It’s been quite the high profile week for The-Dream. Not only did a wedding photo of the hit-making songwriter-producer and Christina Milian just surface, his Love vs. Money was also singled out in Time‘s picks for the top albums of the year. Hopefully this calms him down after his recent Grammy snub.
Dirty Projectors, a favorite of Solange Knowles, ranked pretty high on the list, as did Lilith Fair 2010 performer Miranda Lambert.
Lady Gaga just managed to scrape in at #10 with The Fame Monster, and the publication notes “there’s still a little too much filler for global domination to be a real goal. But the hits… are towering and undeniable.”
Hop below the jump to see the 10 albums that Time magazine felt were worth their salt in 2009. More »
Nominees for the 2009 Country Music Association Awards, which will be given out on Nov. 11 in Nashville: More »
The Academy Of Country Music Awards are essentially the American Music Awards to the Country Music Association Awards’ Grammys: Both came along a little later, and both seem to lack the prestige of their mainstream competitor. Still, even putting aside their very similar acronyms, the ACMs aren’t terribly distinctive from the CMAs. Both gave their prestige awards (Entertainer of the Year, Male Vocalist, Female Vocalist and Song of the Year) to the same people last year. While we wonder if there’s a point to the ACMs that doesn’t involve allowing Nashville types an excuse to hang out in Vegas for a weekend, feel free to peruse this year’s nominees. Brad Paisley, who took home two ACM Awards last year, led this year’s field, picking up six nods. And in something of a surprise, former Trick Pony frontwoman Heidi Newfield nabbed five nominations.
The first big festival announcement for the 2009 season has come down now that Stagecoach–the country counterpart to Coachella, which next year will take place April 25-26 at the Empire Polo Grounds in Indio, Calif.–has released its first slew of performers: Kenny Chesney, Brad Paisley, the last-name-less “Reba,” and Kid Rock will headline, and for what I’m pretty sure is the first time ever, Darius “Hootie” Rucker and the Reverend Horton Heat will share a bill. And Poco is playing, too! Yes, really! Full lineup via the show’s official poster after the jump.
We knew last week that Beyoncé’s “If I Were a Boy” was poised to make a big leap on Billboard‘s Hot 100. The only question was, how big?
Just a year ago, a 65-space jump to No. 3 would have been enough to make our eyes pop. When Britney Spears did it in early October 2007 with “Gimme More,” it was considered something of a triumph—especially as she was at the height of her meltdown phase and coming off a tragic performance at the 2007 Video Music Awards.
Now, we’re a little harder to impress. In its third week on the charts, “Boy” makes the exact same move from No. 68 to No. 3–and chart geeks yawn. That’s because the last two months have brought three straight leaps all the way to No. 1 from below No. 70. (The most recent was by Spears herself, whose “Womanizer” bested “Gimme More” by shooting from No. 96 to the penthouse.)
Still, Beyoncé’s got nothing to be ashamed of: her gender-flip of Prince’s “If I Was Your Girlfriend” (well, I like to think of it that way) is her ninth career Top 10 single and sold almost 190,000 digital downloads. And it brings her one hit away from matching the career chart record of the group she ditched four years ago.
In this week of financial horrors, created largely by formerly cocksure men, it’s perhaps apropos that a couple of ladies post the most gloat-worthy performances in the upper reaches of Billboard‘s Hot 100.
That starts at the top, where Pink, a nearly decade-long veteran of the chart wars, scores her first solo No. 1 (and second overall), “So What.” And she does it with the largest one-week digital sales total we’ve seen since the beginning of summer.
A few rungs down, U.K. chanteuse and Atlantic Records guinea pig Estelle stages a massive comeback. Her return to iTunes fuels a 44-space move by her Kanye West–supported single “American Boy,” to a new peak of No. 9. Not a moment too soon: one week before the official start of fall in the United States, and a month after it appeared to have peaked at No. 11, our runner-up in the Idolator 2008 Summer Jam competition is finally an official U.S. Top 10 hit. Revenge is sweet.
Feist, Alicia Keys, and Brad Paisley have all signed on to perform at the Grammys, although the prospect of the three artists performing together is probably pretty slim. (Too bad–I would have loved to see the inevitably awkward attempt to meld “Online” and Feist’s iPod Nano ads.) More »
And here it is, the final battle in the second round of our tournament. Will the winner be Helalyn Flowers and their unsantiary habits when it comes to sharing tasty metallic treats? Or will it be Brad Paisley, who at least knows enough to keep the chrome on his hideous font out of his mouth? Cast your vote for over-Photoshopped goth or under-designed country after the jump!
Today’s the last day of first-round voting in our Worst Album Cover Of The Year Tournament, and we turn our attentions back to the Southeast Bracket, where Brad Paisley’s “just hangin’ on the highway” photo that serves as the cover for 5th Gear is matched up against Animal Collective’s stomach-turning jacket for Strawberry Jam–which, come to think of it, kind of looks like a depiction of Brad after his long stroll down the highway results in him being flattened by a charging semi. But which one is more aesthetically offensive? That’s up to you.
