"Taylor Swift" News / Via The Beardscratchers Compendium

Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift Lead 2013 Teen Choice Awards Nominations

Thu, 23 May 2013 13:40:49 +0100

Hey, it’s the Teen Choice Awards — you know, the annual ceremony where extraordinary achievements in politics, science and literature are recognized! Ha, no it’s not. It’s an awards show with a category called “Choice Smile.” Sorry, haters. Anyway, the nominations are out, and it’s pretty much the usual suspects — in the music categories, Taylor ... More »

Teen Choice Awards 2013 Nominations: 'Twilight' And Taylor Swift Dominate

Thu, 23 May 2013 01:56:23 +0100

Other nominees at August show include Justin Bieber, 'Pretty Little Liars' and Miley Cyrus.
By Todd Gilchrist

"Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2" poster
Photo: Summit Entertainment

A Week In News: Ray Manzarek Dies, Taylor Swift's Disgusted Reaction and Brad Pitt Talks Drugs

Wed, 22 May 2013 17:47:59 +0100

End of the Night: Tributes were paid this week to Ray Manzarek, pioneering keyboardist with The Doors who died in Germany aged 74. He formed the band...

Kristen Stewart being supported by Taylor Swift

Tue, 21 May 2013 23:00:26 +0100

Kristen Stewart is leaning on her female friends following her split from Robert Pattinson.The 'On The Road' actress was spotted visiting Taylor...

Carrie Underwood To Join Taylor Swift As 2013 CMT Music Awards Performer

Tue, 21 May 2013 18:24:44 +0100

'American Idol' judge Keith Urban, Lady Antebellum and host Jason Aldean will also perform during the June 5 broadcast.
By Jocelyn Vena

Carrie Underwood
Photo: Getty Images

Fifth Harmony Perform Taylor Swift’s “Red”: The Idolator Sessions

Tue, 21 May 2013 14:00:08 +0100

The girls of Fifth Harmony cut their teeth on The X Factor performing lushly harmonized (per the name) covers of pop hits, so when they stopped by Idolator headquarters in New York City, it only felt natural that they’d turn out a cover or two for your enjoyment — and to wit, the girls were willing to put their ... More »

Taylor Swift Dons a Striking Blue Number As She Signs For Fans Outside The 2013 Billboard Music Awards

Mon, 20 May 2013 20:26:29 +0100

'22' singer Taylor Swift signs autographs for a large crowd of screaming fans outside the 2013 Billboard Music Awards at the MGM Grand Garden Arena...

Star Frenzy At The 2013 Billboard Music Awards With Arrivals From The Likes Of Taylor Swift To Jennifer Lopez [Photos]

Mon, 20 May 2013 18:04:57 +0100

Taylor Swift at the 2013 Billboard Music AwardsThe 2013 Billboard Music Awards looked to be one of the most celeb-filled events of the year with some...

Ibrawlator: Who Had The Best Billboard Music Awards Performance?

Mon, 20 May 2013 17:37:00 +0100

Ah, the 2013 Billboard Music Awards! Last night’s show — as with every award show — was a mixed bag, chock full of amazing highs and some real lows, including some seriously awkward Bieber booing, and a nearly fatal crotch-to-head adorning courtesy of Miguel. Three of the night’s performances got our readers buzzing the most: ... More »

Billboard Awards Red Carpet

Mon, 20 May 2013 17:13:12 +0100

On the red carpet at the Billboard Awards on Sunday night in Las Vegas, Taylor Swift arrived in a cut-out metallic dress, Madonna sported a garter belt and Kesha showed some side thigh.

Taylor Swift wins 8 trophies at Billboard Awards

Mon, 20 May 2013 14:30:21 +0100

Another day, another domination for Taylor Swift: She was the red hot winner at the Billboard Music Awards.

Taylor Swift scoops eight gongs at Billboard music awards - video

Mon, 20 May 2013 10:00:04 +0100

Taylor Swift was the big winner at the Billboard music awards, scooping eight out of her 11 nominations

Taylor Swift, Gotye and Rihanna win at Billboard Awards

Mon, 20 May 2013 08:54:42 +0100

Prince also performed at the Las Vegas bash

Taylor Swift wins eight Billboard awards

Mon, 20 May 2013 08:21:02 +0100

Taylor Swift led the winners at the Billboard Music Awards last night (19.05.13), taking home eight prizes.The 'We Are Never Ever Getting Back...

Billboard Music Awards 2013: The Complete Winners List

Mon, 20 May 2013 04:22:36 +0100

Taylor Swift is the night's big winner, taking home an impressive 11 trophies.
By MTV News staff

Taylor Swift Is Queen Of 2013 Billboard Music Awards

Mon, 20 May 2013 04:16:15 +0100

Taylor Swift ruled the 2013 Billboard Music Awards on Sunday (19May13), taking home eight top honours, including the prestigious Artist of the...

Swift leads, Miguel hurts fans at Billboard Awards

Mon, 20 May 2013 03:15:39 +0100

Taylor Swift is red hot.

Taylor Swift leads at Billboard Music Awards

Mon, 20 May 2013 02:18:52 +0100

Taylor Swift is red hot.

Billboard Music Awards 2013: Taylor Swift Goes Blue

Mon, 20 May 2013 02:03:02 +0100

We guess Taylor Swift is no longer contractually obligated to match her red carpet dress with her latest album (See: most of 2012). The pop star arrived at the 2013 Billboard Music Awards on Sunday night (May 19) in a blue sequined mini dress. We know that Tay is as much a fan of vintage ... More »

Taylor Swift Lands Six Prizes In Billboard Music Awards Pre-show

Mon, 20 May 2013 01:38:23 +0100

Country star Taylor Swift looks set to dominate the 2013 Billboard Music Awards after scooping six of the 11 prizes she's nominated for in the...

Crazed Taylor Swift Fan Swims Across Moat To Get To Singer’s Palace: Morning Mix

Thu, 16 May 2013 13:00:23 +0100

Did you hear? :: An obsessed Taylor Swift fan was arrested after swimming to the singer’s Rhode Island beach home. The man swam two miles in freezing water to meet the singer, but turned away after he saw her security team. Guess they knew he was “trouble” when he swam in? [TMZ] :: Not one to ... More »

Woodkid – review

Wed, 15 May 2013 18:27:39 +0100

Roundhouse, London

Yoann Lemoine is one of the more curious musical success stories of the year. A 30-year-old French-born, New York-resident video director, he has filmed acclaimed promos for artists including Lana Del Rey, Katy Perry and Taylor Swift before leaping the other side of the camera to record an album under the name Woodkid.

The resultant record, The Golden Age, recently went to No 2 in France and is a singular entity. It's a simultaneously fragile and overblown symphony of brass, strings and synths, over which Lemoine murmurs melodramatic declarations of unrequited love in a hushed Antony Hegarty-style vibrato.

It's grandiose, filmic music, destined for a host of TV and movie soundtracks, and in front of a crowd packed with adoring French expats, Lemoine gives it plenty of welly. A slight, diminutive figure in a beard and peaked cap, he is dwarfed by two giant percussionists, serried ranks of brass and strings, and an array of spectacular monochrome CGI-generated visuals.

As music, and as a spectacle, it's imposing, sporadically pretty yet also claustrophobically over-orchestrated. Everything is pitched at a point of blaring crescendo; Stabat Mater sounds like Laibach attempting the Champions League theme, while the finale of Iron – a song that is currently soundtracking a TV ad for mobile phones – resembles a frenetic scene from Stomp.

Lemoine is clearly aiming for the sublime, but his machinations are too bombastic and calculatedly stylised to appear remotely cathartic. Woodkid knows how to put on a show, but there is no blood on these tracks.

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Rating: 3/5

Ian Gittins

Fan arrested for trespassing Taylor Swift's home

Wed, 15 May 2013 17:51:05 +0100

An obsessed fan was arrested for swimming to Taylor Swift's beach home this morning (15.05.13)The 22-year-old man - who is yet to be named -...

'New Girl' Season Finale: Taylor Swift, A Wedding And A Badger

Tue, 14 May 2013 18:25:42 +0100

'When you watch it, I want you to think of that sweet little badger devouring the heads of nice mice,' Jake Johnson tells MTV News.
By Amy Wilkinson

Swift, Bryan, Hayes to perform at CMT Music Awards

Mon, 13 May 2013 18:34:47 +0100

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Taylor Swift leads a list of country's hottest stars set to perform at the CMT Music Awards next month.

Taylor Swift To Perform At 2013 CMT Awards In June

Mon, 13 May 2013 16:30:42 +0100

You’re about to get a big dose of Taylor Swift on your TV screen. On Tuesday (May 14), the singer will test out her comedy chops once again during a New Girl guest spot. Then on Sunday the Red singer will perform on the Billboard Music Awards, where she also leads the pack of nominees. A ... More »

Taylor Swift, Hunter Hayes To Perform at 2013 CMT Music Awards

Mon, 13 May 2013 14:31:11 +0100

Little Big Town, Luke Bryan and Pistol Annies will also saddle up for the June 5 broadcast.
By Gil Kaufman

Ed Sheeran gets £5,000 phone bill

Sat, 11 May 2013 11:00:12 +0100

Ed Sheeran's phone bill reached £5,000 while supporting Taylor Swift in the US.The 'Lego House' hitmaker has been supporting the singer on her US...

From Taylor Swift to Psy: the week in music – in pictures

Fri, 10 May 2013 17:20:40 +0100

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs rock out, the Black Keys jazz it up and Mark E Smith plays his 162,326th gig – join us for the week's best musical moments

Karin Andreasson

Taylor Swift Gave Seal Of Approval To Selena Gomez Album In Dance Video

Fri, 10 May 2013 01:32:14 +0100

Country star Taylor Swift gave Selena Gomez's upcoming album her personal seal of approval by sending her pal a video of her dancing to the new...

Taylor Swift’s ‘New Girl’ Promo Features The Taylor Swift Surprised Face: Watch

Thu, 09 May 2013 21:58:25 +0100

The inevitable combination of the adorkable Taylor Swift and the adorkable New Girl is finally here. Swift is appearing on the forthcoming season finale of the FOX sitcom, and the promo has just been released. And in a surprise twist, it features Taylor’s trademark Surprised Face. Check it out up top. Presumably, Swift will do ... More »

Taylor Swift Announces Australian Leg Of ‘Red’ Tour

Thu, 09 May 2013 16:42:05 +0100

Taylor Swift is headed down under: The country-pop superstar has just announced that Australian dates have been added to her wildly successful Red Tour. As Billboard notes, this makes her the first solo female artist to head out on a stadium tour since Madonna‘s Girly Show tour twenty years ago. The tour kicks off November 29 in Auckland, New ... More »

Ed Sheeran Has An Unheard Taylor Swift Duet 'Chilling' On His Phone

Wed, 08 May 2013 21:56:44 +0100

'It's on my iTunes right now,' Sheeran says of an unheard collaboration with Swift
By James Montgomery

Ed Sheeran Says His Next Album Will Be “More Hip-Hop-Like”

Wed, 08 May 2013 00:05:55 +0100

Just as he was prepping for his tour with Taylor Swift, adorable little singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran revealed he had around 26 songs in consideration for his next album, and that he was planning to record some of the record on the road. The British crooner has now given fans a few more details about that + follow-up, telling Billboard the number ... More »

Ed Sheeran is tour buddies with Taylor Swift

Tue, 07 May 2013 17:51:01 +0100

Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift have become very close friends on her 'Red Tour'. Ed, 22, and 23-year-old Taylor have developed a special bond on the...

Beyonce, Taylor Swift, Miley Cyrus, Katy Perry & More Go Punk At The Met Gala 2013: See The Photos

Tue, 07 May 2013 16:02:13 +0100

There were lots of celebrities at last night’s 2013 Met Gala! It’s true. Beyonce and Miley Cyrus and Jennifer Lopez and even Kim Kardashian, who thought it was a costume party and went as someone’s garage-sale sofa. (Sorry, Kim, but seriously. Yikes.) The annual event, themed “Punk: Chaos to Couture” (they stole that idea from Gwyneth Paltrow‘s two-year-old’s birthday party), saw all the ... More »

Demi Lovato Talks Rehab & Taylor Swift In ‘Company’ Magazine

Fri, 03 May 2013 19:54:42 +0100

Oh, I love Demi Lovato so much. The singer is on the cover of June’s issue of Company (it’s like Seventeen in the UK, apparently), and she served the ultimate shade to her old crew of pre-rehab fair-weather friends in talking about her current crowd. “A couple of months before I went to rehab, I had a birthday party and there ... More »

Taylor Swift Visits Sick Fan In Hospital

Fri, 03 May 2013 01:38:24 +0100

Pop star Taylor Swift showed off her caring side earlier this week (begs29Apr13) by visiting an unconscious fan in hospital.The Red singer headed to...

Taylor Swift's 'New Girl' Cameo: When Taylor Met Zooey!

Thu, 02 May 2013 16:40:44 +0100

Red singer chats up star Zooey Deschanel in a new photo from the May 14 finale.
By Jocelyn Vena

Taylor Swift
Photo: Getty Images/ Paul A. Hebert

Civil Wars to release new album – despite 'irreconcilable differences'

Thu, 02 May 2013 15:40:09 +0100

Country-folk duo announce second LP, only six months after personal conflict forced them to cancel UK tour

They may never perform again, but the country-folk duo the Civil Wars are releasing a second album. Six months after they blamed "irreconcilable differences" for the cancellation of their UK tour, the pair reveal they have completed a self-titled LP.

Nevertheless, it's not clear that John Paul White and Joy Williams are getting along any better. In November, the two said they were "unable to continue as a touring entity" owing to "internal discord and irreconcilable differences of ambition". The musicians returned to Nashville halfway through their UK concert dates, and since then have only released a previously recorded iTunes Unplugged EP.

Reading on mobile? Click here to watch video

This week, White and Williams haven't seemed able to collaborate on an album announcement. "Personal statements from band members Joy Williams and John Paul White can be viewed at [their website]," stated the press release. Williams's message was glib: "Patience is a virtue," she wrote. "Yours has been appreciated. Here's to the hope you consider it rewarded."

Although White was a little more gregarious, he did little to assuage fans' concern for the project: "I am very glad to say that new music is coming and I am finally proud of this album. A lot of soul, sweat and tears went into its creation … We are, each one of us, all journeying, learning and growing along this ever-evolving path."

Before the Civil Wars' interpersonal explosion, the group was riding high. Hailed by critics, the band won two Grammy awards and their debut, Barton Hollow, reached No 13 in the UK. The group are perhaps best known for Safe & Sound, a collaboration with Taylor Swift for 2012's The Hunger Games film soundtrack.

Whether or not the Civil Wars truly reunite, John Paul White has been reaching a wider audience in recent months as one of the writers supplying songs for the hit US country music drama Nashville.

Sean Michaels

Taylor Swift to release Ed Sheeran duet as UK single

Wed, 01 May 2013 08:21:00 +0100

Taylor Swift is releasing an Ed Sheeran duet as her next UK single.The singer is reportedly planning to release love ballad 'Everything Has Changed'...

Taylor Swift's Ed Sheeran Duet Will Be Her Next U.K. Red Single

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 18:47:34 +0100

'Everything Has Changed' marks the next U.K. release off her massive 2012 album.
By Jocelyn Vena

Taylor Swift Scores Discount For New Mansion

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 01:33:14 +0100

Country star Taylor Swift is adding to her property portfolio after securing a $17.75 million (£11.1 million) deal for a new seaside home in Rhode...

Taylor Swift Drops Big Money For New Rhode Island Crib (Pics)

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 22:54:36 +0100

Taylor Swift clearly knows how to roll with the best of them as the twee singer treated herself to a brand new, multi-million dollar mansion in Rhode...

Taylor Swift buys 17m summer home

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 20:11:10 +0100

Taylor Swift has spent $17 million on a summer home.The 'I Knew You Were Trouble' singer has splashed out on a mansion in Rhode Island's Watch Hill,...

Taylor Swift Preps Ed Sheeran Duet “Everything Has Changed” As Next Single

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 18:07:48 +0100

Taylor Swift is taking a break from sailing her lonesome tugboat around the shores of Westerly to drop a new single from her monolith album Red — and reportedly, it’s her duet with Ed Sheeran, “Everything Has Changed.” It’s great because it’s the kind of song that nobody but Swift could get away with releasing as a single, but ... More »

Jay-Z, Taylor Swift Get Shout-Outs From President Obama

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 16:22:12 +0100

'I've got 99 problems but now Jay-Z is one,' President jokes at Correspondents' Dinner.
By Gil Kaufman

Selena Gomez Brings “Come & Get It” To Radio Disney Music Awards: Watch

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 17:27:00 +0100

At Saturday’s Radio Disney Music Awards, Selena Gomez faced stiff competition for Best Female Artist: Cher Lloyd, Bridgit Mendler and Taylor Swift. So when she won and accepted the award, she realized she couldn’t take her fans’ votes for granted. “If you’re not sick of me yet, I hope to continue to make music for ... More »

President Obama’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner: He Talks Jay-Z, References Taylor Swift

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 16:24:45 +0100

President Obama‘s relationship to pop culture is simple: He uses it to to disarm the public and reach beyond the politicians and otherwise Very Important People sitting before him. Every nod to rap still feels as revelatory as his 2008 Democratic primary speech and reference to Jay-Z‘s “Dirt Off Your Shoulders“; it says that he ... More »

Barack Obama: 'I've got 99 problems and now Jay-Z is one'

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 12:13:33 +0100

US President jokes about the rapper's recent trip to Cuba and Taylor Swift at White House dinner

Harry Styles Dating Rod Stewart's Daughter - Report

Sat, 27 Apr 2013 14:10:12 +0100

British pop star Harry Styles appears to have moved on following his split from Taylor Swift by reportedly embarking on a new relationship with Rod...

Beyoncé's not a bad role model. Feminists should give her a break | Caperton Gillett

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 10:45:38 +0100

Rakhi Kumar's open letter to Michelle Obama 'slut-shaming' Beyoncé over her image and lyrics is ridiculous and wrong

So we know that Beyoncé's numerous sins include dressing sexy, being married, and saying that girls run the world when that isn't technically true. But did you also know she's singlehandedly responsible for luring young girls into sexual exploitation? Rakhi Kumar did, and now (I'm assuming) so does Michelle Obama, and now so do you.

[Rakhi Kumar's open letter to Michelle Obama]

Dear Michelle Obama,
I'm addressing this to you because I admire you. Because you're smart and a mum to two young girls. And you're the first lady of the USA. And because you were recently quoted as saying that Beyoncé is a "great role model" to your two daughters, and because you recently tweeted, after the Super Bowl, that you were "so proud" of her. I'm writing because everything you do is admired and emulated by so many; but when you endorse a recording artist like Beyoncé, I see the most misogynistic aspects of the music industry (that prefers girls to be no more complex than dolls) interpret your comments as a seal of approval for the thoughtless cultural currency that they flood the youth market with. I'm writing because I think it's time to stop suggesting to very young girls that ultimate feminine success – in the music industry or anywhere else – comes with the need, or the expectation for them to undress.

Next time you're presented with a shortlist of people in popular culture who you should spend time with or commend, think about how many young girls want to be just like Beyoncé: Beyoncé who sings Bow Down Bitch [sic] and wears sheer bodysuits and high heels, singing about making money and being independent.

Remember that in the USA, the average age of a girl when she is trafficked for sex for the first time is 13.

Remember that she's often brought into the "life" by drug dealers who promise her a celebrity lifestyle, clothes like the ones Beyoncé wears, and situation where she can live like Queen Bey: looking hot, being desired by alpha males, wielding power over others with her body and sexuality.

So please, let it be known that Beyoncé is not a role model. She may have a lot of money, and she may have enormous influence. But she can no longer be called a role model.

(Unless you think it would be really cool for Sasha or Malia to follow her example and sing songs for people on a stage whilst wearing sheer gold glitter bodysuits detailing the contours of their body, under the management of their daddy and/or their husband.)

Ok, first of all, because apparently this is very important to you: It wasn't a sheer bodysuit. It was a glittery bodysuit with enormous, glittery nipples. Weird? Definitely. Aesthetically appealing? Not to me, no. But they weren't her personal, actual nipples. I mean, let's be logical here: Are we attributing to Beyoncé – a seasoned, successful, and image-conscious businesswoman – the decision to update her brand to include frontal nudity in her concert attire? Thinkbox.

Moving on: I think holding Beyoncé personally responsible for human trafficking is a bit of a reach. I think conflating her sexy costumes with actual sexual availability is slut-shaming and wrong and contributes to rape culture. I think that requiring women to cast aside any sexuality to be taken seriously and considered successful is also slut-shaming and wrong.

I think that conflating sex trafficking, voluntary sex work, and sparkly-costumed music concerts is closed-minded, elitist, misleading, and flat-out confusing. I think that reducing Beyoncé's success to "looking hot, being desired by alpha males, wielding power over others with her body and sexuality" says more about you than it does about Beyoncé or about the young women who admire her. And I think that reducing child sexual exploitation to "I want glittery underpants like Beyoncé!" seriously misses… pretty much everything, Jesus Christ, I don't even know where to start on that one.

Thirdly: I'm sure Michelle Obama appreciates your unsolicited input into the way she raises her daughters, but I'm guessing she's got this one. If she needs tips, I'm sure she'll call you.

Fourthly, and in general: All right, folks, time to find someone else to trash.

Seriously. Beyoncé paid for a fancy birthing suite at the hospital (how dare she enjoy luxury!), and that was way bad, and then she wore sexy costumes for the Super Bowl (how dare she dress like a hundred other female performers!), and that was extra bad, and she said that girls run the world, which we totally don't, and she told "bitches" to "bow down," which was awful, and as if it wasn't bad enough that she took her husband's last name (that would be husband Shawn Knowles-Carter), she named her tour The Mrs Carter Show World Tour, which is unforgivable (how dare she celebrate the life she's created with her husband and child!). And by far the worst thing a singer can do in the whole world, because if anyone had ever done anything worse, people would be talking about that and not how very anti-feminist Beyoncé is, right?

Right?

Britney Spears, mother of two, spangled-bikini wearer? Lady Gaga, Mother Monster, nipple-tape aficionado? Pink, mother, self-proclaimed feminist, basically wore medical tape and body glitter on a trapeze at the Grammys? Selena Gomez's bindi? Maybe tee off on Taylor Swift or Katy Perry for just a little while, just to relieve Beyoncé's quads of the constant weight of our amassed baggage?

Beyoncé is a force of nature, she sang Independent Women and Survivor and Irreplaceable, her band is all women, she's pro-gender equality and anti-gender wage gap, she supports women through charity work, she does things that people so often identify as feminist-y – and so we load her down with our own expectations and identify her as a feminist icon and then hold to her to arbitrary standards as if she signed up for them herself. And even when she comes out and says she's a feminist, she gets shit because she said it "ambivalently." The nerve! How dare she not perform as enthusiastically as we demand at the moment we demand it?

At the risk of being one of those "don't we have more important things to talk about" feminists… don't we? Not that anyone is beyond reproach, but God knows Beyoncé's been picking up reproach for every damn thing she does lately.

Look, I get it; Beyoncé is a successful, self-possessed black woman with a career, a family, a tonne of money, a ridiculous body, a strong sense of self, and an apparent desire to live her life openly without hiding those things like they're some kind of shameful secret. It's offensive and terrifying, and God forbid a young girl should find herself inspired by such a woman. But calling her anti-feminist for celebrating her family (which Tami Winfrey Harris, Morgane Richardson, and Andrea Plaid discussed in February), calling her a bad role model for celebrating her body, accusing her of ambivalence for defining her relationship with feminism for herself, or accusing her of promoting child trafficking with her sparkly leotards and sexy dancing is just ridiculous and stupid. And there has to be something else we can be taking on.

Caperton Gillett

Christina Aguilera, Selena Gomez & Pitbull Added To Billboard Music Awards

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 22:43:09 +0100

Selena Gomez, Christina Aguilera, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis and Pitbull have been added to the ballooning roster of performers at this year’s Billboard Music Awards. Oh, and also The Band Perry and the singer Kacey Musgraves. Previously announced performers include Taylor Swift, Miguel, Bruno Mars, Prince and Justin Bieber. (Waaaiiit a minute, Justin and Selena? Sneaky sneaky!) ... More »

New band of the day (Walk Off the Earth No 1,500)

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 17:33:34 +0100

Canadian collective whose upbeat folk-pop might make you want to inflict pain on yourself

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Hometown: Burlington, Ontario, Canada.

The lineup: Gianni Luminati (bass, guitar, ukulele, banjo, kazoo, drums, vocals, theremin, beatbox, xylophone, cigar box guitar, cigar box ukulele, piano, cajon), Sarah Blackwood (guitar, bass, kazoo, ukulele, banjo, glockenspiel, tambourine, cigar box guitar, xylophone, piano, vocals, electric toothbrush), Ryan Marshall (guitar, bass, trumpet, piano, harmonica, vocals), Mike "Beard Guy" Taylor (piano, vocals, xylophone, trumpet, melodica), Joel Cassady (drums, cigar box guitar, vocals).

The background: When is a hit not a hit? We ask this because, despite the fact that Billboard is now reportedly counting YouTube views as sales, today's new band Walk Off the Earth had nearly 150 million people watch the video of them playing one guitar as they performed their version of Gotye's Somebody That I Used to Know and yet it only reached number 109 on the US charts. Can anyone explain this to us? Is Billboard operating some mathematical system whereby 1,000 views equal one sale? And what happened to the people who did click on YouTube? Even if only one in 100 who saw it actually went out and bought it, it would have been one of the biggest-selling singles of the year, surely. No?

We worry about these things, we really do. Walk Off the Earth worry us. They're weird. They're the multi-instrumentalists (and we do mean "multi") who have made their name doing a cappella cover renditions of hits by everyone from Adele and Taylor Swift to LMFAO and Wiz Khalifa. This in itself isn't a concern. The sheer energy, gusto and glee with which they perform them is. Their album is called R.E.V.O., apparently an acronym for the band's motto, Realize Every Victory Outright, which strikes us as a little, er, Christian. And suddenly this quirky campfire orchestra who bash ukuleles and sing in unison like a clean-cut gang of choristers starts to assume a quasi-religious quality. Even when the boys in the band's voices get all gruff and raspy to offset Sarah Blackwood's folky tones, they sound all virtuous and virginal.

This is music as communal celebration, but not as in Altamont – as in a knees-up at a church fete. They radiate all the things that make all good discerning rock fans flinch and recoil; namely, happiness, and sunny good times. They make Polyphonic Spree sound like Pantera. The title track of their album is the sound of pure unalloyed joy and, of course, it is annoying as hell. "Raise your fist and stand your ground," they sing, adding by way of exclamation: "Go!" They sound like a "Go!" team, if not the actual Go! Team. Some of their songs feature ey-ohs, like Bruno Mars via Sting, and assorted other vocal affectations. The choruses are creepily chanty. They're like Fleetwood Mac without the intra-band upsets. In fact, two of the members have just had a baby. We bet they're really happy, too. Yuk. Happy people. We hate that. They sound as though they hold hands when they're recording in the studio. They should just get it over with and do a 70s Coke advert. Warning: on Gang of Rhythm the singer's cod-Jamaican accent will make you want to stab yourself in the ear. "There's no worries on the earth tonight," he beams. Are there not? We can't help feeling tonight's News at Ten will disabuse them of this notion.

The buzz: "They're the kind of songs you'd hear in the background of establishing shots in a mediocre teen flick set during a summer vacation."

The truth: They're too happy for our liking.

Most likely to: Smile.

Least likely to: Be vile.

What to buy: Debut album R.E.V.O is out now.

File next to: the New Seekers, Mumford and Sons, Skinny Lister, the Pierces.

Links: walkofftheearth.com.

Friday's new band: Nia Keturah.

Paul Lester

One Direction bound for Justin Bieber clash at Billboard Music awards

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 12:20:11 +0100

Bieber and 1D fight it out for the title of 2013's top artist, with added competition from Rihanna, Taylor Swift and Maroon 5

One Direction will face off against Justin Bieber for the top prize at this year's Billboard Music awards. The British boy band faces Canada's pop pipsqueak for the title of 2013's top artist, with added competition from Rihanna, Taylor Swift and Maroon 5.

One Direction have also been nominated as the year's top new artist(s). Their rivals in that category range from Gentleman-ly Psy to the ho hey-ing Lumineers, plus Gotye and pop-star Carly Rae Jepsen. The quintet is also in the running for top duo/group, top Billboard 200 artist, top pop artist and top pop album – where both 2011's Up All Night and 2012's Take Me Home are contenders.

Despite these accolades, One Direction are not the biggest beneficiaries of Billboard's list of finalists. Swift, Maroon 5 and the alt-rock band Fun are each nominated in 11 categories, with Rihanna trailing at 10 nods. Jepsen, whose success can mostly be chalked up to one undeniable "tune", has nine nominations.

Traditionally dominated by pop music, the Billboard Music awards will this year have several categories for electronic dance music. Veterans like Skrillex, Calvin Harris and David Guetta are all in contention, with competition from the 23-year-old upstart Baauer, whose Harlem Shake became a viral sensation earlier this year.

Still, the biggest name on Billboard's list of finalists is probably its oldest: Prince. The 54-year-old star will receive this year's Billboard Icon gong, as well as performing at the Las Vegas gala. Other scheduled performers include Bieber, Swift, Bruno Mars and Miguel. Comedian Tracy Morgan will host the proceedings.

Adele was the toast of the 2012 Billboard Music Awards, earning 12 trophies including top artist. She did not attend the ceremony.

Sean Michaels

Taylor Swift, fun. and Maroon 5 nominated for 11 Billboard Music Awards

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 20:00:04 +0100

Taylor Swift, fun. and Maroon 5 lead the way at the 2013 Billboard Music Awards with 11 nominations each.Out of their 11 categories, the three...

Taylor Swift, Fun. To Fight Adele At Billboard Awards

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 19:40:23 +0100

Adele will defend top-selling status two years after dropping 21 at May 19 ABC show.
By Jocelyn Vena

Taylor Swift performs at the ACM Awards
Photo: Ethan Miller/ Getty Images

Taylor Swift, Fun. And Maroon 5 Lead Billboard Music Award Nominations

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 19:01:14 +0100

Taylor Swift, Fun. and Maroon 5 have been tipped for glory at the 2013 Billboard Music Awards after landing a whopping 11 nominations each.The Love...

Taylor Swift, Fun. & Maroon 5 Lead Billboard Music Awards Nominations

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 17:45:06 +0100

The Billboard Music Awards are a few weeks away, and today (April 22) the nominees (er, finalists) have been revealed. Taylor Swift, Maroon 5 and fun. lead the pack with nominations in 11 categories each. Rihanna is up for 10 awards, while One Direction and Carly Rae Jepsen follow. Although, the numbers are actually even ... More »

Taylor Swift, Maroon 5, fun. lead Billboard awards

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 15:08:57 +0100

NEW YORK (AP) — It's a three-way tie: Taylor Swift, Maroon 5 and fun. are finalists in 11 categories at the Billboard Music Awards.

Harry Styles disses Taylor Swift

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 20:00:01 +0100

Harry Styles allegedly disses his brief relationship with Taylor Swift in One Direction's upcoming documentary.The 'Kiss You' singer - who split from...

Taylor Swift’s “Red” Covered By Fifth Harmony: Watch

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 17:13:15 +0100

When Fifth Harmony was still known as 1432 and competing in The X Factor, the girl group performed a cover of Taylor Swift‘s “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together.” Now six months later, after having covered Frank Ocean (“Thinking About You”), Lana Del Rey (“American”) and One Direction (“Kiss You,” “They Don’t Know About ... More »

Taylor Swift Joined By B.o.B In Atlanta: Watch Them Perform “Both Of Us”

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 16:03:07 +0100

“As you may know, Atlanta has quite the music scene, and it turned out my friend was in town,” Taylor Swift said. “So I called him up and I just said, ‘Do you want to come and be a surprise guest on my show?’ I know him as Bobby Ray, but the world knows him ... More »

Taylor Swift views $20 million house

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 17:51:02 +0100

Taylor Swift has her eye on $20 million mansion in Rhode Island.The 23-year-old singer - who already has a property in Beverly Hills, California, and...

Every Mile of the Ride: An Interview with Lindi Oretga

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 08:14:00 +0100

A country traditionalist that stands out with own unique brand of slow-burn ballads, critical favorite Ortega discusses her new album, touching on the secret Nashville scene of alt-country up-and-comers, and why Social Distortion's fans prove genre differences aren't as vital as we're led to believe.

Despite being under attack constantly by the pop music popularized by Taylor Swift, there really hasn't been a better time for folk-tinged country music than we're living in right now. When the Lumineers can take a song like "Ho Hey" and ride it up the charts, there's nothing to say any band with talent and drive can't do the same thing. All of this makes listening to Lindi Ortega's latest effort, Cigarettes and Truck Stops,…

Taylor Swift’s Diet Coke Commercial Debuts: Watch

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 18:34:37 +0100

Taylor Swift‘s first task as Diet Coke’s program ambassador: star in a commercial. Filmed in Nashville, Swift’s Diet Coke ad follows the pop sensation as she scrawls the lyrics to current single “22″ in a well-worn notebook — at her bedroom, inside a diner and while backstage. While “22″ is easily one of Red‘s best tracks, ... More »

Facebook's message charge shows how to make money out of desperate fans

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 18:26:13 +0100

Facebook is on to a good thing with its £11 charge for fans to contact their idols. But here's a way for celebrities to cash in too

One of Facebook's strangest revenue-building schemes of recent times is its new decision to charge civilians to send messages to celebrities. Messaging Tom Daley, for instance, will cost nearly £11. Miranda Hart, meanwhile, is 71p.

Facebook's aim, it selflessly claims, is to reduce the amount of spam in celebrities' mailboxes, but in tacitly purporting to provide a direct route to Jessie J's eyeballs, it disregards the reality of social media for even the remotely famous. A celebrity's experience of social media is completely different from our own, bombarded as they are with praise, fury, demands and inanity with each hour that passes. Also, many of the miniature missives pinged at notable names come from desperate fans who are so obsessed that £11 will seem like a small price to pay.

Even traditional fanmail has historically been hard to keep up with, and the volume of that medium is naturally subdued by the effort associated with pens, paper, stamps and postboxes. Yet still it comes, by the sackload. It's harrowing to witness the piles of letters, cards and gifts that pile up in the dressing room of any moderately successful chart act as they tour from city to city. This mail is frequently never even glimpsed by the intended recipient and is often swept, unopened, into a black binbag by a tour manager at the end of the night. In it all goes: poetry, lovingly sketched artwork, teddies and trinkets on which pocket money has been trustingly spent.

It's a predicament that hit Taylor Swift a month ago when a box containing hundreds of her unopened fan letters was found unceremoniously ditched in a Nashville dumpster. Now, before you become too angry, the act wasn't completely uncaring – the letters had at least been placed in the recycling section. But it's hard not to feel a twinge of heartbreak when faced with the spectacle of hundreds of trashed communiques which, as the Daily Mail noted, were "covered with pictures, hearts and sparkles". HEARTS AND SPARKLES. In the aftermath of bingate, a Swift spokesperson noted that Taylor received thousands of fan letters daily and that these were opened, read and recycled. If true, this is certainly an impressive commitment to fan relations: opening and reading 2,000 letters daily would be a full-time job for four people, and that's before a single reply is sent.

And what, one wonders, did those unopened envelopes contain? Well, probably more than some inconsequential chitchat about Taylor's lovely hair. Being an imaginary best friend means becoming a sounding board for thousands of teenagers. Many will confide in you, their only true friend, that they are unhappy at school, mistreated at home, or medically confused. During work experience at a teen magazine in the late 90s, when I was tasked with opening mail for the letters page, I opened one brief note from a girl who had recently lost her virginity and subsequently missed two periods. She was writing to her favourite magazine to ask whether it was possible that she might be pregnant. The date on the letter suggested that yes, she was probably at least three months pregnant by the time I saw it, and would be at least five months pregnant by the time any response appeared in her favourite monthly mag.

Instant access on Facebook might make it easier for Katie Price to respond to such messages before the only useful tip is which buggy to choose, but to any celebrity with a conscience, the day-to-day truth of fanmail can be frustrating and traumatic. They start with the best intentions, hoping to reply to everybody, to solve every problem. But faced with three postbags, it's just not possible. So how do you ignore someone asking for help?

Celebrities and musicians will often talk – off the record – about the turmoil they feel when faced with endless requests from charities, desperate fans, or parents with seriously ill kids. Responding to and fulfilling these requests would be an all-consuming job. And for time-rich celebrities of the reality TV world, this might actually be the answer. It takes 10 seconds to open a message seeking help or charity, assess its content and respond with either "thanks babes", "sorry babes" or "see a doctor babes", then hit send. So it would be possible to reply to 360 messages per hour. If we take £11 per message as an example, and if Facebook take a 30% cut similar to Apple's App Store commission, that could be £2,520 per day to a celebrity for just an hour's work. That's almost £1m annually. And if we can assume anything of the TOWIE brigade, it's that they would quite possibly view altruism a lot more favourably if it resulted in a huge pile of cash.

The only sticking point is that, so far, Facebook is offering precisely 0% of revenue to a message's recipient, leaving no incentive for a single message to be read. If you'd like to message Mark Zuckerberg to ask why, go right ahead. It will cost you $100.

Peter Robinson

Taylor Swift Not Afraid Of Being 'Single Forever'

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 17:27:10 +0100

After years of living life in the fast lane of love, the singer says she's slowing down in the latest issue of Wonderland.
By Emily Blake

Taylor Swift
Photo: Getty Images/ Paul A. Hebert

Taylor Swift Meets Cancer Survivor Fan At Acm Awards

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 01:36:17 +0100

Taylor Swift invited a cancer survivor to the Academy of Country Music (Acm) Awards on Sunday (07Apr13) after he was too sick to attend the event as...

98 Degrees Offer Boy Bands Advice: 'Stay Away From Taylor Swift!'

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 20:36:58 +0100

Reunited foursome gives sage advice to newbies One Direction and The Wanted.
By Jocelyn Vena

Nick Lachey, Drew Lachey and Justin Jeffre of 98 Degrees
Photo: MTV News

American Country Music Awards: See Taylor Swift, Jewel & Kelly Clarkson’s Performances

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 15:32:25 +0100

The Blake Shelton- and Luke Bryan-hosted 48th annual American Country Music Awards proved to be a night full of big performances (including, oddly enough, two by R&B-pop legend Stevie Wonder) and many wins for Shelton’s wife Miranda Lambert (Song Of The Year, Single Of The Year, Top Female Vocalist) and co-host, Bryan (Entertainer Of The ... More »

Taylor Swift, John Mayer Light Up Stage At ACM Awards

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 13:56:40 +0100

Blake Shelton and co-host Luke Bryan went home winners at the 2013 Academy of Country Music Awards Sunday night in Las Vegas.
By Jocelyn Vena

Taylor Swift performs at the ACM Awards
Photo: Ethan Miller/ Getty Images

The secret diary of a Beyoncé fan

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 11:12:31 +0100

There was meant to be a new Beyoncé single today. Instead it looks like being the latest letdown in an album launch campaign that's been more torture than teaser

Have you ever been trolled by a pop star? I only ask because as a fan of Beyoncé it feels like me and millions of others are currently pawns in a game of see-who-can-break-first when it comes to the campaign for her seemingly mythical fifth solo album (current release date: the twelfth of never). Starting in October 2012 with the announcement that she'd landed the Super Bowl halftime slot, to last week when she unveiled a clip of a new song buried inside an advert for Pepsi (we'll suspend disbelief and accept the Cuban trip was only a holiday), it's been a journey littered with false starts, double bluffs and more hopes raised and dashed than a wrong number message from Beyoncé on Michelle Williams' answering machine. Almost six months after the campaign began there is still no single, album title or even a release date.

Admittedly pop in 2013 is all about hinting and waiting and drip-feeding and waiting some more: videos are teased using 30-second trailers that are counted down via social media outlets to the point where if you're good enough with an editing suite you could probably knock together a decent approximation of the video by the time it actually airs. Also, albums aren't as important as they used to be – with tours now creating the most revenue and albums almost being a bi-product, rather than vice versa. But still, Beyoncé is not a heritage act, or at least she shouldn't be, which makes the fact that there's no new material to promote on her imminent world tour even more baffling. Something seems to have gone wrong somewhere.

Below is a timeline mapping the various stages of this never-ending album campaign and an incredibly scientific look at how my excitement levels have fluctuated.

17 October 2012
It's announced that Beyoncé will be performing at the Super Bowl halftime show in February.
Excitement levels: 68%. "Following 2011's good but under-performing 4 album it will be nice to see what she does next."

27 November 2012
It's announced that Beyoncé will be directing a HBO documentary about herself to air in February.
Excitement levels: 72%. "Same month as the Super Bowl, this is all very good promotion for her imminent return. Well done, Beyoncé."

4 December 2012
Producer the-Dream, who is apparently working on the new album, tells the world she'll have a couple of new songs out before the Super Bowl.
Excitement levels: 89%. "Well, he'd know as he's apparently working on the album!"

9 December 2012
Beyoncé signs a deal with Pepsi.
Excitement levels: 81%. "This means there will be a tour, which is good news. The advert will need to be better than this one though."

10 December 2012
Ne-Yo confirms he's been working on the new album.
Excitement levels: 83%. "Irreplaceable is a good song, so a couple more of those would be good."

9 January 2013
It's announced that Beyoncé will perform the national anthem at Obama's inauguration.
Excitement levels: 78%. "Shame she's not doing Crazy in Love, but what can you do?"

11 January 2013
Destiny's Child regroup briefly to unveil the previously unreleased Nuclear from their album Love Songs.
Excitement levels: 89% at the announcement of the song and 57% upon hearing it. "That's just an old song that didn't make it on to their last album, isn't it?"

11 January 2013
Beyoncé tells GQ magazine that she struggles to comprehend her own brilliance. She also talks about the new album, which includes production from Pharrell, Timbaland, Justin Timberlake and the-Dream.
Excitement levels: 90%. "We're with her on the brilliance thing and that lineup of collaborators is pretty good even if Timbaland and Pharrell are a bit past it now."

17 January 2013
Rumours circulate that she's performing at the Brits.
Excitement levels: 92%. "She is really quite good at singing songs on a stage and this must mean there's a new single ready to go."

31 January 2013
Shares rehearsal footage from the Super Bowl performance.
Excitement levels: 87%. "No new songs shown in the clips, but she probably doesn't want to ruin the surprise."

3 February 2013
Performs at the Super Bowl causing a power cut in the stadium. No new material is played.
Excitement levels: 83%. "It's weird that she didn't play any new songs but surely an announcement about a single is imminent."

4 February 2013
Announces dates for the Mrs Carter world tour the morning after the Super Bowl.
Excitement levels: 81%. "OK, well that's exciting especially as it starts in April. Not much time to get the single and album out before then though!"

7 February 2013
It's announced that Beyoncé won't be performing at the Brits after all. She'll be replaced by Taylor Swift.
Excitement levels: 41%. "That's a real shame. The single's obviously been delayed."

12 February 2013
Appears on the cover of the Gentlewoman and US Vogue.
Excitement levels: 83%. "Right, here we go, magazine covers must mean new material is on its way any day now."

26 February 2013
It is announced Beyoncé will be one of the headliners of V festival in August.
Excitement levels: 54%. "Please don't make me go to V festival, Beyoncé."

27 February 2013
Starts posting pictures of her sitting in various forms of automobile on social media networks. One involves her wearing a hard hat.
Excitement levels: 48%. "What does this all mean? Has she quit pop for a career on a building site?"

6 March 2013
A fake tracklisting for the new album appears online.
Excitement levels: 88%. "Even though it's quite clearly fake, it's still exciting because some of it might be true. Please. Can some of it be true?"

17 March 2013
Out of nowhere a new "song" called Bow Down/I Been On is plonked on Beyoncé's SoundCloud.
Excitement levels: 97%. "It's obviously just two interludes mashed together but at least it proves she has actually been near a studio."

20 March 2013
Songwriter and producer Ryan Tedder claims the album is still not finished.
Excitement levels: 21%. "Seriously, how hard is it to knock together a few songs? Even if she just gave us a hint as to when we might hear it would be something."

21 March 2013
It's announced that Beyoncé is the new face of the H&M summer range and that her advert will feature a new song, Standing on the Sun.
Excitement levels: 29%. "That song's probably been recorded to order, hasn't it?"

2 April 2013
It's announced that Beyoncé and André 3000 have covered Back to Black for The Great Gatsby soundtrack.
Excitement levels: 42%. "Hmm, a cover isn't quite what's needed at the moment, but still."

3 April 2013
Beyoncé's 2011 album 4 is rereleased on US iTunes with a new tracklisting.
Excitement levels: 4%. "Right, if this whole thing has been a glorified campaign for you to prove that 4 is some sort of lost masterpiece then I will be very upset indeed."

3 April 2013
Beyoncé releases a 10-second teaser video featuring a gold glove, a hashtag (#BeyHereNow) and a tiny bit of a new song.
Excitement levels: 98%. "It's happening, it's really happening."

3 April 2013
Sony Ireland tweets that the teaser video is for a new Pepsi advert (the tweet has since been deleted).
Excitement levels: 6%. "Oh, well done everyone."

4 April 2013
A short a cappella clip of what is supposedly the first single Good Woman appears online.
Excitement levels: 93%. "Perhaps the advert will feature more of the song and then she'll announce that it's being released next week!"

4 April 2013
The minute-long Pepsi advert is premiered online. It does indeed feature the Timbaland-produced Grown Woman. A press release doing the rounds claims the single will be out on Monday.
Excitement levels: 99%. "OH PRAISE BE(Y)! FINALLY!"

4 April 2013
Billboard announce that Grown Woman is not the first single, but will appear on the album. No release schedule is announced.
Excitement levels: 2%. "I give up."

Michael Cragg

John Mayer To Perform With Brad Paisley At Acm Awards

Sat, 06 Apr 2013 14:11:14 +0100

Rocker John Mayer is set for an awkward encounter with his ex Taylor Swift - he has joined her as a performer at the Academy of Country Music Awards...

Justin Bieber Is The Saddest, Only Has Four Friends (Five If You Count The Monkey)

Fri, 05 Apr 2013 20:17:53 +0100

Justin Bieber‘s “meltdown” has now reached that critical point where the funny starts to morph into the sad. The superstar told the UK’s Mirror that he only has four friends. (Compare that to Taylor Swift, who said she has “like, 15 best friends.” Quit being such a friend-hog, Taylor!) “Literally my phone never rings, I ... More »

Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber, Bruno Mars & Miguel To Perform At Billboard Music Awards

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 18:58:35 +0100

Some of the most successful artists of 2012 will be hitting the stage in Sin City for the Billboard Music Awards. Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber, Bruno Mars and Miguel are set to perform at the ceremony in Las Vegas on May 19. And they’ve certainly earned the slot: Swift, Bieber and Mars each spent time atop the ... More »

Taylor Swift nearly 'impaled' by Ed Sheeran's sword

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 13:13:35 +0100

Singer-songwriter was given the Lord Of The Rings weapon by director Peter Jackson

Taylor Swift is hating on hipsters but will it only make them love her more?

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 13:00:00 +0000

There's definitely an adorkable dimension to the former country star, while her shiny pop productions get the music geeks nodding. Don't they know she likes Ed Sheeran?

No matter the genre, hatred is the key to great, heartfelt songwriting. Just look at these offensively generalised facts: UK indie bands hate the Tories, rappers hate the police, emo bands hate their dads, and Taylor Swift – a genre all of her own – hates hipsters.

So when Swift's recent single 22 arrived, the internet was abuzz with the video's unabashed hipster-baiting. Its opening line "It feels like a perfect night to dress up like hipsters" was fully realised, with Swift in mocking lens-less black frame glasses and a slogan tee, all framed in an Instagram-like hue. The singer's dislike of edgy elitists was exposed for all to see.

Sadly for Taz, hipsters don't reciprocate this vitriol. The pretentious flock to Swift's music like a mothy David Cameron to a Smiths-shaped flame. Just this month, Minneapolis's avant-dance act Elite Gymnastics uploaded a mashed-up cover of Swift's Ours to his Tumblr, a gift for his girlfriend Grimes's birthday. That whole scenario couldn't get more hipster if you died its hair green and made it into a gif.

So why have 2013's hipsters chosen to adopt Swift as their official mascot? Why Taylor? Why not Conor Maynard? Why not Rita Ora? Why not the pink-haired one from Little Mix?

One reason why Taylor is so hip right now is that she is fundamentally a dork. Alongside her ever so slightly prominent teeth (facial quirk, tick), she spent her teens as a vastly successful country singer (niche musical past, tick), and writes songs really well (gifted, tick). She's also something of an outsider and doesn't particularly "belong" to any music scene (double tick, smiley face in gold pen).

Hipsters now wear their love of mainstream pop as a badge of honour. If you're listening to Taylor Swift, you're probably tweeting about listening to Taylor Swift. You can appreciate Kendrick Lamar, Death Grips and Taylor? Then of course your tastes are smart and eclectic. Additionally, tech-savvy hipsters claim their love for Swift comes via the immaculate pop production on her recent album Red, accredited largely to Max Martin. He's the Swedish writer-producer responsible for Britney's …Baby One More Time, and is the reason why on any night of the week you'll find a bearded part-time DJ in an east London pub muttering something along the lines of, "The production on Swift's tracks is probably on a par with anything J Dilla ever touched."

Taylor's hipster-mocking isn't working. In fact, it's only making them more determined to lasso her into their world instead. So she has two options: either fully surrender to those tattoo-adorned bastards; or, if she's really determined to push them away, add a few more Ed Sheeran collaborations on to the next album. Hipsters aren't ready for post-acoustic irony. Yet.

Harriet Gibsone

Taylor Swift Has Fans Sobbing, Squealing, Soaring On Red Tour

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 11:58:59 +0000

Swift takes fans on emotional rollercoaster and 'rewards' them with Neon Trees' Tyler Glenn.
By Emilee Lindner

Taylor Swift performs in Newark, New Jersey Thursday night
Photo: WireImage

Live: Taylor Swift

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 20:45:18 +0000

The Taylor Swift concert I attended last night was my first, though it didn’t feel like it. I bought her Speak Now World Tour Live CD/DVD in 2011, a few months after the peak of … read more »

Taylor Swift To Guest Star On ‘New Girl’ Season Finale

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 17:51:54 +0000

Taylor Swift is taking her comedic skills (she hosted Saturday Night Live, remember?) to a new platform: The country-pop superstar has been tipped to appear on the upcoming season finale of the FOX sitcom New Girl. Entertainment Weekly reports that Swift will be playing an “important guest” (hmm) at the wedding of characters Cece and Shivrang. (This is ... More »

Taylor Swift, Katy Perry Helped Inspire Debby Ryan's Debut Album

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 17:50:53 +0000

'Jessie' actress also inspired by fellow Disney starlet Demi Lovato: 'She is one of the best vocalists of our generation, hands down.'
By Christina Garibaldi

Debby Ryan
Photo: MTV News

Taylor Swift Locks In 'New Girl' Cameo

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 16:23:37 +0000

During Red Tour break, singer will film May 14 season finale.
By Jocelyn Vena

Taylor Swift
Photo: Getty Images/ Paul A. Hebert

Music Review: Taylor Swift at the Prudential Center in Newark

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 13:34:44 +0000

At a king-size spectacle at the Prudential Center in Newark, Taylor Swift was unflappable, even in the midst of a mishap, with a voice stronger and sturdier than it’s ever been.

