Innholdsfortegnelse for Apr-04-15 i Billboard Magazine

FLO RIDA IS SPINNING right round once again. The 35-year-old rapper flies into the Billboard Hot 100’s top 10 as “G.D.F.R.” (featuring Sage the Gemini and Lookas) leaps 13-10. The track’s guests each enjoy their first trip to the chart’s top tier, but it’s well-worn ground for Flo Rida, who posts his 10th top 10. “G.D.F.R.” is his first since “I Cry,” which peaked at No. 6 in December 2012; he’s now the 15th rapper in Hot 100 history to tally at least 10 top 10s (Jay Z leads the category with 21). “G.D.F.R.” (short for “going down for real”) pushes 8-7 on Digital Songs (101,000 downloads sold, up 9 percent, passing 1 million to date, according to Nielsen Music), 23-13 on Streaming Songs (5.2 million U.S. streams, up 4…

IN LATE FEBRUARY, POWERADE PREMIERED A commercial featuring Chicago Bulls all-star Derrick Rose with a voiceover by the late Tupac Shakur. As a child rides his bike through an inner-city neighborhood, the viewer hears about “the rose that grew from the concrete” with “damaged petals.” The spot marks the beginning of a “total reset of the Shakur estate,” says Jeff Jampol, whose JAM Inc. was brought in by Afeni Shakur to oversee her son’s business. In partnership with Tom Whalley — current head of Loma Vista Records, who signed Shakur to Interscope in 1991 — the company plans to mirror its work managing the legacies of The Doors, Rick James and Janis Joplin. At the top of the list is the rapper’s creative work — “an embarrassment of riches,” says…

THE FIRST YOUTUBE MUSIC Awards, held Nov. 3, 2013, were a radical experiment for the longtime leader in online streaming content: Would an audience accustomed to destination viewing on TV do the same on YouTube if the likes of Eminem, Lady Gaga and Arcade Fire all filmed live music videos directed by Spike Jonze and the renegade team at Vice? Although the answer was a resounding “no” for the live stream (the initial view count topped out at 873,000), the 55 million views that the clips have since accumulated marked the way forward for Vivien Lewit, YouTube director of music content partnerships. For the awards’ show-less second iteration on March 23, winners were announced in advance, and the format switched to digital-only premieres of 13 exclusive clips from such acts…

Details about Cameron Crowe’s TV comedy Roadies have been scant, but 24-yearold rapper Machine Gun Kelly (aka Colson Baker), who plays a guitar tech in the Showtime pilot, tells Billboard of one unexpected twist: The headlining band, whose narcissistic tendencies drive the narrative, will not be shown at all. “The band has this huge production — amps, merch, guitars, a lighting rig — but you’ll only see, like, a hand,” says Kelly, who also appears in the film Punk Is Dead, the sequel to 1998 cult-hit SLC Punk, which will premiere at Cannes in May. Kelly, whose new song “A Little More,” arrives March 31, landed the Roadies role by arriving at the audition in what he describes as “Eddie Vedder shorts” and a Led Zeppelin tour T-shirt. He later…

Dylan Shall Be Released Bob Dylan has approved a DVD release of the Feb. 6 MusiCares Person of the Year concert footage that included performances by Bruce Springsteen, Alanis Morissette and Jack White. While recent editions of the Grammy Foundation’s annual tribute have made their way to DVD — notably Neil Young, Springsteen and Paul McCartney — rights issues and other stumbling blocks have kept about 20 of the events in the vaults. Dylan, though, personally matched performers and songs for the tribute, which an insider says made for easier clearances. It’s unclear whether his much talked-about 35-minute speech, which alternated between thankful and hostile, will be part of the package. He Likey Lykke Li Grammy-winning producer Jeff Bhasker (Jay Z, Kanye West) is dating Swedish singer Lykke Li, sources…

“On 9/11, I didn’t like how rock music responded ... So ever since 2001 I listen to country music.” —TED CRUZ The Republican presidential candidate, to CBS’This Morning. “He’s this cute little German, and he’s got really beautiful eyes.” —SELENA GOMEZ The singer, speaking about her rumored boyfriend Zedd on Radio Disney. “Four months ago, I got bigger boobs! I’d thought about it my entire life.” —IGGY AZALEA The rapper, revealing that she had breast augmentation surgery to Vogue. “When I got signed by Interscope, he literally smashed my hotel room and broke all the furniture because he was so angry.” —M.I.A. The artist, telling Rolling Stone about “jealous,” “controlling” ex-boyfriend and collaborator Diplo. “One of the biggest mistakes of my career was f—ing with her.” —DIPLO The DJ-producer discussing…

