Backstage Pass

Speculation about Jay-Z's opening night at Barclays Center began as soon as the show was announced.

How star-studded an affair would it be to celebrate the opening of a $1 billion arena only a few subway stops away from the Marcy projects where he grew up? Would his wife Beyoncé be pressed into duty? How about his friends, the ones so famous they only need one name — Kanye, Rihanna, Mary J.?...

Rihanna has a lot of faith in her new single “Diamonds” (Def Jam), naming her upcoming world tour after it and launching her upcoming seventh album with it.

It’s kind of a risk, considering the midtempo “Diamonds” doesn’t initially sound like a hit-you-over-the-head smash. That doesn’t mean it won’t be a massive hit, though, considering her track record and especially since its lyrics seem...

Jay-Z christens the Barclays Center in Brooklyn with the first of eight shows starting Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Intro brings you the week’s hottest videos and shows every Monday. To catch up on all the Intros and watch classic Long Island music scene videos, check out Newsday Music’s YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/newsdaymusic.

THE LIST JAY-Z, “Brooklyn.” At Barclays...

Greg Dulli took his job as curator for I'll Be Your Mirror -- the first New York installment of All Tomorrow's Parties -- quite seriously and it showed.

Day Two of the event, which the Afghan Whigs frontman planned, reflected not only his no-nonsense style, but also his style of music, a complicated mixture of soul, dance music, punk and the genre he and his band helped pioneer, indie rock.

The...

    Frank Ocean walked onstage at Pier 36 in Manhattan early this morning, without any fanfare beyond audience screams of recognition, and went about his business of reshaping R&B.     One of the year's breakout stars, Ocean may still be best known by many for his revelation in July that he had been in love with a man. But that designation is changing with the release...

Um, this will probably break the Internets this afternoon.

Yes, here are the lads of One Direction in their new video "Live While We're Young," which kind of looks like a Target commercial as they cavort in a swimming pool and roll around in those huge plastic balls that used to be the domain of only Peter Gabriel and the Flaming Lips.

"Live While We're Young" is...

    Do you want to watch Aimee Mann do a shot-by-shot remake of the Til Tuesday video “Voices Carry” for her new song “Labrador”?     How about if it features Jon Hamm as the sleazy video director behind the idea? Throw in Superchunk's Jon Wurster as “Denny Rock” – “a young Brando, mixed with a young Redford,” Hamm says – playing the controlling boyfriend from the original...

On the heels of her fine new album released today, Pink has announced “The Truth About Love Tour,” which stops at Nassau Coliseum on March 25.

Her first national tour in four years launches on Feb. 13 in Phoenix and the pre-sale starts at 10 a.m. Sept. 25 through Citi's Private Pass program. The general sale for the Nassau show starts Oct. 6.

“I'm still crazy,” Pink said on the “Today”...

Melanie Martinez, a 17-year-old singer from Baldwin, turned a lot of heads — and chairs — on “The Voice” last night, landing on Adam Levine's team.

Martinez, who also got to show off her photography, was impressive as she did a jazzy version of Britney Spears' “Toxic,” playing an acoustic guitar, as well as the tambourine with her feet.

“You're amazing,” Levine said, comparing her to...

The knock on “The Voice” (and “The X Factor,” for that matter) has been that it has yet to produce a breakout star as big as Kelly Clarkson or Carrie Underwood.

Could Cheesa be the one to change that?

The 22-year-old Honolulu native – a quarterfinalist on Team Cee Lo in the second season of “The Voice” – has launched her debut single before any of the finalists from her season and it...