Music news, reviews, albums, concerts, and downloads | The Music Mix

The Music Mix Music news, reviews, albums, concerts, and downloads

See Categories

See Archive

Archive: May 2011 (21-30 of 87)

May 25 2011 11:59 AM ET

Did Beyonce steal the idea behind her amazing Billboard Music Awards performance?

by Brad Wete

Categories: Beyonce, Billboard Music Awards, Pop, R&B

Image Credit: Ethan Miller/Getty Images/ABC

There were several impressive performances last Sunday at the 2011 Billboard Musc Awards. But hands down, Beyoncé’s stole the show.

Performing her new single “Run the World (Girls),” she danced in front of a dazzling interactive screen that gave her wings to wear, worlds to juggle, and dozens of background steppers to keep up with.

Watching her stay in sync with all that movement was breathtaking; critics and fans alike immediately appreciated it and its originality. But recently, whether the performance’s concept was created by the diva and her team has been questioned.

READ FULL STORY »

May 25 2011 11:06 AM ET

Taylor Swift's 'The Story of Us' video sends her to college: Watch it here

by Kyle Anderson

Categories: Ah, Youth, Country, Y'all!, Ladies, Music Videos, New Stuff, Pop, Taylor Swift

Is Taylor Swift ever not shooting a video?

So far, we’ve seen three clips from her third album Speak Now, and it seems like “Mean” just premiered a few hours ago. (Actually, it was three weeks, but still.) Yesterday, she pulled back the curtain on “The Story of Us,” which ditches the socially-conscious approach she took on her last video and gets back to the things she’s known for—pining over dudes in an academic setting.

“The Story of Us” tells the story of a collegiate Swift (you know she’s studying, because she’s wearing a cardigan!) who makes out with a guy in the library stacks and then exchanges awkward glances with him. Check it out after the jump.

READ FULL STORY »

May 24 2011 04:57 PM ET

'God Bless Ozzy Osbourne': Check out an exclusive clip from the new rock doc and interview with director Mike Fleiss

by Clark Collis

Categories: Beatles, Metal, Movies, Music, Ozzy Osbourne, Things That Are British

Mike Fleiss has one of Hollywood’s more unusual résumés.

The producer is best known for bringing us the boy(s)-meets-girl(s) reality shows The Bachelor and The Bachelorette, but he has also overseen a string of boys-and-girls-get-butchered horror movies, including Eli Roth’s two Hostel films, the rather nifty 2003 Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake, and the forthcoming Shark Night 3D. Fleiss has now added another string to his bow — or, arguably, lashed the other two together — by co-directing God Bless Ozzy Osbourne, a new documentary about the reality show star and infamous, bat-molesting, Black Sabbath-fronting metal icon.

READ FULL STORY »

May 24 2011 04:00 PM ET

Hear Bob Dylan's unfinished song, with songstress Nikki Jean: 'Steel and Feathers (Don’t Ever)' -- EXCLUSIVE

by EW staff

Categories: Bob Dylan, EW Exclusives, New Stuff

Image Credit: David Gahr

What better gift for a birthday boy than his own song, rescued from the sonic dust pile and reborn?

Dylan’s fellow Minnesota native Nikki Jean, a twentysomething singer-songwriter previously best known for touring with Kanye West and guesting on Lupe Fiasco tracks, looked to more traditional inspirations for her upcoming July 12 release Pennies In a Jar.

Pennies features songs co-penned by Burt Bacharach, Carole King, Carly Simon, and yes, Bob Dylan, whose “Steel and Feathers” is an unfinished track circa his early ’80s Shot of Love era; producer Sam Hollander introduced Dylan to Nikki’s work, and he gave her his permission to complete the composition.

Listen to the final result of their decade-crossing collaboration, exclusive to EW.com, after the jump:

READ FULL STORY »

May 24 2011 01:41 PM ET

Bob Dylan was addicted to heroin in early '60s, old interview tape reveals

by Clark Collis

Categories: Bob Dylan, Happy Birthday!, Rock Stars Say the Darndest Things

Image Credit: AP images

Bob Dylan’s achievement in reaching the age of 70 today seems doubly impressive given the news that he was addicted to heroin in the early ’60s.

According to the BBC, the rock legend talked about his former drug problem to writer Robert Shelton in the course of an interview which took place in March 1966. “I kicked a heroin habit in New York City,” Dylan said. “I got very, very strung out for a while, I mean really, very strung out. And I kicked the habit. I had about a $25-a-day habit and I kicked it.”

READ FULL STORY »

May 24 2011 11:34 AM ET

Lady Gaga's 'Born This Way': EW review

by Adam Markovitz

Categories: Lady Gaga, Pop, Songs of Summer

With Lady Gaga’s album now officially released, here’s an advance look at our take from the new issue of Entertainment Weekly, on newsstands this Friday.

