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Kendrick Lamar, the rapper laureate and one of the music world’s least predictable stars, released a surprise new album, “GNX,” on Friday. It is the sixth studio album by Lamar, 37, who won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2018 and, even before releasing the album, has been having a banner year. On the cover, Lamar slouches against the rear of the vehicle, and the video — with swelling strings and Lamar’s multi-tracked, rapid-fire vocals — shows Lamar with the car in an empty, monumental space. 6,” the latest in a series of tracks with similar titles, which has become a Lamar signature. It is also an implicit rejoinder against Drake, who had released a diss track in May called “The Heart Part 6.”
Persons: Kendrick Lamar, , Lamar, Drake, , , Lamar slouches Organizations: Music Locations: Lamar
Garth Brooks, the country superstar, has named the woman who, as Jane Roe, accused him of rape and sexual assault in a bombshell lawsuit last week. In a court filing in Mississippi on Tuesday, lawyers for Mr. Brooks portrayed the star as “the victim of a shakedown” and said the woman’s lawyers had “flouted” the authority of a judge in a related case. Litigation over the woman’s accusations began last month with a lawsuit that was filed anonymously — as John Doe v. Jane Roe — in federal court in Mississippi. In a response, lawyers for the woman said they intended to sue the man in California, saying that “Ms. Roe respectfully requests that she may commence her California action as she intended to do, and use Mr. Doe’s name, absent objection from this Honorable Court.”
Persons: Garth Brooks, Jane Roe, Brooks, , John Doe, Jane Roe —, , Roe Locations: Mississippi, Tennessee, California
This week Taylor Swift sets a personal chart record with her album “The Tortured Poets Department” after fending off the latest challenger: the singer-songwriter Zach Bryan. 1, “Tortured Poets” is now the longest-running chart-topper of Swift’s career, exceeding the 11-week totals she had for “Fearless” (2008) and “1989” (2014). 1, and is just shy of Stevie Wonder’s 13 for “Songs in the Key of Life” in 1976 and 1977. In its most recent week out, “Tortured Poets” had the equivalent of 163,000 sales in the United States, including 95 million streams and 90,000 copies sold as a complete package, according to the tracking service Luminate. Since its release in April, the full 31-track album has logged three billion streams and had the equivalent of just under five million sales in the United States.
Persons: Taylor Swift, Zach Bryan, , Morgan Wallen’s, Swift, , Whitney, Whitney ”, Stevie Wonder’s Organizations: Department Locations: United States
Cigarettes After Sex and Gen Z’s Passion for Dream-Pop
  + stars: | 2024-07-11 | by ( Ben Sisario | ) www.nytimes.com   time to read: +1 min
In 2016, after a four-year-old track by a struggling Brooklyn band called Cigarettes After Sex blew up on YouTube, the group’s brand of crisp, lovesick minimalism began selling out clubs all over Europe. At a tour stop in Prague, Greg Gonzalez, its leader, saw unticketed fans weeping in the street. This is music that’s meant for emotional people that are in love. So I thought, that’s what I want my music to do for somebody else.”Eight years later, that pattern has repeated for Cigarettes After Sex, on a far grander scale. By stealth, Cigarettes After Sex has become one of the biggest cult bands in the world.
Persons: Greg Gonzalez, ” Gonzalez Organizations: YouTube, Garden, Kia Locations: Brooklyn, Europe, Prague, Madison, Los Angeles, Asia, East, South Africa, Australia
Six years ago, an outspoken music executive named Merck Mercuriadis kicked off a new wave of dealmaking in the industry when his company, Hipgnosis, began buying up the song catalogs of artists like Neil Young, Shakira, Justin Bieber and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. In the company’s complex structure, Hipgnosis Songs Fund is an “investment trust,” which is listed on the London Stock Exchange and owns the rights to tens of thousands of songs. A separate company, Hipgnosis Song Management — which has been run by Mercuriadis — is its “investment adviser,” doing much of the dealmaking and administration work for those songs. In 2021, Blackstone invested $1 billion to take majority control over the adviser firm. The board of Hipgnosis Songs Fund voted on Monday to accept Blackstone’s offer of $1.6 billion for the company’s assets, the company announced early Tuesday.
