Rihanna

New shows on sale this week: Rihanna, Queens of the Stone Age, the Cult, Pinback and more

In addition to Rihanna and Queens of the Stone Age shows that we told you about yesterday, we've also got new dates from the Cult, the Moody Blues and Pinback, all of which go on sale this weekend. Keep reading to get the full rundown on those shows, and to find out what local music is being played ... More >>

Rihanna at the Pepsi Center in November

The unapologetic and perpetually controversial popstar known as Rihanna -- currently working on new music with Wale and reportedly once again on the outs with the equally controversial Chris Brown -- is due to perform at the Pepsi Center on Saturday, November 9. Tickets for the show ($39.50) go on s ... More >>

Video: Chris Brown publicist skit was a perfectly timed advance for Rihanna breakup/reunion

While most of the world celebrated the resurrection of old J.C., there were several weird developments -- both real and satirical -- in an even more implausible resurrection: that of Chris Brown's career. After becoming the most hated man in show business, Breezy has defied logic by continuing to br ... More >>

Borgore on the number of hot chicks in Boulder and why he gets so many naked pics sent to him

With a recent chart-topping house banger on Beatport, Israeli producer Asaf Borgore has a new record on the horizon. Aside from enjoying other recent success with his Miley Cyrus on the collaborative chart topper "Decisions," Borgore is mainly focused on finishing his forthcoming album at an L.A.-ba ... More >>

Chartbreaker: Justin Bieber's 'Believe' has year's best-selling week for an album debut

Say what you want about Justin Bieber -- "he looks like a girl," "he's annoying," "he's only relevant to thirteen-year-old girls" -- but the pop star sensation is doing something right. His new album, Believe , sold 374,000 copies in its first week. That number may not seem like a lot for a number- ... More >>

Ten things to do for $10 this weekend, June 8-10, 2012

Down to your last ten dollars? Don't worry, there are plenty of things you can do this weekend that cost a Hamilton or less. Gawk at a performance artist living in a box, usher in summer at a dance party, or pretend you're in Paris at a Francophile craft party. You might even have some money left ov ... More >>

Chartbreaker: Gotye and John Mayer spend yet another week at the top of the charts

Another strong week for Gotye, who held on to number one with "Somebody That I Used To Know." If you haven't kept track, that's a tally of eight weeks at the top now. However, that could change next week, as strong pushes from both Rihanna and Katy Perry, not to mention Carly Rae Jepsen, who could ... More >>

Rihanna's "Where Have You Been" video proves she can dance, but that doesn't mean she should

It's like Rihanna has to prove something. We know she can do serious, and sexy, and frightening, and strong, and addicted. But now, in one of her less controversial music videos post-Chris Brown, she really wants to remind us that she can dance. And Rihanna can dance if she wants to. Hell, she can e ... More >>

On "We Found Love," Calvin Harris found his voice, but now he wants to quit singing

Before he and Rihanna found love in a hopeless place, few people in the States knew who Calvin Harris was -- even though the Scottish producer had released two albums of game-changing electro-pop across the pond. The Timbaland of electro, Harris has a distinctively auteuristic quality to his product ... More >>

Five acts whose careers have resurrected

Whether you're honoring a ubiquitous egg-laying rabbit obsessed with scavenger hunts or the miraculous resurrection of a thirty-something Jewish carpenter, the Easter season is upon us once again. But regardless of your religious affiliation, in the world of music, returning from the dead seems to h ... 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 >>

Michael Hancock takes on the "Chris Brown and Rihanna situation" at violence awareness rally

At the first-ever Teen Dating Violence Awareness Rally today, Mayor Michael Hancock took the mike and told a story about what he called "the Chris Brown and Rihanna situation." One day, his teenage daughter and her friends were watching the former on television and, in Hancock's words, going "goo-go ... More >>

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 >>

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 >>

Chris Brown does his best LMFAO impression with "Turn Up The Music"

Chris Brown singles have always come in two flavors: Sexy & Braggadocious and Song & Dance -- songs that are either about busting a nut or busting a move, regardless of production or tempo. Edgier singles from his catalogue, like "Look at Me Now," "I Can Transform Ya" and even the recent "Strip" fal ... More >>

Look out, Gaga: Madonna's back to get all the "Luvin'" with a potent new drug called M.D.N.A.

