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Day in Pop Report for 01/16/2013


Guns N' Roses, Nickelback and Kanye West Lead To Unsafe Driving?
(Radio.com) What does safe driving sound like? According to a new UK study, tuning into songs by Coldplay, Radiohead and Lana Del Rey (among others) resulted in the safest behavior behind the wheel.

The very unscientific study was conducted by website Confused.com, which had four men and four women drive for 250 miles using the MotorMate safe driving app while listening to a particular soundtrack. The findings were reviewed by London University psychologist Dr. Simon Moore.

The study also produced a list of the ten most dangerous songs for driving, which includes rockers like Guns 'N Rose ("Paradise City") and Nickelback ("How You Remind Me") alongside rapper Kanye West ("Heartless"), and even late country legend Johnny Cash ("Get Rhythm"). more on this story

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Justin Timberlake May Top Sexyback Record With New Song
(popmusiclife) Justin Timberlake's return to music this week with his new single, "Suit & Tie ft. Jay-Z," is expecting to draw some big sales numbers.

Billboard reports label sources suggest that the song may sell around 330,000 - 350,000 downloads by the end of the tracking week on Sunday, January 20.

That would easily earn Timberlake his best sales week ever for a song, surpassing the 250,000 that greeted "SexyBack" in 2006. more on this story

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George Strait's Final Tour Begins This Week
George Strait will be kicking off the 2013 leg of his The Cowboy Rides Away Tour this week.

This leg of his two-year- farewell tour of the United States will begin this Friday, January 18th, in Lubbock, Texas and the leg will feature support from Martina McBride.

Strait says of the trek, "I've got over 30 years of great memories out on that road. I'm sure these last two are going to be just as good or better. It's going to be fun but at the same time sad. I can't wait!" more on this story

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Tim McGraw Plans Two Lanes Of Freedom Tour
Tim McGraw will be launching a tour of North America in May in support of his forthcoming album, Two Lanes Of Freedom.

The Two Lanes Of Freedom 2013 Tour will include stops in 30-cities beginning on May 2nd in Birmingham, AL and will conclude on July 27th in Virginia Beach, VA.

The tour will feature support from Brantley Gilbert as well as Love and Theft. McGraw's new album, Two Lanes Of Freedom, will be released on February 5th

"This album marks a new sense of excitement and artistic freedom for me, and I really wanted to extend that same feeling to the tour and create a cool vibe for the fans," explains McGraw. "Let's leave anything that might be weighing us down out in the parking lot and spend a few hours together feeling alive and free. We've started working up new songs from the album, and there's some really cool stuff we'll be able to pull out this summer. My band is just kick-ass�there's nothing these guys can't play! We'll be counting the days til Birmingham!" more on this story

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Skrillex Facing New Competition From Birdstep?
(Radio.com) Sorry Skrillex, winning multiple GRAMMY awards doesn't mean you're going to stay in the limelight forever, especially when faced with a fierce competitor who delivers a new and exciting twist on a genre growing by the day. Meet Harvey, the dubstep beat-dropping cockatiel.

According to Harvey's owner, his fine feathered friend wasn't taught dubstep.

In fact, "We have never played dubstep to him I just beat boxed around the house and he picked it up. There was no initial intention of teaching him this." Watch it here.

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LeAnn Rimes To Be On Entertainment Tonight and Jimmy Kimmel
LeAnn Rimes will be making two high profile media appearances this month in support of her new single and forthcoming album.

She will be appearing on "Entertainment Tonight" tonight, Wednesday, January 16, 2013 to discuss her forthcoming album, Spitfire, which will be released on April 30, 2013.

Next Tuesday, January 22nd, she will be performing the album's new single, "Borrowed," on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" which now airs on ABC at 11:30 PM ET.

Both album tracks "Borrowed" and the song "What Have I Done," have been released on iTunes by Curb Records.

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Duran Duran Side Project TV Mania: Bored With Prozac and The Internet?
Duran Duran's Nick Rhodes and Warren Cuccurullo mid-90s side project, TV Mania: Bored With Prozac and The Internet?, will be released on March 11th.

The Vinyl Factory will be releasing a limited edition vinyl box set of the project and The Orchard/Beatport will be releasing it digitally. We were sent this background:

Back in the mid-90s, Duran Duran's keyboardist and founding member Nick Rhodes and guitarist Warren Cuccurullo had what turned out to be a premonition of a society in which voyeurism was woven into the cultural fabric. In wanting to share their vision of the future, they created its soundtrack in the form of an album called TV Mania: Bored With Prozac and The Internet?, that they also intended to turn into a Broadway musical.

The tracks were constructed by blending television samples and looping rhythm tracks to create a sonically sophisticated collection of songs that now serve as the perfect backdrop for the frenetic energy and atmosphere of today's digital age. Shortly after they completed the final mixes, the original tapes were stored and the project was temporarily shelved as other priorities took hold. The intention was always to find the time between Duran Duran project cycles to go back and release the album - perhaps around some anniversary of its inception. Although they discussed it often over the years, the tapes were thought to have been lost, so it wasn't until recently when going through material at an out-of-town storage facility, to digitize old masters that were held there, Rhodes discovered the original TV Mania tapes misfiled, and he swiftly decided they were long overdue for a release. more on this story

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Destiny's Child's Michelle Williams Joins Fela! Cast
Destiny's Child's Michelle Williams has been added to the upcoming national tour for the Broadway musical Fela!

Williams will be playing the role of Sandra Isadore, the love interest to Fela Kuti in the Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter, Will & Jada Pinkett Smith, and Ruth & Stephen Hendel produced musical.

