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— And I thought I was a Francophile.

A few months back, a photo of a hot-air-balloon exhibit in Paris, circa 1907, caught the eye of Beirut’s Zach Condon. It was, the young singer/ songwriter/ uke and horn player figured, the perfect image for the cover of his new album, an homage to France — its music, its culture, its cities — called The Flying Club Cup. While the album title stuck, the photo (due to rights issues) did not. Still — on the Beirut Web site and on the merchandise accompanying the new record — a hot-air balloon can be seen, floating off to new adventures, à la Jules Verne. And how apropos is that for this musical world traveler, who only a year ago turned a rapt audience on to Balkan sounds with Beirut’s stunning debut, Gulag Orkestar. Now Condon’s balloon has headed west, landed squarely in the middle of the “hexagon” (as the French call their land) and produced a record that hopes to do for classic Gallic pop what Gulag did for gypsy music.

Following Beirut’s second (and best) of three recent New York shows, I talked with Zach about being a “grumpy old” 21-year-old, the challenge of a second album, recording at home in New Mexico and in a Montreal church, his globe-trotting ways and his current fascination with France.: I’ve been listening to French chansons since I was, like, 15 or 16, for a very long time. But I never got obsessed with it till very recently. It’s funny, after doing all this Balkan music, after looking into these Eastern European countries and being so obsessed with their sound and how different it was from ours, I remember taking a closer look at music that was slightly closer to home, so to speak.

: And you lived in Paris for part of last year. Is it important to you that each record have a real specific geographic or ethnic identity to it?

: I’m definitely not trying to. I’m definitely not the kinda guy that sits in his room and has a map of the world and is, like, throwing darts and is like, “Well, it looks like it’s Germany this time. Let’s do it.” [He laughs.] It’s very much a situation where slowly something just grows on me. Something just kind of consumes me. And I can’t help it. I need to do it. I absolutely need to do it. I needed to do this.

: You’re headed to Europe for shows in a few weeks, and I noticed on your tour itinerary the great Olympia in Paris. That’s gonna be a moment, right?

: I’m scared. I mean, it’s two months from now, but I’m scared. I feel like I’ve bought hundreds of CDs from the Olympia in Paris. The most famous French artists — Yves Montand, Edith Piaf, Jacques Brel — everybody has played there, and the fact that we’re playing there has been the most shocking thing that has come about this year.

: Well, yeah, Brel was actually Belgian. And it’s funny. I was in Belgium, and I was sitting under a photo of Brel, on the same bench as me. And I was obviously extremely excited about that, you know. “Jacques Brel — in the same seat as me!” But all the interviewers were like, “We hate Brel.” And I’m [like], “Why?” And it’s because Brel made so much fun of Belgium, so that was strange being there and talking to these people about Jacques Brel, who they both love and hate.The Flying Club Cup — while not as immediate as Gulag Orkestar and Beirut’s late-2006 EP, Lon Gisland, and less dominated by those signature mariachi-esque horns — is a grower. With the nostalgic “Nantes,” the mournful “Cliquot” and the sing-along “A Sunday Smile,” Condon still delivers melodies that soar and transport. But will people come along for the ride? A year ago it was hard to find a disparaging word about Beirut, in print or online, but early reaction to the new record has been mixed, and a Village Voice review of the band’s recent Central Park show was especially scathing. Does he care?: Look, last time I was shocked the press was even paying attention, and this time, sure, I’m wondering what they’re going to say, and as of yet it’s been fairly positive with some negative things. And it’s almost like I welcome that, because it’s like I’m walking on a fence, and it’s kind of a good thing that there can be negative and positive views about what we’re doing ’cause it means we’re just — we’re not for everybody.

: Well definitely with this second album, the “novelty” of Beirut is not there. While this is a different record, for sure, to an extent you and the band are a known quantity. Does that make things very different?

: Yeah it does, a lot. When I was working on this album I completely disappeared from the music scene in New York and the East Coast. I went back to Albuquerque [New Mexico] to record this album, to disappear from that. I had to remember that I was recording for an audience of one, not a hundred-thousand. And yeah, this album has changed a lot of things. And I’m scared of an audience of that size. Had I known that there was an audience in Europe, and America, South America — all I can tell you, because I haven’t actually figured it out, haven’t wrapped my head around it, is yes, I actually am quite intimidated.

: After recording in New Mexico, you guys did end up working in a proper studio in Montreal. And that all happened because of [Final Fantasy’s] Owen Pallett?

