Adam Yauch in 2009

Credit: AP Photo

1. Adam Yauch: RIP MCA.

2. Amanda Palmer: The former Dresden Doll raises more than $400,000 on Kickstarter for her next album. That’s kick ass.  

3. Jack White:  One is not the loneliest number: White scores his first No. 1 on the Billboard 200 as a solo artist: a feat he never reached as half of the White Stripes.

4. Michael Jackson: Pepsi deal will result in his image in on more than 1 billion Pepsi cans in the, perhaps oddly, titled “Live for Now” campaign.

5. Skylar Laine: Another favorite leaves “American Idol” earlier than expected. She’ll be back on a record label near you soon.

6. Dave Grohl: Add director to the Foo Fighter’s resume: He’s behind a new documentary on Sound City, the Los Angeles’ studio where, among others, Nirvana’s “Nevermind” was recorded.

7. The Grammys: A New York judge dismissed a suit filed by a Latin jazz musician who alleged that the cutting out 31 categories hurt artists’ earning power.

8. Carly Rae Jepsen: Justin Bieber’s buddy scores her first top 5 hit with “Call Me Maybe.” As the tattoo on the hot dude in the video (viewed 47 million times) states, “The sky’s the limit.”

9. Justin Bieber: Sure, his video for “Boyfriend” finally debuted, but it’s his “Most Viral Video Ever”  for Ryan Seacrest that deserves the attention: Puppies plus sneezing babies = total win.

10. Casper Smart: Jennifer Lopez’s boyfriend lands the job of choreographing her new tour. Nice perk of dating the boss.

What do you think of this week's Music Power Rankings?  Share your thoughts below.

Follow Melinda Newman on twitter @HitFixMelinda.

Carrie Underwood

Credit: Mark Humphrey/AP

Carrie Underwood will handily score her third No. 1 album next week as “Blown Away” by the former “American Idol” champ could sell up to 300,000 copies in its debut frame.

“Blown Away” is one of six potential new entries in next week’s Billboard 200 as the chart sees some major shifts and many races too close to call between now and when the chart closes Sunday night.  Norah Jones’ excellent “Broken Little Hearts” and “Now That’s What I Call Music 42” are in a dead heat for the No. 2 slot with each slated to move between 95,000 and 105,000 copies, according to Hits Daily Double.

Adele’s “21” remains in the top 5 for its 1000th or so week, most likely at No. 4, while “B.o.B’s” “Strange Clouds” and Lionel Richie’s former No. 1, “Tuskegee” are also too close to call for fifth place.

This week’s top title, Jack White’s “Blunderbuss,” will fall to No. 7.  One Direction’s “Up All Night” and “The Music Of Smash” are duking it out for the No. 8 spot, while Marilyn Manson’s “Born Villain” will crash in at No. 10.

 

 Adam Yauch, left, in the 'Fight For Your Right' video

I remember when I first heard “(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (to Party)” by Beastie Boys, I thought it was one of the stupidest songs I’d ever heard.

It turns out Beastie Boys felt the same way: after the irony of the trio lampooning Frat Rock sailed right over more party boys’ heads, Beastie Boys eventually stopped performing the delightfully sophomoric song live. However, by then, its place in the pantheon of top party songs was ensured.

 “Licensed To Ill,” which featured “Party,” came out the week before I moved to New York in November 1986.  I was recently out of college and was going through a major adjustment. The magazine I worked for was in Times Square and the area still resembled a crack den more than the Disneyland it looks like now. I often crunched crack vials under my feet as I trudged the few blocks from the subway (where I would have undoubtedly seen a rat on the A train tracks only slightly smaller than the size of my tiny, illegally-sublet studio apartment).

[More after the jump...]

Credit: Island Records

After teasing us with four 15-second promos, Justin Bieber’s “Boyfriend” video finally had its full premiere tonight.

It’s an ode to women and cars as Bieber throws a party on a concrete lot.  In a vintage car, he drives up and a crowd of fantastically beautiful and scantily clad girls show up, as well as some old-school hip-hop dancers.  He canoodles with his chosen pretty,  but not enough to make real-lie girlfriend Selena Gomez jealous.

We were a little confused in that the video seems to have two openings. There’s the whispered opening with much of the footage we’ve seen: the Michael Jackson-like image of Bieber silhouetted against the full moon and the speaker bouncing to the bass beat, as he whispers in a woman’s ear as two girls watch the action on their iPhone, but then that video abruptly ends and cuts to a new start of the song with opening credit and the whispering begins all over again with Bieber in a car headed to a party, where he connects with the woman whose ear he whispering sweet nothings into in the opening.

[More after the jump...]

Since Levon Helm’s death April 19, various artists have been paying tribute to the Band’s drummer, whom many consider the greatest singing drummer in rock. As rocker Dave Edmunds once said: “Drummers shouldn’t sing unless they’re Levon Helm.”

At the second weekend of Coachella, John Fogerty joined The Black Keys for a bluesy, spirited version of “The Weight” on April 20.

