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2010 In 60 Seconds: The Annotated Guide

Posted 12/21/10 10:30 am EST by in Music


It would be difficult to sum up the year in culture given a few hours of your time and several weeks of preparation, but we here at MTV News like to think that we're able to kick it up several notches at all times. That's why our own Jim Cantiello took it upon himself to sum up the last 12 months in a mere 60 seconds, and if you're willing to give the video below a minute, you'll be super-informed and prepared to move boldly into 2011.

Since that's a lot of information to blow through in a very brief window of time, check out this handy guide for everything you saw (or might have missed) in the video above.

» "Twilight" - Extremely popular film series based on a series of young adult novels about vampires. "Eclipse," the third installment in the series, premiered over the summer.

» Sandra Bullock - A study in extremes, the actress won an Oscar for her work in 2009's "The Blind Side" but also saw her marriage to "Monster Garage" host Jesse James end in divorce.

» Mel Gibson - Embattled actor who got into a bit of trouble because of some phone calls.

» Eminem - Multi-platinum rapper who made a big comeback (both critically and commercially) with Recovery.

» Christina Aguilera - Former teen singing sensation turned actress who came back with a new album (Bionic) and a new movie ("Burlesque"), both of which were tepidly received.

» Betty White - Former "Golden Girls" actress who saw a career renaissance after a very funny Super Bowl commercial, a spot as a host on "Saturday Night Live" and a spot on the surprise hit "Hot in Cleveland."

» Justin Bieber - 16-year-old Canadian singing sensation who scored huge hits with songs like "Baby" and "Somebody to Love."
Read More...

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'The Sing-Off' Names A Winner In Committed

Posted 12/21/10 9:30 am EST by in Television


Over the course of the last few weeks, "The Sing-Off" not only developed into a sleeper hit for NBC but also created quite a bit of drama in between all the rousing a cappella music. Fueled by the insights of judges Ben Folds, Nicole Scherzinger and Shawn Stockman, the show has kept a delightful balance between jaw-dropping spectacle and practical musical engagement, something you don't normally see on something more sensationalistic like "American Idol" or "America's Got Talent" (new "Idol" judges Steven Tyler and Jennifer Lopez should really take a crash course with Folds on how to be an excellent reality competition judge). On Monday night (December 20), the show crowned its champion during a live finale, and when the judging was over and the dust cleared, the gospel-tinged ensemble Committed edged out the more rock-oriented Street Corner Symphony for the victory.

Four groups walked into the finale with a chance at the number one spot, but Jerry Lawson & Talk of the Town were knocked out first (though not before turning out a pretty impressive rendition of "Long Road Home" with an assist from ). The Backbeats were cut next after showcasing their talents with "King of Anything" with the help of Sara Bareilles. While the guest stars seemed a little gimmicky on paper, they actually added an interesting element to the competition and forced the groups to really engage in some creative innovation.

In the end, Committed got the best of the field with a rendition of "Motown Philly" (with a special guest appearance from Boyz II Men, of course), which elevated them slightly above Street Corner Symphony's Folds-assisted version of "Gone." In honor of Committed's victory, re-live the magic of "Motown Philly" with this very special live performance of the song from the 1993 MTV Inaugural Ball.

Do you think the right team won "The Sing-Off"? Tell us in the comments!

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Stone Temple Pilots' Big Bang: Wake-Up Video

Posted 12/21/10 8:30 am EST by in Wake-Up Video


Has there ever been a band more unfairly maligned in the history of rock music than Stone Temple Pilots? The California quartet — anchored by a pair of brothers and the singular Scott Weiland on the microphone — were victims of what has always been wrong with rock criticism (and what was especially problematic in the 1990s). Their breakthrough single, a dirge called "Plush," sounded so much like a Pearl Jam track (and if you really break it down, it's mostly just Weiland sounding a bit like Eddie Vedder) that the group never managed to get out from under the burden of being late-comers to the grunge buffet.

While it's true that most of STP's debut Core sounds relatively uninspired and somewhat generic, the band spent the rest of the alt-rock decade crafting some of the most interesting rock on the radio. Their 1994 sophomore release Purple is fantastically underrated and features "Interstate Love Song," perhaps the best piece of radio rock recorded in the past three decades. In 1996, they really took a left hand turn and dropped Tiny Music ... Songs From the Vatican Gift Shop, a strange little album that tapped into foot-stomping glam rock and moody, jazzy experiments. It's fascinating and strange, but the hooks are great and the vibe strangely jittery.