WHERE TO EAT Celeb Haunt Copley’s 621 N. Palm Canyon Drive, Palm Springs, Calif. This high-end eatery — which was once Cary Grant’s guesthouse — attracts the likes of Jennifer Lopez (above) and ICM Partners’ Chuck James, who come for chef Andrew Manion Copley’s creative takes on American classics. Secret Spot El Mexicali Cafe II 43430 Monroe St., Indio, Calif. With harp players and “the best chiles gueritos you’ve ever had,” according to Dan Berkowitz of the event travel agency CID Entertainment, this authentic, family-owned Mexican restaurant has become a local favorite. Foodie Feast Outstanding in the Field 81-800 Ave. 51, Indio, Calif. The farm-to-table outdoor pop-up restaurant with elaborate four-course meals will cook up 12 dinners at Coachella. At $225 it’s pricey, but fans include celebs like Penn Badgley.…

Andrew Hozier-Byrne, the 24-year-old singer-songwriter who goes simply by Hozier, remembers his first festival experience well; it involved a grueling eight-hour wait followed by a near-religious experience. “Christ, I was 16,” he reflects. “I waited in the pit for hours to see James Brown. My back was breaking, and I was fainting throughout the day. I got to be in the front row, and it was incredible.” The moment reflected a young singer’s intense will to feel something transcendent, and it was a sign of things to come. Of course no one, least of all Hozier himself, imagined that this cerebral kid from the Irish countryside whose Plan B was to become a shrink would emerge as one of the year’s most unlikely hitmakers, tucked into the top reaches of…

If up-and-coming bands comprise the soul of Coachella, the big-name headliners represent its aspirations: to reach festivalgoers of all types, and stretch its identity to credibly include an array of genres. This year’s headlining acts — veteran hard-rockers AC/DC, reigning pop-rapper Drake and guitar god Jack White — represent wildly different musical pods, with one important thing in common: a catalog of hits that can instantaneously unite a crowd of thousands. AC/DC has filled arenas and stadiums since the 1970s. On its last tour, in 2010, the band sold out the 13,609-capacity MGM Grand Garden in Las Vegas, according to Billboard Boxscore. This year’s booking was a big coup for Coachella’s production company, Goldenvoice: The act hasn’t played a major North American festival since 1979. “They’ve accomplished so much,” Goldenvoice…

1 BAD CELL SERVICE GoTenna, a Brooklyn startup, sells pocket-sized wands ($149 a pair) that, by connecting to cellphones with Bluetooth technology, communicate in dead zones. Users can’t scroll Twitter and Facebook, but they can complete emergency actions, like sending texts and exchanging GPS coordinates. 2 CARBON FOOTPRINTS By offering only compostable food items, Bonnaroo diverted 366 tons of waste from Tennessee landfills in 2014. Central California’s Lightning in a Bottle offers free water stations in lieu of selling disposable bottles. “A lot of festivals get complacent,” says Lightning in a Bottle co-founder Dede Flemming. “They book a big lineup, sell a bunch of tickets and forget about the attendees and the grounds. It’s short-sighted.” 3 CROWD CONTROL Can the look of a crowd affect its behavior? Some event organizers…

Sympathetic characters are often what turn good music documentaries into great ones, yet few hit the level of congeniality that director Jessica Edwards captures in her heartwarming portrait of soul legend Mavis Staples. Mavis! follows a welcome trend —most notably in Searching for Sugar Man and 20 Feet From Stardom — of music docs in which the appeal of personality and story supersede fame. Among a collection of stand-out biographies that premiered at South by Southwest, Mavis! was the feel-good star, a story of survival, family, change and adapting to it. Mavis! embraces the singer’s history — back to the early 1950s when she started in Chicago churches with her father Pops and siblings in The Staple Singers — and connects it to her place in music today. Edwards rightfully…

WHILE TOURING TO PROMOTE HER HIT ALBUM The Truth, Ledisi, 43, has been racking up highway miles aboard her bus with nary a night off: Cleveland, Detroit, Indianapolis and Baltimore in one four-date run in March, part of her 23-date tour with support artists Raheem DeVaughn, 39, and Leela James, 31. Between shows and cities, as with most touring acts, Ledisi’s bus is her refuge. “I like that I get the chance to really sleep and not have to get up early to get on a plane,” she says. “And I like messing [around on the bus] with my band. That’s the fun, too. My tour manager hates it because he wants to go to bed and hates me staying up. But I like hanging with the band.” Tour bus…

