Lady Gaga has snagged a piece of pop music history in landing the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 this week with her new single “Born This Way.”

Even more significant than posting the highest first-week digital sales by a female artist, with 448,000 downloads of the song, according to Nielsen SoundScan, Gaga scored the 1,000th No. 1 single on the Billboard chart since its inception in 1958.

In recognition of the milestone among chart watchers, Billboard has posted a chronological listing of all 1,000 chart-topping songs.

The first? Ricky Nelson’s “Poor Little Fool,” which beat all comers on that first Hot 100 chart dated Aug. 4, 1958. With that in mind, some might consider it a shame that America’s latest teen idol, Justin Bieber, didn’t land the No. 1 slot this week to bookend the half-century-plus period that began with pop music’s original teen idol. (Life magazine is credited with coining the phrase in a feature story on Nelson’s rise to stardom.)

Pop & Hiss thought we’d take the opportunity to scan through the years for some of the chart’s other high- and lowlights.

 
A night of full of upsets and other surprises started early with Grammy voters’ verdict in the pop collaboration with vocals category. In a field featuring tracks that teamed superstar combinations of Eminem, B.o.B. and Hayley Williams; Elton John and Leon Russell; Lady Gaga and Beyoncé; and Katy Perry and Snoop Dogg, the Grammy went to … Herbie Hancock.

Now, we know how much the Grammys love Herbie, most illustriously when he took the 2008 album of the year award for "River: The Joni Mitchell Letters” album of the celebrated singer-songwriter's music. This time, he trumped the pop, rock, rap and R&B heavy hitters with his version of John Lennon's "Imagine,” from his "The Imagine Project" collection, for which he was joined on the Grammy-winning track by Pink, India.Arie and a group of international friends.

The award also delivered yet another example of the Grammy night adage: Never underestimate the power of a Beatle.

The music industry's love affair with the Beatles surfaced two other times Sunday, with awards to Paul McCartney for solo rock vocal for his rendition of the Beatles' "Helter Skelter" from his “Good Evening New York City” live album, and the award for historical album for "The Beatles in Stereo," the 16-disc box set that packaged stereo versions of all the Fab Four's original studio albums.

-- Randy Lewis

Photo of Herbie Hancock at the Grammy Awards on Sunday. Credit: Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times.

It's not often that we get reader submitted photos over here on Pop & Hiss, but we couldn't pass this up. A reader taking a run on Runyon Canyon came across this gigantic Lady Gaga painting on top of the hill overlooking the city and the Hollywood sign.

The painting -- which appears to be a large digital replica on some form of cloth -- depicts Lady Gaga with a crown of thorns on her head and blood on her shoulders. Lady Gaga, who often flirts with religious imagery, recently spoke to Vogue magazine, and said she considers herself to "have one of the greatest voices in the industry" and one of the greatest songwriters.

The odd discovery (potential publicity stunt?) comes on the morning on which her highly anticipated single, "Born This Way" -- the title track from her upcoming March disc, the follow-up to the massively successful "The Fame Monster" -- debuted. Read Times pop critic Ann Powers' snap judgment of the single here.

The song was serviced worldwide to radio at 6 a.m. EST Friday, before being available for purchase online at 9 a.m. EST the same day -- which came after the singer Tweeted her impatience for waiting on the release of the track.

Tell us what you think of the portrait and special thanks to our sister blog L.A. Now for sending this over to us.

See another close-up of the artwork after the jump:

Little monsters, get your paws up.

Lady Gaga has grown impatient and can’t hold onto her single any longer.

Following her declarative tweet Monday morning that she “Can’t wait any longer, single coming Friday,” Interscope Records  announced Wednesday that “Born This Way,” the first single and title track from the singer’s eagerly anticipated third album, would indeed be released Friday.

Hey, what Gaga wants, Gaga gets.

The song will be serviced worldwide to radio at 6 a.m. EST on Friday, before being available for purchase online at 9 a.m. EST the same day.

The announcement came after the singer tweeted the single artwork for the track.

On the cover, Gaga’s hair is in full '80s tease, and she is rocking some very peculiar horns and sharply pointed shoulders.

"It has been in my heart for over a year,” she wrote on Twitter. “I'm so excited to share it.”