Persons: Merck Mercuriadis, Neil Young, Shakira, Justin Bieber, Beyoncé, Elton John, Mercuriadis —, , Blackstone Organizations: London Stock Exchange
How much longer can Taylor Swift hold at No. 1 with “The Tortured Poets Department”? The numbers for “Tortured Poets” are now cooling slightly, but don’t count on it slipping down the chart anytime soon. (On next week’s chart, Swift will compete with the K-pop group Ateez, whose last album, opened at No. Can Swift reach those same heights with “Tortured Poets”?
Persons: Taylor Swift, , , Billie Eilish, Swift, Morgan Wallen’s Organizations: Department Locations: Dua Lipa
In its lawsuit accusing Live Nation Entertainment, the concert behemoth that owns Ticketmaster, of being an illegal monopoly, the Justice Department drew on a raft of internal communications that offered a rare behind-the-scenes look at the industry. The Justice Department argued in an extensive complaint filed on Thursday that the merger of Live Nation and Ticketmaster, which went through in 2010, had hurt competition, hindered innovation and resulted in higher ticket prices and fees for consumers. It called for the company to be broken up. In response, Live Nation, which is also the world’s largest concert promoter, has said that it is not a monopoly, and denied that it has the unilateral power to raise prices. Contrary to the government’s argument about its great power, Live Nation says it now faces more competition than ever, and that the Justice Department’s suit “won’t reduce ticket prices or service fees.”Detailing its allegations, the government relied on eye-opening emails that it says were written by Live Nation’s chief executive, Michael Rapino, and other high-powered figures in the concert world.
Persons: Department’s, Michael Rapino Organizations: Nation Entertainment, Ticketmaster, Justice, Nation
U.S. Calls for Breakup of Ticketmaster Owner
  + stars: | 2024-05-23 | by ( David Mccabe | Ben Sisario | ) www.nytimes.com   time to read: 1 min
The Justice Department on Thursday sued Live Nation Entertainment, the concert giant that owns Ticketmaster, asking a court to break up the company over claims it illegally maintained a monopoly in the live entertainment industry. In the lawsuit, which is joined by 29 states and the District of Columbia, the government accuses Live Nation of dominating the industry by locking venues into exclusive ticketing contracts, pressuring artists to use its services and threatening its rivals with financial retribution. Those tactics, the government argues, have resulted in higher ticket prices for consumers and have stifled innovation and competition throughout the industry. “It is time to break up Live Nation-Ticketmaster,” Merrick Garland, the attorney general, said in a statement announcing the suit, which is being filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
Persons: ” Merrick Garland Organizations: Department, Thursday, Nation Entertainment, Ticketmaster, District of Columbia, Southern, of Locations: U.S, of New York
The Justice Department and a group of states plan to sue Live Nation Entertainment, the concert giant that owns Ticketmaster, as soon as Thursday, accusing it of illegally maintaining a monopoly in the live entertainment industry, said three people familiar with the matter. That helped the company maintain a monopoly, raising prices and fees for consumers and limiting innovation in the ticket industry, the people said. The government will argue that tours promoted by the company were more likely to play venues where Ticketmaster was the exclusive ticket service, one of the people said, and that Live Nation’s artists played venues that it owns. Live Nation is a colossus of the concert world and a force in the lives of musicians and fans alike. Its scale and reach far exceed those of any competitor, encompassing concert promotion, ticketing, artist management and the operation of hundreds of venues and festivals around the world.
Organizations: Justice Department, Live Nation Entertainment, Ticketmaster
Steve Albini, a rock musician and revered audio engineer who played a singular role in the development of the sound of alternative rock music in the 1980s, the ’90s and beyond — recording acclaimed albums by Nirvana, PJ Harvey, Pixies and hundreds of others — while becoming an outspoken critic of the music industry, died on Tuesday at his home in Chicago. The cause was a heart attack, according to Taylor Hales of Electrical Audio, the studio in Chicago that Mr. Albini founded in 1997. With a sharp vision for how a band should be recorded, and an even sharper tongue for anything he deemed mediocre or compromised, Mr. Albini was one of rock’s most acerbic wits. In the 1990s, when his work as a recording engineer — he scoffed at being called a “producer” — was in highest demand, however, Mr. Albini made no apology for accepting big checks for recording major-label bands. But those bands did so at their own risk; in those days Mr. Albini was also known for ridiculing the bands he recorded after the fact.
