Katy Perry

Karina Longworth's top ten films of 2012

The Wild Gay Yonder

Does this rental car make me look grown-up?

A few weeks ago, a man knocked on the door of my commune around 6 a.m. He was pointing at the street frantically, barely able to sputter out the words "You? Subaru?" Yes, I owned a Subaru, and yes it was parked on the busy thoroughfare I call home on the west side of town. Apparently, a woman had pl ... More >>

If you're going to watch the Olympics on TV, at least do it at the gym

I often go to the gym to watch television. The primary reason is because, at my commune, the Witch House, we haven't figured out how to hook up the flat-screen we scored in an awesome barter situation (someone we know was going on a "life journey" and had to get rid of all earthly possessions.) But ... More >>

Watch: Video of Tupac hologram at Coachella performing with Snoop Dogg, "2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted," from All Eyez on Me

Tupac at Coachella. While there were plenty of memorable performances and an equal number of WTF moments at the first weekend of this year's Coachella, there's only one from last night that we guarantee everyone is talking about this morning, and It happened early this morning around 12:30 or so our ... More >>

Chartbreaker: Madonna's MDNA falls harder than Lady Gaga's Born This Way did, while Nicki Minaj takes the top in the U.S. and U.K.

In the ultimate twist of "Give Me Some Luvin'" irony, Nicki Minaj has dethroned Madonna from the top of the Billboard 200 chart this week, as Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded easily takes the top spot with 253,000 copies sold, while Madge's MDNA dropped to number eight, selling only 48,000 in its second ... More >>

Carly Rae Jepsen is older than Lady Gaga, but she comes across as a teen in "Call Me Maybe"

A few weeks ago, Justin Bieber tweet-endorsed a fellow Canadian's new single. No one outside of Canada had heard of her, Carly Rae Jepsen, then, all of the sudden, she's charting on the Billboard Hot 100. Behold the power of Biebs: "Call Me Maybe," Jepsen's single, currently sits at number eighteen ... More >>

Chartbreaker: Taylor Swift and The Hunger Games top Adele and One Direction this week

Lots of noise on the Billboard 200 albums chart in the past two weeks, and it hasn't been from Adele...for once. Last week, newcomers One Direction made history as the first British import with a number-one album debut -- neither the Spice Girls nor the Beatles had albums ever debut at number one in ... More >>

Chartbreaker: Adele on top once again for the 23rd week

Watch out, Prince. Adele is about to set fire to your "Purple Rain." One more week, and Adele's 21 will boast the same chart record Purple Rain did in 1984 and 1985: reigning at the top of the Billboard 200 for 24 whole weeks.

Happy birthday, Rihanna. "Turn Up the Music," but no "Birthday Cake" for you, Chris Brown!

Update: Chris Brown's "Turn Up the Music" remix featuring Rhianna added below. Happy 24th birthday, Robyn Rihanna Fenty. We remember your first record, "Pon De Replay." Nice, disposable dancefloor pop. It was urban enough to get people dancing in high school, but not sexy enough to fertilize anythi ... More >>

2012 Grammy Awards: Adele sweeps, Bon Iver surprises and Kanye West missing in action

As anyone and their mother could have (and, ahem, did) predicted, it was Adele's show at last night's 54th Grammy Awards. The singer, who absolutely swept the awards, took home six Grammys -- meaning she won in every category in which she was nominated, including the big three: Song of the Year, Rec ... More >>

The 54th Grammys: who will win (Adele) and who won't (Lady Gaga)

From power pop to power ballads, rock anthems to rap staples, the nominees of the 54th Grammy Awards, which airs this Sunday night, sees no dearth of great music. There's little doubt that it will be Adele's night, but others, like Kanye West and Mumford & Sons, could win big too. Continue reading f ... More >>

Madonna upstaged by M.I.A. and Cee Lo Green during the Super Bowl halftime show

Cee Lo Green outsings Madonna during the "Like A Prayer" portion of the Super Bowl XLVI halftime show.​Forget the New York Giants and Eli Manning. The true winner of yesterday's Super Bowl XLVI in Indianapolis was pop music. Heralded in by Queen Madonna herself, the halftime show was truly an ... More >>

Tim Tebow Super Bowl Twitter king thanks to Katy Perry, Katharine McPhee

No, Tim Tebow is not playing in today's Super Bowl. But somehow, he's getting as much, if not more, attention than most of the Giants and Patriots, especially on Twitter. And why not, since Katy Perry name-checked him at a concert last night, Katharine McPhee shared a photo of the pair, and he's bei ... More >>

Michael Buble's Christmas raises the bar for all holiday tracks, plus a breakdown of the charts

It's going to be a holly, jolly Christmas with Michael Buble's new collection of holiday classics.​Michael Buble put out a killer Christmas record, and it could not have come at a better time. While the charts are currently flooded with dance-pop beats, synthesizers-laden hooks and auto-tuned ... More >>

"Marry the Night," Lady Gaga's new video, registers eleven million views and counting

Lady Gaga won't let a face full of cereal stop her from being the biggest pop star yet.​"Marry The Night," Lady Gaga's new video has racked up eleven million views and counting since debuting this past Friday. The most surprising part isn't how many views the clip has registered as much as the ... More >>

2012 Grammy Nominations: Kanye West and Adele clean up, Katy Perry earns pair of nods

Grammy nominations for 2012 were announced last night during the Grammys Nomination Concert -- which was, oddly, just that: a concert, not a nominations show. Nominations in four major categories were announced, plus performances by major players in mainstream music like Lady Gaga, who performed twi ... More >>

Snoop's sitcom has already jumped the shark

It isn't okay to laugh at yourself for having adult braces -- it's mandatory.

