Selena Gomez Signing New Record Deal Soon

Selena Gomez headed to NYC this week to focus on work. And being the amazing/lovely/incredible person that she is, she spent some time with her Selenators as well.

One mega fan met Selena multiple times throughout the week (#lucky), including one day when Selena GAVE HIM A RIDE IN HER CAR. Seriously, she scooped him up and let him join her in her car—because she's the coolest person ever!

And not only did she give him a ride, but Sel also shared some major career news that the lucky super fan revealed in the tweet below (get ready to FREAK OUT):

Selena's in NYC to sign a new record deal, finish the album, and getting scripts for 3 new movies my queens coming back BIG watch out y'all!

Are you excited for new Selena movies and music? What kind of movie do you hope she stars in next?

Full @ http://www.seventeen.com/entertainment/reviews/selena-gomez-gives-fan-ride?src=spr_TWITTER&spr_id=70619433

X Factor: Fifth Judge Concept Revealed

The X Factor 2014 is set to get another new, fifth judge for the live shows… and a new category for them to mentor. Louis Walsh, Cheryl Cole, Simon Cowell and Mel B kicked off auditions last month and will go into the live shows later this year mentoring – in no particular order – the Boys, Girls, Overs and Groups. But – according to the Metro newspaper – a fifth ‘wildcard’ category will be introduced along with a brand new judge to mentor them for the finals. The wild card category will be made up of a mix of acts from the other categories who failed to make it into the live finals in their original respective groups of budding performers. “Simon Cowell is planning on including a wildcard category which will be mentored by a mystery fifth judge,” an insider told the newspape today. “There was a creative meeting three weeks ago and plans are now being put into action.” According to the tabloid, favourites for the role include Rita Ora and Mary J Blige. Both have appeared on the show in the past, but Rita has publicly ruled herself out of the show. But the new fifth judge spot is a much reduced role compared to the other judges’, having to only appear on the live finals and missing out on the room auditions, arena auditions, bootcamp and judges’ houses stages. This may mean that stars who couldn’t commit to the full series could take up the spot. The insider added: “A fifth judge will prevent the deadlock and add some spice to the panel during the live shows. “Rita Ora and Mary J Blige are currently in discussions with show bosses.”

Didn't see this posted. What do you think about the concept and who do you think will do it? Apparently Demi Lovato is also now an option.

Kesha's Essay for Elle UK on Rehab, Body Issues + Pressures

http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/pop-shop/6157431/kesha-eating-disorder-rehab-essay-elle-uk

Quote:

There had been a lot of speculation over Kesha's two-month stint in rehab earlier this year. While she admitted herself for an eating disorder, many publicly wondered whether that might be a euphemism for substance abuse. Now the "Rising Star" expert and "We R Who We R" singer has opened up about her experience in an essay for Elle UK, addressing the rumors and confronting her own issues of insecurity and the pressures she faces as a female pop star in the music industry. Sure, I've written songs about partying, but my dirty little secret is that I'm actually incredibly responsible," she writes early on, describing her thoughts during the trip to the rehab center. "I take my music and career very seriously, and certainly didn't land in this situation from partying. But I was cut off from the outside world and I imagined people making up stories at a time when what I really needed was support." Kesha goes on to describe her passion for music that spawned from feeling like an outsider through her early years, coping with bullying at school by dedicating herself to her art until singing a record contract at 18. But even though she found her unique style rewarded, the entertainment business was not a salvation. "The music industry has set unrealistic expectations for what a body is supposed to look like, and I started becoming overly critical of my own body because of that," she writes. "I felt like people were always lurking, trying to take pictures of me with the intention of putting them up opine or printing them in magazines and making me look terrible." She stood up for herself through her music, writing anthems for empowerment like "We R Who We R," "Warrior" and "Love Into The Light," but even those began to feel like lies. "I felt like a liar, telling people to love themselves as they are, while I was being hateful to myself and really hurting my body. I wanted to control things that weren't in my power, but I was controlling the wrong things. I convinced myself that being sick, being skinny was part of my job. It felt safer somehow." Eventually, she asked her mom for help and admitted herself to rehab. The growth process was slow at first but it worked and she was able to focus on her music without obsessing over how she looks. "I knew I was ready to leave when I'd gained enough confidence to get on a plane knowing there would be paparazzi at the airport at the other end. I was right - they were there. But this time, when I saw the pictures, I felt OK." The entire piece has been scanned and posted at ATRL and you can read it here. http://atrl.net/forums/showthread.php?t=630392

Usher to Perform at the VMA's

Usher will celebrate the 20th anniversary of his self-titled debut with a performance at the MTV Video Music Awards next month. According to the Los Angeles Times, the Grammy winner will open the 31st annual ceremony, which will air live on August 24 from the Forum in Inglewood, Calif. Usher previously graced the VMA stage in 2010, performing a medley of “DJ Got Us Fallin’ in Love” and “OMG.” Just last month, he performed a retrospective of hits along with “Good Kisser” at the 2014 BET Awards. Ariana Grande will also hit the VMA stage to perform her Zedd-produced single “Break Free” along with Australian pop-punk act 5 Seconds of Summer. Usher is gearing up for the release of his eighth album. Earlier this week, he debuted his Pharrell-produced single “She Came to Give It to You” featuring Nicki Minaj.

