Deadmau5 Brings Dance Music To The 'Masses,' Wolfgang Gartner Says

'He has a major role in the younger generation to this music,' producer/DJ tells MTV News of his collaborator.
By Adam Stewart


deadmau5
Photo: Charley Gallay/ Getty Images

It's no secret that 2010 was a pivotal year for electronic dance music here in the States. With deadmau5 and Swedish House Mafia becoming household names, the genre's momentum shows no signs of slowing down. Using a conduit of collaboration, artists such as deadmau5 (a.k.a. Joel Zimmerman) have paired up with various underground acts to further the rapid expansion of the genre.

Perhaps one of the most notable movers and shakers of the year is now-Grammy-Award-nominated producer and DJ Wolfgang Gartner, who recently sat down to chat with MTV News about deadmau5 and dance music's rise to the top.

"He has a major role in the younger generation to this music," Gartner says, "but there have been certain artists that have been instrumental in helping it cross over and reach the mainstream — which I think is a good thing. I think rap artists using dance beats is a great thing. I think it just brings more people towards this music that we all love."

Thanks to several key moments, such as deadmau5 taking the helm as house DJ (well, technically "House Artist") for the 2010 VMAs, dance music has been thrown into the forefront of America's youth, a key demographic for any genre.

"Everybody knows who he is now and he's kind of exposing the masses to dance music. These little five-, six- and seven-year-old kids latch on to this 'mau5head' logo — they get into the music and he's bringing this tiny young generation into this music that probably wouldn't be exposed to it."

Gartner certainly doesn't mind the exposure either. Unless you were living under a rock for the past six months, you probably heard one of this past summer's hottest anthems, "Animal Rights," a collaborative effort brought forth by deadmau5 and Gartner.

"It was interesting because I kind of had a preconceived notion about how he would be to work [with]," said Gartner. "I think our sounds are really similar, so I figured he would work in a similar way to me, but the way that he writes music is actually completely different to me. But he achieves kind of the same sound through a completely different process."

Recorded in deadmau5's favorite Los Angeles studio — that would be rocker Tommy Lee's House — "Animal Rights" is a thumping progressive house anthem that melds Wolfgang's unmistakable harmonics and funk riffs with the driving bass line and wobbly synths that make deadmau5 one of the unique forces in the dance music world.

"[Deadmau5] writes these rich complex chord progressions and he does it by drawing these little bars on a grid, which is just amazing that you can do that and get that result," Gartner goes on to say. "It just proves you don't have to be able to play keyboards to write amazing music."

The two sound pioneers never cease to stop pushing the limits on what they are able to produce. Using drastically difference production approaches, deadmau5 and Gartner had the ability to play off each other's strengths while recording the track.

"I'd say the biggest thing is that I play everything in on a keyboard, like even my drums," says Gartner. "I play everything in live and he draws it in with notes on a mouse, which blew me away because his music is very musical."

What do you think 2011 will hold for deadmau5 and Gartner? Let us know in the comments below!

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Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1654857/deadmau5-brings-dance-music-masses-wolfgang-gartner.jhtml

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Ke$ha Touched By Fan's Tattoo

Singer tells MTV News about gay fan inspired by her song 'Animal.'
By Gil Kaufman


Ke$ha
Photo: MTV News

Ke$ha knows all about the perks of being a headliner. On her Get $leazy Tour, the singer gets to call all the shots, blast her fans in the face with tons of glitter and handpick which dudes she wants to party and share the stage with.

But it's not all backstage shenanigans and groupie love. When MTV News sat down with the "Blow" singer in New York earlier this week before her gig at Roseland Ballroom, Ke$ha said that amid the nightly onstage parties there have also been some poignant moments on her first headlining outing.

"Best moment? There are so many. Every night's amazing. I have kids outside right now chanting my name and it's awesome," she said of the first leg of the tour. "There was one night a fan came onstage, I invited him onstage, and he had a tattoo of the dollar sign. I was like, 'Oh, that's awesome! Badass. You're part of the cult, man.' "

And then, she said, he began to cry and explained that he was able to come out of the closet to his friends and family thanks to her song "Animal."

"And I'm standing onstage about to sing a song about growing back a pair of testicles ["Grow a Pear"] and I had tears rolling down my face and chills all over my body," she said. "Because that's really the reason I do music, to inspire people to be themselves."

Ke$ha has been a vocal supporter of the "It Gets Better" video project, which aims to help gay, bisexual and transgender youth find hope in the face of teasing and bullying.

The "Get $leazy" juggernaut continues on Saturday night with a show at Clarion University in Clarion, Pennsylvania.

Are you planning to see Ke$ha on her Get $leazy Tour? Tell us in the comments.

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Beyonce No Longer Managed By Father, Mathew Knowles

'I've only parted ways with my father on a business level,' singer says.
By Gil Kaufman


Mathew Knowles and Beyonce
Photo: Kevin Winter/ Getty Images

Artists cut ties with managers all the time. But when your shot-caller is your dad and he's helped you climb the ladder of fame to the very top, things can be a bit trickier.

After years of rumors, Beyoncé confirmed on Monday that she is parting ways with the man who helped make her an international pop diva: dad Mathew Knowles. According to CNN, the split was amicable and both sides said it was a mutual decision. "I've only parted ways with my father on a business level," Beyoncé, 29, said in a statement released on Monday. "He is my father for life and I love my dad dearly. I am grateful for everything he has taught me ... I grew up watching both he and my mother manage and own their own businesses. They were hardworking entrepreneurs and I will continue to follow in their footsteps."

