NEWS
One Direction Streams, Sales Spike In U.K. Following 10th Anniversary
The 10-year anniversary celebrations for One Direction were a lightning rod for the pop band’s sales and streams in the U.K., new data reveals. According to data published by the Official Charts Company, almost 25 million streams of the group’s songs were generated in the days leading to and following the July 23 anniversary date. As previously reported, three of their catalog albums — Take Me Home, Made in the A.M. and Four — last week returned to the Official U.K. Albums Chart Top 40. {“nid”:”9427696″,”type”:”post”,”title”:”One Direction Re-Enters Social 50 Chart After Celebrating 10th Anniversary”,”relative_path”:”\/articles\/business\/chart-beat\/9427696\/one-direction-return-soc...
Wayne Connolly, Celebrated Australian Producer and Engineer, Launches Scenic Drive: Exclusive
Wayne Connolly, the celebrated Australian producer, engineer and artist who has collected eight ARIA Awards — and counting — for his work, has launched his first label, Scenic Drive. Based in Sydney, Connolly’s latest venture begins life with its debut signing The Nagging Doubts, whose breezy first single “Shot In The Dark” is due out Aug. 20, supported by a gig that night at The Vanguard in Newtown. They’re an “impressively self-sufficient band who are really good at home recording and they have stockpiled dozens of ideas and demos that need finishing,” Connolly tells Billboard. Scenic Drive should be a breath of fresh air, hitting fifth gear at a time when creatives are feeling stifled by the health crisis and the troubling second wave currently pummeling the state of Victori...
Gracie Abrams Delivers Debut TV Performance With Emotional ‘I Miss You’ on ‘Fallon’: Watch
Gracie Abrams made her TV debut Tuesday night on The Tonight Show. If she was freaking out on the inside, she sure wasn’t showing it. Armed with a keyboard and a microphone, the 20-year-old folk singer and songwriter Zoomed in from her bedroom for a virtual performance of “I Miss You, I’m Sorry.” {“nid”:”7964717″,”type”:”post”,”title”:”Gracie Abrams Releases New Single 'Spark' in Support of Pediatric Cancer Research”,”relative_path”:”\/articles\/news\/7964717\/gracie-abrams-spark-pediatric-cancer-jj-daughter\/”,”media”:{“width”:”1548″,”height”:”1024″,”extension”:”jpg”,”mime...
Benzino Popped For Property Damage Due To Jealous Rage, Allegedly
Source: Lucianna Faraone Coccia / Getty Benzino is in the news again, and it doesn’t have do with Love & Hip Hop or The Source magazine. The Boston rapper turned reality star was arrested for property damage due to a jealous rage, allegedly. It reportedly went down last Friday (July 31), when he got into a shouting match with a man who was hanging with his ex-girlfriend and baby mama, fellow reality star Althea Eaton. Reports TMZ: That other man told cops he “and a female he has been seeing, Althea Eaton, were out for a walk in the neighborhood” but when they got back to his truck, Benzino “approached him in a threatening and harassing manner.” Cops say the man told them he didn’t know Benzino and had no idea Althea was involved with someone else. Ac...
Racist Virginia Mayor Compares Joe Biden’s Potential VP Pick To Aunt Jemima
Source: Justin Sullivan / Getty The town of Luray, Va. is best known for its caverns and as the headquarters of the sprawling Shenandoah National Park. However, the mayor of the small town is being asked to step down in the midst of a racist post comparing Joe Biden’s potential vice president pick to Aunt Jemima. As reported by WTOP, a Washington area station, Mayor Barry Presgraves took to Facebook to make the racist job, writing, “Joe Biden has just announced Aunt Jemima as his VP pick.” Presgraves, who has served as mayor of the predominately-white town of just under 5,000, has seemingly deleted the post after the chatter around wording began to gain traction online. It has been long presumed that Biden, the former vice president, will select a woman as his running mat...
In Jesus Name: Jonathan Isaac Tears ACL Days After Standing For National Anthem
Source: Pool / Getty Jonathan Isaac stood for the national anthem, opting not to kneel in solidarity with his NBA brethren. Now he will be sitting down the rest of the season following a severe injury. In what is being described as one of the most ironic moments ever, Isaac, who didn’t rock a Black Lives Matter shooting shirt and passed on kneeling during the anthem, is out for the season following an ACL tear. Following the unfortunate turn of events on the court, Isaac gave an update to his fans tweeting: “IT IS WELL!!! 2 Kings 4! Thank you for all of your prayers and concerns I’m encouraged. Remember our God is not just a God of the hills but a God of the valleys! (2 Corinthians ch 4 vs 9!) MY COMEBACK WILL BE GREATER THAN MY SETBACK!!!! I STILL STAND IN JESUS NAME!!!!”...
