Katy Perry's album about the music

Katy Perry's latest album "Prism" debuted at No. 1 on the charts should be a surprise to no one. But why it's there is a little more difficult to untangle. Critical response to the venture, the follow up to her massively successful second album "Teenage Dream," ranged from lukewarm to unimpressed, or worse.

But even before the reviews were in, its first single "Roar" hinted that the three years Perry spent working on the album hadn't truly paid off. The song, seemingly written with a high school volleyball game warm up in mind, is everywhere, sure. But despite its ubiquity, "Roar" pales in comparison to the catchiness of the hit-single-after-single that "Teenage Dream" delivered. Furthermore her VMA performance of the "Roar" – a boxing match charade that spared no visual metaphors for the song's "Rocky"-esque themes – was overshadowed by Miley Cyrus's twerk-pocalypse. As for the rest of the album, Perry promised darker, rawer "a prism" to her soul. Sonically, it's as overproduced as ever.

Just as she has lived up to performative expectations, Perry has been willing to adhere to the rules when it comes to her personal life as well. She hasn't been shy rehashing in glossy magazines the details her romances and heartaches. Her tales of her marriage and divorce to crass comedian Russell Brand, and her current relationship with Mayer have maintained her presence in the tabloids. And these revelations don't just keep the media wheel spinning. They add speculation and interest to otherwise horribly generic songs. "Legendary Lovers" or "Love Me" could be about any romance or heartbreak, respectively. But with Perry's tongue-wagging we can speculate that they're inspired by Mayer and Brand, giving them a suggestion of intimacy that doesn't actually exist.

Old West Coast sound through Haim

Sounds of the old West Coast echo through the songs of Haim. On the trio’s much-hyped debut CD, “Days Are Gone,” they so closely evoke various L.A. sounds of the 1980s, some passages practically amount to quotes.

The song “Forever” flicks through staggered guitar riffs that could have been sampled from Stevie Nicks’ solo hit “Stand Back.” “The Wire” anchors on the same booming drumbeat that gave the Eagles’ “Heartache Tonight” its opening hook, while a slew of guitar lines throughout the disc mimic Lindsay Buckingham’s most silvery licks.

Given that two-thirds of those allusions harken back to Fleetwood Mac, it’s no surprise that the three young sisters who comprise Haim (rhymes with time) have tried to downplay the connection. They say they’re just as influenced by 1990s R&B acts like En Vogue and TLC.

To further their case, they’ve collaborated, live or on an album, with stars as far afield and contemporary as Kid Cudi and Cee Lo Green.

Lady Gaga and Eminem will be the headliners for Youtube Music Awards

YouTube is launching its own music awards and Lady Gaga will perform at the first-time event.

The Google Inc.-owned company announced Tuesday that Eminem and Arcade Fire will also perform at the YouTube Music Awards on Nov. 3. The awards will be presented at Pier 36 in New York City and will stream live online.

The announcement said the awards show will honor "artists and songs that YouTube fans have turned into global hits over the past year." Nominees will be announced Oct. 17.

Actor Jason Schwartzman will host the YouTube Music Awards. A press release said the awards show will also feature events from Seoul, South Korea; Moscow; London; and Brazil.

Jack Johnson's 'From Here to Now to You' ,more happy feelings

"I just write about whatever it is that's on my mind," Johnson said. "This record has been a lot of just sort of being in the family in just kind of my own little bubble. Dropping the kids off at school, and just day-to-day life, just washing the dishes, working in the garden, taking the trash out. That's not necessarily what the songs are about, but that's kind of where I was living, in that space."

It's a very comfortable space. "From Here to Now to You," out Tuesday, is his sixth album and moves away from the darker, more electric-oriented music on his last two albums, which were filled with songs affected by the deaths of his father and a cousin.

There's a gentle, rolling rhythm throughout the album's 12 tracks with a handful of love songs aimed at his wife and others examining fatherhood. There's even one called, "Washing Dishes."

The songs were mostly written on an acoustic guitar on Johnson's front porch on the North Shore of Hawaii, recorded in his studio and created with his friends, including his longtime band members, Ben Harper and producer Mario Caldato Jr., who recorded Johnson's second and third albums in the mid-2000s.

The process mimicked the way he started, before his platinum debut, "Brushfire Fairytales."

