Innholdsfortegnelse for Oct-31-15 i Billboard Magazine

If Billy Joel were breaking into the songwriting business today, he might need to make some room for collaborators. Pop hits penned by one writer have become almost anachronistic. On the Oct. 24 Billboard Hot 100, only two songs had one author: “Hit the Quan” by Richard “ILoveMemphis” Colbert and Twenty One Pilots’ “Stressed Out” (by Tyler Joseph). The trend downward is staggering: 10 years ago, single writers (or single-credited entities) wrote 14 titles, which itself was down sharply from mid-October 1995 (32 such songs), 1985 (41) and 1975 (51). According to Hits Deconstructed analyst David Penn’s recent report, “Collaboration Nation,” roughly 90 percent of Hot 100 top 10s in 2014 were written by two or more writers, and nearly half were penned by at least four. Why so many…

JAMES BAY IS SITTING ON A SOFA backstage at London’s Brixton Academy on an October afternoon, wearing, as he always does, his wide-brimmed hat. This is his thing, the hat, his unique selling point; it sets him apart from Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith and George Ezra, those other British singers who come bearing their blue-eyed souls in song — but who haven’t, as yet, displayed a penchant for panamas. “I suppose I’ve always known about the importance of image,” he says of his accessory (which, naturally, has sprouted its own Twitter account). “I always loved Michael Jackson’s single silvery glove, Bruce Springsteen’s iconic blue-collar pose. I’ve got a lot of work to do before I’m even close to a third of Springsteen, but why on earth can’t I aim for…

Diddy Prays As far as Sean “Diddy” Combs is concerned, the family that plays together prays together. Insiders say the hip-hop mogul led an all-star prayer circle that included his son Christian Combs, Lil’ Kim, Lil Wayne, French Montana and Busta Rhymes before the artists took part in a performance by Puff Daddy & The Family in Miami on the first night of the 2015 Revolt Music Conference on Oct. 16. Onstage, the spiritual vibe gave way to a financial theme as Diddy performed “All About the Benjamins” with Kim and “Pass the Ciroc” with Rhymes. Diddy is a hype man for the spirit brand and gets a cut of profits. Jennifer Garner Rocks On Jennifer Garner may be going through a public divorce from Ben Affleck, but that didn’t…

THE LATE BOB BONIS WOULD HAVE secured his place in rock history merely for his day job, as U.S. tour manager for all three of The Beatles’ American tours and The Rolling Stones’ first five. But Bonis, an avid amateur photographer, leveraged that access — and his trusty Leica M3 camera — into a trove of roughly 3,500 all but unseen shots of the Beatles and Stones crisscrossing America on their way to global superstardom. Away from the media glare and bedlam of Beatlemania, Bonis — who died in 1992 at age 60 — captured moments including Paul McCartney jetting to a St. Louis, Mo., stadium show in 1966 and a Speedo-clad Mick Jagger relaxing poolside on the very same day he co-wrote “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.” “While The…

“Electric Love” singer scuffs up alt-pop on promising debut NO ONE KNOWS EXACTLY WHAT “indie pop” is, but one thing is clear: It has been dominated by women in recent years. Lorde, Halsey, Chvrches and even mainstream interlopers like Carly Rae Jepsen specialize in sultry feminine vocals floating atop driving, synth-heavy, ’80s-inspired beats. On his debut LP, 23-year-old Michigan native Børns offers a rare male twist, creating a dreamy haze where electronics and psychedelics meet. It probably helps that he sings somewhat androgynously, in a creamy falsetto, on tracks like “American Money,” which veers into trip-hop, recalling the torchiness of Lana Del Rey. Børns differentiates himself from peers, however, with tasteful hipster-bro rock growls and guitars (see Shazam favorite “Electric Love,” featured in a Hulu ad) and tempo jolts:…

Saboteur Media IN THE EARLY DAYS, HIP-HOP DIDN’T have a separate underground scene; the entire genre was outsider by default. But when a true rap underground finally coalesced in New York in the late 1980s and early ’90s, it was at an unexpected place: Columbia University. That’s where what Nas calls “the most important radio show of its time,” the subject of this affable and eye-opening documentary, was broadcast by hosts Bobbito Garcia and DJ Stretch Armstrong. And what a time it was: A rap-nerd cornucopia, the film is highlighted by priceless footage of freestyles from golden-era icons when they were unpolished rookies, including a longlost verse from The Notorious B.I.G. There are also present-day interviews in which Jay Z, Eminem and Nas — just three of the rap…

