American Idol is really coming down to the wire now. As last night marked the last episode of Hollywood week, we saw many contestants fold under the pressure — a pressure which plagued the episode as either stage fright or actual illness. And while the judges managed to stay clear…
Both Katy Perry and Nicki Minaj used their Grammy performances on Sunday to premiere new singles from their forthcoming albums, Teenage Dream: The Complete Confection and Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded, respectively. However, there was only one pop star that emerged the victor from the night’s new-music battle…
As anyone and their mother could have (and, ahem, did) predicted, it was Adele’s show at last night’s 54th Grammy Awards. The singer, who absolutely swept the awards, took home six Grammys — meaning she won in every category in which she was nominated, including the big three: Song of…
Listen here, American Idol producers: Spending a large majority of last night’s show, the second part of the Hollywood round, on anything besides singing is absolutely absurd. While we’re glad that Symone Black, whom we were left to wonder about after she fell off the Hollywood stage at the end…
From power pop to power ballads, rock anthems to rap staples, the nominees of the 54th Grammy Awards, which airs this Sunday night, sees no dearth of great music. There’s little doubt that it will be Adele’s night, but others, like Kanye West and Mumford & Sons, could win big…
Last night’s first Hollywood round of auditions on American Idol played like a rapid fire of hopes and dreams realized and shattered and realized and shattered, like an endless loop of Aerosmith songs — at times, entertaining; at others, it dragged on. Even so, the three judges, Randy Jackson, Jennifer…
Forget the New York Giants and Eli Manning. The true winner of yesterday’s Super Bowl XLVI in Indianapolis was pop music. Heralded in by Queen Madonna herself, the halftime show was truly an entertainment spectacle unseen since Nipplegate ’04, when everybody’s favorite boy-bander, Justin Timberlake “accidentally” exposed Janet Jackson’s breast…
Madonna’s “Give Me All Your Luvin'” video, which premiered only hours ago on her YouTube channel, is proof perfect that she is still the Queen of Pop. The song itself isn’t particularly innovative. It’s instantaneous dance-pop infused with elements of a previous era, the 1980s, while still attempting to sound…
Ah, the last of the auditions round of American Idol . With mediocre expectations of the talent going into the Hollywood round, there aren’t more than ten contestants who truly blew us away thus far in the competition. However, in last night’s St. Louis episode, a few contestants managed to…
If you’re going to take on Freddie Mercury’s vocal prowess on “Somebody To Love” and use it as an audition piece for American Idol, you better be able to hit those notes. Unfortunately for the baby-faced Ben Harrison, 28, none of the judges loved his take. The falsetto, on blast,…
Chris Brown singles have always come in two flavors: Sexy & Braggadocious and Song & Dance — songs that are either about busting a nut or busting a move, regardless of production or tempo. Edgier singles from his catalogue, like “Look at Me Now,” “I Can Transform Ya” and even…
Last night’s episode of American Idol offered us a few strong contenders and an out-of-place space shuttle opening sequence. Houston, we have a problem: we’re not actually in Houston — despite misleading promos, we’re in Galveston, Texas. Don’t be deceived, people. Skylar Laine, a sweet seventeen year-old, performed an excellent…
In advance of their appearance at Bop Skizzum’s upcoming Nerd Prom at the Gothic Theatre on Friday, February 10, Della took to YouTube last week with an acoustic rendition of “We Found Love” by Rihanna. The cover, driven purely by the strength of Amanda Hawkins’s raw vocals, is a fun…
The fourth episode of American Idol auditions took us four hours from the Mile High City to Aspen, where we saw many a Denver hopeful either break through to the Hollywood round or get the good ol’ Randy Jackson boot. Unlike previous audition episodes thus far in the season, last…
Last night’s episode of American Idol saw auditions in a vastly different location than usual: the USS Midway aircraft carrier in San Diego, California. At points, the industrial and fly-over noise was a nuisance, but it didn’t stop nearly all of the contestants who saw air time during the episode…
Forget Lil Kim. At this point in her career, Nicki Minaj’s only enemy is herself and “Super Bass.” That track, which catapulted Minaj into a mainstream as cross-genre artist and onto the iPods of Taylor Swift fans everywhere, will be her “Lose Yourself” — the song that defines Minaj’s career…
American Idol glided through Pittsburgh last night without blemish. There weren’t any major breakdowns, nor letdowns, nor catty digs at Steven Tyler’s wacky facial expressions. No, the Steel City produced a cornucopia of talented, Hollywood-bound contestants — a whopping 38 in total, with big ambitions and even bigger personalities, who…
Nearly eight months since Scotty McCreery became America’s latest Idol in May 2011, it’s good to have the cast of American Idol 2.0 back in action. To wit, Ryan Seacrest is still the world’s most annoyingly good host; Jennifer Lopez has managed to get her combo Paula Abdul/Kara DioGuardi/Ellen Degeneres…
As if Katy Perry’s divorce news weren’t bad enough, now there’s an acoustic version of “The One That Got Away” to empathize with. Released yesterday, this rendition, drenched in piano and acoustic guitar, shows greater depth and emotes way more than the video ever could have. Had Perry released this…
Forget Tim Tebow. From now until at least the day after the Super Bowl, everyone’s going to be talking about another figure in pop culture who had the religion thing down long before Tebow did: Madonna. Although Lady Gaga may never admit as much, Madge recently acknowledged the similarities between…
Despite the pointed assertion of Black Keys drummer Patrick Carney that rock music is dying because of Nickelback, the genre still appears to be selling quite well. Granted, not quite as well as hip-hop or pop, but it’s still kicking. In a recent Rolling Stone cover story, Carney is quoted…
And you thought you had a crazy year. Getting jiggy with a student at a Baptist school, driving a scooter without a license in Miami, possessing four grams of cocaine in Aspen, threatening to shoot out a Best Buy in Aurora over a video game and literally getting shit on…
