In the world of the Black Eyed Peas, the recession doesn’t exist, will.i.am and Bob Dylan are on the same level, Fergie is someone who should be taken seriously, and living the “good life” is the only worthy source of lyrical inspiration. “Imma Be,” which is allegedly the second single from the band’s forthcoming album The E.N.D., continues the band’s tactic of flinging relentlessly back-slapping boasts. More »
The Black Eyed Peas pull what we would have referred to last year as a “Chris Brown” but we will now have to call a “Dreamgirl” or something–turns out “Boom Boom Pow” is an ad for the new HP Touchsmart! More »
Since they’ve been a hot topic around here lately, you might like to know that Pearl Jam has been tabbed as one of the headliners of the Outside Lands Festival, a three-day festival taking place in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park in late August. The lineup is, to say the least, eclectic: Tom Jones, the Black Eyed Peas, Raphael Saadiq, the Dead Weather, Incubus, M.I.A. and the Dave Matthews Band are also on the bill. Something for everybody, I guess. Full lineup after the jump!
“Lady GaGa Scores Hot 100 Milestone,” a Billboard headline trumpeted yesterday upon the release of the new Hot 100.
What could this milestone be? you might ask yourself. Biggest self-aggrandizer since 50 Cent to reach the top slot? Most similar-sounding pair of hits since Rick Astley? Most successful pantsless act?
As it happens, GaGa’s achievement has to do with her Billboard batting average: two chart hits, two No. 1’s. This week, “Poker Face” follows January’s smash “Just Dance” into the top slot. She’s the first act to step up to the plate, swing just twice, and hit two homers since Christina Aguilera’s first pair of hits, “Genie in a Bottle” and “What a Girl Wants,” topped the Hot 100 in 1999–2000.
That’s nice for the Lady and all, but it masks a more notable achievement: her slowness in achieving those hits. The amount of time “Dance” and “Poker” took to reach No. 1 is literally unprecedented in recent chart history.
In a sea of hits that explode up the charts based on faddish bursts of iTunes sales, GaGa’s chart pattern is contrary to everything going on in pop music promotion right now, recalling the more languid runs by songs in the ’70s through the mid-’90s. It’s almost enough to make an old-school chart geek like me root for her. More »
As part of book giant Borders’ slashing of its DVD and CD sections, the store here in Athens, Ga., is selling its CD and DVD inventory at 50% off. The standard pre-liquidation price for a CD? $18.99. So at 50% off, most of the remaining inventory was still as much as it would have been at Best Buy, Target, or Wal-Mart. In fact, in most cases the prices were exactly twice what they were at the Big Boxers, particularly in the DVD/Blu-Ray section. I decided to document the dregs of Borders’ music collection to see what people weren’t buying, much like I did last year during the Circuit City fire sale. All of the releases documented after the jump had at least four copies for sale.
This was one of those two-day stretches where pop leak blogs were in overdrive, thanks to the songs leaking from every crevice in the music industry’s crumbling firmament (including its artists’ own blogs). Who wins? Well, the ad sales team at RapidShare, for sure. As far as listeners’ fates, the results are decidedly more mixed, as you’ll see from the brief reviews of new songs by Kanye West and T-Pain, Green Day, Dr. Dre and T.I., the Black Eyed Peas, Depeche Mode, Jennifer Lopez, and Ciara located after the jump.
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.
So here is “Yes We Can,” the video that will.i.am and his star-studded iPhone address book put together for ABC in support of the Barack Obama presidential campaign, using the candidate’s New Hampshire primary speech as their aesthetic jumping-off point. More »
We’re less than a week away from Jerusalem Rocks, the only music festival perhaps ever to feature the Black Eyed Peas and Arrested Development and the Commitments, but all is not well: Hitchaser has noticed that Fergie’s been removed from all advertising for the show–not because of the scary arch… More »
Okay, so this story sort of teases you with the headline without offering any sort of decent follow up info. (Not that I’m sure I’d want more info about will.i.am’s toilet habits.) More »
