Which set of global music artistes are locked in a post-awards death match following a trophy shocker that saw one win best original song for her “Masterpiece”, and saw her rival scowl so deeply, his face appeared to eat itself?
To all the guys out there, if you’ve ever sat through p.s. I Love You starring Hilary Swank and Gerard Butler, you’ll know that the movie makes listening to Slipknot played backwards at maximum volume for 12 hours straight seem more fulfilling. It’s the story of a charming Irish lad who falls in love with […]
Your CD collection has officially become outdated, because 2011 was the year that digital music sales finally surpassed their plastic disc-based counterparts, and the trend doesn’t look to be over.
The 2000s haven’t been kind to the US music business, with year on year shrinkage in sales since Y2K leading to the longest slump this side of the Second World War. In 2011, three artists managed to turn the slide around, while many others floundered in mediocre sales. Care to guess who?
Score one for creepy technology. Vocaloid, a voice-synthesis brand owned by Yamaha, has come up with a process by which to “resurrect” any singer’s voice for use in synthesized songs, without requiring the vocalist to build up a painstaking voice library first – so they could be doing that Kurt Cobain/Michael Jackson duet album pretty soon.
Jackie, a Dutch fashion magazine recently ran a feature on Rihanna – showing readers how to imitate the singer’s style. In an attempt at humour, they wrote the piece in what they thought was street lingo. But, as it turns out, Rihanna didn’t appreciate being called “the ultimate niggabitch” with “a ghetto ass”.
It’s always nice when researchers employing a loosely scientific method produce results you were more or less expecting. Folks at the University of Portsmouth have determined that loud music makes people want to drink alcohol in greater quantities and at a much faster rate because the music makes it taste sweeter. Science!
Last week, Justin Bieber almost ruined the collective festive cheer of the entire world by announcing he was working on a dubstep album, but thankfully it’s still the season for giving, and a handful of awesome classic rock outfits have announced their plans to tour SA in 2012, effectively cancelling out the horror aftershocks of the Lesbieber’s awful, awful news.
The Brothers Streep were recently seen on Idols, where they poked a bit of fun at some of the show’s more controversial moments and characters. And before that they performed live for Anna Paquin on the Graham Norton show. This time they tackle the ANC’s steamrolling of the Protection of Information Bill in parliament this week. Check out “The Secrecy Bill” after the jump.
Afrikaans zef rap sensation, Die Antwoord, have released a statement on their website indicating that they have parted ways with their record company, Interscope – and that’s putting it diplomatically.
That famous band that still gets pronounced awkwardly, Die Antwoord, is preparing to release a follow-up to their 2010 debut, $0$. They announced as much in an interview with Spin, saying that the new album – named Tension – is scheduled for a January 2012 release; they’ve also released the names of a couple of new tracks.
You know the way a lot of professional “critics” seem to be incredibly satisfied with every word that emanates from their non-smiling mouths? Well, I reckon the reason for this is that deep down inside they know their role in society is, in fact, quite menial. Nothing they say really matters when all is said […]
In another case of “Why didn’t I think of that?”, a Belgian record label that goes by the name of SonicAngel, identifies future stars by tracking trends on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Not only that, they also allow fans to invest in the artists’ success, with a six monthly return on their initial investment. Brilliant.
Soulful UK songstress, Adele is heading in to the studio to record the theme for the upcoming 23rd Bond film, according to reports from music industry insiders (read: pizza, flowers, and cocaine delivery people).
Foo Fighters don’t actually have to promote anything to get people to shell out cash for their upcoming North America tour, but because they had a fat wad of cash to spend on advertising and some guy in marketing wouldn’t stop saying the word ‘viral,’ they’ve put this video together for you. Take a look.
The Chinese government, in a not-unusual display of authoritarian petulance, has banned the download of over a hundred music titles from popular online music sites in China.
OK Go did a rendition of the theme song from The Muppet Show in their Green Album. Now they’ve made a video; it’s sort of like all of their other music videos, except it features Muppets. I don’t like suggesting that something going viral is a foregone conclusion, but this thing going viral is a foregone conclusion.
In news certain to make the Kloof Street set spit up their Vida all over their vintage Converse, Katy Perry has become the second artist in music history to send five singles from an album to the number one spot in the US.
Souveneir t-shirts handed out at a rock festival in Gera, eastern Germany, were decorated with skulls, right-wing flags and the words “hardcore rebels,” to appeal to the vaguely neo-Nazi crowd the festival attracts. Except when the shirts got washed, the douchey decorations faded, replaced with anti-extremist slogans.
In honour of Father’s Day yesterday, this nifty flowchart got put together acknowledging the influences that fathers have on our taste in music. The infographic handily predicts the kinds of music you’re liable to listen to based on what your dad was playing when you were growing up.
You guys dig Bon Iver, right? They did ‘For Emma, Forever Ago’ back in 2007, and they’re releasing their new album a little later this month. But because Bon Iver loves you, you can stream the new tracks for free over here. Click through, children.
In yet another move to convince us that Scandinavian politics makes sense: the government of Norway is inexplicably offering to ‘train’ foreign diplomats in the ways of black metal. As in, the musical genre. Specifically, ‘True Norwegian Black Metal’, which you would know by now if you were a foreign diplomat in Norway.
But they did, playing their last show at Madison Square Garden last Saturday, stretching the last hurrah out over a 230-minute show. Which is pretty long, as these go. They played all of their songs, and I mean all of them – from the Billboard Top 10 ‘This Is Happening’ to song titles I had to google.
What’s in my bag? Free songs by Olinosterfant, Don’t Panic and Danti Daxi. Step inside.
At long last, Microsoft has taken their iPod-but-worse MP3 player, the Zune, out behind the shed with a shotgun. Microsoft announced that they would stop making new versions of the music/video player due to “tepid demand.”
Joe Morello, virtuoso drummer to the Dave Brubeck Quartet and contributor to such legendary recordings as Blue Ronda a la Turk and Take Five died at his New Jersey home on Saturday at the age of 82. No cause of death has yet been announced.
Did you know that our ruling party just dropped their new album? It’s all part of their local elections campaign, and it’s totally awesome. No, really, forget the new Radiohead or Lady Gaga, this is what you should be listening to right now…
In support of Equal Payday, which seeks to address the disparity between male and female salaries around the world, Benny Benassi has remade the sexy-construction-outfits video for ‘Satisfaction’ to mark International Women’s Day. It’s a little bit amazing. Satisfaction came out in 2002, by the way.
Thanks Kim, now when my kids ask me about music back in my day, I somehow have to keep a straight face while telling them how much better it was. But seriously now, this song is bad, like so bad it’s magnificent.
So hey, I think this is the coolest think I’ve seen today – the music video to glam-rapper Spoek Mathambo’s reinterpretation of Joy Division’s ‘She’s Lost Control,’ shot in Langa, Cape Town, and directed by crazy influential photographer Pieter Hugo.