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Starship launched the next phase of their career in 1985 with the release of “We Built This City,” the first single from their album Knee Deep in the Hoopla.The band that began as Jefferson Airplane in 1965 in San Francisco had moved through a lot of changes, evolving into Jefferson Starship in the early ‘70s after a series of lineup shuffles. They would continue to work under that banner until 1984 when founding member Paul Kantner decided to depart following the release of Nuclear Furniture album.There had been a lot of internal conflict leading up to that point, with Kantner...

As I’ve grown older, I’ll often hear people my age say things like “they just don’t make good music like they used to.” Why does this happen? Luckily, my background as a psychologist has given me some insights into this puzzle. We know that musical tastes begin to crystallize as early as age 13 or 14. By the time we’re in our early 20s, these tastes get locked into place pretty firmly. In fact, studies have found that by the time we turn 33, most of us have stopped listening to new music. Meanwhile, popular songs released when you’re in...

Among the many traditions for presidential candidates on the campaign trail are kissing babies and getting kiss-offs from rock musicians over unwanted use of their songs. A day into her campaign for the White House, Michele Bachmann is already facing the latter custom. Tom Petty has sent the Minnesota congresswoman a cease-and-desist order after she used his 1977 classic "American Girl" as background music at her kickoff rally Monday in Waterloo, Iowa, a source close to the singer has confirmed. This is not the first time Petty has sent out such an order: George W. Bush's team also received one...

It might have been coming out of the air space between her ear buds and flesh, or it might have been seeping through the holes in the woman's head. Either way, that endless, non-varying thump-thump-thump was making me nuts. This experience is similar that one endures when listening to a well known song by a bubblegum band named after an ubiquitous insect. The one in which the lyric, "I want to hold your hand" is repeated over and over and over and over and... The "Boss", Bruce---Bruce!---Springsteen uses this technique as a bludgeon: "Born in the USA!...I was...[wait for it]...Born...

Okay guys, while I applaud the entrepreneurial (sp?) spirit of the young men down the street, while they wash cars for folks they keep their stereos going. Surprise of all surprises, they never play a lovely concerto or opera. They play ghetto "music". All you can hear is bass and the occasional obscenity. Because I am an old, um, severely un-tanned woman, I plan to play music as I wash the minivan, weed the flowerbed, walk to the mailbox, whatever...whenever they are playing their music. That's right folks - a regular Battle of the Bands! Keeping in mind they would...

For several weeks now a few local radio stations have been playing Christmas music non-stop, and I love hearing the songs celebrating the season -- especially the traditional carols. How can you help but feel better when you hear Nat King Cole's smooth voice singing "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire..." (The Christmas Song) or Bing Crosby wishing you a White Christmas with every Christmas card he writes. And when Mark Lowry asks Mary if she knew that her baby boy would one day walk on water, it gives me chills. My drive home from work from late November to...

Some rules that are bound to offend SOMEONE: One may run over Canada geese at will. In fact, one may run up over the curb onto the grass in order to mow them down. Mallards with little babies in tow--No. One may come up right behind pedestrians wandering slowly and diagonally across one’s lane of traffic and blare one’s horn loudly and for a considerable length of time. If one is Queen, one may also use the time-rewinder to run them over, then reverse time and go on as though nothing has happened. No one may have a late-term abortion...

30 September 2007 A converting Episcopalian grieves: “…miasmal excrescences of Marty Haugen and David Haas…” CATEGORY: SESSIUNCULUM — Fr. John Zuhlsdorf @ 10:47 am I tip my biretta to the always engaging Diogenes for the links to what follows.  Another Episcopalian has decided he can no longer endure the self-destruct mode that Church is vigorously wrapped up in.  So, he is swimming the Tiber.  Here is what he thinks about that. So it’s off to Rome for me. I do not labor under the illusion all is milk and honey on the other side of the Tiber. It is...

What music do they have to endure in hell? What do the eternally damned listen to? What is the worst song you ever heard? To start things off, I will nominate "Seasons In The Sun" by Terry Jacks. For those who do not remember the chorus is: We had joy we had fun We had seasons in the sun But the hills that we climbed were just seasons Out of time......

And I say that advisedly, being fully cognizant of the horror that is David Hasselhoff's "Hooked on a Feeling." But this one might just top it. Give it a watch and tell what you think . . . does this top Hasselhoff in terms of WTFitude?

