Carrie Underwood

How Undercover Animal Rights Activists are Winning the Ag-Gag War

The Best Tweets and Photos From Last Night's Grammy Awards

Last night, during the 55th Grammy Awards, we trudged through the bile and self-loating of angry would-be comedians and critics who took to Twitter to tell Jack White he looks like Edward Scissorhands and Johnny Depp he looks like the butt baby of Jack Sparrow and Steve Tyler and Adele she was dress ... More >>

Nashville Songwriter Luke Laird Talks Kacey Musgraves, Eric Church, and Kendrick Lamar

Since contributing to Carrie Underwood's 2007 "Last Name," 2012 BMI Country Songwriter of the Year Luke Laird has netted almost a dozen chart-toppers, penning hits for everyone from Eric Church to Little Big Town and Miranda Lambert. This year, on top of work with Tim McGraw and Little Big Town, he' ... More >>

Ranking All The American Idol Winners In Terms Of Quality

A regular on the gay gossip board datalounge.com took a stab at ranking the show's bevy of belting prize winners, from 11 to 1. If you don't see some of the best talents on the list, it's because they didn't win on the show! Here what they wrote: "11. Lee DeWyze (above). He's cute and can more or ... More >>

The Ten Best Country Albums of 2012

This list of the year's best country albums is assembled with two important premises in mind: First: If the people who record and listen to these records consider them country, than they're damn well country. Purists who argue that country should still sound like '68, '76, '84 or whenever are in the ... More >>

Country Star Will Be Maria Von Trapp In TV's The Sound of Music

It's Carrie Underwood who's officially going to be filling the wimple once worn by Mary Martin and Julie Andrews.

Live: Brad Paisley Keeps It Real At Jones Beach

Brad Paisley w/ The Band Perry and Easton Corbin Jones Beach Friday, June 1 Better than: Going to a show where an aging radio host plays out his mid-life crisis by telling me what music I can and can't listen to. He spent the '90s as a Nashville newcomer attempting to close the decade with his fir ... More >>

Oddsmaking: Best Country Solo Performance, Where Ludacris's Stamp Of Approval Makes A Difference

As part of this year's larger reduction in genre-specific awards, 2012 will see the country portion of the Grammys streamlined to just four categories: Best Solo Performance (which swallows Male and Female Vocal Performance), Best Duo/Group Performance (which swallows Best Duo/Group Vocal Performanc ... More >>

BEEN GONE

Kelly Clarkson  returns to New York

The Band Perry, Taylor Swift Win Big At Last Night's Country Music Awards

Last night, country music's biggest stars (not to mention welcome outsiders like Lionel Richie and Kenny Loggins, who joined Male Vocalist of the Year Blake Shelton for a performance of "Footloose") convened in Nashville for the CMA's annual awards show. By the time hosts Brad Paisley and Carrie Un ... More >>

100 & Single: The Erratic Chart Fortunes Of TV-Crowned Idols, From Kelly To Scotty

​Scotty McCreery—winner of the 10th edition of American Idol, and owner of the new No. 1 title on Billboard's album chart, Clear as Day—sets a handful of chart records this week that certainly sound impressive. As Billboard reports, McCreery is the first country act to debut at No ... More >>

What The Lineup For Clear Channel's iHeartRadio Music Festival Says About Radio Formats In 2011

Lady Gaga.​Today the radio behemoth Clear Channel announced a festival celebrating the relaunch of its online service iHeartRadio, which currently allows listeners to tune into the chain's terrestrial-radio outlets from all over the country (as well as about 150 digital-only stations) and whic ... More >>

Lee DeWyze

American Idol Goes Really, Really Country

Michael Becker/FOX​Oh boy, here we go. I can't possibly overemphasize how not excited I was to watch this Idol finale: Two perfectly decent singers who stick entirely within their genre--the exact same genre, even--and who both ran out of interesting tricks and wrinkles weeks ago. TMZ had a st ... More >>

American Idol: No Judging, Please, We're Only Being Paid Gobs Of Money To Do So

Michael Becker/FOX​Hey, remember when enough people would get voted off American Idol and the show would go down to a much saner 60-minute running time? That was nice. Now, with only five people left, we still get a 90-minute show, with all the contestants singing twice. Maybe Fox is just dete ... More >>

"American Idol": Say Goodbye To Paul McDonald

Michael Becker/FOX​So Paul McDonald went home this week. Not that shocking! The only real surprise is that it finally reverses the gross and troubling trend of only female contestants getting bounced. (The one time a male contestant was voted off after top 12 week happened when the judges save ... More >>

Soul Surfer: Christian Pandering That Pretends It Isn't

Gwyneth's Singing: What's Up With That?

