What's Hot

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Chances are that every week you find yourself reading music-related articles and youl come across multiple mentions of how a song or album is performing on the charts. A song might be topping Billlboard Hot 100. Or an album may have made a landmark jump to the top of the Billboard 200. But what does it all mean? What can be revealed by analyzing the rises, falls and trend on the charts? We’re here to help. Read below to find out what the latest chart action is showing, what it means, and which artists are moving to the top of the pack.

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It’s not often that you put Paul McCartney, Michael Jackson and Phil Collins in the same sentence. But guess what? Like the other two legends in this epic trio, Collins has sold over 100 million albums worldwide both as a solo artist and a member of a band. Yup, the English singer-songwriter, who rose to stardom in the 70’s as the drummer/vocalist of prog-rock icon Genesis, and then parlayed his success into a mega solo career, is in a truly elite class. So in honor of the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer releasing deluxe reissues of his 1989 solo album, But Seriously — which amazingly was released as a 24-Karat Gold CD — we’re honoring Phil Collins for this edition of Flashback Friday.
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–Mumford and Sons have joined forces with Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros for what is being billed as the “Railroad Revival Tour.” Buy tickets and check out tour dates here.

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–The Arctic Monkeys have announced North American tour dates.

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–The Pitchfork Music Festival is officially sold out of three-day passes.

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****“They didn’t move as fast as the elusive 3-day passes for Coachella, but nevertheless, 3-day passes for The Pitchfork Festival are now history!”–Music With Sean ****

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–Avenged Sevenfold will headline the 2011 Revolver Golden Gods Award Show on April 20th at Club Nokia in L.A..

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–Ke$ha recently tattooed a fan with a pen and needle backstage at one of her concerts. Yes, we’re serious.

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–Fleet Foxes‘ frontman Robin Pecknold posted a link to download a free EP today on Twitter. One of the three tracks features a duet with Pecknold and Edward Droste of fellow indie-band Grizzly Bear.

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–Of Montreal will release a new EP titled thecontrollersphere on April 26th. The album is now available for immediate download for those who pre-order the set as a CD, 12-inch or buy a t-shirt directly from Polyvinyl Records.

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–A photographer has responded to Lady Gaga’s new copyright demands.

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–The Decemberists have added more tour dates and will release a special EP for Record Store Day on April 16th.

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–Sum 41 have unveiled the tracklisting for their new album Screaming Bloody Murder.

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–Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwod says the band is back in the studio recording following the release of their new album The King of Limbs.

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–Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Phil Collins has said he is officially calling it quits from the music business.

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–Rapper Mobb Deep has been released from jail.

Rumor has it that Christina Aguilera will be performing the National Anthem at the Super Bowl. The news isn’t officially confirmed, but according to HitFix, a source close to Aguilera says the singer will belt ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ at Super Bowl XLV, which takes place on February 6 in Arlington, Texas. And while it may just be a rumor as of now, all the speculation that the Black Eyed Peas would be playing the halftime show turned out to be true… so we’re thinking this is gonna pan out as well.

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A spokesperson from the NFL didn’t comment on the rumor, telling  HitFix, “When we have something to announce, we will announce it.” This wouldn’t be Aguilera’s first appearance at a Super Bowl. In 2000, she performed in the halftime show along with Enrique Iglesias and Phil Collins. And although she’s never sung the National Anthem at the Super Bowl, she did sing it at game seven of the NBA finals last year. At last year’s Super Bowl, Carrie Underwood sang the National Anthem while Jennifer Hudson had the honors in 2009.

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We’ve all got to start somewhere, just ask Mark Hoppus. That’s right, earlier this week a video of Hoppus performing in high school leaked on the Internet (which you can see below) by what appears to be an old classmate. Sporting a Robert Smith-approved hairdo, the future Blink-182 frontman performs a painfully out-of-tune version of the Descendents‘ “Silly Girl,” giving hope to everyone who’s ever sucked at a high school talent show.