By Akshay Bhansali

Amid the star-stacked frenzy of the radio forum at the VMAs at Radio City Music Hall a few weeks back, I ran into my old pal Anjulie. Since we first met a few years back, the Canadian-born singer/songwriter has come a long way. At the forum, she was fielding radio and TV interviews to promote her self-titled album. And she had more to talk about. In addition to being selected as one of five artists to watch out for in MTVU's Freshman 5 this summer, the big news of the weekend was that her video for "Boom" was facing off against Gnarls Barkley, Bat For Lashes and Death Cab for Cutie (among others) for Breakthrough Video at the weekend's big awards show. (The prize ended up going to Matt and Kim's "Lessons Learned," and why not? Don't we all want to strip down naked and run through Times Square?)

I'm not saying Anj took a hint of any kind from the aforementioned winner, but in her new video for second single "Rain," she totally writhes around on a bed in her underwear. Just kidding! But not totally. At the radio forum, she talked about the noir-ish feel of the clip, which is indeed inspired by Madonna's "Justify My Love." Yep, even she said that for the video they definitely tried to take it "there."

Currently, Anjulie is on tour with Shwayze and B.o.B., and this fall and winter she'll team up for a trek with Raphael Saadiq.

Following a triumphant night at the Video Music Awards (wherein she arrived on a fire truck, performed while swinging on a trapeze and managed to look better in a dress than Shakira), Pink headed across the country to Seattle to launch her Funhouse tour at the Key Arena.

The singer opened the show with the announcement that though she had separated her shoulder, she would not let the injury impede her performance. That made the next two hours all the more impressive, as Pink danced, swung and flew around the stage, making multiple costume changes while running through a string of her biggest hits. The stage was set up to look like a sort of energetic, dark carnival, as though Britney Spears' Circus tour had been slathered with greasepaint and become overrun by gypsies. Though this time she sang "Sober" while standing on the ground, she did take to the air for the opening of the show, which led into the set-opening "Bad Influence."

She chose a handful of covers to match the spectacle, too, as the singer tore into epic versions of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody," Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy" and Led Zeppelin's "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You." But it was her own tunes that brought on the biggest pops of the night, especially the show-closing one-two punch of "Get the Party Started" and "Glitter in the Air." The massive Funhouse tour continues tomorrow in San Jose, California, and then tears across the United States, culminating in a stop at New York City's Madison Square Garden before she crosses the pond to tackle Europe. Click here to check out all the photos from Pink's Funhouse tour!

Perhaps you read that Mariah Carey's upcoming CD, Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel, will come with a 34-page booklet packed with ads for upscale perfumes and liquors. Her label, Island/Def Jam, is promoting the venture as a ground-breaker in integrating marketing for a music industry that has seen a steadily increasing decline in music sales over the past decade. But as pioneering as it is, Mariah is not the first artist to dip her toe into musical product placement by teaming up with advertisers to hawk her music.

Last year, Chris Brown's label cut a deal with the Wm. Wrigley, Jr. company to have the singer turn his song "Forever" into a jingle in ads for Doublemint gum by using the 1famous "double your pleasure, double your fun" tagline. While plenty of singers have lent their songs out to be used in commercials, the collaboration with the gum maker and Brown — whose ads were pulled after he was arrested for assaulting Rihanna — presented a new level of corporate collaboration.

Coca-Cola recently recruited Cee-Lo Green from Gnarls Barkley, Fall Out Boy's Patrick Stump, Panic! At The Disco's Brendon Urie, Gym Class Heroes' Travis McCoy and Janelle Monae to write and sing a new jingle, "Open Happiness," which was turned into a music video aired, among other places, on MTV. And last year, Santigold, Pharrell Williams and Strokes singer Julian Casablancas hooked up to write "My Drive Thru," a jingle for Converse sneakers.

