Adele (Singer)

Spring Arts Guide: The Once and Future Ratking

The trio have been hailed as the saviors of New York rap, but they've set their sights higher

Ten Music Artsts Who Are Dead Inside

Last week, acclaimed movie director Dave Grohl told the 15 people who were accidentally watching him fill in as host on Chelsea Lately that Britney Spears "seems dead inside" to him. Disregarding how weird it is to discuss someone's inner-deadness on the Chelsea Handler set without talking about Ch ... More >>

Paloma Faith - Mercury Lounge - 11/27/12

Better Than: A pint-sized Jessica Rabbit/Betty Boop hybrid in a pillbox hat. Drunk. These characters and their sexy, bubbly, potentially psychotic tendencies all came to mind while I watched Paloma Faith scale a bunch of fake palm trees at the Mercury Lounge last night. Her set time was apparently ... More >>

Fall Guide 2012: Books

100 & Single: The R&B/Hip-Hop Factor In The Music Business's Endless Slump

Here are a few recent data points from chart bible Billboard and data provider Nielsen Soundscan as we move into the second half of 2012: • In its midyear music-industry report card, Soundscan reports a return to the dismal album sales climate; year-to-date disc sales are off 3.2% from the sam ... More >>

Radio Hits One: Will Grouplove And Walk The Moon Follow fun. And Gotye On The Crossover Path?

Both fun.'s "We Are Young" and Gotye's "Somebody That I Used To Know." topped the Hot 100 and the Alternative Songs chart, and did so in quick succession. The success of both those songs after a number of years when songs from the Alternative Songs chart seemed to be almost completely absent from po ... More >>

The Voice Stands By Its Mark Ronson Interview

On May 9, Sound of the City published an interview with Mark Ronson by freelance writer Peter Gerstenzang. During the conversation, Peter took detailed notes. The Q&A contained a statement by Ronson that Amy Winehouse was bothered by Adele's success. Like the other statements in the interview, this ... More >>

Radio Hits One: Dan Wilson, Linda Perry, And Other Pop Footnotes Turned Hitmakers

It's a familiar scene to anyone who's seen VH1 programs like Behind The Music or Where Are They Now?, or the channel's endless lists of 'one-hit wonders' of the '80s and '90s: a musician whose brief fling with stardom is well behind them sits at the mixing desk of a studio, while the voiceover detai ... More >>

100 & Single: Gotye And fun. Help Alternative Rock Go Pop Once Again

Consider this six-pack of rock acts: Siouxsie and the Banshees, Big Audio Dynamite, the Psychedelic Furs, U2, R.E.M. and Julian Cope. My dream Rock & Roll Hall of Fame? Not quite—it's a list of the first six artists to go to No. 1 on the chart Billboard launched in the fall of 1988, then call ... More >>

Katy Perry Covers Jay-Z And Kanye West, Adds Rapping To List Of Things She Is The Worst At

Off the top of my head, I can come up with more "controversial" stances Katy Perry has taken than I can count on one hand: "Ur So Gay" being mean, homophobic, and seemingly aimed at Fall Out Boy's Pete Wentz; "I Kissed a Girl" being shock-Sapphic and heteronormative; "You / PMS / Like a bitch / I wo ... More >>

Live: The Secret Policeman's Ball Speaks Freely At Radio City Music Hall

The Secret Policeman's Ball: Coldplay, Mumford & Sons, Russell Brand, Eddie Izzard, and many others Radio City Music Hall Sunday, March 4 Better than: Watching the Lohan Saturday Night Live on DVR. Going to a live show that's actually meant to be broadcast on television can be a deadly propositio ... More >>

So Beautiful? So What: Why The Grammys Shoved Paul Simon Aside And Embraced Skrillex

A good while back, I was envisioning a Grammy-night dogfight between what, at that point, were my two favorite albums of 2011: Lady Gaga's Born This Way and Paul Simon's So Beautiful or So What. (Both ended up on my Pazz & Jop ballot.)I mentioned this to Maura and she said, "No. Adele." Up went my v ... More >>

tUnE-yArds, PJ Harvey, and St. Vincent Get Physical

The 39th Pazz And Jop Poll Is Live

Hooray and huzzah, the Pazz & Jop poll, calculated from the ballots of 700 critics around the globe, is up and running and ready for your perusal. Congratulations to Merrill Garbus of tUnE-yArDs, whose w h o k i l l walked away with the albums poll; and Adele, whose inescapable yet compelling even o ... More >>

