TicketNetwork Blog

2012 may now be history, but there is still a little more to talk about before we leave it behind, such as finding out who were the most influential artists of 2012. Over the next month or so, I'll post opinions on the topic from artists, commentators, teachers, and others, with whom they thought were the best artists in a number of roles. This week we start with drummers.

You often hear a lot about singers and guitarists, but for most bands drummers are a crucial part. Their playing can really make a good song what it is, and their skill on the set can influence generations of drummers after them, just as guitarists can influence future guitarists. So, with that in mind, I set out to ask some folks who actually drum who they thought was the most influential drummer of 2012.

My first respondent was Adam Silverman. Since late 2011, Silverman has been the drummer for country artist Lauren Alaina, the runner-up on season 10 of American Idol. He also blogs at his site adamdrums.com. Silverman told me about the drummer for Jason Aldean, who Alaina toured with last year.

In case you're interested in the countdown, we'll have to wait three days, 11 hours, and 57 minutes. So worth it.

P.S. Shortly after, Destiny's Child announced they will be releasing a new single. And we all collectively hopped into a time machine and it was the year 2000.

So, we may have been teasing when we wrote that *NSYNC would be reuniting, but we’re completely serious when we say former *NSYNC front-man Justin Timberlake may be releasing a new single.

It started with a cryptic tweet Wednesday evening that simply read, "Thursday, January 10th, 2013, at 9:01 am PST…” but honestly, with fans so thirsty for new music from him, that’s all it took for crazy rumors to start swirling. We’ll have our answer in less than three hours, but Twitter may explode between now and then with excitement?

Although Timberlake began as a singer, first with several successful *NSYNC albums and then with a lucrative solo career, he’s taken a break from singing to try his hand at acting. He’s done hilarious skits on SNL (most famously a song involving a body part in a box), plus he’s starred in movies like "Friends with Benefits," "Bad Teacher," and "The Social Network" (as well as my all-time favorite Justin Timberlake film, Disney’s "Model Behavior").

In fact, it’s actually been almost six years since he released his last album FutureSex/LoveSounds, where he told us all he was bringing sexy back. (Jury’s still out on whether it needed to be brought back, but we appreciated the effort nonetheless.)

There's even been talk that this alleged new single might include an appearance from Jay-Z AND Beyonce, or be produced by Timbaland. Then again, it could just be that he's announcing what he's eating for breakfast. Who knows? As a not-so-secret boyband lover and pop music enthusiast (that sounds better than straight up calling myself lame, right?), I'm SO EXCITED. Justin Timberlake + music is pretty much all I ever wanted — and new music means a new album which means a new tour...

A few weeks ago, Tim suggested that I should do a blog post about the best Broadway songs. It sounded fun, so I agreed...and soon realized just how difficult the task would be. I ended up settling on my favorite Broadway soundtracks, so that I could cheat a little bit and include more awesome songs. Here's my list, in no particular order:

You probably heard the ruckus over Steven Tyler's rendition of the national anthem at the AFC Championship game on Sunday. He drew a lot of criticism and speculation that his performance may have been the worst in Star Spangled Banner history. So we decided to compile a list of memorable anthem performances, roughly in order from worst to best. Enjoy!