CHR/pop Update

TW	TW+	Artist and Title	Spins	Spin+	Bullet	Bullet+	Aud	Aud+	iTunes
1	=	PITBULL Give Me Everything f/N...	13505	+49	361	-39	93.049	+0.495	5
2	=	ADELE Rolling In The Deep	13309	-80	-605	+11	90.787	-0.600	7
3	=	LADY GAGA The Edge Of Glory	10951	+164	805	-5	62.566	+1.027	13
4	=	LMFAO Party Rock Anthem	10146	+190	1577	-97	68.649	+0.730	3/101
5	=	KATY PERRY E.T.	9376	-209	-771	-81	69.952	-1.760	41/76
6	=	BLACK EYED PEAS Just Can't Get...	8961	-136	-1056	+28	62.494	-0.439	38
7	=	BRUNO MARS Lazy Song	8726	-313	-2069	-153	42.033	-1.249	21
8	=	LUPE FIASCO The Show Goes On	8591	+58	328	+20	53.398	-0.061	30/124
9	=	KATY PERRY Last Friday Night (...	7908	+310	1972	+54	51.037	+2.077	4
10	=	JASON DERULO Don't Wanna Go Ho...	6824	+46	315	-49	36.191	+0.055	19
11	=	BRITNEY SPEARS Till The World ...	6478	-154	-1437	+47	42.515	-0.731	52/264
12	+1	NICKI MINAJ Super Bass	6315	+159	978	+18	38.186	+1.005	9
13	-1	HOT CHELLE RAE Tonight Tonight	6264	+55	616	-81	31.772	+0.411	10
14	=	ONEREPUBLIC Good Life	6119	+137	761	+69	34.289	+1.322	18
15	=	JENNIFER LOPEZ F/PITBULL On Th...	5057	-141	-1609	+121	36.123	-0.588	28
16	=	WIZ KHALIFA Roll Up	4456	-142	-467	-91	20.577	-0.773	56/241
17	=	SELENA GOMEZ & THE SCENE Who S...	4178	-131	-314	-86	21.012	-1.029	25
18	=	ENRIQUE IGLESIAS Dirty Dancer ...	3848	-21	61	-32	21.073	-0.452	45
19	+1	NICOLE SCHERZINGER Right There	3664	+94	671	-1	19.054	+0.173	66
20	-1	MARTIN SOLVEIG & DRAGONETTE He...	3637	-55	-351	-12	21.580	-0.128	53
21	+5	BRITNEY SPEARS I Wanna Go	3307	+241	1768	+24	23.785	+1.875	23
22	=	TAYLOR SWIFT The Story Of Us	3290	+7	73	-24	16.612	+0.027	103
23	-2	TINIE TEMPAH Written In The St...	3228	-94	-1148	+144	19.723	-0.429	84
24	-1	RIHANNA California King Bed	3221	+51	254	-14	14.512	-0.087	46
