Impress your acquaintances with some newly gained knowledge of string quartets. Learn which are the most popular and why, plus a little history of the form.

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Katy Perry is at the top of both the Billboard 200 album chart and the Digital Songs chart this week with the release of her latest album, Teenage Dream. Perry's sophomore effort has sold over 192, 000 copies this week according to Nielsen Soundscan, which puts her at number one on the 200 chart, while the album's title track has been downloaded a chart-leading 259,000 times. [Billboard.com]

The Sex Pistols have launched their own perfume. In partnership with French perfume company Etat Libre d'Orange, the legendary punk band has licensed its name to a unisex perfume featuring packaging inspired by the artwork for the band's iconic single, "God Save the Queen." Currently, there are also plans to launch a Never Mind the Bollocks soap later in the year. [NME.com]

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It was, as they say, a transitional year. It was, in many ways, the year where the hangover set in, as the biggest rock forces of the '90s were in states of decline. Although there were some scuzzy sounds on the margin -- not to mention such distinctive voices as Neutral Milk Hotel -- American alt-rock had gone Hollywood, led by Hole's ode to Southern California, the ultraglossy Celebrity Skin, but this was the year post-grungers like Matchbox 20 and Third Eye Blind ruled U.S. radio. In Britain, the heady years of Britpop collapsed, captured brilliantly on Pulp's This Is Hardcore, but the U.K. had its own version of the slicked-up, straightened-out post-grunge in the form of friendly indie-guitar outfits like Catatonia, whose National Velvet topped Melody Maker's year-end list. As these sounds faded out, new styles bubbled up, notably electronica -- which had a banner year everywhere, with Air's Moon Safari crossing over and garage and big beat sweeping the U.K. -- and neo-soul spearheaded by the smash The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. Then at the end of year came Britney Spears, whose "...Baby One More Time" wound up being Nevermind in reverse, pushing all these adventurous sounds back to the fringes.

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