Michael Jackson

Notable Recluses: Five Musicians Who Almost Never Tour

Some musicians are just road rats. They can't get enough of life on tour. For others, it wears down on them to a breaking point. Many have been very vocal about how much they despise touring, especially as they've gotten older. Some, like Trent Reznor, have expressed fears of being a KISS-esque nos ... More >>

Michael Jackson's Thriller at 30: The 10 Best Album-Cover Homages & Parodies

Thirty years ago today, on November 30, 1982, Michael Jackson released Thriller, the follow-up to 1979's Off the Wall. It's obviously one of the biggest albums ever released on Earth, in terms of sales (possibly close to 100 million by some figures) and cultural influence. Thriller has also been wr ... More >>

MTV's Best Year: The Top 5 Videos of 1992

In 1992, the recording industry was riding high. The compact disc had become a major success, with music lovers purchasing new albums and old releases in astonishing numbers despite the format's comparatively steep price tags. And the music-video juggernaut known as MTV was helping major labels to b ... More >>

Rock Arcade: 6 Musicians Featured In Video Games

Recently Green Day have been trying to promote their latest album by infiltrating all forms of mainstream media and somebody in the band must have realized that Angry Birds is a thing so why should it be left out? That is, presumably, how the world came to see Green Day members immortalized as gree ... More >>

7 Disney Characters Based On Pop Musicians

One of the interesting things about Walt Disney films is the way they borrow from or hold up a mirror to popular culture. Along with great storytelling and good songs, this is quite possibly why people like them in the first place. In fact, it's how some of us get introduced to great artists such a ... More >>

The 10 Best Guest Appearances On Other People's Songs

Have you ever had one of those moments when, you're listening to a song and hear something familiar, like maybe a familiar voice or wonder, "Okay, who is really playing this particular instrument?" Many times a band or an artist will guest star on a recording. Sometimes it's a well-known fact, such ... More >>

Wait a Minute! Who Is That? Top 10 Videos With Famous Actor Cameos

When you are an actor, you take basically whatever will feed you just as long as you get to perform. Many actors either got their start in music videos or they will appeared in one after they got famous. Oftentimes, they are pretty memorable.

Idaho Man Forces Friend to Moonwalk at Gunpoint While High on Drugs

I have to admit that when I read this headline around 3 a.m. on Friday night, I couldn't stop laughing for a good 30 minutes. I may have even laughed myself to sleep. I may never feel that much joy for the rest of my life, and I wish that I could replay that hour of my life in perpetuity. Last wee ... More >>

Tears In Heaven: The 10 Best Songs To Come Out Of Tragedy

Since the dawn of time, great art has been birthed out of great tragedy, happening numerous times with playwrights, artists, and musicians. In many ways, expressing grief through music serves as a healing agent that gets the artist through tough things such as the loss of a loved one. It also helps ... More >>

Michael Jackson: The IMMORTAL World Tour by Cirque du Soleil

Speed Limit: 10 Songs About Fast Driving That Aren't By Sammy Haggar

​On this day in 1974 Richard Nixon signed into law that mandated lowering the speed limit to 55 mph. Now, the reason for this was to make the country preserve gasoline in the middle of an OPEC embargo (which it did), but they also sold the bill to us as a march towards safety. After all, speed ... More >>

Thriller Turns 29: Five Reasons It Rocked

Yesterday marked the twenty-nine-year anniversary of the release of Thriller, which broke basically every record in the book. It remains the best selling album of all time with over 10 million in total sales. It not only solidified Michael Jackson as one of the biggest pop stars of all time, it deli ... More >>

Music's Top 5 Dubious "Dr. Feelgoods"

ibtimes.com​To say that Dr. Conrad Murray had a bad day in court yesterday is probably something of an understatement. In addition to veiwing graphic pictures of Michael Jackson's autopsy, jurors in the involuntary manslaughter trial of the King of Pop's former physician heard damaging testimo ... 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 >>

Michael Jackson Memories: 28 Years And Counting

​Saturday, Michael Jackson will have been dead for two years. Already. The King of Pop succumbed to a drug addiction on June 25, 2009, helped along by a crooked Houston doctor, a team of enablers, and public that had grown largely indifferent to the man (but not his music) by two summers ago. ... More >>

Pre-Bieber, Five Memorable Musician Interview Gaffes

​Remember in the days before "Bi-winning," when Twitter was all up in arms about Justin Beiber's interview with Rolling Stone? Was it really a surprise that some of the pop star's opinions, as told to the magazine last month, would be half-baked and maybe even a bit ignorant? Put aside for a ... More >>

1991: Best Music Year Ever?

