quarter of Sunday’s game between the New England Patriots and New York Giants (most of whom do not make $10 million in an entire season). In the 30-second spot, old stock footage… Read more »

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New `Jackass' movie to hit Internet


The next batch of painful “Jackass” stunts is coming to a computer screen near you. The first two films – spun off from the former MTV series – co-starred Johnny Knoxville and his gang of gross-out pranksters as they performed stunts to the delight of their youthful fans. But for the sequel “Jackass 2.5,” the dirty daredevils pull a new stunt: bypassing the movie theater entirely. “Jackass 2.5” will instead be released to the Internet. The feature – which combines unreleased footage from “Jackass Number Two” and new content – was announced Thursday as a joint venture between Viacom-owned Paramount… Read more »

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Groban Gets Oprah Bounce, Jordin Sparks Doesn't Fly


The Grinch might be stealing Christmas from music retailers, but thanks to Josh Groban and Oprah, there’s still some singing in Whoville. For the sales week kicked off by Super Tuesday–the release date before Thanksgiving when record labels typically schedule their big guns–the figures were abnormally bad, with only one Top 10 bow and a seven-week-old album topping the charts. Still, that album, Groban’s Noël, can thank last week’s performance on The Oprah Winfrey Show for driving it past Alicia Keys and into the number one spot. Noël crowned the Billboard 200 by selling 405,000 copies for the week ended… Read more »

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Apple's iPod ads are the new music-star makers


Nick Haley took just 30 minutes to pluck the Brazilian band CSS from obscurity and hurl it into the national spotlight. In September, Haley paired the band’s dance-pop song “Music is My Hot, Hot Sex” with his 30-second amateur video, displaying the capabilities of Apple’s new iPod Touch. The video ends with the lyrics, “My music is where I’d like you to touch.” “I was like, ‘This song is too perfect,’ ” said Haley, 18, by phone from the University of Leeds in England, where he studies politics. “It’s punchy, loud, fast and naughty.” Marketers at Apple headquarters in Cupertino… Read more »

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Backstreet's Back (Alright)


It’s been nearly 15 years, and they’re no longer youngsters, but the Backstreet Boys are still around and have just released a new album. The youngest of the four-member group, Nick Carter, joined the ensemble at the age of 12 and is now turning 28. Their sixth album, “Unbreakable,” is near the top of the Billboard 200 charts. “We’ve been so blessed to have so many fans worldwide that are still keeping us around,” said band-member Howie Dorough, who is getting married next month. Members of the group have kept busy putting out solo albums, managing other artists and doing… Read more »

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Barrier-bustin' Internet may lead to a music industry "middle class"


In one of the final sessions of the Future of Music Policy Summit, panelists discussed how the music industry is going through a process of “disintermediation,” where fewer steps stand between artist and audience, thanks to social networking and Internet distribution. “Someone spoke earlier about a ‘musician’s middle class,’” said Tim Westergren, founder of Pandora.com. “In this world, you don’t need to be a full-time professional musician.” Instead, the speakers noted that it’s possible for amateur musicians or independent bands to reach new and unexpected audiences over the Web. Speaking for promotional service echomusic, Pinky Gonzales pointed to Todd Rundgren… Read more »

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Kanye Doesn't Want His MTV


Between all the hubbub over Britney Spears’ VMA comeback disaster and Tommy Lee and Kid Rock’s smackdown, someone’s got to make sure Kanye West gets his fair share of the spotlight. And who better to do that than the man himself? West, who left the MTV Video Music Awards empty-handed Sunday night, has lashed out, claiming the network “betrayed” him and “exploited” Spears. “They exploited Britney in helping to end her career,” West said Monday in an interview with New York radio station Z100. “When Britney was opening, near the end, I felt so bad for her. I said, ‘Man,… Read more »

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How "Guitar Hero" saved guitar music


Early in July, Rusty Shaffer, the founder of Optek, a small music company in Reno, Nev., visited Salon’s offices to show me his invention, the Fretlight guitar. Though it looks and feels like a standard, rock ‘n’ roll-ready instrument, the Fretlight contains a set of LEDs invisibly embedded inside its fretboard — connect the guitar to a computer and the lights spark up to indicate where to put your fingers in order to play a chord. Shaffer is certain that his guitar is a great leap forward for the normally tech-averse guitar industry; the Fretlight, he says, will transform guitar… Read more »

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My Chemical Romance Singer Hopes To Get Fans 'Into Comic Shops'


‘It will be quite awhile before there’s another My Chemical Romance album,’ front man says at Comic-Con 2007. My Chemical Romance’s Gerard Way has always loved comic books. His first job, in high school, was at a local comic book shop in New Jersey. He didn’t actually collect a paycheck each week – his compensation came in the form of free comic books. He idolized the likes of Neil Gaiman, Alan Moore, Frank Miller and Grant Morrison. Long before the band was formed, Way attended the School of Visual Arts in New York, where he majored in illustration and cartooning.… Read more »

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Foo Fighters Haven't Gone Emo


Dave Grohl has been in the rock business for more than 20 years now, and during that time, he’s seen many so-called “musical movements” come and go. Thus, he’s particularly amused by the current generation of emo-punk acts bounding across stages worldwide. After all, he’s been doing this for so long that he remembers emo the first time it came around.”I have a funny relationship with emo,” he said. “I’m from Washington, D.C., and in the mid-’80s, the hardcore scene changed from what it was – Bad Brains and Minor Threat and the Dead Kennedys and MDC – to a… Read more »

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