SEPTEMBER 2005 Scott Borchetta founds Big Machine Records (BMR) with artist Toby Keith and, that same year, signs 15-year-old singer-songwriter Taylor Swift and 35-year-old country artist Jack Ingram. MAY 2006 Ingram scores his — and the label’s — first No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart with “Wherever You Are.” SEPTEMBER 2007 BMR artist Garth Brooks’ “More Than a Memory” becomes the first song to debut atop Hot Country Songs. NOVEMBER 2007 Borchetta founds subsidiary label Valory Music. Big Machine Label Group (BMLG) eventually forms as parent company of BMR and Valory. DECEMBER 2007 Swift scores her first No. 1, “Our Song,” on Hot Country Songs. DECEMBER 2008 With more than 4 million albums sold, according to Nielsen Music, Swift is the best-selling artist of the year. JUNE 2009…

SELENA GOMEZ IS THE LATEST FORMER Disney Music Group star to depart the House of Mouse and hit the upper reaches of the Billboard 200. The 23-year-old’s Interscope Records debut, Revival, opens at No. 1 — her second leader on the chart — with 117,000 equivalent-album units earned in the week ending Oct. 15, according to Nielsen Music. Of that figure, 85,000 units were pure album sales (her second-largest sales week). The set was led by Gomez’s first No. 1 on the Mainstream Top 40 chart, “Good for You” (featuring ASAP Rocky). The song is also her highest-charting single on the Billboard Hot 100, reaching No. 5. Previously, Gomez notched five entries on the Billboard 200 with Disney’s Hollywood Records: four studio efforts — including the No. 1 Stars Dance…

The duo behind “Girl in a Country Song” — whose lyrics mock female stereotypes in “bro country” music videos — avowedly “hate heels,” says Madison Marlow, and “go for comfort over everything else,” adds Taylor Dye. So it’s no surprise that their beauty essentials also embody their practical nature. Both 20, the firsttime nominees in three categories let Billboard in on the products they’ll rely on for the big night.…

This summer I went into my MTrain Tour with rough cords. When they hemorrhaged, I canceled some shows, but in the middle of the tour, I got bronchitis. My doctor said, “You have to stop.” I was devastated. I spoke to Sam Smith, who told me to get surgery — that I would feel and sing better afterward. My manager promised me that it would not end my career, and my fans were so understanding. The surgery was quick. My parents were in the room along with Dr. Nasseri [see his entry at left] and his wife, who is an anesthesiologist. They have become my Los Angeles parents. Post-surgery, Nasseri put me on two to three weeks of complete silence. My mom stayed with me the whole time, taking me…

RAURY All We Need LVRN/Columbia THE GEORGIA rapper-singer Raury is a peace-loving counterpoint to the drug-dealer extravagance of Southern rap’s mainstream — the “Why Can’t We Be Friends?” to his trap brethren’s “The World Is a Ghetto.” This, along with his hippie-dippie flair for outre fashion and casual disregard for genre constraints, puts him firmly in the lineage of phaseone, envelope-pushing Atlanta weirdos like Andre 3000 and Cee Lo Green (Raury’s staccato, deadpan rap flow is sometimes frustratingly reminiscient of the former’s), and has made him one of the city’s most promising new stars. It’s somewhat misleading, however, to call his imaginative debut album, All We Need, hip-hop. The set freely bounds from the acoustic blues stomper “Devil’s Whisper” to the sweet soul of “Peace Prevail” to sprightly…

Techno pioneer misses a beat on his first album in eight years FRENCH COMPOSER JEAN MICHEL Jarre is one of electronic music’s key pioneers: His 1976 blockbuster Oxygene presaged the widescreen sweep of techno and trance, while his live multimedia extravaganzas were rave prototypes. His first album in eight years, Electronica 1: The Time Machine, teams him with a number of his digital progeny, from Moby to M83, as well as machine-music peers Laurie Anderson and Pete Townshend. (Think “Baba O’Riley.”) But, like Giorgio Moroder’s recent comeback, Deja Vu, the set mostly adds a new sheen to an old formula, as on the limpid surge of “Automatic” with Erasure’s Vince Clarke and “Stardust” with trance kingpin Armin van Buuren. The tracks with vocals, oddly, have the least amount of…

