BuzzFeed - Music http://www.buzzfeed.com BuzzFeed, Find Your New Favorite Thing en Copyright 2013 BuzzFeed, Inc. Wed, 22 May 2013 00:37:38 -0400 editor@buzzfeed.com (http://www.buzzfeed.com/about) info@buzzfeed.com (http://www.buzzfeed.com/about) BuzzFeed http://www.buzzfeed.com/static/images/public/rss/logo.png http://www.buzzfeed.com 14 Important Life Lessons From Jimmy Eat World's "The Middle" http://www.buzzfeed.com/hunterschwarz/14-important-life-lessons-from-jimmy-eat-worlds-the-middle “The Middle” taught us everything we needed to know about how to have a happy and fulfilling life.

Lesson 1: Don't give up on your dreams.

Lesson 1: Don't give up on your dreams.

Lesson 2: Realize you're more self conscious about things than you ought to be.

Lesson 2: Realize you're more self conscious about things than you ought to be.

Lesson 3: Give everything your best effort.

Lesson 3: Give everything your best effort.

Lesson 4: Be diligent.

Lesson 4: Be diligent.

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]]> http://www.buzzfeed.com/hunterschwarz/14-important-life-lessons-from-jimmy-eat-worlds-the-middle Tue, 21 May 2013 21:23:28 -0400 <b>"The Middle" taught us everything we needed to know about how to have a happy and fulfilling life.</b> hunterschwarz nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult A Guide To All The References In Biggie Smalls' "Juicy" For Millennials http://www.buzzfeed.com/ryanhatesthis/a-guide-to-all-the-references-in-biggie-smalls-juicy-for-mil Yes, there was a time when being rich enough to own both a Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo was a really big thing.

In honor of The Notorious B.I.G.'s birthday, here's a guide to all of the references in Biggie Smalls' "Juicy":

Yeah, this album is dedicated to all the teachers that told me
I'd never amount to nothin', to all the people that lived above the
buildings that I was hustlin' in front of that called the police on
me when I was just tryin' to make some money to feed my daughters,
and all the n---az in the struggle, you know what I'm sayin'?

Uh-ha, it's all good baby bay-bee, uh

It was all a dream / I used to read Word Up magazine

It was all a dream / I used to read Word Up magazine

Source: ussmag.com

Word Up was a very popular magazine in the 80s. It covered hip-hop, rap, and R&B predominately. After a spotty publication history during the 90s and 2000s, the lfinal issue came out in April of 2012.

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]]> http://www.buzzfeed.com/ryanhatesthis/a-guide-to-all-the-references-in-biggie-smalls-juicy-for-mil Tue, 21 May 2013 19:23:29 -0400 <b>Yes, there was a time when being rich enough to own both a Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo was a really big thing.</b> ryanhatesthis nonadult nonadult <i>Yeah, this album is dedicated to all the teachers that told me I'd never amount to nothin&#39;, to all the people that lived above the buildings that I was hustlin&#39; in front of that called the police on me when I was just tryin&#39; to make some money to feed my daughters, and all the n---az in the struggle, you know what I&#39;m sayin&#39;? Uh-ha, it&#39;s all good baby bay-bee, uh</i> nonadult nonadult <b><i>Word Up</i> was a very popular magazine in the 80s. It covered hip-hop, rap, and R&amp;B predominately. After a spotty publication history during the 90s and 2000s, the lfinal issue came out in April of 2012.</b> nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult <b>Salt N' Pepa and Heavy D were both massive celebrities in the early 90s hip-hop and R&amp;B realm. Salt N&#39; Pepa are still touring, and had their own show on VH1 in 2007. Sadly, Heavy D died of a pulmonary embolism in 2011.</b> nonadult nonadult <b>Mr. Magic was a New York City DJ who ran the first exclusive rap radio show on a major station. Mr. Magic and Marley Marl, his DJ, stayed on the air for six years, helping bring early hip-hop to the mainstream.</b> nonadult nonadult <b>Cassettes were like CDs but had tape in them like VHS and if you listened to the same one too many times it would break, also when you were done listening to a particular cassette the player would pop open. Biggie doesn't specify.</b> nonadult nonadult <b>The red and black lumberjack with the hat to match is a reference to a very popular style of clothing in the early 90s, pictured above.</b> nonadult nonadult <b>The "Rappin' Duke" is a hip-hop novelty song from the 70s that followed the story of a rapping John Wayne. The refrain of the song is "dah-ha, dah-ha."</b> nonadult <i>You never thought that hip hop would take it this far Now I'm in the limelight &#39;cause I rhyme tight Time to get paid, blow up like the World Trade Born sinner, the opposite of a winner Remember when I used to eat sardines for dinner</i> nonadult nonadult <b>Ron G, Brucey B, Kid Capri, Funkmaster Flex, and Lovebug Starski were all big names in the late 80s, early 90s hip-hop scene.</b> nonadult <i>I'm blowin&#39; up like you thought I would Call the crib, same number same hood It&#39;s all good Uh, and if you don&#39;t know, now you know, n---a, uh You know very well who you are Don&#39;t let em hold you down, reach for the stars You had a goal, but not that many &#39;cause you&#39;re the only one I&#39;ll give you good and plenty</i> nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult <b>Robin Leach, pictured right, was the narrator and host of <i>Lifestyles Of The Rich And The Famous,</i> a TV show that showcased the lavish homes of celebrities and the ultra-rich.</b> nonadult <i>And I'm far from cheap, I smoke skunk with my peeps all day Spread love, it&#39;s the Brooklyn way The Moet and Alize keep me pissy Girls used to diss me Now they write letters &#39;cause they miss me I never thought it could happen, this rappin&#39; stuff I was too used to packin&#39; gats and stuff Now honeys play me close like butter played toast From the Mississippi down to the east coast Condos in Queens, indo for weeks Sold out seats to hear Biggie Smalls speak Livin&#39; life without fear Puttin&#39; 5 karats in my baby girl&#39;s ears Lunches, brunches, interviews by the pool Considered a fool &#39;cause I dropped out of high school Stereotypes of a black male misunderstood And it&#39;s still all good Uh...and if you don&#39;t know, now you know, n---a</i> nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult <b>They were both very expensive video game systems.</b> nonadult nonadult <b>TVs used to be very big and clunky. A 50-inch TV was very expensive; to compare, a 70-inch LED LCD TV nowadays would cost you around $2,000-$3,000.</b> nonadult <i>Got two rides, a limousine with a chauffeur Phone bill about two G's flat No need to worry, my accountant handles that And my whole crew is loungin&#39; Celebratin&#39; every day, no more public housin&#39; Thinkin&#39; back on my one-room shack Now my mom pimps a AC with minks on her back And she loves to show me off, of course</i> nonadult nonadult <b><i>The Source</i> is a magazine that was founded in 1988 and is still running monthly.</b> nonadult <i>We used to fuss when the landlord dissed us No heat, wonder why Christmas missed us Birthdays was the worst days Now we sip champagne when we thirst-ay Uh, damn right I like the life I live 'Cause I went from negative to positive And it&#39;s all... (It&#39;s all good) ...and if you don&#39;t know, now you know, Uh, uh...and if you don&#39;t know, now you know, Uh...and if you don&#39;t know, now you know,</i> nonadult nonadult <b>The Junior M.A.F.I.A. was a hip-hop group formed and mentored by Biggie Smalls. The group included Lil' Cease, MC Klepto, Banger, Nino Brown, Lil&#39; Kim, Chico Del Vec, Blake C, Capone, and Bugsy all during different incarnations. The group became defunct in 1997 after the death of Biggie Smalls, though three original members released an album in 2007.</b> nonadult 23 Life-Affirming Lana Del Rey Lyrics http://www.buzzfeed.com/louispeitzman/life-affirming-lana-del-rey-lyrics She might be a modern-day prophet.

Source: lyrc-s.tumblr.com

Source: zaynslutty.tumblr.com

Source: perksofthinking.tumblr.com

Source: you-will-be-a-memory.tumblr.com

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]]> http://www.buzzfeed.com/louispeitzman/life-affirming-lana-del-rey-lyrics Tue, 21 May 2013 17:23:30 -0400 <b>She might be a modern-day prophet.</b> louispeitzman nonadult So You Want To Start A Mumford Band... http://www.buzzfeed.com/catesish/so-you-want-to-start-a-mumford-band Grab some friends, grow a mustache, and follow these simple instructions.

Source: youtube.com  /  via: paisleybeard.com

]]> http://www.buzzfeed.com/catesish/so-you-want-to-start-a-mumford-band Tue, 21 May 2013 17:23:29 -0400 <b>Grab some friends, grow a mustache, and follow these simple instructions.</b> catesish nonadult The Wait For New Beyoncé Music Is Over http://www.buzzfeed.com/azafar/the-wait-for-new-beyonce-music-is-over The diva’s a “Grown Woman” on her new song. And she’s fierce.

"I'm a groooowwwwn woman, I do whatever I want." Yes, yes, you do, Queen Bey.

The track was first teased during her Pepsi commercial, but the full version surfaced on Soundcloud last night (though it was later pulled down). "Grown Woman" is reportedly co-written by The-Dream and produced by Timbaland, and if this is any indication for what the rest of the album sounds like, we're already in good shape.

