In addition to her anthems that helped define the disco era, Summer also embodied the style from her long, flowing gowns to her platform shoes. But it was her hits like “Love to Love You, Baby,” “I Feel Love” and “Last Dance” that made her the legend she became, though she didn’t always readily accept the disco labels placed on her.

“I grew up on rock ‘n’ roll,” she said once, describing how she was uncomfortable with the “Queen of Disco” title. She also said later, “I like the Moody Blues, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones as well as Aretha Franklin, Dionne Warwick, the Supremes and Temptations. I didn’t know many white kids who didn’t know the Supremes; I don’t know many black kids who don’t know the Moody Blues.”

After Summer found success in the disco era of the late 1970s, she began to move toward a more straight ahead rock ‘n’ roll sound, and had some of her biggest later hits with “She Works Hard for the Money” and “Hot Stuff.”

Many have expressed their thought on Summer since the news of her passing, including President Obama who said, “Her voice was unforgettable, and the music industry has lost a legend far too soon. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Donna’s family and her dedicated fans.”

Elton John also talked about why Summer’s music still matters today.

“Her records sound as good today as they ever did,” he said. “That she has never been inducted into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame is a total disgrace especially when I see the second-rate talent that has been inducted. She is a great friend to me and to the Elton John AIDS Foundation and I will miss her greatly.”

The Irish Film and Television Network confirmed recently that the film, “All Is By My Side,” currently is in preproduction in Wicklow, Ireland, and that principal photography should start within three weeks in Wicklow and Dublin. The shoot is expected to last six weeks.

The film will focus on the guitar legends life from 1966-1967, beginning when Hendrix is discovered by Rolling Stones’ guitarist Keith Richards’ then-girlfriend Linda Keith. The movie is expected to cover Hendrix’s career though the making of his debut album, Are You Experienced?

John Ridley is set to write and direct the film. Ridley is previously best known as the writer of 1997’s “U Turn” and 1999’s “Three Kings.”

Throughout the history of the rumored project, it has been held up by objections by the Experience Hendrix estate. Last summer it was reported that Hendrix’s estate had stopped production altogether. No new information has been released to reveal why the project is now going forward.

Though Benjamin is more widely known for his musical projects – and particularly as one-half of Atlanta rap duo Outkast – he has appeared as an actor in several movies throughout his career. He has appeared in “Semi-Pro,” “Idlewild” and “Four Brothers.” He also appeared in the FX television show “The Shield.” Benjamin has not issued in statements about his involvement at this time.

MTV News senior writer Gil Kaufman had the following to say about Benjamin’s upcoming role.

“Considering his just-passable acting in ‘Idlewild,’ the jury’s still out on whether Andre can carry a movie on his own. But given his virtual retirement from music since that movie’s release – “Semi-Pro” was a step in the right direction – and word that he’s been taking acting lessons, the Hendrix movie could do for him what ‘Dreamgirls’ did for Jennifer Hudson.”

But for the privilege, the show had to pay heavily – spending somewhere around $250,000 to license the song that played at the end of the episode. Typically, it will cost around $100,000 to license a popular song.

Series creator Matthew Weiner spoke recently to the New York Times about why he wanted to license a song from the Beatles, and how he finally got clearances from the group’s company to do so.

“It was always my feeling that the show lacked a certain authenticity because we never could have an actual master recording of the Beatles performing,” Weiner told the newspaper. “Not just someone singing their song or a version of their song, but them doing a song in the show. It always felt like a flaw. Because they are the band, probably, of the 20^th Century.”

Weiner said he had been trying for some time to license a Beatles song, and had been unsuccessful up to this point. He then explained a bit of how he secured the rights to the song this time.

“I had to do a couple things that I don’t like doing,” he said in the same New York Times interview, “which is to share my storyline and share my pages.”

Interestingly, the episode that featured the song is known as “Lady Lazarus,” and also featured a storyline about attempting to license Beatles songs for television.

The show will be produced by “American Idol” producer Nigel Lythgoe, and will gather the talent that will appear on the show from the internet. Lythgoe has established a team including Mary J. Blige, “Rock Mafia” producer Antonina Armato and himself that will scour the internet for random videos of unknown stars and will give the best ones a chance to open for an established star.

And he’s established quite a lineup of stars that the winners of the competition will open for. Some that have been announced so far include Nicki Minaj, Rod Stewart, LMFAO, Brad Paisley, Gym Class Heroes, Jason Mraz and Jason Aldean, with more expected to be announced later.

