"I woke up with the song in my head called 'Half of My Heart.' And the idea is that it's this real sort of updated — not that it needs to be updated — sort of Tom Petty, Fleetwood Mac, Stevie Nicks thing. I thought, 'Well, if this is going to be my love letter to that style of music, who's going to be the Stevie Nicks in this equation?' And I thought, 'This Taylor Swift girl is going to be around for a long time.'"

-Singer, songwriter, guitar player and Internet meme aficionado John Mayer, talking about his collaboration with Taylor Swift. "Half of My Heart," which hit the Web on Thursday, comes from Mayer's upcoming album Battle Studies. Not surprisingly, the first seeds of the collaboration were planted on Twitter, where both Mayer and Swift are skilled regulars. He expressed a desire to work with her via the microblogging service, though he's not certain that's exactly how it came together. "You know what? It's like the tweet version of 'The Secret' — no better way to put it out into the universe than to tweet it. But then it's not like she reads the tweet and goes, 'I'm in,' although she may have. I don't remember." Mayer's Battle Studies hits stores on November 17 (the same day he plays a special celebratory album release show at New York City's Beacon Theater), while Swift has more immediate plans, as she's hosting and serving as the musical guest on this weekend's edition of "Saturday Night Live."

When John Mayer premiered his new single "Who Says" (the lead single from his forthcoming album Battle Studies), it appeared on the surface to be a simple ode to hanging out by yourself and getting high. But as Mayer told MTV's Tim Kash, the track is meant to make you reconsider its meaning several times.

"It sort of plays with your perception a little bit," Mayer said. "It starts out and it's like, 'Oh, is he being campy? Is he exploiting something?' But if you stay with the song long enough, then you start to realize that it's not about marijuana. It's actually about freedom and living your life."

Mayer told Kash that the tone that takes over later on in the song helps to broaden the meaning. "It starts out where you go, 'Oh, I get it, you're going to be like the male Amy Winehouse here.' But then it gets sweet, and the sweetness takes over and you begin to trust the message." He never intended to make a song that was provocative for the sake of being provocative — in fact, that's something he tries to avoid. "People don't like things that are purposefully shocking. They start to feel abused by it," he said.

He has faith that his message will get through, provided that listeners invest the necessary time to the track. "By the time the solo kicks in, you think 'Okay, I think this guy might be from the heart right now,' and by the last chorus you're like, 'Okay, I get it.'"

"I think she's smart enough to realize there is some interference of the brain that she doesn't want to deal with. Artists have enough to deal with. She's a child, she's a fantastic artist — I think there's enough mental real estate being taken up by dealing with all of that stuff. For whatever reason, I am old enough and smart enough to tell someone to go f--- themselves if they tell me to go f--- myself. I think if you're in Miley's situation, it might take a little too much time to play goalie for your own heart and mind. So I totally get it."

-Twitter enthusiast John Mayer, commenting on Miley Cyrus' decision to delete her account on the microblogging service, which caused quite a media stir last week. Mayer sat down with MTV News' Tim Kash to talk about his new album Battle Studies, the just-premiered video for its first single "Who Says" and a reality he calls "The Hate-rix." "I call it that because it's not really happening. It's just this fake world of people criticizing other people," he laughed. "It's a shame, but look, that's what it comes down to in America. Miley is somebody who's made a bunch of money doing something she loves. Most people do things they hate, for less money. If somebody can repurpose something that somebody loves doing for a lot of money, in order to make a little bit of that money, they're gonna do it. So nobody hates Miley Cyrus; they're just picking up on her brand, repurposing it, to try to make a little bit of Miley cash. It's damaging people's minds."