Source: youtube.com

]]> http://www.buzzfeed.com/azafar/the-wait-for-new-beyonce-music-is-over Tue, 21 May 2013 10:32:38 -0400 <strong>The diva&#39;s a "Grown Woman" on her new song.</strong> And she&#39;s fierce. azafar nonadult Everything Non-Europeans Need To Know About Eurovision http://www.buzzfeed.com/ellievhall/everything-americans-need-to-know-about-eurovision A guide to the annual WTF event that is the Eurovision Song Contest.

Once a year, the internet becomes flooded with ridiculously strange/awesome images, GIFs, and music videos that resemble nothing so much as American Idol on LSD.

Once a year, the internet becomes flooded with ridiculously strange/awesome images, GIFs, and music videos that resemble nothing so much as American Idol on LSD.

Source: ellievhall

Europeans on the internet tell us that this is something called the "Eurovision Song Contest," although most people just call it "Eurovision."

Europeans on the internet tell us that this is something called the "Eurovision Song Contest," although most people just call it "Eurovision."

Source: Tumblr.com

Source: bootymistress.tumblr.com

Source: abritishtimelord.tumblr.com

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]]> http://www.buzzfeed.com/ellievhall/everything-americans-need-to-know-about-eurovision Tue, 21 May 2013 04:19:01 -0400 <b>A guide to the annual WTF event that is the Eurovision Song Contest.</b> ellievhall nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult Green: nations that have competed at least once. Yellow: countries that have never entered, although they are eligible to do so. Pink: countries that entered but then later withdrew. nonadult The United Kingdom, Germany, France, and Spain have qualified automatically every year since 2000 and were known as the "Big Four." Italy was added to the list of automatically qualified countries in 2010, now called the "Big Five." This decision caused some controversy. nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult <a href="http://i.imgur.com/8W8jnE4.jpg">Click here to see a larger version of this very helpful infographic.</a> nonadult Finland&#39;s representative in 2012. See what I mean about trolling? nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult Watch Carrie Brownstein's Commercial For American Express http://www.buzzfeed.com/verymuchso/watch-carrie-brownsteins-commercial-for-american-express The Portlandia star and member of riot grrrl royalty plays a slew of kooky characters in a credit card advertisement.

This is Carrie Brownstein. She stars in Portlandia, is the frontwoman for Wild Flag, and is an ex-member of classic riot grrl band Sleater-Kinney.

This is Carrie Brownstein. She stars in Portlandia , is the frontwoman for Wild Flag, and is an ex-member of classic riot grrl band Sleater-Kinney.

On the minute chance you might not recognize her, Carrie's an amazing guitarist, comedic actress, and all-around rad person. She's been established in the alternative music world for over three decades now and continues to make imaginative, awesome work.

Via: stereogum.com

Now her career includes a commercial for American Express.

She plays very Portlandia-esque mini-characters, including a vinyl aficionado. It's definitely an unexpected move for her, and one that might be criticized by her more diehard anti-corporate fans, but here's the thing: She's a genius who has long since paid her DIY dues. Given that fact, who better to get that paper (or plastic)?

Source: youtube.com

]]> http://www.buzzfeed.com/verymuchso/watch-carrie-brownsteins-commercial-for-american-express Tue, 21 May 2013 03:08:31 -0400 <b>The <i>Portlandia</i> star and member of riot grrrl royalty plays a slew of kooky characters in a credit card advertisement.</b> verymuchso nonadult On the minute chance you might not recognize her, Carrie&#39;s an amazing guitarist, comedic actress, and all-around rad person. She&#39;s been established in the alternative music world for over three decades now and continues to make imaginative, awesome work. nonadult She plays very <i>Portlandia</i>-esque mini-characters, including a vinyl aficionado. It&#39;s definitely an unexpected move for her, and one that might be criticized by her more diehard anti-corporate fans, but here&#39;s the thing: She&#39;s a genius who has long since paid her DIY dues. Given that fact, who better to get that paper (or plastic)? nonadult Get Ready To Play This Beautiful Cover Of Grimes On Repeat http://www.buzzfeed.com/verymuchso/get-ready-to-play-this-beautiful-cover-of-grimes-on-repeat Katie and Allison Crutchfield of Waxahatchee and Swearin’ make all your wildest indie pop crossover dreams come true on Rookie .

Please familiarize yourself with Katie and Allison Crutchfield, because they're about to make you very happy.

Please familiarize yourself with Katie and Allison Crutchfield, because they&#39;re about to make you very happy.

Source: Minna Gilligan  /  via: rookiemag.com

Katie Crutchfield, who plays dreamy, pretty pop in the solo project Waxahatchee, and her twin sister Allison, the frontwoman for the raucous band Swearin', are incredible artists individually. So it's pretty awesome that they've combined their special powers to record a cover of Grimes's already-amazing "Oblivion" for the teenage girls' site Rookie (disclosure: I write for Rookie occasionally). If you've heard even one of those three musical projects before, you're probably really excited about what you just read, and if not, get ready for a nice introduction to some really good stuff.

Make sure you're prepared to not listen to anything else today after you hit play on this track.

God bless Waxahatchee, Swearin', Grimes, Rookie, and the world in general for bestowing this brilliance upon us.

Source: w.soundcloud.com  /  via: rookiemag.com

]]> http://www.buzzfeed.com/verymuchso/get-ready-to-play-this-beautiful-cover-of-grimes-on-repeat Mon, 20 May 2013 23:53:34 -0400 <b>Katie and Allison Crutchfield of <a href="https://www.facebook.com/waxahatchee">Waxahatchee</a> and <a href="http://swearin.bandcamp.com/">Swearin&#39;</a> make all your wildest indie pop crossover dreams come true on <a href="http://rookiemag.com/2013/05/theme-song-katie-and-allison-crutchfield/"><i>Rookie</i></a></b>. verymuchso nonadult nonadult Katie Crutchfield, who plays dreamy, pretty pop in the solo project Waxahatchee, and her twin sister Allison, the frontwoman for the raucous band Swearin', are incredible artists individually. So it&#39;s pretty awesome that they&#39;ve combined their special powers to record a cover of Grimes&#39;s already-amazing "Oblivion" for the teenage girls&#39; site <a href="http://rookiemag.com/"><i>Rookie</i></a> (disclosure: I write for <i>Rookie</i> occasionally). If you&#39;ve heard even one of those three musical projects before, you&#39;re probably really excited about what you just read, and if not, get ready for a nice introduction to some really good stuff. nonadult God bless Waxahatchee, Swearin&#39;, Grimes, <i>Rookie</i>, and the world in general for bestowing this brilliance upon us. nonadult Cher Is The Goddess Of Pop (And Everything Else In The World) http://www.buzzfeed.com/verymuchso/cher-is-the-goddess-of-pop-and-everything-else-in-the-world From her four-decade musical career to her genius Twitter account, there are many, many reasons to appreciate the wonder of Cher.

Get ready, because we're about to have a Cher-abration.

Get ready, because we&#39;re about to have a Cher-abration.

Via: fuckyeahcher.tumblr.com

So gather your closest friends and get ready to believe.

So gather your closest friends and get ready to believe.

This woman is magic, and we're about to experience her glory in full.

Via: cher-gifs.tumblr.com

Her majestic career began in the '60s with Sonny Bono and enormous hair.

Her majestic career began in the &#39;60s with Sonny Bono and enormous hair.

Together, these two ruled both television and radio throughout the last half of the decade.

Via: thegoddesscher.tumblr.com

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]]> http://www.buzzfeed.com/verymuchso/cher-is-the-goddess-of-pop-and-everything-else-in-the-world Mon, 20 May 2013 17:53:36 -0400 <b>From her four-decade musical career to her genius Twitter account, there are many, many reasons to appreciate the wonder of Cher.</b> verymuchso nonadult <p><img src="http://a0.twimg.com/profile_images/3584380048/56f244be255cfe6eecd276c1d76bd721_normal.jpeg"></p><p class="full_user_name">Cher</p><p class="user_name">@cher</p><p class="tweet_text">Hi</p><p class="tweet_media"></p> nonadult nonadult This woman is magic, and we&#39;re about to experience her glory in full. nonadult Together, these two ruled both television and radio throughout the last half of the decade. nonadult Her early musical career was a flurry of glitzy costumes, ~controversial~ songs about race, gender issues, and divorce, and, as always, that amazing hair. nonadult Looking hot and talking about struggle in glittery halter tops: the early Cher story. nonadult Case in point: Everything from 1971&#39;s <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okzcL3k-Pek">"Gypsys, Tramps &amp; Thieves"</a> to 1999&#39;s amazing <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlDBUMX2DiY">"Strong Enough"</a> AND BEYOND. nonadult Who could argue with her charm in <i>Moonstruck</i>? nonadult She basically WAS the movie. Human Being test: You either sobbed your face off when she said, "Now you can go anywhere you want, baby," at the end, or you&#39;re not a person. nonadult nonadult Please see above for all the proof you need. nonadult If you weren&#39;t aware of this seductive and mysterious ink before, you sure as hell aren&#39;t going to overlook this amazing fact ever again. nonadult No, no, Cher! Just making note of one of the many insane and incredible things about your personage. Let&#39;s move on. nonadult As evidenced by not only these sunglasses, but basically everything else she&#39;s ever worn. nonadult Only Cher could make this Snow Queen of Bedazzler Kingdom number look this flawless. nonadult Doesn&#39;t it make you happy, too? Cher is human dopamine. nonadult Every single Cher tweet is a joyous gift unto the internet. nonadult If you&#39;re not already following Cher, I really just don&#39;t know what to do with you. nonadult As evidenced by the iconic video for "If I Could Turn Back Time," which is pretty much the gold standard for music videos. nonadult This is a perfect combination of two of the greatest people ever, and I&#39;m all for it. (Although I&#39;m not sure Elvis would have worked that exact pair of embellished jeans, but whatever.) nonadult Even if you&#39;re just a white egg on a blue background, Cher has got your back. nonadult What you&#39;re looking at is the presidential ticket of Dreamworld. nonadult And right-click-Save Image As...unbeatablecureforeventheworstofmoods.jpg nonadult No one else can compare to Cher. nonadult nonadult Tenacious D Did The Weather For A New Zealand News Station And It Was Awesome http://www.buzzfeed.com/ryanhatesthis/tenacious-d-did-the-weather-for-a-new-zealand-news-station-a Feel like all weather should be delivered via Tenacious D.

