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

Tags: American Music Awards, Awards Shows, Hip-Hop/Rap, Nicki Minaj, Pop, R&B, Rihanna, Rock

Image Credit: Christopher Polk/Getty Images

Let’s hope everyone can keep it civil for a night.

The nominees for the 40th American Music Awards were announced today, and the list looks more or less how you might expect it to. With four nods a piece, reigning hip-hop queens Nicki Minaj and Rihanna lead the list, and even go head to head in the “Favorite Female Artist — Pop/Rock” category. Other big nominees include Drake, One Direction, Justin Bieber, Maroon 5, and Usher, who each snagged three chances to take home those coveted pyramid-shaped trophies.

In addition to your usual Top 40 hang-abouts, there’ll be some new faces at the Nov. 14 ceremony: EDM artists. In response to the the genre’s growing popularity, the AMAs have added a new category honoring your favorite EDM artist of the year (winners are determined by online voting, which begins Tuesday). The category’s inaugural nominees include David Guetta, Calvin Harris, and good ol’ Skrillex; Taylor Swift, of course, was not eligible this year, as her dubstep masterpiece just missed the deadline.

Take a look at the full list below and let us know how you think the AMAs are looking this year:

Oct 5 2012 10:34 AM ET

Chris Brown explains Rihanna situation: 'I'm not trying to be a dog'

Tags: Chris Brown, Pop, R&B, Rihanna, Things That Bum Us Out

Image Credit: Gomillion and Leupo

In the ancient Greek myth about Prometheus, the trickster Titan steals fire from the gods of Olympus to deliver to humankind. As punishment, Zeus chains the immortal Prometheus to a rock and compels a bird of prey (sometimes an eagle, other times a vulture) to eat his liver, which always grows back the next day. It’s a vision of eternal torment, just like Sisyphus pushing a boulder endlessly up a hill or George Orwell’s immortal image of a boot stomping on a face for all eternity.

We are all Prometheus, and Chris Brown is the liver that keeps growing back. READ FULL STORY »

Oct 3 2012 12:41 PM ET

The Roots sing special doo-wop song for Alec Baldwin on 'Fallon': Watch it here

Tags: Alec Baldwin, Jimmy Fallon, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, R&B, Television, The Roots

Ladies and gentlemen, meet Late Night With Jimmy Fallon audience member Alex Baldwin!

Oh, oops — as he told Fallon, it’s “Alec, with a C.” And apparently this totally random member of Late Night‘s live studio audience also has a habit of appearing on some NBC show called 30 Rock?

To help Alec With a C promote the Tina Fey sitcom’s final season, Fallon’s house band the Roots played a custom-tailored doo-wop ditty while Baldwin and his host swayed along. As NBC warns, “This ain’t your grandaddy’s Beach Boys.”

Check it out in the video below:

Oct 1 2012 08:06 PM ET

Bruno Mars drops new single 'Locked Out of Heaven': Hear it here!

Tags: Bruno Mars, Fall Music, New Stuff, Pop, R&B

Image Credit: Michael Caulfield/AMA2011/Getty Images

After a period of ceaseless ubiquity that saw him climb to the top of the Billboard Hot 100, collaborate with every rapper on the planet, and perform at seemingly every awards show known to man, Bruno Mars stepped out of the spotlight for a little while to work on his second album. The dude is finally back with a new album called Unorthodox Jukebox, and he just dropped its first single “Locked Out of Heaven.”

“Locked Out of Heaven” continues Mars’ “What if Stevie Wonder traveled to the future?” approach, melding together various eras of R&B, rock, and funk like second nature. The melody isn’t as immediate as some of his past hits, but it does have a gloriously chest-pounding bridge that should sound good next to “It Will Rain” during Bruno’s shows.

Give “Locked Out of Heaven” a listen below. READ FULL STORY »

Sep 27 2012 12:07 PM ET

Whitney Houston getting primetime special, greatest hits package, photo book

Tags: In Memoriam, Jennifer Hudson, New Stuff, Pop, R&B, Usher, Whitney Houston, TV

Image Credit: David Corio/Getty Images

When Whitney Houston died suddenly in February, near-immediate tributes sprung up everywhere from that weekend’s Grammy telecast and EW’s own print cover.

But some tributes, of course, can’t be wrought so quickly, and this coming November will bring a number of longer-gestating odes to the fallen superstar. On November 16, CBS will broadcast We Will Always Love You: A Grammy Salute To Whitney Houston, an hour-long primetime special that genuflects to Houston’s music with the aid of stars like Jennifer Hudson and Usher (with more to be announced). The special will tape at Los Angeles’ Nokia Theater on October 11, and tickets are on sale now.

That week in November will also sees the release of I Will Always Love You: The Best of Whitney Houston, a new collection of her biggest hits — including “I Wanna Dance With Somebody,” “I’m Your Baby Tonight,” and “My Love Is Your Love,” and 15 others. Also included: a new version of “I Look to You” featuring R. Kelly. Check it out below. READ FULL STORY »

Sep 25 2012 12:45 PM ET

Frank Ocean plays NYC synagogue, releases new song 'Blue Whale': Hear it here

Tags: About Last Night, Buzzworthy, Frank Ocean, R&B, Things That Are Awesome

Image Credit: Roger Kisby/Getty Images

R&B “It” boy Frank Ocean is not slowing down.