25	-1	DAVID GUETTA/FLO RIDA/NICKI M....	3171	+10	420	-66	15.450	+0.285	31
26	-1	THE BAND PERRY If I Die Young	3169	+41	429	-38	16.553	+0.138	32
27	=	JEREMIH Down On Me f/50 Cent	2597	-83	-410	-69	16.417	-0.339	78
28	=	BEYONCE Best Thing I Never Had	2591	+85	764	-37	13.539	+0.240	24/213
29	=	MAROON 5 Never Gonna Leave Thi...	2265	+51	235	+45	9.754	+0.287	64
30	=	CHRIS BROWN She Ain't You	1849	+80	383	+31	9.308	+0.229	57
31	=	LADY GAGA Born This Way	1769	+2	-1	+37	11.748	+0.225	80
32	=	LIL WAYNE How To Love	1647	+61	461	-12	8.945	+0.192	12
33	=	JENNIFER LOPEZ I'm Into You f/...	1491	+25	451	-51	7.386	+0.340	183
34	=	T-PAIN Best Love Song f/Chris ...	1338	+7	85	-16	6.425	-0.134	42
35	+1	AVRIL LAVIGNE Smile	1225	+24	204	-15	4.197	+0.071	217
36	-1	NEW BOYZ Back Seat f/Cataracs ...	1166	-64	-511	+4	7.111	-0.184	--
37	=	CHRIS BROWN Look At Me Now	976	-8	-273	+32	7.118	+0.016	40/234
38	=	IYAZ Pretty Girls	952	+13	48	-4	3.512	+0.094	85
39	=	CEE LO GREEN Bright Lights Big...	929	+4	135	-35	3.278	-0.042	140
40	=	COBRA STARSHIP You Make Me Fee...	890	+37	257	+6	3.151	+0.242	243
41	=	ALL TIME LOW I Feel Like Danci...	795	+7	200	-43	2.313	+0.034	--
42	=	BIG SEAN My Last f/Chris Brown	766	+14	143	+4	2.937	+0.238	83
43	=	COLDPLAY Every Teardrop Is A W...	663	+56	446	+5	2.747	+0.281	181
44	=	TRAIN Save Me San Francisco	541	+7	45	+3	2.067	+0.000	189
45	+1	BAD MEETS EVIL Lighters f/Brun...	517	+62	369	+34	2.398	+0.311	49
46	-1	AFROJACK Take Over Control f/E...	514	+27	195	+1	5.837	+0.266	171
47	+2	ANDY GRAMMER Keep Your Head Up	402	+26	134	+6	1.322	+0.112	--
48	-1	STEVEN TYLER (It) Feels So Goo...	401	-46	-347	-1	1.507	-0.070	252
49	-1	CODY SIMPSON On My Mind	393	+2	69	-20	1.313	+0.028	416
50	--	GYM CLASS HEROES Stereo Hearts f/Ad...	378	--	211	--	1.682	--	93

