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New releases by Blink-182 and the Rolling Stones score high on the Billboard album chart this week, while the music industry waits to see just how gigantic Taylor Swift’s latest rerecording will turn out to be. 2, and the Rolling Stones’ “Hackney Diamonds,” the group’s first album of new material in 18 years, and first studio LP since the death of its drummer Charlie Watts in 2021, opens at No. 3 with 8.4 million streams and 94,000 copies sold as a complete album. It is the Stones’ 38th LP to reach the Top 10. (In Britain, “Hackney Diamonds” went to No.
Persons: Taylor, Tom DeLonge, Mark Hoppus, Travis Barker, Matt Skiba, DeLonge —, , Charlie Watts Organizations: , Airwaves Locations: “ California, United States, Britain
Taylor Swift’s “1989” has been a fixture in the Top 20 of Billboard’s album chart for months. But “1989” is about to make an all-but-certain plunge down the chart. That’s because on Friday, Swift will release “1989 (Taylor’s Version),” the latest installment in her ambitious and wildly successful project to rerecord her first six studio albums. “1989” will be the fourth of Swift’s remakes, and each one so far has opened at No. “Speak Now” came out in July and started with 716,000 sales, including a remarkable 268,500 copies sold on vinyl LP.
Persons: Taylor Swift’s, , Swift, Locations: United States
Four years ago, Taylor Swift included the song “Cruel Summer” on her album “Lover.” It became a fan favorite, and had been in line to be released as a single in 2020, before the Covid-19 pandemic changed all plans. “That is something that happened that stopped ‘Cruel Summer’ from ever being a single,” the singer said a few months ago. After breaking into the Top 10 in July, “Cruel Summer” has finally made it to No. Over the last week, Swift went all out to promote it. Over the last week, “Cruel Summer” had nearly 19 million streams in the United States, sold 41,000 downloads — up from around 2,500 the week before — and had 78 million “airplay audience impressions,” a measurement of a song’s popularity at radio, according to the tracking service Luminate.
Persons: Taylor Swift, Swift, Locations: United States
Maybe I’m old-fashioned and I don’t give a [expletive] or whatever.”Those comments drew immediate fire on social media. (The foundation, created in 1983, chooses the artists who are inducted, and is affiliated with the museum in Cleveland.) Interviews with four people with direct knowledge of the board vote, who spoke anonymously because the panel’s deliberations are confidential, paint a picture of urgency and rage inside the institution. While board members felt personally appalled by Wenner’s comments, they were also worried about the impact on the hall itself, and its vital relationships with artists — some of whom were already beginning to complain. This year’s honorees include Kate Bush, Missy Elliott, Willie Nelson, Sheryl Crow, Rage Against the Machine, the Spinners and George Michael, who died in 2016.
Persons: Pharrell Williams, LL, ” Troy Carter, Prince, Wenner, Wenner’s, , missive, Bernie Taupin, Elton John’s, Heather Taupin, Kate Bush, Missy Elliott, Willie Nelson, Sheryl Crow, George Michael Organizations: Roll Hall of Fame Foundation, Spotify, The Times, Barclays Center, Machine, Spinners Locations: Cleveland, Brooklyn
Olivia Rodrigo’s new album, “Guts,” has a blockbuster opening at No. “Guts,” the second LP by the 20-year-old Rodrigo, becomes her second No. Rodrigo’s new album, which is also No. 1 in Britain, Canada, Australia and elsewhere, had 200 million streams in the United States and sold 150,000 copies as a complete package. Last week, Rodrigo announced a 75-date world tour to begin in February 2024.
