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It's MTV's second annual Musical March Madness! MTV News took the 64 biggest names in rock, split them up into four regions, assigned them seeds and puts them up against one another in a single-elimination series of match-ups in a winner-take-all contest. We're leaving it to you to decide an actual champ in this field of 64, so over the next few weeks, fan voting will determine who will emerge as this year's champion. It's all about the fans, and the artist with the most passionate fan base will score the awesome Musical March Madness trophy!

There are already some upsets brewing in the second round of MTV's Musical March Madness tournament, and we have only opened up the voting on one region of the bracket. Today we take a look at the wild, wild West, which features four absolutely massive showdowns between some of the top-selling bands in the rock world.

Voting for all second round match-ups will close on Sunday, March 27 at midnight. As always, you can follow all the voting here.

(1) 30 Seconds to Mars vs. (8) Pearl Jam
In the first round, Yellowcard put up a good fight but were ultimately no match for the power of 30 Seconds to Mars (and the considerable participation of both the band members and the Echelon). They'll be taking on a very game Pearl Jam team in round two. Pearl Jam went blow for blow with Train for a while in round one, but ultimately they built a solid lead and held on to it for the duration of the voting. Can they mount a similar offense, or will Jared Leto's band power their way into the Sweet 16? Only your votes can determine the winner!

Watch the breakdown of the first round and a preview of round two!

Check out the Musical March Madness bracket and be take a look at the hoops-centric photos of some of the tournament's biggest bands.

Tags #MMM, 30 Seconds to Mars, March Madness, pearl-jam, Poll, video

The fact that British electronic combo Depeche Mode have managed to thrive over the course of a three decade career is a testament to the songwriting prowess of Martin Gore and the indisputable charisma of frontman Dave Gahan. They first found success during the New Wave takeover of the pop charts, as their electronic masterpieces played well with the keyboard-kissed pop of the time. They soon took on goth leanings and explored darker, more complicated territory. Logically, they probably should have been swept into the afterthought box once alternative rock took over in the '90s, but instead the group continued churning out great music that was widely embraced by fans of all genres.

On this day in 1993, Depeche Mode put out Songs of Faith and Devotion, one of their finest collections. Recorded more "live" and with more guitars than any previous album the group had done, Songs of Faith and Devotion has a particular immediacy that had otherwise been lacking from the band's sound. The live quality of the music perfectly complimented Gahan's lyrics, which continued to tackle big questions about commitment and relationships using his haunting baritone as a vessel.

While Songs of Faith and Devotion didn't match the huge success of the band's previous album Violator (which contained the gigantic hits "Personal Jesus" and "Enjoy the Silence"), it still topped the charts in both the U.S. and the U.K. and gave Depeche Mode another handful of hits, including lead single "I Feel You" and the edgy "Walking In My Shoes."

Tags Depeche Mode, video

It's MTV's second annual Musical March Madness! MTV News took the 64 biggest names in rock, split them up into four regions, assigned them seeds and puts them up against one another in a single-elimination series of match-ups in a winner-take-all contest. We're leaving it to you to decide an actual champ in this field of 64, so over the next few weeks, fan voting will determine who will emerge as this year's champion. It's all about the fans, and the artist with the most passionate fan base will score the awesome Musical March Madness trophy!

It's the final pairing of the second round in the Midwest bracket, which features two awesomely loud (but quite different) artists going at it for the right to move on to the Sweet 16. The West bracket will get rolling on Wednesday (March 23).

Voting for all second round match-ups will close on Sunday, March 27 at midnight. As always, you can follow all the voting here.

(2) The Black Keys vs. (7) Avenged Sevenfold
The Black Keys overcame Bret Michaels in a relatively bloodless affair (the Poison frontman never had a chance against the indie darlings), while Avenged Sevenfold had to overcome a surprisingly strong surge from Taylor Swift to advance. The A7X posse seems rugged enough to push their way into the next round, but will they have enough to overcome the Keys? Only you know for sure!

Watch the breakdown of the first round and a preview of round two!

Check out the Musical March Madness bracket and be take a look at the hoops-centric photos of some of the tournament's biggest bands.

Tags #MMM, Avenged Sevenfold, Black Keys, March Madness, Poll, video

By Akshay Bhansali

Miami Music Week is officially under way, and in just two days MTV News will join the ranks of EDM enthusiasts from around the world in South Beach to take in the very latest in dance music. To commemorate the week, we are serving up some special treats for the fans.

