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November 29th, 2012 | 4:08 pm by Lindsey Weber (@lindseyweber)

And The Highest Paid Musician Of 2012 Is….Dr. Dre?

The Forbes list of the highest paid musicians is out and if you’re not familiar with the finances of your favorite artists, there might be some surprises in there. Firstly, everyone’s favorite non-practicing self-proclaimed Dr. Dre is at the top of the list. Why? His album is forever delayed! Ah but you forget: Actual music doesn’t pay that much anymore.

Dre’s bundle of cash ($110 million to be more specific) is mostly due to the overwhelmingly popular Beats By Dre line of audio electronics–Forbes reports: “He collected $100 million pretax when handset maker HTC paid $300 million for a 51% stake in the company last year, at the beginning of our scoring period; he and his partners later bought back half of what they sold.” So if Dre’s long-awaited, many-times-pushed-back album never actually comes to fruition, you know who to blame. Blame HTC and the millions of people rocking those Beats headphones across the globe. Those bragging rights that come from hip-hop songs about cars and clothes and girls? Dre doesn’t need them anymore.

Just who else was in the top 10?

October 29th, 2012 | 2:00 pm by Lindsey Weber (@lindseyweber)

Winona Forever (Young): A Playlist For Winona Ryder’s 41st Birthday

America’s Sweetheart turned Tim Burton muse turned shoplifting pariah, Winona Ryder, will always be the coolest girl of all time. Okay, the coolest woman, as she officially turns 41 years old today. No matter her age, we’ll always remember her as *the* It Girl, not to mention star of films with the coolest soundtracks. We’d like to think she’s had a hand in the soundtracks–the girls has dated rock stars from Pete Yorn and Evan Dando to Chris Isaak and Beck.

In honor of her 41st, we’ve made the ultimate ‘Winona Forever (Young)’ playlist, chock full of the most memorable tracks from Wino’s most memorable films.

Free Winona!

July 27th, 2012 | 11:54 pm by Mark Graham (@unclegrambo)

The Top 29 British Musical Acts That Got Snubbed During The 2012 Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony

The 2012 Summer Olympics officially kicked off with an opening ceremony conceived by the Academy Award winning British film director Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire,
Trainspotting, 28 Days Later). One of the sections of tonight’s broadcast bore the unusual name Frankie And June Say Thanks Tim, a love story that contained what NBC’s Matt Lauer described as “a tribute to the best British musical acts of the last 40 years.” Well, although Boyle and his musical supervisors managed to include a decent selection of bands that could be considered canon-worthy, we’d like to call your attention to this (quite undefinitive!) list of 29 highly respected bands that got royally snubbed (in alpha order*):

Adele
Black Sabbath
Coldplay
Culture Club
The Cure
Def Leppard
Depeche Mode
Dire Straits
Duran Duran
Elton John (!!!)
Read more…

February 3rd, 2012 | 2:55 pm by Kat George (@kat_george)

Shearer’s Spotlight: Jim’s 5 Favorite Super Bowl Music Moments

Each week here on VH1 Tuner, our VH1 Top 20 Video Countdown host Jim Shearer (@jimshearer on Twitter) will be sharing his Shearer’s Spotlight with us. Be sure to tune into the VH1 Top 20 Video Countdown tomorrow morning when it airs on VH1 at 9 a.m. ET/PT.

Madonna’s halftime performance at this year’s Super Bowl may very well make this list, but it hasn’t happened yet, so until it does, here are my five favorite Super Bowl Music Moments:

5. “The Super Bowl Shuffle” (Super Bowl XX, 1985-86)
A pump-up rap anthem made by the Chicago Bears leading up to Super Bowl XX. Looking back, it’s hard not to wince at football players trying to dance, but back then the song (and accompanying music video) was awesome, charting at #41 on Billboard’s Hot 100.