: Well, the first thing that I have to say is that I have been so amazed by and interested in Owen Pallett’s music for as long as I can remember. Because this guy has taken pop music and he’s turning it on its back. He’s classically trained and you know it’s just amazing what he’s doing with pop music. And so he invited me to his studio, the Arcade Fire church studio in Montreal. They had left to tour, and Owen had traded string arrangements for free reign of the studio, so to speak. And he was gonna do it alone, but then he asked me if I could trade him some brass and percussion parts as well as some vocals for two weeks of absolute freedom in the studio. And of course I took him up on it. It was towards the end of recording this album. It was absolutely amazing.

: In a weird way I think Flying Club Cup is a more intimate, more understated record than the last two, and I don’t know if people would have expected that. Was there any feeling that “I have to make this one as different as possible from the last two”?

: Being reactionary is a bad thing, as far as I’m concerned. Because I’m just trying to write songs, I’m trying to write pretty songs. So it wasn’t like reactionary. It wasn’t like some sort of punk-rock thing where it was like a reaction to what has come before. It was more of a “What do I find beautiful now?” and “Can I replicate this?” And well, for that matter, “Am I capable of it?”Apart from his tremendous musical gifts, it’s hard to know exactly what to make of Zach. The guy can come off as alternately charming, aloof, sweet and condescending. He opens his mouth and sings in that plaintive, dramatic, seen-it-all way, and a few minutes later, he can be the likeable curmudgeon, bitching about the heat, the venue or busting on a bandmate for his busted trumpet.

When it comes to his musical paeans to France or the Balkans, he is nothing less than sincere. When it comes to everyday life, well …: I’ve heard people use the term “old soul” to refer to you. You know, “He dropped out of high school ’cause it wasn’t challenging.” “He seems to have always been thinking way ahead of his peers.”

: I’m not as world-weary as I seem, but at the same time, ah … I’m a grumpy old man in a 21-year-old’s body. I complain about my knees, complain about my hips, complain about my throat. … No, obviously that’s not true. But I don’t disagree that I feel and act and participate in a world that doesn’t exist for most people my age, and it’s always been the case. I’ve always been a complete and utter stranger to my generation.

: They would tell you I’m one of the most cynical people you could meet. And I am. A lot of my friends give me hell for being cynical and pessimistic. And yet the only way I can — man, I really don’t want to use this word — but the only way that I can kind of transcend that state of mind, which is the constant state of mind that I’m in, is to write these songs, to sing these songs, and frankly, it’s the only thing that goes above and beyond everyday life. Taking the subway, walking down the street, buying a bagel in the morning — there’s something very unique about it and something very transcendental.

Britney Spears’ one-time love rival Shar Jackson has poked fun at the pop superstar’s MTV Video Music Awards disaster in a self-penned rap for a U.S. reality show.

Jackson, who was pregnant with Kevin Federline’s second child when he dumped her for Spears, was competing in the finals of MTV show Celebrity Rap Superstar recently when she enjoyed a laugh at the Toxic singer’s expense.

Performing as Shar J, Jackson showed off her own rapping skills when the show aired on Thursday (11Oct07) - by cracking, “They should have had me open up at the VMAs” during the song Let It Blow.

The dig comes after Jackson, who claimed Spears had stolen her boyfriend in 2004, recently revealed she bears no ill will towards her ex, Federline, or his now-ex-wife Spears.

Jackson and Playboy playmate Kendra Wilkinson, one of Hugh Hefner’s three live-in girlfriends, are the finalists of Celebrity Rap Superstar. A winner will be announced this week (begs15Oct07).

Jackson, a former star of TV series Moesha, is hoping to use her appearance on the show to launch her own R&B career. She has been working with Pharrell Williams on a debut album.

DAKAR, Senegal: In the world of rock and roll, it's always hip to be a rebel. The guitar-toting, ex-guerilla fighters of one band aren't pretending.

Formed in exile in Algeria, trained in Libyan military camps, tested on the battlefield, the Malian group Tinariwen has championed the plight of Mali's fierce desert nomads for decades with an electric array of hypnotic poet-warrior blues rooted in their own homegrown Tuareg twang.

Once distributed hand to hand on cassette tapes banned by the government — British band manager Andy Morgan called it the “ghetto-blaster grapevine” — their music galvanized a disaffected generation and bound together a scattered culture without newspapers, radio or television stations in their native Tamashek language.

These days, the turbaned musicians straight out of the Sahara are touring the likes of New York, Paris and Tokyo to promote their latest CD, “Aman Iman: Water is Life” — 12 tracks of 1960s-style wah-wah-pedal guitar riffs, driving African drum beats and hand-clapped Arabic rhythms laced with lyrics that navigate the epic river of modern-day Tuareg existence.

Many of the tunes were written years ago, before the latest rebellions plaguing Mali and uranium-rich Niger sprung up this year and last, but as singer and guitarist Abdallah Ag Alhousseyni said in a recent interview in Dakar, the song remains the same.

