Rock
Five Burning Questions: Machine Gun Kelly’s ‘Tickets to My Downfall’ Debuts at No. 1
1. Machine Gun Kelly posts the best sales numbers and first No. 1 debut of his career with Tickets to My Downfall this week, his first full pop-punk album. What do you think the biggest reason is that his rock reinvention has been so successful? Katie Atkinson: It feels like his sound finally caught up to his persona. MGK had brushes with crossover success in the past — like Camila Cabello duet “Bad Things,” his highest-peaking Hot 100 hit to date (No. 4), or his headline-grabbing battle with Eminem — but those moments were always shared with other, bigger names. And the thing casual observers might remember best about him is his tall, tattooed frame, looking like a modern-day Tommy Lee (he even portrayed the Motley Crue drummer in Netflix’s&nbs...
Eddie Van Halen, Rock Legend & Guitar Hero, Dies at 65
The flashy guitarist and bandleader had been the subject of near-death rumors for many years — some due to his documented substance abuse issues but most stemming from news of tongue cancer in 2000 — which caused doctors to remove a third of his tongue — though Van Halen was declared cancer free two years later. In recent months, however, reports stated that he was battling throat cancer and flying to Germany for specialized treatments — though rumors of his imminent demise seemed to be exaggerated. In recent months, after a protracted period out of sight that led to more rumors of ill-health, Van Halen made a determined attempt at a public profile. During October he was photographed at a McLaren auto dealership in Beverly Hills, Calif., and shortly after that he at...
RIP Eddie Van Halen: These Are the Rock Icon’s Biggest Chart Hits
Here is a look at Van Halen’s top 10 biggest hits on the Hot 100 songs chart: Rank, Title, Peak Position, Peak Year “Jump,” No. 1 (for five weeks), 1984 “Why Can’t This Be Love,” No. 3, 1986 “When It’s Love,” No. 5, 1988 “Finish What Ya Started,” No. 13, 1988 “(Oh) Pretty Woman,” No. 12, 1982 “I’ll Wait,” No. 13, 1984 “Panama,” No. 13, 1984 “Love Walks In,” No. 22, 1986 “Dance the Night Away,” No. 15, 1979 “Dreams,” No. 22, 1986 On Van Halen’s all-time top 10 biggest Hot 100 hits list, “Jump” is followed by “Why Can’t This Be Love,” which was the band’s first single with singer Sammy Hagar, after former singer David Lee Roth departed the group in 1984. Van Halen’s top 10 biggest hits are split evenly between Roth and Hagar. The former sings on Nos. 1, 5, 6, 7 and 9, while Hagar is heard on...
Eddie Van Halen’s 15 Best Songs: Staff Picks
Boosted by the similarly masterful stickwork of drummer brother Alex, Eddie gave VH an immeasurable advantage over every other L.A.-based, crossover-ready hard rock band of the ’70s and ’80s –and there were so very many — from the very moment his two-finger tapping first roared out of the speakers. There’s a reason you only got two tracks into the first Van Halen LP before hitting a solo guitar showcase: This was Eddie’s band, first and foremost, and that on its own was plenty to take over the world with. With the sad news of his death at 65 rocking the music world this Tuesday (Oct. 6), we’re taking a look back at Eddie’s 15 best — songs that still sound like they’re setting fire to whatever soundsystem they’re being played...
Bruce Springsteen Announces Letter to You Documentary for Apple TV+
October 23rd is an exciting day for Bruce Springsteen fans. In addition to releasing his new album Letter to You that day, The Boss will unveil a companion Apple TV+ documentary. Produced by Apple Original Films, Bruce Springsteen’s Letter to You promises full song performances, in-studio footage, archival goodies, and a Springsteen-led look into the meaning of his new album. The iconic rocker wrote, directed, and served as executive producer on the project, with help from longtime collaborator and Springsteen On Broadway director Thom Zimny. In many ways, the documentary is also a celebration of Springsteen’s longstanding creative relationship with the E Street Band. Notably, the Letter to You album is the first project he’s released with the belove backing band follow...
Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Dreams’ Surges to Biggest Streaming Week Ever After Viral TikTok Video
The TikTok video in question has “Dreams” soundtracking a man in a hoodie (Nathan Apodaca) seemingly being pulled on a skateboard, as he drinks from a bottle of Ocean Spray Cran-Raspberry juice and sings along with Stevie Nicks’ lead vocal. The video became so popular, it moved the band’s own Mick Fleetwood to recreate the clip. “Dreams” also sold 7,000 downloads in the U.S. in the week ending Oct. 1 (up 584%) – its best sales week since the week ending July 24, 2011, when it sold 9,000. “Dreams” makes moves on the Billboard charts (dated Oct. 10), too, as it re-enters at a new peak of No. 9 on the Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart, climbs 19-1 on Rock Digital Song Sales, and rises 7-3 on Rock Streaming Songs. (Billboard‘s charts dated Oct. 10 will refresh to Billboard‘s w...