​ Gwyneth Paltrow took an abrupt left turn in career emphasis when she made Country Strong and sang on Glee plus three awards shows, doing everything from slinking on a piano and crooning to a feathery Cee Lo Green and the Muppets, to standing upright at the Oscars and doing her best Carrie U ... More >>

David Letterman Checking Out His Female Musical Guests: A Brief History

​David Letterman is no stranger to lust: This is a man who had so much sex with his female employees that people once held a rally to get him fired for being a pervert. And though he remains a national treasure, his eyes do tend to wander, even today. On Monday night, British songstress Adele ... More >>

Miranda Lambert

American Idol Season 9, Live-Blogging Idol Gives Back & Top 7 Results

Michael Becker / FOX Baby-Hugger Simon Cowell​ Two hours? Really? Because tonight's annual philanthropic extravaganza adds an extra hour onto the already too long results show (far too much to ask of any live-blogger, in my opinion), I'll be checking in intermittently throughout the night, ... More >>

American Idol Season 9: Top 9 Results--Redux: Andrew Garcia and Katie Stevens Say Goodnight

Bye, KatieMichael Becker / FOX​ "Carmina Burana" is supposed to signal just how intense they wish the show would be tonight. Yes, there are two people getting kicked off, but otherwise there's a performance from Season 7's serial false-starting nanny Brooke White, and Adam Lambert--who was ne ... More >>

American Idol Season 9: Live-Blogging the Top 12 Results

Michael Becker/ FOXTim Urban, not the worst this week.​ Even though we've been watching this show for three months, Idol apparently only began last night. The contestants got to sing on a bigger stage, and had to make something out of the Rolling Stones songbook instead of the total freedom to ... More >>

On Sade and the Virtues of Scarcity

Sade, hiding. Photo courtesy ThinkTank Marketing.​This week's album charts were topped by Sade's Soldier Of Love, the smoky soul singer's sixth full-length and first since 2000's Lovers Rock. Soldier accomplished the rarer-than-ever feat of going gold in its first week of release, selling 502, ... More >>

Speaking of Wale, Bon Jovi's The Circle is #1

​Sometimes there's just not a lot to live for when it comes to the week in record sales. Bon Jovi's The Circle took #1 with a pretty lackluster 163,000 copies sold (about half of what Carrie Underwood sold last week)--it's their fourth and most underwhelming #1. Underwood's Play On is down at ... More >>

American Idol Results: Kanye West Performs "Heartless," Adam Lambert Safe, Paula's Boobs Look Incredible!

Sharyn Jackson is your American Idol host for season eight. This week: the Top 13! Ray Mickshaw / FOX¡Adios, Jorge! There's a new Idol rule, the judges can make a unanimous decision to save one cast-off one time only--and only up until the Top 5. This is to avoid future J-Hud and Daughtry early b ... More >>

Taylor Swift's Teenage Country-Star Tales, Spiked With Actual Wisdom

The Academy of Country Music Awards: A Running Diary

Idol Gives Back 2: A Running Diary

TABLOIDED: The Grammys

The Grammy Awards: A Running Diary

Why We Love Miranda Lambert (and Should)

How a volatile, occasionally violent pop-country siren won our hearts

Who Truly Feels It All?

Feist overshadows the subversive sirens blaring down South

The American Music Awards: A Running Diary

The CMAs: A Running Diary

The Unreality Show

Idol's Carrie channels Christ in Atlantic City. In do-me heels. Get real (like David Hyde Pierce).

The American Idol Finale: A Running Diary

Academy of Country Music Awards: A Running Diary

Chart-Topping Vitriol

No point in getting famous if you can't publicly antagonize your ex

Sanjaya Malakar: America's Long National Nightmare Finally Ends

High-Class Broads

Country femmes crash Music Row's sausage party

The Grammy Awards: A Running Diary

The CMA Awards: A Running Diary

Country Music Needs a New Publicist

The CMT Music Awards: A Running Diary

Carrie Underwood and John Legend Ruin the NBA All-Star Game Halftime Show

American Idol Will Destroy Your Soul

Hot-Towel Heaven

American Idol champ takes exurban road out with map and Bible

The Quarterly Report: Status's Favorite New Singles

A Running Diary of the Billboard Music Awards