Persons: Steve Albini, Nirvana, PJ Harvey, Taylor Hales, Albini, , ” — Locations: Chicago
But the deal also comes amid wider uncertainty for TikTok as the app faces a possible ban or sale in the United States because of national security concerns over the app’s Chinese owner, ByteDance. Last month, President Biden signed a bill that would allow TikTok to continue to operate in the United States if it was sold in nine months, though the company is expected to challenge the law in court. Universal began to withdraw permission for its music from TikTok on Feb. 1, after an impasse in negotiations to renew its previous licensing agreement. At the time, Universal said that TikTok “attempted to bully us into accepting a deal worth less than the previous deal, far less than fair market value and not reflective of their exponential growth.”Millions of videos that included Universal music — including many artists’ own official music videos — were muted on the platform. TikTok said that by withdrawing its songs, Universal had “put their own greed above the interests of their artists and songwriters.”TikTok and Universal have not commented on their negotiations since then.
Persons: Biden, TikTok, Universal, TikTok “, , , ” TikTok, Swift, Organizations: ByteDance, Universal Locations: United States, TikTok
There was never any doubt that Taylor Swift’s latest release, “The Tortured Poets Department,” was going to be big. “The Tortured Poets Department,” Swift’s 11th studio album, opens at No. 1 albums by any act in the 68-year history of Billboard’s flagship album chart; only the Beatles, with 19, have more. In its first week out, “Tortured Poets” had the equivalent of 2.6 million album sales in the United States, according to Luminate, which tracks the data behind Billboard’s charts. And in each way, “Tortured Poets” was a smash.
Persons: Taylor, , , Jay Organizations: Poets Department, , Billboard Locations: United States
Cher, Ozzy Osbourne, Peter Frampton and Mary J. Blige are part of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s class of 2024, along with Dave Matthews Band, Kool & the Gang, Foreigner and A Tribe Called Quest, the hall announced on Sunday. The latest crop of stars will officially join the pantheon in a ceremony on Oct. 19 at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse in Cleveland, where the hall’s affiliated museum is also located. Of those artists, four were elevated to the hall on their first nomination: Cher, Foreigner, Frampton and Kool & the Gang. Osbourne was nominated for the first time as a solo act, though he had joined the hall as part of Black Sabbath in 2006. The Rock Hall has come under increasing pressure in recent years to diversify its ranks with more women and artists of color, and has made progress in that regard, though some critics say it is not enough.
Persons: Cher, Ozzy Osbourne, Peter Frampton, Mary J, Blige, Dave Matthews, Osbourne, Frampton, Foreigner, X, Matthews Organizations: Roll, Rocket Mortgage, Kool Locations: Cleveland
Taylor Swift was already the most ubiquitous pop star in the galaxy, her presence dominating the music charts, the concert calendar, the Super Bowl, the Grammys. In the days leading up to the release of “The Tortured Poets Department” on Friday, Swift became all but inescapable, online and seemingly everywhere else. A Spotify-sponsored, Swift-branded “library installation,” in muted pink and gray, popped up in a shopping complex in Los Angeles. In Chicago, a QR code painted on a brick wall directed fans to another Easter egg on YouTube. Videos on Swift’s social media accounts, showing antique typewriters and globes with pins, were dissected for clues about her music.
Persons: Taylor Swift, Department ”, Swift, SiriusXM Organizations: Department, Apple, Spotify, Swift Locations: Los Angeles, In Chicago
Hipgnosis Songs Fund, the British company that helped kick-start the music industry’s rush for catalog deals — acquiring tens of thousands of songs by Justin Bieber, Neil Young, Shakira and others — but has seen its share price plummet, has reached a tentative deal to sell itself to Concord, a major independent music company, for $1.4 billion. Hipgnosis, which trades on the London Stock Exchange, said on Thursday that its board had given unanimous approval. But the deal still faces what could be a significant hurdle in the form of a contractual option held by an affiliated company to buy the catalog at a set price. Robert Naylor, the chairman of Hipgnosis, said in a statement: “The acquisition represents an attractive opportunity for our shareholders to immediately realize their holding at a premium, mitigating the risks we see ahead to achieving a material improvement in the share price.”Bob Valentine, the chief executive of Concord, which has a portfolio of labels like Stax and Craft, and large holdings in music publishing, added: “We believe we can integrate Hipgnosis’ catalogs into our wider portfolio of 1.2 million songs in a way that will deliver benefits for composers, performers and all our stakeholders.”