Derulo continues his hot streak on the Billboard Hot 100 as “Want to Want Me” becomes his sixth straight top 40 hit, rising 45-27. The track arrived March 9 and is off to a fast start at mainstream top 40 radio. 33 The Beluga Heights/Warner Bros. single, which previews Derulo’s fourth album (due this summer), vaults 22-17 on Mainstream Top 40 Airplay with 5,198 spins (up 33 percent) in the week ending March 22, according to Nielsen Music. 2 “Want” tallied 2 million U.S. streams for the week, up 56 percent. Expect that number to grow in the April 11 issue, as the track’s music video premiered March 23 (initially through Tinder, and then on YouTube). 98 The single held on to its sales in its second week, dropping by…

A BUTTERFLY HAS EMERGED EARLY, AS Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly flutters to the No. 1 spot on the Billboard 200. His sooner-than-expected release earned 363,000 equivalent album units in the week ending March 22, according to Nielsen Music, giving the rapper his first No. 1. The critically lauded set originally was scheduled for a March 23 bow, but it hit retail early in the morning of March 16. The physical version of the album quickly started to reach brick-and-mortar retailers (most had it by March 19), and the set finished the week with 324,000 copies sold. That’s the second-largest overall sales week of 2015, trailing only the debut frame of Drake’s surprise album If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late (495,000). Furthermore, Lamar’s album title and its original…

The long-running The Fast and the Furious franchise drives in at No. 12 on the Billboard 200 with the seventh offering in the movie series: Furious 7. The set launches with 39,000 units moved in the week ending March 22, according to Nielsen Music. The album was preceded by seven digital tracks, as Billboard.com first reported in February, led by two singles on Feb. 17: Wiz Khalifa & Iggy Azalea’s “Go Hard or Go Home” and Kid Ink, Y.G., Wale, Tyga & Rich Homie Quan’s “Ride Out.” More than half of the album’s debut week (52 percent; 19,000 units) was generated by track-equivalent album units, owed to the multiple offerings that clearly enticed consumers. Traditional album sales for the set equated to 15,000. The first Fast and the Furious soundtrack…

The folk/rock band Houndmouth (above) charges in at No. 1 on Heatseekers Albums with its second full-length, Little Neon Limelight. The set sold 5,000 copies in the week ending March 22, according to Nielsen Music, and also starts at No. 6 on Folk Albums. The group, which played six shows in four days at the South by Southwest festival during the album’s release week, play CBS’This Morning on March 28. (The show will air a performance taped during SXSW.) The album’s current single, “Sedona,” becomes the four-piece band’s first top 10 airplay hit as it climbs 13-9 on the Triple A chart. The cut has a 12 percent increase in plays at the format. Houndmouth’s previous album, From the Hills Below the City, debuted and peaked at No. 5 on…

Independently signed singer-songwriter Chris Janson (above) makes a splash on the Hot Country Songs chart as “Buy Me a Boat” sets sail at No. 33. The track starts with almost all of its points from sales, as it debuts at No. 8 on Country Digital Songs with 21,000 downloads sold, according to Nielsen Music, since it was made available for purchase on iTunes on March 20. Despite the track’s quick trip from release to chart debut, Janson, like many Nashville success stories, has built a solid resume, especially as a writer. Most notably, he co-wrote Tim McGraw’s “Truck Yeah,” which reached No. 10 on Country Airplay in 2012. (Janson wrote “Boat” with chart vet Chris DuBois.) The catalyst for the solid sales start for “Boat”? Two plays on the Premiere…

Spanish pop singer Natalia Jimenez (above) arrives at No. 2 on Top Latin Albums with her second solo studio album, Creo en Mi, which opens with 4,000 copies, according to Nielsen Music. The entrance trumps her debut solo set, Natalia, which arrived at No. 4 in 2011 with 3,000 units. The album’s title track, and lead single, peaked at No. 12 on Hot Latin Songs in September 2014, her highest rank as a lead artist. She spent two weeks at No. 1 as a featured guest on Ricky Martin’s “Lo Mejor de Mi Vida Eres Tu” in 2011. Jimenez is a coach on Telemundo’s talent show La Voz Kids, currently in its third season. Mana adds a new Latin Pop Airplay No. 1 to its tally as “Mi Verdad” (featuring…

Ariana Grande hits the Boxscore chart with six concert engagements, the first dates reported from the Live Nation-produced tour supporting her second studio album, My Everything, that debuted in August. Dubbed the Honeymoon Tour, the 38-city trek is set to play markets in North America and Europe through mid-June. The highest-grossing of her shows — at No. 11 — are two sellouts at New York’s Madison Square Garden (March 20-21) with sales topping $1.4 million and 28,520 fans in attendance, the tour’s first multiple-show run. Sellouts in Philadelphia; Detroit; Rosemont, Ill.; Cleveland; and St. Paul, Minn., also land among the chart’s top-grossing concerts. Since the Honeymoon Tour launched Feb. 25 in Independence, Mo., 13 shows have been reported to Billboard with grosses totaling $7.2 million. The number of tickets sold…

