James Blunt

Girls Against Boys Version 2.0

A '90s underground It-Band makes peace

Movie Stars And Singers Who've Built A Career On One Hit

Let's not stick to people who literally had one hit, necessarily, but who became defined by one hit and never quite surpassed it in the public's eyes, even if they had some other reasonable successes. I.e., they pretty much coasted. The folks at datalounge came up with the following names (and I'v ... More >>

Javier Colon

Radio Hits One: VH1 Takes On The '00s Pop Canon

VH1 spent last week counting down what the channel, and its panel of celebrities and "experts," consider The 100 Greatest Songs of The '00s. They certainly haven't been the first to assemble such a list—Rolling Stone and Pitchfork and every blog under the sun had their say about two years ago, ... More >>

Radio Hits One: Adele Brings The Ballad Back To No. 1

​Adele's 21 has ruled the American charts for most of 2011, and it's done so almost entirely on the back of one song: the lead single "Rolling In The Deep." While the British singer was topping charts in her homeland and several other countries with the follow-up single, the ballad "Someone LI ... More >>

Someone Got Really Annoyed By "Weird Al" Yankovic's Gaga Parody

​Accordion-wielding prankster "Weird Al" Yankovic has released his newest pop song parody, a take on Lady Gaga's "Born This Way"--and the star's outlandish style--called "Perform This Way." Despite the very small window of time between the original and Yankovic's overall pretty faithful interp ... More >>

The 20 Worst Songs of 2010, #20: Far East Movement featuring Ryan Tedder, "Rocketeer"

F2K10 is a countdown of the 20 worst songs of 2010. Track our progress here. ​The sensitive-guy song from this Los Angeles group, which reached the summit of the Billboard Hot 100 with its ode to its members' intoxicating qualities "Like A G6," is a wan bit of treacle that doesn't really go a ... More >>

A Brief History of So-Called "Dirty Words" in Indie-Rock

Are these kids at a Phish show or an Animal Collective show? You'll never know. Photo by Max Herman. ​Over the weekend, the Washington Post suggested that a shift was underway in the indie-rock community. As the headline went: "For indie rockers, 'jam band' increasingly no longer a shameful te ... More >>

Alright, Let's Deal With This Star-Studded Haiti-Benefit "Everybody Hurts" Debacle

Here we have the gala Simon Cowell-produced R.E.M. cover, starring Susan Boyle, Mariah Carey, Michael Buble, Leona Lewis, Rod Stewart, and a gaggle of not-as-famous people. Not a good look. I don't have any problems until James Blunt shows up, and no major problems until Jon Bon Jovi starts howli ... More >>

Buy 175,000 More Copies of Susan Boyle's I Dreamed a Dream and Win A Free Punch in the Face from Taylor Swift

How convenient that Michael Musto decided to dress up as Susan Boyle this week. Photo by Chad Griffith.​Or something like that. For the fifth, face-obliterating week, the UK siren Susan Boyle is #1 on our charts, selling 510,000 records this week, and 2,982,000 overall--proof if there was ever ... More >>

The 50 Worst Songs of the '00s, F2K No. 1: Counting Crows ft. Vanessa Carlton, "Big Yellow Taxi"

F2K has been a countdown of the 50 worst songs of the decade. Relive the whole long journey here. Thank you, and we're sorry. As a concession to a vile, contemptible decade marked by commerce over reason, we pleaded to our editors at the Village Voice to let us publish the No. 1 entry as one of t ... More >>

F2K: The 50 Worst Songs of the '00s

Since this archive page mysteriously disappeared over at its original home, consider this your new bookmark/placeholder/friend on late, lonely nights. Confused? More here. ​It's super-cute to peruse decade-end lists and pretend to be enthusiastic about true artists like Arcade Fire, timeless m ... More >>

Week in Review: Do Not Go to Siren Fest Hungover!

Look, it's a member of Das Racist eating food. Photo by Sam Horine.  In the week we spent the early hours of recovering from Siren Festival--highlights of which were many and varied and included a photo of Das Racist daring to eat a type of food the duo doesn't rap about--we were officially and ... More >>

Life. Support. Music. Sad. Story. Bad. Movie.

Elbow's The Seldom Seen Kid

Sappy Brits are at least a little more realistic about it

That Thing He Does

Thankfully, pop alchemist Mike Viola keeps doing it

The American Music Awards: A Running Diary

Is Sellout Even a Dirty Word Anymore?

Evaluating This Year's Potential Summer Jams

The Trace Is On!

Two blokes and a proof of purchase open this year's Brits Off Broadway

Busker Love

Once upon a time in Ireland, a girl met a guy and they made sweet music

Let the Indie-Rock Chart-Wars Begin

The Grammy Awards: A Running Diary

Ancient Maneaters of the Future

The year's best-selling album made mass culture sound vapid; the year's hottest auteur made vapidity sound transcendent

Remembering James Brown

Jay-Z: Rap's Joe Lieberman

A Rap Beef Roundup

The MTV Video Music Awards: A Running Diary

Scarface Quits Rap?

Nelly Furtado: Mutating Like Avian Flu

High School Musical: The Cult Success of the Year

It's Their Party and They'll Be Frail if They Want to