MTV VMAs: The network is ready to name its new star

While the cursory nods where there -- Britney Spears and Eminem were both recognized multiple times -- this morning's MTV Video Music Award nominations were about christening a new star. Synth-pop newcomer Lady Gaga was nominated nine times, tying Beyoncé with the most nods.

Yet whereas Beyoncé's nominations went solely to her relatively minimalist "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)," a stark celebration of choreography, MTV spread the love for the '80s-inspired songs of Lady Gaga, who was recognized for the videos for "Poker Face" and "Paparazzi," both exercises in excess. 

Gaga's "Fame" has now sold more than 1.2 million copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan, and should top 2 million units by the time Grammy nominations are announced in December. Don't be surprised if the industry's new star scores an album of the year nomination, and goes against Kanye West, her upcoming tourmate and competition in this year's MTV video of the year field.

The MTV VMAs are, of course, little more than promotion for the network. How else to explain the multiple nods for Eminem's "We Made You"? The clip is notable only for featuring Eminem and Dr. Dre dressed as Spock and Captain Kirk, but otherwise is full of out-of-date jokes targeted at the obvious. 

The "breakthrough video" category features some quick studies for Grammy voters unsure of where to place their best new artist nominations this year. Though not her introductory clip, Bat for Lashes' "Daniel" is the best of the bunch, in terms of a winning video/song merging. It's a bit spooky, a bit sexy and a bit more exciting than Passion Pit's vintage collage collection ("The Reeling") and Matt and Kim's streaker nightmare ("Lessons Learned"). 

The rock field is especially weak. Green Day hasn't made a video to match the grandeur of "21st Century Breakdown" yet, Coldplay was shown up by its iTunes commercial, Paramore's "Decode" is an extended teaser for "Twilight" and only Fall Out Boy has some fun with "I Don't Care." 

A surprise, perhaps, was to see only one major nomination for Taylor Swift. She was recognized for best female video in high school drama "You Belong With Me." But no matter, Swift will perform on the telecast, and her sophomore album, "Fearless," is on its way to a bevy of Grammy nominations this fall.

Fall nominations after the jump.

MTV Video Music Awards show taps Green Day, Pink

MTV has ramped up the lineup for its Video Music Awards, set for Sept. 13 in New York. The station announced that Green Day and Pink will appear on the network's multi-hour commercial-with-trophies program.

The two have been added to a program that already includes Taylor Swift and Muse. Green Day will perform a cut from "21st Century Breakdown," an album that has sold 703,000 copies since its release this spring, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Pink, who appeared last year, will again perform a tune from her "Funhouse," an album that has sold more than 1.2 million copes since its release last October.

An initial list of presenters has also been unveiled by the network, and they include Chace Crawford, Katy Perry and Ne-Yo. As previously reported, Russell Brand will return as host.

-- Todd Martens

Photo: Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong. Credit: Getty Images

Happy All-Star Game Day: Green Day sings the 'stretch'

Some of us at P&H HQ believe today should be a national holiday -- a midsummer moment to pause and reflect on baseball's halfway point. However, despite the Los Angeles Dodgers being in first place and on a collision course for a rematch with the Chicago Cubs in October (there's a lot of baseball left, St. Louis),  our superiors shockingly disagree. Alas, this blog post is the best we can do to make the workday go faster.

The final Major League Baseball game heading into the All-Star break saw the Cubs splitting a four-game series with the St. Louis Cardinals. Since the broadcast was carried on ESPN, viewers missed Green Day singing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" during the seventh inning stretch.

But apparently the Bay Area punk rockers had such a good time at Wrigley Field that they added the tune to the repertoire. Hey, if there's room for a rock opera, there's room for a little baseball ditty. YouTube user "dingster89" has been kind enough to upload a clip of Green Day performing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" before "Brain Stew" at Chicago's United Center. Not sure if Green Day was root-root-rootin' for the San Francisco Giants or the Oakland A's here, as the band was drowned out by the pro-Cub crowd.

-- Todd Martens

Grizzly Bear roars onto the pop chart, as Eminem holds at No. 1

Despite leaking to the Web in March, the latest from much-hyped Brooklyn indie-rock quartet Grizzly Bear has made a top 10 debut on the U.S. pop charts. The band's first-week sales of 33,000 copies are in a distant universe from the numbers tallied by the likes of Eminem and Green Day, but in today's depressed sales climate, that's more than enough for the chamber-pop of "Veckatimest" to land at No. 8.

Since hitting the file-sharing networks, Warp Records' "Veckatimest" has been hyped as one of the year's stronger indie rock efforts, receiving rave reviews from this publication, the Chicago Tribune, popular Web-zine Pitchfork and  Rolling Stone, among many others. The band members pleaded with fans to buy the album, despite admitting on their blog that they had "conflicting opinions" about file-sharing.

"Veckatimest" gives  Grizzly Bear its best sales week by far. The group's sophomore effort, "Yellow House," was released in 2006 and has sold 55,000 copies to date. Of the 33,000 copies sold of "Veckatimest," a relatively high number came in the form of digital download purchases -- a reflection of the band's Web-savvy fan base or perhaps Amazon.com's loss-leading first-week price of $3.99. A total of 13,000 digital albums were purchased.

