Music Biz Spot

Really, you should be listening to music every day, but thanks to Twitter, Monday has become the best day of the week to discover new songs, show some love to the tune currently dominating your iPod playlist and quietly judge the listening habits of your closest friends. Yes, it’s #MusicMonday, one of Twitter’s most enduring trending topic. Hence “MTV News’ #MusicMonday,” a weekly look at the songs we’re obsessing about here in the Newsroom. Here’s what’s on our playlists right now.

Jim Cantiello, MTV News Correspondent: “She Wolf, Shakira’s jaw-droppingly wild and deliciously unpredictable new CD, is one of my favorite pop albums of the year (if not the decade — yes, I said decade). The standout Shakira song for me is “Mon Amour,” a playfully nasty kiss-off. In the song, the She Wolf hopes her ex and his new lover have a horrible relationship-ruining vacation in Paris. The brilliantly-specific lyrics elevate the song to dizzying heights of lover-scorned insanity. “Hope the French fleas eat you both alive/ And your room smells and the toilet doesn’t flush.” Love it. Even better? The track’s new wave sound mashes influences as varied as the Cure, the Beach Boys and Cyndi Lauper. As far as “Pissed Off Ex-Girlfriend” anthems go, “Mon Amour” belongs right up there with Kelly Clarkson’s “Since U Been Gone” and Alanis’ “You Oughta Know.” Can I get an amen? (Or at least an “Awooooo?”)”

Kyle Anderson, Newsroom Blog Editor: “Lately, my brain is melted daily by the self-titled debut album from Them Crooked Vultures, the supergroup that brings together Queens of the Stone Age’s Josh Homme, Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl and Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones. The most brain-meltingest song on the album is a track called ‘Mind Eraser, No Chaser.’ Like the best Queens of the Stone Age tunes, it’s probably about taking copious amounts of drugs (or at least contemplating taking copious amounts of drugs), and it’s got an incredibly heavy riff. It’s also one of the few spots on the album that features Grohl’s vocals. The back half of the record gets a little too psychedelic, but I haven’t found a better first six songs on a rock record this year.”

Jocelyn Vena, MTV News Pop Writer: “Sure the song leaked a few weeks back, but that doesn’t mean John Mayer and Taylor Swift’s ‘Half of My Heart’ is any less catchy. Harkening back to Mayer’s Room for Squares days, the song combines his keen knack for writing perfect pop love songs with Swift’s sweet vocals. They make ‘Half of my Heart’ a perfect pop duet in a world where there are too few. When these two halves combine, they make a lovely whole.”

Joel Hanek, MTV News Production Assistant: “My Music Monday is Blakroc’s ‘Ain’t Nothing Like You (Hoochie Coo).’ They’re comprised of the Black Keys and a bunch of different rappers. This one has Mos Def, and it’s excellent. Ohio represent!”

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One of the best surprises at this year’s mtvU Woodie Awards was the victory by truly bizarre rapper Tech N9ne, who scored a victory when he took home the Left Field Woodie. While the Woodies look to celebrate independent music of all kinds, the Left Field Woodie recognizes the artists working at the extreme margins.

Tech certainly fits that description, as his fiercely independent brand of hip-hop mines Wu-Tang grime, horrorcore, rap-rock and old-school boom-bap. He even calls his label Strange Music, which Tech explained to MTV News on the red carpet at the awards a few weeks ago.

“Strange Music. S and M. Not sado-masochism, but Strange Music,” Tech explained. He pointed out that the snake and bat on his chain also represented the logo for the label. “My partner Travis O’Guin and I have been independent since 1999, and it’s been beautiful ever since. Forget the majors — we’re going to do it our way. If I want to paint my face, I paint my face. If I want to color my hair, I color my hair. If I want to rap backwards, I can do it without somebody saying ‘Tech, I don’t think people are gonna get it.’”

Tech also explained that the inspiration for Strange Music came from the Doors. “I got the idea from being a big Doors fan, and being really into Jim Morrison,” he said. “You know, ‘People are strange.’”

You can catch Tech N9ne’s Woodie victory when the show airs this Friday, December 4 at 10 p.m. on MTV, MTV2 and mtvU, and be sure to stay tuned to MTV News for more insider knowledge from behind the scenes at the loudest, wackiest, farthest-out awards show of the year.

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“For a second there, I was like, ‘Wait a minute?’ Right after ‘Idol’ [I didn't know what to do] because that’s when we started planning the album. And I was just like ‘I don’t really know what direction I need to go in. I don’t know if I should be doing straight-up rock music because I got a lot of my cred on ‘Idol’ doing ’70s rock, or if I should be doing the electro-pop dance stuff that I love, that I listen to now. I couldn’t decide: Do I do what I love to listen to or what I’m best at or what am I best at? It was a moment of kind of tossing it around and then I thought to myself, ‘Why not throw it all together in a big melting pot and come up with my own thing, so that’s what we did.”

