Britney Spears looked bleary and unprepared kicking off MTV Video Music Awards show with her new single, "Gimme More." The former pop princess walked through her dance moves with little enthusiasm. She appeared to have forgotten the art of lip-synching. And, perhaps most unforgivable given her once-taut frame, she looked embarrassingly out of shape.

Wirelessly Find and Buy Music at Starbucks.

Just weeks after Gwen Stefani covered up for a concert in Malaysia amid a furore over revealing outfits, singer Beyonce is facing similar calls. Beyonce is due to play Muslim-majority Malaysia in November.

Celebrating 100 years of musical tradition, Georgia Tech’s band will march in the 2008 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City. Band members will be raising money to support their trip throughout the next year.

Toni Braxton says she does not have breast cancer, despite published reports to the contrary. In an August 28 statement to Access Hollywood, the 39-year-old R & B singer said "There has been a rumor circulating that I have been diagnosed with breast cancer.

Keith Richards has demanded an apology from Swedish papers which criticized Rolling Stones' performance in the country earlier this month.

Performing in venues from churches to nightclubs, and collaborating with a variety of like-minded organizations, Juventas builds a new community for composers, musicians, and listeners

American Public Media, creator of distinctive, signature programs for public radio and one of media's most active champions of classical music, announced a special live broadcast of "The Last Night of the Proms" from the BBC Proms on Saturday, September 8, 2007.

Described as a ‘sacred trilogy’, Berlioz’s oratorio CD by London Orchestra L’enfance du Christ began as a short piece called Shepherds’ Farewell. It tells the story of the birth of Jesus and the journey of the Holy Family as they escape Bethlehem and head across Egypt to the city of Saïs. Unlike many of the composer’s more flamboyant works, it is an exquisite and gentle composition scored for relatively small forces.

The Mozart Effect, a 1997 theory by Don Campbell, states that listening to classical music, more specifically, music by Mozart, increases intelligence. Though results are often debated, research continues to support the idea. In 2005, students taking the SAT with prior coursework in music appreciation scored 60 points higher on the verbal and 39 points higher on the math portion of the test.

Apple® announced the debut of the John Lennon solo catalog on the iTunes® Store. Sixteen of Lennon's solo works from EMI Music are available for the first time on iTunes starting today, with the “Lennon Legend” and “Acoustic” collections making their worldwide digital debuts.

The Philadelphia Orchestra has added additional music downloads to its Online Music Store, www.thephiladelphiaorchestra.com. The newly added items are Philadelphia composer Jennifer Higdon’s Concerto for Orchestra and Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto Nos. 1 and 2 and his Cello Concerto No. 1.