The songwriters behind smash hits from Katy Perry, Bruno Mars, Britney Spears and Beyonce discuss how they wrote the hits at a roundtable event.

It came as a bit of a surprise to see the line of eager last-minute ticket buyers and attendees stretching down the block outside West Hollywood’s Key Club on Saturday. Although Cee Lo Green, Seal and the Neptunes’ Chad Hugo were inside, they weren’t performing. Instead, they were talking songwriting along with lesser-known, behind-the-scenes hit authors Bonnie McKee, BC Jean and Claude Kelly during BMI’s How I Wrote That Song panel.

The writers behind the sticky hooks and melodies that reigned in pop and R&B sat down with Grammy-winning producer Dallas Austin and BMI Vice President Catherine Brewton for an in-depth discussion on the particulars of their respective hits.

 
A night of full of upsets and other surprises started early with Grammy voters’ verdict in the pop collaboration with vocals category. In a field featuring tracks that teamed superstar combinations of Eminem, B.o.B. and Hayley Williams; Elton John and Leon Russell; Lady Gaga and Beyoncé; and Katy Perry and Snoop Dogg, the Grammy went to … Herbie Hancock.

Now, we know how much the Grammys love Herbie, most illustriously when he took the 2008 album of the year award for "River: The Joni Mitchell Letters” album of the celebrated singer-songwriter's music. This time, he trumped the pop, rock, rap and R&B heavy hitters with his version of John Lennon's "Imagine,” from his "The Imagine Project" collection, for which he was joined on the Grammy-winning track by Pink, India.Arie and a group of international friends.

The award also delivered yet another example of the Grammy night adage: Never underestimate the power of a Beatle.

The music industry's love affair with the Beatles surfaced two other times Sunday, with awards to Paul McCartney for solo rock vocal for his rendition of the Beatles' "Helter Skelter" from his “Good Evening New York City” live album, and the award for historical album for "The Beatles in Stereo," the 16-disc box set that packaged stereo versions of all the Fab Four's original studio albums.

-- Randy Lewis

Photo of Herbie Hancock at the Grammy Awards on Sunday. Credit: Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times.

Katy Perry’s much-hyped Facebook announcement is what was expected: She's gearing up to hit the road this summer.

The multiple Grammy nominee took to “Facebook Live,” the official streaming channel for the social network site, at their Palo Alto headquarters to announce her upcoming “California Dreams 2011” world tour Wednesday afternoon.

For openers, Perry said she will be joined by Robyn as well as Marina and the Diamonds on select dates in the U.S., and Yelle and Calvin Harris will support her on the U.K. leg of the trek, which will draw on material from her hit-filled sophomore disc, "Teenage Dream."

“It’s going to be super girl power. If you come to the tour, you’ll probably start menstruating,” she joked on the webcast. “It’s going to be amazing. I really believe in this tour.”

The 41-city North American leg of the tour launches Jun. 7 in Atlanta and wraps in August with a pair of dates in Perry’s hometown, Santa Barbara.

She said she plans on interacting with fans through social media networks throughout the tour. Using Facebook Places/Deals, fans will be able to check into the venues each night in a bid to score meet-and-greet access to the singer.  They will also be able to submit their own photos of the show via Twitter, which will be incorporated into the live show and also live on her website. 

Her tour will make a stop in Los Angeles on Aug. 5 when she will play the Nokia Theatre in L.A. Live. Presale tickets for the show go on sale on Friday with information on her website.

Check out the dates after the jump.

The 53rd annual Grammy Awards telecast, to take place on Feb. 13 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, will feature a well-rounded collection of sounds and styles, at least based on the initial list of performers. 

Announced Thursday morning, the musicians range from the sturdy country sounds of Miranda Lambert to the grand rock 'n' roll of the Quebecois band Arcade Fire (both of whom will make their Grammy performance debuts), from the king of the two-word profanity, Cee Lo Green, to the reigning Queen of Pomp and Pop, Lady Gaga. Rounding out the list of heavy-hitters will be Detroit rapper Eminem, whose 10 nominations lead the pack, and Katy Perry, who will no doubt be competing with Gaga in the unofficial "most buzzworthy costume" category.  