The track is produced by Gaga, Fernando Garibay and DJ White Shadow.

She has already teased to her little monsters with the full lyrics to the song, and at the 2010 MTV VMAs,  Gaga told the audience that if she won Video of the Year (for “Bad Romance”), she promised herself she would reveal the name of the album, before belting a few lyrics of the title track.

-- Gerrick D. Kennedy

twitter.com/gerrickkennedy

Photo: "Born This Way" single cover. Credit: Lady Gaga's official Twitter.

Johnny Rotten has lived in Los Angeles for the last two decades, and for a time considered his post-Sex Pistols project Public Image Ltd to be an L.A. band, he told The Times recently when he loaded into the passenger side of an old Volvo to get ferried to a video interview downtown. If any of that information is news to you, the video above will perhaps serve you well. In it, Lydon, whose work with the aforementioned two bands transformed rock music in myriad ways over the course of the 1970s and '80s, is his typically acerbic self.

The punk archetype, who turns 55 on Monday, pulled no punches over the course of two hours in the car and at The Times building, especially when the subject of the current breed of punk bands came up. Specifically, Green Day, whose music Rotten apparently dislikes.

Said Lydon when asked about his inheritors: "Many of the punk bands are cop-outs and imitators and have made it easy for the likes of Green Peace -- Green Day, who I hate. I really ... I can’t stand them. To me, they’re like coat hangers, and haven’t earned the right, they haven’t earned the wings, to be wearing the mantle of punk. They haven’t had to go through the violence, and the hate, and the animosity that us chaps way back when had to put up with. We had to fight for every single footstep."

Here it is, just a regular old Thursday. What could punch it up? A new video and song from Lady Gaga -- featuring some German monotone lyrics, a guy named Zombie Boy from Montreal, wind-machine trickery and lots of super-serious catwalking. Not since the days of Right Said Fred have we seen a runway get this sexy!

Yes, this video is sort of eyeroll-inducing, but we don't watch Gaga for subtlety, and we'll admit that it's also strangely addictive, in that mysterious way that all Gaga things are. According to stylelist.com, Lady Gaga cooked up this remix (this is the first time, it should be noted, that she's ever released a song in remix form first) for the Mugler fashion show Wednesday in Paris. Mugler and the New York University alum are tight -- creative director Nicola Formichetti is also Gaga's personal stylist.

Shot by fashion photographer Mariano Vivanco, the video focuses on Zombie Boy and is interspersed with scenes from the Mugler fashion show. A little Internet sleuthing (a.k.a. Google) tells us that Zombie Boy is model Rico Genest. Formichetti found him through his Facebook page -- très moderne! Genest told a website called Bizarre that part of what inspired him to cover his entire body and face in tattoos was his childhood love for the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles." Good enough for us!

The song from the video is a track off "Born This Way," Gaga's new album, set for release in May. 

-- Margaret Wappler

Grammy-nominated producers discuss their lives, careers and pop music in general at a roundtable event. 

In 2010, the songs were ubiquitous, even if the music producers who helped create them were less well-known: Lady Gaga's “Bad Romance,” Eminem's “Love the Way You Lie,” Cee Lo Green's “[Forget] You” and B.o.B.'s “Nothin' on You” and “Airplanes” blanketed airwaves and filled earbuds with indelible hooks and melodies. 

But those hooks and melodies took work. Though they may drift out of the car stereo effortlessly, much sweat equity was spent crafting them. No one understands that process better than the music producers, whose job it is to turn an idea into a song. If the timing's right, the song hits. 

In advance of the Grammy Awards, which will be held Feb. 13 in downtown Los Angeles, three of today's hottest hitmakers, RedOne (Lady Gaga, Enrique Iglesias), Alex Da Kid (Eminem, B.o.B.) and Ari Levine of the Smeezingtons (Cee Lo, Bruno Mars) sat down with Times pop music critic Ann Powers for the first Los Angeles Times Music Producers Roundtable, an intimate conversation with artists who helped shape 2010's pop-music landscape.

On Saturday evening in front of a sold-out crowd, Powers led a freewheeling conversation that sought to put into words the magic that turns a bunch of notes on paper (or, these days, a hard drive) into a hit song.

