music blog
5 Lessons From Elon Musk the Music Industry Should Follow
Tesla CEO and SpaceX founder Elon Musk is a fearless leader. With a tank full of rocket fuel and an electrifying personality, these are many lessons musicians can follow from the self-proclaimed “Technoking of Tesla.” Originally from Pretoria, South Africa, Musk was born to be an entrepreneur. He developed and sold his first video game, Blastar, at the age of 12. Musk became infatuated by inventions and innovation so much that his parents and doctors ordered hearing tests. He went on to obtain a Bachelor’s degree in economics and physics and then moved to California to pursue a Ph.D in energy physics, but dropped out to catch a wave during the internet boom. Alongside his brother Kimbal, Musk in 1995 co-founded Zip2 Corporation, an online city guide providing content for The Ne...
Beatport 2021 Review: Tech House Remains the Top Performer
Viberate, a music research and analytics platform co-founded by techno veteran UMEK, have just published their annual “State of Music” address. A large chunk of it covers Beatport, examining massive amounts of data to complement the platform’s chart positions with insights into the popularity of artists, tracks, labels and genres. The data shows that Tech House remains the most popular genre on Beatport for the third year in a row. It represented 44% of the top 100 Beatport tracks in 2021 and four out of five top tracks on Beatport in 2021. The winning track was “Set U Free (Extended Mix)” by Guz. c/o Viberate Melodic House & Techno, House, Techno (Peak Time / Driving) and Drum & Bass are also among the top five most popular genres. As far as best-performing artists go, the r...
Creators of Tomorrowland Announce New Music Festival In Belgium
The People of Tomorrow family is growing. The creators of Tomorrowland, one of the world’s biggest and most popular electronic dance music festivals, have announced a new fest in the Belgian capital of Brussels. Dubbed CORE Festival, the event is being produced in collaboration with the organizers of Rock Werchter, Belgium’s largest music festival. CORE Festival will feature four different stages and over 30 artists at the sprawling Osseghem Park in Brussels, from noon to 1AM. According to a press release issued to announce the two-day boutique festival, attendees can expect an eclectic blend of indie, hip-hop, electronica, hyperpop and alternative dance music in a unique marriage of Tomorrowland and Rock Werchter’s approaches to curation. They aim to attract 25,000 atten...
Flume, Kaytranada, Madeon More to Perform at Governors Ball 2022: See the Full Lineup
Festival season is right around the corner, and the organizers of Governors Ball have thrown their hat into the ring with a stellar 2022 lineup. Scheduled for June 10-12 in Queens, New York, the 2022 edition of Governors Ball features a diverse lineup of electronic music artists. Flume, Louis The Child, Madeon, Kaytranada and more are set for performances at Citi Field this summer. Headlining this year’s fest are Kid Cudi, Halsey and J. Cole, who will perform on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, respectively. Other major contemporary pop and hip-hop artists joining them on the undercard include Migos, Jack Harlow, Still Woozy, Joji, Glass Animals, Clairo, 100 gecs and Becky G, among many others. Governors Ball 2022 lineup with Flume, Madeon, Kaytranada, Migos...
SKUNK ANANSIE Takes Aim At Corrupt Politicians In New Song ‘Piggy’
British rock icons SKUNK ANANSIE roar into 2022 with a ferocious new track titled “Piggy”. A punk-rock blast of distorted riffs, snarling vocals and powerhouse rhythms, it’s as confrontational and uncompromising as anything the band has done over the course of its long and illustrious career. The track is accompanied by a startling lyric video, featuring porcine images and Skin‘s establishment-baiting lyrics, taking aim squarely between the eyes of those corrupt and venal politicians currently in power, both in the U.K. and around the world. Skin comments: “If there’s one thing we’ve all learned over the past couple of years is that we cannot depend upon our governments to look after us. They seem to be unable to learn from the past and incapable o...
Katharsis – PRAYING MANTIS
RATING: 6/10 So much has been written about the enduring influence of the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal over the decades that it’s easy to forget that only a few of its bands achieved any significant success. PRAYING MANTIS were never afforded the fortune or opportunities that came the way of the movement’s big names, and neither were they allowed the retrospective credibility latterly afforded to the more influential likes of ANGEL WITCH and VENOM. Instead, the Londoners took a singular approach, infusing their sound with more melody, harmony and prog-tinged pomp than any of their contemporaries, and casually pre-empting the hook-worshipping AOR and melodic rock movements that followed as the ’80s progressed. If it’s a classic NWOBHM album you want, then 1981R...