"Music's always been about sharing to me," Johnson said. "The first chords I ever learned were basically so we could do Bob Marley songs on the front porch, and the Beatles and Cat Stevens. So when I started writing my own, it was the same thing, about sharing. Everybody's singing together. ... It's a very nice feeling. It's spiritual, you know. So I do like it. But I can have too much of it and I can decide I don't need it for a while."

Miley Cyrus in her defense against the negative reaction at 2013 MTV VMA

Cyrus gyrated against Thicke during their joint performance at the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards on Aug. 25 as they performed his hit song Blurred Lines. The 20-year-old showed off her twerking skills on stage while wearing a nude colored pair of shorts and bra top.

Despite the backlash Cyrus received for the raunchy stage set - some regarding her grinding on a married man - Patton had no problem with the performance and in fact, she knew it was coming.

"I wasn't surprised at all," Patton said. "Honestly, they rehearsed for three days beforehand and I don't know how not to dance with someone having their booty in your ... all my friends do it like that! And, I don't really know what the big deal is."
She went on to say that she was surprised by the negative reaction the performance received.

"I didn't know if they thought Miley was going to sit down and play piano like Alicia Keys. Her song's about taking Molly [ecstasy]!" she said. "I don't understand. I didn't get the big deal."

Zooey Deschanel and her pen pals bandmate

Zooey Deschanel and her bandmate are "like 21st century pen pals."

The actress-and-singer is about to release for fourth LP with her She & Him bandmate Mathew ''M'' Ward.

She and M are both so busy with their own projects that they start from scratch when they finally meet up to record new tracks.

"We''re like 21st century pen pals that get together once a year to make a record," Zooey told Q magazine. "I never know what his ideas are until we get in the studio, so we hit the ground running. I love working quickly like that because you never get stuck in your own head."

"It''s like, I have a little more honey and he has a little more vinegar," she said. As the pair''s last collaboration was a Christmas record, their new album is simply entitled Volume 3. Of all the tracks, M says one called Together is his favourite.

"I''m proudest of that song because it''s our newest sound," he said. "I see all the volumes as one long beautiful record, and this is just the next chapter."

PSY's "Gentleman" hits 50M views in two days!

Psy has struck YouTube gold again after his latest single Gentleman notched up 53m views in just two days.
But it's still got a long way to go to catch its predecessor Gangnam Style - which has been seen over 1.5B times.

Psy's latest effort notched up a staggering 18million hits just 24 hours after its release, and more than doubled that total after 48.

He shows off a new dance routine in the rib-tickling clip, which he's likely to be hoping will eventually become as popular as his now-legendary Gangnam Style horse riding routine.
Most of the clip shows the 35-year-old singer pulling a range of childish pranks on different people.

The song has also caused confusion over the lyrics, with some mistaking the line “I’m a mother-father gentleman” for “I’m a mother-f****** gentleman”.
It was debuted at a massive show to 50,000 in Seoul in Psy's native South Korea.

The Witch Is Dead (Anti Thatcher song) charted 1 on iTunes

On Monday, there were at least three groups soliciting readers to purchase Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead on iTunes or Amazon, sending it up the charts. Written by Harold Arlen and EY Harburg, the song first appeared in The Wizard of Oz; campaigners are asking supporters to rally around the version recorded by Ella Fitzgerald.

On the iTunes Music Store, two anti-Thatcher songs – Ding Dong! and Elvis Costello's Tramp the Dirt Down – were already charting. Other non-mourners pointed to deep cuts such as Crass's How Does It Feel to Be the Mother of 1,000 Dead, and No Bombardeen Buenos Aires, from Argentina's Charly García.

In an essay posted on The Daily Beast, Morrissey rips into Thatcher's legacy, lambasting her as "a terror without an atom of humanity."

Morrissey has long expressed his distaste for the politician known as the Iron Lady, most notably in the song "Margaret on the Guillotine" off his solo debut, "Viva Hate."

His letter on Thatcher's passing is unabashedly brutal:

"Every move she made was charged by negativity; she destroyed the British manufacturing industry, she hated the miners, she hated the arts, she hated the Irish Freedom Fighters and allowed them to die, she hated the English poor and did nothing at all to help them, she hated Greenpeace and environmental protectionists, she was the only European political leader who opposed a ban on the Ivory Trade, she had no wit and no warmth and even her own Cabinet booted her out."