The man who dropped the summer’s must-album Channel Orange on our unsuspecting heads and lent both Saturday Night Live and John Mayer some cool points earlier this month is diving into the week head first. Following his I’ll Be Your Mirror appearance this weekend, Ocean played a mesmerizing set at New York’s Angel Orensanz Center, the antebellum synagogue where Fader and Vitamainwater held a joint event last night. Bon Iver was technically the headliner, but Ocean seemed to inspire the most excitement, prompting fans to crowd the Gothic Revival building’s delicate balconies for a better view of the night’s headbanded hero.

They were not disappointed. Backed by a Telecaster-wielding band, the singer obligingly launched into spacey Channel Orange favorites like “Crack Rock” and “Bad Religion” (interesting, given the setting) as well as earlier mixtape cuts, like the winding “American Wedding.” He ended his hourish-long run with the seedy Egyptology of “Pyramids,” and it all felt like the weirdly correct way to spend a night in a temple during the Jewish High Holidays.

One song Ocean didn’t play last night? “Blue Whale,” the brand new track he debuted this morning on his Tumblr. It’s a lo-fi number, characteristically mellow and introspective with lines like, “I wasn’t much into the type that my bros liked/So I never really had no wife/And that’s alright.”

Give “Blue Whale” and listen below:

Sep 20 2012 08:00 AM ET

Ne-Yo on VH1's 'Behind the Music': Remembering his interactions with Michael Jackson -- EXCLUSIVE VIDEO

by Tanner Stransky

Tags: An EW Exclusive!, Behind the Music, Cable, Ne-Yo, Pop, R&B, VH1, Video Exclusive, News, TV

Image Credit: Leon Neal/Getty Images

Ne-Yo has made no secret of the fact that he had been collaborating with Michael Jackson when he died in 2009. But in the newest episode of VH1′s Behind the Music — which premieres Sunday, Sept. 23, at 9 p.m. — he delves deeper into how they met and the work they produced. EW has an exclusive clip of that recollection.

In the clip — which you can find below — Ne-Yo recalls that in the spring of 2009, Jackson reached out to him but he hung up the phone, thinking it was a prank call. “I figured it was somebody playin’,” he remembers.

After Jackson called back, he remembers, “we met up in New York, then he smiles and gave me a big hug, and says, ‘You know what my favorite song of yours is? [singing] Please don’t worry about me, I’m fine,’” Ne-Yo says in the clip. “He started singing my damn song ['Go On, Girl].’ I almost lost it at that point. I maintained, but inside, I was jumping around like a six-year-old girl. It was bad. It was really, really bad.”

Watch the full clip from Sunday’s episode of Behind the Music here:

Sep 17 2012 11:33 AM ET

Frank Ocean drops NSFW 'Pyramids' video: Watch it here

Tags: Buzzworthy, Frank Ocean, Music Videos, R&B

Fresh off his John Mayer-assisted Saturday Night Live performance, crooner du jour Frank Ocean has released an epic video for his Channel Orange centerpiece, “Pyramids.”

The song, which he abridged over the weekend for SNL, lives out all of its eight minutes in the new clip. It also includes visual references to many of its lyrics, such as images of his modern-day Cleopatra “working at the Pyramid tonight” — i.e., dancing on stage at a strip club. As such, fair warning, the video has some NSFW elements to it.

The clip also has long shots of Ocean riding his motorcycle, so if you liked movies like The Brown Bunny or The Master boring, you’ll probably like the following video:

Sep 12 2012 04:05 PM ET

Can we please stop being shocked by Chris Brown now?

Tags: Chris Brown, Hip-Hop/Rap, Pop, R&B, Rihanna

Image Credit: Brendon Thorne/Getty Images

This week, social media lightning rod and occasional recording artist Chris Brown found himself at the center of another controversy. This time around, it was speculation that his new neck tattoo was some sort of sociopathic nod to Rihanna because the image depicted a woman’s face that may or may not resemble the infamous police photo of his onetime girlfriend’s bruised and battered face that was leaked following his 2009 assault on her.

Brown’s rep was quick to step in and deny the connection, releasing a statement that said, “His tattoo is a sugar skull and a MAC cosmetics design he saw. It is not Rihanna or an abused woman as erroneously reported.” Brown himself wrote on Twitter, “I am an artist and this is art.” (Though not, as far as we can tell, the kind of art that at all resembles the Mexican Day of the Dead skulls his rep speaks of.)

Yes, we’re writing about him here once again. But people of the Internet, I implore you: Can we please stop being shocked every time Brown does something insensitive? READ FULL STORY »

Sep 11 2012 01:42 PM ET

Chris Brown shows off new neck tattoo, denies it's Rihanna's face

by Maane Khatchatourian

Tags: Chris Brown, R&B, Rihanna, Tattoos, Things That Make Us Go Hmm, News

Image credit: Jeff R. Bottari/Getty Images

UPDATE: Chris Brown’s new tattoo is not an image of Rihanna or an abused woman, his publicist told EW. It’s a MAC cosmetics design of a skull associated with the Mexican celebration of the Day of the Dead.

Tattoo artist Peter Koskela said Brown brought him the design, below, to convert into a tattoo.

Brown recently revealed this fresh ink and many speculated that it was of his ex-girlfriend Rihanna.

Brown was convicted of assaulting Rihanna three years ago and the image on his neck resembles injuries the songstress suffered during the altercation, including a black eye and bruised lip. Following the arrest, Brown has been working with various domestic violence intervention and prevention organizations.

The two stars have since reconciled and have allegedly dated on and off since the incident: The pair shared a kiss during last Thursday’s MTV Video Music Awards and Rihanna told Oprah Winfrey during a televised interview last month, “I do miss miss him sometimes.”