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Pop Rock Nation

Category: News

music-news-from-breakups-to-the-lastest-buzz

  • Raging Against Christmas: Anarchy in the U.K.

    It’s quite a big deal to have the #1 single in the UK over Christmas. Over the years, that spot has hosted artists ranging from Band Aid (whose “Do They Know It’s Christmas” topped the chart in 1984) to Mr. Blobby (don’t feel bad if you don’t know who that is…unfortunately, I do).

    Anyway, for the past few years, the Christmas #1 in Britain has been tied in with “X Factor”, AKA the British version of “American Idol”. Like “Idol”, “X Factor” is spearheaded by Simon Cowell. Although the show doesn’t mean much on U.S shores, it has spawned at least one certified hitmaker (for a brief time, anyway) in Leona Lewis.

    One guy took exception to Cowell’s domination of the UK charts (and what it represents to true music fans) and started a Facebook campaign to get people to download Rage Against the Machine’s “Killing in the Name” in the hopes that it would prevent “X factor” winner Joe McElderry from hitting the #1 spot with his cover of Miley Cyrus’s “The Climb” (I can’t make this stuff up folks).

    So, the results are in and the #1 single in the UK is…”Killing in the Name” by Rage Against the Machine! Half a million people downloaded it last week, pushing the 18-year old song to the top of the charts. This chart victory is all kinds of symbolic, proving the fact that British music fans are a little tired of having processed musical cheese shoved down their collective throats (although it might have been better had they used their Facebook clout to promote a new artist who needs the publicity). It’s also cool that the guys from Rage have promised to donate money to charity as a result of their chart-topping success. Now if we could just do something about Susan Boyle here in the States…

  • Not Necessarily the News: RHCP, Timbo & Weezy!!

    *John Frusciante has quit the Red Hot Chili Peppers-AGAIN. The guitarist, who was famoulsy replaced by Dave Navarro briefly in the late Nineties-confirmed the split this week via his MySpace page. There appears to be no drama behind the split, but if you’re like me, you’re wondering how Anthony, Flea and Chad will brave this split. The band became megastars with Frusciante as their guitarist, and the one peak-era album they recorded without him (“One Hot Minute”) is definitely not regarded as their finest work. Critics have lavished tons of praise on Frusciante for his guitar playing and vocal harmonies over the last few years, although his solo albums allegedly require a strong stomach to listen to. Can both sides survive without the other?

    *Supa-producer Tim “Timbaland” Mosley has been quoted as saying that he is quitting hip-hop. Tim was quoted in a recent interview as saying (and I’m paraphrasing here) that his audience is essentially white women these days, and that hip-hop fans are not buying enough records to justify his staying in that genre. Doesn’t that statement sound all kinds of wrong? We can of course start with the fact that Timbo is basically admitting to selling out and abandoning the fans who made him who he is. Because I guarantee those pop artists wouldn’t be calling if it wasn’t for the work he did with the likes of Missy Elliott and Aaliyah. I guess he’s gassed up off of that Justin Timberlake and Nelly Furtado money. However, when you consider the lukewarm commercial reception that his “Shock Value II” has received so far (not to mention the savage critical reception), something tells me that Timbo might be returning to hip-hop a little sooner than he thinks.

    *Finally, take this as a lesson, record companies, of what can happen when you continually fuck with release dates. Lil Wayne’s “Rebirth”, an album whose release has literally been all over the calendar this year, just sprung a major leak. Apparently, some copies had already been shipped to amazon.com and 500 or so people who’d preordered the album were accidentally sent copies of “Rebirth”-although the album is now not scheduled for release until next February. Can you say “collector’s item” ladies and gentlemen? This is the first instance I can remember of an album being pulled after already being pressed and shipped since Prince’s “Black Album” back in 1987. Yes, Jay-Z fans (and Metallica fans), calling an album the “Black Album” is not an original idea. At any rate, expect some of those 500 copies to pop up on eBay VERY soon.

  • First Look: Rihanna’s “Hard”

    If there’s any silver lining in Chris Brown’s chart failure, it’s that Rihanna’s latest album isn’t exactly burning up the charts either.

    As a matter of fact, “Rated R” currently sits at #28 on the national charts. It’s sold a respectable 300,000 copies so far, and will certainly attain Gold status, but when you consider her last album spun off seven hit singles and sold 2 million copies, it’s easy to see that “Rated R” is underperforming a little bit.

    The scent and taste of flop sweat becomes even more palpable when you realize that this album has been out for three weeks and it is already on it’s third video. “Hard” has obviously been selected as the attention-getter. Lyrically and musically, it’s in-your-face and aggressive…and not very good. It’s very slight from a lyrical standpoint, and aside from the label connection, there’s really no reason to use Young Jeezy on this record (except for maybe a little extra “street credibility”?). The video itself is a bit of a clusterfuck. Rihanna has definitely jumped a little too hard on the oversexed train. Electrical tape over her nipples? Probably a bit overboard. Although I had to laugh when a commenter on MTV’s site accused Ri-Ri of biting Lady Gaga’s style. Apparently, this commenter has never heard of Grace Jones.

    At this point, though, I’m kind of tired of both Chris Brown and Rihanna. Granted, I was never a big fan of Chris’s music anyway, so the fact that he’s slowly sinking into oblivion doesn’t bother me too much. However, Rihanna has over time at least revealed herself as being able to put her own stamp on some irresistible pop singles. The desperation she’s been piling on lately is a huge turn-off, though.

    Check out MTV.com’s article about the video here.