Source: youtube.com

See, this is the type of professionalism we're missing out on by not having Tenacious D doing the weather.

See, this is the type of professionalism we&#39;re missing out on by not having Tenacious D doing the weather.

]]> http://www.buzzfeed.com/ryanhatesthis/tenacious-d-did-the-weather-for-a-new-zealand-news-station-a Mon, 20 May 2013 15:38:34 -0400 <b>Feel like all weather should be delivered via Tenacious D.</b> ryanhatesthis nonadult nonadult nonadult Here's An Exclusive Image From A Musical By The Creators Of Gorillaz http://www.buzzfeed.com/azafar/heres-an-exclusive-image-from-the-gorillazs-musical Directed by Chen Shi-Zheng, the music-theater collaboration is called Monkey: Journey to the West , and it looks insane (in the best way possible).

For anyone missing new music from the Gorillaz, the show should be a treat: it's composed by Damon Albarn, and features animation and design by Jamie Hewlett.

Source: youtube.com

The musical will make its New York debut opening this year's Lincoln Center Festival, with 27 show dates throughout July.

Directed by opera and film director Chen Shi-Zheng, Monkey: Journey to the West is based on the classic 16th century Chinese folktale, "Journey to the West." The show first debuted in London at the O2 theater in 2007, and has also been performed in Paris, and in 2008 at the Spoleto Festival USA in South Carolina.

Monkey is the story of a monk named Tripitaka, who travels from China to India in search of sacred Buddhist scriptures. He's joined by the Monkey King and a band of animal protectors on his journey, through a slew of various adventures and obstacles.

The 100-minute show looks like it's a visual trip: an opera-scale musical that's a mix of Cirque du Soleil and Japanese animé. Chinese vocalists, acrobats, circus acts, and dance numbers are set against an elaborate stage design, with cartoon animation from Hewlett.

Here's an exclusive portrait of the Monkey King, which Hewlett designed for the U.S. run of the show.

Here&#39;s an exclusive portrait of the Monkey King, which Hewlett designed for the U.S. run of the show.

It's hard to know when Albarn and Hewlett may work together again, so this could be the last collaboration we see from those two for quite awhile, if ever.

The musical will run from July 6 to 28, and you can get tickets at the Lincoln Center website.

Via: Jamie Hewlett/Monkey: Journey to the West

]]> http://www.buzzfeed.com/azafar/heres-an-exclusive-image-from-the-gorillazs-musical Mon, 20 May 2013 14:38:36 -0400 <strong>Directed by Chen Shi-Zheng, the music-theater collaboration is called <i>Monkey: Journey to the West</i>, and it looks insane (in the best way possible).</strong> azafar nonadult nonadult The musical will make its New York debut opening this year's Lincoln Center Festival, with 27 show dates throughout July. Directed by opera and film director Chen Shi-Zheng, <a href="http://monkeyjourneytothewest.com/"><i>Monkey: Journey to the West</i></a> is based on the classic 16th century Chinese folktale, "Journey to the West." The show first debuted in London at the O2 theater in 2007, and has also been performed in Paris, and in 2008 at the Spoleto Festival USA in South Carolina. <i>Monkey</i> is the story of a monk named Tripitaka, who travels from China to India in search of sacred Buddhist scriptures. He&#39;s joined by the Monkey King and a band of animal protectors on his journey, through a slew of various adventures and obstacles. The 100-minute show looks like it&#39;s a visual trip: an opera-scale musical that&#39;s a mix of Cirque du Soleil and Japanese anim&eacute;. Chinese vocalists, acrobats, circus acts, and dance numbers are set against an elaborate stage design, with cartoon animation from Hewlett. nonadult It&#39;s <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/apr/07/damon-albarn-gorillaz-heroin-blur">hard to know</a> when Albarn and Hewlett may work together again, so this could be the last collaboration we see from those two for quite awhile, if ever. The musical will run from July 6 to 28, and you can get tickets at the <a href="http://www.lincolncenterfestival.com/current-season/monkey-journey-to-the-west?show_date=2013-07-06%2020:00:00">Lincoln Center</a> website. nonadult What Was The Deal With Kid Rock At The Billboard Music Awards? http://www.buzzfeed.com/hunterschwarz/what-was-the-deal-with-kid-rock-at-the-billboard-music-award Seriously, though…

Kid Rock presented the Top Rap Song award at the Billboard Music Awards Sunday and it was something.

Kid Rock presented the Top Rap Song award at the Billboard Music Awards Sunday and it was something.

Via: Ethan Miller / Getty Images

He started off by calling out everyone for lip syncing.

He started off by calling out everyone for lip syncing.

And then he dropped the mike.

And then he dropped the mike.

Via: Ethan Miller / Getty Images

Just like that. Boom.

Just like that. Boom.

View Entire List ›

]]> http://www.buzzfeed.com/hunterschwarz/what-was-the-deal-with-kid-rock-at-the-billboard-music-award Mon, 20 May 2013 10:08:36 -0400 <b>Seriously, though...</b> hunterschwarz nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult Justin Bieber And Miley Cyrus Have The Same Haircut http://www.buzzfeed.com/hunterschwarz/justin-bieber-and-miley-cyrus-have-the-same-haircut They were on the stage at the same time at the Billboard Music Awards and you couldn’t help but notice the similarities.

Via: Ethan Miller / Getty Images

Via: Ethan Miller / Getty Images

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]]> http://www.buzzfeed.com/hunterschwarz/justin-bieber-and-miley-cyrus-have-the-same-haircut Mon, 20 May 2013 09:23:36 -0400 <b>They were on the stage at the same time at the Billboard Music Awards and you couldn&#39;t help but notice the similarities.</b> hunterschwarz nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult The Only 15 Things You Need To Know About The 2013 Billboard Music Awards http://www.buzzfeed.com/hunterschwarz/the-only-xx-things-you-need-to-know-about-the-2013-billboard This is all you need to know. This is it.

Tracy Morgan hosted.

Tracy Morgan hosted.

Via: Steve Marcus / Reuters

Chad Kroeger and Avril Lavigne are still a thing.

Chad Kroeger and Avril Lavigne are still a thing.

Via: David Becker / Getty Images

Taylor Swift wore a shirt with a unicorn on it.

Taylor Swift wore a shirt with a unicorn on it.

Via: Steve Marcus / Reuters

And then she won some awards.

And then she won some awards.

Via: Steve Marcus / Reuters

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]]> http://www.buzzfeed.com/hunterschwarz/the-only-xx-things-you-need-to-know-about-the-2013-billboard Mon, 20 May 2013 08:53:37 -0400 <b>This is all you need to know.</b> This is it. hunterschwarz nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult What It's Like When A Label Won't Release Your Album http://www.buzzfeed.com/azafar/what-happens-when-your-favorite-artist-is-legally-unable-to Sometimes, it’s not that an artist doesn’t want to release music, it’s that they can’t .

Via: John Gara/Buzzfeed

In 2004, 13-year-old Joanna Levesque became the youngest solo artist ever to have a number one single on the Billboard charts. Levesque, who recorded as JoJo, had been building to that moment since she was just a little girl, giving electrifying performances on shows like Kids Say the Darndest Things with Bill Cosby at the age of 6. When Levesque was 12, she signed a seven-album deal with Blackground Records, and later her debut album JoJo was certified platinum. Her 2006 follow-up, The High Road, pleased critics and included at least one bona fide hit, the breakup ballad "Too Little Too Late." She was quickly becoming a rising star in R&B.

And then she went silent.

It's been almost seven years since JoJo has put out an official release, though that doesn't mean she hasn't been trying. "I've recorded about three incarnations of this third album," JoJo tells BuzzFeed. "We've chosen the track listing, we've done multiple album photo shoots, chosen the cover, chosen the credits, everything." But every time her team tried to present the album to her label, Blackground Records, they never received a response.

"Blackground Records lost their distribution deal through Interscope, and if you can get the answer from them on why that happened, that would be a miracle," JoJo says, "because I am sure they would not engage you in that conversation." While JoJo says she has no problem with Interscope, she says she's lost all communication with Blackground.

JoJo's case is an extreme one. But whether it's a new artist waiting to release their debut, or a successful musician who's seemingly disappeared, many artists have found themselves fighting either to release their music or release themselves from their contracts. It happened to Lupe Fiasco. It happened to Sky Ferreira. It happened to Bow Wow, and Metallica, and Big Boi, and Amanda Palmer. The list goes on.