US Radio Update

TOP 10
.
1. ADELE - Rolling In The Deep: 166.565 (- 0.610)
2. PITBULL - Give Me Everything f/Ne-Yo: 140.100 (+ 0.234)
3. KATY PERRY - E.T.: 118.065 (- 1.994)
4. LMFAO - Party Rock Anthem: 101.897 (+ 1.634)
5. BLACK EYED PEAS - Just Can't Get Enough: 96.549 (- 0.574)
6. LADY GAGA - The Edge Of Glory: 91.925 (+ 1.854)
7. NICKI MINAJ - Super Bass: 83.970 (+ 1.842)
8. LUPE FIASCO - The Show Goes On: 80.445 (- 0.932)
9. BRUNO MARS - Lazy Song: 77.552 (- 1.605)
10. KATY PERRY - Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.): 67.703 (+ 3.000)
.
FILA
.
11. KELLY ROWLAND - Motivation f/Lil Wayne: 60.683 (+ 0.470) ▲
12. BRITNEY SPEARS - Till The World Ends: 59.441 (- 1.016) ▼
13. CHRIS BROWN - She Ain't You: 58.990 (+ 0.151)
14. BIG SEAN - My Last f/Chris Brown: 57.179 (+ 0.725)
15. LIL WAYNE - How To Love: 55.433 (+ 1.656) ▲
16. DJ KHALED - I'm On One f/Drake, Rick Ross: 54.577 (+ 1.029) ▲
17. BLAKE SHELTON - Honey Bee: 54.358 (- 0.225) ▼
18. ONEREPUBLIC - Good Life: 53.627 (+ 1.708) ▲
19. JENNIFER LOPEZ f/ PITBULL - On The Floor: 51.229 (- 0.805) ▼
20. THE SCRIPT - For The First Time: 51.129 (+ 0.645) ▲
.
OUTRAS
.
PINK - F**kin' Perfect (Perfect): 51.122 (+ 0.221)
MIGUEL - Sure Thing: 50.238 (+ 0.027)
JASON DERULO - Don't Wanna Go Home: 49.874 (+ 0.283)
TAYLOR SWIFT - Mean: 49.842 (- 1.067)
JUSTIN MOORE - If Heaven Wasn't So Far Away: 49.270 (+ 0.282)
JASON ALDEAN - Dirt Road Anthem: 48.853 (+ 0.250)
WIZ KHALIFA - Roll Up: 48.677 (- 1.240)
THE BAND PERRY - You Lie: 47.003 (+ 0.141)
LADY ANTEBELLUM - Just A Kiss: 41.701 (+ 0.536)
HOT CHELLE RAE - Tonight Tonight: 38.046 (+ 0.766)
MAROON 5 - Never Gonna Leave This Bed: 30.745 (+ 0.350)
RIHANNA - Man Down: 30.319 (+ 0.291)
TREY SONGZ - Unusual f/Drake: 30.275 (+ 0.399)
BRAD PAISLEY/CARRIE UNDERWOOD - Remind Me: 27.779 (+ 0.441)
BEYONCE - Best Thing I Never Had: 27.526 (+ 0.370)
BRITNEY SPEARS - I Wanna Go: 25.959 (+ 2.029)
ENRIQUE IGLESIAS - Dirty Dancer f/Usher/Lil Wayne: 25.583 (- 0.556)
MARTIN SOLVEIG & DRAGONETTE - Hello: 25.351 (- 0.079)
NICOLE SCHERZINGER - Right There: 22.717 (+ 0.210)
DAVID GUETTA/FLO RIDA/NICKI M. - Where Them Girls At: 22.508 (+ 0.271)
TAYLOR SWIFT - The Story Of Us: 21.676 (+ 0.058)
COLDPLAY - Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall: 20.117 (+ 0.468)
RIHANNA - California King Bed: 16.703 (- 0.083)
FOSTER THE PEOPLE - Pumped Up Kicks: 12.886 (+ 0.366)
JENNIFER LOPEZ - I'm Into You f/Lil Wayne: 10.508 (+ 0.291)
AVRIL LAVIGNE - Smile: 4.387 (+ 0.084)
SHANIA TWAIN - Today Is Your Day: 3.057 (+ 0.017)
MAROON 5 F/CHRISTINA AGUILERA - Moves Like Jagger: 1.561 (+ 0.152)
BLACK EYED PEAS - Don't Stop The Party: 1.076 