Taylor Swift Tourmate Austin Mahone Is A Ballin' Bowler: Watch Now!

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 16:41:43 +0000

MTV News takes Austin bowling and he spills details on the Red Tour.
By Christina Garibaldi

Austin Mahone
Photo: MTV News

Justin Timberlake’s ‘The 20/20 Experience’ Debuts At #1 With 968,000 Copies Sold

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 02:18:37 +0000

The numbers are in, and at 968,000 copies sold, Justin Timberlake‘s critically-lauded third LP The 20/20 Experience has posted the best opening week since Taylor Swift‘s Red moved 1.2 million in November. While these isn’t the biggest first week in JT’s career — his former boy band *NSYNC‘s second album No Strings Attached opened with ... More »

Vondelpark, Tom Odell, Sky Ferreira: this week's new tracks

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 06:00:00 +0000

PICK OF THE WEEK

Vondelpark
California Analogue Dream (R&S)

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South London trio in excellent music shocker. Is there anything south London can't do at the moment? Is south London's music scene this summer's Jessica Ennis? Although this track is in its second incarnation – the 2011 original sounded like Arab Strap giving the xx a slap with a rusty spoon – Vondelpark's new version sounds polished and soulful, and a little like the Maccabees, if the concept of "epic anthemia" had never been invented.

Tom Odell
Hold Me (Columbia/In The Name Of)

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It's all very well for a man to ask a woman to hold him, but is it really feasible given our inadequate proportions? Tom Odell thinks so, and with this new gung-ho, Arcade Fire-aping single, he's telling the whole world that that's what he wants. Recently, Taylor Swift was rumoured to be dating Odell, and a lot of teenage girls were saying he wasn't as fit as her ex, Harry Styles from One Direction. But I bet when you see him, topless, in pale jeans, hacking into a big log with an axe, a bead of damp sweat on his forehead, that's when you'd really appreciate him.

Charlie Boyer And The Voyeurs
Things We Be (Heavenly)

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CBATV are a good band to reference if you're talking to someone in a black polo neck. Explain that they sound like Television and the Velvet Underground, but baggy. The only problem with this is that if you're in a busy pub explaining to someone that you "really like this band called Charlie Boyer And The Voyeurs", they're almost certain to reply, "Charline Boy Buyers?". This will go on for 20 minutes, so perhaps just say you like the Horrors.

Elephant
Skyscraper (Memphis Industries)

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This is glorious. It's as if a London version of Beach House decided to resurrect the ghost bodies of a choir from the 1920s to fill their celestial choruses. I hope in 100 years time bands will sample the choirs who sung in the Halifax adverts.

Sunless '97
Aurora/Aurora II (Not Even)

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You're not sure about the house music revival yet. I can tell: you aren't wearing baggy Moschino jumpers or flatforms. Sunless '97 should help. This double A-side is a lingering memory of 3am naughtiness, but I wonder if someone should just re-release PM Dawn's Set Adrift On Memory Bliss and be done with all this saggy–panted retrospective madness.

Sky Ferreira
Everything Is Embarrassing (Polydor)

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It's likely you've heard this song, as it's been available in the US since last year and, due to the internet, we now have regular access to America's digital possessions. Produced by Dev Hynes, the go-to guy for all things aloof and 80s, this is heartache at its most raw. It's for sobbing on buses, zooming in on iPhone pictures, and ingesting cry-dribble for dinner.

Harriet Gibsone

Tom Odell: destined for success?

Sun, 24 Mar 2013 00:06:37 +0000

Tom Odell, 22, is tipped to top the album charts this year. He is also no stranger to being dumped. As superstardom beckons, he talks about his night at the Brits – and a date with Taylor Swift

To play on a stage and get lost in abandon – "rocking out", it would have been called before fashion and embarrassment put a stop to that – is clearly not so easy when your instrument is the upright piano. The thing's immobile, too heavy to be theatrically manhandled like Mercury's mic stand, too expensive to smash up like Townshend's Rickenbacker. Tom Odell, a singer-songwriter who has tethered a developing career to 500lb of pine and ivory, does what he can.

Soundchecking before a gig in Brighton and performing snatches of songs from his new album, Odell sits at a piano and stomps a heavy Chelsea boot on the stage floor. He slaps a skinny-jeaned thigh, and flicks about his oddly cut blond hair, shaped so that bits of it hang down and almost touch the keys during hopeless, head-down, lovelorn sections of his songs. In rowdier choruses the 22-year-old never quite heels away the furniture to play standing up, Ben Folds style; but he convulses impressively on his stool.

"How does it sound?" Odell asks, frowning. The engineer likes it. An opinion is sought from someone arranging T-shirts at the back. "I wasn't listening mate," says the merchandise guy, "I was living my life." Never mind: while Odell is being talked up everywhere from tabloids to fashion mags as a Chris Martin II, and while an industry around him quietly anticipates monster sales, he doesn't much need that extra thumbs-up.

Last year's EP of piano ballads, called Songs from Another Love and released on Lily Cooper's label In The Name Of, was intriguing enough to get him listed on all the 2013 watch-lists. And his debut album, next month's Long Way Down, comes after a trip to the Brits in February, where Odell picked up the Critics' Choice newcomer award. Past winner Emeli Sandé sat at his table and said she was a fan. Presenter James Corden, sandwiched between them, told 6 million watching at home that Odell reminded him of "a young Chesney Hawkes", and seemed to mean it as a compliment.

Odell looked uncomfortable during the parts of the Brits I saw. He was pale and stiff, craning over Corden's microphone to answer questions as if the technology was new and uncertain. I ask about the event and Odell says: "That side of music – I find it difficult. I'm just starting out but even so. I know the most meaningful things I do are creating and performing. The rest of it can be quite soul-destroying. It isn't healthy, being in front of cameras. There's no depth to it."

We've moved from the venue to a pub. Odell powers down half of his Kronenbourg and then seems to slow down, either out of deference to me or the tour manager he's worried might be lurking. He looks younger than his age ("I don't think I'll ever be able to grow a beard") and though there was great assurance about him at soundcheck, that seems to have melted away. At the venue I watched him direct the crew from behind his piano, managing band members and roadies, swivelling on his stool like the captain on the deck of a spaceship. Sitting in the pub, Odell jiggles about uneasily. He frowns to consider questions, and sometimes hovers low over the table as if getting to the choppy parts of his songs on stage.

"It sounds weird, creepy," he says, "but I don't love hanging out. I don't really have loads of friends – three or four who are close. The thing that I love the most is playing with my band, and with everything else I feel kind of uncomfortable. I don't think I'm socially awkward. I just prefer being behind a piano."

From that position, Odell says, he's best placed to right things that are wrong in his life. Being bright, earnest and 22, he has a theory to explain what he means. "If there are all these dirty dishes and the kitchen's covered in mess … And if I've been up all night and I feel like shit – that's when I'll write good songs. Because something's broken and I need to fix it. But if I clean the dishes, get an early night, wake up feeling fresh and sit down at the piano at 10am, it's not going to work."

His songs, with their hoarse vocals and stubborn chords, pick over ruined love affairs. There's Another Love, about the difficulty of gearing up for a new relationship after the bitter end of a better one; another called Supposed to Be, which has a killer line about an old flame getting on with her life with offensive ease. Some are about one particular ex-girlfriend – Odell put a photograph of her on the sleeve of the EP. Later the merch guy will be flogging T-shirts of Odell's lost love for £15. "That is a bit weird actually," he says, seeming to think about it for the first time. "Yeah: it's weird. I kind of regret that."

How to put this. Your lyrics suggest, I tell him, that you have no talent for relationships. "I'm bad at them," Odell agrees. "There's always a part of my brain saying: 'Stop getting comfortable. Don't relax.' Because I find it difficult to write when I'm happy. I have to go out there and get battered up and bruised to write anything. I have to feel something."

This conversation seems to make Odell worried, for a moment, that the album is one-note. "If there's a criticism of it, actually, I'd give it that: it makes out I'm some sort of sucker. And I'm not, not really. I could write about political issues. Or I could write about … I don't know, this beer. But it wouldn't sound as emotive or as honest. Having your heart broken makes fucking good songs, it just does. When you're 22 what's the thing you talk to your mates about? What's the thing you think about most when you're trying to sleep at night? It's the girl who won't text you back."

We're in a pub Odell knows well. "The worst gig in town," he calls it, having played an upstairs room a few times. He moved to Brighton from his home town of Chichester at 18, after failing to translate years of piano lessons into acceptance at a music college in Liverpool. He decided to ply the Brighton circuit instead, living on peanut butter-slathered burgers from a takeaway by the pier and lugging a keyboard around open mic nights.

His short career in Brighton, like that in love, is probably most notable for its mishaps. There were terrible gigs when nobody turned up; worse, when they turned up and took the piss. The bedsit Odell lived in was between a hospital and a police station ("one of the noisiest places in the world," but at least he got a track, Sirens, out of it). He was made redundant from a job in the local pub and then, one day, he was ditched by his band.

Odell was performing as Tom and the Tides at the time. "I sang and played piano, put a lot into it. Then I invited one of my best mates to join. And he sort of went off with them. Told me the band wanted to play with him now, and I wasn't allowed to be a part of it any more. I was like..." (And here Odell pulls a face that is basically devastating: eyebrows angled, cheeks sagging) "...why not?"

There is cameraphone footage of Tom and the Tides playing a Brighton pub in 2010. Odell has shaggy hair, bound by a Springsteen-ish headband, and he's sitting at a keyboard underneath a huge, dwarfing mic rig. His band are huddled on the other side of the keyboard. "We were just starting to get somewhere," Odell says, glumly. Did it make him rethink the choice of career? "I've only ever had one doubt about music," he says. "It came when I was 11. I hated playing scales."

After a difficult year in Brighton Odell moved to London and, with a new iteration of Tom and the Tides, got low-end bookings including a daytime slot on the concourse of St Pancras station. (It was freezing; the singer performed in a duffel coat.) The beleaguered Tides had a MySpace page that now gives one of those sad, spare death notices: "Last login: 01/09/2011". Odell had "figured that I didn't want to have to rely on people", and started performing under his own name. He did a gig in east London with about 20 people in the crowd, and one, fortuitously, was a friend of Lily Cooper. Word passed, and Cooper came to see Odell herself. He was signed to her label and established in a small studio off Brick Lane to work up an album.

A one-take video, shot in that studio and uploaded last August, shows Odell performing an early song, Sense. It was very affecting, his voice cracking and his hair drooping all over the keys, and within a couple of months he was booked to perform on Later… with Jools Holland. ("His passion for performing was there for all to see," producer Alison Howe tells me.) I was in the studio audience at the recording, and even after Soul II Soul had buoyed the room with Back to Life, and after Lana del Rey had tiptoed her way through a single in heavy radio rotation, it was Odell's haunting rendition of Another Love that dug deepest. Everyone kept mumbling the refrain during filming breaks. Howe calls it "a classic Later debut".

When the announcement of the Brits' Critics' Choice came around Odell was a deserving pick, no doubt; but it can't have hurt that the voting form was sent out the same week as the Later broadcast. Some critics probably chose the nearest new thing; others may have been formalising the fact that – after a 2012 in which Chris Martin caught the eye doing yoga crabs on his little stool at the Paralympics, and Emeli Sandé was everywhere tinkling – the piano was having a moment in pop. Or maybe they all just liked Odell's stuff. Anyway it got him a nice statue at the Brits. It also got him a date.

According to reports published afterwards in Grazia and on PerezHilton.com, Odell started talking to the country singer Taylor Swift at the ceremony. A trip to the pub followed: just the two of them, plus a dozen paparazzi. In front of me now, Odell wriggles like a trapped animal when I ask about it. He blushes and drums his fingers in time to music playing from the pub's speakers. "Uh. Pretty crazy, you know. She's just a lovely 23-year-old girl. There's not really much more to it. I have to be careful what I say. That whole little escapade was, I don't know... It was very cool."

He has been given the flick by more than one girlfriend, been dumped by a four-piece band – you can hardly begrudge him some flattering attention from an American star. Swift has sold 25m albums since 2008, enjoying about as many tabloid-chronicled romances. She is noted for her ability to remodel disappointing boyfriends into the stuff of hit song, and Odell has a similar talent. A few more pub dates, I point out, and they could both bank years' worth of tracks. Odell grins. He deflects.

"Lily gave me advice. Emeli Sandé gave me advice. It was basically the same: don't forget why you started doing this. It sounds very simple but I carry that. You can get caught up in the other side of things – the parties – but it's important to remember why you started. And for me the reason was innocent. I love writing songs and I always dreamed of making an album."

Later, when I return to the venue to see him play, there's a reminder that Odell is still a long way from being a performer on Swift's level. The guy in charge of the guest list mishears my name and lets me in as Tom Odell. Inside, the room is packed to capacity, 350 people wedged in front of a spotlit piano. Odell is roared on to stage. He plays a couple of songs before the obligatory conversation break, where he swivels to consider the crowd. He admits he's played Brighton a few times before: for about 10 people per show. "So it's good you're all here." After that, the music back under way, Odell unveils some stunts held back from soundcheck. He thumps the piano's pine top with a fist, and leaps upright, once, twice, to run his fingers the length of the keys.

Odell's debut single, Hold Me, is out on 31 March. Long Way Down (In The Name Of) is due in June; tomodell.com

Tom Lamont

Women we love to love and women we love to hate

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 22:00:00 +0000

Why is it that Jennifer Lawrence, Michelle Obama and Adele get all the love, while Anne Hathaway, Taylor Swift and Peaches Geldof get it in the neck?

As the dust begins to settle on awards season, it becomes clear that some famous women get a lot more love than others. Rightly or wrongly, there are those whom everyone wants to make their instant best friend, and those who get it in the neck. Why is Adele so robustly likable, while the equally successful Taylor Swift often comes across like a wounded deer? Why would so many of us run into the nearest pub to neck shots with Jennifer Lawrence, and leave Anne Hathaway waiting in the car? Using deeply scientific methodology, we've uncovered the reasons behind this puzzling phenomenon.

Five women we love to love

Meryl Streep
The thing is, you don't always want a celeb to be "down to Earth" or "just like us". Mariah Carey's need for a staff member to carry her drink and prop up the bendy bit of her straw is what makes me love her so much. In politicians, it might be unbecoming to live a life of gross opulence, but showbiz is different. Which is why some journalists were so distraught when Meryl Streep, promoting The Iron Lady, baked them a pie and washed up afterwards. A small screening was held for some female writers, after which Meryl got out the Marigolds in the kitchen of a house in Islington. "You're Meryl Streep!" they tried to say to her. "We love you! We want our most fabulous movie stars to live massively glamorous lives that we cannot begin to dream of! Roll your sleeves back down and please take my chair!" Then again, Streep was equally resplendent in a recently released image with Hillary Clinton, her arm around the former secretary of state, trying to take a photo of the pair of them on her iPhone. The fact is that neither rubber gloves nor mobile phone selfies can lessen the dignity of Streep. Such joie de vivre, coupled with such accomplishment, makes her a goddess.

Jennifer Lawrence
Since the Oscars, there is one question whispered in the dark corners of Hollywood more than any other. And that is: has Jennifer Lawrence been out for a Bacardi Breezer with Jack Nicholson yet? If you haven't seen the footage of the 22-year-old being chatted up by the veteran actor after she won the best actress Oscar, then get thee to YouTube immediately. Her face! Her hands! Her shocked howl! While you're there, you might as well watch every other clip of her from the ceremony: tripping on her dress, or bewildered by the red carpet fashion people. The press conference at which she admits she's a bit too sloshed to focus on the questions, only to get brilliantly annoyed when somebody asks if winning the Oscar means she's peaked too soon. (Somehow, her annoyed response is also very warm.) Everything seems so unrehearsed and so genuinely funny, as if she had somehow slipped this far through the film industry without anyone remembering to put her name down for media training. I mean, really – maybe she has? I don't know anybody who watched that and didn't want to become Jen's best friend as a matter of some urgency.

Michelle Obama
After Michelle Obama had her hair cut into a trendy fringe, she pointed at her forehead and told a CNN reporter, "This is my midlife crisis, the bangs. I couldn't get a sports car, and they won't let me bungee jump." Oh, you can just imagine her and Barry O together, exuding droll wit as they snuggle up by the fire in the White House den, wondering how to deal with the latest insurgency from their pesky kids that they just love so goddamn much. And as for the healthy eating campaign, given that half the food sold in the US appears to be fashioned purely from E numbers and polystyrene, that's not a twee first lady hobby, that's humanitarian crisis work. She also gets away with doing dance routines with Tina Fey on Saturday Night Live because, unlike David Cameron for example, she can actually dance. Yet you can also fully believe her when she says, "I never cut class. I loved getting As, I liked being smart. I liked being on time. I thought being smart is cooler than anything in the world." And thus the geek shall inherit the Earth. (We aren't even going to mention her arms. Those high-fiving, fist-bumping, glorious arms.)

Mila Kunis
Because you can just imagine her wanging out to World of Warcraft, the game she plays online, anonymously, against total strangers (she had to stop using the voice command after somebody recognised her). Because she was recently interviewed by a bumbling boy from Radio 1 who asked if she would go to the pub with his mates in Watford and she was all, hell, why not, I'm the person who says yes to everything – what are we drinking? She went on to lecture him about beer. (Famously, she also went to a Marine Corps ball in North Carolina after a soldier, then serving in Afghanistan, put a video on YouTube asking her to be his date.) Because her Ukrainian family left the Soviet Union to move to LA when she was seven, to escape communism and antisemitism, and she describes her first day at her American state school as making her feel deaf and blind. Because she joined an after-school acting class for fun and realised that everyone in LA was beautiful so she'd better work on her comic timing instead. Because she criticises the Republican party, saying things like, "I may not be a practising Jew, but why we gotta talk about Jesus all the time?"

Adele
Blessed with the kind of smile that sets her whole body off laughing, and then sets everybody else's off with it, Adele is queen of the fantasy BFFs. Do you know any woman who'd turn down a night on the sauce with her? Anyone who doesn't think that if they could just have her in their bedroom at seven o'clock on a Friday night, in control of the white wine, the Elnett and the minicab booking, that life would somehow never be cheerless again? She always regales with stories such as the time she went to see the Spice Girls at the 02 and puked out of the car window all the way home. We need a new word for laddishness, for this is womanishness nowadays. In fact, this awards season really felt dramatically different because of women such as Adele and her twin soul Jennifer Lawrence talking like humans, not zombies. The jokes, the laughter, the immediacy of their response: it was no longer a PR schmoozefest. Adele brings to celebrity what Mo Mowlam brought to politics.

Five women we love to hate

Anne Hathaway
It's such a shame that wanting people to like you always has the opposite effect. I mean, is there something so wrong with Anne Hathaway's desire to bring happiness and be popular? Truth be told, it can get a bit exhausting. I once sat near her in a restaurant, where she zealously introduced herself and her friends to each waiter, as if he were a cherished member of their social unit and not just some bloke paid to carry a tray. People who have worked with her have said similar: that the constant praising of movie minions with, "You did such a good job there! Well done!" can grate. And if that's in sunny LA, think how well it would go down over here. The solution is for Hathaway to spend a year in sarky Manchester, where her attempts to go jogging will be thwarted by 324 days of rain, and if she so much as thinks about telling a Mancunian barmaid that she has poured those lagers fantastically well, she will swiftly learn an aloofness not taught in any American drama school.

Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift is a massively successful singer-songwriter, whose own hard slog as composer and performer has taken her to the top. When Kanye West dissed her at an awards ceremony, everyone swung to her defence. But then she kept banging on about it. And when Tina Fey and Amy Poehler made a joke about her love life at the Golden Globes, she started going on about that, too, saying that there was "a special place in hell reserved for women who don't help other women", which was a bit ironic, given how many of Swift's songs place her in the role of victim of other terrible slutty types. It has been said that women are not hard-wired to respond to damsels in distress in the same way men are, so all this "white dress scorned virgin" stuff can get a bit lost on us. The real problem here, though, is that Swift has achieved so much, so young, by herself, and is trying massively hard to be a grown-up. One is reminded of a line from her hero, Bob Dylan: "Ah, but I was so much older then/I'm younger than that now." We predict that the Taylor of five years' time will have learned to knock back a nice Malibu and pineapple, and laugh at herself a bit. And maybe quit the princess-who-can't-sleep-on-a-pea routine.

Keira Knightley
When I interviewed Joe Wright, director of many of Knightley's films (Pride And Prejudice, Anna Karenina, Atonement), he told me he loved working with her because she was so much fun to muck about with on set. Obviously, her acting talent was the top draw, but what he really raved about was what a massive laugh she was. I must admit I was surprised, and found myself wondering if the misapprehension all comes down to bone structure. Are we somehow programmed to associate those sculpted cheeks and pouted mouth with someone who can't tell a decent joke? If you look at Lawrence, Adele and Streep, none of them has such a pronounced bone structure as Knightley, Hathaway or Angelina Jolie, and none of them receives such scorn. In polls, men tend to rate Knightley more highly as an actor than women do. Does this mean women equate bony with moany? Or does Knightley just need to unleash a cheery grin and tell some of those knob gags on primetime telly?

Peaches Geldof
Look, the Scientology phase was hard to love, we'll give you that much. And the documentary where she set up a magazine and was rude to her staff because they weren't cool enough or, like, didn't have Nick Cave's mobile number was a bit mortifying. And the shoplifting accusations didn't bode well – but why should they? Can you honestly say you didn't spend your teens and early 20s lurching from one bad decision to another, retrospectively grateful that the paparazzi didn't notice you and Channel 4 couldn't spare the budget to give you a chatshow? It's taken me years to get through all the hair bobbles I nicked from Selfridges at that age. Besides which, Peaches and her husband had a baby shortly after I did and quite clearly love theirs more than I do mine. I thought I was gushy by uploading a new picture every day, but they upload one every 12 to 14 minutes. Instagram is breaking under the weight of Peaches' love for her little grub – and, seeing as she's up the duff again, it will have to migrate to new servers when she has the second. Don't even worry about all the exposure making those kids a mess, because the statute of limitations on genetic inheritance means that third-generation rock'n'roll kids are 100% predetermined to become accountants.

Kate Winslet
Lots of people love Kate Winslet. She is a hugely accomplished actor who hasn't yet killed anyone that we know of. And yet there are many who would rather donate their eyes to neuroscience than read another magazine profile stating that our Kate is just a normal gal who served bangers and mash at her first wedding, or that she doesn't knacker herself out down the gym, why, she's just happy with her curves! This, my friends, is one of the many reasons it is so brilliant that she has now married for a third time, and to someone who happens to be Richard Branson's nephew and works on his space travel programme and has legally changed his surname to Rocknroll. The lives and loves of Kate Winslet are becoming as epic as those of Elizabeth Taylor, making her a real vintage Hollywood dame. I mean, you're either hosting a meat and potato party or you're an Oscar winner whose soulmate goes to work on a spaceship. You can't be both. Kate is now fully lost to us, the people – and I for one am in awe of her marriage to that intergalactic adventurer. She has saved us from having to hear about the cumberlands and the maris pipers ever, ever again.

Sophie Heawood

Country to Country – review

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 19:11:38 +0000

O2 Arena, London

For many Britons, C2C is the train line that runs between Fenchurch Street in London and Shoeburyness in Essex, while country music suggests rhinestone, permatans and reactionary politics. So it's cheering to see the O2 pretty much crammed to the rafters for the Country to Country festival, or C2C, or "the Grand Ole Opry comes to Greenwich", as Whispering Bob regularly reminds us from the stage.

Country to Country is the first of its kind, a joint venture between the O2 promoters and the Country Music Association in Nashville, who've sent over a selection of the A-listers they think we're most likely to get on with. The artists seem genuinely stoked to be here: Tim McGraw has sold 40m albums, but he's never played the UK: "Can you feel the spirit of country music moving all over you?" he asks the audience. "Over there? Down the middle? Give me a 'Hallelujah!'" He and Darius Rucker, the most successful black country singer since Charley Pride, have released UK singles to coincide with this gig, and tonight the highest tiers of the O2 twinkle with Stetsons: there are middle-aged couples, young people in plaid shirts, and girls who've come for Carrie Underwood on Sunday. The arena changes character, feels warmer: it makes you realise, not for the first time, how small is the layer of music that gets "hyped" in the UK.

McGraw is married to the country singer Faith Hill, and he starred in the movie Country Strong alongside Gwyneth Paltrow; he's also a Democrat who keeps threatening to run for office in his native Tennessee. To look at, he's a kind of goth-Gestapo-cowboy in ankle-length leather coat, leather trousers and leather Stetson: he has advanced biceps that enable him to flip, on one arm, into the audience. But his songs are homely, with Bruce Hornsby-style piano and wistful lyrics about "country boys and girls gettin' down on the farm" (Down on the Farm) and lessons learned from that long hot summer with the one that got away.

Country music's self-consciousness – that strict lexicon of blacktops and broken hearts – repels as many people as it attracts, but it's as much a fantasy to the majority of Americans as it is to us in Britain. And that's the point: every person here is immersed in the romance. There are stalls selling bootlace ties, holsters and DVDs on how to rein your horse correctly. McGraw's songs may be constructed from cliches but they seem to contain an intensified experience of the world. Darius Rucker used to be in Hootie and the Blowfish, and his lyrics celebrating the simple joy of having a wife and (in one case) some shoes are genuinely infectious, almost evangelical.

The real drama takes place on Sunday afternoon, with a fascinating "comeback" (she didn't really go away) from LeAnn Rimes, whom we first saw on Top of the Pops as a shy 15-year-old singing her humungous hit How Do I Live. Since then she's fought a lawsuit against her dad (she claimed he swindled her out of $7m), and recently became Nashville's scarlet woman after a very public affair. Her new song, Borrowed, is a jittery but defiant account of the scandal ("I know you're not mine, only borrowed/ And I don't want to give you back"), and afterwards the applause goes on far longer than she clearly expected. I don't think I've ever seen a pop star trying not to cry on stage before: nowadays you're under contract to squeeze out a few tears (Rimes and Carrie Underwood are so different from Taylor Swift, the "Queen of Country Pop", with her oversharing and personal speeches). Underwood, who is from Oklahoma and won American Idol in 2005, recently rattled her Republican fans by coming out in favour of gay marriage. She combines classic country music storytelling with tremendous pluck, and does a particularly good line in cheatin' songs – Two Black Cadillacs tells the tale of two women who plot the murder of their lover and come face to face at the side of his grave.

But wait, what's this horror? Every reporter in the O2 licks their pencil point and scribbles disapprovingly as the O2 becomes a superchurch, with images of stained-glass windows and shafts of godly light beamed on the back wall for Carrie's cautionary hit Jesus, Take the Wheel. It would be a real shame if the organisers came under pressure to make C2C any less "country" next year. It's just a bit of religion, people… get over it.

Kate Mossman

After Three Years (And Katy Perry) John Mayer Announces 44-Date Tour

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 15:25:16 +0000

Following relationships with Taylor Swift and Katy Perry, John Mayer has been tabloid fodder for the past couple of years, though it seems the blues...

For Taylor Swift’s Image, Erosion Is a Danger

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 15:24:36 +0000

At the age of 23, the singer is experiencing a tumble in popularity that is also affecting her marketability.

Jake Bugg says there is 'no chance' Taylor Swift will ever write a song about him

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 11:25:55 +0000

Singer continues his ongoing criticism of One Direction

Harry Styles regrets Taylor Swift romance

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 23:00:17 +0000

Harry Styles regrets dating Taylor Swift.The One Direction heartthrob - who enjoyed a two month romance with the country singer late last year -...

Did Harry Styles Get Taylor Swift Into 'Trouble'?

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 20:14:21 +0000

'I Knew You Were Trouble' muse was there during Swift's Brit Awards performance, and the One Direction guys were definitely in the house.
By Jocelyn Vena

Taylor Swift and Harry Styles
Photo: Splash News

Elite Gymnastics – “私たちのもの ( O U R S )” (Taylor Swift/Justin Bieber Cover)

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 15:32:35 +0000

You know you have a good friend when he flips your favorite music into something brand new for your birthday. Elite Gymnastics has crafted a lo-fi cover of Taylor Swift’s “Ours” to celebrate his friend and fellow poptimist Claire Boucher, bka Grimes, turning 25 yesterday. It also features a little bit of Justin Bieber’s Nicki [...]

No wonder our ex-soldiers are looking for a fight | Barbara Ellen

Sun, 17 Mar 2013 00:06:19 +0000

A new survey reveals disturbing truths about members of our armed forces

A report in the Lancet has put together the experiences of almost 14,000 serving and former military personnel with information from the police national computer for the first time.

Links were found between active combat and post-traumatic stress disorder, alcohol abuse and depression. While overall the armed forces are less likely than civilians to offend, they are three times more likely to be convicted of violent offences; 20% of younger males (under 30) have been convicted of violence compared with 6.7% of civilians. Those who served in combat in Iraq or Afghanistan were 53% more likely to offend violently than those not on the frontline. Those with multiple experiences of combat had a 70%-80% greater risk of being convicted for acts of violence.

They were also more likely to offend before they joined up, which again made it more likely for them to be selected for combat. The report says: "Infantry units have traditionally promoted aggression as a desirable trait and such units frequently recruit individuals who are socially disadvantaged and are likely to have low educational attainment." So, let's get this straight: disadvantaged, poorly educated, young guys, who got into fights or, worse, before joining up are more likely to be sent into combat and are then more likely to be both traumatised and criminalised by their experiences. Isn't this just a modern take on "cannon fodder"?

In fairness, the military commissioned this report and says it wants to improve their care. With such statistics, there's definitely room for improvement. The report doesn't even allow for domestic violence; if it did, the figures would be even worse. One former soldier, Lewis McKay, has bravely spoken of how he felt so profoundly disturbed he found himself biting his hands to stop himself from hitting his wife. I say "bravely", because all seem agreed that one of the biggest problems is the stigma surrounding mental health issues.

Some of you might be thinking, well, it's obvious that naturally aggressive people are good choices for combat. Some might even think that maybe it's the best place for these "meat-heads". After all, if they were offending prior to joining up, then the violence would be happening anyway, just out on the streets instead of in combat. It makes sense to put these violent sorts in the military and make use of it.

What rot. Just as boy racers tend to grow out of speeding, there's more than a chance that other young men would grow out of violence. Just because someone commits violence when they are very young, it doesn't mean that they're going to be violent for ever. The goal for most young men enlisting in the forces would be learning a trade, not learning how to be better at violence.

For some, being flung into combat, sometimes repeatedly, might prolong and enhance violent tendencies they might otherwise have grown out of. The irony is that when they leave active duty, the same single-minded aggression is swiftly denounced as "wrong again" by wider society. Is it any wonder they are so messed up?

And then probably abandoned. While it's encouraging to hear that the military wants to do more, you only have to see how physically disabled soldiers are treated in this country (many forced to rely on charities) to imagine how all these good intentions are going to pan out in this era of swingeing cuts.

There is also a disquieting ethical element to the way certain types of (troubled, disadvantaged) young males have an increased chance of ending up in direct combat – not just risking physical death and injury, but also long-term psychological damage.

This is what I mean by "cannon fodder". The dictionary definition is "soldiers regarded merely as material to be expended in war". It's supposed to be an archaic term, but, for too many, it probably doesn't seem that way.

What a rubbish way to treat your fans

Fan mail addressed to Taylor Swift has been found unopened in a skip. Shameful. Does Swift realise what an honour it is to get actual post (that you can touch) in this era of Twitter? Nor is global stardom any excuse. The Beatles never threw fan mail into skips. You didn't catch them doing it anyway.

Fan mail is often mocked, but it's a sweet rite of passage. When I was young, I post-stalked John McEnroe, sending him droning letters about my life as a Rutland schoolgirl, addressed somewhat optimistically to "John McEnroe, New York". Did my letters end up in a skip? Probably. But I did get a signed postcard back ("Best wishes, John McEnroe").

Someone on McEnroe's team must have realised that, even though I was probably unbalanced, I was also far enough away not to be considered a threat, so a "signed" postcard wouldn't hurt.

Now history is repeating itself. My daughter did a school presentation about her hero, cyclist Bradley Wiggins, and is now convinced that his life wouldn't be complete without seeing her gigantic mood board, complete with stuck-on furry "Wiggo" sideburns.

To think that my daughter wants to pester a major sportsman with unsolicited mail – it's enough to make a parent proud.

Fans put great value on these communications and it thrills them to get any kind of reply (however curt and hurtful, Mr McEnroe). While, of course, Swift couldn't reply personally to all her fans, it's her duty as a celebrity at least to fake a delighted response to 3,000 letters a day about how 13-year-old girls have named their pyjama cases after her.

Call me old-fashioned, but chucking them straight into a skip sends out quite a different message.

Put a sock in it, Michelle. You can be yourself now

Why is Michelle Obama still going along with the first wife/first nag baloney? Michelle appears on her second Vogue cover and, inside, there's a lot of puff about how she's "trained" the president to remember family meals and pick up his clothes. It makes him sound like some gormless 14-year-old. It also makes Michelle look as though she's morphed from Obama's wife to his mother, without pausing to remember her own intelligence.

Obviously this is part of the ongoing attempt to soften and domesticise Michelle, wipe the memory of that first inauguration fist bump from middle American memory. However, while first-term Michelle had to play along with all the cookie baking and anecdotes about hubby snoring, second-term Michelle does not.

Whatever happens, Obama steps down next time, so nothing is stopping Michelle revealing her true self, which may even include the sensational revelation that she couldn't care less if the presidential socks are left on the floor. It's easy to understand where safe, unthreatening Michelle came from, but now it would be good to see her toddle off in her Michael Kors dress and make space for the real deal.

Barbara Ellen

Ed Sheeran Trips And Falls On First Night Of Taylor Swift Tour

Fri, 15 Mar 2013 01:31:14 +0000

British pop star Ed Sheeran was left red-faced on the first night of Taylor Swift's new tour after suffering a fall onstage as they kicked off the...

'I turned down a free private jet'

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 18:17:00 +0000

Country music star Carrie Underwood explains why she said no to a private jet after winning American idol, and agonises over eating a beefburger or never singing again

Hi Carrie! You were raised on a farm. Did you have to help out with the animals?

When I was needed, but I wasn't waking up at 4am. We only had cows. They weren't milk cows, it was cattle. There were many times when the fence would be down and the cows always got out when Dad was gone. Mum and I would have to go and get them back in.

Is it true that cows get separation anxiety when they're alone?

The worst part of the year for me was when we took some off to sell, because they would cry for each other for a couple of days. That's why I don't eat meat.

Did you decide to be a vegetarian when you saw your parents castrating a cow?

No, well sort of, yes. That's when I stopped eating red meat. Growing up where I grew up it was hard to cut out meat altogether. It was really when I moved away and I was doing my own shopping that I could go vegetarian.

In 2007 you were voted the World's Sexiest Vegetarian by PETA (1 ). In 2005 you were the co-winner with Chris Martin. Is he sexy?

I mean, any guy on stage doing his thing is definitely sexy. He's a fit guy.

Eating a beefburger or never singing again: which would you chose?

[Looks horrified] Oh no. One beefburger? I don't know. I can't imagine myself ever being put in that situation. Can it just be a bite? Maybe I could do that. Maybe. But I'd feel really bad about it.

Is it true you have Scottish heritage?

That's on my Wikipedia and I don't know why. Someone keeps putting it up there. According to that page I'm also a member of a Native American tribe (2 ). We keep changing it and they keep changing it back: they're adamant I'm Scottish.

How odd.

It is. I mean, I could be. My dad recently told me that my great-great-grandfather was born in Ireland. I don't know whereabouts though. I sent him a text asking him and he never texted back. I was like, I should know this, I'm playing there soon and I'm sure if I say "My great-great-grandpa Green was born here" the fans would want to know where and I'd have to say "Dad never texted me back".

You almost signed a deal aged 14 with Capitol Records (3 ). Do you feel relieved that it never happened?

I do. I was way too young. I tried out for American Idol in my last year at university and I was able to grow up and live on my own and balance a chequebook and have a job.

You're an alumnus of the Alpha Iota chapter of Sigma Sigma Sigma sorority. What does that mean? Did you have to drink each other's sick to get in or something?

[Looks horrified] No. No, no. No. Basically it's a group of girls on campus and we did a lot of philanthropy work and we're always raising money for something.

Can anyone join?

[Carefully] Yes, anyone can go to recruitment and you have to be a fit for them and they have to be a fit for you. Once you join one you can never join another. I see them at shows everywhere. I see my sorority sisters from other colleges, which is really cool. We always had a float in the parades and we always went to the football and basketball games together and that made college more bearable.

Why did you give up on singing when you finished college?

It's not a real job. I'm such a practical person and I've always been a thinker and a planner. It's not something you can go to school to do. It's not real.

What made you want to audition for American Idol in that case?

I thought "Why not?" I've always loved to sing and when I found out where the auditions were going to be held, my mum offered to take me. I was like, "It's stupid, what chance do I have?"

As early as week four, Simon Cowell said you were the clear winner (4 ).

I remember he went on Oprah or Ellen and was talking about a little blonde girl who tried out in Missouri and I assumed that was me, so he was always a big supporter of me. Then they started using me on the commercials. I was getting ready in my dorm room and I had the TV on and there I was.

Did you get to finish college?

There's a drop date. If you're going to drop a class you have to do it by a certain point and then you can get your money back. So I waited for that day because I didn't know if they were going to cut me or not [from the show]. I remember it was all a secret and I had to go to see them and they were like 'Why are you dropping out now?' and I couldn't tell them.

Your fans christened themselves "Carrie's Care Bears" during the show. If you could come up with a different name for your fans what would it be? (5 )

They're an army, man. They're intense. They're the people calling radio stations and getting my songs played so they work just as hard as I do. They're much appreciated.

You've won six Grammy awards, 16 Billboard Music awards, seven American Music awards and 11 Academy of Country Music awards. Where do you keep them all?

I have a piano room in my house. That was one of the treats I got myself – I just wanted a fabulous piano. So I have plaques and things in there. I don't want them all over my house because that would be … People would be like, "Boy, she likes herself doesn't she?" My husband plays hockey professionally (6 ) so he's got jerseys and stuff in there too.

Your song Jesus, Take The Wheel is both a literal and metaphorical plea for Jesus to take over. Can you drive?

Erm, I, yes. Am I good driver? No. I've never had … knock on wood [searches for a bit of wood] … knock on something … I've never had a wreck but I kind of bump into things a lot. My husband has had backup cameras installed on my car. I had to get him to replace the bumper because I backed into a telephone pole. I'm that kind of driver.

What happens on Carrie Underwood Day in Oklahoma?

I don't know. I think everyone's forgotten about it. The reason they did that is because the Idol top three would go back to their home towns and they would declare a day your day and give you the keys to the city. I don't think anything happens though.

Is it true that as part of winning American Idol you got access to a private jet?

At the time, because even when you're on a show like that it's not like I had money all of a sudden, and a lot of times when someone gives you a gift of that magnitude you have to pay taxes on it. I didn't have the money to pay taxes on a jet, so I was like, "I'm good thanks."

Why do you think the press want to start a rivalry between you and Taylor Swift?

People love girl drama. You look at the show Nashville, which has just started airing here, and there's not that many females in the business. There are way more men. It's a lot harder to make it, so if anything we should all be really supportive. I don't know, it just makes for good headlines I guess.

She's obviously worked with Max Martin. Have you ever thought about ditching country and going pop?

I've worked with Max Martin as well, on my last album, and it's nice to branch out. You always want to grow as an artist and you don't want to make the same album again. I would never intentionally do anything that might leave country music. I love where I'm at. You do want to experiment. I write with random writers sometimes. I've worked with Ryan Tedder, I've worked with people who've worked with hardcore rap artists. You just never know what you're going to find.

You're performing at the C2C: Country to Country festival at the 02. Why do you think it's taken so long for the UK to fully embrace the genre?

I don't know. I mean, we definitely in the past have stuck to more rural-type songs. People would write about their lives and sing songs about their lives and that's why it's been so successful in the States, because a lot of people can identify. I feel like over the past decade country music has really expanded on subject matter, so it's probably a lot more relatable.

You recently turned 30, but claimed it wasn't your birthday but the "the first anniversary of my 29th birthday". That's not fooling anyone, is it?

[Laughs] It just sounds so weird to say I'm 30. I don't feel old or that I think being 30 is old, it's just weird to say. I don't like saying I'm in my 30s. I'm 29 and 367 days old.

Did you have a massive party?

I did last year. My husband threw me a big surprise 80s birthday party. I didn't know it was happening so my friends had got me bright blue spandex tights and bright shorts and I had this cut-up MTV shirt and there was a beauty station and they crimped my hair. It was awesome. This year we were on the road until recently so I told my husband and my friends that I didn't want to do anything. I actually ended up taking care of my husband who wasn't feeling well. I spent my 30th birthday eating cake by myself.

• Carrie Underwood performs on Sunday at the C2C: Country to Country festival at the 02, London.

Footnotes

(1) Leona Lewis won in 2008 and 2009.
(2) The Muscogee Creek Nation of Oklahoma.
(3) The contract was scrapped at the last minute when management changed hands.
(4) Carrie won season' 4 of American Idol. 37 million votes were cast in the final alone.
(5) Carrier Pigeons? The Carrie Underlings? Taylor Swift Fans' Older Sisters?
(6) She's married to Mike Fisher who of course plays ice hockey for the Nashville Predators.

Michael Cragg

Ed Sheeran falls over onstage - watch

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 16:57:44 +0000

Singer took an embarrassing tumble on his first night supporting Taylor Swift in the US

Taylor Swift And Ed Sheeran Perform “Everything Has Changed” At Red Tour Opener: Watch

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 16:30:01 +0000

Thinking of hitting up Taylor Swift‘s Red Tour? The hit singer’s jaunt kicked off last night in Nebraska, and if the Omaha World-Herald‘s writeup conveys anything, it’s that fans of Swift’s brand of confessional country-pop won’t be disappointed: “One is only young once. For Swift, now is the time to celebrate her ability to sing ... More »

Morning Mix: A Box Of Taylor Swift’s Fan Mail Gets Found In The Trash

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 12:00:52 +0000

:: We don’t know about you but we’re feeling, well, disposable. A box of fan mail addressed to Taylor Swift was found in a Nashville garbage can; her publicist chalked it up to a mistake. We’ll give her the benefit of the doubt, because doesn’t Taylor seem like the kind of girl who reads all her fan ... More »

Join Taylor Swift's Biggest Party Ever With Top 13 '22' Moments

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 22:02:48 +0000

MTV News rounds up rowdiest, happiest moments from the new video.
By Emilee Lindner

Taylor Swift in her "22" music video
Photo: Big Machine Records

A Recycling Mix-Up? Hundreds Of Fan Letters For Taylor Swift, Dumped In Nashville

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 18:17:44 +0000

Why exactly were Taylor Swift’s fan letters dumped in a bin in Nashville? A local resident found the box of unopened letters and cards in a...

Taylor Swift’s “22″ Video: Tay’s Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 15:01:45 +0000

Taylor Swift‘s fun-filled “22″ music video premiered earlier this morning on Good Morning America‘s website, and it was so fun! We already saw the behind-the-scenes photos suggesting as much, but in a brief introduction to the clip, Taylor confirms that she’s never had such a good time making a music video. Part of that is ... More »

Taylor Swift's '22' Video: The Diary Of A Normal Girl

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 14:07:47 +0000

In her brand-new video, Swift spends a day with her friends ... and shows off her normal side.
By James Montgomery

Taylor Swift in her "22" music video
Photo: Big Machine

Stars Donate Music Prizes To Auction For Sandy Hook

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 08:11:16 +0000

Taylor Swift, Tim Mcgraw and Fun. are among the stars who have donated music memorabilia to an auction benefiting those affected by the Sandy Hook...

Taylor Swift Ending Her Fairy Tale Days On 'More Mature' Red Tour

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 17:21:14 +0000

Singer tells fans to 'expect the unexpected' on upcoming tour, which kicks off on Wednesday in Omaha.
By Jocelyn Vena

Taylor Swift
Photo: Ash Newell/Erickson PR

Taylor Swift's Carefree '22' Video Coming Wednesday

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 19:53:57 +0000

Swift recruited her best girlfriends for the Anthony Mandler-directed clip.
By Jocelyn Vena

Taylor Swift
Photo: Kevin Winter/ Getty Images

Taylor Swift Visits Young Cancer Sufferer In Nebraska

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 01:36:18 +0000

Country star Taylor Swift took time out of her busy schedule on Saturday (09Mar13) to pay a surprise visit to a cancer-stricken fan in Nebraska.The...

Taylor Swift Performs “22″ At ‘Let’s Dance for Comic Relief’ Finale: Watch

Sun, 10 Mar 2013 16:41:38 +0000

Last night (March 9), Taylor Swift performed her next single off Red, “22,” at the BBC’s “Let’s Dance for Comic Relief” finale. While backed by dancing back-up singers (or singing back-up dancers, take your pick), Swift rolled her eyes as she performed her pop anthem to late nights spent laughing at exes — or, as ... More »

Kacey Musgraves – The Next Big Thing in Country Music

Sun, 10 Mar 2013 15:03:33 +0000

Despite Taylor Swift maintaining she’s a country singer, she’s more Britney Spears than Dolly Parton. Kacey Musgraves, however, is singing...

Taylor Swift’s First-Ever Diet Coke Commercial: Watch A Preview

Sat, 09 Mar 2013 16:05:40 +0000

When Taylor Swift announced her new role as Diet Coke’s program ambassador, she promised a behind-the-scenes look into her Red tour. However, a behind-the-scenes look at a forthcoming commercial reveals that Swift will start from the very beginning: the writing process. Swift changes a floor-length red gown to a striped t-shirt, then decamps at a ... More »

Taylor Swift Has Framed Photo Of Kanye West Crashing Her Mtv Speech

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 19:06:18 +0000

Country star Taylor Swift keeps a framed photo of Kanye West infamously crashing her 2009 MTV Video Music Awards acceptance speech as a reminder of...

Rihanna Tops Spotify’s Most Streamed Female Artists List

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 15:40:24 +0000

Rihanna has another accolade to add to her absurd list of professional accomplishments: The #ratchet and #unalopogetic songstress has topped Spotify’s list of the most streamed female artists in the world, with Britney Spears and Taylor Swift trailing just behind. The list did pack a few surprises, though — like the presence of Florence Welch of Florence and the Machine and, most curiously, ... More »

Taylor Swift Dreams Of Rap Collaboration

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 19:11:09 +0000

Taylor Swift hopes her love of hip-hop will eventually lead to a rap collaboration.The pop star is a big fan of the genre and insists she would love...

Directioners, Unite!: Matthew Fox Tries To Talk His Daughter Out Of Liking One Direction

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 18:05:43 +0000

As The Social Network taught us, you don’t make millions of friends without making a few enemies, and One Direction seems to be learning that lesson firsthand these last few weeks. There was the Worst Band award and Harry Styles‘ Villain of the Year honors care of NME, there’s Taylor Swift hiring someone to trash ... More »

Tiny Fey caught off guard by Taylor Swift

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 23:00:13 +0000

Tina Fey is surprised Taylor Swift can't take a ''lighthearted joke''.The 42-year-old comedian - who upset the country singer, renowned for dating a...

Taylor Swift Covers ‘InStyle’ UK, Worries About Becoming “Awful,” “Intolerable” & “Alone”

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 16:42:20 +0000

Hey! Here’s an idea: Let’s take a break from slamming Taylor Swift for her egregiously decontextualized quote about how Tina Fey and Amy Poehler will burn in hell from yesterday’s Vanity Fair cover, and instead, talk about her recently debuted InStyle UK cover, where not only does she look stunning, but also gives a heartbreaking and revealing interview about how she allows intimacy in ... More »

Taylor Swift Is A 'Girls' Girl,' Despite Tina Fey, Amy Poehler Feud

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 16:16:57 +0000

Swift opens up about why guy friends are so 'complicated' and her fears of becoming a 'sad cliche' in InStyle U.K.
By Jocelyn Vena

Taylor Swift on the cover of In Style
Photo: In Style

Taylor Swift Makes Almost $1 Million Profit On Hyannis Port Property

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 08:06:17 +0000

Singer Taylor Swift has reportedly made almost a $1 million (£625,000) profit after selling the Massachusetts house she bought to be near to her...

Taylor Swift's Right! Amy Poehler Is 'Going To Hell'

Tue, 05 Mar 2013 23:02:56 +0000

Funny lady blames 'boring tax stuff' for being hell-bound, not Swift's Vanity Fair comments.
By Jocelyn Vena

Amy Poehler sorry for upsetting Taylor Swift

Tue, 05 Mar 2013 23:00:23 +0000

Amy Poehler has apologised to Taylor Swift for mocking her love life.The 'Parks And Recreation' star insists she and good pal Tina Fey didn't mean to...

Taylor Swift Covers ‘Vanity Fair,’ Talks Sexism, Hires Someone To Slag Harry Styles

Tue, 05 Mar 2013 16:29:29 +0000

This excerpt of Taylor Swift‘s cover story for the April issue of Vanity Fair is equal parts wonderful and annoying. We’re just going to put that out there. During the interview, Swift was unusually candid about the media’s obsession with her love life and made some very solid points regarding sexism and tabloid culture. But — and keep in ... More »

Taylor Swift Says Sexist Critics Turned Her Into A 'Character'

Tue, 05 Mar 2013 14:51:10 +0000

'Since 2010 I have dated exactly two people,' singer insists to Vanity Fair.
By Jocelyn Vena

Taylor Swift on the cover of April's Vanity Fair
Photo: Vanity Fair

Bad News For Kelly Rowland’s Exes: She Used The Taylor Swift Formula On New Album

Mon, 04 Mar 2013 20:15:46 +0000

Kelly Rowland chatted with Rolling Stone about her forthcoming album Talk a Good Game (and she also politely came for Keyshia Cole, but more on that later). Rowland promises an honest album that will provide a look into her life and relationships, and she seems to have taken a page out of Taylor Swift‘s Bonfire of the Exes ... More »

Taylor Swift Sat in on Harry Styles Ship Tattoo: Tattooist Dishes All

Sun, 03 Mar 2013 13:09:51 +0000

LA's Shamrock tattoo parlour has inked some of the world's most famous people from Johnny Depp to David Beckham and Anjelina Jolie. While you'd think...

So Jake Bugg is authentic and Harry Styles is a fake? I don't think so…

Sun, 03 Mar 2013 00:04:11 +0000

In the great fabricated conflict between Jake Bugg and Harry Styles, it's the perversely sophisticated One Direction star who really represents what's left of pop

The conflict between what is perceived as radiant, stable truth and what is merely fraudulent and dubious is a central element in the game of pop culture. There has to be some sort of dynamic to maintain momentum and fabricate interest, or the whole charade collapses. Pepsi versus Coke, Nicki Minaj versus Lil'Kim, Blur versus Oasis, Lily versus Cheryl, Apple versus Microsoft, vampires versus werewolves, Vans versus Converse, Backstreet Boys versus N'Sync. Last week, to really help us work out what's right and what's wrong in these shifting, shattering times, battle commenced in earnest between Harry Styles and Jake Bugg – between, so it seems, the fake and the authentic, the bright and the dull.

According to Bugg, Styles's band, One Direction, are not really a proper group at all. They don't write their own songs. They're just "there to look good". When Styles was voted "villain of the year" at last week's NME awards, Bugg observed that "villain" was too subtle a word for so superficial a performer. In online forums, One Direction's considerable army of supporters have been counterattacking with a will.