THREE DAYS INTO A FOUR-PERSON tour, two hours after playing to a stadium of 43,000 fans in Jakarta and just eight minutes past midnight, One Direction made an announcement that would send millions of teenagers into hysterics. Zayn Malik was leaving the band “to be a normal 22-year-old who is able to relax and have some private time out of the spotlight,” as the singer said in an official statement on March 25. Malik’s departure didn’t come as a complete surprise (he had announced a brief hiatus from the band’s current tour on March 19 due to “stress”), nor is it unprecedented (the Spice Girls and Backstreet Boys both had members exit at the height of their popularity). But it’s a troubling sign that even 1D’s record-breaking four-year run may…

WITH MANY OF THE TOURING industry’s biggest names rapidly reaching retirement age — some 15 of the top 25 acts since 1990 include at least one musician over 60 — the question of succession is taking on increasing urgency. But a changing of the guard is coming into focus, with Rihanna, Taylor Swift, One Direction, Jason Aldean, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga and several other (relative) youngbloods among the top 25 tours of 2014-15. Moving up to the arena/amphitheater level (venues with capacities topping 10,000) is a milestone career move, and in most cases a risky proposition. “Beyond the hits, you’ve got to be an entertainer,” says Live Nation VP Brad Wavra, who has seen many such jumps as producer of tours by Backstreet Boys, ’N Sync, Jonas Brothers and the…

Meerkat, a live-streaming mobile app that effectively turns a smartphone into a broadcaster, was the tech success story of South by Southwest. Twitter launched Periscope, a similar app, on March 26. Unlike YouTube, which ingests and stores videos, Meerkat streams only live video; Periscope and another service, YouNow, archive streams for 24 and 72 hours, respectively. But any instant live-streaming service comes with potential legal issues. Public performance rights The services would need to acquire proper licenses from ASCAP, BMI and SESAC to legally stream live-music performances. The companies may also violate record labels’ performance rights if users stream a sound recording, “like a DJ’s prerecorded tracks at an EDM show,” says entertainment attorney Bill Hochberg. DMCA Safe Harbor The Digital Millennial Copyright Act’s “safe harbor” provisions could protect the…

“THANKS FOR STANDING IN THE F—ING RAIN FOR US,” AUSSIE rocker Courtney Barnett (see page 23), one of SXSW’s biggest breakouts, told a soggy crowd at Stubb’s BBQ on March 21. “I wouldn’t do this for just anybody.” Rain — OK, a lot of rain — may have soaked the festival this year, but it certainly didn’t stop it. As always, there was an overabundance of the four Bs: bands, beer, barbecue and brands. But the latter noticeably scaled back this year, which meant fewer A-list shows, but also more focus on SXSW’s old-school raison d’etre: giving smaller acts a chance to shine. Kanye West was a no-show at Jimmy Kimmel Live!’s Austin stage, but that left more air for Sam Cooke-alike Leon Bridges’ eight winning shows; Miley Cyrus rocked…

Music fans and critics are heralding Aussie alt-rocker Courtney Barnett as a kind of songwriting Lena Dunham — an unapologetically visceral, totally riveting, precocious over-sharer. “Bottling things up is not ever going to help,” the 27-year-old explains, “so I like the extreme form of not bottling things up.” Like Dunham’s, Barnett’s confessions on her full-length debut, Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit, released March 23 on her own Milk Records through indie stalwart Mom + Pop, can seem both personal and universal, as if the singer-songwriter-guitarist has been charged with channeling her generation’s inner dialogues. “I’m a fake, I’m a phony, I’m awake, I’m alone, I’m homely,” she drones on the single “Pedestrian at Best.” “Depreston,” a song about rising house prices in a Melbourne suburb,…

France’s dance music scene first hit its stride in the early 2000s when acts like David Guetta and Daft Punk cracked global pop barriers, but a new crop of DJs is casting a light on the country’s thriving underground. Dealing in huge kicks, dissonant synths and gut-punching bass, their music is sexy, gritty and deeply inspired by American hip-hop. Say bienvenue to three up-and-comers at the front of this new wave. BRODINSKI From Lille Age 27 Play him at... An Atlanta strip club Backstory This rap-happy DJ has worked with Kanye West and Theophilus London; his debut LP, Brava, released in March, marries techno with trap and verses from Southern MCs like ILoveMakonnen. GESAFFELSTEIN From Lyons Age 29 Play him at... A Paris discotheque Backstory The dark industrial techno featured…

