Rhapsody Music Stuff Place

In a sign that the industry is banking on electronic beats, Deadmau5 has been named this year's "house artist" for the MTV Video Music Awards.

It's not entirely surprising; electronic music is once again on the rise in America. Just look at the charts of the past few years, where Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Ke$ha and countless others have ridden into the upper ranks on the back of trance stabs and house beats. There's a very real trickle-down effect there: pop acts like the Black Eyed Peas, Kelis and even Britney Spears are turning to "underground" producers like Boys Noize and Rusko to give them a dose of club cred. (This kind of voodoo electro-nomics goes the other way, too, as evidenced by the recent collaboration between Diplo and Tiesto.)

We caught up with Freddie Gibbs before a recent gig in SF. Here he talks about his follow up to Str8 Killa, the stigma of Gangsta Rap, his love of Vanilla Ice and his goal of being "just a regular dude".

What's hot in the indie world? Well, for starters: robot relationships, girl-guy duos, retro rock, kids' shows, dark cities, grunge revivals and love, love, love. We've got an eclectic collection of new releases for your enjoyment, from the rich pairings of Jenny & Johnny and Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan to the darker fare of Matthew Dear and Antony and the Johnsons to the freaky fun of Yo Gabba Gabba!, Eels and more. Get a taste of each album with the playlist at the end of this post, or listen to everything if you want. Why not?

Summer is a hot time for pop music, and the last month of the season has seen a slew of great new albums. Even total pop junkies can't keep up with everything, though. So we've rounded up the latest from artists you know and love — plus a few you might not know yet, but we think they may just be love at first listen. Keep reading to find nutshell reviews, and don't miss tracks and further listening suggestions for Katy Perry, Usher and more.

Katy Perry
Teenage Dream (Capitol)
In a Nutshell: The girl who used to kiss girls gets a bit ... sophomoric on her sophomore album, harnessing youth as a metaphor for love, for fun, for emotional turmoil. A slew of solid, candy-coated pop confections starts off in party mode, then gets all angsty. The few stabs at seriousness are a bit hard to swallow.
Don't Miss: The oh-so-subtle "Peacock," which is perhaps K.P.'s most distinctive song to date — and sounds almost nothing like her
For Those Who Like: Bubblegum (of the musical and chewing variety), girlie mags, cheesecake, Gwen Stefani, Ke$ha, Madonna, ministers' daughters, Britney

The release of a new Shonen Knife album (Free Time, possibly their 17th) got us thinking. First of all, when the all-female trio appeared on the scene circa 1989, their perfectly tight punk-pop guitars and incredibly cute voices were revelatory, to say the least. Plus, they sang about Barbie, possibly without irony. Weird.

For many folks, Shonen Knife served as an introduction to a previously unknown world of Japanese rock music, a tradition that reached as far back as the late '60s and thrived on an open-ended experimentalism that went far beyond the parameters set down by most Western acts. Unfortunately, we don't have the rights to blare the ultra-distortion and reverb ear-murder of what is perhaps the country's most legendary band, Les Rallizes Denudes, who, in addition to making The Velvet Underground and Jimi Hendrix have sex in a grave, supposedly hijacked a commercial airliner and all went to jail. Also we don't have Puffy AmiYumi's Jet album, which features the amazing song "Jet Police" and which you should go pay a hundred bucks for on Amazon because that song rules. Trust us. The thing is, nobody has that music because all the best Japan-rock is tough to find, but what we do have is this entirely incomplete — but still awesome — collection of albums (and a playlist down below) recorded by Japanese people who seem to understand the possibilities of rock music far better than the folks who supposedly invented it. Good luck and please be careful when you get to Acid Mothers Temple. Those dudes go really far out.

When Drake swept through his 2010 VMA television commercial like the second coming of Frank Sinatra, it was clear that the Toronto-raised superstar likes being known as a man of love, the post-millennial Dean Martin.

But balladry is not just a pop thing. As a narrative device and a musical technique signifying love and sex, it has long fermented in hip-hop culture. You could go all the way back to Whodini's "One Love" and LL Cool J's "I Need Love" if you want, but it's not really necessary.

On Drake's debut album, Thank Me Later, you can hear echoes of Outkast, the Fugees and Lauryn Hill, as well as Faith Evans and Mary J. Blige. He comes from a specific idiom, namely the early '90s crosswinds of neo-soul, acid jazz, hip-hop and R&B. And, of course, he's not the first "rappa ternt singa," though no one has really sounded quite like him. In that sense, Drake's many influences are just a prologue. Like all (potentially) great artists, he manages to turn found objects into something entirely new.

This benefit album gets it right. Famous outsiders (My Morning Jacket, the Indigo Girls, Steve Earle, Nellie McKay) join forces with New Orleans' amazing crop of homegrown talent to help a city ravished first by Katrina and then by the Gulf oil spill (not to mention decades of wetlands destruction). Noble intentions aside, these are songs you will continue to play long after New Orleans fades from the news. Check out the indie-pop confection "My Little Brigadoon," a gripping cover of Led Zeppelin's "When the Levee Breaks" and Allison Moorer's searing rendition of "A Change is Gonna Come." — Nick Dedina Hear It Now!

