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Behind the Rise of Hollywood Composing Teams
Since Reznor and Ross won an Oscar 10 years ago, the pair has also nabbed a Grammy Award for The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (on top of two Grammys Reznor had won previously) and an Emmy Award last September for Watchmen. The rock musicians just need a Tony to achieve EGOT status. Craig Harris and Mark IshamJudah and the Black Messiah (Warner Bros.) Isham is a trumpeter and synthesizer player who has scored dozens of films since 1983, including Nell and Crash. He was nominated in this category 28 years ago for A River Runs Through It. Harris is a jazz trombonist who has worked with such artists as Lena Horne, Sun Ra and The Roots. This is the first film they’ve scored as a pair. Nicolas Becker and Abraham MarderSound of Metal (Amazon Studios) Previously, Becker scored the 2018 documen...
Jazmine Sullivan On Self-Confidence Struggles and Empowering Women In R&B
You followed an earlier three-year recording break with a five-year interlude. Are these breaks intentional or happenstance? As far as length of time, it’s not really intentional. I’ll just chill for a second and then a little break turns into a longer break. But as long as it turns out to be, I do feel breaks are necessary. Taking breaks when you’re younger, it feels different than when you’re older. For one thing, getting yourself back into the swing of things is different, both physically and vocally. I’m starting to understand that now. It’s a different kind of building back up as you get older … even things like getting up earlier and doing interviews. How has the pandemic inspired and challenged your singing and songwriting? I’m amazed people are telling me I sound stronger and...
Yung Bleu Manifested a Drake Feature, Now He’s Ready For a Joint EP
Bleu’s most prominent manifestation came last year when he declared that he would work with Drake. As fate would have it, Bleu’s dream became a reality when NBA star DeMarcus Cousins first listened to his EP Love Scars and fell in love with Bleu’s melodious single “You’re Mines Still.” Cousins texted Bleu and vowed to get Drake on the record. A week later, Bleu received an Instagram DM from the 6 God himself, gushing about the song’s potential and his desire to collaborate. Two weeks after “You’re Mines Still” was released, Bleu and Drake’s remix quickly followed. The love-drunk single swept through social media and ballooned into a massive hit for Bleu. Peaking at No. 52 on the Billboard Hot 100, “You&...
Why 2020’s Protest Songs Aren’t Part of a Passing Trend
The May 25 murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police resulted in the eruption of worldwide protests against racial injustice, as well as an influx of new protest anthems across demographics in the weeks that followed. As superstars like Billie Eilish, The Weeknd, Taylor Swift and Harry Styles vocalized support for the Black Lives Matter movement, artists ranging from country singer-songwriter Mickey Guyton to trap veteran Juicy J to soul-R&B star Leon Bridges rapidly released new songs commenting on systemic discrimination. Protest music soared on the charts, too: “Rockstar,” the DaBaby and Roddy Ricch smash that crowned Billboard’s 2020 Songs of the Summer chart, received an official “BLM remix” in the weeks after Floyd’s death, while “The Bigger Picture,” Lil Baby’s poig...
How to Take Diva Collaborations to ‘Another Level of Badass’
Long-standing assumptions about female artists competing with one another have also dissolved, says Wassim “Sal” Slaiby, CEO/owner of management firm SALXCO, whose roster includes Doja Cat and Bebe Rexha. The idea that there’s room for only one chart-topping female at a time is “very unrealistic,” he says. “When artists come together and have healthy competition, everyone wins.” But executives aren’t suddenly having epiphanies dispelling sexist myths, notes Calhoun — audiences are voicing demand for female collaborations through their listening habits. “The fans are hungry for it and the fans are playing it, so there’s a business there,” she says. “Male artists have held the throne for a minute now, and I think women want to hear women artists.” Perhaps no fan spends more time thinking abo...
What Does ‘Alternative’ Mean in 2020?
Laura Ohls, senior editor, folk and AAA, Spotify: I’ve always thought of “alternative” as referring to any artist creating music that challenges what’s being popularized in the mainstream, across all genres. In the ’90s, rock music was still very much at the core of popular music culture, and as a result, “alternative” [was more] guitar-driven in sound. Fast forward to 2020, where hip-hop, pop and Latin are the titans of genre, and you’ll find that the class of artists defying what’s expected are doing so within these genre spaces. As a result, there is an amalgamation of genres that make up modern “alternative” sounds. We launched our Alternative Hub earlier this year in order to unite all of our alternative programming into one dedicated space. The idea was to have a destination that enc...
