Usher, Ke$ha And More Help Dance Music Go Pop In 2010

But is it here to stay? Our music-industry experts weigh in.
By Akshay Bhansali


Ke$ha
Photo: Andreas Rentz/ Getty Images

In 2010, pop princesses, R&B icons and chart-dominating newcomers all danced to the same beat. Not only did dance music go pop, but pop music caught the club-music bug.

Between Katy Perry's "Firework," Ke$ha's "We R Who We R," Rihanna's "Only Girl (In the World)," Enrique Iglesias' "I Like It," Usher's "DJ Got Us Fallin' in Love" and "OMG" and countless other singles, established artists definitely looked to dance beats for surefire hits. And two of this year's biggest success stories in music were Jason Derülo and Taio Cruz; could there be a soul left in this country who hasn't heard "Dynamite" or "In My Head"?

The love went both ways, with dance music's biggest stars finding mainstream success this year. Dance-music maestro deadmau5 took up house-artist duties at this year's VMAs, and Swedish House Mafia and Usher teamed up for a medley of their gems at the American Music Awards.

So how did this happen? We caught up with some music-industry experts to get their takes.

"You definitely saw tempos go up this year," Jon Caramanica of The New York Times told MTV News. "And I think what you had are a lot of producers who are really familiar with nightclub stuff. They are familiar with Europe. Things are happening on a more global scale now."

"I think everything from Europe, and sometimes even Asia, it comes to America, and we just adopt things a little bit slower," said Jared Eng of JustJared.com. "I think it was just a change. People like different types of music at different times. And dance was of this moment."

Noah Callahan of Complex magazine added: "I think 2010 saw the merging of the pop and dance genres. Pop artists realized that there were best practices that could be borrowed from dance music. And, ultimately, [all] pop music that has been made in the past 20 years had ended up being remixed for the club by dance artists. I think they basically just cut out the middleman and went straight there."

Dance music being introduced into the hip-hop and R&B realms was particularly notable this year.

"I think David Guetta kind of at the end of last year and the beginning of this year spearheaded it," said freelance writer Julianne Escobedo Shepherd. "He produced a lot of tracks. I think as trends go, people revile 'unst-unst.' But it's just coming back around. Big-room techno was a way for people to get decadent in a year that no one could get decadent."

"You have someone like will.i.am, who's like, 'Well, I spent all this time in Ibiza, and this is what they are doing,' and he wants to find a way to bring that into his music," Caramanica said of the Black Eyed Peas mastermind. "R&B especially became dance music. And especially with your Jason Derülos, Taio Cruzes. Guys like that would have literally been blocked at the border two years ago. That would not have made it through customs. And now all of a sudden they have #1 songs. I think will.i.am had a lot to do with that last year."

Elliott Wilson of RapRadar.com added: "It's actually even affected hip-hop. I was talking to Q-Tip, and his next record, I feel like that's gonna kind of go in that vein. I know that was also Jay-Z's thought process with Blueprint 3 at first, that he wanted to make a little bit more of a world music [vibe], a little more dancey. I think the kids today want to go to the clubs. They wanna have a good time. They wanna dance. So I think the artists of today are trying to kind of feed that audience."

"I think it's caught on this year because the people who've done it have been successful," offered Clover Hope of Vibe magazine. "Like 'OMG,' with usher, he didn't have success until he made a dance record. He had 'There Goes My Baby' and these really, like, adult-contemporary records that didn't really catch on. And then once you see that everybody is doing it and that people are liking it, they are like, 'OK, let me just try this out.' It's like Auto-Tune. Like, 'Let me see what I sound like on a record by David Guetta.' They end up liking it and doing more of it."

So does the club-music trend have staying power. According to our tastemakers, not so much.

"I do think it's a blip," Caramanica said. "I don't think that's gonna be something that lasts in America. I think this is gonna be a moment we'll all look back on and go, 'Wasn't that weird when Jason Derülo and Taio Cruz had #1 records?"

"At some point, these R&B artists will get kind of sick of it and be like, 'Let me go back to my soul background,' " Hope said. "When you actually have to say something, dance doesn't really lend itself to substance. And I think that R&B artists, they really want to talk about love and in a deep way, and to do that, you need to do, like, a soul or a traditional R&B record. I want to say that it's kind of a fad."

"I think music is very cyclical," Eng offered. "So I think dance music might be here for a little bit, but I'm sure it will phase out at some point."

Wilson called dance music "the sound of today. I think that people want more aggressive, faster beats, and I think that that probably has legs until at least next summer."

What do you think? Is dance music here to stay? Let us know in the comments!

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Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1655031/usher-keha-more-help-dance-music-go-pop-2010.jhtml

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Amber Rose's Naked Flix Leak, Do We Care?

Sigh.  I guess this is the next step in a stripper turned video vixen turned "model's" career.  Naked flix of Amber Rose have leaked on the net.

 

Read on to see the uncensored gallery-o-pics, and decide if we should care....

Just in time for Amber's upcoming reality show about her sunglasses store to hit tvs near you, her naked flix that look like they're from her phone have leaked.

But seeing that Kanye's ex made a living for years back in Philly taking her clothes off for the strip club patrons, do we really care? 

I mean, is her bod hot?  Yes.  But being shocked by her "naked flix" is like being shocked that a member of the Best Buy Geek Squad knows unnecessary sh*t about computers.  It's just expected.

We reached out to Amber Rose's reps for a statement.  And they said they are declining to comment at this time.

But I could be wrong.  Peep the gallery below.  Your thoughts?

And for the uncensored gallery, click here.

