MADGE & MTL win Super Bowl Halftime!

The queen of pop was this year’s Halftime Show at the Annual SUPERBOWL and boy did she make the most her 12 minute slot! Set in a Gladiator chique high tech universe courtesy of Montreal based Moment Factory crew, she performed a nostalgic and catchy live remix style tour of some of her best hits including her latest track. Big shout out Cirque Du Soleil (also from Montreal!) for some of the key performers!  The audio menu went as follows:

“Vogue” – Aperitif!
“Music” – Pre-dinner salad
“Give Me All Your Luvin” (Nicki Minaj and M.I.A) – Main course
“Like a Prayer” with Cee Lo Green – Dessert

Madonna may be golden but she is no dumb blonde. She kept the fancy footwork to a minimum in a no room for error show and was tastefully dressed for a 50 something pop star. I mean she’s still sexy so yeah she gets to show off a little leg. No one can truthfully say she doesn’t look good for her age. Even with the cosmetic work, make-up, etc – her body is still an incredibly well proportioned and coordinated machine.
Love her or hate her she climbed her way to fame faster than you can say 80′s as a singer, actress and occasionally model.  She managed her career and juggled motherhood all while never having had 1 breakdown.  Pardon the expression but that is called having your shit together. What a great performance MADONNA. You are still THE queen of pop and a seriously cool diva.

Source: www-hollywoodlife-com

LUV Madonna! (Photo Courtesy of Hollywood-life.com)

“I do  understand why so many  people  hate her… Frankly a woman who had her first kid with her trainer, runs her own business, is still considered a sex symbol after 50 years with bigger balls than most men- is a threat to the gender role.”
-Lisa Mac

Lindsay Lohan: Keep On Thuggin’

Lindsay Lohan: Keep On Thuggin’

Despite being confined to the Century Regional Detention Facility in Lynwood, California, Lindsay Lohan continues her career of crime. Our music industry gossip mill sources tell us that on Sunday morning, Lohan assaulted a fellow inmate in a dispute. Eyewitnesses say that Lohan and the unnamed victim were seen arguing over the possession of a bottle of Evian in the prison’s exercise yard shortly before Lohan attacked the other with a sharpened toothbrush. The victim is currently in critical condition at Lynwood’s St. Francis Medical Center.

“We all scoffed when we heard Lindsay was coming in, but she’s more hardcore than we thought she’d be,” said an inmate witness who declined to be named. “I used to run drugs through Mexico and I’ve seen a few things, but nothing like her. She looks like something that fell off the back of a Harley doing a deuce down Route 66, and that voice… dear god, that voice. How old is she, anyway?”

Lohan's dealer, Vinnie 'The Squid' Carpenzo, smuggles a kilo of Tenochtitlan Gold heroin in his colon during a conjugal visit with Ms. Lohan on Saturday.

Lohan's dealer, Vinnie 'The Squid' Carpenzo, smuggles a kilo of Tenochtitlan Gold heroin in his colon during his visit with Ms. Lohan on Saturday.

Luckily for Lohan, her team of lawyers, led by Frederick Weinberg, is working around the clock to have Lohan released early. “We’re aiming for at least a sanitarium transfer until we can appeal the charges formally,” Weinberg said in a statement today. “But Ms. Lohan has to be released soon… before anyone else gets hurt.”

Today’s conflict marks the third such altercation since Lohan’s prison stint began on July 20th, following a Friday incident in which she viciously attacked a warden during a cell transfer. Sources say that attack was in response to off-hand criticism of Lohan’s most recent album, 2005′s “A Little More Personal (Raw)”, which was lambasted both critically and commercially. “I don’t think that guy’s ever going to walk again,” a witness said. “She’s raw, all right. She’s a mean girl.”

Music Industry predictions for 2010!

O.k been reading up a ton on the music industry predictions for 2010 and have come up with a few, if I dare take a crack at this and by all means feel free to share your predictions or POV in the comments :) Thanks to the resources that have helped some of my research: Wired.com, Mashable.com, Headliner.fm, Alexa.com, Forrester.com

10 BandMark  Music Industry predictions for 2010:

``I see... me and David Bowie having sushi! but more importantly...``

``I see... me and David Bowie having sushi! but more importantly...``

1. Venture capitalists and big named brands will further finance musicians

As record labels merge and swallow up partners, (Warner+EMI? Like when Polygram merged with Universal in the 80`s) marketing budgets will be slashed once again so the once 100k budget which got cut int0 50k last year, will likely be cut again to 25k. This wont be as tragic as it seems because big named brands and the film industry will gladly spot these artists with some nice budgets for appearances and brand vanity and  smaller artists will opt for their own investors. This will force bands to be doing a lot of hands on marketing to stand out in what has become a huge sea of new music and very tough competition.

2. Fan clubs and street teams will come together as direct-to-fan platforms evolve

As a music fan, you can sign up to newsletters, fan-clubs, VIP offers, the record label store, Street teams, mobile alerts and the list goes on. Well with more and more artists selling directly to their fans, it is inevitable that a solution emerges that handles everything. Fan logs into the ultimate Direct-to-Fan club and specifies purchasing habits, street team activities, news alert delivery options etc… and everything after than is one cleverly marketed click away where fans interacts with band offerings, demand new versions and get rewarded with prime goodies like shout outs on stage for sharing content. I see the monthly and yearly subscription fee model popularize itself in these clubs as well as in on-line music stores.

