Onstage this week, the rapper Nas claimed that his next album will be called Nigga. From a marketing point of view, making such a controversial claim is bound to draw attention. Shame his record company didn’t agree, isn’t it?

Yeah, Def Jam Records have refuted that Nas even has an album scheduled for release, let alone one with such a controversial title.

Dear readers, was it Dumbledore or Gandalf who said “Fear of a name increases fear of the thing itself”? Never underestimate the wisdom of the wizarding fraternity. I know to a lot of people, the word Nigga has racist overtones, but growing up listening to Ice-T, the word never meant slavery or racism to me. The vibe was more about gun-toting, drug-dealing, bitch-pimping dudes.

OK, so either way, the word doesn’t have much positive spin. One way, it’s a symbol of slavery, the other represents violent gang culture.

So, back to Nas. Was his stunt the other day more about self-publicity than trying to normalize a negative word? I think we know the answer to that one…

Rumour has it that the venerable members of Led Zeppelin might record some new material in the wake of their November reunion show.

Here’s what Jimmy Page apparently said to a Canadian newspaper:

The veteran rock band’s guitarist Jimmy Page said he would be “really surprised if there wasn’t”.

“We’re musicians – as we’re playing we’ll probably be coming up with all manner of things,” he told Canadian newspaper The Winnipeg Sun.

“That will be fun. Let’s do the O2 show, shall we? And then we’ll speak to you afterwards,” added the musician.

I don’t doubt that they’ll probably jam a little, but new Led Zeppelin material is highly unlikely – for a number of reasons:

1. They’d be dishonoring John Bonham’s death

Every fan of Led Zeppelin knows the band’s final statement by heart: “We wish it to be known that the loss of our dear friend and the deep sense of undivided harmony felt by ourselves and our manager, have led us to decide that we could not continue as we were.”

Despite having Jason Bonham on board, anything more than a one-off reunion would be an affront to the statement they made back then.

2. Lackluster New Material Would Damage The Led Zeppelin Back Catalogue

Jimmy Page’s solo album, Outrider was a major flop. I bought it out of loyalty but haven’t listened to it since. The Page and Plant records were good, but they knew better than to try to follow in the footsteps of classic Zeppelin – Unledded gave old classics an ethnic twist while they tried an alternative approach on Walking Into Clarksdale.

If they were to release new material now and it wasn’t up to the standard of classic Zeppelin, it would put a stain on their career worse than the Song Remains The Same video.

3. How Would The Music Sound?

It would be extremely lazy for Zep to return to their earlier 1969 sound, not to mention slightly exploitative. Would they follow on from In Through The Out Door-era sounds? Or would they go for a new sound altogether?

I suppose that raises the question of “do we want new material”? As Page knows, the value in Led Zeppelin is the strength of the back catalogue. People will want to hear Black Dog and Dazed And Confused live on stage.

Apprehensive And Excited

While I’d be worried that a new Led Zeppelin release might cast a shadow over their back catalogue, there’s a bit of a buzz about what they might come up with. They’re still awesome musicians, and Plant and John Paul Jones continue to release great music, albeit without the immediacy of their Led Zeppelin work.

What about the readers out there – how would you feel about some new songs from Zeppelin?

I got word today that my fellow Northern Irish blogger, CyberScribe, has nominated Unreality Music for an independent blog award with Media Guardian. Thanks dude!

CyberScribe has nominated us in the Independent Blog Category. If you’re a fan of what you’ve been reading here at Unreality Music, I’d personally appreciate it if you’d go on over and vote for us. And tell your friends to vote as well!

We’ve got some new features coming up in the very near future. I can’t reveal too much right now, but I will say that Unreality Music is moving forward nicely from my original plan back in March this year. More about that in a future post. Now, go and vote!

No Doubt are apparently working on their sixth album, which will be a follow-up to 2001’s Rock Steady. Yes, its been six years!

To prove that its not a cruel hoax, the band have posted a video on their website of their rehearsal. It looks a bit staged in places, the band sound rough (especially the harmonies), but Gwen looked fairly low-key. She’s not glamming it up for the cameras, which at least suggests she’s taking things seriously!

Elsewhere, Gwen is making noises that she’s keen to have more kids, but the new No Doubt material has to come first:

Stefani, who’s since released two solo albums and gave birth to her first son with former Bush frontman, husband Gavin Rossdale, is deeply committed to completing No Doubt’s sixth studio album. “I love being pregnant and I want more children” she says. “But I’ve unfinished business with No Doubt first.”