Pics via Wordstarhiphop.com

Source: http://theybf.com/2011/02/08/amber-roses-naked-flix-leak-do-we-care

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Michael Jackson's 'Thriller': Story Behind The 'Glee' Cover

MJ classic is mashed up with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' 'Heads Will Roll' for post-Super Bowl episode.
By Aly Semigran


"Glee"
Photo: FOX

Madonna, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and now, finally, Michael Jackson. The cast of "Glee" has covered plenty of icons during their first two seasons, but it's taken 33 episodes to get around to the King of Pop.

With a huge catalog of Jackson songs, the singing, dancing students of McKinley High paid homage to the late singer with one of his biggest staples (and, arguably, the greatest music video of all time) with their take on "Thriller."

The groundbreaking single from Jackson's best-selling album of the same name was mashed up with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' "Heads Will Roll" for the post-Super Bowl episode (titled "The Sue Sylvester Bowl Shuffle"), featuring a zombie-fied "Glee" cast.

Bound to become a smash all over again (though with its nonstop rotation at Halloween parties and wedding receptions until the end of time, it's never truly gone away), here's a brief history of the dance/pop classic.

Released on January 23, 1984, "Thriller" was the seventh, and final, single to be released from Jackson's smash record. According to the RIAA, the album (released by Epic Records) has gone gold 29 times, narrowly edging out the Eagles' Greatest Hits 1971-1975 for the title of best-selling album of all time.

In 2009, MTV News estimated that the Thriller album was poised to go triple diamond, meaning 30 million records sold in the U.S. alone.

After Thriller's other singles (including "Billie Jean," "Beat It" and "Wanna Be Startin' Something") dominated the charts, it was time for the spooky, undeniably original track to take over. The song "Thriller" also appeared on many of Jackson's other albums, including the compilations HIStory and Number Ones.

Clocking in at a little under six minutes (though the radio edit was closer to four-and-a-half), the song features pop-music mainstays like synthesizers but shakes things up with its spooky sound effects, including creaking floors, howling and thunder.

The song was produced by Quincy Jones and written and composed by Rod Tempterton and spent 14 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at #4.

But it's the music video for "Thriller" that truly made it the phenomenon it was in the '80s and continues to be today. Less a music video than a mini-motion picture, the video (over 13 minutes long and directed by John Landis) won three MTV Video Music Awards and has been named the best music video of all time by many outlets, including VH1 for the special "VH1: 100 Greatest Videos."

The chiller features Jackson in that iconic red leather jacket on a date with his girlfriend (played by Ola Ray) before things go terribly awry. After all, as Jackson (whose disclaimer at the start of the video reads, "This film in no way endorses a belief in the occult") sings in the opening line, "It's close to midnight and something evil's lurking in the dark." Cue werewolves, zombies, Vincent Price's soliloquy and one of the most memorable dance sequences ever.

The video was (no pun intended) a monster hit. As the Los Angeles Times notes, "At the height of the song's popularity, MTV would run the 14-minute 'Thriller' video twice an hour."

Choreographed by Jackson and Michael Peters (who, as the LA Times also reported, appears in the video as one of the zombies) and with makeup by Oscar-winner Rick Baker (also an undead "Thriller" extra) was made with a huge budget of an estimated $500,000.

Still, the efforts paid off. Landis (who told the "Today" show back in 2009 that no one wanted to give them the funds to make the risky vid) made the accompanying 45-minute documentary about the venture, called "The Making of Thriller." Featuring the behind-the-scenes wizardry, as well as the music video in full, it would go on to move more than 10 million copies.

Since then, the signature song and video have seen their share fair of tributes in movies (notably in the 2004 comedy"13 Going on 30") and TV ("South Park," "Family Guy," "30 Rock," among others), not to mention the countless flash mobs that have gone viral. (Remember the prisoners in the Philippines who became overnight phenomenons on YouTube?)

Even with the "Glee" number, this likely won't be the last incarnation of "Thriller." Billboard reported in October that a "Thriller" film is in the works. With a plot allegedly revolving around Price's narration, Kenny Ortega, who directed Jackson's last effort, "This Is It," will reportedly helm the project.

Since Jackson's untimely passing on June 25, 2009, the song and video's legacy continue to live on. In the week following Jackson's death, "Thriller" was the best-selling track in the U.S., with sales of 167,000 copies on the Billboard Hot Digital Singles chart.

Then, in December 2009, "Thriller" was the first music video to ever be inducted into the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress. It seems "no mere mortal can resist ... the thriller" after all.

What did you think of the "Thriller" mash-up on "Glee"? Let us know in the comments!

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Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1657395/glee-thriller.jhtml

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No hay más Led Zeppelin

A pesar de lo dicho ayer, Peter Mensch, manager del guitarrista Jimmy Page, se retractó totalmente en eso que la banda buscaría un reemplazo al ultragenial Robert Plant para seguir rockeando y toureándola por el mundo tras su show de 2007 en el O2 Arena de Londres por el poder de la música más sexual de la historia. No habrá más Led Zeppelin, no hay planes de que lo haya.

Mensch comentó: "Led Zeppelin se acabó. Si no los vieron en el 2007, se los perdieron. Probaron reemplazantes a Robert Plant, pero nada funcionó. Se acabó. No hay planes para continuar. Francamente, ojalá todos dejaran de hablar al respecto."

Los fans no están nada contentos, especialmente los británicos, considerando los precios delirantes de las entradas del show reunión.

¿Y a ti? ¿Qué te parece todo esto?

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Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1602369/.jhtml

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The Britney Spears ?Hold It Against Me? Mash Up

T. Kyle’s Hold It Against Me-ga Mix from dreamingsolo on Vimeo. We are all still waiting for Britney Spears’ official ‘Hold It Against Me‘ video to air. While we are all shaking our legs and biting our nails, I have … Continue reading

Source: http://www.imnotobsessed.com/2011/01/27/the-britney-spears-hold-it-against-me-mash-up/

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