The Star Online: Entertainment: Music
The Star Online: Entertainment: Music |
- Springsteen, Alabama Shakes top Rolling Stone's list of best music
- New Whitney Houston book recalls singer's musical magic
- Mexican-American star singer killed in plane crash
| Springsteen, Alabama Shakes top Rolling Stone's list of best music Posted: 09 Dec 2012 10:01 PM PST LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Veteran rocker Bruce Springsteen and newcomer blues-rock band Alabama Shakes landed the top awards in Rolling Stone magazine's annual list of the year's best music on Friday, which featured many of next year's leading Grammy nominees. Springsteen's 17th studio album Wrecking Ball topped the magazine's list of best albums, with the magazine calling it "rock's most pointed response to the Great Recession." Springsteen, 63, came in ahead of hip hop artist Frank Ocean's debut Channel Orange at No. 2 and former White Stripes frontman Jack White's debut solo effort, Blunderbuss at No. 3, in the annual list selected and compiled by Rolling Stone editors. Springsteen, Ocean and White all landed Grammy nods, which were announced earlier this week. The rest of the top ten albums included Bob Dylan's Tempest, Green Day's ¡Uno!, Neil Young and Crazy Horse's Psychedelic Pill, Kendrick Lamar's good kid, m.A.A.d city and Fiona Apple's The Idler Wheel Is Wiser... Hold On by newcomer blues-rockers Alabama Shakes was named the top song of the year, beating off popular tracks by Ocean, White, Springsteen, Dylan and Kanye West in the top 10. While both the albums and songs lists were dominated by rock and rap artists both old and new, country-pop star Taylor Swift was a surprising entry at No. 2 on the best songs list with her infectious chart-topping hit song We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together. Rolling Stone described the song, which landed a Grammy nod for record of the year, "a perfect three-minute teen tantrum about country girls getting mad at high-strung indie boys." Pop-rockers Passion Pit's Take A Walk, Ocean's Thinkin Bout You and Young and Crazy Horse's Ramada Inn rounded out the top five songs. |
| New Whitney Houston book recalls singer's musical magic Posted: 09 Dec 2012 08:38 PM PST LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A new book on Whitney Houston by her early producer seeks to tell the story of the rise to stardom of the pop diva who died nine months ago. Emmy and Grammy-winning producer Narada Michael Walden, who produced many of Houston's early hits, like How Will I Know and I Wanna Dance With Somebody, appeared at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles on Wednesday to discuss the book and perform some of the songs he collaborated on. "Her death was so shocking and sudden that I wanted to create something to keep alive the beautiful aspects of her life. The media was lashing out on the addiction and ignoring her musical genius," Walden told Reuters. Since she drowned in a bathtub on February 11 after taking cocaine, Houston's music and life have generated a TV tribute with Jennifer Hudson, Usher and others, a greatest hits CD, a coffee table book of photos and a TV reality show starring family members. Walden's book Whitney Houston: The Voice, The Music, The Inspiration, co-written with Richard Buskin, describes how Walden first met the singer when she was 13 and accompanied her mother to the studio. Walden was working on a record with her mom, soul and gospel singer Cissy Houston. Walden said he all but forgot the young pretty girl until he got a call from Arista records in 1984, while working on an Aretha Franklin record, and was told to "make the time" to work on Houston's debut album. Walden said Janet Jackson's management turned down the chance to record How Will I Know and that he rewrote it to make it catchier for Houston, who with her five-octave vocal range, recorded the 1985 No.1 song in only one take. "The first take was the keeper. Instead of laboring on it for the better part of a day or even longer, we were done in a matter of minutes," he said, noting Houston always worked fast. Walden, who also produced for Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder and Barbra Streisand, collaborated with Houston on So Emotional, One Moment In Time and I'm Every Woman from the film, The Bodyguard. Walden and Houston went in different directions by the late 1990s, but he would see her at the annual pre-Grammy party hosted by her long-time mentor, record industry mogul Clive Davis. At the 2011 Davis party, Houston sat with her daughter, Bobbi Kristina - then 17 - who exclaimed she wanted to sing and work with Walden. "But Whitney gave me a look that said 'Slow down. I've been down that road....and I'm not sure I want to curse her with that'," he said. Walden said he would now welcome the opportunity to work with Houston's daughter, who has become a fixture of gossip blogs and tabloids. "If she wants to, I'd love to produce her and keep alive the professional image of her mother and focus on the positive," he said. |
| Mexican-American star singer killed in plane crash Posted: 09 Dec 2012 06:24 PM PST MONTERREY, Mexico: A small plane carrying Mexican-American star singer Jenni Rivera (pic) crashed in northern Mexico on Sunday, leaving no survivors and sparking an outpouring of grief among fans and fellow celebrities. The wreckage of the Lear Jet, which was carrying six other people, was found by farmers in the state of Nuevo Leon hours after it had taken off from Monterrey on its way to Toluca, in the center of Mexico, authorities said. Radio contact with the plane was lost shortly after it took off at 3:15 am. The singer had given a concert in Monterrey Saturday night and was supposed to participate in a television show in Mexico City on Sunday, local media said. Transportation Minister Gerardo Ruiz told Milenio television the crash site was a "disastrous scene" with no survivors. Rivera, 43, was a Caliornian of Mexican origin, best known for her music in genres known as Banda and Norteno. Her records have sold 15 million copies. As news of the plane's disappearance and then crash came out, fans and fellow celebrities reacted with disbelief and grief on Twitter. "This is sad. A bit in shock. Much peace to her family," Latin superstar Ricky Martin wrote in Spanish as he retweeted the news of the missing plane. Latin rapper Pitbull wrote "I highly respected #JenniRivera 4 being a gr8 performer but more then tht being real & gr8 example 4 us all que dios la bendiga &may she RIP," using the Spanish phrase for God bless her. Fans also posted messages of grief and support for Rivera's family, saying she was a role model for women and for the Hispanic music community. Some speculated about a possible conspiracy behind the crash, while others held out hope that, as her body had not yet been identified at the crash site, she may still be found alive. Rivera won several Billboard Latin Music awards, and her most recent album is featured on multiple of Billboard's charts of top hits. The album, "Joyas Prestadas," has spent 39 weeks on both the Latin Pop and the Banda charts, including a stint in the number one spots on both lists. Her 2011 video for her song "Basta Ya" (Spanish for "Enough's Enough") has been viewed nearly five million times. -AFP |
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