Jessica Simpson snubs Bush Wed Mar 15, 2006 10:50 PM ET By Steve Gorman LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Concerned about politicizing her favorite charity, singer-actress Jessica Simpson on Wednesday turned down a invitation to meet with U.S. President George W. Bush, a snub that left Republicans dismayed. The apparent final word that Simpson would be a no-show at a major Republican fund-raiser with Bush and congressional leaders on Thursday night came after a day of conflicting reports from her camp and organizers of the event. The blond star of the film "The Dukes of Hazzard" still plans to visit Washington...

OMAHA, Neb. (CNS) -- The St. Louis Jesuits, liturgical music icons from the 1970s, are back together and have released their first album in more than 20 years. "Morning Light" is the seventh recording for the St. Louis Jesuits -- Dan Schutte and Jesuit Fathers Bob Dufford, John Foley and Roc O'Connor -- who were known for such songs as "Blest Be the Lord," "Lift Up Your Hearts" and "Sing a New Song." In the mid 1980s, various assignments moved the men to different parts of the country, and Schutte left the Society of Jesus. These changes made it difficult...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The rock band Nine Inch Nails said on Friday it canceled plans to appear on next week's MTV Movie Awards after the network questioned the band's plans to perform in front of an image of President Bush. The band was slated to perform "The Hand That Feeds," the first single from its latest album. A Los Angeles Times review called the song "a warning against blind acceptance of authority, including that of a president leading his nation to war." "We were set to perform 'The Hand That Feeds' with an unmolested, straightforward image of George W....

Ashlee Simpson is determined to stay optimistic about her career, despite being booed by 72,000 people at the Orange Bowl half-time show in Miami last week. Simpson tells MTV News, "There was some booing that went on after the half-time show was finished. If they didn't like the performance--and that's what it was about--then sorry to them." The Oklahoma Sooners and the University of Southern California Trojans battled for the national college football championship at the Orange Bowl. Simpson speculated that it was the Oklahoma Sooners fans booing her because a film clip of her rooting for USC was shown...

Fight over $60k "medical treatments" with tainted L.A. detox doc SEPTEMBER 14--A business associate of rock star Scott Stapp, the Creed frontman, claims that the singer failed to reimburse him $60,000 paid to a controversial Beverly Hills doctor known for his unorthodox drug detox treatments. In a lawsuit filed this month in Florida's Orange County Circuit Court, Jeffrey Cameron contends that he paid Dr. David Kipper "for certain medical treatments received" by Stapp during a three-month period in mid-2002. Cameron, who works for Stapp's management company, does not further describe those treatments in his complaint and he declined to provide...

It's the list of the 50 Worst Rock Songs Ever — and it surely must be authoritative, because it comes from Blender magazine! You know, BLENDER? So I'm not the only one who doesn't read it. Good. Anyway, Blender names the worst rock hit in human history. It's "We Built This City (on Rock 'n Roll)" by Starship. Good choice. To assert that one can build a city on rock 'n' roll is simply bad urban theory. It is safe to say that rock 'n' roll provides an insufficient means of providing the infrastructure necessary for a large urban environment....

Sometimes it's unfortunate that the beat goes on. Sometimes it's necessary to say, "Enough is enough." We have reached that moment. The first time this dawned on me, I was at the gym. Generally speaking, the gym is a haven for terrible, long-forgotten music. A session won't pass without the emergence of a bad early 1990s dance track, my favourite being Mr Vein. Anyway, on this particular occasion my tolerance was stretched beyond breaking point. Roger Waters would have been cringing, surely. Hell, I was physically convulsing and it wasn't even my song to get protective over. I let it...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Slumping music sales left the recording industry with a whopping New Year's hangover, but rap star Eminem (news - web sites) has plenty to celebrate. Reuters Photo Reuters Photo In a year that saw CD sales overall plunge by nearly 9 percent, the Detroit-based rapper-turned-actor sold 7.6 million copies of his latest album, "The Eminem Show," making it the biggest commercial hit of 2002, according to year-end retail figures issued Thursday by Nielsen SoundScan. At the same time, the soundtrack to Eminem's movie debut, "8 Mile," ranked No. 5 for the year with nearly 3.5 million...

Ripped from the bowels of corporate America...some of the worst motivational jingles ever written. These are songs produced by companies for their own employees. They must really hate them!