This contest is about as real as the affair between Styles and Taylor Swift, but these days, these flares of publicity, these highly co-ordinated nonsensical campaigns, are where pop's remaining energy mostly resides. In that sense, poor Bugg follows Swift into the Styles zone: Styles remains in the news, and in prime place on the shelf. Your first thought is that he and Bugg share the same publicist, and it's all following a script written by a student of Amis, Brooker and Jackie Collins. The whole thing is arranged to create the equivalent of what in the vinyl era was properly called a single. These days, you don't have to release a single to create publicity and develop a career, you just have to find someone to argue with, and engage in a tabloid-amplified exchange of views about how ugly/stupid/pointless the other one is.

Both of these personalities do better having a nemesis, giving them a little old-style edge otherwise missing, and although in this battle it is meant to be clear who is Batman and who is the Joker, who is Beckham and who is Barton, either could take on both roles. The encounter roughs up Styles's scrubbed blandness and encourages the idea of him as the sort of appealing bad boy who will end up soloing with Robbie-ish gusto, and gives a rugged boost to Bugg's scruffy blandness, suggesting he may yet shake off his innocence and gain emotional heft. Possible endings include the pair of them appearing as buddies in a Danny Dyer remake of Slade in Flame, performing next year's Children in Need song as though they are the modern version of Bowie and Jagger, or being medically spliced together to become one freakish mini-icon, Stuggy Byle.

Up to now, to be honest, I couldn't muster the enthusiasm to break into their fringes in order to tell them apart. If I had to choose one I would prefer to chuck a shoe at, whether for love or hate, I would have a little trouble. Neither make music I recognise as music, and even Bugg, supported by rock sentimentalists as a teenage gem with something on his non-X Factor mind, produced with conscientious MoR-indie care, writes songs that seem to leave quickly on a jet plane in the direction of John Denver.

One Direction are closer to being an artificially flavoured soft drink, a flavour of Pringles, a living soft toy, floppy fodder for future reality shows than to a musical act of any interest to anyone with an interest in music. Bugg is touted as the Real Thing, Bragg-endorsed, very 6 Music, earnest working-class teenage angst, as though he is genuinely in the tradition of Cash and Strummer, with a voice pieced out of Pitney and Guthrie. It's hard to believe, though, if such judgments still have any worth, that for all his songwriting talent and decorous musical taste he's any less formulaic and ultimately futile than One Direction, except slanted towards Cast, Athlete and Snow Patrol.

Bugg's description of One Direction as "not really a band", up there with his shruggy comment that Mumford and Sons look like posh farmers with banjos, suggests he doesn't have all the wit and insight some reviewers claim. Or, perhaps, that he hasn't got the heart for confrontation. He's been forced into a corner by a media that prefers playground fights to artistic dignity, and he doesn't want to get too involved in this sort of sniping, which drags attention away from his sincere singer-songwriting and his commentary on modern life that may or may not set the world on fire. Once you are tangled up in stunt warfare with a well-trained teen idol it is very hard to act as if what you do is serious.

In that sense, Bugg cannot win. It's Styles all the way, because such set-up bitching and overexcited headlines cannot hurt his work, which is not concerned with the kind of credibility those born before 1990 would recognise. He does nothing conventionally creative, except for playing the role of Harry Styles. He plays Styles, odious and irritating to some, adorable and heroic to those more likely to be looking in his eyes or at his groin, with reasonable flair and neat timing. As a performer in the guise of a performer following orders in order to make a name for himself, he has an elastic, narcissistic presence that we will probably look back on as being more of a comment on the queasy, sleazy times than model moody lad Bugg's sweet, underwhelming and deeply conventional desire to channel Buddy Holly, Donovan and Noel Gallagher.

On some showbusiness scale that allow us to actually measure the truth, Styles is closer to the Beatles than Bugg is to Dylan. His getting matey with society philosopher Alain de Botton and Russell Brand and ripping Socrates from Wikipedia and tweeting it out is more militant than Bugg rambling on about booze and fags. And if pop is all about the pose, the masquerade, then again Styles is way out in front; Bugg stuck in a square rock'n'roll past now as quaint-seeming as George Formby, Styles effortlessly streaming through the liquid entertainmentscape as modern as a ruined reputation, a Piers Morgan insult or a food scandal.

Ultimately, Bugg's presence, promoted as authentic and council-estate solid, lacks the complexity required to embody the kind of artistic integrity that makes sense now, rather than sort of in 1956, 1966 or 1996. He can only work for those who wish pop life was how it used to be, back when life was safely seven inches and chart-fixated.

It's difficult to appreciate if you might pine for the 60s of the Stones or the 90s of Oasis but, as things are now, Styles is the truth – authentic, perversely sophisticated, a groomed blank symbol of what's left of pop, the daily hype, monstrous turnover and aimless, targeted pressure. Bugg is the plastic, phoney contestant, a weedy echo of an echo of an echo of the idea that to write your own songs based on personal experience of a local world and a wider universe can lead to genius. Pop is now about nothing other than generating the sort of publicity that can keep the idea of pop going for those still keen on wringing money out of the traditional concept of the teenage fan's desire for the teen idol. Songs are souvenirs of the generated publicity.

We should be able to vote on the result of these skirmishes, with the loser consigned to permanent obscurity. Now that this particular Bugg v Styles tiff is happening right in front of me, and I find myself starting to actually care, as if it's all for real, I realise that I would vote for Styles, because I will enjoy more over the next few years seeing him professionally negotiate his future fame and desperately chasing real purpose, perhaps to the point of personal risk. Troubadour Jake will just churn out more and more pasty, at best quite decent, songs that rhyme, written for and about a world that doesn't exist any more.

Paul Morley's new book Earthbound, part of the Penguin Underground Lines series, is published on 7 March

Paul Morley

Harry Styles and Taylor Swift were never in love?

Sat, 02 Mar 2013 11:22:03 +0000

Harry Styles and Taylor Swift were reportedly never in love.The couple split in January after dating since October, but the One Direction heart...

Conflicting Reports: Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift Are Definitely Dating, But is it Romantic or Just Play-Dates?

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 18:16:48 +0000

No one could possibily believe that Taylor Swift might just be enjoying a bit of single time. Which she might just be! Dancing to All the Single...

Taylor Swift, everything you need to know – infographic

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 16:00:00 +0000

The country singer/songwriter is as famous for her music as she is for that Kanye incident. At only 23 she's won seven Grammys

Johnny Dee

Taylor Swift has long-term love with her cat

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 04:00:03 +0000

Taylor Swift's longest relationship has been with her cat.The pop star loves her cute Scottish Fold kitty Meredith - a rare breed which boasts droopy...

iTunes Composers View: the first step in giving credit where credit is due?

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 08:12:37 +0000

Songwriters, non-featured artists and producers have become invisible – they deserve the exposure they got on liner notes

Using today's digital music services, one would be forgiven for thinking that making a record is a one-person/band job. While old-fashioned physical records provide music fans with detailed information about who wrote the song, who produced it, what musicians played on it – even who mixed and mastered it – in the digital world these creators have magically disappeared from sight.

No wonder many people are under the impression that artists can survive on selling T-shirts, making public appearances or partnering with brands, unaware that there is a whole slew of people who are part of making a record great, working behind the scenes – people who are solely reliant on revenue from recorded music to survive. As they say: it takes a village.

None of the UK's top 10 best-selling tracks in 2012 were both solely written and performed by the same act. In the top 20, there was only one track that was: Rudimental & John Newman's Feel the Love.

And for those arguing that "real" artists don't use outside songwriters, it may come as a surprise that only five of the top 100 sellers were penned by the artist(s) alone – the aforementioned Rudimental track and tracks by the Lumineers (Ho Hey), Swedish House Mafia (Greyhound), Sam and the Womp (Bom Bom) and Calvin Harris & Example (We'll Be Coming Back).

Not even the Official Charts Company, which publishes the sales figures, includes the songwriters and producers in its online chart countdown (although industry magazine Music Week includes these credits when publishing the charts).

As a music fan, the main reason I'd even look at the sales charts is to find out who wrote and produced the songs. Growing up, I'd often buy albums based on this information. I'd even buy records because of the session musicians playing on it, seeing the credits as a quality stamp of sorts.

So when it comes to people like me, I think digital music services are missing a trick. We may know what songs were written by classic songwriting teams such as Burt Bacharach & Hal David (though many, mistakenly, call them Bacharach songs), Leiber & Stoller and Holland-Dozier-Holland, but what if we wanted search for and listen to all songs written and/or produced by, say, Paul Epworth (Adele, Florence & the Machine, Haim, Friendly Fires) Or Shellback (Pink, Maroon 5, Taylor Swift)?

Sure, we can go to Wikipedia, but its info is not always current – or even correct, or the artist in question may not have a Wiki page. Due to lack of credits, we may not even know who to look for. And even if we succeed, it's a pretty time-consuming way to make a playlist.

Last year, the organisation behind the Grammy awards, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, launched a campaign called Give Fans the Credit. Participants such as T-Bone Burnett, Lamont Dozier, Jimmy Jam, Sheile E and RedOne declared: "Songwriters, non-featured performers, producers and engineers make significant contributions to recordings, but as liner notes are becoming less common, these creators rarely receive credit on digital music devices. Currently, the only credits consumers are generally able to see are the song title, album, and artist; but music fans should have access to additional information: the songwriter who composed the work, the producers and engineers who shaped the sound, and the musicians who brought the song to life."

In the UK, the Music Producers' Guild made a similar move with Credit Where Credit is Due. In its campaign video, Epworth describes how he first discovered how important these credits are, as he'd picked up a Public Enemy record, as well as one by Slayer and the Cult, and realised that Rick Rubin had produced all three. Epworth, Tommy D and Bernard Butler explain how these credits inspired them to do what they do, and could do the same for others.

The Swedish songwriter and producer organisation UniSon (disclosure: I'm a board member) decided not to wait until music services do something about it, and took matters into its own hands. It has hired an app developer, with the help of collection societies – which are also providing the credit info via their databases – who is now developing a Spotify app that will enable fans to do searches based on liner notes.

Now, after being in business for a decade, iTunes last week finally added a Composer View option to its latest update (if you want to try it out, click on "Show composers" in the Views section of Preferences). It's a bit clunky, won't create an automatic playlist – and it only works with your iTunes library, not the iTunes store – but it's a small step in the right direction.

Interscope/Universal executive Jimmy Iovine, who's also chief executive of Beats Electronics, has announced that the headphone company is to launch a music subscription service. The key to its success, he says, will be proper curation – something he claims is lacking in existing services.

Incorporating full searchable credits would certainly put it a step above the rest. Iovine himself started out as a recording engineer, working on Bruce Springsteen's Born to Run, so must surely grasp the importance of those working behind the scenes making a record the best it can be.

Helienne Lindvall

Kanye West Blasts Justin Timberlake, Taylor Swift, Grammys In Stage Rant

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 14:12:30 +0000

Rapper also targets corporations in a nearly 10-minute monologue at a show in London on Saturday.
By Gil Kaufman

Kanye West
Photo: WireImage

One Direction – review

Sun, 24 Feb 2013 17:00:01 +0000

O2, London

If Simon Cowell is in the house tonight as One Direction start their first UK arena tour, he might have to conclude that his earthly work is done. The X Factor has now produced an act so apparently unstoppable that they're compelled to play two shows a day to meet demand – and that's on top of a Brit award being invented for them, to acknowledge global record sales of 22m. Why this is happening to One Direction rather than to their equally cute and emollient rivals the Wanted or that other X Factor creation JLS isn't easy to fathom – the luck of the draw, probably, along with 1D's propensity for conducting their love lives in ways that invite tabloid coverage.

For all their alleged friskiness, the quintet are notably tame on stage: whatever they've been created for, it's not to bring sexy back. Even Harry Styles, tonight's clear favourite and dangerously punk in a Rolling Stones T-shirt, disports himself with tousle-haired propriety. The show passes without an ounce of flirtation or provocative dancing; if you could bottle chasteness, it would smell like tonight. That goes for the young crowd, too: they're screamy enough, but lack the mad neediness witnessed at other boyband gigs.

In fact, there is no proper dancing at all, nor the usual R&B stylings used by nearly all boybands. And there is little in the way of hi-tech staging: a photo-montage backdrop of London landmarks and a levitating platform are your lot. By the time they hit their stride with a string of sunny songs from their current album, Take Me Home, it's clear that Harry and colleagues – chatty Niall, confident Liam, baby-faced Louis and big-voiced Zayn – have more in common with antecedents like the Osmonds than with any current teen idols. In essence, they sound as if the 21st century hadn't yet happened; even their Comic Relief cover, One Way or Another, seems to have been chosen to stir memories of an era when "pop" and "beats" were near-mutually exclusive.

Nothing wrong with that, though. In this context, the gentle humour they display while answering fans' Twitter questions is apt. "If you went back in time, what would you do?" asks @sexylouisyah. "I'd meet Frank Sinatra and say Fly Me to the Moon," Niall volunteers. Bouncing through the encore, What Makes You Beautiful, they ping balloons into the crowd, sweet to the end.

• What have you been to see lately? Tell us about it on Twitter using #GdnGig

Rating: 3/5

Caroline Sullivan

Rewind radio: Xfm; Moral Maze – review

Sat, 23 Feb 2013 22:50:01 +0000

Xfm, like the Brit awards, has become far too cosy – but there are signs of a recovery

Xfm

Moral Maze (R4) | iPlayer

I went to the Brit awards last week. It was fun, like it always is, and nice, like it never used to be. The Brits' fabulous pomposity, broadcast live, used to guarantee a bit of bovver, from the KLF or Oasis or Jarvis or somebody. From musicians who knew that music deserved better than a self-congratulatory bore-fest wrapped in designer duds, and who were prepared to at least try to shake things up a bit, give us a shock or a laugh.

But the music business has been through a lot since then. Now there are very few pop stars with the chutzpah to think beyond the extra sales their track will get if they perform it well on TV. Music is safer than it used to be, because it's not making the money it used to. Still, I had a lovely view of Taylor Swift in her Miss Havisham-goes-to-Ann Summers dress and the One Direction scamps.

Before I went to the awards I listened to Xfm London. Jo Good, a talented DJ who has shuttled between 6 Music and Xfm for a few years, was having a Brits afternoon. She played Coldplay, Blur and Radiohead. Pretty much what Xfm plays anyway, though it's always happy to tickle us with some Foals and the xx also.

Like the Brits, Xfm seems safe these days. That's because it, too, has a trickier job than it used to. Its natural rival, 6 Music, is brimming with confidence and increased listenership. Absolute Radio has deliberately moved into Xfm territory, sponsoring festivals and playing indie nonstop. Amazing Radio, though it's all about new music, is definitely of an NME bent. Xfm, once the only alternative to Radio 1 and the pirates, is now just one indie prince among many.

So new station boss, Chris Baughen, has made some canny moves. He's brought in some women (ta-da!) – Good and newbie Hattie Pearson, as well as Sunta Templeton and Lliana Bird – and there are rumours that there will be more. When Xfm recently lost Mary Anne Hobbs to 6 Music, Baughen nicked 6's Jon Holmes for weekday breakfast. Holmes is an interesting choice. He might seem, to the uninitiated, like many other hyperactive morning DJs, meaning he knows his music and he likes a laugh, usually with an in-studio sidekick. In truth, though, Holmes is something far stranger. His mind works more quickly and more weirdly than almost anyone else on radio; only Danny Baker comes close. He loves playing with words and formats, squishing pop references into places they don't quite fit. The other day he had Brett Anderson and Mat Osman from Suede in the studio, playing a pop game where they had to choose a, b or c. "I have absolutely no idea what's going on," said Anderson. "I don't understand the question," said Osman. Anderson and Osman are far from stupid, but Holmes's mind is just too quick and surreal for them.

Xfm, which used to be the home of the odd-bod, maverick DJ, has lost some of its charm. Its playlist can be stultifying (there's an interactive survey on the website for listeners to fill out if you want to change it). It would benefit from a bit of marketing – I'm not sure that 22-year-olds even know what it is any more – but all of its new moves are positive. And Russell Brand and Noel Gallagher are going to do a show next month, in aid of the Teenage Cancer Trust. I love those two together. Safety doesn't stand a chance.

Radio 4's Moral Maze was a passionate, pernickety one last week, on the topic of private education. Principles are always stretchy when it comes to your children and we heard from those who sent their kids to private schools and those who sent them to normal ones and both said that they did so because their choice worked best for their child. Safety first, when it comes to kids.

Miranda Sawyer

Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift, One Direction And Adele Among 'Music's Top 40 Money Makers'

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 20:51:34 +0000

Top 20 on Billboard list also includes Carrie Underwood, Coldplay and #1 Madonna.
By Gil Kaufman

Justin Bieber
Photo: Alexander Tamargo/ Getty Images

Is Taylor Swift's New Musical Bestie Tom Odell?

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 18:51:50 +0000

Swift partied backstage at the Brit Awards with singer/songwriter.
By Jocelyn Vena

Taylor Swift and Tom Odell
Photo: Getty Images

Taylor Swift has date with Tom Odell

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 17:51:04 +0000

Taylor Swift has been on a date with rising new British musician Tom Odell.The 'We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together' singer went for dinner and...

Taylor Swift And Harry Styles Are No More, Taylor Swift And Tom Odell Drink After Brits

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 16:59:59 +0000

Taylor Swift is fast gaining a reputation for skipping between boyfriends faster that you can say ‘We Are Never, Ever Getting Back Together,’...

BRIT Awards 2013: Watch The Performances

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 23:48:20 +0000

Even though Beyonce didn’t end up joining the BRIT Awards lineup this year, the show still featured a great set of performances. After taking home two big awards, Emeli Sande closed out the ceremony with a pair of songs that was all class. Earlier in the show, Justin Timberlake delivered the live debut of the ... More »

Taylor Swift Gets Into 'Trouble' During Brit Awards

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 22:45:21 +0000

Swift performs 'I Knew You Were Trouble,' showing off her dance moves to the audience, including her ex, 1D's Harry Styles.
By Jocelyn Vena

Taylor Swift performs at the 2013 Brit Awards
Photo: Getty Images

Emeli Sande Wins First 2013 Brit Award

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 22:06:12 +0000

Scottish singer Emeli Sande scooped the first trophy at the 2013 BRIT Awards in London on Wednesday night (20Feb13).Taylor Swift handed the British...

BRIT Awards 2013: Taylor Swift, One Direction & Justin Timberlake Make Their Big Arrivals

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 20:55:03 +0000

What else but awards season could get us through the dead of winter? Keeping us warm right now are all the stunning pictures from the 2013 BRIT Awards, which took over London’s O2 Arena on Wednesday night (February 20). Before we can hear the acceptance speeches, see the stellar performances (including Mr. 20/20 Experience Justin Timberlake) ... More »

Taylor Swift, Emeli Sande And Jessie J Mumford The Stand Outs As Stars Arrive For The Brit Awards 2013 (Pictures)

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 19:47:40 +0000

It might be the BRIT Awards 2013 tonight, but as far as the press were concerned, it was a star from the US who captivated them as the stars arrived...

Is A Taylor Swift/ Harry Styles Awkward Brit Awards Run-In Inevitable?

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 17:21:55 +0000

MTV News previews what fans can expect at this year's Brit Awards.
By Jocelyn Vena

Harry Styles and Taylor Swift
Photo: Splash News

Mumford & Sons, Bruno Mars And Taylor Swift Get Huge Grammy Sales Bump

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 17:16:44 +0000

Fun., Maroon 5 and Black Keys also get triple-digit Billboard leaps thanks to awards show.
By Gil Kaufman

Mumford and Sons' 'Babel' album
Photo: Island

Brit awards 2013: the buildup

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 13:22:00 +0000

The buildup to the Brits, featuring James Corden, Katy B and One Direction

The Brits: the biggest night of the year for the British music industry and a source of little excitement if you've had the chance to read Alexandra Topping's interview with outgoing Brits head honcho David Joseph already today …

POW!

"If people are looking for explosive controversy, we still don't know what's going to happen on the night."

POW!

"It's amazing what is happening with British music overseas."

POW!

"The lineup goes from pop to discovery [sic] to indie. It's not dull; it's a brilliant showcase for music."

But then again, Olly Murs.

Some of the acts involved tonight have already been tweeting about their excitement.

Such good chicken and chips last night at @grimmers Brit awards pre dinner!!!! Nom Nom Nom.. Managed to lock myself out my house though lol!

— KATY B (@KatyB) February 20, 2013

Doesn't this look like fun?

#NEW Harry leaving Grimmy's pre-Brit awards party tonight! twitpic.com/c58rq8 (via @1dalerts)

— 1D Updates (@1DScoop) February 20, 2013

And here's your host ... zzz ...

The office for today! No pressure! X sdrv.ms/YFL5at

— James Corden (@JKCorden) February 20, 2013

There's a full lineup of the nominees here, as well as Tim Jonze's predictions of what will happen.

The show itself starts at 8pm, with Muse opening things, followed by performances from Justin Timberlake, Mumford & Sons, One Direction, Robbie Williams, inevitably, Ben Howard, Taylor Swift and (deep breath) Emeli Sandé.

Tim will be coming over all Lester Bangs – aka soliciting your thoughts and liveblogging the whole thing, with expert punditry coming from Alexis Petridis and a sense of how grisly it all looks in real life from Lexy, Kieran Yates and me. In the morning, there'll also be a breakdown on the Music Weekly podcast.

Let's pass the time as best we can until the evening with this video celebrating the best of British, although if the Brits organisers have had the foresight to get the chap responsible – Richard Sandling, aka thatawesomemovieguy – involved in tonight's event, then I'm putting a fiver on Throbbing Gristle for best British band.

Reading this on mobile? Click here to view video

Caspar Llewellyn Smith

Brits chairman: we wronged Adele

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 08:23:00 +0000

David Joseph says singer's speech should never have been cut and hints of planned surprise during his last ceremony at helm

When Adele gave her spine-tingling performance of her ballad Someone Like You at the Brits in 2011 a small miracle happened – the boisterous music industry for once fell silent, and listened. Last year, the singer again provided the most talked about moment of the evening by giving a frustrated one-fingered gesture to presenter James Corden after he cut off her acceptance speech for best album to make way for the final performers, Blur.

But at the Brits on Wednesday, the singer, who has dominated the UK and US charts since 2011 despite releasing only the single Skyfall last year, may finally get her moment to thank her fans.

Universal UK chief executive and Brits chairman David Joseph said there would be no repeat of the speech-cutting controversy – Adele's speech was halted because the programme was running over.

"How can you take an artist who has made the biggest cultural impact musically this country has seen globally for some time and cut her off in the middle of her speech?" he said. "I very much to this day question what was happening in that control booth. I can hint something is going to happen this year to rewrite that wrong."

Joseph said he had told ITV it should run into a commercial break if a similar situation arose this year. "Adele was totally justified expressing how she felt. It was a very big moment for her, but I'd stay tuned to this year's show to see if there is any form of squaring of that circle." Adele is in LA and is unlikely to appear in person.

Joseph, who is standing down as chairman after this year's Brits, promised to go out with a bang. The show, broadcast live on ITV, will feature performances from stadium rockers Muse, Mumford & Sons, who have been nominated for three awards, Justin Timberlake, and Emeli Sandé, who leads the nominations and is up for four awards.

One Direction – who had two of the bestselling albums in the US last year – are nominated for best British group, and will perform One Way Or Another on the night. Robbie Williams, Ben Howard and Taylor Swift will also feature. "I would like to bow out saying we have made a bit of a difference," said Joseph. "I want it to be great for the artists this year."

During his three-year tenure, Joseph has overseen some of the biggest changes in Brits' history: the venue changed to the O2, artists were included in the voting academy, a greater emphasis was given to album of the year, and the Brits statue was designed by well-known artists, this year featuring Damien Hirst's trademark spots.

"It think we've achieved everything we set out to do, we started off saying it was a bit chaotic and we wanted to make it more about music than about a TV show," he said. "I think we did manage to make it more like the Grammys, with more gravitas."

He denied suggestions the awards were too safe. "If people are looking for explosive controversy, we still don't know what's going to happen on the night. I'm not encouraging stage invasions, but they are magical moments that happen; no one has control over that.

"The lineup goes from pop to discovery to indie. It's not dull; it's a brilliant showcase for music." The Brits remain important as a showcase for a certain moment in music, he said. "Shop windows and curation are massively needed when there is so much media fragmentation. Plus fans, viewers and, most importantly, artists love awards."

This year's Brits will also celebrate a year that saw four of the five best-selling albums in the US come from British artists, and will feature an international success award for the first time. "It's amazing what is happening with British music overseas. We are thrilled about it, four of the top five is exceptional. It shows good taste," he said. "When as an industry you realise you have four of the five top-selling acts in America, the only thing you want to do next is have five of the five."

The UK recorded music industry, one of the first to be hit by the digital revolution and piracy, was turning a corner, but still had some way to go, said Joseph. The record trade association, BPI, revealed that last year digital album sales rose 14.8% to 30.5m, although CD album sales declined 19.5% year on year to 69.4m. Combined sales fell by 11.2% to 100.5m in 2012. "A few years ago we knew were going to go through a rough patch, mainly to do with piracy and the way people were discovering music," said Joseph. "We have taken massive leaps in the last few years, going from nearly zero to 1 million people paying for subscription music services in the past three years."

The transition from physical to digital revenue, and the problems of the high-street retailer HMV, which went into administration earlier this year, continued to pose challenges, he said, with 70% of album sales still physical. "How HMV emerges is going to be an important factor for us, our artists and our record fans," he said. "I have always believed there should be a high-street presence for someone wanting to buy music. I still see record stores being on the high street in 10 years' time."

Joseph said 68 legal services had been licensed by record labels, with further deals in progress. He denied record labels had been slow to react to changing music consumption. "It takes time to create a service. I think we are significantly ahead of publishing, film and television. I think we were quick to react, our artists were quick to react and I'm feeling really positive about it," he said. "I predict that by 2014 we are going to see positive growth in the music industry worldwide," he added.

Music's increasingly globalised reach – typified by the worldwide success of South Korean star Psy's Gangnam Style – was an opportunity for British music, not a threat, he insisted. "There is massive growth for English speaking music. [At Universal] we are fixated about what is going on in China, what is happening in Brazil, in other parts of Asia," he said. "We are creatively very healthy, even if commercially we have still got a bit of a way to go."

Alexandra Topping

Grimes, Justin Beiber, Metric, Leonard Cohen, The Weeknd, Crystal Castles and Drake among the 2013 Juno nominees

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 21:00:32 +0000

Grimes aboard the SS Coachella 2012 (more by Greg Cristman)

Names like Grimes, Stars, Woods of Ypres (RIP), Crystal Castles, Metric and Leonard Cohen sit side-by-side with names like Justin Bieber, Carly Rae Jebsen, Celine Dion and Drake as part of the 2013 nominees for the Juno Awards, Canada's answer to the Grammys.

"Electronic Album of the Year" nominee Grimes is most likely stoked to be named in the company of some of her favorite artists of 2011 (namely, Beiber & Taylor Swift). Her competition in that category is pretty stiff: Purity Ring, TRUST, Crystal Castles and Daphni. Meanwhile, I'm guessing Justin Bieber is stoked to not be mentioned anywhere near his arch enemy Patrick Carney, even though Carney has backed off a bit and is now known as himself again on Twitter.

The 2013 Juno Awards will be given out on April 21. Nominee list below...

Continue reading "Grimes, Justin Beiber, Metric, Leonard Cohen, The Weeknd, Crystal Castles and Drake among the 2013 Juno nominees" at brooklynvegan

Hoedown Showdown Taylor Swift Being Sued For $1.8 Million After Concert Fiasco

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 17:17:35 +0000

Taylor Swift is facing a $1.8 million lawsuit, after she walked away in profit from a country music hoedown in Canada… one which never happened....

Harry Styles Calls Post-Breakup Taylor Swift A 'Sweet Girl'

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 16:58:32 +0000

One Direction singer says Grammy show (and supposed dis) 'just another good Taylor Swift performance' when he spoke to Capital FM.
By Jocelyn Vena

Harry Styles and Taylor Swift
Photo: Getty Images

One Direction’s Harry Styles Still Thinks Taylor Swift Is A “Great Performer”: Morning Mix

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 13:00:50 +0000

Did You Hear? :: One Direction heartthrob Harry Styles has finally spoken about his split from Taylor Swift and is handling the situation with maturity beyond his 19 years. He complimented Taylor’s Grammy performance (yeah, the one where she may or may not have referenced their month-long relationship with a possibly British accent), calling her ... More »

Brit awards 2013: Ten things to spot

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 12:28:00 +0000

Watching the Brits on Wednesday night? From spurned lovers to flashy after-parties, here are 10 things to look out for …

1) Taylor Swift and Harry Styles tabloid drama!

It's the Brits story everyone is talking about … what if him out of One Direction bumps into her out of Taylor Swift and they have to face the incredibly awkward fact that they once went out for about 27 days at some point around Christmas? According to extremely reliable gossip sites Swift has demanded that Styles must not go within "100 yards" of her. Organisers have had to reschedule performances, too – Mumford & Sons stepping in, bouncer-like, to separate the two artists by playing some banjos between their performances in their own inimitable style.

2) Justin Timberlake will be your man in the Mirrors

Timberlake will be trying his damnedest to bring "sexy" back to the Brits, potentially not all that difficult when the other performers are playing banjos. Timbo will be playing his new track Mirrors, and he won't even be doing it in return for some hastily made-up award as far as we can tell ('cos he's not nominated for anything).

3) Your chance to witness an Exclusive Performance (TM) by Emeli Sandé!

Much like Kate Bush or Vashti Bunyan, intrigue around Emeli Sandé is only amplified by her reclusive status. Aside from last year's Brits, the Olympics opening ceremony, the Olympics closing ceremony, The X Factor, the Oakerthorpe village fete, that other big show Emeli Sandé turned up to, and every other single Emeli Sandé gig of 2012, we've barely heard a peep from her. Best buckle yourselves in and prepare for the unexpected (probably an Emeli Sandé song).

4) Tom Odell to become the new Emeli Sandé

During this section the British public get to find out who will be playing at every single outdoor gig during 2013 (AKA the Critics' Choice award … honestly, the state of our critics, etc)

5) Amy Winehouse could become the first posthumous Brits winner

Amy Winehouse's nomination in the best British female category was the first posthumous nomination in Brits history, made on account of her 2012 release Lioness: Hidden Treasures. Given that they've made this step, it would be especially strange if this was awarded to someone else. To Emeli Sandé, for example …

6) Spot the new awards

Damien Hirst is on Brit award design duties this year, following in the footsteps of Peter Blake and Vivienne Westwood. He's covered them all in multicoloured spots, which isn't really trying that hard is it?

7) A quite bad song will win best British single

Unlike all the other categories, best British single seems to contain a whopping 15 nominations. Sadly, these are all rather shit (music journalism, yeah?). Adele's Bond theme, a couple of Rita Ora tracks, a song by bloody Emeli Sandé … you know it's bad when you're rooting for Robbie Williams.

8) The most exciting performer is only a rumour …

If the words "And now your host, James Corden!" don't indicate to you the way the night's going to go then maybe the following performance schedule will: Robbie Williams, Emeli Sandé, Mumford & Sons, Muse, Ben Howard, One Direction. Of course, there are always those rumours that the Rolling Stones will play to cling on to. Cling tight, dear readers, cling tight …

9) The bookies predict that music is officially dead

If the bookmaker's odds are anything to go by, we could be looking at gongs for Emeli Sandé, Olly Murs and the Mumfords … and if that doesn't restore your faith in the state of British music, then I don't know what will.

10) Everyone back to Jay-Z's place!

Apparently he's splashing out half a million quid on a party at Hakkasan afterwards, which probably makes it a slightly hotter ticket than the Mastercard party or whatever …

Tim Jonze

Brit awards 2013: who should win?

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 09:54:05 +0000

Find out who the favourites are for this year's Brits – and let us know who you'll be rooting for on Wednesday night

Is this year's Brits lineup the most boring in living memory? A look through the list of nominees hardly sets the pulse racing – although if we cast our minds back to last year, when the main causes of excitement were a man walking in front of the camera and Adele getting cut off mid-speech, the 2013 Brits won't have to do too much to improve matters.

We know there'll be performances from Justin Timberlake, Mumford & Sons, One Direction, Taylor Swift, Muse, Ben Howard, Emeli Sandé and Robbie Williams – a fairly safe selection, and certainly nothing to rival, say, Bill Drummond and Extreme Noise Terror's set at the 1992 Brits – or even Rihanna's team-up with the Klaxons in 2008.

Here are the bookies' favourites to win (via Betfair) – but who would you like to see triumph? Whether they're nominated or not, who would you pick to win each Brits category?

Best British album Emeli Sandé – Our Version of Events
Also nominated: Alt-J – An Awesome Wave, Mumford and Sons – Babel, Paloma Faith – Fall to Grace, Plan B – Ill Manors

Best British group Mumford & Sons
Also nominated: Alt-J, Muse, One Direction, the xx

Best British female Emeli Sandé
Also nominated: Amy Winehouse, Bat for Lashes, Jessie Ware, Paloma Faith

Best British male Ben Howard
Also nominated: Calvin Harris, Olly Murs, Plan B, Richard Hawley

Best British single Adele – Skyfall
Also nominated: Alex Clare, Coldplay and Rihanna, DJ Fresh featuring Rita Ora, Emeli Sandé, Florence + the Machine, James Arthur, Jessie J, Labrinth featuring Emeli Sandé, Olly Murs featuring Flo Rida, Rita Ora featuring Tinie Tempah, Rizzle Kicks, Robbie Williams, Rudimental featuring John Newman, Stooshe

Best international female Lana Del Rey
Also nominated: Alicia Keys, Cat Power, Rihanna, Taylor Swift

Best international male Frank Ocean
Also nominated: Bruce Springsteen, Gotye, Jack White, Michael Bublé

Best international group Black Keys
Also nominated: Alabama Shakes, Fun, the Killers, the Script

Adam Boult

Taylor Swift Sued For $1.8 Million Over Canceled Canada Show

Mon, 18 Feb 2013 19:58:40 +0000

Taylor Swift is being sued by concert promoters in Canada who organized the Capital Hoedown in August 2012, which Swift was scheduled to headline. The concert was ultimately scrapped, so Swift never performed and kept her $2.5 million paycheck, according to TMZ. There’s a cheesy Steve Miller Band quote (but aren’t they all?) that would fit ... More »

Whatcha Say: The Grammy Awards, Justin Timberlake’s Comeback and Bieber’s Revenge Got Our Readers Talking

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 22:25:47 +0000

This week, it was all about last Sunday’s 54th Annual Grammy Awards. You loved the show! You hated the show! You had so many mixed feelings about the show! With performances by the likes of Taylor Swift, Rihanna, Carrie Underwood, Kelly Clarkson and Justin Timberlake (oh, and some awards being handed out too), there was ... More »

Eric Church Leads 48th Academy of Country Music Nominations

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 14:35:00 +0000

Los Angeles Times (MCT) -- LOS ANGELES — Lionize your rock and country heroes in songs and good things will follow — it worked for Taylor Swift, who launched her career six years ago with her single “Tim McGraw,” and it worked for Eric Church, who leads the 48th Academy of Country Music Awards nominations with seven, including his single saluting the Boss, “Springsteen.” The hit track, which recently scored Church a pair of Grammy nominations, earned Church ACM nods…

Taylor Swift Planning To Go Dark For Brits Performance

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 22:06:19 +0000

Taylor Swift will be going dark for the Brit Awards in London next week (20Feb13) after wowing fans with her all-white circus stage set at the Grammy...

Taylor Swift's ex-boyfriend arrested

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 02:00:06 +0000

Taylor Swift's ex-boyfriend was arrested on Wednesday (13.02.13).Conor Kennedy, who dated the 'We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together' singer last...

Conor Kennedy Among Arrested Pipeline Protesters

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 01:31:14 +0000

Taylor Swift's ex-boyfriend Conor Kennedy was among the protesters arrested on Wednesday (13Feb13) after chaining themselves to the gates of the...

'The Chief' Eric Church Leads ACM Awards 2013 Nominees With 7 Nods, But Taylor Swift Expected To Sweep

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 19:57:19 +0000

The ACM Awards shortlist has been announced, one of the biggest awards shows in the American country music scene. Fully-named The Academy of Country...

Taylor Swift vs One Direction: Battle of the Exes Commences at Kids Choice Awards

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 19:56:25 +0000

This is why they tell you not to date anyone at the office. You have a whirlwind romance, it's all lovey-dovey for about four weeks and then you...

One Direction, Taylor Swift Face Off At Kids' Choice Awards

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 18:37:57 +0000

Voting starts Thursday and will be announced March 23 with host Josh Duhamel.
By Jocelyn Vena

One Direction
Photo: Kevin Winter/ Getty Images

Taylor Swift, One Direction Lead Kids’ Choice Awards Nominations

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 18:21:15 +0000

Hey, remember the Grammys? Yeah, they don’t matter anymore: The nominations for the only real award show in the game, the Kids’ Choice Awards, were unveiled earlier today with Frank Ocean and Alabama Shakes snagging countless noms. Just kidding! Taylor Swift and One Direction led the pack, with both receiving two nods each: Swift for Favorite Song with “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” and ... More »

One Direction versus Taylor Swift at Kids' Choice Awards

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 17:51:05 +0000

One Direction and Taylor Swift will go head-to-hear at the 2013 Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards.The 'What Makes You Beautiful' hitmakers - consisting...

Taylor Swift Frolics On The Beach, Rides In A Shopping Cart For “22″ Video: See The Photos

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 22:02:12 +0000

Taylor Swift has ditched the Alice in Wonderland / lion tamer cosplay get-up and donned some standard attire for the “22″ music video shoot at Zuma Beach in Malibu, CA. The star is seen in the above gallery riding in a shopping cart and running along the beach in tight jeans, a sweater and a ... More »

Taylor Swift Hits The Beach For Her '22' Video Shoot

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 17:43:08 +0000

Swift shot the video, her latest off Red, Monday in L.A.
By Jocelyn Vena

Taylor Swift and the cast of her "22" video
Photo: AKM Images / GSI Media

Carrie Underwood Dismisses Talk Of Taylor Swift Feud

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 01:36:21 +0000

Carrie Underwood has brushed off rumours of a feud with fellow country star Taylor Swift, insisting she's actually a fan of her country music...

Taylor Swift's Never Yelled At Exes. 'Ever.'

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 21:38:20 +0000

Grammy performer Swift opens up to Elle magazine about self-therapy and boy-chasing.
By Christina Garibaldi

Taylor Swift on the cover of Elle magazine
Photo: Elle

How Did Taylor Swift Recruit Ed Sheeran For Tour? In A Text

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 21:05:56 +0000

Sheeran talks to MTV News about how the Red singer reached out to him.
By Christina Garibaldi

Ed Sheeran
Photo: MTV News

Taylor Swift: 'I don't yell at my boyfriends'

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 20:00:06 +0000

Taylor Swift never yells at her boyfriends.The 'I Knew You Were Trouble' singer has a turbulent romantic history and even though she has gone through...

Taylor Swift Plays Hard To Get When It Comes To Dating

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 18:56:16 +0000

Single country star Taylor Swift plays hard to get when it comes to dating because she knows guys like the chase.Over the years, the Love Story...

Taylor Swift's Maybe British Accent, Justin Timberlake's Return Top Grammy Moments

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 15:09:07 +0000

'Nikki & Sara Live' hosts and 'Best Week Ever' comedians break down the top moments of Sunday night's show.
By Jocelyn Vena

Taylor Swift
Photo: Jeff Kravitz/ Getty Images

Grammys 2013: five things we learned

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 14:32:22 +0000

Beyoncé can't stop winning, Ed Sheeran can't dress and Chris Brown can't go anywhere without acting like a douche …

Beyoncé is probably the first name on every Grammy awards list

Beyoncé is to the Grammys in the modern era what Manchester United are to the Premier League; ie they both tend to win everything with an effortlessness that makes everyone else really bitter. Since 2000 – when Beyoncé was still hiring and firing various members of her backing band, Destiny's Child – the House of Derion designer has won a fairly ridiculous 17 Grammys. The only year she wasn't nominated was 2003, and that's only because she was preparing herself for 2004 when she sashayed off with five awards (she then won a further six in 2010). This year she scooped the award for best traditional R&B performance for Love On Top, a song that was originally released way back in December 2011. Rumour has it she was supposed to perform at the award ceremony (and at the Brits in a few weeks), but both performances were scrapped, probably because there's no point turning up and playing when you could probably just belch the alphabet and still walk away with the Grammy for best belched alphabet by a female solo performer.

Mykki Ekko and Ed Sheeran can't dress for an award show

As we all know from his performances at the 2012 Brits and the Queen's Jubilee concert thing, Ed Sheeran is not one to dress for the occasion. Or rather he is – he showed up on the red carpet at the Brits in a nice suit, probably from Burtons – but he likes to perform dressed like a sixth-form student who's just scored some weed having not left the house for a week. Standing next to a glittery Elton John for an actually quite lovely rendition of The A Team, it looked like Elton had signed up for some strange version of bring your surly nephew to work day. Mikky Ekko didn't really try that hard when it came to performing alongside Rihanna during an emotional Stay, either. Perched on a step and sporting a beanie hat (A BEANIE HAT!), he had the air of a man who had worked his way up from backing vocal duties to brief-cameo-on-stage-with-the-talent, rather than the man who co-wrote and co-produced the song itself.

Fun. and Gotye strike a blow for pop with personality (ahem)

In 2012, quite popular singer of songs Adele walked off with five Grammy awards and all the headlines, giving the endurance test of a ceremony (it lasts for three and a half long hours!) an immediate, attention-grabbing hook. This year, two of the big winners were the incorrectly monikered Fun. and one-hit wonder Gotye, ie two of the most faceless pop acts of the past 12 months. Basically, if you walked past the three members of Fun., you'd probably stop them to ask directions and walk away thinking: "Such nice helpful young men, I bet they like that We Are Young song and that other one that involves a man being covered in Dulux in the video." And to think Fun. walked off with the award for song of the year in a category that featured Carly Rae Jepsen's ode to tentative cellular communication, Call Me Maybe. Literally, what is wrong with people?

Miguel and Justin Timberlake don't need any help, thanks

Miguel's Adorn is one of the best songs of the past few years and, as this video attests, he knows how to wow a crowd. And yet … someone still thought that what his two-minute performance really needed was a cameo from rap goon Wiz Khalifa, who manages to stand around next to Miguel looking like he needs the toilet, while Miguel chews up the stage with the sort of presence and poise most performers take an age to hone. For Justin Timberlake – performing at an award show for the first time since he came out of pop retirement – you'd think an extra person might help lift the drab Suit & Tie. But actually the song does just fine, taking on a new lease of life – up until the point Jay-Z gets out of his seat and sort of meanders about and then walks off again. We get that hanging out with your mates at work can be nice and everything, but sometimes less is more.

It's comforting when pop stars play to type

Collecting her award for best pop solo performance for a live version of Set Fire to the Rain, Adele walked over to Rihanna (pointedly not stopping to even acknowledge the existence of Chris Brown), gave her a massive hug like the big sister we want her to be and claimed her gong from Jennifer Lopez. "My good luck charm, J-Lo," she cackled, in reference to the fact she had received her Golden Globe award from the actress/singer/perfumier just last month. Taylor Swift, meanwhile, seemed to be having a great time all evening, be it pretending to be shocked at something probably not that shocking Lena Dunham said, or having a bit of a dance to basically every song that was performed. We should probably mention Chris Brown, who also conformed to type – ie being a dickhead – by staying seated when Frank Ocean (with whom he'd had an alleged altercation a few weeks ago) won his award for best urban contemporary album. Rumour has it Adele then "had words" with Brown about it, which just makes us love her more.

Michael Cragg

'Hunger Games,' 'Dragon Tattoo' Win Grammy Awards

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 13:41:03 +0000

Taylor Swift, Trent Reznor take home the big movie-related awards at the 2013 Grammys.
By Josh Wigler

Josh Hutcherson in "The Hunger Games"
Photo: Lionsgate

Mumfords win best album award

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 08:32:00 +0000

Best album gong for the folk rock quartet reflects their giddying commercial rise in the US

The triumphant march across America of Mumford & Sons continued on Sunday night, when they won the album of the year award at the Grammy awards in Los Angeles for their second album, Babel. "We figured we weren't going to win anything because the Black Keys have been sweeping up all day, and deservedly so," said lead singer Marcus Mumford, accepting the award from Adele.

Babel sold 600,000 copies in the US the week it was released, last autumn, and has gone on to rack up more than 1.7m sales, making it the fourth best selling of 2012 in the US. The award to the Mumfords follows a recent Grammy trend of rewarding younger artists – the previous winners of the best album award have been Adele (2012), Arcade Fire (2011) and Taylor Swift (2010). Two of this year's other best album nominees – Fun. and Frank Ocean – were on the list for debut album. Of the five, only Jack White had been up for the gong before.

Mumford & Sons' rise in the US has been steep and spectacular, with the band marking the 2011 Grammys, when they appeared as Bob Dylan's backing band, as a key moment. "I think it introduced us to people who watch [awards] shows the way we grew up watching music on TV," keyboard player Ben Lovett told the Los Angeles Times. "It makes sense that it would widen our audience. But we weren't thinking about that at the time."

Reading on mobile? Watch here

Indeed, the contrast between the opening week of Babel and that of their debut, Sigh No More, could hardly be greater. That first album sold 5,000 copies in the US in its opening week, entering the charts at No 127. By the 2012 Grammys, though, they had secured four nominations and Sigh No More has now sold more than 2.5m copies, with Mumford & Sons leading a wave of hugely popular roots-influenced acts, including the Lumineers and the Avett Brothers. As Billboard put it: "Mainstream rock music, specifically that being consumed in the United States, has rearranged its profile to allow for banjo breaks."

That Billboard report highlighted the group's willingness to play outside the major markets as crucial to their widespread success, and suggested it had been modelled in part on the Avett Brothers' strategy.

See the list of winners in the main categories here.

Michael Hann

Grammy Awards 2013: Watch The Performances

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 04:35:02 +0000

Taylor Swift may have sworn off a certain gentleman in her chart-topping smash “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together,” but she busted out the tune once again for an Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland-themed performance that opened the 2013 Grammy Awards. Tay strutted, shook and pranced around stage in her white outfit…and that was just ... More »

Grammy Awards 2013: Taylor Swift’s Troubling Red Carpet Hairstyle

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 01:18:07 +0000

While Adele gave us a change of pace this year on the red carpet — Taylor Swift chose to stick with her latest awards show color of choice: white. The country pop darling arrived at the 2013 Grammy Awards in a racy J Mendel gown which definitely brought to mind the white dress Tay donned earlier ... More »

Grammy Awards: 8 Moments Time May Have Forgotten, But We Didn’t

Sun, 10 Feb 2013 17:53:13 +0000

The 55th Annual Grammy Awards are just hours away, and like the rest of you pop fanatics out there, we’re impatiently counting down every second until showtime. With a lineup that includes Justin Timberlake, Frank Ocean and Taylor Swift, as well as exciting collaborations from Ed Sheeran and Elton John, plus Bruno Mars, Sting and Rihanna, 2013 is ... More »

Max Martin Tops Hollywood Reporter Hitmakers List

Sun, 10 Feb 2013 14:06:21 +0000

Max Martin, the man behind Taylor Swift's We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together and I Knew You Were Trouble, has topped a new poll of the most...

Taylor Swift Sex Tape, Sorry What!?

Sat, 09 Feb 2013 17:12:34 +0000

There's a Taylor Swift sex tape featuring her most recent ex-boyfriend and One Direction star Harry Styles floating around the Internet, the Mirror...

Taylor Swift Goes Retro Chic On New ‘Elle’ Cover

Sat, 09 Feb 2013 15:39:32 +0000

Taylor Swift is no stranger to the Elle cover world, but now the pop-country ingenue returns to cover the fashion mag’s March 2013 issue — and she’s sending a nod to mod on the cover, with a yellow-squared number and newly signature blunt bangs. Her high fashion spread in between Elle’s sheets travels throughout time, with ... More »

Play-By-Play: Read Along With The Grammy Awards

Fri, 08 Feb 2013 20:00:00 +0000

For the fifth straight year, whether marveling at Taylor Swift's capacity for surprise or trying to figure out what to type during the combined 37 minutes of Bruno Mars performances, Linda Holmes and Stephen Thompson live-blogged the ceremony in an effort to serve your reading-along needs.

Grammys Preview: Taylor Swift Plans To Avoid Carrie Underwood, Why?

Fri, 08 Feb 2013 19:46:52 +0000

Though Frank Ocean is going to win every award, it might be worth tuning in to the Grammy Awards this Sunday (February 10, 2013) if only to witness...

Taylor Swift To Open The Grammys, Then Retreat Back To Her Cave Of Loneliness

Fri, 08 Feb 2013 18:00:48 +0000

Taylor Swift chatted with Ryan Seacrest Thursday (February 7) and revealed that she has nabbed the opening slot at the Grammys this Sunday (the show’s executive producer Ken Ehrlich promises it’s “a Taylor we’ve never seen before”). Swift told Seacrest that after securing a performance spot on the show, she got a surprise call from ... More »

Taylor Swift & The Game Hang Out At The Gym, Nothing Else Matters

Fri, 08 Feb 2013 17:39:26 +0000

MeetÂ Taylor Swift‘s new best friend:Â The Game. Yes, the sweet-as-pie country-pop superstar and the face-tatted rapper hung out at the gym yesterday, because that’s what you do when you’re Taylor Swift and The Game. There is nothing about this that we don’t love. The Game posted a (highly filtered â€” dude, cool it with the contrast) ... More »

Taylor Swift Likely To Open Grammys With 'Never Ever' Performance

Fri, 08 Feb 2013 15:57:24 +0000

The Grammy nominee is set to open the event on Sunday, February 10 and confirms her next single is '22.'
By Jocelyn Vena

Taylor Swift
Photo: WireImage

Grammy awards: 10 things to expect – from Jack White to wardrobe mistakes

Fri, 08 Feb 2013 15:00:02 +0000

CBS is playing the wardrobe police, but come on, someone's going to slip. What to watch out for on music's big night

What can we expect at the 55th annual Grammy awards show this Sunday night on CBS? Traditionally there is no tradition here. A show composed of musicians not actors tends to be the most "spontaneous" of the awards season. The Grammy red carpet has always been more outrageous than its Oscar counterpart – remember Lady Gaga in the egg? Performances can be unplugged or unscripted. Remember Kanye? It can feature unexpected singers. Remember Gwyneth and Cee Lo Green? This is a show that rarely drags and is filled with color. Here are some things to look for.

1. No "puffy" bits on display

Costumes can be completely out there, but they have to be on YOU. CBS issued you a wardrobe guide for everyone appearing on camera on Sunday night. No commercial endorsements, no plugs for any causes on your t-shirts or anywhere else. But the best part is the paragraph that deals with decency which we share with you in its entirety.

"Please be sure that buttocks and female breasts are adequately covered. Thong type costumes are problematic. Please avoid exposing bare fleshy under curves of the buttocks and buttock crack. Bare sides or under curvature of the breasts is also problematic. Please avoid sheer see-through clothing that could possibly expose female breast nipples. Please be sure the genital region is adequately covered so that there is no visible "puffy" bare skin exposure."

2. The Sandy Hook elementary school choir

They appeared at the Super Bowl singing America the Beautiful with Jennifer Hudson. Now they're back with the song of last summer, Carly Rae Jepsen's Call Me Maybe. Choir director Sabrina Post describes the children's public performances this way:

"This opportunity to do something positive lets the kids know that although a lot of things happen in our world that are not pleasant, like this that happened with us in Newtown, there are many giving people and wonderful things that can come out of life, so don't get discouraged."

