Lady Gaga Recalls Beyonce's Inspiration In MTV's 'Inside The Outside'

After being dropped by Island Def Jam, Gaga saw a Destiny's Child video and decided, 'I want that.'
By James Montgomery


Lady Gaga
Photo: MTV News

Sometime around 2006, Lady Gaga wasn't Lady Gaga. Sure, she was using the name back then, but she was still little more than a Lower East Side oddity, not the iconic, globe-spanning superstar she has since become. And so, she was understandably elated to score a meeting — and a subsequent deal — with Island Def Jam impresario L.A. Reid.

But after a few months, for reasons never really explained, her phone calls stopped being returned and she was summarily dropped from the label. In hindsight, it was just a minor bump on her road to stardom, but at the time, Gaga was crushed. It's a pain she's never quite forgotten, as she explained in the just-premiered "Lady Gaga: Inside the Outside" documentary.

"I remember when I got dropped from my first record label, I just said, 'Mommy, let's go see Grandma,' " Gaga recalled. "And I cried on my grandmother's couch. She looked at me, and she goes, 'I'm going to let you cry for the rest of the day, and then you have to stop crying, and you have to go kick some ass.' "

Devastated, but determined, Gaga set forth to do just that. And in addition to her grandmother's words, she drew inspiration from a rather unlikely source — one that would also prove oddly prescient in the years to come.

"You know, I've never told Beyoncé this, but I remember laying on my grandmother's couch crying, and a Destiny's Child video came on," she said. "I remember watching Beyoncé thinking, 'Oh, she's a star. I want that. I want to be on MTV.' And now I'm in music videos with Beyoncé."

It's because of those early rejections that Gaga has learned to savor her success. After all, she's certainly proved her naysayers wrong.

"The commercial success that I've had has been mind-blowing," she said. "I'm the girl that everyone said 'No' and shook their head and said 'I don't get it.' "

Well, it seems that millions of people around the world "get it" now.

What was the most interesting thing you learned from watching "Inside the Outside"? Let us know in the comments!

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Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1664720/lady-gaga-beyonce-inside-the-outside.jhtml

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'The Hangover Part II' Smashes Box-Office Record

Todd Phillips' sequel has biggest opening weekend for a live-action comedy.
By Ryan J. Downey


Ed Helms, Bradley Cooper and Zack Galifianakis in "The Hangover Part II"
Photo: Warner Bros.

Two years ago, "The Hangover" writer/director Todd Phillips told MTV News: "I love 'The Hangover' so much and I think we could crush it with the sequel." In terms of ticket sales, at least, he was right.

"The Hangover Part II" crushed a box-office record over the weekend, grossing $86 million from Friday-to-Sunday, the biggest opening ever for a live-action comedy. Thanks to the Memorial Day holiday and a Thursday debut, the buddy sequel (which swaps Las Vegas for Thailand) has already made $117 million. "The Hangover" opened with $45 million in 2009. "Part II" stands just behind "The Matrix Reloaded" on the list of R-rated openings.

Another sequel, "Kung Fu Panda 2," was the #2 movie at the box office, according to studio estimates. Featuring the voice of Jack Black in the title role, the animated kids' flick debuted with $47.8 million over the four-day weekend. The movie's 3-D screenings accounted for about 45 percent of its business. The film's opening weekend total was less than that of the first film, despite many positive reviews. "The Hangover Part II," by comparison, was a flop with critics.

"Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides" took in $39.5 million for a two-week $153.1 million domestic total. "Bridesmaids" held strong with $16.5 million to come in at #4 with an $85.1 million total. "Thor" rounded out the top five with $9.4 million for a $159.7 million total.

Filmmaker Woody Allen's "Midnight in Paris" managed to enter the top 10 despite playing at only 52 locations. (By comparison, "The Hangover" sequel was available at over 3600 locations). Starring Owen Wilson and bolstered by strong reviews, "Midnight" was #7 at the box office with $1.9 million for a two-week total of $2.8 million. Also in limited release, "The Tree of Life," starring Brad Pitt and Sean Penn, opened at four locations with $373,000.

Mutant superhero prequel "X-Men: First Class" hits theaters this weekend. As of press time, the latest entry in Fox's "X-Men" franchise boasts a perfect 100 percent positive rating with critics, according to movie review site Rotten Tomatoes. This weekend's limited releases include "Beginners" (starring Ewan McGregor), "Beautiful Boy" and the Ben Stiller produced "Submarine."

Will vampires and werewolves own the 2011 MTV Movie Awards? Can wizards or dream thieves steal the Golden Popcorn? Find out June 5, when the 20th annual show airs live at 9 p.m. ET/PT. Sneak Peek Week, starting May 30, is five days of exclusives and interviews with the casts of "Fright Night," "Horrible Bosses" and more. Check out everything there is to know about Sneak Peek Week and the Movie Awards at MovieAwards.MTV.com!

Check out everything we've got on "The Hangover Part II."

For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com.

