The Music 5 & 1 1.23.12: The Copyright Shutdown Edition
Posted by Jeremy Thomas on 01.23.2012
Avril Lavigne takes on Hilary Duff in Vs, rumors about Jay-Z and Beyonce are debunked, Britney Spears is the target of a new tell-all book, MegaUpload gets shut down by the US government as SOPA goes down, Nicki Sweet is your "& 1" Model of the Week and more!
STUFF I WANT TO TALK ABOUT
Welcome back to the Music 5 & 1, boys and girls! I am Jeremy Thomas, and with as busy as this week has been, we will be getting an abbreviated version of the 5&1 which I apologize for. Luckily we should be back to normal next week, so enjoy!
The one and only Avril Lavigne's road to the Hall of Bang continued in impressive fashion last week. The punk pop-rocker dominated Esther Baxter in head-to-head competition, beating her by a 198 - 82 margin in the most heavily-voted Vs contest since I took over the 5&1 back in August! Avril is just one step away from the Hall of Bang, but before she gets there she'll have to get though a multi-talented lady who has made a career for herself in both movies and music, not to mention putting a scorpion down her pants for War, Inc. It's gonna be knock down, drag-out battle as Avril battles Hilary Duff; who's your pick? Determine if Avril makes it into the Hall or Hilary starts down her own road by voting below!
Avril Lavigne Vs Hilary Duff
VOTE BELOW!
If there are any future participants that you would like to see in Vs, let me know either in the comments section or by email!
TWITTER BREAK!
Twitter is a powerful thing! Make sure you're following all the comings and goings around 411mania in 140 characters or less.
Also, 411 has a BRAND NEW Google+ page! Add it to your circles here and get the best in pop culture entertainment delivered right to your feed!
IN REVIEW
Being a Music Zone, you would think that we have a lot of people who love to talk about music. You would not be wrong. As such, when an album comes out that we have something to say about, we just can't help ourselves. We call that the Review Section…not the most original name, but it gets the point across! Anyway, the review section is a great place to find new music as we cover all sorts of genres and styles, from mainstream artists to lesser known acts. Here's an overview of our latest reviews.
Snow Patrol - Fallen Empires(4.0) "Snow Patrol are a mildly likable crew, who have a decent knack for a lush love song. It's pretty unfortunate to hear this album, then, because it sounds like they don't have much to say beyond their usual schtick, and they obviously wish they did. You won't be too turned off if you're a fan, but this isn't going to bring in anyone new or anything. Y'know, I'll let you guys in on a little secret, as someone who reviews music: it's never the bad albums you truly hate to come across; it's the dull ones." - Wyatt E.
MUSIC VIDEO A-GO-GO
Because you can never have too much of her, this week's video is for the Hall of Bang's own Shakira. It's her most earworm-y song todate...ladies and gentlemen, enjoy "Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)" because if you don't, it'll still be stuck in your head all week.
CRAZY GALLAGHER QUOTE OF THE WEEK
"I often thought Liam's role in Oasis must have been difficult, singing somebody else's songs. You can read the words and understand [literally] what they mean but you don't instinctively understand them."
- Noel suggests that his songs are so deep and complex that they can't be understood by anyone but him. And certainly not by his brother.
BUBBLING UNDER You know what time it is, folks...these are the stories that I found worth touching on but didn't quite make the Top Five and thus become little bites of snark as opposed to a full course of it.
Kelly Osbourne Denies Getting Drunk Ozzy Osbourne daughter and fashionista Kelly Osbourne has denied that she ended up intoxicated last weekend. A report was floating around that Kelly had tied a few too many on at the Art of Elysium event in Los Angeles and went on a rant about her favorite target, Christina Aguilera. Kelly took to Twitter to dispel the rumors, saying, "If I want to have a drink them Im going to have a drink Im 27 years old! Was their story true? NO! is it anyones business NO? #GiveMeABreak! Trust me I've worked to hard to go and fuck my life up agin you ass holes! and thats quite frankly all i have to say on this stupid subject!" In response, Ozzy grounded Kelly until she was firmly off the wagon, telling her that she had a family legacy to live up to.
"Don't come out of your room until you've snorted a line of ants!"
Leonard Cohen Says People Have Asked For A Moratorium On "Hallelujah"
Rock legend Leonard Cohen says that people are getting rather sick of hearing covers to his classic "Hallelujah." While talking about his upcoming album, Cohen said that the song is getting on people's nerves with the amount of people that cover it. "There's been a couple of times when other people have said can we have a moratorium please on 'Hallelujah'?" he said. "Must we have it at the end of every single drama and every single Idol? And once or twice I've felt maybe I should lend my voice to silencing it but on second thought no, I'm very happy that it's being sung." No word on how much of that sentiment was inspired by it's flagrantly bad placement in the film adaptation of Watchmen.