Now, I don’t know about you, but that seems to imply that this album will definitely be the band’s last. She’s talking like it’s something to get out of her system, or satisfy the fans before settling down. What do you guys think?

The concept is brilliant: a contemporary artist or act will record a song from one of the 40 years Radio 1 has been on air. You’ve got Girls Aloud covering Wheatus’ Teenage Dirtbag, Klaxons covering Blackstreet’s No Diggity. I’m finding myself already wondering how some of these renditions are going to sound!

Here’s the entire song list (as found over on MusicSlut):

1967 ? Flowers In The Rain (The Move) covered by Kaiser Chiefs
1968 ? All Along The Watchtower (Jimi Hendrix Experience) covered by The Fratellis
1969 ? Cupid (Johnny Nash) covered by Amy Winehouse
1970 ? Lola (The Kinks) covered by Robbie Williams
1971 ? Your Song (Elton John) covered by The Streets
1972 ? Betcha By Golly Wow (The Stylistics) covered by Sugababes
1973 ? You?re So Vain (Carly Simon) covered by The Feeling
1974 ? Band On The Run (Wings) covered by Foo Fighters
1975 ? Love Is The Drug (Roxy Music) covered by Kylie
1976 ? Let?s Stick Together (Bryan Ferry) covered by KT Tunstall
1977 ? Sound & Vision (David Bowie) covered by Franz Ferdinand
1978 ? Teenage Kicks (The Undertones) covered by The Raconteurs
1979 ? Can?t Stand Losing You (The Police) covered by Mika
1980 ? Too Much Too Young (The Specials) covered by Kasabian
1981 ? Under Pressure (Queen & David Bowie) covered by Keane
1982 ? Town Called Malice (The Jam) covered by McFly
1983 ? Come Back And Stay (Paul Young) covered by James Morrison
1984 ? Careless Whisper (George Michael) covered by The Gossip
1985 ? The Power Of Love (Huey Lewis & The News) covered by Pigeon Detectives
1986 ? Don?t Get Me Wrong (The Pretenders) covered by Lily Allen
1987 ? You Sexy Thing (Hot Chocolate) covered by Stereophonics
1988 ? Fast Car (Tracy Chapman) covered by Mutya Buena
1989 ? Lullaby (The Cure) covered by Editors
1990 ? Englishman In New York (Sting) covered by Razorlight
1991 ? Crazy For You (Madonna) covered by Groove Armada
1992 ? It Must Be Love (Madness) covered by Paolo Nutini
1993 ? All That She Wants (Ace Of Base) covered by The Kooks
1994 ? You?re All I Need To Get By (Mary J Blige) covered by Mark Ronson
1995 ? Stillness In Time (Jamiroquai) covered by Calvin Harris
1996 ? No Diggity (Blackstreet) covered by Klaxons
1997 ? Love Fool (The Cardigans) covered by Just Jack
1998 ? Ray Of Light (Madonna) covered by Natasha Bedingfield
1999 ? Drinking In LA (Bran Van 3000) covered by The Twang
2000 ? The Great Beyond (REM) covered by The Fray
2001 ? Teenage Dirtbag (Wheatus) covered by Girls Aloud
2002 ? Like I Love You (Justin Timberlake) covered by Maximo Park
2003 ? Don?t Look Back Into The Sun (The Libertines) covered by The View
2004 ? Toxic (Britney Spears) covered by Hard-Fi
2005 ? Father & Son (Yusuf & Ronan Keating) covered by The Enemy
2006 ? Steady As She Goes (The Raconteurs) covered by Corinne Bailey Rae

This may be the must-have album of 2007.

I’m not sure what to make of it all: is Winehouse simply tabloid target of the month, of is there something deeper going on here? Part of the attraction of Amy Winehouse – both as a tabloid ‘character’ and a singer/songwriter – is her emotional turmoil. The heavy makeup and towering beehive seem to accentuate her bizarre persona.

However, the tabloids seem to take exceptional glee in watching Winehouse self-destruct – look at the cutting incident during an interview with Spin magazine. But if you look at the video of that footage, both Amy and her husband Blake seem to be laughing off the whole thing. So is the whole thing being blown out of all proportion? I think maybe so.