Mathew Knowles began managing Beyoncé's career when she was a teenager and shepherded her through her mega-success with Destiny's Child in the late 1990s and into her even bigger career as a solo artist, which has garnered her 16 Grammy Awards and millions in sales for her three post-DC albums. Her mother, Tina, is Beyoncé's stylist and is heavily involved in their clothing line, House of Dereon.

"The decision for Beyoncé and Music World Entertainment to part was mutual," Mathew Knowles said in a separate statement also released on Monday. "We did great things together, and I know that she will continue to conquer new territories in music and entertainment."

It was not announced who would take over management duties for Beyoncé, but Knowles said his record label would instead focus on gospel and inspirational artists. "Business is business and family is family," Knowles continued. "I love my daughter and am very proud of who she is and all that she has achieved. I look forward to her continued great success."

Among the artists who are listed on the Music World Entertainment site are Juanita Bynum, From Above, Pastor Rudy, the Bamaz, Beyoncé's younger sister, Solange, and Trin-I-Tee 5:7. Knowles also used to manage former Destiny's Child members Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams, but they parted ways with him, respectively, in 2009 and 2010.

Mathew and Tina Knowles divorced in 2009 after 29 years of marriage. Beyoncé is reportedly close to finishing work on the follow-up to 2008's I Am ... Sasha Fierce, which could include contributions from Sia and Sleigh Bells, along with Ne-Yo, S1, Jim Jonsin, Sean "The Pen" Garrett, The-Dream and Tricky Stewart.

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Lady Gaga To Donate $1 Million For Homeless Youth

Charity will be announced at Robin Hood Foundation benefit concert.


Lady Gaga
Photo: Bruce Glikas/FilmMagic

Do you want to help Lady Gaga give away $1 million dollars to charity? Well, little monsters, here's your chance! Mother Monster is hooking up with the Robin Hood Foundation to help homeless youth in New York, her hometown.

Fans can go to Gaga's Facebook page to weigh in on which organization — The Door, Hetrick-Martin Institute, Lawyers for Children, Safe Horizon or SCO Family of Services — will be gifted the sum ($500,000 a year over two years).

The results will be announced May 9 at a special concert benefiting Robin Hood. "I'm thrilled to be working with the Robin Hood Foundation to distribute funds to help the youth of New York City," Gaga said in a statement. "NYC is my hometown and I think investing in these kids' future will go a long way."

Days before Gaga attends the Robin Hood gala, her HBO special will air. While it is a concert special, it also serves as a love letter to the Big Apple. Shot during her time in New York for two tour stops at Madison Square Garden earlier this year, the documentary shows the singer opening up about her love for the city and how it helped shape her as an artist.

"There was never a question in my mind that I was gonna make it and that this is my destiny and that we were all gonna make it as the kids of this city, as the New York generation," she says, driving through the streets of New York to MSG. "My faith in my creativity and my artistry has nothing to do with making it," she continued. "We kind of had already made it when we were playing for nothing downtown. ... We still felt like we were superstars."

Which organization do you hope Gaga's money goes to? Sound off below!

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Insane Clown Posse's The Mighty Death Pop! 'Keeping It Sizzling'

Violent J says group was excited to perform at Bamboozle Festival.
By James Montgomery


Insane Clown Posse
Photo: MTV News

Within Insane Clown Posse's Juggalo fanbase, there is a small but increasingly vocal minority who insist their bludgeoning, beloved duo are inching closer to the mainstream with each passing month, thanks to the media attention they've garnered and the wall-to-wall coverage of their every move by publications including The New York Times and Wired magazine, to name just a few.

Not surprisingly, those same fans were none-too-happy when ICP were announced as performers at the Bamboozle Festival, alongside multi-platinum acts like Lil Wayne and Bruno Mars. To them, it was just the latest -- and perhaps most egregious -- example of the group's move toward the majority.

But according to ICP themselves, nothing could be further from the truth. They're still the same group they've been for nearly 20 years, and they agreed to play Bamboozle because, well, why not?

'We got the offer to play here, and we were like, 'Man, we haven't done something like this in a long time,' so we said, 'Let's do it,' ' Violent J told MTV News backstage at the festival. 'Just being offered to come here and play the same festival as Lil Wayne and Mötley Crüe and everybody, that's dope to us. .. We don't want to do it every weekend, but it's probably been 10 years since we did anything like this, so we wanted to do it.

'We just wanted to poke our head up from the underground, see what's going on with the mainstream. The fact that they asked us to come out here, we don't get those offers every day,' he continued. 'They said, 'Bring you like you are.' They didn't say, Come here with no Faygo or Come here without the cussing. They said, Come do what you do, and we're like, Hell yeah, we'd love to.'

And, yes, J admitted he's heard complaints from some of their die-hard fans, but he's mostly laughing them off. After all, none of them have heard ICP's upcoming album, The Mighty Death Pop!, which he called 'the very best music we've ever done.' And, he added that no matter how many people are paying attention, Insane Clown Posse will always make music for their fans first and foremost. Mostly because those fans won't let them slip.

'We've evolved, because in the eyes of our fans, we keep it moving, we keep it exciting, and we keep it new,' J said. 'We keep dropping those bombs that are keeping their attention. We're not just living off the past or something. We're keeping it sizzling; we're keeping it hot, man. We're keeping hot coals on the fire. We're not going off of what used to be there, we're keeping that sh-- cracking, man.'

Do you think Insane Clown Posse should have played the Bamboozle Festival? Sound off below!

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Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1662952/bamboozle-insane-clown-posse.jhtml

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