Black Eyed Peas 'Pump It' Up with Super Bowl Halftime Show

Major Label Says Rock

Written by Administrator

Tuesday, 15 March 2011 02:45

The Black Eyed Peas promised a Super Bowl halftime show "packed with energy" and delivered just that at Sunday night's (Feb. 6, 2010) big game, blasting through a 10-minute set that, while intermittently marred by technical glitches, spanned the dance/pop megagroup's biggest hits and featured cameos by Usher, Slash, and hundreds of "Tron"-inspired dancers.

With the Green Bay Packers leading the Pittsburgh Steelers 21-10, will.i.am, Fergie, apl.de.ap and Taboo made a lofty entrance into the Dallas Cowboys Stadium, lowering themselves onto a green-lit stage to the sounds of "I Gotta Feeling," the Hot 100 No. 1 smash from their 2009 album "The E.N.D." Sound issues silenced Fergie's first lines and would surface again later, but the Peas' intensity never dropped, thanks in large part to a supporting cast of young dancers that hand-clapped, raised the roof and waved along with every hit.

As the Peas transitioned into "Boom Boom Pow," the dancers' LED suits lit up in green, and then in red as Slash emerged to play the power riffs of former band Guns N' Roses' "Sweet Child O' Mine," with Fergie taking on the vocals. Next up were "Pump It" "Let's Get It Started," both hit singles from the Black Eyed Peas' 2005 album, "Monkey Business." Usher then joined will.i.am onstage to perform last year's No. 1 hit "OMG," and the R&B/pop star's collaboration with the Peas producer was a welcome addition to the setlist, climaxing when he leapt over will.i.am's head and landed in a split onstage. The Peas closed out their set with "The Time (Dirty Bit)," the lead single from their recently released album, "The Beginning."

Black Eyed Peas: Super Bowl Halftime Gig a 'Dream Come True'

Just before the Black Eyed Peas halftime show went live, a commercial for Chatter.com aired with an animated likeness of will.i.am touting the benefits of the social networking service. "It helps me and my team stay aligned, so we're all on the same page and stuff," he explained in the ad. "It's private, and most importantly, it's safe."

Eminem, J ustin Bieber, Ozzy Osbourne

Score with Super Bowl Ads

The Black Eyed Peas' halftime show topped off a Super Bowl filled with musical highlights. Commercials starring Eminem, Justin Bieber, Ozzy Osbourne and Faith Hill commanded attention while the game clock was stopped, and although Christina Aguilera fumbled the national anthem lyrics before kickoff, "Glee" star Lea Michele" sang a powerful rendition of "America the Beautiful" that made a strong case for watching the Fox show's special post-Super Bowl episode.

Christina Aguilera Fumbles National Anthem Lyrics at Super Bowl

Last Updated on Tuesday, 15 March 2011 03:04

Origins of Virgin Records

Quite apart from the innovative characteristics of the music, Tubular Bells has the second claim to rock 'n roll greatness. Being the first record released by Virgin Records, it was also the start of the Richard Branson empire, which has since blossomed into a global conglomerate built on megastores, airlines, railways, telecommunications and much more.

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Ring of Fire

Johnny Cash

Released May 1963 | Columbia

'Ring of Fire' was the single that cemented Cash's reputation as the outsider anti-hero of country music. Like many of his hits of the time, it spent several weeks a top the country chart,j but also reached Number 17 on the U.S. pop chart, making it Cash's biggest mainstream success since 'Ballad of a Teenage Queen' and 'Guess Things Happen That Way,' which both made the Top 20 in 1958. With its jaunty rhythm offset by that memorably ominous vocal delivery, the song has all the hallmarks of classic Cash, even if its toughest critics find the breezy Mariachi trumpet break to be at odds with lyrics about falling "down, down, down."

