pop

On Monday, MTV Networks is set to unveil an initiative to connect its television, online, and mobile presences by helping music fans answer that crucial question--"Who the (expletive) sings that song?"

In other words, MTV Networks, the Viacom division that encompasses the MTV, VH1, and CMT brands as well as a host of other pop culture channels, is aiming to renew its focus on music by bringing lyrics to the forefront. This will begin rolling out in November and is expected to be complete by the middle of 2008.

On television, several of the networks' existing music-related … Read more

We take pride in our diverse catalog on Download Music. Whether it's hip-hop, indie rock, electronica or whatever you're into--we dish out the freshness every week in our newsletter. This week we got a taste of Bob Dylan's new box set (aptly named Dylan) for you to hear. Plus, The Fray just reissued its career-changing 2003 EP The Reason, while Motley Crue unleashed a new live double disc. If you're looking for something new and different, check out Mobius Band, Tunng, and Prefuse 73. Since there's some much to swallow, we made it simple for … Read more

While there's a giant crowd of people waiting for Digg to unveil its pictures section, there are already several services available for browsing popular news by pictures, including Google News and AOL's Mgnet (coverage). There's also a smaller, more independent group of sites that have been created by fans of some of these sites who have created their own visual solutions. One of them--Reddit Media--has increasingly become so popular it's led to Digpicz (Digg in pictures), and now PicUrls--which is a play on words, and similarity to the popular aggregator PopUrls.

The site … Read more

I can't remember the last time I saw a TV ad for a piece of software. Not watching much TV doesn't really play into this. TV ads are just too expensive for the average software publisher to purchase. The market in Japan is different, though. It'll support just about anything with folks in weird costumes doing even weirder things.

So it's my pleasure--no, really, I feel good about this--to introduce you to Symantec's Norton 360 ads. Called CM's in the local parlance, they feature a yellow Power Ranger-style superhero called Norton Fighter getting attacked by a gang of mostly black-clad ninja-type characters who're supposed to resemble viruses and other malware.

… Read more

Seventies rock-inspired ladies' man Josh Rouse found a few minutes out of his busy tour schedule to stop by Studio C. He treated us to solo acoustic versions of "Hollywood Bass Player" and "Sweetie" from his latest album, Country Mouse City House (which he's currently promoting on his coast to coast tour). Listen to our exclusive Studio C interview with Josh Rouse, along with many more artists such as Matt Nathanson, Lyrics Born, and Stroke 9.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that one-time pop darling Britney Spears' performance at the MTV Video Music Awards earlier this month was a total and utter trainwreck.

But, as viral video fans soon learned, some crazy guy with a YouTube account didn't agree. He promptly put up a clip of questionable sanity in which he lay in bed, sobbing, begging us haters to "Leave Britney Alone." The video has racked up nearly 8 million views on YouTube, reaching a degree of overkill that's made many of us hope the buzz will fade away quickly or … Read more

Before leaving for the office Tuesday morning, I left a note for my housemates on top of our television. "Won't be home till late. I'm DVRing TMZ TV and the new Perez Hilton show. Please do not delete the recordings. This is for work, not a joke."

I'm not one for celebrity gossip. I try to stay on top of what's being talked about, but I don't keep up with Britney's latest epidermal exposures or whether Jessica Alba is single, and the only time I watch the E network is when it'… Read more

In a move that further shapes its image as an MTV-like pop-culture hub as well as a social network, News Corp.'s MySpace.com has announced that it will be sponsoring a concert tour this fall.

Appropriately called the MySpace Music Tour, the series of shows will kick off October 16 in Seattle and will host more than 30 performances before winding down in Las Vegas around Thanksgiving.

The headlining acts for the tour will be two artists who have built up large followings on the social-networking site--geeky pop band Hellogoodbye and emo act Say Anything.

The tour will also … Read more

In an appeal to the coveted youth vote in the upcoming presidential elections, MySpace and MTV announced Thursday that they have joined forces for a series of "one-on-one dialogues" with all the major candidates from both political parties--televised and Webcast events in which presidential hopefuls will answer questions from MySpace members and MTV watchers. Formally, it's a collaboration between MySpace's "Impact" political channel and MTV's "Choose or Lose" election effort (which it has been operating since the dinosaur days of the 1992 election), and it's the first collaboration that the … Read more