Last night at Newark's Prudential Center, Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band also performed a lovely version of “The Weight.” As Springsteen concert attendees know, he’ll often take requests from fans’ signs and this apparently was one such request. However, given the quality of the version, and the horn arrangements and backing vocals, it is incredible to think that they had never played the song before and were working it up on the spot. Plus, kudos to whomever handles Springsteen’s teleprompter because that roadie got the lyrics cued up pretty darn quick.

[More after the jump...]

Gotye

Credit: Cybele Malinowski

Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used To Know” featuring Kimbra logs its third week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, as it gains in radio play and sells more than 400,000 digital downloads for the week ending April 29.

In doing so, the tune becomes the first to tally three weeks of digital sales surpassing 400,000, according to Billboard.

“We Are Young” by fun. featuring Janelle Monae stays at No. 2, while Maroon 5’s “Payphone” featuring Wiz Khalifa holds at No. 3.

Teen-oriented acts round out the top 5: The Wanted’s “Glad You Came” climbs up one spot to No. 4, while Carly Rae Jepsen scores her first top 5 hit with “Call Me Maybe.” Both acts are affiliated with Justin Bieber’s manager Scooter Braun, who seems to have the golden touch right now...as Bieber’s “Boyfriend” also stays in the Top 10, although it slips down three spots to No. 7.

Flo Rida’s “Wild Ones” featuring Sia stays at No. 6, Nicki Minaj’s “Starships” rises one to No. 8; One Direction’s “What Makes You Beautiful trades places with Minaj to fall to No. 9. Kelly Clarkson’s “Stronger” stays at No. 10.

Alanis Morissette

Alanis Morissette will release her first album in four years, “Havoc And Bright Lights” on Aug. 28. First single, “Guardian,” goes to radio on May 11 and will be on sale at iTunes on May 15.

It’s been a while since Morissette’s radio heyday and she’s married and had a baby since her last set, 2008’s “Flavors of Entanglement,” so it will be interesting to hear what’s on her mind. That album peaked at No. 8 on the Billboard 200.

Morissette worked with Guy Sigsworth on the set, who has also produced such artists as Madonna and Britney Spears.

"This record, as always, is a snapshot of what I currently obsess about, care about, and what strikes me at 4 in the morning in my most introspective moments," Morissette said in a statement. "It is my emotional, psychological, social and philosophical commentary through song.I can't wait to share it with this fun and funny planet, and to tour, and can't wait to have the lively, engaging and challenging conversations that these songs may invite.”"

The album will come out on Collective Sounds, a label helmed by her management company that is distributed by SONY RED. It is her first album since she parted with Maverick/Warner Bros.

Morissette’s 1995 debut, “Jagged Little Pill,” remains one of the top selling debuts in the SoundScan era.

“HAVOC” TRACK LISTING:
1) Guardian?
2) Woman Down
3) 'Til You
4) Celebrity?
5) Empathy?
6) Lens?
7) Spiral?
8) Numb?
9) Havoc?
10) Win and Win?
11) Receive?
12) Edge of Evolution

While making its new album, “Living Things,” Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda says, “it almost felt like a drug trip.”

Shinoda played six new songs from the set, out June 26,  for Hitfix and a handful of other bloggers in a North Hollywood studio a few days ago. He further prefaced the listening session by adding, “We realized we’d run away from the things we started with.” But instead of returning to the sound of its first album, 2000’s “Hybrid Theory,”  Linkin Park, along with producer Rick Rubin (who co-produced with Shinoda), sought to bring out the best of the band’s rock and rap  mix  and pour in new sounds to create something else.

[More after the jump...]

Norah Jones' "Little Broken Hearts"

Credit: Blue Note

Norah Jones’ new album, “Little Broken Hearts,” out today, is a gorgeous sonic and lyrical exploration of a crumbling relationship that takes Jones’ already impressive talents to a new plateau.

It’s a stunningly dark album that covers betrayal, debilitating hurt, shame, the desire for revenge, and, ultimately, the ability to walk away, bowed but not broken. The album opens with the dreamy, string-laden “Good Morning,” in which she, over a sleepy, lullaby-like melody, gently sings that she’s “folding her hand,” as she realizes she's holding losing cards. From the opening notes, even though only Jones’ name is on the album, it is clear that her collaboration with co-producer/co-writer Danger Mouse (aka Brian Burton) is a total partnership.

Credit: AP Photo/Kevin Wolf (Legend and Blige)

In with John Legend, out with Lionel Richie. Richie, who has experienced a staggering career comeback with “Tuskegee,” has dropped out of vocal competition “Duets.”

Citing “scheduling issues,” Richie will not appear on the show, which also features Kelly Clarkson, Sugarland’s Jennifer Nettles and Robin Thicke as they search for singers across the country with whom to sing. The winner  will receive a recording contract from Hollywood Records, according to the Hollywood Reporter. The show debuts on ABC this summer.

In other musical competition news, Mary J. Blige has linked with “American Idol” executive producer  Nigel Lythgoe for “Opening Act" on E!  The judges, which also include producer Antonina Armato, will scan the Internet to find unsigned acts and then reward them the chance to open for a big name after running them through a performance boot camp.

Among the acts who have signed on to allow the winner to open one of their shows are Nicki Minaj, Brad Paisley, Jason Mraz, Rod Stewart, LMFAO, Jason Aldean and Gym Class Heroes.