TOBIAS FORGE Says New GHOST Song ‘Grift Wood’ Was Written About MIKE PENCE: ‘He’s Just This Awful, Awful Person’
GHOST leader Tobias Forge has revealed to Kerrang! magazine that the band’s new song “Grift Wood”, from the upcoming album “Impera”, takes aim at Donald Trump-era U.S. vice president Mike Pence who led Christian evangelicals into becoming apologists for what many believe was the most destructive president of modern times, while at the same time preaching righteousness and goodness. “That song’s about him and anyone like him who’s willing to soil everything they’ve worked for,” Forge explained. “They definitely qualify for a front-row ticket to Hell. Which is so ironic, because that’s what they believe in. [People like that] completely demean themselves, and just eat shit out of someone’s ass in order to achieve w...
Reunited SHADOWS FALL To Perform At This Year’s FURNACE FEST In Alabama
Riding the high of a successful comeback to the scene in 2021, Furnace Fest has announced its return to Sloss Furnaces in Birmingham, Alabama on Friday, September 23 through Sunday, September 25 for a weekend of performances from 90 bands across three stages. The three-day festival will bring rock fans from all over together for performances by THE GHOST INSIDE, ALEXISONFIRE, NEW FOUND GLORY, THE ACACIA STRAIN, ANTI-FLAG, EARTH CRISIS, ELLIOTT, THE JOY FORMIDABLE, KUBLAI KHAN TX, NOTHING, SHADOWS FALL, STRETCH ARMSTRONG, STRIKE ANYWHERE and many more. Sixty additional bands will be announced later in the year. “Furnace Fest took a seventeen-year nap before a group of us banded together with hopes of a one-time reunion,” the Furnace Fest team shares. “After countless diffi...
Baby Keem Unveils ‘The Melodic Blue’ Tour Dates
Baby Keem has unveiled the official dates for his upcoming North American tour in support of The Melodic Blue, scheduled to kick off this spring. The rapper shared the official tour poster to social media on Wednesday, revealing that The Melodic Blue Tour will commence on March 7 in Cincinatti and conclude at Coachella on April 22, with a total of 28 stops. The Melodic Blue, which Keem released back in September, clocks in at almost one hour and includes features from Kendrick Lamar on “range brothers” and “family ties,” Travis Scott on the track “durag activity” and Don Toliver on “cocoa.” The 16-track record debuted at No. 5 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, moving 53,000 equivalent album units in its first week. Since The Melodic Blue‘s debut, Keem has rel...
Baby Keem Announces Spring 2022 Tour
California rapper Baby Keem broke out in a big way last year, and now he’s returning to the road for a Spring 2022 tour spanning the United States. The 28-date trek kicks off on March 7th in Cincinnati, and includes stops in New York City, Atlanta, Nashville, Chicago, and San Francisco. Along the way, Keem will play festivals like BUKU Music + Art Project and Coachella, the latter of which will wrap up his tour on April 22nd. See the full itinerary below. Tickets go on sale Friday, January 28th at 10:00 a.m. local time via Ticketmaster. Advertisement Related Video 2021 marked a banner year for Keem, who released his debut studio album, The Melodic Blue, via Kendrick Lamar’s pgLang label. The 21-year-old rapper has been nominated for this year’s Best New Artist Grammy, while also recei...
35 Most Anticipated Metal + Hard Rock Albums of 2022
The pop culture forecast for 2022 is looking mighty fine, and we’re previewing everything we’re excited about this year with a series of lists. Just so you have it all in one place, we’ve also published our Most Anticipated (Non-Heavy) Albums, Most Anticipated Films, Most Anticipated TV Shows and Rising Artists to Watch roundups. Every corner of the music industry has been affected by the pandemic, and the realms of heavy metal and hard rock were put in a precarious limbo following the lockdowns of 2020. For visceral genres so reliant on the energy of live performance, the lack of shows cast a malaise over the scene, resulting in an album drought. For many acts, it simply didn’t make sense to release an album they couldn’t support with a tour. Many, like Avenged Sevenfo...
2022 Festival Lineups Ranked by The What Podcast
Listen via Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google | Radio Public | RSS Festival fans got hit with an onslaught of lineups in the last couple of weeks, and Brad and Barry from The What podcast discuss and rank their favorites. Spoiler alert, it’s New Orleans Jazz Fest at No. 1 and then everyone else. (Get your tickets here!) Related Video But what of Coachella (tickets here)? Or less “prestigious” events like Shaky Knees (tickets here) or Boston Calling (tickets here)? And then of course there’s the biggest elephant in the room, Bonnaroo? (The What fellas may be lukewarm on Roo’s 2022 bill, but loyal Bonnaroovians can still get your tickets here.) Advertisement Listen to The What podcast’s full ranking of the major 2022 music festival lineu...
