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Pop Rock Nation

Category: News

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

  • The Album As We Know It: Going Bye-Bye??

    Over at Popdose, my current favorite music site, DW Dunphy prophesizes the end of the album as we know it. In a sense, he says the music industry could very well go back to its’ Sixties model, where artists were signed to “singles” contracts (with singles being the primary income source for the label), and albums were generally an afterthought.

    The industry’s boom period of roughly 1995-2002 coincided with the death of the commercial single, an industry move that I think is reason #1 for the situation it’s in today. iTunes is popular now not only because it allows people to purchase music without leaving the comfort of their own home (because, lets’ face it, we’re some lazy motherfuckers), but because you don’t have to spend $12.99 on a piece of shit masquerading as an album. The public went along with the “no single” gambit for a short time-it’s how “artists” like Lou Bega, Aqua and Chumbawamba went on to sell millions of records, but the public eventually wised up (and technology helped) and we’re back to what music has always been to the casual fan (and I’m pretty solid in my belief that 75% of music buyers are “casual”)-a question of whether they like a song, not an album or even necessarily an artist.

    Does this mean the album as we know it will die? I’m not too sure about that. I’m positive the industry will move towards signing more artists to single deals in the future, but there’s no way that bands like Radiohead, U2, The White Stripes, Kanye West, Dave Matthews Band, Linkin Park…artists who generally make cohesive statements will follow suit, nor will most of the kids influenced by these acts who are just starting out. There’ll be a changing of the guard, to a degree, but I don’t think the album will ever vanish nor will major labels completely stop signing artists to album deals (although they’ll hopefully be a little more discriminating going forward!!)…

    Here’s the original Popdose article here: http://popdose.com/dw-dunphy-on-the-end-of-the-album/

    (As a sidenote: I am slowly getting settled in a new locale, and we’ll be ramping the entries up here at the Musichelpweb blog, so stay tuned and keep checking often!!)

  • Vital Idol: Jason Castro Wrecks The Beatles!~

    I think FOX should give Jason Castro his own show. The premise would be that he be given two classic songs to perform in front of a live studio audience. The goal would be to see how badly he would wreck those classic songs. The louder the crowd growns, the more money he gets. It would be car crash television at it’s best. I would call it Jason Castro Wrecks The Beatles~!. And yes, that’s a tilde bang.

    After last night’s performances, if Jason Castro is still on the show next week, we might as well just give him the title. I was all for Sanjaya doing as well as possible because he entertained me. But Sanjaya was out of there midway through the season. Jason Castro doesn’t entertain me. His terrible singing, terrible facial expressions, pubic hair on his lip styled mustache, and Bill and Ted laugh all kill me. Bah! Let’s get on with this. Jason Castro, I quit you!

    Ok, enough with the Castro hate. He’s just a kid. I know.

    It’s showtime folks … (that was for Eddy Zucko)

    – Boseph Bice and Maroon 5 are scheduled to perform tonight. I wonder if Adam Levine still looks like a waif model.

    – Ryno brings out Big Dave Archuleta and Big Dave is as safe as Rickey Henderson stealing second base.

    – Predictably, David Cook is also safe and that leaves us with Syesha and Jason Castro in the bottom two.

    – I know I promised to not talk about the lame segment On The Air With American Idol, but one of the callers asked what the biggest challenge has been thus far and Castro said, “The brain being dead.” Unintentional comedy at it’s finest!

    – By the way, the answer is yes, Adam Levine looks like a waif model. I’ve seen better shoulders on a wire hanger and those arms are the size of pipe cleaners. Thankfully, he can sing.

    – I think Boseph Bice still hates me for turning on him after being a big fan for all of season four. And then, on finale night, I threw him under the bus and gave my allegiance to Carrie “Tony Romo Is A Virgin” Underwood. He just performed his new single and I think he gave me the stank eye.

    – Jason Castro just said that someone told him that he shot the tambourine man yesterday. At the very least, this dude is hilarious tonight.

    – More and more each week, Syesha is looking like a dead ringer for Ashley Banks. Where’s Carlton?

    Where Is This Man?

    – Ryno tells Syesha that she’s in the top three, which means that Big Rube is celebrating Jason Castro home.

    – Jason Castro says he’s relieved because next week the top three perform three songs each and he wouldn’t know what to do having to memorize three songs. You can’t knock the guy’s honesty. And this week, he entertained me.

    Seacrest out!

  • Vital Idol: Paula Abdul Doesn’t Predict The Future Tonight

    Last night’s show was hard to watch. From Paula screwing up and analyzing a singing performance that hadn’t happened yet, to Simon being very grouchy, to the unorganized flow to the entire show, it was a hot mess. Neil Diamond didn’t really get a lot of air time and was low keyed because of the lack of time. The reason for the lack of time was because they decided to have each singer perform twice. Ryno Seacrest mentioned several times that they had to speed through things in order to get everyone done on the one hour show. No one wants to miss that 9 o’clock news.

    Paula’s Screw Up

    Brooke White and Jason Castro were again the worst of the bunch. But at least Brooke had great, shiny, silver pants. But they were also the worst of the bunch last week too. And neither of them went home. Syesha Mercado has been great these last few weeks, but she’s also been in the bottom more often than not. If she goes home tonight, it will be a second straight week where someone undeserving went home.

    On to the show …

    – Ryno just showed Idol alumni Gina Glocksen and Constantine in the audience. I think he buttoned up the very bottom button on his shirt. He was all chest hair tonight. Ryno also made him do the perv face.

    – Ryno just set the record straight on Paula. He said that she’s not addicted to Vicodin and she’s still a part of the family. Ok, he didn’t say anything about Vicodin.

    – Jason Castro is safe. Syesha just cringed.

    – The two Davids are predictably safe, and deservedly so, since they are the most consistent out of the entire group of contestants.

    – For some reason unknown to me, Natasha Bedingfield is singing Pocketful Of Sunshine. A little research showed me that it’s her new single. She then went over to hug David Archuleta who giggled like a little school girl, I mean, excited young man.

    – Neil Diamond looks pretty sharp in his leather jacket and black slacks. But not as “pretty amazing” as Brooke’s pants from last night.

    – In the bottom two are Brooke and Syesha and you can tell that Brooke expects to leave just by looking at her face. And she’s right. Big Rube is celebrating Brooke home tonight.

    – I’ll miss two things about Brooke. I will miss watching for how she wore her hair, either with the natural curls, or straight. And I will miss those great pants she wore last night. What I won’t miss is her fumbling the lyrics, as she did tonight on her go home song.

    What is the theme for next week? If it were up to me, it’d be New Kids On The Block night. David Cook would turn Step By Step into a grungy rock song.

    Seacrest Out!