Where Did Login Go?
Existing content and functionality is now login-free. Login may be used in the future for advanced functionality.
Samuel Barber, one of the leading American composers of the twentieth century, is best known for his Adagio for Strings, but he created a large number of works in a variety of genres that are beloved by performers and audiences. For the celebration of the centenary of his birth, Stephen Eddins examines Barber's legacy and offers samples of some of his most memorable music.
Lady Gaga announced that her Monster Ball tour will continue with a 31-date leg that will begin in Quebec on June 28. Gaga expanded the show -- which she describes as the first "pop-electro opera" -- into an arena spectacle for the European dates she began in February. On top of the already ambitious choreography, costume, and instrument changes of the original show, the revamped Monster Ball features a new narrative and a 40-foot animatronic sea monster. In other Gaga news, MTV has banned the lavish, violent video for "Telephone," her single with Beyonce; however, that hasn't stopped Gaga and B from tying Mariah Carey's record for most number ones on the Pop Songs chart since it launched in 1992. Mariah, Lady Gaga, and Beyonce now have six chart-toppers apiece. [RollingStone.com, Gawker.com, Billboard.com]R.I.P. Micky Jones, guitarist for the Welsh psychedelic band Man, who some considered "the Grateful Dead of the British Isles." The band's expansive performances won them fans among peers like Quicksilver Messenger Service, whose John Cipollina performed with them on their 1975 live album Maximum Darkness. The band's first artistic peak was in the early '70s, but Man continued to perform even when Jones was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2002, first with his son George taking his place, and later with both of them playing. Jones succumbed to the cancer last week at age 63. [Blurt-Online.com]
Think back to 1990, the year before the first Lollapalooza, the year hip-hop went pop via MC Hammer and Vanilla Ice -- a year where classic rockers still had such a stranglehold on the mainstream that Paul Simon could appear on Billboard's Modern Rock Singles chart. It could be said that this was a year of transitions, with rap's golden age starting to slowly wind down and alt-rock beginning to boil over, but looking back 20 years on, 1990 sure delivers a number of stone-cold classics, whether it's the Bomb Squad in full flight on Public Enemy's Fear of a Black Planet, the pristine pure pop of the La's, the shimmer and roar of Ride's Nowhere, Neil Young lumbering with Crazy Horse on Ragged Glory, the Breeders' glorious Pod, or Digital Underground's inspired funk fantasia Sex Packets -- and that's just a list of albums! AllMusic celebrates all this and much, much more in the 1990 edition of AllMusic Loves.
