The first time I heard about Pink was when my 7th-grade choir teacher in suburban Doylestown, Pa., was freaking out about her former student, Alecia Moore, having a video on MTV. This was during the time of flash-in-the-pan boy bands like NSync and 98 Degrees, and flaxen-haired Tiger Beat staples like Mandy Moore and Brittany Spears. I figured Pink was more of the same.

Thirteen years later, she has proven to be one of the most consistent and entertaining pop stars of the last decade. Pink’s success includes three Grammys, several popular tours, and six studio albums that have sold 40 million copies worldwide.

PHOTOS: More photos from Pink’s concert at HP Pavilion

Through it all, she has been herself—a hard-working musician and performer who always maintains an edge but never causes tabloid-fodder drama. During her “The Truth About Love” tour stop at HP Pavilion on Monday night, it was clear why she was always meant for bigger things. Despite the fact that there were 13 large, image-rich screens and about 20 backup singers, dancers and band members all vying for the audience’s attention, you couldn’t take your eyes off Pink.

The show kicked off with a game show host/ringmaster plucking the singer out of the crowd as a Truth About Love Show contestant. After a couple minutes of a funny intro video, she emerged onstage in a leather-studded body suit and was lifted up into the air by three beefy dancers, swinging and twirling and bungee-jumping over the crowd.

She showed off her six-pack abs for most of the concert (after you see how much everyone sweats during the show, they are definitely hard-earned), as well as her pipes. You know you’re watching an amazing singer when she can belt out half a song while hanging upside-down with her legs entwined in ropes.

The concert’s acrobatics rivaled those of the Olympic gymnastics trials that were held in the same venue back in the summer. Both the singer and her multiple, sculpted dancers were often doing flips in harnesses 40 feet above the stage and crawling around in blinking cages as they flew through the air.

Judging by applause, most of the crowd members had been to her show before, and this time they came bearing gifts: screaming, pink-coiffed fans handed Pink stuffed animals and hand-made T-shirts throughout the performance, which she humbly accepted.

While she’s impressive on the radio or in videos, it’s hard to truly appreciate Pink until you’ve seen her live. The way she effortlessly busts out tear-jerking ballads, glides across the stage as she dances and banters with the crowd while genuinely appearing to have a good time is something you don’t see with just any Clive Davis-anointed singer.

View more photos of Pink at HP Pavilion.

Beliebers rejoice! As if the widely publicized dissolution of the Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez union wasn’t enough of a Christmas gift for tweenage girls across the globe, the Beebs has added 30 dates to his North American tour, including a stop at HP Pavilion in San Jose.

If you can handle it, they offer multiple levels of VIP packages (with names like Sapphire and Diamond) that include autographed memorabilia, exclusive merch and—squeal!—a meet and greet and photo op.

The 18-year-old Canadian Tiger Beat cover staple has been on the road promoting his 2011 effort “Believe” to sold-out arenas, his 15 minutes lasting longer than anyone except my 12-year-old cousin could have imagined.

Considering his Twitter account is second only to Lady Gaga in number of followers, and the hip pixie dust he’s acquiring via collaborations with respected artists like Drake and Ludacris, he might still be around to celebrate his success with a legal drink. The tour stops at HP Pavilion on June 26th and tickets go on sale December 14.

It’s official: Electronic Dance Music is mainstream. From the Grammy-nabbing, high-grossing wobble fests of Skrillex to the schizophrenic hip-hop hooks of Diplo to the surging house beats of David Guetta, EDM has expanded far beyond teenagers gnawing flashing binkys in a crumbling warehouse in an old shipyard.

The music industry, on a 10-year juice fast of plummeting record sales, is devouring the trend. Unlike traditional bands, which require a crew and multiple band members and instruments to put on a show, most EDM artists bring their laptops—and that’s it. It’s been reported by the New York Times that top DJs like Deadmou5 and Tiesto can pocket $1 million for a festival appearance and $10 million for a Las Vegas nightclub residency. Realizing these shows are like Cheesecake Factory entrees for their bottom line, promoters are churning out EDM festivals like a Twinkie industrial unit in the 1960s, from the migrating Electric Daisy Carnival to the Ultra Music Festival in Florida.

Some are comparing the EDM movement to the housing bubble or dot-com IPOs—a cheek-flapping rise followed by the inevitable dubstep drop. However, EDM represents a cultural shift, like rock ’n’ roll was for baby boomers, and promises to leave a permanent tattoo on young music lovers growing up with the stuff. Between the adolescent identity and subsequent nostalgia fans associate with it, and the low cost/high profit margins for artists and promoters, EDM is not going away anytime soon. And as much as it’s a boon to the music industry, the deep-seated passion of the artists and the fans are what has and will sustain this movement.

San Jose is getting in on the act, hosting the 7th annual Give Thanks concert at the newly renovated San Jose Civic Auditorium on Friday, November 23rd. The show features artists such as Showtec, Manufactured Superstars, Dirtyphonics, and up and coming Russian beat maker Arty. The latter, born Artyom Stolyarov, is a 23-year-old producer and DJ who has made a name for himself with a prolific body of work created in three short years. Endorsed by the likes of Skrillex and Paul van Dyk, and rocketing to No. 25 on the 2011 list of the Top 100 DJ’s by DJ Magazine, Arty already roams with the best of them.

Arty plays a signature classic house style that can be twirl-in-a-meadow euphoric or drag-you-onto-the-dance-floor-by-your-hair manic, and he loves his rising crescendos. Currently touring the world at a torrid pace (Netherlands, UK and South Korea in late October before his current North American tour), he somehow finds the time to record singles, host a radio show and have an active Twitter account.

