Britney Spears

The David Guetta protégé also talks 'big' plans: 'Hopefully doing some stuff with Britney Spears.'By Akshay Bhansali Afrojack Photo: MTV News Afrojack dropped his single "Take Over Control" on Monday, and with its release, the Dutch DJ/producer seems intent on expanding his self-invented "bleepy" sound to a mass audience. "Popwise, I'm working with a girl called Eva Simons," Afrojack told MTV News earlier this year. "She's also from Holland. We have one track together called 'Take Over Control' that's gonna be the first dance/bleepy pop song," he explained at the time. Afrojack was widely celebrated at this year's Winter Music Conference in Miami, with many of the genre's heavy-hitters commending his new contribution to electronic/dance music. The song is already a hit in Europe, and after performing it during sets throughout his 2010 North American tour and at Los Angeles' Electric Daisy Festival, "Take Over" has become something of a set staple for DJs. "I think ... Well, I hope, it's gonna be big all over the world," Afrojack (born Nick Van de Wall) said. "Ministry of Sound wants to push money into it. Everybody wants to push it, and make it into the new revolution song. So, I'm so lucky that they have chosen this song." Popularizing his bleepy Holland House sound might be a lesson gleaned from his mentor and frequent collaborator, David Guetta, who in a show of support posted a Beatport.com link to "Take Over" Monday morning. Once considered solely a house music star, Guetta has within the past two years become a global crossover pop success by "urbanizing" what the mainstream American music scene had long considered a niche category. "He's like my big brother. I was never into pop stuff," Afrojack said of Guetta. "I was never into the charts, and TV and everything, but he introduced me to it and let me know how it worked and how it was fun to make. I started making a little bit of pop music on the side just for fun and it actually turned out pretty well. So we are doing some big things. Hopefully doing some stuff with Britney Spears. "He was in the studio with me the first time he finished the new song for Rihanna," Afrojack continued. "He was like, 'OMG. You gotta hear this ... it's crazy. So I was expecting some crazy club sh--. But he played me that track and it was a good [pop] track. So that's what inspired me to do that." Fans can purchase the "Take Over Control" download at Beatport.com or hear it live when Afrojack performs this Saturday at New York's Electric Zoo electronic music festival. He's joined on the lineup by Armin van Buuren, Diplo, Avicii, Wolfgang Gartner and Axwell, among many other acts at the two-day event. What do you think of Afrojack's new single? Tell us in the comments!

'Tik Tok' singer/nominee racked up massive digital downloads, opened for Rihanna and survived 'SNL' on road to Video Music Awards.By James Montgomery Ke$ha Photo: Kevin Mazur/ Getty Images She is, without question, one of the biggest breakout stars of 2010. A slurring, whirling, hard-partying pop oddity (who may also be a genius) with a #1 album and a boatload of hit singles to her name, not to mention more than a few enemies. She even has under her star-spangled belt, her very own, very public WTF debacle in the form of a rather, uh, divisive "Saturday Night Live" performance. She is Ke$ha, and ever since she came stumbling into our lives last year with "Tik Tok" (we named it one of the Best Songs of 2009, by the way), she's been nothing if not consistently entertaining, if slightly confounding. She's always coming back with another massive single or eye-popping video, always saying — or wearing — something outrageous. In the process, she's made a rather indelible impact on popular culture and, earlier this month, MTV showed its recognition of that fact, rewarding her with multiple Video Music Award nominations, including nods for Best Female Video and Best New Artist. But how did she go from unknown pop curio to one of the fastest-rising starlets on the planet? Here's a look back: In January 2010, "Tik Tok" rose to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, setting a record for digital downloads in the process. That same month, she was named one of three female Artists to Watch , as part of MTV News' Pop Week 2010. Buoyed by the success of "Tik Tok," Ke$ha's debut album, Animal, opened at #1 on the Billboard albums chart, selling more than 152,000 copies and ending "Britain's Got Talent" phenom Susan Boyle's six-week run at #1. Ke$h would pay homage to Boyle soon after, declaring to MTV News that the cat-loving singer "knows how to party." She followed up "Tik Tok" with "Blah Blah Blah," another party-ready anthem featuring her pals in 3OH!3. The song cracked the Top 10 and has sold more than 2 million digital downloads to date. Ke$ha then took to Twitter, where she flirted with John Mayer and then drew the ire of both Britney Spears and Justin Bieber fans, after she (sorta) swiped at Britney in a demo of an old tune ("Styrofoam") and called Biebus "a tiny little baby." In both instances, she apologized ... though, not before Perez Hilton weighed in, calling her a "trash-talking trainwreck." In April, she was announced as the opening act on Rihanna's Last Girl On Earth Tour, and then got to work on another video, this one for "Your Love Is My Drug". That month, clad in a bizarre bodysuit (and later, nothing but glow-in-the-dark bodypaint), she performed a pair of songs on "SNL," a debacle which was described by some as "the worst ['SNL' performance] ever." Never one to back away from a good brawl, Ke$ha responded thusly: "F--- the cynics." In May came the premiere of the "Drug" video — a bonanza of beards, boulders, Beatles and bodypaint — and the pop singer quickly followed that up with a cameo on 3OH!3's "My First Kiss" and yet another Animal video, this one for "Take It Off." Later that summer, she hit the road with Rihanna, and described the dynamic duo's backstage relationship as "We braid each other's hair ... naked." She then began discussing plans for a follow-up to Animal, saying she could foresee getting into country music but would definitely stay away from jazz. She also began laying the groundwork for her very own headlining tour. Oh, and of course, she revealed she's planning a fashion line, too, featuring capes and haberdashery made out of "roadkill ... and recycled feathers." Seems strangely fitting, if you ask us. The 27th annual MTV Video Music Awards will be broadcast live from the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles on Sunday, September 12, at 9 p.m. ET. Fans can go to VMA.MTV.com (or text VMA to 97979 if they are Verizon subscribers) to vote for the winners in general categories, including Best New Artist, from now through September 12. Related Videos VMA 2010: First Look Gearing Up For The 2010 VMAs! MTV News Extended Play: Ke$ha Related Photos Lady Gaga Leads The 2010 VMA Nominees 2010 Video Music Awards Performers And Presenters Related Artists Ke$ha