Easy Music Guides

<!– –> <!– –> WINNER OF THE WEEK: Bland pop albums. Peaceful, mellifluous romantics are beating the crap out of each other this week for chart dominance. Jason Mraz’ touchy-feely Love Is a Four Letter Word opens at Number Two with 102,000 copies sold, but it can’t dislodge the Eternal Monarch of Adult Contemporary, Lionel [...]

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<!– –> <!– –> WINNER OF THE WEEK: Nicki Minaj. Despite mixed reviews and a disturbing, but still somehow great performance during the Grammys, the pink-haired dervish tops the Billboard charts this week with her not-a-sequel album, Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded. Minaj sold 253,000 copies, better than industry expectations, but not what you’d expect for [...]

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<!– –> <!– –> WINNER OF THE WEEK: Nicki Minaj. Despite mixed reviews and a disturbing, but still somehow great performance during the Grammys, the pink-haired dervish tops the Billboard charts this week with her not-a-sequel album, Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded. Minaj sold 253,000 copies, better than industry expectations, but not what you’d expect for [...]

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<!– –> <!– –> Yesterday in New York, as dusk set in and the emblems of capitalism lit up the sky, Nicki Minaj surprised a throng of thousands with a performance in the heart of Times Square. Following hours of speculation as to who the secret performer would be, fans, tourists and general gawkers watched [...]

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<!– –> <!– –> “I thought it would be best to talk to my fans,” Madonna told Jimmy Fallon on Saturday, explaining why her Facebook chat with the Late Night host is the only live press she’s doing for her new album, MDNA. Taped in front of an audience and live steamed through Madonna’s Facebook [...]

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<!– –> <!– –> Last November, Cash Money Records co-founder Bryan “Birdman” Williams received an unexpected call. On the other end of the line was Fred Durst. The Limp Bizkit frontman, Williams learned, had called to inform him that his band was interested in inking a deal with Cash Money. “I was honored, really, that [...]

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<!– –> <!– –> Lil Wayne says Cash Money has signed rap-rockers Limp Bizkit. During a phone call with New York’s 98.7 KissFM Thursday night, the rapper revealed the label is on a spending spree – they’re reportedly on the verge of inking Ashanti, too – following recent success with acts including Drake and Nicki [...]

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<!– –> <!– –> WINNER OF THE WEEK: Adele. Remember last week, when we suggested after a day’s worth of data that the only star receiving a post-Grammy sales bump was Whitney Houston? Turns out our estimates were on the conservative side! Adele dramatically eclipsed an average week, selling a ridiculous 730,000 copies of 21, [...]

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<!– –> <!– –> In this week’s slate of Rolling Stone reviews, Rob Sheffield hails Sleigh Bells’ second album, Reign of Terror, which “flattens you with its cartoonishly over-modulated, into-the-red guitar sound.” Also, Jon Dolan says that Gorillaz, Andre 3000 and James Murphy’s “DoYaThing” is a “zippy future-freak soul summit,” and Jody Rosen dismisses Katy [...]

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Bon Iver and frontman Justin Vernon were already winners before last night’s Grammys telecast began, taking home the award for Best Alternative Music Album for Bon Iver. But Vernon’s biggest moment came in the ten o’clock hour, when the band won the award for Best New Artist, defeating J. Cole, Skrillex, The Band Perry and [...]

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