3. Justin

Not Bieber but Timberlake. Timberlake will be performing at the Grammys for the first time since 2009 (when he stepped in at the last minute to sing Let's Stay Together with Al Green after Chris Brown and Rihanna dropped out.) Fans are hoping he'll sing the newly released soul single Suit & Tie, featuring Jay-Z, but word from the Grammy people is that he sent them something newer that he's considering.

4. A collaborative performance

Featuring Rihanna, Sting and Bruno Mars. We are praying it's not the ballad version of Umbrella.

5. Performances by Taylor Swift and Kelly Clarkson

Already being hyped as a catfight – sigh – because they are fellow nominees for the record of the year. Remember what happened when Swift lost to Adele at the Golden Globes? The internet entered Gif heaven.

6. Jack White – unplugged

White's nominations, Blunderbuss is up for album of the year and best rock album, and Freedom at 21 is nominated for best rock song. So he was guaranteed a performing spot. But he told The Hollywood Reporter this week that he had no intention of rehearsing. So we're giving him the Too Cool for School award.

7. The grandaddy of the Grammys

Elton John's first appearance was in 1971. Remember Your Song? The five-time Grammy winner is back on Sunday in a group tribute to …

8. The late Levon Helm

Helm (drummer of The Band) died of throat cancer last year. This year's big ensemble performance is a tribute to him. Besides Elton look for Mumford and Sons, Brittany Howard of The Alabama Shakes, Mavis Staples and Zac Brown on stage. Expect to hear The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.

9. Beyonce, Katy Perry and Bonnie Raitt

Are all presenting not performing. Some are calling this a diss. We are calling it a well-earned break.

10. Frank Ocean

The one to watch, the 25-year-old has the hottest spot of the year. He's the rookie who has the same amount of nominations (six) as Kanye and Jay-Z. He's already been punched by Chris Brown. (He's not pressing charges.) He's up for Best New Album and Best New Artist.

So tune into CBS with us on Sunday night and watch for wardrobe malfunctions, fights, upsets and hopefully some great music. We'll be live blogging the show starting at 7pm ET. See you there.

Emma G Keller

John Mayer Says He Was “A Jerk” For Commenting About His Exes Back In The Day: Morning Mix

Fri, 08 Feb 2013 13:00:32 +0000

Did You Hear? :: In an upcoming interview with CBS Sunday Morning, John Mayer was asked about his exes like Taylor Swift and Jessica Simpson and the times he made unsavory comments about any of them. “I was just a jerk,” he admits. So if someone is a jerk for talking about exes in interviews, ... More »

Ed Sheeran rules out Bieber song

Fri, 08 Feb 2013 08:21:02 +0000

Ed Sheeran doesn't want to work with Justin Bieber.The 'A Team' hitmaker - who has written tracks for acts including One Direction and Taylor Swift -...

Harry Styles doesn't care about Swift songs

Fri, 08 Feb 2013 02:00:08 +0000

Harry Styles doesn't care if Taylor Swift writes songs about him.While the 23-year-old songstress is notorious for penning tunes about her failed...

Taylor Swift: 'I have no Valentine's Day plans'

Thu, 07 Feb 2013 20:00:04 +0000

Taylor Swift has no romantic plans for Valentine's Day (14.02.13).The 'We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together' hitmaker has been single since...

Facebook Scam Claims to Have Taylor Swift Sex Tape

Thu, 07 Feb 2013 19:53:41 +0000

If Taylor Swift saw the website's claim she'd know it was trouble. According to FoxNews, a Facebook scam has managed to trick people into giving up...

Taylor Swift added to BRIT Awards line-up

Thu, 07 Feb 2013 17:56:39 +0000

Muse, Mumford & Sons and Justin Timberlake are all set to perform

Taylor Swift added to BRITs line-up

Thu, 07 Feb 2013 16:09:30 +0000

Taylor Swift will perform at the BRIT Awards.The 'I Knew You Were Trouble' hitmaker - who is nominated for Best International Female at the ceremony...

Nashville is the perfect vehicle for country music

Thu, 07 Feb 2013 15:29:27 +0000

Camp, glitzy and melodramatic – new drama series Nashville suits its subject matter down to the ground

Reading this on mobile? Click here to view the video

A drama about country music may not sound like a surefire television winner. But Nashville, which premieres tonight on More4 (10pm), is the perfect treatment of a musical genre that is knee-deep in rhinestones and showbiz – all strong female leads with closets full of skeletons, and story arcs that would make its E4 stablemate Revenge look like a gritty docusoap.

Connie Britton plays Rayna James, who has hit career deadlock: the reigning queen of country who has never made the Shania Twain-style crossover into the pop charts. In a meeting with various dough-faced record company men, she is told that her latest album's a stiff and tickets for her concerts aren't selling as quickly as they should. Her Reba McEntire-esque music is starting to look increasingly antique. As is she. It's "Vegas or die" time.

Enter stage left country supertween Juliette Barnes (Hayden Panettiere). Despite her sweep of perfect blond hair and Disney princess public demeanour, she has a deep, dark well of hell going on behind her "Gee, shucks" exterior. Juliette has a drug-addicted mother, a shoplifting habit, more daddy issues than an Olsen and before you can say, "Oh my gosh, is that what Taylor Swift's really like?" she is causing trouble for Rayna. When their record company voices its desperation for a credit-crunching "co-headlining" tour (translation: Rayna would be opening for Juliette), it all kicks off.

Created by Thelma & Louise's screenwriter Callie Khouri, Nashville cleverly eschews any attempt at realism, in favour of a nightmarish vision of the capital of country. The big bad music biz is portrayed as Gomorrah ghostwritten by Jacqueline Susann, filled with bed-hopping lovers and desperate attempts at fame. But what sets this show apart is the utmost respect with which it treats the actual music – and there is a lot of music here.

T- Bone Burnett, executive music producer on the show, presumably has something to do with that. Echoing his work on O Brother, Where Art Thou, the songs provide the audience with exposition and subtext for the characters, as well as an emotional counterpoint to the programme's soapy aspects. When bar-staff-turned singer/songwriters Gunnar (Sam Palladio) and Scarlett (Clare Bowen) take to the stage with If I Didn't Know Better, the performance of the hypnotic bayou groove communicates the duo's chemistry better than any number of snappy dialogue exchanges.

Nashville is a winner, then. Just don't be surprised if you are filled with the compulsion to dance around the house in your dressing-gown to Jolene after episode one.

Priya Elan

Female performers warned against displaying 'breasts, buttocks and genitals' at Grammy Awards

Thu, 07 Feb 2013 15:03:24 +0000

Rihanna and Taylor Swift among artists reminded about outfits, according to report

BRIT Awards: Taylor Swift To Perform, Beyonce To Not Perform

Thu, 07 Feb 2013 14:17:10 +0000

The BRIT Awards are happening on February 20, and there’s an impressive talent roster lined up for the event — One Direction, Emeli Sande, Justin Timberlake, Mumford & Sons and a few others, too — but the one thing the BRITs were missing was a little Taylor Swift. Get ready for some trouble, trouble, trouble. (We mean that ... More »

Taylor Swift to play the Brit Awards

Thu, 07 Feb 2013 13:52:08 +0000

The singer is to perform at this year's Brit Awards alongside other acts like Justin Timberlake, Ben Howard, One Direction and Mumford & Sons.

Taylor Swift wants Selena Gomez to move on

Wed, 06 Feb 2013 20:00:08 +0000

Taylor Swift wants Selena Gomez to cut all ties with Justin Bieber.The 'I Knew You Were Trouble' singer - who is single following her split from One...

Taylor Swift Announces “22″ As Next ‘Red’ Single

Wed, 06 Feb 2013 16:55:00 +0000

How are you feeling today? Are you feeling 22? Good! You should be. Pop-country sweetheart/butt of everyone’s jokes because the world is a cruel and terrible place Taylor Swift is planning to release the instant smash “22″ as the next single from her bajillion-times-platinum album Red, which is great because it’s an amazing pop song and that’s really ... More »

Grimes Speaks Out in Defense of Beyoncé, "Gangnam Style", and Mariah Carey

Wed, 06 Feb 2013 16:22:00 +0000

Photo by Joseph Mohan

UPDATE: Grimes has deleted her entire Tumblr.

With her Grimes project, Claire Boucher has always treaded the line between a mainstream pop sound and her experimental roots. Early this morning, she posted a thoughtful Tumblr post in defense of the former, responding to criticism of her favorite songs of 2012 list, which included Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber, Carly Rae Jepsen, Lana Del Rey and "Gangnam Style" from Korean pop star PSY. ("People just hated on it," she wrote.)

In her post, Boucher touched upon her overarching issues with the music industry-- how musicians will often succeed based on good connections alone, how women are oppressed and "it's OK to make rape threats but it's not OK to say you're a feminist." She said she's tired of people calling her "ignorant" for liking pop and hip hop and noted that it's wrong to hate or devalue art on the grounds that it is successful.

Most compelling, though, were Boucher's thoughts on how the success of artists like Beyoncé and PSY can have positive social implications.

On Beyoncé:

How can you hate Beyoncé? She's changing the world. She stands for people of colour and women everywhere succeeding in a stifling patriarchy without compromising her morals. And she makes challenging, interesting art. She's always positive. She is everything good. And the fact that she is hugely successful is not a shitty thing. It's an important and amazing thing and she clearly works hard for it.

Regarding PSY, she also reflected on personal experiences growing up around racism, and how a diverse popular music culture can combat that:

I'm sorry, but I think it's fucking incredible that a Korean language song is the most popular thing on the planet. That's so good for humanity. PSY wrote and produced "Gangnam Style" himself and directed the video HIMSELF. No one made PSY. PSY is a genius and I dont think it's so terrible that he's been recognized for this. It also doesn't make him evil. His art is creating a generation of kids that will grow up seeing Asian culture as being as valid as Western culture which they currently don't. I know because I grew up in Vancouver and half my high school was Korean or Chinese and the kind of shit I heard all the time was horrible. I used to walk around with my Chinese boyfriend and people would yell slurs out of cars. Racism isn't over. Sexism isn't over. The only way things actually effect social change is by hitting the audience that perpetuates these ideas. Therefore, when a deserving artist blows up its good for everybody.

She concluded with thoughts on how Mariah Carey changed her life:

And yet I know very few adult males who consider themselves serious 'music guys' who don't laugh when I say I like Mariah Carey. Why? Because she's beautiful and people like her. Therefore she must be selling sex, right? So obviously her music is terrible, right? Ugh. The first time I heard Mariah Carey it shattered the fabric of my existence and I started Grimes.

Watch Grimes perform "Genesis" at last year's Pitchfork Music Festival:

Macklemore – cheap lyrics for cheap nights out | Sam Wolfson

Tue, 05 Feb 2013 20:00:00 +0000

The American rapper reflects a student drinking culture that is now the standard British night out

There's a 29-year-old rapper from Seattle called Macklemore who has spent the past two weeks at No 1 in the US Billboard 100, ahead of new releases from Bruno Mars, Taylor Swift and Britney Spears. He's already been No 1 in Canada, Denmark, Australia and New Zealand and is probably going to be No 1 in the UK on Sunday too. More astonishing than this, Macklemore is an unsigned artist, only the second in history to have a US No 1.

The song that has led him to international success is called Thrift Shop. It's about second-hand shopping. Sort of. Your protagonist threatens to "take you grandpa's style" by buying cheap clothes as well as a number of other items, including a broken keyboard, some supermarket-brand trainers and a "skeet blanket" to masturbate into. Basically, just another day at a Cancer Research shop.

The first thing you think when you listen to it is ... how? How has this song, which barely sounds like a song, more like a rejected Saturday Night Live sketch or a Weird Al album track, become a global hit?

What's surprising about it is not that it's bad especially, but that it's incompetent. You might not like LMFAO but they're at least good at what they do. Macklemore is both unlikable and terrible. The references in it – R Kelly sheets smelling of urine, the popularity of plaid button-up shirts – are over 10 years old, the rhyming patterns often give up halfway through, and you'd get a more astute analysis of modern fashion if you took Mrs Brown to an Urban Outfitters.

So what's its secret? Conventional wisdom is that this is a recession anthem, piercing through the corporate control that has made us believe branded clothing is worth more than it is. After years of hearing about how much bling and money rappers have, the general public want to hear Macklemore say, "Fifty dollars for a T–shirt – that's just some ignorant bitch shit," with his trademark charm and subtlety.

But I believe the Mack is tapping into another global trend, not recession and frugality, but banter. Perhaps not banter exactly, but the banter brigade. You know the ones, who wear hooded animal onesies on nights out to chain nightclubs like Oceana and Tiger Tiger, where they drink alcohol out of funnels and test tubes. The ones who fill the town centres of Britain every night. Fill them with vomit and Vodka Kick.

The UK has slowly been adopting and re-appropriating American frat-house culture for over a decade. The slow creep of Abercrombie, public pranks and a disregard for contemporary culture first took hold in Britain's universities, where it was re-appropriated by the Brits to include "pub golf", a toffy-take on the traditional pub crawl, lots of dressing up (strippers and vicars, neon-paint and dressing in animal outfits) and a kind of pick-and-mix attitude to music, where TV themes, football chants and 90s pop all blend in 30-second bursts in nightclubs that smell of chlorine and regret.

The dominant "student culture" isn't, as is portrayed in David Nicholls novels, one of leftwing politics and Smiths records, but dressing up, pre-drinking and getting aboard the banter bus. It's a culture relatively disinterested in high-fashion, changing pop trends, cutting-edge technology or protest. It's interested in drawing a penis on your face, drinking a lot, dancing to PJ and Duncan and going home with someone.

Getting blind drunk has been part of student culture for centuries and cheesy nightclubs have been around since at least the 80s. But they have grown from a niche minority to become the presiding mode of nightlife in Britain. Never has there been such a mass disinterest in popular culture among those it is aimed at, and never have they been so keen on wearing pyjamas outdoors. This kind of nightlife is a hundred times more popular than grime raves, burlesque shows or anything that has had infinitely more press coverage, but is ignored because it has so little to say.

Step forward Macklemore, a man dedicated to entertaining the drunk and disorderly. Another of his songs, And We Danced, begins with a spoken intro explaining that after he was extradited from Britain for streaking at the Royal Wedding he was brought to the USA so he could resurrect the recession-ridden dancefloors of America "with the big long pink ding dong penis". What a lad.

So the focus of Thrift Shop isn't the cheapness of the attire, but the wackiness of the clothes. Macklemore buys "a onesie, with the socks sewn in"? Top bants! A "velour suit and some house slippers"? Lol m8, c u in those @ Vodka Revs!! The song's international success suggests this isn't just a British phenomenon but a global trend.

There's only one problem for Macklemore: the banter brigade are a regimented unit when tanked up on a Friday night, but by Monday morning many of them are kind, sensitive humans. Perhaps Macklemore will be another drunken embarrassment, forgotten like a novelty cowboy hat. I can only hope.

Sam Wolfson

Tim McGraw, Taylor Swift & Keith Urban’s “Highway Don’t Care”: Hear The Country Ballad

Tue, 05 Feb 2013 19:52:11 +0000

So, when you think Tim McGraw, what do you think of? Down the road, it’ll probably be the just-leaked McGraw collaboration with Taylor Swift and Keith Urban, “Highway Don’t Care,” a swoony country midtempo with a soaring chorus. Both crooners sound twangy and emotive, but it’s Swift’s vocals that really shine: They’re breathy, light and airier than anything on Red. It’s ... More »

Taylor Swift's New Love? Meet Lawson

Tue, 05 Feb 2013 18:51:46 +0000

British band opens up to MTV News about meeting the singer for the first time, and why she's such a big fan of 'Standing in the Dark.'
By Jocelyn Vena

Lawson
Photo: MTV News

Rihanna To Play Grammys With Bruno Mars, Sting

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 13:27:00 +0000

Rih Rih joins lineup that already includes Kelly Clarkson, Frank Ocean, Justin Timberlake, Fun. and Taylor Swift.
By Gil Kaufman

Rihanna
Photo: Dave J. Hogan/ Getty Images

John Mayer and Katy Perry Restore Our Faith In Celebrity Romance

Sun, 03 Feb 2013 11:07:13 +0000

After 2013 hit with a storm of high-profile breakups and divorces (Rupert Sanders, Justin Bieber and does anyone even remember when Taylor Swift and...

Taylor Swift 'wants nothing to do with Harry'

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 20:00:04 +0000

Taylor Swift and Harry Styles ''want nothing to do with each other''.The 'I Knew You Were Trouble' singer split from the One Direction star following...

Frank Ocean Confirmed to Perform at the Grammys

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 15:13:00 +0000

Photo by Erez Avissar

Last weekend's scuffle between Frank Ocean and Chris Brown produced one promising nugget of gossip:"Cut my finger now I can't play w two hands at the grammys", Ocean tweeted after the incident, alluding to an at-the-time unannounced appearance at the awards ceremony.

It's official now: the Grammys have confirmed that Ocean will join Justin Timberlake, Jack White, the Black Keys, Alicia Keys, Maroon 5, Rihanna, Mumford & Sons, Taylor Swift, and many more performers at the February 10 ceremony. But don't expect him to do the "Guitar Hero" bit.

Ocean is up for six awards, including Record of the Year ("Thinkin Bout You") and Album of the Year (channelOrange).

Watch the video for "Pyramids":

Justin Timberlake To 'Suit' Up For Grammy Performance

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 15:04:49 +0000

Singer will play the February 10 show alongside Rihanna, Black Keys, Lumineers and Taylor Swift.
By Gil Kaufman

Justin Timberlake
Photo: Getty Images

Justin Timberlake To Perform At The Grammys, Music Is Saved

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 14:56:47 +0000

Hold onto your suits and ties, guys and gals, because this Justin Timberlake comeback is getting even more serious. The singer has just been confirmed to perform at the 55th Annual Grammy Awards on Sunday, February 10, along with some other people you might have heard of — like Rihanna, Taylor Swift, Fun., Mumford and Sons and The Black Keys. As ... More »

The Ready Set Tributes Taylor Swift With “For The Better”: Free Download

Tue, 29 Jan 2013 23:22:45 +0000

When The Ready Set (that’s Jordan Mark Witzigreuter, for the uninitiated) wrote “For the Better,” a song inspired by Taylor Swift‘s very public breakup with Harry Styles, he had no idea it would end up making its way to her: “I thought it would be fun to write from an outside perspective,” he says. “I didn’t want to be mean ... More »

Taylor Swift Inks Long-Term Deal With Diet Coke

Tue, 29 Jan 2013 17:30:09 +0000

Taylor Swift has signed on with Diet Coke for their Extraordinary campaign, which means she’ll be featured in their advertising across TV, digital and print platforms. Swift will “serve as a program ambassador for several Diet Coke initiatives and will be integrated into all key marketing efforts for the brand.” Sounds like just the type ... More »

Will Taylor Swift Ever, Ever Ever Write A Song About Tina Fey?

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 18:10:53 +0000

After Tina Fey mocked Taylor Swift at the Golden Globes, is she worried that Taylor will write one of her trademark cutting songs about her? “I...

Taylor Swift And Hailee Steinfeld Meet Up In Paris

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 01:41:14 +0000

Country star Taylor Swift managed to catch up with her actress pal Hailee Steinfeld in Paris on Sunday (27Jan13) as they enjoyed a rare day off in...

Taylor Swift Performs at NRJ Music Awards With ex Harry Styles in the Audience

Sun, 27 Jan 2013 19:19:14 +0000

Say it ain’t so – Harry Styles has been seen escorting a blond lady out of his home on Friday, on the eve of the NRJ Music Awards, The Daily...

Taylor Swift avoids Harry Styles

Sun, 27 Jan 2013 18:36:58 +0000

Taylor Swift avoided Harry Styles at the NRJ Awards on Saturday night (26.01.13).The 'I Knew You Were Trouble' star - who split from the One...

Taylor Swift Performs For Harry Styles (And Everyone Else) At The NRJ Music Awards

Sun, 27 Jan 2013 18:20:51 +0000

Taylor Swift waved a red microphone before the 2013 NRJ Music Awards audience last night (January 26th), performing her hit single “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together.” T-Swift gave the crowd a bunch of neck snaps and head nods as she and her backup singers did a nice little routine for the scorned-woman anthem. ... More »

Never mind the birdlore: the new face of folk music

Sun, 27 Jan 2013 16:59:01 +0000

The folk scene is changing – there are songs about police shootings, Occupy London and rape. Colin Irwin meets the singers who are shaking things up

^'What I don't understand," says Chris Wood, "is why, when young people see so much misery, injustice and shite around them, they don't see music as an expression of disgruntlement. Where are the young protest singers? Instead, we get this limp, bedroom ukulele music that keeps turning up on mobile phone ads."

In 2011, fiddler and folk-singer Wood won the best original song category at the Radio 2 Folk awards for Hollow Point, his affecting account of the killing of Jean Charles de Menezes, the Brazilian who was shot dead by London police in 2005. "Awake arise you drowsy sleeper," the song begins, its title a reference to the type of bullet fired by the police. "It was written as a modern folk song because that event was crying out not for the Clash treatment, nor the Paul Weller treatment, but for the ballad treatment. "What people don't realise is that the tune and the first verse are completely traditional. I still maintain the greatest songwriter who ever lived was 'anon'.""

For most of the 1980s and 90s, singer-songwriters barely got house room on the folk scene, as Celtic instrumentalists and traditional singers dominated. But since their inception in 2000, the Folk awards have highlighted changes in the scene – and not just in subject matter. The original song category boasts an especially strong shortlist this year, and all four nominees are women.

Kathryn Roberts knows all about the pitfalls of trying to write modern folk songs from her time with 1990s "brat folk" group Equation, who were moulded for crossover pop success by Warner Brothers but fizzled out on the launchpad. The mother of five-year-old twin daughters, Roberts re-emerged last year with the album Hidden People. Made with her husband Sean Lakeman, who had also been in Equation, the album featured The Ballad of Andy Jacobs, a poignant song set against the tumultuous backdrop of the miners' strike of 1984, when Roberts was growing up in the village of Dodworth just outside Barnsley.

"My parents were music teachers," she says. "So we were one of the few families in the village who weren't affected. We didn't have to receive food parcels or the rest of it, but most of my schoolfriends did. I didn't really understand what any of it meant, though, until I'd grown up – it changed the village totally.

"What really struck me was how hard it had been for the women. You see the men marching down the street but you don't see what the wives are coping with at home. When I became a mother myself, I thought 'My God, what must they have gone through?'"

With only a stark piano accompaniment it invariably stops audiences in their tracks. "The first time I played it live at Barnsley festival a couple of years ago I was incredibly nervous because feelings still run high there, but so many people came up to me afterwards telling me about their own experiences, I felt I had their approval. Now if somebody's in tears at the end of it, I feel I've got something right."The song would be a shoo-in to win at the awards were it not for the quality of the other contenders: Karine Polwart's King of Birds, Emily Portman's Hatchlings and Anaïs Mitchell's Tailor. King of Birds also has a political undercurrent. Awash with allegories, the song, from Polwart's album Traces, subtly mixes what might be called new folk and old: it weaves the Occupy London demonstrations into a challenging narrative that features wren birdlore and the history of St Paul's Cathedral.

"In structure and melody, it's not really a folk song, but what's folkie is the intent," says the 42-year-old from Stirlingshire, who made a leap of faith when she quit the band Malinky to concentrate on her own songwriting nearly a decade ago. Since then, she has enjoyed two best song awards: for The Sun's Comin' Over the Hill in 2005, and Daisy in 2007. "Most mainstream pop is about love, but folk songs don't tend to do that," she adds. "I don't think any of the nominated songs could have been written by anyone who doesn't love or isn't versed in traditional song. We're not going for the modulated final chorus and the big bridge. When I was working with the Burns Project, they were saying, 'What about the chord changes into the bridge?' and I said, 'What? I've never written a song with a bridge in my life!'"

Legends, fantasies and mythology populate the idiosyncratic lyrics of Glastonbury's Emily Portman, who wrote Hatchlings on the cliffs at Tynemouth, on the Northumberland coast, where she was living at the time. She was also pregnant, and the song is steeped in the legend of Leda, who produced two eggs after being raped by the Greek god Zeus in the guise of a swan. "A few years ago I went to Pompei and saw these images of a woman and a swan and started looking into Greek and Roman mythology and found this story. These old myths tackle such big subjects," says Portman. "In that one, you have rape and shape-shifting and all sorts. I read various poems but I didn't find anything written from Leda's point of view, so I thought I'd attempt it. I'm not trying to make new folk songs, but I take it as a compliment if people call them that."

Anaïs Mitchell's songs are the product of a similarly racing imagination, something she attributes to being raised by hippy parents on a 200-year-old Vermont farm. She would roam its 150 acres, thinking up Tolkienesque tales about all the fairies and unworldly creatures that, she believed, lurked in the woods. Vividly lyrical, her music has been highly acclaimed, especially Hadestown, her extraordinary 2010 concept album and folk opera – a modern take on the myth of Orpheus attempting to rescue his wife, Eurydice, from the underworld. She describes Tailor, from the album Young Man in America, as a song about "searching for an identity but doing it to please someone else, the father figure or lover".

Karine Polwart finds it especially gratifying that this year's best original song contest is an all-female affair. "In the old days," she says, "there were a lot of lone male troubadours but hardly any women."

Are any of them, I wonder, ever tempted by pop? Kathryn Roberts is amused by the notion. "What's that Taylor Swift song? Never Ever Getting Back Together or something? It's a great pop song, full of hooks, the perfect teenage girl's song. But I'd never ever be able to do a song like that. Ever. I like stories."

• The Folk awards take place at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall on Wednesday. Live broadcast on Radio 2 from 7.30pm.

Colin Irwin

Taylor Swift At The 40 Principales Awards 2013: See Her Daring Dress

Sat, 26 Jan 2013 00:22:55 +0000

Taylor Swift arrived at the 40 Principales Awards in Madrid, Spain on Thursday night (January 24) in a white dress that practically put the eye-popping number she wore to the 2013 Golden Globes to shame. So while 23-year-old pop star was focused on the award show itself, tweeting, “Tonight was my first time at the 40 ... More »

Taylor Swift Shuts Down Tabloid Rumours About Her Love Life

Fri, 25 Jan 2013 22:56:15 +0000

Singer Taylor Swift has shut down ongoing rumours about her love life, insisting she didn't purchase a home next to her ex Conor Kennedy or buy Harry...

Taylor Swift: 'I don't have a type'

Fri, 25 Jan 2013 22:00:12 +0000

Taylor Swift doesn't have a specific type.The 23-year-old singer has dated a host of celebrities including Jake Gyllenhaal, Joe Jonas, Harry Styles...

Taylor Swift Launches Inspirational Ad Campaign

Fri, 25 Jan 2013 19:06:13 +0000

Taylor Swift is using a new shoe advertising campaign to boost the self-confidence of young girls by encouraging them to embrace their differences...

Taylor Swift Performs “Love Story” & “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” At 40 Principales: Watch

Fri, 25 Jan 2013 14:17:56 +0000

Queen of sad songs Taylor Swift recently sailed her lonely catamaran across the turbulent Atlantic seas to Spain, where she sat atop the Rock of Gibraltar and cried for awhile, thinking ruefully about the irretrievability of the past and how quickly lovers turn to strangers, or something like that. Just a guess. At any rate, she was ... More »

Taylor Swift’s Night Out In Madrid

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 20:27:31 +0000

Ole! Taylor Swift is currently in Madrid, Spain following a quick pit stop in London for a photo shoot earlier this week. The newly single country pop star let her hair down on Wednesday night (January 23) as she headed out on the town with a few girlfriends, hitting up El Alkalde restaurant. (Not to ... More »

Ed Sheeran to perform at Grammys

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 08:57:35 +0000

The singer/songwriter will join artists including Rihanna and Taylor Swift, who are already confirmed to perform at the event next month.

Advertising: Keds Campaign Features Taylor Swift

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 02:09:50 +0000

Taylor Swift, the 23-year-old country star, will become the new face of Keds shoes in a social campaign aimed at “brave girls” age 13 to 24.

Taylor Swift Becomes Disney Princess In Enchanted Ads

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 01:36:12 +0000

Country star Taylor Swift has been transformed into Disney princess Rapunzel for a new advertising campaign.The singing beauty poses as the...

Taylor Swift Lets Her Hair Down As Rapunzel In Annie Leibovitz-Shot Disney Ad

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 19:58:48 +0000

It’s certainly not news that Taylor Swift is a princess (America’s princess!), but even we weren’t expecting things to take such a literal route. But — probably using the powers of The Secret, or maybe because she’s a hugely successful pop star with long, golden locks who communicates enough of a fairytale vibe in the first place that ... More »

New band of the day - Woodkid (No 1,437)

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 17:08:03 +0000

Frustrated video director turns cinematic pop composer with moodily majestic results

Reading on mobile? Click here to listen

Hometown: Paris.

The lineup: Yoann Lemoine (vocals, music).

The background: People are always saying rock journalists secretly wish they were in a band, but have you ever heard the one about the video director who's a frustrated musician? We're sure you'll be able to correct us, but Yoanne Lemoine is as far as we know the first video director turned pop artist. And it's not as though he's turned to making records because he was doing particularly badly at the promo film lark, having made a series of Grammy-nominated shorts including ones for Taylor Swift (Back to December), Lana Del Rey (Born to Die), Drake & Rihanna (Take Care) and Katy Perry (Teenage Dream). Not the shabbiest of lists, we're sure you'll agree.

Funnily enough, Lemoine – who in his music-making guise operates as Woodkid – actually admits to being a frustrated musician, although "frustration" is perhaps not quite the emotion you feel when a large cheque arrives in the post for having spent a day watching a semi-clad Perry cavort her way through a Hipstamatic love scene that you've just contrived. He calls what he does "symphonic pop" and explains that there is serious cinematic intent behind the music he has composed and co-produced for his debut album, the Golden Age. He's already demonstrated that his songs can work in a filmic context, or should we say neo-filmic: Iron, one of his tracks, was featured in a trailer for the video game Assassin's Creed: Revelations, which has been seen by nearly 3 million people on YouTube (either that or three Assassin's Creed players each watched it a million times, which we're not ruling out), and another in the trailer for the Hitchcock biopic, seen by a million. This suggests the director of Psycho and the Birds is a third as popular than an action-adventure video game, although this is hardly Woodkid's problem.

Woodkid doesn't really have any problems. He was even recently sampled by World's Hottest Rapper Kendrick Lamar on his song The Spiteful Chant. And he got to fulfill all his fantasies about creating a symphonic opus to match his visual imagination on his album, using a 30-piece orchestra to help bring the songs to vivid life. "When I started playing my own music, I wanted it to be as tall as a skyscraper," he says. "Images can achieve that. A really big orchestra can also achieve that."

Now we should tell you at this point that, when he sings, Lemoine sounds like Antony Hegarty, and a rather limited Hegarty at that, and that he sings quite a lot on the Golden Age. So that just as you allow the cinematic sweep of the music to engulf you, you are suddenly jolted out of your reverie by that voice, which you will either enjoy or will make you want to smear Marmite over your ears (it can be a bit … we're trying to find a positive way to say "droney"). But if you can get past it, or even accept it as an integral part of the soundscapes, then you'll love Woodkid's album. Run Boy Run is epic – the kind of thing you can imagine soundtracking a spectacular battle scene between Earthlings and blue aliens. The Shore would be perfect for that part of the movie where the blue creatures all emerge sadder but wiser from the battle. Falling is the one where the Earthlings' spacecraft breaches the black hole, and the Other Side would suit the closing credits. The title track's melody recalls Randy Crawford's One Day I'll Fly Away – the chords, not the topline melody, lawyers out there. In fact, the arrangements are better than the songs, if that makes any sense, and they are sustained majestically (and mournfully) over the album's 48 minutes. Another 48 and he's got enough for that film about blue aliens.

The buzz: "Unique sounding and powerful album."

The truth: He's the only – and therefore unarguably best – video-director-turned-pop-composer ever.

Most likely to: Fill a movie's sonic space.

Least likely to: Breach a black hole.

What to buy: The Golden Age is released by Island in March.

File next to: Antony Hegarty, Globus, Les Friction, Peter Skellern.

Links: yoannlemoine.com/woodkid.

Thursday's new band: Drenge.

Paul Lester

Taylor Swift Covers ‘Cosmopolitan’ South Africa

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 21:30:48 +0000

Taylor Swift is Cosmopolitan South Africa‘s sweetheart, appearing as the magazine’s February 2013 cover girl. Unlike Tay’s December Cosmo US cover, which had the Red singer done up in purple, the 23-year-old looks ready for Cupid to take aim in this gorgeous metallic red dress. We respect the lady mag for putting a newly single gal (slash ... More »

Taylor Swift Enjoys Lunch With Cancer-stricken Fan

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 08:01:14 +0000

Country star Taylor Swift enjoyed a long lunch with a cancer-stricken fan in Michigan on Saturday (19Jan13) after hearing about the teenager's tragic...

Lawson to teach Taylor Swift about love

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 06:22:32 +0000

Lawson say their new single could teach Taylor Swift a lesson in love. The band are releasing 'Learn To Love Again' on February 3, and say the story...

Taylor Swift plans to stay single

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 02:00:14 +0000

Taylor Swift wants some time alone following her split from Harry Styles.The 'We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together' singer recently called time on...

Selena Gomez Talks Personal New Music, Promises New Single In March

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 16:00:30 +0000

Selena Gomez had a lively weekend, didn’t she? On Saturday night, she performed at a UNICEF charity concert in New York City, where she busted out unexpected covers of tracks by Justin Timberlake, Taylor Swift and Britney Spears before going on a violent crime spree. (Just kidding! That’s what happens in Spring Breakers.) But the dance-pop songbird also dropped some details ... More »

Michael J. Fox Vs. Taylor Swift: How Many Relationships Is Too Many?

Sun, 20 Jan 2013 12:06:18 +0000

If there’s one thing that is sure to create some drama in 2013, it’s Taylor Swift’s love life.We’re not quite sure why everyone is so...

Michael J. Fox Tells Taylor Swift To Back Off From His Son

Sat, 19 Jan 2013 15:50:39 +0000

Kids hate it when their parents take an interest in their love life, and celebrity dad Michael J. Fox proved that the rich and famous are no...

Taylor Swift No Longer Upset With Michael J. Fox

Sat, 19 Jan 2013 14:06:13 +0000

Actor Michael J. Fox has reached out to Taylor Swift after poking fun at her dating disasters in an online interview.The Back to the Future star...

Taylor Swift and Michael J. Fox have made up

Sat, 19 Jan 2013 06:00:08 +0000

Taylor Swift has taken to Twitter to reveal that Michael J. Fox has reached out, and she insists the pair ''are good.''Their feud followed Tina Fey...

Taylor Swift & Michael J. Fox’s Feud Is Over — We Can All Relax Now

Sat, 19 Jan 2013 02:07:18 +0000

Taylor Swift let fans know she and actor Michael J. Fox had buried the hatchet on Friday (January 18) when the pop star tweeted, “Hey everybody, Michael J. Fox got in touch with me today and we are good. Thank you for having my back.” What started as a Golden Globes punchline on Sunday night (January 13) ... More »

Michael J Fox Sees Red Over Taylor Swift and Sam Michael Fox Golden Globes Gag

Fri, 18 Jan 2013 19:56:26 +0000

One of the biggest chortle-worthy moments of the Golden Globes last weekend occurred when jokester hosts Tina Fey and Amy Poehler told an on-watching...

Michael J Fox And Taylor Swift ... Fox Warns Swift Away from His Son, Sam Michael Fox

Fri, 18 Jan 2013 16:14:15 +0000

Michael J Fox and Taylor Swift are unlikely to be sharing any cosy family get-togethers any time soon. After Tina Fey mocked Taylor’s recent string...

Taylor Swift blasted by Michael J Fox

Fri, 18 Jan 2013 02:00:13 +0000

Michael J. Fox doesn't want Taylor Swift to date his son.During the recent Golden Globe Awards, host Tina Fey jokingly warned nominee Taylor to stay...

Samuel L Jackson Does a Capital FM Listener a Favour by Covering a Taylor Swift Song

Thu, 17 Jan 2013 19:23:19 +0000

Samuel L Jackson has lent his voice to a variety of interesting contexts, and until this point his audiobook version of Adam Mansbach's 'Go the F---...

Ed Sheeran To Write & Record Next Album While Touring With Taylor Swift

Thu, 17 Jan 2013 18:49:30 +0000

British singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran is getting ready to hit the road with Taylor Swift, opening for her on her Red tour beginning in March. It’s by far the biggest string of shows in Sheeran’s young career, so you’d think he’d be completely preoccupied making sure it all goes swimmingly. Nope! Sheeran has much bigger plans, telling ... More »

Ed Sheeran Will Record Album During Taylor Swift Tour

Thu, 17 Jan 2013 17:56:03 +0000

'The A Team' singer aims for a 2014 release date for his sophomore release.
By Jocelyn Vena

Ed Sheeran
Photo: Neil Lupin/Redferns

Carrie Underwood To Perform At The Grammys

Thu, 17 Jan 2013 03:16:31 +0000

Prepare to get Blown Away! Rihanna, Taylor Swift and Fun. will also perform on February 10.
By Kara Warner

Carrie Underwood
Photo: Getty Images

Taylor Swift gets breast implants?

Wed, 16 Jan 2013 23:22:11 +0000

Taylor Swift has reportedly got a breast enlargement.The 'I Knew You Were Trouble' star - who was reportedly rejected by 'Silver Linings Playbook'...

Vote for Lil B to Perform at the Grammys

Wed, 16 Jan 2013 16:53:00 +0000

CBS and the Grammys have launched a contest called "The Gig of a Lifetime" in which they give "aspiring musicians across the country the chance to perform in front of a live audience during GRAMMY Live, three days of live coverage and events leading up to Music's Biggest Night," according to a press release.

That sounds like a lot of PR mumbo-jumbo that we would typically ignore, but here's the kicker: One of the many nominated "aspiring musicians" is Lil B. Which means there is a chance, however slim, that Lil B will perform at the 2013 Grammy Awards or a Grammy-affiliated event. Assemble the taskforce.

The contest is decided through a voting process, which began on January 10 on a Grammy/CBS Facebook app. Lil B is one of the nominees in the Pacific region, and if he advances, he'll take part in a final round of voting that runs from January 17 to the 24. The winner will be announced on January 29 and brought to Los Angeles "to participate in GRAMMY Live events, culminating in a live performance in front of an audience and webcast to fans around the globe."

So it doesn't necessarily mean you're going to see Lil B up there on stage grinning with Taylor Swift, but hey-- it's one small step for Lil B, one giant leap for BasedKind.

The Grammy Awards take place on February 10, with scheduled performances from Rihanna, the Black Keys, Taylor Swift, Mumford and Sons, fun., and a bunch more. Vote for Lil B in the "Gig of a Lifetime" contest here.

Also, just want to point out this Lil B gem from 2011: "so who won grammys and for what def wxcited to hear the full list can somebody tell me? - Lil B".

Watch Lil B's NYU lecture:

Taylor Swift Hangs In At #3 In Slow Week On Charts

Wed, 16 Jan 2013 16:01:08 +0000

Christian singer Chris Tomlin nabs #1, Hollywood Undead at #2 and Black Veil Brides at #7.
By Gil Kaufman

Taylor Swift's RED
Photo: Universal Music Group

Taylor Swift asks Bradley Cooper out

Tue, 15 Jan 2013 23:00:22 +0000

Taylor Swift tried to arrange a date with Bradley Cooper.The 23-year-old 'I Knew You Were Trouble' singer - who split from One Direction star Harry...

Beyoncé: being photographed in your underwear doesn't help feminism | Hadley Freeman

Tue, 15 Jan 2013 20:00:00 +0000

The singer's interview in American GQ offers a perfect snapshot of where the western women's movement is. And it's not pretty

Next month marks the 50th anniversary of The Feminine Mystique, Betty Friedan's hugely influential study that helped to spark that pervasive second wave of feminism that – for all its faults and stuttering incompleteness – shaped the western world as most of us know it today.

As a book it was – as Friedan was herself – a flawed advocate of women's rights: Friedan had little apparent interest in women who were anything other than white and upper middle-class. Her homophobia became an embarrassment to the women's movement. Her egotistical paranoia about being ousted as the face of the women's movement was captured with wince-inducing brilliance by Nora Ephron in her 1972 essay, Miami.

The feminist movement never did and never will run smoothly. But Friedan's book, as Stephanie Coontz writes in her recent book, A Strange Stirring, rescued "a generation of intelligent women, sidelined from the world". Whatever its flaws, the publication of The Feminine Mystique remains as much of a landmark in the history of feminism as Emily Davison's death 50 years earlier at the 1913 Epsom Derby.

And so, 50 years on from Friedan, it pleases me to announce that we have a new face to the modern-day feminist movement. That face belongs to none other than Beyoncé Knowles.

Last week the new issue of American GQ came out and it neatly encapsulated where western feminism is today. Inside, Knowles gives an interview that will probably be studied by future generations for lessons in both the loopiness of the 21st-century celebrity world and how hilariously far American magazine interviews have fallen since the days of, say, Gay Talese and Lillian Ross. In this typical piece of puffery, Knowles shows off her "temperature-controlled digital storage facility that contains virtually every photo of her", including one video diary entry in which she informs herself that she is going to listen to one of her own songs before having sex with her husband, which is one way to get in the mood, I guess.

But there is, the GQ journalist assures the reader, more to Knowles than raging narcissism – she is a powerful woman with a defiant feminist streak. "Equality is a myth, and for some reason everyone accepts that women don't make as much money as men do," she rails. "I truly believe that women should be financially independent from their men. And let's face it, money gives men the power to run the show. It gives men the power to define value. They define what's sexy. And men define what's feminine. It's ridiculous."

Knowles is right: it is ridiculous that American women earn 77 cents to every dollar earned by men. This is almost as ridiculous as, say, a self-professedly powerful female celebrity ("I'm more powerful than my mind can even digest," announces Knowles) complaining about men defining sexiness in a men's magazine in which she poses nearly naked in seven photos, including one on the cover in which she is wearing a pair of tiny knickers and a man's shirt so cropped that her breasts are visible. These photos, incidentally, were taken by the bafflingly successful American photographer, Terry Richardson, a man with a penchant for highly sexualised photos of women and who has been repeatedly accused of sexual exploitation and misconduct by young female models, which Richardson has denied.

To complain about the sexualisation of women in men's magazines may seem like complaining about the weather. But as Knowles rightly says in relation to the pay gap, the status quo should not just be shruggingly accepted if it is wrong. I never fail to be amazed at the high profile, often A-list women who celebrate their professional success by posing near naked on the covers of allegedly classy men's magazines, such as Esquire and GQ, and these covers are, to my eyes, becoming increasingly close to porn. In the past four months alone we've had Cameron Diaz bending over in a pair of mesh pants; topless Mila Kunis in leather trousers (while inside she writhes naked on a bed); Rihanna naked save for a mini leather jacket; Lana Del Rey also naked except for some jewellery (that was on GQ's October issue, which had four alternative covers that all featured men. All of these men, funnily enough, were clothed).

It's one thing to submit to this attention-seeking nonsense if you're a C-list reality TV desperado trying to get on the cover of Nuts; it's another if you are professedly one of the most powerful women in the entertainment business who has no need of such tactics. Knowles rightly hates the fact that women are humiliated by being paid less than their male counterparts. But they are similarly humiliated by being fed the message that it doesn't matter how successful, powerful or smart you are – all that matters is how sexually available you are willing to make yourself look.

I should feel happy, I guess, that Knowles is even willing to speak up about equality considering how notoriously few young women in the public eye are willing to identify themselves as feminists. That her Dworkin-ish call to arms comes served up with photos of Knowles jumping on a bed in a bikini, well, that's the deal these days, apparently, in which famous women can sing about "independence" and "girl power", as long as they're wearing next to nothing. As I said, the feminist movement never did run smoothly. But half a century on from Friedan, it should be running better than this.

Hadley Freeman

Hosts Tina Fey and Amy Poehler mock Taylor Swift during Golden Globes - watch

Mon, 14 Jan 2013 11:19:28 +0000

And previous host Ricky Gervais finds himself on the receiving end this year...

Adele Wins Golden Globe Award for "Skyfall"

Mon, 14 Jan 2013 08:08:53 +0000

In addition to a slew of Grammys, insanely successful British belter Adele now has yet another award to add to her mantelpiece: a Golden Globe Award. The vocalist took home the prize for Best Original Song for her track "Skyfall" from the recent James Bond film of the same name. The song was co-written with producer Paul Epworth. Watch Adele's acceptance speech below. Adele beat out nominees Keith Urban ("For You" from Act of Valor), Jon Bon Jovi ("Not Running Anymore" from Stand Up Guys), Taylor Swift with the Civil Wars ("Safe & Sound" from The Hunger Games),...Read More

Golden Globes 2013: Taylor Swift And More Best Dressed!

Mon, 14 Jan 2013 05:31:06 +0000

Lucy Liu tops our list, with Emily Blunt and Jennifer Lawrence also in contention.
By Maud Deitch

Taylor Swift on the 2013 Golden Globes red carpet
Photo: Christopher Polk/NBC

Stevie Nicks: the return of Fleetwood Mac

Sat, 12 Jan 2013 23:48:00 +0000

Stevie Nicks's tumultuous life as a rock queen led her to addiction, heartbreak and "insanity". As Fleetwood Mac reunite, she tells Caspar Llewellyn Smith why she's going back for more

Before I meet Stevie Nicks, I hear her. She is downstairs somewhere in the house she's renting on the beach in Malibu – a short drive, traffic allowing, up the Californian coastline from the two homes she owns in LA – and looking for her dark glasses. It's early evening in December and has long since turned dark outside, but if you're the ultimate rock goddess – NME's recent description, testament to an ongoing revaluation of interest in Fleetwood Mac among the younger generation – wearing shades at night goes with the territory.

Scented candles are spaced throughout the room and there's a well-thumbed copy of the first book in The Twilight Saga on a side table – signs that suggest that the 64-year-old singer is comfortably in residence. Plus there's her Yorkshire terrier, getting stuck continuously under my feet. But, as Nicks says, when all five feet one-and-a-half inches of her does emerge at the top of the stairs, she can't seem to settle.

In fact she shouldn't be here at all (and wasn't planning any interviews), but on holiday in the Florida Keys she was getting bitten to death by bugs and, besides, felt bored. Going home to either of her places in the city wasn't an option because right now she's "making a molecular change": parking her solo career, which saw her tour the world with her solo album In Your Dreams for the past two years, and getting ready for the return of the Mac.

Instead she asked to see if this place, which she'd rented previously, was available. "I'm trying to rest and it's really hard to rest because in either one of my own houses I feel like I should be working," she explains. "I've been coming here off and on for nearly 10 years and there's absolutely nothing for me to do except draw or sit and write poetry or bring the electric piano down." Problem is, "I've been here since Tuesday and I haven't managed yet to actually come up here at three in the afternoon and go sit on that miserable couch and draw for a few hours – because that's when I know I've made a change."

Despite the homely touches, the house looks perfectly nondescript from the outside, and it's modestly apportioned by the standards of LA rock aristocracy. But then Nicks doesn't play the diva either – kooky fan of fantasy, yes (her fondness for the oeuvre of Stephenie Meyer and liking for US fantasy TV series Game of Thrones fits right into that), but not the figure who insisted during Fleetwood Mac's Tusk tour that every hotel room she stayed in be painted pink and must house a white piano.

It is now 40 years since her first album, Buckingham Nicks – the fruit of her relationship, both musical and romantic, with Lindsey Buckingham – and life is coming full circle. Later this month, the most classic of all Fleetwood Mac albums, Rumours, gets the full reissue treatment, and the band will hit the road again for a US tour that will also likely come to Europe. (Of the rumours that they'll headline Glastonbury, Nicks is noncommittal, though she does say she'd love to do it.)

There is also the likelihood of the first new Fleetwood Mac record in 10 years – and even the prospect of a second Buckingham-Nicks album. For fans, this news is as exciting as it might sound improbable. Nicks once said herself that "to be in Fleetwood Mac is to live in a soap opera. And it has been pretty scandalous and incestuous…" And of all relationships, it's been that between her and Buckingham that has provided the richest story lines of all.

Born in ARIZONA, Nicks was in her senior year in high school in San Francisco when she first met the budding athlete a year younger than her. She already knew she wanted to be a songwriter – "I told my parents when I was 15 and a half" – and he was in the folk group Fritz that she then joined before they formed a duo. For their debut album sleeve he insisted she pose topless (half hidden behind him), even though she was in tears and told him: "This is not art… this is taking a nude photograph with you, and I don't dig it."

On New Year's Eve 1974, the pair joined Fleetwood Mac at the invitation of Mick Fleetwood, following the departure of late guitarist Bob Welch. The group's history was tortuous already, and the new arrivals introduced a new dynamic, with Nicks dressed in flowing chiffon and channelling the spirit of the "old Welsh witch" (her phrase) in her hit "Rhiannon". But the album on which that song appeared, the eponymous Fleetwood Mac, proved the band's breakthrough, hitting No 1 in the US and selling over 5m copies.

The recording of its follow-up, Rumours, saw the soap opera at its most lurid: Fleetwood had discovered that his wife was having an affair with his best friend; bassist John McVie and keyboard player and singer Christine McVie had split up after eight years of marriage, and Nicks and Buckingham's relationship kept hitting the rocks – all this played out in a blizzard of cocaine. "Christine and I refused to be the second-class citizens," says Nicks of the prosaic business of actually making the record. "But it was different for her, because she was one of the musicians – absolutely as big an influence as Lindsey or John or Mick; the four pieces were equal. I'd sit around and crochet or draw while they were out there working stuff out. And that's fine, because I wanted to be a lead singer – I didn't really want to carry around a 21lb Les Paul."

She is modest about her own songwriting abilities. Nicks contributed "Dreams" to Rumours (an upbeat song about splitting up directed at Buckingham), which became the group's only US No 1 hit single, while Buckingham was responsible for the evergreen "Go Your Own Way" (a venomous kiss-off directed back at her), but she insists that "Christine wrote most of the hits for the group – she was the major pop songwriter, not Lindsey or me."

"It's hard to do that," she continues. "I can't sit down and write a hit single and plan it, and no amount of listening to other people's records or music is going to make you a different songwriter." She's a fan of Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe "– "I walk around singing it all the time" – and would love to emulate it, but "I don't think that's really ever going to happen because I'm more Wuthering Heights, and Heathcliffe and Edward and Bella" – the characters from Twilight – "I'm more serious, dramatic… Shakespearean."

Nicks always thought she was supposed to be the person in the band who "spreads a little fairy dust here and there", and it was a painfully literal interpretation of that role that saw her succumb to addiction in the years that followed the huge success of Rumours and subsequent albums, such as Tusk. In 1986 she was admitted to the Betty Ford Clinic because of her coke habit, but then became hooked on the prescribed tranquilliser Klonopin for a further eight years. She had entered into a relationship with the Eagles' Don Henley and then dated Mick Fleetwood before briefly marrying Kim Anderson in 1983, the widowed husband of her close friend Robin Anderson, who had died of leukaemia – an episode she has subsequently described as "insanity".

Now clean and sober, she also insists that she is happily single, but until not so very long ago the flame she carried for Buckingham still burned. There is, for instance, a song on In Your Dreams called "Everybody Loves You", co-written by her collaborator on the album Dave Stewart but based on one of 40 poems in her journals that she concedes is about Buckingham. "No one really knows you," Nicks sings. "I'm the only one." To one interviewer at the time the album was released she said she only admitted that their love affair was over when he had his first child with future wife Kristen Messner in 1998.

