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ussian President Dmitry Medvedev sang Elton John’s praise after a concert in Moscow Sunday, writing on Twitter how impressed he was with the British pop icon’s show, RIA Novosti agency reported. “I was at Elton John’s concert. Very serious work, of very high quality-almost three hours of live music,” wrote the president, who cultivates the image of a modern leader and fan of rock music, often referring to his love of Pink Floyd and Deep Purple. In August Medvedev met U2 frontman Bono while the Irish
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Tuesday, December 14, 2010
(From Left) Russian President Dmitry Medvedev shakes hands with English musician Elton John after his concert in Moscow on Sunday. — AP
rocker was in Russia for his band’s first ever performance in the country. In October he shared a beer with Russian rock stars from the 1980 and 1990s in front of the cameras. While Medvedev may be happy just being among the audience, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin took to the stage on Friday, playing the grand piano for a room full of filmstars in a concert lasting into the wee hours. Guests to the charity concert in Saint Petersburg included Sharon Stone, Monica Bellucci, Mickey Rourke, Ornella Muti and other stars, the government said on its website. — AFP
‘Glee’ throws lifeline to music industry By Ann Donahue o measure the impact of “Glee” on pop music in 2010, just remember this: The misfits of McKinley High now have a place in the history books above the Fab Four. In October, recordings by the show’s cast overtook the Beatles in terms of the number of songs placed on the Billboard Hot 100. As of December, “Glee” now has 102 songs on the chart-and with at least a season-and-a-half to go that has already been guaranteed by Fox, it’s a safe bet that the cast recordings will give Elvis Presley a run for the top spot in the record books with 108 singles. The show has become a single-selling machine the likes of which Ed Sullivan could only dream about. And much like “The Ed Sullivan Show,” “Glee” has become the go-to platform for contemporary superstar acts with new songs to hawk. This wasn’t necessarily the case when the show debuted in May 2009. The best-selling digital single for the program’s first season was a version of Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin”“ that tallied 1 million total sales, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Now, halfway through year two, the season’s top seller is a rendition of Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream,” with 286,000 copies sold to date-and it bested “Believin”“ in first-week sales by 214,000 to 177,000. The contrast in styles between the two songsone a decades-old standard with recurring pop culture resonance, the other a track that hit No. 1 on the Hot 100 in August- exemplifies the show’s push toward offering more current pop hits faster to its track-happy core 18-49 viewing demographic. “In many ways, ‘Glee’ was built on classic hits,” the show’s music supervisor PJ Bloom says. “We needed cultural staples to grab a broad audienceand it worked.” The trend toward top 40 fare certainly helps
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By Jake Coyle ntoine Dodson’s dramatic reaction to a local crime has spawned the most-watched YouTube video of the year, excepting music videos. When Dodson, a 24-year-old Alabama student, gave an angry TV interview about an attempted rape against his younger sister, he became a viral hit. When a video turned that rant into an auto-tuned song, “Bed Intruder Song,” Dodson became a full-fledged Internet sensation. The “Bed Intruder Song” is the top YouTube video of the year, the Google Inc.-owned company announced yesterday. YouTube added the view counts for two versions of the video, which put its total at over 61 million views. YouTube separated commercial music videos from their top-10 list. Otherwise, all the top 10 videos would have been by either Justin Bieber, Shakira, Eminem, Rihanna or Lady Gaga. With more than 406 million views, Bieber’s video for “Baby” trumped all others. The “Bed Intruder” video was remixed by New York musicians Evan and Michael Gregory who are also known for their Web series “Auto-Tune the News.” The song charted on iTunes, with profits being split between Dodson and the Gregorys. “Blessings come in disguise,” Dodson earlier told The Associated Press. The second most-watched video was another madefor-YouTube riff: a parody of Ke$ha’s “Tik Tok” by the musical sketch Web series Key of Awesome. More than 50.6 million have watched the mock version of the popular pop song. In the third most-watched video, a potential new pop star was born. In it, 13-year-old Greyson Chance (who has been compared to Bieber) sings Lady Gaga’s “Paparazzi” while playing piano at a sixth-grade music recital. The top 10 also included: a video from the “Annoying Orange” series; a viral ad from Old Spice; the hysterically happy “double rainbow” guy; OK Go’s video to “This Too Shall Pass”; the trailer for the “Twilight” film “Eclipse”; Jimmy Kimmel surprising a 3-year-old Bieber fan with the young star; and a stunt driving video by rally racer Ken Block. YouTube said it made an exception in its rankings for OK Go’s music video because the band is no longer on a
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major label. In March, the band left EMI’s Capitol Records to start Paracadute Recordings. Mia Quagliarello, YouTube community manager, noted that several of 2010’s top videos were made by people or companies that attempt to create YouTube videos for a living. YouTube shares advertising revenue with uploaders who are “partners.” Many of the so-called amateurs that helped build YouTube have gone pro. “More and more people are seeing YouTube as a place they can make it their career,” said Quagliarello. “We try to give them the tools and the financials to make that happen.”—AP