Keep checking back with Pop & Hiss in the weeks leading up to the award ceremony. We'll be updating the performance list as news arrives, and will be highlighting nominees in some of the lesser-known categories, those whose contributions to the music world in 2010 were every bit as inspired as those who'll be taking center stage.

-- Randall Roberts

Photo: Cee Lo Green performs as part of Gnarls Barkley at the 2007 Grammy Awards. Credit: Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times

With its long-running “Divas” concert franchise, VH1 has over the years managed to snag an impressive array of female powerhouse vocalists, including veterans such as Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey and younger divas Beyoncé, Kelly Clarkson and Miley Cyrus.

Dubbed “VH1 Divas: Salute the Troops,” this year's special will feature performances from Katy Perry, Nicki Minaj, Sugarland and Keri Hilson –- all of whom are scheduled to tape the event in front of military personnel at the Marine Corps Air Station Miramar near San Diego.

Paramore will visit Marines, soldiers, airmen, sailors, members of the Coast Guards and reservists stationed at an undisclosed military base in the Middle East. The band’s performance will be broadcast via satellite.

“VH1 Divas: Salute the Troops” will be broadcasat Dec. 5 and will also be shown internationally on the American Forces Network.

-- Gerrick D. Kennedy

twitter.com/gerrickkennedy

Photo: Katy Perry performs at the 51st Annual Grammy Awards at Staples Center in Los Angeles in 2009. Credit: Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times

Katy Perry signs the liner note acknowledgements on “Teenage Dream,” her second major label album and first as a certified superstar, “Love, the new & improved Katy Hudson-Perry-Brand.” If you didn’t know about her fiancé, Russell B., or the actress with her given name who beat her to fame, you might think the singer was referring to herself as a salable item. Something, perhaps, like Maybelline mascara in its familiar pink and green tube — a commodity so definitive in its category that it starts to seem original. 

Perry likely wouldn’t mind being compared to a feminine product. “I love an obvious innuendo,” she once told an interviewer. She also loves the God-given gift of her lovely breasts and the bad-girl business of rock and roll, which she approaches the way the ad men on “Mad Men” approach cigarettes and cold cream. How to capture its spirit and sell it? How to make it seem new, yet unthreatening to an average boy or girl? Bury the dark side, scrub the dirty parts with Ivory and insist, as Don Draper would, that it’s something your audience has never before encountered. That’s madcap Katy, both slap-your-face fresh and unapologetically calculated, a brutally effective advertisement for a self.

More than her Christian background or the chick-lit limits to her take on sexual liberation, what makes Perry a controversial artist is her essential hollowness. “Do you ever feel like a plastic bag drifting through the wind, wanting to start again?” she sings in the power ballad “Firework.” Perry felt like that bag, but then realized what a bag was for: to be filled up with shiny, purchasable things.

Though her lyrics generally recount familiar scenarios on the road to romantic fulfillment, Perry’s real subject is consumerism. From the bouncy-house Scandinavian beats provided her by super-producers Max Martin, Stargate and her mentor Dr. Luke to the childlike enthusiasm with which she embraces lyrical clichés to the vocal style that combines sports arena chants with karaoke croons to her Halloween store look, Perry is the living embodiment of what it means to be bought and sold.

The publishing company that control the rights to the Beach Boys’ 1966 hit “California Girls” isn’t suing Katy Perry and rapper Snoop Dogg over her recent, similarly minded chart-topper “California Gurls,” as has been reported in stories circulating on the Internet.

But Rondor Music International has sent a warning to Perry, Snoop — a.k.a. Calvin Broadus — and their co-writers and publishers arguing that Beach Boys founding members Brian Wilson and Mike Love should receive co-writing credits because Perry’s record lifts the phrase “I wish they all could be California girls” from the original record.

“Using the words or melody in a new song taken from an original work is not appropriate under any circumstances, particularly from one as well known and iconic as 'California Girls',” Rondor said in a statement issued Wednesday. “Rondor Music, who publishes the works of Brian Wilson and Mike Love, is committed to protecting the rights of its artists and songwriters, and with the support of the writers, that is exactly what we are doing.”