4/10 Coach Backstage Since executive creative director Stuart Vevers began transforming the brand in February 2014, Coach has debuted an exclusive party and concert series featuring artists like Banks and Zoe Kravitz (inset). They’re bringing the fourth show to Coachella this year (location to be determined). 4/10 MAC Cosmetics To celebrate her summer-festival-inspired makeup collection for MAC, Mia Moretti will take a break from the DJ booth to host a poolside party at the Ingleside Inn, where one might bump elbows with members of her posse like Katy Perry. Says Moretti, “The scene will be straight out of a Slim Aaron photograph.” 4/10 H&M Party With a turnout that has included Perry, ASAP Rocky, Emmy Rossum and performances by Santigold and Iggy Azalea in years past, six-time sponsor H&M’s annual…

Talking to Josh Tillman, who will perform as the subversive folk singer Father John Misty at this year’s Coachella, is not like talking to other people. “The function of art is very different from the function of some kind of Hegelian prescription for decent civilian living,” he begins, winding himself up for what becomes a series of pretty riveting rants. “I’m not creating an instruction manual for decency. I’m trying my best to give some oxygen to my own experiences, good or bad.” One would expect this kind of talk from the man behind Father John Misty’s second record, I Love You, Honeybear. The critically exalted album, which debuted at No. 17 on the Billboard 200, is a careening, psychologically unhinged concept record, set in louche Los Angeles, about the…

ROCK IN RIO USA May 8-9 (rock) and May 15-16 (pop); Las Vegas WHAT IS IT? The inaugural U.S. version of Brazil’s biggest pop festival, split into two weekends — one for rock and one for pop (and equipped with actual toilets). WHO’S HEADLINING? Metallica and No Doubt (rock); Bruno Mars and Taylor Swift (pop) HOW MUCH? $298 for three-day general admission (GA); $498 for one-day VIP WHO ELSE SHOULD I SEE? Bleachers, Gary Clark Jr., Deftones, The Pretty Reckless (rock); Charli XCX, John Legend, Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith (pop) WHERE SHOULD I STAY? MGM Resorts is a sponsor, so the Mirage (3400 Las Vegas Blvd. South) will be prepared for the influx. HANGOUT MUSIC FEST May 15-17; Gulf Shores, Ala. WHAT IS IT? Held on public beaches on the…

KENDRICK LAMAR’S SECOND MAJOR-LABEL album, To Pimp a Butterfly, was released March 15 to the kind of fanfare that, while not quite breaking the Internet, prompted multiple trending topics on Twitter — and some confusion on iTunes and Spotify, where clean and explicit versions of the album went up at different times, came down and went live again. It’s no shock that the record’s surprise release, eight days before its expected March 23 due date, would cause a small frenzy. Lamar is mainstream hip-hop’s thinking man: the guy who conveys more gravitas and transmits bigger ideas than Kanye West, and the commercial underdog to Drake’s chart-controlling hegemony. Since the 2014 Grammy shutout for his masterful major-label debut, Good Kid, M.a.a.d City, his follow-up has been one of the most eagerly…

FIVE YEARS AGO, ACTION BRONSON was a sous chef with big dreams — until a workplace tumble left him sitting at home with a broken leg. He poured the new downtime into his sideline fantasy — becoming a rapper — and never looked back. Today, the Queens native is an offbeat but always on-point lyricist making the leap to the majors with his Atlantic/Vice debut, Mr. Wonderful. Molding Bronson’s madcap foodie raps into something more accessible isn’t an insurmountable task — 2013’s “Strictly 4 My Jeeps” got respectable burn on New York hip-hop radio — but the album’s really only concerned with being the purest, best Action record it can be. In other words, it’s awash in good eats, beautiful women, exotic locales, and dusty beats to extol them over.…

It costs a touring act substantially more to travel by chartered jet — some 10 times the leasing fee of a tour bus for a monthlong outing. So why fly? The Moody Blues’ John Lodge, 69, says that for long-distance tour legs, “anything over 250 miles, particularly overnight, we do a charter.” The veteran 1960s British pop act performed in the United States in August and September 2014 on a tour aptly titled The Voyage Continues: Timeless Flight. “The important thing for me is when we get onstage, I don’t want to be tired or anything like that,” says Lodge. “We want to be rested and ready to play. “Charters have changed over the years, of course,” he adds. “In the early ’70s we used to charter the Starship, this…