In this file photo Antoine Dodson, 24, poses in the stairwell of the apartment complex where his sister was attacked in Huntsville, Ala. — AP In this May 24, 2010 file photo released by Warner Bros, host Ellen DeGeneres, right, embraces Greyson Chance during a taping of The Ellen DeGeneres Show, in Burbank, Calif. — AP
the show in terms of relevance-tween viewers who are baffled by a reference to “A Chorus Line” feel like one of the cool kids when they can sing along to Bruno Mars’ “Just the Way You Are.” According to Fox, “Glee” is the No 1 show in the 18-49 demographic among women, and the show’s push toward pop is a targeted move to keep these viewers happy. “Now that ‘Glee’ is ‘Glee,”“ Bloom says, “we have the latitude to explore newer songs on their way to becoming hits and the ability to add to the hitmaking machinery.” Other of-the-moment songs featured on “Glee” since its second-season debut in September include Travie McCoy’s “Billionaire” and Cee Lo Green’s cleaned-up “Forget You.” “This season we’ve really been put to task,” Bloom says. “We’re using songs on the show the same time they’re charting as new hits. That leaves a small window for (show creator) Ryan (Murphy) and his creative team to choose the music and the production team to clear, record, rehearse, shoot, post and prep for retail. It’s been as quick as a few weeks.” The development schedule for “Glee,” according to co-creator Brad Falchuk, generally operates several weeks ahead of when the show airs. For instance, the week that the second season debuted, the cast was shooting the fifth episode of the season-a tribute to “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” that eventually aired Oct 26 — while Falchuk was writing the seventh episode of the season that aired Nov 16 and featured Gwyneth Paltrow as a Cee Lo-crooning substitute teacher. To get the ball rolling as early as possible, Bloom says artists, labels and publishers are giving the show advance listens of upcoming releases as soon as they’re comfortable sharing them. While this does help in the creative process, there’s a downside. “These songs are often harder to clear because songwriter splits haven’t been
he son of Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour was arrested Sunday on suspicion of attempted criminal damage after he was pictured swinging from Britain’s national war memorial during a student riot. In a public apology Friday, Charlie Gilmour, 21, identified himself as the man pictured in several national newspapers swinging from the British flag on the Cenotaph in central London. Thousands of student demonstrators went on the rampage through London on Thursday as the government narrowly won a parliamentary vote on raising university tuition fees as much as threefold. “A 21-year-old man was arrested at his home address in Sussex (southeast England)... on suspicion of violent disorder, and attempted criminal damage of the Union flag, on the Cenotaph,” Scotland Yard said in a statement Sunday.”He was taken to a Sussex police station where he has been further arrested on suspicion of theft. He remains in custody.”Charlie Gilmour, who is the Pink Floyd star’s adopted son, said in his statement Friday that he was sorry for the “terrible insult” to the country’s war dead. A former model who now studies history at Britain’s prestigious Cambridge University, Gilmour said he did not realize it was the Cenotaph at the time.”I would like to express my deepest apologies for the terrible insult to the thousands of people who died bravely for our country that my actions represented,” he wrote.”I feel nothing but shame... I got caught up in the spirit of the moment.”I did not realize that it was the Cenotaph and if I had, I certainly would not have done what I did.” David Gilmour married author and journalist Polly Samson in 1994, and her son Charlie became the Pink Floyd star’s stepson. Police meanwhile released images of 13 men and one woman they want to identify over the violent disturbances during the riot. Some demonstrators attacked a car carrying Prince Charles, the heir to the throne, and his wife Camilla. Some 35 people have been arrested.—AFP
finalized or we precede a record company’s ability to launch a campaign,” Bloom says. Adam Anders produces the songs for “Glee” and says he’s even started working on songs before they’ve technically been cleared in order to keep up with the pace. “I beg and plead for titles, even as you’re waiting for scripts to come out,” he says. “I talk to PJ and say, ‘What are the chances here?’ It’s like we’re playing the odds on the songs.” And it takes Anders to complete production in order to move on to other aspects of the show-like choreography for dance sequences. “There are so many moving parts to the show. You’ll think you have four or five days, and then they can’t get a location and they need it tomorrow,” Anders says. “Obviously I’d prefer to have a week like we normally do for the songs, but we’ve learned to adjust on the fly and make it work.” Anders does believe that the quick turnaround is worth it, since pop songs hit the sweet spot with the audience. “The heart of ‘Glee’ is making people feel good,” he says. “That’s what popular music is there for. When you combine a great song with a great moment in the show, they take ownership of it and they want it.” The addition of Darren Criss-who sang the show’s cover of “Teenage Dream”-as a cast regular and recurring guest stars like Charice also illustrate the show’s push toward pop. “(Charice) came in, and it was a lovely meeting, and at the end her manager just had her sing a couple of bars of ‘Gold Digger’ and it was like, ‘Oh, hold on a second,”“ Falchuk says. “Oh, yeah, she’s worth writing for.” (In the season opener, besides doing Lady Gaga and Beyonce’s “Telephone,” Charice sang a blow-the-roof-off rendition of the latter’s “Listen,” and Falchuk says the intercut reactions of the “Glee” cast to her performance were all real. “It was a shock,” he says. “She’s 4 foot 2 and she can sing like that? Ridiculous.”)
