S O S
Evan Bogart
Edward Cobb
Jonathan "JR" Rotem
Embassy Music Corporation
Here's Lookin' At You Kidd Music
Jonathan Rotem Music
Reach Global Songs
Southside Independent Music Publishing LLC
Rihanna
SRP/Def Jam/IDJMG

SAVIN' ME
Daniel Adair (SOCAN)
Chad Kroeger (SOCAN)
Mike Kroeger (SOCAN)
Ryan Peake (SOCAN)
Warner-Tamerlane Publishing Corp.
Nickelback
Roadrunner/IDJMG Records

SHAKE IT OFF
Mariah Carey
Rye Songs
Songs of Universal, Inc.
Mariah Carey
Island Records

SHE SAYS
Howie Day
HKD Music
Howie Day
Epic Records

SO SICK
Ne-Yo
Super Sayin' Publishing
Zomba Songs
Ne-Yo
Def Jam/IDJMG

SOUL SURVIVOR
Young Jeezy
EMI-Blackwood Music, Inc.
Young Jeezy Music
Young Jeezy featuring Akon
Corporate Thugs/Def Jam Records

STICKWITU
Franne Golde
Kasia Livingston
Robert Palmer
Franne Gee Music
Myia’s Koala Bear Music Publishing
Notting Hill Music, Inc.
Parchi Music
Sony/ATV Songs LLC
Pussycat Dolls
A & M Records

SUGAR (GIMME SOME)
David Byrne
Trick Daddy
First and Gold Publishing
Warner-Tamerlane Publishing Corp.
Trick Daddy featuring Ludacris & Cee-Lo
Slip-N-Slide/Atlantic

SUGAR, WE'RE GOIN' DOWN
Andrew Hurley
Patrick Stump
Joe Trohman
Pete Wentz
Chicago X Softcore Songs
Sony/ATV Songs LLC
Fall Out Boy
IDJMG/Fueled By Ramen/Island

TALK
Karl Bartos (GEMA)
Warner-Tamerlane Publishing Corp.
Coldplay
Capitol Music Group

UNFAITHFUL
Ne-Yo
Super Sayin' Publishing
Zomba Songs
Rihanna
SRP/Def Jam/IDJMG

UNWRITTEN
Natasha Bedingfield (PRS)
Danielle Brisebois
EMI-Blackwood Music, Inc.
Gator Baby
Natasha Bedingfield
Epic Records

WALK AWAY
Kara DioGuardi
K'Stuff Publishing
Kelly Clarkson
RCA/RMG

WHAT HURTS THE MOST
Jeffrey Steele
Gottahaveable Music
Songs of Windswept Pacific
Rascal Flatts
Lyric Street

WHEN THE STARS GO BLUE
Ryan Adams
Barland Music
Tim McGraw
Curb Records

WHERE'D YOU GO
Mike Shinoda
Kenji Kobayashi Music
Zomba Songs
Fort Minor featuring Holly Brook & Jonah Matranga
Machine Shop/WB

YOU AND ME (2nd Award)
Jude Cole
Jason Wade
Dimensional Songs of the Knoll
G-Chills Music
Jude Cole Music
Warner-Tamerlane Publishing Corp.
Lifehouse
Geffen Records

YOU 'RE BEAUTIFUL
James Blunt (PRS)
Amanda Ghost (PRS)
Sacha Skarbek
David Platz Music, Inc.
EMI-Blackwood Music, Inc.
Universal-Songs of PolyGram International, Inc.
James Blunt
Atlantic Records

YOUR BODY
Bigg D
Marcus "Pleasure" Cooper
Jim Jonsin
Corey "Slick' Em" Mathis
Diamond "Baby Blue" Smith
Joseph "Blue" Smith
Spectacular Smith
Black Boy Hatchet Music
EMI-Blackwood Music, Inc.
Warner-Tamerlane Publishing Corp.
Pretty Ricky
Atlantic Records

"The Game of Love" earned the BMI Pop Song of the Year Crystal for songwriter Gregg Alexander and his publishing company Keepin' It Real How 'Bout You Music Publishing; this distinction is given to the song tallying the most feature broadcast performances during the eligibility period. Recorded by Santana featuring Michelle Branch, "The Game of Love" was a #1 single from Santana's Arista album Shaman and has already been certified as a BMI Million-Air (one million broadcast performances). Multi-instrumentalist and producer Alexander won a Pop Award in 1999 for "You Get What You Give," a hit for his former group, the New Radicals. Alexander co-wrote "The Game of Love" with Rick Nowels (share not licensed by BMI).