‘STRAIGHT’ UP Mysterious Belgian-French production duo Both reaches a Billboard chart for the first time as “Straight Outta Line” bolts onto Dance/Mix Show Airplay at No. 32. Not only do Both’s members decline to disclose their identities, but they also don’t credit the track’s vocal, which sits atop a driving nu-soul/house beat. Originally released on PIAS, “Line” has been picked up by Dim Mak. FAMILY ‘MOVIES’ Since not too many acts consist of a mother and son, Madisen Ward & The Mama Bear (aka Ruth Ward, Madisen’s mother) stand out. The duo is garnering acclaim for its blend of folk, soul and Madisen’s booming tenor, and the Kansas City, Mo., pair is now nearing the Triple A chart with debut single “Silent Movies” (Glassnote). Also raising the act’s profile: It…

Awolnation, led by Aaron Bruno (above), returns to the Billboard Artist 100 at a new high of No. 33. The arrival of sophomore album Run spurs the reentry, as it starts at No. 9 on Top Album Sales with 30,000 first-week copies sold, according to Nielsen Music. Awolnation spent a week on the Artist 100 at No. 88 in February as the release’s lead single, “Hollow Moon (Bad Wolf),” was beginning its ascent at rock radio; the track bullets at its No. 4 high on the April 4 Alternative chart. Awolnation’s 2011 debut, Megalithic Symphony, which yielded the steadily built crossover hit “Sail,” has sold 590,000 since its release. Atop the Artist 100, Kendrick Lamar makes the biggest vault to No. 1 (since the list launched eight months ago) as…

Your sophomore album, Run, debuts at No. 17 on the Billboard 200. Did you feel pressure to top your debut? People say you spend your whole life making your first record and six months to make your second, but I’ve spent my whole life fantasizing about the sophomore record. This is the first time I’ve had the opportunity to make a sophomore record. I had a couple of records in other bands that no one knew about, so there wasn’t any anticipation. This time I’m passionate about freaking people out a little bit. I wanted to make a record that took the listener on a journey similar to the records I loved growing up. What were some of the records you listened to at that time? Radiohead’s OK Computer really…

“Trap Queen” by emerging rapper Fetty Wap has experienced an impressive trajectory on the Streaming Songs chart since its debut on the Feb. 21 chart. During the New Jersey artist’s seven-week climb, the track hit the top 10 in just its fourth chart frame — and now moves 6-2 after a 13 percent gain in streams during the week ending March 22, according to Nielsen Music. “Trap Queen” earned more than 10 million streams for the week; the primary driver of activity was its popularity on YouTube, which produced 73 percent of its plays. Just outside the top 10 is Omarion’s (below) “Post to Be” (featuring Chris Brown and Jhene Aiko), which flies 20-11 (up 9 percent) in its fifth week on the chart. Lifted from his album Sex Playlist,…

Modest Mouse’s first album in eight years, Strangers to Ourselves, starts at No. 1 on Top Rock Albums and No. 3 on the Billboard 200 with 73,000 sold (according to Nielsen Music) and helps land the band at No. 12 on the Billboard Artist 100 chart. The Isaac Brock-led group’s preceding release, 2007’s We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank, also topped Top Rock Albums and debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 129,000 sold. The new title’s lead single, “Lampshades on Fire,” tops Alternative for a second week and also logged a four-week run at No. 1 at Triple A. The set also debuts atop Vinyl Albums (11,000), a list the band led in November 2014 with a repressing of 1997’s The Lonesome Crowded West. Alternative…

Singer-songwriter Matt Maher has a banner week as new album Saints and Sinners scores his best sales week ever. He also notches his first No. 1 on Christian Airplay. Saints and Sinners starts at No. 2 on Top Christian Albums — his highest-charting set yet, and fifth entry overall — with 8,000 sold in the week ending March 22 (according to Nielsen Music). Meanwhile, the album’s single “Because He Lives (Amen)” rises 3-1 on Christian Airplay with a 4 percent spike in audience (to 9.9 million for the week). Maher previously topped out at No. 5 on Christian Albums with 2013’s All the People Said Amen. On the airplay tally, he has gone as high as No. 4 three times, with 2008’s “Your Grace Is Enough,” 2013’s “Lord, I Need…

ON AUG. 25, 1986, PAUL SIMON, THEN 44, released his seventh and most celebrated solo album, Graceland. Its acclaim, however, was slow to build. Influenced by South African sounds (and recorded partly in Johannesburg), the set made a measured climb up the Billboard 200, cresting at No. 6 that November. Its lead single didn’t fare as well: “You Can Call Me Al” — which partly was inspired by an incident at a party where a guest mistakenly referred to Simon by that name — stalled at No. 44 on the Billboard Hot 100 that September and had fallen off the chart by the time Graceland cracked the Billboard 200 top 10. But thanks to a Grammy win, the album and the single found second life. At the Feb. 24, 1987…

