With the fantabulous singer Adele winning all over the ying-yang at the Grammy Awards last night, it’s time to revive the classic “Saturday Night Live” spoof from late last year on her winning weeper, “Someone Like You.”

It makes everyone, including the janitor, cry like little babies upon hearing the song. All true and this skit nails that fact of life perfectly.

Enjoy:

I was definitely not expecting this from the slight, sweet-looking singer:

I am not exactly sure what to make of this funkadelic remix by former Disney tween queen and pop singer Miley Cyrus of her “Liberty Walk,” to honor the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Her singing, interspersed with images of the protests all over the world, is more than a little surreal, but it gets an A for effort!

Okay, I took numerous economics classes at a fancy university. But this song — “Mama Economy (The Economy Explained)” — by well-known YouTube video singer Tay Zonday, does a better job than all my professors combined.

It is a lot of wisdom from the “Chocolate Rain” dude.

Conclusion: If this economy was a mama, she would sure be a mean one.

Maybe that’s because the most charming part of the film was the clips from a pair of YouTube appearances by four-year-old Kellen Sarmiento, who is channeling cast member Darren Criss, the lead singer of the Warblers on the hit television show.

You’ll get it when you see the tiny star in a school blazer, doing his version of Pink’s “Raise Your Glass” and Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream”:

A sad little period was put on the even more pathetic story of Myspace yesterday by its former owner, News Corp., which said it had lost $254 million. The media giant announced the writedown during its quarterly earnings call.

The down-the-drain social networking site generated $230 million in operating losses over the last year.

The most recent quarter was an “improvement” on previous losses — but what a way to go.

After its once stratospheric valuation heights, Myspace was sold for just $35 million to a company that included singer/actor Justin Timberlake as an investor, which just adds that last little bit of cringe to the sorry situation.

Many had long predicted Myspace’s demise — the bloom was off the rose very soon after it was the most hyped company in Web 2.0 history. But it’s still a good question to ask: Is this a case that other hotsy-totsy start-ups need to look to as a cautionary tale? Or was it simply a digital belly flop?

Well, it’s both, of course. So here are the five key things the current crop of pretty start-ups might want to take away from the Myspace debacle:

1. Stay current: One of the big problems of Myspace, as has been much observed, was its inability to keep innovating its technology and improving its offerings. While this seems simple in retrospect, consistently trading up the experience and deliverables to users is something that many companies quickly lose sight of. But in a fast-changing digital world, it is very easy to get behind very quickly.

2. Stay focused: You certainly can go in a lot of directions in life and in your business, but most companies that succeed — Apple, Amazon, Facebook — tend to stick rather closely to their knitting and do not veer off into too many orthogonal directions. Myspace, riding on huge waves of attention and hype, seemed to have a new plan and scheme every five minutes. When it comes down to it, most companies are lucky to get one amazing and significant business.

3. Stay humble: Speaking of waves of attention and hype — they’ll sink any company fast if it spends too much time swimming in their deceptively lovely waters. As anyone at the top of a curve knows, the riptide downside will come soon enough (see: Airbnb). Thus it’s important to have the right amount of attention. While it goes against a lot of marketing strategies, underplaying can often be more powerful.

4. Stay customer-focused: Another obvious rule that Myspace repeatedly broke, with its rush to add all kinds of traffic-inducing elements to the site, rather than build it for quality and layer them in later. While people joked about the circus act that Myspace’s interface became, it actually was not very funny for those using it.

5. Stay independent: One wonders what might have happened if Myspace had not taken the money and run. While the pile of money from News Corp. was perhaps irresistible, it’s hard to find to anyone on any side of this deal who did not bemoan the pressures of being inside a big company, and its negative impact on Myspace.

Facebook — which CEO Mark Zuckerberg was allowed to carefully nurture before imposing a definite business plan — is often pointed to as proof of the importance of allowing delicate start-ups the space to thrive. But there are also instances of hot entrepreneurs doing fine within a larger entity — YouTube at Google, or Zappos at Amazon, leap quickly to mind.

In the end, of course, none of this might have helped Myspace, which may have simply been one of the Web’s shooting stars. That is to say, remarkable to watch — but, in the end, also a lot more common than you might think.

The upcoming movie from Justin Timberlake — who starred in “The Social Network” playing hyperactive entrepreneur Sean Parker and who recently was part of a group that bought Myspace — is also techtastic.

In the futuristic film “In Time,” Timberlake plays a man who must steal time to live longer. It feels a little like “Logan’s Run,” but with better clothes.

Timberlake, who is also a singer, is trying to leverage the good notices he got from the Facebook movie to a more wide-ranging Hollywood career.

Enjoy:

Oh dear, oh my — with the first move that the new owners of Myspace have made, it’s pretty clear they are taking the worrisome look-at-the-shiny-celebrity approach.

