Mariah Carey

Explain Your Most Played

I Can’t Stand the Rain...

HPMA Aftermath: Small Sounds, Yoko Mono, Katie Stuckey and the Swagger, Espantapajaros, Buxton, Los Skarnales and Thee Armada

Digitalia: iTunes' Top Holiday Songs

The holiday season is a time to enjoy favorite pastimes like expanding your credit-card debt, eating way too much food, and arguing with your relatives. And of course, there's the best staple of them all: butchering holiday jingles. Never finding a song they didn't want to shill, iTunes offers an e ... More >>

American Idol Returns Tonight... Yawn

Come back Kelly Clarkson, all is forgiven... If you've been lucky enough to spend the past several months in a media-deprivation tank - or maybe you just don't read the Houston Chronicle - then you no doubt know Fox's shrill-singing flagship series American Idol returns tonight at 7 p.m. (As ... More >>

Rotation

Come back Kelly Clarkson, all is forgiven... If you've been lucky enough to spend the past several months in a media-deprivation tank - or maybe you just don't read the Houston Chronicle - then you no doubt know Fox's shrill-singing flagship series American Idol returns tonight at 7 p.m. (As ... More >>

Mariah Carey

Thursday, August 28

5ingles: The Breeders, Mariah Carey, Lupe Fiasco, Madonna, Hannah Montana

Thursday, August 28

2007 Music Year in Review

Thursday, August 28

Miranda Lambert

Thursday, August 28

Blue Monday

Louise Glück and Franz Wright keep it solemn

Björk

Middle-aged pixie

Musical Food Groups

If singers were cheese, what kind of cheese would they be?

My Hips Don't Lie...But Mariah Carey's Do!

Shakira vs. Mariah, head-to-blond-head

India.Arie

Testimony: Vol. 1, Life & Relationship

The Academy Is..., with Panic! At the Disco, Acceptance, Hellogoodbye

Wednesday, February 22, at Warehouse Live, 813 St. Emanuel, 713-629-3700.

True Blue Confessions

Let's join Madonna for a friendly round of Celebrity Breach of Confidentiality

French Kissed

Hollywood Frame Gallery goes Gallic with "March de Triomphe"

Drastic Unilateral Action

Universal hopes to JumpSTART flagging CD sales with aggressive price cuts. Who benefits the most?

Turning the Screw: Bun B, Trae & Lil Keke, Rihanna, Snoop, Eminem vs. Nick Cannon, Jay-Z, T.I., E-40, South Park Mexican and More

Welcome back to Turning the Screw, Rocks Off's weekly rap post. It probably won't rhyme, at least most of the time. E-mail tips to introducingliston@gmail.com. Thanks, homies. Single of the Week: "Grey Cassette," Trae feat Bun B and Lil Keke Wire To Wire Ummm, we're not going to link to them, but s ... More >>

Michael Jackson Funeral Coverage Coming Tomorrow

Somehow the folks at West Coast Sound, Rocks Off's sister music blog over at L.A. Weekly, have scored the hottest ticket in show business in years: a ticket to Michael Jackson's funeral Tuesday at Los Angeles' Staples Center. So far Stevie Wonder, Jackson's old Motown boss Berry Gordy, Brooke Shiel ... More >>

Can Rocks Off Withstand an Entire Hour of Sunny 99.1's Holiday Programming?

​Since Thanksgiving night, local dentist office-core radio station Sunny 99.1 FM has been pumping out non-stop Christmas tunes as they have been doing now for quite a few years. It's a Houston phenomenon and an ominous bellwether for the coming holiday. You pretty much know when you can hear Vanes ... More >>

Our Five Favorite Heavy Metal Christmas Carols

​Every year the Christmas gods try to throw us the same old boring and tired holiday music. Mariah Carey, Bing Crosby, Elvis Presley and Hall & Oates are just fine, but this member of Rocks Off needs the blood of the innocent and punishing power chords under his dead, decaying tree. We sought ... More >>