A strong number of "Veckatimest's" first-week sales came from the independent sector. Billboard's chart analyst Ketih Caulfield writes that 24% were made at independent and small chain outlets. Not unexpectedly, Grizzly Bear also performed well in the ever-burgeoning vinyl market, selling 4,000 LPs  in the first week.

At the top of the chart, it's all Eminem, Green Day and Miley Cyrus. It won't be known until next week whether Eminem will receive a sales-boost from his MTV Movie Awards appearances. For now, he's   withstood a major second-week drop-off to hold at No. 1

Eminem scores 2009's best debut, and who's the fairest 'Idol' of them all?*

Eminem hasn’t had any trouble generating headlines since he announced that he’d be unleashing a new album late last year. On “Relapse,” he’s taking shots at Mariah Carey and getting graphic when rapping about “Hannah Montana,”  which almost guarantees that the rapper will continue to be a media obsession.

But does his pop culture outlaw act still generate album sales? First-week returns for Aftermath/Interscope’s “Relapse” indicate Eminem’s audience has diminished slightly, but it’s still a sizable one. “Relapse” sold 608,000 copies in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan, giving the artist the largest debut of 2009 and best first week since AC/DC’s “Black Ice” arrived with 784,000 copies last October, according to Billboard.

Overall album sales have diminished significantly from Eminem’s height in the late ‘90s and the start of the new decade, when it was expected that an album bearing his name would top first-week sales of 1 million copies. Lil Wayneaccomplished the feat last year with his Cash Money/Universal album “Tha Carter III,” and Eminem can still generate plenty of attention, but not that kind of heat.

When last we heard from the rapper, his late 2004 effort  “Encore” was able to sell 711,000 copies in just three days. The album was released off-cycle on a Friday, and in its first full week in stores it went on to sell 871,000 copies. The album’s 10-day total topped 1.5 million copies sold, a tally Eminem probably won’t reach in the coming weeks.

To date, AC/DC’s “Black Ice” (Columbia) has sold about 2 million copies. As for 2009’s other blockbuster albums, they’re still struggling to top the 1 million mark. U2’s “No Line on the Horizon” (Interscope) opened strong, tallying 484,000 copies in its first week, and is getting closer to the seven-figure mark, having sold 902,000 copies to date.

Kelly Clarkson’s “All I Ever Wanted” (RCA) won rave reviews and debuted with 255,000 copies sold but has petered out at around 581,000 copies. Disney’s soundtrack to “Hannah Montana: The Movie” opened lower, with 139,000 copies sold in its first week, but has since taken off, and now stands at 952,000 and should top 1 million sold in the next two weeks.

Last week’s topper, Green Day’s Reprise set “21st Century Breakdown,” brought in 166,000 copies in its first full week in stores. It sold 215,000 copies in a shortened sales week, having been released on a Friday, and stands with a 10-day total of 381,000 copies sold.

Aside from Eminem, the other big sales news this week comes from “American Idol.”  In the battle between Adam Lambert and Kris Allen fans, both sects can claim a victory of sorts this week.

Green Day ignites music retail

A shaky transition from CDs to digital downloads casts a shadow on the start of music retailers' big summer season.

Leave it to brash punk-pop icons Green Day to inject some much-needed life into the U.S. pop charts. The band's latest concept-driven collection for Reprise/Warner Bros., "21st Century Breakdown," which was released off-cycle on a Friday rather than the typical Tuesday, sold 214,000 copies through Sunday, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

The figure is close to what the group's previous album, 2004's critically acclaimed "American Idiot," sold in a full week -- that Grammy-Award winning effort opened with 267,000 copies and has sold 5.9 million to date.

Green Day's album marks the unofficial start of what will be a busier summer season for music retailers -- with new material from major artists such as the Black Eyed Peas, Dave Matthews Band, the Jonas Brothers and Lil Wayne on tap -- and it can't come fast enough, as far as beleaguered merchants are concerned.

Total sales for the first few months of 2009 stand at 136.4 million, down from 157.4 million a year ago and 177.1 million in 2007. In perhaps even more distressing news, although digital album sales have grown, the pace has slowed. Through the sales week that ended Sunday, SoundScan reports, consumers purchased 28.9 million digital albums in 2009.

Read more Green Day ignites music retail

First tracks: Blink-182's tour, Daughtry returns, Green Day's download prices

- On the day Green Day releases its second rock opera with "21st Century Breakdown" and hours before No Doubt kicks off a major summer tour, another veteran pop-punk band has announced its comeback tour dates.

Blink-182 will hit the Los Angeles area on Sept. 17 with a date in Irvine, reports Billboard. Yet those expecting to hear all the new songs that bassist/singer Mark Hoppus has been tweeting about may be a little out of luck. Blink-182's manager, Rick Devoe, cutely tells Billboard's Mitchell Peters that "the word on the street is that this tour is about the hits."