Brian Wilson	Gregg Alexander	The Matrix

Lauren Christy and Scott Spock contributed three to the Most Performed List of 50 to share the BMI Pop Songwriter of the Year crown. The songs earning Christy and Spock the title were "Complicated" and "I'm With You," both #1 singles for Avril Lavigne, and "The Remedy (I Won't Worry)," recorded by Jason Mraz. Christy and Spock, along with Graham Edwards (PRS), are also known professionally as songwriting/production team The Matrix. Other artists for whom they have written songs are Christina Aguilera, David Bowie, Ricky Martin, Ronan Keating, Liz Phair and Hootie & the Blowfish.

With 11 songs represented, Warner/Chappell Music Group (through its companies Warner-Tamerlane Publishing Corp. and Unichappell Music, Inc.) claimed the BMI Pop Publisher of the Year prize. Les Bider, Chairman & CEO of Warner/Chappell Music Group, accepted the crystal obelisk. The Publisher of the Year accolade is given to the publishing concern with the highest percentage of copyright ownership in award songs. Warner/Chappell's top performing tunes were "Are You Happy Now?," "Crazy In Love," "Complicated," "Dilemma," "I'm With You," "In A Little While," "Mesmerize," "Miss You," "Picture," "The Remedy (I Won't Worry)" and "Soak Up The Sun."

Brian Wilson was saluted as a BMI Icon for his "unique and indelible influence on generations of music makers." One of the most revered pop music creators of the last 50 years, Wilson co-founded the Beach Boys and co-wrote such seminal rock and pop songs as "Good Vibrations," "I Get Around," "God Only Knows," "California Girls," "Help Me, Rhonda" and "Wouldn't It Be Nice," among many others. Collectively with the Beach Boys and individually, he helped to create the sound that defined a generation and painted the picture of the West Coast "surf" sound. His genius is embedded throughout the group's history, but it particularly resonates on their legendary 1966 release, Pet Sounds.

After an Icon video tribute, Fountains of Wayne performed "Be True To Your School," followed by Wilson Phillips - featuring Wilson's daughters Carnie and Wendy - singing "In My Room." Wilson and his band took the stage for several songs, closing with "Good Vibrations."

Wilson enters the elite company of previously praised BMI Icons including Isaac Hayes, Bill Anderson, James Brown, Holland-Dozier-Holland, Dolly Parton, Chuck Berry, Little Richard and Bo Diddley . He is also the first person to be honored by BMI as both an Icon and with the President's Award (in 1995).

Of the 80 songwriters cited, nine were double winners: Sheryl Crow, R. Kelly, Jennifer Lopez, Shania Twain, N.E.R.D.'s Pharrell Williams, Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl, Nate Mendel and Chris Shiflett, and matchbox twenty's Rob Thomas.

Other writer/artists earning awards were Audioslave, Daniel Bedingfield (PRS), Big Tymers, Michelle Branch, Cam'Ron, Vanessa Carlton, Creed, Eminem, Evanescence, Ja Rule, Kid Rock, Linkin Park, Queens of the Stone Age, Red Hot Chili Peppers, 3 Doors Down, Uncle Kracker, and Unwritten Law.

Publishers garnering three or more awards were EMI Music Publishing (EMI-Blackwood Music, Inc./EMI-Unart Catalog, Inc./EMI-Virgin Songs, Inc.); Careers-BMG Music Publishing, Inc./Zomba Songs Inc.; Universal Music Publishing Group; Dwight Frye Music, Inc.; Mr. Spock Music/Scott Spock Songs; Rainbow Fish Publishing (Christy's company) and Sony/ATV Songs LLC.

