No, really. This ish IS cray, watch the video.
BONUS COMMENTARY: What she order, fish fillet?
Archives For music video
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TMZ’s Gary Trock updated “The Ralphie Radio Show” on the stir Rihanna caused with the Parents Television Council over her music video for “Man Down.”
Catch Gary on TMZ TV, local listings here.
Jason Derulo revealed quite a bit about his sophomore album in an interview that aired Thursday evening on “The Ralphie Radio Show.” Future History is slated for a tentative September release. Derulo started with a pool of 150 songs for the project – which he narrowed to 20. The singer will drop six more before compiling a track listing. He estimates that producer J.R. Rotem will produce about a quarter of the album.
Derulo also spoke of his link to The Fliptones, who produced Future History’s first single, “Don’t Wanna Go Home.”
“The Fliptones are some friends of mine from back in the day,” he said. “Before I was signed (to a record deal), we used to make music together when we were younger, and I signed them to a management deal and a publishing deal.”
It’s certainly a refreshing tale of a superstar who doesn’t forget his roots and the friends he made on his way up the latter. Derulo has also signed a handful of singers and songwriters, some of which will be releasing material in the near future. But at the moment, the “Whatcha Say” singer has his hands full with this sophomore album, and making sure that people don’t hear premature tracks. While Derulo seemed to joke about the recent leak of a demo to “Don’t Wanna Go Home,” he also sounded a bit frustrated that a non-final recording made a first impression to some of his fans.
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“I just want to have a talk with all the hackers out there, like, ‘If you’re going to hack these e-mails, just get a better version of the song!” he said. “Why does it always have to be like a crappy version of the song that has to leak out?”
In the instance of “Don’t Wanna Go Home,” the bootleg was one of the first working edits – usually Derulo will go in to the recording booth, freestyle lyrics, and work from there. A quick comparison of the demo to the final shows that in addition to some vocal and instrumental effects, there are actual differences in the words being sung as well.
“I would have no problem if (the leak) was like a copy that I was pleased with,” admitted Derulo. “It’s just the worst copy of the song you could hear.”
How bad was it? Personally speaking, I thought it was good enough to spin on “The Ralphie Radio Show.” Of course, I don’t have the ear of a musician. But, I think it speaks volumes to Derulo’s talent that one of his first edits is better than some of the final edits we receive from other singers.
By the way, unlike other artists (see: David Guetta), Derulo hasn’t hired an investigator to find the source of the leak. But Derulo offered a word of caution to other artists.
“You also have to be careful where you record material too because, I was in Miami when I recorded that version,” he said. “I think the studio may have… I shouldn’t guess like that, but I can’t think of any other way.”
Detective Derulo… forget “What If?” – who knew?
What is going on, where did all these monkeys come from, and why is Bruno Mars shaking his junk?
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In addition to breaking the news on “The Ralphie Radio Show” that her next album to be released in the States will be called, ViVa, Kat DeLuna explained the inspiration behind the LP’s first single, “Dancing Tonight.”
The track was produced by EightySix, who DeLuna says she discovered when he approached her after a show with a demo!
A great song by my friends Black Eyed Peas – it rises to a new level when you watch this video, which was shot in Japan a week before the tsunami hit.
If you’re looking to donate to the relief efforts in Japan, click here.
Singer/songwriter Benjamin Wagner checked in to “The Ralphie Radio Show” to chat about A Holiday Benefit Vol. 4, an annual holiday music compilation which benefits 826NYC, the local chapter of a national, nonprofit organization that supports kids ages 6 to 18 with their creative writing skills. The 13 track album features both originals and covers of holiday songs.
Click the artwork above to buy A Holiday Benefit on iTunes!
Part 1: The story behind the compilation
Part 2: The cover of “Christmas All Over Again”
If The Goo Goo Dolls can’t call the shots after 17 top-10 singles and almost 9 million albums sold, at the very least, the band’s lead singer can express his honest opinions about the Dolls’ new music video.
“I don’t like the video,” front man John Rzeznik revealed, referring to the music video for “Home”, the first single from The Goo Goo Dolls’ forthcoming album, Something for the Rest of Us. “I think the song has a little more gravity to it, and I think the way they put it together was just a little fluffy. But that’s just my opinion, it doesn’t matter.”
Whoa, wait a minute. It doesn’t matter? I looked a little baffled, so Rzeznik continued.
“I mean, at that point, it was just like, ‘Whatever,’ yunno what I mean?” he said. “We were done arguing with everybody about everything.”
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Download the interview
The Goos also chat about the band’s partnership with USA Harvest and a special promotion with US Weekly.
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Drummer Mike Malinin likes the video, while bassist and vocalist Robby Takac may have summed up the video’s attributes the most succinctly.