CHR/pop Update

TW	TW+	Artist and Title	Spins	Spin+	Bullet	Bullet+	Aud	Aud+	iTunes
1	+1	PITBULL Give Me Everything f/N...	13456	+54	400	-66	92.554	+0.230	5
2	-1	ADELE Rolling In The Deep	13389	-126	-616	-141	91.387	-0.506	7
3	=	LADY GAGA The Edge Of Glory	10787	+98	810	-109	61.539	+0.198	11
4	+1	LMFAO Party Rock Anthem	9956	+209	1674	-70	67.919	+0.938	3
5	-1	KATY PERRY E.T.	9585	-197	-690	-79	71.712	-1.465	39/73
6	+1	BLACK EYED PEAS Just Can't Get...	9097	-252	-1084	-123	62.933	-1.321	36
7	-1	BRUNO MARS Lazy Song	9039	-347	-1916	-264	43.282	-1.449	20
8	=	LUPE FIASCO The Show Goes On	8533	+90	308	+28	53.459	+0.347	30/125
9	=	KATY PERRY Last Friday Night (...	7598	+353	1918	+113	48.960	+2.583	4
10	+1	JASON DERULO Don't Wanna Go Ho...	6778	+42	364	-67	36.136	-0.289	18
11	-1	BRITNEY SPEARS Till The World ...	6632	-131	-1484	+92	43.246	-0.538	50/243
12	=	HOT CHELLE RAE Tonight Tonight	6209	+50	697	-67	31.361	+0.129	9
13	=	NICKI MINAJ Super Bass	6156	+130	960	-16	37.181	+0.907	8
14	=	ONEREPUBLIC Good Life	5982	+166	692	+69	32.967	+1.183	24
15	=	JENNIFER LOPEZ F/PITBULL On Th...	5198	-148	-1730	+114	36.711	-0.962	26
16	=	WIZ KHALIFA Roll Up	4598	-55	-376	-12	21.350	-0.477	55/228
17	=	SELENA GOMEZ & THE SCENE Who S...	4309	-55	-228	-44	22.041	-0.755	21
18	=	ENRIQUE IGLESIAS Dirty Dancer ...	3869	+8	93	+12	21.525	+0.004	40
19	=	MARTIN SOLVEIG & DRAGONETTE He...	3692	-104	-339	-141	21.708	-0.562	51
20	=	NICOLE SCHERZINGER Right There	3570	+83	672	+1	18.881	+0.283	66
21	=	TINIE TEMPAH Written In The St...	3322	-135	-1292	+91	20.152	-0.490	77
22	=	TAYLOR SWIFT The Story Of Us	3283	-8	97	+14	16.585	-0.292	101
23	=	RIHANNA California King Bed	3170	+57	268	+12	14.599	+0.000	46
24	=	DAVID GUETTA/FLO RIDA/NICKI M....	3161	+79	486	+28	15.165	+0.347	32
25	=	THE BAND PERRY If I Die Young	3128	+51	467	-42	16.415	+0.222	35
26	=	BRITNEY SPEARS I Wanna Go	3066	+246	1744	+56	21.910	+1.924	23
27	=	JEREMIH Down On Me f/50 Cent	2680	-93	-341	-75	16.756	-0.342	72
28	=	BEYONCE Best Thing I Never Had	2506	+105	801	+15	13.299	+0.663	28
29	=	MAROON 5 Never Gonna Leave Thi...	2214	+46	190	+41	9.467	+0.171	67
30	+1	CHRIS BROWN She Ain't You	1769	+69	352	+34	9.079	+0.532	57
31	-1	LADY GAGA Born This Way	1767	-8	-38	-17	11.523	+0.000	76
32	=	LIL WAYNE How To Love	1586	+89	473	+31	8.753	+0.243	10
33	=	JENNIFER LOPEZ I'm Into You f/...	1466	+74	502	+16	7.046	+0.300	186
34	=	T-PAIN Best Love Song f/Chris ...	1331	+10	101	-19	6.559	+0.041	43
35	=	NEW BOYZ Back Seat f/Cataracs ...	1230	-50	-515	+49	7.295	-0.076	--
36	=	AVRIL LAVIGNE Smile	1201	+37	219	+13	4.126	+0.130	230
37	=	CHRIS BROWN Look At Me Now	984	-21	-305	-11	7.102	-0.104	37/221
38	=	IYAZ Pretty Girls	939	+15	52	-6	3.418	+0.096	107
39	=	CEE LO GREEN Bright Lights Big...	925	+21	170	+17	3.320	+0.147	141
40	=	COBRA STARSHIP You Make Me Fee...	853	+36	251	+17	2.909	+0.315	270
41	=	ALL TIME LOW I Feel Like Danci...	788	+9	243	-35	2.279	-0.017	--
42	=	BIG SEAN My Last f/Chris Brown	752	+34	139	+10	2.699	+0.214	75
43	=	COLDPLAY Every Teardrop Is A W...	607	+66	441	+40	2.466	+0.262	147
44	=	TRAIN Save Me San Francisco	534	+0	42	-9	2.067	-0.005	202
45	+1	AFROJACK Take Over Control f/E...	487	+36	194	+28	5.571	+0.388	172
46	+1	BAD MEETS EVIL Lighters f/Brun...	455	+53	335	+38	2.087	+0.177	49
47	-2	STEVEN TYLER (It) Feels So Goo...	447	-44	-346	-14	1.577	-0.131	231
48	=	CODY SIMPSON On My Mind	391	+14	89	+8	1.285	+0.018	387
49	+1	ANDY GRAMMER Keep Your Head Up	376	+27	128	+17	1.210	+0.099	--
50	-1	JASON ALDEAN/KELLY CLARKSON Do...	362	+11	8	+6	1.077	+0.057	89

