After disappointing me with her video for "Dancehall Queen", Robyn has redeemed herself in my eyes with her new really cool interactive music video for "We Dance To The Beat", which is one of my favourite tracks to come out of her Body Talk series.

The song itself is a monotonous throbbing dance track that sucks you in somehow. It's like mass hypnotism by bass! Plus, the line "We dance to the beat of the continents shifting under our feet" is pretty mindblowing in a "we are all connected" kind of way. Maybe that's just me.

Anyway, the interactive video consists of a series of random images that each have their own individual music loop from the song. All you have to do is move the arrows around to highlight any 4 images and you change the sound of the song. It sounds simple, but it's also strangely addictive. And if you happen to come up with a particularly good remix of your own, you can upload and stream your mix.

If you've got at least 5 minutes to kill, I suggest you try it out here!

I don't speak Japanese. Shocker.

But I found this really cool interactive music video by an artist whom I believe is named Sour, for a song called "Mirror".

Basically, you go to this site, using Google Chrome only, allow access to your Facebook or Twitter accounts, or use your webcam. And the result is a really cool interactive music video that uses images from your profile to create animations, plus cool uses Google Maps and YouTube among other things.

I tried it and was impressed. Then I quickly went into my privacy settings and deleted his access to my profile. 

If you're curious, try it out!

Arg.

Just because you're on a reality show doesn't give you licence to release a song. Especially one that's vapid, bland, awkwardly produced and wrong on every level.

Ladies and Germs, here is "I'm Hot" by Angelina from Jersey Shore.

I'll be having a mimosa or 5 with my brunch today. Feel free to join me.

Is it a clever and simple music video? Or is it just a commercial for the iPhone and Cassius' app? Or both?

The lines are blurry here because Cassius' video for "I Love You So" purposefully plays the the conventions of art and commerce. Yes, it's blatant product placement. But it's also too pretty to be just a commercial.

Video aside, the song is haunting. Who ever thinks dance music can't be sad or doesn't have soul is sorely mistaken. This track is just as emotive and heartbreaking as any R&B torch song. Perhaps even more effective because it's so simple.

I can't get it out of my head!

So, the Recording Industry Association of America has been in a legal battle with Jammie Thomas-Rasset since 2006 because she illegally downloaded 24 songs and shared them online.

Well, after a third trial, the courts have ruled in the RIAA's favour, ordering Jamie to pay $1.5 million bucks in copyright infringement damages, which breaks down to $62,500 per song. 

Yikes!

I'm of two minds on this subject.

On the one hand, I agree that illegally downloading music is not cool. Even in the days of Napster, I only used it to download the occassional single, while I would still buy albums from HMV. And today, since I've gone digital, I buy everything on iTunes. It's only fair, because in my mind, buy paying for the music, I'm helping fund the band I love to make more music, or the record labels to foster new talent.

But on the other hand... $1.5 MILLION?!?!? Really?!?!! That's just the RIAA being a big bully. I mean, instead of spending 4 years trying to make an example out of Ms. Thomas-Rasset, they should have figured out new business models to better compete with the new digital age. 

So, Brooklyn based rock band Atomic Tom had a pretty shitty thing happen to them.

All of their instruments were stolen last month. And as any band still struggling to make it, you know it isn't easy to just go out and by new gear just like that.

However, they were still able to find an interesting way to play music and get some attention.

On the B Train from Manhattan to Brooklyn, the boys performed their song "Take Me Out" - using only iPhones and various music apps. Even the video was filmed using iPhones.

Sure, this might reek of a publicity stunt, but hey, I don't blame these guys for trying something bold and different. It's a cool gimmick and I hope it pays off for these guys so that they can get new gear. Hopefully, this doesn't open up the flood gates of iPhone bands. I don't think I can handle that.

But, the big surprise is that the song is pretty good. AND the music sounds good, considering they're being played on phones.

Can your Blackberry do that? :P

Rock Band 3 is on the horizon and of the many new features, there is an optional Pro guitar controller that is modelled after the Fender Mustang guitar.

This controller features 120 different buttons. That's a huge step up from the 10 buttons found on the standard controller. The reason behind this is very cool though. Basically, every "string" and "fret" is a button.

This means that you can actually play real chords along with the song, instead of pressing colour-coded buttons. This method of play is only available in either Hard or Expert difficulty settings.

For the longest time, I've thought it was cool that Rock Band and Guitar Hero can serve as a good introduction for learning the drums. And now, the same can be said for guitar.

This pro controller helps bridge the gap between the real and the virtual and it's pretty impressive. I can't wait to try it out.

Earlier this year, Lady Gaga surpassed Britney Spears, earning the most followers on Twitter.

Yesterday, Lady Gaga's YouTube channel surpassed the 1 BILLION view mark. With her legions of "little monsters" and her creative videos, it's not hard to imagine that happening.

Meanwhile, Justin Bieber still holds the records for most views of a single video, for "Baby", with over 360 million hits.

Welcome to the future, my friends. With the old record industry dying a slow and painful death, it doesn't matter if your records go platinum anymore.

It's all about getting the most followers, friends, likes and views on the internet - which translates to big bucks when these die-hards will pay any amount of money to see their idols in concert (guilty!)

I was one of the millions who was blown away when I first saw Greyson Chance's performance of Lady Gaga's "Paparazzi". And after I perused his original songs on YouTube, it was clear this kid has talent.

A colleague of mine recently did an interview with Greyson and I was floored by how eloquently he spoke about music and art. Somehow, he didn't come across as precocious, and I think that has to do with the fact that he really believes in what he's saying. He's definitely an old soul, and it's refreshing to see a child star who actually has talent garner so much acclaim, without going through the bubblegum pop machine of today.

He's like the Dakota Fanning of the music world. Talented, smart, grounded and charming.

Greyson debuted his new single "Waiting on the Lines" today on Ellen's talk show. The song is your standard adult contemporary pop in the vein of Coldplay or OneRepublic, so nothing too special.

What is remarkable is the fact that this kid is only 13 years old! And his lyrics are mature and his stage presence is so natural. I can overlook his borderline sheep-voice! He was made for this industry.

I just hope he stays grounded. I don't think I could handle it if he went through a "scandalous" teen makeover.

To pay tribute to Sony officially retiring the cassette Walkman (yes, I thought this already happened 15 years ago as well), here's a cool optical illusion of a boombox being made out of ribbons of cassette tape.

Lest We Forget!