Persons: Olivia Rodrigo’s, , ” —, Rodrigo, Taylor Swift’s, Morgan Wallen’s, Travis Scott’s Organizations: BTS Locations: United States, Britain, Canada, Australia
Jann Wenner, the co-founder of Rolling Stone magazine, has been removed from the board of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation, which he also helped found, one day after an interview with him was published in The New York Times in which he made comments that were widely criticized as sexist and racist. The foundation — which inducts artists into the hall of fame and was the organization behind the creation of its affiliated museum in Cleveland — made the announcement in a brief statement released Saturday. “Jann Wenner has been removed from the board of directors of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation,” the statement said. Joel Peresman, the president and chief executive of the foundation, declined to comment further when reached by phone. But the dismissal of Mr. Wenner comes after an interview with The Times, published Friday and timed to the publication of his new book, called “The Masters,” which collects his decades of interviews with rock legends like Bob Dylan, Mick Jagger, John Lennon, Bruce Springsteen and Bono — all of them white and male.
Persons: Jann Wenner, Cleveland —, “ Jann Wenner, Joel Peresman, Mr, Wenner, Bob Dylan, Mick Jagger, John Lennon, Bruce Springsteen, Bono — Organizations: Rolling Stone, Roll Hall of Fame Foundation, The New York Times, The Times Locations: Cleveland
Jimmy Buffett died of skin cancer at his home in Sag Harbor, N.Y., on Long Island, according to a statement on the singer-songwriter’s website. After Mr. Buffett died on Friday at age 76, his site announced the death but did not give a cause or specify where he died. In an update over the weekend, the website said that he had Merkel cell carcinoma for four years. A rare and aggressive form of skin cancer, Merkel cell is diagnosed only about 2,500 times a year in the United States, and until recent years it had carried a life expectancy of five months. He sold at least 23 million albums in the United States alone, according to the Recording Industry Association of America, on par with Jimi Hendrix and the Beastie Boys.
Persons: Jimmy Buffett, Buffett, Merkel, Jimi Hendrix Organizations: Recording Industry Association of America, Beastie Locations: Sag Harbor, N.Y, Long, United States, Paradise
Long before it became a soundtrack nugget and an internet meme, it was just a rock band’s attempt to land a radio hit. The song took shape while the group was working on its second album, “Astro Lounge,” after its first taste of success with the song “Walkin’ on the Sun” (1997). The group submitted a batch of songs to its record company and was told: “You’re not done. Greg Camp, Smash Mouth’s guitarist and primary songwriter, said the song’s lovable-loser theme (“I ain’t the sharpest tool in the shed”) emerged from fan mail. “About 85 to 90 percent of the mail was from these kids who were being bullied” for being Smash Mouth fans, he told the website Songfacts.
Persons: Steve Harwell, , ” Robert Hayes, Stone, Greg Camp, Smash, Organizations: Sun Locations: California
1 on the Billboard album chart for a second time this week, while Morgan Wallen’s “Last Night” logs its 16th time as the top single. That total includes 146 million streams and 37,000 copies of the LP sold as a complete package. The last rap album to spend at least its first two weeks at No. 2, while his song “Last Night,” a monster hit on streaming services and pop radio, holds at No. Only Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road,” with 19 weeks in 2019, had a longer run at the top.
Persons: Travis Scott, Morgan Wallen’s “, , , Tyler, Luis Fonsi, Yankee’s, Mariah Carey, Lil Nas Locations: United States,
In an interview, Kenny G said that Batiste had asked him about the polarized reactions to his work. “You’ve got to play what sounds good to you, and feels good to you,” Kenny G recalled telling him. “Lucky for you, there’s a big audience that seems to like what you do. “To say I love everybody, including Republicans — as a Black guy, I don’t know how that could go,” he said. But the act of removing a certain baseline of humanity in how we approach living amongst each other, that should be radical.
Persons: Kenny G, Batiste, “ You’ve, ” Kenny G, “ Lucky, ” Batiste, Taylor Swift, , , , he’s Organizations: Republican
Ye, the rap star formerly known as Kanye West, on Monday made his first concert appearance after a series of antisemitic remarks on social media and in interviews last year, which led to his alienation from the music industry and loss of lucrative fashion deals with Adidas, Gap and Balenciaga. Ye’s return to the stage came as a guest during a livestreamed album-release concert by Travis Scott at Circus Maximus, the park in central Rome that in ancient times was the site of a giant stadium where chariot races and other entertainment took place. Scott, a protégé of Ye’s, brought his mentor out during a concert to celebrate his chart-topping new album, “Utopia.” With Scott dressed in white and Ye all in black — initially with a hood and mask, which didn’t stay on for long — they performed two Ye songs together: “Praise God,” from his 2021 album “Donda,” and “Can’t Tell Me Nothing,” a Kanye West classic from his 2007 album “Graduation.”“There is no ‘Utopia’ without Kanye West,” Scott told the crowd. “There is no Travis Scott without Kanye West. There is no Rome without Kanye West.”
