Gone too soon, too fast.
The fact that the R&B singer Aaliyah has died is still hard to accept not only by her family and friends, but also by her fans.
As funeral services are being planned for Aaliyah on Friday in Manhattan, fans are rushing to stores to purchase copies of her album for memory’s sake. According to SoundScan, sales from her third self-titled album have increased by 41 percent since the day of her death.
Aaliyah‘s boyfriend, Roc-a-Fella records co-CEO Damon Dash, who reportedly hasn’t gotten out of bed since he heard of the fatal accident, told Sonicnet.com on Thursday that the loss was “heartbreaking.”
“She was the best person I ever knew. I never met a person like her in my life,” Dash said as his voice broke with emotion. The pair had planned to marry “as soon as she had time,” he said.
But what will the music industry do to keep the singer’s memory alive?
According to video director Hype Williams, the ideal move would be to release the video for her song “Rock the Boat” as a tribute to the star. Williams directed Aaliyah in the video filmed at the Bahamas days prior to her death.
“I know there’s a lot of pain involved, but that’s all the more reason people would appreciate what we’ve done as a group,” Williams said on Thursday.
According to Williams, clips from the footage showed Aaliyah on the beach with her back towards the ocean, dressed in a red top and wearing dangling hoop earrings, as she sang slightly suggestive lyrics to the song.
A spokesperson for Blackground Records said it was too soon to say what would become of the footage.
Metallica loves a lawsuit
…Or at least that’s what it seems, after the hard-rock band finds they getting involved in lawsuit after lawsuit.
Their latest case occurred last week, when the band found that MHT Luxury Alloys in Torrance, Calif.., introduced a wheel called Metallica. The band has asked the automobile company to recall all Metallica products from its customers and to either make a settlement or face a lawsuit, MTV.com reported.
“My boss is 48 years old and doesn’t know much about the music industry,” MHT sales manager Steve Anderson told MTV.com. “The wheels were metal, so he called them ‘Metallica,’ that’s all there is to it.”
Anderson added that his company is likely to comply with Metallica‘s demands.
According to Metallica‘s lawyer, Jill Pietrini, the band gets involved in more than 10 copyright infringement cases per year. But rest easy, Metallica usually resolves them without going to court.
This is not the first time the rock band has taken action against companies that use their name without permission.
In January 1999, the group sued Victoria Secret for producing Metallica lip pencils; West Mill, a tuxedo-manufacturing license of Pierre Cardin that used their name in advertisements; and Cosmar, a nail file manufacturer that embossed file sleeves with their name printed on them.
In December 2000, the band also sued French perfume maker Guerlain and department stores Neiman-Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman for selling a Metallica perfume.
What gives?
“I’m not sure why [companies] think they can get away with it,” Pietrini told MTV.com. “Anyone who does a trademark search would come up with the Metallica name and see how much we protect the trademark.”
I don’t know about you, but when I put on my Metallica lipstick every morning, the song “Enter Sandman” is not the first thing that comes to mind.
McLean stays sober…and counting
“I’m celebrating 51 days sober today,” Backstreet Boy A.J. McLean said to the 14,000 fans that came to see the Backstreet Boys perform at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee on Aug. 24. This would be the first time the boy band would resume their Black and Blue tour after McLean left a Los Angeles rehab center where he was treated for alcoholism, depression and anxiety.
“I just wanted to say I wish I could go out and hug each and every one of you,” McLean said, choking up. “Thank you for letting me go through what I needed to go through to get myself better.”
With McLean back, the Backstreet Boys are also preparing to release a compilation of their greatest hits due Oct. 23 entitled Chapter One, BSB member Kevin Richarson told Sonicnet.com on Wednesday.
“We’re gonna put out something that means the end of a chapter in our lives and the beginning of another,” Richardson said.
The group’s heartthrob, Nick Carter, wants to make clear that this is not a greatest hits album because “once you put out the greatest hits, everybody’s like, ‘That’s it, they’re gone,” he said.
Eminem stops performance for injured fans
While many Americans pass judgement on Eminem‘s controversial, yet intriguing work, Scottish fans can’t get enough of him.
Around 45 people were injured on Saturday after the rapper took the stage at the Gig on the Green concert in Glasgow, Scotland. Eminem was 15 minutes into his set when he was asked to stop performing and was forced to take a 30-minute break, pleading with the crowd to stop surging, MTV reported.
In a statement, a police spokesman told CNN, “A number of people were removed from the crowd and after it was deemed safe Eminem came back on stage. No one was seriously injured; thankfully, they are all walking wounded.”
Eleven people were treated at local hospitals and released, while others were treated at tents around the outdoor concert. “Eminem and his band did all they could to help the situation and we are grateful for his support,” the spokesman said.
In related news, Eminem‘s animated cartoon series, The Slim Shady Show, which have been airing online at SlimShadyWorld.com, will be released on DVD and VHS on Nov. 6, Sonicnet.com reported.
Around 70 minutes of previously webcasted episodes, showcases behind the scene footage, disses “Pristina Gaguilera,” and includes an interview with Eminem.
‘N Sync goes 5x platinum
‘N Sync‘s album Celebrity was certified five times platinum by the Recording Association of America (RIIA) on Aug. 22, exactly 30 days after its release, Billboard reported.
The album sold 1.88 million units in its debut week, followed by their previous No Strings Attached, which sold 2.4 million units last March.
However, Celebrity didn’t stay at the top of the charts for very long, as it was bumped down when the seventh volume in the hit compilation series NOW! 7 hit the stores climbed to No.1 on The Billboard 200 charts for the last three weeks.
The NOW! 7 album series stands strong at No. 1, followed by the fourth and sixth volumes in the series, which have also rocketed to the top of the charts in previous years.
