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Music News
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| Photo: Venturebeat.com | Brendan Kelly
Movie Entertainment
January 2010
Where is the pop-music racket headed in 2010?
No idea. Really. Predictions were invented so that our enemies could bring them up 12 months later to remind us of just how badly our crystal balls were malfunctioning.
That said, one sure thing is that the digital revolution will continue full steam ahead, with more and more downloads, both legal and not-so-legal, and fewer sales of those old-fangled CDs. The odd wrinkle is that as physical album sales go south, tickets to rock shows are booming like never before, recession or no recession, and 2010 looks to be a downright boffo year at the ticket wicket, with a slew of A-list tours heading to Canada.
One of the top concert draws of 2009 was Irish supergroup U2’s 360° tour. Dublin’s Fab Four will be back filling stadiums – and showcasing their in-the-round stage show – in North America beginning in June, with shows set for Edmonton, Toronto and Montreal.
Other top-tier talent on the concert trail in the coming months include Bon Jovi, the recently reborn Guns ’N Roses, Alicia Keys, Mariah Carey, Jack Johnson and Muse. On a hipper note, critical darlings Wilco will be bringing their rootsy alt-rock across Canada in February and early March.
Some of Canada’s hottest stars will also be hitting the stage, with Toronto country-rockers Blue Rodeo crisscrossing the country for the first three months of the year, cool newwavey sibling singer-songwriters Tegan and Sara going coast to- coast in January, and Vancouver retro sensation Michael Bublé – coasting on his best-selling Crazy Love album – hitting the road in the summer.
Multinational record companies are increasingly tightlipped about what’s coming down the pipeline. But here’s what we know so far: One of the more anticipated rock records has to be the long-awaited studio album from Stone Temple Pilots, the outfit’s first disc of new material in nine years, and the first since the hard-rocking band re-formed in 2008 after singer Scott Weiland parted company with Velvet Revolver.
Another eagerly awaited disc is The Sea, the second album from British soulster Corinne Bailey Rae, coming four years after her 4-million-selling debut album. Also on the way is Of the Blue Colour of the Sky by alt-rockers OK Go, New York vocal group Naturally 7’s Wall of Sound, and hip-hop elder statesmen Beastie Boys’ Hot Sauce Committee Part I, which was delayed by several months while Beastie Boy Adam Yauch was undergoing treatment for cancer.
Expect new albums from Sade, Usher, Christina Aguilera, Avril Lavigne, Cassandra Wilson, Good Charlotte, the Barenaked Ladies, Gil Scott Heron, My Chemical Romance, T-Pain, Alan Jackson, The Mission District and Vampire Weekend.
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