The trio of Vanderhook brothers who run Specific Media, which paid $35 million to buy the News Corp.-owned music-focused social networking site, loudly added Justin Timberlake as an investor in the deal yesterday and then gave a lot of interviews around it.

In its press release, Specific Media said Timberlake would “play a major role in developing the creative direction and strategy for the company moving forward” and focus on being a premier original content destination.

“There’s a need for a place where fans can go to interact with their favorite entertainers, listen to music, watch videos, share and discover cool stuff and just connect. Myspace has the potential to be that place,” Timberlake said in the release. “Art is inspired by people and vice versa, so there’s a natural social component to entertainment. I’m excited to help revitalize Myspace by using its social media platform to bring artists and fans together in one community.”

Sounds good, I suppose, but maybe they should focus on making products the star first.

Nope, the star is the star first, even though swanning around the appealing singer and actor’s name felt a lot like shilling him.

Justin has a vision! Justin will have a team of creatives around him! Justin is being ironic, having played a techie and now being one!

Justin will even be in the office! Um, sometimes!

Well, whatev, since I have been to these celebrity-meets-the-Internet rodeos before, and they have mostly ended in tears in terms of creating any kind of real Web property.

Remember Matt Damon and Ben Affleck and their LivePlanet fiasco back in Web 1.0? Wasn’t RuPaul around then helping WebEx? Didn’t the much-hyped MC Hammer dance site called DanceJam get sold off in 2009?

And I’m still waiting for several Web efforts by Ashton Kutcher, such as Internet fare for Katalyst Films, to make any ripple. In fact, the new “Two and a Half Men” television star has now seemed to focus more in investing in tech start-ups as a quieter partner.

In Hollywood terms, most of these high-profile marriages of glamour and nerd have been turkeys.

Of course, they will never stop, and I like to rub shoulders against a celeb, too, especially when it’s at the dull geekfests that take place in Silicon Valley.

But the only way Myspace is going to revive itself, even at the bargain basement price that Specific Media paid for it, is to focus relentlessly on figuring out a strategy, hire a team of crack engineers, and inspire them to build a killer product.

I don’t know what that will look like, but I do know the creation of such innovations requires a head-down approach of truly committed people, and not some all-night party of fabulous.

For a long time, Myspace’s creators were very interested in the latter and were not engaged in making the former happen.

And, by the time new managers did, it seemed to be too late and News Corp. was too sick and tired to tolerate it, writing Myspace off as a too-tarnished brand to make thrive again.

So it sold Myspace and who knows what tomorrow and Specific Media will bring.

All I can think of to say is what I wrote on Twitter yesterday when asked what lesson came from the Myspace debacle and what advice I would give to the new owners.

That would be: Don’t suck.

That’s a lot harder to do than it seems.

In any case, at least Timberlake makes really good music videos, as you will see below for his “SexyBack”:

This is going to be good.

The iconic singer and performance artist Lady Gaga will be appearing at the Consumer Electronics Show later today to unveil “creations” she came up with for Polaroid.

Gaga announced last year here that she had been named the creative director of Polaroid.

As part of the collaboration that will debut her Polaroid “Grey Label” project, Gaga said a year ago that she would be coming up with “prototypes in marrying the fields of fashion/technology/photography innovation.”

Oh, goody. Fishnet stockings that can post pictures to Instagram!

I am considering going to the event–as ordered to by the shy and retiring Hollywood agent Ari Emanuel.

But it will likely be a mosh pit of nerdy dudes, so I’ll need to frontload starting at 10 am.

And you can watch it on Polaroid.com at 3:30 pm PT.

The phenom of online music sales from the television show “Glee” continues with the digital chart-topping of its version of Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream.”

Sung by cast newbie and red-hot singer Darren Criss, you will quickly see below in the video of the full performance from a recent episode why it is such a dreamy rendition.

BoomTown dares you not to smile:

You have to hand it to the ego-soaked imagination of singer Kanye West, who has debuted what appears to be the longest music video of all time for his song “Runaway.”

It’s not just his Twitter rants that are wild, as you will find after digesting this gem–an art film, really–which includes a phoenix-lady from a meteor, a giant Michael Jackson head and a lot of ballerinas.

Also, of course, a Lamborghini, driven by West.

Enjoy:

Our little girl has, um, certainly grown up.

In fact, so much so that this music video for a new single–titled “Who Owns My Heart?”–from Miley Cyrus is causing a major ruckus, with complaints from groups such as the Parents Television Council.

That’s due to the racy themes and extreme writhing in dark clubs, I suppose, which seems kind of old hat by now.

In any case, with it, the 17-year-old singer is definitively declaring an end to her Disney (DIS) past.

