Looking up: 2011 is ready to rock

Business may be going from bad to worse but the music is thriving, says Neil McCormick. 

Contemplating what 2011 holds in store for music, you don’t need a crystal ball to see trouble ahead. With HMV announcing that it is to close 60 stores, the big question facing the music business is whether there is a future at all, or at least a profitable one.

Yet, paradoxically, while business may be bad and getting worse, music itself continues to thrive, the very ether throbbing to the virtual din of start-up enterprises, one-man bands and hardened road veterans competing for the world’s hopelessly divided attention.

The real trick in confusing times of rapid technological change, free distribution and collapsing sales is how to break through the information overload and make pop music that is actually popular, resonating throughout the whole world and not just in margins of the imagination. Justin Bieber has proved there is still a global hormonal market for blue-eyed teenybop pin-ups, but, if you can catch that kind of attention while offering something resembling artistic vision, purpose and originality, well, maybe there is hope for this pop malarkey after all.

Golden Globe Winners 2011

Cecil B. DeMille Award

Robert De Niro

Best Motion Picture - Drama

The Social Network

Columbia Pictures; Sony Pictures Releasing

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama

Natalie Portman – Black Swan

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama

Colin Firth – The King's Speech

Best Motion Picture - Comedy Or Musical

The Kids Are All Right

Antidote Films, Mandalay Vision, Gilbert Films; Focus Features

Vienna Philharmonic breaks with the past

The VPO is moving on: the Vienna Philharmonic is still one of the world’s top orchestras, boasting that special Viennese sound; and still synonymous with tradition in its noblest sense, with its New Year’s Concert still one of its highlights. Yet that tradition is being enriched today by new, fresh blood. The proof is the VPO’s new concertmaster, or rather concertmistress.
Albena Danailova is the orchestra’s first female concertmaster, and playing at the New Year’s Concert was her dream come true.
“For me it was the job of my dreams, I’d never have thought I would play in the New Year’s Concert, I saw it so many times on TV when I was a child. And now I’m really happy!” she said.
In an orchestra the concertmaster is the first among the first violins. It is a sensitive position for which Albena Danailova seems particularly suited. The appointment may also have been political, as the orchestra only started admitting women at all in 1997.
Dr. Clemens Hellsberg is the VPO’s President and first violin: “She won the audition, and she convinced us as a violinist, as a leader, as a soloist, as a chamber musician… so it was nothing else but an artistic decision.”
Opening up to the new, but within the framework of tradition; hard work plus music of the finest quality: that is the VPO’s stated creed.

Germany's musical take on life with the Wall

Daily art news

BUENOS AIRES.- In this photo taken Jan. 13, 2011, figures depicting The Beatles are exhibited at The Cavern club and new Beatles Museum in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The museum is the product of the particular Beatlemania obsession of Rodolfo Vazquez, a 53-year-old accountant who became a fan at the age of 10 when he got their Rubber Soul record.

Rihanna makes British chart history

Singer has number one singles in five consecutive years to equal feat of Elvis Presley

Rihanna has become the first female solo artist in British chart history to achieve No.1 singles in five consecutive years.

The Official Charts Company announced her record after 'What's My Name?' rose from number two to the top spot. The last solo artist to achieve the feat was Elvis Presley, who had number ones in each year from 1957 to 1963.

Rihanna's album 'Loud' also holds on to its number one slot, giving her the second UK chart double of her career. The 22-year-old Barbadian singer has sold more than 15 million albums and 45 million singles worldwide.

In 2007, her album 'Good Girl Gone Bad' and single 'Umbrella' topped both charts simultaneously.

The 22-year-old singer knocked X Factor champion Matt Cardle's "When We Collide" from the top spot to number two after three weeks at number one.

Rihanna has this week been filming the music video for her upcoming single with Nicki Minaj called 'Fly'.

Rihanna's Number One Hits

2011 - What's my Name?

2010 - Only Girl (In The World)

2009 - Run This Town

2008 - Take a Bow

2007 - Umbrella

Michael Jackson 'was healthy'

Dr Christopher Rogers testified on Tuesday at a preliminary hearing after which a judge will decide if there is enough evidence for Dr Conrad Murray to stand trial for involuntary manslaughter.

Dr Rogers says Murray was improperly using the powerful anaesthetic propofol to treat the musician for insomnia. He also says Dr Murray was wrong to leave Jackson's side while he was under anaesthesia.

Rogers says he does not believe the singer injected himself with propofol, which Dr Murray's defence attorneys have suggested could have occurred.

However, the forensic pathologist says Jackson may have swallowed some of the drug based on the amount found in his stomach.

Dr Murray has pleaded not guilty.