Persons: Ye, Ye’s, Travis Scott, Circus Maximus, Scott, , Kanye, ” Scott Organizations: Adidas, Kanye Locations: Rome, Ye’s
Almost two years ago, the career of the rap star Travis Scott had seemed in doubt after the catastrophe of his Astroworld Festival in Houston, where 10 people were crushed to death and hundreds more were injured. The authorities investigated Scott’s role, but in June prosecutors announced that a grand jury had declined to indict Scott and two festival officials. A number of civil lawsuits against Scott and festival organizers, however, remain pending. That cloud was no deterrent to Scott’s fans, who have sent the rapper’s latest album, “Utopia,” straight to No. That was by far the biggest opening for any hip-hop album this year.
Persons: Travis Scott, Scott, Maximus, West Organizations: Adidas, Balenciaga Locations: Houston, United States, Rome
But Swift has also made each show a news event by adding two “surprise songs,” often with headline-grabbing guests. Music critics have portrayed the Eras Tour as showing Swift at the top of her game as a media-savvy, big-tent talent, a pop star with a knack for grand spectacle as well as the polished artistry of a classic songwriter. Shania Twain, the country-pop star whose career in some ways prefigured Swift’s, caught the Las Vegas stop of the Eras Tour, a 44-plus song production that goes as long as three and a half hours. She praised Swift’s “beautiful balance” of high-tech stagecraft and intimate performance segments. (Swift’s representatives declined to comment for this article.)
Persons: Swifties, Julia Roberts, Aaron Rodgers, Flav, Swift, , Taylor Lautner, backflipped, , ” Lautner, Shania Twain, Swift’s, ” Twain, Organizations: New York Jets, Las, Ticketmaster Locations: Kansas City, Mo, Seattle
Last week, Jason Aldean’s song “Try That in a Small Town,” which the country star portrays as a paean to neighborly values but critics have described as a call to racist vigilantism, opened at No. 2 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart, after its music video became a culture war battleground. 1 single on Billboard’s all-genre singles chart in Aldean’s nearly two-decade career as a top Nashville hitmaker. As the song has stirred debate, tweaks have been made to its music video, which early on was pulled without explanation by Country Music Television but remains available on YouTube. Last week, a new version appeared, six seconds shorter than the original and scrubbed of news clips showing Black Lives Matter protests in 2020.
Persons: Jason Aldean’s, Nashville hitmaker Organizations: Nashville, Country Music, YouTube Locations: , Aldean’s, United States
The Dave Matthews Band is on tour, as they have been every summer, except 2020, for the past 30-odd years. Like the Grateful Dead and Phish, so-called jam bands with which it’s often lumped together, Dave Matthews has a deliriously passionate fan base that follows the band from city to city, reuniting with fellow disciples at preshow tailgates, showing off devotional tattoos, trading live recordings. In the early ’90s, when I arrived for my first year at the University of Virginia, Dave Matthews was a local celebrity. It would be years before the stereotype of Dave Matthews fans as “pot-smoking, tie-dye-touting former frat bros fawning over craft beers in parking lots between cornhole games,” as Perri Ormont Blumberg puts it, would become a widely understood social designation. We spent the next four years not going to Dave Matthews Band shows together.