Lythgoe spoke to both the New York Daily News and the E! network in further detail about the show.

“There is an extraordinary amount of untapped talent out there,” he told the NY Daily News. “But if you don’t know the right people or have the right connections, you may never be discovered. With ‘Opening Act,’ we are democratizing a notoriously impossible process.”

In his interview with E!, he got into the specifics of how the show will work.

“What we’re doing is looking down through the Web, the artists that have placed themselves on the Web… and we’re going to say, ‘Listen, you’re very good on the Web in your bedroom, in your front room, but in five days’ time, you’re actually opening for Nicki Minaj.”

Though this process will undoubtedly place loads of pressure on the inexperienced artists, Lythgoe says they’ve taken that into account, as well.

“These kids that have never done anything in their lives, never actually performed in front of anybody, have got five days to get themselves ready,” he continued to E! “We’ve got an artist development team that will help them, but it’s going to be very exciting.”

A representative of the two surviving members, Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins and Rozanda “Chilli” Thomas announced yesterday that the group will tour for the first time in nearly a decade. But the most notable part of the announcement was that Lopes would be joining the tour.

Left Eye’s voice will be incorporated into the songs performed on the tour, while her image will be projected on a big screen on the stage. So far, it has been announced that five dates are booked for the tour, though no other details about those dates have yet been revealed. The representative also did not say if other dates are likely to be added in the future.

The announcement comes exactly ten years to the day after Lopes was killed in a car accident in Honduras. She was filming a documentary for VH1 at the time. The documentary was later released under the title “The Last Days of Left Eye.”

The news comes just weeks after Coachella fans were surprised to be greeted by a hologram of the late rapper Tupac Shakur during a performance by Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg. An image of the rapper was created by the companies AV Concepts and Digital Domain, and featured Tupac rapping and moving around the stage.

TLC was in the middle of recording their fourth album at the time of Lopes’ death. The surviving members finished the record and released it as 3D in October 2002. The next year, the group performed their final concert during the Zootopia event presented by New York Radio Station Z100. The performance featured a tribute to Lopes and was witnessed by 60,000 fans.

The new documentary will premiere at New York’s Ziegfeld Theater on May 6, and will be shown at limited-engagement screenings in theaters around the country May 17 and May 22.

The concert was filmed on February 11, 1964 at the Washington, D.C. Coliseum. The facility was over capacity, and 8,092 fans of the Fab Four were on hand to witness the group’s premiere live American performance. John, Paul, George and Ringo had made their legendary first appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show” two nights prior to the concert.

The set by the Beatles at the concert consisted of 12 songs and lasted just over half an hour. The band performed hits including “She Loves You” and “Twist and Shout.”

The film of the performance was originally shown in theaters on a closed-circuit system a month after the concert, but had later been lost. When the footage was recently found, it was restored and remastered.

Along with the concert performance, the documentary also includes interviews with Chuck Berry, concert promoter Sid Bernstein, Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler and Joe Perry and George Harrison’s sister Louise, among others. The total running time of the film is 92 minutes.

Sky News recently spoke to a member of British boy band One Direction about how the early days of the Beatles were similar to the fandom now surrounding One Direction.

“We did watch the Beatles’ movie ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ recently,’” One Direction member Liam Payne told the network, “and it was funny to see things they did that are similar to us.”

During interviews in the documentary, the Beatles are discussed by some of the most famous young artists working today. Duffy calls them “the Holy Grail of Music,” while producer Mark Ronson may best sum up the band.

“You’re always going to be standing in the shadow of the Beatles,” he said.

According to Reuters, British media and fansites have quoted a statement that the Irish singer-songwriter is calling off her North American tour plans “with enormous regret” because she is “very unwell due to bipolar disorder.”

It is also reported that though she had a “very serious breakdown” between December and March, O’Connor ignored doctors warnings not to go on tour because she wanted to keep her commitments.

“So very stupidly I ignored his advice to my great detriment, attempting to be stronger than I actually am,” she said in the statement. “I apologize sincerely for any difficulties this may cause.”

The singer has had an eventful past few months, most notably with the release of a new album, How About I Be Me (And You Be You)?, in March. She also ended a 16-day marriage in December, but then shortly afterwards announced that the relationship was back on.