Unlike many of his other most famous recordings, 'Ring of Fire' was not one of Cash's own compositions. It was written for him by his future wife, June Carter - a big country music star in her won right as part of the second incarnation of The Carter Family - and singer-song wirter Merle Kilgore. Carter and Kilgore most likely had Cash in mind when they writer the song, however; it sounds today as well-suited to the Man in Black as any of his self-penned hits, from 'I Walk the LInek' to 'Folsom Prison Blues.'

Source: Classic Singles Back to Back
Smooth Jazz Riffs

Dwayne Kerr Garners Endorsement from GUO Musical Instruments Co.

on Eve of Touring Again with Erykah Badu

by Cheryl Hughey

Dwayne Kerr, flutist for Erykah Badu, recently announced his endorsement with GUO Musical Instruments Co. As a frequently touring artist, Kerr is a great match for this maker of composite flutes. "I always wanted to own a wood flute, but touring with the additional stress of changing weather and climate can make traveling with a wood flute challenging. The Grenaditte is great. It's made with a polymer composite material...no problems and no more worries," he said.
Kerr is quick to point out that the weight of the flute does not compromise the quality. "It's light weight making it ideal to travel and has a beautiful warm, dark and rich tone. The action is really responsive...I absolutely love my Grenaditte C flute...I believe the Grenaditte is the next innovation in flute technology." Known as the "funky fluteman," Kerr is currently gearing up for another tour with Erykah Badu.

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Cloud Music: How Hard Do Online Streaming Services Rock?

Cloud music services promise to rock the digital world and reinvent the way we discover new artists, songs and albums. By saving your music online, and letting you instantly stream tunes anytime, anywhere over the Internet to PCs or mobile devices, they simultaneously eliminate concerns with storage, synching and piracy.

The field continues to boom for cloud music services, which let you house a single library of tunes or an entire digital music collection online, then access it on-demand from dozens of gadgets (smartphone, tablet PC, portable media player, etc.). But while services like Spotify, Amazon Cloud Player, Mog and Rdio have millions of fans singing a happy tune, record labels and execs fear their growing power to upend the digital music industry. Who can blame them? With even Apple and Google now eyeing the streaming online music space, iTunes may soon be the least of their worries.

In the first episode of our new running video series, Gear Up, we review the best cloud music services to discover whether or not they'll have you singing a happy tune. And, of course, we consider just how likely they are to really represent the future of digital entertainment.

April 15, 8:30 AM ET | By Scott Steinberg
Christian Rock News

Fireflight Celebrates First Career Grammy Nod

12/02/2010 ChristianRock.net

Premiere modern rock band Fireflight receives its first career GRAMMY nomination this week, with its third studio album For Those Who Wait announced in the Best Rock or Rap Gospel Album category last night by The Recording Academy®, as determined by the voting members of The Academy. For the third year, nominations for the annual GRAMMY Awards were announced on primetime television as part of "The GRAMMY® Nominations Concert Live!! — Countdown To Music's Biggest Night®," a one-hour special broadcast live on CBS from Club Nokia at L.A. Live.

The 53rd Annual GRAMMY Awards will be held on "GRAMMY Sunday," Feb. 13, 2011, at STAPLES Center in Los Angeles and once again will be broadcast live in high definition TV and 5.1 surround sound on CBS from 8 – 11:30 p.m. (ET/PT).
Pop Music Scene

Paul McCartney Rocks 'Saturday Night Live' With Beatles, Wings Classics

by M. Tye Comer

Comedian Paul Rudd may have been the show's official host, but it was the other Paul that had made this weekend's "Saturday Night Live" an epic television experience.

Sir Paul McCartney brought his A-game to the SNL set on Dec. 11. Not only did Macca rock 30 Rock with five songs -- including Wings hits "Jet" and "Band on the Run," and Beatles' classics "A Day in the Life" and "Get Back," and John Lennon's anthem "Give Peace a Chance" -- he also flexed his comedic chops by getting silly with Rudd in the opening monologue, impersonating Camilla Parker-Bowles (Prince Charles' wife) during Weekend Update, and playing a tiny harmonica in an amusing digital short.