Handel's Messiah

What Christmas is all about (with violins)

Beasting Off the Riesling: The Most Ridiculous Lyrics of 2009, Part 1

The lowest common denominator having been achieved in 2005 with the release of the Black Eyed Peas' Monkey Business, popular musicians have had to work extra hard in recent years to find new and inventive ways to be inane. They found great success in 2009, with artists as varied as Lady Gaga, Bruce ... More >>

Pop Rocks: Golden Bozos

You know awards season is in full swing when all the celebrities converge upon the Beverly Hilton to get drunk and act like receiving an award from the same organization that once honored Pia Zadora is something to be proud of.That's right, it was Golden Globes night last Sunday. And while the just ... More >>

Mariah Carey

You know awards season is in full swing when all the celebrities converge upon the Beverly Hilton to get drunk and act like receiving an award from the same organization that once honored Pia Zadora is something to be proud of.That's right, it was Golden Globes night last Sunday. And while the just ... More >>

Mariah Carey's Many Knuckle Children, Or The Self-Gratification Of Mimi

[Ed. Note: You know us... always taking the high road.] mariahcarey.com"Craig! Put your hands where I can see them!"​Thanks to this new thing on YouTube called VEVO, we can watch crisp versions of our favorite music videos, young and old, without worrying about shoddy quality or mislabeling. This ... More >>

Aftermath: Mariah Carey, Trapped By The Divadom She Once Embraced

Photos by Marco Torres​ Just what is the draw of divadom? What makes someone want to support gilded hissy fits and glittery passive-aggression brought to a high art? Better yet, how did Mariah Carey reach this level of queenliness in this day and age? Aftermath pondered those things as he walked t ... More >>

Alicia Keys

Photos by Marco Torres​ Just what is the draw of divadom? What makes someone want to support gilded hissy fits and glittery passive-aggression brought to a high art? Better yet, how did Mariah Carey reach this level of queenliness in this day and age? Aftermath pondered those things as he walked t ... More >>

FAIL: Weezer, Mariah Carey, Christina Aguilera, ASCAP

​Weezer to Team Up with Ryan Adams: Set Expectations Bar to "Low": Remember when Bryan Adams teamed up with Rod Stewart and Sting on that song "All For Love" on the Three Musketeers soundtrack? We bring it up not to once again give Ryan Adams shit about his name, but to point out that all thre ... More >>

Top 5 WTF Music Award Acceptance Speeches

Dana DonovanLittle Joe Washington and a pair of enthusiastic fans at the 2007 HPMA ceremony​As we may have mentioned once or twice, tonight Rocks Off and the Houston Press reveal the winners of this year's 2010 Houston Press Music Awards over at Warehouse Live. It's a free show, with performan ... More >>

Nick Cannon

Really? He's a mogul?

It's Christmastime Already? Pass The Ammo, Please

This is how we feel about Christmas NOW... don't even try to talk to us after Thanksgiving.​Rocks Off is not trying to interrupt your Halloween plan-making - getting a little late in the game, isn't it though? - but you might as well forget about it anyway. We feel it's our civic duty to infor ... More >>

Top 12 Sexiest Christmas Album Covers

​Above is the cover of the new Christmas single by once-popular barroom grunge act Buckcherry. We have to say, we like it a lot better than we like their music. It continues a tradition of sexy yuletide album covers, which Rocks Off is proud to document for your ogling pleasure. We'll try to ... More >>

The 12 Really Most Annoying Things About Christmas Shopping

And we didn't even mention THIS​It's getting to crunch time. You gotta buy gifts. You could do it online, but no, you want to get into the spirit of things and mingle with your fellow revelers. You will regret this decision. We asked you to give us examples of what you find most annoying ab ... More >>

"Auld Lang Syne," In All Its Many Colors

​Harry: What does this song mean? My whole life, I don't know what this song means. "Should old acquaintance be forgot" - does that mean we should forget old acquaintances, or if we happen to forget them, that we should remember them, which is not possible because we've already forgotten them? ... More >>