In February last year, Buckingham, Fleetwood and John McVie went into the studio to record a handful of new songs, but Nicks was in mourning for her 84-year-old mother Barbara, who died after a battle with pneumonia in late December 2011. "I couldn't do anything – I didn't leave my house, I didn't even talk to my really good friends," she says now. "I just went underground to try to deal with the fact that she wasn't supposed to go… she had emphysema after smoking for 60 years, but we all totally thought she was going to pull through. It was like: 'What? Did that really just happen?'"

In her absence from the studio, Buckingham said he'd try to look at things through her eyes – "and I said: 'Well, you probably can do that, Lindsey, you certainly know me well enough"' – then when she did make it there, there were two new songs waiting for her. "I put vocals on them and they came out great. And they really do sound like I was there." The result is likely to be a new Fleetwood Mac album at some point this year, but perhaps after that also a Buckingham Nicks record, because the pair also recorded an old song that was originally intended for their 1973 debut. "For some reason it just got swept under the carpet. I mean, maybe it was going to be track one on our second album, which we were actually making when we joined Fleetwood Mac."

Nicks isn't sure exactly how all this new material will manifest itself. "I don't know – I don't have a computer, I'm not on the internet, so I don't know how exactly the record company will decide on what to do," she says, slightly bafflingly. "But we do have product."

More important than this, though, was that Buckingham and Nicks were able to relax in each other's company. "We spent 80% of our time talking just like this, telling my assistant Karen all the crazy stories of everything that's happened to us from 1966 until now. We laughed and we laughed – and we probably cried a couple of times. It was very cathartic. And I think that we came a long way during those four days."

The result is that the band promise they won't just be going through the motions when they hit the road this year – unlike last time around. "I'm thinking," Nicks says, "that this is going to be a very different tour. The audience is going to see a very different Fleetwood Mac up there – we talked about how we really need to appreciate what we have and who we are and how far we've come. I said to Lindsey: 'I wish your mom and dad were still alive – they'd be just like: Way to go, Lindsey Buckingham! Boy, damn we're glad you dropped out of swimming – you know, he could have been a famous swimmer – We're so glad you stopped and went for rock'n'roll.'"

For sentimental fans, the highlight of any Fleetwood Mac show is still that point at which Buckingham and Nicks join hands together on stage: it's a very human moment, one that rekindles a sense of what's been and might be yet for all parties involved. Or as Nicks herself puts it: "People love to see people in love. Not that we're in love, but we have been in love and we have that on stage. And if we're getting along and we're happy with each other, that part comes out.

"I think we've got to a place now where we're both: 'Why not? Why can't we be those two people on stage?' It doesn't carry on after you walk down the stairs and go back to your hotels and rooms, it's never going to carry past that. But what it does do is allow you to walk up on stage and be dramatic with each other. And we have walked up on stage and been absolutely the other side of dramatic – we have been like waiting-for-a-bus undramatic. Like, you know: 'Lindsey, what am I going to get for room service later? I think I'm going to get a grilled cheese sandwich and some tomato soup.' Because that's what happens in bands if you're not happy. This is not going to be that tour."

If there is one regret, it's that Chris McVie won't be with the band, after quitting in 1998. "We all did everything we could do to try and talk her out of it," Nicks says, "but you look in someone's eyes and you can tell they're finished. It's like when somebody breaks up with you and says: 'We're done.'" Or, she helpfully points out: "As Taylor Swift would say: 'We are never ever getting back together ever!' That's what Chris was saying… But I'd beg, borrow and scrape together $5m and give it to her in cash if she would come back. That's how much I miss her.

"I miss her," she adds, "like flowers need the rain."

She might be dressed down and not wearing any make-up (the candlelight and shades help, she says), but Nicks is still a compelling presence. In an age of identikit pop stars, it's easy to see why artists such as Florence Welch idolise her. The odds of Nicks surviving might have been stacked against her, but she's where she is now to work, and there's no sign of stopping.

"I don't know how to explain it," she says, smiling in the half-light, "other than to say that you know when you're done."

Expanded and deluxe versions of Rumours are released through Rhino on 28 January. Warner Bros Records helped to pay for Caspar Llewellyn Smith's travel to Los Angeles

Caspar Llewellyn Smith

Harry Styles Partying It Up After Split With Taylor Swift

Sat, 12 Jan 2013 19:34:56 +0000

It’s only been a few days since Harry Styles and Taylor Swift’s out-of-the-blue breakup and speculation has been flying about the reasons behind...

Taylor Swift pens five tracks about Harry Styles

Sat, 12 Jan 2013 15:00:05 +0000

Taylor Swift has allegedly penned five news songs about Harry Styles.Despite the 'I Knew You Were Trouble' hitmaker only splitting from the One...

Newly Single Taylor Swift Shines At People's Choice Awards

Sat, 12 Jan 2013 12:52:43 +0000

The 2013 People’s Choice Awards Ceremony took place in Los Angeles earlier this week, and the numerous categories of awards held few surprises this...

Taylor Swift Stars In The New Promo For The Grammys

Fri, 11 Jan 2013 23:58:15 +0000

The first promotional clip for the upcoming Grammy Awards has been released via ETOnline, with country-pop starlet Taylor Swift taking a staring role...

What Will Harry Styles Do With All His Free Time After Taylor Swift Break-up?

Fri, 11 Jan 2013 23:03:39 +0000

They dated for little over two months, but in that time Harry Styles and Taylor Swift managed to spend every waking second in one another's company,...

Taylor Swift's Best Breakup Songs: Is Harry Styles Next?

Fri, 11 Jan 2013 21:52:08 +0000

Swift hits the studio following her split with Styles ... is a breakup track in the works?
By James Montgomery

Taylor Swift
Photo: Getty Images

Taylor Swift Returns To The Studio, Loves Antiques Too Much: The Last 24 Hours Of #Haylor News

Fri, 11 Jan 2013 15:07:58 +0000

Well, that was fast, wasn’t it? According to a tweet last night, Taylor Swift has already returned to the studio to write her latest blistering break-up anthem, this time about her break-up with Harry Styles. (Unless we missed one, which is possible.) But that’s not all we’ve missed in the last day of Swift news — no, the ... More »

Taylor Swift and Harry Styles: a fine romance, but now it's over

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 18:05:57 +0000

She was a Disney princess, he was a boy-band singer, theirs was a love like no other

"1776 will commence again!" screeched the entirely sane and reasonable US gun lover Alex Jones this week (it's always reassuring to meet these faces of the US gun industry. Just the sort of people who should be fully armed). Jones was, of course, right – 1776 may well commence again because US/UK relations reached an all-time low this week: American Disney princess Taylor Swift and Britain's answer to Benjamin Braddock, Harry Styles, are, tragically, no longer together. Let us look back on their relationship in soft-focus, montage-style, while a bit of Chicago plays on the soundtrack … It was inevitable Styles and Swift would get together seeing as, between them, they have allegedly dated every single person on the planet. That this relationship happened to bookend Swift releasing an album and One Direction announcing a tour is just one of those coincidences that often accompanies celebrity relationships. OK, some of their dates might have had the suspicious smack of PR exercises, such as an excursion to The World of Beatrix Potter in Bowness-on-Windermere and a very intimate date to Times Square on New Year's Eve, a place no sober person has ever ventured.

But only a cynic would suggest that a relationship between a reality-TV boy-band member and a country and western singer was anything but true love in our time. And so, we mourn it with due respect.

Hadley Freeman

An open letter to Baby Kimye: let me show you the world you're set to enter

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 17:32:00 +0000

As Kim Kardashian and Kanye West's baby, you will have your parents to look up to, of course, but please don't forget your wider family

First, baby-to-be of Kim Kardashian and Kanye West, I hope you appreciate the honour of having this article written to you in open letter form. The open letter is a crucial part of the British journalist's arsenal, only deployed in the most arrogant of tones and for the most important of issues, such as when a journalist does not like a director's recent film or when the journalist is concerned about Kate Middleton's diet. So feel the validation here, Baby Kimye.

Your happy parents have not announced your name yet but you and I both know it will almost certainly be Kimye, not least because it begins with that all important "K", a letter currently being held hostage by your mother's family. (And speaking of which, Kimye, when you have a chance, could you ask your mother and aunts why they named their clothing line "Dash" when it clearly should be "Kash"? It's a point that has long niggled me. Thanks.) Some might raise their eyebrows at the possibility of parents naming their child after their collective and combined celebrity moniker, bestowed upon them by the tabloid press. But I have long made a study of your parents – your father in particular, for whom I have a deep if, admittedly, increasingly indefensible love – and I have their measure.

Your father, for example, once wrote a wrenching ballad about his inability to stop emailing photos of his penis to random women (don't worry, Baby Kimye, I have already set up therapy sessions for you, five times a week, starting from the age of two months). Your mother – a woman who is famous for making a sex tape and for having a father who defended OJ Simpson – recently had her backside x-rayed on TV to prove that she does not possess something called "butt implants".

Your aunt Kourtney gave birth on TV by reaching between her legs and pulling out her own child in pretty much full view of the cameras. You, dear Baby Kimye, you come from lineage of such self-regarding narcissists that they give themselves public colonoscopies. To name their child after their own nickname in the tabloids would be, for them, an act of relative selflessness, seeing as it involves thinking about someone other than themselves for two seconds.

And so, as a longtime observer of your parents, Kimye, I would like to offer my services up as your honorary aunt. True, my name is perversely bereft of the letter K, but feel free to call me Kadley if that feels more comfortable on your Kardashian carved (karved) tongue. Take my hand, little Kimye, and I shall explain to you what to expect from your world.

One of the more endearing tabloid fairy stories about your family has been that your maternal grandmother Kris Jenner and your father Kanye are "at war" because Kanye is trying to make his girlfriend a bit "classier" and wants to keep his baby "out of the limelight". Clearly the scribes of these stories have not spent much time with Kanye, a man whose only regret about having photos of his penis leaked on to the web was that not all of his penis was in the shot. So when it was announced this week that, yes, Baby Kimye, your gestation and maybe even birth will be documented on the televisual lobotomy that is Keeping Up With the Kardashians, the earth remained unshaken. President of the E! channel, Suzanne Kolb, cackled over the prospect of seeing all the "fabulous baby wear", before returning to her underground lair where she continued to plot the demise of western civilisation. So, as you're preparing to emerge into the world, Kimye, don't be scared by the bright light at the end of the tunnel. It's not God – it's just the lighting man from E! who's getting a gyno-shot on your mother.

According to reports, your parents have already bought an $11m house in which you will be raised, and your mother is "obsessed with Kate Middleton" (as if that poor woman has not had a hard enough pregnancy already) and plans to copy Wills and Kate's nursery. When it comes to your parents, Kimye, I often suspect that tabloid reports of their expenditure are probably underestimated. Because, Kimye, you are no mere baby. You are the climactic epitome of all that US culture has been headed towards for the past 20 years, combining as you do reality TV, musical talent, fame with no talent, famous for being famous, celebrity, the debasing of hip-hop, a bottomless need for attention, dick pics, sex tapes, hip hop, bad fashion, Twitter, Instagram, tmz.com, the E! channel and OJ Simpson. You are America's Golden Child, Kimye. We bow before you.

Yours,

Lost in Showbiz

Hadley Freeman

Taylor Swift Gets Interrupted (Again) At 2013 People's Choice Awards

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 11:53:07 +0000

MTV News compiles our seven favorite moments from Wednesday night.
By Emilee Lindner

Taylor Swift and Olivia Munn onstage at the 2013 People's Choice Awards
Photo: Getty Images

Rihanna to perform at Grammys

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 10:57:48 +0000

Along with Rihanna, Mumford & Sons, Taylor Swift and The Black Keys will all take to the stage.

People's Choice Awards 2013: The Complete Winners List

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 04:52:07 +0000

Fans chose 'Hunger Games' and Katy Perry to sweep multiple categories.
By MTV News staff

Taylor Swift accepts the Favorite Country Artist award at the 2013 People's Choice Awards
Photo: Jeff Kravitz

People’s Choice Awards 2013: Taylor Swift Wears A White Hot Gown

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 02:21:02 +0000

Taylor Swift was certainly out to make jaws drop at the 2013 People’s Choice Awards. The newly-single songbird arrived at Nokia Theatre L.A. Live on Wednesday night (January 9) in a white gown with a plunging neckline that was clearly saying, “Eat your heart out, Harry Styles“. The dress is a complete 180 from the ... More »

Taylor Swift, Harry Styles Breakup: Which Direction Are Fans Leaning?

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 22:36:39 +0000

Swifties and Directioners weigh in on supposed split between Swift and the One Direction heartthrob.
By Christina Garibaldi

Harry Styles and Taylor Swift at the Central Park Zoo
Photo: Splash News

‘Les Miserables’ Soundtrack Takes Center Stage On The Album Chart

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 21:17:39 +0000

It took an all-star cast with the likes of Anne Hathaway, Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe and Amanda Seyfried to topple Taylor Swift‘s mighty Red on the album chart. The “I Knew You Were Trouble” country-pop singer slides down to #3 on Billboard‘s Top 200 after six non-consecutive weeks on top, and is replaced by the ... More »

After Taylor Swift Splits with Harry Styles, He's Already Got a New, Much Older, Girl?

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 20:33:32 +0000

Taylor Swift and Harry Styles seemed like one of the best couples to come out of pop-music since Justin and Britney, but it seems their good luck and...

55th Annual Grammy Awards With Chalk and Cheese, Rihanna and Taylor Swift

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 20:05:51 +0000

Rihanna and Taylor Swift are, at a first glance, polar opposite women and performers. Swift is a sweeter than sweet country singer, while Rihanna is...

'Les Miserables' Soundtrack Tops Charts, Edging Out Mumford & Sons

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 17:40:04 +0000

Slow holiday weekend finds Taylor Swift, One Direction and Phillip Phillips rounding out top 5.
By Gil Kaufman

Anne Hathaway in "Les Miserables"
Photo: Universal Pictures

A Week In News: Styles Splits, George Puts A Ring On It and Kim And Kanye Buy Big

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 17:23:40 +0000

Wrong Direction: It's been a rough week for Harry Styles and Taylor Swift, the pair going their separate ways after a brief relationship. Of course,...

One Direction Sign New Three-Year Contract, Ensuring Band Doesn’t Split Up: Report

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 17:18:34 +0000

It’s been a time of deep soul-searching for all of us in the days since news broke of Taylor Swift and Harry Styles‘ split — taking long walks and reflecting on how quickly things can change, ruefully considering the ephemerality of little joys, wondering how the people you love can transform into strangers overnight. No? Oh, okay, ... More »

Weighty Line-Up Announced For The Grammys; Rihanna, Taylor Swift and Fun Set To Play

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 17:11:24 +0000

To say that the Grammys have attracted a star-studded line-up is a bit like saying there might be a couple of handy actors knocking around the Oscars...

Rihanna, Taylor Swift To Perform At The Grammys

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 15:19:38 +0000

Fun., Black Keys and Mumford & Sons will also play on the February 10 show.
By Gil Kaufman

Rihanna
Photo: Dave J. Hogan/ Getty Images

Grammy Awards 2013: Rihanna, Taylor Swift, Fun. & Mumford & Sons Set To Perform

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 14:34:49 +0000

Man, the 2013 Grammy Awards are still a month away and there’s already plenty of drama, isn’t there? There was everyone complaining about who got nominated and who got snubbed, and people tweeting angry things, and now the first set of performances have been announced, and yikes! They’re going H.A.M. with the talent this year. ... More »

Harry Styles comforted by reality star

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 02:00:00 +0000

Harry Styles was comforted by another girl just hours after being dumped by Taylor Swift.The One Direction star - who was dumped by the 'Trouble'...

Have Taylor Swift And Harry Styles Broken Up? Not So Fast.

Tue, 08 Jan 2013 22:48:32 +0000

After Haylor breakup rumors hit the Net, we take a closer look at the reports and that now-infamous boat picture.
By MTV News staff

Taylor Swift and Harry Styles in New York in December
Photo: Splash News

Taylor Swift Splits With Harry Styles: Was He Trouble and Did She Know It?

Tue, 08 Jan 2013 20:29:26 +0000

Taylor Swift splits with Harry Styles after enormous row on vacation, according to People Magazine.The pair were together for just 65 days, spending...

Taylor Swift won't take Harry Styles back

Tue, 08 Jan 2013 20:00:15 +0000

Taylor Swift insists she won't reconcile with Harry Styles.The 'We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together' singer - who is ''miserable'' after she...

Taylor Swift And Harry Styles Split - Report

Tue, 08 Jan 2013 19:11:10 +0000

Taylor Swift's Love Story with One Direction star Harry Styles didn't have a fairytale ending - the pair has called it quits, according to multiple...

David Bowie's comeback single rockets to Number One on iTunes

Tue, 08 Jan 2013 14:57:46 +0000

'Where Are We Now?' overtakes hits by Rihanna and Taylor Swift on its day of release

Is Justin Bieber Going To Host ‘Saturday Night Live’?: Morning Mix

Tue, 08 Jan 2013 13:00:22 +0000

UPDATE: He is! Did You Hear? :: Justin Bieber on Monday (January 7) cryptically tweeted: “maybe im hosting and performing on SNL…maybe. :)” Perhaps he was inspired by Bruno Mars‘ recent double shift on the sketch show. [Twitter] :: And so it begins: #Haylor is rumored to be on the outs. Taylor Swift and Harry Styles vacationed ... More »

Lang Lang to Taylor Swift: the week in music – in pictures

Sun, 06 Jan 2013 19:03:50 +0000

What's been going on in music this week, including rocking new year performances from some of the biggest stars in pop

Taylor Swift's dad warns Harry Styles

Sun, 06 Jan 2013 11:00:10 +0000

Taylor Swift's father has warned her boyfriend Harry Styles not to break his daughter's heart. Scott Kingsley Swift wants the couple to ''slow down''...

Eddie Redmayne denies ever dating Taylor Swift

Sat, 05 Jan 2013 17:00:03 +0000

Eddie Redmayne has slammed the rumour he dated Taylor Swift as ''absolute nonsense''.The 23-year-old actor was linked to the 'Red' hitmaker last year...

Harry Styles and Taylor Swift's Caribbean vacation

Fri, 04 Jan 2013 20:08:58 +0000

Harry Styles and Taylor Swift are vacationing in the Caribbean.The One Direction hunk and the 'We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together' singer - who...

Adele sells most albums in the US … again!

Fri, 04 Jan 2013 13:05:25 +0000

Tottenham's finest becomes first recording artist since Michael Jackson to top US album sales charts in consecutive years

For the second year in a row, Adele's 21 was the bestselling album in the US. The English singer has become the first artist since Michael Jackson to produce a record topping the sales charts in both the year of release and the year following.

According to Nielsen SoundScan, 21 sold 4.41m copies in 2012 – just 25% less than the year before, when XL/Columbia moved 5.82m. In fact, 21 hasn't left the weekly top 40 since it debuted, at No1, in March 2011. Adele's success puts the album in a very exclusive club: only three other LPs have scaled comparable heights across two successive years. The feat was last accomplished in 1985, when Jackson issued a little record called Thriller. The previous record holders were soundtracks: West Side Story in 1962/63, and My Fair Lady in 1957/58.

Overall, America's 2012 charts show a major British invasion. Apart from Taylor Swift's Red, which sold 3.11m, all of the top five albums were made by UK acts. One Direction's debut, Up All Night, was the No3 record, selling 1.62m, and their second album, Take Me Home, came in at No5. Mumford & Sons sold 1.46m copies of Babel, making it No4.

On the singles side, Gotye struck gold with his xylophone ditty Somebody That I Used to Know, selling 6.8m copies, almost exclusively digitally. Carly Rae Jepsen's Call Me Maybe rung in at No2, followed by We Are Young, by Fun. All three songs broke the all-time digital record, previously set by Adele's Rolling in the Deep.

As in the UK, there was a dip in overall album sales, from 331m in 2001 to 316m in 2012. But vinyl sales continue to grow year after year, and are up 18% thanks to hits like Jack White's Blunderbuss and the Beatles' reissued Abbey Road. Still, those black lacquer discs form only a tiny part of the pie: less than 2% of all albums sold.

Britain's bestselling album of 2012, Emeli Sandé's Our Version of Events, has never charted in the US.

Sean Michaels

Review: A look at overlooked albums of 2012

Fri, 04 Jan 2013 03:16:04 +0000

While everyone was buzzing about big releases from Frank Ocean, Fiona Apple, Mumford & Sons and Taylor Swift, you might have missed some must-listens. Here's what you should know about, and why:

Taylor Swift Kicks Off 2013 On Top Of The U.s. Charts

Thu, 03 Jan 2013 19:01:12 +0000

Taylor Swift has kicked off 2013 as she ended 2012 - with America's number one album.Red spends a seventh non-consecutive week at the top of the...

Lena Dunham Strikes Up Twitter Friendship With Taylor Swift

Thu, 03 Jan 2013 08:06:14 +0000

Girls star Lena Dunham has struck up a friendship with Taylor Swift over Twitter.com.The actress/writer used the social networking site to express...

Fans Distraught as Taylor Swift and Harry Styles Celebrate New Year With a Kiss

Wed, 02 Jan 2013 20:34:23 +0000

Latest celebrity couple Taylor Swift and Harry Styles celebrated the New Year in style, in New York, and closed off 2012 with a kiss, much to the...

Taylor Swift & Harry Styles Kiss On New Year’s: Watch Their Midnight Smooch

Wed, 02 Jan 2013 18:04:45 +0000

Happy New Year, Directioners! And now, here’s a New Year’s gift for you: A clip of Harry Styles and Taylor Swift in a passionate embrace on December 31 watching the ball drop at midnight, right after Swift finished performing at Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve With Ryan Seacrest. Stars: They’re just like us! They perform in front of thousands of ... More »

Taylor Swift's 'I Knew You Were Trouble' About Harry Styles (We Analyse The Lyrics!)

Wed, 02 Jan 2013 17:20:50 +0000

Taylor Swift's 'I Knew You Were Trouble' was written about her current boyfriend Harry Styles, it has been confirmed by Hollywood Life.com. The song...

Taylor Swift, Harry Styles Kick Off New Year With A Kiss

Wed, 02 Jan 2013 15:02:58 +0000

Haylor ring in 2013 together in Times Square after her performance on 'Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve'
By Jocelyn Vena

Taylor Swift and Harry Styles
Photo: Splash News

Ed Sheeran: All Pluses, No Minuses

Wed, 02 Jan 2013 08:45:00 +0000

After several years spent releasing his own music and booking his own tours, the British singer-songwriter now has a Grammy nomination and an opening spot on Taylor Swift's U.S. tour.

The 13 Most Anticipated Pop Albums Of 2013

Tue, 01 Jan 2013 13:30:18 +0000

2012 was a strange year for pop music. Many of the year’s best albums snuck up on us (Miguel, Frank Ocean, Fiona Apple), pushing aside “event” albums from megastars like Madonna and Christina Aguilera. (Taylor Swift held up her end of the deal, though.) Meanwhile, a handful of singles from virtual nobodies had the whole ... More »

previously unposted pics: Grimes, Wild Nothing, and Diiv

Mon, 31 Dec 2012 21:00:30 +0000

photos by Chris La Putt

every year between Christmas and New Year's, we catch up on unposted stuff. This year is no different...

As you might remember, Grimes headlined a big free outdoor Hudson Park River Rocks show over the summer at Pier 84 with support from Captured Tracks indie rockers Wild Nothing and DIIV. We already posted a set of pictures from that show back in August after the show happened, and we've got a second belated set of pics that are in this post.

Grimes had a pretty amazing year this year (love it or hate it), making a huge leap from being relatively underground to becoming one of the most talked about indie pop successes of the year. We blogged about her a lot, everyone blogged about her a lot, she made a ton of year end lists, and had one of the biggest indie pop songs of the year with "Oblivion" (Pitchfork's number 1 track). Grimes also gave us her own year-end list which included things like Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift, Lana Del Rey, and Swans.

More pics from the Pier 84 show below...

Continue reading "previously unposted pics: Grimes, Wild Nothing, and Diiv" at brooklynvegan

MTV's Best Songs Of 2012 Get An Acoustic Mash-Up By Megan & Liz!

Mon, 31 Dec 2012 16:08:10 +0000

YouTube stars compile medley of Taylor Swift, One Direction, Nicki Minaj, Kanye West and more.
By Cory Midgarden

Megan and Liz
Photo: MTV News

Harry Styles Misses Plane To Meet Lady Love Taylor Swift: Morning Mix

Mon, 31 Dec 2012 13:00:29 +0000

Did You Hear? :: He may be in the hottest band in the world and he may Taylor Swift‘s newest boytoy, but Harry Styles learned the hard way: If you don’t have your passport, you can’t get on a plane. Apparently the One Direction heartthrob was unable to board his Boston-bound flight to see Taylor when ... More »

Forgotten Passport Causes Harry Styles To Miss His Flight

Sun, 30 Dec 2012 17:55:59 +0000

Harry Styles was delayed today and missed his flight to New York to spend time with his girlfriend, Taylor Swift.Say it ain’t so! Perhaps being in...

Harry Styles Misses Flight After Passport Drama

Sun, 30 Dec 2012 14:11:14 +0000

One Direction singer Harry Styles missed his scheduled flight to the U.S. to see rumoured girlfriend Taylor Swift on Friday (28Dec12) because he...

Taylor Swift Getting Broody, Is It Time For Harry To Leave Her Hanging?

Sat, 29 Dec 2012 19:07:00 +0000

Taylor Swift has apparently been scaring the life out of Harry Styles, by talking almost non-stop about babies and becoming a mother with him,...

Pop Star Romance: Selena Gomez and Justin Bieber Hang Out With Pals Taylor Swift and Harry Styles

Sat, 29 Dec 2012 15:18:31 +0000

Teen sensation love is in the air - Selena Gomez and on-again boyfriend Justin Bieber have been enjoying some quality time together over the...

Taylor Swift's alleged intruder has charges dropped

Fri, 28 Dec 2012 16:06:07 +0000

A man arrested for trespassing at Taylor Swift's home has had his charges dropped. Jacob Kulke was caught on the grounds of the 'Red' hitmaker's...

Ed Sheeran: 'I'm Not Taylor Swift's Type'

Fri, 28 Dec 2012 16:01:14 +0000

Ed Sheeran is convinced he had no chance of dating Taylor Swift because he isn't the pop star's "type".The two singers grew close while working on...

ArtsBeat: Swift Holds On to Top Spot in a Big Week for Music Sales

Thu, 27 Dec 2012 22:18:30 +0000

Taylor Swift's album "Red" is No. 1 for a sixth week.

Man Arrested On Taylor Swift's Property Won't Face Charges

Thu, 27 Dec 2012 22:11:16 +0000

Charges against a man arrested for trespassing on country star Taylor Swift's property in Tennessee have been dropped.Jacob Kulke was taken into...

Taylor Swift’s ‘Red’ Stays At #1 Over Christmas, While Everyone Else Is Green With Envy

Thu, 27 Dec 2012 19:05:16 +0000

What do you think Taylor Swift did for Christmas? She probably rolled around in a bathtub full of money while Harry Styles serenaded her with an a capella rendition of “They Don’t Know About Us,” then she wrote a heartbreakingly gorgeous and sad ballad about it, right? And yet, while she was doing that, everyone in America was buying ... More »

Taylor Swift To Ring In 2013 With America's Top Album

Thu, 27 Dec 2012 18:56:12 +0000

Taylor Swift will ring in the New Year on top of the U.S. album charts after securing a sixth week at number one on the Billboard 200.The country...

Taylor Swift Is 2012'S Most Charitable Star

Thu, 27 Dec 2012 08:01:28 +0000

Country star Taylor Swift has been named the Most Charitable Star of 2012.The Love Story hitmaker was handed the title by bosses at Do.Something.org...

Top Songs Of 2012: We Review Each #1 Single…In One Word

Wed, 26 Dec 2012 14:31:59 +0000

When it came to the chart-topping singles of 2012, some artists, like fun., Gotye, Carly Rae Jepsen and Taylor Swift, reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the very first time. Others, like Adele, Kelly Clarkson, Rihanna and Maroon 5, were no strangers to the dizzying highs of the pop chart’s upper tier. Altogether, ... More »

Taylor Swift's Best Ever Gift Was First Guitar

Wed, 26 Dec 2012 07:56:18 +0000

Singer Taylor Swift was given the best Christmas gift ever when her father presented her with the long-lost guitar she first learned to play as a...

So Harry Styles Isn't In A Relationship With Taylor Swift? Star Gets Coy On Red Carpet

Mon, 24 Dec 2012 19:50:44 +0000

We thought we’d finally got it nailed it down, this Harry Styles and Taylor Swift lark. It turns out though that we couldn’t be more wrong, with...

Taylor Swift's sad songs

Mon, 24 Dec 2012 16:16:42 +0000

Taylor Swift's songs are mostly about sadness.The 'We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together' singer revealed she breaks down emotions when writing her...

Taylor Swift and Harry Styles' hot tub date

Sun, 23 Dec 2012 20:00:07 +0000

Taylor Swift and Harry Styles have been enjoying the hot tub at their ski resort.The One Direction heartthrob and the 'Love Story' singer are on a...

The Jet Setting Continues for Taylor Swift and Harry Styles

Sun, 23 Dec 2012 15:00:43 +0000

Last week Harry Styles and Taylor Swift were touring England, now they’re getting back to Taylor’s roots stateside, as the couple prepares to...

Harry Styles and Taylor Swift hit the slopes

Sat, 22 Dec 2012 17:51:08 +0000

Harry Styles and Taylor Swift have jetted off on a romantic ski holiday.The 18-year-old One Direction star and the 23-year-old country singer - who...

Harry Styles joining Taylor Swift on festive break

Sat, 22 Dec 2012 06:00:00 +0000

Harry Styles wants to join Taylor Swift in Australia over the festive season.The 18-year-old One Direction star - who went public with his romance...

Jon Caramanica’s Top 10 Albums of 2012

Fri, 21 Dec 2012 21:23:03 +0000

The top pop albums include Emeli Sandé’s “Our Version of Events,” Taylor Swift’s “Red,” Waxahatchee’s “American Weekend” and Frank Ocean’s “Channel Orange.”

The 5 Best Videos Of the Week

Fri, 21 Dec 2012 18:53:36 +0000

People don’t tend to save their best music videos, so this is a thinner list than most. But if the world does end today, at least you won’t die before watching Taylor Swift’s version of a Lana Del Rey video. Because that’s what Stereogum’s readership wants, right? T-Swizzy doing LDR? Check out our picks below. [...]

Taylor Swift believes in Santa

Fri, 21 Dec 2012 17:51:08 +0000

Taylor Swift believes in Santa Claus.The 23-year-old singer - who is dating One Direction hunk Harry Styles - thinks people won't receive gifts if...

New band of the day - Njomza (No 1,421)

Fri, 21 Dec 2012 15:51:00 +0000

Chicago signee to Mac Miller's label makes purple-drank R&B ballad of the season

Reading on mobile? Listen here

Hometown: Chicago.

The lineup: Njomza (vocals).

The background: We thought it made sense to end the year at New Band of the Day with a record that sums up everything we've liked over the last 12 months. Njomza's High is a ballad that could if you gave it a cursory listen be described as "smooth" or "chilled". Closer inspection reveals it to be part of that new wave of slow-motion, chopped and screwed soul that suggests a torpor that comes from the imbibing of certain medicinal opiates. It is a thing of intoxicating beauty, not to mention a showcase for the sort of studio-perfected Auto-Tuned vocals that flip the bird to the Autocue reality TV brigade with their "authentic" shrieking. The lyrics that allude teasingly to sex are classic quiet storm/slow jam tropes while the purple production, courtesy of Mr Music, all dank spaces evoking sad isolation, percussive detonations and chipmunk squeaks, are pure Drake/Weeknd. High is one of the best examples of its enervated R&B kind since Syd tha Kyd went AWOL from Odd Future to make Flashlight.

Only 18, Njomza (pronounced "Nee-yom-za" – it means "youth" in Albanian, apparently) has just signed to rapper Mac Miller's Most Dope label and High is her first release, lifted from her imminent mixtape, Gold Lion. There are other tracks by her, here and there, online, such as her demo Hello May that she worked on with her producer friend Jonny Mendez, which sounds less hazy and queasy and suggests Njomza has one eye on a more conventional entertainment career – it's like a Taylor Swift song with eerie, spacey production. There's a track called Someone Like You that sounds less like Adele's song than it does the Weeknd's Rolling Stone. Whatever, it's gorgeous. Elsewhere there is a feature on a Banks tune called Take Me and a YouTube cover of Drake's Take Care ft Rihanna that had most viewers contemplating her cleavage when really they should have been focusing on her vocals and her general aesthetic, which posits Njomza as a post-Brainfeeder balladeer, Miley Cyrus meets Flying Lotus. And you can quote us on that, or put it on your mixtape.

The buzz: "High is replete with sexy, gorgeous melodies and has a trippy, purp-drank instrumental."

The truth: High will make you giddy.

Most likely to: Duet with Syd tha Kyd.

Least likely to: Duet with Sid the Sexist.

What to buy: The Gold Lion EP is released in the New Year.

File next to: Syd tha Kyd, Adele, the Weeknd, Miley Cyrus.

Links: facebook.com/NJOMZAmusic.

Paul Lester

One Direction, Rihanna, Taylor Swift, Frank Ocean Make ‘Forbes’ 30 Under 30 List

Fri, 21 Dec 2012 15:44:47 +0000

The list-mongers over at Forbes have unleashed one more list of rich people before the year ends, this one their “30 Under 30″ roundup comprising 15 lists of 30, which is, like, so many rich people. The music category is filled with just about every big name in pop right now, and it’s frightening to ... More »

Harry Styles Ditches Shopping With The Boys For A Night With Taylor Swift

Fri, 21 Dec 2012 00:22:10 +0000

Harry Styles might be getting on his One Direction band mate's nerves, but he's certainly got a legitimate reason, as he continues to spend time with...

Harry Styles growing tired of attention

Thu, 20 Dec 2012 23:00:20 +0000

Harry Styles is reportedly worried his romance with Taylor Swift is moving too quickly.The One Direction singer - who stayed with the 'We Are Never...

Who will win Lost in Showbiz's awards for 2012?

Thu, 20 Dec 2012 19:20:01 +0000

Ant and Dec, Pudsey the Dancing Dog, Taylor Swift and Harry Styles – the celebrities line up for the inaugural LiS awards

Boldest rebranding exercise

It was in early September that Lost in Showbiz's very world was rocked by an article headlined "Hello! says farewell to celebrity". In it, LiS's esteemed colleague Roy Greenslade reported the words of Hello!'s publishing director Charlotte Stockting as she spoke of "a move away from the celebrity sector and its obsession with made-up stories [and] scurrilous gossip … this is a fundamental, important and strategic shift to the placement of Hello! magazine in the minds of our many publics". You could barely hear her words over the braying laughter of those claiming such a radical reinvention would never work in the current punishing economic climate.

What, they asked, would their many publics make of Hello!'s new direction, which, as far as could be gathered from Stockting's statement, was now going to consist of hard-hitting global news reports, in-depth examinations of the philosophical questions raised by bio-ethics, interviews with Terry Eagleton marking a decade from the publication of After Theory etc?

Four months on, the answer stares proudly out from the shelves. Hello!'s fundamental, important and strategic shift is complete, the celebrity sector abandoned in favour of stories and issues that put clear blue water between it and its competitors. On the cover: Rod and Penny: The Romantic Secret at the Heart of their Christmas; Drew Barrymore Tells Us How She's Loving Motherhood. Inside: "We catch up with Ant and Dec, Pudsey the Dancing Dog and Rufus Sewell." Lost in Showbiz finds itself Lost in Admiration: would that others would follow Hello!'s brave and radical lead.

Greatest celebrity autobiography

And so to a category in which we have a surprise winner. Lost in Showbiz understands why there are those among you who felt confident that Alex James's All Cheeses Great and Small would run away with this prize. Will anyone who read it forget its deep wisdom regarding the arcana of rural life, stuff no city-dweller would otherwise understand – "[trees] are a huge part of life in the country" – and James's exemplary empathy with the variety of human life he found in his new surroundings: "I was surprised how much I liked most of the people who lived nearby. Not just the nobs and the billionaires. We took on two gipsies from the trailer park as cleaners and they fascinated me. The younger one was very pretty."

And yet, when it came down to it, Lost in Showbiz felt its head being turned towards the literary debut of boyband JLS. Here, it felt, was a book that truly offered a combination of eye-popping, no-holds-barred exposé and insight into the mysterious creative process of great artists, as evidenced by the following passage, in which Oritsé explains the moment where the muse laid its hand upon his fevered brow in the middle of a live performance. "I let out a spontaneous vocal. If the magic hits me, I let it happen, so I went with the moment. Usually I sing: 'Put your hands up, up, love, up.' Instead I sang: 'Put your hands up, everybody, love, yes, yeah.'" Readers reeling from this revelation might be mollified by the news that they weren't the only ones. "Aston," he adds, "looked at me as if he couldn't believe it."

Best seduction technique

You will, of course, doubtless be aware of the multitude of sexual triumphs enjoyed this year by Harry Styles, One Direction vocalist and connoisseur of the more mature lady. But it isn't so much the frequency of his successes that impresses LiS – that, surely, comes with the territory of being a handsome young gentleman in a wildly successful pop group – but the occasional insights into the methods he employs to win over a lady offered up by the celebrity press.

LiS first became intrigued when it learned he had won over an American singer called Lily Halpern by the simple expedient of inviting her back to his hotel room to watch a film. Not just any film, of course, but one carefully selected in order to create a mood of ineffable romantic yearning in the midst of which a lady might be given to yield her all: Disney's Flubber, the 1997 remake of The Nutty Professor starring Robin Williams.

Its interest was piqued further with the news that he had taken his latest amorata, multi-millionaire US singer Taylor Swift, on a romantic date to The World of Beatrix Potter Attraction in Bowness-on-Windemere, not least because LiS has first-hand experience of The World of Beatrix Potter Attraction in Bowness-on-Windemere. A visit there provided the absolute low point of a rain-lashed week it spent in the Lake District two years ago: no mean feat considering that said rain-lashed week also included an incident in which one of Lost in Showbiz's children knocked a cup of scalding hot chocolate on to Lost In Showbiz's crotch, and an excursion to the Keswick Pencil Museum, which brought about a temporary, but nonetheless terrifying collapse of the will to live.

News of Styles and Swift's visit there brought back memories of LiS's eldest daughter, then barely three, walking around the creepy animatronic recreations of Peter Rabbit and Flopsy Bunny while an apparently interminable soundtrack of twee flute music burbled over the PA, wearing an expression which seemed to say: "Christ alive, what is this bullshit?" It found itself filled with a deep and profound respect for Harry Styles: any man who takes a lady on a date to The World of Beatrix Potter Attraction without said lady running screaming from the building to the nearest airport is clearly possessed of almost superhuman levels of charm and magnetism.

Most malign musical influence

Here, alas, we must stay with Harry Styles and Taylor Swift. "Fans on Twitter have dubbed his American girlfriend Yoko Ono," reported Star magazine, adding that Yoko Ono was "the name of John Lennon's girlfriend blamed for the Beatles' split", presumably for the benefit of any readers who thought they meant Yoko Ono the deep-sea trawlerman, or Yoko Ono who works in Hounslow Primark.

LiS must confess it struggles a little to see the similarity between Yoko Ono – the conceptual and performance artist and sometime member of Fluxus who was alleged to have drawn Lennon away from his fellow Fabs by introducing him to an appealing world of avant-garde art, music and film-making – and Taylor Swift, who is alleged to have caused a rift within One Direction by lending Styles her private jet. But it's prepared to go with its old friend A Source, who said: "It's really not far off from the Yoko situation." As such, it looks forward to Styles and Swift's equivalent of Lennon and Ono's album Two Virgins – recorded in one night while both parties were tripping on LSD, with a full-frontal naked photo of the pair on the sleeve – Styles and Swift's equivalent of the Lennon-Ono film Self Portrait, which featured Lennon's naked penis in various stages of tumescence for 40 minutes – and, indeed, Styles and Swift retiring to a hotel suite to stage a lengthy Bed-in For Peace, possibly while watching Disney's Flubber.

Most berserk celebrity residence

When LiS read the news of John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John's Christmas reunion single I Think You Might Like It, it confesses its attention was drawn away from the song itself and indeed from the pressing matter of what precisely is going on with Travolta's hair, to the news that, to keep costs down, the video was recorded "at the airport behind the gates of Travolta's exclusive community of Jumbolair". It assumed this was some kind of misprint – there obviously isn't really a gated community built around an airport called Jumbolair – but no: there is, and Travolta lives there, in a house with its own air traffic control tower that looks like a cross between a Bond villain's lair and the South Terminal at Gatwick.

The more LiS read the Jumbolair website, the more intrigued it became: the news that Jumbolair was founded by a man described as "the avant-garde inventor of Nautilus exercise equipment"; the notion that it hires itself out as a venue for weddings – what romantic couple doesn't dream of bellowing their vows over the sound of aircraft continually taking off and landing? – and the insistence on Jumbolair's "abundant natural beauty", which is certainly the first words that spring to LiS's mind when it thinks of a 7,550ft by 210ft asphalt runway.

Alexis Petridis

Harry Styles Meets Taylor Swift's Mum

Thu, 20 Dec 2012 19:11:15 +0000

Taylor Swift's romance with One Direction star Harry Styles is heating up - the country singer has introduced the Brit to her mum.The young couple...

Adele Is The AP Entertainer Of The Year, Beating Out Taylor Swift & PSY

Thu, 20 Dec 2012 17:10:51 +0000

Adele is the Associated Press Entertainer of the Year, receiving more votes than the likes of Taylor Swift, PSY, the cast of Twilight and even noted mommy-porn author E.L. James. Like PSY, the Entertainer of the Year made but one piece of entertainment in 2012 — “Skyfall,” which has already entered the pantheon of classic ... More »

Harry Styles Gets A Ship Tattoo Freakishly Similar To The One In Taylor Swift’s Music Video

Thu, 20 Dec 2012 03:07:02 +0000

Harry Styles and current lady Taylor Swift spent some quality couples’ time at an L.A. tattoo parlor on Tuesday night (December 18). Photos of the One Direction member showing off a giant pirate ship on his left bicept at Shamrock Tattoo (the same place where Rihanna got her “Thug Life” ink earlier this year) surfaced ... More »

Timeflies’ “Swoon” Video: Watch Them Rewind The Party

Wed, 19 Dec 2012 20:24:28 +0000

Rihanna-covering, Taylor Swift-loving, genre-blending duo Timeflies have premiered their video for “Swoon,” a glossy club-pop cut from their One Night EP. Like Taylor’s “I Knew You Were Trouble” or Swizz Beatz‘ “Everyday Birthday,” this video starts at the end, after a raucous party. It may be a concept we’ve seen before, but unlike most of those videos, much ... More »

From Rihanna To Taylor Swift: 'I Knew You Were Trouble.' Star Explains Bad-Boy Appeal

Wed, 19 Dec 2012 20:18:40 +0000

Reeve Carney talks about what draws stars to 'intoxicating' relationships like the one in 'I Knew You Were Trouble.'
By Jocelyn Vena

Taylor Swift and Reeve Carney on the set of "I Knew You Were Trouble."
Photo: Big Machine Records

Taylor Swift Makes Bruno Mars See ‘Red’ On The Album Chart, Ke$ha Plunges Out Of Top 10

Wed, 19 Dec 2012 18:52:20 +0000

Glitter enthusiast Ke$ha keeps adding more and more woes to her list. Last week she saw her second LP Warrior settle for a lackluster #6 debut on the Billboard Top 200, after selling a so-so 85,000 copies. Then her unfortunately-titled single “Die Young” was yanked from radio playlists nationwide, following the recent elementary school shootings ... More »

Semi-bad girl Taylor Swift

Wed, 19 Dec 2012 16:22:04 +0000

Taylor Swift did a ''fantastic job'' of playing an almost bad girl in the video for 'Trouble'. The singer plays a geeky character who falls for a bad...

Taylor Swift, Harry Styles 'Sail' Into L.A. Tattoo Parlor Together

Wed, 19 Dec 2012 16:21:04 +0000

TSwift accompanies One Direction singer as he adds a pirate ship to his growing collection of tats.
By Jocelyn Vena

Taylor Swift, Harry Styles and Freddy Negrete
Photo: Freddy Negrete

Bruno Mars Debuts At #2 With Unorthodox Jukebox

Wed, 19 Dec 2012 16:08:23 +0000

Taylor Swift holds on to #1 spot, Game comes in at #6.
By Gil Kaufman

Bruno Mars' Unorthodox Jukebox
Photo: Atlantic

Taylor Swift 'Drawn In By Temptation,' Explains 'Trouble' Video Bad Boy

Tue, 18 Dec 2012 21:50:30 +0000

Reeve Carney tells MTV News that Swift is 'not a full bad girl' in the 'I Knew You Were Trouble' clip.
By Jocelyn Vena

Taylor Swift and Reeve Carney in the "I Knew You Were Trouble." music video
Photo: Big Machine Records

Selena Gomez turns to Swift for relationship help

Tue, 18 Dec 2012 06:00:17 +0000

Selena Gomez is listening to Taylor Swift's 'Red' album to cope with her ongoing relationship drama with Justin Bieber.The 'Love You Like A Love...

“Shine Brighter” With DJ Earworm’s 2012 Pop Song Mash-Up

Mon, 17 Dec 2012 19:10:57 +0000

DJ Earworm is back with this year’s United State Of Pop mash-up, and we’re still picking up pieces of our brain after hearing how he paired up Taylor Swift‘s “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” with two late entrants into the 2012 canon, Ke$ha (“Die Young”) and Bruno Mars (“Locked Out Of Heaven”). After ... More »

Taylor Swift, with Harry Styles and Ed Sheeran 'Singing' On Stage (VIDEO)

Mon, 17 Dec 2012 19:05:36 +0000

Karaoke 'singing' is often more a drunken screech than anything worth listening to, and you'd think that between the talents of Ed Sheeran, One...

