What Makes Joel the Worst Singer Ever?

Richard Hamilton designed Beatles' 'White Album'

(NEWSER) - Richard Hamilton, the “Father of Pop Art” who designed the Beatles’ White Album cover, has died in Britain at 89, Billboard reports. Hamilton, who coined the term "pop art" to describe the movement that made heavy use of commercial and pop-culture images, came to prominence in the 1950s with “Just What Is It That Makes Today's Homes So Different, So Appealing?”—a collage of a couple in a house full of products. The Guardian says he was "the most influential British artist of the 20th century.” More»

Singer's 'GagaVille' farm will release exclusive tracks

(NEWSER) - Gaga for Gaga? It’s time to start a virtual farm. Lady Gaga is releasing exclusive new tracks from her album via a special “GagaVille” estate in FarmVille, the AP reports. Players of the online game must accomplish certain tasks to hear one new song per day between May 17 and 19; non-exclusive songs can be unlocked in the following days, ahead of the release of her album Born This Way on May 23. More»

Forbes was wrong about the singer's payday, writes Annie Lowrey

(NEWSER) - Thanks to a song that’s inspired unrestrained hatred, Rebecca Black has been proclaimed a millionaire by no less an authority than Forbes —but that’s unlikely, writes Annie Lowrey in Slate after a quick analysis. For one thing, "Friday" has sold 30,000 copies, Billboard says; Forbes had reported that it had been bought 2 million times on iTunes. The lower figure means about $26,000 for Black. Forbes also estimated that Google makes $1 per thousand YouTube views, meaning the singer would get a $20,000 cut of the $30,000 made from 30 million views. (It's now at 47 million.) More»

Meghan Daum: To be really popular, you have to be really unpopular

(NEWSER) - With Friday, 13-year-old Rebecca Black has a top 20 song on iTunes and a video that’s reached 35 million views—but what she’s most noted for is widespread derision. “We don't hate you because you're famous. You're famous because we hate you,” reads one of the printable tweets. But that’s what fame is in the age of the Internet, writes Meghan Daum in the Los Angeles Times : "To do anything in a public arena is to invite an insta-response that will echo just as loudly with harsh critics as with fans." More»

Album comes out a day in advance

(NEWSER) - Radiohead’s new album, The King of Limbs, has appeared a day early—and the reviews are already pouring in. Here’s what critics have to say:

• “The angst has gone,” writes Lucy Jones in the Telegraph . “There’s none of the anger of Hail to The Thief, the horror of OK Computer or existential anxiety that features on In Rainbows.” But that’s no downside: “It’s a treasure,” she writes. “There is no end to Radiohead’s genius.”