Also in Blink news, the band performed last night at a private party in Los Angeles (Pop & Hiss' invite musta got lost in the mail), and Idolator has one of the poorly-shot cellphone clips.

- Speaking of Green Day, those looking to buy a digital edition of the band's "21st Century Breakdown" (it's good, trust us) can choose between a $4.99 download on Amazon.com or a $14.99 download from Apples iTunes store. But the Amazon price appears to be one day only, so make your decision quick.

- Melinda Newman at HitFix spent some time palling around with "American Idol" vet Chris Daughtry this week (Pop & Hiss' invite musta got lost in the mail). She was on the set of the video shoot for his new single, "No Surprise." Daughtry performed the mid-tempo tune on "American Idol" this week, and it's already at No. 15 on the U.S. pop chart. Newman writes of the video shoot, "The scene resembles a cross between the moon, some kind of modern sculpture and the opening of "Casino Royale" where the Daniel Craig-era James Bond is fighting one of the bad guys and jumping from beam to beam."

-- Todd Martens

Photo: Mark Hoppus of Blink-182 performs in Los Angeles last night. Credit: Getty Images

Album review: Green Day's '21st Century Breakdown'

The punk trio takes a dazzling musical journey in their latest concept album.

One of the many very sticky songs from Green Day's new opus, "21st Century Breakdown," got stuck in my head the other day. It was "The Static Age," a bouncy little number named after a rant by New Jersey punk elders the Misfits. Green Day's ditty doesn't sound at all like that other "Static Age." Instead of being sludgy and hard, it's peppy, with a big kick-drum beat, machine-gun guitars and a melody that . . . reminded me of something.

What was it? Perhaps one of the inspirations the band and its critical supporters have mentioned -- like Queen, Bruce Springsteen or the Who? Or maybe the original writers of the Green Day playbook, the Beatles?

No, it was Buddy Holly. The looping melody of "The Static Age" brought me back to the hiccup-prone rocker's 1957 song "Everyday."

This sonic link to the dawn of rock and roll provides a useful corrective to the gravity with which some fans have greeted Green Day's maturation into the concept-loving champions of album-oriented rock. When Holly was first crafting his relentlessly inventive songs, the divide hadn't yet arisen between good-time music and stuff that qualified as art. Creativity was something that happened in your basement, it was a big plus if it sold, and it didn't need to trumpet itself: rock and roll's innovations were bright, shiny and easy to love.

Punk, the movement to which Green Day still claims fealty, had many agendas, but one was to strip away pretenses and get back to the snappy, confrontational fun of early rock. That attitude is what made Green Day a good band in the first place, and it's still what puts it a cut above the rest with an album that will surely earn its spot among the top rock offerings of the year.

Green Day’s ‘21st Century Breakdown’: Reasons to be excited

With 2004’s “American Idiot,” Green Day essentially rebooted its career. The band jettisoned the increasingly tepid mid-tempo pop it had been favoring for a more topical concept album, and once again found some rock ‘n’ roll fire.

Before any music had been publicly released from its follow-up, word came earlier this year that Green Day was turning “American Idiot” into a musical. Then tidbits regarding “21st Century Breakdown,” due Friday, hit the press, and there were reasons to be skeptical. Designed as a three-part rock opera, there was the immediate fear that Green Day was responding to the wild success of “American Idiot” by getting even more bloated.

At 19 tracks and more than an hour in length, “21st Century Breakdown” is not the most accessible of mainstream rock albums. But amazingly, it often feels sleeker than its predecessor. The band doesn’t needlessly dress up songs with bombastic orchestrations, and Green Day arguably sounds more potent than ever.

Is it better than “American Idiot”? Pop & Hiss will need to wait until it can divorce the album from its pre-release stream to make that call, but it’s no less ambitious, and there are multiple reasons to explore it.

'Heart Like a Hand Grenade' fuses punk rock antics with superstar vision

“Heart Like a Hand Grenade,” John Roecker’s raw, irreverent documentary about the creation of Green Day’s blockbuster album “American Idiot,” is about as intimate a look at the band’s creative process and personal dynamic as any fan has a right to expect.

"It’s like a home movie, but with a really talented family,” Roecker said at the premiere last night at Hollywood’s Egyptian Theatre, where more than 400 Green Day fans were treated to posters, T-shirts and a glimpse at the inner workings of Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt and Tre Cool as they recorded their blistering breakthrough "American Idiot." It’s hard to imagine how Green Day could top that album's success, or political fire, but they will try when “21st Century Breakdown” hits stores on May 15. The album’s first single, “Know Your Enemy,” will be available digitally next month.

Roecker is not your typical filmmaker, and “Heart Like a Hand Grenade” is the punk-rock polar opposite of the slick multimillion-dollar concert film “Bullet in a Bible,” released by Warner Bros. on DVD in 2005. It’s gritty and crude, and scenes of the band playing and joking around are intercut with scenes from old movies as diverse as Bob Fosse’s “Sweet Charity” and the silent “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” starring John Barrymore (who receives a winking screen credit at the end of “Heart Like a Hand Grenade”).