The contentious December collapse of the 25-year business relationship between former Prospect Park partners Peter Katsis and Jeff Kwatinetz put most of the music artists under the firm’s management banner into play, and the acts have chosen their destinations. Sources tell Billboard that Katsis initially was girding for a court battle, but the time and expense it likely would have incurred led him to settle in February. Consequently, he will continue to manage Jane’s Addiction, the band’s lead singer Perry Farrell and Farrell’s businesses (including Lollapalooza), as well as Smashing Pumpkins and new signing The Joy Formidable. The Pumpkins were at the center of the split, with one source telling Billboard that Katsis spent “90 percent of his time” on the group, a claim that Katsis disputed. Backstreet Boys have…

Thanks to Sam Smith’s feature on Disclosure’s “Latch” and Foxes’ cameo for Zedd on “Clarity,” once-anonymous EDM vocalists are seeing new possibilities as solo stars JESS GLYNNE, LONDON Featured on: Clean Bandit’s “Rather Be,” Route 94’s “My Love” Signed to Atlantic in the United Kingdom, Glynne was thrust into the international spotlight with her featured spot on the Grammy-nominated “Rather Be.” Her February single “Hold My Hand” is a prequel to a U.K. album and U.S. EP, both of which are slated for July. KERLI, ESTONIA Featured on: SNBRN’s “Raindrops,” Seven Lions’ “Worlds Apart” Antonio “L.A.” Reid signed Kolv to Island Records in 2006, but neither an album nor an EP made an impression. After inking with Ultra in 2013, she became a go-to vocalist for DJs like Benny Benassi…

THE RÉSUMÉ OF DAVE GROHL — LEADER of Foo Fighters, all-star collaborator and rock-doc director — is forever morphing. Those roles merged with his band’s audio-visual experiment Sonic Highways, an album and eight-part HBO series documenting the recording histories of eight U.S. cities and featuring such local luminaries as Dolly Parton (Nashville), Heart’s Nancy Wilson (Seattle), Kiss’Paul Stanley (New York) and Minor Threat’s Ian Mackaye (Washington, D.C.). And as the project’s April 7 DVD release approaches, Grohl is contemplating a sequel that would expand Sonic Highways’ geographic reach. “There might be a season two,” Grohl, 46, tells Billboard. The first studio he has set his sights on: London’s Abbey Road. “It would be fun to interview Paul McCartney or George Martin, or David Bowie or Iggy Pop[in] Berlin, or the…

TWENTY YEARS AGO, LATIN MUSIC LOST a legend. On March 31, 1995, in what has become music folklore, singer Selena Quintanilla Perez — known simply by her first name — was shot and killed by the former president of her fan club (now serving a life sentence) at the age of 23, two weeks before her birthday. During her short life, Selena made history, pushing the Texas-based folk music known as Tejano to mainstream heights it had never seen before — or since. She landed five No. 1 singles on Billboard’s Hot Latin Tracks chart and, most impressively, a Billboard 200 No. 1 with her fifth and final studio LP, Dreaming of You — a first for a Latin female act. Her light still hasn’t dimmed: Six posthumous Selena releases…

With Easter just around the corner, four of 2015’s most promising musical spring chickens —Madeon, Allie X, Tori Kelly and Waxahatchee — dropped by the Billboard offices to bring their creativity to a new medium: eggs! Madeon For his first Easter ever, the French EDM DJ-producer (pictured above) dyed the shell pink and added sparkles in the shape of the symbol on the cover of his debut album, Adventure (March 31, Columbia). “Once you give me glitter,” the 20-yearold said, “you’re in for it.” Allie X As one might guess from her name or her self-released debut EP, CollXtion I (April 7), alt-popper Allie X is way into the letter X. Her simple egg featured the word “Xggcellent,” written in Sharpie on a blue-green shell. “Which came first,” she joked…

On her: CITIZENS OF HUMANITY Corinne shirt in Mendocino, $218; citizensofhumanity.com. TAMARA MELLON suede fringe skirt, $895; shopbop.com. CHLOE GOSSELIN River Poison sandal, $1,260; chloegosselin.com. ELIZABETH AND JAMES Lane sunglasses, $165; nordstrom.com. SAINT LAURENT plumes fringe necklace, $2,995, and flask with strap, $445; ysl.com. On him: VALENTINO collar shirt, $980, crewneck shirt, $690, and pants, $980; 212-355-5811. COLE HAAN Camden chukkas, $178; 800-695-8945. BURBERRY PRORSUM loam nubuck field jacket, $4,895; burberry.com.…

