T.I., Justin Timberlake Added To Grammy LineupJay-Z, Kanye West, Lil Wayne and Tip scheduled to perform 'Swagga Like Us'; Radiohead also added to lineup.

The Grammy Awards vowed several years ago to try to update the image of the annual music-industry awards buffet. And while the Recording Academy has made great strides in spicing up the show with more contemporary artists and performances, 2009 is shaping up to be the year that the Grammys go all-in.
On Monday (January 26), it was announced that Radiohead, up for five Grammys, including Album of the Year for In Rainbows, would perform on the February 8 show. Also joining a performance roster that already includes Katy Perry, Lil Wayne, Coldplay, Carrie Underwood, the Jonas Brothers, Jennifer Hudson and Kenny Chesney is former Beatle Paul McCartney, who will be joined by a special guest drummer, Foo Fighters leader Dave Grohl.
The icing on the cake is a pair of hip-hop performances: one featuring T.I. and Justin Timberlake, and another of the hit "Swagga Like Us" with Jay-Z, Wayne, T.I. and Kanye West.
The Grammy spot will be Radiohead's first live television performance in the U.S. since 2000, and their first time ever playing the awards show. It comes as normally publicity-shy singer Thom Yorke has begun appearing in a splashy ad campaign promoting the broadcast; Wayne and Rihanna have also been drafted as part of the ad blitz to drum up excitement for the show, the Los Angeles Times reports.
With the addition of Radiohead, the list of Album of the Year performers now includes three nominees (Wayne and Coldplay are the others), with the only names missing so far being Ne-Yo, nominated for Year of the Gentleman, and Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, who are being honored for their bluegrass collaboration, Raising Sand.
More performers and a list of presenters are expected soon to be announced soon.

Barack Obama's Inauguration Schedule
Get the inauguration day schedule of events right here.

It's an event that Washington, D.C., sees every four years — but it's never seen an inauguration like this one. The entire city is practically under lockdown in preparation for Barack Obama's historic inauguration on Tuesday.
While exact figures are uncertain, CNN reports that 1 million to 2 million attendees are expected for the inauguration, and tens of thousands of police officers, federal agents and National Guardsmen are being deployed in an unprecedented effort to ensure that the inauguration of the 44th president runs safely and smoothly. Similarly, the cost of the event has been disputed — up to $150 million but generally estimated at around $50 million — but it is reported to be the most expensive in history.
Cameras will be following the president-elect and his family every step of the way during the day — and you'll be able to watch it live streaming on MTV.com. Here's a look at where they'll be for the ceremony, the parades — and of course the Youth Inaugural Ball and other balls throughout the evening.
» 8:25 a.m.: Obamas leave Blair House for prayer service at St. John's Episcopal Church
» 8:35 a.m.: Prayer service
» 9:45 a.m.: Church service ends; Obamas depart for the White House
» 10:05 a.m.: Obamas arrive at White House for coffee with the Bushes
» 11 a.m.: Motorcade departs for the Capitol
» 11:30 a.m.: Bushes and Obamas proceed to platform on the West Front; California Senator Dianne Feinstein will issue the call to order and deliver brief welcoming remarks, followed by an invocation from Dr. Rick Warren and a performance from Aretha Franklin (who also sang at Bill Clinton's first inauguration)
» 11:50 a.m.: Joe Biden is sworn in as vice president by Supreme Court Justice John Stevens
» 12 p.m.: Barack Obama is sworn in as president by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts. Obama, with his hand on Abraham Lincoln's inaugural Bible, will recite the same oath as his predecessors: "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of president of the United States and will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." Musical performance from John Williams, Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, Gabriela Montero and Anthony McGill, followed by "Hail to the Chief" and a 21-gun salute
» 12:05 p.m.: Inaugural address, followed by a poem written and recited by Elizabeth Alexander and a benediction from Dr. Joseph Lowery. The national anthem will be performed by the U.S. Navy Band Sea Chanters
» 12:30 p.m.: Ceremony concludes
» 12:35 p.m.: Bush departs via helicopter; Cheney departs by limo
» 12:45 p.m.: Obama signs inauguration papers in the President's Room
» 1:00 p.m.: Obama attends congressional luncheon
» 2:15 p.m.: Obama and Biden review troops at Capitol
» 2:30 p.m.: President Obama leads the parade from the Capitol along Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House
» 3:15 p.m.: Arrival at the White House
» 3:45 p.m.: Obamas and Bidens proceed to the reviewing stand; inaugural parade continues until 6 p.m.
» 7 p.m.: The official inaugural balls begin with the Neighborhood Ball at the Washington Convention Center, with performers scheduled to include Beyoncé. Mary J. Blige, Mariah Carey, Faith Hill, Jay-Z, Alicia Keys, Shakira, Stevie Wonder and others. Nick Cannon will DJ.
The event, expected to include the president and first lady's first dance of the night, will be broadcast on ABC beginning at 8 p.m. From there, it's on to other celebrations, including MTV's Youth Ball.
"Be the Change: Live From the Inaugural" will air live on MTV on Tuesday, January 20, at 10 p.m. ET/PT. MTV News will have wall-to-wall coverage of the event and of the scenes in Washington, D.C., New Orleans and Kenya in the days leading up to the event and in the days that follow.