In most cases, even through politics, artists and labels can eventually reach a place where they mutually agree that it's not working out and it'd be better to part ways.

But what happens when they can't?

View Entire List ›

]]> http://www.buzzfeed.com/azafar/what-happens-when-your-favorite-artist-is-legally-unable-to Mon, 20 May 2013 05:53:39 -0400 <strong>Sometimes, it&#39;s not that an artist doesn&#39;t want to release music, it&#39;s that they <i>can&#39;t</i>.</strong> azafar nonadult nonadult <big><b>In 2004, 13-year-old Joanna Levesque became the youngest solo artist ever to have a number one single on the <i>Billboard</i> charts.</b></big> Levesque, who recorded as JoJo, had been building to that moment since she was just a little girl, giving electrifying performances on shows like <i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3K28e_ItO0">Kids Say the Darndest Things</a></i> with Bill Cosby at the age of 6. When Levesque was 12, she signed a seven-album deal with Blackground Records, and later her debut album <i>JoJo</i> was certified platinum. Her 2006 follow-up, <i>The High Road</i>, pleased critics and included at least one bona fide hit, the breakup ballad "Too Little Too Late." She was quickly becoming a rising star in R&amp;B. And then she went silent. nonadult <p><img src="http://a0.twimg.com/profile_images/3232006236/161dd94ccfe1b97bf1eb09885731505c_normal.jpeg">curious 2know the status of my album? tweet BlackgroundMG. They control the $ &amp; album date. In the meantime, I'm gonna keep working LoveUAll-- JoJo</p> nonadult It's been almost <a href="http://www.nypost.com/p/blogs/popwrap/jojo_an_expose_Ohz4GmJ5sHRUpjzzGnl1sM#axzz2ScErAqq7">seven years</a> since JoJo has put out an official release, though that doesn&#39;t mean she hasn&#39;t been trying. "I&#39;ve recorded about three incarnations of this third album," JoJo tells BuzzFeed. "We&#39;ve chosen the track listing, we&#39;ve done multiple album photo shoots, chosen the cover, chosen the credits, everything." But every time her team tried to present the album to her label, Blackground Records, they never received a response. "Blackground Records lost their distribution deal through Interscope, and if you can get the answer from them on why that happened, that would be a miracle," JoJo says, "because I am sure they would not engage you in that conversation." While JoJo says she has no problem with Interscope, she says she&#39;s lost all communication with Blackground. JoJo&#39;s case is an extreme one. But whether it&#39;s a new artist waiting to release their debut, or a successful musician who&#39;s seemingly disappeared, many artists have found themselves fighting either to release their music or release themselves from their contracts. It happened to <a href="http://defsounds.com/hip-hop-news/lupe-fiasco-having-issues-with-atlantic-over-fl2/">Lupe Fiasco</a>. It happened to <a href="http://blog.thephoenix.com/blogs/onthedownload/archive/2012/11/27/q-amp-a-sky-ferreira-deconstructs-her-experiences-in-the-major-label-system-playing-tt-s-tonight.aspx">Sky Ferreira</a>. It happened to <a href="http://www.sohh.com/2009/06/bow_wow_wants_off_columbi.html">Bow Wow</a>, and <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/1994-09-28/business/fi-43984_1_warner-music-group">Metallica</a>, and <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/jun/09/outkast-big-boi-andre-3000">Big Boi</a>, and <a href="}http://pitchfork.com/news/34979-amanda-palmer-tells-roadrunner-records-please-drop-me/">Amanda Palmer</a>. The list goes on. In most cases, even through politics, artists and labels can eventually reach a place where they mutually agree that it&#39;s not working out and it&#39;d be better to part ways. But what happens when they can&#39;t? nonadult nonadult <big><b>The label merges with or is acquired by another company.</b></big> "It is a little confusing because most of these companies, they get bought and sold several times," says Ben McLane, an entertainment lawyer whose past clients have included DMX, Keith Sweat, and LL Cool J. Repeated changes in ownership caused problems for Blackground Records, an independent label that was distributed by Interscope, a subsidiary of Universal. Blackground's CEO Barry Hankerson (uncle to the late Aaliyah, and responsible for launching her career) is known for making abrupt business decisions that leave his artists in a constant state of flux. "He&#39;ll have a hit, and then he&#39;ll have hard times with his label, and he&#39;ll sell it to some other distributor and then the artists just kind of float around," says McLane. "That&#39;s part of the problem &mdash; there are a lot of mergers and acquisitions that go on, and the artists get stuck in the middle of it. If you&#39;re not U2 or Justin Bieber, at the top of the food chain, a lot of times artists just get lost in the middle." The music industry has changed rapidly in the digital age. Where there were once six major labels in 1998, now there are just three remaining: Sony, Warner Music Group, and Universal, which became the largest international record company after merging with EMI last year. The mergers have left many artists lost in limbo. "Sky Ferreira&#39;s label has gone through four or five label presidents since she&#39;s been signed, and a big merger," says McLane, who calls Ferreira&#39;s experience "the worst-case scenario." "It&#39;s a complicated space," McLane says, "and I don&#39;t want to say just because one artist&#39;s experience is shitty, it doesn&#39;t mean that another artist couldn&#39;t sign with a major label and maybe get treated really well." McLane points out that Katy Perry was signed to Ferreira&#39;s label around the same time but has had a very different experience. "Maybe she just got lucky, or she just had a better team, or the right timing." <big><b>The artist&#39;s A&amp;R rep or management leaves the label.</b></big> When a label goes through transition, losing the initial person who was pushing for you and had your back can be really confusing &mdash; and lonely. "A lot of times, historically, how this would happen, an A&amp;R guy would be like, &#39;Oh, I&#39;m so excited about this new band! You guys are gonna be big!&#39;" says Casey Rae, deputy director of the <a href="http://futureofmusic.org/">Future of Music Coalition</a>, an advocacy group for musicians. "And we get you on the label, and everyone&#39;s all excited, and then all of a sudden that A&amp;R person loses their job and you&#39;re just out in the wilderness, and maybe you&#39;re just a line item on some accountant&#39;s ledger sheet. And you can easily be X&#39;ed out because, well, we have other priorities." "Once you get signed, the question is politics within the record company; the person who&#39;s championing you &mdash; how much power do they have?" says Paul Fakler, a partner at law firm Arent Fox who practices media and entertainment law. And, just as important: "Are they still going to be there in six months?" nonadult nonadult <b><big>A bigger artist on a label's roster decides to put out music, shifting the label&#39;s priorities.</big></b> Often an artist or band that&#39;s been gaining momentum will have to sit on the backburner while a bigger artist takes up a label&#39;s attention and resources. "[A band will say], &#39;Yeah! It&#39;s go time! This is gonna be the one, our second album, they&#39;re really gonna throw some weight behind it this time,&#39;" Rae says. "But then Elton John&#39;s like, &#39;I think I&#39;m going to put out an album this year.&#39; And suddenly [the label] wants to shift their focus there." That&#39;s when an artist starts to enter limbo, trying to vie for their label&#39;s attention, a situation R&amp;B singer Cassie knows all too well. "Sometimes I feel like people don&#39;t know what to do with certain artists," Cassie tells BuzzFeed. "But if something hits &mdash; you have a hit record and it hits on radio and all over the place &hellip; everybody jumps on the bandwagon. Otherwise you&#39;re fighting for your position." Singer Sky Ferreira found herself continually stalled by her label focusing on other female acts. "They told me the nastiest things, like, "Sorry, there&#39;s already one girl coming out at the moment, we can&#39;t do two," Ferreira told <i><a href="http://blog.thephoenix.com/blogs/onthedownload/archive/2012/11/27/q-amp-a-sky-ferreira-deconstructs-her-experiences-in-the-major-label-system-playing-tt-s-tonight.aspx">The Phoenix</a></i> last November. nonadult nonadult <big><b>The label is still developing the artist and their music to be ready for radio.</b></big> Record labels often snatch up young talent with promise, eager to nurture them into future stars. But it's rare that an artist is an overnight sensation. "They want to make sure the package is perfect," McLane says. Signing an artist prematurely can be tricky because the artists themselves may still be figuring out who they are. And when a label signs someone based on their great demos, things often change once the artist starts collaborating with label professionals. "They try to put them in with some huge producer or some big cowriter who had a big hit, and it changes the sound," McLane says. Then when that doesn&#39;t work out, everyone&#39;s confused and the label has second thoughts, but they still know the artist is talented, so they want to keep trying. That&#39;s probably what happened with Sky Ferreira." Ferreira, who signed with EMI in 2008 when she was just 15, has <a href="http://blog.thephoenix.com/blogs/onthedownload/archive/2012/11/27/q-amp-a-sky-ferreira-deconstructs-her-experiences-in-the-major-label-system-playing-tt-s-tonight.aspx">spoken</a> of her difficult early relationship with the label. She struggled for years to put out an album that EMI would approve of. "I turned in five different albums and none of them made sense. It was just one thing after the other and getting shelved," she told <i><a href="http://blog.thephoenix.com/blogs/onthedownload/archive/2012/11/27/q-amp-a-sky-ferreira-deconstructs-her-experiences-in-the-major-label-system-playing-tt-s-tonight.aspx">The Phoenix</a></i>. Ferreira stuck it out, however, with a new team, and more artistic control, to finally produce a successful EP last year. Not only is it a matter of timing the artist&#39;s readiness for the market, it&#39;s also a matter of judging whether the market is ready for the artist&#39;s sound. Some artists are just ahead of their time. Lady Gaga was first signed to Def Jam (only to be dropped after three months) and later signed to Interscope, where she continued to develop her act for a couple years, the label bringing in Akon and producer RedOne as collaborators. "Music was going a very specific way in the pop world," says Imran Majid, vice president of A&amp;R at Columbia Records. "She had dynamic songs, and maybe four years ago those songs would&#39;ve just gone over people&#39;s heads." And even though most of us now listen to music online, radio still plays a huge role in a label promoting an artist. If a single underperforms in the radio market, labels may put an artist back in the studio to create something more airplay-friendly. "Sometimes when a record isn&#39;t reacting all the way or the way you expected to," Majid says, "it just feels like the demand may be less, so you may want to go back and revamp stuff on the music side of things." nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult <big><b>The label wants to create a demand for the artist.</b></big> In order to really sell an artist, there needs to be a demand. And what better way to do that than by making people wait a little bit? It's not unlike the film industry, where studios often push back release dates of movies with positive early reviews to create more hype. "You look at such a great artist like A$AP Rocky, where that album would get pushed back and pushed back, but they were building something special, and they found the right song," Majid says. "He had a great [first] week, he&#39;s selling well, and he&#39;s doing great touring. I remember reading on the blogs, &#39;Oh, it got pushed back again, it got pushed back again,&#39; but there&#39;s no wrong reason for it being pushed back. They were building an incredible demand for the product. Everything&#39;s just case-by-case." And it&#39;s common now to first build up some interest in and excitement around the artist, before they release an actual album. "There [will be] this great base that&#39;s building &hellip; and we&#39;re like &#39;Look, if we wait a couple months, they have this festival set up, this record&#39;s going to be pushed out, that video &mdash; it&#39;s a massive marketing campaign that&#39;s going to help build a demand. " <big><b>The artist has been mismanaged.</b></big> "[JoJo&#39;s case is] one of those extreme situations where you have a guy like Barry Hankerson, who is one of those guys who would just go to war and say, &#39;No, I&#39;m not doing it,&#39;" says David Byrnes, a partner at Ziffren Brittenham, whose firm has represented clients like Michael Jackson, The Rolling Stones, and Fleetwood Mac. Blackground&#39;s CEO Barry Hankerson is <a href="http://www.courthousenews.com/2013/02/27/55234.htm">notorious</a> in the record industry for being one of the more <a href="http://www.lawyersandsettlements.com/articles/harassment/interview-sexual-harassment-in-workplace-hostile-16502.html#.UYqjHCvP26l">questionable</a> label execs in the business. Hankerson was ordered by a court in 2011 to pay his former girlfriend (who was once signed to Blackground as an artist, according to JoJo&#39;s manager Gita Williams) over $3 million in damages for repeated instances "stalking, defamation and the intentional infliction of emotional distress," and <a href="http://www.lawyersandsettlements.com/articles/harassment/interview-sexual-harassment-in-workplace-hostile-16502.html#.UYqjHCvP26l">reportedly</a> blowing up her car. Singer Toni Braxton <a href="http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/1054986/braxton-settles-lawsuit-against-ex-manager">sued</a> Blackground in 2007 to end her relationship with the label and Hankerson. Timbaland, who was signed to the label as a performer, filed suit in 2009, claiming that Hankerson tried to <a href="http://www.tmz.com/2009/03/25/timbaland-blackground-blackballed-me/">blackball his producing career</a> with different labels. The Blackground company website is currently a Go Daddy <a href="http://blackgroundent.com/?nr=0">domain page</a>, and according to Williams, they&#39;ve closed up shop, probably don&#39;t have any employees, and can&#39;t be contacted. (BuzzFeed was unable to reach anyone at Blackground for this piece.) nonadult nonadult <big><b>The label's focused on their competition.