web analytics

Pop Rock Nation

Category: News

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

  • The M Now Stands For "Mess"…A Hot One…

    So, I’m an award show junkie. Well, specific to music awards shows, anyway. You won’t catch me watching the Oscars (at least not with both eyes open), but…the Grammys? American Music Awards? BET Awards? Soul Train Awards? I’m there! Which is why it hurts me to say that the majority of these ceremonies blow chunks now.

    I didn’t actually watch last night’s MTV Video Music Awards…I was actually at Farm Aid’s inagural trip to NYC (yeah! Mellencamp!!), but anyone who stops by www.mtv.com can pick and choose which parts of the show they’d like to see…pity that most of the show (at least the parts I decided to click on) weren’t worth seeing.

    The performances were cut into little chunks (very few of them were complete), and the amount of awards given out has shrunk to damn near zero. There were no nutty acceptance speeches (someone call Fiona Apple or Macy Gray stat), and even the presentation of an award by 50 Cent and Kanye West together didn’t generate any sparks.

    What we were left with was the last nail in the coffin of Britney Spears’ career (although, to be fair about it, her performance was no better or no worse than any previous VMA performance…say, has anyone EVER seen/heard Britney sing live on TV???), a performance of “Wake Up Call” that signaled that Adam Levine might be taking the jump soon from lead singer of Maroon 5 to former lead singer of Maroon 5, a WHOLE lot of Justin Timberlake, and Mary J. Blige making mincemeat of her teleprompter.

    Oh, and Beyonce’s boobs nearly fell out of her dress. Awesome!!

    Actually, the chopped up format by which you can view on MTV’s site is better than having to sit through it on TV because you can skip around to the good parts, which were few and far between: I’m not sure how I feel about Chris Brown, but damn it, the boy can dance. After Cee-Lo’s performance of “Darling Nikki” with the Foo Fighters, it’s my contention that he would do the best black rock album of all time. Ah, and have I mentioned Beyonce’s boobs?

    Oh, and Justin implored the powers that be at MTV to play more videos. Wise call, considering the network only airs actual music during the graveyard shift.

  • I Guess Roth Needs Some New Hairplugs?

    So, the Van Halen reunion is back on. Remember when this was a big deal earlier in the year, right before the band’s induction in the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame? Then Eddie went into rehab and…well, you know the rest. But Eddie’s out, and it looks like the band is ready to hit the road again. How long until it implodes?
    You know, I was cool with The Police reunion tour. Not only does it not seem like any of the three members are hurting for cash, but at the one performance I saw, it was obvious that they are trying to push their music forward, and it still sounds fresh. The band’s matured musically, and the technological changes over the past twenty years have brought a fresh wrinkle to their sound.
    VH? The whole thing just seems kinda desperate. Well, just about anything David Lee Roth does nowadays seems desperate, but I’m saying. Besides, how can you take this whole thing seriously when Van Bertinelli’s teenage son is playing bass?
    Of course, 40-ish yuppie types who have fond memories of being the high school badass will revel in this reunion. Me? I’ll chill at home with my copy of 1984 and be perfectly happy.
    Besides, after seeing Roth perform “Jump” in a bluegrass stylee earlier this year on TV, does anyone have great expectations for this reunion tour? Seriously!!
    Van Halen’s website: http://www.van-halen.com/

  • A Mocha Latte And A Case of You

    Paul mcCartney on stage

    I guess these two interesting things are sort of related…
    Well, folks, in a lead up to iTunes’ most popular holdouts-The Beatles-finally allowing their music to appear for purchase on the site (my spidey sense tells me that it’ll happen right before the lucrative holiday season), John Lennon’s solo work is now available. This follows Paul McCartney’s Apple/Capitol work being made available earlier this summer. The countdown to being able to download “Hey Jude” (and make Paul, Ringo, Olivia Harrison, Yoko Ono and Michael Jackson a LOT more money) begins now…

    Joni Mitchell

    Speaking of Paul, there was quite a hubbub earlier this year when Paul jumped from Capitol, which had (aside from a stint with Columbia in the early/mid Eighties) been his recording home for 40+ years to Starbucks’ Hear Music imprint. It proved to be a smart move for Macca, as his latest album, “Memory Almost Full” has, in about 10 weeks, almost outsold what his previous albvum, “Chaos & Creation in the Backyard” has sold in two years. Of course, where one starts, others follow, and fellow legendary artists Joni Mitchell and James Taylor are now both signed to Hear Music, after lengthy stays with Warner/Reprise and Columbia, respectively. This should be an interesting litmus test, especially with a notoriously prickly artist like Joni (it strikes me as kind of strange that she would align herself with a company like Starbucks, but then again, despite her grande dame singer/songwriter status, she has complained long and hard about her treatment in the record industry). At any rate, while JT could probably sign to any label in existence and sell hundreds of thousands of albums to his fervent (and record-buying) fan base (which includes me), I scratch my head wondering whether Joni will do the promotional work that would be needed to make her album a success.
    These three career artists jumping ship (along with the rumor that Madonna will be parting with Warner Brothers after a quarter century) makes me wonder who the next artist to move to Starbucks will be. And with McCartney’s success still fresh, will other companies follow suit? Is it too farfetched to think of McDonald’s or Radio Shack forming record companies and selling CDs? Who knows??