“The problems of Tuaregs in Mali and Niger have never been solved,” Alhousseyni said as several band members lay on a mat on the floor of their modest hotel room, heating Chinese tea on a miniature charcoal grill.

“Young Tuaregs are up in the mountains with arms,” Alhousseyni said. “They want peace, but not only that. To come down, they want to see development.”

Tinariwen — meaning “deserts” or “empty places” — was founded in 1979 in Tamanrasset, southern Algeria, where band members-to-be were living a hand-to-mouth existence in the wake of Mali's 1963 rebellion and the severe droughts that followed a decade later.

Among them: Ibrahim Ag Alhabib, the tall, charismatic, shaggy-haired lead singer-guitarist who co-founded the group. Malian forces killed Alhabib's father and slaughtered his family's camels and cattle when he was four, inducing a wandering life that included jail time and plenty of downtime among masses of exiled, unemployed youth longing for home.

According to Morgan's account, Alhabib learned to play “on self-made bush guitars, which consisted mostly of a jerry can, a stick and some bicycle brake wire.”

It was a school of hard knocks that few Western musicians could imagine.

Drawn into Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's training camps in the 1980s, the rockers practiced between military exercises. Eventually, six of them went on to fight in Mali's rebellion, which lasted from 1990 to 1996. Four ex-fighters remain in the dozen-strong band.

One oft-told tale has former guitarist Kheddou Ag Ossad heading into battle with a Fender Stratocaster strung over one shoulder and a Kalashnikov rifle over the other. He was shot 17 times — and survived, so the legend goes.

True or not, such stories have bolstered Tinariwen's mythical status. The group, though, plays down that past and no longer advocates violence.

“The idea that you can achieve your goals with arms is outdated. It's not worth it,” said Hassan Ag Touhami, a mustachioed singer-guitarist-vibemaster. His own generation's rebellion “was never a good idea,” he said, “but sometimes there are obligations.”

Tinariwen's audience began going global after they performed at Mali's 2001 Festival in the Desert, an annual Woodstock-like series of concerts that draws blue-turbaned nomads on camelback and foreign tourists under the stars.

Their first album, “The Radio Tisdas Sessions,” was released the same year and followed by the 2004 world music hit, “Amassakoul,” meaning “traveler.”

Since then, Tinariwen has performed with rock legends Santana and Led Zeppelin's Robert Plant, whose guitarist, Justin Adams, produced Aman Iman.

The tracks on their latest work feature the group's signature offensive of six guitars, which lay the backdrop for poetic vocals expounding on exile, love, longing, war and the desert.

Many of the tunes begin with slow, lingering solo guitar preludes that meld into trancelike traditional beats invoking Berber and Moroccan influences. Mesmerizing male chants are topped off with a pair of sweet-voiced female crooners that occasional let loose quivering guttural tongue cries.

On “Mano Dayak,” Alhousseyni sings of the 21st century's subtle intrusion into the shadeless desert, recounting his amazement upon seeing a Tuareg talking on a satellite telephone “tied to a tree.”

What has fueled Tuareg unrest is what lacks in their lands today, Alhousseyni said: the basics of modern civilization. “No development, no schools, no water, no teachers,” he said. “It's a forgotten world.”

ROCHESTER — A project by the Police Department to construct and oversee a rap studio brought a mixed response by Spaulding High School students questioned on its creation, with several calling for greater diversity beyond this form of music.Showing the wide range of personalities among today’s high schoolers, some simply laughed at the entire concept while others spoke sincerely on their excitement about the prospect.The rap studio was approved by the City Council this month by a vote of 12-1, allowing federal grant money received by the Police Department to be used toward its construction. Police Chief David Dubois said the idea behind the studio is to turn negative energy into something positive. Music is also a strong medium for police to reach students, he said.Students, and not the officers, will perform the rap music, which police hope will keep troubled students off the street and doing something creative.During random interviews of high school students recently, several spoke on their excitement upon learning about the studio.”I’d join that,” sophomore Timm Robidaux said with emphasis.”Yeah, definitely, especially if it’s at the high school,” sophomore Russell Marshall. He also suggested it be open every Friday night from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.The studio is still in the planning stages, but the high school is being considered as a possible location, as well as the community center, and the police station.Elizabeth Hladick said, “I’d go to it. I don’t know how to rap, I would just watch,” she said.Yet some students laughed aloud when asked about it, making “Are you serious?” facial gestures.Other students had a broader perspective.”I think it’s kind of weird. Wouldn’t they want to build a country studio?” sophomore Renee Tardiff said. “They should do more than just rap. Everyone is not into rap.”"I think it would be a big hit for some people,” sophomore Cody Wallace said. “Some will just be ‘it’s not my type.’”Dubois said having the students sing rap is not set in stone, and that the target community will dictate the project’s development. A broader spectrum of music is a possibility.”Different types of music will be beneficial to different types of people,” Dubois said.As for the studio, it is undecided whether it will be a school class, an extra-curricular activity, or its own entity, adding another dimension to the community.