"When I'm Gone" by 3 Doors Down enjoyed Most Performed Song on College Radio kudos for songwriters Brad Arnold, Todd Harrell, Chris Henderson and Matt Roberts of the group. Included on 3 Doors Down's Republic/Universal CD Away From the Sun, "When I'm Gone" is published by Escatawpa Songs and Universal-Songs of PolyGram International, Inc.

Another special presentation was the announcement of Andrew Horowitz as the 1st Place winner of the 2004 John Lennon Scholarship Awards. A student at the University of Michigan, Horowitz earned a $10,000 scholarship for his song, "Goodday." Established in 1997 by Yoko Ono in conjunction with the BMI Foundation, the John Lennon Scholarship Awards recognize the talent of young songwriters between the ages of 15 and 24. More than $125,000 has been awarded over the last seven years through generous donations from Ono and Gibson Musical Instruments. The BMI Foundation is a not-for-profit corporation dedicated to encouraging the creation, performance and study of music through awards, scholarships, commissions and grants.

Five of the 2004 top Pop songs are repeat achievers: "Heaven," first honored in 1985 for writer/artist Bryan Adams; "Landslide," a 1998 Pop Award winner for Fleetwood Mac's Stevie Nicks and the 2003 BMI Country Song of the Year via its recording by the Dixie Chicks; plus last year's winners "Complicated," "One Last Breath" and "Soak Up The Sun."

BMI's Citation of Achievement performance certificates are given annually in recognition of popularity in the field of popular music, as measured by feature broadcast performances on American radio and television. This year's Pop Awards eligibility period ran October 1, 2002 through September 30, 2003.

Such considerable cheek has been backed up by the high-profile fans they've won over here in America. James Iha of Smashing Pumpkins signed them to his Scratchie Records label, Dave Grohl of The Foo Fighters wore a Sounds t-shirt in his group's "Times Like These" video, and the red-hot production team The Neptunes nominated The Sounds for a Shortlist prize.

The band came together as high school students in their native Helsingborg in Southern Sweden. Childhood friends Felix Rodriguez (guitars) and Johan Bengtsson (bass) founded the band in 1998 and first added school pal Fredrik Nilsson on drums. Then Rodriguez met Maja Ivarsson (vocals) — a classically trained French horn player — in a music class and the budding outfit found a striking front person. Synthesizer player Jesper Anderberg signed on after the band members met him at a music festival and The Sounds were complete.

The album was recorded both in a Stockholm studio and Rodriguez's bedroom, and caught the ear of American rockers with its catchy songs and propulsive energy. The Sounds secured their foothold in the U.S. with tours and appearances on many major TV talk shows. "We are all about the 100% attack," explains Bengtsson. "We never want to give the audience room to think. That can happen afterwards. This is all about dancing and having a good time. We are a major chord band!"

Given that these "Queens" are five pretty macho-looking men, it's clear this is one band that has a sense of humor about itself. (Titling their 2002 CD Songs for the Deaf is further proof of their ironic bent.) And while "Stone Age" may conjure up visions of Fred Flintstone — and yes, they are Rock with a capital R, with some calling them "stoner" rock — there is much fluid finesse tin their music.

The Southern California band, formed in 1997, is fronted by singer/guitarist Josh Homme, a tall redhead who looks more like a basketball player than a rock star. But thanks to songs like the hypnotic "Go With the Flow" and "No One Knows," everyone is digging QOTSA's post-grunge, semi-hippie hard rock, including Foo Fighters' frontman Dave Grohl. Grohl, in fact, played drums on the Songs For the Deaf and toured with the band for a time, although the current lineup is rounded out by vocalist Mark Lanegan, drummer Barrett Martin, bassist Van Conner and drummer Gary Lee Conner, all formerly of Screaming Trees, a band Homme guest-toured with.

