2011 will be a great year for fans of Taylor Swift and her music, I have the feeling—as every year since, say, 2008 has been. She’ll keep releasing singles off of her album, so that anyone who hasn’t torrented or bought the full "Speak Now" can join the speculation as to whether that’s what Joe Jonas, John Mayer and Taylor Lautner are really like. She’ll tour and perform, and probably Us Weekly will catch Jake Gyllenhaal with her at Starbuckses across the continental U.S. and Canada. Probably she will perform at awards shows.

2011 will be a dire one for fans (fan?) of Lindsay Lohan and her music. [...]

"The same-sex version of Taylor Swift's You Belong With Me, made by students at the University of Rocheseter, NY." [sic throughout.]

Because nothing makes popular music more fun than typing alongside friends, it's time to do that "liveblogging" thing in honor of the 2010 American Music Awards, which celebrate the most popular of the most popular music that this country has to offer, complete with the sort of pomp that only the most craven enterprises can possess. Join me after the jump for the Black Eyed Peas, Christina Aguilera, Katy (sigh) Perry, the results of allowing 13-year-olds to vote (online) (for their favorite male pop stars), and OMG NEW KIDS AND BACKSTREET BOYS TOGETHER!!

Here you will find a thoughtful and diverting discussion on the particular genre of pop music single known as the girl-vs.-girl song.

Kanye West has made it official: The Twitter-happy MC will return to the Video Music Awards in a semi-official capacity next month, when MTV's pioneering effort in making the world's media pay close attention to things that are completely made up celebrates its 27th anniversary in Los Angeles. West, of course, spawned global outrage (and hundreds of thousands of super-hacky jokes) when he rushed the stage during an acceptance speech by Taylor Swift during last year's broadcast, an incident that I'm still not sure wasn't entirely planned, executed, and disseminated for the purposes of MTV attracting eyeballs to what was shaping up to be a pretty lackluster show. [...]