Blog Posts by Nicole Cifani

It's that time of year again when we get to count down the best musical content of the past twelve months! 2012 offered many video goodies from new artists like PSY to established singers like Taylor Swift; from colorful creatures like Nicki Minaj to the demure songstress Lana Del Rey. Below, the top ten songs of the year that not only rocked but had outstanding visual merit to boot!

10.) Matt & Kim - Let's Go

Matt & Kim upped the nostalgia factor on the second version of their video for the single "Let's Go" (the first version was a viral vid featuring basketball trick-dribble virtuoso Pat The Roc).  The duo incorporated a crushing 80's style Sears family portrait studio with an assortment of characters -- including the band members themselves!

9.) Calvin Harris ft. Florence Welch - Sweet Nothing

Florence Welch of Florence and the Machine stars in this video from electro-pop star Calvin Harris. She rocks a pompadour and tailor-made tuxedo while performing at the Working Men's

"Make It Stop (September's Children)" is the latest video from rockers Rise Against, and it comes loaded with a powerful message. The video serves as a poignant anti-bullying message that speaks to members of the lesbian, gay, bi, and transgendered youth community, spreading the message that "It Gets Better."

The band performs in a darkened gymnasium while we see several instances of bullying happening around the school. In the last minute or so, we hear encouraging messages from real people who have been harassed in the past or understand what the victims are going through.

Watch the Video:

Visit the It Gets Better project, supporting LGBT youth: http://www.itgetsbetter.org

Follow Me:

Follow Yahoo! Music:

Launching today, Play by Yahoo! Music is an all-in-one music player for Android phones. The native mobile MP3 player provides a home base for your music files while taking your on-the-go listening experience to a whole new level.

The player offers users a wealth of cool new features like song identification, smart shuffling, social sharing, along with a steady stream of music news.

The player seamlessly integrates with your music library to automatically sort songs by album and artist. It also creates smart playlists and fills in any missing cover art. While listening, Play integrates with Yahoo! Music news so you can see the latest news about the artists you're checking out.

When it comes to social integration, the app scrobbles your listening history to the music discovery site Last.fm. It also makes it super easy to send status updates about the music you're listening to using Twitter, Facebook, email, text, and a host of other applications native to Android.

Unlike iTunes,

Last week, Disney released the fourth installment of the wildly-successful Pirates of the Caribbean film series, On Stranger Tides. The film stars Johnny Depp as the inimitable Captain Jack Sparrow, Penelope Cruz as pirate Angelica Maron, Geoffrey Rush as Barbossa, and Ian McShane as Blackbeard.

In addition to an energized cast lineup, Disney envisioned a score for their fourth outing at sea to take a fresh and inventive approach.

Enter Hans Zimmer, one of the film industry's most sought-after composers. His impressive career has encompassed more than 100 film and TV scores, winning an Academy Award for his work on The Lion King along with Oscar nods for Inception, Gladiator, and Sherlock Holmes.  He's also won two Golden Globes and three Grammys.

Zimmer invited acclaimed guitar duo Rodrigo y Gabriela to his studio to lay down some tracks for this film. The two are considered to be one of the premiere guitar-playing duos in the world. They've sold over a million albums and have

In 1986 there wasn't much to do in the town of Little Rock, Arkansas. Out of boredom with their scene and armed with an intense interest in what was happening musically in the rest of the country, a group of local kids got together to create music.

The result sounded like nothing they'd ever heard before, and created a spark that ignited a powerful underground scene in the unlikely conservative southern town. 

The scene rapidly grew over the next two decades and reverberated through the country, contributing to genres like punk, rockabilly, indie rock, and beyond.

The documentary Towncraft provides an intimate view of the folks who came together to build their music scene from the ground-up. It's an excellent illustration of how DIY culture can happen through efforts like handmade 'zines, home recordings, bootleg shows, and good old-fashioned word of mouth.

The film and soundtrack features Ian Mackaye from Fugazi, Jason White from Green Day, Ben Nichols from Lucero, members of

Dance music impresario Martin Solveig released the third episode of "Smash" on Friday, the high-budget, ongoing video series leading up to the release of his new album by the same name.

The series is a clever way of creating cool videos while simultaneously letting fans preview music from the release. Each episode is a minimovie meets music video, sometimes nearly 10 minutes in length. The storyline features Solveig alongside the dapperly-dressed fictional 'manageur' LaFaille as they devise elaborate hijinks to expose Martin's music to the masses.

The premiere episode accompanied the hit single "Hello" and was shot in front of a live audience at the Roland Garros tennis world championships in France.

In the most recent episode, LaFaille imagines a stadium-sized stunt to grab the world's attention. Taking over the Stade de France - France's biggest and most prestigious football stadium - the crew shot the final, over-the-top scene in one take at the France vs. Croatia friendly on

Following in the footsteps of Trent Reznor and Daft Punk, British electronic duo The Chemical Brothers are next in line to lend their golden touch to the silver screen.

Out this weekend, Hanna tells the story of a young girl raised in the wilds of Finland with a very unusual childhood. While most kids enjoy things like sports or video games, Hanna was trained to be the perfect assassin by her ex-CIA father. As she gets older, she's sent into civilization for the first time on a top-secret mission where we see her show off her skills to the fullest.

The Chems are a great fit for the action-packed flick featuring Saoirse Ronan, Eric Bana, Cate Blanchett, Tom Hollander and Olivia Williams. With energy reminiscent of Run Lola Run, we follow Hanna across Europe as she eludes secret agents and faces revelations about her life during a turning point in her adolescence.

The Soundtrack is available now, and the film is due April 8.

Hanna (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) - The Chemical

The Washington D.C.-based band Bluebrain are the first to create a site-specific album that responds directly to listener location.

Taking cues from The National Mall in downtown D.C., the album syncs songs and melodies to a listener's location as they travel to various zones within the Mall.  

The album will be delivered as an iPhone app and works by tracking a users location via the phone's built-in GPS feature. Hundreds of zones within the Mall are tagged, and the sound plays according to where the listener is located in proximity to them.

The zones overlap presenting standalone melodies, rhythms, instrumentation and pace specifically designed for each.

Separated from cultural and historical reference, the album pushes the boundaries of deconstruction not only in song but in the way a very album can be produced and presented.

The National Mall is the first in a series. Upcoming works include audio designs for Prospect Park in Brooklyn, New York, and a piece that will stretch the