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Bad News: Chris Brown's New Song Is Good

music review

Oct 29, 2009 1:56 PM CDT

Bad News: Chris Brown's New Song Is Good

Is it OK to like the music but hate the abusive jerk behind it?

(Newser) - Chris Brown may be a reprehensible guy, but unfortunately, he can still sing. With the ink barely dry on his guilty plea, Brown released the lead single on his upcoming album last month, and it’s actually good, Jonah Weiner is sad to report. The instrumentals from Swizz Beatz lay...

Scariest Albums
Ever Made

LISTEN (IF YOU DARE)

Oct 28, 2009 2:07 PM CDT

Scariest Albums Ever Made

Celebrate Halloween with these psychologically creepy albums

(Newser) - James Montgomery, tasked with listing the scariest albums ever made for MTV in honor of Halloween, resisted the temptation to include Avril Lavigne's The Best Damn Thing. Instead, he went for the "dense, raw, positively horrifying albums, guaranteed to turn your Halloween into a total fright-fest." Check them...

Jay-Z Cleans Up
'Empire' for
World Series

Oct 28, 2009 12:05 PM CDT

Jay-Z Cleans Up 'Empire' for World Series

Rapper will keep his language PG while performing for Yanks

(Newser) - The lyrics to Jay-Z's "Empire State of Mind" are sometimes as raw as New York, but it looks like the rapper will clean things up when he performs his city anthem at the World Series. A source close to the rapper says Jay-Z won't utter curses or other raunchy...

At Last, Rockers
Shut Up and Sing

VIRGINIA M. MONCRIEFF

Oct 27, 2009 12:30 PM CDT

At Last, Rockers Shut Up and Sing

Really, it's about time rockers made concerts all about the music

(Newser) - Bono—he of the eons-long concert diatribes about everything from Burma to the whales—has done the unthinkable. "Bono has started editing himself," Virginia M. Moncrieff realized during U2's Rose Bowl concert. And it's about time: Though Moncrieff admires their causes, she has reached the age where the...

Concert Earnings
Defy Recession

Oct 26, 2009 3:51 PM CDT

Concert Earnings Defy Recession

Big-name acts, up-and-comers see modest rise in attendance

(Newser) - Concert tours remained surprisingly strong this year despite the weak economy, with slightly more people heading out to see their favorite acts than in 2008. Gross revenue held steady at $1 billion for the period from May 1 to Sept. 1, matching earnings a year earlier. Big-name acts like Kenny...

Bob Dylan's
Xmas Album
'Sort of Insane'

MUSIC REVIEW

Oct 26, 2009 11:13 AM CDT

Bob Dylan's Xmas Album 'Sort of Insane'

Even so, the 'beloved iconoclast' puts together an interesting collection

(Newser) - With the announcement of Bob Dylan’s Christmas in the Heart, “smirkers got smirkier”—you try picturing Dylan singing the lyric, “How’d ya like to hang a stocking on a great big coconut tree?” without smirking—but in the end, the collection is interesting, if a...

Brooks' Vegas Gigs
Sell Out in 5 Hours

Oct 25, 2009 6:30 AM CDT

Brooks' Vegas Gigs Sell Out in 5 Hours

30K tickets sell briskly as country star ends retirement

(Newser) - Country music superstar Garth Brooks can still pack 'em in, selling out 30,000 tickets in five hours yesterday for a series of 20 small-scale Vegas shows that will end his retirement for the time being. The Oklahoma cowboy will put on four shows a weekend for five weekends in...

MySpace Gives Up In Race With Facebook

Oct 22, 2009 11:52 AM CDT

MySpace Gives Up In Race With Facebook

Social networking leader 'is not our competition'

(Newser) - MySpace has officially waved the white flag in its battle with Facebook. The company’s new CEO—ex-Facebook exec Chris DeWolfe—tells the Financial Times that the company now sees itself as more of a music and entertainment hub than a social networking site. “Facebook is not our competition,...

Inside Gaga's 'Delicious' Tour

INTERVIEW

Oct 22, 2009 10:18 AM CDT

Inside Gaga's 'Delicious' Tour

Lady Gaga talks new album The Fame Monster and The Monster Ball concerts

(Newser) - Lady Gaga's upcoming tour is more than just a series of concerts—it's a pop-electro opera, "a truly artistic experience that is going to take the form of the greatest post-apocalyptic house party that you've ever been to," she tells Rolling Stone. The Monster Ball launches Nov. 27,...

Boyle Breaks Pre-Order Record

Oct 22, 2009 8:18 AM CDT

Boyle Breaks Pre-Order Record

Debut album for Britain's Got Talent star is selling fast

(Newser) - Susan Boyle's popularity shows no signs of dying down: The Britain's Got Talent runner-up is releasing her first album Nov. 23, and it has already broken Amazon's record for most pre-orders, the New York Daily News reports. "Although it's normal to see early enthusiasm for artists who have come...