Most definitely, as you will see here:

Enough with mishegas at Yahoo (YHOO) and the Facebook Movie and Oracle (ORCL) CEO Larry Ellison misbehaving like, well, Larry Ellison.

Thus, it’s time for Shakira, in the Colombian singer’s new video, shot on the streets of Barcelona, Spain. It’s really a kind of guerrilla music attack for “Loca,” the first single from her new “Sale el Sol” album, being released in mid-October.

In it, Shakira rollerskates, rides on a motorcycle and even jumps in a fountain, all while making the video. As usual, she also shakes her hips, which apparently still don’t lie.

Enjoy:

Oh, that scamp John Mayer is such a jokester.

Here’s a spoof video the singer did in the wake of all the controversy around the basketball star choosing Miami to play for and leaving behind a dejected and angry Cleveland.

Big surprise, given his promiscuous reputation: Mayer will play his music for everyone.

Enjoy:

BoomTown is not much of a fan of Bret Michaels, but it was still nice to see the singer and reality star in good form on television talent show “American Idol” last night after a spate of troubling health issues.

Michaels was hospitalized for a brain hemorrhage a month ago and just last week, was back in the hospital due to a “warning stroke.” Heart surgery is to come next.

Still, he managed to belt out “Every Rose Has Its Thorn,” a hit song from his band, Poison, which he sang with finalist Casey James.

Enjoy the video:

Here is yet another classic talk-sing video of actor William Shatner.

He’s in a duet with Taiwanese singer Lin Yu Chun, aired on the “Lopez Tonight” television show last night.

Lin became well known after a video of his wowza performance on a Taiwanese talent show, singing “I Will Always Love You” in Whitney Houston style, garnered more than 12 million views on YouTube.

The song Shatner and Chun share is the classic “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” first made famous by Bonnie Tyler.

Here’s their duet, as well as the performance that got Chun noticed, much in the same way it happened for Britain’s Susan Boyle:

So are a lot of reports about the reports of his death, which pin the blame on Twitter. Or in the case of the New York Daily News, something called a “Twitter blogging service.”

The original rumor that Lightfoot was dead may or may not have originated on Twitter–his road manager seems to think it was via “a Twitter coming out of Ottawa.” But that seems both very specific and hard to prove. If anyone can, please let me know.

But say it is true. Twitter still didn’t force Canwest, the big Canadian media conglomerate, to publish a wire report that said the singer was dead. As best I can tell, it was that story, which was picked up by various Canwest newspaper sites, that convinced people Lightfoot had croaked.

Here’s Canwest’s description of what happened:

After false rumours of Lightfoot’s death initially emerged online, Hawkins [musician Ronnie Hawkins, a friend of Lightfoot] was contacted by a Canwest reporter. In that interview, Hawkins reported that Lightfoot was dead. Based on that information, Canwest News Service sent out an alert and short story on the wire which reported Lightfoot’s death. Within minutes, Canwest was contacted by a representative close to Lightfoot who said that news of his demise was untrue. That prompted another alert on the wire which said the previous story should be disregarded because there were conflicting accounts about Lightfoot’s health.

About 30 minutes later, Canwest spoke to Lightfoot’s tour manager, [Bernie] Fiedler, and immediately moved another story on the wire reporting the singer’s death was a hoax.

In Twitter time, 30 minutes is forever, of course. And it was the first Canwest story and alert, which were indeed distributed via Twitter, that really fueled this thing. But blaming Twitter for quickly spreading a mainstream news organization’s story is a stretch.

Here’s some pithy perspective from Doug Saunders, a Canadian journalist who doesn’t work for Canwest. It comes to us via Twitter, naturally:

If a media snafu causes you to debate the role of Twitter, imagine it’s 90 years ago and instead of Twitter you’re saying “the telephone… Hearing some rumour and printing it as truth is unrelated to tech used to circulate that rumour. Same happened, faster, in 1780s.

If you’re itching to confirm Lightfoot’s health yourself, you can listen to an impromptu interview the singer conducted yesterday with a Toronto radio station. And I hope to see him make a Goldblumesque appearance on “The Colbert Report” very soon.

Until then, here’s the obligatory blast from the past:

Here is a terrific video by singer Caitlin Crosby, which seems to start as a marketing tool for her most recent album and single, “Flawz.”

Instead, her rallying cry of “Embrace Your Flawz,” aimed at a wide range of people, especially young girls, makes for a most effective and innovative online message, made up of messages from fans and celebrities.

You can also visit the Love Your Flawz Web site, but here is the video:

Google also offers up this graph, below (click to enlarge), to give you a sense of the traffic spike it got from Jackson-searchers. It’s impressive, but without metrics it’s sort of hard to gauge what it really means–just like the chart that Google (GOOG) provided about query volume during Barack Obama’s inauguration.