“I think the most important thing is having a vision. Being able to see things before other people can see it,” Alexander Grant — better known as Alex Da Kid — told the audience inside the Grammy Museum's Clive Davis Theater. “Most of the songs you're working on, they won't even come out for three or four months at least, maybe longer, so you have to be able to think what's going to be a hit record in six months.”

Nadir Khayat, the Moroccan-born producer known as RedOne, knows something about foresight. His best known collaborator, and muse, is Lady Gaga.

“I just saw the vision,” he said of Gaga. “I just saw this girl that could be this [huge] thing. We went to the studio and talked about Queen, Rolling Stones and Bruce Springsteen and I'm thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, she knows music,'” Khayat said. “She was inspired. I've always thought of music as one, it's a universal language. That's what we did with the sound of Lady Gaga.”

The 53rd annual Grammy Awards telecast, to take place on Feb. 13 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, will feature a well-rounded collection of sounds and styles, at least based on the initial list of performers. 

Announced Thursday morning, the musicians range from the sturdy country sounds of Miranda Lambert to the grand rock 'n' roll of the Quebecois band Arcade Fire (both of whom will make their Grammy performance debuts), from the king of the two-word profanity, Cee Lo Green, to the reigning Queen of Pomp and Pop, Lady Gaga. Rounding out the list of heavy-hitters will be Detroit rapper Eminem, whose 10 nominations lead the pack, and Katy Perry, who will no doubt be competing with Gaga in the unofficial "most buzzworthy costume" category.  

Keep checking back with Pop & Hiss in the weeks leading up to the award ceremony. We'll be updating the performance list as news arrives, and will be highlighting nominees in some of the lesser-known categories, those whose contributions to the music world in 2010 were every bit as inspired as those who'll be taking center stage.

-- Randall Roberts

Photo: Cee Lo Green performs as part of Gnarls Barkley at the 2007 Grammy Awards. Credit: Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times

The concert business was hit in 2010 by some of the same tough economic times that have been gripping other factions in the music industry in recent years, but New Jersey rock group Bon Jovi has reason to pop the Champagne anyway.

The band posted the highest grossing concert tour of the year not only in North America, but across the globe, topping the $200-million mark worldwide, according to figures released Tuesday by Pollstar, the concert-tracking publication.

Bon Jovi posted total concert revenue of $201.1 million, a little over half that figure -- $108.2 million -- from the North American dates on its world tour.

Behind the group on Pollstar's worldwide ranking is AC/DC with gross ticket sales of $177 million, followed in the top 5 by U2 ($160.9 million), Lady Gaga ($133.6 million) and Metallica ($110.1 million).

Looking only at North American tour numbers, Roger Waters and his remounting of Pink Floyd's "The Wall" was second to Bon Jovi with a tour gross of $89.5 million, followed by the Dave Matthews Band ($72.9 million), Canadian pop crooner Michael Bublé ($65.7 million) and the Eagles ($64.5 million).

The big guns, however, couldn't bring up the entire concert business over last year's numbers. The top 50 North American tours combined for an overall take of $1.69 billion, down about 15% from $1.99 billion in 2009. The story was only marginally better throughout the world, where the top 50 total tour gross of $2.93 billion was off about 12% from $3.34 billion a year earlier.

Numbers were down almost across the board: total ticket sales dropped 12% in North America, from 29.9 million in 2009 to 26.2 million last year, and decreased 7% worldwide, from 45.3 million in 2009 to 38.3 million in 2010.

The only increase reported by Pollstar was in the average ticket price worldwide, which went up by $2.86 per ticket, or about 4%. Tickets in North America actually dropped by about $1.55 or 2%. Even Bon Jovi's field-leading $108.2 million for North America was the lowest figure in recent years for the No. 1 spot. The record high belongs to the Rolling Stones, who took in $162 million on their 2005 "A Bigger Bang" tour.

"Artists worked fewer shows in a tough business climate and those that overreached suffered the consequences," Pollstar editor Gary Bongiovanni said in a statement that accompanied the numbers. "In general, the international concert business was stronger than in North America, where overbooked and overpriced shows at outdoor amphitheater venues made it an especially difficult year for Live Nation," a reference to the world's largest concert promoter.

