Music

POP UNCULTURED: A roundup of weird happenings in music for the week ending April 8, 2011

by Anne T. Donahue

Since it’s impossible to address the total madness of the music industry in only five days, Pop Uncultured saves some of the week’s strangest stories for Friday afternoon. TGIF: it’s not just for Topanga anymore

Kanye West designs My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy-inspired scarves [FULL STORY]
If you can’t get enough of the armless phoenix, your life’s about to improve: the Paris-based design team, M/M (Paris) are collaborating with Kanye West on a “complex exploration of power” in which they’ll design a line of luxury scarves based on the album artwork for My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. The downside? They’re only making 50 scarves per print, so on top of waking up next to a water bottle, your worries now also include collecting them all.

Pauly D feels “legitimized” by Britney Spears
Were you hoping that the Jersey Shore cast would fade into oblivion upon the conclusion of the season finale? Think again: thanks to the ever-growing media machine (sorry, guys), Pauly D was bestowed the quintessential honour of DJing Britney Spears‘ surprise gig in Las Vegas, and because of that, his “association with monsters like Britney Spears” has made him feel like a “legitimate” DJ. And they say the industry’s changed. [via MTV]

Gloria Estefan working with Pharrell Williams
After tweeting her enjoyment at working alongside the hip-hop darling of the early 2000s, Gloria Estefan has revealed that Pharrell Williams has not only influenced her sound, but her style. Accompanying news of her first English album since 2003’s Unwrapped, the musical legend shared the following photo, as well as a sincere “Lol! At The Moon with his thinking cap on:”

Lol! (We don’t get it.) [via Billboard]

Will Smith and Jaden Smith to team up on sci-fi thriller with M. Night Shyamalan
M. Night Shyamalan will now count members of the Smith family among his victims now that Will Smith and his son Jaden are gearing up to star in a sci-fi action film set 1000 years into the future. Revolving around a boy and his father whose ship has crash-landed on post-apocalyptic Earth, we can only hope that the title is I Am (the) Legend(ary) Next Karate Kid (Bruce Willis Was Dead the Whole Time!). Or something. [via Hitfix]

Pee Wee Herman meets Snoop Dogg [FULL STORY]
For reasons completely foreign to us, this happened:

That’s all.

Jay-Z launches new lifestyle website [FULL STORY]
Because he knows that we want to be him, Jay-Z has launched Life + Times, a lifestyle website that features everything from a Blackberry article to an interview with Gold Panda to the general feeling of success. Not yet sold? Check out the trailer or admire the sunset. After all, it’s just like GOOP – but totally different.

Foo Fighters’ Wasting Light inspired by ABBA, of all things
In a recent interview with NME, Dave Grohl admitted that in addition to his love of “crazy-ass, dissonant, distorted rock ‘n roll,” disco heroes ABBA and The Bee Gees played a pivotal role in the creation of Wasting Light. But while most of us quickly hoped for high falsettos or “Mamma Mia” covers, the frontman explained that he simply borrowed from their affinity for big pop choruses, hooks and all those “musically relevant” things. Blast. Looks like those rumours of a Meryl Streep/Foo Fighters collaboration can officially be put to rest.

Jared Leto performs as Kurt Cobain [FULL STORY]
This week we learned that not only is Jared Leto still making music, he’s impersonating Kurt Cobain. Thus, on the 17th anniversary of the Nirvana frontman’s death, the artist-formerly-known-as-relevant took to the 30 Seconds to Mars YouTube page and waxed poetic about the loss, Kurt’s relevance, etc., etc., and accompanied it with this little gem:

Deep. (Though we admit that it’s still an improvement from when we thought it was Jay Leno doing the impersonation.)

Rebecca Black considers suing “Friday” producers
Yes, we know it’s Friday; no, we won’t be telling you to have fun, fun, fun on the weekend. (The horse is long dead). However, Rolling Stone has reported that Rebecca Black and her mom are considering waging war on “Friday” producers for copyright infringement and unlawful exploitation of publicity rights after Ark allegedly failed to provide them with master copies and sold an authorized ringtone. While whether or not “it’s on” remains to be seen, but you can still sleep easy knowing that Rebecca Black has just signed to a new record label(!).

Willow Smith wants an “explosive” personality like Lady Gaga
Willow Smith is the best. But just in case you weren’t already aware, the youngest Smith (the one not in the M. Night Shyamalan movie) has revealed that after meeting her idol, she wants to be just like Lady Gaga – to the point of having an “explosive personality” and arriving to an event in “an egg-shaped vessel”.Why? So she wouldn’t “have to smile at the cameras”, obviously. Not sold yet? Whatever, she’s 10 years old, and she whips her hair. [via Contact]