How our critics voted

Mon, 17 Dec 2012 15:34:00 +0000

Guardian and Observer writers voted for the best album and best tracks of 2012 … now you can see who they voted for and take your anger out on them personally

Vote for your favourites in our end of year reader's poll

Henry Barnes

Tracks
Kendrick Lamarr – Cartoons and Cereal
Carly Rae Jepsen – Call Me Maybe
Azealia Banks – 212 (rerelease)
Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti – Only in My Dreams
Biffy Clyro – Stingin' Belle
Alt-J – Fitzpleasure
Plan B – Ill Manors
Haim – Forever
Taylor Swift – We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together
Gotye – Someone That I Used To Know

Ben Beaumont-Thomas

Albums
Wadada Leo Smith – Ten Freedom Summers
Grimes – Visions
Nite Jewel – One Second Of Love
Dirty Projectors – Swing Lo Magellan
Frank Ocean – Channel Orange
Actress – R.I.P.
Kendrick Lamar – good kid, m.A.A.d city
Death Grips – The Money Store
Dean Blunt and Inga Copeland – Black Is Beautiful
Miguel – Kaleidoscope Dream

Tracks
Matthew Bourne – IV. Infinitude
Miguel – Adorn
Usher – Climax
Carly Rae Jepsen – Call Me Maybe
Death Grips – Hacker
Grimes – Vowels = Space and Time
Nicki Minaj – Beez In The Trap (ft. 2 Chainz)
Kanye West, Big Sean, Pusha-T, 2 Chainz – Mercy
Kanye West, Big Sean, Jay-Z – Clique
Dean Blunt – The Narcissist (feat. Inga Copeland)

Adam Boult

Albums
Chromatics – Kill For Love
Japandroids – Celebration Rock
Dan Deacon – America
Cloud Nothings – Attack on Memory
Hot Chip – In Our Heads
Orbital – Wonky
Sun Kil Moon – Among the Leaves
Grimes – Visions
Frank Ocean – Channel Orange
Bobby Womack – The Bravest Man in the Universe

Tracks
Etta Bond & Raf Riley – Boring Bitches
Taylor Swift – We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together
OFWGKTA – Rella
Man Like Me – Squeeze
Chvrches – The Mother We Share
DIIV – How Long Have You Known?
Chairlift – I Belong In Your Arms
Carly Rae Jepsen – Call Me Maybe
Kindness – Gee Up
Noosa – Fear of Love

Betty Clarke

Albums
Grimes – Visions
The Cribs – In the Belly of the Brazen Bull
Flats – Better Living
The xx – Coexist
Jack White – Blunderbuss
Poliça – Give You the Ghost
Sleigh Bells – Reign Of Terror
Tame Impala – Lonerism
Pond – Beard, Wives, Denim
Sharon Van Etten – Tramps

Tracks
Savages – Husbands
Grimes – Oblivion
Tnght – Higher Ground
Lana Del Rey – Born To Die
Rihanna – Where Have You Been
Jake Bugg – Lightning Bolt
Calvin Harris feat Florence Welch – Sweet Nothing
MIA – Bad Girls
Carly Jae Jepsen – Call Me Maybe
Sleigh Bells – Born To Lose

Maddy Costa

Albums
Poliça – Give Up the Ghost
Dirty Projectors – Swing Lo Magellan
Gonjasufi – M.U.Z.Z.L.E
Andrew Bird – Break It Yourself
Grizzly Bear – Shields
Grimes – Visions
David Byrne and St Vincent – Love This Giant
Hot Chip – In Our Heads
Beth Jeans Houghton and the Hooves of Destiny – Yours Truly, Cellophane Noise
Stealing Sheep – Into the Diamond Sun

Mark Beaumont

Albums
Tribes – Baby
Wintersleep – Ho Hum
The Magnetic Fields – Love At The Bottom Of The Sea
Darren Hayman and the Long Parliament – The Violence
The Vaccines – Come Of Age
Alt-J – An Awesome Wave
The Maccabees – Given To The Wild
Family of the Year – Loma Vista
Django Django – Django Django
Spiritualized – Sweet Heart, Sweet Light

Michael Cragg

Albums
Lana Del Rey – Born To Die
Frank Ocean – Channel Orange
Marina and the Diamonds – Electra Heart
Dawn Richard – Armor On
Dragonette – Bodyparts
Bright Light Bright Light – Make Me Believe In Hope
iamamiwhoami – kin
Jessie Ware – Devotion
Amanda Mair – Amanda Mair
Santigold – Master Of My Make Believe

Tracks
Usher – Climax
Solange – Losing You
Little Mix – DNA
Taylor Swift – We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together
Sky Ferriera – Everything Is Embarrassing
Girls Aloud – Something New
AlunaGeorge – Just A Touch
Ciara – Livin' It Up
Cassie – King Of Heart
Faye – Water Against The Rocks

Robin Denselow

Albums
Lau – Race The Loser
Punch Brothers – Who's Feeling Young Now?
Spiro – Kaleidophonica
Roberto Fonseca – Yo
Treacherous Orchestra – Origins (Navigator)
Ry Cooder – Election Special
Karine Polwart – Traces
Mokoomba – Rising Tide
Krystle Warren – Love Songs: A Time You May Embrace
Sam Lee – Ground of Its Own

Tracks
Sam Carter – Dreams Are Made of Money
Sam Lee – On Yonder Hill
Ry Cooder – Cold Cold Feeling
Lau – Saint Monday
Tom Paley – Green Grow The Lilacs
Samuel Yirga – Dance With The Legend
Bob Dylan – Soon After Midnight
Karine Polwart – Cover Your Eyes
Staff Benda Bilili – Kulana/Gangs
Lo'Jo – La Marseillaise En Creole

John Fordham

Albums
Keith Jarrett – Sleeper
Django Bates – Confirmation
Michael Wollny's [em] – Wasted & Wanted
Alexander Hawkins Ensemble – All There, Ever Out
Trio VD – The Maze
Susanna – Wild Dog
Tom Bancroft and Trio Red – First Hello to Last Goodbye
Christine Tobin – Sailing to Byzantium
Kurt Elling – 1619 Broadway: The Brill Building Project
Trish Clowes – And in the Night-Time She Is There)

Tracks
Keith Jarret – Personal Mountains
Django Bates –Sadness All The Way Down
Michael Wollny's [em] – Blan
Alexander Hawkins Ensemble – Elmoic
Trio VD – Pet Shop Boys
Susanna – Wild Horse, Wild Dog
Tom Bancroft – Lonely Woman/Opportunity
Christine Tobin – The Wild Swans at Coole
Kurt Elling – I Only Have Eyes For You
Trish Clowes – Atlas

Killian Fox

Albums
Frank Ocean – Channel Orange
Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti – Mature Themes
Actress – RIP
Dirty Projectors – Swing Lo Magellan
Liars – WIXIW
Kendrick Lamar – good kid m.a.d.d city
Bat For Lashes – The Haunted Man
JJ Doom – Key to the Kuffs
Fiona Apple – The Idler Wheel ...
Flying Lotus – Until the Quiet Comes

Tracks
Usher – Climax
Oneohtrix Point Never – I Only Have Eyes For You
Major Lazer – Get Free
Frank Ocean – Crack Rock
Four Tet – Locked
Dean Blunt and Inge Copeland – The Narcissist
How To Dress Well – & It Was U
Spoek Mathambo – Let Them Talk
Danny Brown – Grown Up
Azealia Banks – Jumanji

Dan Hancox

Albums
Miguel - Kaleidoscope Dream
Various mixed by DJ Abrantee – Afrobeats Vol. 1
Jeremih – Late Nights with Jeremih
Mala – Mala in Cuba
Jam City – Classical Curves
Godspeed You! Black Emperor – Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend!
Angel Haze – Reservation
Nicki Minaj – Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded
Kendrick Lamar – Good Kid, m.A.A.d city
Nas – Life Is Good

Tracks
Jeremih ft Natasha Mosley – Fuck U All The Time
Kw Griff ft Pork Chop – Bring in the Katz
Mavado – Settle Down
Erphaan Alves – In Your Eyes
Girl Unit – Ensemble (Club Mix)
First Aid Kit – Emmylou
Bok Bok – Silo Pass (Spyro Remix)
Carly Rae Jepsen – Call Me Maybe
Slackk – Blue Sleet
Cheryl Cole – Call My Name (Royal-T Remix)

Michael Hann

Albums
Django Django – Django Django
Hot Chip – In Our Heads
ZZ Top – La Futura
The Civil Wars – Barton Hollow
Frank Ocean – Channel Orange
The xx – Co-exist
Crybaby – Crybaby
Tame Impala – Lonerism
Dirty Projectors – Swing Lo Magellan
Van Halen – A Different Kind of Truth

Tracks
ZZ Top – I Gotsta Get Paid
Plan B – Ill Manors
Tom Jones – Tower of Song
Django Django – Default
Haim – The Wire
Craig Finn – Western Pier
Death Grips – Come Up and Get Me
The Beach Boys – That's Why God Made the Radio
Carly Rae Jepsen – Call Me Maybe
Childhood – Blue Velvet

Nosheen Iqbal

Albums
Grizzly Bear – Shields
Grimes – Visions
Jam City – Classical Curves
Frank Ocean – Channel Orange
Tame Impala – Lonerism
Wild Nothing – Nocturne
Kindness – World, You Need A Change Of Mind
Dinosaur Jr – I Bet on Sky
Chromatics – Kill For Love
Bat for Lashes – The Haunted Man

Tracks
Real Estate – Easy
The 2 Bears – Birds and Bees
Blood Orange – Champagne Coast
M83 – Reunion
Angel Haze – Werkin Girls
Solange – Losing You
Luke Abbott – Modern Driveway
Sam Willis – Foxglissandro
Brian Jonestown Massacre – Panic Babylon

Tim Jonze

Albums
Dirty Projectors – Swing Lo, Magellan
Miguel - Kaleidoscope Dream
Jessie Ware – Devotion
Kendrick Lamar – Good Kid, mAAd City
Dexys – One Day I'm Going To Soar
This Many Boyfriends – This Many Boyfriends
Farrah Abraham – My Teenage Dream Ended
Daughn Gibson – All Hell
Frank Ocean – Channel Orange
John Talabot – Fin

Tracks
Usher – Climax
Jessie Ware – 110%
Christopher Owens – Here We Go
Sky Ferreira – Everything Is Embarrassing
Taylor Swift – We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together
Tommy Lee – Psycho
Dirty Projectors – Irresponsible Tune
Jai Paul – Jasmine (demo)
Cheryl Cole – Call My Name (Royal-T remix)
Solange Knowles – Losing You

Tom Lamont

Albums
The xx – Coexist
Dry the River – Shallow Bed
Alt-J – An Awesome Wave
Keton Henson – Dear …
Alabama Shakes – Boys and Girls
Crybaby – Crybaby
Field Music – Plumb
Gabriel and the Hounds – Kiss Full of Teeth
Dog Is Dead – All Our Favourite Stories
Bahamas – Barchords

Tracks
Clock Opera – Belongings
Alabama Shakes – Hold On
Richard Hawley – Seek It
Alt-J – Breezeblocks
Blur – Under the Westway
Dry the River – Bible Belt
Ms Mr – Dark Doo Wop
Gabriel and the Hounds – The World Unfolds,
Chvrches – The Mother We Share
Gotye – Somebody That I Used To Know

Dom Lawson

Albums
Swans – The Seer
Scott Walker – Bish Bosch
Ihsahn – Eremita
Panzerpappa – Astromalist
Gojira – L'Enfant Sauvage
Wolfsbane – Wolfsbane Save The World
Moonwagon – Foyers Of The Future
My Dying Bride – A Map Of All Our Failures
Marillion – Sounds That Can't Be Made
Godspeed You! Black Emperor – Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend!

Tracks
Swans – The Seer
Marillion – Gaza
Gojira – The Gift Of Guilt
Devin Townsend Project – Save Our Now
Seirom – 1973
The Jim Jones Revue – Never Gonna Let You Go
Lucy Rose – First
Panzerpappa – Ugler I Moseboka
Ihsahn – The Grave
Orange Goblin – The Fog

Paul Lester

Albums
The Weeknd – Trilogy
Kendrick Lamar – Good Kid, mAAd city
Frank Ocean – Channel Orange
The Beach Boys – That's Why God Made The Radio
Death Grips – The Money Store
Child Actor – Victory
Grimes – Visions
Nite Jewel – One Second Of Love
Holy Other – Held
Friends – Manifest!

Tracks
The Weeknd – Enemy
The Beach Boys – Summer's Gone
Savages – Husbands
Elton John Vs Pnau – Sad
Two Inch Punch – Forgive Me (For Messin' Up)
SpaceGhostPurrp – Raider Prayer
Dominic Lord – Old English
Frankie Rose – Know Me
How To Dress Well – Cold Nites
Jessie Ware – Running

Caspar Llewellyn Smith

Albums
The Very Best – MTMTMK
Bobby Womack – The Bravest Man in the Universe
Ondatropica – Ondatropica
Dean Blunt and Inga Copeland – Black Is Beautiful
Killer Mike – R.A.P Music
Frank Ocean – Channel Orange
Mala – Mala in Cuba
The 2 Bears – Be Strong
Alabama Shakes – Boys and Girls
Bellowhead – Broadside

Tracks
Diplo – Express Yourself
Dean Blunt – The Narcissist
D'Banj – Oliver Twist
Hot Chip – Flutes
Damon Albarn – Apple Carts
Konshens – Gal a Bubble
Trimbal – Confidence Boost (Harmonimix)
Spiritualized – So Long You Pretty Thing
Amadou and Mariam – C'est pas facile pour les Aigles
Public Enemy - Harder Than You Think

Dorian Lynskey

Albums
Frank Ocean – Channel Orange
Hot Chip – In Our Heads
Jessie Ware – Devotion
Jack White – Blunderbuss
Orbital – Wonky
Bat for Lashes – The Haunted Man
Bobby Womack – The Bravest Man in the Universe
Alt-J – An Awesome Wave
Beach House – Bloom
John Talabot - Fin

Tracks
Hot Chip – Let Me Be Him
Jessie Ware – 110%
Angel Haze – New York
Plan B – Ill Manors
Bat for Lashes – Laura
Carly Rae Jepsen – Call Me Maybe
Mark Lanegan Band – Ode to Sad Disco
Todd Terje – Inspector Norse
Blur – Under the Westway
AlunaGeorge – Your Drums, Your Love

Paul MacInnes

Albums
Frank Ocean – Channel Orange
Clams Casino – Instrumentals Vol 2
Jessie Ware – Devotion
Tame Impala – Lonerism
Wiley – Evolve or Be Extinct
El-P – Cancer for Cure
Dirty Projectors – Swing Lo Magellan
Actress – RIP
Cloud Nothings – Attack on Memory
Para One – Passion

Tracks
R Kelly and Kanye West – To the World
Bobby Womack – Love is Gonna Lift You Up (Julio Bashmore remix)
Rustie – Sawdust
Major Lazer – Get Free
Julio Bashmore – Au Seve
Bruiser Brigade – Jooky
ASAP Twelvy and ASAP Nast – Our World
Flying Lotus ft. Earl Sweatshirt – Between Friends
TNGHT – Higher Ground
Three Loco ft. Diplo – We Are Farmers

Alex Macpherson

Albums
Dawn Richard – Armor On
Taylor Swift – Red
Angel Haze – Reservation
Farrah Abraham – My Teenage Dream Ended
Nicki Minaj – Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded
Miguel – Kaleidoscope Dream
The Cataracs – Gordo Taqueria
School of Seven Bells – Ghostory
Fiona Apple - The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw
and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do
Voices from the Lake - Voices from the Lake

Tracks
Carly Rae Jepsen – Call Me Maybe
Cheryl Cole – Call My Name (Royal-T remix)
Dawn Richard – Pretty Wicked Things
Kalenna – Matte Black Truck
Ikonika – I Make Lists
Trina ft Gunplay & Ice Berg – Beam
Kendrick Lamar ft. Gunplay – Cartoon & Cereal
D'Banj – Oliver Twist
Huxley – Let It Go
Lea-Anna – Clear Di Way

Dan Martin

Albums
Enter Shikari – A Flash Flood Of Colour
The Cribs – In the Belly of the Brazen Bull
Bright Light Bright Light – Make Me Believe in Hope
Plan B – Ill Manors
Alt-J – An Awesome Wave
Mystery Jets – Radlands
The 2 Bears – Be Strong
Tribes – Baby
Pulled Apart By Horses – Tough Love
Tame Impala – Lonerism

Tracks
Blur – Under the Westway
Plan B – Ill Manors
Taylor Swift – We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together
Nicki Minaj – Starships
The Cribs – Come On, Be A No-One
Carly Rae Jepsen – Call Me Maybe
Muse – Madness
Biffy Clyro – Stingin' Belle
Usher – Climax
Swiss Lips – U Got The Power

Malik Meer

Albums
Frank Ocean – Channel Orange
Himanshu – Nehru Jackets
Perfume Genius – Put Your Back N 2 It
Chromatics – Kill For Love
Bobby Womack – The Bravest Man in the Universe
Leonard Cohen – Old Ideas
Kendrick Lamarr – Good Kid, mAAd City
Jessie Ware – Devotion
Kindness – World, You Need a Change of Mind
The xx – Coexist

Tracks
Aluna George – Your Drums, Your Love
Solange – Losing You
Beach House – Myth
Afghan Whigs – Love Crimes
Kendrick Lamarr – Swimming Pools
Jai Paul – Jasmine
Rudimental – Feel The Love
MIA – Bad Girls
Gotye – Someone That I Used To Know
John Talabot – Destiny

Sean Michaels

Albums
Micachu and the Shapes – Never
Eric Chenaux – Guitar & Voice
Chromatics – Kill For Love
Here We Go Magic – A Different Ship
Taylor Swift – Red
Godspeed You! Black Emperor – Allelujah! Don't Bend, Ascend
Schoolboy Q – Habits & Contradictions
Bry Webb – Provider
Damien Jurado – Maraqopa
Dirty Projectors – Swing Lo Magellan

Tracks
Carly Rae Jepsen – Call Me Maybe
Miguel – Adorn
Jessie Ware – 110%
BJ the Chicago Kid ft. Kendrick Lamar – His Pain
Brianna Perry– Marilyn Monroe
Plan B – Ill Manors
Frank Ocean –Thinkin Bout You (Ryan Hemsworth rework)
Big Sean ft. Kanye West & Jay-Z – Clique
Taylor Swift – We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together
Zebra Katz ft Njena Reddd Foxxx – Ima Read

Alex Needham

Albums
Frank Ocean – Channel Orange
Beach House – Bloom
The xx – Coexist
Hot Chip – In Our Heads
Pet Shop Boys – Elysium
Grimes – Visions
Rufus Wainwright – Out of the Game
Kindness - World, You Need A Change of Mind
Bright Light Bright Light - Make Me Believe in Hope
Lana Del Rey - Born to Die

Rebecca Nicholson

Albums
Frank Ocean – Channel Orange
Chairlift – Something
Tame Impala – Lonerism
Kendrick Lamar – Good Kid, mAAd City
Grimes – Visions
Azealia Banks – Fantasea (mixtape)
Taylor Swift – Red
David Byrne and St Vincent – Love This Giant
Jessie Ware – Devotion
Lana Del Rey – Born To Die

Tracks
Usher – Climax
Zebra Katz ft Njena Reddd Foxxx – Ima Read
Grimes – Oblivion
Jai Paul – Jasmine (demo)
Frank Ocean – Super Rich Kids
Kendrick Lamar – Backseat Freestyle
Haim – Forever
Etta Bond/Raf Riley – Boring Bitches
Jessie Ware – 110%
Sky Ferreira – Everything Is Embarrassing

Louis Pattison

Albums
Ty Segall Band – Slaughterhouse
Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs – Trouble
King Dude – Burning Daylight
Flying Lotus – Until The Quiet Comes
Mac De Marco – 2
Crystal Castles – (III)
Dr Carlson Albion – Latitudes
The xx – Coexist
PiL – This Is PiL
Chromatics – Kill For Love

Tracks
Burns – Lies
Var – In Your Arms (Final Fantasy)
Carly Rae Jepsen –Call Me Maybe
Burial – Street Halo
Vatican Shadow – September Cell
Ty Segall – The Hill
Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs – Household Goods
Plan B – Ill Manors
A M E – Play The Game Boy
Psy – Gangnam Style

Alexis Petridis

Albums
Tame Impala – Lonerism
Django Django – Django Django
Cooly G – Playin' Me
Frank Ocean – Channel Orange
Saint Etienne – Words and Music by Saint Etienne
Richard Hawley – Standing at the Sky's Edge
Dirty Projectors – Swing Lo Magellan
Elton John vs Pnau – Good Morning To The Night
Bill Fay – Life Is People
Jessie Ware - Devotion

Singles
Jai Paul – Jasmine
Moodymann – Why Do U Feel?
AlunaGeorge – Your Drums, Your Love
Kwes – Igoyh
Poliça – Lay Your Cards Out
Night Engine – I'll Make It Worth Your While
Frank Ocean – Sweet Life
The Beach Boys – Summer's Gone
Sunless 97 – Body Weather
The Internet – She DGAF

Sam Richards

Albums
Frank Ocean – Channel Orange
Grimes – Visions
Tame Impala – Lonerism
Howlin' Rain – The Russian Wilds
Pond – Beard, Wives, Denim
Dirty Projectors – Swing Lo Magellan
Cooly G – Playin Me
Shed – The Killer
Demdike Stare – Elemental
Killer Mike – R.A.P. Music

Tracks
Usher – Climax
King Krule – Rock Bottom
Objekt – Cactus
Nite Jewel – One Second Of Love
Grimes – Genesis
Jessie Ware – Running (Disclosure remix)
Special Request – Lolita
Blur – Under The Westway
Joy O – Ellipsis (Head High remix)
Bicep & Ejeca – You

Charlotte Richardson Andrews

Albums
Frank Ocean – Channel Orange
Frankie Rose – Interstellar
Miguel – Kaleidoscope Dream
Fiona Apple – The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than The Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do
Grimes – Visions
Cooly G – Playin' Me
Killer Mike – R.A.P Music
Alt-J – An Awesome Wave
White Lung – Sorry
THEEsatisfaction – Awe Naturale

Tracks
Poliça – Lay Your Cards Out
Laura Jane Grace – Gender Dysphoria Blues
Zebra Katz ft Njena Reddd Foxxx – Ima Read
Savages – Husbands
Alabama Shakes – Rise to the Sun
Plan B – Ill Manors
Solange – Losing You
Ste McCabe – Did You Really?
Blacklisters – Trick Fuck
Woolf – Witch

Jude Rogers

Albums
Poliça – Give You The Ghost
Grizzly Bear – Shields
Actress – RIP
Saint Etienne – Words and Music by Saint Etienne
Cat Power – Sun
Sam Lee – Ground Of Its Own
Jessie Ware – Devotion
Sharon Van Etten – Tramp
VCMG – VCMG
Paul Weller – Sonik Kicks

Tracks
Saint Etienne – When I Was Seventeen
Pet Shop Boys – Leaving
Clark – Com Touch
Lightships – Sweetness In Her Spark
Cooly G – What This World Needs Now
Poliça – I See My Mother
King Krule – Rock Bottom
Jessie Ware – Running
O'Hooley and Tidow – Teardrop
Belbury Poly – Chapel Perilous

Chris Salmon

Albums
Lana Del Rey – Born To Die
Bat For Lashes – The Haunted Man
3. Saint Etienne – Words And Music By Saint Etienne
Alt-J – An Awesome Wave
Lucy Rose – Like I Used To
Plan B – Ill Manors
Marina and The Diamonds – Electra Heart
Neil Halstead – Palindrome Hunches
Grizzly Bear – Shields
Breton – Other People's Problems

Dave Simpson

Albums
Django Django – Django Django
Bobby Womack – The Bravest Man in the Universe
Dr John - Locked Down
Dirty Projectors – Swing Lo Magellan
Neil Young – Psychedelic Pill
Van Morrison – Born to Sing: No Plan B
Dexys – One Day I'm Going To Soar
Dodgy – Stand Upright in a Cool Place
Band of Horses – Mirage Rock
How to Dress Well – Total Loss

Tracks
Neil Young – Ramada Inn
Van Morrison – In Money We Trust
Amanda Palmer – The Bed Song
The Maccabees – Feel to Follow
Patti Smith – April Fool
Fun – Some Nights
Dexys – She Got A Wiggle
Band of Horses – Slow Cruel Hands of Time
Spiritualized – So Long You Pretty Thing
Grimes – Oblivion

Caroline Sullivan

Albums
Alt-J – An Awesome Wave
Jodie Marie – Mountain Echo
Frank Ocean – Channel Orange
Beth Jeans Houghton – Yours Truly, Cellophane Nose
Jessie Ware – Devotion
Hot Chip – In Our Heads
Pink – The Truth About Love
Flying lotus – Until the Quiet Comes
Tame Impala – Lonerism
Delilah – From the Roots Up

Tracks
David Guetta ft Sia – Titanium
Alt-J – Tesselate
Rihanna – Where Have You Been?
Gotye – Somebody That I Used to Know
Niki & The Dove – DJ Ease My Mind
Delilah – Love You So
Nicki Minaj – Starships
The Civil Wars – Billie Jean
Elton John vs Pnau – Sad
Adele – Skyfall

Sam Wolfson

Albums
Frank Ocean – Channel Orange
Jessie Ware – Devotion
Bobby Womack – The Bravest Man In The Universe
Plan B – Ill Manors
The xx – Coexist
Kanye West presents GOOD Music – Cruel Summer
Taylor swift – Red
Grimes – Visions
Jennifer Lopez – Dance Again … the Hits
The Weeknd – Trilogy

Tracks
Trimbal – Confidence Boost (Harmonimix)
Haim – Forever
Jessie Ware – 110%
Julio Bashmore – Au Seve
Tnght – Higher Ground
War of Words – Battleground
Popcaan – Only Man She Want
Burns – Lies
Zebra Katz ft Njena Reddd Foxxx – Ima Read
Taylor Swift – We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together

Kieran Yates

Albums
Royal-T – Rinse Presents: Royal-T
Flying Lotus – Until The Quiet Comes
Cooly G – Playin' Me
Frank Ocean – Channel Orange
Kendrick Lamar – Good Kid, m.a.a.d city
Jessie Ware – Devotion
Azealia Banks – Fantasea mixtape
Jam City – Classical Curves
Two Inch Punch – Love You Up
JJ Doom – Key To The Kuffs

Tracks
Tnght – Bugg'n
Jai Paul – Jasmin'
Rudimental Feat. Syron and MNEK – Spoons
Zebra Katz ft Njena Reddd Foxxx – Ima Read
Little Mix – DNA
Amber Coffman ft. Major Lazer – Get Free
A$AP Rocky – Goldie
Jessie Ware Feat. Disclosure – Runnin'
Kilo Kish – Creepwave
Beyoncé – Love On Top

Caspar Llewellyn Smith

Charlotte Richardson Andrews

The Best Pop Singles of 2012

Mon, 17 Dec 2012 08:20:00 +0000

In 2012, people -- not just kids -- loved pop.

Many of us might be a little embarrassed to admit what we’ve actually been listening to this past year. Despite the fact that society tells us that the music of certain artists are merely for specific stereotypical groups -- i.e. “boy bands” are only for lovesick teen girls and men don’t listen to Taylor Swift, they just date her -- the truth is out there. This year saw “Call Me Maybe” namechecked by everybody from…

Taylor Swift and Harry Styles Are Very Getting Serious Indeed

Sun, 16 Dec 2012 12:45:34 +0000

Taylor Swift is getting more and more smitten with One Direction’s Harry Styles everyday, and the word on the grapevine is, the feeling is entirely...

Whatcha Say: Adam Lambert & Cyndi Lauper’s Duet And Taylor’s “Trouble” Got Readers Talking

Sat, 15 Dec 2012 01:31:04 +0000

Have you hit up our year-end Best Albums Of 2012 poll yet? We posted the final half of the two-part ballot this week, and readers have not only been casting their votes, they’ve also been stating their cases for why their pick is the best choice. Hey — not only do we welcome your opinions, ... More »

Taylor Swift 'Became This Girl' In 'I Knew You Were Trouble' Video

Fri, 14 Dec 2012 19:52:00 +0000

She was '100 percent in,' director Anthony Mandler says of Swift's role in her dark new clip.
By James Montgomery

Taylor Swift in "I Knew You Were Trouble"
Photo: Big Machine Records

The Highs and Lows of Taylor Swift's Bitter Sweet 'Golden Video Birthday'

Fri, 14 Dec 2012 19:32:55 +0000

Taylor Swift's 23rd birthday turned out to really be one to beat, with a whole host of good news and celebrations, as well as one bizarre turn of...

Seapunk: scenester in-joke or what?

Fri, 14 Dec 2012 17:00:00 +0000

Whatever it is, seapunk is the ridiculous meme that's now gone pop

The music/internet joke subculture "seapunk" started its short life in mid-2011, as a sleepy 4am overshare from the well-thumbed iPhone of a Brooklyn DJ. Julian Foxworth (AKA Lil Internet)'s tweet about a "seapunk leather jacket with barnacles where the studs used to be" sparked a wave of nautical in-jokes, as well as inspiring a collective of musicians to make loopy, bloopy tracks.

Many thought this understandably short-lived meme had died a watery death in 2011, but when Rihanna took to Saturday Night Live to perform Diamonds recently, with a full-on seapunk-influenced production, it got a new lease of life.

#Seapunk – described at its original "peak" as "a web joke with music" (by the New York Times, no less) – moved quickly from social-media snickerfest to real-world happening, as its Atlantis 90s cyberpunk aesthetic piqued online imaginations. A secret Facebook gang of hardcore seapunks clung to the meme like the barnacles on Lil Internet's coat, flooding the blogosphere with "tropicult" imagery and creating a kind of Tumblr-on-Sea community, populated with dolphin gifs.

The visuals and lingo eventually begat seapunk music. Fire For Effect, Zombelle, Ultrademon, Slava, Unicorn Kid and, ahem, Splash Club 7 produced tracks overdubbed with narwhal mating calls and David Attenborough soundbites to accessorise their psychotropical videos. Dedicated label Coral Records Internazionale set up an official beach umbrella for all the "wavy" MP3s and seapunk compilations. Parties in New York, LA and Chicago pushed the lifestyle out into the world.

By this point, the little-meme-that-could had glamoured some actual famous people: see Soulja Boy's Ocean Gang, Kreayshawn dabbling in the shallow end, subculture maven Venus X's green hair, Gaga's turquoise hair, Katy's "Perrywinkle" Grammy hair and Azealia Banks's mermaid shtick.

The inevitable early adopter outcry in response to this co-opting of their scene marked the exit point for many first-wavers, with squabbles about what constitutes true seapunk ("MERMAIDS ARE NOT SEAPUNK #tropiganda!") raining on the parade. Seapunk had gone from sublimely ridiculous to just plain ridiculous.

Vice magazine sounded the death knell by publishing a tract by Lil Internet and collaborator Lil Government that disavowed the scene, called Seapunk Washes Up. But a year later, Taylor Swift has newly aqua hair and Azealia Banks's latest Atlantis video exploits the 3D web art that Rihanna also used for her prime-time performance.

Seapunk may be having a second life, but surely Rihanna's had the last word. Now she's had her controversial go at seapunk, only the most shameless would have the whale cojones to follow her into the water.

Macca to Morrissey: the week in music - in pictures

Fri, 14 Dec 2012 16:06:00 +0000

From Taylor Swift to Tame Impala, take a tour of this week's most memorable musical moments

Karin Andreasson

Taylor Swift Gets Super-Sweet Birthday Surprise From Harry Styles

Fri, 14 Dec 2012 14:06:22 +0000

Styles shows his soft side while celebrating Swift's 23rd birthday in the English countryside.
By Jocelyn Vena

Taylor Swift and Harry Styles
Photo: Splash News

Best Music 2012: Timeflies Rattle Off Their Favorite Albums

Fri, 14 Dec 2012 13:45:10 +0000

We’re continuing our celebration of 2012′s best music with more input from the artists who made music pop this year. This time we chatted with Timeflies, and considering their music runs the genre gamut, they had quite a few favorite albums this year. Cal and Rez rattled them all off — everything from Frank Ocean ... More »

Taylor Swift 'caught up' in love

Fri, 14 Dec 2012 04:00:07 +0000

Taylor Swift is ''caught up'' in love with Harry Styles.The 'Love Story' singer - who has previously enjoyed short romances with Jake Gyllenhaal,...

Taylor Swift and Harry Styles 'in love'

Fri, 14 Dec 2012 02:00:01 +0000

Taylor Swift and Harry Styles are ''in love''.The 23-year-old singer has only recently started dating the 18-year-old One Direction heartthrob but...

Harry Styles & Ed Sheeran Karaoke While Taylor Swift Awkwardly Dances

Fri, 14 Dec 2012 01:47:35 +0000

One Direction‘s Harry Styles and collaborator Ed Sheeran karaoked to Elton John and Kiki Dee’s “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” at their Madison Square Garden after show celebration, and the result was a royal train wreck. Perhaps in an effort to save their true vocal talents for their real performances, the Brits obliterated the classic ... More »

Yeah, Taylor Swift Wore A Wig To Be A 'Different Girl' In 'Trouble'

Fri, 14 Dec 2012 01:30:48 +0000

We had a feeling pink wasn't her natural hair color, so 'MTV First: Taylor Swift' got the scoop on her new look in 'I Knew You Were Trouble.'
By Jocelyn Vena, with reporting by Sway Calloway

Taylor Swift
Photo: Big Machine Records

Adele’s ’21′ Is iTunes’ Best-Selling Album For Second Straight Year, “Call Me Maybe” Tops Song Sales

Thu, 13 Dec 2012 23:21:44 +0000

It’s been nearly two years since Adele released her sophomore LP 21, but for the second straight year it was the top-selling album on iTunes. Taylor Swift‘s Red came in second, followed by Mumford & Sons‘ Babel. One Direction‘s Up All Night and fun.‘s Some Nights rounded out the top five. No surprises there. As for iTunes’ most-downloaded songs list, it’s familiar fare, ... More »

Happy Birthday Taylor Swift! She Celebrates With Video Launch

Thu, 13 Dec 2012 23:18:52 +0000

Taylor Swift has packed a lot in to her 23 years, and she's topping it off with the newest addition to her videography, a video for I Knew You Were...

Harry Styles' birthday gift for Taylor

Thu, 13 Dec 2012 22:54:19 +0000

Harry Styles bought Taylor Swift 23 cupcakes for her 23rd birthday on Thursday (13.12.12).The One Direction heartthrob ordered the sweet treats from...

The Great Commission Make Cameo In New Taylor Swift Music Video

Thu, 13 Dec 2012 22:41:32 +0000

The Great Commission make a brief (and admittedly unexpected) cameo in Taylor Swift‘s new music video for her track, “I Knew You Were Trouble“. Depending on your region, you can watch the clip now over at Vevo.

Taylor Swift’s “I Knew You Were Trouble” Video: Watch Her Lose Herself

Thu, 13 Dec 2012 22:04:36 +0000

Taylor Swift has been teasing her video for “I Knew You Were Trouble” all week (with a little viral help from Selena Gomez, natch), and now the full clip has premiered. As promised, it documents a dramatic fall from grace for Swift (or the character she’s playing, at least, since it’s a widely known fact that she’s ... More »

Taylor Swift's 'I Knew You Were Trouble.' Video: Watch It Now!

Thu, 13 Dec 2012 21:41:45 +0000

Swift unveiled her dark new clip on Thursday during 'MTV First: Taylor Swift.'
By James Montgomery

Taylor Swift on the set of her "I Knew Your Were Trouble." music vivdeo
Photo: Big Machine Records

It's Taylor Swift's Birthday! What Should Harry Styles Buy Her?

Thu, 13 Dec 2012 19:58:59 +0000

From chocolates to jewelry, fans give Haylor some gift-giving advice.
By Jocelyn Vena, with reporting by Emilee Lindner

Taylor Swift and Harry Styles
Photo: Splash News

Taylor Swift & Adele Nab Golden Globe Nominations

Thu, 13 Dec 2012 19:47:33 +0000

Prepare yourselves for battle: Taylor Swift and Adele are going head-to-head at next year’s Golden Globes. The two singers are up for Best Original Song — Adele for “Skyfall” and Swfit for “Safe & Sound” from The Hunger Games. They’ll face off against Keith Urban for his Act Of Valor track “For You,” Jon Bon Jovi and “Suddenly” ... More »

Selena Gomez & Friends Dance To Taylor Swift’s “I Knew You Were Trouble”: Watch

Thu, 13 Dec 2012 14:56:02 +0000

What did you get Taylor Swift for her birthday? A lovely note? A delicious cake? A gift card to Banana Republic? Too bad! All of those gifts are officially terrible when contrasted with what Selena Gomez did for Swift, who turns 23 today (December 13) — because Gomez teamed up with a few of her friends to record a ... More »

Spears is top female music earner

Thu, 13 Dec 2012 12:43:16 +0000

Pop star Britney Spears beats country-pop singer Taylor Swift to become the highest earning musician of 2012, according to Forbes Magazine.

Britney Spears tops list of highest-earning female musicians 2012

Thu, 13 Dec 2012 12:16:22 +0000

Taylor Swift, Rihanna, Lady Gaga and Katy Perry all included

ArtsBeat: Taylor Swift Is Back on Top of the Charts

Wed, 12 Dec 2012 20:16:57 +0000

Ms. Swift's latest album, "Red," returned to the top of the chart in its seventh week.

Taylor Swift Makes Ke$ha See ‘Red’ On Album Chart

Wed, 12 Dec 2012 19:36:53 +0000

Wait — Ke$ha‘s Warrior debuted where on the Billboard Top 200? Yes, animals, the dollar-sign diva not only got her glitter-adorned posterior beat to the top of the main album chart by Taylor Swift, whose Red returns to the peak position for a fourth non-consecutive week, she also got bypassed by Wiz Khalifa with O.N.I.F.C. ... More »

'Big & Best of 2012' Live Stream: Here's When To Watch Your Fave Acts!

Wed, 12 Dec 2012 17:36:21 +0000

MTV News has a handy guide of when you can check out Taylor Swift, Miguel, Bruno Mars and more on bigandbestof2012.com!
By MTV News staff

Taylor Swift and Bruno Mars
Photo: Kevin Kane/NBC NewsWire/Getty Images

Britney Spears Edges Out Taylor Swift As Top-Earning Female Musician Of 2012

Wed, 12 Dec 2012 17:07:33 +0000

Britney Spears was the most profitable female musician of the year, according to Forbes. Thanks to the success of her latest album Femme Fatale, the tour and her fragrance, the 31-year-old pop star raked in $58 million in 2012. Taylor Swift came in second on the list, just a million bucks short of Spears’ number. Just how ... More »

Caught On Camera: Harry Styles And Taylor Swift Caught Kissing… It’s Official, Then?

Wed, 12 Dec 2012 16:56:29 +0000

Well, Taylor Swift certainly won’t be wriggling away from the rumours about her & Harry Styles, now that they’ve been caught on camera,...

Wiz Khalifa Burns Onto Charts At #2 With O.N.I.F.C.

Wed, 12 Dec 2012 16:11:53 +0000

Taylor Swift moves back to the #1 spot while Ke$ha's Warrior debuts at #6.
By Gil Kaufman

Wiz Khalifa's O.N.I.F.C.
Photo: Atlantic

Taylor Swift Gets Gritty In “I Knew You Were Trouble” Video: Watch Her Explain The “Edgy” Concept

Wed, 12 Dec 2012 14:22:14 +0000

Who’s that grimy-looking girl in the video, you ask? Why, it’s country cutie Taylor Swift, the luminously-complected multiplatinum superstar with pristine style and flawless coiffure! You didn’t recognize her, did you? That’s because Swift’s going gritty (or, at least, as gritty as she can get) in the video for her new single, “I Knew You Were ... More »

Indie Love for Taylor Swift’s Hipster-Baiting 'Red'

Wed, 12 Dec 2012 12:00:00 +0000

The indie community has long embraced the poppiest of popstars. So it’s hard to figure out why it took until 2012 for it to embrace Taylor Swift.

Shh...is anyone reading this?...I hope not, because I’m about to confess something extremely embarrassing. Quick, go into your iTunes library...I’ll wait...no, install the updates later...OK, so go into your Music, click on “Plays” to sort your music by how often you listen to it...now, what do you get? Well, I’ll tell you what I get -- a whole lot of Taylor Swift. Like, you would clearly think this was the iTunes Library of a 12-year-old…

Taylor Swift, Bruno Mars Join 'Big & Best' Today!

Wed, 12 Dec 2012 11:53:10 +0000

'Big & Best of 2012' live stream, kicking off at noon ET, will also include appearances by Miguel, Norman Reedus and more.
By MTV News staff

Taylor Swift and Bruno Mars
Photo: Big Machine / MTV News

Taylor Swift Caught Dirty Dancing With Harry Styles

Wed, 12 Dec 2012 08:11:11 +0000

Singer Taylor Swift has been caught on camera re-enacting the famous Dirty Dancing routine with her rumoured boyfriend Harry Styles.The couple showed...

Taylor Swift's 'Toxic' Boyfriend 'Changes Everything' In 'Trouble' Video

Tue, 11 Dec 2012 20:05:55 +0000

Premiering Thursday at 4:40 p.m. ET on MTV, 'I Knew You Were Trouble.' follows the corruption of a 'good girl,' Swift teases.
By Jocelyn Vena

Tayor Swift on the set of "I Knew You Were Trouble."
Photo: Big Machine

Music Review: Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift at Z-100 Jingle Ball 2012

Mon, 10 Dec 2012 21:50:20 +0000

Young British bands joined Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber at the annual Z-100 Jungle Ball showcase at Madison Square Garden.

Taylor Swift Wears Little Black Dress At Z100′s Jingle Ball, Laughs In Mother Nature’s Face

Mon, 10 Dec 2012 20:21:22 +0000

Winter may be in full effect in New York City, but that wasn’t going to keep Taylor Swift from posing at Z100′s Jingle Ball in her little black David Koma dress on Friday night (December 7). The “I Knew You Were Trouble” siren took the Madison Square Garden stage (the very one rumored beau Harry Styles ... More »

Gotye Gushes About Fellow Grammy Nominees Frank Ocean, Taylor Swift

Mon, 10 Dec 2012 16:24:58 +0000

Singer tells MTV News about what makes Frank Ocean 'fantastic' and how he learned of his three Grammy nods.
By Kara Warner

Gotye
Photo: Getty Images

Taylor Swift To Premiere 'I Knew You Were Trouble.' Video On MTV!

Mon, 10 Dec 2012 15:32:53 +0000

Swift will debut her 23rd music video on her 23rd birthday, this Thursday at 4:40 p.m. ET on MTV.
By James Montgomery

Taylor Swift and Reeve Carney on the set of the "I Knew You Were Trouble." music video
Photo: Big Machine Records

Taylor Swift To Debut “I Knew You Were Trouble” Video On December 13

Mon, 10 Dec 2012 14:06:54 +0000

If you thought just because Taylor Swift has already sold 20 billion copies (approximate count) of her most recent album Red, she was slowing down her promotional efforts, think again: The pop-country superstar is gearing up for another big week of promo, this time for her next single “I Knew You Were Trouble,” a dubstep-inflected tune about the very ... More »

Best Songs Of 2012

Mon, 10 Dec 2012 14:01:15 +0000

Our expert panel counts down the year's top 10 noisemakers before revealing Song of the Year tonight at 7:59 p.m. on MTV and MTV.com.
By MTV News staff

Taylor Swift in her "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" music video
Photo: Big Machine Records / Universal Music Group

Taylor Swift's stalker fears

Mon, 10 Dec 2012 04:00:10 +0000

Taylor Swift gets ''nervous'' when her minders send picture messages of her stalkers. The 22-year-old singer hates talking about her crazed fans...

Taylor Swift whisks Harry Styles to London

Sun, 09 Dec 2012 20:51:04 +0000

Taylor Swift flew Harry Styles to London on her private jet but allegedly didn't invite his bandmates.The 'We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together'...

The Week In Music: What To Read Now, 4th Quarter Edition

Sun, 09 Dec 2012 19:00:00 +0000

As 2012 winds down and the Top 10 game kicks into high gear, music writing stays fiery. Read Camille Paglia on Katy Perry and Taylor Swift, Geeta Dayal on Beck and a collection of quotes from Pitchfork interviews.

Louis Tomlinson happy for Harry Styles and Taylor Swift

Sun, 09 Dec 2012 18:12:54 +0000

Louis Tomlinson has revealed he is ''happy'' for Harry Styles and Taylor Swift.The One Direction singer refused to divulge any details of his...

PopMatters Picks: The Best Songs of 2012 (streaming playlists)

Sun, 09 Dec 2012 15:52:05 +0000

We present handy Rdio and Spotify playlists of most of the tunes from our top 75 songs of the year for your listening pleasure.

From the triumphant dream pop of Grimes and the boundary-pushing R&B of Frank Ocean to the tough, frantic British hip-hop of Plan B and the chart-topping country pop of Taylor Swift, PopMatters counts down 2012's 75 best songs.

Taylor Swift And B.o.B Both Get Down To “Both Of Us” At Z100 Jingle Ball

Sat, 08 Dec 2012 19:48:06 +0000

Another day, another Jingle Ball. All the Haylor mania and Taylor Swift‘s Red success almost led us to forget about this little ditty with B.o.B, which for once isn’t a kiss-off to an ex. Taylor clearly relished the opportunity to unleash her inner hip hopstress and get down with her (not so) bad self, displaying ... More »

One Direction, Justin Bieber Keep The Girls Swooning At Jingle Ball

Sat, 08 Dec 2012 16:24:09 +0000

Taylor Swift, the Wanted, Fun. and many more also hit the MSG stage in New York for Z-100's star-studded, holiday-themed event on Friday night.
By Jocelyn Vena

One Direction perform at Jingle Ball 2012 in New York City
Photo: Getty Images

Harry Styles and Taylor Swift continue their New York romance

Fri, 07 Dec 2012 17:00:17 +0000

Harry Styles and Taylor Swift are getting ''smoochie'' in New York.The One Direction hunk and the 'We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together' hitmaker...

Taylor Swift Reveals One Thing She Doesn't Understand About Love

Fri, 07 Dec 2012 11:53:10 +0000

'I've never had a really long relationship, so I have no idea what that's like,' Swift reveals in Cosmopolitan UK January issue.
By Christina Garibaldi

Taylor Swift on the cover of Cosmo UK
Photo: Cosmo

Frank Ocean Nominated for Six Grammys

Fri, 07 Dec 2012 03:28:02 +0000

Nominations for the 55th Grammy Awards, which take place February 10th, were announced last night at a televised live concert in Nashville, where Taylor Swift beatboxed to LL Cool J’s rendition of her song “Mean.” … read more »

Taylor Swift Tour To Grammys Big Four: Hunter Hayes Is 'Wanted'

Thu, 06 Dec 2012 23:00:50 +0000

Hunter pulls in three Grammy nods and tells CMT he's 'so thankful.'
By Jocelyn Vena

Hunter Hayes
Photo: Getty Images

Grizzly Bear's Ed Droste Upset About Grammys, Justin Vernon Reminds Him Grammys Are Bullshit

Thu, 06 Dec 2012 20:28:00 +0000

Bon Iver photo by Ebru Yildiz, Ed Droste photo by Erez Avissar

Last night, the nominations for the 2013 Grammy Awards were named. Frank Ocean, Fiona Apple, Jack White, M83, the Black Keys, and many more are up for awards. But not Grizzly Bear, which appears to have upset the band's Ed Droste, who expressed his feelings in a string of Tweets last night. His thoughts provoked Justin Vernon of Bon Iver, who took home several awards last year, to reply with words of encouragement for Droste and disdain for the Grammys. It seems winning those Grammys has not changed Vernon's feelings towards them.

Here's how the conversation went down. First, Droste described his sad (":(") feelings:

2k12 has been a mixed vibe.
We won't win the Grahmees! :(
So the Grammies are literally based off sales and nothing else?#bummerzone
Super relieved Taylor Swift is up for another award. Was worried she didn't have enough! #phew

He then @-replied Vernon:

@blobtower bb, want to know the Grammy secret! <3
Don't know how you managed to infiltrate @blobtower, what's the secret?
or maybe we gotta make better music :/ point is a year ago I was so excited you were nominated, and nobody from "our world" :(

Vernon then explained why he hates the Grammys:

this is why i hate the grammies. because it allows you to question what you've done. don't question what you’ve done Ed.
y'alls music is pure as fuck and there is nobody making music like you and i think it's truly unique. the grammies aren’t a measure of much that is calculable or quantifiable by our own contexts for music. why you create is most important.
All this being said, FUCK those morons for not knowing enough about GB [Grizzly Bear] #jordongotcutfromhighschoolbasketball

Finally, Droste said, "thanks boo! Not really questioning what we've done, definitely questioning other things tho."

Watch the video for Bon Iver's Grammy-nominated "Holocene":

Taylor Swift & LL Cool J Beatbox “Mean” At The Grammy Nominations Concert: Watch All The Performances

Thu, 06 Dec 2012 13:46:47 +0000

Taylor Swift and LL Cool J were on hosting duties at last night’s The Grammy Nominations Live special, where the nominations for the 55th Annual Grammy Awards were announced between performances from Maroon 5 and some other people, but mostly Maroon 5. Yes, Adam Levine performed both “One More Night,” “Moves Like Jagger” and “Payphone,” while Hunter Hayes opted to sing the nominees for Best Pop Vocal ... More »

Frank Ocean Up for Six Grammys, Including Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Best New Artist

Thu, 06 Dec 2012 03:44:00 +0000

Photo by Erez Avissar

The 55th Grammy Awards take place on February 10 in Los Angeles. Tonight, CBS aired its annual "Grammy Nominations Concert Live" special, revealing the list of contenders.

Frank Ocean was nominated for an impressive six Grammys total, including all of the major categories: Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Best New Artist, and Best Urban Contemporary Album, plus Best Rap/Sung Collaboration and Best Short Form Music Video for "No Church in the Wild" with Jay-Z and Kanye West.

The Black Keys were also nominated for an impressive six Grammys: Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Best Rock Performance, Best Rock Song, Best Rock Album, and Producer of the Year for Dan Auerbach.

For Record of the Year, "Thinking About You" is up against the Black Keys' "Lonely Boy", Gotye's "Somebody That I Used to Know", Taylor Swift's "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together", fun.'s "We Are Young", and Kelly Clarkson's "Stronger". ("Call Me Maybe" was robbed!)

For Best New Artist, Ocean is up against Alabama Shakes, fun., Hunter Hayes, and the Lumineers.

For Album of the Year, channelORANGE is up against the Black Keys' El Camino, Jack White's Blunderbuss, Mumford & Sons' Babel, and fun.'s Some Nights.

Right after the Record of the Year nomination was announced, Frank Ocean Tweeted, "WTF" and "Wow." After the Best New Artist nom, this.

channelORANGE is also up for Best Urban Contemporary Album, along with Miguel's Kaleidoscope Dream.

Miguel's "Adorn" is up for Song of the Year, Best R&B Song, as well as Best R&B Performance, the latter along with Usher's "Climax". "Lonely Boy" is also up for Best Rock Song, as is Jack White's "Freedom at 21". "Lonely Boy" is also nominated for Best Rock Performance, along with Alabama Shakes' "Hold On".

El Camino and Blunderbuss are also up for Best Rock Album, alongside albums by Coldplay, Muse, and Bruce Springsteen.

The Best Alternative Music Album nominees are Fiona Apple, Björk, M83, Gotye, and Tom Waits.

The Best Rap Performance nominees are Drake and Lil Wayne's "HYFR", Jay-Z and Kanye West's "Niggas in Paris", Nas' "Daughters", G.O.O.D. Music's "Mercy", and Young Jeezy and Andre 3000's "I Do". Jay and Kanye and Frank Ocean's "No Church in the Wild" is also up for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration. "Mercy", "Daughters", and "Niggas in Paris" are also up for Best Rap Song, along with Wale and Miguel's "Lotus Flower Bomb" and Drake and Wayne's "The Motto".

Drake, Nas, Lupe Fiasco, the Roots, Rick Ross, and 2 Chainz have been nominated for Best Rap Album.

Arcade Fire's "Abraham's Daughter" from The Hunger Games was nominated for Best Song Written for Visual Media. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross' score for The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo was nominated for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media as well as Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Packaging.

Björk, Dirty Projectors, Alabama Shakes, St. Vincent and David Byrne, and Aimee Mann are all up for Best Recording Packaging.

Diplo and the Black Keys' Dan Auerbach are both up for Producer of the Year.

"No Church in the Wild" and M.I.A.'s "Bad Girls" are up for Best Short Form Music Video.

Check out the full list of nominations here.

Watch Frank Ocean's video for "Pyramids":

Rolling Stone's Top 50 Albums of 2012

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 21:00:29 +0000

by Andrew Sacher

More of the big 2012 year-end lists have been rolling in, with NPR and SPIN recently revealing theirs, and now Rolling Stone have unleashed theirs. Similarly to Uncut, the expected albums from older artists are there, including Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Leonard Cohen, Dr. John, and the number one slot going to Bruuuuuuuuuuuce. It's got huge albums like Mumford and Sons, Taylor Swift, and fun., as well as the token high ranking indie album (Japandroids at #9), the token washed up band who was once classic (Green Day), things you knew you'd see on Rolling Stone's list like Jack White and Alabama Shakes, and... Grimes!

You can read the whole list below...

Continue reading "Rolling Stone's Top 50 Albums of 2012" at brooklynvegan

A Week In News Feat: Prince William, Kate Middleton, Harry Styles, Taylor Swift, Led Zeppelin, Lady Gaga, Katie Holmes and More!

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 20:06:03 +0000

A Royal Family: Regal congratulations are in order this week with news that the Duchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton is pregnant with her and Prince...

Taylor Swift, Jerry Springer And Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Arrive At The Kennedy's Ripple of Hope Awards Dinner

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 18:01:11 +0000

Taylor Swift, Jerry Springer, Alec Baldwin and his wife Hilaria Thomas and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. were among the mass of arrivals for the 2012 Ripple...

Taylor Swift's Inevitable Harry Styles Track: Our Predictions

Tue, 04 Dec 2012 21:47:56 +0000

She's penned a song about almost every ex, so will Harry's be an angry kiss-off or a mushy ballad?
By Kara Warner

Taylor Swift and Harry Styles
Photo: INF Daily

One Direction Fans Crushed By Haylor Rumors

Tue, 04 Dec 2012 20:17:44 +0000

'I love Taylor Swift, I love Harry, but he's mine. Sorry,' one fan tells MTV News.
By MTV News staff

Taylor Swift and Harry Styles
Photo: Splash News

We Can't Keep Up! Is Taylor Swift Dating Harry Styles Now?

Tue, 04 Dec 2012 16:42:01 +0000

We’re starting to think that Taylor Swift might be suffering from Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. (ADHD, to you & me). At least when...

Taylor Swift, Harry Styles Spotted Holding Hands After New York Show

Tue, 04 Dec 2012 15:33:12 +0000

Hours after Swift attended a Kennedy bash, she hit up an afterparty with Styles following 1D's New York show.
By Jocelyn Vena

Taylor Swift and Harry Styles in New York on Monday
Photo: INF Daily

Justin Bieber & Selena Gomez Go For A Ride — What Does It Mean For Their Relationship?!

Mon, 03 Dec 2012 23:31:07 +0000

Taylor Swift and Harry Styles aren’t the only ones making Are They Or Aren’t They? headlines today. Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez are still confusing the heck out of us with their ambiguous relationship status. The pop stars were spotted riding in JB’s white Ferrari in Calabasas on Monday (December 3) heading to the Biebs’ house. ... More »

Taylor Swift And Harry Styles: Timeline To 'Haylor'

Mon, 03 Dec 2012 21:47:40 +0000

MTV News looks back at all the long-brewing relationship rumors between TSwift and the One Direction superstar.
By Christina Garibaldi

Harry Styles and Taylor Swift at the Central Park Zoo
Photo: Splash News

SPIN names their Top 50 Albums of 2012 (Frank Ocean is #1)

Mon, 03 Dec 2012 21:00:30 +0000

by Andrew Sacher

SPIN have revealed their list of the top 50 albums of 2012. It continues SPIN's trend of giving love to crossover punk and metal (which they've been pretty consistent with since naming Fucked Up's David Comes to Life their top album of 2011) with the inclusion of Baroness, Torche, Pallbearer, Cloud Nothings, and Japandroids, but rather surprisingly excludes the SPIN Essential'd Ceremony - Zoo and The Men - Open Your Heart, in favor of popular blowouts by Taylor Swift, fun., and Nicki Minaj. The list also shares its #1 and #2 with the two highest Pitchfork-rated albums of the year. And no Grimes.

