After what some are calling a racy performance on the American Music Awards Sunday night, in which he kissed another man and pushed a man’s head into his crotch, American Idol runner-up Adam Lambert had his appearance on tomorrow’s “Good Morning America” canceled.
Kanye West is back in the lab, and there’s only word to describe his new rhymes: “awes-mazing” (that’s supposedly a cross between awesome and amazing). “I kill that rap sh–, that’s what I do,” West said of his upcoming opus. “Lyrics right now, they’re awes-mazing. They’re basically untouchable. I’m about to take it to a whole ‘nother level. I’d be scared if I was not me.” Kanye said he is always making an album, because he comes up with lyrics just by having conversations with people. He still does not write his rhymes down and has not in six years.… Read more »
Kanye West and his Caps Lock button were back in action on the rapper’s blog yesterday in a post about the role of celebrity photographers. Just days after pleading not guilty to charges of assaulting a TMZ photographer, West applauded the skills of one paparazzo and compared some of music’s biggest names with superstars of another era in an effort to prove a point. Kanye was inspired by a candid photo of Rihanna, the muse of his new 808s & Heartbreak video “Paranoid,” as she was stepping into a yellow cab in New York City. “ Yo why can’t all… Read more »
At 4:20 p.m. yesterday, while moe. doodled on a series of winding tunes, those close to the stage at the Earth Day on the Mall concert in Washington, DC, got a glimpse of some unusual items being frantically unloaded: a giant pair of hands, a massive orange ring. There was no mistaking it – the Flaming Lips‘ gear had finally arrived, just 25 minutes before they were due to hit the stage in front of the gleaming Capitol. While techs scrambled, Coyne vamped by chatting with fans and amping up Administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency Lisa Jackson’s speech, waving… Read more »
Lady GaGa has become the first artist in nearly 10 years to reach the top of the Billboard Hot 100 with her first two singles, a feat not even Madonna has accomplished. “Poker Face” knocked Flo Rida’s “Right Round” out of the top spot, after spending six weeks at number one. GaGa previously led the chart for three weeks in January with “Just Dance.” The last artist to splash onto the scene with a pair of number-one hits was Christina Aguilera, who debuted with “Genie in a Bottle” in 1999 and “What a Girl Wants” in 2000. GaGa already has… Read more »
The potential merger of Live Nation and Ticketmaster will face off against the Department of Justice tomorrow as the Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights will decide whether the two concert industry superpowers can join forces or if whether the merger violates monopoly laws. The hearing will be titled “The Ticketmaster/Live Nation Merger: What Does it Mean for Consumers and the Future of the Concert Business?” Confirmed witness include Ticketmaster CEO Irving Azoff, Live Nation president Michael Rapino, JAM Productions chairman Jerry Mickelson and the Center of American Progress’ David A. Balto, Pollstar reports. Live Nation and Ticketmaster… Read more »
LOS ANGELES — In just one night, Indian film composer A.R. Rahman equaled the number of Oscars his fellow Indians had taken home during the first 80 years of the Academy Awards. The 43-year-old composer, hailed in India as the Mozart of the Madras, won Oscars Sunday for best original soundtrack and best original song, both from the movie ” Slumdog Millionaire.” Other Indians to collect Oscar gold before him were costume designer Bhanu Athaiya honored for “Gandhi” in 1982, and arthouse director Satyajit Ray who received a lifetime achievement award in 1992. “I was excited and terrified,” the soft-spoken… Read more »
LOS ANGELES — Concert promoter Live Nation Inc and ticketing giant Ticketmaster Entertainment Inc. confirmed their merger plans Tuesday and got right to work addressing antitrust concerns that have taken center stage Ticketmaster Chairman Barry Diller to be chairman of the new company – which would be called Live Nation Entertainment – sought to dispel the notion that the deal would lead to higher ticket prices. “Ticketmaster does not set prices. Live Nation does not set ticket prices. Artists set the prices,” he said, without mentioning the ticket surcharges Ticketmaster relies on for much of its revenue. Under the deal… Read more »
The world’s largest concert promoter Live Nation Inc plans to buy Ticketmaster Entertainment Inc for about $400 million in stock in a bid to create a company with dominant holdings inconcert promotion and ticket sales. But shares of both companies fell on Tuesday, amid concerns the acquisition would be blocked by U.S. antitrust regulators under the new Obama administration. U.S. Senator Charles Schumer slammed the deal ahead of its formal announcement on Tuesday, calling for a federal probe into Ticketmaster, the top U.S. ticket vendor. “This merger would give a giant, new entity unrivaled power over concert-goers and the prices… Read more »
Warner Music Group pulled all of its music videos and related content off YouTube this weekend as negotiations between the label and the video site hit a stand still. WMG was one of the first of the majors to align itself with YouTube. “We are working actively to find a resolution with YouTube that would enable the return of our artists’ content to the site,” the label says in a statement. “Until then, we simply cannot accept terms that fail to appropriately and fairly compensate recording artists, songwriters, labels and publishers for the value they provide.” While WMG has withdrawn… Read more »
