Morning Music Notes – Start of Year Slump Edition
Happy New Year everyone. I hope you woke up in a ditch somewhere warm – I’m talking about today, not on New Years Day. Did anything exciting happen in the music world over the holidays? No! Read below to find out.
Bloc Party to Release New Album – With Kele Okereke
2011 did not end well for both Bloc Party and Kele Okereke. Kele thought he was kicked out of Bloc Party. This was denied, and then confirmed to be true. But like that crazy girl who stares at your bedroom window from the sidewalk below, sometimes you just can’t get rid of someone that easily. It has been confirmed that Bloc Party will be releasing new material with former and now current lead singer, Kele Okereke (via Gigwise). The album will be released later this year, and will hopefully not suck.
UK Album Sales are Doooooooown
It appears Britain’s album sales have followed the trend of my bank account and have seen a steady decline. 2011 marked the seventh straight year of declining album sales in the UK (via NME). However, digital sales went up, which surprises me as much as Russell Brand and Katy Perry’s divorce (hint: not much).
“According to the British Recorded Music Industry (BPI) – via The Guardian – last year album sales fell by 5.6% to 113.2 million. This is down from a peak of 163.4 million back in 2004.”
“Digital album sales actually rose by 26.6% to 26.6 million, but CD album sales dropped by 12.6% to 86.2 million. Even so, CD is still the UK’s most popular format to purchase music, with a 76.1% share of the market, with 23.5% on digital and 0.3% on vinyl.”
The biggest seller – have you been paying attention? – is Adele, with 3.8 million copies. Adele also had the number 1 played song on Spotify in 2011, with Rolling in the Deep (via Gigwise). Adele has it all (or is it “could have had it all”) – except an ultra cool blog. Take your millions and cry at THAT little fact, missy.
The Top 10 most played tracks of 2011 on Spotify, which makes me fear for the future of rock music, are:
1. Adele – ‘Rolling In The Deep’
2. Bruno Mars – ‘Grenade’
3. Rihanna – ‘S&M’
4. Jessie J feat. B.o.B – ‘Price Tag’
5. Jessie J – ‘Do It Like A Dude’
6. LMFAO – ‘Party Rock Anthem’
7. Adele – ‘Make You Feel My Love’
8. Rihanna feat. Drake – ‘What’s My Name?’
9. Rihanna – ‘Only Girl In The World’
10. Katy Perry – ‘Firework’
Nice Pay Day for Jay-Z and Kanye West
The “already richer than me and 5 generations of my family will ever be” Jay-Z and Kanye West made a sweet little pay day over the holidays, playing a gig in Dubai (via Hip Hop DX). The owner of the shitty football club, Manchester City, Sheikh Mansour paid $6 to have them perform at his sister’s 16th birthday party. Sweet 16 indeed! All I got was some drunken clown who kept hitting on my mom. The clown did look a little like my dad though.
The gig was performed in front of a packed crowd in Dubai, who could relate to all of the Mercedes and bling lyrics. I’m basing this on my image of everyone in Dubai being an oil billionaire.
Pink Floyd to Reunite at 2012 Olympics? Likely a Typical British Media Rumour
Pink Floyd split under vicious conditions decades ago. However, they reunited in 2005 for the charity Live 8 event. “Sources” (read: people who want to sell newspapers / drive up web traffic) are saying that the Olympics are about as big an event as it gets, and why would Pink Floyd NOT play them (via Express). Sound logic (sarcasm alert!), but it would be pretty wild if they DID play.
Bono Told To Move On By Police for Busking in Dublin
In a headline that seems more fitting for the start of the 1980s and not the 2010s, U2 lead singer Bono was urged by police to move along from where he was busking, as they didn’t recognize him (via NME). Bono was out on Grafton Street in Dublin for a fundraising performance on Christmas Eve, joined by Damien Rice and Glen Hansard from the Frames. Things got sorted out (read: Bono bribed the police), and everyone had a merry night I’m sure. Check out some footage of the event down below.
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