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Well, that was certainly unexpected. In a twist that seemed to come from nowhere, former "The Hills" star Audrina Patridge was eliminated from Tuesday night's (October 26) episode of "Dancing With the Stars." Though she has been struggling all season long with infusing her technically sharp moves with energy and personality, it seemed as though her technique would carry her through at least a few more weeks. But clearly the viewing audience decided that they had seen enough, and despite the fact that several contestants had lower scores (including former Super Bowl MVP Kurt Warner and former accidental political talking point Bristol Palin), Patridge was shown the door.

Apparently, the show narrowly missed what would have been a truly staggering upset, as judges' favorite and front-runner Jennifer Grey was also declared to be in danger of elimination on Tuesday night's show. Though her momentum has cooled a bit in the past two weeks, Grey remains the most elite competitor on the show this season, and with the fundamentally sound Patridge out, it is now a two horse race between Grey and Brandy for the grand prize. (As an aside: As a competitor who has solid technical skills but lacked flair, isn't Audrina sort of like the Chuck Knoblauch of "Dancing With the Stars"?)

With the twist of Patridge's exit and the uncertainty of Grey's status, Tuesday night's results show was lively and tense, so the addition of the musical guests was (for once) a welcome respite and not just a way to fill time. Kylie Minogue brought an incredible amount of heat to the stage, and the cameos by rock legends (including Brett Michaels and Alice Cooper) were refreshing and fun. But now that the entire MTV contingent is gone (Patridge follows "Jersey Shore" star Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino, who was eliminated two weeks ago), the favorite around the MTV Newsroom is now Brandy, if only because everybody here still knows all the words to "I Wanna Be Down."

Did you agree with Audrina's elimination on "Dancing With the Stars"? Let us know in the comments!

Tags Audrina-Patridge, Brandy, dancing with the stars, The Hills

By now, you've had plenty of time to dive deep into Taylor Swift's hotly-anticipated third album Speak Now, explore the new sounds she brought to the table and guess which songs are about which people in her life. In fact, maybe you want to express your ideas on video, and maybe you want to test yourself in a game of beat the clock. We can do all that for you.

On Monday (October 25), Taylor Swift superfan, Lesbians Who Look Like Justin Bieber founder and friend of MTV News Danielle Owens-Reid realized she had a lot to say about Speak Now but not nearly enough time to say it. So she crammed all of her thoughts about the album (most of which are regarding what each song means) into 60 seconds (because Swift wants you to speak now!), and we're challenging you to do the same.

As you can see, Danielle broke down each song and talked about what each one means (except for "Sparks Fly," of course), but you should feel free to do whatever you like. Got a favorite song you want to talk about? Feel like comparing the new songs to some of her past work? Want to point out the fact that "Dear John" sounds an awful lot like John Mayer's song "St. Patrick's Day" in what might be the greatest meta joke of the musical millennium? (No, seriously, you should check that comparison out.) Or maybe you just want to shout about how much you like Swift's dress on the cover. It's your video, and you should do what you want with it! (Just remember not to use any of Swift's music or lyrics — it should be your creation and your creation alone!)

Whatever you have to say about Speak Now, film it in under 60 seconds and upload it to Your.MTV.com. We'll publish some of the best responses all this week on the MTV Newsroom Blog. So fire up your recording devices, get uploading and enjoy Speak Now!

Tags Speak Now, Taylor Swift, video

"We write music that really falls on the line between rock and pop and, a lot of the time, I feel like the deciding factor at the end of the day is how much production happens in post, and with the last one, we feel like maybe it leaned a little too pop for our band."

-All Time Low frontman Alex Gaskarth, commenting on the sound of the band's hit 2009 album Nothing Personal. That's one of the main reasons their new album Dirty Work (which is finished and is scheduled to come out some time in the first half of 2011) has more of a "gritty" sound.

