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Rock music remains the most popular genre among U.S. consumers, while rap/hip-hop has replaced pop as the No. 2 choice, according to the Recording Industry Assn. of America, a music industry trade group. Rock, which has been the No. 1 most-preferred genre since the survey began in 1989, accounted for 24.7% of the market, up from 24.4% the previous year. Rap/hip-hop increased to 13.5%, up almost 2.5 percentage points from the previous year. R&B/urban comes in as the third-most-preferred genre with 11.2%. Country music’s popularity also saw a surge, with 11.2% of the market, up from 10.6% in 2001. Pop… Read more »

FACELESS, the third album from Republic/Universal stars, GODSMACK, has just been certified platinum by the RIAA, signifying sales of more than 1,000,000 units. The band has reached this benchmark a mere 5 weeks after the album’s release in April. The album debuted at no. 1 on the Billboard Top 200 Chart. The amazing sales story is due in no small part to the success of the album’s first single, “Straight Out Of Line,” at radio. The song immediately ascended to no. 1 at Active, Mainstream & Heritage Rock radio & top 10 at the Modern Rock format. No stranger to… Read more »

America Online, Inc. today announced that Staind will perform a live special edition of BroadBAND Rocks(TM), broadcast exclusively on AOL(R) for Broadband on May 17 at 8:00 PM at AOL Keyword: Staind. AOL members will be able to watch the band perform hits from their certified Platinum albums and songs from their new CD, 14 Shades of Grey, scheduled for release on May 20 on Flip/Elektra. The show will take place at New York City’s Manhattan Centre. “AOL for Broadband has become one of the most popular destinations for online music exclusives, special concert events, and previews,” said Lisa Hook,… Read more »

When someone who’s worked on some of the greatest guitar albums of all time, Kiss’ Destroyer and Alice Cooper’s School’s Out among them, calls you a “virtuoso playing at the top of his game,” you can be pretty sure it’s sincere. And that’s exactly what legendary producer Bob Ezrin said of Wes Borland when he first heard the ex-Limp Bizkit guitarist’s new band, Eat the Day. “They played me some stuff which struck me as being not only innovative, but also reminiscent of some of the more adventurous guitar work that had been done in the past by people like… Read more »

R.E.M. is in the midst of preparations for its upcoming world tour, and according to a post by frontman Michael Stipe on the group’s official Web site (http://www.remhq.com), the band has already rehearsed 70 songs. The tour starts June 27 at the U.K.’s Glastonbury Festival and will wrap Oct. 11 in Atlanta, about 70 miles west of the group’s Athens, Ga., homebase. R.E.M. is working with new drummer Bill Rieflin, an industrial/metal stickman who has manned the kit for the likes of Ministry, KMFDM, and Nine Inch Nails. R.E.M.’s three original members – Stipe, bassist Mike Mills, and guitarist Peter… Read more »

So what does Lance Bass have in common with hotel heiress Paris Hilton? Well, besides being blonde and getting invited to socialite-stuffed shindigs, the ‘NSYNC vocalist and the older half of the model/actress Hilton sisters are teaming up for the latest Hollywood take on an F. Scott Fitzgerald classic. “[It’s] a remake along the lines of ‘The Great Gatsby,’ but younger,” Bass explained at Wednesday’s “Matrix Reloaded” premiere in Los Angeles. Bass will star in the currently-in-development flick, one of many he has on his plate. “I’m writing my first horror film right now, called ‘Imaginary Friend,’ ” he added.… Read more »

Proving that no one does Metallica better than Metallica, acts such as Sum 41, Limp Bizkit, Korn and Avril Lavigne gamely covered songs by the hard rock group at MTV’s annual tribute concert on Saturday while fans impatiently awaited a set by the honorees themselves. Playing in public for the first time with new bassist Rob Trujillo, Metallica ran through a fast and furious medley of songs, including “Creeping Death” and “Sanitarium,” before unveiling the speed-metal song “Frantic” from their upcoming album, “St. Anger.” Still a little rusty from a long layoff, Metallica performed “Frantic” twice after deciding that the… Read more »

Nearly two years after it sued Napster into submission, the recording industry has discovered it’s not enough to try to beat Internet music purveyors whose digital distribution techniques allow copyright violations. It also has to join them. To discourage piracy, the multibillion-dollar industry has in recent months moved beyond lawsuits against file-swapping services. It has employed hacker tactics to flood such sites with bogus files and even taken to suing students who created mini-Napsters on college networks. At the same time, however, the music labels have finally embraced the very online distribution model many had long resisted, one that analysts… Read more »

The Donnas have nothing on the Bens. The three members really are named Ben, and you may have heard of them: Ben Folds, Ben Kweller and Ben Lee. The solo singers officially became a group, or at least a side project, when they recorded four songs together in Nashville last month. “There’s some new wave on there, a piano ballad that Folds sings, a countryish song,” Kweller said Saturday backstage at Coachella. “It’s just all three of us writing songs; there’s not any one particular sound. It’s all three of us singing, big harmonies.” After the three-day studio session, the… Read more »

While the World Health Organization said that it believes the worst of severe acute respiratory syndrome is over in Canada, Singapore, Hong Kong and Vietnam – which got a clean bill of health on Monday for being the first nation to contain the virus – SARS is still affecting tour and promotional plans for many artists who were set to visit those regions. The Rolling Stones were the first to pull out of Asian concerts – their first-ever concerts in China – when news of the disease broke in March, though they did play two shows in Singapore. They also… Read more »