And here's your first gift! Check out this video teaser for Italian house music group Benny Benassi's latest single "Cinema," which features the vocal stylings of British singer Gary Go. The teaser is exclusive to MTV News, and "Cinema" is the second single from BB's upcoming album Electroman.

We heard Benny and Skrillex both dropped Skrill's epic dubstep mix of "Cinema" in their sets at SXSW last week, and the song was by far the EDM anthem of the fest. The video features Benny Benassi and Gary Go taking turns at some sort of visualization clinic where they wear a helmet that allows them to see a particular memory. And then there's a twist. Can we tell you more? We've seen the video, but if we revealed everything, then that would ruin all the fun, wouldn't it?

Fret not, because mtvU will be kicking off Ultra Music Festival by exclusively premiering Benny Benassi's new video "Cinema" on March 25 as part of Indie Music Month's "31 in 31: 31 Video Premieres in 31 Days." Be sure to check it out this Friday at mtvU.com. And if you're in Miami, you can catch Benny Benassi performing tonight (March 22) at Mansion and Saturday (March 27) at the Main Stage at UMF.

Tags Benny Benassi, MMW, UMF, video

"I haven't been watching every single [episode], which I feel really bad about, but I've been watching a lot and I love it. I feel really proud of him and happy for him. He's had a rough few years, a couple of years in particular, and I'm really happy for him that he's enjoying himself so much."

-Actress and rock star scion Liv Tyler, expressing her excitement over her father Steven Tyler's new gig as one of the judges on "American Idol." Tyler put away his role as the singer for Aerosmith for a while in order to sit behind the "American Idol" judges' table next to veteran judge Randy Jackson and fellow newcomer Jennifer Lopez for the show's current season. So far, he has provided many of the show's biggest highlights, and his enthusiasm and energy have been contagious on the "Idol" set.

As for daughter Liv, the star of the new film "Super" told MTV News that she is glad that the world is getting to see the side of her father that she always knew existed but never necessarily got the chance to be out in the open.

"He's so happy and naturally good at what he's doing, it's really nice," she said. "It's so funny for me, everybody keeps coming up to me going, 'Your dad, he's so sweet and he's so funny!' And of course it's the man that I've known my whole life, who tells all those kinds of jokes and has that big heart. I'm really happy for him."

Don't miss "Idol Party Live" every Thursday on MTV.com, following the "American Idol" results show, for analysis, celebrity guests and even some karaoke — get in the conversation by tweeting with the hashtag #idolparty! In the meantime, get your "Idol" fix on MTV News' "American Idol" page, where you'll find all the latest news, interviews and opinions.

Tags American Idol, Liv Tyler, Quote, steven tyler, video

It's MTV's second annual Musical March Madness! MTV News took the 64 biggest names in rock, split them up into four regions, assigned them seeds and puts them up against one another in a single-elimination series of match-ups in a winner-take-all contest. We're leaving it to you to decide an actual champ in this field of 64, so over the next few weeks, fan voting will determine who will emerge as this year's champion. It's all about the fans, and the artist with the most passionate fan base will score the awesome Musical March Madness trophy!

We're half way through the first bracket of the second round of MTV's Musical March Madness tournament. In this match-up, the defending champs Coheed and Cambria take on indie favorites Vampire Weekend in what should be an intriguing confrontation.

Voting for all second round match-ups will close on Sunday, March 27 at midnight. As always, you can follow all the voting here.

(3) Vampire Weekend vs. (6) Coheed and Cambria
Coheed and Cambria won the 2010 MTV Musical March Madness championship, and they kicked off the first round of this year's tournament the same way they tore through last year's: by trouncing the competition (this time around, the victim was "American Idol" veteran Crystal Bowersox). In round two, they go head-to-head against Vampire Weekend, who topped fellow indie icons Bright Eyes to advance. Will Coheed make another trip to the Sweet 16, or will Vampire Weekend be the band who finally spoils their dance? Vote and find out!

Watch the breakdown of the first round and a preview of round two!

Check out the Musical March Madness bracket and be take a look at the hoops-centric photos of some of the tournament's biggest bands.

