Email AuthorAl Shipley
Featured Entry
Radio Hits One: Nine Songs From 2012 That Should Have Been Huge
August 31, 2012 in Sound of the City
The term "flop" in a musical context usually refers to an unsuccessful album. Although singles constantly perform above or below expectations, a song will rarely get a reputation as a...
Featured Entry
Radio Hits One: Kelly Clarkson, Lionel Richie And Countrified Pop Tunes
July 24, 2012 in Sound of the City
After Kelly Clarkson went to No. 1 on Billboard's Country Songs chart last year with the Jason Aldean duet "Don't You Wanna Stay," I wondered hopefully if the Texas-born pop...
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Radio Hits One: Will Grouplove And Walk The Moon Follow fun. And Gotye On The Crossover Path?
June 27, 2012 in Sound of the City
Both fun.'s "We Are Young" and Gotye's "Somebody That I Used To Know." topped the Hot 100 and the Alternative Songs chart, and did so in quick succession. The success...
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A Father's Day Mix Of Songs With Mixed Feelings About Fathers
June 15, 2012 in Sound of the City
Every May, there's no shortage of mawkishly sentimental songs to play on Mother's Day, but a month later, there are comparatively few Father's Day equivalents. Sure, there are some treacly...
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Radio Hits One: Bruce Springsteen And Mick Jagger Stop Making Pop Hits, Start Inspiring Them
May 31, 2012 in Sound of the City
It's been a busy year for Bruce Springsteen. In March, he released Wrecking Ball, his seventeenth studio album and tenth release to top the Billboard 200, and after packing in...
Radio Hits One: Birdman Is Rap's Richest Second Banana
May 17, 2012 in Sound of the City
Featured Entry
Radio Hits One: Dan Wilson, Linda Perry, And Other Pop Footnotes Turned Hitmakers
April 24, 2012 in Sound of the City
Dan Wilson's hits, then (left) and now. It's a familiar scene to anyone who's seen VH1 programs like Behind The Music or Where Are They Now?, or the channel's endless...
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Radio Hits One: Lil Wayne, Drake, Nicki Minaj, And Young Money Bring Crew Love Back To Rap Radio
April 11, 2012 in Sound of the City
If you've listened to much urban radio lately, or even a little, you may have noticed that Lil Wayne and his Young Money Entertainment labelmates, particularly Drake and Nicki MInaj,...
Dirty Money Honeys: Dawn Richard And Kalenna Get Off The Bad Boy Train
April 09, 2012 in Sound of the City
Radio Hits One: Beyonc, Nicki Minaj, Rihanna, And Other Urban Radio Staples Turn To Clappers
March 27, 2012 in Sound of the City
Featured Entry
Leiber & Stoller (11) Take Alicia Keys (14) To School In The Second Round Of SOTC's March Madness
March 19, 2012 in Sound of the City
Sound of the City's search for the quintessential New York City musician enters Round Two this week. Keep up with all the action here. Both these acts scored upset victories in...
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Radio Hits One: "Baby Got Back" And 20 Years Of Ass-Themed Hits
March 13, 2012 in Sound of the City
20 years ago, the Seattle-based rapper Sir Mix-a-Lot was doing pretty well as a mid-level star of the burgeoning west coast hip-hop scene, coming off of two successful albums and...
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Radio Hits One: Drake, Lil Wayne, Nicki Minaj, Katy Perry, And The Era Of The Hit Bonus Track
February 27, 2012 in Sound of the City
Superstar pals and Young Money labelmates Lil Wayne and Drake released two of the biggest albums of 2011—Tha Carter IV and Take Care—and both are still spinning off hits well...
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Radio Hits One: fun.'s "We Are Young" Brings Indie Pop To The Super Bowl And The Hot 100
February 22, 2012 in Sound of the City
Lindsey ByrnesLast week Billboard published the Hot 100 chart covering the post-Super Bowl week, and unsurprisingly the most notable leap on the chart was made by a song featured on...
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Oddsmaker: Do Beyonc And Andr 3000 Have Enough Swagu To Beat Kanye And His Dozens Of Friends At The Grammys?
February 12, 2012 in Sound of the City
The Grammys created the awkwardly named Best Rap/Sung Collaboration category ten years ago, around the time Ja Rule's various "thug love" duets were dominating the airwaves. The award recognized a...
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Oddsmaking: Is Bon Iver Or Foster The People Alt-But-Not-Too-Alt Enough To Win At This Year's Grammys?
February 10, 2012 in Sound of the City
The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences introduced the Best Alternative Music Performance category in 1991 in anticipation of punk breaking later that year (and permanently renamed the award...
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Oddsmaking: Should The Grammys Just Give The Album Of The Year Award To Adele Now?
February 09, 2012 in Sound of the City
For the last twenty years, the award for Album of the Year, the biggest Grammy honor of them all, has tended to go to two types of people: young women...
Radio Hits One: Flo Rida's Accidental Posthumous Tribute To Etta James
February 06, 2012 in Sound of the City
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Radio Hits One: Beyonc's Unlikely Pazz & Jop Coup
January 20, 2012 in Sound of the City
If the triumph of tUnE-yArDs in this year's Pazz & Jop albums poll was one of the biggest upsets in the poll's history, then the companion singles poll offered one...
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Radio Hits One: Foster The People, Cage The Elephant Lead The Charge Of New "The" Bands
January 10, 2012 in Sound of the City
Back around 2001, a Transatlantic cabal of music critics led a media hype machine declaring that rock was "back." To further this thesis, it grouped together a disparate set of...