John Mayer has completed work on his new album (which he's calling Battle Studies) and he just debuted the record's first single on his official website (and, of course, via Twitter). Though much is always made about Mayer's guitar heroics, "Who Says" is a mellow acoustic shuffle with a real singer-songwriter bent to it (it's more "Daughters" than "Gravity"). But perhaps the most interesting aspect of the tune is its lyrical approach. While the chorus focuses squarely on a woman ("I don't remember you looking any better/But then again I don't remember you"), the verses all open with the line "Who says I can't get stoned?" Mayer — who famously smoked his way through a 2006 Rolling Stone interview — seems to be taking a stance on the nation's pot laws in an otherwise innocuous pop song.

The first verse continues: "Who says I can't get stoned?/Turn off the lights and the telephone/Me in my house alone/Who says I can't get stoned?" And the second verse begins with the line "Who says I can't be free?" Though he has joked on Twitter about no longer indulging in pot, that apparently doesn't mean he can't defend the rights of the college students and hippies who flock to his concerts.

In other album-related news, Mayer also tweeted recently about shooting the video for "Who Says" in New York City. "If you happen to be hanging out on top of the Brooklyn Bridge right now," he wrote last week, "by all means, please come and give a hellozie dozie!" Though there is no release date or details on the video yet, we do know that it involves a pool of some sort.

Battle Studies, Mayer's fourth album as a solo artist and the follow-up to his double-platinum Continuum, hits stores November 17.

London's Royal Opera House, which dates back to the 1600s (though it has been rebuilt a handful of times because of disastrous fires), has announced that it will host a staging of the first opera written entirely on Twitter. But the writing of the piece isn't being handled by a particular author (or the dudes from Coheed and Cambria). Rather, it's being written by whoever feels like they want to contribute to it. A special Twitter feed has been set up that allows anybody online to contribute lines of dialogue and plot points in 140 character bursts. So far, the story has advanced into the second act, though it's fairly inexplicable (which doesn't bother the curators — in fact, the curators are hoping that Twitter encourages non-linear stories).

Since the contributions can come from anywhere, there's no reason why some of the music world's biggest Twitter fanatics shouldn't participate. In fact, some of them could simply repurpose their existing tweets and turn them into pieces of arias. Wouldn't "Awake and different. I got surprises today. Or else I'm just still sleepy," which came from Pete Wentz's Twitter, sound heavenly coming out of Placido Domingo's throat? How about something from the endlessly excellent Drake's Knee, like "Pull a chicken off the scene/ Easy, just one look/ I run radio, Twitter, TV screens/ and I do it on one foot"? Or Miley Cyrus' "Gave a hug to Rob Pattinson today. Ok girls I get it now. So cute. Sorry 'Robby' bout all my bashing in my past"? Or what about one of John Mayer's latest dispatches, "So glad that's over. I think I'm going to have pink Trivial Pursuit pieces in my stool tomorrow"? (Okay, maybe that one can get left on the cutting room floor.)

So feel free to head over to @youropera to drop in your contribution to the project (the Royal Opera Company is also keeping tabs on the line-by-line developments here). And while you're at it, encourage your favorite musician on Twitter to drop in a line or two. Here's hoping that Lil Wayne's Twitter comes back soon enough to make a contribution.

She has performed with Def Leppard, T-Pain, Miley Cyrus, Kellie Pickler and yes, even the Jonas Brothers. While hard at work on her new album, Taylor Swift shared with MTV News how much she'd like to work with White Stripes/ Raconteurs/ Dead Weather frontman Jack White.

Given the diverse kinds of talent she's worked with over the last year, it doesn't seem that far-fetched that Taylor and White might hit up the studio sometime soon and work on some tracks. It got us searching our archives to see who else Taylor has talked about who she wants to work with (or vice versa) and we picked our favorites!

5) John Mayer: "He Twittered the other day that he wrote a song, and he wants to make it a duet with me," she said. "I freaked out when I heard, because I've been such a big fan of John for such a long time."

4) Selena Gomez: "We have talked about a duet," Selena said. "I think it would be really neat to have the country vibe."