Forget Tim Tebow. From now until at least the day after the Super Bowl, everyone's going to be talking about another figure in pop culture who had the religion thing down long before Tebow did: Madonna. Although Lady Gaga may never admit as much, Madge recently acknowledged the similarities between ... More >>

Scissor Sisters share a "Shady Love" with Azealia Banks, plus a breakdown of the charts

The Scissor Sisters have two incarnations: campy, carefree guitar-driven band, as was the case for early cuts like "Take Your Mama" and "I Don't Feel Like Dancin'," and a new, more hedonistic synth band with one ear to the dance floor and another in the bedroom. The latter vibe dominated the band's ... More >>

Happy New Year: Mi Pueblo's crazy Ken-doll confection takes the cake

The Mi Pueblo Market at 125 Knox Court in the Barnum neighborhood might be the best grocery store in the entire world. On any given day, the clean and brightly decorated market is warmly bumping a reggaeton Rihanna remix as shoppers peruse cascading bins of fresh avocados, bananas and tomatillos. Ho ... 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 >>

When pop goes dubstep: Six pop songs propelled by the undeniable whomp of the wobbly bass

Britney loves some bass​With dubstep's surging (and some might say waning) popularity, it's not surprising to hear explosive dubstep breakdowns bleeding into pop. Turn on Top 40 radio today, and there's a great chance you'll hear dubstep elements borrowed in one form or another to create a hoo ... 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 >>

Love, drugs and Rihanna collide on "We Found Love," plus a breakdown of this week's charts

Rihanna in "We Found Love"​In less than a week (four days, to be exact), Rihanna has racked up over eight million views with her "We Found Love" video. And deservedly so. The song is catchy as hell, and the video, like the others the pop star has produced recently, is thought provoking. Rihann ... More >>

Rihanna finds love in Calvin Harris, plus a breakdown of this week's charts

​In a weird twist of unexpected collaborations, Rihanna just released her newest single, "We Found Love," which features Calvin Harris on production, last week. Somehow it manages to sound both like a Rihanna song and a Calvin Harris song, and both in their own merit. Could Harris be the new D ... 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 >>

Reader: Chris Brown shouldn't still be defined by attack on Rihanna two years later

Chris & Evrod.​This week, CBS4 removed a photo from its website featuring new anchor Evrod Cassimy arm-in-arm with Chris Brown, the singer convicted of assaulting his then-girlfriend Rihanna in 2009. Our post on the subject has generated a wide variety of comments, including many defenses of B ... More >>

Rihanna's "Man Down" video opens fire on the subject of rape and gets blasted by detractors

​There's been a lot of talk about Rhianna's controversial new video for the song "Man Down." If you haven't seen it, Rihanna shoots a man who is shown to be her rapist with a gun she calls "Peggy Sue." The scene opens in a crowded area with a shot of her assailant-turned-victim, and Rihanna, w ... More >>

The Night of Fire and Thunder will melt your face off

​Thank goodness the rain has finally stopped. It was really starting to weigh on our usual summer activities, like texting by the icy waters of our friend's apartment complex pool and wandering various farmer's markets looking for raw honey and other stuff white people like. Anyway, the nice w ... More >>

Hey, is that Dave Grohl?: Ten awesome celebrity photobombs

Dude, Dave. Chill!Last week, NPR asked listeners to share photos of themselves with favorite musicians. That's a swell idea and all, but we thought that taking the angle of the photobomber would be a more entertaining way to look at pictures of famous people with non-famous people. While there have ... More >>

All Of The Lights video: Is Kanye West actually going small?

​Either the third or fourth (depends if you count the leaked but never released "Monster" monstrosity) video from Kanye West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy came out over the weekend, for current single "All of the Lights." And after all the billionaire, art house, heaven-and-hell enormity ... More >>

Rihanna's S&M video and the hypocrisy of top 40

​Rihanna released her video for "S&M" this week and suddenly everyone has decided it's smut. The video is being met with widespread blushing, including an "inappropriate" flag on Youtube and a potential re-edit from MTV. But, as Rihanna herself pointed out, she's actually less naked in this vi ... More >>

Next Big Sound: Billboard's new "Social 50" chart powered by Boulder music startup

​In October, we profiled the Boulder start-up Next Big Sound, which seemed poised to shake the struggling music industry by using social media sites like MySpace, Facebook and Twitter to discover break-out bands. Now that Billboard has unveiled its new "Social 50" chart powered by Next Big Sou ... More >>

Bruce Springsteen, Cee-Lo, Rihanna top sellers

​Kid Cudi's Man On The Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager might have dominated last week's charts, but this week, it's disappeared from the top ten at Albums on the Hill and Twist & Shout and moved down to the number four at Independent Records.