MTV went on the air on August 1, 1981, and produced its first Video Music Awards just three years later. That makes for almost three decades of marrying the most popular pop music with televised spectacle. In assembling this guide, we picked albums that in our minds were inextricably linked to the videos they spawned, such as "Smells Like Teen Spirit" from Nevermind, "Waterfalls" from CrazySexyCool, and "Stan" from The Marshall Mathers LP. Including every last album was impossible, and so we tried instead for a pan-genre, multi-era sampling of the impact this once-upstart network has had on both pop music and pop culture. Enjoy.

The most well-known jazz label in history, Blue Note is famous for its amazing roster, the vibrant, full-bodied sound of its recordings and for its iconic record sleeves. The label's greatest period is considered to be the '50s and '60s, when it practically defined the hard bop and soul jazz movements. Blue Note is still going strong today, cultivating new talent as it celebrates its 70th anniversary, which we commemorate with this selection of the coolest jazz sides you'll ever hear. And dig those classy album covers... Girls! Cars! Saxophones! Sweaty foreheads!

While you're reading, click here to listen to a Blue Note Records Sampler playlist.

Back in the '80s, Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton, both together and separately, ruled the airwaves and became the "face" of country. And while "Islands in the Stream" and the whole urban cowboy thing made me run far, far, away from country music, there were artists living in a parallel universe that made me, and many of my friends, like country music.

Stripping the veneer off the glossy Nashville sound, artists such as Steve Earle, Jason & the Scorchers, and Rank and File injected an irreverence — sometimes downright snottiness — into their music, shaking things up. With the exception of Dwight Yoakam and, grudgingly, Steve Earle, most of the artists herein were shunned from commercial country radio outlets, but all were regularly added to the punky, alternative playlists of college radio stations throughout the country. Oddly enough, many of these artists sounded more country than what was playing on country radio at the time.

Back then, we called it cowpunk. Alt-country, no depression, modern twang are all monikers that followed, and generally speaking, they describe the zeitgeist, if not the sound. Here is a list of 10 superb cowpunk/roots/modern twang/no depression/whatever-you-want-to-call-it albums that not only helped me get through the '80s, but also planted the seeds for a blooming romance with country music.

It's easy to hear why Los Amigos is such a popular band to see live. Their fifth album grabs up just about every vibrant, booty-shaking, up-'til-dawn genre that's ever lived and throws them into a giant party mix: lounge grooves, cosmic funk, alt-rock, dub and a whole lotta disco. The kitschy campiness that dominated Superpop Venezuela is toned down but not gone, thankfully. Instead, it's shaped into subtler hints, like the kicky lead single "Mentiras" (which has an air of Saturday morning cartoons about it to our ears) and the flat-out awesome, Latin dance butt-rock that is "Merengue Killa." — Sarah Bardeen Hear It Now!

On the Record is a video series where rock stars gush about their favorite records -- in exactly 45 seconds. Click above to watch Thao Nguyen of Thao and the Get Down Stay Down talk about her favorite album of all time. Thao is featured along with My Morning Jacket, Indigo Girls, Steve Earle and many more on the benefit album Dear New Orleans. Rhapsody subscribers can listen to Dear New Orleans and millions of other albums whenever and however they want. Click here to sign up for a free Rhapsody trial subscription and see what we're all about.

ALBUM: Dear New Orleans Record: Car Wheels On A Gravel Road

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On the Record is a video series where rock stars gush about their favorite records -- in exactly 45 seconds. Click above to watch Ben and James of MGMT talk about their favorite album of all time. Rhapsody subscribers can listen to Congratulations and millions of other albums whenever and however they want. Click here to sign up for a free Rhapsody trial subscription and see what we're all about.

ARTIST: MGMT Record: Surf's Up

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On the Record is a video series where rock stars gush about their favorite records -- in exactly 45 seconds. Click above to watch Janelle Monae talk about her favorite album of all time. Rhapsody subscribers can listen to The ArchAndroid and millions of other albums whenever and however they want. Click here to sign up for a free Rhapsody trial subscription and see what we're all about.

ARTIST: Janelle Monae Record: Earth, Wind & Fire Greatest Hits

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On his first album in six years, Mark Van Hoen continues to explore his distinctive brand of murky, moody downtempo. While he's still using synthesizers and the occasional breakbeats, acoustic strings and piano lend Where Is the Truth a richer, warmer tone than his previous albums, while scraps of radio transmission blur the music's edges. Reminiscent of Brian Eno's music from the '70s, it's a hazy sound that seems to operate just beneath the surface of things -- wallpaper music that peels in strange, captivating patterns. — Philip Sherburne Hear It Now!