Honestly, I haven’t given American Idol a whole lot of thought since the second season ended, but it would appear I am in the minority among Idol fans – check out the reception Clay’s new album received: Clay Aiken’s RCA debut, Measure of a Man is just plain huge – …

The music industry will have to learn from those already living out its next incarnation.

The astonishing first Doors album still doesn't get the respect it deserves.

Although I was disappointed with the Chicago blues segment of Martin Scorsese’s The Blues series, two great moments in the film were brief snippets of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band rocking at home in Chicago, and backing Bob Dylan at the fateful Newport Folk Festival of 1965. A lot of …

Actors, writers, directors, indie producers all oppose “screener” ban – who exactly supports it, Jack, you desiccated ancient freak? Several prominent actors, including Sean Penn, Holly Hunter, Frances McDormand and Willem Dafoe, have joined the opposition to a recent ban on sending special DVDs and videos to Academy Award voters. …

Only a couple more weeks until Halloween, my second-favorite holiday. We are planning a Halloween Special here at Blogcritics and I’m revved about that. In the meantime, check out this calendar countdown to the big day, called Gothtober – there’s a daily fright, chuckle, amusement, etc. that began October 1 …

The Beatles refuse to license their music for online sales, with their spokesman saying, “I don’t see any reason for it at all.” This is a very neat statement of the recording industry’s attitude toward the Internet in general until file sharing forced them into the new millennium three years …

A strategic management paper [registration required] by a Wharton School legal studies professor says suing your customers is a less than ideal marketing strategy. He also finds a fascinating parallel from exactly 100 years ago: having a strong legal claim on the merits is only one factor in legal strategy …

Jack Black and Jack White are both musicians and now actors. The White Stripes’ singer/guitarist White appears in an upcoming Civil War film: White makes his major motion picture debut this winter in the film Cold Mountain. The Civil War drama, based on a best-selling novel, also stars Nicole Kidman …

We received this from the CEO of the Wippet online music service: We’ve all seen EMusic’s model put under pressure to ‘conform’ and end that dastardly unlimited subscription model before too many music lovers used to it and consider it the norm. And without even giving that nice .99c per …