Arty is no stranger to all-consuming work schedules, however. When he was just a budding EDM artist back in Russia, fresh off seven years of formal music schooling, Arty “spent 15 to 16 hours a day making music like nothing else existed.”

“Very few things have changed since that moment,” he says. “I just started to travel a lot, and all music-making happens usually on the road now. But still, it’s all about passion and beautiful melodies.”

YOUNG AND FAMOUS Arty back stage at Ruby Skye in San Francisco before a recent gig. // Photo by Mark Portillo

He might be raking in a bit more dough and getting more praise, but it all goes back to his love for electronic music, having been weaned on EDM demigods Axwell (Swedish House Mafia), Deadmau5 and Eric Prydz. One thing that has changed for Arty as a result of his rising-star status is that instead of just listening to SHM on his ear buds, he gets to mix with the Nordic DJ himself. “My collaboration dream came true. We’re working with Axwell on a track together. It takes a lot of time, but I hope we finish it,” he said.

Some guys might get caught up in the glitz. Some guys might get burnt out. While no one is immune, it seems like Arty has a chance. He still claims to get a warm fuzzy feeling after a great show or finishing a new track. That feeling, along with the support of his close-knit family, is what can keep him grounded amid the strobe light flashes of success and challenge.

While the Civic Center and Arty’s team of managers and promoters are probably pretty stoked that, as an EDM artist, his shows are as cost and labor-efficient as that Hong Kong space-saver apartment on YouTube, Arty says he just wants to see as many people as possible have an amazing time. That’s what will keep them coming back for more, long after they age out of half-shaved heads and glow sticks.

More info on the Give Thanks Festival.

Attendees at the Outside Lands Festival in Golden Gate Park this past August, were lucky enough to catch the new-look Shins perform a couple of fresh tracks featured on their upcoming record, which they recently announced will be released in March.

Significantly more groove-worthy than the whimsical, folk-oriented Shins of albums past, you get the feeling Danger Mouse rubbed off on lead vocalist James Mercer when they collaborated in Broken Bells.

Port of Morrow is the Shins’ first album since 2007’s Grammy-nominated Wincing the Night Away, and features a revamped lineup that includes industry-established musicians such as Modest Mouse drummer Joe Plummer and Yuuki Matthews of Crystal Skulls.

Judging from their first single, we should be seeing the band’s name appear on music critics’ annual lists of “indie darlings” in 2012. You can find a sneak preview here: http://simplesong.theshins.com/

If you’re like me, and have listened to a total of 12 minutes of FM radio since the advent of Pandora, here is a reason to tune back in: Live 105’s Wobble Wednesdays, hosted by Menace and Dallas. It features two glorious hours of the fast-rising dubstep genre, characterized by its quivering bass and popularized by DJ/producers like Grammy-nominated Skrillex and Santa Cruz native Bassnectar.

The show is even worth enduring those high-decibel, screaming-in-an-empty amphitheater furniture blowout sale commercials, and comes at a time when dubstep is gaining traction beyond the ecstasy-chomping, earplug-sporting crowd.

The lineup is a mix of artists the hosts have excavated from the underground scene by poring over YouTube videos and taking fan suggestions. If nothing else, at least we know we have a decent option if Pandora fails to invent a viable business model.

Tune into the weekly airing of Wobble Wednesday at 11:59pm on the FM radio station 105.3, or check out past lineups on their website.

Despite what you may think, auto shows aren’t just for the Valvoline-smudged, stick-shift worshipping crowd who get aroused by torque and carburetors. I’ve been to a few of them, and I’m always highly entertained. This is coming from a girl who requires a Rosetta Stone every time a light goes off on her dashboard.

The reason why I’m a fan of auto shows is because they are a can’t-look-away collision of technology and design—pretty much the definition of Silicon Valley in general. It’s always exciting to see “The Next Big Thing” before it becomes available to the public, and there is something for everyone: zero-emission models for the folks ecstatic about San Jose’s plastic bag ban, classic Corvettes and Ferraris for the nostalgic vintage-car enthusiasts, and tricked-out lowriders for the guys and gals who blew all their Christmas money on subwoofers and rims.

My personal favorites are the concept cars you would never see on a Stevens Creek Boulevard lot, with their fish tanks in the trunk and chrome-tastic Jetson-like frames. I also like to take photos of myself in every single BMW on display.

If nothing else, you can oogle the hot car show girls prancing around in their Dallas Cowgirl-skimpy outfits and pretend you’re in a rap music video.

Silicon Valley International Auto Show
January 5 through January 8
More info.

If you’re looking to get game-day conditioning for the upcoming New Year’s Eve bacchanalia, hip-hop/R&B station 94.9’s Wild Jam live show on December 18 has proven to be an adequate annual training ground.

This year’s headliner, Canadian singer-rapper and Lil Wayne protégé Drake, is also a Wild Jam veteran. In his brief time in the spotlight, the 25-year-old has managed to score a No. 1 album on the Billboard Top 100 with Thank Me Later, which also went platinum—a hard feat in the current state of party-cup-flimsy music sales.

Since his mixtape So Far Gone was released in 2009, Drake has worked with hip-hop deities Jay-Z, Kanye West, Eminem, Mary J. Blige and Timbaland, while also composing for Alicia Keys, Jamie Foxx and Dr. Dre. His latest release, Take Care, is currently ranked at No. 4 on the Billboard 200.

Also performing are B.O.B., New Boyz, Taio Cruz, J. Cole and Tyca. More info.