Of course, Tiny Music nearly destroyed STP, as Weiland got into a bunch of trouble shortly after it was released. As a result, the band never toured for the album, and the group splintered while Weiland worked on a solo project and the remaining trio created a side project called Talk Show. Tiny Music remains one of the band's weakest albums commercially speaking (though it still managed to shift two million units), and deserves to be remembered as a bold and fascinating experiment. There's no real reason for focusing on STP today (Tiny Music actually came out in March of 1996), but a little dose of "Big Bang Baby" is just what the doctor ordered to get the blood flowing during a sleepy holiday week.


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Britney Spears, Eminem, Lady Gaga Play The Self-Reference Game

Posted 12/20/10 5:30 pm EST by in Music


Just about every year in pop music can be defined by a certain trend that tended to permeate a large percentage of the songs floating around the radio. There was the Year That Auto-Tune Blew Up, the Year That Country Crossed Over, the Year That Everybody Collaborated With The Neptunes and the Year That "Mambo No. 5" Ruled The Earth. This year, it's somewhat difficult to figure out exactly what the underlying thread was, though the MTV Newsroom Blog would like to submit 2010 as the Year That Everybody Sang Their Own Names.

Listen to the likes of Jason Derulo (who seems to open most of his songs by singing his own name), Lady Gaga (whose own name makes up the bulk of the chorus of "Bad Romance") and Akon (who croons "Akon and MJ" at the top of the recently-released posthumous Michael Jackson single "Hold My Hand"). It's not a bad plan, really, as since most songs are overheard at the supermarket or coming out of passing cars, it's probably a good idea to identify yourself in the place where a radio DJ used to.

Of course, none of those artists invented the idea of singing your own name. Britney Spears entered the universe with the song-opening "It's Britney, bitch" a few years back, while many rappers treat their own names like brands in the middle of commercial jingles (including Eminem, Busta Rhymes, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Soulja Boy and countless others).

And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Check out the amazing piece of video below, pulled together by our crack production team here at MTV News. It'll give you a good idea exactly how many artists are singing and rapping their own names.

Who is your favorite self-referential artist? Let us know in the comments!

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With The Winter Solstice Upon Us, Warm Up With Fleet Foxes

Posted 12/20/10 5:00 pm EST by in Music


For most of the people who live in the parts of the country that experience seasons (and even some of them that normally don't), it's hard to convince them that winter is only officially beginning today. It has been cold, snowy, dark and desolate for months, so the fact that winter is only just starting is a little disheartening for a lot of folks. But there's no fighting the passage of time or the natural spin of the Earth, which means that the Winter Solstice is upon us.

Perhaps the one consolation? There's also a lunar eclipse tonight, and the eclipse and the solstice haven't synced up like this in 27 years. So if you believe in the power of the moon (or if you are Marc Spector), then tonight should be interesting. For those of you not in tune with the solstice (essentially the day of the year where the northern hemisphere gets the least sunlight because of the axis position of the Earth), you'll probably do what you have been doing for the past few weeks: Trying to avoid snowstorms, keeping warm and wondering how it's possible that the year is almost over.

In order to help you stay toasty and appreciate the magic of a lunar eclipse (it's truly spooky if you've never checked it out), then you should probably crank up your favorite wintry mix (which we imagine is full of Morrissey songs and M.O.P's "Cold as Ice"). We'll get you started with Fleet Foxes' "White Winter Hymnal," which is somehow brutally chilly and strangely warming all at the same time. (It also has a fantastically trippy video, which certainly helps.)


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Paramore Lose Two Members, But What Path Will They Follow?

Posted 12/20/10 4:30 pm EST by in Music


Last week, rumors started circulating that there may be a shake-up among the ranks of Paramore, one of the most popular rock bands on the planet. By the time the weekend rolled around, we had confirmation that brothers Zac and Josh Farro (the drummer and guitarist, respectively) had left the band to pursue other musical interests. The other three members of Paramore — singer Hayley Williams, guitarist Taylor York and bassist Jeremy Davis — will soldier on as a band, which will include tour dates in South America early next year and a new album the group just told MTV News about.

"We never for a second thought about leaving any of this behind. We really hope that you can be encouraged by the fact that the three of us who are still here are ready to take on another chapter of our journey together," a statement from the three remaining members read on the band's website. "You have always been what keeps us going so why would we stop now? We want to stick by you. Knowing that we have a unified passion and a clear vision makes us feel stronger than ever."

Without a drummer or a second guitarist in their ranks, the remaining members of Paramore have to make a decision about what to do moving forward. Luckily, there are a handful of paths that have already been carved for them, so perhaps they'll follow one of these.