US Radio Update

TOP 10
.
1. ADELE - Rolling In The Deep: 167.175 (- 0.254)
2. PITBULL - Give Me Everything f/Ne-Yo: 139.866 (+ 0.238)
3. KATY PERRY - E.T.: 120.059 (- 2.157)
4. LMFAO - Party Rock Anthem: 100.263 (+ 1.540)
5. BLACK EYED PEAS - Just Can't Get Enough: 97.123 (- 1.282)
6. LADY GAGA - The Edge Of Glory: 90.071 (+ 1.151)
7. NICKI MINAJ - Super Bass: 82.128 (+ 1.988) ▲
8. LUPE FIASCO - The Show Goes On: 81.377 (- 0.169) ▼
9. BRUNO MARS - Lazy Song: 79.157 (- 1.462) ▼
10. KATY PERRY - Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.): 64.703 (+ 3.829) ▲
.
FILA
.
11. BRITNEY SPEARS - Till The World Ends: 60.457 (- 0.684) ▼
12. KELLY ROWLAND - Motivation f/Lil Wayne: 60.213 (+ 0.672)
13. CHRIS BROWN - She Ain't You: 58.839 (+ 1.101)
14. BIG SEAN - My Last f/Chris Brown: 56.454 (+ 0.201)
15. BLAKE SHELTON - Honey Bee: 54.583 (- 0.055)
16. LIL WAYNE - How To Love: 53.787 (+ 1.527) ▲
17. DJ KHALED - I'm On One f/Drake, Rick Ross: 53.548 (+ 1.150)
18. JENNIFER LOPEZ f/ PITBULL - On The Floor: 52.034 (- 1.200) ▼
19. ONEREPUBLIC - Good Life: 51.919 (+ 1.393)
20. TAYLOR SWIFT - Mean: 50.909 (- 0.896) ▼
.
OUTRAS
.
PINK - F**kin' Perfect (Perfect): 50.901 (- 0.342)
THE SCRIPT - For The First Time: 50.484 (+ 0.055)
MIGUEL - Sure Thing: 50.211 (+ 0.298)
JASON DERULO - Don't Wanna Go Home: 49.591 (- 0.085)
CHRIS BROWN - Look At Me Now: 48.928 (- 0.838)
JUSTIN MOORE - If Heaven Wasn't So Far Away: 48.988 (+ 0.122)
WIZ KHALIFA - Roll Up: 48.677 (- 1.240)
JASON ALDEAN - Dirt Road Anthem: 48.603 (+ 0.271)
THE BAND PERRY - You Lie: 46.862 (+ 0.321)
LADY ANTEBELLUM - Just A Kiss: 41.165 (+ 0.555)
HOT CHELLE RAE - Tonight Tonight: 37.280 (+ 0.330)
MAROON 5 - Never Gonna Leave This Bed: 30.395 (+ 0.335)
RIHANNA - Man Down: 29.928 (+ 0.249)
TREY SONGZ - Unusual f/Drake: 29.876 (+ 0.306)
BRAD PAISLEY/CARRIE UNDERWOOD - Remind Me: 27.338 (+ 0.496)
BEYONCE - Best Thing I Never Had: 27.156 (+ 1.232)
ENRIQUE IGLESIAS - Dirty Dancer f/Usher/Lil Wayne: 26.139 (- 0.018)
MARTIN SOLVEIG & DRAGONETTE - Hello: 25.430 (- 0.598)
BRITNEY SPEARS - I Wanna Go: 23.930 (+ 1.990)
NICOLE SCHERZINGER - Right There: 22.507 (+ 0.408)
DAVID GUETTA/FLO RIDA/NICKI M. - Where Them Girls At: 22.237 (+ 0.201)
TAYLOR SWIFT - The Story Of Us: 21.618 (- 0.308)
COLDPLAY - Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall: 19.649 (+ 0.598)
RIHANNA - California King Bed: 16.786 (+ 0.038)
FOSTER THE PEOPLE - Pumped Up Kicks: 12.520 (+ 0.241)
JENNIFER LOPEZ - I'm Into You f/Lil Wayne: 10.217 (+ 0.275)
AVRIL LAVIGNE - Smile: 4.303 (+ 0.158)
SHANIA TWAIN - Today Is Your Day: 3.040 (+ 0.077)
MAROON 5 F/CHRISTINA AGUILERA - Moves Like Jagger: 1.409 (+ 0.239)

The Black Eyed Peas Experience coming to Kinect & Wii

Don't stop the party. If you just can't get enough of Ubisoft's Just Dance, the time has come for... The Black Eyed Peas Experience.

Ubisoft made a surprise announcement over the weekend, revealing a brand new dance game for Kinect and Wii that features digital recreations of the band's members. The debut trailer shows some gameplay, and it looks to be very different from the engine used for Ubisoft's previous artist collaboration, Michael Jackson The Experience.