CD sales are falling. Vinyl sales are rising but not for a mass market. So the music industry has come up with a new format in the fight against dwindling revenues.

Rock band Fightstar is releasing its next single on a disc that is vinyl on one side and a CD on the other. Its record company Gut admits the vinyl-disc is a gimmick but hopes it will capture fans’ imagination.

“It can only work as a gimmick because we don’t actually know how many fans have record players,” says Gut’s chairman, Guy Holmes.

The band of former Busted frontman Charlie Simpson will release Deathcar next month. The vinyl-disc version will be a limited edition, probably of 3,000 copies, and is likely to sell for £2.99.

The two-in-one disc, which can hold around three minutes of music on the vinyl side and 70 minutes on the CD side, was created by Germany’s Optimal Media Production.

Mr Holmes - who is credited with revitalising Tom Jones’s career, discovering Right Said Fred and popularising Crazy Frog - says that if the format proves popular his company could use it for other bands. “The music business desperately, desperately needs to invent new formats; the CD is an antique, it’s 20 years old.”

Gut plans to put all its singles out on memory sticks (USBs) from next year as it joins other record labels in developing new ways to release both singles and albums.

Vinyl meanwhile has enjoyed a revival in recent years as both independent labels and the big companies like Universal have reverted to the format, particularly for rock and dance artists.

For the Official Charts Company the combined record and CD has meant consulting the music industry on whether it can be counted alongside other formats.

Managing director Martin Talbot says it is likely be adopted as an eligible format given strong support in the industry for new initiatives. “In the singles market particularly, adding value to physical products is in absolutely in the interests of the business, and any label - especially something as creative and unusual as the ‘divinyl’ disc” he says.

Optimal Media Production said physical formats are increasingly being used as marketing tools in the age of downloads and that it is producing more high value and exclusive CD versions than ever.

“On top of that we have seen enormous growth in the area of vinyl production,” said marketing head Grit Schreiber. “Nothing seemed more natural than the idea of combining the worlds of digital and analogue sound.”

Project Gotham Racing 4: Driving game (Microsoft for Xbox 360. $59.99. ESRB Rating: Everyone.)

The first sound you’ll hear when playing Project Gotham Racing 4 isn’t the squeal of tires or the crunch of metal. It’s 19th century composer Edvard Grieg, whose “Hall of the Mountain King” is the first of dozens of classical music pieces on the soundtrack.

PGR4 is more than a fun game, it’s a classy one, with plenty of substance but also a style that emphasizes the finer points of racing. This is a video game that you might imagine James Bond playing.

The video game industry’s overreliance on sequels is mostly a bad thing. Somewhere in the world, the Martin Scorsese of video games may be languishing in game design purgatory, writing repetitive levels for the latest addition to the endless Pokemon or Spyro the Dragon franchise. But in the case of driving and fighting games, sequels are generally a good thing, allowing developers the ability to fine-tune the product. Project Gotham Racing 3 was the finest-looking 2005 launch title for the Xbox 360. The developers at Bizarre Creations didn’t waste much time in the past two years, and PGR4 is once again among the visual elite, even though the game play additions aren’t all wonderful.

The latest Gotham is a sharper version of the last one, with accurate-looking cars and domestic and foreign cities so impeccably detailed that you might want to contact your travel agent. But the new weather effects are the greatest part of the game, starting with the fog, which materializes and dissipates in realistic fingers as you race around city streets. The rain is even more impressive, bouncing off the hood of your car and causing small changes in the driving surface, including puddles that can send you into a hydroplaning spinout. (Not to worry. Cars in PGR4 barely sustain damage.)

Even when PGR4 travels to racing game standards such as Tokyo, the excellent graphics give the old locales a fresh look. The third-person camera angles in particular have an Orson Welles “Citizen Kane” thing going, angling slightly upward so you can see the incredible detail of the urban sprawl racing by. Everything from the spectators (who once again jump away when you hit a wall) to the web of power lines above adds to the experience.

The game play for Project Gotham Racing 4 isn’t as hyperrealistic as this year’s other powerhouse driving game, Forza 2 Motorsport, and you can’t do much to modify your cars or change more than the paint color. In exchange, PGR4 is one of the easier driving games to pick up. The object is to win the variety of races, but becoming an elite driver also requires Kudos points, which allow you to buy new cars and unlock new locales. Trying to rack up Kudos by executing power slides and other tricks can literally throw you off track, but it also rewards gutsier driving.