The My Chemical Romance Model
When drummer Bob Bryar left the band, My Chemical Romance pushed forward with the creation of their album Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys and never really got around to hiring a fifth member. They soldier on as a quartet with Michael Pedicone filling in as a tour drummer, but there's no guarantee how permanent his employment will be.

The R.E.M. Model
In 1997, drummer Bill Berry decided to leave R.E.M. after a series of health scares. Not only did the remaining members of the group decide to continue on as a trio, but they also essentially morphed into a different band. Their first non-Berry album, 1998's Up, was full of drum machines and moody soundscapes, and subsequent releases have been playing with the pull between what the band was and what it was trying to become.

The Marilyn Manson Model
The man born Brian Warner is clearly sort of difficult to work with, because he has constantly had to replace band members over the two-decade period of his group's existence. Luckily, Manson always had the luxury of replacing each departed musician with another one in the guise of a new character. Eventually, they even dropped the whole Hollywood-starlet-plus-serial-killer construction. For Paramore, that would probably mean hiring another pair of siblings — perhaps the Bacon Brothers are free?

The Ringo Starr Model
When you're fronting your own All Starr Band, you can't just sit on the riser and hit sticks. So what do you do? Recruit some famous friends of yours to play the drums. Paramore could simply turn to the most famous drummer in their area at the time for whatever their rhythmic needs are. Dave Grohl's around? Have a seat, sir!

The Red Hot Chili Peppers Model
Despite being one of the most successful bands in the universe, their guitarist slot has been more of a revolving door than the Spinal Tap drum seat. Still, that hasn't stopped definitive ax man John Frusciante from joining and then departing twice. In the interim they've gone the famous route (Jane's Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro joined the band for a while) as well as the utilitarian route (both journeymen Arik Marshall and Jesse Tobias filled in after Frusciante left the first time).

Just Hire Josh Freese
Dude is available.

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Justin Timberlake's New Music Will Be More 'Conceptual': The MTV News Quote Of The Day

Posted 12/20/10 3:30 pm EST by in Music


"They're looking at me like, 'Why aren't you staying with one path?' They look at me like I'm ungrateful for my music career because I want to do film. I faced the same feelings when I went solo. I had the same obstacles in music. I still do. But I feel like I should pose the question to everyone else: If you had this opportunity, what would you do with it? Entertaining is in my blood. I make no bones about the fact that I have always wanted to work in the forum of film. I take this seriously. I'll be 30 in January, and I'm saying to myself, 'If I'm going to do this, I need to do it now.'"

-Pop superstar and ever-evolving actor Justin Timberlake, referencing the type of flack he gets from fans who only want to see him producing music. In a conversation with the Los Angeles Times on the occasion of the premiere of "Yogi Bear" (in which he plays Boo-Boo), Timberlake talked about his current career options and why he is more focused on making movies (he also appeared in the critically-acclaimed "The Social Network" this year).

It's not necessarily a referendum on the music world. Rather, it's just what moves him at the moment. "I don't know what a pop 'career' is. I just wanted to be in music," Timberlake said. "I don't necessarily crave to be a movie star. I just want to be an actor. I don't look at it as a career — I just feel lucky. That's not to say I'm going to take every opportunity that comes up. But now I have more chance to plot out a path."

When he does finally get back to the world of music, he imagines that he'll do something a little more outside the box. "I want to conceptualize something a little bit more," he said. "And it's probably because of the experience I'm having working with directors and screenwriters and getting to play cool characters. If that means I come up with, like, my version of 'Ziggy Stardust,' so be it. Who knows? What I've learned from acting in movies, I want to apply to music and see what happens."

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Captain Beefheart: A Tribute

Posted 12/20/10 2:30 pm EST by in Music


Late on Friday (December 17), the art and music worlds lost one of the greatest avant-garde members of their respective ranks. Don Van Vliet, who made a name for himself in the music world as Captain Beefheart, passed away at the age of 69, likely from complications due to multiple sclerosis (a disease he has struggled with since the '90s). For 25 years, Van Vliet carved out an incredible place in the music world, taking basic blues jams and morphing them into fusions of jazz, metal, prog and whatever else happened to wander into his line of sight. He was a true envelope-pusher, and certainly a singularity (only Frank Zappa rivaled his level of outside-the-box weirdness, but even he had some commercial instincts). After going through a number of incarnations of his magic bands and putting out his final album (1982's Ice Cream for Crow), Beefheart hung up the music spurs and pursued a life as a painter, where he also pushed boundaries and became very well loved and respected.

