Highest Paid Musicians for 2012

We never thought we see Take That cracking the top 5. Well done lads

Cyber Gazing

Dr. Dre, known for hits like “Nuthin’ But a G Thang,” “I Need a Doctor,” “Still D.R.E.” and “California Love,” tops Forbes‘ new list of The World’s 25 Highest-Paid Musicians — largely due to the success of his Beatsbydre headphones line which he sold for a reported $100 million.

#2 Roger Waters

#3 Elton John

#4 U2

#5 Take That

#6 Jon Bon Jovi

#7 Britney Spears

#8 Paul McCartney

#9 Taylor Swift

#10 Justin Bieber

Click here to review the full list of 25 from Forbes

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Viral Video of the Week-‘The Big Bang Theory’ flashmob to ‘Call Me Maybe’

Haha, this video made our entire week. When we first watched this video, we didnt know what to expect but we were cracking up all the way through the video. Who would have thought that Penny, Raj,Sheldon, Leonard and Howard had it in them to pull this off genius dance routine. Forget they are dancing to one of the most annoying songs of all time. Just sit back and admire the sheer audacity of ‘The Big Bang Theory’ crew

MySpace Vs Spotify- Can MySpace make a successful comeback?

      Vs. 

The big news this week is the announcement of MySpace throwing their hat into the music streaming ring. The ‘original’ social networking site is being re-branded and re-vamped as a music streaming site looking to compete with the current king of the music streaming world: Spotify. MySpace is trying to raise $50 million to finance next year’s relaunch in an attempt to attract investors with a new design interface and backing from global superstar Justin Timberlake. Timberlake, who partially funded the $35 million purchase of mySpace from Newscorp, has stated that he is ‘excited to revitalise MySpace by using its social media platform to bring artists and fans together in one community’. The new MySpace hopes to become a central hub for music fans allowing them to listen to music, watch videos and share cool stuff.  The company intends to spend $10 million on advertisement alone and plans to launch a mobile phone app allowing users to subscribe to their music streaming services. MySpace has alreadly claimed to have an advantage over its major rival Spotify in terms of the number of tracks in its music catalogue.MySpace claims to have 42 million songs on offer compared to Spotify’s 15 million songs. However Spotify has built up a userbase of 23 million users around the world.

In short, the battlelines have been drawn for supremacy of the music streaming world. Will mySpace be able to make one of the greatest comebacks and dethrone Spotify as the no.1 music streaming service? Only time will tell! However it is going to be a wild and exciting time for music lovers all over the world.  Let battle commence!

We would like to hear your opinions and views on this story. Please feel free to leave a reply and reblog it!

             

Magic Mike DVD Review

How can you turn a story of a male stripper into a major success at the box office?

First of all you deliver the plot to the crafty hands of a director such as Steven Soderbergh. Second, you choose a ridiculously hot actor  named Channing Tatum as the main character and hint at the fact that the story is inspired by his real life story as a stripper.  The girls will be seized!
So here we go: The plot revolves around a male stripper with a heart of gold known as Mike (Channing Tatum) who takes under his wings a young, penniless and good looking guy called Adam aka The Kid (Alex Pettyfer). Mike introduces him to the glamorous world of  male stripping and to his fellows peers: Dallas, the boss played by Matthew McCounaghey, Ben (Matt Bomer), Big Dick Richie (Joe Manganiello), Tito (Alex Rodriguez) and Tarzan (Kevin Nash). The Kid (aka Adam, aka Alex Pettyfer) soon finds out the best and worst sides of the job.
Designed to arouse women, the movie doesn’t offer more than the astonishing dance performances of Channing Tatum. The story line is sometime too slow and dull with no interesting turning  points. Warning, what follows is a spoiler! The Kid loses himself in the sinful environment and Tatum finally gets the girl after being used and left heartbroken. Predictable and pointless, you will be left slightly disappointed by the clever director of Erin Brockovich, Out of Sight and the Ocean’s trilogy.

Sorry Americans you take this stuff too seriously. Watching Magic Mike will probably make you regret not been entertained by the 1997 UK comedy The Full Monty. Way more fun!