If there’s a problem with the game, it’s this year’s addition of motorcycles. Project Gotham Racing always included a wide variety of vehicles - everything from a pickup truck to an Enzo Ferrari is included in this edition - but the two-wheeled competitors don’t add anything significant to the game. The bikes seem overly simple when you’re in control, and the computer-controlled drivers are way too easy to knock off the saddle.

The excellent soundtrack may seem like a minor thing, and classical music is a holdover from previous Project Gotham Racing games. But with too many new games playing new rock and rap music - usually with the volume cranked high - for the purpose of promoting new bands, it’s nice to have some subdued background music. While playing, we also enjoyed Mozart, a Chick Correa jazz number and something that sounded like the Bollywood techno music that they play in the good Pakistani restaurant near the Chronicle building.

This is the rare video game where it’s actually fun to watch someone else play, or even just listen.

In 1993, noted producer/musician/curmudgeon Steve Albini penned an article called “The Problem With Music,” in which he detailed the perils that await a band signing with a major label. It’s a fairly remarkable read, if only for the opening paragraph, an oft-quoted bit of vitriol and imagery that sums up the label courting process thusly:

“Whenever I talk to a band who are about to sign with a major label, I always end up thinking of them in a particular context. I imagine a trench, about 4 feet wide and 5 feet deep, maybe 60 yards long, filled with runny, decaying sh–. I imagine these people, some of them good friends, some of them barely acquaintances, at one end of this trench. I also imagine a faceless industry lackey at the other end, holding a fountain pen and a contract waiting to be signed.”

It’s been 14 years since Albini’s piece was first published, and it’s debatable whether things have changed for the better. Certainly, major labels are still portrayed as the Enemy, soul-crushing suits concerned with nothing more than the bottom line. Whether or not this is true, it bears mentioning that said bottom line is getting harder to meet by the minute — so much so that for the first time in memory, it might be possible to actually feel sorry for majors (if not necessarily likely).

The record industry is in a freefall, with annual album sales around half of what they were in the late ’90s due primarily to downloading — a situation that can only get worse. Then a trio of high-profile defections made headlines in the last few days: Radiohead eschewed “traditional” routes and released In Rainbows largely on their own (see “”Radiohead’s In Rainbows To Be Released Digitally October 10 — You Decide The Price!”); Trent Reznor declared his freedom from Interscope (then basically attempted to scuttle the label-release of his Year Zero Remixed album by promising to leak all the tracks himself; and Madonna may be leaving Warner Bros. in favor of a big-money deal with concert promoter Live Nation that includes albums, concert promotion, licensing and merchandising. Needless to say, things are pretty rough for the majors these days.

In fact, one could ask the question: Do artists of a certain caliber even need major labels anymore? Couldn’t acts like Pearl Jam, R.E.M. or the Dave Matthews Band survive — and even thrive — on their own? And doesn’t the answer to this question (which seems to be an unequivocal “yes”) lead to an even larger one: Are major labels becoming obsolete?

The answer largely depends on who’s asking.

“I don’t envy the people at major labels,” said Danny Goldberg, the founder of Gold Village Entertainment (which manages acts like the Hives and Ben Lee) and former Nirvana co-manager, who was CEO of both Warner Bros. and Mercury Records and president of Atlantic Records during the 1990s. “They’re narrowing their business right now, and that’s what they might have to do. Their business is becoming a combination of catalog licensing — because they all have amazing catalogs — and the pop business. And there’s less and less room for anything in between. It used to be just [having a release] on a major label was a source of prestige and status, in terms of the way the rest of the business, media and promoters would look at a band. But because there are so many successful artists on their own labels or on indie labels, I don’t think that’s the case anymore.”

Jonathan Daniel, co-founder of Crush Music Media Management, which helms the careers of acts like Fall Out Boy and Panic! at the Disco, offered a more cautious assessment. “I think the world is changing so rapidly, it becomes less attractive to sign with a major label,” he said. “But it’s foolhardy for a young band to say, ‘We don’t need labels.’ You might not need a label in the traditional sense, but you still need people to help you get ahead. Plus, even though recording and touring are cheaper, there are still costs of doing business, and labels have traditionally always helped with that.”

Again, the situation depends on the artist. While the traditional major-label setup can benefit up-and-coming acts (who are largely unknown and can have their careers established by a major’s promotional muscle), it’s not going to be much help to a reasonably established band on its fourth, fifth or even 10th album — such artists usually know who their audience is and are less likely to break out beyond it. So in order for majors to survive — and for both new and old acts on their rosters to thrive — they’re going to have to change the way they do business.

“There already are massive changes [being made] at major labels,” said Bertis Downs, longtime manager of R.E.M. “The situation we’re finding ourselves in now is definitely not a surprise to anybody — ‘Oh my God, a major band can do this without us!’ I mean, [a major act releasing an album] is about the same as sending out e-mails. Labels are totally restructuring. They’re beefing up all the new-media stuff, all the digital stuff. I don’t think this is really this cataclysmic tipping point where, starting tomorrow, everyone’s going to start doing things this way. First of all, people are still in deals, people still have contracts, and it’s not like you can hit a switch and everything will change. It’s incremental.”

