Search Results for: pop will eat itself

O-Town fans hoping for a change of sonic scenery will have to wait only three more months for new material from the pop group. The successor to O-Town’s self-titled debut is due July 9, according to a J Records spokesperson. While the album has yet to be titled, “I Showed Her” has been chosen as its first single and is expected to surface at radio in mid-May. “Favorite Girl,” another track off the album, was written and produced by rapper Nelly, and the group itself takes credit for penning three others. Since its release in January 2001, O-Town has sold… Read more »

A mohawked Eddie Vedder put the regal Waldorf-Astoria hotel in a punk rock state of mind Monday night when he inducted the Ramones into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Nearing the end of his 17-minute speech, Vedder said, “After this, I’m sure the evening will move quickly, but it’s the Ramones and it’s punk rock and I’m just about finished and I hope you’re OK with that.” The crowd’s response included some jeers and boos. “Apparently you’re not. F– you,” he replied. But overall, the night was filled with special moments – including a Talking Heads induction and… Read more »

The boxes are stacked outside the Beverly Hills home, ready to be carried in. Each is neatly labeled: “pots and pans,” “linens,” “devil heads,” “dead things.” Plainly, Ozzie and Harriet aren’t moving in. This Ozzy is Ozzy Osbourne, the heavy metal rock star, and his family. Their arrival in the neighborhood heralds a hilarious new MTV series, “The Osbournes,” that premieres 10:30 p.m. EST Tuesday. MTV describes it as television’s first “reality sitcom,” a format that suggested itself naturally because nothing they could invent around the Osbournes would be as funny as their actual lives. Just the idea of the… Read more »

What was supposed to be a peaceful, private gathering of the West Coast hip-hop community on Thursday turned into a heated four-hour open-mic assembly dominated by two very different sermons: one from Minister Louis Farrakhan and one from Death Row Records founder Marion “Suge” Knight. Tempers flared at the West Coast Hip-Hop Summit inside the posh ballroom of the Four Seasons Hotel when Knight spent much of his time at the podium insulting everyone from Dr. Dre, Eminem and Master P to Janet Jackson, women and homosexuals. Knight’s tirades prompted a few outbursts and resulted in several people storming out… Read more »

U2 had the Super Bowl halftime stage all to itself, and the Irish rockers delivered a moving tribute to America and the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Lead singer Bono walked onto the field with a slow, shoulder-wagging swagger, singing the group’s recent hit, “Beautiful Day,” as he climbed onto the point of a pink, heart-shaped catwalk that surrounded the stage. As the first song wound down, a giant screen scrolled the names of victims in the attacks, and the group broke into the 1980s hit, “Where the Streets Have No Name.” The names also reflected in overlapping… Read more »

Looking to take advantage of what they say is a large and lucrative niche audience untapped by television programmers, two cable divisions of Viacom (news/quote), MTV Networks and Showtime, are developing a plan to create the first cable channel aimed directly at gay viewers. The still unnamed channel would be offered to cable system operators as a pay channel like HBO or Showtime – only much less costly at $5 or $6 a month – but it would also include advertising. MTV Networks and Showtime have conducted extensive audience testing and concluded that there is, as one Showtime executive put… Read more »

Pressplay (www.pressplay.com), the online music service launched Dec. 19, is an order of magnitude better than rival MusicNet (www.musicnet.com), which launched Dec. 4. The gap is so great that I don’t think MusicNet deserves to sign up a single additional subscriber without first undertaking a major overhaul to match pressplay. Not that pressplay is perfect; the major record labels are still struggling to figure out how to sell their music online without opening the door to further piracy. But pressplay succeeds at delivering all three components of the online music experience: “streaming,” where you listen to songs without putting them… Read more »

The world’s largest record company will be the first of the major labels to release a copy-protected CD in the United States, signaling a new chapter in the industry’s efforts to stem music piracy. When Universal Music Group on Tuesday releases the soundtrack, “Fast & Furious – More Music,” consumers won’t be able to copy the music onto another CD or use their PCs to “rip” tracks in digital MP3 format. The copy-protection technology will also render the disc unplayable on Macintosh computers, DVD players and game consoles, such as Sony’s PlayStation 2. It might not even play in some… Read more »

Headliners in their own right, singer Gwen Stefani and her bandmates in No Doubt were so eager to showcase their forthcoming album, “Rock Steady,” they started touring as an opening act two months before the CD was due for release. Back on the road after an 18-month hiatus, No Doubt will be playing warmup dates for veteran Irish rockers U2 into early December. But far from feeling overshadowed by Bono and friends, Stefani sees the U2 gig as the perfect way for No Doubt to bring itself back in public view and prepare for the Dec. 11 release of its… Read more »

Ever since the success of her 1988 single “Orinoco Flow,” Enya’s been one of the world’s most popular artists, quietly selling more than 50 million albums while staying, for the most part, out of the spotlight. But now, with her latest single – the gently reassuring “Only Time” – becoming part of the soundtrack to the post-September 11 world, Enya’s very much at the center of attention. The singer’s elegant, evocative and ethereal A Day Without Rain, released almost a year ago, will hit #2 on next week’s Billboard 200 albums chart, right between rappers Ja Rule and Bubba Sparxxx.… Read more »