That's not to say that Gaskarth and the band don't love Nothing Personal, which yielded the band's biggest hit in "Damned If I Do Ya (Damned If I Don't)." "No regrets, it definitely was an awesome, awesome album," Gaskarth explained to MTV News' James Montgomery. "It's just one of those things where, I think over the year and a half that it's been out we've sort of been able to approach it from all different angles. When it first comes out, obviously you're really excited about it, and that's all you really pay attention to, but when you have a little time to step away and listen again, you kind of see everything you did right, but everything you'd maybe like to change next time."

"We know how to record now, we know what we want. So we threw everything that we thought was, like, 'great production' against the wall," drummer Rian Dawson said. "And it sounded great, but at the end of the day, we were kind of like, 'This kind of sounds like ...'

"It sounds like unicorn poop," Gaskarth added.

Tags all time low, Quote

We're inching steadily toward the holiday season, which means that you'll have to start avoiding your uncles, making frustrating travel plans and purchasing high-profile albums at your local music emporium. The holiday music season began last week with the highly-anticipated new album by Kings of Leon, and this week it gets kicked up a notch with the release of Taylor Swift's excellent new album Speak Now. Swift's third album is a bold step forward for the pop-country crossover star, as it retains much of the same polish and snap as her breakthrough album Fearless but makes moves into much more personal lyrical territory. It's just enough of a gamble to seem bold and just familiar enough to keep current fans satisfied.

But what do the critics think? They are largely in agreement regarding the excellence of Speak Now. In her review in Entertainment Weekly, Leah Greenblatt called Speak Now's songs "perfectly contained snow globes of romance and catharsis, whole cinematic narratives rendered in four-to six-minute miniatures." She added, "Beneath Swift's not-a-girl, not-yet-a-woman sweetness lurks a rigorous and very skillful technique; love may confound her, but the art of expert songcraft clearly doesn't."

Ann Powers of the Los Angeles Times is also blown away by Swift's evolution as a songwriter and arranger. "Swift is naming names during the media cycle accompanying this release — the guitarist John 'The Player' Mayer is the cradle-robber in 'Dear John,' Taylor Lautner the lost prince of 'Back to December' — but the gossip surrounding the music is much less interesting than the maturation of her sound," Powers wrote. Chris Willman concurred. "[Speak Now is] an enormous breakthrough in songwriting maturity, while hardly forsaking the childlike lack of pretense that made earlier efforts such guilt-free ear candy," he wrote in The Hollywood Reporter.

Eric Danton of the Hartford Courant also wants people to wade through the tabloid fodder to get to the exquisite songs. "[Speak Now has] provided great fodder as devotees of celebrity gossip speculate on who, exactly, she's singing about," he wrote. "But with Swift's endearing appeal as a singer and ever-growing skill as a songwriter, Speak Now makes for great listening, too."

But the most illuminating review goes to Tris McCall, whose take in the Star-Ledger was especially interesting, as he compared Swift to Paramore singer (and Swift pal) Hayley Williams, literary critic Leslie Fielder and 50 Cent. "Swift could be that once-in-a-generation storyteller who was born to make innocence feel as formidable as a gangster rapper's gat," he wrote. "It's not much of a reach to compare the Swift of Speak Now to an emcee in a beef, and the subjects of some of these songs must be reeling today. Call her a fine, if unimaginative, tunesmith. Call her a skilled weaver of narrative. But don't call her a sweetheart. This princess rules with an iron scepter, and she’s kicking butt and taking names."

What do you think of Taylor Swift's new album Speak Now? Let us know in the comments!

Tags reviews, Speak Now, Taylor Swift

Madonna has made a career out exploring new trends, steadily evolving her sound and branching out in any direction that interests her. And that's not just focused on music either, as she has explored the different facets of the worlds of film, fashion and now physical fitness. Madonna will be opening a series of gyms with the name "Hard Candy" (a moniker they share with Madge's 2008 album) in various cities around the world (Mexico City will get the first one, set to open in November).

While Madonna isn't as advanced as the likes of Kiss in the marketing and diversification department, she can easily catch up with the following ideas.