There are two types of people in this world -- those who can laugh at themselves, and those who can't. It is a pretty simple distinction in personalities, though the ability to self-deprecate effectively doesn't often set in until you make it to age where you just don't care about impressing people ... More >>

The 10 worst smelling rock star-branded perfumes or colognes

Now you can smell like a teen girl in love with Justin Bieber.​Smelling like a rock star wasn't always considered a good thing. But now that The Strokes' Julian Casablancas is the face and inspiration of Azzaro's new perfume, Decibel, and Prince has to pay $4 million to a company over his fail ... More >>

Kelly Clarkson returns, Katy Perry loses top spot and more: A full breakdown of this week's charts

"Mr. Know It All" is no "Since U Been Gone," but it will sell quite well.​Kelly Clarkson is back. Again. After disappearing from the pop-music scene following her massive hit album Breakaway, then returning with the Clive Davis-hated project My December, then returning again with "My Life Woul ... More >>

Despite claims to the contrary, Maroon 5's Adam Levine does not have moves like Jagger

Earth to Mick: This guy's trying to steal your moves...and unsuccessfully, no less.​LMFAO leads the Billboard Hot 100 again this week, once again blocking Katy Perry from her fifth number one and tying Michael Jackson's record. But we heard all about that last week. This week, the biggest surp ... More >>

Best of Build-A-Brickbuster: The LEGO movies that made us laugh, cry and nod politely

Rocking out in LEGO land.​This summer, dozens of grown adults spent hours upon hours of valuable time playing with LEGOs toward the goal of winning mild fame and glory in Build-A-Brickbuster, an international film festival and contest celebrating the art of making stop-motion animation with ti ... More >>

Katy Perry's "Kathy" the latest rockstar alter-ego

Is that you, Katy Perry?​It's no secret Katy Perry has a wicked sense of comedic timing. Remember when her Sesame Street appearance didn't air and she donned a skin-tight Elmo t-shirt and bounced around on Saturday Night Live as Maureen the sixteen-year-old who just hit puberty (and hard)? No ... More >>

Steve Buscemi's zombie-eyed army

Katy Perry with Steve Buscemeyes.​The prostitutes in the Coen brothers' film Fargo probably had the all-time best description of actor Steve Buscemi's bizarre face: "kinda funny-lookin'." Well, thanks to the Tumblr "Chicks With Steve Buscemeyes," we now know that the actor's funny-looking eyes ... More >>

Dolls in thigh-highs and ponies with purses: MSNBC says toys are getting too sexy. And?

Is this horse wearing a bra?​Monday, MSNBC (we know, we might as well be reading Reader's Digest) ran a piece on sexualized kid's toys targeting, you guessed it, young girls. It seems that the media outlet missed the Bratz uproar over a half-decade ago, and decided it was time to cause a paren ... More >>

Sony's new Qriocity streaming service launched yesterday, is it enough to kill iTunes?

Sony's hoping to pique your qriocity (sorry) with it's new streaming music service this week, by offering a free thirty day trial, tons of different streaming options and a library of over six million songs from the four major record label and most everyone they distribute. We spent the day with t ... More >>

Jeff Beck, Katy Perry, Snow Ball Music Festival shows announced. Tix on sale this weekend.

​Les Paul has been a long-time inspiration for Jeff Beck, and last summer, Beck paid tribute to the legendary guitarist on what would have been Paul's 95th birthday. Beck's two performances at New York's Iridium Jazz Club, where Paul performed for fourteen years until his death of August 200 ... More >>

Country Strong is legitimately unintentional camp

Tonight: Dave Aude at Beta

​Even if Dave Aude's name isn't immediately recognizable, it is impossible to have missed his work over the past two decades. The prolific DJ and producer has worked with Katy Perry, Mary J. Blige and Lady Gaga on Billboard-charting remixes this year alone, and put his precise ear to task for ... More >>

Our 55 favorite musical releases of 2010

A letter to Weezy F. Baby: Welcome back!

