The Star Online: Entertainment: Music
The Star Online: Entertainment: Music |
- Lady Gaga passes 30 million followers on Twitter
- Beatles' first single 'Love Me Do' turns 50
- Psy brings 'Gangnam Style' home with free show
| Lady Gaga passes 30 million followers on Twitter Posted: 04 Oct 2012 05:31 PM PDT LOS ANGELES: Pop diva Lady Gaga has set a social media record by becoming the first person with more than 30 million followers on Twitter. As of Thursday afternoon, she had 30,030,949 followers on the micro-blogging website, and is adding them at the rate of 30,000 a day, according to the Starcount.com website that monitors celebrity use of social media. The 26-year-old - real name Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta - also passed the four million mark on Google+ earlier this week, and is in second place to only Britney Spears on the search giant's social media platform. "Paving the way for other stars on social media, Lady Gaga often interacts with her fans and has even set up her own social network for the Little Monsters with thousands of regular users," commented Starcount.com. "But it is Twitter that has given her the incredible social popularity that she currently has," it added in a blog, noting that her Twitter takeover started two years ago when she passed Ashton Kutcher, Barack Obama and Spears. "Since then, her domination on the network has gone unmatched - she was the first person to reach 10 million and 20 million followers and is keeping up the trend now with 30 million." Her nearest rival is teen pop sensation Justin Bieber, with 28.5 million Twitter followers, while Katy Perry has 27.2 million. Rihanna has overtaken Gaga on YouTube and Facebook, but has only 26 million followers on Twitter. - AFP |
| Beatles' first single 'Love Me Do' turns 50 Posted: 04 Oct 2012 05:30 PM PDT LONDON: The Beatles' debut tune that helped launch Britain into the Swinging Sixties and ignite a worldwide obsession for the four-man band from Liverpool celebrates its 50th birthday on Friday. Even though it only peaked at number 17 on the British charts, "Love Me Do" was not only the group's first record but also their first hit. "It's obviously the first single, but more importantly, it established their policy of only releasing songs that were written by the Beatles themselves," said Hamish MacBain, assistant editor at British music magazine NME. "The fashion at that time was not for big groups to write their own material, so the Beatles were being quite radical in that sense by issuing a single that they had written themselves," MacBain told AFP. "Love Me Do" was recorded in September 1962, though the so-called "fifth Beatle", producer George Martin, pushed for the release of another song, penned by British singer Adam Faith but performed by the Fab Four. But the Beatles got their way, and "Love Me Do", written like so many of their succeeding hits by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, went on sale on October 5, 1962. The group's insistence that their singles at least should be all their own work "established a trend that lasted obviously their entire career and became the norm for big groups that became rock bands", MacBain said. "You were not considered a serious rock band by the mid-60s unless you were writing your own material." The catchy lyrics and recognisable harmonies of "Love Me Do" were recorded at London's Abbey Road studios, later made famous by the group as the title of one of their LPs. Although it kick-started their career and became a British hit, "Love Me Do" did not spark Beatlemania, said Simon Zagorski-Thomas, a reader in music at University of West London's college of music. "'Love Me Do' was an interesting song, but it wasn't the thing that really launched their career," he told AFP. Instead, it was the group's 1964 appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show" in the United States that made the Beatles a phenomenon distinct from all previous British bands and launched them globally. "Love Me Do" is not considered by most observers to be among the Beatles' masterpieces, MacBain said. "In terms of songwriting it's pretty basic, and it's certainly not as good as the stuff they were coming out with a few months later." "P.S. I Love You" was recorded on the B-side of the track, and both songs were featured on the group's first album "Please Please Me", named after their second hit single, which was released in March 1963 and included songs they had not written. BBC Four TV will air a documentary on Sunday about "Love Me Do," with an eyewitness account claiming that the group's manager Brian Epstein bought 10,000 copies of the single to boost sales. While the rumour has never been proved, Epstein's friend and business associate, Joe Flannery, claims in the documentary that the copies were purchased. Remastered versions of The Beatles' studio albums will be released on vinyl on November 13 in North America. - AFP |
| Psy brings 'Gangnam Style' home with free show Posted: 04 Oct 2012 05:28 PM PDT SEOUL: South Korean rapper Psy brought his hit "Gangnam Style" home Thursday with a raucous free concert in Seoul, capping a month of global chart success that turned the chubby 34-year-old into a national hero. The municipal government closed off part of the city centre and extended subway operations for the estimated 80,000 fans who packed the open venue outside Seoul City Hall and spilled out into the surrounding streets. "I did not get here because I was worthy of it. I'm here because of all of you. I'm just a fat man with two kids," the singer told the ecstatic, dancing crowd at the show - streamed live to an international audience via YouTube. "It's a golden opportunity to show the world how well we Koreans play," Psy shouted. The video to "Gangnam Style", featuring Psy's much-imitated horse-riding dance, went viral after its July release on YouTube, where it has now notched up more than 350 million views. Almost overnight, Psy was transformed into South Korea's best-known cultural export, succeeding where the manufactured girl and boy bands of the homegrown "K-pop" phenomenon have failed, by breaking into the US market. Despite being sung almost entirely in Korean, the song is currently top of the British charts and number two on the US Billboard's Hot 100 chart. During a hugely successful US promotional tour last month, Psy made a guest appearance at the MTV awards in Los Angeles, taught his signature dance to Britney Spears, and was given a cameo role on NBC's "Saturday Night Live". His horse-riding moves have been imitated, parodied and referenced in almost every conceivable context. Jay Leno's "Tonight Show" produced a mock-up video showing US presidential candidate Mitt Romney doing the dance at the Republican convention, while West Indian batsman Chris Gayle has adopted it for his celebrations at the ongoing World Twenty20 cricket tournament. Even Stalinist North Korea jumped on the bandwagon, posting a "Gangnam Style" parody on its official government website that mocks Park Geun-Hye, the conservative front-running candidate in South Korea's presidential election. The Gangnam of the title is Seoul's wealthiest residential and shopping district, lined with luxury boutiques, top-end bars and restaurants frequented by celebrities and well-heeled, designer-clad socialites. The video pokes fun at the district's lifestyle, with Psy cavorting through a world of speedboats, yoga classes and exclusive clubs. Psy, whose real name is Park Jae-Sang, is a product of Gangnam, having been born in the district to affluent parents. A relative veteran after more than a decade on the Korean music scene, Psy had previously built up a loyal fan base that stuck with him through numerous ups and downs, including an early brush with the law for smoking marijuana. In 2007, he was forced to serve a second period of compulsory military service after it was revealed he had continued with his showbiz interests during his first two-year stint. While some articles in the Western media have suggested Psy's overseas popularity may be linked to negative Asian stereotyping, the overwhelming Korean response to his success has been one of national pride. Thursday's concert may have climaxed with the entire crowd horse dancing to "Gangnam Style", but it kicked off with a mass rendition of the Korean national anthem. The South Korean government sees popular culture as a potent export force that provides international exposure for a country that still feels overlooked compared to neighbours China and Japan. It has expended substantial time and money supporting the so-called Hallyu (Korean Wave) of TV shows and pop music that swept across Asia in the past decade. "It definitely helps in our branding efforts," Lee Bae-Yong, chair of the Presidential Council on Nation Branding said of Psy's global breakthrough. "K-pop like Gangnam Style serves as a spearhead in promoting Korean culture, economy, art, tradition and people," Lee told AFP. - AFP |
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