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Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1664791/hangover-2-box-office-record.jhtml

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Usher, Ke$ha And More Help Dance Music Go Pop In 2010

But is it here to stay? Our music-industry experts weigh in.
By Akshay Bhansali


Ke$ha
Photo: Andreas Rentz/ Getty Images

In 2010, pop princesses, R&B icons and chart-dominating newcomers all danced to the same beat. Not only did dance music go pop, but pop music caught the club-music bug.

Between Katy Perry's "Firework," Ke$ha's "We R Who We R," Rihanna's "Only Girl (In the World)," Enrique Iglesias' "I Like It," Usher's "DJ Got Us Fallin' in Love" and "OMG" and countless other singles, established artists definitely looked to dance beats for surefire hits. And two of this year's biggest success stories in music were Jason Derülo and Taio Cruz; could there be a soul left in this country who hasn't heard "Dynamite" or "In My Head"?

The love went both ways, with dance music's biggest stars finding mainstream success this year. Dance-music maestro deadmau5 took up house-artist duties at this year's VMAs, and Swedish House Mafia and Usher teamed up for a medley of their gems at the American Music Awards.

So how did this happen? We caught up with some music-industry experts to get their takes.

"You definitely saw tempos go up this year," Jon Caramanica of The New York Times told MTV News. "And I think what you had are a lot of producers who are really familiar with nightclub stuff. They are familiar with Europe. Things are happening on a more global scale now."

"I think everything from Europe, and sometimes even Asia, it comes to America, and we just adopt things a little bit slower," said Jared Eng of JustJared.com. "I think it was just a change. People like different types of music at different times. And dance was of this moment."

Noah Callahan of Complex magazine added: "I think 2010 saw the merging of the pop and dance genres. Pop artists realized that there were best practices that could be borrowed from dance music. And, ultimately, [all] pop music that has been made in the past 20 years had ended up being remixed for the club by dance artists. I think they basically just cut out the middleman and went straight there."

Dance music being introduced into the hip-hop and R&B realms was particularly notable this year.

"I think David Guetta kind of at the end of last year and the beginning of this year spearheaded it," said freelance writer Julianne Escobedo Shepherd. "He produced a lot of tracks. I think as trends go, people revile 'unst-unst.' But it's just coming back around. Big-room techno was a way for people to get decadent in a year that no one could get decadent."

"You have someone like will.i.am, who's like, 'Well, I spent all this time in Ibiza, and this is what they are doing,' and he wants to find a way to bring that into his music," Caramanica said of the Black Eyed Peas mastermind. "R&B especially became dance music. And especially with your Jason Derülos, Taio Cruzes. Guys like that would have literally been blocked at the border two years ago. That would not have made it through customs. And now all of a sudden they have #1 songs. I think will.i.am had a lot to do with that last year."

Elliott Wilson of RapRadar.com added: "It's actually even affected hip-hop. I was talking to Q-Tip, and his next record, I feel like that's gonna kind of go in that vein. I know that was also Jay-Z's thought process with Blueprint 3 at first, that he wanted to make a little bit more of a world music [vibe], a little more dancey. I think the kids today want to go to the clubs. They wanna have a good time. They wanna dance. So I think the artists of today are trying to kind of feed that audience."

"I think it's caught on this year because the people who've done it have been successful," offered Clover Hope of Vibe magazine. "Like 'OMG,' with usher, he didn't have success until he made a dance record. He had 'There Goes My Baby' and these really, like, adult-contemporary records that didn't really catch on. And then once you see that everybody is doing it and that people are liking it, they are like, 'OK, let me just try this out.' It's like Auto-Tune. Like, 'Let me see what I sound like on a record by David Guetta.' They end up liking it and doing more of it."

So does the club-music trend have staying power. According to our tastemakers, not so much.

"I do think it's a blip," Caramanica said. "I don't think that's gonna be something that lasts in America. I think this is gonna be a moment we'll all look back on and go, 'Wasn't that weird when Jason Derülo and Taio Cruz had #1 records?"

"At some point, these R&B artists will get kind of sick of it and be like, 'Let me go back to my soul background,' " Hope said. "When you actually have to say something, dance doesn't really lend itself to substance. And I think that R&B artists, they really want to talk about love and in a deep way, and to do that, you need to do, like, a soul or a traditional R&B record. I want to say that it's kind of a fad."

"I think music is very cyclical," Eng offered. "So I think dance music might be here for a little bit, but I'm sure it will phase out at some point."

Wilson called dance music "the sound of today. I think that people want more aggressive, faster beats, and I think that that probably has legs until at least next summer."

What do you think? Is dance music here to stay? Let us know in the comments!

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Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1655031/usher-keha-more-help-dance-music-go-pop-2010.jhtml

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Sneak Peek: ?Life In A Day? Documentary

Have you heard about the ‘Life in a Day’ documentary? It focuses on clips of home videos all taken on July 24, 2010. More than 80,000 submissions from around the world were submitted to the filmmakers via Youtube. Here’s what … Continue reading

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/imnotobsessed/obsessed/~3/8_4XqIeKbaU/

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