Pope of Pop

Prince has over the years released more than 20 albums, several live recordings, tons of singles and music vidoes. And he’s not ready to quit yet.

According to Los Angeles Times he’s planning to release three new albums this year. The first one is the electro-flavored ‘MPLSOUND’ featuring rapper Q-Tip. Next up is ‘Lotus Flower’ and ‘Elixir’.

Back in the 1980’s Prince was one of the three most influential artists along with Madonna and Michael Jackson. Last year they all turned 50. In the 1990’s he changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol, just to change it back to Prince a few years later.

Though we haven’t seen much of Prince on the charts lately, he has always been very active. The excentric multi-instrumentalist lives and works in his colorful Paisley Park studios in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he records most of his music and performs live.

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When the 51st annual Grammy Awards Show takes place on February 8, 2009, Coldplay could win the Song Of The Year Grammy for ‘Viva La Vida’.

No doubt it’s a great song, but there is one problem: The song resembles the instrumental melody ‘If I Could Fly’ by Joe Satriani so much that it could be plagiarism. Satriani believes Coldplay has ripped off his song, and he has filed a lawsuit against Coldplay.

Coldplay rejects it with a statement on the band’s website saying: If there are any similarities between our two pieces of music, they are entirely coincidental. But maybe Satriani has a case against Coldplay.

First of all it’s ridiculous to think that Coldplay never heard Satriani’s ‘If I Could Fly’. Satriani’s song is only four years old, and it’s not like Satriani is some strange Serbian street musician.

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For the first time in 51 years, the same song appears at both No. 1 and No. 2 on the UK chart.

After Alexandra Burke won the British X Factor with a cover of Jeff Buckley’s version of ‘Hallelujah’, she hit the top of the chart, QTheMusic.com reports.

Jeff Buckley’s own 1994 version of the Leonard Cohen song tops the same chart at No. 2. ‘Hallelujah’ is featured on Buckley’s album, ‘Grace’. He drowned in 1997.

If two of the same song on the chart wasn’t enough, Leonard Cohen’s original recording from his 1984 album ‘Various Positions’ appears at No. 36.

According to QTheMusic.com, this hasn’t happened since 1957 when Tommy Steele and Guy Mitchell held the top two positions with ‘Singin’ The Blues’.

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Once pop and rock artists had simple names like The Beatles, Led Zeppelin and Metallica. However, the trend for the latest decade have been, the weirder band names the better.

Rock acts with weird band names have always popped up now and then. The Smashing Pumpkins, Velvet Underground and The The are just a few, but 2008 has been ‘the longer and weirder the better’. A.V. Club has taken stock of this year in band names.

Some of them are ridiculous, others are just long, and some are actually poetically funny like Funk In The Trunk.

A.V. Club lists the band names in several categories. Here’s a pick from the huge list.

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One of the most legendary chords of all time has been disassembled. It’s the opening chord of ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ by The Beatles, and it took a mathematics professor to tear it apart.

It’s one of the most recognizable and famous chords ever, the chang that opens ‘A Hard Days Night’. George Harrison is playing his 12 string Rickenbacker, but actually four instruments make up the chord.

Professor Jason I. Brown from the Dalhousie University in Canada has dissected the chord using computer software. This way he could analyze the sound frequencies bit by bit.

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South African singer and political activist Miriam Makeba died yesterday evening after a concert in Italy. She was 76.

She was being taken ill after the concert and brought to a hospital near Naples. She died later Sunday night of a heart attack.

Makeba lived in Italy for several years. She was deeply involved with the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa and was forced to exile in 1959. She didn’t return until 1990 after Nelson Mandela was released from prison.

She was the first black African singer to win a Grammy Award and became world-wide famous for her addictive hit ‘Pata Pata’ from 1966.

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