In a regular check-in with Amazon.com to see how all artists under the watchful eye of Simon Cowell are faring, Kris Allen’s self-titled debut (#31) still appears to be no match for the blue-haired might of Adam Lambert’s For Your Entertainment (#8). And over on iTunes, the pre-orders have caused an even greater divide—For Your Entertainment is perched at #11, while Kris Allen is lumbering around at #76.
But step aside, boys! Proving that pop truly has “no boundaries,” it’s another of Simon Cowell’s golden-throated artists who’s truly captured the hearts—and wallets—of America: More »
What the h-e-double-hockey-sticks is this? Jeff Archuleta, the father of 2008 American Idol runner-up David, has been named in a police raid of a “massage parlor” in Utah (Utah!) that was apparently offering happy endings to its clients. The Queens Of Reiki parlor was apparently employing women who operated in a pants-optional manner, and that made neighbors suspicious:
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On this episode of American Idol: Everyone in Salt Lake City is (possibly maybe a little too) happy! And I am too, for this is the second-to-last of the city-specific audition episodes that we as a nation have to suffer through. Share in my joy after the jump!
The one aspect of last night’s American Idol season premiere that wasn’t coated in nostalgia for last January was Kara DioGuardi, the former Ashlee Simpson Show bit player who made her debut behind the judges’ table in Phoenix. DioGuardi proved to be Cowell-like in her ability to be acerbic, mocking a pink cowboy-hatted hopeful who was there to meet her and attempting to have a sing-off with Katrina Darrell, a.k.a. that girl who wore the bikini. I, personally, welcomed the presence of a female judge who didn’t have to tell every XX-chromosomed contender that they looked pretty or had nice hair before critiquing the actual meat of their performance, but others disagreed!
What were the 80 most important musical recordings, artists, trends, events, and performances of 2008? What were the eight things this year that broke our hearts—or, at least, our ears? We’re happy to announce 80 ’08 (and Heartbreak), Idolator’s year-end overview. The list is below the jump.
So, Friday night was the 2008 installment of Z100’s end-of-year-fest known as the Jingle Ball, and while this year’s lineup didn’t have any guaranteed swoon objects like last year’s Jonas Brothers fest, the lineup was nowhere near the crapfest that was Zootopia. Kanye West and Ne-Yo and Rihanna (and even Leona Lewis and David Archuleta, to a lesser extent) made me realize that while the ever-shrinking beast that is “pop music” certainly has its problems in 2008, its high points can still bring smiles to faces and twitchiness to butts.
The long-term effect of “The Rocker” beating “The Really Sweet Kid Who Is Nevertheless Possibly Controlled Via Wires by His Incredibly Creepy Father” on American Idol last May is probably minute to negligible; at this point, no one’s going to confuse Idol for a “star maker” of any real sort. (Never mind Taylor Hicks’ travails; third-place finisher Syesha did a single with Boney James, for Pete’s sake.) As for the show itself, the whispers wondering how long it can last have been getting louder and louder. (Maybe we’ve just tapped all the singing talent in America already—has anyone considered that?) At this point, though, David Cook’s victory may be most memorable for inspiring this clip:
Sure, Black Friday was a disappointing day for artists who had new releases out, but a little bit of digging into SoundScan shows that the numbers weren’t all bad. Taylor Swift, for example, had quite the banner week; her new album Fearless experienced a rare third-week upswing, one that was so dramatic, she nabbed the No. 2 spot on the chart, ahead of Chinese Democracy—and her old album surged back into the Top 30, too. There were many other artists whose albums’ sales tallies improved from the prior week, no doubt thanks to some people out there still being OK with the prospect of holiday shopping. (Not too many, but a few.) After the jump, a look at which albums actually performed well on the first-gift-giving-week’s chart, and the family members for whom they’re likely being snagged.
Our look at the closing lines of reactions to the week’s biggest new music continues with a glance at reviews of David Archuleta’s self-titled album, which arrives in stores today:
In the portable-media player era, one of the common gambits for “getting to know” an artist is the celebrity playlist, in which famous people purport to reveal to the world the contents of their digital-music library. Whether these lists of tracks are real or fake or just highly massaged is frequently up for debate, given the sheer number of public-relations types in desperate need of something to do who are still employed by the music industry. But I kind of want to believe in the latest one of these to cross my transom because it comes to us courtesy of American Idol runner-up David Archuleta, who showed the contents of “his iPod” to USA Today as part of the runup to his album’s release next week. If it’s real, it shows just how much the kid has grown since he was annoying the crap out of me every Tuesday night last winter. Sure, some of the songs listed are the sorta-treacly material that made him so annoying during Idol‘s seventh season (hello, Wilson Phillips!), but other tracks are really good! I swear! Five examples of this after the jump.
