Think about this for a moment: The iPod is only eight years old. In less than a decade, Apple's portable music and media device has become an absolutely necessary part of modern life. The first iPods hit the market on this day back in 2001, with five and 10 gigabyte versions available. The first iPods were hilarious looking, especially compared to current models. They used a clunky mechanical scroll wheel and weighed about ten pounds. They were so solid you could use them for masonry. But like all technology, the iPod evolved quickly. The iPod (and by extension the iPhone) is now not only a music device but also a video player, gaming system, personal organizer, Web browser, messaging system, navigational tool and on and on. Last month, Apple introduced an iPod that has a capacity of 160 gigabytes, enough space to store over 53,000 songs. Consider that in 2000, the best option for carrying around music you liked was to burn a mix CD, which meant that you had 20 or so tunes at your disposal.

Not that it really needed it, but the iPod was also supported by a tremendous marketing campaign, and to this day, getting your song in an Apple TV spot tends to do great things for a band's business. The first batch of iPod commercials featured a track from '90s big beat enthusiasts the Propellerheads, and a number of bands have used iPod commercials as jumping off points to launch new albums (U2, Coldplay) or their entire careers (Chairlift, the Ting Tings). The first group that catapulted to superstardom care of an iPod ad was the Black Eyed Peas, whose song "Hey Mama" propelled their 2003 album Elephunk up the charts. Along the way, iPod commercials have helped give a jolt to the careers of the Caesars, the Fratellis and Chairlift and helped extend the lives of hit songs by Feist and Jack Johnson. Check out the video playlist below that takes a look back at the songs that helped make the iPod into a part of everyday life.

By Chad Bullock

Admit it: It would be a little unusual to see all six-and-a-half feet of Jay-Z with his legs behind his ear. But according to the chart-topping Brooklyn rapper, we may see that sooner rather than later. The hip-hop mogul recently stated that Coldplay frontman (and collaborator and friend) Chris Martin has accelerated his interest in practicing yoga. "Chris hasn't tried to get me to do yoga yet but I am close to doing it," Hova said. "I'm envious of what he can do on stage. Watching him is amazing, he can really move. I want to be able to move like that, get my leg behind my ear, things like that."

Jay-Z never fails to let us know why he is considered one of the best in the game. He has kicked out 11 #1 studio albums (beating Elvis' record), put a huge ring on the hottest chick in the game's finger and now he might try to conquer the yoga game. Maybe he wants to loosen up for a dance-off with Beyoncé? Maybe he wants spice things up at home? Whatever the case, he is not the only rapper to pick up yoga.

Def Jam co-founder Russell Simmons is a strong advocate for yoga in hip-hop. "It affects what everybody raps about," he has said. Simmons added that Diddy has also attended his yoga classes. "It's not full of rappers yet, but we're hopeful." Perhaps Simmons can soon add Jay-Z to the guest list.

What do you think: Should Jay-Z practice his downward dog or should he leave the dolphin poses to Chris Martin? Leave your thoughts in the comments or head over to Your.MTV.com to make your voice heard!

The MTV Video Music Awards are just a few short days away, and though there is all sorts of buzz surrounding the performances, the parties and the New York-centric stunts that will be happening all this week into Sunday's broadcast, it's important to remember that the reason the biggest stars in music will gather in Radio City Music Hall is to see who wins the coveted Moonman in each of the 15 categories. We'll be taking a look at each of the top categories, continuing today with the Best Rock Video award. The nominees are Coldplay's "Viva la Vida," Fall Out Boy's "I Don't Care," Green Day's "21 Guns," Kings of Leon's "Use Somebody" and Paramore's "Decode."

Strangely, the Best Rock Video category has only been around since 1997 (in years prior, the top rock clip tended to get lumped into categories like Best Hard Rock, Best Metal, Best Alternative or Best Group Video). Of this year's nominees, only Green Day have taken home this prize before (they scored a Moonman for "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" in 2005). The punk trio cleaned up in 2005 — they took home seven statuettes total, including Video of the Year and a Viewer's Choice Award. Their career total is eight (including a nod for Best Alternative Video in 1995 for "Time of Your Life (Good Riddance)"), and they've also got three performances under their belt, having played in 1994 ("Basket Case"), 1995 ("Stuck With You") and 2005 ("Boulevard of Broken Dreams"). "21 Guns," from their latest album 21st Century Breakdown, has a total of three nominations, bringing Green Day's career total to a whopping 28.

