Let's get something straight here: Prince is not covering Radiohead here. He is, rather, making "Creep" a Prince song, which is to say he is bringing it within the Prince scheme of rhetoric. This is not merely an instrumental thing, nor even a stage gesture thing, though the gesturing offstage is pretty great. The particular moment it happens is at the end of the second verse. Recall: here, Thom Yorke usually says "You're so fucking special." That "fucking" is key, because it's supposed to sound snide. It's an insult. Prince, on the other hand, does not say "fucking." And not just because he doesn't swear anymore; he could have said what Thom goes with in the radio edit, which is "very." Instead, he changes the entire line, and in doing, he changes the entire meaning of the line.  read more »

All the white people will be clapping their hands on the four when they get a load of the theme for next year's Experience Music Project Pop Conference, where music writers from academia, journalism, blogs, and other places get together to collectively obsess over pop music. "Dance, Music, Sex, Romance: Pop and the Body Politic" is about as far to the other side as you can get from last year's explicitly political focus, and ought to inject a little blood into things after this past April's rewarding but fairly dry sessions. Below the jump, conference organizer Eric Weisbard fleshes things out a bit:  read more »

Mike Batt: he's given us a lot of dubious value - the Wombling Merry Christmas, Katie Melua, and now, a piece for The Times where he sets out to prove that - oh, yes - illegal downloading is killing music using any argument he can think of: Why do people illegally download music? Because they can. I hate to jump all over his opening line, but this isn't actually true, is it? First of all, there are huge numbers of people who have the ability to illegally download who, for whatever reason, choose not to. And isn't the fact it's "illegal" means that, rather than doing it "because they can", they're doing it "despite they can't"?  read more »

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Pop star is one step closer to hitting the road in 2009, according to E! Online.
By Gil Kaufman

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Britney Spears


Photo: Bruce Glikas/ FilmMagic

The last time Britney Spears attempted a comeback, with 2007's Blackout album, she didn't tour, didn't do any interviews and didn't really promote the album beyond appearing in a few videos.  read more »

Ed. note: Chris "dennisobell" Molanphy, our resident chart guru, looks at the upward, downward, and lack of movement on this week's Billboard charts:

For all their popularity the world over, songs by Radiohead haven't exactly set the charts alight. (Even in their homeland: they've never scored a U.K. No. 1.) In part that's due to their status as a top-tier album act; fans would sooner buy the full-length than an individual track.

But it's also a function of Radiohead's erratic approach to singles. Sometimes they pack singles with invaluable B-sides for collectors; sometimes songs are only serviced to radio—and that includes some of the band's catchiest tunes ("Let Down," "Bodysnatchers").  read more »

Jazzy Jeff And Fresh Prince - Lyrics Records Lp Albums Cds Cd Discography - Lyrics
http://www.noolmusic.com/lyrics/jazzy_jeff_and_fresh_prince_-_lyrics_rec...

Plus: The mom of Barker's late assistant, Chris Baker, talks about her 'disbelief' following plane crash.
By Jocelyn Vena

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Travis Barker and Jermaine Dupri


Photo: Todd Williamson/WireImage

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Any big Prince fans on the go? Do you have a favourite Prince album? He's got plenty good ones.I love Sign O The Times. Amazing album and it's the best concert DVD you'll ever see I think.