Tags #MMM, coheed and cambria, March Madness, Poll, Vampire-Weekend, video

A few years ago, Panic! at the Disco were on top of the world, riding their awesome debut A Fever You Can't Sweat Out to platinum status and collecting an MTV Video Music Award for Video of the Year for the spectacularly spastic "I Write Sins Not Tragedies." One difficult second album (the lovely but strange Pretty. Odd.) and some personnel upheaval later (members Ryan Ross and Jon Walker left to form the Young Veins, leaving behind frontman Brendon Urie and drummer Spencer Smith), the group is back with Vices & Virtues, their third album. Though there are psychedelic elements left over from the experiments on Pretty. Odd., Vices & Virtues gets back into the habit of cranking out big emo riffs with splashes of goth and a lot of theater.

The album deals with a number of lyrical issues, but it also focuses on the split with Ross and Walker. As Smith and Urie explained to MTV News, at least one of those songs about the tumult ended up being accidental.

But is everybody happy to see the new version Panic! at the Disco? Actually, yes. "Vices & Virtues is loaded with chippy Casio beats, handclaps, stirring strings, crunchy guitars, blaring horns, chiming bells and an assortment of things that go bump in the night," wrote MTV News' James Montgomery. "Panic! are back to their old tricks, exclamation point and all ... and perhaps that was the secret ingredient all along. Because if there's one thing Vices & Virtues is, it's exuberant. If you're not excited, you should be."

Alternative Press also welcomed the new version of Panic! at the Disco. "Perhaps Smith and Urie's biggest success on Vices is their disinterest in simply recreating either of their previous albums, instead choosing to meld the youthful exuberance of their debut with the restraint and maturity of 2008's Pretty. Odd.," wrote critic Evan Lucy. "The duo sound absolutely recharged, likely a result of the lineup shuffling, but also perhaps a realization that the '70s were a nice place to visit for a couple years, but life in the 21st century is much more fun."

Spin thought that though the album was good, Ross' absence is felt too deeply. "Vices & Virtues returns to the slick, big-production pop of the band's two-million-selling, 2005 debut A Fever You Can't Sweat Out — heart-collapsing arena guitars, swelling strings, and overheated, mallrat-baiting choruses," wrote critic Mikael Wood. "But without Ross, the group's main songwriter, who drew on his own scarred youth (including the early death of his alcoholic father), Urie steps in to pen the lyrics, and the result is verbose and generic diary-entry romance."

Jody Rosen of Rolling Stone concurred with Spin's assessment about the lyrics. "The group's old lyricist, Ryan Ross, is gone; these songs are missing some of the hyper mall-rat poetry that made Panic's first two albums such daffy fun," he wrote. "But the arrangements are tight, even when the songs get baroque: Check 'Nearly Witches,' which mixes funk, Fifties horror-movie kitsch and a children's choir to ridiculous — and sublime — effect."

What do you think of Panic! at the Disco's new album? Let us know in the comments!

Tags Panic! At The Disco, reviews, video

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.

Perhaps Taylor Swift's most remarkable accomplishment — and she has notched many over the course of her still-young career — is the fact that she has international appeal. As big as country music is in the United States, it doesn't translate well in international markets. But Swift's songs are truly universal and her melodies transcend language, which is why she is one of the few country artists who can sell out shows in Europe. She played a killer show in Madrid, Spain over the weekend, and over the next week she'll tear through the United Kingdom (her next stop is in Birmingham, England on Tuesday, March 22). She was seen leaving her hotel in London on Monday (March 21), hopefully taking in the best of British culture (or at least a hearty meal at a chip shop).

Swift wasn't the only star traveling the world, as Taylor Momsen was seen making her way around Paris and Hilary Duff paid a visit to Bethune Elementary School in Atlanta as a part of the "Blessings in a Backpack" program. Click here for these photos as well as the entire "Spotted" archive, which features over 500 candid shots of stars like Britney Spears, Justin Bieber, Eminem, Lady Gaga, Jay-Z, Katy Perry, Rihanna, the Jonas Brothers, Justin Timberlake and Kanye West!

Tags photo, Spotted!, Taylor Swift

It's MTV's second annual Musical March Madness! MTV News took the 64 biggest names in rock, split them up into four regions, assigned them seeds and puts them up against one another in a single-elimination series of match-ups in a winner-take-all contest. We're leaving it to you to decide an actual champ in this field of 64, so over the next few weeks, fan voting will determine who will emerge as this year's champion. It's all about the fans, and the artist with the most passionate fan base will score the awesome Musical March Madness trophy!

Voting in the second round of MTV's Musical March Madness is underway, with Foo Fighters and Disturbed already slugging it out for supremacy. The winner will face the winner of this next match-up in the Midwest bracket, which lets a handful of underdogs mix it up.