The game is currently pegged for a release later this year.

Beyonce Back Bigger Than Ever

SOME might consider 29 a little young to start worrying about their epitaph, but not Beyonce Knowles.


The US singer's contribution to music - long after she dies - has weighed heavily on her mind, particularly with her 30th birthday just months away in September.

"I feel that it's important that I start shaping my legacy and doing things that have a little more substance," Beyonce says.

"I want people to think when they listen to my music. I want it to help them through their painful memories, their painful moments, their most happy moments. I want it to bring out that happiness."

Not that the pop superstar should worry about her mark on the music world. She has sold in excess of 75 million albums and, in the process, has become one of the highest-selling singers ever.

After a year off work, Beyonce is well and truly back with her new album, 4, and a headline performance tonight at the Glastonbury music festival in the UK.

She'll also spend the coming months heavily promoting 4.

Behind the scenes, Beyonce says she has found an inner peace, relishing the fact that time out has helped establish a better perspective on work and life.

A self-confessed workaholic, Beyonce enjoyed not being on the clock, setting her own schedule.

"Taking time off was probably the best year of my life. I never thought I would say that because I love my job and I still worked. I can't help myself. I recorded 70 songs for my album but I did it on my own time.

"I didn't have any labels or any human telling me what I should be doing," she says.

"I was able to spend time with my family and pick my nephew up from school and sleep in my bed. I'm so happy I've done it and now I've learned that it's just necessary to have that time to yourself.

"I am hopefully going to continue to have the balance."

Starting as one third of the hugely successful girl group Destiny's Child, Beyonce has come a long way. She has 16 Grammy Awards to her name, with solo hits including Single Ladies, Halo and If I Were A Boy.

She rarely talks about her husband, Jay-Z, but admits he had something to do with selecting the album title, 4.

"Well, 4 is definitely the title because it's my fourth (solo) album," she explains.

"Also because it's been my favourite number since I was a kid. I was married on April 4, I was born on September 4, my husband was born on December 4, my mother was born on January 4.

"I've won a lot of money with the number 4 while gambling, which I don't do often, but it's just a really lucky number for me.

"Since this is the most personal album, I figured it was time to name it my favourite number."

While some may dismiss Beyonce as a pop star, she takes her job extremely seriously.

And she's determined to continue speaking for her fans, many of them female.

"I feel like my voice is way deeper than I could ever have imagined," she says.

"When I had women coming up to me saying, 'You know, I had to sneak to listen to your music, but it makes me feel strong and now I'm saving up my money and I'm moving away from here', it makes me feel like my purpose is so much deeper, so I'm gonna continue to write those songs that give women strength."

Predictable is not a word Beyonce wants used to describe her or her music. She wants to keep raising the bar.

"I feel like if people can predict your next move, it's just not interesting," she says. "And I'll be bored, and if I'm bored then everyone else is bored."

Beyonce has enjoyed so much success she could have retired long ago but, refreshingly, she is driven to create new sounds, to up the ante, and has no inclination towards complacency.

"I always want to challenge the music industry," she says. "I feel like it's kinda my job to create the new up-tempos, it's kinda my job to set the tone and to be the example.

"It's sometimes risky but it's the only reason I've been able to last as long as I have in this industry because it's really short-lived."

And despite all her experience, Beyonce admits she still gets the jitters performing.

"I always want to have that nervous ball in my stomach before I go on stage. That's how I know I'm doing the right job and it's something still exciting for me," she says.

Beyonce taking to the stage at Glastonbury today, sharing the bill with U2, Queens of the Stone Age, the Kaiser Chiefs and Coldplay, is a perfect example of how she continues testing herself.

"Glastonbury is a life-long dream," she says. "There aren't that many pop artists that close Glastonbury, and I almost feel that I am unworthy.

"It feels good that I can still feel so out of my element. I hope it rains. I want it muddy. I want to make sure I deliver and I'm gonna give 100 per cent and I'm sure it will be one of those memories that I take with me to my grave."

Ke$ha : Rihanna is an inspiration , Second Album.

I could write a f***ing book. My next album will be different from the first record, which I did when I was really broke and living in my car for a time.

