Search Results for: pop will eat itself

The lyrics to the song “This Is My Life Story” by MXPX run through my head as I hopelessly scramble to the very back of the line. I left later than I had hoped, got caught up in D.C. traffic, and arrived about 5 minutes before doors were scheduled to open. Once inside, I rush to get as close to the stage as I possible. While mashed between about five teeny boppers and their “boyfriends,” anticipation runs through my bones as I eagerly await the first performance. First up is Further Seems Forever. I was a little skeptical about this… Read more »

The seminal album of British punk rock celebrates its 25th birthday on Monday and shows no sign of growing old gracefully. On October 28, 1977, the Sex Pistols unleashed their debut album, “Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols,” on an unsuspecting world. It shot straight to the top of the album charts and stayed there for an astonishing 47 weeks. Everything about the album was designed to shock, from its provocative title, its 12 short, explosive songs and its garish pink and yellow pop art album cover. The names of the tracks were printed on the album sleeve… Read more »

In an industry that obsesses over first-week album sales, heavy MTV rotation and radio airplay, the Shortlist Music Prize is trying to help offbeat or niche recording artists find a wider audience. Now in its second year, the contest taps successful musicians to champion the work of peers who have yet to make an impact on the charts. Among this year’s “listmakers” are India.Arie, Alanis Morissette (news), U2’s Larry Mullen Jr., and filmmakers Baz Luhrmann (news) and Spike Jonze (news). “Most of the attention that records get as far as awards and all that stuff is based on record sales,… Read more »

Some popular online services are using a new kind of software to divert sales commissions that would otherwise be paid to small online merchants by big sites like Amazon and eToys. Critics call the software parasite-ware and stealware. But the sites that use the software, which is made by nearly 20 companies and used by dozens, say that it is perfectly legal, because their users agree to the diversion. The amounts involved are estimated by those in the industry to have mounted into the hundreds of thousands of dollars and are likely to continue to grow – in part because… Read more »

Did you find 1995’s Best of New Order unsatisfying? Did the movie “24 Hour Party People” have you itching for more New Order rarities? Well, if you live in the U.S. consider yourself S.O.L. Though they’re slated for release overseas, neither New Order’s forthcoming box set nor their new greatest hits CD, Here to Stay, are slated to land in U.S. stores, due to the band’s current wrangling with parent label WEA. Last year when New Order released their seventh studio album, Get Ready, it seemed like nobody was all that ready for their return. After an eight-year hiatus, the… Read more »

Newly installed VH1 toppers Brian Graden and Christina Norman are moving quickly to put their stamp on the struggling music cable network, greenlighting an aggressive fall slate of series and specials aimed at building on the channel’s still-strong retro music brand. VH1 is also beefing up its “Movies That Rock” franchise, snagging the broadcast premiere of the Oscar-winning “Moulin Rouge” and several other theatricals. And rather than simply repurposing other networks’ music specials, Graden wants VH1 to sign A-level talent for original concert specials. The flurry of activity comes barely three months after Graden was named entertainment president of the… Read more »

Rush drummer-lyricist Neil Peart hasn’t been giving interviews to promote the Canadian trio’s new album, Vapor Trails, because he doesn’t want to talk about the deaths of his wife and daughter, which sent the band into a five-year hiatus. However, he has issued a three-page statement via Universal Records Canada in which he talks about the record. Of the title, Peart writes: “A unifying theme sometimes appears in the collected songs and suggests an overall title, like Counterparts or Power Windows; other times a particular song seems emblematic, like Test For Echo or Roll The Bones. Neither approach seemed right… Read more »

“Let’s just say the doctors know more about me than I know about me,” Lance Bass told reporters convened for a press conference at Moscow’s Savoy Hotel. For the last four months, the ‘NSYNC star has endured a battery of physical examinations in the pursuit of becoming the next civilian in space. On Friday (May 31), he announced that he’d finally passed the medical component of qualifying for a seat on a Russian rocket mission this fall. “With such a thorough physical, you’re going to find things that you might need to take care of,” Bass said, explaining an outpatient… Read more »

The Detroit Electronic Music Festival drew more than 1 million people in each of its first two years. This year, organizers are emphasizing a wider variety of performers – and wondering why techno, which is hugely popular in Europe, is less well-received in the United States. The lineup of nearly 70 performers represents a blend of urban music, and includes Parliament Funkadelic’s George Clinton and the Los Angeles-based hip-hop trio Dilated Peoples. The three-day festival starts Saturday. “What we’re seeing now is a combination between hip-hop music and electronic music, and I think the Detroit festival is capitalizing on that,”… Read more »

The people who tried to take away your VCR are at it again. Hollywood has always dreamed of a “well-mannered marketplace” where the only technologies that you can buy are those that do not disrupt its business. Acting through legislators who dance to Hollywood’s tune, the movie studios are racing to lock away the flexible, general-purpose technology that has given us a century of unparalelled prosperity and innovation. The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) filed the “Content Protection Status Report” with the Senate Judiciary Committee last month, laying out its plan to remake the technology world to suit its… Read more »