It’s a given that the upcoming Rock Band: The Beatles, is going to be a huge, huge success, and the hope is that it will simultaneously spur both the gaming and music industries. Which is why many many more bands are jumping on the Rock Band, er, bandwagon.
Yesterday, on Twitter, of all places, it was revealed that artists such as Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, U2, and The Rolling Stones all have editions in the pipeline. Naturally, each version has its own idiosyncrasies, based upon the artist to which it is dedicated. Since a lot of you still aren’t on the Twitter, I thought that I would give you a sneak peek at what you can expect when you buy some of the upcoming special editions of Rock Band.
Because you are absolutely nobody or nothing if you don’t have a presence on Twitter right now, NASA has gotten into the game. This week, they announced that one of their astronauts — Mike Massimino — is going to be using the Twitter from the Space Shuttle.
Top that, Oprah and Ashton!
In any event, Massimino — tweeting under the admittedly awesome nom de twit of “Astro_Mike” — is a relative newbie to the Twitter, so you can only imagine what he will be tweeting.
Well, luckily, you don’t have to. As it turns out, Medialoper is currently beta testing super secret software that allows us to go and retrieve tweets from the not-too-distant future, and I’ve compiled a list of some of the things that Astro_Mike will be sharing with a waiting world.
Look. The truth is, I try to ignore American Idol. I lot of people I respect like it, and while I think that it’s essentially a ‘roided up version of Star Search that’s only produced two even marginally interesting musicians — Kelly Clarkson and Jennifer Hudson — in seven years.
So I try to ignore the early rounds, which seem to be about feeling superior to talentless retards who just Want to Be on Television. I try to ignore the later rounds, which seem to be about singerbots performing soulless — but technically perfect! — versions of Other People’s Songs.
But the greater truth is that I live in the middle of the popular culture, and since Idol is the biggest thing in today’s Long Tail culture — 10% of the country watches it every week! — I am inundated with it on both the radio and the TV.
Which means that I get assaulted with things like some douchebag’s version of Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire:”
Wow. Not only is this abomination this week’s Worst Thing I’ve Ever Heard In My Entire Life, Ever and — by default — the Worst Cover Version of All Time, it’s also the absolute epitome of American Idol.
This month, in honor of St. Hallmark’s Valentine’s day, it’s a special theme version of Musical Moments To Die For.
Love songs! Nothing but love songs!
Well, that’s not exactly right: not so much love songs, but songs about love, which is a totally different head. Totally.
However, just because I’ve applied a theme to this month’s post, it isn’t meant to be a definitive list of greatest songs about love or anything like that. It just happens that all of the songs this month are about it, that’s all. Which means, not uncoincidentally, a lot of these songs were huge hit singles or are incredibly familiar or obvious. Which, of course, doesn’t make them any less to die for.
If you have any kind of commute in the Los Angeles area at all, and spend any part of that commute listening to old-school FM radio — and I’m guilty on both counts, especially in the morning, when I want to be plugged into the universe — then you’ve probably noticed Indie 103.1.
In this day and age, Indie 103.1 was a small miracle: a radio station that was dedicated — mostly — to independent rock-oriented music, programmed outside of the normal boundaries. It was always worth a spin to see what they were broadcasting.
But now — according to their website — they’re leaving the airwaves, and will continue as an internet-only radio station.
Strategy Tests Lower Price on New CDsUniversal, whose last CD boosting strategy was new packaging, thinks lower prices will entice CD sales. Maybe, maybe not.
Media Company Abuses Self on YouTubeYou can't make this stuff up: YouTube's big court fight with Viacom is unearthing some fun stories, like this one: Viacom secretly doctored its content to look stolen, uploaded it to YouTube, and then promptly reported itself for copyright abuse, having forgotten about its own ruse.
Apple’s iTunes LP 6 Months Later: LP What?That thing that was supposed to save the album? Not so much. Six months later there are still only 29 iTunes LP's in the iTunes store.
Pink Floyd Suing EMI Label Over Online RoyaltiesThe group is not happy about having albums dismantled and sold by the track. But really, who wants to listen to The Wall from beginning to end at this late date?
Rove admits to error on Iraq as Bush strategistThe embargo on the Karl Rove has (thankfully) been broken. Also, speaking of broken, if this AP review is any indication, there's nothing here to see. Move along.
This month, in honor of St.