The list begins with the Kanye-cribbed disclaimer, "Most critics' taste levels ain't at our waist level. Ain't nobody fucking with our clique." Check out SPIN's Top 50 LPs of 2012 list below.

Continue reading "SPIN names their Top 50 Albums of 2012 (Frank Ocean is #1)" at brooklynvegan

Taylor Swift And Harry Styles Are Dating — Or At Least Are Going To Central Park Together

Mon, 03 Dec 2012 21:00:18 +0000

Taylor Swift is still in the midst of a media blitz for her fourth studio album Red, but it seems she’s already getting a jump on compiling new material for her next LP. By which we mean: Tay was spotted having a “date” with One Direction‘s Harry Styles at the Central Park Zoo. The pair ... More »

Harry Styles Fans Are Not Happy About the "Haylor" Taylor Swift Romance!

Mon, 03 Dec 2012 19:01:25 +0000

One Direction has created fandom almost unrivalled by any artist other than Justin Bieber. A virulent flurry of teenage female obsessers who send...

“Extraneous Lyrics 2012″: Watch All The Words Left Out Of Pop’s Biggest Songs Of The Year

Mon, 03 Dec 2012 17:58:04 +0000

Pop songs are not only catchy, but fairly to-the-point when delivering a message. For the last three years, Dave Werner has been out to remedy that with his annual “Extraneous Lyrics” medleys, whereby the San Franciscan adds in all the words our favorite artists “left out.” To wrap up 2012, Dave has served up another ... More »

Spin‘s 50 Best Albums Of 2012

Mon, 03 Dec 2012 17:51:46 +0000

Here’s one of the big ones. Spin remains my favorite music publication of all time, and this year they joined Stereogum under the BUZZMedia umbrella. Spin‘s top 50 is appealingly loony and all-over-the-place, and it’s the rare list that makes room for stuff like Taylor Swift alongside Chicago footwork compilations and stoner-metal lurches. You’ll find [...]

Taylor Swift, Harry Styles Spark 'Haylor' Romance Rumors

Mon, 03 Dec 2012 15:14:06 +0000

New photos of TSwift and One Direction heartthrob at Central Park Zoo fuel relationship buzz.
By Jocelyn Vena

Taylor Swift and Harry Styles spend a romantic afternoon in NYC's Central Park
Photo: Splash News

The 75 Best Songs of 2012

Mon, 03 Dec 2012 08:20:00 +0000

Artist: Bob Mould Image: http://images.popmatters.com/music_cover_art/b/bob_mould_silver_age.jpg Display as: List List number: 75 Display Width: 200 Bob Mould"The Descent" What a year it was for Bob Mould fans. Sugar’s classic music from 1992 to 1994 was given a wonderful spit and polish, Mould was playing Copper Blue live for the first time in ages, and in the process, the former Hüsker Dü member rediscovered his love of good, loud powerpop. Backed up by a powerhouse rhythm section,…

Taylor Swift faking relationship with Harry Styles?

Sun, 02 Dec 2012 21:12:25 +0000

Taylor Swift is reportedly faking her relationship with One Direction star Harry Styles.The 'We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together' singer is...

Taylor Swift Performs “I Knew You Were Trouble” At KIIS FM’s Jingle Ball In LA

Sun, 02 Dec 2012 19:04:16 +0000

Taylor Swift may have known the mystery guy she’s singing about was trouble when he walked in, but we feel just the opposite about her. We know we’ll get a trouble-free show when she’s on stage. The former country songbird has kicked up her stage presence several notches since her early days, handling her gig ... More »

Grimes' Top 10 LPs of 2012 --- includes Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber & Doldrums' 2013 LP (stream a track)

Sat, 01 Dec 2012 21:00:30 +0000

"Every time I mention I like her or Justin
on Twitter though I lose like 20 followers," - Grimes

DOWNLOAD: Doldrums - She is the Wave (MP4)

Grimes at MHOW, 10/25/2012 (more by Amanda Hatfield)

There is no doubt Grimes has had an amazing, perhaps overwhelming, year, selling out four 600-capacity nights in NYC recently to her album Visions ending up on many Best Albums of 2012 lists (like Rough Trade Shops, NME and Fred Armisen's). But what did Claire Boucher pick as her favorite albums of the year? We asked her and you can check out what she told us below.

She cheated a bit though, listing her tour-mates and Arbutus Records label-mate Doldrums' Lesser Evil as her #1, which doesn't actually come out till February 23, 2013, but if it's a list of what she heard in 2012 then we'll let it slide. You can download a track from that Doldrums album above or stream it below along with its music video.

Check out Grimes Top 10 (plus one more, actually) of 2012, which includes both Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift and possibly some inside jokes (we're just printing what she gave us), and that Doldrums song, below.

Continue reading "Grimes' Top 10 LPs of 2012 --- includes Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber & Doldrums' 2013 LP (stream a track)" at brooklynvegan

Harry Styles set to perform with Taylor Swift

Sat, 01 Dec 2012 11:00:02 +0000

Harry Styles has invited Taylor Swift to perform with One Direction.The 18-year-old pop star is dating the 'We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together'...

Taylor Swift doesn't want to get married soon

Sat, 01 Dec 2012 06:00:04 +0000

Taylor Swift doesn't want to marry young.The 22-year-old star - who has had flings with Jake Gyllenhaal, John Mayer, Taylor Lautner and recently...

Taylor Swift Arrives At LAX Wearing Red, Of Course

Sat, 01 Dec 2012 01:35:19 +0000

After “loving Australia” during her short trip to perform at the 2012 ARIA Awards, Taylor Swift was back in the States. The paper-chasing pop star was seen arriving at the Los Angeles International Airport on Friday (November 30) dressed in black skinny jeans and a red and black flannel. Despite the rainy weather, Tay sported ... More »

Taylor Swift Performs “Begin Again” Live On ‘Ellen’

Fri, 30 Nov 2012 19:43:19 +0000

Haven’t had enough Taylor Swift performances lately? Good — there’s another one comin’ atcha, with the singer-songwriter taking to The Ellen Degeneres Show to perform her ballad “Begin Again.” The performance was actually taped last month when Swift turned out a mini-concert for Ellen in Los Angeles, but they’ve been holding out on unveiling it until now — probably to help ... More »

Taylor Swift Gets Theatrical With “I Knew You Were Trouble” At The 2012 ARIAs: Watch

Fri, 30 Nov 2012 16:44:02 +0000

Taylor Swift‘s evolution into a pop superstar was completed in her performance at the 2012 Australian Record Industry Association awards (they’re like the Australian Grammys), where she delivered a performance to rival her memorable set at the 2012 American Music Awards: That is, bombastic, over the top and impressive. While her version of “I Knew You ... More »

Dr Dre revealed as highest paid musician 2012

Fri, 30 Nov 2012 10:12:08 +0000

Beats By Dre sale elevates rapper above Elton John, U2 and Taylor Swift

Taylor Swift Brings “Trouble” To The 2012 ARIA Awards

Fri, 30 Nov 2012 00:32:28 +0000

Taylor Swift arrived at the 2012 ARIA Awards in Sydney on Thursday night (November 29) looking as flawless as ever. The pop star strutted down the red carpet in a breathtaking Elie Saab ivory gown. Tay ditched the red lipstick she’s been sporting lately in favor of a light pink color (which kept her from looking ... More »

Dr. Dre Is World’s Highest-Paid Musician, Justin Bieber & Taylor Swift Crack The ‘Forbes’ Top 10

Thu, 29 Nov 2012 20:54:43 +0000

It has been a good year for Dr. Dre. Like, $110 million good. But in case you weren’t aware of just how good that is, well, he has landed on another Forbes list of wealthiest something-or-others, this time topping the mag’s roster of the 25 highest earners in music this year. A couple months ago the publication ... More »

'New Year's Rockin' Eve' Line-Up: Taylor Swift, Carly Rae Jepsen, More

Thu, 29 Nov 2012 15:34:40 +0000

Pitbull, OneRepublic, Brandy and Neon Trees will also perform on the Ryan Seacrest-hosted show.
By Gil Kaufman

Taylor Swift
Photo: Michael Tran/ Getty Images

Carly Rae Jepsen, Pitbull, Flo Rida To Rock ‘Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve’

Thu, 29 Nov 2012 00:14:43 +0000

Carly Rae Jepsen and a clutch of other hitmakers have been added to 2012′s Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve Hosted By Ryan Seacrest, which will be headlined by the still Red-hot Taylor Swift. (We guess it’s only fitting that we’ll close out the year with one final performance of 2012′s longest-running chart-topper, CRJ’s “Call Me ... More »

Taylor Swift Performs “I Knew You Were Trouble” & “Red” On ‘TODAY’

Tue, 27 Nov 2012 14:34:07 +0000

Taylor Swift‘s performance of “I Knew You Were Trouble” last weekend at the American Music Awards was a showstopper — but can she replicate that dynamic style, over and over again? In the case of yesterday’s set on the Australian morning show TODAY, she pulled it off, Swift delivering an energetic rendition of “Trouble” that impressed ... More »

Taylor Swift Wears Stripes In Sydney

Tue, 27 Nov 2012 00:59:50 +0000

Taylor Swift was spotted in Sydney on Sunday (November 25) wearing a striped black-and-white sweater, jeans and red lipstick as she arrived in Australia. The chart-topping pop star is Down Under to perform at the 2012 ARIA awards on Thursday night (November 29). After navigating her way through a mob of fans that greeted her ... More »

Does Record Breaking, Platinum Selling Taylor Swift Still have "Much to Learn"?

Fri, 23 Nov 2012 19:08:29 +0000

You would have thought Taylor Swift has everything covered, what with being a global star, selling millions of records and in the process, breaking...

One Direction’s ‘Take Me Home’ Debuts At #1 On Albums Chart

Wed, 21 Nov 2012 17:14:53 +0000

Give yourselves a pat on the back, Directioners, because your love of One Direction has truly paid off: The boy band notched another #1 album, their second in less than a year, as their sophomore LP Take Me Home took the top slot on the Billboard 200 chart this week, moving 540,000 units. Earlier this year, Taylor Swift‘s Red sold 1.2 million in ... More »

Beyonce, Bieber and Rihanna want to work with Ed Sheeran, says Taylor Swift

Tue, 20 Nov 2012 11:48:45 +0000

UK singer-songwriter labelled "most in-demand songwriter in the world" by country star

Ed Sheeran to write for Beyonce and Rihanna

Tue, 20 Nov 2012 08:21:09 +0000

Beyonce Knowles and Rihanna want Ed Sheeran to write songs for him.The 'A Team' hitmaker has a growing number of fans of his work and Taylor Swift -...

Taylor Swift Is Pink & Punky On The Set Of Her “I Knew You Were Trouble” Video

Mon, 19 Nov 2012 19:35:04 +0000

Taylor Swift wasted no time after turning out a ravishing performance of “I Knew You Were Trouble” at the American Music Awards Sunday (November 18). After performing and taking home the trophy for Favorite Female Country Artist, Swift immediately darted off to shoot the “Trouble” music video. She was spotted wearing a leather jacket and ... More »

Taylor Swift Wasn't Amused By Conor Kennedy Joke At Cma Awards

Mon, 19 Nov 2012 19:06:16 +0000

Singer Taylor Swift was far from amused when Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood joked about her break-up with Conor Kennedy during their opening...

Taylor Swift Goes Punk Rock For 'I Knew You Were Trouble' Video

Mon, 19 Nov 2012 17:52:33 +0000

Singer kicks country to the curb during video shoot in Los Angeles.
By Jocelyn Vena

Taylor Swift on the set of her "I Knew You Were Trouble" video
Photo: Bruja/Juan Sharma/PacificCoastNews.com

AP PHOTOS: Bieber, Minaj, Swift win at AMAs

Mon, 19 Nov 2012 17:34:57 +0000

Justin Beiber, Nicki Minaj and Taylor Swift won honors at Sunday night's American Music Awards.

American Music awards 2012 - in pictures

Mon, 19 Nov 2012 17:03:18 +0000

Pink, Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift … stars of the US music world step out in style for the 40th annual American Music awards

Taylor Swift Films New Video After Amas Win

Mon, 19 Nov 2012 16:11:19 +0000

Taylor Swift had no time to celebrate her American Music Awards win on Sunday (18Nov12) - she headed straight from the ceremony to a night shoot for...

2012 AMAs Owned By Justin Bieber And His Clique

Mon, 19 Nov 2012 04:46:38 +0000

Bieber allies Carly Rae Jepsen and Usher also take home hardware, while Nicki Minaj and Taylor Swift are big winners as well.
By Jocelyn Vena

Justin Bieber performs at the 2012 AMAs
Photo: Kevin Winter/ Getty Images

Taylor Swift Performs “I Knew You Were Trouble” At The 2012 AMAs: Watch

Mon, 19 Nov 2012 02:36:11 +0000

Taylor Swift has performed “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” so many times it must be old hat — but the country-pop superstar surprised fans tonight at the 2012 American Music Awards when she instead turned out a blockbuster rendition of her new single “I Knew You Were Trouble.” Looking more like a true pop star than ... More »

Should Rihanna be duetting with Chris Brown? | Bim Adewunmi and Kieran Yates

Fri, 16 Nov 2012 19:30:01 +0000

Rihanna's new album, featuring a duet with Chris Brown, who assaulted her in 2009, has caused uproar. Fans Kieran Yates and Bim Adewunmi wonder why she's done it

She is the most downloaded artist ever, but pop star Rihanna is never far from controversy – whether for her explicit performances or her latest outfit. Now she's created another storm by duetting on her new album, Unapologetic, with Chris Brown, who was convicted of assaulting her in 2009, when she was dating him. The song, called Nobody's Business, is about never-ending love. Feminist commentator Bim Adewunmi and music writer Kieran Yates discuss what is behind the move. Homa Khaleeli listens in.

Homa Khaleeli: How did you feel about Rihanna duetting with Chris Brown?

Bim Adewunmi: The scary thing is that I am not shocked at all. And I think we should be. A woman who was assaulted in the public eye by a well known man, is now duetting with him – and it's not even a surprise.

Kieran Yates: After the assault there was public pressure on Rihanna to make an explicit statement about domestic violence and campaign for the most vulnerable women in society. And she didn't do that. So this made the duet less surprising. But to me, this is a woman who is trying to take events into her own hands, however problematic that might be. I also wonder to what extent she is trying to legitimise to herself what happened by making this album and making sense of it. The song is an uncomfortable listen – it's an up-tempo track. But there is nothing that paints her as a victim.

BA: No, but however you slice it – even if it was a ballad – whatever the format, this is a man who hit you and bit you, repeatedly, and threatened you. And it wasn't a one-off. So I don't think she should have done the duet. But I'm wary of victim blaming because I don't know how I would react if I was hit by someone I love.

KY: On the one hand, it's so dangerous to blame the victim for their abuse and how they choose to react to it, and say "what a silly little girl, she's so naive". But it's also problematic to say she's still maintaining some strength as a woman [by doing this track], because that also sends out a difficult message. There is this notion that in the "urban" music scene, women have to be "sassy" – be strong and independent – and I wonder how much of this [the duet and renewed contact with Brown] is a way of reclaiming that. I do agree this isn't the best thing for her to have done, but she is creating an important narrative with her behaviour, because people don't deal with domestic violence in a clear-cut way.

BA: Other women in the music industry have been hit before. And men in the industry have hit them. This time there was a massive uproar because we saw the pictures and the violence was so visible. But it is also true that if she had been Taylor Swift, the mainstream media would have killed Brown. There is a special interest not only because Rihanna and Brown are high-profile, but also because he was a black man and she is a black woman.

KY: Yes, I think if it had been someone like Swift there is no way there would be this collective amnesia, and no way his album would go to No 1. No way he would be getting awards. And it's certainly not down to the argument that his music is so great that it transcends what happens! But he is still getting coverage and reviews. He is still very visible and still celebrated. To see him being No 1 sends such a dangerous message.

BA: Rihanna is still a very young woman and is in a bubble. There is a production line all albums go through – did no one think: "Maybe this is not the best thing for her?" Did no one think about the message this collaboration was giving out? They both have a broad demographic they sell to – many are young people. Why didn't anyone question it? I went to see a romantic comedy Brown was in recently, and the teenage girls in front of me screamed every time he was on screen. This man is guilty of domestic abuse – we all saw the pictures – but after all that these girls still squealed with delight like he was in One Direction. These are the people buying his records and it doesn't bother them what he has done. I was at an event when teenage girls were talking about the attack and one said, "Maybe she said something," and another said, "I heard she has a mouth on her." My mouth was hanging open in shock. So really Brown and Rihanna's relationship reflects problems we already have.

KY: But it's also true you would never get a black female artist marketed in the same way as Swift – as the nation's sweetheart. Black female artists are either marketed as sassy, independent women, or like X factor winners – who have nothing to say and are blank.

BA: The Rihanna package is that she is this sexually aggressive woman. I think her image has been hijacked from her. Beyoncé is massive, but we don't know jack about her life – it's carefully edited and everything is on her own terms.

KY: There's this idea that Rihanna is in control – and that's why she made this album. That's why she tweets about smoking weed and Instagrams a shot of a stripper between her thighs, because we are supposed to think: "She's so crazy, she does whatever she wants." As someone from the outside looking in, it doesn't seem like she is really doing what she wants to do.

BA: I am happy our culture is more accepting of women expressing their sexuality and desires. But at the same time, she is selling to seven-year-olds. I love Rude Boy – I think it's hilarious, but it's problematic that it is marketed to children.

KY: I am shocked and excited and thrilled that Rihanna is talking about female pleasure – what she wants to be excited. But I find it difficult the way her sexuality is marketed.

BA: It's like the way Natasha Walters in Living Dolls says that for many women sex has become a performance – and she links this to the rise of porn. She thinks women are not having sex for their own pleasure but to show the "tricks" they can do to please men – and that's the Rihanna experience for me. For me the real problem is not that she is sexual, but this idea that it is all a performance; a performance for men rather than empowering women.

KY: Beyoncé was part of a female group so we equate her with female collectivism and we see her talking about loving her fellow women. I don't see that with Rihanna. Rihanna was generic until she was given her new, sexually aggressive look, and it was only then that she became a huge star. With Beyoncé, it felt like on her own terms.

HK: So do you think Rihanna is a bad influence on young women?

KY: She's great for showing us how much further we have to go – how much further women in pop have to go and how much the patriarchy is very much at work in the industry. But I still think she is a strong woman despite all that's happened, and her voice should be heard. Whereas I don't want to be part of a culture that buys into Chris Brown. I don't want him to be visible.

Homa Khaleeli

Rihanna’s Body Of Work Covers ‘Billboard’ December Issue

Fri, 16 Nov 2012 17:06:52 +0000

The second half of 2012 belongs to Rihanna. Sure, Taylor Swift slayed with Red, and One Direction have been riding a steady stream of momentum ever since releasing “Live While We’re Young.” But nobody has dominated the current pop music discussion like RiRi. So the Bajan has earned her spot closing out the year on the December 2012 issue of Billboard. ... More »

Radiohead to Rihanna: the week in music

Fri, 16 Nov 2012 17:05:00 +0000

Check Thom Yorke, Taylor Swift, Jarvis Cocker and Diana Krall .... all in action around the world

Karin Andreasson

Taylor Swift Performs “State Of Grace” Live On ‘The X Factor’: Watch

Fri, 16 Nov 2012 15:32:25 +0000

Not that it’s possible to really get sick of Taylor Swift, but we were beginning to tire of watching live performances of “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” — and then, lo and behold, Swift made our dreams come true by switching up her game when she took the stage at The X Factor last night. Performing a gorgeous ... More »

We Get Mail: What To Enjoy And How To Enjoy It

Wed, 14 Nov 2012 16:48:00 +0000

How do you maintain your dignity as a music snob without alienating others? We answer that question, along with queries about Taylor Swift, avoiding enemies and teaching your children about Phish.

2012 MTV EMAs: Taylor Swift, Lana Del Rey And More On The Red Carpet

Mon, 12 Nov 2012 19:42:15 +0000

Last night (November 11) in Frankfurt, Germany our favorite pop stars gathered for the 2012 MTV Europe Music Awards. But before Taylor Swift, Carly Rae Jepsen, Lana Del Rey or PSY could win big (and take the stage) they first had to walk the red carpet. See Taylor (before she donned a top hat like a circus ... More »

Taylor Swift: Not having control is hard

Mon, 12 Nov 2012 17:51:06 +0000

Taylor Swift admits it's hard not having control over every aspect of her life.The 'We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together' singer has accepted her...

Taylor Swift scoops MTV Europe Music awards hat-trick – video

Mon, 12 Nov 2012 14:37:46 +0000

Taylor Swift wins gongs for best female act, best live act and best look at the MTV Europe Music awards in Frankfurt

MTV Europe Music Awards 2012: Taylor Swift & Justin Bieber Win Big, Rita Ora & PSY Perform

Mon, 12 Nov 2012 13:54:43 +0000

Theatricality was the word at last night’s MTV Europe Music Awards in Frankfurt, Germany, with over-the-top performances and fashions from an elite crowd of the music industry’s biggest global superstars, and also Kim Kardashian, who wore a dress with a big long train on the red carpet because it’s Kim Kardashian and that’s just what ... More »

Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez split

Mon, 12 Nov 2012 11:55:41 +0000

Pop pair break up with 'major trust issues', while fans note with dismay Bieber's appearance at a Victoria's Secret fashion show

Beliebers are in hysterics – some delighted, some grieving – following the news that Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez have split up. After nearly two years together, Gomez allegedly dumped her fellow pop star due to "major trust issues".

Gomez, who is 20, "broke up with Justin" in early November, an unnamed source revealed to Us Weekly. The touring singers' "crazy schedules" had made the relationship difficult, they said, and "Selena definitely had some major trust issues with Justin".

Just hours after the news broke, Bieber performed one of his idols' best-known break-up songs at a concert in New Jersey. Billboard reports that the 18-year-old strummed his way through Justin Timberlake's Cry Me a River – a song that was written following Timberlake's split from Britney Spears, and which isn't part of Bieber's standard setlist. Bieber has been otherwise quiet about his love life, posting glib tweets about "good rehearsals" and "great shows".

"A lot of emotions right now," he wrote following last week's US election. "Congrats President Obama." Then, this weekend: "Focused on the positive. #30MillionBeliebers with me. Im never leaving u because u r always there 4 me ... regardless of what happens i see all of the tweets and all the love you guys are sending me. thank u." When he was confronted by the radio show Open House Party, on Saturday night, Bieber said, "I don't know what to say ... I don't know what's going on in my life. To even assess that – it doesn't make sense [because] I have not made any comment."

Some Bieberphiles have noted the heartthrob's appearance at last week's Victoria's Secret fashion show, where the singer was seen partying with several lingerie models. "Fun night," he tweeted. After model Barbara Palvin posted a photograph of herself and Bieber, the 19-year-old was deluged by Beliebers speculating that she had come between him and Gomez. "[L]ast time im saying it. please calm down," Palvin tweeted. "There is nothing going on w him. i met him and did a pic w him. wouldnt u do the same?:) #friendship."

Meanwhile Bieber was a big winner at the MTV Europe Music awards in Frankfurt on Sunday, winning three awards.

Sean Michaels

Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber win big at MTV EMAs

Mon, 12 Nov 2012 11:14:50 +0000

Muse, The Killers and No Doubt perform at the Frankfurt bash

Muse, The Killers and No Doubt perform at MTV EMAs

Mon, 12 Nov 2012 11:14:50 +0000

Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber each win three prizes at the bash

Taylor Swift and Bieber triumph at MTV awards

Mon, 12 Nov 2012 08:54:00 +0000

Pair each go home with three awards as South Korean internet phenomenon Psy wins the Best Video prize

Taylor Swift has triumphed at the MTV Europe Music awards. The 22-year old singer picked up three awards at the ceremony in Frankfurt, winning Best Female Act, Best Live Act and Best Look.

Swift said: "I am so excited I can't believe you gave me three awards. I'm kind of insecure in general - so this is great for my self-confidence."

Her success was matched by that of Justin Bieber, who also won three awards: Best Male, Best Pop and Best World Stage.

South Korean internet phenomenon Psy took the coveted Best Video prize.

The event included performances from Rita Ora, Alicia Keys and the Killers and was hosted by supermodel Heidi Klum.

The winners in full

:: Best Song - Carly Rae Jepsen - Call Me Maybe

:: Best New Act - One Direction

:: Best Female Act - Taylor Swift

:: Best Male Act - Justin Bieber

:: Best Pop Act - Justin Bieber

:: Best Live Act - Taylor Swift

:: Best Hip Hop - Nicki Minaj

:: Best Rock Act - Linkin Park

:: Best Electronic Act - David Guetta

:: Best Alternative Act - Lana Del Rey

:: Best Video - Gangnam Style (Psy)

:: Best Look - Taylor Swift

:: Biggest Fans - One Direction

:: Best Worldwide Act - Han Geng

:: Best World Stage - Justin Bieber

:: Best Push - Carly Rae Jepson

:: Global Icon - Whitney Houston

Taylor Swift tops MTV EMA Awards

Mon, 12 Nov 2012 07:16:09 +0000

The country star and Justin Bieber each win three MTV Europe Music Awards as Psy wins best video for Gangnam Style.

MTV EMA 2012 Owned By Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift

Mon, 12 Nov 2012 06:18:44 +0000

Performances by Swift, PSY, Muse and more captivate Frankfurt, Germany, crowd.
By Carly Wolkoff

Justin Bieber gives a video acceptance for his win at the MTV EMA 2012
Photo: Dave J. Hogan/ Getty Images

Taylor Swift Gets In The Ring For Circus-Themed EMA Performance

Mon, 12 Nov 2012 05:41:39 +0000

On top of performing 'We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together,' Swift takes home her first three EMAs.
By Carly Wolkoff

Taylor Swift performs at the MTV EMA 2012
Photo: Jeff Kravitz/ FilmMagic

MTV Europe music awards - in pictures

Mon, 12 Nov 2012 00:52:00 +0000

Psy, Muse, Taylor Swift, Carly Rae Jepsen and Alicia Keys were among the performers at the event in Frankfurt

Taylor Swift Gets Chatty On ‘Alan Carr’

Sun, 11 Nov 2012 21:11:36 +0000

As Taylor Swift herself describes, Alan Carr is “the fun guy” — AKA the guy who gets our favorite pop stars to loosen up and share info we don’t get from them on talk show appearances domestically. Unfortunately, Taylor didn’t cut all that loose, turning down an adult beverage in favor of an energy drink. ... More »

Taylor Swift buying London home

Sat, 10 Nov 2012 21:03:44 +0000

Taylor Swift is reportedly set to buy a new home in London.The 'We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together' singer - who is rumoured to have rekindled...

Taylor Swift To Bring In The New Year For ABC's 'New Year's Rockin' Eve'

Sat, 10 Nov 2012 14:55:38 +0000

Country-pop starlet Taylor Swift will be headlining this years 'New Year's Rockin' Eve' at New York's Times Square, performing live just before the...

Taylor Swift In Paris

Fri, 09 Nov 2012 21:55:29 +0000

After turning on the Christmas lights in London, Taylor Swift has headed to the City Of Lights — Paris. The country pop star was spotted on Friday (November 9) at Virgin Radio to promote her latest album Red. The chart-topper kept with her album’s color scheme once again, this time with a striking color block ... More »

The Secret Genius Of Taylor Swift

Fri, 09 Nov 2012 08:17:00 +0000

Taylor Swift's new album sold more than a million copies in its first week — a rare feat these days. She did it by answering a surprisingly complex question: What's the best way to sell an album?

Harry Styles and Taylor Swift wear matching necklaces

Fri, 09 Nov 2012 02:00:01 +0000

Harry Styles has sparked rumours he is romancing Taylor Swift again after the pair were spotted wearing matching necklaces.The 18-year-old One...

Taylor Swift's pals think she overworks relationships

Thu, 08 Nov 2012 06:00:04 +0000

Taylor Swift's friends think she puts too much pressure on her relationships.The 'We Are Never Ever Ever Getting Back Together' hitmaker - who...

ArtsBeat: Taylor Swift Holds On at No. 1

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 22:30:38 +0000

Despite a 72 percent drop in sales, Ms. Swift's album still sold twice as many copies as her nearest competitor.

Taylor Swift Blocks Meek Mill, Rod Stewart From Topping Album Chart

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 19:48:27 +0000

Taylor Swift easily fended off new releases from Meek Mill, Rod Stewart, Toby Keith and Neil Young on the Billboard Top 200 chart, as her fourth LP Red sold another 344,000 copies in its second week. This brings the chart-topping album’s sales to 1.553 million…after only two weeks! Meek Mill thus settles for a #2 ... More »

Taylor Swift Stays On Top, Meek Mill's Debut Lands Him At #2

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 17:12:21 +0000

MMG rapper's debut album Dreams and Nightmares clocks in right behind Taylor Swift's Red.
By Nadeska Alexis

Taylor Swift
Photo: WireImage

Music apps are the new albums. Or the new concert DVDs. Or...

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 12:03:00 +0000

David Gilmour, Lady Gaga, The xx and Calvin Harris app strategies show music industry experimentation

Every so often, the music industry gets sucked into a debate about whether the traditional album is dead, even if the murderer has varied down the years, from iTunes downloads to Spotify playlists.

Taylor Swift's ability to sell 1.2m albums in a week in the US alone suggests that the album remains alive and kicking, so you won't catch me suggesting that apps are the next candidate to kill off long-players.

It's more accurate to say there's some interesting experimentation going on around apps and albums that either mutate the traditional format, or act as digital marketing to promote it.

Some examples from the last week show how. Former Mercury Prize winners The xx launched an Android and iOS app inviting fans to "immerse yourself" in their most recent album, Coexist.

That means high-definition videos for every song – IF you already own it digitally – an interactive version of the album artwork, lyrics and the usual artist-app mix of news, tour-dates, ticketing and merchandise links. It's a companion app to the album, rather than a replacement for it.

Elsewhere, Calvin Harris also has a new album out, 18 Months, which also has a companion app for Android and iOS. This one streams the entire album in full, but with a twist: only while you dance.

Well, move is more accurate: the app uses the device's accelerometer to detect the user's movement, and stops playing if you stop moving. A fun novelty, perhaps, but also one that nudges fans towards buying the album, even though it's available in full through the app.

A third example, which isn't out yet, is David Gilmour In Concert, which will be released on iOS on 19 November with Android to follow. It's less an album, and more a live-concert DVD. In fact, it's a specific live-concert DVD from 2002, offering all that release's video and extras for a 2012-suitable price of £5.99.

Then there's Lady Gaga, who revealed plans to turn her next album ARTPOP into an app earlier in 2012.

Speaking to The Guardian last weekend, Gaga's manager Troy Carter promised "chats, films for every song, extra music, Gaga-inspired games, fashion updates, magazines and more still in the works", while sugesting that "the idea of having an application is the future".

Finally, another bunch of veterans – Crosby, Stills & Nash – have launched CSN, which claims to be "the first subscription-based iPad app for a recording artist to be approved for sale in the Apple App Store".

The app itself is free, providing a band biography and links to iTunes, social networks and the band's official site. But fans who pay £2.49 a month will get "exclusive content, updates and premium fan features".

So, two examples of apps that promote the album – with and without full streams included – one example of an app repackaging existing DVD content, an upcoming app that becomes a supercharged version of the album, and another that aims to make money for a band through digital subscriptions.

None of these apps represents a solution to the recorded music industry's problems over the last decade, and none of them will either kill or save the traditional album. They're just interesting, innovative experiments hinting at how apps might play a role in artists' careers going forward.

Stuart Dredge

Taylor Swift Turns London Red At Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony

Tue, 06 Nov 2012 20:50:21 +0000

Taylor Swift is across the pond today (November 6), as the country pop sentation has been entrusted with the important task of heading up the Christmas lighting ceremony in London. “Got to help switch on the lights at Westfield tonight in London and lots of people showed up and we played a few songs and ... More »

Ne-Yo’s ‘R.E.D.’: Review Revue

Tue, 06 Nov 2012 18:37:06 +0000

Ne-Yo‘s new album R.E.D. (not to be confused with Taylor Swift‘s recent Red!) is garnering a lot of buzz, and with good reason: It earned the R&B singer-songwriter his first Top 10 hit since 2008 with the Sia-penned single “Let Me Love You (Until You Learn To Love Yourself),” signifying a return to form for the crooner. But has Ne-Yo ... More »

Adam Young is ready to date Taylor Swift

Tue, 06 Nov 2012 17:51:07 +0000

Owl City singer Adam Young is ''around'' if Taylor Swift wants a date.The 'Fireflies' hitmaker has had a crush on the country superstar ever since...

Taylor Swift Raises the Bar with a Savvy ‘Red’ Marketing Campaign

Mon, 05 Nov 2012 20:35:27 +0000

Los Angeles Times (MCT) -- LOS ANGELES — When Taylor Swift’s album “Red” was released last week, the pop singer’s most ardent fans wasted no time downloading the digital edition on iTunes, vaulting it to No. 1 on the online retailer’s Top Albums chart in a quick 36 minutes. Those who wanted to hold a CD with her latest 16 songs were also able to snap it up as early as 12:01 a.m. Oct. 22 at thousands of 24-hour Walgreens…

Taylor Swift Leaps Into Pop With 'Red'

Mon, 05 Nov 2012 18:34:00 +0000

Critic Ken Tucker says that, like all good pop artists, Swift continues to evolve in a manner which challenges her diehard fans while inviting naysayers to give it another listen.

Taylor Swift: 'My Confidence Is Easy To Shake'

Fri, 02 Nov 2012 20:23:00 +0000

At 22, Swift is one of the biggest commercial forces in pop music. She tells NPR's Guy Raz that she's stopped worrying about whether her songs are too personal: "If I let my fans into my life and my feelings," she says, "it turns out they have all those things, too, and it kind of connects us."

Did Taylor Swift Plagiarize A Matt Nathanson Lyric?

Fri, 02 Nov 2012 20:13:20 +0000

When we pored over Taylor Swift‘s Red lyrics to compare them to those on her debut album, we never thought to cross-reference her words with songs written by some of her favorite musicians. But maybe we should have, because the Twitter masses have pointed out a similarity between a line on her song “All Too ... More »

CMA Awards 2012: Taylor Swift & Kelly Clarkson Perform, Blake Shelton & Miranda Lambert Win Big

Fri, 02 Nov 2012 13:20:45 +0000

Country music’s power couple Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert proved the biggest winners at last night’s 46th annual Country Music Association Awards, broadcast live from (where else?) Nashville: Shelton won his first Entertainer Of The Year award, as well as picking up a Male Vocalist Of The Year award for the third consecutive year running, while Lambert nabbed the ... More »

Taylor Swift To Perform In Times Square On New Year's Eve

Thu, 01 Nov 2012 19:06:15 +0000

Country singer Taylor Swift is set to usher in the New Year with millions of fans after agreeing to perform in New York City's Times Square just...

Taylor Swift, Kendrick Lamar, Soundscan & The Future Of The Album

Thu, 01 Nov 2012 18:26:50 +0000

Yesterday, some interesting stuff happened on the Billboard charts. Though it was absolutely unsurprising that Taylor Swift’s Red topped the chart, what was surprising was the exact volume she moved — 1.2 million sold, the highest sales total since Eminem’s 2002 release of The Eminem Show, and a figure that made Taylor the only female [...]

Robbie Williams: Take the Crown – review

Thu, 01 Nov 2012 15:29:01 +0000

Robbie Williams is back! With the big pop album we've all been waiting for! But hang on, isn't that what he did last time?

Robbie Williams' ninth solo album arrives in a blaze of bullishness. Everything about it screams "comeback": from its title to the lyrics of its opening track ("they said … the magic was leaving me – I don't think so") to its advance publicity. "Take the Crown is the big, brash, confident Robbie Williams pop record that his fans have been longing for," offered one preview approvingly quoted on the singer's website.

It's at this point that anyone keeping an eye on Williams' career over recent years might be forgiven for feeling a sense of deja vu: hang on, wasn't his last album meant to be that as well? Reality Killed the Video Star from 2009 was, Williams said at the time, an album that "ticked all the boxes", following 2006's career-derailing Rudebox: "It's a big pop record," added his manager David Enthoven. "We've got four or five smash hits. And if you're worried he's rapping on it – he's not." It appeared to do the trick: a year after its release, it was still the eighth-biggest selling album across Europe. Now, a little confusingly, Williams has claimed that Reality Killed the Video Star was "half-arsed": "I had intentionally and unintentionally not managed to write a hit," he said recently. "I can take my eye off the ball sometimes and not concentrate. Must do better as they said at school. And I will this time."

It's all a bit peculiar, but then anyone who's been keeping an eye on Williams' solo career over recent years might note that "a bit peculiar" could be its motto. A scrappy, undercooked pop album greeted in some quarters as if it were the most perplexingly avant-garde artistic statement since Lou Reed put out Metal Machine Music, Rudebox was the kind of disaster other artists would spend their entire careers working towards: it went to No 1 in 14 countries. As with Reality Killed the Video Star, its supposed failure tells you more about the sheer scale on which Williams' early-noughties "imperial phase" played out than the actual performance of the albums themselves. But as Neil Tennant, who coined the term, would doubtless tell you, the one thing all artists' imperial phases have in common is that they come to an end. Fashions change, tastes shift, the artist's grip on public imagination slackens a little.

If nothing but that kind of success will do for Williams, Take the Crown finds itself set a potentially insurmountable task. Still, if it fails to replicate it, it won't be for want of trying. It lines up a pretty stellar team, among them U2 and Snow Patrol producer Jacknife Lee and arranger Owen Pallet, fresh from working on Taylor Swift's Red, an album that's already sold in quantities even Williams might have to concede constitute a success. It takes careful note of current vogues in pop and, in a neat case of having your cake and eating it, decries them as inferior to Williams' own music – "pumping on your stereo … the shit that's on the radio," he sings, his voice unexpectedly taking on the faintest hint of Elvis Costello's early, bug-eyed sneer – while incorporating the odd distorted ravey synthesiser and post-Coldplay woah-oh-woah vocal refrain without allowing them to overwhelm the sound.

The sense of self-doubt that ran through Reality Killed the Video Star – an album whose lyrics fretted about reviews and star ratings and public perceptions – has been ruthlessly expunged in favour of something far more bullish: "A drink to you, you always wished me well, and those that don't, go fuck yourselves," concludes Gospel. Gone, too, is any hint of the kind of vague artistic left-turn that so bamboozled some critics confronted by Rudebox. The solitary moment where it does something you don't really expect comes on the concluding cover of alt-country duo Belle Brigade's Losers: any surprise at hearing Port Vale's most famous supporter sounding remarkably downhome as he duets with folk singer Lissie is ameliorated by the fact that they're singing a genuinely fantastic song.

Elsewhere, the contributions of Williams and his latest songwriting partners, a couple of unknown Australians called Tim Metcalfe and Flynn Francis, are sometimes brilliant and never less than well crafted. Anyone looking for a flaw might alight on the fact that Take the Crown is occasionally a little too eager to please, as evidenced by the single Candy. Co-written by Gary Barlow, featuring a sample from ultra-hip Norwegian dance auteur Todd Terje and lots of farty brass, it's so desperate to be a smash hit that it ends up sounding like one of those novelty singles that used to blight the September charts, bought by returning holidaymakers with rosy memories of the hotel disco; all it's lacking is an accompanying dance. Then again, you could argue that complaining about Robbie Williams being too eager to please is like complaining about Motörhead being a bit unsubtle: it was ever thus.

You end up with an album that, had it been released as the followup to 2005's Intensive Care, would almost certainly have been the vast success that Williams wants it to be now. It's not going to win over anyone who doesn't already own at least a couple of Robbie Williams albums, but that isn't what it sets out to do. What it sets out to do is far more difficult; whether it can succeed is anyone's guess.

Rating: 4/5

Alexis Petridis

Taylor Swift Already Has Plans For 'A Bunch' Of Kids

Thu, 01 Nov 2012 13:52:57 +0000

Red singer talks to Cosmopolitan about her plans to settle down and opens up about her 'dark and twisty' romances.
By Jocelyn Vena

Taylor Swift on the cover of Cosmopolitan
Photo: Cosmo

Ed Sheeran Looks To Break America With Taylor Swift Opener Shows

Wed, 31 Oct 2012 22:32:37 +0000

When the warm up slot for Taylor Swift is up for grabs, it's not the normal support band. The country-pop star's status demands a huge name to open...

Selena Gomez Is Gold For ‘Glamour’: See The Full Photo Spread

Wed, 31 Oct 2012 21:28:09 +0000

Taylor Swift may be the current Glamour girl, but it’s Selena Gomez who will be gracing the cover of the lady mag’s final issue of 2012. Sel’s gorgeous and festive cover surfaced today. For the December issue, the pop star is dressed in a stunning strapless gold gown with her hair done in soft curls ... More »

Taylor Swift’s ‘Red’ Think Piece Mania: Read The Best Quotes

Wed, 31 Oct 2012 20:28:02 +0000

The best thing about a new, super-high-profile album is the wave of highbrow analysis that inevitably accompanies it, as the brightest writers in the business stroke their chins for awhile and wonder what that new Britney or Ke$ha LP really Means, with a capital M. In the case of Taylor Swift‘s latest album, Red, there were so many think pieces that GQ‘s ... More »

Ed Sheeran Calls Taylor Swift Opening Gig 'Mind-blowing'

Wed, 31 Oct 2012 20:11:52 +0000

'It's a massive opportunity for me and I want to make sure to grab it with both hands,' says Sheeran of his six-month opening stint on Swift's 2013 tour.
By Gil Kaufman

Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran
Photo: WireImage

ArtsBeat: Kendrick Lamar Earns a Distant Second to Taylor Swift on Billboard Chart

Wed, 31 Oct 2012 19:21:32 +0000

Mr. Lamar, a young rapper under the wing of Dr. Dre, sold 241,000 copies of his new album, a sum that at any other time would make him a contender for No. 1.

Taylor Swift Dominates Album Chart With ‘Red,’ Kendrick Lamar Goes ‘m.A.A.d.’ At #2

Wed, 31 Oct 2012 18:35:41 +0000

Now that we know Taylor Swift‘s fourth LP Red sold a massive 1.208 million copies in its opening week — the biggest debut since Eminem‘s The Eminem Show sold 1.322 million in its first seven days back in 2002 — it’s a given that the album crashes into the peak position on the Billboard Top ... More »

Kendrick Sells 241K

Wed, 31 Oct 2012 18:02:00 +0000

This week’s Soundscan is in via Billboard, a report that reveals a number of pretty interesting things. First off all, the week’s top charter was obviously Taylor Swift’s Red, an album which moved 1.2 million copies (digital and physical), the highest first-week tally since Eminem’s 2002 release of The Eminem Show. Second, Kendrick Lamar’s Good [...]

Taylor Swift's Red: Can Anyone Top Its Explosive Debut?

Wed, 31 Oct 2012 17:04:43 +0000

From Eminem to Lady Gaga, there are plenty of challengers to Swift's throne, but can anyone sell more than 1.21 million in a week?
By James Montgomery

Taylor Swift
Photo: Big Machine

Taylor Swift Crashes One Million, Kendrick Lamar Posts Solid Billboard Debut

Wed, 31 Oct 2012 16:18:31 +0000

Lamar's good kid sold more than 241,000 copies.
By Gil Kaufman

Taylor Swift's RED
Photo: Universal Music Group

No More Kid Stuff for Taylor Swift

Wed, 31 Oct 2012 15:43:03 +0000

On her new album, “Red,” Ms. Swift, now 22, finally begins to sound like an adult.

ArtsBeat: Swift’s ‘Red’ Tops a Million Sales in Week One

Wed, 31 Oct 2012 15:25:11 +0000

Extensive marketing paid off for Taylor Swift, whose latest album, “Red” (Big Machine), sold 1.208 million copies in its first week out — the biggest weekly take for any album since 2002, Billboard reported.

Taylor Swift’s ‘Red’ Sells 1.21 Million Copies: Best Sales Week In A Decade

Wed, 31 Oct 2012 13:04:10 +0000

Not only is Taylor Swift‘s new album Red very good, it’s also jaw-droppingly successful — having just earned Swift the best single-week sales sales in a decade. Billboard revealed today that Swift’s Red sold 1.208 million copies in the US last week, which is the most any album has sold in one week since Eminem‘s The Eminem Show moved 1.322 million units back in 2002. ... More »

Taylor Swift: Red

Wed, 31 Oct 2012 07:05:00 +0000

More varied in its offerings, but also more disjointed than her previous work, Red sounds like a transitional album for Taylor Swift, as her musical profile undergoes a modern-rock makeover.

You can make a strong case that the secret to Taylor Swift’s unparalleled success has come from her ability to control her musical identity as well as any other in-their-prime artist. Focusing on developing her craft ever since she hit the scene in her teens, Swift has always possessed the skills and an ethic that belie her age, coming off like an old hand in her music even when her subject matter was young adult.…

Pink, Carrie Underwood And Pitbull Added To American Music Awards Lineup

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 15:44:48 +0000

Performers join already announced acts Taylor Swift, Nicki Minaj and Christina Aguilera.
By Gil Kaufman

Pink
Photo: Michael Tran/ FilmMagic

Carrie Underwood, Pink & Pitbull Join American Music Awards Lineup

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 14:32:02 +0000

As if Nicki Minaj, Christina Aguilera and Taylor Swift weren’t enough, the 2012 American Music Awards are getting even more star-studded: Carrie Underwood, Pink and Pitbull have also been added to the lineup for the upcoming awards show. Billboard reports that the three entertainers are slated to join the show, which airs live on ABC from the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles at 8 p.m. ... More »

‘The Voice’: Taylor Swift Songs Prove To Be Popular In The Knockout Rounds

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 13:18:02 +0000

If we turned The Voice into a game where you drink every time a cliche is spoken, Monday’s episode would have had everyone pretty wasted. Perhaps now that we’re three rounds in, even generally verbose coaches Christina Aguilera, Cee Lo Green, Adam Levine and Blake Shelton have run out of new things to say, and ... More »

In Defense of Taylor Swift and Gen-Y Pop Music

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 07:20:00 +0000

In which Taylor Swift ups the ante on consistency and sincerity in Top 40 music (and product). Cut to shot of the critical community balking on their next move.

People are having a hard time dealing with Taylor Swift. You'll generally have to twist some arms to get them to acknowledge that the young lady is, at the very least, an impressively talented and developed songwriter for her age (22). Or that she's already showed a greater willingness to experiment with all sorts of different genres than about 90 percent of her colleagues. Or that her singing seems genuinely open-hearted and empathetic. Or that…

ArtsBeat: Taylor Swift to Co-Host the Grammy Nominations Show

Mon, 29 Oct 2012 19:22:34 +0000

Ms. Swift seems a logical choice for a show being broadcast this year from Nashville.

Taylor Swift To Co-Host Grammy Nominations Concert With LL Cool J

Mon, 29 Oct 2012 16:02:01 +0000

Taylor Swift is slated to co-host The Grammy Nominations Concert Live!! — Countdown To Music’s Biggest Night (yep, that’s its real name) with LL Cool J on December 5. Swift is a natural choice because the show is broadcast from Swift’s hometown of Nashville, and she’s something of an expert at Grammy nominations, having received 12 ... More »

Taylor Swift To Co-Host Grammy Nominations Concert

Mon, 29 Oct 2012 15:13:28 +0000

Swift will join longtime host LL Cool J at the podium on December 5.
By Christina Garibaldi

Taylor Swift
Photo: Getty Images

Sheeran to tour with Taylor Swift

Mon, 29 Oct 2012 11:09:51 +0000

Ed Sheeran confirms he is to support Taylor Swift on her North American tour in 2013.

Taylor Swift Paints U.k. Albums Chart Red

Sun, 28 Oct 2012 23:06:18 +0000

Country star Taylor Swift has landed her first U.K. number one with her new album Red.The Love Story hitmaker has previously struggled to break into...

Taylor Swift Foregoes Red For Purple On December’s ‘Cosmo’ Cover

Sun, 28 Oct 2012 18:14:21 +0000

Taylor Swift is all about red, red, red right now — except on the cover of December’s Cosmopolitan magazine, where she trades her new album’s namesake for a couple other hues. (Did Cosmo mistakenly believe her LP was called Purple & Magenta?) Then again, the cover also features another inconsistency, claiming that she is “crazy ... More »

Taylor Swift knocks Jake Bugg off UK Album top spot

Sun, 28 Oct 2012 17:36:53 +0000

Labrinth scores his first UK Number One single with 'Beneath Your Beautiful', his collaboration with Emeli Sande.

Red Hot 'Red' Tour Announced By Taylor Swift

Sun, 28 Oct 2012 14:27:19 +0000

There are two ways to deal with a break up. The first option is to sit at home for days on end, not changing out of pyjamas and crying into an...

Taylor Swift’s Red Tour Is Heading Your Way In March, With A Special Guest

Sat, 27 Oct 2012 20:00:30 +0100

Perhaps you’ve heard of Taylor Swift? Lately, she’s only been all over the talk shows, dropping buzz singles left and right, and breaking iTunes sales records like nobody’s business. And since the “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” songbird’s live shows tend to be amongst the highest-grossing around, you better believe that the Red ... More »

What To Read This Week: Four Parts Taylor Swift, One Part Free Jazz Edition

Sat, 27 Oct 2012 18:56:00 +0100

Find out what Taylor Swift's new album means for the worlds of pop and country, the industry at large, and the singer herself — and meet a cigar-chomping, meat-loving German jazzman.

Taylor Swift announces 58 date tour

Sat, 27 Oct 2012 06:16:00 +0100

Taylor Swift has announced a 58 date concert tour.The 'We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together' singer will tour the US and Canada in support of her...

Whatcha Say: Taylor Swift’s ‘Red’, Kelly’s Obama Endorsement & Everything Xtina Got Readers Talking

Sat, 27 Oct 2012 01:30:55 +0100

This week we handed out glowing reviews to Taylor Swift‘s Red and Kendrick Lamar‘s good kid, m.A.A.d city, we celebrated Britney‘s Blackout on its fifth anniversary and we overflowed with Christina Aguilera coverage. Xtina in particular stole the show with her anti-blogger tirade and guest spots on songs with Pitbull and Chris Mann. Not surprisingly, our readers wanted to ... More »

Taylor Swift Set For Kennedy Gala Honour After Love Split

Fri, 26 Oct 2012 19:06:14 +0100

Taylor Swift is set for an awkward encounter with the famous family of her new ex-boyfriend Conor Kennedy in December (12) - she's due to be honoured...

Taylor Swift Lands Museum Exhibit

Fri, 26 Oct 2012 16:11:15 +0100

Country superstar Taylor Swift is to be the subject of a new exhibit at a musical instruments museum in Arizona.A treasure trove of the singer's...

Taylor Swift Refuses To 'Repeat' Herself On Red

Fri, 26 Oct 2012 11:53:10 +0100

'I don't ever want to get into a comfortable groove and continue just coasting on that,' she tells MTV News.
By Christina Garibaldi

Taylor Swift
Photo: MTV News

Taylor Swift was 'too serious' for Conor

Fri, 26 Oct 2012 02:00:29 +0100

Taylor Swift ''freaked Conor Kennedy out'' by coming on too strong.The 22-year-old singer- who has dated a host of Hollywood hunks in the past...

Madonna Puts Ellen DeGeneres In Her Corset

Fri, 26 Oct 2012 00:59:04 +0100

We guess this is what Ellen DeGeneres gets for making Taylor Swift play an embarrassing round of “Does The Name Ring A Bell” earlier this week. On Friday’s (October 26) episode, Madonna and the daytime host dress up in matching Jean Paul Gaultier-designed MDNA World Tour corsets. The comedian goes with it, but not willingly. As Madge’s ... More »

Will Taylor Swift Pen A New Song About Her Conor Kennedy Breakup?

