Yeah, I don’t know about Rihanna’s performance of “Vogue” on Fashion Rocks, which was taped last week and aired on CBS last night. On the one hand, this is the sort of “looking back into the past” performance that one thought would have aired on the VMAs Sunday night, what with the run-up to the ceremony touting the whole 25th-anniversary aspect of the show. On the other hand, the pitching of the song is kind of weird, and Rihanna’s charisma is, uh, sort of lacking when you compare it to Madge’s–for further evidence of that, peep the clip I’ve placed after the jump–and I can’t help but wonder whether or not she can identify more than, say, two or three of the fashion icons who are name-checked during the bridge. One thing’s for sure, though: Ri-Ri sure likes playing the whole “illusion of wearing a really big dress” card.
Once again, we present Rock-Critically Correct, a feature in which the most recent issues of Rolling Stone, Blender, Vibe, and Spin are given a once-over by a writer who’s contributed to many of those magazines, as well as a few others! In this installment, he looks at the Condé Nast-produced, music-centric one-off Fashion Rocks:
Apparently, televising that strange advertainment enterprise known as Fashion Rocks doesn’t seem secondhand enough on its face. This year’s festivities, the fifth overall, air Sept. 9 on CBS, but the lineup we mentioned last week has been modified: the Pussycat Dolls, Chris Cornell, OneRepublic, Solange Knowles, Timbaland, and the one and only Lynyrd Skynyrd 1991 (well, that’s what we call them, in honor of their, er, “comeback album”) will now appear at Radio City Music Hall. That list of tack-ons is so dispiriting it can make you miss the days when such specials featured real all-around entertainers, such as those in the classic clip below.
The cover for Conde Nast’s annual Fashion Rocks supplement has been revealed, and its tacit admission that few of the people who will have multiple copies of the thing cluttering up their houses have been paying attention to pop music much is, at the very least, impressive in its brazenness:… More »
One thing that’s worth reading from last Sunday’s paper is the New York Times‘ profile of Conde Nast chairman Si Newhouse, who’s painted as a meticulously detail-oriented man who spares almost no expense on keeping his products at a certain level of taste. I bring this up because this year’s installment of the Conde-produced Fashion Rocks has been announced. It’s taking place on Sept. 5, and airing four days later on CBS–a curious pseudo-event to bring back, given that last year’s installment only managed ratings in the low twos, fewer people care about pop music than ever, and even those who do care might be working through their PTSD from MTV’s Video Music Awards, which air Sept. 7. But not if you realize that, as the Times asserts, “Condé spends money like no one else in the industry–more on salaries, paper stock, writers, photographers, travel, clothes, parties and just about any other line item imaginable.” And apparently one of the line items in question is Fergie, who’ll be performing at the show for the third year straight! Perhaps this time, she’ll play beauty consultant and clue the world in on the secrets behind her super-arched eyebrows.
– Moz’s voice was mozerable during a Boston performance last night, forcing him to cancel two shows this week. [Boston Herald] – The 2007 Fashion Rocks! More »
