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The recording industry from artists to major labels joined on Thursday in a rare show of unity to demand tougher laws barring what they called “payola”-like promotion of music played on the radio. They also called for a sweeping government review of radio industry consolidation. Deregulation of the radio business and rampant practices that skirt 40-year-old anti-payola laws stifle competition, drive up music promotional costs and make it harder for new artists to gain attention, the artists and record labels said in a joint statement addressed to the federal regulators and Congress. The statement was endorsed by a broad coalition… Read more »

Pop star Elton John, one of the biggest names in a star-studded line-up to serenade Queen Elizabeth on her Golden Jubilee, is not quite sure how well even his music will go down with the British monarch. “She grins and bears it. She’s probably the best in the world at grinning and bearing it on every occasion, whether it’s Maori dancing, pop music or whatever,” he told BBC television on Friday. The flamboyant rocker, a close personal friend of the late Princess Diana, will appear at the June 3 concert alongside artists ranging from ex-Beatle Paul McCartney to Ozzy Osbourne.… Read more »

Indie labels and artists’ reps hit Capitol Hill Tuesday in an 11th-hour bid to push through a new royalty rate that Webcasters will have to pay for music streamed on the Internet. Webcasters say the rate set by a special arbitration panel will put them out of business, and Wednesday morning will ask the Senate Judiciary Committee to intervene. The congressional hearing comes less than a week before Librarian of Congress James Billington is due to announce the official rate. The label executives mounting Tuesday’s counteroffensive on Capitol Hill said the record biz is willing to live with the proposed… Read more »

The family of Jimi Hendrix is suing a recording company over the rights to recordings the rock guitarist made before he became famous. Experience Hendrix, the family firm that controls the rights to all Hendrix’s work except some early recordings, is suing PPX Enterprises over recordings Hendrix made with a group called Curtis Knight and The Squires in PPX’s New York studios. There was no comment from either party Thursday. In the action, set forth at the High Court in London on Wednesday, Experience Hendrix claims that PPX breached a 1973 agreement with the English administrator of Hendrix’s estate. Experience… Read more »

Why name a songbird Tweet? It’s a simple question, but Charlene Keys, a.k.a. Tweet, can’t remember exactly how the nickname came about. “Maybe I had a big head like the Tweety Bird character,” she joked recently. “I’ve been Tweet since I was a little girl. It’s been a nickname that everybody in my family wants to get credit for. ‘I named her that. No, I named her that.’ ” The Rochester, New York, native does know how she can justify naming her album Southern Hummingbird, despite hailing from the North. That ties back to her kinfolk as well. “I’m the… Read more »

Remember how psyched you were as a kid to build a little car or a castle out of Lego pieces? Bet you never fashioned a fully functioning punk-rock duo and a kaleidoscopic world where they could swim, ride bikes and whale on the drums, though, did you? Don’t feel bad. You probably never got that sophisticated, but pioneering director Michel Gondry did, thanks to the White Stripes. In the eye-popping video for “Fell in Love With a Girl,” a two-minute blast of O.P.P.-like fantasy, the candy-colored pair from Detroit strum, jump and sprint their way through a building-block realm that… Read more »

The inspiration for “She Loves Me Not,” the first single from Papa Roach’s upcoming album, Lovehatetragedy, didn’t come easy to frontman Jacoby Shaddix. The track is about his sometimes-turbulent relationship with his wife, Kelly, who recently gave birth to their first child, Makaile Cielo Shaddix. The chorus, which includes the lines, “I don’t know if I care/ I’m the jerk/ Life’s not fair/ Fighting all the time/ This is out of line/ She loves me not,” illustrates the stress of trying to juggle your relationship and your band. “I feel like anything I do is just not enough,” Shaddix, formerly… Read more »

*NSYNC gave its Detroit-area fans an unexpected encore on Monday night (April 1)-and it was no April’s Fool joke. Following its performance at the Palace Of Auburn Hills, the quintet followed the recommendation of opening act Tony Lucca, a Detroit-area native, and took its tour bus to catch a set by local funk band the Brothers Groove, at Fifth Avenue Billiards in the suburb of Royal Oak. After hanging out and watching the group play for awhile, *NSYNC’s J.C. Chasez delighted the packed club by finally accepting an invitation to hop onstage and did some impromptu verses on the Brothers… Read more »

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame welcomed its first members from the new wave and punk eras on Monday night, inducting The Ramones and Talking Heads along with classic rockers Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, soul and R&B icon Isaac Hayes, versatile vocalist Brenda Lee and singer/songwriter Gene Pitney. Legendary guitar sideman Chet Atkins was also inducted, as was Jim Stewart, founder of and driving force behind revolutionary soul music label Stax Records. The hall’s 17th annual induction ceremony got off to a rousing start with Hayes performing his Oscar-winning “Theme from ‘Shaft.”‘ Hayes, who saw eight of his… Read more »

‘Pop Idol’ Will Young has announced he is gay, and said he has never hidden his sexuality. The 23-year-old singer, whose first record became the fastest-selling debut single in UK history, said he was very comfortable with his sexuality. In an interview with the News of the World, the former drama student said: “I feel it’s time to tell my fans I’m gay.” “It’s totally no big deal, just part of who I am. For me it’s normal and nothing to be ashamed about. I’m gay and I’m comfortable with that. I really don’t know what the fuss is about.… Read more »