May 2014

Watch It

Miley Cyrus "Tongue Tied" (Quentin Jones, dir.)

Not a music video, but a projection from her Bangerz tour, "Tongue Tied" features Miley Cyrus in bondage and not much else.

The fact this is unlikely to get anyone's dander up is a sign of how hard it can be living up to constantly esclating NSFW expectations...

PS: This is best watched at Nowness which has it in better quality, the correct aspect ratio and context.

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Avril Lavigne "Hello Kitty" is a Hot 100 Hit Thanks to Rubbernecking

Keyboard Cat has not yet cracked the Billboard Top 100, but another Kitty has snuck in thanks the inclusion of video views in the chart tabulation.

The largely reviled Avril Lavigne "Hello Kitty" bows at #75 on the chart — the second highest charting single from her latest album — thanks almost entirely to YouTube views of a video that went viral for its unique mix of culural insensitivity and general oddness.

Billboard breaks it down:

"Kitty," which is not an official U.S. single, claws its way onto the Hot 100 with 92 percent of its chart points from streaming. Factoring into its rank: a weekly U.S. count of 2.9 million streams (up from 41,000 the prior frame), with 73 percent of that activity attributed to Vevo on YouTube views, according to Nielsen BDS.... The song also surges to 5,000 downloads sold in the tracking week ending Sunday, April 27, up from a negligible amount the week before, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

So a song with no radio play and that only sold 5,000 tracks over the charting week is a hit solely because of the video which gets passed around for all the wrong reasons.

The Billboard Hot 100 is meant to be the ultimate barometer for what's a hit — and even if this is an accurate depiction of the modern musical landscape, it's fairly depressing for anyone who thinks hit songs should actually be, you know, hits.

So, if you have a band and want a hit, here's some advice that I sincerely hope you don't follow: Make you video a sextape, or a beheading. All you need is a few million streams to have a hit.

note: Videostatic does not endorse or recommend making videos containing any illegal activities. Or, besmirching the fine reputation of Hello Kitty.

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Sorry, kids - Yeezus: The Film Poster is Fake

The Internet moves so fast and we all want to be FIRST so bad that sometimes we neglect to pay attention to common sense. And most of what's on the purported Yeezus: The Film poster is totally made up.

Let's take it credit by credit...

A Donda Production in association with Milk Studios...

Donda is Kanye's company for all his creative endeavors, be it tour design or album packaging. The film will certainly be a Donda production. Milk Studios has a Kanye connection, having hosted events for him, but nothing in terms of video or other film production for 'Ye... 

Written by Bret Easton Ellis

Bret Easton Ellis is indeed confirmed to be working on a Kanye project. But it is not this film. 

Casting by Alfred Sergei

There is no such person.

Production Designer Ian Edward

Unless this is leisure sector finance specialist Ian Edward moonlighting as a production designer, this is also bullshit.

Film Editor More Random Names

We are dumb.

Music Composed by Kanye West

Hey, something that's true!

Director of Photography William Wolfgang

Another made-up name. I'd say whoever made the posted has a thing for classical music (Sergei, Wolfgang)...

Executive Producer Nathan John Brown Hitchcock

This is just a word salad. I do like the John Brown reference, however. Hitchcock is too easy.

Directed by Hype Williams

This is also true.

All that said... Yeezus: The Film will likely be great, even if it's just a concert film as previously tipped. And the fact that author Bret Easton Ellis is indeed cooking something up with Kanye is also very interesting.

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