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Record 19.4 million see
By Mike Collett-White ecordings of Michael Jackson’s voice on a new album being released this week were far from the finished article and required considerable digital enhancement, according to one of its main producers. But Teddy Riley, who worked with the King of Pop on several records before his death, believed that “Michael” would go down as a classic, albeit short of the heights of Jackson’s heyday in the late 70s and early 80s. “I had to do more processing to the voice, which is why people were asking about the authenticity of his voice,” Riley told Reuters of the first album of new Jackson material since the singer’s sudden death 18 months ago. The project has been mired in controversy since members of Jackson’s family were quoted questioning the authenticity of the voice on some tracks and his father’s lawyer said the perfectionist would never have wanted the music released. “We had to do what we had to do to make ... his voice work with the actual music,” Riley added in an interview. “He (Jackson) would never consider it being a final vocal. But because he’s not with us he cannot give us new vocals. What we did was utilize the Melodyne (technology) to get him in key. “With the Melodyne we actually move the stuff up which is the reason why some of the vibrato sounds a little off or processed, over-processed. We truly apologize for that happening, but you are still hearing the true Michael Jackson.” Riley worked on three of the 10 songs on the album- “Hollywood Tonight”, “Monster” and “Breaking News”. The last two were recorded at the New Jersey home of the Cascio family in 2007, along with a third Cascio track “Keep Your Head Up”. It was these recordings that led some to cast doubt over the authenticity of the songs, although Riley, and record label Sony, have been at pains to show they were genuine.
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Price of fame Riley said much of the negative publicity surrounding the album came from people within Jackson’s entourage who did not approve of the project. “That don’t just happen like that, that has to come from somewhere and where it came from was not a great place. It was from a family member, and some family members ... didn’t totally get the last say so they kind of hate the project. “So there you have it, a chain reaction, a domino effect that makes the credibility of Michael go down,” he said. “I am here to protect that, because I know it’s him, I know it’s great material, I know that it needs to be out, I know that the legacy needs to continue because he’s such a great person, and there’s more to come.” Asked if he would agree to produce future posthumous Jackson material, Riley replied: “If it was my decision, yes, I would be involved in anything that Michael was involved with. If they will have me I will definitely be a part of it. I’m here, I came out here to be a servant to my friend.” Among the topics Jackson tackles on the new album is people’s thirst for fame and the high price of becoming a star. In Hollywood Tonight he describes the real-life experiences of an unnamed friend who heads to Los Angeles aged 15 to make it in the movies, and in Monster he sings about the paparazzi. “The Monsters are the ones who, when you’re up they come to get you and they beat you down and when they get you down they go to the next artist,” Riley said of Monster. “That’s their job, to hit you while you’re up and step on you while you’re down, and that’s what he always said.” Reviews of Michael, which hit British stores yesterday and US stores today, have been generally positive. It is the first album of new Jackson material since “Invincible” in 2001, and the first in a reported $250 million deal between Sony and the executors of Jackson’s estate to release 10 albums through 2017. — Reuters
British TV talent show final record 19.4 million viewers tuned in to watch the final of British television talent show “The X Factor” at the weekend, almost one third of the entire population, new figures showed yesterday. The peak audience figures top the record of 19.1 million set last year for the same show, and made Sunday’s edition the biggest non-sporting TV event on any British channel since 2001, the broadcaster ITV said. The show, which was won by former painter and decorator Matt Cardle, 27, was watched by an average of 17.2 million people over its two-hour length — 55 percent of the TV audience and a significant chunk of Britain’s 62 million population. The last time this many people watched the same program at the same time was in 2001, when about 21 million people watched a Christmas Day special of hit 1980s sitcom “Only Fools and Horses” on the BBC. Then, most people in Britain would only have had access to four or five channels, whereas nowadays digital television offers far more choice. Cardle’s single, “When We Collide”, is a cover of a song by Scottish rock trio Biffy Clyro and a strong favorite to be the Christmas chart number one. However, fans of the original are said to have already started a campaign to get Biffy Clyro’s version in the top slot, in the latest attempt to relieve “The X Factor”‘s stranglehold on the Christmas music charts. Last year, a campaign was launched to get Jeff Buckley’s version of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” to number one instead of the
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