ONE DIRECTION “PERFECT” COLUMBIA/SYCO Dropping the Maroon 5 vibes of “Drag Me Down” for U2-lite atmospherics, “Perfect” is an innocuous but satisfying ballad-anthem. Harry Styles co-writes lyrics like, “If you’re looking for someone to write your breakup songs about, baby I’m perfect” — perfect indeed, to fuel speculation it’s about ex Taylor Swift. —JOE LYNCH KELELA “REWIND” CHERRY COFFEE R&B anomaly Kelela distanced herself from contemporaries with future-gazing mixtape Cut 4 Me. She often opted for mood over concise songwriting, but new EP Hallucinogen sticks to tighter pop structures without shedding her hallmark sound — see “Rewind,” highly infectious love-is-drug bop whose title winks at its replay value. —STEVEN J. HOROWITZ DJ SNAKE “MIDDLE” INTERSCOPE After following out-of-nowhere smash “Turn Down for What” with eclectic hits with Aluna-George…

IN 2005, SCOTT BORCHETTA, IN partnership with Toby Keith’s Show Dog Records, launched Big Machine with three artists — Taylor Swift, Jack Ingram and Danielle Peck — and a staff of 13, four of whom (including himself ) are still with the company. Billboard spoke with them about that first year. Sandi Spika Borchetta I knew Scott had a vision to have his own record label. When he left his last record-label gig [at DreamWorks], it was evident he was going to put together a business plan to do this himself. John Zarling When Mercury merged with DreamWorks in 2004, Scott came in as head of promotion. When he left in February 2005, I went to him and said, “I don’t know where you’re going, but I want to…

City And Colour, By Numbers City and Colour, aka Canadian singer-songwriter Dallas Green (above), whose moniker is a play on his name, debuts at No. 68 on the Billboard Artist 100, fueled by new album If I Should Go Before You. Album sales account for the entirety of the rank as the set debuts at No. 1 on the Folk Albums chart with 12,000 first-week copies sold, according to Nielsen Music. It’s City and Colour’s second No. 1 on the survey: The Hurry and the Harm began on top on June 22, 2013 (with 20,000 sold). (The Artist 100 originated on July 19, 2014.) Selena Gomez surge at Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, on the Artist 100. The Weeknd rebounds 2-1 for an eighth nonconsecutive week at No. 1 (second…

When the sold-out Groove Cruise sets sail from Los Angeles to Mexico Oct. 23 to 26, it will mark Whet Travel founder Jason Beukema’s 11th dance-music-themed excursion. It also is his biggest yet, accommodating nearly 3,000 fans, each of whom paid a minimum of $1,000 and as much as $25,000 for four days of nonstop beats (by such artists as Paul Oakenfold, Cazzette and Dirty South) on the wide open sea. The upshot? Everyone feels like a VIP, says Beukema, 39, who in 2004 began carving out a sector that now includes competitors like Diplo’s Mad Decent Boat Party and HARD Events’ Holy Ship. Do these festivals-by-sea break even? We have seven cruises; some make money and some lose money. A cruise ship can cost upward of a $1 million…

NEW YORK’S CLOSEST ANALOGue TO South by so uthwest , THE CMJ music festival, now in its 35th year, has consistently evolved beyond its low-key origins of local new-music discovery. With an increasingly broad spate of performers and venues, this year featured established acts Kate Nash, Tobias Jesso Jr. and Glass Animals alongside indie buzz kids Neon Indian, Smallpools, Borns and Perfect Pussy. Breakouts like the genre-bending jazz of tenor saxophonist Kamasi Washington and pianist/film composer Kris Bowers (heard at the first-ever JazzFest Marathon sponsored by Brooklyn nonprofit BRIC) and Los Angeles singer-songwriter Deradoorian (formerly of Dirty Projectors), were among the non-pop acts who drew crowds at the festival. Then there was rapper Allan Kingdom, who showed his main-stage potential during a solo performance of Kanye West’s “All Day” for…

