Pop
Rick Astley Turns Post Malone’s “Better Now” into an Acoustic Banger: Watch
Rick Astley has gone from RickRolling to rollin’ with his brothers like it’s Jonas. The 54-year-old British musician has shared a cover of Post Malone’s “Better Now”, and dare we say it might be better now. “There are a lot of words in this song. It’s not my song, I don’t really know it properly,” Astley says in the YouTube video capturing the performance. “But I love it, so I’m gonna give it ago. Here we go, let’s see what happens.” What happens is perhaps a more impactful version of the Beerbongs & Bentleys hit. By turning the track into an acoustic banger instead of the trap-y pop of the original, Astley highlights the blues nature in the lyrics. He gives the words a bit of a country twang and growls out the chorus, really bringing the song’s melancholy to the forefront. Honest...
Blackpink Tease Upcoming Album, Talk Churning ‘Ice Cream’ With Selena Gomez: Watch
Selena Gomez and BLACKPINK hopped on the air with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe on Friday morning (Aug. 28) to talk about their superstar collab on “Ice Cream” and what a blast it was to blend their voices. “I’m so excited. The girls are so cool, and I love their music. I just think that they know… They have this thing about them… I had such a good time with them over FaceTime,” Gomez said in her video chat with Lowe. And while the original plan was for all of them to be together, but of course the COVID-19 pandemic changed all that. “But it felt so fun,” Gomez added, dipping into the fun she had filming the colorful, playful video for the track, which dropped Friday morning. “Recording the song, having a blast doing that, but then also...
First Stream: New Music From Blackpink & Selena Gomez, Katy Perry, The Weeknd & More
Billboard’s First Stream serves as a handy guide to this Friday’s most essential releases — the key music that everyone will be talking about today, and that will be dominating playlists this weekend and beyond. This week, Blackpink and Selena Gomez combine for a delicious treat, Katy Perry returns with an ear-to-ear grin, and The Weeknd teams up with Calvin Harris for some mood music. Check out all of this week’s First Stream picks below: The Song That Will Give You an Instant Sugar High:Blackpink & Selena Gomez, “Ice Cream” [embedded content] After guesting on Lady Gaga’s Chromatica track “Sour Candy” and scoring a top 40 hit with their own single “How You Like That,” K-pop group Blackpink continues its steady U.S. takeover with “Ice Cream,” a new collaboration with Selen...
The 13 Best Things That Happened in Music This Week (August 28)
If you’re just waking up on this glorious Friday, you’re about to discover what much of Twitter already knows: Selena Gomez and Blackpink’s epic new collaboration “Ice Cream” has arrived. We know what we’ll be doing for the next few days: “Ice cream chillin’, chillin’, ice cream chillin’!” Plus, we’re heading into VMAs weekend, and you can brush up on your music video history ahead of the big night by checking out our list of the 100 greatest music video artists of all time. Take a look at all of that — and more of the week’s biggest music happenings — below. Taylor Swift’s Folklore ruled for a fourth week Swift’s latest set topped the Billboard 200 chart once again, with 101,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending Aug. 20. Billboard’s...
Katy Perry’s Smile Makes Us Reconsider What We Want from Pop Music: Review
The Lowdown: Katy Perry has always seemed willing to be pop’s sexy clown: serving up effervescent anthems that don’t take themselves too seriously. When Perry did delve into her own a-woke-ening on 2017’s Witness, she was dismissed as politically tone-deaf and creatively off the mark. But on her sixth album, Smile, Perry manages to marry her “purposeful pop” with the big, uplifting production of her massive hit-making past. Perry is an entertainer who seems to sincerely want to make audiences a little happier; however, her album’s old tricks leave us wondering what we ask of pop music in 2020. [embedded content] The Good: This week, Perry marked two major milestones: She welcomed her first child, Daisy Dove, and celebrated the 10-year anniversary of her juggernaut album Teenage Dream. If y...
JoJo Unveils Deluxe Edition of ‘Good to Know,’ Featuring ‘Lonely Hearts’ Demi Lovato Remix
JoJo‘s sassy, empowering Good to Know album got a new twist. The singer dropped the deluxe edition of her recent project on Friday (Aug. 28), featuring a number of new songs and remixes. The “Too Little Too Late” singer called on some of her fellow female acts to assist on some sultry songs, including Demi Lovato on “Lonely Hearts” and Tinashe on a new track called “Love Reggae.” However, one person who doesn’t appear on the project is Tory Lanez, who was featured on the original album with 30 Roc on “Comeback.” The news came last week, after Megan Thee Stallion confirmed that the rapper is the one who shot her in a recent incident. In a statement to Billboard, the singer said, “It felt like the righ...