“I think it’s a good commercial for the record… which is pretty much what a rock video is.”
Rzeznik hasn’t exactly been hiding his disenchantment with the treatment for the video. In a clip posted to The Goo Goo Dolls’ official YouTube account, Rzeznik is talking to a camera inside the grocery store where part of the piece was filmed.
“Shopping… practicing a little guitar,” joked Rzeznik when asked by the camera person what he was doing at the store on that particular day. “(We’re) shooting the video for ‘Home’, and we meet in a Japanese super market which (shrugs his shoulders, pauses)… I feel like I’m just going along with it, going for the ride!”
On a lighter note, the lead singer said he that went for a ride, literally, when filming a scene where he walks across a table in the Japanese restaurant. Rzeznik walked across actual food, making an actual mess in the process.
“I slipped on a piece of, I think it was sashimi,” Rzeznik said. “There was a camera woman right over here (points to his left). I grabbed her (reenacts by pulling Malinin’s hair) to hold myself up, and I grabbed her and started pulling her hair, and she starts screaming… it was real.”
It seems almost everything The Goo Goo Dolls do, or say, is. Something for the Rest of Us hits stores August 31.
Katy Perry f. Snoop Dogg – California Gurls (Candy Land meets Girls Gone Wild?)
3OH!3 f. Ke$ha – My First Kiss (Really with the gold lips Ke$ha?)
Mike Posner – Cooler Than Me (Based on a true story of some of those ladies at Duke University
Last Friday, I made a cameo on CNN Headline News’ “Prime News” with host Mike Galanos to discuss a recent viral video on YouTube. The piece in question showed a group of 8 and 9 year-old girls at a dance competition in Los Angeles. The girls wore very elaborate costumes that showed off their midriffs, along with knee-high boots – and mimicked the dance to the music video for Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It).”
Parents and counselors across the country voiced their displeasure in the dance instructor and the children’s parents, calling the choreography too provocative and the outfits too revealing. Lauren Lake, a former hip hop dancer who appeared on the same HLN segment with me, compared the moves to that of a stripper – asking if a pole would be the next step for dancers their age.
I’m sorry, but I have to draw the line there. These girls were in a controlled environment, with parents, supervisors, and teachers. The comparison to exotic dancers was extreme, out of line, and uncalled for. I concurred that the outfits were not age-appropriate. But the dance moves consisted of more ballerina-twirling than booty shaking, grinding, or gyrating.
Matter of fact, how much of the latter actually appeared in the video? The girls were moving around frantically, but I think the “gyrating” claim is a little generous – perhaps these critics need a tutorial on how one actually gyrates.
Galanos and Lake were both against the video – which made it very hard for me to voice my opinion in the two-part, 10 minute piece. The bias in the segment reached a fever pitch right before Galanos tossed it to me for my first of only two chances where I’d be allowed to speak. The anchor decided it would also be a good idea to question not only the dance moves and costumes – but the song as well – by picking the most provocative lyrics of the track and reading them, while the words were displayed on screen.
This is a classic example of people criticizing pop culture without understanding it. You could pick a segment out of any piece of art – a song, a movie, The Bible – and find something to demonize. What Galanos failed to understand is that taken its full, intended context – Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies” is an empowering song to women of all ages. In the track, which is one of Columbia Records’ most downloaded digital singles, Beyoncé sings about finding a man that will treat her right, and not needing any guy, especially one who won’t show her the respect she deserves.
Rolling Stone named “Single Ladies” the best single of 2008. The video has close to 90 million views on YouTube. Everyone from Joe Jonas to Justin Timberlake can be found on-line mimicking the dance… there is even footage of President Barack Obama, right before his inauguration, speaking to Beyoncé and noting that his daughters made him watch the video, attempting to teach him the infamous dance moves in the process. I’d hate to “pull a KanYe” – but Beyoncé has one of the best videos of all time!
“Single Ladies” is more than a song or a video – it’s a phenomenon that transcended to people of all ages and genders. Thankfully, there is at least a positive message to be taken from it.
That can’t be said for many other segments of our culture that 8 and 9 year olds are exposed to. Would Galanos and Lake rather see these girls hoola-hoop to Young Money’s “Bedrock”? How many of these dancers’ peers use a Lady GaGa song like “Just Dance” in a routine – yunno, where GaGa sings about getting drunk and hooking up in a club?
Galanos and Lake probably couldn’t answer that – which is another big problem with this whole ordeal. No one conducted a study to find out if “Single Ladies” is normally used in similar competitions, with comparable dance moves.
A TV network not giving a subject due diligence by reporting the facts? Maybe I shouldn’t be so surprised of my experience after all.