MTV News reached out to representatives at each of the so-called “Big Four” — Sony/BMG, EMI, the Warner Music Group and the Universal Music Group — for comment on just how their relationships with artists are changing. While no one would speak on the record, a spokesperson for one of the four noted (off the record) that majors are putting a lot of stock in “360 deals,” where a label partners with the artist in publishing, merchandising and touring revenue — not just sales of recorded music — in a sense saying that if the label is doing its job promoting an artist, then it should reap the benefits of said promotion across the board (similar to Korn’s deal with Virgin and the mooted Madonna/LiveNation deal).

The wild card in all that deal-making — and in pretty much everything — is technology. It’s no secret that labels have been struggling to find ways of making the Internet work for them. In the wake of what Radiohead has done, it looks like many artists are one step ahead: They’ve figured out that technology has given some of the power back to them. Why pay for production of an album when you don’t actually have to produce any physical copies? Or why have a label spend money on promoting a record — money that the artist must pay back before they can turn a profit — when you can use a MySpace account to do basically the same thing? If only it were that easy.

“I think the reason labels are under attack is because the barrier to entry used to be much higher,” Daniel said. “The Internet has lowered that barrier, for sure. But at the same time, it’s made it even harder to filter through. Part of the reason you sign with a label is promotion, because while the Internet can be a powerful promotional tool, it can be so unkind. Like the Pitchfork review of the second Jet record [that consisted entirely of a video of a] monkey p—ing into its own mouth? Or kids not liking a Yellowcard single [after the song leaked and met with widely negative reviews]? Both those things killed those records.”

“Technology has given power to the consumers. All we’re doing is following along,” Downs laughed. “The playbook is changing. [R.E.M’s] new album is basically done, so if something comes along — whether it be MTV or Martin Scorsese — and they want to use one of our songs, of course we’re going to listen. But a year or two ago we would’ve said no, because that’s not by the books; that’s not the formula. You wouldn’t waste a song that early. Now, you’re trying to get excitement. You’re kind of making it up as you go along.”

The rules of the game seem to be different for everyone playing. Most agree that only a very select group of artists could do what Radiohead is doing, and that the In Rainbows situation is in no way a model of how to save the record industry. The overwhelming percentage of artists signed to major labels don’t have the critical and commercial clout of Thom Yorke and company.

How do musicians play the game and still manage to benefit from being on a major? By being more selective when it comes to signing deals — including the aforementioned 360 arrangements.

“It’s strange, because we work with a lot of bands on a lot of different levels,” Daniel said. “If an artist [sells] 2-3 million [albums], like Fall Out Boy, the label will make a lot of money and the artist will make money too. But we’re also paying attention to what happens with this Radiohead thing, because for a young band, we’re going to try to work deals differently with labels, because they’re pushing these 360 deals, where they incentivize everything. It’s their ‘new’ way of looking at deals, and to me, that’s not really reinventing how the business is. I’m more interested in looking at a new band like, ‘OK, the band is 100 percent of what it is, let’s divvy that up amongst people who can help the band. Maybe we give 50 percent to Oprah, and she puts them on her show and all of a sudden they’re big.’ “

Perhaps the backlash Radiohead incurred following the release of In Rainbows sort of proves that all bands need a major label to iron out the kinks and get CDs into stores, which, for all the shouts of “The sky is falling!,” still remains a very vital aspect of the record industry.

“It seems like [Radiohead’s model is] disproportionately an online strategy,” Goldberg offered. “I mean, the high-end proportionality of digital sales is like 30-40 percent. And for older audiences, it’s something like 10-20 percent. So whichever place in that range Radiohead is, more than half of their audience is still buying CDs, and that half is fundamentally being ignored. So half of their audience is basically being told, ‘You know what? You’re just not important to us. We’re interested in people who get their music online, because they’re younger or hipper. And everybody else can wait until next year.’ And that can be offensive to a percentage of their audience. And that, to me, is a flaw.”

“Obviously [Radiohead] had some issues, some infrastructure and technical issues,” Downs said. “So there’s some advantage to being with a big institution — the scale and the servers and all that.”

But can the majors adapt? No one can be sure, but if there is one beacon of light out there, it’s probably the majors’ bread and butter: pop music. It seems that, to a much greater degree than their rock brethren, established pop and hip-hop acts (like Mariah Carey or Kanye West) need the strength of a major label to ensure big-time sales.