The definitive Captain Beefheart release is undoubtedly 1969's Trout Mask Replica, an album that is simultaneously weird, thrilling, disturbing, fascinating and powerful. I first discovered the existence of Trout Mask Replica via a feature in Spin magazine that recounted the making of the album via an exhaustive reconstruction of the creation of the record. Though Beefheart himself wasn't included in the piece, the stories told by the other band members were profoundly bizarre. Beefheart was convinced that he could create the strangest, best blues band in history, and he extracted profoundly odd performances from the Magic Band by holing up in a dilapidated farmhouse, starving them and exposing everybody to a profound amount of hallucinogenic chemicals.

At the time, it was the craziest thing I had ever read. I always liked to think of myself as a fairly adventurous rock fan (I had already sampled Lou Reed's horrific disaster Metal Machine Music), so I stepped up to the Beefheart challenge. Read More...

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Miranda Cosgrove Taps Rivers Cuomo For Collaboration

Posted 12/20/10 1:30 pm EST by in Music


For most of his early career, Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo was known as a guy who was constantly at work in his lab, writing and recording by himself without much input from other people (even the other members of his band). But lately, he has been everywhere, working with everyone. It has lead to some incredibly strange and thrilling tag-team efforts, including at least one big hit (that being B.o.B's "Magic"). In the past two years, Cuomo has worked with the aforementioned B.o.B, Lil Wayne, Sugar Ray, Katy Perry (the fruits of which we have yet to hear) and a bunch of fans on the Internet. Over the weekend, we learned of Cuomo's newest in-studio partner: "iCarly" star and upstart pop sensation Miranda Cosgrove.

"I'm recording a duet with @riverscuomo in a few days for the new album!" Cosgrove wrote on Twitter on Saturday (Decmeber 18). "So freakin' excited!"

It makes sense for Cuomo to team up with Cosgrove, as his sensibilities match up well with Cosgrove's brand of guitar-kissed, hormone-fueled pop. It should be a victory for both parties, as Cosgrove will get a slightly punchier boost and Cuomo will introduce himself to a new generation of fans.

But who else will Cuomo work with in the future? Here are five collaborations that should happen in 2011.

Kiss
Cuomo, of course, has a metal past that is not so secret, and growing up in suburban Connecticut, he was obsessed with Kiss (this is all laid out on "In the Garage"). This should really be the year when Rivers teams up with Gene, Paul and whoever else is left among the Kiss ranks for a collaborative effort. The makeup alone should be worth it.

Susan Boyle
No, seriously. On paper, Boyle took a chance or two on her new album with covers of songs by Lou Reed and Leonard Cohen. Unfortunately, those were sort of bloodless and cold. Cuomo has great pop instincts and could provide Boyle with just enough garage rock energy to switch her game up just enough to make people raise their eyebrows again.

Drake
The most emo rapper int e world should definitely find himself in the same booth with the guy who helped bring emo to the mainstream back in the day. Drake and Cuomo also have similar crooning styles, which is why the two should do some killer harmonizing over a fantastically fuzzy backbeat.

Lady Gaga
Gaga is the very definition of a singularity, of course, but if there's one person who might be able to harness and work with her strange, exciting energy, it's Cuomo. Since many believe that Gaga is one or two rock riffs away from truly taking over the world, it seems like a perfect marriage.

Paul Westerberg
Just because it seems like this should have happened already. After all, shouldn't one of the godfathers of indie power-pop hook up with one of his disciples?

Who would you like to see Rivers Cuomo collaborate with in 2011? Let us know in the comments!

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Spotted: Justin Bieber Takes Off In Tampa

Posted 12/20/10 12:30 pm EST by in Music


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.

It seems like Justin Bieber has been on the road constantly in 2010, and that's because he basically was. His massive tour has taken him all over the world to perform in front of hundreds of thousands of fans, and along the way he has solidified himself as a top-shelf performer, a consummate professional and an evolving artist. But it all comes to an end this week, as his concert this Thursday, December 23 in Atlanta (his adopted hometown) will be the last of this year (and this tour). He'll take a much-deserved break where he'll be working on new music and preparing for the release of his film before going back to Europe in March. But he is still grinding the shows out, and on Sunday (December 19) he visited the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa, Florida for another amazing spectacle full of hot music and great effects.

He wasn't the only star in the public eye over the weekend, as 30 Seconds to Mars took their big energy to Barcelona, Spain and Ludacris signed bottles of his Conjure Cognac at an event in Chicago. Click here for these photos as well as the entire "Spotted" archive, which features over 500 candid shots of stars like Britney Spears, Taylor Swift, Eminem, Lady Gaga, Jay-Z, Katy Perry, the Jonas Brothers, Madonna, the Black Eyed Peas and Rihanna!

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