The stars of the most unintentionally hilarious sex scene ever.
Kanye West Takes an Angry Birds Meeting
Hip-hop demigod Kanye West is reportedly expanding his business empire into other, previously unexpected avenues. The man with an ego bigger than even his record sales would warrant recently took a late-night meeting with Rovio, the company that produces the incredibly addictive and popular Angry Birds game. "It was his idea," said a source close to the discussions. "They brainstormed ideas and talked about ways they could work together." Expect Watch the Nest to be released this year and Kanye to featured as a pig for people to take shots at, the latter being a move that will help the game sell even more copies.\
"Piggies in Nassau" will be the Billboard hit of the year.
Simon Cowell Being Mocked Behind the Scenes at American Idol
You reap what you sow, I suppose. The producers at American Idol had some fun behind the scenes at former showrunner and now-rival Simon Cowell's expense. The people in charge of the long-time FOX reality show have been joking backstage that they would have been "devastated" if the show hadn't drawn at least 20 million viewers (it did), a reference to Cowell's claim that The X Factor would be a disappointment if it didn't hit the same mark (it didn't). In response, Simon bought everyone in charge of the show and sold them to sweatshops in Botswana. Guess he can dish it out, but not take it.
"Your jokes are trite and boring and I fell asleep listening to them."
Elton John's Husband is Sorry He Trashed Madonna, But Not Really
After going after Madonna for winning the Golden Globe for Best Original Song, Elton John's husband offered an explanation, if not an apology. David Furnish went on a tirade after the Globes, calling the Material Girl "desperate" and "narcissistic" after she beat Elton's "Hello Hello" from Gnomeo & Juliet at the award show. A firestorm followed and David took to his Facebook to explain, saying, "Wow! What a tempest in a teapot. My passion for our film Gnomeo & Juliet and belief in Elton's song really got my emotional juices going. But I must say for the record that I do believe Madonna is a great artist, and that Elton and I wish her all the best for next week's premiere of the film W.E." While he gets points for admitting he just had some serious sour grapes going on, I don't know if starting a bitch fight with Madonna is the wisest idea. She may look sinewy these days, but I'm guessing she can still throw down with the best of them.
Plus if she gets in trouble, she can do
the twin switcheroo with Lady Gaga.
It's time to crank this mother up to 11 as we take a look at some random (DEFINITELY non-Beyonce) stuff from the last week and one smoking hottie.
*****
Beyonce and Jay Z Stories Are False
Color me shocked--UTTERLY SHOCKED--by the news that some of the stories coming out of the birth of Blue Ivy Carter were untrue.
Yeah, I knew the Sarcasmatron was blowing on that one. The week after Beyonce unleashed Jay-Z's spawn unto the world, you pretty much couldn't turn around without reading a new and increasingly more ridiculous story about the two. From the forty-odd different speculated reasons why they gave Blue Ivy her name and the reports that they would be shooting a music video in space to all the drama surrounding Lenox Hill Hospital and more, things approached a fever pitch by the end of the week a couple weeks back. That was about the time we found out that Jay had written a poem promising to forego the use of the word "bitch" and that Beyonce had given her first official post-birth interview to, of all people, Star Magazine. That's sort of like the equivalent of Kanye West promising not to be a douche and Nicole Kidman posing for Hustler.
Not saying I'd complain, just that it's unlikely.
Well, as it turns out it was a bit too good to be true, as the couple denied both stories in short order, with Beyonce claiming Star was full of crap first before Jay shot down the end of the word "bitch" in his rhymes. Queen B's rep said that the interview was "Completely made up," to be more specific and when asked point-blank if the interview was legit, said "Absolutely not."
In response, Star's editor said that the publication stood by the story...with a twist. The unnamed editor said, "It is not made up or fictitious at all. We bought the interview from a reporter in the U.S. who conducted the interview with Beyonce before the birth. The reporter then obtained the ‘top-up' info after the birth, which we believe to have been signed off by a girl on her LSM team." Now, even assuming that I believe the word of a magazine that makes TMZ look downright classy over that of Beyonce (SPOILER ALERT: I don't), Star is still full of crap here, as they promoted the article as "Beyonce WORLD EXCLUSIVE first interview" and had the first line, "Talking exclusively to Star in her first interview since giving birth, Beyonce Knowles told us she had an ‘instant connection' with her daughter Blue Ivy." Needless to say, Star is fudging a little by presented this as an an interview done after the birth. I'd link you to the article so you could see it yourself, except that Star has taken it offline, which is of course something you do when you stand by it and have legal ground to stand on.