For years, artists like Jay-Z and Diddy have hyped their own brands in songs, and others, like Busta Rhymes, have gotten deals on the back end after paying tribute to liquors like Courvoisier in verse. But more recently, new band Parachute acoustically reworked their song "She is Love" to serve as the "single" for a new ad for beauty products giant Nivea. The deal was such a success that the band's next single is also going to be used in a Nivea ad.

But frankly, these deals pale in comparison to a few of the most notorious product placement gigs in music history. First came British rock icons the Who, whose third album, 1967's The Who Sell Out, was packaged as a concept record with fake commercials between the songs but which led to lawsuits by real commercial interests who cried foul over the parodies. Then there was Flaunt It, the notorious 1986 debut album from New Wave supergroup Sigue Sigue Sputnik, on which the band sold actual ad time between songs alongside fake ads that they created themselves.

By Eric Ditzian

In this age of ubiquitous Internet video, nothing is ever forgotten. Every time somebody sticks a camera in front of your face, expect that footage to one day pop up somewhere on the Web. Just pray it's not embarrassing.

"American Idol" front-runner Adam Lambert, he of the acrobatic voice and inventive wardrobe, doesn't have to worry — dude always sounds amazing.

Case in point: This 2008 video of Lambert singing a sped-up, jazzier, piano-accompanied version of Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy" at the Upright Cabaret in West Hollywood, California. This past weekend, his cabaret buddies staged an "Upright Loves Lambert" tribute concert during which artists and musicians — including many from the musical "Wicked" and Hollywood revue "The Zodiac Show" — performed songs that had some connection to the "Idol" fave.

Since debuting on the talent competition in January, Lambert hasn't sung many contemporary tunes. But listen to this version of "Crazy," and you'll hope he rocks out some new-millennium anthems in the weeks to come.

Have you ever gone to church after not being there for a while, and you hear a really illuminating, all-knowing sermon, and you feel cleansed? You walk away from the church feeling 10 pounds lighter and like a giant weight has been lifted from your consciousness. Anyway, that's how I felt after interviewing U2. Interviewing them made me feel how I used to feel when I first got into the game.

They were excited about music culture. As big as they've become, they have more humility and hunger than rappers I've interviewed who've only had one hit in the past year. Music to them is not just plucking their strings; it's spiritual. Them boys live to play, and they love to create and they love to make an impact on those who listen, and they want to be as good as they can be. They care immensely about their fans.

Read more...

We here at MTV News are a pretty diverse bunch, so the views expressed by some in our more official-type year-end lists (like James Montgomery's Top 25 Albums and Best Songs, and the Mixtape Monday Awards) are not necessarily shared by the rest of the newsroom. So we're giving everyone else a chance to chime in with their own lists and explain (or defend) their choices. You’ll find the staff faves of 2008 all together here.

By Nick Neofitidis, Field Producer

It's that time of the year, when you, our audience, get to butcher us over our top-10 lists on everything from movies to albums — so I lay myself at the mercy of the kids. Please be gentle.

10. Michael Jackson, Thriller 25 — OK, I may be cheating here just a bit, but there is no way a human being in this world with functioning ears doesn't hear some old-school Mike and just want to start busting a move. (I just moon-walked thinking about it.)

9. Radiohead, In Rainbows — Can't say that I am a huge Radiohead fan, but what these guys did to shake up the industry by offering up the album for download at whatever price you wanted is pretty damn genius.

8. Kanye West, 808's & Heartbreak — Rappers singing? Wait a gosh darn minute! Oh, wow — this isn't half bad! Love those glasses. Man, why Kanye always got such an ego? Did he just break that dude's camera? Still need a month to get used to this. Kanye makes me tired.

More of Nick's list, and he defends his number one album choice... after the jump!
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We started the third and final day of Lollapalooza with a toddler-friendly interview with Gnarls Barkley on the steps of the Kidzapalooza stage (in between sets from the Homemade Jamz Blues Band and the Jimmies, of course).