Homme, who has been in bands since high school, used to be contrary for the sake of it, saying about the songs for his late, lamented band Kyuss, "I wouldn't even write a chorus, even though I had 'em. Now, personally, it's like whatever's there and sounds good. We want to be able to play anything we want to play."

That playing earned QOTSA a tour with the Chili Peppers, a spot on the 2002 Coachella music festival (spitting distance from Homme's desert origins) and Grammy noms in both 2003 and 2004. Cleary, this lineup will be Queens for much longer than a day.]]> 2004-03-09T17:00:00-05:00 http://www.bmi.com/musicworld/entry/200062 Artists, Foo Fighters, Grohl, Dave, Hawkins, Taylor, Nirvana, Queens of the Stone Age, Musical Styles, Rock, Musicworld, Feature "This album is different than anything we've ever done, but it still has our fingerprints all over it," Foo Fighters leader Dave Grohl says of One by One, his band's fourth album. "As much of a departure as it may be, there is still a common thread, which is our sense of melody, our sense of arrangement, the way we approach playing our instruments."

Indeed, One by One -- the band's first release since 1999 -- finds the former Nirvana drummer and his combo opening up some stimulating new sonic territory while refining the vibrant balance of melodic craft and tightly coiled aggression that drove their prior efforts, Foo Fighters, The Colour and the Shape and There Is Nothing Left to Lose. New tunes like "All My Life," "Times Like These," "Come Back," "Have It All" and "Disenchanted Melody" balance surging metallic hooks, while the tender ballad "Tired of You" finds Grohl wearing his heart squarely on his sleeve (with some help from Queen guitarist Brian May).

Grohl is particularly proud of One by One's personally charged lyrics, viewing the album as a song cycle focusing on the ambiguities and gray areas of romance, tracing "the difficult beginnings of falling in love, and then the relief of feeling comfortable in love. I'm a sappy . . . romantic."

One by One features the current Foo Fighters lineup of main songwriter Grohl on guitar and vocals, guitarist Chris Shiflett, bassist Nate Mendel and drummer Taylor Hawkins, which Hawkins refers to as "the final lineup, the one that lasts until the band breaks up."

Hawkins suffered a near-fatal drug overdose while on tour in England in August 2001. According to Grohl, that experience initially made him consider breaking up the band. Instead, the quartet began recording One by One, but Grohl put the sessions on hold to take an extended working vacation as touring drummer with stoner-rock heroes Queens of the Stone Age (he also plays on that band's current album, Songs for the Deaf). Grohl returned from his moonlighting with a renewed sense of enthusiasm for his own group. After scrapping the tracks that the band had already cut, the reenergized Foo Fighters recorded One by One in the space of two weeks.

"I think we're always challenging ourselves, whether we're going in a pop direction or a complicated prog-rock direction," says Grohl, who's also been putting together an all-star death-metal side project called Probot. "That's what makes being in a band interesting and fun: keeping it a challenge and keeping it fresh, doing something different than what you've done before."

The new collection, which features the previously unreleased song "You Know You're Right," debuted in the Top Five in virtually every major territory around the world. The much-heralded "new" track has been warmly embraced by a public starved for new Nirvana material, topping Billboard's Album Rock and Modern Rock airplay charts for four weeks.

The compilation disc — whose release was delayed by a very public legal dispute between Cobain's widow Courtney Love and her husband's former bandmates, bassist Krist Novoselic and drummer Dave Grohl — also features such Nirvana standards as "Come As You Are," "Lithium," "About A Girl," "Sliver," "In Bloom," "Dumb," "Been A Son," "Heart-Shaped Box," "Pennyroyal Tea" and "Rape Me," along with the grunge anthem "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and live versions of Cobain's "All Apologies" and David Bowie's "The Man Who Sold the World."

During its seven-year existence, Nirvana emerged from the indie-label underground to achieve worldwide commercial success. In the process, the band permanently altered the face of contemporary popular music, playing a pivotal role in opening the mainstream music industry to the raw sound and do-it-yourself ethic of punk-derived indie rock.

