It’s on! Bracket Madness polls have closed on Round 1, and we are one step closer to crowning The Greatest Artist of the 00s. The battle of the boy bands racked up 71,000 votes, with *NSYNC beating out the Backstreet Boys; and 360,000 votes were cast between them, but Britney Spears has trumped Beyoncé. That leaves us with an extra special match-up and an extra difficult choice for Round 2: Britney Spears versus Justin Timberlake! *NSYNC or Britney Spears? This pairing may pull at your heart strings and resurface emotions that have been buried for more than a decade now, but a decision must be made: who should it be? Read more…
Justin Timberlake Is Sort Of Working On New Music, Just Not An Album
The good news: Justin Timberlake is working on new music. The bad news: He’s not working on an album. Word spread pretty fast that JT was working on fresh “crazy crazy stuff” after Digital Spy posted an interview with producer Jim Beanz. According to the producer, he is set to work with Timbaland and JT on Shock Value 3. In addition, Beanz alluded to material for a new album, which sounded somewhat sketchy since JT is primarily focused on his acting career, running Myspace as the Creative Director, designing home decor and hopefully helping with wedding plans. Read more…
Justin Bieber Is “Hot, Ready, Legal” On The Cover Of Rolling Stone
Counter to the well wishes of a Belieber Army’s parents, the object of their daughter’s worship is growing up and into himself. Justin Bieber has already worked through PDA and baby mama drama, and his recently sophomore album made a concerted effort to present a mature (or at least maturing) artist. And now, August’s Rolling Stone cover — which was revealed (via a retweet) today by the Biebs himself – declares the once precious pop star once and for all “HOT, READY, LEGAL.” Could it be? Justin has made the transition from “Baby” to “Boyfriend”, but does that make him “ready”? Did Rolling Stone jump the gun? You might want to take a deep breath now, because something tells us we have only seen the tip of the ice berg.
All pop stars grow up, and Justin is not the first young pop star to come out as an adult on the cover of Rolling Stone. Below, see three other celebrities who jump started the second stage of their careers with a “Too Soon?” declaration of maturity on the magazine’s front cover.
Beyonce, M.I.A., Justin Timberlake, Kanye West And More Of Our Favorite Musicians Get Dressed In Couture For The Met Gala
Many of our favorite musicians were all about glitz and glam at last night’s annual Met Gala in New York City. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute Gala, hosted by Vogue, is a night celebrating the opening of the museum’s fashion exhibit. Celebrity, fashion, couture, oh my! Think of the Oscars mixed with NYC Fashion Week and you have the visual of the red carpet at the Met Gala.
Artists from Beyoncé to Mick Jagger to Lana Del Rey to Kanye West turned heads on the red carpet with their stunning attire. It’s totally cool to see your favorite musicians taking a break from their walk-around-the-streets-of-LA gear and see them dolled up in Valentino and Rachel Zoe and Givenchy. Beyoncé, in particular, was a show stopper for the night in her sheer Givenchy gown. Solange was absolutely stunning in an all yellow Rachel Roy dress. Justin Timberlake kept it classic with an all black tux. Take a peek at some of our favorite musicians that put the “S” in stunning.
[Photos: Getty Images]
SNL: Nicki Minaj, Bon Iver And A Very Surprised Taylor Swift Drop By Jay-Z And Beyonce’s House
Maya Rudolph and Sleigh Bells were the host and musical guest, respectively, on last night’s episode of Saturday Night Live. The standout sketch of the evening involved the world’s most famous new parents, Jay-Z (played by Jay Pharoah) and Beyoncé (Rudolph) welcoming a slew of famous musicians to their crib to welcome the newest member of the Carter family, Blue Ivy Carter (see: Photos of Blue Ivy Carter). Their guests at their Scarsdale, NY home included the mystery wrapped inside of a riddle wrapped inside of an enigma that is Prince (played to perfection by Fred Armisen), 2012 Grammys host LL Cool J (played by Kenan Thompson, a comedian whose many strengths do not include the ability to do a spot-on impression), a rambunctious Nicki Minaj (played more than adequately by Nasim Pedrad), Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie (Taran Killam and Abby Elliott, respectively), and a VERY surprised Taylor Swift (Kristen Wiig).
There was one other surprise visitor to see the Notorious B.I.C. — the 2012 winner of the Best New Artist Grammy, Bon Iver! Frequent SNL cameo actor and former musician Justin Timberlake turned in a hilarious impression of the notoriously shy indie frontman, which included singing a parody version of “Holocene” that served as a lullaby that put both Blue Ivy AND Bon Iver himself to sleep. Justin (unnecessarily) went out of his way at the end of the show to make peace with the bearded Wisconsin native, holding up a sign that read “I (Heart) Bon Iver” as the show credits rolled, but we’re pretty sure that the recent SNL musical guest didn’t care. After all, unlike Snooki and Skrillex, everyone managed to pronounce his name correctly.