4. Michael Jackson Doing Absolutely Nothing (Super Bowl XXVII, 1993)
Dangerous-Era Michael Jackson did perform a handful of songs, but what I remember most is his frozen-in-time pose at the beginning of the halftime show. If you’re Michel Jackson you can use some of your allotted set time doing absolutely nothing.

January 6th, 2012 | 4:30 pm by Kat George and Mark Graham (@kat_george)

VH1′s Top 20 Most Anticipated Albums Of 2012

Now that we’re done with reflecting on 2011, it’s time to start projecting into 2012. With the reign of Adele perhaps taking a brief hiatus, and buzz building around several newcomers, some legendary reunions and highly anticipated sophomore albums, 2012 is already shaping up to be a year filled with some pretty amazing music. We’ve put together a list of 20 of our most anticipated albums for 2012 — what are you looking forward to in 2012?

Lana Del Rey – Born To Die (Expected Release Date: 01/27): Possibly the most hyped artist of 2011, we’re excited for the record to finally come out so we can stop judging the hype and start judging the material! She landed a highly coveted spot as the musical guest on the January 14th episode of Saturday Night Live, so expect the clamor to grow.

Van Halen – A Different Kind Of Truth (Expected Release Date: 02/07): Aside from a couple of songs that made it onto the band’s 1996 Best Of set, the band hasn’t cut any new material in the studio with original lead singer David Lee Roth since 1984, so anticipation for this project is through the roof. After a blistering reunion set at Cafe Wha? in New York City last night, there’s a good chance the boys still have it in ‘em.

Sleigh Bells – Reign Of Terror (Expected Release Date: 02/14): After Sleigh Bells’ killer debut with Treats, we’re biting our nails to find out whether their sophomore effort will be just as good. If the release of the first single off the new album, “Born To Lose”, is anything to go by, we won’t be disappointed.

Nicki Minaj – Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded (Expected Release Date: 02/14): Since Nicki Minaj Tweeted that the new album will feature all new material (as opposed to a re-release), we’ve been painting everything pink in anticipation. Barbz at the ready!

September 1st, 2011 | 11:30 am by Lacey Seidman (@Lacezilla)

Fine Wine: 15 Men in Music Who’ve Aged Remarkably Well

As the Red Hot Chili Peppers release their tenth studio album this week, we can’t help but ~~daydream~~ ruminate about how much of a sex symbol frontman Anthony Kiedis was—who could forget the sock?!—and still is. Time has been kind to Mr. Suck My Kiss, and he is definitely not alone in that regard; there’s an entire legion of men in music whose good looks and sex appeal have fermented in the manner of a perfectly-mature wine.

Whether you grew up with one of their faces taped to your Trapper Keeper or you’re old enough to be their mom, there’s a hunk on this list for you. From rock to hip hop, songwriters to bass players, we’ve got Arena Gods, men who are Good With Their Hands, Smooth Operators, International Flavors, and like the Chili Peppers’ singer, Spicy Sex Symbols. Keeping it simple, we’re celebrating the 45 to 70-year-old vintages by exhibiting their physical evolution through their respective careers. You’ll be taking in images from when they got their start, their “middle years,” and how they look in the present. Take a moment to step into the wine cellar and relish in each man’s beauty of the past and, at the end,?toast to their continued maturing in the future by weighing in on who you think has aged best. Apologies in advance for the ladyboners!

August 22nd, 2011 | 1:00 pm by Nick Minichino

Bono Spokeswoman Denies/Spins “Health Scare”

This morning, Bono denied weekend reports that he’d had a health scare while vacationing just outside Monaco in the south of France. In a statement to Reuters, a spokewoman stated that the U2 frontman had indeed gone to Princess Grace Memorial Hospital in Monaco, as Ireland’s Independent had reported, but that the visit was merely a routine checkup. “Reports of his being rushed to hospital for emergency treatment are untrue,” the spokeswoman stated, despite the fact that the initial Independent report made no such claim.