Music's Top Five Hottest Trends For 2011

Photo illustrations by John Seaborn Gray​Every year-end Rocks Off prognosticates the likeliest trends in music for the upcoming year. So far, we've got a 100 percent success rate, although since the FBI made us take down all of our previous predictions, we have no way to prove it. So you'll j ... More >>

The Situation is Making Us Fat

He may be a tool, but, unlike most of us, he ain't fat.​Americans are voyeurs. We like to watch. Since the invention of the television, it has been the choice for peering into the world outside our living room and, despite the popularity of streaming video and the Internet in general, TV is ... More >>

The 10 Most Horrible Music-Biz Bosses

​The movie Horrible Bosses comes out today, and while the heinous supervisors in question all work in areas unrelated to entertainment, this shouldn't be taken to mean the music industry is free of bad managers and executives. Rocks Off knows if anything, the music biz has had more than its fa ... More >>

5 Great, Utterly Absurd Moments In Diva History

​Many performers are referred to, or refer to themselves as "divas." This happens especially when the performer in question has thrown a tantrum for little or no reason. You see, "diva" is actually French for "spoiled pain in the ass." A fine recent example comes from right here in Houston: Th ... More >>

Pop Rocks: A (Not Really) Canonical List Of Wardrobe Malfunctions (NSFW)

Bad idea.​The "wardrobe malfunction" is a phenomenon I confess I wasn't really aware of until Super Bowl XXXVIII. Half of us at the party were watching the actual Janet Jackson/Justin Timberlake halftime show, the other half were watching the South Park (or was it Family Guy?) episode running ... More >>

Pop Rocks: What's Your [Wardrobe] Malfunction? (NSFW)

Bad idea.​The "wardrobe malfunction" is a phenomenon I confess I wasn't really aware of until Super Bowl XXXVIII. Half of us at the party were watching the actual Janet Jackson/Justin Timberlake halftime show, the other half were watching the South Park (or was it Family Guy?) episode running ... More >>

The Five Worst Music Movies Ever*

* That aren't actual musicals *eye roll*​It would be easy to pick out a bunch of terrible musicals to make fun of. First off, most musicals seem stuck in the 1930s, when every song everywhere sounded like a show tune, and therefore stank. Second, we're afraid of polarizing our audience. You ... More >>

The X Factor: Rain Delay and Judges' Houses

Photo by FOXJust wait until the "Judges' moms' houses" round!​First, this recap was delayed because the Wednesday night baseball playoff game was rain delayed, canceling that night's X Factor episode--yet another reason for me to hate baseball. Second, naming the latest round of competition "t ... More >>

Justin Bieber's Voice Changes Just In Time For Christmas Album

"Say shawty, Merry Christmas, or whatever year-end holiday greeting that makes you happy." ​Children and adults alike are getting their holiday wish granted early this year, and they don't have to wait until Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Festivus or even Christmas morning to receive it. Justin Bieber's v ... More >>

Happy Biebermas: 2011's Bumper Crop Of Holiday Albums

Wishing You An Adorkable Christmas...​The Christmas season started back in the late summer for Rocks Off when we began getting PR e-mails about so and so's new Christmas album, and then in October they started showing up in our stacks of snail mail. This year the biggest complaint amongst ev ... More >>

7th Annual Punxmas Fest

Wishing You An Adorkable Christmas...​The Christmas season started back in the late summer for Rocks Off when we began getting PR e-mails about so and so's new Christmas album, and then in October they started showing up in our stacks of snail mail. This year the biggest complaint amongst ev ... More >>

Remember Max Headroom?: Creepy And Stupid Christmas Videos From Holidays Past And Present

​Yeah! It's almost Christmas! With each minute we are all one step closer to the day when we can stop posting lists about things pertaining to the holiday. Seriously, by the second week in December you almost type "Christmas" instead of your own name sometimes, and your brain atrophies wheneve ... More >>