Susan Boyle’s debut album, I Dreamed A Dream, may oust the Arctic Monkeys’ Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not as the fastest-selling U.K. debut in history. Boyle sold 130,000 copies of her album during its first day of release, while Arctic Monkeys moved over 360,000 during their album’s...

I totally slept on Alphabeat’s newest single when it came out last month. You might have too. Well, we should both wake up because “The Spell” is a total jam. It trades out the Eighties worship of the first album (and the amazingly good singles “Fascination” and “10,000 Nights”) for a much slicker...

More proof that it’s a Taylor Swift world and we just live in it came with Sunday night’s American Music Awards show, where Swift won five prizes. These included artist of the year, which had been expected to go to Michael Jackson. Swift also won favorite female artist in the pop/rock and country...

Elizabeth Cotten’s “Shake Sugaree” is a delightfully whimsical song that carries at its heart a good deal of wisdom. Cotten developed the simple melody of the song from folk sources, and used it as a lullaby when putting her great grandchildren to bed in the evening. She encouraged the kids to...

New Yorkers were treated to a rare performance by Big Star on Wednesday night, when the iconic power-pop band — whose touring lineup now comprises frontman Alex Chilton, longtime drummer Jody Stephens, and Posies members Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow — performed at the Brooklyn Masonic Temple...

This week we’ve got the usual stunning array of new bands to thrill, chill and amaze you. From New Jersey noise poppers to SF psych poppers to Welsh collectives, these are all names to learn because they are going to be big timing it in 2010. Next week we’ll bring you another overflowing bounty of...

John Mayer’s Battle Studies is estimated to sell between 275,000 and 300,000 copies this week, which should make it the number one album on Billboard’s 200 chart. If it tops the chart, this will be Mayer’s second number one; 2003’s Heavier Things, which sold 317,000 in 2003, was his first. Casting...

Do you like pop music? Do you like snappy visuals? Well, 2006 was a pretty good year for both. I’m a big fan of Camera Obscura’s loving recreation of early 60s advertising, the Long Blondes’ wittily cinematic split screens, the Bicycles’ endearingly DIY-goofiness, Love is All’s invigorating live...

British pop-singer Leona Lewis has recorded the theme song for director James Cameron’s long-awaited sci-fi epic Avatar. The song, titled “I See You,” will play over the film’s end credits. Lewis just released Echo, her sophomore album and follow-up to 2007’s international smash Spirit...