</b></big> An artist can also get held up because of competition between labels. If a certain kind of sound is suddenly in demand, labels might rush to sign similar artists &mdash; either to profit off them themselves, or to simply sit on them and claim them, Rae says. "Maybe it makes sense to sign you, get you under contract, and keep you off the streets, so nobody else has you. But they don&#39;t actually care if they do anything with you." "If a garage sound was popular like The White Stripes and now The Black Keys, then maybe they just sign up all The White Stripes and Black Keys&ndash;sounding bands. Lord knows that happened during the grunge era, where A&amp;R guys were literally jumping out of airplanes with briefcases over the city of Seattle. &#39;Sign anything with a goatee!&#39;" Whether or not it&#39;s a deliberate strategy by the label to hoard certain acts so other labels can&#39;t get to them, "at the end of the day, the result is the same," Rae says. "You get frustrated creators who aren&#39;t able to earn revenue from their creative expression, which is the whole reason they got into this game to begin with." nonadult nonadult The obvious answer is that artists should walk away from their label and find a better contract somewhere else, but it's not always that easy. Bailing on a contract can be next to impossible because of two critical issues. <big><b>Problem #1: The artist owes the record label an album.</b></big> While some contracts are written to expire after a certain number of years, others require the artist to put out a given number of albums before they can move on to a new home. JoJo signed a seven-album deal with Blackground Records in 2004, but nowadays those kinds of deals aren&#39;t common, Majid says. Three or four albums are more standard, and labels may even offer deals for one-off albums or singles, if it seems like the artist has potential. "That sometimes works great for the artist," says Majid. "Whatever other recordings they do [on their own], they have ownership of, but at the same time [they] still get promoted for the record that&#39;s getting them some exposure." Though record labels are learning to adapt and change with their audience, many artists are still stuck in binding deals from when they first signed. nonadult nonadult <big><b>Problem #2: The artist has little leverage.</b></big> "The fact is, when any new artist signs their first record deal, they have absolutely no bargaining power," Fakler says. Unless you're an artist that&#39;s built up a following on your own and can gain leverage that way, it can be hard to negotiate a contract that will favor the artist, Fakler says, who calls the terms "pretty much akin to indentured servitutude." "They&#39;re exclusive contracts, the record company has absolute authority with respect to the decision of whether to release the albums that are turned in or not," says Fakler. "Most artists are just so happy to get signed, they&#39;ll sign anything." But most new artists can&#39;t afford the proper legal representation, and don&#39;t have access to anyone who can explain to them in clear terms what kind of deal they&#39;re getting. Many artists who sign contracts as minors, like JoJo, have their parents act as their managers, and the parents usually don&#39;t have much experience with the music industry. "My mom read this book called <i>All You Need to Know About the Music Business</i>, and she thought that she had it down pat," JoJo tells BuzzFeed. "She raised me off of very little, and she cleaned houses for a living and sang as a church soloist in our church in Foxborough, Massachusetts, and she trusted [the system]." When speaking out against his label in 2010, rapper Lupe Fiasco said that Atlantic Records made it clear that if he didn&#39;t sign a 360 deal, he wouldn&#39;t be promoted by the label: <blockquote>"I was also told that because you didn&#39;t sign this 360 deal, we may or may not push your record. So when &#39;Shining Down&#39; came out, and you didn&#39;t hear it on the radio station, that&#39;s because they never took it to a radio station."</blockquote> A "<a href="http://www.americanbar.org/groups/young_lawyers/publications/the_101_201_practice_series/an_overview_of_the_360_deal.html">360 deal</a>" is the term for a modern major label contract that allows the label to take a percentage of an artist&#39;s earnings from all of their activities. That means touring grosses and merchandise sales, says McLane: "They&#39;re going to take a percentage of your Revlon commercial, they&#39;re going to take a percentage of your appearance on <i>Fallon</i>." This kind of deal is by far the most common arrangement that major labels offer. The way labels sell this idea to artists, says McLane, is by saying that the label will "invest in your career over the long term and assist you in artist development in ways that they wouldn&#39;t be able to if they didn&#39;t have these enhanced revenue streams available." nonadult nonadult If an artist is facing one or both of those two problems, they can (and often do) try to remedy the situation by trying one or more of the following: <big><b>Try to part amicably.</b></big> Most labels want to be in mutually beneficial partnerships with artists. "If you're a record company, you don&#39;t really want someone who&#39;s unhappy and a headache; you want to devote your energy to things that are productive," says Byrnes. But, he adds, "[labels] don&#39;t want to let them go unless it&#39;s truly unworkable." In 2010, after tension with their label over their marketability, the band OK Go asked to be released from their contract, and EMI let them go. "It&#39;s one of the rare moments in corporate history that I&#39;ve experienced when someone just did something nice. They had the right to step on us, and they didn&#39;t," OK Go manager Jamie Kitman told the <i><a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2010/03/10/ok-go-splits-from-record-label-emi/">Wall Street Journal</a></i>. nonadult nonadult <big><b>Make noise; first privately, then publicly.</b></big> "A lot of the time you just really have to bug the hell out of a label, just like bug them, bug them, bug them, and become a nuisance," McLane says. "And then they'll be like, &#39;Well, this is more trouble than it&#39;s worth. We&#39;re not making any money off this artist and their lawyer&#39;s harassing us, let&#39;s just release the artist.&#39;" If behind-the-scenes rabble-rousing isn&#39;t cutting it, artists will resort to public calls for help, like Bow Wow did in 2009, when he <a href="%20http://www.sohh.com/2009/06/bow_wow_confirms_departur.html">pleaded on Twitter</a> to be released from his label contract: <blockquote>"Yep! It&#39;s true! I want off Columbia. I&#39;m asking to be released. NO they not dropping me I&#39;m askn. Not happy there. Been like dis 4 5yrs."</blockquote> Lupe Fiasco went public with his frustrations against his label, Atlantic Records, in 2010. He delivered speeches and interviews discussing the three-year process to release his third album, <i>Lasers</i>, which he claims was artistically controlled by Atlantic. His fans even organized <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/exclusive-video-lupe-fiasco-fans-protest-outside-label-office-20101015">a protest</a> outside the label&#39;s offices in late 2010. "I am a hostage," Fiasco told the <i><a href="http://blogs.suntimes.com/music/2011/03/lupe_fiasco_does_what_hes_told.html">Chicago Sun-Times</a></i> the following year. "I gave them what they wanted. If I didn&#39;t, at the end of the day the album wasn&#39;t coming out." Prince also <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3563691.stm">famously</a> resorted to writing "Slave" on his face, during the 1995 Brit Awards, to try to drum up noise and be released from his contract with Warner Bros. And while he didn&#39;t have an issue with the label holding back his music, his bold act is an example of the creative lengths some artists go to break their contracts. nonadult nonadult <big><b>Take legal action.</b></big> Legal action is usually the last resort for most artists, because it's time-consuming and expensive. "It&#39;s an extreme example when you hear about someone suing," McLane says. And though these cases will mostly be settled out of court, "a lot of the time you do need someone to raise hell behind the scenes, like a lawyer or manager." But there are some ways that artists can avoid the mess of filing a lawsuit, by building protective measures into their contract from the start. A "Key Man Clause" is one such precaution. If an artist feels like their champion has left the label, voluntarily or otherwise, they could exercise the clause in their contract. The "<a href="http://www.musiciansbusinessdictionary.com/mbd/index.php?title=Key_Man_Clause">Key Man Clause</a>" gives artists the right to leave if their manager or the person who signed them leaves the label. This is one of the most common reasons artists end up in limbo, so it helps to make sure you&#39;re free to leave if you feel like your champion is gone too. Another option is to write an "out clause" into the contract. "Usually when you negotiate a record deal for an artist," McLane says, "you always put a clause in that if a label doesn&#39;t commercially release an album within a reasonable period of time, anywhere from a year to three years, depending on the situation, the artist is free to go. I rarely see a label not agree to that, because it&#39;s fair, as long as you give them adequate time to at least give it a shot." If the artist signed their recording agreement in California, a law known as the "7-Year Contract Statute" can protect artists who have signed contracts with no end date. The law states that a contract for personal services rendered is void after seven years from the date of signing. In the &#39;90s, Metallica famously <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/1994-09-28/business/fi-43984_1_warner-music-group">invoked the statute</a> to end its run with their label, Elektra. nonadult nonadult <big><b>In 2009</b></big>, JoJo filed a lawsuit against her label Da Family Entertainment/Blackground, after being forced into a state of limbo. "I didn't want to be in a legal spat with anyone," JoJo tells BuzzFeed. "I thought this would be the resolution I was looking for." She wrote about the experience on her <a href="http://www.myspace.com/jojoonline/blog">MySpace blog</a> the year she filed suit: <blockquote>"My record company has been going through a major transition and unfortunately all of the artists on the label have been forced to sit on the sidelines and wait. I exhausted every option and exercised much patience before reaching my final decision to file a formal complaint with the court.</blockquote> JoJo filed under breach of contract, because Blackground was unable to find distribution. But the lawsuit was eventually dropped, after the label resolved the issue by securing distribution with Interscope, JoJo says. "Instead of entering something really unpalatable, I was like, &#39;Let&#39;s give this a shot. I believe in Interscope and what they do.&#39;" However, Interscope dropped Blackground just three years later, and the label is now, yet again, without distribution. In lieu of an official release, over the years JoJo&#39;s released one-off songs she&#39;s uploaded herself online, as well as two mixtapes. Last December, after years of waiting and trying to cooperate with her label, JoJo decided to go ahead and release her second mixtape of new music for her fans. <i>Ag&aacute;p&#x113;</i> was well-received by critics, and fans were overjoyed. But both JoJo and her fans hope she can find a way to put out an official album on her own terms, soon. When asked what advice she&#39;d give to new artists, and what she wishes she&#39;d known when she first got into the business at age 12, JoJo says it all comes down to understanding what you&#39;re getting yourself into. "Make sure you have a solid lawyer that&#39;s well-versed in the entertainment industry," JoJo says. She advises new artists to make sure "that your lawyer is not affiliated with, I don&#39;t want to say this, but, &#39;the other side.&#39; Make sure your lawyer is working for you." And while it&#39;s easy to pass off the legal work to someone else, JoJo stresses the most important thing is that the artists themselves understand the contract. "Everybody&#39;s contract is different," she says. "I think that the power, with anything, lies in knowledge, in empowering yourself to know the intricacies of your situation, your contract, and how it pertains to your life. It&#39;s all about being as aware as possible and then exploring what your next move is." "Don&#39;t feel bad about defending yourself, about asking for things," JoJo says. "The worst that can happen is you&#39;ll get turned down. Protect yourself not just for the short term, but the long run. Think about yourself as a career artist, and don&#39;t just ask, &#39;What am I going to do this year?&#39;" nonadult 25 Album Covers That Are Better As Animated GIFs http://www.buzzfeed.com/perpetua/25-album-covers-that-are-better-as-animated-gifs The day we figure out how to print these at the size of vinyl records is the day we level up as a species.

