Rumors have circulated that Madonna, recording artist, will sing with M.I.A. at the Super Bowl. Nicki Minaj is also implicated. Both artists have had success, but can either bring back the monoculture? Leaving the fleeting sensation of a Lynn Hirschberg truffle-fry ambush aside, if M.I.A. were interviewed by Barbara Walters, who would care? Neither M.I.A., a self-consciously “edgy” singer of extraordinary gifts of curation, nor Nicki Minaj, a self-consciously outré rapper of extraordinary gifts full-stop, have cultivated personae beyond “hardworking,” “talented,” and (in M.I.A.’s case) “prone to ignorable political pronouncements.” It’ll be a good show, but no one should expect an iconic moment on par with Madonna heaving in a wedding gown or re-enacting Versailles to the tune of “Vogue.” Having marketable personality upon which to hang a moment is, now, left to those “famous-for-being-famous.” READ MORE

Now about to tour Europe, the band Throwing Muses was formed thirty years ago now, long before any of the kids today were born. Over the last week, they played again, coming up the east coast. Now, I'm biased, because they've been my favorite band since I was a kid, but it's sort of amazing to go to a rock show and discover that your favorite band from Ye Olden Times is actually the most bad-ass rock 'n' roll trio playing today. READ MORE

"Are 18- to 34-year-olds too young to be nostalgic? Evidently not. Starting next Monday, TeenNick, part of the Nickelodeon family of cable channels for children, will start rebroadcasting old series from the 1990s that are considered classics by young adults. That’s right: classics from the 1990s." READ MORE

The sunny, retro stylings of critical darlings Best Coast have not totally grabbed me yet. Not that I particularly dislike them, but, for instance, I would enjoy this song more if it were a cover of Madonna's greatest ballad. But, interestingly, they're premiering their new video on the LOLcats mothership, I Can Haz Cheezburger (which yes, just raised $30 million). Here's the Madonna video. READ MORE

This robot playing "Mary Had a Little Lamb" on the piano looks kind of wack compared to hep cats like Shimon, the head-bobbing marimba player, or the avant-garde improv trio Three Sirens, or Toyota's incredibly tight four-piece band. (Not even to mention Daft Punk, or Herbie Hancock.) But it's actually pretty cool, because it can read and play a musical score on the spot. READ MORE

Did you know you needed to hear a mashup of "Running Up That Hill" and "Sign o' the Times"? (Historians of the 80s will know, of course, that Kate Bush is Prince's "favorite woman," and will already have both their collaborations, "My Computer" and "Why Should I Love You?") (via, via)

Cooking the Books, with your host Ms. Emily Gould, was shot and edited by Val Temple. This week's guest, Bennett Madison, is the author of The Blonde of the Joke, which is about "skanky teen shoplifters searching for the Holy Grail at a dying suburban shopping mall." Seriously, it is!

Stephen Metcalf on Morrissey and the 80s: "I think the word that best captures the times is heartless, as evident in the stupid rictus of Sting's face, circa 1983, as it was in Margaret Thatcher's budget cuts. No wonder Morrissey's voice sounded so fresh, so slyly subversive. As much as he publicly avowed a hatred of Thatcher, culminating in 'Margaret at the Guillotine,' it was Thatcherism that made Morrissey. The Iron Lady represented a hardness of purpose, a pitilessness that would allow England once again to produce winners. But also, inevitably, losers. And here is the source of Morrissey's originality."