"I am thrilled to join the cast of Fela!," said Michelle Williams, "This musical journey is one that I've wanted to be a part of since first seeing it on stage in 2008."

The tour will begin at the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, DC on January 29 and will also visit Detroit, Chicago, Charlotte, Atlanta, Miami, Memphis, Dallas, Cleveland, Los Angeles and more. more on this story

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Eve Returns With A Purpose
(Radio.com) Music and mentorship join hands as Eve makes her return to rap. The Philly-bred rapper will be connecting with youth mentoring organization Big Brothers Big Sisters, in honor of National Mentoring Month.

As part of a fundraising push and recruitment drive for the organization, Eve will be releasing her new single, "Make it Out this Town." The rapper/actor will be making an announcement and releasing the single on Tuesday (January 22) at Marriot Mayflower Renaissance hotel in DC.

The news event will follow a night of discussion, where Big Brothers Big Sisters will hold a forum called "Successful Children and Safer Communities." more on this story

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Beyonce Shares Struggles In Documentary Trailer
(Radio.com) In a new trailer for Beyonce's documentary, Life Is But A Dream, airing February 16 on HBO, the singer talks about her struggle with celebrity saying she battles with how much she should reveal about herself.

"I felt like I had been so commercially successful, it wasn't enough," she explains in the trailer. "There's something really stressful about having to keep up with that. You can't express yourself, you can't grow."

The doc, directed by the singer, uses footage shot by Bey herself and even reveals the very first picture taken of Blue Ivy: her sonogram. Read more and watch the trailer here.

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Classic Rock Influenced Josh Groban's New Album
(Radio.com) Josh Groban may have the voice of angel, but on his latest album he's revealing his darker side.

The singer told Billboard that classic rock artists like Led Zeppelin, Jethro Tull and Fleetwood Mac were a big influence on his upcoming record, All That Echoes, due out February 5.

For Josh the hope was to expand his sound and get out of his comfort zone for his sixth record.

"I was concerned that the music have a little pop or rock edge to it � whatever world I find myself in, it's just gotten really soft," he admitted to the mag. more on this story

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Blake Shelton Shares His Grammy Playlist
(Radio.com) With the GRAMMY Awards only weeks away, we asked some of our favorite artists to make playlists of their favorite GRAMMY-winning songs from years past.

Country star, Voice coach, and social media funnyguy Blake Shelton created a list that does a smart job of blending country's exciting present and its historic past, with a cool selection of pop and soul songs included to round out the mix. It's a sort of cross-genre thinking that feels similar to the influences behind Blake's brand-new, pop-savvy single "Sure Be Cool If You Did."

All the artists on Blake's playlist are past GRAMMY winners. And from legends like Merle Haggard, Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springsteen, and Willie Nelson on to Kelly Clarkson and Miranda Lambert (who happens to be Blake's wife), all also make for great listening. Check out the songs here.

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Dierks Bentley Finds Lost Dog By Using Social Media
(Radio.com) Dierks Bentley is now reunited with his dog Jake thanks in part to Facebook and Twitter.

Last night, a series of thunderstorms came through Nashville, and during the hullabaloo, Jake apparently got nervous and jumped a fence.

Dierks posted note to Facebook and Twitter last night, asking friends and fans for any help they could provide.

Jake was eventually found, and as Dierks noted, it was thanks in part to all the social media messaging. Read the series of Tweets here.

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Cyndi Lauper Launches Unusual Reality Show
(Radio.com) A new reality show on WE tv takes a look at the inner workings of Cyndi Lauper's life. But even though the show is called, She's So Unusual, a nod to her 1984 debut album of the same name, she says her real life is anything but.

"I never thought I was different" she told The Hollywood Reporter. "I always thought everybody else was."

The reality series, which premiered January 12, will focus on Cyndi's day-to-day life from writing her new play, Kinky Boots, to her charitable work to her kicking back with her husband, actor David Thornton and 14-year-old son Declyn. more on this story

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Bono and Peter Gabriel Lead 2013 TED Conference Lineup
(Radio.com) The TED Conference will be sharing some ideas from a pair of rock'n'roll greats in 2013. Bono and Peter Gabriel will be among the 70-plus speakers appearing at his year's conference, titled "The Young. The Wise. The Undiscovered," which takes place in Long Beach, California at The Terrace Theater from February 25 through March 1, 2013.

For years, the U2 frontman has utilized his fame to further aid social causes like hunger, poverty and disease. His non-profit ONE raises awareness for such causes via media, policy and calls to action. Bono will be speaking during Session 1: Progress Enigma on February 26th.

Peter Gabriel is scheduled to give his talk during Session 10: Secret Voices on February 28th. The former Genesis lead vocalist and longtime solo hitmaker that cofounded WITNESS, an organization that distributes digital cameras to people in order to document human-rights abuses. more on this story

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Schwarzenegger Says He's Having A Great Relationship With Maria Shriver
(Extra) "Extra's" Jerry Penacoli caught up with Arnold Schwarzenegger at the L.A. premiere of "The Last Stand," where the actor talked about his family.

Schwarzenegger beamed, "I'm very proud of them. They are great kids and great athletes and very smart in school, so I'm very proud, but that's also because they have a great mother who is on top of the situation."

Any chance Arnold might reconcile with estranged wife Maria Shriver? "We're having a great relationship. That's all I can tell you."

His "Last Stand" co-star, Johnny Knoxville, said meeting the Terminator for the first time was a little intimidating. "He was just so psyched to be there and having a blast, and he was so kind to everyone, I just calmed down after that."

"The Last Stand" hits theaters this Friday. more on this story

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