Phoebe Bridgers Launches Saddest Factory Label With Dead Oceans: Exclusive
That dream comes to fruition today with the launch of Bridgers’ own Dead Oceans imprint, Saddest Factory. The name is a tongue-in-cheek mispronunciation of the word “satisfactory” — which also happens to be a term used frequently in record deals — that was originally made on Twitter by her former Sloppy Jane bandmate Haley Dahl. “It’s always been a dream of mine to have a label, because I’m also such a music fan,” says Bridgers. She says she has been essentially pitching artists to Dead Oceans for years, and finally decided to ask Secretly for a label of her own when indie band Bright Eyes announced their signing to Dead Oceans in February — a deal that came together after Bright Eyes frontman Conor Oberst and Bridgers formed the indie-rock du...
Tommy Lee Reveals He ‘Was Drinking 2 Gallons’ of Vodka a Day: ‘I Was Drinking Out of Boredom’
“I literally did nothing. I would just float around drink and f–king drink! And what’s crazy, I didn’t notice it until towards the end of it when I was like, ‘Oh, dude, I gotta stop. This is f–king insane,'” he explained. “I was drinking out of boredom. I would just wake up and build all vodka and a little eyedropper of cranberry or lemonade or something — literally straight vodka. I was drinking 2 gallons — not pints — gallons, the big handles, A DAY. That’s f–king crazy!” “What’s important is I realized, ‘Whoa, dude, you’re drinking enough to like, you could probably die.’ And it wasn’t even phasing me,” he admitted. “I just became immune to it, and realized...
Here Are All the Livestreams & Virtual Concerts to Watch During the Coronavirus Crisis: Week of Oct. 5
Oct. 6: BTS joins Radio.com for a live performance, beginning at 6 p.m. ET. The event streams on Radio.com, Facebook and Twitter. Oct. 7: Linda Perry joins “SohoMuse Presents Voices” in honor of LGBTQ history month. The former 4 Non Blondes lead singer will be joining the virtual event’s co-founder for a one-on-one discussion that begins at 8 p.m. ET. Visit SohoMuse’s website for an invite. Oct. 8: Gloria Estefan and the cast of Hamilton will be performing during The Buoniconti Fund to Cure Paralysis’ 35th annual Great Sports Legends Dinner, which is going virtual this year. The event will be livestreamed, beginning at 7 p.m. ET. Tickets are available through the Buoniconti website; all proceeds will benefit&nb...
Machine Gun Kelly Earns First No. 1 Album on Billboard 200 Chart With ‘Tickets to My Downfall’
Machine Gun Kelly previously reached the Billboard 200’s top 10 with Hotel Diablo (No. 5, 2019), Bloom (No. 8, 2017), General Admission (No. 4, 2015) and Lace Up (No. 4, 2012). The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new Oct. 10-dated chart (where Tickets to My Downfall starts to No. 1) will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on Oct. 6. For all chart news, foll...
Mick Fleetwood Recreates Viral ‘Dreams’ TikTok, Cran-Raspberry Juice in Hand
Mick Fleetwood is taking on the “Dreams” TikTok challenge with a smile and a swig of juice. The Fleetwood Mac drummer gave a good-natured nod to Nathan Apodaca — the TikTok star whose video skateboarding down the road, while drinking cran-raspberry juice straight out of the bottle to the soundtrack of the band’s 1977 hit, made the rounds over the past week — in his own TikTok Sunday afternoon (Oct. 4). “@420doggface208 had it right. Dreams and Cranberry just hits different,” he captioned his take. You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for Dates Online. So we reimagined what a dating should be. It begins with giving you back power. Get to meet Beautiful people, chat and make money in the process. Earn rewards by chatting, sharing ...
Shamir’s Self-Titled Album Shows Them Coming into Their Own: Review
The Lowdown: In a recent interview with the Los Angeles Times, Shamir referred to their new album as “definitely a COVID record.” The Philadelphia-based nonbinary artist, born Shamir Bailey, has cited influences all over the map for the album recorded entirely in quarantine, from Gwen Stefani and Miranda Lambert to Unsolved Mysteries and My Friend Dahmer, and you can hear it in the music. Despite being only 25, Shamir has already released a prolific number of albums and EPs, all of them experimenting boldly with indie rock, electronics, R&B, and pop styles branching back through several decades. Their self-titled album is a sure-handed invention that finds their myriad influences colliding and coalescing more smoothly than ever before and ultimately crystallizing into something new. [e...
