music blog
Kendrick Lamar, Megan Thee Stallion and Willow Announced as Upcoming ‘SNL’ Musical Guests
As the 48th season of NBC’s Saturday Night Live gears up to return on October 1, the show has released a string of high-profile musical guests to kick off the new season. Starting with Kendrick Lamar, the rapper will be the season’s first musical guest for the premiere while the show will be hosted by Top Gun: Maverick star Miles Teller. The following week will see actor Brendan Gleeson host and musical guest Willow perform while Megan Thee Stallion is slated to be both the host and musical guest on October 15. This season of SNL features a full cast that includes Marcello Hernandez, Molly Kearney, Michael Longfellow and Devon Walker. Past cast members including Pete Davidson, Aidy Bryant, Chris Redd, Kate McKinnon and Kyle Mooney amongst others have since departed the show. In case you mi...
Kanye West Invokes Taylor Swift, Says “My Publishing Is Being Put Up for Sale Without My Knowledge”
Kanye West is refuting a report from Billboard that he “has been quietly and intermittently shopping his publishing catalog.” In an Instagram story (viewed by Pitchfork), the rapper wrote: JUST LIKE TAYLOR SWIFT MY PUBLISHING IS BEING PUT UP FOR SALE WITHOUT MY KNOWLEDGE NOT FOR SALE West, of course, is alluding to Scooter Braun’s controversial 2019 acquisition of Taylor Swift’s Big Machine catalog. At the time, Swift called the acquisition her “worst case scenario.” Braun’s Ithaca Holdings LLC has since sold the master rights to Swift’s first six studio albums to a private equity company called Shamrock Holdings. Swift, meanwhile, has gone about re-recording her LPs, starting with Fearless and Red. In its report, Billboard cited sources who said, “Over the past 10 months, representatives ...
Nick Cave and Brad Pitt Reveal Ceramic Sculptures in Finnish Museum Exhibition
Nick Cave has a new set of ceramic sculptures on display at Sara Hildén Art Museum in Tampere, Finland part of a show that also includes ceramic works from Brad Pitt. Leeds-born sculptor Thomas Houseago recruited them to join him in the exhibition WE, as the Associated Press reports. WE runs through January 15. Cave—who shares a name with the American sculptor known for his vibrant Soundsuits—told Finnish broadcaster YLE that his set of 17 sculptures tell the life story of the devil. “I wanted to do a devil because it was red. And I like the color of red glaze,” Cave told the AP, continuing, “For me, personally, it speaks into something about the idea of forgiveness or the need to be forgiven. It’s a very personal work for me.” Pitt, meanwhile, has maintained a ceramics hobby for a f...
Future Sells Publishing Catalog to Investment Firm
Future has sold the publishing rights to his recorded output from 2004–2020 to the investment firm Influence Media Partners, Variety and Billboard report. The catalog contains 612 titles, including collaborations with Drake, Kendrick Lamar, Rihanna, and the Weeknd. Variety reports the value of the deal to be in the “high eight figures.” As of February 2022, Influence Media had spent $300 million purchasing publishing rights to songs by Bruno Mars, Dua Lipa, Ariana Grande, and Justin Bieber. That month they received additional investment from Warner Music Group and BlackRock, an institutional investment firm that has drawn criticism for anti-competitive practices. In March, Influence Media bought the entirety of reggaetón heavyweight Tainy’s catalog, which includes songs by Bad Bunny,...
Taylor Swift Named Songwriter-Artist of the Decade by NSAI: Read Her Speech
The third category is called Glitter Gel Pen and it lives up to its name in every way. Frivolous, carefree, bouncy, syncopated perfectly to the beat. Glitter Gel Pen lyrics don’t care if you don’t take them seriously because they don’t take themselves seriously. Glitter Gel Pen lyrics are the drunk girl at the party who tells you that you look like an Angel in the bathroom. It’s what we need every once in a while in these fraught times in which we live. Example: “my ex man brought his new girlfriend; she’s like ‘oh my god’ but I’m just gonna shake and to the fella over there with the hella good hair, won’t you come on over baby we can shake, shake, shake.” Why did I make these categories, you ask? Because I love doing this thing we are fortunate...
Artist Uses AI to Imagine What Dead Musicians Would Look Like Today
Have you ever wondered what members of the 27 Club and other dead celebrities would look like if they were still alive? Photographer and lawyer Alper Yesiltas has attempted to answer that question by using AI technology to create portraits of celebrities including Kurt Cobain, John Lennon, Freddie Mercury, Janis Joplin, Tupac, and Heath Ledger. Yesiltas recently shared the first collection of the project, titled “As If Nothing Happened.” Other AI-generated images in the series include Freddie Mercury, Jimi Hendrix, Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley, and Bruce Lee. “With the development of AI technology, I’ve been excited for a while, thinking that ‘anything imaginable can be shown in reality,’” Yesiltas wrote about the project. “When I started tinkering with technology, I saw what I cou...