Read more…
Our Suggested New Year’s Resolutions For Your Favorite Artists
Happy New Year! As we usher in 2012, it’s time for everyone to sit back and reflect on the past, and make adjustments for a brighter future. You know what we’re talking about; the unavoidable, almost-reprehensible-but-not-reprehensible-enough-that-you-won’t-do-it task of setting resolutions for one’s self. No matter how vehemently you oppose New Year’s resolutions —we’re looking at you, Simon Cowell— you can’t help but make them, even if you do it on the sly. Yep, we know how much of a chore coming up with resolutions can be, so we’ve taken it upon ourselves to create some for our favorite artists…
Lady Gaga: Instead of taking it off, try putting it on. What we’re trying to say is less peacocking, more clothes — we want to see a real human for once (not that we don’t love Mother Monster, it would just be a welcome change to see the girl underneath).
Kanye West: Do not collaborate with Lana Del Rey. No seriously, we know she’s new, but what we like about you is that you are not only adept at picking “new” artists to collaborate with, you consistently find both the subversive and undiscovered.
Beyonce: Don’t spend too much time with the baby. OK that one’s entirely selfish and unreasonable on our part, but what will we do without at least 7 new Beyonce videos in 2012? WHAT WILL WE DO?
Read more…
Last Lap: Apple Makes Music A Priority With GarageBand App For The iPhone
You Can Now Make Music On The Go With Apple’s New iPhone App
Apple has adapted its GarageBand software so you can now download it to your iPhone and make music on the go. This is going to make for some very interesting subway commutes, indeed… [Prefix]
Mumford And Sons Are Back With A Brand New Song, “Ghosts That We Knew”
We were starting to feel like Mumford & Sons might ride off the success of Sigh No More forever, so we’re pretty excited to see they’ve got some new material. [NME]
Tuned In: Justin Timblerlake And Jimmy Fallon Rap An Awesome Medley
Stealing the late night limelight this weekend, Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake joined forces in awesomeness on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon for their latest “History Of Rap” medley. Busting moves like they were born to do it, the dynamic duo’s comedic chemistry is hard to deny. And while we’re all hankering for JT to come back with a new album, we’re quite happy to enjoy him in such musically-related comedy roles. Especially when joined with Fallon, and busting out such classics as Coolio‘s “Gangsta’s Paradise” and other crowd pleasers both past and present, including Nicki Minaj‘s “Super Bass” and Sir Mix-A-Lot‘s “Baby Got Back”.
Jennifer Lopez, Lady Gaga, Nicki Minaj And A Slew Of Today’s Biggest Pop Stars Headline The iHeartRadio Festival [PHOTOS]
The MGM Grand played host to a plethora of pop stars this weekend for the Clear Channel-sponsored iHeartRadio Festival, two nights of genre-spanning, crowd-pleasing pop music. A mix of veterans and newcomers thrilled the (reportedly very drunk) crowd on both nights. The most successful performers were those who stuck to a setlist of hits, like Jay-Z, who may have performed “On To The Next One” but didn’t take its advice about his old songs, including favorites from The Blueprint and The Black Album alongside newer singles like “Empire State of Mind” (with a guest appearance by earlier performer Alicia Keys). Those whose songs were less well-known by the crowd, like Sublime with Rome, were less well-received.
Perhaps the big surprise of the weekend, according to reports, was Jennifer Lopez, who, in a set that spanned her musical career, proved supremely capable of standing among the pop titans of today (with a Pitbull feature on “On the Floor”). Saturday’s “special guest” Sting also more than pulled his weight, backing Steven Tyler on bass early in the evening, then joining Lady Gaga for performances of “Stand By Me” and his own “King of Pain.”
Last Lap: Monday’s Odds And Ends In Music News
Justin Timberlake’s Song About Not Singing Wins Music Emmy
Apparently the Emmy Awards want a new album from Justin Timberlake as much as we do, because they gave him (and co-writers Seth Myers, John Mulaney and Katreese Barnes) an emmy for Original Music and Lyrics for his opening monologue on the May 21 episode of Saturday Night Live (which also featured “3 Way (The Golden Rule),” also with Lady Gaga). [Emmy Awards]
Jim Carrey Is At That Stage Of His Career During Which He Does Unannounced Stand-Up Interspersed With Cover Songs
The noted fan of Cannibal Corpse turned up at Arlene’s Grocery in New York City on Friday night, and someone got good cameraphone footage of his covers of Radiohead (“Creep”), The Smashing Pumpkins (“Bullet With Butterfly Wings”), and The Bee Gees (“I Started A Joke”). What, no Foghat? [Gothamist]
MUST-SEE VIDEOS
MUST-SEE PHOTOS
THE VH1 TUNER TEAM
VH1 Presents Mixtape Festival: Train, NKOTB, TLC, The Script + more! Tickets on sale now at MixtapeFestival.com!