Rap-Up.com

The Future of Music, an Essay by Taylor Swift

Where will the music industry be in 20 years, 30 years, 50 years? Before I tell you my thoughts on the matter, you should know that you're reading the opinion of an enthusiastic optimist: one of the few living souls in the music industry who still believes that the music industry is not dying…it's just coming alive. There are many (many) people who predict the downfall of music sales and the irrelevancy of the album as an economic entity. I am not one of them. In my opinion, the value of an album is, and will continue to be, based on the amount of heart and soul an artist has bled into a body of work, and the financial value that artists (and their labels) place on their music when it goes out into the marketplace. Piracy, file sharing and streaming have shrunk the numbers of paid album sales drastically, and every artist has handled this blow differently. In recent years, you've probably read the articles about major recording artists who have decided to practically give their music away, for this promotion or that exclusive deal. My hope for the future, not just in the music industry, but in every young girl I meet…is that they all realize their worth and ask for it. Music is art, and art is important and rare. Important, rare things are valuable. Valuable things should be paid for. It's my opinion that music should not be free, and my prediction is that individual artists and their labels will someday decide what an album's price point is. I hope they don't underestimate themselves or undervalue their art. Arrows Through the Heart In mentioning album sales, I'd like to point out that people are still buying albums, but now they're buying just a few of them. They are buying only the ones that hit them like an arrow through the heart or have made them feel strong or allowed them to feel like they really aren't alone in feeling so alone. It isn't as easy today as it was 20 years ago to have a multiplatinum-selling album, and as artists, that should challenge and motivate us. There are always going to be those artists who break through on an emotional level and end up in people's lives forever. The way I see it, fans view music the way they view their relationships. Some music is just for fun, a passing fling (the ones they dance to at clubs and parties for a month while the song is a huge radio hit, that they will soon forget they ever danced to). Some songs and albums represent seasons of our lives, like relationships that we hold dear in our memories but had their time and place in the past. However, some artists will be like finding "the one." We will cherish every album they put out until they retire and we will play their music for our children and grandchildren. As an artist, this is the dream bond we hope to establish with our fans. I think the future still holds the possibility for this kind of bond, the one my father has with the Beach Boys and the one my mother has with Carly Simon. I think forming a bond with fans in the future will come in the form of constantly providing them with the element of surprise. No, I did not say "shock"; I said "surprise." I believe couples can stay in love for decades if they just continue to surprise each other, so why can't this love affair exist between an artist and their fans? In the YouTube generation we live in, I walked out onstage every night of my stadium tour last year knowing almost every fan had already seen the show online. To continue to show them something they had never seen before, I brought out dozens of special guest performers to sing their hits with me. My generation was raised being able to flip channels if we got bored, and we read the last page of the book when we got impatient. We want to be caught off guard, delighted, left in awe. I hope the next generation's artists will continue to think of inventive ways of keeping their audiences on their toes, as challenging as that might be. There are a few things I have witnessed becoming obsolete in the past few years, the first being autographs. I haven't been asked for an autograph since the invention of the iPhone with a front-facing camera. The only memento "kids these days" want is a selfie. It's part of the new currency, which seems to be "how may followers you have on Instagram." Fan Power A friend of mine, who is an actress, told me that when the casting for her recent movie came down to two actresses, the casting director chose the actress with more Twitter followers. I see this becoming a trend in the music industry. For me, this dates back to 2005 when I walked into my first record-label meetings, explaining to them that I had been communicating directly with my fans on this new site called Myspace. In the future, artists will get record deals because they have fans—not the other way around. Another theme I see fading into the gray is genre distinction. These days, nothing great you hear on the radio seems to come from just one musical influence. The wild, unpredictable fun in making music today is that anything goes. Pop sounds like hip hop; country sounds like rock; rock sounds like soul; and folk sounds like country—and to me, that's incredible progress. I want to make music that reflects all of my influences, and I think that in the coming decades the idea of genres will become less of a career-defining path and more of an organizational tool. This moment in music is so exciting because the creative avenues an artist can explore are limitless. In this moment in music, stepping out of your comfort zone is rewarded, and sonic evolution is not only accepted…it is celebrated. The only real risk is being too afraid to take a risk at all. Celebrity Spotlight I predict that some things will never change. There will always be an increasing fixation on the private lives of musicians, especially the younger ones. Artists who were at their commercial peak in the '70s, '80s and '90s tell me, "It was never this crazy for us back then!" And I suspect I'll be saying that same thing to younger artists someday (God help them). There continues to be a bad girl vs. good girl/clean-cut vs. sexy debate, and for as long as those labels exist, I just hope there will be contenders on both sides. Everyone needs someone to relate to. And as for me? I'll just be sitting back and growing old, watching all of this happen or not happen, all the while trying to maintain a life rooted in this same optimism. And I'd also like a nice garden.

World Street Journal