Hangin' Out In 100b

Heee’s baaack. After much hoo-ha and spectulation in recent years, Chinese Democracy will finally rain down on waiting Guns N’ Roses fans beginning November 23. To carry the weight of the much-anticipated release – the first from the mega-band since Use Your Illusion in 1991 – Rolling Stone had David Fricke write the Chinese Democracy review. (Spoiler: He gives it 4/5 stars) Unless this’s a massive hoax and the sky crushes us all, Fricke reviewing the album looks like it means the thing is actually real. Now that it’s finally being released, doesn’t Axl Rose owe every American a Pepsi or Coke or something?

The upcoming Britney Spears single has been leaked on the Intertubes. Not sure if this is one of those (cough) official (cough) leaks (wink wink nudge nudge), but you can have a listen to “Kill The Lights” here. A bit of modern Madonna with considerably more gooey bubblegum pop goodness slathered on top.

You’ve seen them in stores and have probably purchased one or two of them (or, erm, copied one from a friend) in the past decade or so (depending on where you live). Here is a nice relatively brief New York Times write-up about those Now That’s What I Call Music compilation CDs capturing the zeitgeist of pop music in the U.K. and U.S.

If you’re already at the New York Times for the Now CD story, check out an interesting article about country music (pop country not Johnny Cash country) phenom Taylor Swift and her ability to break country music trends and barriers, particularly in her young age group.

It’s poetry kid. Hip Hop Speaks to Children: A Celebration of Poetry With a Beat become a bonafide hit, at least in the children’s picture book genre. And who wouldn’t want to check out a book and CD that speaks to children through the words of Mos Def, Kanye West, Common, Maya Angelou, Nikki Giovanni. You can find the book all over the place, including Amazon.

And, finally, off topic, what’s up with the news on the MTV site? I know this a beating a dead horse, but seriously. Okay, I agree that – if we’re trawling for news in a 24-hour news cycle – a semi-nude photo of yet another Disney good girl, Adrienne Bailon could be news, if you stretch it far it enough. (That’s a link to the story, not the photo.) But, what’s up with the inserted sidebar right in the middle of the story – The 10 Best Boobs In Hollywood Gallery – with the enticing ploy of seeing if we can guess who’s boobs are who’s? If you thought that was hitting rock bottom. At the end of the Bailon story is a list of Other Sex Tape News. This is the state of music journalism at MTV.