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10 Billboard Campaigns That Aren't Trying To Sell You Anything

By Leigh Patterson on

In a twist on the well-known Joyce Kilmer verse, Ogden Nash satirized, “I think that I shall never see a billboard lovely as a tree. Perhaps, unless the billboards fall, I’ll never see a tree at all.”
Billboards: ever-present in-your-face advertising that we mostly wish would just go away. Except for when they’re awesome! From political statements to subliminal poetry, read on for ten billboards we wish we’d see instead of ads for the newest McDonald’s snack wrap. … Read More

Music

A Guide to Musical Pioneers You’ve Never Heard Of

By Michaelangelo Matos on

Last week, we were saddened to read that Brian Rust, the father of the modern discography, had died. Well, not initially — first, we had to find out who Brian Rust was. It’s typical: the stars get the headlines, but the technical pioneers that change things for real tend to stay in the back room. Here are ten such folks — some living, some not — who’ve helped make the world a more musical, and better, place. … Read More

Web

What's on at Flavorpill: The Links That Made the Rounds in Our Office

By Caroline Stanley on

Today at Flavorpill, we looked at buildings that would be right at home in Bedrock. We watched Hoda lose her cool during a Today Show visit by Beyonce. We were kind of sad to see the cast of Glee top the Beatles’ record for the most appearances on the… Read More

News

The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

By Caroline Stanley on

1. Is Jerry Seinfeld‘s new reality game show The Marriage Ref so bad that it cancels out the good of Seinfeld? [via

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Music

The United State of Pop

By Aaron Gonsher on

Our roundup called the Grammys “the nerdy older sister of awards shows,” and this year impressed yet again with a strong showing of irrelevance and poorly performed, manic mashup choices. We were given “Speechless” with “Your Song,” Beyonce honoring Alanis Morrissette, Jamie Foxx and opera, and other baffling choices that make you feel like the Grammy organizers have been listening to a little too much Girl Talk. Unfortunately, not every hit song from 2009 earned airtime (can you imagine the hammered brothers in Kings of Leon motoring through “Use Somebody” with AC/DC?). Instead, we go to mashup artist DJ Earworm, who has created the United State of Pop 2009 by combining the top 25 songs on the Billboard chart from last… Read More

Music

Attempting to Understand Billboard’s Artists of the Decade List

By Stelios Phili on

It is no secret that trade publication Billboard is painfully irrelevant. However, its latest “Artists of the Decade” list cannot be debated — it has been objectively compiled. Never mind the fact that Billboard equated “Artists of the Decade” with “the 20 music stars with the best performance on the Billboard 200 albums chart and the Hot 100 over the last ten years.” We let this happen, at least when we still bought CDs. After the jump, explanations on how Creed, Nelly, Nickelback, and others snuck into the Top 20 most-sold albums of the decade list. … Read More

Web

What’s on at Flavorpill: Links That Made the Rounds in Our Office

By Caroline Stanley on

Today at Flavorpill, we watched the newly-posted promos for Season 3 of Mad Men. We discovered this hilarious blog about scientific studies that’s the brainchild of two Molecular and Cell Biology graduate students at UC Berkeley. We found out that Picasso was a dirty hippie. We compared Michael Jackson’s Billboard rankings… Read More

Web

This Morning’s Top 5 Cultural Stories

By Caroline Stanley on

1. The Michael Jackson tour is almost definitely happening, but with tickets averaging $115 and a show length of two-plus hours, are you prepared to make that kind of investment? [via Billboard]

2. Nicole Kidman has mysteriously jumped ship from Woody Allen’s upcoming movie, which also stars her pal Naomi Watts. It might have… Read More