Pet Shop Boys come back with a lot of ‘love, etc.’

Twenty-five years after the hit single "West End Girls," can the Pet Shop Boys pull off songs that make you want to dance like it’s 1984, but still reflect a social consciousness of 2009? The answer is the title of their latest album: “Yes.” The British duo will release their 10th studio album on April 21 in the United States through Astralwerks

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Surviving Beatles unite to promote meditation

Former Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr will reunite on stage next month to raise money to teach transcendental meditation to children around the world to "help provide them a quiet haven in a not-so-quiet world," McCartney said. The star-studded list of performers who will join them include two musicians who were with the Beatles when they journeyed to India’s Himalayan foothills in 1968 to learn transcendental meditation from Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. “In moments of madness, it has helped me find moments of serenity,” McCartney said in the concert announcement

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India erupts in celebrations for ‘Slumdog’ Oscar wins

The collective cry throughout India of "Jai ho" (May you win) received a resounding answer when composer A.R. Rahman took home two Oscars for the movie "Slumdog Millionaire." Rahman’s wins — one for the song “Jai Ho” and the other for Best Score — were just two reasons for Indians to erupt in boisterous celebrations Monday morning. “Slumdog,” which was shot in the streets and slums of Mumbai bagged eight golden statuettes in total, including one for Best Sound Mixing

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Why Annie Lennox is ready to move on

Annie Lennox has incredible eyes. They’re a translucent blue-green, both kind and inviting in one glance, then piercing and all-knowing in another. At 54, Lennox’s orbs are as captivating today as they were when they stared at us from under that fiery orange crew cut in the music video for the Eurythmics hit “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This).” That was 1983

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Auto-Tune: Why Pop Music Sounds Perfect

If you haven’t been listening to pop radio in the past few months, you’ve missed the rise of two seemingly opposing trends. In a medium in which mediocre singing has never been a bar to entry, a lot of pop vocals suddenly sound great. Better than great: note- and pitch-perfect, as if there’s been an unspoken tightening of standards at record labels or an evolutionary leap in the development of vocal cords

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