Persons: Justin Bieber, Neil Young, Shakira, Robert Naylor, Hipgnosis, Bob Valentine Organizations: London Stock Exchange, Concord, Stax Locations: British, Concord
Within days, millions of TikTok videos using music from Universal artists went mute, and since then guessing which side would blink first has become a media-business parlor game. Backing this up, one study found that TikTok users reported experiencing higher levels of flow than Instagram users. Corey Basch, who analyzed 100 popular TikTok videos with the hashtag mentalhealth for a 2022 study, emerged concerned about the looping effect of the algorithm. Cerave Sales increased by more than 60 percent in 2020 after skin care became a lockdown pastime and TikTok users discovered the drugstore mainstay. Cat Crack Catnip It briefly sold out in 2021 after TikTok users posted videos of their cats going crazy for it.
Persons: randos, TikTok, you’ve, Sydney Sweeney, Glen Powell, , “ Wonka, Barbie, “ Oppenheimer, , goofing, cavorting, Sue Fleishman, Z’s Walter Cronkite, Spehar, Donald J, Trump, he’s, Caitlin Clark’s, Joe Biden, Justin Bieber, Abbie Richards, Richards, Britney Spears, Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, Lil Nas X, Fleetwood Mac, Rodrigo, Billie Eilish, Drake, Swift, ByteDance, can’t, Mark Warner, hasn’t, Al, ear on, Li Organizations: Fleetwood Mac, Facebook, Sony, Universal, Warner Bros, White, Pew Research Center, YouTube, The New York Times, Kansas City Chiefs, Media, Colgate, Universal Music Group, ByteDance, Intelligence Committee, e Locations: United States, Beijing, Biden’s, TikTok, Singapore, View, Calif, China, American
When Taylor Swift released nine vinyl editions of her album “Folklore” in 2020, Tylor Hammers, a fan in Florida, took notice. “I get enjoyment out of being a completionist,” Hammers, 24, said in a recent interview. He’s not the only one. K-pop acts like BTS pioneered this strategy by putting out an array of elaborate CD packages, often featuring goodies like postcards and photo booklets, which helped the boy band repeatedly go to No. But nobody does it quite like Swift, or at least at the same scale.
Persons: Taylor Swift, Midnights, , He’s, Swift Organizations: Tylor Hammers, ” Hammers Locations: Florida, United States
When Universal Music Group, the world’s biggest music company, went to war with TikTok earlier this year over licensing terms, songs by hundreds of its artists were removed from the platform, and have remained absent. But on Thursday, music by one very special Universal artist returned: Taylor Swift. It was not immediately clear how Swift’s songs made it back to TikTok while Universal’s ban remains in place. When the company announced its plans to remove music earlier this year, it said its licensing contract with TikTok expired Jan. 31. By the early hours of Feb. 1, Universal’s music began to disappear from TikTok, and millions of videos that used the label’s music went silent.
Persons: Taylor Swift, Swift —, , Swift Organizations: Universal Music Group, Universal, Poets Department, Machine, TikTok Locations: “ Cardigan, , TikTok
The country singer Morgan Wallen was arrested early Monday in Nashville on charges of reckless endangerment and disorderly conduct, after he was accused of throwing a chair from the roof of a downtown bar, according to reports. Mr. Wallen, 30, a superstar who had last year’s most popular album, and who had just opened his latest tour with two shows at a stadium in Indianapolis, was arrested and booked by police in Nashville, according to court records. The chair hit the ground near where some police officers were standing, and staff members at the restaurant told officers that Mr. Wallen had been responsible, the station reported, citing the police. Mr. Wallen was arrested on three counts of reckless endangerment, a felony; and one count of disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor. He was released early Monday and has a court date set for May 3.
Persons: Morgan Wallen, Wallen, tonks, Eric Church Organizations: CBS, Broadway Locations: Nashville, Indianapolis
Beyoncé’s genre-bending “Cowboy Carter” has become her eighth No. 1 album, opening with the biggest sales of any release so far this year. “Cowboy Carter,” billed as “Act II” of a trilogy that began with Beyoncé’s dance-oriented album “Renaissance” almost two years ago, had been expected by fans, and the music industry at large, as primarily a country project. “Cowboy Carter” arrives with the equivalent of 407,000 sales in the United States, and in addition to topping the all-genre Billboard 200 chart it is also No. Of its composite total sales figure, “Cowboy Carter” sold 168,000 copies as a complete album, including 62,000 on vinyl versions sold through Beyoncé’s website.