Fall Out Boy did win Best Group in 2007 when Best Rock Video was absent. Read more...

Another Disney star is making the crossover from television into the music world. Selena Gomez, star of "Wizards of Waverly Place," just announced that her first album will be called Kiss & Tell and will be coming out soon. Via Twitter, she also unveiled the name she has given to her band. The group will be known as the Scene. Gomez explained that it's meant to be an ironic jab at people who throw the epithet "wannabe scene" at her.

It's not yet clear what the album will sound like, but she is already setting herself up for a certain amount of failure, as the Scene immediately joins the ranks of the following bands in the pantheon of groups with unbelievably boring names.

The Band: It's one thing to have the cojones to be Canadian and play American roots rock, but it's something else entirely to give yourself that kind of moniker. The most frustrating thing is that when they first started backing up Bob Dylan, they were called the Hawks. The Hawks! That's an incredibly simple, direct, incredibly hardcore band name. Would you rather simply be called "the Band" or be named after a cold-hearted bird of prey?

Coldplay: It must be some sort of rule in the U.K. that if you copy Radiohead in any vague way, you have to call your group a one word snooze (see Travis, Keane, Starsailor, South). But Coldplay stands above those because it manages to take two benign words and smash them together in a portmanteau. In fact, Chris Martin really should have just called his band "Portmanteau."
Read more...

After executive producer Al Jean mentioned it last week, representatives of the band confirmed today that Coldplay would make a guest appearance on an episode during the upcoming season of "The Simpsons." They'll join an impressive list of bands who have gone yellow for the show, including U2, the Ramones, the Who, Smashing Pumpkins and Metallica. Coldplay don't necessarily have the same cool cred as the bands above, but are they the most mediocre act to ever play a note with yellow skin? Here are the musical guests that give them a run for their money.

Shawn Colvin: Remember Colvin? She had a brief bit of success during the Lillith Fair era with her hit "Sunny Came Home," and she's one of the few musicians to appear on "The Simpsons" as a character and not herself. She played a singer in a Christian rock band who wooed Ned Flanders following the death of his wife Maude. Verdict: She appeared well after her caché had expired, though she was in the guise of a character and not herself, making it seem more like an acting performance than anything else. Plus, she appeared in more than one episode — no small feat for a "Simpsons" guest star.
Read more...

The U.K. might be a small island in the ocean, but we definitely had a big voice in music this past year. The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) just released some numbers, and I wanted to take a quick minute to give a big shout-out to some of the U.K.'s finest musical exports who made a splash over here in America.

For any British artist, "breaking America" is a huge deal and a very tough thing to do. There have been artists like Robbie Williams — who are hugely famous and incredibly popular back home — who come to the U.S. with the hopes and dreams to replicate that success and end up being sorely disappointed.

But then there are the newcomers that hit the music scene just last year, like "X-Factor" winner Leona Lewis, Duffy, Adele, Estelle and the Ting Tings.

According to the BPI, one in 10 albums bought in the U.S. was by a British artist. That's big. In fact, that's huge. The figures actually show that the U.K. market share rose from 8.5 percent in 2007, and in Canada, British artists accounted for almost 15 percent of album sales.

Sitting on top of the Brit Pack are, of course, one of the biggest bands in the world: Coldplay. Chris and the boys' Viva la Vida was the second best-selling album in the U.S. last year, selling more than 5 million singles, followed closely by Leona Lewis, who shifted just under 4.75 million albums — impressive.

So here's a toast to the Brit Pack. Keep it coming!

Did you miss Coldplay's Track-By-Track Tour of Viva La Vida? Check it out, after the jump!
Read more...

Getting one album a year set up and released is enough of a chore amid the smoking ruins of the music business. While albums frequently dropped every four to six months in the 1960s, unless you're multi-band-leader Jack White, the lag time between major releases these days tends to be three or more years. And if you're Guns N' Roses or Dr. Dre, well ...

