Monday, January 26, 2015
Coldplay, Led Zeppelin Album Covers Featured On New British Stamps
Album art from Pink Floyd, Blur and David Bowie also included.
By James Montgomery
<P>On Thursday (January 7), the U.K.'s Royal Mail unveiled a series of 10 new stamps, honoring the most iconic album covers of the past 40 years. </P><P> </P><P>The albums featured in the new series are the <a href="/music/artist/rolling_stones/artist.jhtml">Rolling Stones</a>' <i>Let It Bleed,</i> <a href="/music/artist/led_zeppelin/artist.jhtml">Led Zeppelin</a>'s <i>IV,</i> <a href="/music/artist/bowie_david/artist.jhtml">David Bowie</a>'s <i>The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars,</i> <a href="/music/artist/mike_oldfield/artist.jhtml">Mike Oldfield</a>'s <i>Tubular Bells,</i> <a href="/music/artist/clash/artist.jhtml">The Clash</a>'s <i>London Calling,</i> <a href="/music/artist/new_order/artist.jhtml">New Order</a>'s <i>Power, Corruption and Lies,</i> <a href="/music/artist/primal_scream/artist.jhtml">Primal Scream</a>'s <i>Screamadelica,</i> <a href="/music/artist/pink_floyd/artist.jhtml">Pink Floyd</a>'s <i>The Division Bell,</i> <a href="/music/artist/blur/artist.jhtml">Blur</a>'s <i>Parklife</i> and — the most recent album on to make the cut — <a href="/music/artist/coldplay/artist.jhtml">Coldplay</a>'s <i>A Rush of Blood to the Head.</i> </P><P> </P><P>Meant to honor "the most potent graphic images of modern times, many of which have provided a visual soundtrack to people's lives," the series is the end result of a lengthy research process by the Royal Mail, who looked through thousands of album covers by British artists before deciding on the final list. And, during a Wednesday night BBC Radio broadcast, it was revealed that the queen herself actually approved each design. </P><P> </P><P>Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page — who helped design the cover for <i>IV</i> — was on hand to celebrate the release of the stamps and recalled the mysterious nature of the album's iconic imagery. </P><P> </P><P>"Almost 40 years after the album came out, nobody knows the old man who featured on the cover, nor the artist who painted him," he said. "That sort of sums up what we wanted to achieve with the album cover, which has remained both anonymous and enigmatic at the same time." </P><P> </P><P>Of course, any great honor is befitting of an equally great contest, so, on the same day the stamps were made available to the general public, Coldplay decided to give one of their <i>Rush of Blood</i> stamps away. In a message on their official site, the band held a contest to send one lucky fan "a letter using a Coldplay stamp, postmarked with today's issue date." </P><P> </P><P>"We visited our local post office earlier today and bought some of the Coldplay stamps," the message read. "Very nice they are too."</p>
Related Photos Related ArtistsChandra West Charisma Carpenter Charli Baltimore Charlies Angels
Sunday, January 25, 2015
Lady Gaga Responds To Born This Way Topping 'Pretentious Albums' List
'Eye roll,' Gaga tweets after music mag NME blasts her latest LP.