Dammit, again? Sigh. Anyway, the whole Jay-Z/Beyonce anti-truth in reporting brigade continued as Jay came out the next day to deny the story about him having promised never to say "bitch" in his music again. Several reports came out about it, but ultimately some digging led to the source, Rolling Out magazine, who reported it with no source and no direct word from Jay himself. Congratulations Rolling Out; I'm 90% sure you've earned a diss in a future Jay-Z song.
You know, it actually very much irritates me when publications make up this kind of fake news. The incentive is obvious; getting the first Beyonce interview or announcing something like Jay-Z foregoing his favorite word are sure to bring in the buyers and it's not like Star or Rolling Out have a lot of credibility to lose. They get their boost in sales and people quickly forget about it. But there are few things more irritating than having to post a story shooting down previously-posted rumors, and I for one kind of hope that Beyonce at least goes after Star for their manipulative tactics. It's just a dumb move and the less we see of that kind of stuff, the better.
I could stand to see more of this, though.
Britney Spears' Ex-Bodyguard Planning A Tell-All Book
You gotta love Britney Spears. Okay, you don't have to but I at least have a lot of respect for her for coming back from the brink of insanity to reforge a career and by all acounts come out of her head-shaving psychosis as strong as ever. One person who apparently doesn't share my opinion, however, is Fernando Flores. Flores, who was Britney's bodyguard during the crazier moments of her life, recently announced that he's signed a seven figure deal for a book about Britney's apparently wacky, sex-filled tours.
According to a friend of Flores who has information on the book, Flores told him "Britney has a huge sexual appetite and, from what she told me, her tours were an anything-goes environment... I heard stories of threesomes, orgies, girls making out - things that would make your hair stand on end. She had a lot of young, attractive dancers around her on tour, and things would get crazy. There was drinking, drugs, steamy sessions in hot tubs, all sorts of things." He also said that he was once in her bathroom and "saw this picture of her in a tub with some girls. It was very sexual. She told me, 'That was on tour and shit got crazy'."
I'm fairly sure it would make something on most guys stand on end,
But hair isn't it.
Now keep in mind, Flores isn't exactly Britney's best friend and he has a bit of an axe to grind. Flores previously sued Britney for sexual harassment, claiming she made unwanted sexual advances toward him and exposed herself in front of him. Both Britney's legal team and her ex-husband Kevin Federline denied the claims, with K-Fed calling them "baseless." Obviously, a spokesperson for Britney has also denied these new claims as well.
Now I did some looking, and since the lawsuit was filed in 2010 there's been no updates which I assume to mean that Flores hasn't gotten anywhere. Thus, he moves on to write his own tell-all book with salient details that may or may not be true and can't be proven either way. To me, this is similar to the false Jay-Z/Beyonce claims except that in this case it's one identifiable person and not a faceless magazine making the claims. I'm sure Flores stands on at least tenable legal ground as there's no way to prove such things didn't happen, so a libel lawsuit is unlikely. And I'm certainly not saying that they couldn't be true because let's be honest here; Britney had some wild ways in her past and she kind of set herself up for such a thing by her public make-out session on stage with Madonna at the MTV Music Video awards way back when. But either way, if I were Flores I wouldn't be concerned about legal matters as much as a more personal form of retribution. I'm moderately sure that there are few scarier sights than that of Miss Spears running after you with an umbrella in hand and death in her eyes.
I rest my case.
MegaUpload Feels The Wrath of the US Government
People opposed to the draconian tactics of the RIAA and MPAA won a major victory this week as the much-ballyhooed anti-piracy bills Stop Online Piracy Act and PROTECT IP Act were dealt crushing blows. The two United States congressional bills, which would have had the power to block websites that posted unauthorized copyrighted content, were looking unstoppable on their way to an eventual passing and complete neutering of the internet as recently as a couple of weeks ago before mounting protests caused more and more sponsors to pull out, and a protest this week that saw over 7,000 websites speak out (with Wikipedia and Reddit going completely dark and Google and other sites posting public messages or images opposing the bills) pretty much killed their possibilities. More sponsors in the House and Senate pulled out and the bills are more or less dead in the water at this point.