The Madonna Network
If Oprah Winfrey can have her own home on cable and there is one network focused entirely on knitting, then Madonna can certainly fill a broadcast day. There could be a fashion show hosted by Lourdes, documentary programming about Malawi and daily screenings of "Desperately Seeking Susan." Plus, she has so many music videos that she could probably fill most days with nothing but stuff from Bedtime Stories.

"Hard Candy" Hard Candy
How is this not already a product? Madonna's treats could replace Werther's Original!

Madonna Mitsubishi
A lot of professional athletes end up spending their retirement owning car dealerships (John Elway has made quite a life for himself in this capacity), so why can't Madonna attach her moniker to a line of high quality used cars and trucks? Read more...

Tags Madonna

Every day a multitude of stars wander through the halls of MTV News to talk about their latest projects and goof around with our intrepid correspondents. But sometimes we catch stars elsewhere, and that's why we put together Spotted!, a daily compendium of stars in the wild.

Taylor Swift isn't one to let criticism get her down. Despite the fact that she faced some hefty criticism at the Grammy Awards earlier this year, she did not let that stop her from continuing to perform on high-profile broadcasts (and continuously improving and killing it in the process). In the months since, she delivered a stellar song during the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards, performed a great set during Monday night's (October 25) "Speak Now: Taylor Swift Live From New York City" and was great on Tuesday morning's (October 26) edition of "Today." She performed a trio of songs, including the new tracks "Mine" and "Speak Now" as well as "Love Story."

She wasn't the only star getting the job done, as Janet Jackson walked the red carpet at the New York premiere of the new Tyler Perry film "For Colored Girls" and Jessica Simpson paid a visit to the Maria Shriver Women's Conference at the Long Beach Convention Center in Long Beach, California. Click here for these photos as well as the entire "Spotted" archive, which features over 500 candid shots of stars like Britney Spears, Jay-Z, Justin Timberlake, Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, Miley Cyrus, Madonna, Eminem, the Jonas Brothers, Rihanna, Shakira and Mariah Carey!

Tags Janet-Jackson, Jessica Simpson, photo, Spotted!, Taylor Swift

The members of the MTV Newsroom are enthusiastic about a number of different entertainment avenues. Music, obviously, tops that list. Movies are right up there, of course. Sports are important, as are art galleries and theatrical performances. And then there are also a handful of us who quite enjoy professional wrestling. That's why we couldn't let the day go by without wishing CM Punk, one of the best performers currently working on the WWE circuit, an extremely happy birthday. The man born Phillip Brooks turns 32 years old today.

Punk is notable for a number of reasons. He doesn't have a traditional professional wrestling look (he is obviously in good shape but would never be mistaken for a professional bodybuilder the way stars like John Cena or Triple H might) and has a totally unique character (he is straight edge, a lifestyle he actually subscribes to in real life). Despite all the piercings, tattoos and crazy hair choices, Punk has managed to ascend to the top of the heap both within the WWE (he has been a world champion four times) and among wrestling fans (he won 2009 Best Feud of the Year in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter). He has had some of the most incredible matches of the modern era, including an incredible series of matches with Samoa Joe in Ring of Honor, a pair of victories in Money in the Bank encounters and a nutty TLC match with Jeff Hardy.

Punk has often talked about his love for music (MTV News' own Kyle Anderson actually interviewed him for a story about music in Spin magazine a few years ago), and his taste runs pretty (his entrance music is by Killswitch Engage). He also said that the first band he ever got totally obsessed over was Rancid, which is why we celebrate his birthday with a little "Ruby Soho."

Tags CM Punk, Killswitch Engage, video, Wrestling

The buzz around "Never Say Never" (the movie that is part concert film and part documentary, all centering around 16-year-old Canadian pop superstar Justin Bieber) is steadily growing in anticipation of its February release, and that buzz got just a little bigger on Monday night (October 25). Why? Because the trailer for "Never Say Never" was finally unveiled both during the singer's concert in Los Angeles and all across the world via the Internet.