“[Major labels] are part of big corporations, whether they’re public or private, and they have obligations to investors for short-term results, so they have to make very hard choices, and those choices mean that they’re not able to work effectively on as many artists as they used to,” Goldberg said. “I don’t think there’s any question that majors do a good job with some artists. Kanye West, he’s probably better off in the major-label system. On his own, I don’t know if he’d be able to do what he’s done within the system.”

“I think when Nirvana broke, rock music blurred into pop music, in terms of sales numbers, and it never should’ve done that,” Daniel added. “Rock music was really always an underground thing. Major labels were built for pop music, and they really work. I don’t think Beyoncé could make records with the same great success without a major label. For a pure pop thing that doesn’t build its fans by touring or word of mouth, labels are great. But for bands, major labels become less important until you want to cross into the pop realm. … I don’t know, though. I think the bottom line is that it’s not easy to sell records.”

MUMBAI: Lycra Brand and MTV will present the biggest night in music and fashion as Lycra MTV Style Awards will bring the best of Shafqat Amanat Ali - known for his famous song ‘Mitwa’ of KANK fame, female rap artist "Hard Kaur" who made an anthem out of ‘Ek Glassy’, the renowned group ‘The Raghu Dixit Project’, Atif Aslam, the popular Pakistani pop singer and the sexy girl band ‘Rouge’ to India. These popular artists will perform exclusively for their Indian fans on October 25th at the Lycra MTV Style Awards 2007 in Mumbai.It’s a fashion show… it’s a music concert… NO! It’s the Lycra MTV Style Awards! For four years running, MTV has fused music with fashion as no one can. This year too with an awesome line up of talent from across India, Pakistan and the UK; get set for explosions; as Raghu Dixit will make music with Lycra Brand line entitled "Universe of the Young". Uniforms will be the anthem for Shafqat Amanat Ali & designers Abhishek & Nandita. Gangs will be the common thread for Hard Kaur & Vikram Phadnis. Atif will mesmerize the audiences with his performance as the youth designers will unveil their creations as they get personal with "My Tee". Last but not the least ROUGE will urge you to leave your "shyness" behind with their flamboyant performance!Says Ashish Patil, General Manager - MTV India & Vice President, Creative & Content, "At Lycra MTV Style Awards our objective is to create harmony with different forms of artistic interpretation. Every year we have well known designers showcase their designs to the tunes of popular musicians. This year all our performers are chartbusters and have straddled nearly every genre of music. So when the designers of the year and the musicians come together at Lycra MTV Style Awards you can expect nothing less than magic!"Shafqat Amanat Ali known as the voice of Shahrukh Khan is currently one of the best singers in Pakistan and is slowly making his way into Bollywood. Trained in the classical music ‘Gharana of Patiala’, Shafqat has made a name for himself in the world of Pakistani Pop music and was the force behind the Pakistani band - Fuzon. Commenting on performing at the Lycra MTV Style Awards this year Shafqat says, "I’m honoured to be performing at one of the most stylish award ceremonies of the year! To have Abhishek & Nandita showcase their creations for the theme ‘Uniforms’ to my music adds to the flavour of my song and makes it come alive!"No newcomer to the scene, Hard Kaur has graced the stage at some of the world’s most prestigious venues, opening London shows for Justin Timberlake and Pharrell Williams and has had resounding success with the club classic ‘Ek Glassy’. Quotes Taran Kaur Dhillon, popularly known as Hard Kaur "Music & fashion are two sides of the same coin. As a pop artist it is important to be in sync with style, to set trends & create a culture that people follow." Hard Kaur will create the rhythm for the theme ‘Gangs’ created by none other than Vikram Phadnis.Raghu Dixit’s music is a seamless amalgamation of Indian ethnic music and styles from different parts of the world. Raghu’s singing style can be described as unique as he uses a clever combination of Indian ethnic folk, Sufi and classical phrases into his songs. Says Raghu, "The theme of Lycra MTV Style Awards is "It’s my Style" and that is particularly relevant to me because my music is a contemporary personal interpretation of the confluence of musical heritage that only India can boast of!" The Lycra Brand partner’s line will be showcased to the music of the Raghu Dixit Project.Atif Aslam, the Pakistani singer who took India by storm from his very first song ‘Woh Lamhe, Woh Baatein’ from the movie Zeher, will be setting the beat to the ‘My Tee’ collection created by students from NIFT Mumbai. These students were chosen as part of the Designer Hunt and will be mentored by Vikram Phadnis. Quips Atif "I’m very excited to perform at the Lycra MTV Style Awards this year, to be in the midst of popular Bollywood celebrities and famous musicians is very humbling."Rouge, the British Asian all-girl pop band, whose refrain ‘Don’t be shy’ rocked the clubs all over the world, will also ensure that the invitees won’t stop rocking here as well. Says Amrita Hunjan, the Indian part of the band, "We are extremely thrilled about our performance at Lycra MTV Style Awards. This will be our first performance in Mumbai and we just can’t wait to get there."Since the conception of Lycra MTV Style Awards, well known artists such as Shankar Ehsaan Loy & DJ Aqeel in 2003, Pentagram & Raghav in 2004, Bombay Rockers & Kailash Kher in 2005 and Bappi Lahiri and Pritam in 2006 have graced the awards with their mind blowing performances and presence. Lycra MTV Style Awards is known for showcasing the best in music, fashion and Bollywood year on year, so sit back and get ready to enjoy yet another year of mesmerizing magic on stage!

