Tagged: hitlist

Filed under: The Hit List Christina Aguilera 's new movie, ' Burlesque ,' continues a long tradition, from ' Jailhouse Rock ' to ' Purple Rain ' to ' The Bodyguard ,' of singers starring in movies for which they also dominate the soundtrack. Which got us thinking about singers who have defined the sound and spirit of an entire film without ever appearing onscreen. [...]

Filed under: The Hit List For musicians today, a box set has grown into a much more extravagant process than merely compiling a few albums and some unreleased material. Whether they are covering their collections in fur or placing them inside little cardboard coffins, artists have been developing all kinds of techniques in order to grab the attention of potential buyers. Check out our gallery below, which features some of the best, most unusual -- and, in some cases, most shocking -- box sets of all time! [...]

Filed under: The Hit List To follow up Spinner's Songs for Fall: 15 Awesomely Autumnal Tracks list, we've raked up fall song suggestions from our readers into one seasonal stack of musical autumn foliage. You called it! So here's your sequel of mostly golden oldies and a gusty surprise appearance by Gwen Stefani . The consensus: Fall is a good season for lovin' [...]

Filed under: The Hit List After exhausting the James Brown, Curtis Mayfield and Isaac Hayes archives, rap producers have found an unlikely new source for their samples: indie music. Whether it's Jay-Z biting from little-known soul revival outfits like the Menahan Street Band or Lupe Fiasco gettin' busy over Radiohead, indie rock is showing up on more hip-hop and R&B hits than Lil Wayne. Since Kanye [...]

Filed under: Concerts and Tours , The Hit List The CMJ Music Marathon hits New York City Oct. 19-23, with scheduled performances from Two Door Cinema Club, Surfer Blood, School of Seven Bells and hundreds more. But CMJ festival 2010 aside, NYC is an endless playground of neighborhoods, art, culture, food, drink, kookiness and, best of all, surprises. Here are 10 fun activities and events [...]

Filed under: Concerts and Tours , The Hit List , Free MP3 Download of the Day The CMJ Music Marathon first started in 1980 with a modest amount of artists taking part in the weeklong festivities. The New York festival officially turns 30 this year, and the CMJ 2010 lineup reflects this momentous occasion. This year, CMJ will have mote than 1,000 artists performing [...]

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Filed under: The Hit List Remember those nightmares that woke you up as a kid? So vivid and stomach-turning that you had to scurry down the hall and crawl into bed with your parents? These are the scary voices you were hearing -- many of which were suggested by you, the traumatized and terrified Spinner reader, via Facebook and Twitter . We pray [...]

Filed under: Concerts and Tours , The Hit List , Free MP3 Download of the Day For more than 30 years, 'Austin City Limits' has entertained TV viewers with live performances from their favorite musicians. Nearly a decade ago, the PBS series branched out beyond the constraints of viewers' living rooms to Austin's Zilker Park. The annual ACL Music Festival has established itself as [...]

Filed under: The Hit List Autumn -- it seems to catch us off guard every year. One minute we're slapping on sunscreen at the beach, and the next, we're barreling head first into fall, bidding adieu to flip-flops and backyard BBQs. It's hard not to feel a little blue trading in your summer wardrobe for long underwear and woolly sweaters, so in order to keep spirits [...]

Filed under: The Hit List Hundreds of music acts are set to convene Oct. 8-10 at Zilker Park in Austin, Texas, for the ninth annual Austin City Limits Music Festival . Normally, we'd make our own ACL "best of" picks, but we decided to ask longtime ' Austin City Limits ' executive producer Terry Lickona instead. His eyes and ears guide this premier PBS music [...]

Filed under: The Hit List There are more than 60 artists on Matador Records' 'Matador at 21' six-CD retrospective. There are 26 playing the New York indie label's birthday concerts in Las Vegas Oct. 1 through 3. When you've put out nearly a thousand records, not every band can make the cut. Every longtime Matador fan can name at least one artist that they wish was [...]

Filed under: The Hit List "Everything old is new again" is particularly applicable to popular music. However, that's not always a bad thing: Sometimes, a young upstart strikes you as the second coming of an iconic artist. And while it may seem clichéd to compare artists within gender lines, there's no denying that some of today's hottest female performers owe a great debt to their rock 'n' roll foremothers. The following 10 pairs prove that in the world of women in rock, history keeps repeating. [...]

Filed under: The Hit List Greed. Is. Good. These words were immortalized by Gordon Gekko (aka Michael Douglas) in Oliver Stone's 1987 money masterpiece, 'Wall Street.' And while they might disagree with the sentiment, many musicians have tackled the pursuit of cash in song -- whether it's about having lots of money, having no money, or the assertion that money is the root of all evil. [...]

Filed under: Video , The Hit List , Television Chances are, not too many people are humming the theme songs from 'The Mentalist' or 'Law & Order: SVU.' TV themes have so diminished in importance that many of them last only 15 seconds. Back when themes lasted closer to a minute, producers put more effort into procuring good songs. As a result, those songs [...]

Filed under: Video , The Hit List , Television A TV show's theme song has always been an integral part of the viewing experience. But now that classic openings like ' All in the Family ' and ' Cheers ' are gone, more and more full-time rock bands have had their songs featured on the small screen. In celebration of the fall TV season, [...]

Filed under: The Hit List With the long-awaited return of 'Glee' to TV, the question looms: What are they going to sing this season? If you're a Gleek, the possibilities dangle like luscious, tempting fruit. But if you, like Sue Sylvester, think the 'Glee' treatment destroys perfectly good songs, well, you really shouldn't be reading this. Here are the top 10 theme shows 'Glee' should tackle [...]

Filed under: The Hit List Our best music videos of 2010 list defies the notion that the music video is dead. Despite record labels slashing promotion budgets, the short-form music films continue to flourish, mostly due to the the creativity and artistic drive of forward-thinking artists. We may not see the likes of 'November Rain' these days, but there are plenty of brain-tickling treats out [...]

Filed under: The Hit List Francois Durand, Getty Images To celebrate the series premiere of ' Boardwalk Empire ' in North America (Sept. 19 on HBO), helmed by Martin Scorsese , we take a fond look back at the iconic director's best music sequences. Not from his documentaries (' No Direction Home: Bob Dylan '), concert films (' The Last Waltz '), music videos ( [...]

Filed under: The Hit List Countdowns like our Top 10 School Music Videos can be fun ... or infuriating, if your favorite jam clip didn't make the cut. With that in mind, here's another batch of A+ school-themed music videos, as enthusiastically suggested by Spinner readers. You guys are so getting extra credit participation points! [...]

Filed under: The Hit List It's college rankings time, so we've rated the top 20 universities for their matriculation of musicians. For example, bands like the Commodores (Tuskegee University), Talking Heads (Rhode Island School of Design), Pink Floyd (University of Westminster) and Hall and Oates (Temple University) have met while pursuing higher education. So even if you're not into that whole cracking the books thing, [...]