EMI Group plc

Morrissey On His Hatred of "Cellphone Nation," His Skin of "Perished Rubber"and Why He Loves System of a Down

Although Morrissey doesn't currently have a record deal, he hasn't slowed down one bit. Tonight, he will perform a sold-out show at Radio City Music Hall, playing hits from throughout his career as well as a few numbers that might surface whenever he releases the follow-up to 2009's Years of Refusal ... More >>

Fall Arts Guide 2012: Music

The So So Glos Carry the Torch for New York Rock and Roll

DIY or die

Is Google Censoring Links?

Not too long ago, there was talk that the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry and the Recording Industry Association of America might sue Google, claiming that the web behemoth has used its search engine service to shape the online music market in a way trade groups do not like. T ... More >>

The Beastles And Let It Beast, dj BC's Beastie Boys-Beatles Mashups, Are Back Online

The Beastles, Boston-based dj BC's well-received (but ultimately unauthorized and subsequently yanked offline) Beatles-Beastie Boys mash-up, is now fully available online. In memory of Adam Yauch, Bob Cronin (dj BC's alter ego) has decided to face any potential legal wrath from publishing companies ... More >>

The 11 Most Infuriating Songs of 2011

More reasons to turn off the radio

100 & Single: Can Katy Perry Turn The States' Post-Christmas No. 1 Race Into Something UKrazy?

​Thanks to her husband, Katy Perry considers herself as an honorary Brit. But as the most frequent current inhabitant of the Billboard charts, she must wish we were all anglophiles. If only America had a Christmas No. 1 competition as rabid and media-fueled as Old Blighty's! Katy would have t ... 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 >>

Informing Radio Listeners Of Song Titles Now Retro Enough To Be Back In Style

​ Those of us old enough to remember listening to terrestrial radio for hours on end probably have a clutch of songs in our memories that we know, but we don't know--songs that could be hummed on demand, and maybe even sung for a bar or two, but that are effectively no-name tracks thanks to th ... More >>

Out of Four Full Music Sales Weeks In 2011, Three Have Hit Historic Lows (Congratulations, Amos Lee!)

"Kneel, industry, kneel!"​We'd graph it, but sadly, it's too simple for that. Your 2011 Billboard #1s, in chronological order: Taylor Swift, Speak Now, 52K; Cake, Showroom of Compassion, 44K; the Decemberists, The King Is Dead, 93.5K; Amos Lee, Mission Bell, 40K. That last number is the lowest ... More >>

The Top Seven Most Surprising Revelations From Jay-Z's Roundtable Conversation With Warren Buffett and Steve Forbes

​Recently Forbes staged an event a long time coming, bringing Jay-Z and the billionaire Warren Buffett to the same table as part of something they're calling the Forbes 400 Summit. People have been speculating about this meeting for years now--some quite prophetically--and as interlocutor, the ... More >>

Surveying the Dr. Luke Moment: A Critical Look At Lazers, Glitter, and the Un-Sexing of America's Pop Stars

On May 7, Katy Perry debuted "California Gurls," the first single from her forthcoming album, Teenage Dream. It was a cleverly-engineered, synchronized piece of pop craft--a classic no-chances move--and it had to be: there were things riding on this song. Things like the viability of Perry as a bo ... More >>

Fewer 808s, More Heartbreak: LCD Soundsystem's This Is Happening

On James Murphy's sardonically devastating new record

Download Pink Floyd Before It's Too Late: Band Beats EMI in Suit

​Pink Floyd has won a legal claim in the UK against EMI; Chancellor Sir Andrew Morritt agreed that the music company doesn't have the right to sell the band's music in formats the band does not accept. The band cited an artistic integrity clause in its contract that the court agreed applied to ... More >>

Pazz & Jop Bonus #2: The Voice Jay-Z Interview, Uncut

"I just love the Grizzly Bear. That project was great. It sounds like these church cathedral chords--it's just sick what they're doing." ​In 2009, Jay-Z rolled, grabbing his first number one record and--to the rapper's own surprise--a victory in our 37th Annual Pazz & Jop Critics' Poll. "When ... More >>

Jay-Z's 'Empire' Strikes Back at Last

His first #1 song is his first Pazz & Jop chart-topper as well. Go Yankees.

News Roundup: Knitting Factory Opens, Jay-Z Calls Out Scalpers, Glasvegas Dude Found in NYC, Snoop Dogg Finds New Job In Tough Job Market

​--The Knitting Factory is back. After getting chased out of Tribeca last year, the venue has rebounded, and will open up again at their new location in Williamsburg at Metropolitan and Havemayer (a/k/a the old Luna Lounge) for the first time tonight. Les Savy Fav, the comedian Hannibal Buress ... More >>

Interview: Raekwon on Only Built for Cuban Linx II, Auto-Tune, J Dilla, and the Future of Rap

"You've got some fans that wanna stick up for me and say, 'Rae's still got it!' And you got some that say, 'Nah he'll never beat that album!'" ​ In the 5000 or so days since Raekwon released Only Built for Cuban Linx, long considered one of the greatest of all solo Wu-Tang albums, the Chef h ... More >>

Perfect Pop Comes Quickly to Pet Shop Boys

The seminal duo ditch the paranoia on the splendid new Yes

Why MySpace Music Won't Succeed

Rupert Murdoch's pride and joy is trying to go legit; mayhem may ensue, and success may not

Gimme "Indie" Rock

Another payola settlement promises us better, braver radio. Let's not get too excited just yet.

The Continental Drifts

An East Village staple evolves, but dies a little in the process

Occult Classic

The thematic daring and genre-bending perversity of the original Wicker Man

We Have to Deal With It: Punk England Report

Music

Music

The Big Chill

EZT shuts down, courts lag behind, WMG gets desperate

Music

House of Zealous Rockers

James Murphy and Tim Goldsworthy of local label DFA reconstruct post-punk for a whole new dancefloor

Do-Gooders Do Good

The most commendable political compilation of a watershed year for official liberalism

Undermine Your Own Business

EMI cleans house, Elektra merges, Arista folds, what's left?

A Touch of Grey

Unlimited supply, EMI, there is no reason why, if the label sues there's sure to be a fight

Five to Three

Merger mania picks back up; a smaller Warner gives up

Circling the Wagons

Why iTunes Won't Save the RIAA From Pirates, Downloads, Lost Product, and Ill Will

Darknet Blues

The Music Industry Makes Peace With Big Software—at Dial-Up Speed

After Saddam, The Music

Iraq's Divided Pop World Awaits Life in the War's Wake

Promotion Commotion

'Vice' Squad

The Neverland Music Summit

Sharpton's Confab Charges Music-Money Apartheid

Rough Trade

Little Johnny and Big-Biz Music Duke It Out Over Peer-to-Peer Software

Strictly Solalian

Martial Solal Plays Everything All at Once

Mood Swings

Tom Harrell Samples the Bitter With the Better

Best of the Rest

Labels and Labeling

Five Corporations Cope With Content

Homeboys and Girls

Sex Crimes of the Hip Hop Generation

Prophecy Fulfilled

Roots in Outer Space

Cum on Feel the Webnoize

The Music Industry Turns to the Tech World for a Boost

Mano a Mano

Trinidad­De La Hoya— Boxing Showdown in Latino Land

Not Yet Uhuru

Mzwakhe Mbuli in Mandela's South Africa