Linkin Park, oh, I suppose I've missed you. But what I've missed is your earnest boy-band-with-a-backing-bass sound, the uber-dramatic bridges and crescendos of synthesizers. What I didn't miss was your attempts to be Coldplay. I have seen Coldplay, Linkin Park, and you are no Coldplay.

What I see here is lead singer Chester Bennington (seriously -- CHESTER), singing about the world. The world is apparently bad. You can tell, because he turns on the TV and watches the news. Which is full of violence. So he laces up his manly manly construction boots and leaves the house to walk around the riot raging right outside his door.

And he walks around and sings for a while, while cops point their guns and rioters run amok... Really, it's a pretty boring riot as far as riots go. Eventually, a car gets set on fire, and Chester sings some more about how the world is sad and bad and all that... And then the video ends.

Some might interpret this video as having a very nihilistic message, but it's a video about hope, really. Hope that if you stand near a burning car to sing about how the world sucks, the car's fuel line won't ignite and set you on fire. We all gotta hope for something, I suppose.

As a profoundly embarrassed "Gimme More" apologist (I think it's a good song, okay?!), all of the recent Britney Spears kerfuffle has me feeling awfully torn. After all, I like the song. But everything that's happened in relation to the release of said song is more than a little disappointing.

And I'm including the official music video on that list. It's not just that there's something profoundly creepy about blonde Britney Spears sitting at a bar and getting turned on by watching brunette Britney Spears shake her moneymaker. It's also the seedy club, the uninspired pole-dancing, the weird fake arm tattoo... Oh, good grief, she literally rubs up against the wall for the part where she says she's up against the wall. Boo-urns.

In short -- oh, dear. I'm still a fan, Brit-Brit. But if you could put a little more effort in, that'd be great. We're all saying give us more, at this point.

Jennifer Lopez's live performance of her new single "Do It Well," on the British talk show Parkinson, is a perfect antidote to the Britney Spears VMA Music Awards disaster. Lopez looks great, she works the stage and the crowd with cheery abandon -- and it actually sounds like she's singing live. Sure, this video clip does lack the David Lachappelle human-sized-Habitrail touch, but when Lopez keeps the beat pumping even a cappella, we're willing to forgive that oversight.

About a bajillion Halo-related videos have popped up in the last few days in anticipation of the release of Halo 3, the third and (ostensibly) final installment of the mega-popular video game franchise. Among the best of these is Team Tiger Awesome’s “Halo Nights,” a boy-band-esque music video about a man’s love of Halo and how it ruins his life. This video is especially timely not only because Halo 3 comes out next week, but also because we are a mere two weeks away from the release of the Backstreet Boys’ latest attempt at a comeback album, Unbreakable.

I incited the ire of BSB fans last week by writing a “snotty” (sic) post about their lead video “Inconsolable” (okay fine, it was snotty, but come on, it’s the Backstreet Boys. Am I supposed to be sincere?). But, after watching this, I can say with confidence that while Team Tiger Awesome may not have millions of record sales, at least they still have their youth and good looks. And relevance. And none of them look like a Puerto Rican Mr. T.