Radio Hits One: Foster The People, Cage The Elephant Lead The Charge Of New "The" Bands

Back around 2001, a Transatlantic cabal of music critics led a media hype machine declaring that rock was "back." To further this thesis, it grouped together a disparate set of bands offering variations on the stripped-down "garage rock" template who were often cheekily referred to as the "The" Band ... More >>

100 & Single: LMFAO's Pair Of Chart-Toppers Suggest Stardom, Guarantee Nothing

​The national star-making machinery only begins to take you seriously when you command the field more than once. Just like, say, GOP presidential candidates, pop acts can't chart one strong number and assume dominance is permanently theirs. They've got to come back on top, week after week, sur ... More >>

Underwhelmed And Overstimulated, Part Seven: The Sorrows (And Fantastic Sound System) Of Young Drake

Shhh... He's thinking. ​Sound of the City's year-end roundtable, with contributions from Tom Ewing, Eric Harvey, Maura Johnston, Nick Murray, and Katherine St. Asaph, continues. Follow along here. Look, it's what I've been dreading talking about all year! Anyway. For the past hour, Maura, I'v ... More >>

Sound Of The City's 2011 NBA Preview: Each Team, Paired With An Album From The Past Year

Think of the orange car as a clue. ​The resurrected NBA season kicks off (thankfully, finally) on Sunday. To celebrate, we've paired each team with a notable album from the past year; the list, with tweet-sized justifications, is below. (NB, although the NBA-savvy of you might have already fig ... More >>

Underwhelmed And Overstimulated, Part III: Occupying The Year Of The Woman Cliché In Hopes Of Blowing It Up

Kanye West at Occupy Wall Street; confused woman. ​Sound of the City's year-end roundtable, with contributions from Tom Ewing, Eric Harvey, Maura Johnston, Nick Murray, and Katherine St. Asaph, continues. Follow along here. ... More >>

The 10 Best Cover Songs Of 2011

Tell your children not to walk Wye Oak's way. ​2011 was a year of looking back relentlessly, whether you were awash in Remember The '90s nostalgia or getting down at a New Kids On The Block show or watching Lady Gaga try to bring back the variety-hour era with her whacked-out Thanksgiving spec ... More >>

Lady Gaga, Born Superstar

Rewriting the pop record at Jingle Ball

2011: The Year Skrillex Got Mentioned In A Lot Of Facebook Status Updates

​The increasingly tentacle-extending social-networking site Facebook has released Memology 2011, a quantification of popular topics discussed on the service. Amy Winehouse's death in August was the seventh-most-discussed news topic of 2011, right behind the royal wedding and ahead of the new C ... More >>

Radio Hits One: Cee Lo Green's First Urban Radio Hit, 16 Years In The Making

​One of pop music's biggest Cinderella stories in recent memory has been that of the man born Thomas DeCarlo Callaway, better known to the public as Cee Lo Green, or simply Cee Lo. After debuting as a member of the pioneering Atlanta rap group Goodie Mob in the mid-'90s, the MC/singer spent a ... More >>

100 & Single: Rihanna's Post-Millennial Strategy For Setting Chart Records

​Pop-chart record-keeping can be as contentious as baseball's, and we've got quite the steroids-style asterisk forming atop Billboard's Hot 100. On the most recent chart, the most pervasive radio star of the last half-decade brushed past a couple of legends into the hall of fame. And like Barr ... More >>

Live: Flying Back In Time With Sam Sparro

​Sam Sparro w/Nomi Ruiz (DJ set) Dominion NY Monday, October 3 Better than: Jack Sparrow's last few bloated outings. If Sam Sparro's sophomore album Return To Paradise mirrored the 1998 film of the same name, then Sparro would certainly be Joaquin Phoenix's imprisoned mad genius—albeit ... More >>

Live: Katy B Shows Off Her Moves At The Studio At Webster Hall

via MTV Hive​ Katy B The Studio At Webster Hall Tuesday, September 13 Better than: Doing "Rolling In The Deep" at karaoke. "Everyone has their own little dance," Katy B said near the end of her first proper New York City performance on Tuesday night. "So I wanna see you doing yours." It was ... More >>