Dua Lipa Welcomes You to ‘Club Future Nostalgia’ With New Remix Album: Stream It Now
Amid the coronavirus pandemic, Dua Lipa is bringing the fun of a nightclub to the comfort of our socially distanced homes. The pop star dropped her Club Future Nostalgia remix album on Friday (Aug. 28), featuring fresh new spins on Future Nostalgia favorites. Most notably, the 17-track effort includes the epic “Levitating” remix by The Blessed Madonna, featuring Madonna and Missy Elliott. “I see her and I saw this album as a part of this whole history of subversive women in pop music,” The Blessed Madonna recently told Zane Lowe of Lipa’s music. “And for me, the great dance records are pop records and the great pop records are dance records and those things live together. And then to be able to have all of this content ...
Calvin Harris & The Weeknd Drop Their Collab ‘Over Now’: Listen
The Internet went on high alert last week when Calvin Harris and The Weeknd both shared cryptic but suggestive Instagram images that pointed to a forthcoming collab. Today (Aug.28) that track, “Over Now” is here. The song is deeply smooth, R&B-leaning breakup jam with flourishes of funk and synth shimmer that serves as base for The Weekend to deliver lyrics in which he implores his ex to stop calling. The video finds a digitally rendered and fairly psychedelic avatar of the singer dancing around a series of Web 1.0 landscapes that altogether have heavy aesthetic influences of Daft Punk, Gesaffelstein and Blade Runner. “Over Now” is the Scottish producer’s first release as Calvin Harris since his 2019 single “Giant” with Rag’n’Bone M...
Katy Perry Tells a Vintage Cartoon Love Story for New ‘Harleys in Hawaii’ Video
It’s been a busy week for Katy Perry. Not only has the pop star given birth to her fist child with Orlando Bloom, she’s also gearing up for the release of her fifth album Smile on Friday (Aug. 28). In the midst of it all, Perry has been delivering a number of creative clip for her Smile tracks, including the latest visual for “Harleys in Hawaii.” “Took my time capsule back to one of my favorite periods in animation and created a lil 1920s Hawaiian love story for you,” she tweeted earlier in the day, teasing the clip. The black-and-white cartoon vignette finds two Hawaiian lovers running away together with their new band of friends. Watch it below. [embedded content] You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for Dates Online. So we rei...
Alanis Morissette Needs Help Finding ‘Pretty Forks’ in Virtual Escape Room
In celebration of her No. 1 album Such Pretty Forks in the Road, Alanis Morissette invited a select few to a virtual escape room experience Thursday (Aug. 27) to find the prettiest fork in the room. Her ninth studio album topped Billboard‘s Top Rock Albums two weeks ago (chart dated Aug. 15) following its release on July 31. But the pressure was on to follow suit and come out victorious with the missing item from her recording studio. In the 15-minute simulation presented virtually by the Anaheim-based escape room center Mission Escape Games, Amy the sound engineer misplaced the prettiest fork, and it was up to us to find it so the famed singer-songwriter could finish her album. Morissette’s catalog lent itself nicely as various clues, from a poster of her H...
Ciara Spills How Her ‘Goodies’ Hit Almost Went to Britney Spears
Ciara launched her “Level Up Radio” with Apple Music Hits last week, and she spilled a “crazy story” about how her debut No. 1 Billboard Hot 100 single “Goodies” almost went to Britney Spears. Had Ciara’s name not been attached to the Petey Pablo-assisted hit, she would’ve missed out on her career-defining success with a No. 1 song that stretched out on the chart for seven weeks straight and is platinum-certified by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). “When I had this record, I knew that it was a very, very special record. And I worked so hard on this record, and this industry can sometimes bring you incredible challenges,” she recalled. “But unbeknownst to me… it was myself a...
Girls Aloud’s Sarah Harding Reveals She’s ‘Fighting’ Breast Cancer
Girls Aloud singer Sarah Harding took to Instagram on Wednesday (Aug. 26) to share some heartbreaking news. Alongside a photo of herself in a hospital bed, she revealed her breast cancer diagnosis. “Earlier this year I was diagnosed with breast cancer and a couple of weeks ago I received the devastating news that the cancer has advanced to other parts of my body,” she revealed. “I’m currently undergoing weekly chemotherapy sessions and I am fighting as hard as I possibly can.” “I understand this might be shocking to read on social media and that really isn’t my intention,” she continued. “But last week it was mentioned online that I had been seen in hospital, so I feel now is the time to let people know what’s going on and this is the best way I ca...