Some, like Lil Wayne, pack that gap with hundreds of mixtape tunes and guest appearances, but even Weezy seems to be struggling to nail what is shaping up to be the new brass bragging ring in the biz: the two (or three) albums in a year watermark. While his rock album, Rebirth, was supposed to be released this spring, last we knew it was still in the "TBD" category.

So far this year, we've had U2, Eminem and Coldplay saying they'll drop a second brand-new disc of material either in the same calendar year or within 365 days of their most recent efforts. But considering the gaps between their two most recent releases (almost five years, five years and three years, respectively), and the fact that they're among the biggest acts in the world, turning that ship around so quickly would be impressive, though highly unlikely. Read more...

By Adrienne Day

There's a lot going on in the world that doesn't necessarily get addressed in our Newsroom blog. Here's a look at some top stories making headlines today.

It's Grammy time, and here are our predictions for the winners! (Hint: We're betting heavily on Coldplay.) Also, could M.I.A., Leona Lewis, Rihanna and other female artists up for awards turn the Grammys into ladies' night?

Is Nas' message stronger than his music? We listen to the controversy surrounding the rapper's Untitled, up for a Best Rap Album Grammy.

Day26 clue us in to the mood of their new album — sexy! — and to their dream-team collaborators: "Kanye West, Lil Wayne, T.I., Jeezy, Luda, T-Pain ... we want to work with you."

John Carpenter is back in the director's seat: We hear that the "Halloween" mastermind is set to direct "The Ward," starring Amber Heard, who plays a woman trapped in a haunted mental institution.

You want to infuse some desperately needed cool into rock and roll? Look no further than "the best rapper alive." Lil Wayne officially debuted his new song, "Prom Queen" live on Tuesday and automatically became the coolest rocker in the biz (at least the coolest new guy; Bono is still pretty damn cool, you know). It's more than tattoos, shades and tight jeans. Rock has been missing that swagger for years. Why do you think hip-hop guys are the cats that kids want to be like?

Fall Out Boy have great records, Coldplay do their thing, but can we honestly anybody in those bands have the same matinee-idol status as Wayne? The kids go to their shows and listen to their music, but at a certain point, they turn it off. Wayne, Jeezy, T.I., they've permeated the lives of the people in their culture. Wayne will continue to do so in his new endeavor. What Wayne can do for rock is what he did for hip-hop: put more eyes on the genre. (His latest rock tune, "Hot Revolver," just leaked to the Web today.)

At a time when hip-hop was pronounced dead by some, when they said the economic and technological climate wouldn't allow for huge sales, Weezy F. Baby became the SoundScan poster child. Now look at rock. The die-hard fans of the music have long complained that it's just not hitting like it used to. Do they need a guy who can battle Slash in playing guitar? No. Do they need a guy who has a voice as harmonious as Elvis? Not really. They need that new, long-haired rebellious hero. They need that guy who might walk out of his own concert before the show even starts. They need that guy who is going to tell the world he does what he wants, and you damn well better like it. Rock needs Lil Wayne.

Now, I'm not a lawyer. Hell, I barely made it through college. But I'm going to go ahead and say that Coldplay's Chris Martin may have just dug his legal grave. See, Coldplay, as you may have read, are being sued by guitarist Joe Satriani, who claims their song "Viva la Vida" bears an uncanny resemblance to his earlier instrumental "If I Could Fly."

Martin and the band denied the charges, but on Thursday, the singer appeared on the BBC Radio 1's "The Chris Moyles Show" and practically admitted to plagiarism. Only the rip-off he copped to was not of Satriani, but of late singer Jeff Buckley.

"It's a blatant Jeff Buckley attempt," Martin said of the 2000 Coldplay song "Shiver." "Not quite as good, that's what I think. We were 21, and he was very much a hero, and as with those things it tends to filter through."

Again, I'm no legal scholar, but when you're being accused of stealing someone's riffs, common sense dictates that maybe you keep your trap shut about other songs you've released that are open rips of someone's sound. Just a thought.