Voting for all second round match-ups will close on Sunday, March 27 at midnight. As always, you can follow all the voting here.

(4) Rise Against vs. (12) Patrick Stump
Rise Against have a well-received new record called Endgame (which is expected to be the top debut on this week's Billboard album chart), which they rode to a first round victory against Pete Wentz's new group Black Cards. Wentz missed the opportunity to go up against former bandmate Patrick Stump for the second straight year, as Stump won a tough battle with Neon Trees in round one to advance. Who will survive to make the Sweet 16? Your votes decide it!

Watch the breakdown of the first round and a preview of round two!

Check out the Musical March Madness bracket and be take a look at the hoops-centric photos of some of the tournament's biggest bands.

Tags #MMM, March Madness, Patrick Stump, Poll, rise against, video

Chris Brown always seems to be coming back from something or other. Following his arrest and guilty plea for assaulting then-girlfriend Rihanna in February of 2009, Brown returned to the music world with Graffiti, which received mixed reviews and was not embraced by the market. Slowly but surely, he has been building up his reputation again, mostly on the strength of some killer singles ("Deuces," his collaboration with Tyga and Kevin McCall from the Fan of a Fan mixtape, was one of the best songs of 2010). So that makes F.A.M.E. something of a comeback album for Brown, whose voice and performance charisma have never been denied.

F.A.M.E. finds Brown exploring new avenues in R&B, hip-hop and especially dance music. Brown recently told MTV News that his fourth album is the best yet at showing off all the sides of his creative mind.

So does F.A.M.E. represent Brown's return to the top of the R&B heap? Many critics seem to think so. "It is a more mature, confident and adventurous Brown who has emerged in the wake of all the drama, and he has delivered the strongest album of his career," wrote Steve Jones in USA Today. "With songs such as the dismissive 'Deuces,' defiant 'Look at Me Now' (featuring Lil Wayne and Busta Rhymes) and salacious 'Wet the Bed' (featuring Ludacris), Brown is taking it to the next phase."

Jody Rose of Rolling Stone agreed, noting that the songs on F.A.M.E. are much stronger than the entries on Graffiti. "F.A.M.E. boasts blockbuster hits and shows Brown has a good nose for production," he wrote in a three-star review. "[It] is a pop 'n' b album with something for everyone: bedroom ballads, dance-floor thumpers and even 'Next 2 You,' a puppy-love declaration with guest vocals by Justin Bieber."

Brown also got a tip of the hat from Entertainment Weekly, whose Brad Wete said that F.A.M.E. "shines brighter than anything he produced before that now-infamous incident." That particular review attempted to divorce Brown's public persona from his music. "Graffiti clearly came too soon. And some still think Brown should go — and stay — away. But on its own merits, F.A.M.E. deserves to be heard."

Still, not everybody is able to get over Brown's private life. In a two-star review in the U.K.'s The Independent, critic Andy Gill wrote, "The acronym apparently stands for 'Forgiving All My Enemies,' a typically self-pitying claim on the moral high ground from someone who, lest we forget, was convicted of assaulting a woman. Isn't forgiveness something Brown should be requesting, rather than bestowing?"

Sarah Rodman of the Boston Globe also felt that F.A.M.E. needed to be truly exceptional in order for Brown to win the uphill battle of acceptance, and ultimately he has come up short. "While he has paid his penance, the gifted young R&B crooner needs to understand that when he sings on his new album, out today, about being the culprit for a romantic demise, barks at girls in the club not ready to party to 'shut the [expletive] up,' or waxes on about making a girl 'beg for it,' even his most diehard followers might cringe," she wrote. "So Brown needs to bring the undeniable every time. Unfortunately that's not what he's done with this middling fourth album."

Ultimately, most critics (and most importantly fans) seem to be willing to let Brown move on and enjoy F.A.M.E. as an excellent collection of modern R&B. "While he fails to reward those fans who are everything to him with a great collection of pop-RnB, Brown at least gives them reason to believe," BBC Music critic Nick Levine wrote. "At 21, he remains enough of a fledgling to forge a more fully-formed musical identity as he matures. Crucially, having sent two singles into the top 10 this year already, the MP3-downloading public seems willing to give him that chance."

What do you think of Chris Brown's new album? Let us know in the comments!

Tags Chris Brown, reviews, video