Persons: Dave Matthews, preshow, , Perri Ormont Blumberg, ” Ben Sisario Organizations: University of Virginia, The Times Locations: Virginia
In May, the country star Jason Aldean released a single, “Try That in a Small Town,” with lyrics that paint contemporary urban life as a hellscape of crime and anarchy: “Sucker punch somebody on a sidewalk/Carjack an old lady at a red light.”“You think you’re tough,” Aldean sings. “Well, try that in a small town.”Initially, the track got relatively little notice, landing at No. “Try That in a Small Town” makes its debut at No. 2 on the Hot 100, Aldean’s best showing ever on Billboard’s all-genre pop chart, beating current hits by Olivia Rodrigo and Morgan Wallen. Aldean was surpassed this week only by Jung Kook of the South Korean supergroup BTS, whose debut solo single, “Seven,” opens at No.
Persons: Jason Aldean, Aldean, Aldean —, , Olivia Rodrigo, Morgan Wallen, Jung Kook, , Henry Choate, Organizations: Korean, BTS Locations: , Maury, Columbia, Tenn
When Taylor Swift released “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)” this month, there was no doubt it would debut at No. The only questions were how forcefully it would smash records, how many mountains of vinyl it would sell and how far down the chart Swift’s catalog would push everybody else. 1 albums, but the only acts with more are Jay-Z (14) and the Beatles (19). Swift is the first living act to have four albums in the Top 10 since Herb Alpert in 1966. (Prince had five after his death in 2016, and for many years Billboard barred older “catalog” albums from reappearing on its main chart — a rule that was changed after Michael Jackson’s death, in 2009.)
Persons: Taylor Swift, Morgan Wallen’s, Barbra Streisand, Drake, Swift, Herb Alpert, Prince, Michael Jackson’s Organizations: Beatles Locations: United States
More than four years of family conflict over the estate of Aretha Franklin ended Tuesday when a Michigan jury decided what her family could not — which of two hand-scrawled wills represented the famed singer’s true wishes for how to divide her estate. The verdict resolved more than four years of uncertainty that caused a rift in Franklin’s family, and it sets in motion a plan for how income and assets from her estate should be divided. After the singer died, at age 76, her family believed she had no will. Under Michigan law, her assets would have been divided equally among her four sons: Kecalf, Edward and Clarence Franklin, and Ted White Jr. The sons unanimously selected a cousin as the estate’s personal representative, a position similar to that of an executor.
Persons: Aretha Franklin, Franklin, Kecalf, Edward, Clarence Franklin, Ted White Jr Organizations: Michigan Locations: Michigan, Pontiac, Mich
Ticketmaster has once again cracked under the weight of a Taylor Swift ticket sale — this time in France. As French fans prepared on Tuesday to purchase tickets to six concerts in May and June 2024 on Swift’s Eras Tour — four shows in Paris, two in Lyon — Ticketmaster’s website displayed a gigantic queue of customers ready to buy; one screenshot appeared to tell a fan that 1,023,504 shoppers were in line ahead of them. Soon, Ticketmaster announced that sales for those shows had been placed on “pause.” The company gave no explanation, but said that a new on-sale time would be announced, and that “all codes not already used will remain valid.” But some fans’ social media posts seemed to show technical errors on Ticketmaster’s website, including a progress icon that “keeps spinning and spinning and spinning,” as one fan — speaking English with an American accent, but with 762 euros’ worth of tickets in their shopping cart — put it. Representatives of Ticketmaster and its corporate parent, the concert giant Live Nation Entertainment, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Persons: Taylor Swift Organizations: Ticketmaster, Entertainment Locations: France, Paris, Lyon
Live Nation, the world’s largest concert company, said it would begin introducing “all-in pricing” — showing consumers the full price up front — at the venues it controls, which include more than 200 amphitheaters, clubs and other spaces in the United States. Ticketmaster, which is owned by Live Nation, said it would make this tool available to other venues and promoters as well. Those changes are expected beginning in September. SeatGeek, a major vendor for ticket resale that also works for major venues and sports teams like the Dallas Cowboys, said it too would begin introducing a feature that would reveal to consumers the full price of a ticket. Those changes come as the Biden administration has stepped up its pressure on the entertainment and travel industries to rein in what it calls “junk fees.” At his State of the Union address in February, President Biden said he wanted to ban “surprise resort fees that hotels charge on your bill,” and added: “We can stop service fees on tickets to concerts and sporting events and make companies disclose all the fees upfront.”