100 & Single: Considering The Album-Chart Class Of 9/11, 10 Years Later

​A king of hip-hop, retaking the penthouse of the album chart with his latest blockbuster. A middle-of-the-road rock band, reviving a turn-of-the-'90s "alternative" sound that's now squarely mainstream. A sexagenarian legend who debuted in the '60s and who still captures Boomers' hearts and ... More >>

Radio Hits One: Raising The Bar For "YouTube Platinum"

Justin Bieber and Ludacris: Congratulations. A lot of people watched your video.​On August 28, MTV will throw the 2011 installment of its Video Music Awards, honoring achievements in the art form that used to make up the majority of its programming. While it's all too tempting to note the iron ... More >>

Live: Taylor Swift Sparkles And Survives At The Prudential Center

Taylor Swift w/NeedToBreathe, Danny Gokey Prudential Center Tuesday, July 19 Better than: Bottling up your emotions. Before Taylor Swift took the stage last night, I was looking around the Prudential Center, marveling once again at the craftwork on display during an arena show. In contrast to Ka ... More >>

100 & Single: How Digital Changed The Charts, From Gwen To GoonRock

Spotify's top tracks (left) and albums on Friday, July 15.​The headline-grabbing music story of the week isn't on the Billboard charts—it's the U.S. debut of Spotify. With the streaming-music service less than 48 hours old here, it's a bit too soon to analyze what songs are getting the m ... More >>

Sorry For The Weight: Lil Wayne's New Mixtape Full Of Empty Posturing

​Lil Wayne's mixtapes used to be events in rap. His incredible work on the Dedication and Drought series gave birth to the Mixtape Weezy that could credibly claim to be the best rapper alive in 2006-07, a rapper so good that Jay-Z admitted on his otherwise rapper-loathing "D.O.A." that he "mig ... More >>

Live: Katy B Launches Her Mission At Le Bain

Katy B Le Bain Monday, June 27 Better than: Whatever David Guetta's up to right now. Launching British pop stars in the States has been a mostly-miss proposition for labels in the post-Spice Girls era. While retro-soul mashers like Adele and Amy Winehouse have seen success on this side of the At ... More >>

Pitbull, Top of the Dogpile

How he quietly became the biggest male star in pop

Radio Hits One: The Disappearing Urban Crossover Hit Says "Look At Me Now"

​Chris Brown's "Look At Me Now" has topped Billboard's R&B/Hip-hop Songs chart for seven weeks in a row, and it recently peaked at No. 6 on the Hot 100. In terms of Brown's career, it's notable for being the singer's first top 10 hit in the two years since that whole violent incident with then ... More >>

The Voice: Blake Shelton Is Unimpressed, Xtina Likes To "Woo"

​A week into The Voice, and some problems are starting to materialize. During backstage interviews, Carson Daly doesn't just stand there; he hovers. I can't imagine ever feeling comfortable around that guy. Christina Aguilera's mentoring style, right now, seems to be limited to raising both he ... More >>

"The Voice" Closes Its Eyes And Takes On "American Idol"

​So: The Voice. The big challenge. American Idol has been the dominant ratings force in American TV for a full decade now, but none of the other networks has really managed to do much with that show's format, which seems like a relatively easy thing to steal. (Or they haven't made a big singin ... More >>

This Week in the Voice: Arturo O'Farrill's Journey for His Father

​This week in the Voice, Larry Blumenfeld chronicles Grammy-winning pianist Arturo O'Farrill's trip to Havana to, in his words, "complete a musical, spiritual, and cultural journey for my father." His father, Chico O'Farrill, was revered in the Jazz world, a "stone genius, on the level of Duke ... More >>

Is Billy Elliot Gay? Is Liza Admitting To Marrying Them?

Not all the liquid refreshment was at the after-parties.

Age, Beauty Before Youth at Grammys

Despite myriad concessions to modishness and a Twitter feed, it was a Steely Dan sort of year at the Grammys as Robert Plant and Alison Krause's Raising Sand won five awards including Album Of The Year, Record Of The Year ("Please Read the Letter"), and awards in the Country and Contemporary Folk ... More >>

Bold Grammy 2008 Predictions!

Katie Holmes Bristles with Rage!

Better-than-elementary Holmes; Mamet morphs into Neil Simon.

NEXT AMY WINEHOUSE?

The British press adore Adele. But will you?