Songs You Can't Escape This Summer

What will we still be talking about next decade? Britney, for one

(NEWSER) - The ‘00s were full of important contributions to culture, but which ones will we still be talking about in another decade? Here are some of New York ’s picks:

• TV: The Sopranos for inventing quality cable, American Idol for changing the music industry, and of course all things Oprah Winfrey.
• Books: The Da Vinci Code for singlehandedly sustaining the book industry, and The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay for blazing the trail of combining geek lit with high lit.

When humor and music don't harmonize

(NEWSER) - Hate puns? Consider this stinker from Robbie Williams' latest record: "What's so great about the great depression/Is it a blast for you?/Because it's blas-phe-my." Ouch. Puns are uniformly terrible in pop and rock. NME cobbles together some of the worst pun song titles:

• Salt N Pepa: "A Salt With A Deadly Pepa."
• Butthole Surfers: "Hairway To Steven."

(NEWSER) - Adam Lambert finds it “funny” that people are talking about him “coming out” in the new Rolling Stone. “I’ve never been in,” he tells Access Hollywood. Lambert says he didn’t discuss his sexuality during American Idol because he wanted people to focus on his talent. “I chose to kind of ignore the issue until after the voting ended,” says the second-place finisher, but he thought it wasn’t much of a secret: “I sang Cher during Hollywood week.” More»

Signs record deal, too

(NEWSER) - American Idol runner-up Adam Lambert finally came out to Rolling Stone, Us reports. “I don't think it should be a surprise for anyone to hear that I'm gay,” says Lambert in the June issue, out tomorrow. “I'm proud of my sexuality. I embrace it. It's just another part of me.” Lambert says he didn’t confirm sexuality rumors during the show because he didn’t want it to overshadow his singing. More»

(NEWSER) - The Black Eyed Peas' new album, The E.N.D., isn’t of much consequence, but that’s just as well. Reviewers generally appreciate the party-hardy attitude.

• “Ever true to their defining characteristic, the Peas have no shame,” Ann Powers writes in the Los Angeles Times. “Fergie puts on ill-fitting dreadlocks for the faux-Jamaican Electric City and goes hilariously punk in Now Generation, a rant about social media that sounds something like Bob Dylan's Subterranean Homesick Blues rewritten on a Sidekick."