Persons: Biden, Organizations: Ticketmaster, Live, Dallas Cowboys Locations: United States, SeatGeek
A group of 17 music publishers sued Twitter on Wednesday, accusing it of copyright infringement on about 1,700 songs, and is seeking as much as $250 million in damages, the latest headache for the social media platform owned by Elon Musk. The publishers filed the suit in Federal District Court in Nashville, saying Twitter violated copyright law by allowing users to post music to the platform without permission. Negotiations between Twitter and the music industry to put broad licensing agreements into place had broken down months ago. The suit detailed what the publishers say is Twitter’s failure to police rampant infringement of music copyrights on the service. The post had 221,000 views and 15,000 likes, the suit said, but not the permission of the song’s publishers.
Persons: Elon Musk, ” David Israelite, Musk Organizations: Twitter, Elon, Federal, Court, National Music Publishers ’ Association Locations: Nashville
Taylor Swift Halts Morgan Wallen’s Run at No. 1
  + stars: | 2023-06-05 | by ( Ben Sisario | ) www.nytimes.com   time to read: +1 min
For 12 weeks, nothing could stop Morgan Wallen’s domination of the Billboard chart with his latest album, “One Thing at a Time.” Not Metallica. Then came deluxe reissues of “Midnights,” Taylor Swift’s seven-month-old LP. In the United States, “Midnights” has had the equivalent of nearly five million sales and been streamed 3.2 billion times. Lately, as Swift’s Eras Tour has become a cultural juggernaut, her wider catalog has also dotted the upper ranks of the album chart. Last week, Swift had nine titles in the Top 40.
Persons: Morgan Wallen’s, , Ed Sheeran, Jonas Brothers, ” Taylor Swift’s, Midnights ”, , Swift Organizations: BTS Locations: United States
The roster of special guests has included Bruce Springsteen, Tony Bennett, Olivia Rodrigo and Joel’s daughter Alexa Ray Joel. The residency has continued on a roughly monthly schedule since its inception, aside from an 18-month break during the Covid-19 pandemic, returning in November 2021. According to the trade publication Pollstar, Joel’s residency has played to nearly 1.7 million people through its 89th performance in April, and sold $207 million in tickets. The idea for the residency came about following Celine Dion’s two record-breaking runs in Las Vegas, which started in 2003 and ultimately sold about $660 million in tickets. Last year, for example, Harry Styles played 15 dates at the Garden and, in late 2022 and 2023, another 15 at the Kia Forum in Inglewood, Calif.
Persons: , Bruce Springsteen, Tony Bennett, Olivia Rodrigo, Joel’s, Alexa Ray Joel, Celine Dion’s, Joel, , ” Dennis Arfa, Harry Styles Organizations: MSG, York State, New York Times, Kia Locations: “ Allentown, , York, Las Vegas, Vegas, , Inglewood , Calif
The star’s eagle-eyed fan community speculated online that the singer was injured. A spokeswoman for Beyoncé did not respond to questions about her performance. Kristin Hulden, a Swedish fashion student who was wearing an embroidered jacket she had made that depicted Beyoncé riding a horse (the image on the cover of her latest album, “Renaissance”), said she had noticed the star’s more limited movement, but it hadn’t bothered her. Competition for tickets to pop’s biggest, priciest concerts has been stiff, and many in the crowd had traveled far — even thousands of miles — to guarantee that they would see Beyoncé this time. Rhoyle Ivy King, 26, an actor wearing a fluorescent turquoise jumpsuit and shades, said before the show that he had come from Los Angeles for the concert, spending about $2,500.
Instead, the jury heard a computerized “Let’s Get It On,” based on the original sheet music. Ed Sheeran showed two very different sides. Sheeran attended every day of testimony in the trial, and on the stand he could be charming, demonstrating his songwriting with a guitar. A key part of any music copyright trial is the testimony of musicologists hired as expert witnesses for each side, who present dry, abstract analyses of the music. At the Sheeran trial, the two experts also seemed to take every opportunity to put each other down.
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