Modern Music

Janet Jackson paid homage to her late brother, Michael Jackson, during a live show at Londons Royal Albert Hall on Thursday. While entertaining the crowd with a slew of her No. 1 hits, she surprised fans with a performance of their 1995 duet, “Scream.”

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Michaels image appeared behind his sister on a large screen while both of their vocals filled the arena.

“It feels great — just listening to and hearing his voice,” she told reporters regarding the show.

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You could say that it’s in Bobby Bridger’s blood.

As a distant descendant of celebrated mountain man and pioneer Jim Bridger, it seems inevitable that an artistically inclined fellow like Bridger would take an interest in preserving and reinterpreting the mythology of the American West.

For Bridger, a 66-year-old musician, author and painter, America’s first generations of pioneers really are worthy of Homeric mythos.

“The Battle of Troy is not as important to me as the Battle of Little Bighorn,” Bridger said. “And my Cyclops was the Transcontinental Railroad.”

Bridger will take up his guitar at 8 p.m.

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Brr. Its Cold in China.

A small piece of online video perfection birthed from the magical Chinese forest lands known as Youku.com spread around the internet today. The video features a scantily-clad unknown man from a Chinese university DESTROYING THE COURT. (I’m assuming this is a basketball court. I don’t have time.) Seriously though, this guy is raising hellcats and bringing everything on.

The fierce, jerky moves, air punches, and dance floor domination reminded us of another popular foreign performer who knows how to work a room. So which dancer do you think would win in a Hunter Games-style dance death match?

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Same site. Same weekend. Different event.

Electric Forest launches today on the same grounds where the Rothbury festival was held in 2008 and 2009. That event put a focus on rootsy, jam-based artists and musicians, and drew crowds of around 25,000-30,000 to the Double JJ Ranch in Rothbury, Mich., a rural town just north of Muskegon.

Electric Forest keeps one foot planted in the jam scene — top-notch noodlers String Cheese Incident will headline Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the fest — but also has a strong lineup of DJs and electronic artists, including Tiesto, Skrillex and Shpongle. In all, 70 artists are scheduled to perform over the long weekend.

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Near the beginning of his career, a mother told children’s entertainer Fred Penner about the death of her youngest child.

The five-year-old had suffered through a brain tumour and the mother wanted to thank Penner because, while the child was hospital bound, the family bonded over his music.

“I thought, ‘Oh boy — that’s what I have to look forward to,’” Penner says. “When you hear things like that, it gives your legacy a whole different perspective.”

As he enters his 40th year as a performer, looking nearly the same as he did at the start but for a silvered beard and coif, Penner retains a sense of integrity that seems increasingly rare in the entertainment industry.

“It’s not just a matter of getting up and singing a bunch of happy songs.

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