Jaguar Wright Accuses Common Of Sexual Assault
Source: Johnny Nunez / Getty Jaguar Wright is continuing her promise of exposing her OkayPlayer collective colleagues and this time she dropped a massive allegation against Chicago-bred MC Common. On Sunday (Aug 2), Jaguar Wright took to Instagram Live to address the disrespect she alleges that she faced at the hands of Common. During the Live, Wright alleges that Common sexually assaulted her while the two were allegedly dating. According to the songstress, the two were in bed after a show and Common asked for sex, which she declined. “Gotdamn Common. Next thing I know, we go to bed and he’s like, ‘C’mon Jag.’ I’m like ‘No, no, no. I’m tired n*gga,” Jaguar Wright recalled. “I was on the stage all night. I want to lay down.’ I laid down with my clothes on. I’m a rape surv...
HHW Gaming: More Exclusives Announced For ‘Marvel’s Avengers’ On PlayStation
Source: Square Enix / Crystal Dynamics Xbox, PC, and Stadia gamers were BIG MAD after Sony announced Spider-Man as a Playstation exclusive character for Marvel’s Avengers. Sony just dropped even more news about exclusives coming with the Crystal Dynamic’s title. At this point, its looking PlayStation is indeed the best place to play when it comes to Marvel’s Avengers. In a new post shared today (Aug.4) on PlayStation’s blog, Crystal Dynamics revealed that even more exclusives that PS4 players will get to enjoy before Xbox, Stadia, and PC owners. Today’s post focused on Community Challenges, a feature that will be featured in all versions of the game. The feature will see players trying to accomplish goals to unlock rewards. Crystal Dynamics was very stingy whe...
Damning Article Accuses TikTok of Censoring Black Users & “Digital Blackface”
Source: NurPhoto / Getty TikTok has been in the news a lot lately, mainly because of Donald Trump and his threat to ban it. A new story highlights another issue plaguing the Chinese-owned insanely-popular social media platform. In a very damning write-up dropped by Wired, TikTok and its white users are being called out for its blatant of use of “digital Blackface.” The story details how Black users are being censored for basically pushing pro-Black messaging in their content while white users continue to gain popularity by using Black culture as a caricature. The story focuses on one Black TikTok user, Brianna Blackmon, who found out just how shady TikTok moves. The story describes how a post she shared that featured her rapping and calling out the platform for unfairly Black u...
Will Kandi Crush Our Expectations With Its $19,999 EV?
Tiger King introduced us to characters such as Joe Exotic and Carole Baskin, as well as the weird world of big cat collectors and rescuers. It also reminded us about the existence of the $10,599 Kandi Coco, which briefly appears in scenes of the series filmed at Exotic’s Oklahoma zoo. Nearly a decade ago, the Chinese brand’s small, Smart-like electric vehicle was available to Oklahomans for as little as $865 thanks to then-available federal and state tax credits. Now, Kandi is back with two new EVs it plans to sell in the United States: the Model K27 and Model K23. Curiously, the numerically higher Model K27 is the cheaper, lower-performance version of the two. That said, it’s also the better looking of this pair. Mind you, looks are subjective and the K27 is anything but pretty. 2021 Ka...
Alessia Cara Explains Why Her ‘Nostalgic’ Recent EP Needed To Help Raise Money
Alessia Cara says that her latest project, a live covers EP of her own material, This Summer: Live Off the Floor, “brought a whole new life” to her songs. “I feel like hearing them this way just makes them a lot more nostalgic, cathartic in a way,” she tells the Billboard Pop Shop Podcast (listen below). “It feels a little bit more emotional than they do on the original record.” The project sees Cara putting a new spin on the songs she released on her last release, 2019’s This Summer EP, in addition to a couple earlier hit singles not found on the set, like “Scars To Your Beautiful” and “Here.” Released on July 17, the new live effort also has a charity bent, as all of Cara’s proceeds from the album, for the next 21 years, will benefit Save the Children. She says that so much has been “unc...
Will the Grammys Classify Taylor Swift’s ‘Folklore’ as Pop or Alternative?
Last week, we asked whether Taylor Swift’s new album Folklore would put her back in the album of the year finals at the Grammys for the first time since she won for 1989. Most of you seem to think it will. Here’s a tougher follow-up question: Will the album compete for best pop vocal album, as Swift’s last three albums have, or best alternative music album? (Albums may compete in only one “genre album” category.) Unfortunately, we can’t just go by the charts: The album enters both the all-genre Billboard 200 and Alternative Albums at No. 1 this week. The album has strong alternative credentials. Aaron Dessner, who co-produced the album with Swift and her long-time collaborator Jack Antonoff, and who co-wrote nine songs on the album with Swift, won a Grammy in the alternative ca...
