Contributor: Adam R. Holz

Fifteen-year-old Justin Bieber has graduated from YouTube wannabe to Usher-approved teenage phenom. Even the Mouse House would have been hard-pressed to do a better job guiding the young Canadian’s nascent career thus far.

Iyaz is the latest newcomer on the music scene to parlay local acclaim and online popularity into a mainstream presence, thanks in part to help from fellow pop-reggae crooner Sean Kingston.

This popular alt-metal trio’s latest hit is apparently a tongue-in-cheek track about environmentalism. But unless the band’s hanging around in your living room waiting to deconstruct it for you, good luck figuring it out on your own.

For a few moments early in this Canadian rapper’s first big hit, it seems romance might actually rule over rabid raunchiness. But … it doesn’t. Drake’s seemingly romantic sentiments, it turns out, are merely a prelude to dirty lyrical daydreaming.

For everyone who thought mindlessly shallow hedonism went out with skinny ties, pink polos and mullets in the ’80s, well, The Black Eyed Peas beg to differ.

Nostalgia may sell lots of movie tickets. But Will Ferrell’s nasty remake of a kids’ classic is waaayyyy more lost than its campy 1970s namesake.

The first No. 1 hit from this British R&B singer mingles sweet messages with some that are more suggestive—plus some obligatory nastiness from guest Lil Wayne.

Jason Aldean’s latest country chart-topper about a boy, his girl and his favorite farm implement would make John Deere proud.

He seriously antagonized the Vatican in ‘The Da Vinci Code.’ But now the Catholic Church needs the agnostic academic Robert Langdon to save it from decimation.

With help from Gossip Girl star Leighton Meester (who sings about half of this song) and American Idol judge Kara DioGuardi (who co-wrote and produced it), Cobra Starship has touched down on the singles chart and is burning up the radio airplay charts too.

The first single from the Black Eyed Peas’ latest album is an infectious, inane earworm that sports several s-words as well as some suggestive lyrics … and lots of booms and pows, of course.

If there’s one thing you need to know about Flo Rida, it could be boiled down to this: He loves to ogle and objectify women as they slither down stripper poles.

Until fairly recently, Nashville’s Kings of Leon was one of the biggest American bands in the world that most Americans had never heard of. After four albums, this alt-rock quartet draws Beatle-esque attention in England and Australia. Here in the good ol’ U.S. of A.? Not so much. But that may be changing.

Adele’s 2008 debut found the British neo-soul singer staking out time-honored musical territory that can be succinctly boiled down to two words: Love hurts.