The gospel of Gaga, as told in Born This Way, goes something like this: Humanity will be damned by its own self-doubt until Gaga the Savior delivers us with the might of her music. On the album’s first two singles, the messianic “Born This Way” and “Judas,” our muffin-bluffin’ Lady of yore is reborn as an earnest dance-party evangelist, retaining the beats but trading in her disco stick for a splinter of the Cross. “In the religion of the insecure, I must be myself/Respect my youth,” the 25-year-old sermonizes on the fanatically inspirational title track. READ FULL STORY »

May 24 2011 10:50 AM ET

Lady Gaga dresses crazy, eats paper, declares herself 'Batman' on 'The Late Show With David Letterman'

by Kyle Anderson

Categories: Divas!, Lady Gaga, Pop, Stay Up Late, Television, The Late Show With David Letterman, Video Gaga, YouTube Delights

Image Credit: Andy Sheppard/Redferns/Getty Images

Lady Gaga‘s new album Born This Way has been out in the universe for a little over a day (see EW’s review), and her complete takeover of all media has already exceeded expectations. On Monday, she unleashed the album, dropped in on the ladies of The View, changed her clothes completely, and then sat down with David Letterman on CBS’ The Late Show.

Clad in little more than her underpants, a leather jacket and a Zorro mask, she talked about some notorious rumors about her (including whether or not she likes picking up hitchhikers), repeatedly expressed her excitement over the fresh release of her album, flirted with the host, and declared that she was Batman. Watch the full clip after the jump. It’s a long one, but it’s worth it.

READ FULL STORY »

May 24 2011 03:03 AM ET

Bob Dylan at 70: Still alive

by Ken Tucker

Categories: Ah, Youth, Bob Dylan, Happy Birthday!, Pop, This Day in Rock History

Happy birthday, Bob Dylan.

He merits the congratulations, of course, but not the sort we extend to famous people whom we celebrate for simply making it through another year. As anyone who’s seen him perform live over the past few years knows, Dylan can still put on fierce, machine-gun-blasting, nostalgia-free concerts. And he’s still capable of releasing new albums containing cocky, disconcerting, headlong music.

Dylan retains the sort of fundamental mystery that READ FULL STORY »

May 23 2011 05:12 PM ET

Beyoncé's 'Till the End of Time' leaks online: Wish this was her first single?

by Brad Wete

Categories: Beyonce, Pop, R&B

Image Credit: Isaac Brekken/Getty Images/ABC

Pop diva Beyoncé is in unfamiliar territory this week.

Her new single “Run the World (Girls)” is languishing at No. 76 on the Billboard hot 100 chart a month after its release. Surely, the combo of its dance-heavy video and her epic performance at the 2011 Billboard Music Awards yesterday should help it rise a bit. Unfortunately, it just doesn’t seem to have “huge hit” written all over it.

Though Beyoncé’s rep says that they have not picked the second single for her upcoming 4 yet, a potential one leaked online this morning. It’s called “Till the End of Time,” and it’s been pulled down from almost every site it was posted to over the weekend, but if you were a quick music-blog draw, you may have gotten the chance to hear it.

If you didn’t, guess what—it’s good! The Afrobeat-love cut sounds more like the new sound she described last year than “Run the World.” Her voice soars over shooting horns, chanting “Say you’ll never let me go.”

It’s giving me Fela Kuti vibes, (which she mentioned as the album’s inspiration recently) mixed with Michael Jackson’s “Wanna Be Startin’ Something.” Have you heard “Till the End” yet? Think it’s better than “Run the World”? Let us know.

May 23 2011 11:11 AM ET

Lady Gaga's first album was Green Day's 'Dookie' -- what was yours?

by Kyle Anderson

Categories: Ah, Youth, Attack of the '90s, Divas!, Lady Gaga, MTV, Pop, Things We Love, Video Gaga

Image Credit: Andy Sheppard/Redferns/Getty Images

Perhaps you’ve noticed that Lady Gaga has a new album, out today.

Born This Way finally arrived in stores physical and digital this morning—and is practically free on Amazon.com—and tonight, you can get inside Gaga’s elaborately-coiffed head via the special Lady Gaga: Inside the Outside, a documentary special airing on MTV this Thursday at 9 p.m.

The hour-long show goes inside Gaga’s home life, her experiences growing up, and her early brushes with fame. In the exclusive preview clip below, Gaga reveals her early musical inspirations—including the first album she ever bought with her own money. Follow the jump to find her video confession, and to tell us about your own first-album experience:

READ FULL STORY »