Cee-lo and Danger Mouse spoke about the mind-melting video for "Who's Gonna Save My Soul," and DM's upcoming projects (sorta ... "I've got stuff in the works, but nothing I wanna talk about," he mumbled), but what they really wanted to discuss was the set by they had just witnessed by the aforementioned Homemade Jamz.

In fact, they were so impressed that they brought 9-year-old drummer Taya Perry -- truly the finest mini kit-master in Tupelo, Mississippi -- onto the stage to take part in the interview. Because, after all, Gnarls loves the kids.

(Watch Gnarls after the jump!)
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Late yesterday, the MTV Newsroom was all aflutter with excitement, and not just because Brangelina might have just had twins!!!

No, it was because Beck's much-anticipated new album, Modern Guilt (which we sorta totally hipped you about back in May), finally made its worldwide debut via — of course — the vast file-sharing nether-regions of the Internet. And while some of the younger members of the News Team (ahem, Rya) have already criticized the album based on a few listens to one track, there's a whole bunch of us who couldn't wait to hear what Beck and co-producer Danger Mouse had cooked up, because we love both of them (and because we're old enough to remember the halcyon days of 1994, when "Loser" blared on every boombox and there was a flannel-clad chicken in every pot).

So what's the verdict? Was Guilt worth the wait? You can find out below the jump. Read more...

· That was quick. Season-six "American Idol" runner-up, beat-boxing '80s-lover Blake Lewis, has been dropped by his label, Arista Records, after only one album. Audio Day Dream only moved 300,000 copies. The "Idol" boys curse strikes again.

· So, it turns out the California blogger who posted those nine Chinese Democracy tracks over the weekend didn't just get shut down by Guns N' Roses' label, he also got a visit from the FBI.

· Radiohead are offering 10 live recordings of In Rainbows tracks on the iTunes store. The songs are from a recent show at the Hospital in London and were recorded by frequent collaborator Nigel Godrich. Read more...

I get it, Lollapalooza. There are only so many slots in a 12-hour day to cram in 100 bands. And I'm not hating on having to choose between Bang Camaro and K'naan, or splitting the difference on Uffie and Jamie Lidell, because, frankly, I couldn't care less about any of them. And I'm even willing to forgive having to choose between Gnarls Barkley and Girl Talk. And Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings or the Toadies is a slam dunk, no offense Toad-heads.

But come Saturday and Sunday night, you're seriously killing me. The daily schedules are finally here, and I get that all air traffic is being cleared to give Radiohead some radio silence for their headlining slot on Friday night. They've earned it — and frankly, who wants to go up against them anyway, right?

But Saturday night? I'm going to have to choose between watching Kanye West land his egogalactic mother ship in his hometown on the shores of Lake Michigan and walking a mile across Grant Park to see Nine Inch Nails unleash a toxic bile spill on the other main stage. That ain't right. Sure, I've seen NIN a few times and I haven't seen the Kanye show yet (the local date here got canceled due to, um, "production" issues), but both promise to be spectacles on a par with last year's totally bananas Daft Punk set.

And Sunday's not much better: The reunited Rage Against the Machine are up against one of my favorite bands (another Chicago-bred act), Wilco. Unless you're a music geek like me, that's not really a hard one, since the bands are different sides of the rock coin. But still, who doesn't want a bit of sweaty-torso bro-thrash mixed with a palate-cleansing bowl of spidery guitar noodle soup? It's just not fair.

Other than those colossal musical Sophie's Choices (oh, and putting the Black Lips on one of the main stages at noon on Friday — c'mon, that's just mean), I'm cool with the rest of the roster choices.

But I can't help wondering how Iron and Wine leader Sam Beam's pastoral acoustic reveries will go over on the Bud Light stage at 4:15 p.m. on Sunday, just a few hours before the NIN crowd begins to descend on the area like a drunken black cloud of hormones and terrorist fist jabs. Considering this recent bottling of Queens of the Stone Age's Josh Homme, I'd suggest you bring a helmet, Sam.

Are you feeling conflicted? Tearing your hair out choosing between Booka Shade and DeVotchKa? Tell us about it.