MTV Video Music Awards 2012: The Nominations

Below you'll find the main nominations for this year's MTV Video Music Awards, which will be broadcast live from the Staples Center in Los Angeles on Thursday, September 6. Rihanna and Drake lead the pack with five nominations each. Drake, folks...

And who the hell is still listening to M.I.A. at this point? Plus, "Wide Awake" for Video Of The Year? I guess I liked it enough... but video of the year?

Alicia Keys and One Direction (who are up for Best New Artist and Best Pop Video) are the first performers to be announced.

VIDEO OF THE YEAR
Katy Perry, "Wide Awake"
Gotye, "Somebody That I Used To Know"
Rihanna, "We Found Love"
Drake (feat. Rihanna), "Take Care"
M.I.A., "Bad Girls"

BEST NEW ARTIST
Fun. (feat. Janelle Monae), "We Are Young"
Carly Rae Jepsen, "Call Me Maybe"
Frank Ocean, "Swim Good"
One Direction, "What Makes You Beautiful"
The Wanted, "Glad You Came" 

BEST HIP HOP VIDEO
Childish Gambino, "Heartbeat"
Drake (feat. Lil Wayne), "HYFR"
Kanye West (feat. Pusha T, Big Sean & 2 Chainz), "Mercy"
Watch the Throne, "Paris"
Nicki Minaj (feat. 2 Chainz), "Beez in the Trap"

BEST MALE VIDEO
Justin Bieber, "Boyfriend"
Frank Ocean, "Swim Good"
Drake (feat. Rihanna), "Take Care"
Chris Brown, "Turn Up the Music"
Usher, "Climax"

BEST FEMALE VIDEO
Rihanna, "We Found Love"
Katy Perry, "Part of Me"
Beyoncé, "Love on Top"
Nicki Minaj, "Starships"
Selena Gomez & The Scene, "Love You Like a Love Song"

BEST POP VIDEO
One Direction, "What Makes You Beautiful"
Fun. (feat. Janelle Monae), "We Are Young"
Rihanna, "We Found Love"
Justin Bieber, "Boyfriend"
Maroon 5 (feat. Wiz Khalifa), "Payphone"

BEST ROCK VIDEO
Coldplay, "Paradise"
The Black Keys, "Lonely Boy"
Linkin Park, "BURN IT DOWN"
Jack White, "Sixteen Saltines"
Imagine Dragons, "It's Time"

BEST ELECTRONIC DANCE MUSIC VIDEO
Duck Sauce, "Big Bad Wolf"
Calvin Harris, "Feel So Close"
Skrillex, "First of the Year (Equinox)"
Martin Solveig, "The Night Out"
Avicii, "Le7els"

BEST VIDEO WITH A MESSAGE
Demi Lovato, "Skyscraper"
Rise Against, "Ballad of Hollis Brown"
Kelly Clarkson, "Dark Side"
Gym Class Heroes, "The Fighter"
K'Naan (feat. Nelly Furtado), "Is Anybody Out There?"
Lil Wayne, "How to Love"

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US Chart Roundup: The "I Was Trapped At SXSW" Edition

First of all, I'm writing this actually on Friday and back-dating it for Thursday, because on Thursday I was winding down my marathon 24-hours Austin South By Southwest cameo. I rolled down that way for the Idolator Pray For Pop Party, where we had Cher Lloyd, Penguin Prison and Wallpaper. perform (starting at midnight on Wednesday). You can see pics and then read my review of the showcase.

Here's Penguin Prison at the Idolator shindig. Isn't he cute?

Here's Cher Lloyd at the Idolator bash. Isn't she cute? I should mention that I also met Cher's manager, Craig Logan — i.e. former Bros member Craig Logan. And previous Dannii Minogue fiance Craig Logan. Super sweet guy.

It was rad. But I got no sleep. And I'm still recovering.

So anyway, I step away for two days and Billboard has gone and changed their Hot 100 chart rules again. The gist is that on-demand services such as Spotify and Rhapsody now factor in.

Says Billboard:

"As previously announced, the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart undergoes a major renovation this week with the addition of a host of streaming services to its formula, including those that contribute to the newly-launched On-Demand Songs chart.

"On-Demand Songs measures every on-demand play request and plays from unlimited listener-controlled radio channels on subscription services MOG, Muve Music, Rdio, Rhapsody, Slacker and Spotify. The plays tracked for On-Demand Songs include streams and tethered downloads by both paying and free/trial tier users.

"The Hot 100 will also include non-demand radio streams from Rhapsody and Slacke, audio on-demand streams from MySpace and Guvera and plays on video request service Akoo. Yahoo! radio streams and Yahoo! on-demand video plays, which were previously part of the Hot 100 formula, will continue to contribute to the chart's rankings.

"Additionally, the Hot 100's sales/airplay ratio has been adjusted to both accommodate the influx of additional streaming services to the chart's data pool and to slightly lessen the influence of sales, as the volume of digital downloads had increased exponentially since the chart's last formula modification in 2007.

"The chart's new methodology continues to place the greatest weight on sales, with radio the next most influential component, followed by streaming. (Under the chart's new recipe, on-demand streams will be weighted twice as much as passive/online radio streaming)."

So there you have it. 

Couple things of note on the chart this week: Rihanna and Calvin Harris' "We Found Love" drops out of the Top 10 (to #11) after nearly six months, while the latter's "Feel So Close" climbs 12 positions to #22.

Meanwhile, Drake and Rihanna's "Take Care" hops in the Top 10, at #7, while RiRi's "Talk That Talk" climbs into the Top 40 at #36. I'd care more if I wasn't completely effing burnt out on her.

The U.S. Top 10:

1. "We Are Young" - fun. feat. Janelle Monae *2 weeks*
2. "Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)" - Kelly Clarkson
3. "Set Fire To The Rain" - Adele
4. "Glad you Came" - The Wanted
5. "Somebody That I Used To Know" - Gotye feat. Kimbra
6. "Turn Me On" - David Guetta feat. Nicki Minaj
7. "Take Care" - Drake feat. Rihanna
8. "Young, Wild & Free" - Snoop Dogg & Wiz Khalifa
9. "Starships" - Nicki Minaj
10. "Part Of Me" - Katy Perry

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