By James Montgomery
<P>Earlier this week, British music mag <a href="http://www.nme.com/blog/index.php?blog=1&title=the_most_pretentious </P><P>_albums_ever&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1" target="_blank"><i>NME</i></a> set out to determine the "10 Most Pretentious Albums Ever." The list includes (genuinely pretty terrible) conceptual fare like Kiss' <i>Music From "The Elder,"</i> Lou Reed's <i>Metal Machine Music</i> and, uh, <a href="http://www.mtv.com/music/artist/lady_gaga/artist.jhtml">Lady Gaga</a>'s <i>Born This Way,</i> which somehow bested all competitors to nab the #1 spot. </P><P> </P><P>How? Well, as <i>NME</i> writer Priya Elan wrote, "On <i>Born This Way,</i> [Gaga] seemed to believe in her own hype, convinced she had a message to share. Cue an album of unwieldy 'anthems' that couldn't mask the fact that the fun had left the building." Elan singled out the thumping "Scheiße" as <I>BTW</i>'s most pretentious moment, adding, "Did electroclash die for this?" </P><P> </P><P>Snap. As you'd probably expect, those jabs had Gaga's Little Monsters on the offensive, and they launched an all-out attack on Elan in the comments section of <i>NME</i>'s website. But Gaga herself remained above the fray — for a while, anyway. </P><P> </P><P>On Thursday night, she took to her <a </P><P>href="https://twitter.com/#!/ladygaga/status/172828595134267392" target="_blank">Twitter account</a> to hit back at <i>NME,</i> a publication that's certainly been <a href="http://i28.tinypic.com/2vwzpfp.jpg" target="_blank">no stranger to charges of pretentiousness</a> over the years. </P><P> </P><P>"Oh the irony of winning 'Most Pretentious Album Ever' from none other than NME. *Eye roll,*" Gaga wrote. "I might laugh forever [and] then return to narcissism." </P><P> </P><P>Double snap. Having sufficiently eye-rolled her way through the situation, there's been no further comment from Gaga about the list. </P><P> </P><P><I>NME,</i> of course, has since turned the exchange into <a href="http://www.nme.com/news/lady-gaga/62233" target="_blank">a separate story,</a> one which, for whatever reason (word count?), includes recent comments Gaga made about bulimia ... and spaghetti. *Eye roll.*</p>
Related Videos Related ArtistsSource:
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1679839/lady-gaga-most-pretentious-albums-born-this-way.jhtml
Kevin Spacey's House Of Cards Stands Tallest For Outstanding Performance By A Male Actor In A Drama Series At The SAG Awards
Which is why this decision is so hard!
The Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series at the SAG Awards featured lots of Hollywood's favorites, and even though True Detective had two nominees in Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey, it was [...]
Adele Notches Best Sales Year Since Usher's Confessions
In 2011, 21 moved more than 5.6 million copies in the U.S.
By Gil Kaufman
<P>The music industry has been stuck in a rut for nearly a decade. But every once in a while, it still manages to produce one of those unstoppable hit albums that give everyone that good old feeling. </P><P> </P><P></p><div class="player-placeholder right" title="Rolling in the Deep" id="vid:604336" width="240" height="211"></div><p> </P><P> </P><P>This year's model is <a href="http://www.mtv.com/music/artist/adele/artist.jhtml">Adele</a>'s <I>21</I>, which not only sold more copies than any other album in the U.S. in 2011 (more than 5.6 million to date), but which has also moved the most units of any artist since 2004. According to a <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/27/us-adele-idUSTRE7BQ10V20111227" target="_blank"><I>Reuters</I> report</a>, those gaudy figures (which top 15 million worldwide) make the British songbird the first artist to cross the 5 million mark in one year since Usher did it with his fourth studio album, <I>Confessions</I>, which sold 7.9 million units more than seven years ago. </P><P> </P><P>And to think she did it by releasing just two mega singles, <a href="/news/articles/1675976/adele-rolling-in-the-deep-best-song-2011.jhtml">"Rolling in the Deep"</a> and "Someone Like You," and barely touring North America due to <a href="/news/articles/1674453/adele-throat-surgery-recovery.jhtml">recurring vocal issues.</a>
 </P><P> </P><P>There have been other big hits along the way to Adele's mark, including Eminem selling more than 3.4 million copies of his comeback <I>Recovery</I> album last year and Taylor Swift taking the honors in 2009 with <I>Fearless</I>, which sold 3.2 million copies. But none have come as close to Usher's mark in the interim. </P><P> </P><P>There doesn't seem to be any chance Adele will be surpassed by the end of the year: The closest contenders are Lady Gaga's <I>Born This Way</I> (2.08 million) and Michael Bublé's <I>Christmas</I> (2.4 million). The other good news is that overall music sales are expected to be up slightly (3 percent) by the end of this year, marking the first time that's happened since 2004.</p>
Related ArtistsSource:
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1676522/adele-usher-best-sales-record.jhtml
Usher - DJ Got Us Fallin' In Love
- Artist: Usher
- Label: LaFace
- Director:
- Album: The Number of Magic
Source:
http://www.mtv.com/overdrive/?artist=1270&vid=555426