There was a bit of mystery surrounding exactly what would be included in the film, but the trailer does shed some light on that. It opens with some clips of an extremely young Bieber playing drums on the seat of a chair, toying with a tiny keyboard and singing his heart out in the comfort of his mom's living room. The footage makes the transition to Bieber's earliest YouTube videos and finally explodes into an incredible string of images from Bieber's tour (both on stage and back stage). There are dancers, explosions and an awful lot of behind-the-scenes frolicking (including an awesome-looking Segway race). But the trailer's key scene comes at the climax, when the action focuses on Bieber's wall-walking trick from his tour, which not only gives a peek into one of the great moments of his live show but also proves to be an apt metaphor for the film's "anything is possible" philosophy.

"Never Say Never" will be in theaters this February. Read more...

Tags Justin Bieber, Never Say Never, photo

By Akshay Bhansali

For the second year in a row, results of the DJ Mag "Top 100" poll, electronic dance music's most accepted gauge of an artist's worldwide popularity, has leaked days before its scheduled announcement. The past few months have seen a number of EDM artists — from plucky newcomers to heavyweight veterans — campaigning vigorously online for fan votes. The magazine says half a million fans from over 235 countries voted for their favorite DJ. Here are a few key highlights from the results.

» Dutch trance icon Armin van Buuren, came in on top again, with fans voting him the most popular DJ on the planet for the fourth year in a row. Not bad for an artist who for the majority of the year was locked away in his studio putting together his recently-released opus Mirage.

» In the past year, David Guetta has brought about an American house music renaissance, making dance music popular in the United States nearly by himself. With big hits with the Black Eyed Peas, Kid Cudi, Flo Rida, Rihanna and Kelly Rowland, it's no wonder the fans voted him into the number two position.

» It should come as no surprise that Tiësto, the top DJ from 2002 to 2004, maintains his elite status. On the strength of high-profile campaigns with Sandisk and "DJ Hero 2" as well as his much-lauded Kaleidoscope album, fans voted him in at number three, making it nine years in the top three for one of the most dominant members of the EDM game.

» After the 2010 Winter Music Conference in Miami, the electrifying Joel Zimmerman forged ahead with a rigorous touring schedule — so much so he had to cancel a series of dates due to exhaustion. Fortunately, the man known to the dance universe as deadmau5 took a break and then hit the road even harder (highlighted by a stop off in Los Angeles to be the house artist at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards). Fans rewarded him with the number four spot.

» What a formidable year it has been for house heavyweights Swedish House Mafia. Read more...

Tags Afrojack, Armin Van Buuren, David Guetta, Deadmau5, DJ Mag, Swedish House Mafia

Few genres were more maligned than nü-metal, that strange mix of hard rock, hip-hop and electronic music that dominated the rock radio airwaves at the turn of the millennium. Sometimes dark and melodic but also frequently mookish, bands like Limp Bizkit set a standard for bad behavior and worse lyrical crimes (and that whole Woodstock '99 thing certainly didn't help their cause). But not everything in the genre was terrible (Linkin Park, who just put out one of the most interesting and innovative big rock records in years, did emerge from the muck), and not all the bands associated with the scene even really belonged there. Take Incubus, whose combination of metal, funk and psychedelia made them stand out from the pack, and they began their unlikely rise on this day in 1999 when they released their breakthrough album Make Yourself.

Essentially a jam band with distortion pedals and a sexy frontman, Incubus stormed onto modern rock radio with their breakout hit "Pardon Me," a strange little track with an unusual beat and frontman Brandon Boyd's unusual vocal delivery (and, of course, a gigantic shout-along chorus that centered along the fantastically surreal teen angst phrase "Pardon me while I burst into flames"). The power of that single turned Make Yourself into a hit, and people soon got to know Incubus as both heavy rockers and convincing balladeers (the single "Drive" was an even bigger hit). Their latter albums dove deeper into psychedelia and political rabble-rousing, but Make Yourself might be their purest release, as it is eclectic, fun and completely without self-consciousness. Their outer space exploration fantasy "Stellar" remains one of their best songs, biggest hits and most surreal, engaging videos.

Tags incubus, video