Kelly Abandons Rock and Goes Back to Pop: Clarkson was never meant to rock out and she knows it. Kelly is working with songwriter and producer Ryan Tedder, the lead singer of OneRepublic according to Spy Digital. Tedder, says that Clarkson’s new songs will feature “big choruses” and “heavy drum programming”. He also revealed that the songs are influenced by nineties electro-rockers Garbage, while one song, a mid-tempo rock ballad, features an experimental bridge inspired by Mozart. Kelly can’t afford to make mistakes on this record.

Live Nation Takes Over the Jersey Shore: The concert promoter, Live Nation will book Asbury Park’s three best-known music venues including the 1,600-seat landmark Paramount Theatre, the 3,600-seat Convention Hall and the 850-capacity Stone Pony.

A Jagged Relationship: Sources say that Alanis Morissette has had a strained relationship with her label, even though “Jagged Little Pill” is one of the best-selling CDs in Warner’s history. Fox’s Roger Friedman says it took negotiation and persuasion for WMG to agree to release her new album, “Flavors of Entanglement.” They actually said no and rejected it says Friedman. The air has cleared and Warner will plan on releasing Flavors May 20th.

Madonna’s Jagged Visit at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: Friedman also commented on Madonna’s recent visit at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame when she picked up her award. “Of course she couldn’t participate in the big jam session finale with actual musicians like John Fogerty, John Mellencamp, Billy Joel and Joan Jett”. During her speech she left out all the important people who made her career by giving her #1 songs including Reggie Lucas who wrote ‘Borderline’, Stephen Bray who wrote the killer dance songs ‘Into the Groove’,’Express Yourself’ and ‘Causing a Commotion’, Tom Kelly and Billy Sternberg (Like a Virgin), and Peter Brown and Robert Rans who wrote the legendary song ‘Material Girl’.

R.E.M. Thinks Outside the Box: R.E.M. will debut their new album on the iLike internet application used on social networking site Facebook. They will release ‘Accelerate’ as a stream available for sharing on March 24 – a week before the album hits shop shelves. They are the first major music act to debut a full album using the iLike application – a widget used widely on Facebook. Frontman Michael Stipe told Billboard that the band made the decision to debut their 14th studio album online because the music industry has changed — Oh! yes it has Mike, yes it has!

Spitzocritical: N.Y. Governor Eliot Spitzer resigned today. Spitzer was obsessed with the music biz particularly for its practices for influencing what songs are heard on the public airwaves.

Signings: New York’s alternative pop artist Charlotte Sometimes signs to Interscope. This is a hit or miss, meaning you will either like it or find her annoying. I’m not personally a fan, but then again I wasn’t a fan of Fiona Apple. I would be interested to see a video for the track
‘How I Could Just Kill A Man‘, maybe it would change my mind.

New Music: Check out the indie pop act Farewell Flight who hails from Pennsylvania. Listen to the track Begin Again. This doesn’t stray to far from Death Cab.