 

Magic Mike is released on Blu-ray and DVD on the 26th November

We recommend you rent it rather than buy it!

Rihanna’s road so far- A revisit of her six studio albums (Part 1)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It seems ages ago when a young, ambitious 17-year old by the name of Robyn Rihanna Fenty introduced herself onto the music scene with her debut single Pon de Replay. Since releasing her debut single in 2005, Rihanna has never looked back as her career has gone from strength from strength evolving into a female pop icon. She has become one of the best selling artists of all time, with over 25 million albums and 60 million digital singles sold worldwide. She has become the most liked celebrity on Facebook with over 62 million likes.  She has also been named as one of the most influential people in the world in 2012 according to Time magazine. In anticipation of her seventh album Unapologetic due on the 19th November, the Songmaker team have decided to revisit her previous work depicting her evolution from a fresh-faced, innocent 17-year old into the controversial & sexy pop icon we all know and love!

 

The Beginning

 Music of the Sun

Released: August 29, 2005

Chart peak: UK: No. 35, US: No.10

Singles: Pon De Replay,  If It’s Lovin that you want, You Don’t Love Me (No No No)  

 

Rihanna’s debut album can be considered her most mellow offering though its infectious, carribean charm still shines bright like a diamond (pun intended!) 7 years on. The lead single ‘Pon de Replay’ remains a hypnotical, body pumping dance anthem with it’s infectious clap beats which debuted at no.2 on the USA billboard and UK singles chart.The follow up single ‘ If It’s loving that you want’ failed to match success of it’s predecessor receiving only moderate success on the charts, peaking at No.36 and No.11 on the U.S chart and U.K chart respectively. However, the track remains a catchy, tropical dancehall song with it’s island-flecked guitar riffs. Other tracks such such as You Don’t Love Me (No No No)offers a slice of cool reggage-inspired music. That La, La, La’ and ‘Rush’ also allowed Rihanna to showcase her potential as pop’s newest talent over dutty wine rhythms.

 

A Girl Like Me

Released: April 24, 2006

Singles: ‘SOS’, ‘Unfaithful’, ‘We ride it’, ‘Break it off’

Chart peak: UK: No.5, U.S: No.5

 

After a mere 8 months since the release of her sophomore  album, Riri released her second album entitled ‘A girl like me’. For this album, Rihanna employed a more elite team of producers such as JR Rotem who produced Rihanna’s first  U.S no.1 single: SOS. SOS’S electro dance-pop inspired sound and unique sampling of ‘Tainted love’  brought a fresh and dynamic sound to the charts. The album also featured the powerful,melodramatic ballad Unfaithful which remains one of Rihanna’s signature songs on her tours to this day. Tracks such as ‘Crazy Little Thing called love’ and ‘Selfish Girl’ maintains the same Bajan flavour of her debut album , but the material on A Girl Like me contained more stronger material and pointed to a much brighter future for the Bajan beauty.

 

Evolution into a Popstar

Good Girl Gone Bad

Released: June 4,2007

Singles: ‘Umbrella’, ‘Shut Up and Drive’, ‘Hate that I love you’,’Don’t stop the music’

Chart peak: U.K:No.1, U.S: No.2

 

Riri’s third album: Good Girl Gone Bad was the springboard for Rihanna’s ascent into pop stardom. The lead single off the track ‘Umbrella’ proved to be a mega hit, topping the charts in 8 countries worldwide and becoming one of the best single singles of all time with over 6.6 million copies sold worldwide. The huge success of Umbrella propelled Rihanna into fully-fledged popstardom announcing herself on the world music stage. Her follow-up single ‘Shut Up and Drive’ brought out the inner rock chick in Rihanna accompanied by sassy quips and car-skidding effects. The third single off the album’Don’t Stop the music’ was a commerical and critical success becoming a instant dancefloor classic cleverly incorporating the hook “Mama-say, mama-sa, ma-ma-ko-ssa” from the Michael Jackson classic ‘Wanna be startin’ somethin’. Girl Gone Bad also offered more slow, silky ballads such as ‘Hate that I love you’ penned by Ne-Yo and StarGate and ‘Breakin Dishes’ which was a strutting ode to female empowerment showing that you wont find Rihanna slaving over the kitchen sink!