The multi-platinum success of the band's second album and major-label debut, 1991's Nevermind, ushered in the idea of alternative rock as a mass-marketable genre. But the band's subsequent album releases, namely the 1992 odds-and-ends collection Incesticide and the full-fledged 1993 studio effort In Utero, made it clear that the band's musical potency, and Cobain's ability to channel dark, unsparing introspection into compellingly crafted songs, transcended any movement or scene that the band was perceived to represent.

Further evidence of Cobain and his band's ongoing influence is the fact that Journals, a new volume collecting some of the late artist's writings, debuted at number one on the New York Times' Hardcover Nonfiction best-seller list.

Grohl, who now leads Foo Fighters, resists the mythological aura that has sprung up around his former band. He recently told The New York Times that he has no intention of reading Journals. "The legend, the myth of the band — I'm not interested in it," Grohl stated. "People find this hard to believe, but my memories of Nirvana are really good. I think of the people, the road trips. I think of the white Chevy van that we used to tour in, that stunk of gasoline. I remember us having a really good time. Obviously, it did not end well, but my memories of Nirvana are just so much more powerful than any myth, and I won't let anything destroy that."]]> 2003-01-14T17:00:00-05:00 http://www.bmi.com/musicworld/entry/233489 Artists, Beatles, The, Cobain, Kurt, Foo Fighters, Grohl, Dave, Hawkins, Taylor, Nirvana, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The, Musical Styles, Rock, Musicworld, Feature Bittersweet and hopeful, the title of Foo Fighters' latest album could be perceived as a reference to the band's origins. There Is Nothing Left to Lose certainly sounds like a statement of resignation following the death of Nirvana singer/songwriter Kurt Cobain. Foo Fighters was founded when Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl embarked on a solo career after Cobain's demise. Having since proved his skills as a bandleader and singer/songwriter himself, Grohl has transcended his grungy past while preserving his historic place in rock history.

Since rising from Nirvana's ashes in 1995, Foo Fighters have released three platinum-certified albums, including their self-titled debut and their 1997 sophomore effort, The Colour and the Shape. The band has been hailed for its hell-raising performances and off-stage hijinks. Indeed, the group's videos successfully replicate the madcap mischief of The Beatles' Hard Day's Night.

In recent months, Foo Fighters have made uproarious appearances on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, The Daily Show and MTV's Total Request Live. The band's video, "Big Me," was a hilarious send-up of the Mentos mints commercials, while their "Learn to Fly" clip featured the group portraying passengers on a surreal plane ride - including Grohl as a blushing bobbysoxer.

All this zaniness has not gone unnoticed. Talk show host David Letterman personally requested that Foo Fighters perform upon his much-publicized return from heart surgery. The Red Hot Chili Peppers - no comic slouches themselves - picked Foo Fighters to open their Summer 2000 tour.

But while Grohl and his comrades rarely pass up an opportunity to clown around, the quartet performs with dead-serious rock intensity. Foo Fighters consists of some of the most revered young musicians in modern rock, including former Alanis Morissette drummer Taylor Hawkins. Bassist Nate Mendel was plucked from the celebrated art-rock band Sunny Day Real Estate. Guitarist Chris Shiflet completes the line-up. Under Grohl's leadership, Foo Fighters has morphed into a pop-rock band reminiscent of Cheap Trick and the Cars.

Foo Fighters became a reality after Grohl's self-produced demo tape resulted in a recording deal. Featuring tracks composed and performed almost entirely by Grohl, those original tapes were remixed and released as the Foo Fighters' first album. The disc's platinum success necessitated the formation of a real band.

Compared to their modestly-recorded debut, Foo Fighters' sophomore album, The Colour and the Shape, was a sonic gargantuan that yielded the hits "Monkey Wrench," "My Hero" and "Everlong." With the addition of Taylor and Shiflet and several platinum recordings to their credit, Foo Fighters might consider naming their next album There Is Nothing Left to Prove.