Persons: Carter ”, “ Cowboy Carter, , Dolly Parton’s, Jolene, Nancy Sinatra, Chuck Berry, Cowboy Carter ” Organizations: Metro Boomin Locations: United States
Beyoncé has gone country, sure … but it turns out that’s only the half of it. For months, the superstar, who made her name in R&B and pop, has been telegraphing her version of country music and style. At midnight on Friday, Beyoncé finally released her new album, “Cowboy Carter,” and the country bona fides were certainly there. Yet “Cowboy Carter” is far broader than simply a country album. That theory is made clear on the spoken track “Spaghettii,” featuring the pioneering but long absent Black country singer Linda Martell, who in 1970 released an album called “Color Me Country.”
Persons: Beyoncé, that’s, , Cowboy Carter, , Dolly Parton, Jolene, Willie Nelson, Chuck Berry, Rosetta Tharpe, Son, Carter ”, Nancy Sinatra, Sly Stone, Linda Martell Organizations: Stetson Locations: Texas
It took just one day for Sean Combs to settle a bombshell lawsuit in November that accused him of rape and physical abuse. But it turns out that Mr. Combs’s problems were only beginning. For years, accusations of violence trailed Mr. Combs, who since the 1990s has been known as Puff Daddy and Diddy. But the suit in November, filed by his former girlfriend Casandra Ventura — who makes music as the singer Cassie — seemed to open the floodgates. And a raid by federal authorities at two of his homes on Monday suggested that authorities are considering possible criminal charges.
Persons: Sean Combs, Combs, Diddy, Casandra Ventura —, Cassie —, Ventura —,
Combs was never detained but spoke to and cooperated with authorities. The authorities did not say whether Mr. Combs was a target or what criminal charges they were investigating. “This unprecedented ambush — paired with an advanced, coordinated media presence — leads to a premature rush to judgment of Mr. Combs,” Mr. Dyer said. “There has been no finding of criminal or civil liability with any of these allegations. Mr. Combs is innocent and will continue to fight every single day to clear his name.”
Persons: Sean Combs, , Aaron Dyer, “ Mr, Combs, , Mr, ” Mr, Dyer Organizations: Homeland Security Investigations, Miami, Fox Locations: Los Angeles, Miami Beach, Fla
Federal agents from the Department of Homeland Security on Monday raided homes in the Los Angeles area and Miami that a person with knowledge of the case said were connected to Sean Combs, the hip-hop mogul who has been accused of sexual assault and sex trafficking in multiple civil lawsuits over the last several months. In a statement on Monday, in response to questions about news reports of a raid on Mr. Combs’s residences, Homeland Security Investigations said: “Earlier today, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) New York executed law enforcement actions as part of an ongoing investigation, with assistance from HSI Los Angeles, HSI Miami and our local law enforcement partners. We will provide further information as it becomes available.”A spokesperson for Mr. Combs did not respond to a request for comment. The criminal inquiry was being conducted by federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York and federal agents with Homeland Security Investigations, a law-enforcement official said. Video from Fox 11 (KTTV), a local television news station in Los Angeles, showed armed officers entering a home in the Holmby Hills area of the city, which the station said was connected to Mr. Combs’s company, Bad Boy Entertainment.
Persons: Sean Combs, HSI, Combs, Nicholas Biase Organizations: Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations, of, Southern, Fox, Bad Boy Entertainment Locations: Los Angeles, Miami, New York, HSI Los, HSI Miami, Southern, of New York, Holmby
Ariana Grande’s long-awaited new album, “Eternal Sunshine,” opens at the top of the latest Billboard chart with the biggest debut of the year so far, kicking off a season of expected blockbusters from Beyoncé, Taylor Swift and Dua Lipa. “Eternal Sunshine,” Grande’s seventh studio album and her first in almost four years, starts at No. “Eternal Sunshine” is Grande’s sixth No. All of her studio LPs have gone to the top except “Dangerous Woman” in 2016, which was held at No. Production on the film was delayed first by the coronavirus and then by last year’s SAG-AFTRA strike; the first “Wicked” film is now set to be released in November.
Persons: Ariana Grande’s, , Taylor Swift, Grande, Cynthia Erivo, Glinda Organizations: SAG Locations: Dua Lipa, United States
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