According to the Irish paper’s sources, Bono experienced “chest pains” and underwent “48 hours of medical tests” under the supervision of “a top heart specialist at the hospital,” none of which was exactly contradicted by the not-quite-denial. Presumably a routine checkup wouldn’t take two full days. The initial report in the Independent (which claimed Bono was “renowned” both “for his partying” and “for his socialising on the French Riviera”) and the denial to Reuters concur that the heart palpitations turned out not to be a health issue.

U2 Singer Bono Denies Reports Of Health Scare [Reuters via Rolling Stone]

[Image: Getty Images]

August 17th, 2011 | 12:15 pm by Nick Minichino

Do The Red Hot Chili Peppers Measure Up To These Five Iconic Rooftop Performances?

The Beatles‘ last public performance, on the roof of 3 Savile Row on January 30, 1969, has become iconic since being included in the Let It Be film, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers are the latest to pay homage to the Beatles’ performance, in the Marc Klasfeld-helmed video for “The Adventures of Rain Dance Maggie.” It takes more than just a rooftop and a PA to make a truly iconic rooftop performance, and five have stood above the rest; we’ve listed them chronologically. Check them out, and let us know in the comments if you think Kiedis and co. measure up!

1987: U2, “Where The Streets Have No Name”
U2 were deep in Beatle-appreciation mode when they shot the video for “Where The Streets Have No Name” on a roof in Los Angeles, at the corner of Seventh and Main, which a radio announcer in the video describes as “not one of your more fun neighborhoods.” (Oh, 1987.) The video is a pretty direct homage, down to the shots of police trying to shut the performance down, though Bono looks less like a Lennon and more like an Eddie Vedder style icon. On U2′s tour that same year, the band covered “Helter Skelter,” which Bono introduced, (as heard on live album Rattle and Hum,) “This is a song Charles Manson stole from the Beatles. We’re stealing it back.”

June 14th, 2011 | 10:00 pm by Mark Graham (@unclegrambo)

It’s Tough To Find A Show On Broadway, Let Alone In Your Friendly Neighborhood, That’s As Fun As Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark

Before Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark even held its first preview performance last November, it had the notorious distinction of being one of the most troubled productions ever to hit the Great White Way. The $65 million-plus show had been languishing in development since 2002 and, after a number of delays, had lost two of its biggest stars, Evan Rachel Wood and the Tony Award winning Alan Cumming (who were set to play Mary Jane Watson and the Green Goblin, respectively). Things got worse, though, as soon as the play opened to the public; critics savaged the material, jokes about the production became an unending supply of grist for the late night comedy mill, and, worst of all, multiple performers ended up in the hospital following horrible on-stage injuries.

Yet, as cliché tells us, the show must go on! Except this time, it didn’t. Production of the show –which, it should be noted, was breaking Broadway box office gross records at the time– halted in March when the visionary creator and director of the play, Julie Taymor, was unceremoniously booted from the project after she resisted making wholesale changes to the show that the producers were internally describing “Plan X.” As The Edge, who co-wrote the music and songs with his U2 bandmate Bono, told the New York Times today, “When Plan X was presented, [Taymor] said: ?That could never be achieved in a three-week period. You?d need months to do that, and it probably won?t work anyway for X, Y, and Z reasons.? At that moment, when that was her response, the producers felt that whatever Julie would do with a hiatus was more of a polishing job than a top-to-bottom rethink of the show.? Even Bono admitted that “the first time I loved the play was two-and-a-half weeks ago.”

Why do we bring all this up? Well, after Spidey was benched back in April while the show underwent heavy top-to-bottom reconstruction, the revamped Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark finally opened at the Foxwoods Theater tonight (and the official soundtrack, featuring new songs from Bono and The Edge, also hit shelves today; it’s currently sitting at #12 on iTunes Top Albums chart). Luckily for us, we were invited to a sneak preview of the retooled extravaganza last week, and you know what?

IT WAS VERY EXCITING!