Wilson and Love each told The Times recently that they are fans of Perry’s song, which spent six weeks in the No. 1 slot on Billboard’s Hot 100 singles chart. In the version that includes a rap from Snoop Dogg, the Long Beach rapper speaks the line near the end of the record, the first single from her new album, "Teenage Dream," set for Aug. 24 release.

"The melody is infectious, and I'm flattered that Snoop Dogg used our lyric on the tag," Wilson said. In a separate interview, Love asked, “What’s not to like?”

Publishers, however, have different agendas than musicians, hence Rondor’s letter of notice to Perry’s camp. “We have established diminutive claim,” Rondor’s statement said. “It is up to the six writers and various publishers of ‘California Gurls’ to decide whether they honor the claim or not.”

-- Randy Lewis

Photo: Perry and Snoop Dogg at the MTV Movie Awards in June in Los Angeles. Credit: Mario Anzuoni / Reuters

The runaway hit single of the still-young summer of 2010 is Katy Perry's bubbly "California Gurls." More than just a bouncy ode to sun and fun in the Southland, it's something of a long-delayed female take on the same theme famously celebrated 45 years ago in the Beach Boys' "California Girls."

Perry bypasses the region-hopping comparisons that the Beach Boys founders Brian Wilson and Mike Love engaged in for their song, but both salute the ongoing appeal of the sight of beautiful women in bikinis on a beach near the surf.

So I put the question out to Wilson: What do you think of this variation on your theme, and are you flattered or infuriated by it?

"I love her vocal," the Beach Boys' creative mastermind said Monday through his manager. "She sounds very clear and energetic."

UPDATE on July 21 at 4:17 p.m.: Mike Love also has become a Perry fan.

“I think she’s really clever,” Love said Wednesday, reached at his hotel in Medford, Ore., where the Beach Boys were performing that night. “We have a lot in common now: We both have done songs called ‘California Girls’ and we’ve both kissed girls and liked it.”

Perry’s song, he said, “obviously brings to mind our ‘California Girls,’ it’s just in a different vernacular, a different way of appreciating the same things. The Beach Boys have always accentuated the positive, and hers is a positive message about California Girls, so what’s not to like?”

Wilson also liked the version that includes a guest rap by Snoop Dogg that makes a nod to the original.

"The melody is infectious, and I'm flattered that Snoop Dogg used our lyric on the tag," Wilson noted. "I wish them well with this cut."

Little wishing appears to be necessary. "California Gurls" just completed a run of six weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart and has sold more than 2.6 million copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan, with the vast majority being digital downloads.

Perry's musical homage has done so well that the obvious follow-up for the Santa Barbara-born singer might just have to be "Gud Vibrations."

-- Randy Lewis

Left photo: Brian Wilson poolside at his home in 2008: Credit: Karen Tapia-Andersen / Los Angeles Times

Right photo: Katy Perry and Snoop Dogg. Credit: Mario Anzuoni / Reuters

As a rule, I am generally in favor of the following: Board games and candy. So when the video for Katy Perry's summer pop confection "California Gurls" opened with a nod to vintage children's game Candy Land, there was reason to hope that the clip could elevate the ultra-shiny dance pop cut to something with a bit more camp value.

Alas, Candy Land is entirely dependent on the chance flip of a card, and there's something about this explosion of colors, sugar and flesh that ultimately rings a bit sour. It's not the parade of "buns," or Snoop Dogg's tossed-off rap, but rather the underlying sense that this California-boosting anthem plays out more like propaganda than a celebration. 

Championing our state's glitz, beach parties and fit bodies is a part of our history, and no doubt one of Los Angeles' biggest tourism sells. Yet "California Gurls" fits in with a Perry tradition that she began with "I Kissed A Girl." It's a tease, and one that's more empty than fun. 

We're not talking about the obvious signifiers -- warm temps, blue skies and a preponderance of boho sandals on Sunset Boulevard. Summer is here because the new Katy Perry jam has leaked. Expect this glob of aural suntan lotion to be liberally slathered all over the radio, as sure as the coconut-scented tanning beds in the O.C. mega-malls are cranking away at full occupancy.