EAST COAST DR. ROSEMARY B. DESLOGE New York Desloge, a self-professed Broadway groupie and laryngologist in private practice, became one of the Great White Way’s vocal healers after successfully operating on a lead from Jersey Boys . Now, Tony and Emmy Award winners, tween talent and even royalty depend on her to troubleshoot their timbres. Desloge never skips a Broadway show (or backstage invite), but you won’t glean her patient list from the walls in her spa-like office. Only one picture — a bejeweled octogenarian beside the late Luciano Pavarotti — is on display. “That’s my grandmother, who at 80 became a Pavarotti groupie,” Desloge says with a laugh. Musical fandom clearly runs in the family. » 212-717-2700, desloge. md DR. ANTHONY F. JAHN New York During intermission, a famed…

“ WHEN LOOKING FOR A LARYNGOLOGIST, MAKE SURE THAT THEY HAVE THE CAPABILITY IN THEIR OFFICE TO MAKE A VIDEO RECORDING OF THE VOCAL CORDS VIBRATING IN SLOW MOTION, OTHERWISE KNOWN AS A LARYNGEAL STROBOSCOPY.” —Dr. Zeitels “GINGER TEA IS WONDERFUL FOR THE THROAT. MA KE YOUR OWN BY BOILING FRESH GINGER SLIVERS IN WA TER AND SW EETENING WITH HONEY.” —Dr. Jahn “SUCKING ON GLYCERIN CANDY, LIKE GRETHER’S PAS TILLES, MAY BE SOOTHING FOR SOME SINGERS. DO STAY AWA Y FROM PRODUCTS WITH MENTHOL. WHILE THEY INITIALLY FEEL GOOD, THEY CAN IRRITATE AND PROMOTE REFLUX.” —Dr. Garrett “SMOKING POT IS ONE OF THE WORST THINGS YOU CAN DO FOR YOUR VOICE. IT’S WORSE THAN CIGARETTES. THERE IS NO FILTER. YOU ARE GETTING THE DIRECT EFFECT OF THE SUBSTANCE, PLUS…

What inspired you while recording All We Need? I make music because of Kid Cudi’s Man on the Moon: The End of Day. It turned my life around. I was in the darkest place. With this album, that’s all I aimed to do — make it for the lost youth of my generation so they can find themselves in it. A lot of kids these days find themselves in darkness and make a home there. “Devil’s Whisper” is a sequel to your 2014 breakout, “God’s Whisper.” What’s it about? When I wrote “God’s Whisper,” I had this voice in the back of my mind, encouraging me: “You can make music to better the world.” But I got here and I’ve been at a crossroads: the battle between music for the…

THE BIG MACHINE LABEL GROUP RECENTLY started a new imprint called Nash Icon for the veteran artists on its roster. But those two words are an equally fitting description of founder Scott Borchetta’s status in his adopted hometown of Nashville. The Southern California native’s reputation would be set if all he had done was discover Taylor Swift. But in the 10 years since he founded Big Machine, he has gone on to become a major force throughout the entire music industry, breaking acts like Florida Georgia Line, Zac Brown Band, Brantley Gilbert and The Band Perry, bringing in such heavy hitters as Tim McGraw and Reba McEntire, advocating aggressively for artists’ rights and becoming a mentor on American Idol along the way. It’s a long way for a scrappy label…

CASSADEE POPE Two years after releasing “Wasting All These Tears,” a top five Billboard Hot Country Songs hit, The Voice’s first female champ is returning to her girlpower roots. Although the follow-up to her 2013 debut, Frame by Frame, has yet to get a release date, 26-year-old Pope’s newest single, “I Am Invincible,” produced by CEO Scott Borchetta, is creeping up the country charts. THOMAS RHETT Coming off a freshman album that spawned three No. 1 Hot Country Songs, the songwriter-turnedsinger, 25, pushed the country-pop envelope for his current LP, Tangled Up. On it, he channels Bruno Mars and features special guests Jordin Sparks and rapper Lunch Money Lewis. The gambit worked: First single “Crash and Burn” became his fourth consecutive chart-topper. THE CADILLAC THREE After writing hits for Tim…