Ah, MySpace. It’s hard to believe that it was only five or six years ago when it was one of the most essential sites on the internet, a place to hear new bands and see some of the most headache-inducing layouts since the days of Geocities. With the news that Fleet Foxes are imploring MySpace to delete their page (they can’t log in and do it themselves, apparently), we got thinking about the early days of the site, when people were actually excited to join it, rather than desperate to get away from it. We had a look at the Wayback Machine and collected a few band sites from the early, innocent days of MySpace –- the good, the bad and the (very) ugly.
Hype is the most polarizing force in today’s music world. The internet has made it incredibly easy for listeners to streamline their new music exposure and stay on top of emerging acts, but hype encourages erratic attention at best from consumers. These days, the ears of the masses are always hungry for the next big thing, an honor often bestowed on the strength of a single song, by blogs, aggregators, viral videos, and sometimes even commercials, rather than real criticism.
Over the years, hype has encouraged the bandwagon to move in many positive directions, but what about when hype fails? After the jump, we unearth some of the bigger misses of the last ten years. Sorry, guys — we haven’t forgotten.
Celebrities are always dyeing their tresses one color or another. The normal ones usually keep it to colors that are found in nature on human heads, but then there are those other ones, who like to spice it up a bit. To help you keep up with the madness – and to get you from Patricia Field to Lil’ Kim in 6 steps flat – we’ve created this handy color-coded rainbow chart of celebrities’ day-glo hair color choices. But what do these crazy color choices mean? Do certain types of people choose certain colors? Do certain types of people just choose every color? Find out what your hair color – or the hair color you wish you had – says about you after the jump.
1. Despite Brian Wilson and Mike Love‘s professed admiration for Katy Perry‘s “California Gurls,” Beach Boys reps are threatening to sue the pop star for including the line, “I wish they all could be California girls” in the song. [via NY Post]
2. Not only will Mad Men costume guru Janie Bryant be publishing a book and releasing a clothing line this year — she’s also at work on her own nail polish and lingerie. [via UnBeige]
3. Weezer have gone indie: The band is releasing its next album, Hurley, via punk stalwart Epitaph. [via Vulture]
4. Mouthy singer Lily Allen is pregnant. [via People]
5. Director Shane Salerno is co-writing an 800-page biography of J.D. Salinger and will release a documentary on the author in September. [via GalleyCat]
1. What Steve Jobs had to say at yesterday’s D8 conference, including an update on Apple’s ongoing legal feud with Gizmodo over that “stolen” iPhone. [via Fast Company]
2. Lily Allen is rumored to be writing songs for a forthcoming stage adaptation of Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones’s Diary, which will open in London’s West End next year. [via The Guardian]
3. Peaches Geldof is working on a children’s book that’s inspired by the work of Bret Easton Ellis. [via Telegraph]
4. Glee‘s Jane Lynch married girlfriend Lara Embry at a small ceremony in Massachusetts over the holiday weekend; no other celebrities were present. [via People]
5. Federal officials met with James Cameron yesterday, hoping that his expertise with underwater filming and remote vehicle technologies could help with ideas on how to stop the BP oil spill. [via AP]
Quote of the day: “I listen to zero pop music, which is really weird for someone who makes pop music. My 13-year-old self would have beaten up my 17-year-old self because she would be like, ‘You’re a sellout!’ But that’s not what it is… A lot of pop songs are super shallow, but this music isn’t.” – Miley Cyrus
1. Jay Leno finally stopped making bad jokes and took a moment to seriously address the late night situation on his show last night. (video) [via Hulu]
2. Meanwhile, NBC honcho Dick Cheney Jeff Zucker told Charlie Rose that he’s been receiving death threats. [via Vulture]
3. If Lily Allen is leading the BRIT Awards 2010 nominations, do we really care who wins the awards? [via NME]
4. Bill Murray, Megan Fox, and Mickey Rourke will star in Passion Play, a romantic comedy about “a down-on-his-luck jazz trumpet player (Rourke) who forms a bond with a winged beauty (Fox) who’s now part of a sideshow attraction at a carnival.” Murray plays the gangster villain who’s trying to keep them apart. [via THR]
5. Rebecca Stead‘s When You Reach Me, a mystery novel set in 1970′s New York, won this year’s Newberry Medal, which is considered the most prestigious honor in children’s literature. [via NYT]
1. Check out the the trailer for Grown Ups, a new comedy starring Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, Rob Schneider and David Spade. [Yahoo! via Pop Candy]
2. Watch Robbie Williams, Paul McCartney, and Lily Allen sing “Hey Jude” as part of the Children In Need Rocks gig at London’s Royal Albert Hall. [via NME]
3. Tate Britain welcomes its first female director, Penelope Curtis. [via Telegraph]
4. ABC is this close to ordering a pilot remake of Charlie’s Angels; Josh Friedman, who recently adapted the Terminator franchise for Fox, will write/executive produce. [via Variety]
5. David Lloyd, the sitcom writer responsible for the funniest episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show ever, has died at 75. Watch the clip and say it together with us: “A little song, a little dance, a little seltzer down the pants.” [via The Awl]
1. After attending the taping, Microsoft has pulled its sponsorship from Fox’s upcoming comedy/variety special Family Guy Presents: Seth and Alex’s Almost Live Comedy Show, which is set to air on November 8th. [via Variety]
2. Lily Allen plans to start her own record label and open a theatre. [via NME]
3. Wow: “Just a year ago, [Terri] White, 61, could not make rent. Now she’s back on Broadway in Finian’s Rainbow… For three months, when she was not crashing on a friend’s couch, she slept in Washington Square Park.” [via NYT]
4. Steve Carr, who directed Paul Blart: Mall Cop, will helm the Short Circuit remake; Robot Chicken‘s Dan Milano is writing the script. [via Slashfilm]
5. Walt Whitman for Levi’s. [via Slate]
Finding the common ground between Arctic Monkeys, the Streets, and the Clash, Jamie T encapsulates modern English life on his new album.
The South Londoner initially came to attention in the same scene that birthed Kate Nash, Lily Allen, and Jack Peñate, but with the release of sophomore record Kings & Queens,he sprints ahead of the pack, speaking for a generation of British youth in a much more enduring way. Plus, the single "Sticks & Stones" is the catchiest song you’ll hear all year. Read More »
1. It’s allegedly full steam ahead for the MTV drug-intervention reality series that DJ AM worked on before his death. [via THR]
2. Eric Dane and Rebecca Gayheart are suing Gawker for more than $1 million and demanding that they pull down the couple’s sexy tape. [via The Daily Beast]
3. Stanley Tucci, Cher, and Christina Aguilera will star in Burlesque, a big screen musical to be directed by Steve Antin. [via Variety]
4. Michelle Phillips says that daughter Mackenzie is lying about the incestuous affair with her father. [via Showbiz 411]
5. Lily Allen has quit her battle against illegal downloaders… and the music industry. [via NME]