Thats all we have time for now but don’t worry folks, check out our next blog entry over the weekend for Part.2 of Rihanna’s road. In Part 2, we be charting Rihanna’s evolution from a  popstar into the controversial, sexy pop icon we all know her for today.

Alicia Key’s new music video: Girl on fire (Inferno version)-ft. Nicki Minaj

The ever-beautiful and ever-talented Ms. Alicia Keys is back with a bang with her fifth album ‘Girl On Fire’.  Fresh off her marriage to producer Swiss Beatz and giving birth to her first baby Egypt, Alicia Keys is back with her title single Girl On Fire (Inferno version) featuring Nicki Minaj. This midtempo R&B single features big, hard drum beats in the background adding a edginess and rawness to the track marking a new and exciting direction from Alicia Key’s previous work. The result: A catchy and powerful comeback single from Alicia Keys. In short, we love it!

Songmaker’s Official Top 10 Chart-5th November to 12th November

In this week’s Songmaker chart, it is  Emma Carey who has remained supreme as the queen at the top of the chart for the fifth week running with her rendition of On My Own from the classic musical Les Miserables. The rest of the chart remains relatively unchanged from last week with no new entries in this week’s chart.

Below is the rest of our official Songmaker top 10 chart:

1. Emma Carey-On My Own (From Lis Miserables)
2. B-Angel (Sarah Mclachlan cover)
3. Paul J-Lovely Day (Bill Withers cover)
4. B-Underneath (Adam Lambert)
5. Harriet Roper- I Have Nothing (Whitney Houston cover)
6. Mike Greenhalgh- Your Song (Elton John cover)
7. Reanna Marshall-  Wherever You Go (Charlene Soraia cover)
8. Sam- Bubbly (Colbie Caillat cover)
9. Up Down Go Machine-Curse of the S.S.S
10. Emma Pearson Music- Time To Say Goodbye (Katherine Jenkins cover)

Head over to our Songmaker official chart website to listen to all the songs featured on our chart: http://www.theofficialchart.co.uk/

Your Sister’s Sister DVD Review

The most unconventional triangle you can imagine: you, your best friend and your sister. This is what the amazingly talented Emily Blunt has to come across in Lynn Shelton newest movie. A caring Iris (Emily Blunt) send her friend Jack (Mark Duplass) to her parents’ cabin, in order to let him recovering from his emotional struggles on the occasion of the anniversary of his brother’s death. However, the remote sanctuary is been occupied by Iris’s sister, Hannah (Rosemarie DeWitt), who tries to move on after a seven-year relationship break up. So, the spot become a bit crowded when Iris shows up to surprise Jack. He and Hannah share an awkward little secret to keep: they had sex after a very alcoholic night chat.

The truthfully and sharply funny dialogues are the best part of this skilfully directed romantic comedy. The well-explored characters lead us in journey into human being’s meaningful emotions: sorrow, doom, regret, romance and, of course, sisterhood.

Amusing performances made by the three actors. The star of The Young Victoria and Devil Wears Prada, knows how to overcome the genre brilliantly. She is the perfect choice for this glowing and witty character. Blunt and DeWitt together are like real sisters, sharing the same bed as they always did such thing, fighting badly and then making up with a simple gesture. Mark Duplass, already directed by Shelton in Humpday, has some terrific reaction shots that will make you laugh without a doubt. Duplass, who got his way through the film industry thanks to several shorts, also has a thing for music. He used to be singer and keyboarder of the American indie-rock band “Volcano I’m Still Excited!”.

A pleasant experience, from the beginning to the end, for Shelton’s fifth work behind the camera. The director’s deep understanding of human behaviours enrich the plot and leave us with some reflections to do. After you cross the line between friend-zone and lovers there’s not an easy way back.

She is filming at the moment Touchy Feely, a drama where we will see again Rosemarie DeWitt joined by the Golden Globe Awards winner Ellen Page.