Rocks Off Sr.'s choice for 1991's best album.​1991 was one of the biggest years in modern music. It was when metal went pop, radio country ruled, grunge went mainstream, and rap began its climb to chart dominance, even if it was spearheaded by a white candy rapper from Dallas. There were man ... More >>

Friday Night: "Jai Ho: The Journey Home" At Toyota Center

Photos by Marco Torres​A.R. Rahman "Jai Ho: The Journey Home" Toyota Center September 17, 2010 The Indian film-score composer A.R. Rahman, now widely known as the winner of two 2009 Academy Awards for Slumdog Millionaire, is the master of the movie-musical genre known as Bollywood. He is also ... More >>

The Glamour Boyz: Beware Of Found Footage

Every day Rocks Off trolls the tubes of you in search of videos to share. If you have something that you think deserves to be video of the day, send a link to jef_rouner at yahoo dot com. ​One of your daily video guide's favorite people is Rocks Off's own Craig Hlavaty. His articles are well- ... More >>

The Day Michael Jackson Died: A Look Back

​One year ago tomorrow, one of the strangest, most volatile lives in American pop-culture history came to an end. Michael Jackson left this mortal coil on June 25, 2009, and in his wake we were left to not only deal with all of our conflicted and cherished memories of him, but also the public ... More >>

Michael Jackson As Scholarly Subject: A Texas Tech Study

Finally, all the MJ scholarship in one place​When The Journal of Pan African Studies decided to devote an entire volume to Michael Jackson after the Gloved One's passing, Texas Tech librarian Rob Weiner had an idea: why not find out how many times MJ popped up in academic journals, and for what re ... More >>

Dancing the Dozens

Yo' mama's feet so big, they each got their own zip code

Great Moments in Douchebaggotry: Michael Jackson Takes Paul McCartney's Advice... In the Douchiest Way Possible

Great Moments in Douchebaggery is brought to you by Rocks Off's upcoming Washington Shore party, Thursday, February 11, at the Washington Avenue Drinkery. All types of douchebags are encouraged to attend. Sadly, the duo enjoyed only a very brief period of skipping merrily about together.​In the ea ... More >>

"Tuff Enuff"

Jenny Schlief chops and screws Michael Jackson's Thriller

DVDs This Week: Michael Jackson & Houston's Je'caryous Johnson

There's only one DVD release that's getting any attention today: Michael Jackson's This Is It. Culled from 80 hours of footage of Jackson in rehearsal for a series of London concerts, and interviews with associates and friends, This Is It is what fans get instead of a good-bye tour. The document ... More >>

The Top Rock-Star Death Conspiracies: Elvis, Michael, Kurt, Tupac and More

It seems that the stranger and weirder our world gets by the day, humanity struggles to find reasons behind all this calamity and tragedy. We try our best to find conclusions to why bad things happen, and when we can't fully fathom that the awful truth is just that, instead try to blame the influen ... More >>

Dancing With the Stars: Damn That Michael Irvin!

​It's the halfway point of the season! Tom Bergeron said so! I wish he'd said that the night before, when I was glumly pondering how many more episodes this season would foist upon an innocent populace. But there you go: only a few left. Here's hoping someone gets really hurt. The opening cr ... More >>

Kick 'em While They're Down: The Worst Songs Ever Recorded For Charity

Please take this thing away from me. Please.​ When Rocks Off received an email touting Sting's new MySpace charity video for the Prince of Wales' Rainforest Project, we almost chipped a fingernail hurriedly clicking on the link, which promised oodles of celebrities such as Olivia Newton-John, Rich ... More >>

A Bizarre, and Sometimes Electrifying, Tribute to Michael Jackson, Luther and Marvin at Miller Outdoor Theater