How About I Be Me (And You Be You)? Was released in March, and is O’Connor’s ninth solo album. The first single from the record, “The Wolf is Getting Married,” was released in February.

O’Connor released her first album, The Lion and the Cobra, in 1987, and received worldwide recognition with the release of her second album, I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got. The latter album was released in 1990 and contains her most famous single to date, a cover of Prince’s “Nothing Compares 2 U.”

The album won the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Performance, though O’Connor refused to accept the nomination or the award. Since its release, the album has sold more than 2 million copies in the United States alone.

Though O’Connor has cancelled all dates for her tour, she has announced that she still hopes to appear at a Curtis Mayfield tribute concert which will be held at the Lincoln Center in July.

Additionally, within hours of the takedown of megaupload.com, the internet “hacktivist” group Anonymous claimed responsibility for attacking and temporarily shutting down websites for the Department of Justice, the FBI, the Recording Industry of America, The Motion Picture Association of America, BMI, Warner Music Group and – the largest record label in the world – Universal Music Group. As of press time, all sites except Universal were back up and running. A spokesman for Anonymous said the takedowns were the largest attack in the history of the group.

A version of Megaupload.com is currently on a server at the address http://109.236.83.66 and does not have a domain name. According to ABC News, a search of the website www.urlquery.net indicates that the server currently is based in the Netherlands.

The Department of Justice claims that the takedown was not associated with web protests of the SOPA and PIPA acts that took place on Wednesday as sites like Wikipedia and Reddit removed all content to display opposition to the bills. Those protests ended just hours before the takedown commenced. It was announced Friday that both those bills have been taken off the respective calendars of the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate for revisions.

Website rt.com posted comments Friday from Barrett Brown, speaking as a spokesperson for Anonymous.

“Obviously, this couldn’t have come at a worse time in terms of the government’s standpoint,” he told the site. “It [the web attacks against the sites that were shut down] was in retaliation for Megaupload.”

Brown also commented on how these attacks could occur again, and possibly be more widespread, if SOPA was passed.

“If this is what can occur without SOPA being passed,” he said, “imagine what can occur after SOPA is passed. “

EMI Publishing filed a copyright infringement suit against Escape Media Group in New York Supreme Court on Wednesday, according to a report by the New York Times. In the suit, EMI claims that Escape Media Group has “made not a single royalty payment to EMI, nor provided a single accounting statement.” Though the actual amount EMI was singing was not revealed, the New York Times article reports the number is probably at least $150,000. Grooveshark responded in a statement that, “This is a contract dispute that we expect to resolve.”

An irony of the case is that EMI is the only one of the four record major labels that has reached a licensing deal with Grooveshark. The two companies entered an agreement in 2009 following another copyright infringement case.

Unlike other popular music streaming subscription services like Spotify and Rhaspody that are fully licensed by the major labels, Grooveshark instead seeks protection of its content under the Digital Music Copyright Act (DMCA). That act protects sites posting copyrighted digital material as long as the site complies with take-down notices. Grooveshark is also different from the other sites since its content is posted by users. It is likely that, if passed, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and PROTECT IP bills currently making their way through U.S. Congress will have an affect on Grooveshark, as well.

Universal Music Group filed a suit against Grooveshark late last year, and Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group joined the suit soon after. All judgments likely will affect future interpretation of the DMCA, an ever evolving and changing protective act for websites.

In November of last year, it was announced that EMI would be split into a publishing division and a record label division, and that the two would be bought by Sony Corporation and Universal Music Group, respectively. However, both of these sales have to first be approved by government regulators.

Born Dwight Arrington Myers, Heavy D had been in London for about six weeks, and returned to his home in Los Angeles about a week before he died. Though his death was initially thought to be a result of complications from pneumonia, this has since been ruled out with the new announcement, as has any connection with drugs. Cough syrup was found in his system, but the coroner has ruled it did not play a part in the death. At 344 pounds, the 44-year-old’s weight also likely played a role in the death, as obesity and air travel are known to be common causes of thrombosis.

Heavy D came to prominence in the late 1980s and throughout the 90s as the leader of Heavy D & the Boyz, a hip-hop group that released five top 40 albums in the United States. Heavy D later became a record label president and was integral in helping the careers of Mary J. Blige and Sean “Puff Daddy” Combs, among others. In October of this year, he returned to the stage after a 15-year hiatus from live performing during the BET Hip-Hop Awards. It was also his final performance.