-”American Idol” runner-up Adam Lambert, talking to MTV News’ Jim Cantiello about the genesis of his album For Your Entertainment, which just got released last week and should debut near the top of the Billboard chart this week. Lambert’s performances on “American Idol” were so eclectic — he bounced from Broadway to glam rock to straight pop and back again — that the focus of his album was up for grabs from the beginning. But For Your Entertainment brings together everything that stood out about Lambert’s personality (along with everything that is great about cutting-edge pop in 2009). Stay tuned to MTV News for more from our exclusive “Extended Play: Adam Lambert.”

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Even though the clip for “Video Phone (Extended Remix)” features two of the most recognizable women in pop music in Beyoncé and Lady Gaga, perhaps the most notable and striking image in the video has little to do with either of those stars. The opening scene of the clip perfectly apes the credit sequence of Quentin Tarantino’s “Reservoir Dogs,” which, like “Video Phone,” features a line of people in black suits walking in slow motion.

Tarantino is a popular character in the hip-hop world (he has most notably worked with Wu-Tang Clan mastermind the RZA) and has been given nods in music videos since he first became a major player in the film world in the early ’90s. Though he was not aware of the latest homage when MTV News’ Eric Ditzian caught up with him last week, he was still flattered. “There’s been a lot of videos that have used my imagery and stuff,” Tarantino said. “I love it. I think it’s great.” He noted that he was especially amazed that Jay-Z named a song “Reservoir Dogs” (from 1998’s Vol. 2 … Hard Knock Life) and called out the video for Missy Elliott’s “I’m Really Hot.” “Missy Elliott did a whole take-off on ‘Kill Bill,’” he explained. “She even rented the P—y Wagon for her video!”

Tarantino’s popularity in the hip-hop community is not difficult to parse: Both QT and rappers love gangsters, slick-talking hustlers and Blaxploitation flicks, so they’ve got a common language between them. Tarantino concurs. “My stuff has always done well in that community,” he explains. “I’m thankful for that. It’s cool, it’s larger than life and you can have fun with it.”

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We’ve already provided your Cyber Monday playlist (which features holiday commerce-friendly tunes from the likes of 50 Cent, My Morning Jacket, the Smiths and De La Soul), but there’s a key story developing today that should really be added to your soundtrack. Many of today’s Cyber Monday deals have revolved around electronics, video games, kitchen gadgets and those bizarre robot hamsters, Chicago-based doll company American Girl has gotten in on Cyber Monday action and has subsequently become one of the most sought-after sales across the Internet today. Though the company rarely puts things on sale, there are dozens of accessories available for cut rates (though the incredible surge in traffic has slowed the company’s retail site to a crawl, so best of luck getting to the deals).

Still, even if you can’t get your hands on some top-shelf doll clothes at discount prices, you still have an excuse to crank up Counting Crows‘ 2002 hit “American Girls.” Since their instant classic debut August and Everything After hit the airwaves in 1993, Counting Crows have managed to swing with all manner of rock trends: Though they mostly borrowed their sound from the Byrds and Bob Dylan, they were a clear product of the grunge era (what with all the moping) and have found a home with fans of jam bands, mainstream rock, ’90s alternative and pure pop. In 2002, they dropped their fourth album Hard Candy, which featured the lead single “American Girls,” a big-hooked blast of pop that sounded like summertime but evoked the ache of the changing of seasons. It’s a wholly underrated song that deserves a second listen.

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Every day a multitude of stars wanders through the halls of MTV News to talk about their latest projects and goof around with our intrepid correspondents. But sometimes we catch stars elsewhere, and that’s why we put together Spotted!, a daily compendium of stars in the wild.

Lil Mama got a bit of a bad rap after she jumped up on stage during Jay-Z’s performance with Alicia Keys at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards. Sure, she wasn’t invited up on stage while the duo performed “Empire State of Mind,” but at least she didn’t confiscate the microphone the way another VMA party crasher did earlier in the evening. Following the incident, she said that she was so overcome with the awesomeness of the song (and of Brooklyn, her home borough) that she couldn’t help but join Jigga and Keys. Mama should be cut a break, partially because she is responsible for “Lipgloss” (which isn’t showing up on very many end-of-decade lists but really, really should) and partially because she took time out to volunteer at the New York City Rescue Mission on Thanksgiving. Lil Mama truly represents for her community — how can anybody stay mad at that?

She wasn’t the only star giving back on Thanksgiving, as “High School Musical” star Corbin Bleu volunteered at the Los Angeles Mission and Jay Rock helped hand out turkeys at Nickerson Gardens in Los Angeles. Click here for these pictures plus the entire “Spotted!” archvie, which features over 250 candid shots of stars like Britney Spears, Madonna, Lady Gaga, Justin Timberlake, the Jonas Brothers, Katy Perry, Adam Lambert, Shakira and Mariah Carey!

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