Singing, rapping, speaking, and chanting are all part of the same animal, made from the greatest of all instruments. There’s no one formula for a compelling vocal; some great singers and rappers sound bored, some sound utterly transfixed. Personality is the key, and if you can get that through Auto-Tune, great. The results are what matter. Here are 10 performances that hit us particularly hard, listed alphabetically by name.
Horrible album covers can happen to the best of musicians. And usually, if the music is good, we can find a way to ignore them. But sometimes artists just won’t let the issue drop. Recently, for example, T.I. discussed the safari-themed cover for his King Uncaged with the magazine Respect: “I went and told them, ‘Get me as close as you can to a lion.’ He had a trainer holding him on a chain. They took the chain out [in post-work]. It really went down. I wanted to pet him. I said, ‘Let me get hands on.’ They were like, ‘No. We could only let you do but so much.’ So I did as much as they would allow me to do… I wanted it to be a a busy city street. My original idea was to lock down Times Square and let me and the lion do the same thing right there, but we couldn’t quite pull that off; they said it had to be in controlled environment.”
Huh. We were so amused by this explanation that we dug up five more choice examples of bands defending their bizarre album covers. Everyone from Prince to Adam Lambert weighs in after the jump.
This week marks the release of new music from four pop heavyweights: Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Shakira, and that lover of eyeliner and PDF, Adam Lambert. Because we know that listening to too much bubblegum sweetness can be hazardous to your valuable indie cred, we’ve graciously previewed all four albums for you. Find out which ones are surprisingly worth your time, and which ones actually merit an eye roll.
If you haven’t already heard, it looks like America’s favorite performance artist Lady Gaga — she of the fashion envelope pushing — is definitely ineligible to for a Best New Artist Grammy when the nominees for 2009 are announced early next year despite reports to the contrary. Why, you ask? Because she was already nominated last year for “Just Dance” back when her only fans were clubgoers and the gays. Gaga lost then to Daft Punk, but she’s poised to be a major contender this year in other categories if not a shoo-in for the category she lost in 2008.
As for the gaping hole in the Best New Artist category that she leaves behind? Here’s a look at the acts we’ll be rooting for when nominations are announced.
If you’re like us, you didn’t expect much out of last night’s American Music Awards. They are, after all, a second-rate awards ceremony at a time when even the Grammys and the Oscars fail to provide much fodder for water-cooler conversation. But now that we’re living in a post-Kanye-interruptus world, the potential for moments of unscripted magic were enough to plant us in front of our TV sets last night. And, although Taylor Swift took home five awards without incident, it was the evening’s performances — not its winners — that wowed us.
You see, for us, last night marked a sort of changing of the pop guard, with established divas like Jennifer Lopez and Whitney Houston falling on their asses (sometimes literally) as ascending stars Lady Gaga and Adam Lambert turned in jaw-dropping production numbers. (Must be why the show logged its best ratings since 2003.) After the jump, check out Glambert’s hot, homoerotic performance and three other essential AMA moments.
Remember when everyone was unsure about whether American Idol runner-up Adam Lambert was gay? This very pretty cover image — in which Adam reminds us of a Kardashian sister mixed with the Goblin King in space — would have helped clarify things. Also: is he naked? It was shot by Warwick Saint, but it kind of reminds us of fan art. Adam’s debut album, For Your Entertainment, drops on November 23rd.
The only real advantage to the Internet hype cycle is that today’s annoyance is tomorrow’s afterthought. Still, we’re particularly put off this week by the prevalence of unnecessary controversy tethered to iconic imagery. OK, so maybe we’re hypocrites for perpetuating the cycle, but can we put them away already? After the jump, the four images (and accompanying non-controversies) sending our gossip meters into annoyance overload.
1. Rupert Murdoch says the future of newspapers is digital and there may be a time when you “get it on a panel which would be mobile, which will receive the whole newspaper over the air, (and) be updated every hour or two.” [Via Breitbart]
2. Coldplay’s Chris Martin “has been hit by a run of stinking bad luck that is blighting the band’s world tour.” [Via The Sun]
3. Pixar’s latest, Up, opens today. The New York Times‘ says it starts off strong but “the story grows progressively more formulaic. And cuter.” [Via NYT]
4. Moot? “A well-placed magazine source tells Page Six that [Adam] Lambert will be coming out officially on the next cover of Rolling Stone.” [Via NYP]
5. ABC has given the green light to Crash Course — which will feature 5 couples competing in extreme driving challenges — for a late summer run. [Via THR]
Was American Idol rigged? That’s the question many are asking thanks to one of their biggest corporate sponsors, AT&T. Per this article in the New York Times, they “might have influenced the outcome of this year’s competition by providing phones for free text-messaging services and lessons in casting blocks of votes at parties organized by fans of Kris Allen, the Arkansas singer who was the winner of the show last week.” (Note: AT&T is the only mobile carrier that can be used to text in votes. We had no idea.) Read More »
In the old days, settling a famous people feud was simple: the opposing parties could either breakdance, stage a walk-off, or have their clay avatars fight each other on MTV’s Celebrity Deathmatch. Now, though? All bets are off as these poor, innocent celebrities are forced to wage public, guerrilla war through the media. Here are some of our favorite recent squabbles. Read More »
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