“Things have definitely changed for me since then, so it won’t be the same record. It’s my experiences. I pride myself on being honest in my lyrics.”

Embracing the Glasto vibe, Ke$ha fitted in perfectly.

She insisted: “The one thing I avoid in my life is negative energy, so I really try to lead by example and anyone who’s being hateful, I’ll just give them the finger.

“At the same time, I’m a human being and a sensitive artist, so of course it affects me on a personal level.

“The truth is, with all my flaws and imperfections, I’m hopefully trying to make others celebrate their own flaws and imperfections too.”

Ke$ha credits chum Rihanna, 23, as an inspiration. She added: “Rihanna is the best – so sweet and beautiful with such a great voice. She puts on such a wild show. She’s fantastic.

“When I went out on the road with her that was my first time touring arenas. I’m just glad I have any fans. Playing to any number of people is awesome.”

Source

Beyoncé, Gaga and Adele: why these three girls rule the world (of pop)

A revolution has swept the charts, and three women are in its vanguard. But, while they outwardly appeal in distinct ways, each has skilfully exploited our desire for genuine star quality


http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011...aga-adele-rule

Between them, Beyoncé, Adele and Lady Gaga have pop sewn up tighter than a tumble-dried Spandex bodysuit, according to Sasha Frere-Jones, august pop critic of the New Yorker magazine.

"Who run the world?" asks Beyoncé Knowles on Run The World (Girls), the lead single from her latest album, 4 (released tomorrow, although it did leak three weeks ago).

"You do, Beyoncé," Frere-Jones appears to confirm – or, at least, confirms that she runs the pop world as part of a trio of female queens.

In the eye-popping video for Run The World (Girls) Beyoncé seems to be positing a kind of all-girls-together, cod-orientalist version of sisterhood that many feminists have, frankly, struggled to embrace. But the wider point rings true. The soundtrack to pop in 2011 has three extraordinary female lead vocalists soloing all over it, drowning out much else.

It's still only June, but it is probably safe to assume that Adele will finish the year as the Anglophone pop market's biggest-seller (around seven million albums sold worldwide to date). Gaga's Born This Way is the fastest-selling album of the year thus far and it is only part of her vast cultural reach. With more than 11 million Twitter followers, she has now out-twitted social-media princeling Justin Bieber.

We will learn in time whether the album leak will impact on Beyoncé's numbers significantly. But the R&B diva – who is headlining Glastonbury on Sunday night – was posting total figures of 75 million records sold back in 2009 (and her fourth album is stronger than the perfectly OK I Am… Sasha Fierce released that year).

For those not au fait with Beyoncé's inner workings, Sasha Fierce is the amplified persona Beyoncé adopts as a pop star; it is tempting to believe that Beyoncé needs Sasha. The sleek, blank and unknowable Knowles rarely gives the impression of having blood and bones, despite the evidence of the coups she conducted for control of Destiny's Child, her previous band. Lady Gaga may go out of her way to appear like a cyborg, but actually, it is Beyoncé's persona that is the more shiny and mechanised.

You can't, of course, discuss Lady Gaga without some mention of Madonna, whose blond ambition now seems positively classy next to Gaga's hell-for-leather brazenness. The parallels between the two Italian-American pop mavens have been traced countless times – the S&M chic, the blasphemic appropriations of religious iconography, the constant visual reinventions. Where they differ, though, is where the fascination lies. Gaga is far, far stranger, more performance art than disco dominatrix.

Madonna, too, had her own three-way fight to contend with. You might easily remember the 80s as an almighty game of oneupmanship between Madonna, Michael Jackson and Prince, two hypersexualised "freaks" and one deeply peculiar man-child. In reality, memory is a deceptive thing, and Prince's sales figures are nothing on Whitney Houston's, whose dance of wholesomeness and perdition has made her seem in hindsight more interesting than her dully canonical soul works did at the time.

With music sales pale ghosts of their former numbers, is it significant that it's a woman's market right now? Probably not. You could optimistically try to draw some sort of link between the economy, hemlines and pop-cultural artefacts but, in this case, it would look like a cat's cradle gone wrong. We could be thinking too hard about this. Adele's numbers are almost certainly swelled by irregular music fans buying their token new CD of the year. But hegemonic pop – the stuff that is everywhere – is really rather good at the moment, thanks in no small part to this distaff trinity.