How the Academy’s New Black Music Collective Is Dismantling the ‘Disconnect’ With Its Community
Butterfield Jones: We are also shifting our thoughts around to equity and inclusion — making sure that once you are part of the Recording Academy, you have the opportunity to break that ceiling and get into leadership roles within the academy. We want to get more folks into the room. But we also want to make sure there’s a pathway to leadership once they get in the door. Which goals can the BMC accomplish immediately, and which will be more long term? Butterfield Jones: The North Star is to earn the trust of the Black music community. Being able to move that needle in one year and have more Black representation in the room will be progress. I’m here because many different powerful Black women paved the way. We’re focused on making sure that people that look like us have a seat at the table...
Paris Jackson On How Radiohead and Mushrooms Inspired Her Debut
While making her debut solo album, Paris Jackson wasn’t concerned about flaunting her musical heritage. “It’s really just about the music itself,” says the 22-year-old singer-songwriter and daughter of Michael Jackson. “I’ve been writing for a really long time, and I wanted to get into the studio.” The end result is the recently released wilted, an ethereal concept record on “heartbreak, betrayal, grief and rebirth” that, says Jackson, “tells my journey.” She reveals who awoke her inner artist — and what she surrounded herself with in order to open up. 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,...
How This Indie Venue Reinvented Itself As a Coffee Shop and Bar
In years past, Steve Chilton had often considered opening his Phoenix venue, The Rebel Lounge, as a coffee shop with friends and Driftwood Coffee owners Luke Bentley and Lance Linderman. The space — which has hosted artists including Jimmy Eat World, Lucky Daye and Soccer Mommy — typically sat dormant during the day, and he had the room, but with promoting shows as Psyko Steve Presents and near-daily sound checks, the idea never came to fruition. {“nid”:”9334875″,”type”:”post”,”title”:”How Independent Venues Are Dealing With Large-Gathering Coronavirus Bans, Inevitable Loss of Small Rooms”,”relative_path”:”\/articles\/business\/touring\/9334875\/independent-venues-coronavirus-gathering-bans\/”,&...
Why Ava Max Wants to Write More Empowering Songs Like ‘Kings & Queens’
Below, Ava Max talks about her blockbuster year — and promises Billboard that there’s much more music to come, including a deluxe version of Heaven & Hell. How did “Kings & Queens” come together? It took about a year because we changed the song so many times. I wanted to make it about female empowerment and inequality, so I was taking my time with it. I’m a crazy perfectionist — if I don’t feel it in my bones, I’m not going to release it. I’ve been in five different studios for this song in Germany, [elsewhere in] Europe and Los Angeles. I’m happy I was patient. What about the idea for the music video? I usually write all of my treatments, and I really saw it like that. I saw it as royal, but in a modern, futuristic kind of way. I wanted it to feel simple, b...
How Camilo Became TikTok’s Most-Followed Latin Artist
“Whenever he has an idea or before he posts something, he asks for my opinion,” she says. “Everything posted on TikTok is a team effort.” She says that they usually plan a dance challenge long before a single release, dedicating a day to think of the choreography with help from their friend Paula Macher, who has over 1 million TikTok followers herself. “[She] knows all the latest trends and popular dance moves,” says Evaluna. “In the end, it helps push the song we’re promoting.” Noel Nuez, TikTok’s director of operations for Spanish South America, believes that kind of collaboration has helped Camilo rake in new followers so quickly: “He’s surrounded by family and colleagues who are also well-integrated on TikTok themselves, which enables him to viralize across other top profiles and ...
Meet the Voices of Latin Protest Music
One of Brazil’s best-known singers and political activists, Veloso purposely wrote this upbeat tune about freedom in a rock’n’roll style, hoping to provoke Brazilian youth as a military dictatorship engulfed the country. Though Veloso’s use of electric guitars drew boos from a festival crowd, the song still became one of the most revered of the tropicália movement, and Veloso’s most popular in his five-decade career, with its urgent refrain about wanting “to keep living”: “Why not? Why not?” Víctor Jara, “Manifiesto” (1974) The Chilean singer-songwriter and Communist activist wrote this hauntingly wistful folk song — a testament to his reason for becoming a revolutionary artist — just weeks before he was tortured and shot to death by soldiers of Augusto Pinochet in the dictator’s September...
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