Former Beatle Paul McCartney has received consistent praise for his stamina, still typically delivering three-hour performances while touring at age 68. But he generally worked fewer nights for more money than most of his peers. His average gross of $3.86 million per night over 21 dates in 2010, and an average ticket price of $138.49, gave him the highest per-concert average in North America, followed by Bon Jovi ($2.85 million), Waters ($2.49 million), Alejandro Fernandez ($2.4 million) and Elton John-Billy Joel ($1.97 million).

Popularity-wise, however, Dave Matthews Band reigned, selling 1.27 million tickets in North America for the year. Bon Jovi was second with 1.18 million, Justin Bieber with 987,000, John Mayer with 894,000 and Brad Paisley with 880,000.

Rounding out the top 10 grossing North American tours were McCartney, who took in $61.8 million over 42 shows in 38 cities. Lady Gaga finished No. 7 with total ticket sales of $51 million, followed by the James Taylor-Carole King "Troubadour" reunion tour that nipped at Gaga's 6-inch spiked heels with a $50.7 million total gross, the Black Eyed Peas at $50.5 million and singer-songwriter guitarist John Mayer at No. 10 with $49.9 million.

Bublé also performed well around the world, finishing at No. 6 behind Metallica with $104.2 million, the "Walking With Dinosaurs" animatronics tour ($104.1 million), McCartney ($93 million), the Eagles (92.3 million) and Waters ($89.5 million).

"Walking With Dinosaurs" attracted more patrons than any other tour, logging almost 2.06 million visitors. But the spectacle's overall gross finished farther down the list because the average ticket price was a comparatively modest $50.56.

Billboard's concert business rankings, which cover a slightly different, non-calendar year -- Nov. 22, 2009-Nov. 20, 2010 -- and factor in worldwide tour revenues, also place Bon Jovi at the top of the heap, with a gross during that period of $146.5 million from sales of nearly 1.59 million tickets.

The rest of the magazine's top five touring acts were largely consistent with Pollstar's, with the No. 2 slot taken by U2 ($131.5 million, 1.31 million tickets), then AC/DC ($122.6 million, 1.16 million tickets), Lady Gaga ($116.2 million, 1.36 million tickets) and Black Eyed Peas ($81.6 million, 1.26 million tickets). U2 scored its penultimate finish with only 22 stadium shows, compared to 69 performances for Bon Jovi.

U2 was tops on Pollstar's list of 2009's biggest tours, posting $123 million and another 1.31 million tickets sold. The Irish quartet was the only act to top the $100-million mark last year, with Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band coming in second with $94.5 million, Elton John and Billy Joel's duo tour pulling in $88 million, Britney Spears at $82.5 million and AC/DC fifth with $77.9 million.

Among Pollstar's Top 100 North American tours, the crown for highest average ticket price of 2010 goes to Waters, who charged an average of $126.14 per ticket. That's considerably less than last year's high of $173.89 for Van Morrison's "Astral Weeks Live" tour.

Pollstar will release a full Top 200 early next month in its 2010 Year End Special Edition.

 -- Randy Lewis

Top photo: Jon Bon Jovi led the concert word with over $200-million in concert revenue. Credit: Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images.

Bottom photo: Michael Bublé also had a good year, including finishing at No. 6 internationally. Credit: Associated Press.

The previous post in this series went live last week. Be sure to check out The Envelope's new blog Awards Tracker to stay up to date on all things Oscars, Tonys, Emmys, Grammys and more. Don't fret, Pop & Hiss Grammy fans, this blog will keep you informed of anything of Grammy importance that you need to read on Awards Tracker.

The Grammy Awards went young -- and pop -- in 2010, awarding crossover teen star Taylor Swift the show's top crown -- album of the year. Will the popularity trend continue, or will voters finally throw a curve and honor something a bit more unexpected? Answers will be forthcoming soon enough. 

Grammy ballots were due Wednesday, and nominations will be revealed in early December. Here's a look at some of the likely nominations -- and perhaps some deserving ones. 

This is Part 2 of a two-part post. Looking for thoughts on the Arcade Fire, Eminem and more? Those are in Part 1. 