Michael Jackson, Dangerous

Michael Jackson, Dangerous

Via: wtf-albumcover.tumblr.com

Nirvana, Nevermind

Nirvana, Nevermind

Via: wtf-albumcover.tumblr.com

Florence + The Machine, Lungs

Florence + The Machine, Lungs

Source: funstuffcafe.com

Drake, Take Care

Drake, Take Care

Via: wtf-albumcover.tumblr.com

View Entire List ›

]]> http://www.buzzfeed.com/perpetua/25-album-covers-that-are-better-as-animated-gifs Mon, 20 May 2013 05:23:37 -0400 <b>The day we figure out how to print these at the size of vinyl records is the day we level up as a species.</b> perpetua nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult 50 Albums To Play After A Breakup http://www.buzzfeed.com/perpetua/50-albums-to-play-after-a-breakup Whether you’re distraught, angry, or feeling sorta numb, these are the records that are there for you when you need it most. Some will cheer you up, and others will just let you wallow.

Fleetwood Mac, Rumours

Fleetwood Mac, Rumours

The ultimate breakup album, and the rare collection of songs to offer both sides of the story, since the record largely documents the dissolution of Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks' long-term relationship with each other. As an added bonus, Christine McVie's songs are about the aftermath of her split from her husband and bandmate John McVie. Every song on the record deals with some aspect of heartbreak, but Buckingham's "Go Your Own Way" stands out as possibly the most passive-aggressive rock anthem of all time.

Fiona Apple, The Idler Wheel...

Fiona Apple, The Idler Wheel...

Fiona Apple's entire body of work is perfect breakup music; any of her four albums are an excellent soundtrack for wallowing in pain. The Idler Wheel..., her most recent, is the most raw, and extra devastating in the way she places most of the blame on herself. "How can I ask anyone to love me when all I do is beg to be left alone?" she howls on one of the album's best cuts. It's harrowing stuff.

