CHICAGO — Every festival needs a sure-fire headliner that will bring in the huge crowds, if only for just one night. This year's slam-dunk was Saturday night capper Mumford & Sons, and the British folk revivalists were more than up to the task, drawing a massive, foot-stomping throng to the South end of Grant Park for a string-plucking run through their catalog.

They helped shut the lid on a spectacular cool and sunny day by Lake Michigan that featured everyone from Ellie Goulding to Mr. "Harlem Shake" himself, Baauer, as well as the National, the Lumineers and the Postal Service.

From the look of the swarm of humanity that stretched several hundred yards form the stage, though, Mumford were the act to beat. With smoke billowing across the stage, they wasted no time, busting out breakthrough hit "Little Lion Man" right away to grab their fans and get them moving.

On the same stage that has previously hosted plugged-in thrash by everyone from Pearl Jam to the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Rage Against the Machine, the Mumfords did what might have seemed improbable, if not impossible: they kept the audience's attention with their patented low-key, busk-y mix of banjo, mandolin, acoustic guitar, stand-up bass and drums. If anything, their biggest challenge was to simply rise above the constant, not-so-dull roar of incessant chatter from their admirers.

Seeming fully recovered from recent brain surgery that forced the cancellation of earlier festival dates, bassist Ted Dwane sounded a steady thrum on "Holland Road," looking healthy and energetic during the entire set. A short ...

CHICAGO — Imitation might be the sincerest form of flattery. But when it comes to Robin Thicke's recent brown liquor-soaked cover of Icona Pop's breakthrough breakup single, 
 the Swedish duo love that Mr. "Blurred Lines" took some artistic license.

"We love it," singer Aino Jawo told MTV News just hours before the pair hit the stage for their Lollapalooza debut. Thicke recently did a slowed-down take
 on the song during a British radio appearance, changing up some of the lyrics, which he said he could totally relate to.

"It's so nice to hear different versions of your songs and his version was so sexy and it was like you wanted to go into a bedroom and make love," Jawo said. "Which is like a totally new [feeling] ... otherwise it's like you want to punch someone. We love it!"

Jawo and fellow singer/keyboard player Caroline Hjelt, brought down the house with the song during their mid-day Lolla set on Friday. With Jawo in a black mini dress made of reflective black tiles and Hjelt in a matching white dress, the smiling duo worked the crowd with their high-energy set of dance pop songs from their upcoming full-length debut.

Then, with ominous clouds rolling in over the Chicago lakefront and rain falling for most of their set, the skies miraculously cleared up as they prepared to end with their most recognizable tune. The remixed version of "I Love It," which had some stops and starts that stretched it out, clearly amped up the crowd, who danced up and down and ...

CHICAGO — Lollapalooza is always a study in contrasts. In any given hour you can go from hardcore EDM to folk to country, hip-hop and indie rock, all within a mile on the scenic Chicago riverfront.

But the final two hours of Friday night's kickoff of the 2013 festival was as stark an example of musical night and day as you're likely to get. While polarizing crooner Lana Del Rey was soothing the audience's tired minds and feet with her throwback lounge pop at a small stage set among trees, rebooted Lolla veterans Nine Inch Nails were sowing their legendary path of destruction just a few hundred yards away on the main stage.

On a day when attendees slogged through the muddy fields to hear the dark techno throb of Crystal Castles, the plaintive folk of Father John Misty, Icona Pop's grin-inducing "I Love It" and Imagine Dragons' thundering rock anthems, the strange thing was that both Del Rey and NIN appeared to have a similar effect on fans. They each found a way to lull (or shove) their admirers into a sing-along trance to lyrics about love, hate, dreams and destruction.

NIN's Trent Reznor got things started by casually strolling onto the stage in shorts and a cut-off black t-shirt and plunking out the simple beat of the new song "Copy of A." The beats and keyboard clatter amped up for "Sanctified," with tall, spooky images of the players projected as shadows on the moving screens behind them.

Another new song from the upcoming Hesitation Marks album, first single "Came Back ...

On Friday night, HOV took over HBO.

Jay Z turned the channel into his own personal playground, not only premiering his "Picasso Baby" performance art film, but making a guest appearance on "Real Time With Bill Maher."

Jay appeared on a panel that included former Massachusetts senator Barney Frank and Alexis Goldstein of Occupy Wall Street, and was introduced by Maher with a nod to the "Diamonds From Sierra Leone" remix: "He's not a businessman, he's a business, man, and he also dabbles in a little bit of rap."

A bit later, Maher laughed "I feel like Ed Sullivan when he brought the kids the Beatles," before asking Jay "Do you remember Ed Sullivan?"

"No," Jay joked.

Jay didn't shy away from discussing politics, either. At one point, he engaged in a debate with Frank about budgetary cuts that have eliminated police presence in low-income neighborhoods. Frank maintained that all communities wanted more police on the streets, though HOV disagreed.

"More jobs would be better than police," he said. "I don't want to scare America, but the real problem is there's no middle class; the gap between the have's and the have not's is getting wider and wider. It's going to be a problem that no amount of police can solve."