​Saturday Rocks Off and a friend attended Keeping the Music Alive, a free concert at Miller Outdoor Theatre. The show was a tribute in honor of the late Michael Jackson, the later Bernie Mac, the even later Gerald Levert, the later still Luther Vandross, and the even yet later still Barry White - ... More >>

Coroner Rules Michael Jackson's Death a Homicide

TMZ.com​It already looked bad for Houston physician Dr. Conrad Murray, whom just about everyone with a pulse expects to face criminal charges stemming from his client Michael Jackson's June 25 death and is already the subject of a manslaughter probe by the LAPD. Now things look even wors ... More >>

"Prison Sex" and Other Songs Jacko's Ex-Doctor Doesn't Want to Hear Right Now

Well, this is a strange and incongruous turn of events. Normally when a celebrity gets pumped full of pills by a dubious "personal physician" and croaks, there are no repercussions and everyone's free to split up the dead guy's loot like Christmas came early. Not this time, however: Fox News report ... More >>

Memories of Michael

Also: Secessionist Session

Bayou Beat: Live Nation Goes All In, ZZ Top Tickets Up for Grabs, Meridian Rocks the Sabbath and More

Courtesy of Stephen "Rube" Sager Live Nation has outdone itself on its latest "No Service Fee" Wednesday. All day, $29.99 buys a lawn ticket - one lawn ticket, mind you - parking, all those pesky fees, a hot dog and a soda for any participating show at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion. Once they ... More >>

Beyonce Scheduled to Perform at Michael Jackson Memorial

Daniel Kramer ABC News is reporting that Beyonce, who sang tributes to Michael Jackson at her Toyota Center concert and at New Orleans' Essence Music Festival over the weekend, will perform at Jackson's funeral in Los Angeles this afternoon. Also expected to attend are Justin Timberlake, P Diddy, Sm ... More >>

Sheila Jackson Lee Honors Michael Jackson, At Incredible Length

Via The Hill's blog, we've learned of our own Sheila Jackson Lee's epic attempt to immortalize Michael Jackson (who is being celebrated as we speak; check out the twittering/liveblogging at the music blog of our sister paper LA Weekly).Amazingly, Lee's bill declaring the House of Representatives "re ... More >>

Requiem for Michael: The Last Rock Star

Amid the past two weeks of Michael Jackson worship, the details of his drug use were slowly leaked out. The man had done enough painkillers and random legal narcotics that would make all-star druggies like Keith Richards and Lemmy Kilmister shudder and cower away. It's funny that this small and spri ... 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 >>

Michael Jackson, You Will Be Honored...And Twittered

The Most Important Event Ever....Will Be Twittered!!!!Our colleagues at West Coast Sound, the music blog of our sister paper L.A. Weekly, will be in attendance when The Nation Stops at noon tomorrow (Houston time) to give a final send-off to Michael Jackson at Los Angeles' Staples Center. So far St ... More >>

Houstonians Learn the "Thriller" Dance

Craig Hlavaty Who would have ever imagined just a little over a week ago that Houstonians would be convening on the lush confines of Discovery Green to learn to do the "Thriller" dance? Or in the sweltering dog days of July for that matter? The dance seems way more like a Halloween affair than anyth ... More >>

State of Shock

How Michael Jackson (sort of) introduced me to the Rolling Stones.

Michael Jackson: Magic Moments With The King Of "Alleged"

It's a sure bet that when Neil Armstrong dies, coverage will be limited to a two minute retrospective culminating with "One small step for man..." playing over his official NASA photo. Meanwhile, CNBC today is still reporting on the "financial impact of Michael Jackson's death." One walked on the m ... More >>

Remaking Michael Jackson

Why waste money on (or steal) those bogus Thriller remixes when you can get better ones legally for free?

Mike Epps

The Friday and Def Comedy Jam star takes no prisoners

Drenched in Blog: Happy 25th, Thriller

Rush Hour 3

The third time's the guilty pleasure for Tucker and Chan's buddy-cop franchise

Michael Jackson: The Man (?) In the Mirror

Fall of Troy

Monday, April 24, at Warehouse Live, 813 St. Emanuel, 713-225-5483

The Handsomes

The Handsomes

Hail to the Freak

Interesting times call for an interesting man of the year. We nominate Michael Jackson.

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