plus: Weezer [ tickets ]. Napster. McCartney. Springsteen.

MTV and VH1 will only play Madonna [ tickets ]'s video for the song "What It Feels Like for a Girl" once, because the networks find the video too violent, according to Billboard. The video will air on both networks following news stories about the video.

According to NME.com:

In [the Guy Ritchie-directed video], Madonna is seen first off picking up her grandma at 'Ol Kuntz Guest Home.' Madonna then goes on to crash into a car full of men who wink at her, she threatens male police officers with a gun and mugs a man at a bank ATM with a stun gun, before wrapping her stolen car around a lamppost in what appears to be an intentional act.

The Billboard story quotes a "network representative speaking on condition of anonymity," who says that "MTV and VH1 feel that the Madonna video is newsworthy and can be seen with proper context." (Why does that bit of P.R.-speak require anonymity? Seriously. We can't think of a reason.)

"Proper context?" Oh, we get it--like, the context of "This Is News."

(We read about porn in the '60s and '70s where there would be a scientist--or, you know, an unemployed DJ in a lab coat--standing in the foreground, pointing at the couple with a pointer, thus creating the context of "This Is Science.")

By anyone else's standard, running the video at all would be craven and cheesy, but MTV probably feels like Rosa Parks.

Or maybe they just can't bear to yet again be a pawn in Madonna's latest grab at ControversyŽ.

Billboard also reported that Weezer [ tickets ]'s next album is due on May 15. The album was reportedly produced by Ric Ocasek (The Cars).

According to Webnoize, "Napster use is dropping sharply as the company works to shut off the supply of free music files. Napster users are downloading 50% fewer files, and the number of music files shared per user dropped 59% ..."

Paul McCartney [ tickets ] will read from his book of poetry, "Blackbird Singing," at the Everyman Theatre in Liverpool, England, on Wednesday (3/21).

"Born to Run" has been added to the track listing of "Live in New York City," the forthcoming 2-CD album from Bruce Springsteen [ tickets ] and the E Street Band, as well as the Springsteen concert special that will air on HBO on April 7. The track will also be made available as a download on the website BruceSpringsteen.net from March 20 through April 7.