Maybe it’s that Amy’s style conjures up memories of an era where pop stars regularly became overwhelmed by fame and it was commonplace to find overdosed celebrities dead in their beds the next morning. But we’re living in a far more media-savvy generation. Is Amy:

• immune to the tabloid coverage
• more likely to act up to get more of this type of attention, or
• is she in serious danger of hurting herself (or someone else)?

I’m not pretending to know what the answers are in this case, but I do worry about this constant hounding of and artist by the same press that frequently decry the death of their “Princess Of Hearts” at the hands of the paparazzi. What do you think?

1. Quiet intro: Each song has a relatively quiet two-measure intro.
2. The instrumental kicker: The full band come in together on the down-beat, and play two or four high energy measures, usually instrumental.
3. Quiet verse: The song eases off for a verse or two, heightening the dynamic contrast between the song’s sections.
4. Heavy chorus: Usually the same chords established in the kicker, with Chester screaming over top for added emotion.

On one hand, you could interpret this as a criticism of Linkin Park’s music, that they’re “doing a Status Quo” and releasing the same song over and over again. Different chords and lyrics, but essentially the same idea each time.

I’ve thought about this quite a bit, and it’s hard to criticise the artist. Surely a lot of it boils down to simple musical style? The music of any band is the result of the chemistry between the players, their influences and their ability to express themselves. So, doesn’t it stand to reason that some tunes will carry a familiar musical ’signature’?

The article notes:

On one hand, the band and their producers deserve kudos for finding and exploiting a successful formula. They’re in the entertainment business, after all, and appealing to fans is any entertainer’s number one job.

Again, I disagree. Perhaps I’m too optimistic here, but I hope that Linkin Park (or any other mega-band) don’t set out to write songs based on a formula. As for the songs sounding the same, I imagine that to be more of an unconscious thing. Maybe the band aren’t even aware of the similarity, or if they are, they consider it part of their musical style.

I hope it’s not a cynical ploy on the part of the music industry to repackage the same song and sell it again and again to a remarkably loyal fanbase. The fact of the matter is, I love those Linkin Park songs, and I’m a sucker for that particular formula.

Prince’s decision to give his new album, Planet Earth, with a forthcoming edition of the Mail On Sunday has drawn widespread criticism from the British music industry as a whole, with Paul Quirk, chairman of The Entertainment Retailers Association, declaring it “an insult to all those record stores who have supported Prince throughout his career. The Artist Formerly Known as Prince should know that with behaviour like this he will soon be the Artist Formerly Available in Record Stores.”

Ooh, handbags at dawn from the record store guy! I especially loved the “insult to all those record stores” line. Come on Paul, it’s not as if those record stores were selling Prince records for the good of their health! I’m sure those poor record stores made a few pounds out of their sales of Prince records. What a disingenuous thing to say.

From what I read elsewhere, the decision to close Fopp has more to do with the growing download market and declining sales of physical product. Fopp weren’t alone, as HMV have been feeling the pinch too.

So, Mojo, it wasn’t Prince who dunnit, in the kitchen with a free album in a conservative Sunday paper. Better look at some of the other suspects: music downloads, online retailers like Amazon, and the decline in quality of music generally.

On a personal note, I discovered a Fopp store in London before Christmas, and I really enjoyed shopping there. The stock wasn’t the usual mainstream garbage you can buy everywhere else, and they seemed to have thought about the types of products they were offering. It’s a genuine shame that they’ve been forced to close. But not for Prince presumably.

The reason? Although Starbucks have some 533 stores throughout the UK, they’re not registered with the Official Chart Company. Naturally, there’s a good chance that sales through Starbucks might not count towards his chart position.

Ha ha ha!

The saggy faced Beatles ‘legend’ may be denied the chance to inflict yet another awful solo attempt upon an unsuspecting public. Frankly, I’d be much happier if he retired permanently and only came out at the end of every bloody charity gig ever to sing Hey Jude for the millionth time.

Macartney’s been trading on past glories for decades now, and he’s rapidly becoming more infamous for his personal escapades than his music. I just wish he’d go away.

Can you tell that I was never a Beatles fan….?

Last.fm founding member Martin Stiksel said it was an “exciting opportunity”.

He continued:

“This move will really support us to get every track ever recorded and every music video ever made onto Last.fm.

“With a strong partner like CBS, this is now within our reach.”