Maher also asked Jay about his spat with singer and civil rights activist Harry Belafonte, who accused him — and his wife, Beyonce — of not doing enough to help their community. And Jay didn't duck the question.

"If it was a real problem, I'm not very difficult to find, especially for a man of ...

Big Sean's Hall Of Fame album isn't officially due out until August 27, but a few of his most dedicated followers are getting a chance to hear the LP in advance, when he personally visits seven fans in seven different cities over the next few days. On Friday, the Detroit rapper held his first intimate preview session, playing the album in its entirety for 18-year-old superfan Christian Ponisi, in Staten Island.

Christian, who has been a longtime fan of the G.O.O.D. Music rapper, graduated from high school this spring and will head off to college in the fall. He was born with spinal muscular atrophy, which confines him to a wheelchair, and initially, he attempted to reach out to Sean through the Make-A-Wish-Foundation. When that fell through, a determined Christian still managed to strike up a relationship with Sean via Twitter, and eventually he was invited out to join him on the set of an Adidas shoot. They've kept in touch since then.

"He was just so cool when I met him and he was repping so hard," Sean explained of their first encounter. "He had on Pow! chains, had every magazine [I was in], knew the words to every song and his family wheeled him up in a wheelchair, and [told me], 'This dude has to be your biggest fan."

"I felt like — who would enjoy hearing my album first more than him?" the Hall of Fame rapper added. "I just wanted to give him that experience, and go to his house and play the album. I ...

Chris Brown may be getting peppy on the set of his latest video.

Five jersey-donning, ab-flaunting models strutted around the set of "Love More," a song from his X album, featuring Nicki Minaj. And although the crew isn't smiling, their high ponies and sports gear suggest they might be doing some cheering later on. Pics from the video set in Los Angeles show Breezy in all-black with a nose ring, hair cut close to his head. He grasps a blue Solo cup and a cigarette, possibly taking a break from shooting.

"Love More" is about, well, loving more. Loving in a hotel room, loving in a car... you get the point. So the part with the cheer squad is still unclear. Maybe to cheer the loving pair on? The group of knee-socked, cut-off-wearing girls give out a retro vibe with fanny packs, pigtails and acid-washed denim. The ladies sport cropped black-and-white football jerseys.

Brown's last two videos had more of a cinematic feel to them. The first, "Fine China," followed Chris and his girlfriend as they hid their forbidden love from her father, with the clip ending in a street fight. The second, saw him jumping out of his gang's car, ditching violence altogether. Maybe there will be a showdown in "Love More," or maybe Brown will spread more peace.

And although Breezy looks serious in the set pics, the song does host some romp-happy lyrics. Are some steamy sex scenes on the way?

CHICAGO — Making their Lollapalooza debut on Friday (August 2) was a bittersweet moment for the men of Twenty One Pilots.

On the one hand, singer Tyler Joseph and drummer Josh Dun were super psyched to get their names inscribed on the wall of fame for the legendary festival. And after playing a string of summer gatherings in fields and by the Alabama shore, they were excited to be performing in the middle of a major city.

"It's really cool because ... this is our first festival that's in a city, most festivals are set in the middle of nowhere in a field," said Joseph of their inaugural trip to perform and attend Lolla. "It's cool to feel that this festival isn't the only thing going on, you see other people working and other lives going forward and taxi cab drivers really pissed off because there's so much traffic."

On the other hand, Dun said the hurry-up-and-move-on nature of festivals means that they aren't going to get to see many other bands, with Joseph lamenting that, as they were speaking to MTV News, they were missing out on Robert DeLong's set.

Also, every time they take the stage for one of their high-energy shows, they can pretty much count on a phone call or text from their moms about their daredevil stage stunts.

"Live shows have been going on for so long, can you really do something that's never been done before?" Joseph asked about his tendency to climb the rigging of stages and sing from three stories above the crowd and Dun's ...

The Ying-Yang Twins deemed her the Jay Z made her name synonymous with the dance move on his Holy Grail track "Somewhereinamerica." And she all but declared herself the queen of twerking in her raucous video for "We Can't Stop." But when Big Sean recruited Miley Cyrus for his "Fire" video, off his Hall of Fame, due out August 27, he made sure there was not to be any twerking involved.

In fact, the clip, released on Friday (August 2), is a stylishly serene affair — apart from Miley breaking a red rose like a vase, not much actually happens in its almost three minutes. That's because Sean wanted there to be "a lot of metaphors," and he wanted Miley to bring them to life.

"I wanted somebody who was beautiful and I wanted to take her out of her element," Sean told MTV News recently. "People looking at her like she's twerking and all this stuff, but she's an awesome person, man. She symbolizes the beauty of a lot of women overcoming different relationships and being as beautiful as a flower."

Even if viewers don't understand every last metaphor, Miley's beauty is declared loud and clear. Her fit, Disney-princess-no-more body is on full display in barely-there shorts, a crop top and heels. Miley's seductive stances and sultry glares are interrupted solely by images of a red rose and a burning picture of the MC himself. After the rose shatters when Miley throws it on the grown, it later implodes into its original state, as ...