3) T.I. and 2) Kanye West: "I'd like to do a completely off-the-wall collaboration," she said. "I would like one of my songs to be the hook to a rap song. That would be so much fun! You know, I love Kanye West and I love T.I. — he's amazing."

1) Tim McGraw: "But you know the dream for me would be Tim McGraw singing background vocals on one of my songs," she once told MTV News.

So, who would you like to see Taylor work with next? Let us know in the comments or head over to Your.MTV.com to make your voice heard!

Over the weekend, everyone's favorite Twitter aficionado John Mayer made an observation that lead to an interesting exchange via the social networking site. Yesterday, the guitar giant tweeted, "Listening to the hits channel on Sirius. I will reserve criticism but say that every ninth year of a decade really brings the junk." He went on to point out that the charts in 1979, '89 and '99 are all relatively low-quality, and in the meantime, the "2" years ('82, '92 and 2002) all seem to produce greatness. Mayer uses the example of Warrant to throw 1989 under the bus, which is a brilliant strategy considering that their album Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinking Rich was not only gigantic but also represented the predominant trend of the era (that being hair metal). But is it a fair assessment of the decade? And how do those other years measure up?

Mayer is a little unfair to 1979, as the top singles from that year were a mix of disco tracks, one-hit wonders and the first big influences of punk and New Wave. Blondie's "Heart of Glass" bridged the gap between dance music and their brand of icy rock, while the Knack's "My Sharona" was a brief hit that ended up being far more influential than anybody could have imagined. Of course, hindsight is 20/20, so it's possible that in the present tense those songs were utterly unacceptable. But it ended up being okay. There were plenty of duds (Chic's "Good Times," Bee Gees' "Love You Inside Out"), but it was also the year that saw Michael Jackson's "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" and Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive" can't be all bad.

1989 was more questionable. Read more...

The clock on the wall says it's just about time to punch out here in the Newsroom, but that doesn't mean we don't have time to reflect on everything we learned this week, as there was much education flying around the office.

» We learned that at least one "Twilight" star has heard "Screaming at a Wall."

» We learned that sometimes Cake is just as good as cake.

» We learned that at least one member of the MTV News staff owns a copy of the soundtrack to "A Life Less Ordinary."

» We learned that John Mayer's lyrics often blend together with his tweets.
Read more...

Demi Lovato's new album Here We Go Again hits stores today, and it's a more rocking effort than her debut disc. Lovato talked a lot about the album with MTV News' Jocelyn Vena, but one of the things that she cited was her professional relationship with John Mayer. She had been a big fan for a long time, so it was something of a wish fulfilled when they collaborated on the new record's "World of Chances." She enjoyed the process but joked about how many tangents his hits in the studio.

Mayer wasn't the only special guest to provide an assist on Lovato's latest. She also worked with singer-songwriter Jon McLaughlin ("Falling Over Me"), the Academy Is... frontman William Beckett ("For the Love of a Daughter," which didn't make the album) and some dude named Nick Jonas ("Stop the World").

One question: Did Mayer really send Lovato "a letter" when he heard about her fandom? Wouldn't he be more likely to Tweet?

Of all the musicians active on Twitter, few are more committed to the service — and more entertaining in the process — than guitar virtuoso/stand-up comic/cruise director John Mayer. But last night, Mayer (who is hard at work on a new album) intimated that the social networking system might be having an effect on his work.

"Suffering cerebral atrophy. Since I've been communicating in short pulses, I've been writing lyrics the same way," he wrote. "The single-serve idea is killing my writing. Laying off a little in the coming weeks." The message suggests that Mayer may be laying off Twitter for a while to try to kickstart his lyrical approach.

But will it help? Take a look at the collection of quotes below. Some are from Mayer's Twitter account, and the rest are actual lines from Mayer songs. Can you tell which is which? (No cheating!) And which ones do you prefer?

» "Violence will get you nowhere."

» "I don't know why, but Tori just smiled."

» "Maybe I will tell you all about it when I'm in the mood to lose my way with words."
Read more...