Lady Gaga, "The Fame Monster" (Interscope)

Grammy potential: This is sort of a wild card. Sales have surpassed 1.3 million, according to Nielsen SoundScan, and voters embraced Gaga in 2010, giving her an album of the year nod for "The Fame." Television plays a part here, as Grammy no doubt wants the Monday-morning talk that a Gaga performance typically brings. Yet "The Fame Monster" is only eight tracks, and could be classified more as an EP than an album. Though Gaga has supported it as if it's a full-length release, voters may wait till her 2011 album rather than nominate a shortened effort.

Grammy deserving: Again, this is kind of a toss-up. With "The Fame" scoring an album of the year nomination in 2010, voters happily embraced Gaga's spectacle, and in terms of major pop stars, this year's field lacks a Beyoncé or a Black Eyed Peas (don't expect to see a Ke$ha or a Katy Perry in the album of the year field). From start to finish, "The Fame Monster" packs more hooks, and more weirdness, than "The Fame," and tracks such as "Bad Romance" and "Alejandro" have instantly become Gaga signatures. 

Bob Leone fondly remembers the first time he met Lady Gaga. The pop star wasn't donning one of her outlandish costumes made of meat or hair and she wasn't anywhere close to ranking on any Forbes list.

She actually couldn't even pick her head up off the floor.

"She was painfully shy. A lot of people think she was born Lady Gaga. She wasn't. Stefani Germanotta was a whole nother person," he recalls of the first time he saw a reserved young Germanotta attend one of his open mic nights in New York City with her mother.

Leone, a former director for the Songwriters Hall of Fame, approached the teen -- she was around 13 or 14 at the time -- and asked her to perform onstage after she sat timidly in the audience for two weeks in a row.

"She would sit there with her face to the floor. I approached her and said, 'Look, I want to see what you've got … if you've got it in you. The next open mic she sat down at the piano and blew everyone away. She's an excellent keyboardist, and had a decent voice for someone that age. I was struck by the quality of songwriting," Leone said. "It was obvious she had a special talent. It was clear even then."

He began working with Germanotta for several years and assumed the role of manager for six months in 2006, he said, under two conditions: it had to be part time (he was still employed with the Hall of Fame), and once a major label showed interest, he would step aside in favor of a manager that could give her full-time attention.

Responding to a piece of pop-musical analysis by Camille Paglia carries risks not unlike those involved in publishing images of a burning Koran. She is a self-serving provocateur with a dogmatic world view, more interested in swatting down others' assertions than in advancing cultural discourse. Remember the bad old days of the early 1990s, when she first made a splash, trashing feminism in order to elevate her idol Madonna and blaming college girls for walking into the "Testosterone Flats" of fraternity row and getting themselves date-raped?

Well, now Paglia's back, saying absolutely nothing that advances our world view in her attack on Lady Gaga published in London's Sunday Times. She attacks Gaga as not just unsexy, but also "stripped of genuine eroticism"; she argues that Gaga's embrace of freaks is insincere because she herself has a privileged background. Downplaying Gaga's sincere advocacy of gay rights, she calls her a corporate shill; ignoring the new ways in which she's deployed familiar images and sounds, she simply says she's unoriginal. Decrying Gaga, Paglia also trashes her fans as emotionally impoverished, and (diehard baby boomer that she is) expresses longing for fleshy 1960s heroines such as Tina Turner and Janis Joplin.

Once again, Paglia's arguments have smart, progressive people up in arms. I hate to join the fray running around trying to swat this fly.

Like Pastor Terry Jones, Paglia was an isolated figure who gained influence because her provocations complemented anxieties that were reaching a fever pitch when she emerged. In Paglia's case, feminism, not Islam, was the looming threat; her writing has sought to return gender relations to what she sees as a natural order. Her prose style is bloody and lurid and sometimes effectively comical, like a Rob Zombie-directed horror movie; it's hard to turn away.

But her assertions -- some of the bigger ones back in the day were that men were dogs, that women ruled  them by firing up their libidos; that feminists were a bunch of "sob sisters" to suggest that heterosexual relationships might reflect the larger realities of patriarchal powers; oh, and that the great feminist journalist Susan Faludi looked like a puppy dog -- basically sounded like reheated bohemian machismo, Henry Miller and Norman Mailer on a beer binge.