Rihanna is a Singles Lady if there ever was one

​Last week in Poptimystic, we talked about Taylor Swift and her unparalleled ability to sell albums in the current music industry wasteland. But the album is not what it once was, and the ability to sell singles may actually be a better litmus test of an artist's influence. It remains the un ... More >>

Dave Aude at Beta

U2 reschedules its prevously postponed Denver date, Rihanna cancels show this Thursday

​A few weeks before U2 was slated to come to the States for another leg of its 360° tour, Bono injured his back while preparing for the dates and had to have emergency surgery, which resulted in the postponement of a number of US dates, including the June 12 show at Invesco Field. Live Nati ... More >>

Chris Brown, the saddest Michael Jackson impersonator

Chris Brown is sad, and it's not because he cried at the BET awards on Sunday. While performing a tribute to Michael Jackson, the singer and alleged Rihanna-beater broke down and wept during a rendition of Jackson's "Man in the Mirror," leading many, as noted in the CBS report above, to wonder if ... More >>

Drake's "Fireworks," Thank Me Later's latest leak: Does it live up to its name?

​ With close to six months of postponed release dates under its belt, two official videos already out in advance of its supposed release on June 15, and almost every one of its tracks leaked all over the internet, Drake's much anticipated first full-length, Thank Me Later, has generated a ton ... More >>

Pitchfork loves Pictureplane, George&Caplin album art/info, I am the Dot cassette release

​Pictureplane (aka Travis Egedy) got some more love from indie bible Pitchfork last week. The new media titan called Egedy a "Denver house music mastermind" while pimping his latest free mix, a 41-minute mix which includes selections from Crystal Castles and Rihanna and serves as an intro of ... More >>

Hearsay bits: VAUX ahead of its time, Lockerpartners create spots to Flip for and Ali Pierre writes tunes for Rhianna and Britney Spears

Screen grab from an observant fellow VAUX fan who spied this before us.​ After all the work that went into compiling this year's Westword Music Showcase ballot, we needed a break last weekend. A break that involved watching Pretty in Pink, a flick we hadn't seen in a dozen years or more, on V ... More >>

Who'd have thought Justin Bieber's My World 2.0 would prove an accurate title?

There you have it: Fourteen-year-old Bieber's debut full-length is on top of the Billboard album chart. His debut EP, meanwhile, is at number five. That one's called My World (get it?) -- can't argue with either title. This makes him the youngest chart-topper since Stevie Wonder, yet something te ... More >>

Rihanna's "Rude Boy" video: lions and neon and sneers, oh my!

Rihanna's "Rude Boy" is the number one song in the country. Its accompanying video, meanwhile, is a hot mess, and we have officially never used that expression more accurately. Because we probably like Rihanna more than we should, given that she can't actually sing, and because there's a blind ... More >>

Poptimystic: Taio Cruz did what?!?

Taio Cruz is a British dude who wrote and produced for A-listers until 2008, when he stepped in front of a mike. Now, two years later, he has broken a Hot 100 record by having the Ludacris-assisted remix of his single "Break Your Heart" enter the chart last week at 53 and make the ridiculous climb ... More >>

Heavy Rotation, our top spins for the week of February 1, 2010

​As music critics -- and people who generally think about, talk about, listen to and make music -- the most common question we get asked (and ask each other, for that matter) is, "What are you listening to right now?" The pervasiveness of this query is precisely what inspired Heavy Rotation. ... 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 >>

Over the Weekend... Kanye West, Rihanna, N.E.R.D. and Lupe Fiasco @ Pepsi Center

Over the Weekend...Graffiti in the Gardens, Kanye West, Local Hip-Hop, and the Art of the Early Show!

What You Missed This Weekend (June 8-10)

Sound Bites

HorrorPops|Doomriders|Greg Osby|Messer Chups|The Kingsbury Manx|The Posies|Rihanna