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]]> http://www.buzzfeed.com/perpetua/50-albums-to-play-after-a-breakup Mon, 20 May 2013 01:23:38 -0400 <b>Whether you&#39;re distraught, angry, or feeling sorta numb, these are the records that are there for you when you need it most.</b> Some will cheer you up, and others will just let you wallow. perpetua nonadult nonadult The ultimate breakup album, and the rare collection of songs to offer both sides of the story, since the record largely documents the dissolution of Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks' long-term relationship with each other. As an added bonus, Christine McVie&#39;s songs are about the aftermath of her split from her husband and bandmate John McVie. Every song on the record deals with some aspect of heartbreak, but Buckingham&#39;s "Go Your Own Way" stands out as possibly the most passive-aggressive rock anthem of all time. nonadult nonadult Fiona Apple's entire body of work is perfect breakup music; any of her four albums are an excellent soundtrack for wallowing in pain. <i>The Idler Wheel...</i>, her most recent, is the most raw, and extra devastating in the way she places most of the blame on herself. "How can I ask anyone to love me when all I do is beg to be left alone?" she howls on one of the album&#39;s best cuts. It&#39;s harrowing stuff. nonadult nonadult Kanye West's most experimental album is also his most nakedly emotional, with a hundred shades of icy AutoTune barely masking his anger, sorrow, and self-pity. nonadult nonadult <i>13</i> was a creative departure for Blur, a band better known for scathing parodies of modern British life than for depressive, confessional ballads. Damon Albarn went all in with this record, dealing with the aftermath of his relationship with Elastica singer Justine Frischmann with a set of brutally cathartic and heartbreaking tunes about recognizing that something central to your life is now completely gone. nonadult nonadult Beck was so distraught after the end of his long-term relationship with stylist Leigh Limon that he made a hard stylistic turn away from the bright, funky music of <i>Odelay</i> and <i>Midnite Vultures</i> to create this collection of slow, almost unbearably sad meditations on loss and loneliness. nonadult nonadult Patsy Cline's second album is a classic from top to bottom, but if you&#39;ve just been dumped, you&#39;re probably only going to end up playing the timeless, extraordinarily melancholy hits "Crazy" and "I Fall to Pieces" on an endless loop. nonadult nonadult Joni Mitchell's fourth album is the perfect relationship post-mortem record, looking back on the good and the bad times with a mix of bittersweet fondness and lingering grief. nonadult nonadult Elliott Smith's entire body of work is rather depressive, but <i>Either/Or</i> is the album that best captures the self-loathing and wounded pride of someone who can&#39;t quite get over a broken relationship. nonadult nonadult Adele's second album is a blockbuster of undiluted post-breakup trauma, from the righteous indignation of "Rolling in the Deep" to the all-out despair of "Someone Like You" and everything in between. nonadult nonadult Robyn has a long history of writing perfect, emotionally gutting breakup songs, but this collection of songs is her creative peak, with "Dancing on My Own," "Indestructible," and "Call Your Girlfriend" forming the ultimate trifecta of dance-away-the-tears anthems. nonadult nonadult Mary J. Blige's third album is a tour de force of heart-crushing R&amp;B, packed with intense songs about living with and without love. "Not Gon&#39; Cry" is the masterstroke, a clear-eyed ballad about finding the strength to let go of someone who is all wrong for you. nonadult nonadult Taylor Swift has made a career out of penning bitter breakup tunes, so really, any of her albums could do the trick. <i>Speak Now</i> finds the ideal balance between pop hooks and genuine country-rock melancholy, to the point that you can easily listen to a track like "Dear John" without thinking too much about the fact that it's about John Mayer. nonadult nonadult John Darnielle, one of the great modern poets of misery, focuses on the dissolution of a relationship over the course of this record, resulting in some of the most excruciatingly sad music of his career. nonadult nonadult Bj&ouml;rk's artistic masterpiece is also a phenomenal breakup album, with the first half of the set focused mainly on characters searching for freedom, while the second half is full of brutally frank lyrics about moving on from a failed relationship. "5 Years" is particularly powerful, with the Icelandic singer chastising her ex as a coward who "can&#39;t handle love." nonadult nonadult This compilation is billed as a set of Otis Redding's "deepest soul," but it&#39;s more accurately described as his most heartbreaking ballads. It is almost impossible to find music that captures the feeling of lovelorn desperation as well as "These Arms of Mine" and "I Love You More Than Words Can Say." nonadult nonadult Carole King's blockbuster album covers a range of emotions, but it&#39;s most memorable moments fixate on fading love. "It&#39;s Too Late" is one of the all-time best breakup songs: a perfect evocation of the moment you know that while you love someone, you&#39;re not <i>in love</i> with them anymore. nonadult nonadult Breakups have a way of blowing our emotions way out of proportion, and Natasha Khan runs with that all through her second album as Bat for Lashes, giving every song an epic, cinematic scale. The most devastating track, "Siren Song," is sung from the perspective of a woman struggling with guilt as she strings along a man she's about to leave heartbroken. "My name is Pearl and I love you the best way I know how," she sings before admitting a few moments later, "but I&#39;m evil, I&#39;m evil." nonadult nonadult Jeff Tweedy has written dozens of songs about romantic disaster despite being married for many years, but he hit his peak with this record, which ping-pongs between reticence ("I Am Trying to Break Your Heart") and emphatic commitment ("I'm the Man Who Loves You"). There are at least a dozen couplets on this record that will cut your heart in two, but the defining moment of the record comes when Tweedy creaks the line, "Oh, distance has no way of making love understandable" on "Radio Cure." nonadult nonadult "Since U Been Gone" may be <i>the</i> "I'm moving on, and good riddance!" anthem of the entire &#39;00s, but it&#39;s not the only amazing breakup song on <i>Breakaway</i>. The title track and "Walk Away" nail a similar sentiment, so it&#39;s no surprise that Clarkson has become a hero to jilted lovers everywhere. nonadult nonadult Sleater-Kinney wrote a lot of emotionally raw breakup songs in the late '90s, but their 1998 album <i>The Hot Rock</i> is almost exclusively focused on romantic turmoil. The most powerful songs contrast Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker&#39;s voices for dramatic effect, with Brownstein&#39;s cool vocals giving voice to rational thoughts while Tucker&#39;s hyper-emotive wail delivers emotional sucker punches like "It&#39;s not real / You don&#39;t need to tell me that it&#39;s NOT REEEEAAAALLLL!" nonadult nonadult This 1978 album was initially a commercial flop, but it's since become a soul classic thanks to its frank, intensely personal depiction of Gaye&#39;s painful, deeply contentious split from his first wife, Anna Gordy. nonadult nonadult Bob Dylan has denied that the songs on this bitter, lovesick record are autobiographical, but it's hard to believe &mdash; every word and note sounds very lived-in and true. But even if he&#39;s telling the truth, the effect is all the same. nonadult nonadult Kevin Barnes has spent a lot of time writing incredibly angst-ridden songs about romantic strife, but <i>Paralytic Stalks</i> is the Of Montreal album that goes deepest into the darkest corners of his psyche. This is the record for the phase of the breakup where you absolutely loathe your ex. To get a sense of how far this record goes, one of its most lighthearted tunes has the chorus "I spend my waking hours haunting my own life / I made the one I love cry tonight / and it felt gooooood." You've been warned. nonadult nonadult Carrie Underwood's hugely popular debut covers a lot of emotional ground, but if you&#39;re at the end of your rope with a cheating partner, "Before He Cheats" is your jam. Can you think of a more brutal and specific song about getting revenge on a cheater? nonadult nonadult Jack White has been writing kiss-off songs for years, but his solo debut is his most bitter and heartbroken. It can be hard to tell whether he's mourning the end of his marriage or the breakup of The White Stripes, but there&#39;s no mistaking the bile that fuels tracks like "Sixteen Saltines" and "Hypocritical Kiss." nonadult nonadult The Cure perfected their brand of gloomy romanticism on this record and gave the world some of the most perfect songs for reflecting on love and loss. It's depressive, sure, but it&#39;s sung from the perspective of a person who truly believes in love. nonadult nonadult Lou Barlow and Jason Loewenstein dwell on romantic catastrophe on every Sebadoh record, but <i>Bakesale</i> is the album where their punk aggression and passive-aggressive lyrical style came together most perfectly. "Rebound," in particular, is the perfect song for anyone in a manic, promiscuous phase after splitting with a long-term partner. nonadult nonadult Abel Tesfaye's songs are almost exclusively meditations on romantic and sexual angst. <i>Trilogy</i>, a collection of his three acclaimed mixtape albums, makes sulking sound sexy, even when the lyrics basically amount to Tesfaye crying, "LOOK WHAT YOU&#39;VE DONE TO ME!" at his ex. nonadult nonadult <i>Teen Dream</i> perfectly captures the numb feeling that can come after a particular traumatic breakup. The dark emotions linger, but the dominant sentiment is working through pain to get to a better place. As Victoria Legrand sings on "Walk in the Park," "In a matter of time / It would slip from my mind / In and out of my life." nonadult nonadult Alanis Morrissette covers a lot of emotional ground on <i>Jagged Little Pill</i>, and if you sequence the record differently, you can make it a story about someone who falls madly in love, falls waaaaay out of love, and then gets over it. But let's be real: You need this because "You Oughta Know" is one of the most fierce kiss-off songs ever written. nonadult nonadult Justin Vernon's debut album as Bon Iver is basically an indie-folk legend by now: After a bad breakup, he hid away in a cabin in rural Wisconsin and wrote the perfect album for anyone yearning to basically disappear from the world after getting their heart broken. nonadult nonadult Liz Phair's brilliant debut cycles through many feelings, but the most potent cuts deal with the aftermath of a complicated relationship. Nothing comes easy in Phair&#39;s world, and she never lets herself off the hook. In "Divorce Song," the album&#39;s most painful song about a split, she admits, "It&#39;s harder to be friends than lovers, and you shouldn&#39;t try to mix the two / Because if you do it and you&#39;re still unhappy, you know that the problem is you." nonadult nonadult Even in the context of Ben Gibbard's catalog, <i>Transatlanticism</i> stands out as an epic of heartbreak. The title track is particularly powerful, expressing an all-consuming need for someone who seems to drift further away by the moment. nonadult nonadult Brand New's second album is a dark and brooding meditation on how fragile you feel as a teenager, navigating a world that you don&#39;t really understand. <i>Deja Entendu</i> takes the heart-on-your-sleeve spirit of a Smiths album and then strips any hope or whimsy, resulting in a relentlessly depressing but ultimately cathartic set of songs. nonadult nonadult Frank Sinatra is famous for his unflappable cool, but one of his finest albums is a set of jazz vocal tunes that wallows in despair and self-pity. It's the perfect record for the sad guy drinking a martini by himself at the end of the bar. nonadult nonadult <i>The Con</i> sounds upbeat, but Tegan and Sara's lyrics go to some dark emotional places, and say the sort of things that you might write to someone you&#39;re breaking up with in the middle of the night but then not actually hit send. nonadult nonadult Motown legend Mary Wells had a lovely, slightly weary voice that was ideal for up-tempo tunes with melancholy themes: "What's Easy for Two Is So Hard for One," "You Lost the Sweetest Boy," and, most especially, "The One Who Really Loves You." This is what you play when you&#39;re almost over the worst of it but can&#39;t quite let it go. nonadult nonadult Portishead's debut album makes self-pity seem totally glamorous and sexy. The album is elegantly depressive from start to finish, but it&#39;s hard to top the moment in "Sour Times" when Beth Gibbons sings "Nobody loves me, it&#39;s true / Not like you do" with a tone that&#39;s as self-loathing as it is seductive. nonadult nonadult Jenny Lewis' characters on <i>More Adventurous</i> can&#39;t stop making bad decisions &mdash; falling into bed too soon with the wrong guys, becoming obsessed with married men, and showing up at the ex&#39;s house of nowhere. There are a lot of grim moments, but there&#39;s at least one bright spot: "I Never," a gorgeous ballad pining for the ideal partner you just haven&#39;t met yet. nonadult nonadult Ryan Adams has spent his career mainly writing songs about breaking hearts or being heartbroken, so it makes perfect sense that his most widely loved record would just be called <i>Heartbreaker</i>. It's a very, very accurate title. nonadult nonadult Laura Burhenn's first album as the singer of the blue-eyed soul band The Mynabirds takes a philosophical approach to the end of a relationship, balancing out a palpable sadness with a clear-eyed fatalism. nonadult nonadult Even Beyonc&eacute; can feel rejected! No one could be more furious about that fact than Beyonc&eacute; herself, as she storms through songs directed at the "other woman" and ungrateful lovers with an imperious rage. There are moments of vulnerability too, but the power of this album is in how it makes you feel that you, too, are irreplaceable. nonadult nonadult Lily Allen's second album is snarky, bitter, and impossibly catchy, with songs that lash out at unacceptable suitors, inadequate boyfriends, and, ultimately, herself. nonadult nonadult If you're feeling a little&hellip;intense after a messy breakup, PJ Harvey is there for you. <i>Rid of Me</i> has a raw, spontaneous sound, and songs about love, sex, and revenge that turn on a dime from almost uncomfortably intimate to extremely loud and aggressive. nonadult nonadult Eric Clapton's only album as the frontman of Derek and the Dominos is a lovesick blues rock epic that culminates with "Layla," a seven-minute classic about his painful, then-unrequited love for his best friend&#39;s wife. nonadult nonadult Cat Power's entire discography is a perfect soundtrack for post-breakup sadness, but <i>The Greatest</i> is the one with a balance of raw-nerve emotion and a measure of hope for the future. It&#39;s the record for when you&#39;re emotionally bruised but convinced that you&#39;ll eventually be stronger for it. nonadult nonadult George Jones made it his life's work to perform some of the saddest, most painful tunes about heartbreak in the history of country, or pop music in general. Any George Jones record will do, but aim for one of his many hits compilations. nonadult nonadult Rachael Yamagata's debut may dwell on romantic turmoil and unrequited love, but it&#39;s not a dark or dour record &mdash; if anything, she finds a way to let go of lingering pain in songs like "Letter Read" and "Under My Skin." nonadult nonadult Dashboard Confessional practically sounds like a breakup, with songs that alternate between unnerving quiet and bursts of desperate shouting. <i>The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most</i> is the ideal soundtrack for building a blanket fort of sadness in your bedroom after all the shouting is done. nonadult nonadult Just as the title says, it's 69 love songs. Some of them might not feel right after a breakup, but there are at least 20 or so darkly humorous songs about getting dumped that will do the trick. nonadult nonadult nonadult The 11 Most Absurd Moments Of Eurovision 2013 http://www.buzzfeed.com/ellievhall/the-most-absurd-moments-of-eurovision-2013 The best, most ridiculously WTF highlights of this year’s Eurovision Song Contest. ( And here’s a guide for the non-Europeans that explains what exactly Eurovision is .)