'American Idol' Auditions

'American Idol' Auditions Are Better (And Worse) Than Ever

We got a sneak peek at some tryouts, and you'll need to brace yourself for a few of them ...


"American Idol" auditions are back, and they're better than ever — as you've come to expect, they will once again have an amazing mix of the good, the bad and the ear-splittingly ugly when the show returns to Fox on Tuesday.

MTV News has gotten a sneak peek at some of the auditions, and you'll need to brace yourself for a few of them ... like when one girl decided to take on Bette Midler's "The Rose." Based on her desire to continue with the song despite the judges' laughter, it seems this tone-deaf young woman hasn't yet realized she can't actually sing.


Meanwhile, another colorfully dressed young woman embarked on the Patti LaBelle classic, "Lady Marmalade," and, well, her singing style was as colorful as her outfit. Another guy belted out "Stars" by Simply Red, causing Kara DioGuardi to recoil in horror as Randy Jackson jokingly added, "Let it out."

Then there are the auditions you don't mind listening to — one girl sang "Bubbly" by Colbie Caillat and, even though she did well, she continued to sing despite Simon asking her to stop. Another girl took on "Superstar" by the Carpenters; she had a sweet voice. Another contestant sang Keith Urban's "Somebody Like You," and his country twang fit the song perfectly.

In addition to a slew of new contestants, the show's new judge Kara DioGuardi is adjusting to life on the hit talent competition. "It took a minute to be yourself and also find a place in the show where you weren't at all detracting from the people around you or inhibiting them in any way," DioGuardi said in a conference call with reporters Thursday. "It's something I'm still working on. I think I'm there."

Get your "Idol" fix on MTV News' "American Idol" page, where you'll find all the latest news, interviews and opinions.

Taylor Swift Dominates Billboard Chart Again, Kanye West Climbs Back To #3
Slow New Year's sales week with few new album releases finds little changed in the top 200.