Thatcher died on Monday after suffering a severe stroke. She was 87. The former Conservative leader will be honoured with a ceremonial funeral at St Paul's Cathedral.

Well shall we sad or shall we happy of the former Prime Minister? Your Call

Paramore will premiering their new album over four nights

Not only has the pop-punk trio released the final YouTube video in their series of vinyl records playing songs from their upcoming self-titled album, but they've surprised fans with a completely unexpected cover Alt-J's "Matilda."  at the BBC.

Paramore is returning to the music scene in a big way this spring, with the band releasing its first album in four years on April 9. But the Tennessee rockers' self-titled fourth album won't just drop via CD and download - Paramore will premiere the new songs with a very unique online presentation.

"Starting Monday (April 1), we're going to be premiering our album over four nights, on Paramore.net," Hayley Williams said in a video announcement on YouTube.

"There's four sides, so four nights," added guitarist Taylor York during the brief video announcement, revealing that the vinyl version of the release will be a double-album affair.

The album drops April 9 on Fueled By Ramen.

The band hits Houston, Texas, on April 25, followed by shows in L.A. (May 1), San Francisco (May 4), Chicago (May 9) and New York (May 16) before wrapping up the U.S. leg in Atlanta, GA, on May 21.

Katy Perry after break up with John Mayer

Katy Perry and John Mayer split last month following an on/off relationship. Although Katy was sad to part ways with the singer she is apparently keen to move on and wants to focus on having fun.

Katy hasn't spoken about her relationship breakdown in public, although John briefly touched on it. Before dating the singer he was known for being open about his love life, but explained he is learn to be more secretive.

Katy apparently began indulging in unhealthy foods towards the end of the relationship and also stopped working out so much. Since things finished she has been spotted at the gym a great deal and is pleased to have more time for herself.

"It's all about Katy now. She's living her life the way she wants to," the insider explained. "She has renewed energy from her workouts and healthy eating and it shows."

The star has also decided not to focus so much attention on her love life from now on. Following her divorce from Russell Brand and split from John she feels the time is right to embrace being on her own.

"It was a very private relationship going in. It was a private relationship during and it's a private relationship, still. I can understand asking the question based on some previous answers I have given but I have finally learned how to put the wall between one thing and the other," Mayer said.

Madonna Secretly Visits Malawi

Madonna has reportedly taken her adopted children, David and Mercy to their native Malawi for the first time in two years.

It was unclear if Madonna took all of her four children. The singer also shares a 16-year-old daughter, Lourdes, with her former fitness trainer Carlos Leon and a 12-year-old son, Rocco, with ex-husband Guy Ritchie.

Madonna and her entourage were reportedly driven from the airport directly to Mchinji.

The singer first met David Banda at an orphanage in the western district in 2006.

She adopted Mercy James three years later from the eastern district of Zomba after a battle with Malawi's Supreme Court for the girl.

The singer's petition to adopt Mercy was initially rejected because she had not met the legal requirement of living in Malawi for the two years prior.

Madonna promised the court she would bring the children back to Malawi 'every two or three years'.

It was unclear at press time if the singer had organised a meeting with David's biological father, Yohane James, or with Mercy's grandmother Lucy Chekechiwa and uncle Peter Baneti.

Peter said the family 'desperately' wants to be reunited with Mercy.

'No one told me anything about Madonna's visit. I hope she has brought Mercy, we desperately want to be reunited with her. We hope we will be allowed to meet her,' he said.

Pyromaniac theme for Yeah Yeah Yeahs "Sacrilege" video

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs have returned with a new video for the debut single off of the band's 2013 album, "Mosquito." called Sacrilege.

The music video for "Sacrilege" shown stars British model Lily Cole as a promiscuous woman in a small town. Cole is shown topless and pants-less  getting down with various people, including a pony-tailed old man, a woman, and a priest.

As each of her lovers realize that they are one of many, they band together, seemingly with plans to burn her at the stake. The video inexplicably ends with a shot of Cole in a wedding dress walking down the aisle.

"Sacrilege" is the first track off of the band's fourth studio album, "Mosquito." The album hits stores on April 16.

Ready to burn with Ms Karen O?