It's always tempting to render pop as taxonomy – who fits where, in relation to whom; and what it is that specific genre choices say about their adherents. There is an almost Linnean urge to organise the cacophony of popular music in a schematic way... it's called "marketing", I believe.

You could – and Frere-Jones does, to some extent – assign roles to these three singers. He's got Adele – classic, mature (in sound if not in age) – reserved for the soccer moms who buy CDs in Starbucks. Beyoncé is America's sweetheart, while Gaga is, broadly, for the freaks. This is a reductivist take, but let's examine it all the same.

He's pretty right about Beyoncé. Despite disporting herself like an Amazon in heat in her videos (that'll be Sasha Fierce), she is the sort of smiley, uncontroversial figure who'll help Michelle Obama out with a campaign against childhood obesity. You're unlikely to find Gaga doing that.

Oh, but wait: that high-concept space oddity has a socially conscious agenda of her own. Even before Born This Way, few mainstream pop stars have trumpeted the rights and joys of gay culture quite so loudly.

Adele hasn't got a big drum to beat, but packing all the signifiers of vintage authenticity, she theoretically rises above the fray. Her second album, 21, is, in truth, a little lacking in grit for me, but here's the thing: Adele's wise-cracking, ebullient normality off-mic puts Beyoncé's doe-eyed absence in sharp perspective.

Gaga doesn't have exclusive rights to the LGBT crowd, either. You can imagine even her constituency of transgressive night-creatures might like to curl up and have a wobble to Adele's Someone Like You. Indeed, there will be millions of people who will own all three stars' records, music obsessives and floating voters alike.

Where these three albums differ, really, is at the level of production. Beyoncé began her career at a time when pop (by which we mean R&B) was being produced more or less exclusively by a generation of superb African-American sonic innovators: the Neptunes, Timbaland, Kevin "She'kspere" Briggs. This remains her core sound.

Around the same time as Beyoncé emerged, however, another pop sound was being honed across the Atlantic by Swedish producers like Max Martin, Bloodshy & Avant and, latterly, Moroccan-born (but Stockholm-schooled) RedOne, using singers like Britney Spears. Lady Gaga exemplifies the Swedification of R&B. The dominant American pop mode is something you might now call Euro&B: a clubby, trancy distillation of US urban music put through a Scandinavian rinser.

Ultimately, though, our token pie-split feels like a fastidious discussion of sonic nuances, and more like the kind of thing you might find in a women's magazine. Answered mostly As? You are Adele: comforting, righteous, timeless. Mostly Bs? You are Beyoncé: lusciously inscrutable. Mostly Cs? You are Gaga, barmy vagina dentata on legs with really very orthodox tunes.

None of the above? Then perhaps you favour the Barbadian elephant in the room. Loud, Rihanna's fifth album, came out last autumn but its tail has been long, selling something like 1.3 million and still sounding inescapable.

Why do we need to stratify this sonorous state of affairs at all? There will be Adele fans who loathe Gaga's porno-schtick, Beyoncé believers who look down their noses at Adele's hijacking of soul. Tribalism is traditionally held to be a rock thing, but emotions run ever higher in pop, as the febrile comments under YouTube videos attest.

Perhaps all this is ultimately predicated on a mercantilist's view of pop, on the divide-and-conquer tactics of people who see music as product – material – rather than music. Most of us are not in marketing. We just like music. And we are not naïve: we know this stuff is made by committee, probably by about two dozen, predominantly male writer-producers in a kind of digital Brill Building erected in the internet. We know that this glorious female takeover of pop is, therefore, pretty illusory. We know that Beyoncé's songs about female empowerment are not the same thing as feminism. We still like them.

And however much Adele, Beyoncé and Lady Gaga might dress up what they do in the clothing of authenticity, transgression or whatever it is that Beyoncé actually does (raunchy sexlessness, is it? "Spritzy competence," offers the New Yorker's Frere-Jones), all three of these pop divas are playing versions of the same game, with levels of skill as vertiginous as their heels.