If you think the labels and studios are done though, think again. A mere day after the protest that delivered the death knell for the bills, the FBI spearheaded a raid that saw the filesharing website MegaUpload get shut down and seven company heads arrested and charged with "running an international criminal enterprise centered on copyright infringement on the Internet." Prosecutors claim that the service has cost copyright holders more than $500 million in lost revenue, despite the site claiming that they are very diligent when it comes to dealing with pirated material. The FBI have reportedly seized more than $50 million in assets and have executed more than 20 search warrants in nine different countries.
People looking to see if Katy Perry was a hot Smurfette in the
2011 movie found themselves in for a surprise.
I'm certainly not trying to suggest that illegal file-sharing is something that should be tolerated, so let me get that out there before the MPAA tries to sue me or seize my computers. But even the most trusting sap has to wonder about the timing of this arrest, which certainly makes file-sharing seem like a major problem right after the anti-piracy bills were beaten like a red-headed stepchild who's dating Chris Brown. Just when people were accusing the government and the labels and studios of going too far, here comes this arrest with claims of half a billion in revenue stolen and phrases like "international criminal enterprise."
And it's no coincidence that MegaUpload is the site that was hit as opposed to Fileserve, Filesonic, Wupload, 4shared, Filestube or any number of other file-sharing sites. Some of you may remember that not too long ago, MegaUpload found itself in a tiff with Universal Music Group when it posted a video from major label artists like Diddy, Mary J. Blige, Kanye West, will.i.am, Jamie Foxx, Kim Kardashian and more voicing their support for the site, which has several completely legitimate uses and has by most accounts (read: everyone except the MPAA, RIAA and FBI) complied with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Several of the stars included people under contract to Universal, who had YouTube pull the video under claims of copyright infringment despite the fact that there was no UMG content in the video. This whole thing sort of backfired against UMG and MegaUpload used it as an opportunity to spread the message against SOPA and PIPA. Now with that in mind, is anyone surprised that MeagUpload was targeted?
Listen, the bottom line is this: if MU is not complying with the DMCA then it deserved to get in hot water. But at this point at least, the government hasn't yet shown proof of that and that just makes this a political move to save face after SOPA and PIPA got kicked in the 'nads. And it's a risky game as well because if MegaUpload's people manage to successfully fight their prosecution than it's just going to be more egg on the faces of people who are looking more and more dumb to the public as the weeks pass. It'll be interesting to watch as this progresses, but I won't be surprised to see it turn out to be another win for MU and another debacle for the increasingly out-of-touch government.
There's nothing hot about DMCA Takedown Notices, so enjoy Shakira instead.
New Music Monday
This is the home of some of the best new music that will soon be available, where you get to hear the hottest new tracks and find out about forthcoming albums and videos as well.
Nicki Minaj's new single from her upcmong album Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded has been released. Check it out below:
The latest album from Nada Surf, titled The Stars Are Indifferent To Astronomy, comes out tomorrow. Check out one of the songs, "CLear Eye Clouded Mind," below:
Now it's time for the reason you're here, the "&1 Model of the Week".
For this week's Model of the Week, we're gifted with the appearance of another glorious hip-hop model. Ladies and gentlemen, say hello to the lovely Nicki Sweet!
NOW THAT I'M DONE…
You can go and read some more greatness on 411.
Let's start by giving a shout-out to the rest of the 5&1 Illuminati! There's Steve Gustafson, who brings you the hottest in movie tidbits and girls with the original Hollywood 5 & 1; Greg DeMarco, who brings you the hottest chicks who could kick my ass in the Wrestling 5 & 1 and Stewart Lange, who has brought the 5&1 to the Octagon with the MMA 5 & 1 and the brand-spanking new Gaming 5 & 1 by Sean Garmer! The 5 & 1 Illuminati is poised for true domination now!
When you are done checking out how the other zones roll, go read all the goodness in the rest of the Music Zone.
Make sure to click the Facebook and Twitter "Like" links, as well as the new Google +1 option, and support 411mania, your home for the best in pop culture entertainment news.
And that's all, folks! I'm out...have a good Monday and come back for more 411 tomorrow!
"Snow Patrol are a mildly likable crew, who have a decent knack for a lush love song. It's pretty unfortunate to hear this album, then, because it sounds like they don't have much to say beyond their usual schtick, and they obviously wish they did. You won't be too turned off if you're a fan, but this isn't going to bring in anyone new or anything. Y'know, I'll let you guys in on a little secret, as someone who reviews music: it's never the bad albums you truly hate to come across; it's the dull ones." - Wyatt E.