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 23:59:15 +0100

Well, there goes another one: Taylor Swift and Conor Kennedy have broken up, the L.A Times reports. Given Swift's penchant for writing relatively...

Iamsu! – “Mobbin’”

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 22:03:47 +0100

Bay Area rapper and producer Iamsu! is at the forefront of California’s recent so-called ratchet music wave — fun, minimal, horny, utterly unserious dance-rap that’s reliably some of the catchiest non-Taylor Swift stuff on the radio these days. Next month, he’ll release his new solo mixtape $uzy 6 $peed; download the deliriously infectious first single [...]

Snooki hums Taylor Swift songs to baby Lorenzo

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 22:00:12 +0100

Snooki hums Taylor Swift songs to get her baby off to sleep. The 'Jersey Shore' star is enjoying being a mother for the first time to her and fiance...

Taylor Swift Performs “You Belong With Me,” “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” & “Red” Live On ‘Ellen’: Watch

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 20:26:27 +0100

Taylor Swift‘s Red promotional tour has featured so many performances of “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” and the album’s title track ”Red” that we were almost beginning to tire of them — almost. Fortunately, Swift mixed it up when she performed a live concert for The Ellen Degeneres Show by performing one of her best-loved hits, ... More »

Taylor Swift and Conor Kennedy split?

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 20:00:08 +0100

Taylor Swift and Conor Kennedy have reportedly split up. The 'We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together' hitmaker - who has dated a host of Hollywood...

Taylor Swift Takes Photos With Fans Before 'David Letterman' Show

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 19:10:39 +0100

Country star Taylor Swift arrives at the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York City for 'The Late Show with David Letterman' to a massive crowd of fans and...

Taylor Swift Splits From Conor Kennedy - Report

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 19:06:21 +0100

Singer Taylor Swift is single again after splitting from her boyfriend Conor Kennedy, according to a U.S. report.The unlucky-in-love country star...

Taylor Swift Loses Last Shred Of Dignity On Ellen DeGeneres

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 17:05:50 +0100

Everybody knows that Taylor Swiftâs song âWe Are Never Ever Getting Back Togetherâ is almost definitely about her ex, John Mayer but Taylor...

Taylor Swift Wants Fans To 'Blast' Red In Their Cars

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 11:53:08 +0100

'I think you've got 16 new possibilities for people to learn about me and I'm really excited,' Swift tells MTV News.
By Christina Garibaldi

Taylor Swift
Photo: MTV News

Taylor Swift - Red

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 08:34:00 +0100

For all its manufactured essence, Red remains firmly grounded at the crossroads between innocence and experience.

Read the full story on DrownedinSound.com

Taylor Swift Plays Boyfriend Guessing Game On ‘Ellen’ — Watch As Tay Plays The Carly Simon Card

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 02:01:58 +0100

Taylor Swift continues her media rounds this week by dropping by her good pal Ellen DeGeneres‘ show. Though the country pop star was there to promote her fourth studio LP Red, the singer’s face wound up turning the same shade as her album title when the comedian coaxed the 22 year old into playing a little ... More »

Taylor Swift Does the Media Rounds, Interviews and Performances

Wed, 24 Oct 2012 23:40:29 +0100

In the inevitable clamour for media spotlight when any new film or new album comes out from any celebrity anywhere, Taylor Swift will be seen all...

Taylor Swift's Fans Gush About Red's 'Whole New Sound'

Wed, 24 Oct 2012 21:40:07 +0100

'It combined the new music and what we're used to,' fan tells MTV News after Taylor's Times Square performance Tuesday.
By Jocelyn Vena

Taylor Swift's Red
Photo: Universal Music Group

Taylor Swift On ‘The View’: Watch “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together”

Wed, 24 Oct 2012 21:07:29 +0100

Taylor Swift has been out promoting Red until she’s red in the face — and it certainly seems to be paying dividends, with the album set to sell a million units in its first week. The most recent stop on Tay’s media blitz was ABC’s The View. The country-pop star chatted with the ladies and performed her mega-hit ... More »

Labrinth on track for first UK Number One single with Emeli Sande

Wed, 24 Oct 2012 20:25:55 +0100

Meanwhile Taylor Swift's 'Red' looks on course to score the top spot in the Official Albums Chart

Taylor Swift Stuns Fans In Gorgeous Red Dress As She Does Autographs On Leaving GMA

Wed, 24 Oct 2012 20:10:39 +0100

'We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together' hitmaker Taylor Swift leaves the studios after appearing on 'Good Morning America' and is swamped by fans...

Taylor Swift Teams With Papa John's, Makes Us Thoughtful (And Hungry)

Wed, 24 Oct 2012 19:26:38 +0100

Bigger Than the Sound digs into a new promotion where fans can have Swift's Red album delivered to their doorstep ... with a pizza pie.
By James Montgomery

Taylor Swift's Red
Photo: Universal Music Group

Taylor Swift’s “Begin Again” Video: Review Revue

Wed, 24 Oct 2012 17:43:26 +0100

Taylor Swift‘s video for her new single “Begin Again” is a gossamer dream of pastel silks and dreamy walks through the streets of Paris — and it’s one of her loveliest to date. Reviewers felt that the clip, while a bit sedate, evokes Adele‘s video for “Someone Like You” and Swift’s 2011 “Back to December” vid (only much happier); ... More »

Taylor Swift, Nicki Minaj To Perform At American Music Awards

Wed, 24 Oct 2012 15:41:48 +0100

Linkin Park also set to join Christina Aguilera onstage at the 40th AMAs, set for November 18.
By James Montgomery

Taylor Swift
Photo: Getty Images

Nicki Minaj & Taylor Swift To Perform At 2012 American Music Awards

Wed, 24 Oct 2012 14:46:49 +0100

Nicki Minaj may have to slow down from her current trend of releasing a new music video every week, if only to make time to rehearse. It’s just been confirmed that the rapstress will be taking the stage at the American Music Awards next month, alongside fellow performers Taylor Swift, Christina Aguilera and Linkin Park. Minaj, though, is ... More »

Taylor Swift's Red Headed Into The Black With Million-Selling First Week

Wed, 24 Oct 2012 13:41:19 +0100

Swift could become first woman in SoundScan era to have back-to-back albums debut with million-plus in sales.
By Gil Kaufman

Taylor Swift's Red
Photo: Universal Music Group

Taylor Swift Performs “Red” Live On ‘Letterman,’ Talks Car Crashes & Politics

Wed, 24 Oct 2012 13:39:08 +0100

Taylor Swift continued her Red promotional tour last night (October 23) with an appearance on the Late Show With David Letterman — and for once, nobody tried to trick Taylor into talking about her romantic life! Instead, she covered a handful of topics, including politics: “I feel like at 22, it’s my right to vote, but ... More »

Taylor Swift’s “Begin Again” Music Video: Watch Her Romantic Afternoon In Paris

Wed, 24 Oct 2012 00:58:35 +0100

This week alone Taylor Swift has painted Times Square Red and is expected to sell 1 million copies of her latest album, so why is she so blue? Oh, that’s right: the country-pop sensation is mending a broken heart in her music video for her sad but sweet ballad “Begin Again”. Watch Tay as she strolls ... More »

Taylor Swift’s ‘Red’ Expected To Sell 1 Million Units & Break iTunes Record

Wed, 24 Oct 2012 00:08:24 +0100

Taylor Swift‘s Red is in the black, as the LP is forecast to sell 1 million units in its first week on shelves, according to Billboard. This would make Swift the first woman in the Nielsen SoundScan era to sell a million copies in a single week with multiple albums. First-day sales of Red topped 500,000, ... More »

The Killers, PSY, Alicia Keys to play MTV European Music Awards ceremony

Tue, 23 Oct 2012 20:43:36 +0100

They will join Muse, No Doubt and Taylor Swift at the Frankfurt event on November 11

Taylor Swift Performs “Red” & “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” Live: Watch

Tue, 23 Oct 2012 18:46:56 +0100

Taylor Swift‘s Red promotional tour reached a major apex today with a pair of performances in Rockefeller Center for Good Morning America, where Swift performed her lead single “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” as well as the album’s title track. While Swift has performed “Together” a handful of times, she had only performed “Red” ... More »

PSY, The Killers, Pitbull & Alicia Keys Added To 2012 MTV EMAs

Tue, 23 Oct 2012 14:22:24 +0100

“Gangnam Style” has already gone global, and it shows no sign of stopping: Professional dancing pastel suit PSY has just been added to the line-up for the 2012 MTV Europe Music Awards, alongside fellow newly confirmed performers The Killers, Pitbull and Alicia Keys. Those most recent four additions join already confirmed stars like Taylor Swift, Carly ... More »

Swift gladly bears tabloid glare for success

Tue, 23 Oct 2012 12:48:44 +0100

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — On Taylor Swift's new album, "Red," there's a song where the 22-year-old superstar sings about a fictional one: a famous singer who spends years under the glare of the spotlight, then ditches her uncomfortable fame for a life of solitude.

Taylor Swift Calls Red A 'Patchwork Quilt' Of Emotions

Tue, 23 Oct 2012 11:53:10 +0100

'This album is interesting because each song stands on its own,' Swift tells MTV News of Red's variety.
By Christina Garibaldi

Taylor Swift
Photo: MTV News

Taylor Swift 'Freaking Out' Over Red's Instant Success

Tue, 23 Oct 2012 01:54:42 +0100

'I love that they are understanding that this is something completely new,' Swift tells MTV News of her fans.
By Christina Garibaldi

Tsylor Swift attends her Target Red launch party
Photo: Getty Images

Music Review: Taylor Swift's 'Red' is mediocre

Mon, 22 Oct 2012 19:42:35 +0100

Taylor Swift, "Red" (Big Machine Records)

Taylor Swift: 'I'm not confirmed to play Joni Mitchell yet'

Mon, 22 Oct 2012 10:13:25 +0100

Swift says she can't talk about playing Mitchell because the movie hasn't got the green-light

Is Taylor Swift Still Country? Do We Care?

Mon, 22 Oct 2012 08:24:00 +0100

It’s hard to determine anyone in the genre who has built up more of an aura of hype and expectation around each new release than Taylor Swift. Each album takes a different step outwards.

Taylor Swift’s 22 October release of her fourth album, Red, might be the country-music event of a year without many country-music events. What else is there? Whose album is, or was, more anticipated: Jason Aldean? Carrie Underwood? Kenny Chesney? It’s hard to figure anyone in the genre who has built up more of an aura of hype and expectation around each new release. Her previous albums have broken sales records, won awards, inspired screaming fans…

Taylor Swift's exes were jealous of her success

Sun, 21 Oct 2012 16:06:11 +0100

Taylor Swift thinks her ex-boyfriends were too ''competitive''.The country singer - who has dated Hollywood hunks Jake Gyllenhaal, Joe Jonas, Taylor...

One Direction, Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift Lead Z100 Jingle Ball Lineup

Fri, 19 Oct 2012 23:04:49 +0100

The Wanted, Ne-Yo and Ed Sheeran will also perform December 7 at New York's Madison Square Garden
By Christina Garibaldi

One Direction
Photo: Gilbert Carrasquillo/FilmMagic

Taylor Swift Dishes On Her New Romance ... With Dubstep!

Fri, 19 Oct 2012 21:36:38 +0100

'I wanted the song to sound as chaotic as the emotion felt,' she tells Spin of how she ended up experimenting with EDM on Red.
By Jocelyn Vena

Taylor Swift
Photo: Isaac Brekken/ Getty Images

On 'Wedding Bells,' Nick Jonas Takes Cues From Taylor Swift's Playbook

Fri, 19 Oct 2012 21:31:15 +0100

As rumors swirl that the new track is about Nick's ex Miley Cyrus, we suggest he take advice from the master of breakup tracks.
By Emily Blake

Miley Cyrus and Nick Jonas
Photo: Rob Hoffman/ JBE/ Getty Images

Taylor Swift Is ‘Red’ Hot: See Her 10 Sexiest Photos Ever

Fri, 19 Oct 2012 18:26:28 +0100

With all the hype surrounding Taylor Swift‘s upcoming album Red, we’re sure other pop stars have been feeling a bit like Jan Brady: “Taylor! Taylor! Taylor!” But we can’t help it. We love the country pop sensation — and not just because the girl is on another level when it comes to writing songs about ... More »

Nicki Minaj – “The Boys” (Feat. Cassie) Video

Thu, 18 Oct 2012 20:30:24 +0100

Look, Nicki Minaj is on American Idol and feuding with Mariah Carey and shit now, so we’re probably not going to be posting her stuff that much here anymore. And it’s not even that there’s anything wrong with that stuff; it’s just several galaxies removed from what Stereogum usually covers. (I love Taylor Swift dearly [...]

Taylor Swift Shares Her 'Quirky' Songwriting Process For 'Storytellers'

Thu, 18 Oct 2012 02:10:46 +0100

VH1 News gives us the scoop on Swift's intimate taping at Harvey Mudd College.
By Kara Warner

Taylor Swift performs during "VH1 Storytellers"
Photo: Frank Micelotta for VH1 Storytellers

Taylor Swift & Ed Sheeran’s “Everything Has Changed”: Hear The Full Song

Wed, 17 Oct 2012 22:38:23 +0100

Taylor Swift‘s much-anticipated fourth studio album Red has leaked in full, and the song many fans were most eager to hear is her duet with British singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran, “Everything Has Changed.” As expected, the track is a spare, elegant guitar-driven ballad with sweet, lovely vocals from Swift, anchored by emotional lyrics and light harmonies from ... More »

Swift 'fast friends' with Sheeran

Tue, 16 Oct 2012 06:19:56 +0100

Taylor Swift says she became "pals right away" with Ed Sheeran after a writing session which created a duet for Swift's new album.

Taylor Swift’s “State Of Grace”: Listen To The Airy Track

Tue, 16 Oct 2012 05:58:31 +0100

Taylor Swift previewed her newest promotional single “State of Grace” on Good Morning America yesterday (October 15), and now the full track has debuted. Marking the fourth entry in the Red countdown, “State of Grace” indicates that Swift may have been saving the best for last: It’s a stunner, airy and diffuse, that combines the pop finery of her lead ... More »

Taylor Swift Covers ‘Marie Claire’ UK Like The ’70s Girl She Never Was

Mon, 15 Oct 2012 19:40:17 +0100

Gone are Taylor Swift‘s “varsity” blues in the November 2012 issue of Marie Claire UK. The country sensation left behind the letterman jacket and corduroy shorts from her Rolling Stone cover for a far more feminine bohemian look for the women’s mag. In fact, the ’70s vibe that Taylor is working reminds us a lot ... More »

Leave Taylor Swift And Conor Kennedy Alone!

Mon, 15 Oct 2012 19:31:49 +0100

Taylor Swift and Conor Kennedy get enough headlines, according to cousin Christopher Lawford anyway.Going out with Taylor Swift must be a daunting...

Taylor Swift’s “State of Grace”: Hear The Preview

Mon, 15 Oct 2012 15:26:15 +0100

We’ve reached the final week of Taylor Swift‘s Good Morning America countdown to the release of her latest LP Red, and she ended the promotional tour with a bang by previewing her new album cut “State of Grace.” (It’s the first track on Red, which means it’s probably significant — although with Taylor Swift, everything is ... More »

Ethel Kennedy: 'I'm Thrilled Taylor Swift And I Will Be Neighbours'

Mon, 15 Oct 2012 01:36:18 +0100

Kennedy family matriarch Ethel Kennedy has confirmed her grandson Conor's girlfriend Taylor Swift is moving into the family's Hyannis Port...

Taylor Swift Begins Rolling Stone Expose With Car Accident

Fri, 12 Oct 2012 22:56:19 +0100

Taylor Swift's new interview with Rolling Stone magazine got off to a bad start when she reversed her sports utility vehicle into a musician pal's...

Jonas Brothers' 'Wedding Bells': Three Clues It's About Miley Cyrus

Fri, 12 Oct 2012 21:50:35 +0100

Is Nick Jonas taking a page from Taylor Swift's playbook? We investigate.
By Jocelyn Vena

Miley Cyrus and Nick Jonas
Photo: Rob Hoffman/ JBE/ Getty Images

Taylor Swift Covers ‘Rolling Stone’ As “The Heartbreak Kid”

Wed, 10 Oct 2012 21:32:50 +0100

Taylor Swift covers the latest issue of Rolling Stone, and for the shoot she strays from her usual vintage dresses for a simple co-ed look of corduroy shorts, a basic white top and a varsity jacket. (It reminds us of Rita Ora‘s recent spread for Complex.) Not surprisingly, the gal dubbed “The Heartbreak Kid” by the ... More »

Taylor Swift has no love rules

Wed, 10 Oct 2012 20:00:05 +0100

Taylor Swift has no rules in her relationships.The 22-year-old singer - who is dating Conor Kennedy and previously romanced Jake Gyllenhaal and John...

American Country Awards Nominations: Lady Antebellum, Taylor Swift & Zac Brown Band Honored

Wed, 10 Oct 2012 19:53:27 +0100

We’re most excited about Luke Bryan for that time he covered Lady Gaga‘s “Bad Romance,” but for country superfans, today must have served as quite a treat: Nominations were released for the third annual American Country Awards, which are set to air on FOX on December 10 with Trace Adkins and Kristin Chenoweth hosting. Bryan is ... More »

Taylor Swift 'fascinated' by love

Sun, 07 Oct 2012 17:00:10 +0100

Taylor Swift has ''always been fascinated'' by love. The 22-year-old singer - who has previously dated a string of Hollywood hunks including Taylor...

Taylor Swift's 50k shopping spree

Sat, 06 Oct 2012 04:00:09 +0100

Taylor Swift spent £50,000 in a brief shopping spree.The 'Love Story' singer dropped into antique dealer Alice's on Portobello Road in London on...

Taylor Swift’s ‘Red’: See The Full Tracklist

Sat, 06 Oct 2012 00:55:40 +0100

Taylor Swift has been previewing cuts from her upcoming album Red for the last few weeks — we’ve heard lead single “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together,” the wistful “Begin Again” and the country-inflected title track “Red,” plus the non-album song “Ronan” — and now the tracklist has been released in its entirety. The standard edition ... More »

Ne-Yo Unveils ‘R.E.D.’ Album Artwork & Tracklist

Fri, 05 Oct 2012 22:25:02 +0100

Ne-Yo has a few writing credits on Rihanna‘s upcoming seventh studio album, but currently he’s turning his attention to promoting his own new LP — titled R.E.D., but not to be confused with Taylor Swift‘s upcoming Red, since Ne-Yo’s title is an acronym that stands for “Realizing Every Dream.” (Obviously.) The multi-talented singer-songwriter premiered the official album ... More »

ArtsBeat: Adele Releases New Bond Theme Song

Fri, 05 Oct 2012 17:08:50 +0100

Within hours it was in the top three on the iTunes singles chart, rivaling Taylor Swift's "Red" and PSY's K-pop hit "Gangnam Style."

Taylor Swift: Looking Lovely In London

Fri, 05 Oct 2012 01:12:20 +0100

After taking in the sights from Paris Fashion Week, Taylor Swift has continued her European jaunt in London. The Red singer was spotted shopping in LDN’s Portobello Road Market dressed for fall in her crimson top with a blue collar, a mustard-colored cardigan, polka-dot jeans and a string of pearls around her neck. Those who ... More »

Taylor Swift Is Blue For Paris Fashion Week

Thu, 04 Oct 2012 00:57:56 +0100

“This whole thing where ‘Red’ is #1 on iTunes makes me SO happy. I will now use this as an excuse to celebrate by eating more croissants,” Taylor Swift proudly announced via Twitter on Tuesday (October 1). It seems Tay also chose to celebrate this week by taking in the Elie Saab Spring/Summer 2013 show ... More »

Taylor Swift’s “Red”: Review Revue

Tue, 02 Oct 2012 21:17:13 +0100

Taylor Swift certainly charmed us when she released the title track from her upcoming album Red last night on iTunes. But as she returns to her country roots on “Red,” did she alienate any of her pop fans or give her many detractors another reason to hate on her? The critics seem to be divided ... More »

Taylor Swift Removes Deaf School From Competition (But Sends Cash!)

Tue, 02 Oct 2012 19:09:30 +0100

Taylor Swift will not play live at the Horace Mann School for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, despite the institution racking up a serious amount of...

Five Nominations: Taylor Swift Will Make MTV EMA Debut In 2012

Tue, 02 Oct 2012 17:52:23 +0100

Taylor Swift will soon make her debut at MTV’s EMA 2012 awards. She will join the likes of Muse and No Doubt, who will also perform live and...

Taylor Swift Snuggles In Paris For 'Begin Again' Video

Tue, 02 Oct 2012 17:14:22 +0100

Red singer hits the French city to film her latest music video.
By Jocelyn Vena

Taylor Swift on the set of her last music video Paris, France on October 1, 2012
Photo: Allpix/WENN.com

Taylor Swift sends cash to Boston deaf school but decides not to play there

Tue, 02 Oct 2012 16:43:21 +0100

Swift and contest sponsors remove Horace Mann school from a contest to have the singer perform at any institution in the US

An irony-laden internet campaign to get Taylor Swift to perform at a school for the deaf has failed – but the institution will still be awarded a substantial sum of cash.

Users of 4Chan and Reddit gamed an online contest to send Swift to perform at whichever school in the US earned the most votes by encouraging people to vote for the Horace Mann School for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.

Swift, her management and contest sponsors removed the school from the contest because of the way it obtained votes, according to the school's principal, Jeremiah Ford.

Ford told the Boston Globe that Swift and four other organizations instead chose to give $10,000 apiece to the school.

"Are we the winner? Absolutely," Ford told the Globe.

The competition attracted nationwide attention in August when Reddit and 4Chan decided to take over the contest. Some critics accused the websites of being insensitive towards the hearing-impaired community.

Others voted for the school in an effort to bring awareness to the hearing impaired community's ability to appreciate music. Ford also appropriated the trolling campaign and publicly welcomed the opportunity to have Swift perform at the school.

Swift, along with event sponsors Chegg, Papa John's pizza, CoverGirl and American Greetings, pledged $10,000 each to the school. VH1's Save the Music program also donated $10,000 worth of instruments to the school, which has discussed reviving its music education program. Horace Mann students will also receive tickets to Swift's next local performance.

Earlier this year, online trolls successfully sent Pitbull to the most remote Walmart in the US as part of a contest to get the rapper to perform at whichever store location received the most Facebook likes. The journalist who started the trolling campaign joined Pitbull at his performance in Kodiak, Alaska – population 6,256.

Amanda Holpuch

Britney Spears, Taylor Swift & Rihanna Top ‘Forbes’ Highest-Paid Women In Hollywood List

Tue, 02 Oct 2012 16:36:50 +0100

Surprise! The highest-paid women in the entertainment industry are pretty much the ones that you’d expect: the big-time superstars with massive endorsement deals, global tours and record sales. At the top of the list? Britney Spears and Taylor Swift, with Rihanna in close pursuit. Forbes’ annual list, which went live yesterday (October 1), is fairly by-the-book. ... More »

Taylor Swift Calls John Mayer "Presumptious" For Assuming 'Dear John' Was About Him

Tue, 02 Oct 2012 16:18:07 +0100

Taylor Swift has called her former boyfriend John Mayer "presumptious" for assuming that songs written by the country singer related to their past...

Britney Spears, Taylor Swift Land In Top Three Of Forbes Highest-Paid Women

Tue, 02 Oct 2012 15:21:37 +0100

'X Factor' judge narrowly beats out Swift for runner-up on the list, with Oprah Winfrey holding on to her long-held #1 spot.
By Jocelyn Vena

Britney Spears
Photo: Splash News

Taylor Swift, No Doubt & Muse To Perform At MTV Europe Music Awards

Tue, 02 Oct 2012 15:20:01 +0100

Book your tickets to Germany quick, kids: The MTV Europe Music Awards is shaping up to be a star-studded affair. THR reports that Taylor Swift is slated to perform at the MTV EMAs in Frankfurt, Germany come November alongside fellow superstars No Doubt and Muse. The show will be hosted by Heidi Klum, who hopefully won’t have ... More »

Muse, No Doubt to play the 2012 MTV EMAs

Tue, 02 Oct 2012 14:45:38 +0100

American pop star Taylor Swift will also perform live at the ceremony in Frankfurt, Germany.

Taylor Swift's 'Red' Marvels At The Rainbow of Love

Tue, 02 Oct 2012 14:15:41 +0100

Swift dropped her Red title track on Tuesday, ahead of the album's October 22 release.
By Jocelyn Vena

Taylor Swift
Photo: Kevin Mazur/ WireImage

Taylor Swift’s “Red”: Hear The Jangly Country Track

Tue, 02 Oct 2012 13:46:22 +0100

Taylor Swift‘s countdown to Red is in full swing, and the third new song to be released from her upcoming album (following single “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” and last week’s promo single, “Begin Again”) is the title track, “Red.” Swift previewed the track on Good Morning America yesterday and the snippet didn’t ... More »

Taylor Swift, No Doubt To Perform At MTV EMA 2012

Tue, 02 Oct 2012 12:18:55 +0100

They'll be joined by U.K. rock heavyweights Muse at the awards show, which airs November 11 from Frankfurt, Germany.
By James Montgomery

Taylor Swift
Photo: Paul Kane/ Getty Images

Taylor Swfit loves vintage dressing

Tue, 02 Oct 2012 06:01:29 +0100

Taylor Swift is into vintage dressing at the moment.The 'We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together' singer says she goes through different phases with...

Taylor Swift Shoots Her “Begin Again” Music Video In Paris

Mon, 01 Oct 2012 23:37:41 +0100

“Shooting a music video in Paris today… (always wanted to say that!!),” Taylor Swift happily tweeted on Monday (October 1). Yes, the location for the “little cafe” where the Glamour cover girl will “Begin Again” is in France — much to our surprise given the single’s sad, sweet and incredibly country sound. While it would ... More »

Taylor Swift calls John Mayer 'presumptuous'

Mon, 01 Oct 2012 20:13:13 +0100

Taylor Swift thinks John Mayer is ''presumptuous''.The 22-year-old singer was outraged to discover that her ex-boyfriend assumed her 2010 break-up...

Taylor Swift Covers ‘Glamour,’ Calls John Mayer “Presumptuous”

Mon, 01 Oct 2012 20:12:44 +0100

It’s considered public knowledge that Taylor Swift wrote her 2010 Speak Now track “Dear John” about her former flame John Mayer — so much so that Mayer himself told Rolling Stone earlier this year that he was “humiliated” by the song and that writing it was “a really lousy thing for [Swift] to do.” But don’t make ... More »

Taylor Swift Calls John Mayer 'Presumptuous' Over Song Reaction

Mon, 01 Oct 2012 18:40:11 +0100

'I know it wasn't good, so I don't want to know,' Red singer says about Mayer's comments about her 'Dear John' track in Glamour.
By Christina Garibaldi

Taylor Swift on the November cover of Glamour
Photo: Glamour

Taylor Swift Previews Title Track “Red” On Good Morning America

Mon, 01 Oct 2012 16:47:58 +0100

We’re halfway through Taylor Swift‘s month-long promotional ramp-up to the release of her new studio album Red. Following the arrival last week of the wistful track “Begin Again,” Swift is diving even deeper into her country twang with the album’s title track, “Red,” which she previewed today on Good Morning America. The song finds Swift ... More »

Taylor Swift Previews Red Title Track

Mon, 01 Oct 2012 15:13:33 +0100

Singer teases 'Red' on 'Good Morning America' before releasing the full track at midnight on Tuesday.
By Jocelyn Vena

Taylor Swift
Photo: Jon Kopaloff/FilmMagic

Listening Ahead: Upcoming Releases for October

Fri, 28 Sep 2012 08:14:00 +0100

October’s release schedule may not appear to be the embarrassment of riches that September’s was, but there’s a real depth and breadth to the offerings in a wide array of genres.

At first glance, October’s release schedule may not appear to be the embarrassment of riches that September’s was, but looks can be deceiving. While there may not be as many top-of-the-marquee titles in October, with the exception of Taylor Swift’s Red, there’s a real depth and breadth to the offerings in a wide array of genres. The range of intriguing albums is impressive, from cutting-edge experimentalist Flying Lotus’ latest to Americana traditionalist Iris DeMent’s first…

Taylor Swift’s “Begin Again”: Hear The Sweet Country Single

Tue, 25 Sep 2012 14:25:04 +0100

Oh, Taylor Swift. Just when we think we’re out, you pull us back in again. The country singer-songwriter previewed her new song, “Begin Again,” on Good Morning America yesterday as part of her ambitious Red promotional campaign, then premiered the song in full last night. The track marks a smart departure from the slick, radio-friendly pop of “We ... More »

Taylor Swift Celebrates Budding Romance In 'Begin Again'

Tue, 25 Sep 2012 14:19:48 +0100

On her latest Red single, Swift recovers from a breakup and lets herself fall in love again.
By Jocelyn Vena

Taylor Swift
Photo: Kevin Mazur/ WireImage

Taylor Swift set to play Joni Mitchell in new movie

Tue, 25 Sep 2012 11:23:20 +0100

And Jessica Paré - aka Don Draper's wife Megan in 'Mad Men' - could play Carly Simon alongside her

Taylor Swift Previews ‘Red’ Song “Begin Again”: Listen

Mon, 24 Sep 2012 14:40:21 +0100

With Taylor Swift‘s fourth studio album Red due out on October 22, the pop-country songwriter is ramping up her promotional efforts. This morning (September 24) on Good Morning America, Swift previewed one of the new tracks from the LP titled “Begin Again,” and announced that it will be for sale on iTunes tonight at midnight. ... More »

iHeartRadio Music Festival, Day Two: Taylor Swift, Usher, Pink & More Perform

Sun, 23 Sep 2012 20:13:31 +0100

Day One of the iHeartRadio Music Festival gave us everything from Rihanna to PSY, and Day Two continued the sonic festivities at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas with sets from Pink (singing her own hits, instead of No Doubt‘s), Pitbull, Taylor Swift, Deadmau5, Enrique Iglesias, and plenty more. Catch some highlights below, plus a ... More »

Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong Has Onstage Meltdown, Smashes Guitar

Sat, 22 Sep 2012 21:42:30 +0100

Fiona Apple wasn't the only performer to have an onstage rant at a show last night (September 21), as Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong had some choice words for the promoters at the iHeartRadio Festival in Las Vegas. The band's set was allegedly cut down to 25 minutes from the original 45-minute slot they were given in order to give Usher more time at the show (which also included appearances from Lil Wayne, Pink, Pitbull, Taylor Swift and many other Top 40 pop acts). In response, the guyliner-sporting frontman used the last minute of his set to berate the festival...Read More

Taylor Swift's Songwriting Process: Ed Sheeran Breaks It Down

Fri, 21 Sep 2012 21:39:34 +0100

U.K. singer reveals to MTV News where he and Swift wrote tracks for Red.
By Jocelyn Vena

Ed Sheeran
Photo: MTV News

Taylor Swift’s ‘Red’ Nabs Countdown Campaign With iTunes & ‘Good Morning America’

Fri, 21 Sep 2012 18:53:55 +0100

Taylor Swift‘s next album Red hits digital shelves in just about four weeks (October 22), and in advance of the release she has teamed up with iTunes and ABC for a massive roll-out campaign. During each of the next four weeks Swift will release one song from the album on iTunes, preceded by a preview ... More »

Taylor Swift’s “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” Covered By Hanson: Watch

Tue, 18 Sep 2012 16:35:54 +0100

We can’t promise you this is the best video you’ll see today…but it’s the best video you’ll see today. Hanson stopped by Australian radio show Fifi And Jules, and the brothers know a thing or two about massive pop anthems, so they turned out an unplugged cover of Taylor Swift‘s “We Are Never Ever Getting ... More »

MTV Europe Music Awards: Rihanna, Taylor Swift Lead The Nominations

Mon, 17 Sep 2012 16:00:15 +0100

The 2012 MTV Europe Music Awards nominations are in, and, as usual, they look pretty similar to the US chart pop scene. Rihanna is on top, with Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber and Katy Perry in close pursuit. America: still leading the world in pop exports. (Except that Rihanna is from Barbados and Bieber is Canadian, but ... More »

Taylor Swift, Rihanna Rule 2012 MTV EMA Nominations

Mon, 17 Sep 2012 14:39:38 +0100

Rihanna leads the charge with six nods; Swift is close behind with five for the November 11 broadcast.
By Jocelyn Vena

Taylor Swift
Photo: Paul Kane/ Getty Images

Rihanna - Rihanna And Taylor Swift Go Head-to-head At Mtv Emas

Mon, 17 Sep 2012 12:07:00 +0100

Rihanna and country singer Taylor Swift will go head-to-head at the Mtv Europe Music Awards battling it out to be named best pop star in the world The Umbrella hitmaker is leading the nominations with nods in six categories including best female best s...

Arctic Monkeys, Muse, The Killers nominated for MTV Europe Music Awards

Mon, 17 Sep 2012 11:13:46 +0100

Rihanna and Taylor Swift are leading the way though, with six and five nominations each

Taylor Swift - Taylor Swift Sings With Paula Fernandes In Brazil

Mon, 17 Sep 2012 08:07:00 +0100

Taylor Swift thrilled fans at a concert in Brazil by bringing South American superstar Paula Fernandes onstage for a surprise duet The country sweetheart invited the Brazilian singer to join her on the track Long Live at her show at the Citibank Hall in R...

Mother Says Taylor Swift's 'Ronan' Tribute Song Got It '100 Percent Right'

Fri, 14 Sep 2012 19:28:45 +0100

'She got it in a way most people don't,' says Maya Thompson.
By Gil Kaufman

Taylor Swift
Photo: Hope For Haiti Now/ Getty

Taylor Swift Wears Black And White For ‘Red’

Wed, 12 Sep 2012 17:22:54 +0100

Taylor Swift must have sensed that we needed some cheering up after hearing her perform her heartbreaking Stand Up 2 Cancer tribute song, “Ronan”, because promo photos from the country pop star’s Red have surfaced. For the shoot, the CoverGirl works that retro style she does so well, including a black shorts-striped shirt combo similar to ... More »

Megan & Liz Belt Out Taylor Swift's 'Never Ever' Cover

Tue, 11 Sep 2012 20:19:31 +0100

YouTube twins harmonize on 'We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together' and tell MTV News of the time they met their idol.
By Christina Garibaldi

Megan & Liz
Photo: MTV News

Taylor Swift - Mother Cries Over Taylor Swift's Tribute To Her Son

Tue, 11 Sep 2012 16:02:59 +0100

A mother cried upon hearing Taylor Swifts had written a song in tribute to her late son Maya Thompson lost son Ronan to cancer last year and shared her experiences online which Taylor 22 was so moved by she wrote a touching track in tribute to th...

Coldplay, Taylor Swift & Alicia Keys Perform For ‘Stand Up 2 Cancer’

Sat, 08 Sep 2012 22:36:25 +0100

Great musicians performing for a great cause. What’s not to love? Last night’s Stand Up 2 Cancer telethon featured some of our favorite artists doing their most emotional material. Coldplay gave us a taste of “Paradise,” while Alicia Keys debuted her Girl On Fire piano ballad “Not Even The King.” Perhaps the most moving tribute, ... More »

Taylor Swift’s Heartbreaking New Song “Ronan” Tributes Four-Year-Old Cancer Victim: Listen

Sat, 08 Sep 2012 21:01:20 +0100

Taylor Swift‘s “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” is a sassy kiss-off to an ex-paramour, but her Stand Up To Cancer track “Ronan” is a goodbye of an entirely different variety. Co-written with Maya Thompson, the song is a tribute to Thompson’s four-year-old son Ronan, who succumbed to cancer last year. If that idea ... More »

Nicki Minaj’s Political Verse & The MTV Video Music Awards: The Hype Index

Fri, 07 Sep 2012 22:59:43 +0100

Welcome back to the Hype Index, our Soundbytes segment that manages to squeeze an entire week of music news into one very opinionated list. Stevie Wonder and Nicki Minaj started off September in hot water, while Madonna and Elton John reportedly hugged it out. The MTV Video Music Awards turned 28, but without Lady Gaga or Kanye West the show was ... More »

Kim Kardashian: my life as a brand

Fri, 07 Sep 2012 21:57:50 +0100

Kim Kardashian has 16 million Twitter followers, and about the same number of critics. She's very famous, but what for exactly?

Kim Kardashian is in a makeup chair under giant rollers, looking down at her phone and intermittently up again, to meet her own eye in the mirror. We are at a studio in a Los Angeles suburb; various stylists and Kardashian hangers-on fill the room. "One second," says the star's assistant, calling the group to order. Kardashian frowns at her phone. "You guys," she says, "what should I say? You guys?" There is a moment's hush; Kardashian is passing a tweet.

For those few who haven't yet had the pleasure, Kardashian is a 31-year-old US reality TV star, lately prominent in Britain, who has, since becoming famous in 2007, ascended to the level of a symptom in the culture. Keeping Up With The Kardashians, currently in its seventh season, is contrived, sensationalist, repetitive and witless, but no more so than a lot of things one enjoys without accusing them of spiritual corruption. The difference in this case is reach. Twitter is an unreliable measure of influence, but Kardashian has nearly 16 million followers, putting her ninth in the world, three places behind President Obama. (Lady Gaga is number one; Taylor Swift number eight.) With her two sisters, Khloé and Kourtney, she runs a chain of clothing stores called Dash, has a Las Vegas-based outlet called Kardashian Khaos, promotes makeup and fashion lines under the label Kardashian Kollection, all of which act as window dressing for the business, merely, of being Kim Kardashian: a woman of above average looks, seemingly rather nice, who along with the rest of her family – emotionally speaking – strips on TV for tips. After the shoot, we sit in a courtyard at the back of the studio and Kardashian tries to explain what the fuss is about.

There is an awful lot of fuss. For Kardashian haters, the tipping point came last year when she filed for divorce from Kris Humphries, a basketball player, after three months of marriage and a blizzard of wedding coverage said to have been worth many millions (she will dispute the numbers). The whole thing looked like a stunt to drum up trade for her TV show, although if it was, it backfired in that for a short while she was reviled as the most cynical woman in America. She seems to aggravate male actors in particular. Earlier this year, Jon Hamm unchivalrously referred to her as a "fucking idiot" in Elle magazine, as did Daniel Craig in GQ the year before. Kardashian takes all this with a certain laconic indifference, the standard LA response, heightened by what is probably an effort not to emote too much and generate wrinkles.

"When I hear people say [what are you famous for?], I want to say, what are you talking about?" she says slowly, her eyes wide as a bushbaby's. "I have a hit TV show. We've shot more episodes than I Love Lucy! We've been on the air longer than The Andy Griffith Show! I mean, these are iconic shows, so it blows my mind when people say that."

But you're not performing; you're just being followed around by cameras…

"But to be able to open up your life like that and to be so… if everyone could do it, everyone would. It doesn't make sense to me."

The day before the interview, I go to Dash in Beverly Hills, the flagship store aimed at Kardashian's teen fan base. A bouncer stands outside letting teenagers in one by one, although the store is almost empty. "There's a line!" he calls out to baffled passers-by, and the teenagers snigger. Inside, the clothes are very nice; soft T-shirts, cute shorts and dresses, but that isn't why people are here. Kardashian says that since the show started airing, the store has become a "tourist attraction" and the stock is angled accordingly. After taking photos of themselves in front of a giant Kardashian family montage, the adolescents buy one of several items within their price-range; a $20 compact mirror; pencils for a few dollars; or a $10 bottle of water with the Kardashian sisters' photo on one side.

"Our water sells out all the time," Kardashian says. "People collect them because each store has a different picture on the bottle."

That's amazing.

"It's really crazy," she says. "I mean, a water bottle? It's crazy." She blinks slowly at the wonder of effortless profiteering.

Kardashian characterises her typical fan as "a younger girl, like 15 or 16, who loves fashion, loves to be a girly girl, loves beauty, glam", and whom she respects as a backwards projection of herself. If you can overlook the vacant materialism, she is in some ways not a bad role model. She points out that she is not "your stick-skinny typical model"; that she doesn't go out on benders; that she tries not to swear too much. "I remember this one time when I used the F-word – and everyone was like, I can't believe you said that! You never say that! I am really cautious about what I say and do. If I look at the message I'm portraying, I think it definitely is be who you are, but be your best you."

Whether or not you approve of the show, she has wrought a successful business out of thin air. It's also worth pointing out, given how snotty the fashion industry is towards Kim Kardashian, that to anyone's knowledge she has never thrown her phone at a personal assistant.

And yet she makes people incredibly angry. "Yeah. I have no idea why. I work really hard – I have seven appointments tomorrow before 10am. I'm constantly on the go. I have a successful clothing line. A fragrance. I mean, acting and singing aren't the only ways to be talented. It's a skill to get people to really like you for you, instead of a character written for you by somebody else."

She is currently dating Kanye West, who might have had a hand in the following analogy. "When rap music first started," Kardashian says, "rappers were not respected and people thought it was just a fad. And people thought reality shows were going to come and go. They have taken over the soap operas. So it's a modern version of a soap opera."

The difference, of course, is that the Kardashians are purporting to sell something real. For bald cheek, nothing matches a recent scene in the show in which Kardashian balked at attending a family therapy session because, she said, she didn't feel like sharing family secrets "with a stranger". Very occasionally, a genuine emotion is caught on camera and stands out in relief to the rest of the show – most recently during a staged discussion about Khloé's paternity; while her mother and sisters mugged centre screen, Khloé, to one side, looked fleetingly devastated.

Despite all the phoniness, rehearsed dialogue and fake scenarios, however, there is some grain of authenticity to the Kardashians to which fans respond: when I asked teenagers at Dash why they liked the show, the most common reason was that, despite all the drama, "they all really love each other and are such a close family". Like the Osbournes before them, the Kardashian family unit is convincingly tight. There is something unexpectedly soothing about this.

For the record then, what is Kardashian's talent?

"What is my talent?" She cocks her head to one side. "Well, a bear can juggle and stand on a ball and he's talented, but he's not famous. Do you know what I mean?"

The mastermind behind the Kardashian empire is assumed to be Kris Jenner, mother, manager and ringmaster of her children's careers, who comes across on the show as a gimlet-eyed monster, wringing every last dollar from the family conceit. Despite her 100% belief in the reality genre, Kim Kardashian has to admit she is very glad she went through adolescence off-camera, unlike her youngest sisters, who were nine and 10 when the show started. (Their father is Bruce Jenner, the former Olympic athlete and Kris's second husband, whose career as a motivational speaker she reignited after marrying him. Her first husband, Robert Kardashian, who died in 2003, was OJ Simpson's lawyer.)

"I feel a little bit sad for my little sisters," Kardashian says. "If there's one thing I'm so thankful I have, it's that privacy of pretty much my whole life until seven years ago."

It was a spoilt childhood, materially – her father was a wealthy entrepreneur as well as a lawyer – and it's a mark of the milieu they grew up in that the Kardashian girls and their brother, Rob, were considered deprived because their parents wouldn't give them their own credit cards.

But her dad bought them each a car, right?

"He gave us a car, but I had to sign a contract with him before I got it."

The contract said she had to have it washed once a week; had to make sure it always had gas. "And my grades had to be at a certain average to keep the car. If I crashed it, I had to be responsible for paying for it." She did crash it, within the first six months, and got a job to pay for the repairs.

This was the beginning of Kardashian's career. She found work in a clothing store and liked it so much that, after paying off the car, she kept the job. She started to design her own accessories. "I would make these headbands that were really popular and I'd sell them to all the fun stores in LA. I would make them after school and go around selling them."

She and her sisters periodically lived with their father at this point, their parents' marriage having disintegrated after Kris Jenner had an affair with a 22-year-old. Fault lines in the family were, bizarrely, crystallised by the OJ Simpson trial. Kardashian's mother had been one of Nicole Brown Simpson's best friends and was supposed to have seen her on the day she was murdered; she believed OJ was guilty. Robert Kardashian was one of OJ's best friends and defended him.

"We were kids – 14 and 15 years old, me and Kourtney," Kim says. "We took my dad's side. Just because my dad was not married and my mum kind of broke his heart. It was personal. And we thought that my dad was the smartest man in the whole world. And if he thought he was innocent, we were going to be on that side."

One day, their father came to them and said, "Girls, this is a huge trial and is going to be a part of history, and I think you guys are old enough to handle it." They went into court with him and sat in the OJ camp. "And my mum had gone with Bruce and she was sitting on the Brown side – on Nicole's side. And she turned around and gave as a stare like, I don't even want to see you guys when you get home. We wouldn't even look her way. She was so mad."

This was the beginning of the family's life in the spotlight, although Kardashian had always wanted to be on TV. She watched the first MTV reality show, The Real World, and thought that's what she wanted to do.

What, be on a reality show? "Yes. I wasn't thinking fame. I was just thinking how cool." Why? "I don't know; I just thought my life seemed interesting. I thought, if only people knew the crazy things that go on in this household, it would be so funny. And everyone kept saying that. They'd come over and be like, 'Oh my God, you need your own reality show.' I was always on board. Kourtney was the one who wasn't."

Kim inched farther towards her goal when she started knocking around with Paris Hilton, and then, in 2003, she made a sex tape with her then boyfriend, the singer Ray J. The tape was eventually leaked and a star was born. (In a rare moment of coyness, Kris Jenner, in her memoir, glosses over this momentous turning point in the family history: "There was so much media coverage swirling around Kim then, both positive and negative.") Anyway, to "take advantage of the moment", Jenner made a pilot of the family and took it to Ryan Seacrest at US TV network E! Word came back that there were too many characters, too many siblings and that it was confusing. But Seacrest ultimately backed the show, correctly intuiting that, as with band members, young fans would be able to choose which of the three sisters was their favourite: blank but beautiful Kim, sweet Kourtney or sarcastic Khloé. Meanwhile, Jenner's conniving entertained adults and, for comic relief, there was Bruce, bobbing around in the background, looking more startled with each season and new wave of plastic surgery.

It's no small thing to keep a reality show afloat, and even Kardashian admits that by season four the family was getting panicky about content. "I was like, 'You guys, I don't know that I have much more to give. I can only be myself, like… we're so boring now, we've shown everything.'"

And? "And then Khloé got married, Kourtney got pregnant and everything else just happened organically."

OK. So here's the thing: surely, living under that kind of pressure to feed the beast, one is tempted to say yes to things one might otherwise say no to, for example marrying Kris Humphries and then divorcing Kris Humphries. It doesn't even have to be mercenary; just a matter of needing to Make Something – Anything – Happen.

"Not really. We had done filming our season at that point, so we decided to film for the wedding. And that was a decision that he and I made together. But I think that, with any decisions in life [brace yourselves], like, I spoke to a girl today who had cancer and we were talking about how this is such a hard thing for her, but it taught her a big lesson on who her friends are and so much about life. She's 18. And I was like, that's how I feel."

There is no ethical dimension to Kardashian's defence of her marriage, merely the rationale that it would have made bad commercial sense to have faked it. "Getting married and divorced quickly, if that was my goal the whole time – I'm not an idiot, I obviously know that that would be a bad business decision. If anything, I probably would have left sooner had I not been filming, because I didn't want to end the relationship on TV." The sums of money she was said to have made are "completely outrageous and not true", she says. "No, I mean even with the money we made, we still had to pay for the wedding. We didn't even make enough for that."

So if you married again, would you sell the rights? "I would definitely do it differently. Just all the scrutiny that I got. You don't plan to go through all of that willingly. For money." Her voice rises out of its Californian drawl and sounds momentarily urgent. "That's just not what a sane person would do. So. Would I get married on TV again? No."

She thinks about it for a moment. "Well, I guess you never say never. Because who knows? So many other people I know have gotten married on TV and it has worked out amazing for them."

There is a pause. "William and Kate got married on TV," Kardashian says thoughtfully.

Not all the endorsement deals have been successful. There was a debit card ("the Kardashian Kard") that had high hidden fees and from which, after a firestorm in the press, the family distanced themselves; and a diet product that is currently the subject of a lawsuit. Of the card, Kardashian says, "definitely not the right deal for us. It sounded like a good idea when we went into it, but there were all these hidden fees and costs that even we didn't know about. Although, if you looked at it, it was still a lower percentage than the bank gives you on a credit card."

(It's true that $10 a month fees for prepaid debit cards are not unusual, although there were other fees attached – $1.50 to ring the service centre for example – which looked, given the age of the target market, a little ungenerous.) In Kardashian world, attracting bad PR is a moral failing. "For us, we just didn't want that negative press, so we backed off." As for QuickTrim, the diet product, "If you look at every diet product, there's tons of lawsuits. So that is a successful product, actually."

Kardashian has probably attracted more criticism for her decision to pose topless in Playboy and W magazines, something she hesitated over, but her mother talked her into. Good old Kris. Her father would have been horrified, Kardashian says. "He would have killed me."

But her mum? "Oh, she was all for it."

Doesn't she think it undermines her credibility as a business person? "No, sex is powerful and I think it's empowering, so I don't. I would have thought that before, but now I don't. I go back and forth about it."

The point is that men in her position would not be asked to pose naked. "Yeah!" she says with wonder, as if we have hit upon yet another feminist advantage in the world. "I think it's empowering and I'll do what I want!"

She has at least been consistent in this. In her early 20s, long before the show, Kardashian was married to a musician called Damon Thomas, a fact she shared with her family only after the event. When I ask why she didn't tell her mother she was getting married, she has what looks like a rare, unstudied reaction. With a shuttered look, Kardashian says, "Just a bad choice on my part."

For months after the second marriage debacle, Kardashian says she stopped Googling herself, as near to a breakdown a member of that family can get. She changed her email address. She lost friends. "All these people who were so on my side completely turned on me, and they're now trying to come back and be friends."

Her pairing with Kanye West is odd; he so outspoken and political, Kardashian so neutral on almost everything. The first time she voted in her life was for Obama. "I loved being part of that decision-making process, but I never voted in prior years when I was legally eligible. I don't know why." She is, she says, a "liberal Republican", put off Mitt Romney because of his stance against gay marriage. This election, she says, "I don't know which way I'm going to go." Her favourite politician of all time is Kennedy.

Kanye will appear intermittently in the next season of the show. They are taking their relationship "season by season". "It's what we're both comfortable with, and it's all about making a group decision. Him and I, as a team."

I imagine Kris Jenner might be in that decision, too. Won't the day come, I ask, when Kardashian rises up and overthrows her mother? She actually breaks out an annoyed facial expression. "We are totally equal. She listens to what I say. She follows my lead. She works for me. I mean, on the show maybe it doesn't come off that way…"

Meanwhile, another generation of Kardashians is emerging to fill the endless hours of scheduling. Kourtney's child Mason, a toddler, now takes up a good part of many episodes. Khloé and her husband Lamar have their own show, Khloé & Lamar. The other day, Lamar went to the dentist. If Kardashian had a baby, she says, she would probably put it on TV, with certain caveats. For example, with Mason, "he can come in and say, hi/bye, and that's it", but isn't allowed to drive story lines.

The point is, she has more perspective these days. The marriage crisis changed her. "I'm leaning more towards being a little more private."

So she might potentially say no to another season? Kardashian blinks. "I never said I wouldn't do the family show." But it's very possible, she says, that the universe has shifted enough for her to say words she couldn't have imagined herself saying a year ago, an extraordinary break with Kardashian family values: "I'll never do a spin-off."

Emma Brockes

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