When Belgium's singer was overshadowed by his enthusiastic backup (interpretive) dancers..

When Belgium&#39;s singer was overshadowed by his enthusiastic backup (interpretive) dancers. .

Source: neogaf.com

This was clearly the hot dance move of the night.

This was clearly the hot dance move of the night.

Source: neogaf.com

When Jesus appeared as the lead singer for Armenia's band.

When Jesus appeared as the lead singer for Armenia&#39;s band.

Via: Tumblr.com

(Side note: Jesus apparently has very bushy eyebrows.)

Source: degenezijde.tumblr.com

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]]> http://www.buzzfeed.com/ellievhall/the-most-absurd-moments-of-eurovision-2013 Sun, 19 May 2013 18:11:12 -0400 <b>The best, most ridiculously WTF highlights of this year&#39;s Eurovision Song Contest.</b> (<a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/ellievhall/everything-americans-need-to-know-about-eurovision">And here&#39;s a guide for the non-Europeans that explains what exactly Eurovision is</a>.) ellievhall nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult (Side note: Jesus apparently has very bushy eyebrows.) nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult I can safely say that after watching this video, I have never understood Sweden more fully. nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult Fred Armisen's Punk Rock Goodbye To "SNL" http://www.buzzfeed.com/perpetua/fred-armisens-punk-rock-goodbye-to-snl His parting gift to the world was to find a way to get members of Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr., and Sleater-Kinney on the Saturday Night Live” stage. Ian Rubbish forever!

Last night's SNL was the last to feature Fred Armisen, who's been a member of the cast for 11 seasons. His final sketch was a performance as his British punk rock alter ego Ian Rubbish.

It was also the final sketch featuring Bill Hader, who is also departing from the show after 8 seasons.

It was also the final sketch featuring Bill Hader, who is also departing from the show after 8 seasons.

"...but we're gonna keep playin' together."

It's probably also Jason Sudeikis' final appearance on the show too, though he hasn't made an official announcement about it yet.

It&#39;s probably also Jason Sudeikis&#39; final appearance on the show too, though he hasn&#39;t made an official announcement about it yet.

For the second half of the song, Fred brought out a bunch of his coolest indie rock friends.

For the second half of the song, Fred brought out a bunch of his coolest indie rock friends.

From the left, that's Aimee Mann, Michael Penn, Steve Jones from The Sex Pistols, Carrie Brownstein from Sleater-Kinney and Wild Flag (and Portlandia!), J. Mascis from Dinosaur Jr., and Kim Gordon from Sonic Youth.

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]]> http://www.buzzfeed.com/perpetua/fred-armisens-punk-rock-goodbye-to-snl Sun, 19 May 2013 11:53:41 -0400 <b>His parting gift to the world was to find a way to get members of Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr., and Sleater-Kinney on the <i>Saturday Night Live" stage.</i></b> Ian Rubbish forever! perpetua nonadult nonadult "...but we&#39;re gonna keep playin&#39; together." nonadult nonadult From the left, that&#39;s Aimee Mann, Michael Penn, Steve Jones from The Sex Pistols, Carrie Brownstein from Sleater-Kinney and Wild Flag (and <i>Portlandia!</i>), J. Mascis from Dinosaur Jr., and Kim Gordon from Sonic Youth. nonadult Also, awwwwww, Carrie and Fred! nonadult Chester From Linkin Park Is Now The Singer Of Stone Temple Pilots http://www.buzzfeed.com/perpetua/chester-from-linkin-park-is-now-the-singer-of-stone-temple-p In case you missed it – yeah, they fired Scott Weiland a couple months ago. Oh, grunge drama.

Chester Bennington from Linkin Park made his debut as the singer of Stone Temple Pilots with an unannounced appearance at the KROQ Weenie Roast in Los Angeles yesterday.

Chester Bennington from Linkin Park made his debut as the singer of Stone Temple Pilots with an unannounced appearance at the KROQ Weenie Roast in Los Angeles yesterday.

Stone Temple Pilots fired original frontman Scott Weiland back in February with a terse, single line press release that offered no specific reason for sacking him.

Stone Temple Pilots fired original frontman Scott Weiland back in February with a terse, single line press release that offered no specific reason for sacking him.

Via: Matt Sayles, file / AP

Weiland has denied that he was fired from the band. He recently went on a solo tour in which he performed STP's first two albums in full with completely different musicians.

Weiland has denied that he was fired from the band. He recently went on a solo tour in which he performed STP&#39;s first two albums in full with completely different musicians.

Via: Bill Auth / Reuters

Anyway, enter Chester Bennington. Here's the last few songs from their set, featuring Chester's renditions of the STP hits "Interstate Love Song," "Dead & Bloated," and "Trippin' On A Hole In A Paper Heart."

If you close your eyes, it's not thaaat far off from Weiland.

Source: youtube.com

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]]> http://www.buzzfeed.com/perpetua/chester-from-linkin-park-is-now-the-singer-of-stone-temple-p Sun, 19 May 2013 10:53:41 -0400 <b>In case you missed it &ndash; yeah, they fired Scott Weiland a couple months ago.</b> Oh, grunge drama. perpetua nonadult nonadult nonadult nonadult If you close your eyes, it&#39;s not thaaat far off from Weiland. nonadult So an album is maybe on the way? We&#39;ll see. nonadult