Journey Is Anything But a “Dead End”

by Noiz 25. June 2009 19:23
Journey Is Anything But a “Dead End”

Journey is one of the most successful, influential, and popular rock bands America has ever produced.

Today, they are touring North America selling out of Journey tickets everywhere they go.  Back in the 1980’s their albums were flying off of record store shelves and their videos were prominently featured on a network called MTV.

Noted for inventing, or at least perfecting, the power ballad, Journey made it cool for rock bands to slow down and show a little tenderness.  Besides allowing the singer to show his sensitive side, Journey also furthered the integration of synthesizers and piano into hard rock music.

As a live band, Journey revolutionized the stadium concert with techniques that fans from Atlantic City to Tucson now take for granted.  They were one of the first bands to use 60-foot video screens, computerized lighting systems and sophisticated stage designs.  

Throughout their career, Journey has sold more than 80 million albums world-wide.  They’ve placed 18 singles in the Top 40 with 6 eventually making their way inside the Top 10.  

Their single “Don’t Stop Believing” is ITunes top-selling catalog track of all-time (a catalog track is a song released before the pre-digital era and then released as a digital download).  

Long before bands were featured in video games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero, Journey was immortalized in pixels.  In 1982, Journey Escape was released for the Atari 2600 system.  A year later, you could find Journey, a coin operator video game, at your local arcade.

Their greatest hits album is the sixth best selling greatest hits collection in U.S. history.   They’ve achieved this success despite having nearly 20 different band members throughout their 35-plus years of existence.

Needless to say Journey is one of America’s top five rock bands of all-time.  Yet, despite thrilling thousands of fans in cities like AustinKansas City and Reno, they are not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  Adding insult to injury, they’ve been eligible since 2000.

Fans at their Red Rocks concert or fans at their Pensacola show don’t care if Journey is in the hall of fame.  And no one needs another reason to hold the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in contempt—the entire institution is a joke.  

However, the band has been snubbed for almost a decade.  What could possibly be keeping Journey out of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is controlled by a few individuals who make decisions based on their own personal tastes, not an objective view of rock and roll history.  

One of these hall of fame tyrants is Dave Marsh.  He once proclaimed that Journey’s best selling studio album, Escape, was one of the worst number-one albums of all-time.  He even wrote, "Journey was a dead end for San Francisco area rock." 

Get it?  Dave contrasted the word “Journey” with the word “dead end.”  

Try telling the thousands of fans pouring into arenas in BaltimoreBoise, and San Bernardino that Journey is a dead end.   This is the same band that recorded such classics as “Wheels in the Sky,” “Open Arms,” and “Any Way You Want It.”  

Being kept out of a fraudulent Rock and Roll Hall of Fame means little to Journey and their fans.  After all, Journey is a band that needs no induction.  

Let’s hope the Journey never stops.

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Lady Gaga and Kanye West to Tour 2009

by Zinder 22. June 2009 02:41

There are two things wrong with a tour featuring Lady Gaga and Kanye West. To start, let me just say that I think both people are two of the most talented voices in music today. They are both innovative and daring with their music. They are both trendsetting fashion gurus that are always wearing something no one else has even though to put together. They are both pretty easy on the eyes, in their own funky way.

And they both have egos the size of the Pacific Ocean.

So, how do their handlers propose to make these two titans tour together without the ensuing drama that goes along with tours --- and stars --- of this nature?!

Anyone who has been paying attention to entertainment news in the last three or four years has heard (at least once) one of Kanye’s rants about his genius and how the rest of us don’t quite recognize it. He has lamented (quite loudly) the loss of various awards and has essentially said that anyone that isn’t on board the Kanye Express doesn’t know a thing about anything.

Gaga isn’t much better. She is as self-involved as Kanye is and once said that songstress Christina Aguilera was actually trying to steal her style, which is crazy considering Gaga has been around for like five minutes….and Aguilera for more than 12 years.

I think the most interesting aspect of this tour is the fact that Kanye has already come out to clarify that Lady Gaga is not an opening act, but rather a co-headliner. Way to play that one, ‘Ye because you already know that Gaga isn’t playing second fiddle to any other artist on tour, not since the success of her solo tour effort.

Now, these two artists are always interesting to look at, visually speaking, and both put on shows with lots of creative flair. So, I am interested to see what a Kanye/Gaga collabo will look like on a huge stage. No doubt there will be a Mack truck full of bells and whistles and funky extras that no one has ever thought to throw together before.

But when it comes to the play to the fans, which after all are the point of any concert, will Gaga and Kanye have the ability to look away from their respective images in the magic mirror to put on a great show? Or will they drown the pool of their own images, putting on a show that appeals to nothing but their huge, hulking egos? I suspect the latter, hope for the former and say it remains to be seen.

