The Week in Music: Bieber Fever, Grammys Aftermath, Radiohead’s New Album and More
Rolling Stone officially caught Bieber Fever this week. In the current cover story, Vanessa Grigoriadis documents Justin Bieber’s rise from YouTube phenomenon to teen heartthrob, and reveals some of the young singer’s political beliefs. We also talked to Bieber’s guitarist and musical director Dan Kanter, provided a guide to all the people in the pop idol’s life and pondered the Tao of Bieber.
Photos: Kid Rock – Teen Idols on the Cover of ‘Rolling Stone’
We spent a lot of this week in a sort of post-Grammys hangover. In addition to our complete coverage of the ceremony on Sunday, Rob Sheffield listed off his 12 favorite things about this year’s event.
Photos: Backstage and in the Crowd at the 2011 Grammy Awards
Radiohead provided the most surprising news of the week by announcing their new album The King of Limbs from out of nowhere on Monday and releasing it online a day earlier than expected. Rolling Stone‘s Will Hermes provided a track-by-track breakdown of the record, which he says is surprisingly short, but also rich with electronic texture.
The Hottest Live Photos of the Week
Rolling Stone also learned about Soundgarden’s plans for the future, Graham Nash and David Crosby’s new tour and Luther Campbell’s campaign to become Mayor of Miami, and found out how Clarence Clemons got on Lady Gaga’s new album. The Cars told us about their upcoming reunion tour, while Black Sabbath’s Geezer Butler made it clear that the band’s original four members will never get back together.
Also, Smith Westerns and North Mississipi All Stars stopped by our office for Rolling Stone Live sessions, we named La Sera our latest Artist to Watch and as always, we reviewed all the hottest new releases.
On the pop culture front, we got an exclusive preview of Beavis and Butt-Head‘s return to MTV, and Peter Travers slammed two movies he was not invited to screen while giving a lukewarm review to the new Liam Neeson picture Unknown. Erica Futterman recapped this week’s new Glee, Mallika Rao wrote about both episodes of American Idol and Halle Kiefer told us all about the latest Jersey Shore.
Photos: The Greatest Momagers and Dadagers in the Business
We announced our Do You Wanna Be a Rock & Roll Star? contest this week, in which 16 unsigned bands are competing to not only appear on the cover of Rolling Stone, but also win a contract with Atlantic Records and make their debut television appearance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. We encourage you to check out all the bands and vote for your favorites — your vote counts, so let your voice be heard!
We also posted a gallery of your Top 10 favorite albums of the Nineties, as determined by your votes on Facebook and Twitter. Our question for you this weekend is: What is the best Beatles album? You can answer on our website, on facebook.com/rollingstone or on Twitter with the #weekendrock hashtag.
We’ll be taking Monday off for President’s Day, so we’ll see you on Tuesday.
LAST WEEK: Lady Gaga’s ‘Born This Way’ Arrives, Pre-Grammy Awards Excitement and More