Dog the Bounty Hunter Predicts That “Like Hitler,” Biden Will “Commit Suicide” After Midterms
Duane Chapman has gone from bounty hunter to evangelist speaker, and the results are as bad as you’d imagine. The television personality, better known as Dog the Bounty Hunter, opined at a recent Christian conference that President Biden, who he referred to as “little Hitler,” stole the 2020 election, but that Republicans would restore the rightful political balance after sweeping this year’s midterms. He then predicted that Biden would follow Hitler’s footsteps and commit suicide after his defeat. Chapman was speaking at the aptly titled Opening the Heavens conference when he made these remarks. Recounting to the audience that he asked God why he would allow Biden to win (or steal) the election, the bounty hunter explained that the “bad thing” happened in order to show “God’s manifestatio...
How to Get Tickets to Pentatonix’s 2022 Christmas Tour
Pentatonix continue their legacy as one of the holiday’s most magical tickets with “A Christmas Spectacular Tour,” the quintet’s 2022 production that’ll double as the debut for their latest album, Holidays Around the World. The album arrives on October 28th, only weeks before the 22-date arena trek kicks off. Founding member Scott Hoying previewed the tour in a statement, saying, “The holidays have taken on a new meaning for all of us over the past couple of years. We cherish this time of year more than ever. However, we wanted to spread this message as far as possible. That’s why we decided to bridge the gap between cultures and genres in a way we never have before.” Get tickets here, and read on for more details including pre-sale dates. What Is Pentatonix’s Next Tour? Advertisement Rela...
Kaley Cuoco and Pete Davidson Charm in the Time Loop Rom-Com Meet Cute: Review
The Pitch: It’s a tale as old as time: Gary (Pete Davidson) and Sheila (Kaley Cuoco) meet at a bar, and it’s basically love at first sight. She notices him because he’s the only one in the bar not watching the Big Game. He notices her because she’s funny, witty, unexpected, and a little kooky; their droll senses of humor bounce off each other like electricity. As their night goes from bar to restaurant to slow walks and talks along the riverside, it seems like their moment-one spark is too good to be true. Well, that might be because it is: It doesn’t take long for Sheila to fess up to the fact that their spontaneous meeting wasn’t so spontaneous: She’s lived this night dozens of times before, thanks to a magical tanning machine in a nearby nail salon that zaps you back 24 hours in ti...
As Music Stocks Keep Slipping, This One K-Pop Company Is Bucking the Trend
South Korean music company SM Entertainment, home to such groups as NCT 127 and SuperM, stands apart in a competitive music business for withstanding stock market downturns that have hit all other publicly-traded music companies. Since December, stocks have been on a downward trend, sparked by the Federal Reserve’s intention to raise the federal funds rate to prevent the economy from overheating and rein in inflation. And while music is often said to be recession-proof, music companies’ stocks are not immune from larger economic trends and investors’ desires for safer options during chaotic times. Even though the global music industry is posting double-digit revenue growth, the share prices of publicly traded music companies have followed the broader trends and stumbled in the face ...
Meet NewJeans: HYBE’s Global Breakout Girl Group Where ‘Everything Was Riding on Secrecy’
One month ago, something strange happened in the K-pop world: A girl group surprise-dropped their first music video on YouTube with zero hype, news or previously released information. Surprise releases aren’t new to the global music industry, with most artists preferring later announcements to hype up album streams nowadays, but NewJeans created something remarkable in their unexpected and unorthodox drop in the K-pop business, where expert planning and precise rollouts are cornerstones. Korean companies utilize a proven method of announcing albums, releasing pre-order information, and teasing material from the photo shoots, videos and songs before revealing everything all on D-Day to maximize immediate impact across the charts and the public. Only rarely will K-pop stars have a ...
Taylor Swift Unveils First ‘Midnights’ Song Title, for ‘Track 13, Because of Course’
Taylor Swift knows she has a, well, reputation for dropping bread crumbs across her social media and music for eagle-eyed fans to decode and decipher. But that’s not what she’s up to this time around. She’s ready to give her fans some straightforward information, posting a TikTok first thing Wednesday (Sept. 21) — at the stroke of midnight, naturally — with a very cable-access vibe and the title “Midnights Mayhem With Me.” The superstar singer/songwriter, wearing a mustard blazer and sitting in front of a brown crushed-velvet backdrop, had a gold lottery-ball cage next to her with ping-pong balls labeled 1 to 13, representing each track on her Midnights album, due Oct. 21. “I know I have a habit of dropping cryptic clues and easter eggs when giving you information about new music, and I’m ...
