Lady GagaGagaNew York's magazine profile on the American recording artist, Lady GaGa, called, "Growing Up Gaga: How Lady Gaga Became The World's Biggest Pop Star," is causing much buzz. After reading the article one of the question that comes to mind is: Is the lady channeling Andy Warhol her idol? Or is the Warhol stuff just another part of her act? I  certainly am not knocking  her. I don't knock talent. Talent is what this lady has, talent with two capitol "Gs."  -- Great talent.

She tells the  the New Yorker, “I believe that everyone can do what I’m doing. Everyone can access the parts of themselves that are great. I’m just a girl from New York City who decided to do this, after all. Rule the world! What’s life worth living if you don’t rule it?” (New Yorker)

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Johnny MaestroMusic Hall of Fame member, singer Johnny Maestro, of the rock 'n' roll and doo-wop band the Brooklyn Bridge, had one of the great voices of our time  He died late yesterday, Wednesday, March 24th,  in Florida. He was 70. He had been battling cancer. Mr. Maestro, Brooklyn born, last residence was in Cape Coral, Florida. He is best known for his rendition of Jimmy Webb’s "The Worst That Could Happen, " which was a huge hit in 1968. Among his hits were the songs "16 Candles", "Blessed is the Rain" and "You'll Never Walk Alone."

Johnny  Maestro, lead singer of the Crests and Brooklyn Bridge, began his career in the 1950s.   He performed the 1958 doo-wop hit "16 Candles" with the Crests, and he continued performing for decades with the Brooklyn Bridge. He sung the hit, "The Worst That Could Happen,"  with the Brooklyn Bridge on "The Ed Sullivan Show."


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Justin BieberLast night, (3/19/10), the  ABC news magazine show,  Nightline, did a seven minute inteview / report on the sixteen year old teen sensation, idol and rock star Justin Bieber. Well, after the Katie Couric interview earlier in the week, which created more positive buzz on the net for her  than she has ever received,  the Nightline one had to come. Justin Bieber is the hottest star on the hottest media in the world, the Internet. He is the current king of the twitter thumb gifted crowd, and the reigning lord high prince on Facebook, and other social media, popular with teens, pre-teens, and with young women, and like Katie Couric, the hosses at Nightline thought that they too should share in some of that fever, in the hope of pulling some of the Bieber fans to their show for a look and see.

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Something weird happened around 1994: Bubblegum pop music pretty much disappeared from the airwaves. It wouldn't be gone for long, what with the boy band explosion and various blonde teens with doomed careers just around the corner, but for a brief stretch in the English-language pop business, organic and genuine became the status quo. It was a weird time when adult contemporary music effectively dominated the charts. It's no surprise, then, that the remaining members of Slowdive jumped on board the acoustic express after Creation Records ended their contract. Renamed Mojave 3, the band transitioned smoothly into alt-country and modern folk.

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Justin BieberThis week (on 3/16) Katie Couric, the big time, CBS News anchor, interviewed, teen pop, music sensation Justin Bieber. As Ms Couric posted on the CBS web site, the interview was about  Justin Bieber's music his growing online success, " his hair and the future of his career."

When a big network news anchor interviews a young pop star, that means either two things: that pop star has become a phenomenon, or the anchor is looking for higher  ratings, not only to bring in a younger demographics,  a teen and pre-teen audience, but their parents, who want to know who is this dude their kids, mostly girls, have gone ga-ga about  Of course, it could mean both things. Justin Bieber is an Internet phenom. He is the most buzzed about personality on the net today. CBS didn't mind sharing some of that buzz. Anyway, here is the Justin Bieber -- Katie Couric interview.

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Alex ChiltonSinger, guitarist, songwriter, genius, very influential artist, Alex Chilton has died. He was fifty nine. The cause of death -- an apparent heart attack. He died at a hospital in New Orleans on March 17th. (The Associated Press)



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Beyoncé(3/18/10) The morning buzz is that at Alica Keys sold out gig at New York's Madison Square Garden (MSG),  Ms. Keys' fans were treated to a surprise appearance last night from the hot, hip hop-star herself, the superb and divine Beyoncé. Wait a second, backup. Don't want to give the impression that Alica is lacking for adjectives to describe her talent. Simply put, she is the tops -- packing the house with screaming fans is testimony to that. Back to the event.  Fortunately for us, who were not in attendance, Vibe had their cameras there to record the energy. Do I hear a duo coming?

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Despite any outward appearance of rigidity or cohesiveness, bands are pretty nebulous things. Some really are dependent on the sum of their parts (re: R.E.M., The Beatles) while others, like The Cure or The Fall, really only revolve around one person's creative vision. Somewhere in the middle are those bands that are held together more by a concept or sound than any particular collection of people. When the concept changes, the band ceases to be. Such is the case with Slowdive, an embattled group from the most poorly-timed musical movement in recent memory. At the center of Slowdive was Neil Halstead and Rachel Goswell, the only consistent members of the band. After a pretty brutal run of the music business in the early 90's, the two of them sallied forth with one of the several drummers they'd picked up over the years to form Mojave 3, an alt-country act on that bastion of all things weird, 4AD Records. The concept changed, even if the people really didn't.

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Bono

Let’s look at the first part of the argument (the part about celebrity rock stars being ineffectual philanthropists) first.  Perhaps there is some weight behind this point of view.  But if there is, that weight tends to throw itself more behind Bono than behind the anti-Bono crowd (I was trying to think of something less accusatory than “anti-Bono,” but gave in once more to simplicity and laziness).  After all, it’s nothing if not self-defeating to attempt, over and over and over and over again, to convince the same moneyed institutions and organizations to give a small percentage of their profits to relieve suffering.  A short example should be sufficient. 

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Bono

When I claim that Bono hasn’t sacrificed his character, I use the term “character” knowing that neither I nor most of the people that listen to U2 truly “know” Bono’s character.  But we can observe how he acts in public and the things that he says publically.  We can look to his personal habits (which are public by default) and his behavior off the stage.  I’m not trying to say that there’s nothing bad about the man.  We simply don’t have many examples of Bono publically cheating on his wife, or getting drunk and punching someone in the face while claiming that the Jews and gays secretly run the world, or really much of anything that we traditionally associate with rock stars.

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