Even during the traditionally slow New Year's sales week, Taylor Swift reigned supreme. The country starlet will kept her stranglehold on the top of the Billboard 200 chart for the first week of 2009.
Swift's Fearless sales of about 89,600 actually represented a dip of more than 65 percent from the previous week. And, according to figures provided by Nielsen SoundScan, all but one album in the top 20 saw steep two-digit declines as the new year dawned. Holding strong right behind Swift once again was Beyoncé's I Am ... Sasha Fierce, which moved 76,900 copies, followed by Kanye West's 808s & Heartbreak, which will move up two spots on sales of just over 70,900, despite being off by more than 57 percent from the previous week.
The rest of the top 10 will be pretty much unchanged, with the players merely swapping places: the "Twilight" soundtrack (#4 with 65,800), Nickelback's Dark Horse (#5, 64,400), Britney Spears' Circus (#6, 64,100), Keyshia Cole's Different Me (#7, 53,600), Jamie Foxx's Intuition (#8, 44,600) and Now That's What I Call Music! Vol. 29 (#9, 43,500). The sole newcomer to the top 10 is the Christmas-themed Target exclusive All Wrapped Up compilation, which jumps 78 spots on sales of 40,400.
Though their sales percentages also dropped from the previous week, a number of artists still got a bump up in the charts, including Akon, whose Freedom will skip up five spots up to #16. Ludacris' Theater of the Mind rises 17 spots to #14 on sales of 31,300, and Lil Wayne's Tha Carter III climbs from #32 to #19 on sales of 26,000, pushing the album's total sales close to 3 million. Lady Gaga also has some celebrating to do, as her Fame blasted up 32 spots to #26 on sales of 22,700, giving the dance-club favorite her best chart position since the album debuted at #17 back in November.
The slow week was also good for a grab-bag of music-blog favorites, including MGMT, whose Oracular Spectacular will move up 37 spots to #57 on sales of 12,700, as well as suddenly resurgent pastoral folkies Fleet Foxes, whose self-titled debut will rocket 39 spots to #67 on sales of 11,200. Vampire Weekend leap 64 slots to #75 with their self-titled debut on sales of 9,800. The #1 pick for many in 2008, TV On The Radio's Dear Science moves 47 paces to #80 on sales of 9,400.
The news was not so hot for ringtone fave Soulja Boy Tell'em, whose, Isouljaboytellem continues to slide down the charts as sales plunged 65 percent in the album's third week, flatlining at 12,200 copies to land at #63.
With few major releases this week, the charts should stay relatively steady until efforts by Bruce Springsteen, The-Dream and Billy Ray Cyrus drop later this month

Foo Fighters and Coldplay to honour Neil Diamond

Foo Fighters and Coldplay have been announced to appear at Neil Diamond's forthcoming charity concert.They will join the likes of Adele, John Mayer, Tim McGraw and actress Jennifer Hudson at the charity gala gig at Los Angeles Convention Centre on February 6, 2009.Proceeds from the event will benefit the MusiCares program, which aids musicians in times of financial, medical and personal crisis, reports Rolling Stone.Diamond, who will also perform, was named MusiCares 2008 Person Of The Year for his charitable work.The veteran singer's most recent album 'Home Before Dark' hit Number One in the US chart in May. As previously reported on NME.COM, Diamond is being recognised for his exceptional artistic achievements as well as his philanthropic work.The singer, who recently donated aid to the relief fund established in the wake of Hurricane Ike, joins past honorees Bono, Aretha Franklin and Brian Wilson.The gala ceremony will take place two days before the Grammy Awards.