Lil Wayne (aka Lil Tunechi, Weezy, Bird Man Jr., Mr. Carter) -- Thank god you're finally free! It has felt like a decade has passed in the pop world since you've been at Rikers. The Black Eyed Peas/Will.I.Am reign of Billboard terror has continued, most recently enveloping one of your own. And ... More >>

Dave Aude at Beta

Meet H*Wood, creator of the earworm that is "Could It Be You (Punk Rock Chick)"

Phil Emerson​H*Wood: Heard of him? If not, in the words of my man Clinton Sparks, better get familiar. H*Wood -- or Brandon Bordeaux, as he's known to his family -- may be among the first Colorado-bred hip-pop dudes in the new decade to make a splash nationally. Born in Aurora and raised in ... More >>

Album Sales Are In The Crapper, But The National Is Doing Just Fine

This week's signs of the music industry's apocalypse: 1. The National had the highest selling debut album in the country this week, good for number three overall (behind Justin Beiber and Lady Antebellum). 2. This was the worst week for album sales since SoundScan started keeping track in 1991. ... More >>

Poptimystic: "Follow Me Down" sounds like another hit waiting to happen for 3OH!3

UPDATE: 3OH!3 just announced that it's upcoming Too Fast For Love tour with Cobra Starship, Travis McCoy (Gym Class Heroes) and I Fight Dragons, which reportedly stops by the Fillmore on May 21, goes on sale on next Saturday, February 13. Follow the jump to see the dudes chatting about it. ​B ... More >>

Poptimystic: 3OH!3 and Vampire Weekend

Welcome to Poptimystic, our latest feature where we lead you on a leisurely stroll through the world where pop music actually means popular. This week, hometown goofboys 3OH!3 make a return to the top of the Hot 100, and early returns have Vampire Weekend besting all comers. Huh? ​ The 3OH!3 ... More >>

Hearsay bits: 3OH!3 tops the iTunes charts, Little Fyodor's cassette release

​Pop Tart Charts: 3OH!3 is atop the iTunes chart, thanks to their collaboration with Ke$ha. The pop tart's wittily titled "Blah Blah Blah (feat. 3OH!3)" might be "face-shooting pablum" (as we called her work the other day) but this "unholy, completely sexless union of Katy Perry and Lady Gaga" ... More >>

Ke$ha rules the airwaves -- and makes us want to shoot ourselves in the face

"Just listened to a "song" from Ke$ha. Fucking shoot me in the face! That was the worst 3min of my life. I am going to kill puppies now." Best. Tweet. Ever. Hands down. Couldn't have said it any better, numberthree. Not only do you swing the sticks with the zest of Papa Zita, clearly you've also bee ... More >>

Top Ten Songs from the '00s That Will Puzzle Future Generations

Wonder if whoever set these misfit creatures loose happened to notice their poker faces?​This last decade has seen several genres rise and fall on the Billboard charts and because of that we've had a weird array of singles briefly topping the charts. In ten years or so, when we look back on th ... More >>

A first look at 3OH!3's "Starstrukk" video

Update: The thirty-second preview clip has been swapped with the full video. Check it out. BTW, the video reportedly goes into regular rotation on MTV next week.All right, so dig it: the new 3OH!3/Katy Perry "Starstrukk" video won't offically see its broadcast premiere until next Monday, October 26, ... More >>

Kanye West says he's sorry. Again. Do you believe him?

All right, by now you've seen the clip of Kanye West interrupting Taylor Swift's acceptance speech at this past weekend's MTV Video Music Awards (see the clip after the jump if you haven't already), an act of utter douchebaggery that's been universally condemned: Katy Perry likened the outburst to ... More >>

Heavy Rotation, our top spins for the week of August 31, 2009

​As music critics, the most common question we get asked (and ask each other, for that matter) is, "What are you listening to?" The pervasiveness of this query is precisely what inspired Heavy Rotation, our latest feature. For the benefit of those who happen to be curious, we've compiled a list of ... More >>

Update: 3OH!3 taking the UK by storm

From the sounds of it, the 3OH!3 dudes are having the absolute time across the pond. The folks at MTV have tapped the guys to keep a tour diary of their current jaunt supporting Katy Perry. Evidently, the crowds are massive and enthusiastic, with "people slam dancing just like home," reports Nate Mo ... More >>

Soundbites: Cheap Girls, Bon Iver, Frank Turner, Papermoons and Lemuria

Welcome to another edition of Sound Bites, our economy-sized album reviews. This week, Andy Thomas weighs in on five recent national releases from Bon Iver (pictured left), Cheap Girls, Frank Turner, Papermoons and Lemuria after the jump.

Mile High Makeout: My head is spinning

Photo: Lucia De Giovanni Last night, I had the honor and privilege of guest deejaying at Matt Fecher's New Music Mondays at the Larimer Lounge, playing music from my collection next to the incandescent DJ Ginger and firestarter DJ Hot to Death. Ginger played a couple of body-rocking sets, including ... More >>

Top Ten Pop Songs of 2008

Over the next couple of weeks, Backbeat will feature some Top Ten lists from around the Village Voice Media chain. Click here for previous year-in-review coverage from Backbeat and VVM.Pop music often gets a bad rap for being disposable or vapid, and in many cases that's true. (Katy Perry, Danity Ka ... More >>

Live Review: 3OH!3, Chain Gang of 1974 and the Pirate Signal @ The Fox Theatre