"California Gurls" nods to all the innocent and naughty tokens of summer life -- bikinis, daisy dukes, Popsicles, sex on the beach -- with a West Coast spin. The mayor of LBC, Snoop Dogg, drops in and gives his slack-jawed blessings, with Perry returning respects to the Doggfather with a classic gin-and-juice reference. Dr. Luke mans over the production -- the two hit gold with "I Kissed a Girl" two summers ago.

The music is a throwback to old stripped-down house, like a candy-coated version of C&C; Music Factory, with a vintage-hoarding Santa Barbara girl on vocals instead of buxom ladies with buxom lady names like Zelma. (Though Perry tries her best to blow out those pipes, too often overdoing it, in our humble opinion ...) And of course, there are some giggles sprinkled throughout, lest we question anyone's good time and in case we weren't convinced by those fruity, smacking guitar lines.

Perry's celebration of the Gold Coast is certainly appreciated -- she recently complained to Rolling Stone that in the fever over "Empire State of Mind," little ol' California was getting pushed to the wayside. So she's doing her part, not to mention starting the most sweet-natured beef that will ever be known to Jay-Z ... but we couldn't help but get misty over the '80s love letter to our tanned beauties, David Lee Roth's "California Girls." We might prefer it still -- sorry, Katy. Watch the goofball video after the jump for a shot of Pina Colada nostalgia.

-- Margaret Wappler

Rumors have been swirling that the tight-pants-loving Lady Gaga is transgendered, due to a grainy photo taken at England's Glastonbury festival that shows a slight bulge between her legs. In the grand tradition of rumors begetting other rumors, a quote circulated soon thereafter, supposedly from the Lady's lips, admitting that "I have both male and female genitalia... it's just a little bit of a penis and really doesn’t interfere much with my life."

When abcnews.com asked Gaga's manager if this "little bit of a penis" business was true, he said, "This is completely ridiculous." Which, for all intents and purposes, we'll take as a "no." When you think about it, he didn't really answer the question.

Anyway, where the story really gets awesome is when Katy Perry steps in. This is she of the rigidly retro coifs, the onstage frolicking with phallic fruits, the mega-hit songs that pretend to tweak social mores while really just reinforcing them (see: "I Kissed a Girl" and its kegger-approved version of girl-on-girl action).

In an interview Wednesday with London's Daily Mirror, Perry -- when asked about the Gaga rumors --  said, "Oh please, it's all very calculated. She knows what she's doing."

Whoa. This is beyond "look who's calling the kettle black." This is the TI trigonometry calculator of pop pointing her finger.

Setting aside for a moment if it's really true that Gaga orchestrated such a rumor, having the current reigning dame of systematic contrivance say that you calculated all this and know what you're doing has to be worth something, right? Is it not the highest compliment that Lady Gaga, a sister in boardroom-controlled career management, could receive?

For the record, I don't think Gaga masterminded this one, but she'd be smart to play it on the dance floor for all the sex-futurism it's worth.

-- Margaret Wappler

Photo: Katy Perry by Amy Sussman / Getty Images for the Griffin; Lady Gaga by Lee Jin-man / Associated Press

Plant, Krauss and Burnett bonded over sweet buns -- oh, and Americana

It's been said many times but we'll say it again: when a rock god and a country goddess meet up, it can't help but end in an impressive sweep at the Grammys. Alison Krauss and Robert Plant won a total of five awards for "Raising Sand, the collaboration produced by T-Bone Burnett. All three came backstage to tell the story of the album.

Plant's first encounters with his co-musicians were rife with edible pleasures: "I realized that T-Bone and Alison had a gastronomic need that I have never experienced before. There was so much food in the studio. I had never seen buns and rolls and stuff full of jam and fries.

"They’re American. I started to like them."

Burnett: "There are a limited number of people who like music. Those people really like music. The record industry got into the business of trying to sell music to everybody. But if you make music for people who actually care about music, then you can do well. We care about music so we try to make music we care about."

