the music industry

Adele

Adele’s 21 Certified Diamond

That’s a lot of car stereos blasting sad ballads: according to a press release from Columbia Records, Adele’s album 21, buoyed by hits including “Someone Like You” and “Rolling in the Deep,” has been certified diamond by the recording industry, meaning that it’s sold more than 10 million copies in the U.S. Read More

Awards

The Observer Liveblogs the Grammys

We’re liveblogging the Grammys here starting at 6p.m. Keep refreshing this page for updates and observations!

11:23. Arcade Fire wins for The Suburbs. We forgot the cardinal Grammy rule, that the most recent performer always wins! Always (usually). Lady Gaga’s hat shrouds her reaction. “We’re going to go play another song–because we like music,” says Read More

Bear Hotel Market Bites De Niro

Robert De Niro and his partners in the posh Greenwich Hotel probably never wanted a mob scene in the lobby, anyway.

The fancy Tribeca lodge is geared toward people who value their privacy, like Mr. De Niro himself. It’s supposed to be a quiet retreat where guys like Patrick Dempsey can lift weights in Read More

A Reader’s Guide to Celebrity Parent Tell-All Books

Apparently, an increasingly coherent and aware Britney Spears is upset about her mother Lynne’s forthcoming tell-all, Through the Storm. The book reveals, among other things, that the pop star lost her virginity at 14 and began drinking in middle school, along with embarrassing details about Britney’s many, many crack-ups. No longer content to act as Read More

To the Guys In the Garden Apt.: I Think I Hate You

Dear Neighbors,

Everyone has a right to a Saturday night, but—especially as summer approaches—please try to remember that you live on a very residential block, and when you start blaring the Killers, U2 and Kanye West on a constant loop from 2 p.m. to 5 a.m., it can make your neighbors want to throw things Read More