MILFORD, Conn. - Officials at Milford’s Jonathan Law Highschool have apologized for the use of a rap song with racial lyricsover the loudspeakers before a football game.The lyrics blaring out over the loudspeakers before Friday’sgame made reference to the Ku Klux Klan and had racial slurs.The lyrics were from Public Enemy’s “Shut’em Down.”

Athletic Director Frank Luysterborghs says a member of thecoaching staff played the song from an iPod and the lyrics werecontained on a “hidden track” at the end of the rap album,recorded in 1991, and no one knew it was there.Luysterborghs says all coaches are being instructed to beespecially careful when playing music before games, especially rapmusic.___Information from: New Haven Register, http://www.ctcentral.com

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Some cute kids' music, a treasure trove of long lost gems from the Queen of Soul and a couple of cool Philly jazz releases are tops on our CD release list this week.

GET NAKED: Given the recent hubbub over "High School Musical 2" and "Hannah Montana," it's clear that cheery pop music for the "tweener" and young teen set could be the salvation of the CD business.

Now comes Sony/BMG's ticket to ride (we hope),the cute-as-a-button soundtrack to the Nickelodeon TV series of the same name. Dreamed up by actress/writer Polly Draper, the show mocks the classic rockumentary form as it tracks the fictional lives of two pre-teen rock stars played by Draper's real kids Nat (12) and Alex (9) Wolff.

CD liner notes suggests the boys wrote most of the songs. Big picture themes like "Fishin' for Love" and "Banana Smoothie" clearly didn't take a master's degree to perfect. But the tunes are just as frothy as could be in a retro, British Invasion pop style, and doubtless were polished by their dad, noted jazz pianist Michael Wolff.

HAIL TO THE QUEEN: Trust me, I tried to connect withbut didn't feel like I'd hit paydirt until track 10, "I Need Love."

And despite all the added star power (Missy Elliot, Lil' Kim, Diddy, T.I.),left me feeling even coler - er colder.

So then I found soul salvation with a collection unearthed from the 1970s, tracks that weren't considered good enough to release back then but which run circles around most of the instantly disposable stuff passing for contemporary R&B today.

I'm talking about the double-disc set by. The project's been curated by Jerry Wexler, now 93, the producer who supervised most of Franklin's output at Atlantic. If anybody knew where the treasures were buried, it's this guy.

Her covers are crazy beautiful. She puts such a whammy on "You Keep Me Hangin' On" that the Supremes' original sounds like Muzak. Franklin's imaginative re-think of "My Way" runs rings around Sinatra's turn.

Rumbling the piano keys as she sings, tunes like Little Willie John's "Talk To Me, Talk To Me" walk the fine line between soul and jazz. And you'll surely feel like you're in church as the minister's daughter testifies "My Cup Runneth Over."

HOLD THE CHEESE: Here's a news flash - that overweight mess of a Detroit rapper namedhas slept with Martha Stewart and Oprah Winfrey. How do I know? He's claiming the evidence on his "Sextape," a track off Bizarre's newalbum. And rappers never lie, right?

You may know this crude and funny dude from his work in the D-12 posse and for appearances on Eminem's last three albums. Like Em, he's likely to score with the, ahem, suburban rap-lovin' community as well as urban listeners.

JAZZ FROM HOME: It took multiple hand operations before the noted local pianist. Sitting in are fellow Philadelphia notables Benny Golson, Randy Brecker and Lew Tabackin.

Amadie has crafted original tunes that fit each guy's personality very well, including a bittersweet "Michael's Lament" for Randy to express to his late brother.

King of the electric (and acoustic) bass. Think fusion music that's progressive and sophisticated but not too aggressive. You can live with this stuff playing pleasantly in the background or zero in to relish the nuances.

MUSIC VIDEOS: They're more than just the ultimate rock 'n' roll T-shirt logo. They're the brashest little band that ever shipped out of Australia. And now they're yours to enjoy anew in original, undiluted form on the double DVD disc set. Remastered sound and images improve stuff you've probably heard and seen before. The DVD adds a bunch of new, scene-setting interviews with festival organizers and Hendrix's band mates.

CHIP OFF THE BLOCK: Speaking of "Wild Thing," its composer,