3. Artists will make more music on demand

With more and more bonds being built via web 2.0 technologies, the artist and fan relationship will continue to grow and I predict that fans will start to create their own mini EPs by directing the artist to get re-mixed by producers they like, release acoustic and live versions and even integrate raw studio cuts and include tracks from talented fans  as well. A sort of Choose-Your-Own-Audio venture with all the emerging remix and interactive technologies at the forefront.  I`d like to see these mini EPs come in a digital bundle, return of the 45 vinyl and have basically 3 songs: fan made re-mix, fan demanded acoustic version and raw studio cut.

4. Music will be seen less on a CD rack and more in the clouds…

CD sales will continue their steady decline and the music population will turn into digital and vinyl heads for the most part.  Watch as vinyl reach out to the hardcore fans who want the immediacy of digital AND the physical fix. Subscription based streaming music stores like Grooveshark and Spotify will become a serious business model for labels to consider. Grooveshark`s traffic has a really healthy up-and-to-the-right metric line and really if you think about it – it`s the perfect compromise for the majority of the digital music community.  Faster than utorrent, cheaper than Itunes and trendier than Twilight, these subscription based stream stores are clearly making their mark in the music market place.

5. An artist`s database will turn into a fairly measurable currency with social metrics

The more time we spend on-line, the more valuable a musician`s database will become (users are expected to be spending EVEN more time in 2010).  All artists will experience an increase of virtual fans simply by putting themselves out there but also the clever musician, management and label will be harvesting and analyzing fan data with the new social metrics coming out.  The simple: enter email, tweet, share this for a track models will only amplify this virtual currency.

6. Interactive touch screens will start showing up at concerts

I don’t mean the kind you see at music festivals with SMS streams and the next band info with sponsors and ads. I mean a truly interactive experience where one can sign up to fan clubs,  shop,  join a contest request shout outs (I know I’m obsessed with shout outs and honestly think it’s the best way to reward and keep a fan loyal). In my perfect vision of the future, one that my inner geek truly adores, the interactive touch screens are so paper thin and huge and now after having seen AVATAR they are probably 3D as well!

7. MySpace will offer musicians a lot more options and will not go away

I was honestly laughing when respectable journalists were writing about “The Death of MySpace”  ”Facebook will take over MySpace”. Look, no matter how much you have a hate on for Tom and no matter how fk* irritating that damn CSS is to code around – MySpace is still the #1 place online that music fans go to check out an artist’s music. If you don’t care about all that and you are just looking at the numbers, well their actual traffic has been pretty stable for the past 3 months (Oct-o9 to Dec-09). So although things look promising, we`ll have to check the numbers again in the next 3 months…

“Indie musicians now have a new way to make money online by adding their songs directly to MySpace Music in exchange for sharing in the ad revenue with the service.” Original post by Elliot Van Buskirk @ Wired.com click MORE for further information.

8. Facebook will release a highly customizable new version

I have to say that I am not impressed with the rate in which Face book releases new versions or fixes bugs… the only reason why I use Facebook (and I likely speak for most)  is that everyone is on it and I really have little choice.  At least MySpace has an excuse for it’s bugginess - it was built in the dinosaur era with some lame programming language.  I am hoping that with a huge fan page community, Facebook steps up to the plate and actually pimps up the code a bit so that one can customize way more and turn their fan page into highly interactive music fan playgrounds of stuff to do, purchase and without error messages with apps not working. Recently, either the ilike app had a bug in it or the steps to add it to your fan page were totally convoluted cause almost every music client of mine was calling me about it!  So Crackbook, I’m unliking you a bit until you impress me with a new version…

9. More street stars like G-Funk RED will be discovered

I think after over a decade of really wimpy commercial rap, hip hop and urban beats it’s time to get back to the simple stories and sounds of the untrained street songs BEFORE the musician has someone else writing their rhymes and picking their outfits. Who says teenagers need cheesy synthesized effects and big studio sound to make them happy? O.K well they sort of do BUT unlike our grandparents, kids are growing up on decades of classical, blues, rock, electronic and are totally into experiencing new stuff – although there will always be at the perfect age for pop. I was lucky, I had an older brother making sure between Madonna and Wham I had Led Belly, Chet Baker, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Bob Marley, Iggy Pop…  well tell u what, these kids have a realllly big brother called the internet allowing them to discover more music than ever before subjecting people like G-funk RED and others to get international exposure from sites like YouTube.

10. America will have a full year of discovering more oddities like Susan Boyle

It really doesn’t take a genius to figure out that after Susan Boyle, America’s Got Talent is going to experience both an increase in unusual auditions from older and oddball performers but will also be prioritizing them especially after seeing Susan`s popularity skyrocket and set new standards for discovery.

A New Look For Susan Boyle?

There’s a new look in Blackburn, Scotland! This week the Britain’s got talent sensation Susan Boyle was seen sporting a hip short brown leather jacket and floral pattern dress. The 47 year old virgin from a small village has become an overnight success, giving OBAMA’s Youtube views competition after rendition of the Les Miserables song “I Dreamed a Dream” surprised Simom Cowell and a large studio audience. Susan Boyle’s New Look!