Rolling Stone's List of Meltdowns and Blowups

Along with all the lists of the top songs and albums of the decade, Rolling Stone has made an entertaining list of artists' shenanigans that stood out the most over the past 10 years. The list is long (surprised? of course not), but here are my personal favorites:

• Ashley Simpson's lip syncing on Saturday Night Live and avoiding an awkward moment by doing a jig

• Madonna adopts an orphan that wasn't really orphaned

• A bald Britney Spears attacks a papa-paparazzi car with an umbrella-ella-ella

• Brett Michaels gets nailed by part of the stage set during a performance at the Tonys. I'm wondering why he'd be so upset and embarrassed by that after Rock of Love one AND two.


• Metallica sues Napster

• Mariah Carey pops in on TRL and goes a little nuts with an ice cream truck.

• Madonna and Brittney girl-on-girl and Adam Lambert's boy-on-boy award show performances


• And of course, the Kanye vs. Taylor incident. He appeared on the Jay Leno Show afterward, where Leno asks him what his mother would think if she were with us - a little harsh, even for Kanye.


What would we do without entertainers?

-Erin

Rolling Stone's List of Meltdowns and Blowups

Kany"ego"

Supposedly Kanye West just found out he has a high ego thanks to South Park (breaking story here).

The YouTube video has been removed by Viacom (buttholes!), but a big thanks to Dailymotion for letting this slip through the cracks for a little while longer.

I wonder if (through the logic of South Park's Cartman) peoples' egos are so out of wack that no matter what people tell them, they can’t accept the truth of who they are. Their ego won’t let them believe that people are better than them. So I hope Kany”ego” calms down a little back to when he first came out and actually make good music again.

Skip to near the end of the video and you’ll find why I can never listen to heartless again.

Do you like fish sticks?

From the mind of

Keveeno Reeverts

Kany"ego"

Making Money Off of What has Become Free

In what is slowly becoming a free market, music executives and musicians are finding themselves in need of finding new ways to make money. They have tried everything from Kanye West vs 50, to Radiohead's "In Rainbows" with modest success. Kanye West outsold 50 cent 957,000 to 691,000 (Wiki), while Radiohead sold 3 million copies worldwide in physical and digital sales.

In 2007 Saul Williams attempted to use the same strategy as Radiohead. The following is from his wiki page:

“154,449 people had downloaded 'Niggy Tardust'. Of that number, 28,322 people chose to pay the asked price of $5 USD ($141,610 USD Total)”


Let's compare these numbers to Williams' previous self-titled album, which sold 30,000 copies. His recent "pay what you want" release helped expand his exposure. He made less money, but reached more fans than his previous release by using the "In Rainbows" model.

All that is old news, but where has the next "big marketing idea" been for the masses? People come up with ideas for their niche markets, but worldwide sales have declined along with pop artists' talent.

As a former hater of Lil Wayne I have learned to respect him. While he has not the best talent in my opinion, he shows emotion in his music and when he is serious you feel what he is talking about. With a constant onslaught of material for fans (mixtape after mixtape) he doesn't give them a chance to give up. His last album, "Tha Carter 3" sold 2.88 million copies by New Years Eve in 2008 making it the largest selling album of the year. Wayne has built a broad fan base over a long time.

So in an era of music where the value is lost, how do we make money in this industry?

Don’t give up, keep making contacts, and always make content for the fans. Money is not something you can make overnight and if you have true talent, don’t hold it in. You have to let the world hear it.

For those in the business world: Just because you can’t find “marketable artists” as available as before, it does not mean that the industry is dead. We just need something new, so find artists that sound different. As I told many people recommending artists who sound similar to Lil Wayne, “when his career is dead so will yours be”. Artists have to make their own sound and they’ll make their own path.

It’s not about strictly talent or marketing anymore, but drive as well. Never give up. For every person that does quit there's somebody who hasn't.

From the mind of
Keveeno Reeverts

Making Money Off of What has Become Free

News & Views - Ep. 10

Axl Rose is a "freak" and Michael Phelps a "dweeb"? Wow we're asking for enemies...

News & Views - Ep. 10

You know you are an asshole when...

1. When you refer old people as “cuuuuute!!”

2. You wear T Shirts that say stuff like “the clowns are staring at me!!!” or “Alcatraz phsych ward”

3. You blog about your kids or what its like to have kids (as if having children is a novel concept that hasn’t occurred since the dawn of time.)

4. Dress shoes with destroyed denim

5. Do you leave scathing comments in the "Comments" sections of blogs and Web sites, even if you're commenting on something innocuous, such as an old Linkin Park video? When leaving such comments, do you use Internet pejoratives as "asshat"douchebag," and "'tard"?

6. Is your name Kylee, Tanler, Aiden, Savannah, Sierra, or Skylar?

7. Do your social networking “About Me” sections boast your interest in any of the following: sunny days, rainy days, kissing, AnYtHiNg SpElLeD In OpPoSiTe CaPs,

8. Do you wear neon while bike riding?

9. Do you own those white Kanye West sunglasses with the plastic lines ON THE LENS, which clearly have no practical function other wearing them for photographs, making a kissy face and throwing a sideways piece sign?

10. Blutooth headsets (sry Keveeno! Love you man)

-Emma

*photo courtesy of Hot Chicks with Douchebags

You know you are an asshole when...