Stars Demand
Bush 'Music
Torture' Files

Oct 22, 2009 2:55 AM CDT

Stars Demand Bush 'Music Torture' Files

Time for torturers to face the music, say celebs

(Newser) - A coalition of celebrity musicians is demanding the release of Bush administration documents revealing how music was used to torture Guantanamo Bay inmates. Songs from Metallica, The Real Slim Shady, and the Star Spangled Banner, among many others, were blasted all day for days on end to rattle prisoners, inmates...

The Most Influential DJs

Oct 21, 2009 5:19 PM CDT

The Most Influential DJs

(Newser) - With the release of "DJ Hero" upon us, it's a good time to honor the true masters of turntablism. IGN lists the most influential:

DJ Kool Herc. He invented the “breakbeat” by using the two-turntable style of disco DJs to play two copies of a funk record, switching

...

Winehouse's New Boobs
'Are Great,' Dad Reports

Oct 21, 2009 2:44 PM CDT

Winehouse's New Boobs 'Are Great,' Dad Reports

Mitch says his daughter 'looks absolutely fantastic'

(Newser) - It seems Joe Simpson isn’t the only celebrity dad who’ll talk openly about his daughter’s, uh, assets: Mitch Winehouse told a British talk show that daughter Amy’s “boobs are great” following a recent breast-enhancement surgery. "I shouldn't have said that should I? She looks...

It's Time to Stop Hating Creed

OPINION

Oct 21, 2009 11:29 AM CDT

It's Time to Stop Hating Creed

They're reuniting, but listen before you groan

(Newser) - Creed is back—the once ubiquitous (and “ubiquitously loathed”) rock group is releasing a new album later this month and going on tour. But “if your impulse on hearing that it has reunited is to groan, stifle it long enough to locate a copy of Creed's 2004...

U2 to Stream
Concert on YouTube

Oct 20, 2009 4:48 PM CDT

U2 to Stream Concert on YouTube

Sunday's show will stream live, for free

(Newser) - U2 will offer a video stream of a live concert for free on YouTube this Sunday. The stream of the sold-out show at the Pasadena Rose Bowl in California will be available in 16 countries, including the US, Brazil, Israel, and Australia. U2 has "wanted to do something like...

Beyoncé Scraps Malaysia Show

Oct 19, 2009 2:05 PM CDT

Beyoncé Scraps Malaysia Show

Singer postpones date after criticism by conservative Muslim group

(Newser) - After controversy over her racy outfits and dance routines, Beyoncé won’t perform in Kuala Lumpur this weekend. The Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party, a hardline Muslim group, had protested the Oct. 25 date on her “I Am” tour, but promoters deny the postponement had anything to do with those objections....

Wrestling Dynamo
Captain Lou Dead at 76

obituary

Oct 14, 2009 5:00 PM CDT

Wrestling Dynamo Captain Lou Dead at 76

Manager's celebrity helped wrestling crossover to the mainstream

(Newser) - “Captain” Lou Albano, a professional wrestler who also enjoyed success as a mainstream entertainer, died today at 76. Starting in the late '50s as one-half of tag team “the Sicilians,” Albano’s wrestling career spanned four decades. With his signature look—Hawaiian shirt, rubber-band goatee—and a...

Tea-Party Protesters Hit
'Pro-Obama' Jersey School

Oct 13, 2009 3:05 AM CDT

Tea-Party Protesters Hit 'Pro-Obama' Jersey School

Demonstrators sing 'God Bless America' to protest song about prez

(Newser) - A band of tea-party protesters descended on a New Jersey elementary school yesterday, complaining that a class song hailing President Obama was "indoctrinating" kids. Some 70 protesters sang God Bless America and The Battle Hymn of the Republic outside the B. Bernice Young School in a suburb 15 miles...

College Kids' iPod Volume Hurts Hearing

Oct 12, 2009 2:20 PM CDT

College Kids' iPod Volume Hurts Hearing

Most subjects in study set volume to damaging level

(Newser) - Most young people listen to their iPods at levels that will damage hearing over time, a new study shows. Researchers measured the output of an iPod while college-age students listened to music in a lab setting, and they found 55% of the subjects set the volume higher than 85 decibels—...

Flaming Lips Back to Bizarre With Embryonic

MUSIC REVIEW

Oct 12, 2009 1:14 PM CDT

Flaming Lips Back to Bizarre With Embryonic

'Sprawling' double album should please longtime fans

(Newser) - The Flaming Lips are no stranger to reinvention, having transformed “from garage-punk misfits into a splendorous, kaleidoscopic rock outfit,” then later “into a sophisticated, sincere symphonic-pop troupe bestowed with increasing commercial acclaim.” The release of Embryonic marks another sea change—and it’s the band's boldest...