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Miley Cyrus, Successful Beyond Her Years

by Noiz 17. June 2009 18:58
Miley Cyrus, Successful Beyond Her Years

To say Miley Cyrus is successful is an understatement.  The Hannah Montana star has already accomplished more in her 16 years on the planet than most people do in their entire lifetime.  

Despite not being an adult in the eyes of the law, Cyrus has still managed to establish herself as one of the most significant figures in both the music industry and the culture at large.  

Late this summer, the indelible teen idol embarks on yet another North American tour.  Scheduled to begin in Portland, Oregon on September 14th Cyrus will wind her way across America before eventually ending the festivities in Miami, Florida on the 1st of December.  

For this tour, fans will be treated to paperless Miley Cyrus tickets.  Besides saving trees, these ethereal tickets are designed to combat scalping and provide greater access to tickets for the average fan.

Improving the concert experience is just one of Cyrus’ many accomplishments.  While fans from Tacoma to Tulsa would rather embrace the passion of her music, the rest of us can marvel at her lengthy resume.

In 2008, Time magazine listed her as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.  She’s currently 29th on Forbes magazine’s “The Celebrity 100” list (a combination of income and sizzle).

In 2006, the first Hannah Montana album debut at number one.  Appealing to kids from Omaha to Hartford, the soundtrack would eventually become the eighth bestselling album of year.

The next year, her double album, Hannah Montana 2: Meet Miley Cyrus, would go on to sell more than 3 million copies and put five songs on the Billboard Hot 100.

Cyrus’ award winning 2007-2008 Best of Both Worlds Tour grossed $36 million making it the 15th highest-grossing concert tour in North America for the year.  Remarkable considering that her ticket prices were comparably lower than most other big name tours at the time.

A Digital 3-D concert film from the Best of Both Worlds tour set the mark for the highest grossing opening weekend for a film released in less than 1000 screens.

In July of 2008, Cyrus released her second studio album outside of the Hannah Montana franchise called Breakout.  The album debuted at number one, selling over 370,000 copies.  This was the second best opening week of sales for a female artist.

Miley Cyrus’ duet with John Travolta, “I Thought I Lost You,” from the movie Bolt, was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song.

In 2008, Cyrus hosted both the CMT Music Awards and the Teen Choice Awards.

Cyrus is immortalized in wax at Madame Tussauds in New York City.

Barbara Walters selected Miley as one of the ten most fascinating people of 2008.

Her memoirs, titled “Miles To Go,” reached number one on the New York Times children’s best seller list.

In her career Cyrus has won three Kids’ Choice Awards, two Teen Choice Awards, a Gracie Allen Award, a Young Artist Award and a MTV Movie Award.

She’s released eight studio, live and soundtrack albums.

Besides her starring role in Hannah Montana: The Movie, Cyrus has also appeared in the movie Big Fish (credited as Destiny Cyrus) and she had a cameo in High School Musical 2.

Quite a remarkable list of accomplishments for a Nashville girl that’s just barely old enough to secure a drivers license.  

Cyrus’ detractors will claim her success is a product of a powerful marketing machine, while her fans, the same that crowd into venues in ClevelandChicagoLas Vegas and San Antonio, will say otherwise.  Her fans will tell you that the awards, the album sales and the television ratings all fail to acknowledge that Miley Cyris, even at just 16 years of age, is one of music’s best and most captivating performers.

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Fans Show Super Devotion to WWE Stars

by Zinder 16. June 2009 09:14

Some of the sports entertainment world’s most avid fans are found in the WWE, or World Wrestling Entertainment organization. This may something to do with the fact that WWE superstars put on one heck of a show, often engaging in drawn-out, soap opera-style feuds that end in epic battles at one of the WWE’s elaborate pay-per-view specials. 


However, some of the best matches the WWE has to offer are not necessarily on these pay-per-view shows, but on the tour dates. WWE stars travel on tour for much of the year, stopping in some of the most inconspicuous cities around the country. Places that never so much as get a Hannah Montana concert will surely get a WWE tour stop and people come out in droves for it.

This is the time to the more technical aspect of wrestling because these are not the moments made for TV. On a pay-per-view special, you might see Randy Horton doing a clothesline on Triple H.  But on a tour stop, you might see a more technical wrestling and a smidgeon less of the drama. This is what makes these small-town tour stops so popular.

It also gives fans an opportunity to more closely interact with their favorite wrestling personalities. It is during these tour stops that wrestlers often grant more backstage passes and take the time to make themselves available after the event for meet and greets and photos.

It is during these times that wrestlers cultivate the relationships with their core fan base, which often sustains their popularity throughout the length of the wrestler’s career.

Check to see if the WWE is coming to a city near you below!

The WWE on Tour

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