Plant: "The thing about it is we extensively come from such different places of the musical map. There are a variety of differences in the way we’ve gone about enjoying our lives as musicians. Mine has been the British approach. When I was a kid, I just tried to be American. Great songs were American songs. Mostly, the ones that turned me on were spectacular black Americana. The thing about Alison patiently showed me so much of the American I’ve never been exposed to. There’s so many songs in the air. There’s thousands and thousands of beautiful songs.

"America needs to know what its songs are all about. It’s OK playing the game, but behind and underneath the game, there is something very beautiful here."

He quickly added: “Most of it is Irish and Scottish, by the way.”

Plant also talked about Led Zeppelin's history of being critical of the Recording Academy: "We threw some Grammys, but they weren’t ours, out of the window. It’s a different time. The folks who were turning us down and trying to bury us were running Rolling Stone magazine and all of these other magazines that said we were insignificant philanderists. They couldn’t have been more right."

On being third most honored person in history of Grammys, Krauss said, "I feel amazed I get to do this for a living. I get to work and continue to work in an inspired way. I have been lucky enough to work that way. This has been incredibly interesting. Like Robert had said, we went in the studio for three days to see what we would do and if it didn’t work, it didn’t work. If it didn’t work, it’s because we weren’t drawn to it. How spoiled I’ve really been is amazing, to still have things be in place and continue to work where I’ve kept up at night."

--Mark Medina

Natalie Cole doesn't regret last year's tough love for Amy Winehouse

Natalie Cole, who has stated that she did heroin for a period in the '80s, spoke again about her strong words for 2007 Best New Artist winner Amy Winehouse, who she said didn't deserve her win. "Last year I got in hot water for what I said about Amy Winehouse. I will still say it again. It's very personal for me because of the fact I'm an ex-drug addict. I don't take that stuff lightly. When I had Hepatitis [C] and I was diagnosed last year, it was because of drug use with heroin and it stayed in my body for 25 years. It can still happen to this young woman and other addicts fooling around with drugs. It's the real deal. I don't apologize for things I said. I still wish her the best. I hope what happens to me doesn't happen to her."

In regards to her own struggles with Hepatitis C, she says, "it took me a minute to get my stamina back. But it's really been great. I've been able to kick butt and my voice is still there. I'm very happy and grateful I was still able to go on the road."

"The challenging part is I have to have a dialysis wherever I go. That means every other day, three times a week, I have to find a facility. The facility that I go to, they will research and find other facilities all over the country. It's amazing. They're really all over the country."

"I'm still waiting for a transplant... It's strange having strangers offer to give you a kidney, but there is a bank of donors that we're looking into. They have to go through evaluations as well... People don't realize kidney transplants are not that big of a deal. It sounds like a heart transplant, but it's not. It's like getting your tonsils taken out."

Despite her health issues, she remains connected to her life's work and her place in it: "I still feel very strongly about music. I'm not real happy with some of the stuff I see happening in music but I'm older now. I can say that I can talk a lot of smack about it now. When I was younger, I thought that I was cool, as a lot of the young artists tonight will feel the same way. As you get older, you do get a little bit more serious about your craft. You want to do stuff that lasts."

She added that she'd want to collaborate with Herbie Hancock and John Mayer. "I was thinking I might have a chance to make another R&B album. I don't know it'd happen, but it certainly could."

--Mark Medina

Pregnant M.I.A. earns Estelle's respect

Estelle won for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration but that wasn't the only highlight of her night. She also gazed in wonder at the astoundingly pregnant M.I.A. performing her sleeper hit "Paper Planes."

"I was like, 'Oh God, she's going to break any minute now. I have so much respect for you.' I love people like that. It's a thing where I understand where she's coming from. I would never miss the opportunity to perform with people like Jay-Z, Lil Wayne and T.I... I'd be like, 'Don't worry, I'll be here.' Even if I had a broken leg or something. I'll be here even with one arm. I have so much respect for her."

Kanye West's British pal has another record in the works. "I just started recording right now. I'm feeling it out and [seeing] where I want to go with it.... right now it's a variation of Coldplay-Marvin Gaye."

--Mark Medina

Reactions from Katy Perry, Carrie Underwood, Paul McCartney and more below.