Top 5 Disruptive Music-Making Technologies

Ever since a caveman first clacked two stones together, musicians have relied on instruments — Bobby McFerrin and that guy from Police Academy notwithstanding.
These music creation technologies are disrupting the normal ways in which music has been made in the past.
1. The iPhone
When I saw the first MP3 player ten years ago this month, I expected portable music players to evolve a great deal in the coming decade. But other than the ability to hold more music and an improved interface, most players released since then have been essentially retreads of those first models.
Not so the iPhone (and iPod Touch). This device's large touch screen, tilt sensors and ability to install applications have already made it a handy device for going beyond music playback into the realm of music creation. Four Tracks ($10) replaces the hardware four track recorders of yore that used to cost hundreds of dollars. Talk about disruptive technology. Meanwhile the mood-enhancing Bloom, ZoozBeat pocket music studio, the harder-to-use Noise.io and other apps let people make music wherever they are, for a fraction of the cost of dedicated non-portable hardware.
2. Open-source audio software
One of the great disruptive forces when it comes to software is the open-source movement. Decentralized teams of programmers with varying amounts of time to commit to a project can produce stable, cheaper applications that compete with proprietary software.
Audacity, a free, open-source audio editor, has been a shining example of open-source software for years — so stable that I used it as the basis for a book of digital music tutorials, and that was over five years ago; the program has only improved since then. Now, it has competition from another open-source audio editor called Koblo Studio, which runs on new code (i.e. not Audacity), according to one of its creators, and offers more some advanced features. The program is free, but users can choose to buy virtual synthesizers, effects and other add-ons. Not too long ago, entry-level digital audio workstations cost hundreds of dollars, and many still do. Thanks to open-source developers, anyone can now record, edit and produce music for free.
3. Virtual synthesizers
Before the iPhone let us use virtual instruments on the go, the computer put them in the home studio. Computers are remarkably well-suited to pretending to be synthesizers. Because they rely on your computer for processing resources, a display and some of their input mechanisms, virtual synths are far, far cheaper than their real world counterparts while offering the same sounds and, usually, more advanced functionality.
Why buy all the hardware (keyboard, processor, etc.) again each time you want a new instrument? Virtual synths have allowed a new generation of musicians to discover yesterday's vintage equipment and customize their own sounds to a degree not imaginable in the hardware world. And as with other disruptive technologies, virtual synths do all of this at a far lower price than their hardware ancestors.
4. Portable digital audio recordersAs embarrassing as it is to admit, I think I'm in love with my Roland-Edirol R-09HR High Resolution WAVE/MP3 Recorder, pictured to the right. Not only is it perfect for interviews, with an optional tripod that lets me record without picking up table noise, an included wireless remote for altering settings without adding clicks to the recording and a slow playback option for transcribing speech, but it has also allowed me to record live music without distortion.
In the past, I've had to accept a certain level of digital distortion as part of the bargain of recording live audio. But the R-09HR has two gain settings that can each be tweaked to 80 different recording levels, so no sound seems too quiet or too loud for my R-09HR to pick up. The built in stereo condenser mics are high-quality enough for my purposes, but the device also accepts an external mic- or line-level source. Other high-end portables have been able to record loud audio without distorting, but this one (among other newer models) saves recordings as WAVs or MP3s on an SD card that my computers see as a plain old disk drive.
Some portable digital audio recorders, the R-09HR included, can record 24-bit audio, which allows their use on projects requiring better-than-CD audio quality. High-end portable recorders are disruptive in two ways: by making it possible to record super clean audio without a computer and by giving more concertgoers a way to sync photos and videos to higher-quality audio taped at shows.
5. Max/MSP
When I set out to make this list, my goal was not to include decades-old technology. Cycling '74's Max/MSP, a programming interface for sound (video introduction), elbowed its way onto the list nonetheless, because there's still nothing like it -- well, nothing exactly like it anyway. Forget about imitating synthesizers or making them portable; Max/MSP lets you build electronic instruments inside your computer by dragging and dropping objects and connecting them with virtual patch cords.
Ever wonder how people do things like play real music using Guitar Hero controllers or turn a Nintendo Wii controller into a theremin? Their secret, nine times out of ten, is Max/MSP. It's not the easiest program to learn, but neither are most other Jedi techniques.
Suggestions? Add a comment below; we'll take a look before we update the list.
See Also:
Eno and Chilvers Release Sweet Music App for iPhone
The New Hotness: FourTrack Audio Recorder for iPhone, iPod Touch
ZoozBeat Turns iPhone into Beat Factory for Three Bucks
The Inevitable Guitar Hero Controller Band Finally Surfaces
Photo: Rob Cruickshank

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50 Cent is solidifying his multimedia turf.
His video game, 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand, comes out Feb. 24, followed by his album Before I Self Destruct in March. And he just wrapped filming for another movie, 13, due in 2010, a remake of the crime drama (with Mickey Rourke and Jason Statham) that won the 2006 Grand Jury award at the Sundance Film Festival. On location in Yonkers, N.Y., USA TODAY's Mike Snider talked with 50 Cent about video games, music and his life.
Q: How do video games fit into your career in music and films?A: Video games became more important as touring came, because there was the tour bus and you have several people there at the same time — and the option of reading a book, because you are on airplanes for a long time. So those two things became exciting at the same time. That's why I established G-Unit Books and I went into games. … In the future, (people) should look forward to me being a part of video games that I'm not actually starring in, a game as entertaining as Centipede was for me. And Pac-Man. You didn't always need eight buttons. (In the Atari days) it was a joystick and a button. I want to get back to that. Let's simplify things a little bit. (Eminem) has got all of this in his studio, the arcade stuff. He will go, 'I bet you can't beat me at Ms. Pac-Man.' He still wants to play that.
READ MORE: 50 Cent opens up about his new video game, 'Blood on the Sand'