THE FIRST TIME TAME IMPALA PLAYED Coachella, as a little-known Australian band near the bottom of the 2011 bill, frontman Kevin Parker had barely heard of the desert festival. “But as soon as we got there we saw all these celebrities hanging out backstage,” he says. “We thought” — he pauses, searching for the right words — “ ‘This is different.’ ” Two years later, when the group returned to the Indio, Calif., event for a buzzed-about evening set, the VIP section was packed with press, major-label scouts and the only-at-Coachella duo of Danny DeVito and Tyler, The Creator. It was a breakthrough performance, with the band’s surging psych-pop perfectly complementing the desert sunset — despite the fact that a dust storm was kicking up and sound problems forced the…

Just four years ago, Brittany Howard, the 26-year-old singer and guitar ace for the soul-rock crew Alabama Shakes, was working 12-hour days at the Athens, Ala., post office, dreaming of a career in music. “I was like, ‘Please, God, let me quit my job,’ ” she says with a cheery dose of Southern drawl. “ ‘I’ll do whatever it takes to never work again.’ ” Since then, her prayer has been answered, and then some. Fueled by the Shakes’ 2012 single “Hold On” — 11 million YouTube views and counting — and legend-making live shows, Howard has rocked Saturday Night Live (twice), wowed the allstar audience at a Grammy tribute to Levon Helm (her verse on “The Weight” came close to blowing Elton John off the stage) and elevated festival…

Paul Tollett, 47 President/CEO, Goldenvoice Though its future hung in the balance in its early years, the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in Indio, Calif., parlayed its one-of-a-kind setting and Tollett’s ambitious talent booking to become the premier festival in North America, grossing $78.3 million in 2014, according to Billboard Boxscore. Meanwhile, Goldenvoice’s Stagecoach may be the most important country festival west of the Mississippi. From left: Charles Attal, 47; Charlie Walker, 43; Charlie Jones, 45 Partners, C3 Presents By creating the Austin City Limits Music Festival and resurrecting Lollapalooza, the three Charlies built their Austin-based company C3 Presents into the top independent promoter in the United States. The payoff? Live Nation, the world’s largest promoter, acquired 51 percent of C3 in 2014 for a reported $125 million, making…

At home, country star Darius Rucker, 48, is a multitasker. “While we were talking,” he says during his phone interview with Billboard, “I walked out, got my garbage bin and brought it back in.” Balancing work with domestic responsibilities is a prerogative for Rucker, who records his albums in Charleston, S.C., to be close to his wife and three children. After rising to fame as frontman for Hootie & The Blowfish, the now Grand Ole Opry-approved artist is enjoying life at a slower pace these days, and one can hear it in the chilled-out vibe of his fourth album, Southern Style, due March 31. Most country stars record in Nashville, which is filled with great studios and session players. Why do you do it at home in Charleston? I like…

HITS WIZ KHALIFA FEATURING CHARLIE PUTH, THE TONIGHT SHOW STARRING JIMMY FALLON (MARCH 16) Khalifa and Puth struck just the right tone with “See You Again,” the tearjerker tribute to the late actor Paul Walker on the Furious 7 soundtrack. Their performance was spare, elegiac and remarkably schmaltz-free, and Puth’s stirring vocals were a highlight. Live, he sounded like he could give Sam Smith a run for his money. MODEST MOUSE,THE TONIGHT SHOW STARRING JIMMY FALLON (MARCH 17) Fresh off releasing Modest Mouse’s latest LP, Strangers to Ourselves, frontman Isaac Brock looked positively feral as he spat out the lyrics to “Lampshades on Fire,” a deliriously bouncy, staccato number with searing lyrics about the trashing of the planet. Keyboardist Lisa Molinaro’s harmonies near the end of the song added a…

As their hits boost travel budgets, the members of the country trio ride separately When country trio Rascal Flatts toured the nation in 2014 to promote its Big Machine album Rewind, members Gary LeVox, 44; Jay DeMarcus, 43; and Joe Don Rooney, 39, left each venue aboard separate customized coaches, each leased from Diamond Coach, based in Whites Creek, Tenn. What do you each like best about your tour bus? LeVox My Mossy Oak camouflage [interior design]. My whole bus is that ... That’s how a hillbilly stays hidden. DeMarcus My favorite thing is my bed. I’ve got a great bed back there. I get better sleep there than I do at home. Rooney We [all] have the space to take out our families or our friends [on tour]. How…

Trainor’s Bright “Future” Meghan Trainor surges with “Dear Future Husband,” the third single from Title, as the track re-enters the Billboard Hot 100 at a new high of No. 47. Lead smash “All About That Bass” topped the Hot 100 for eight weeks and follow-up “Lips Are Movin” reached No. 4. “Husband,” a lyrical checklist of musthaves for her soulmate, storms Streaming Songs at No. 27 with 4.1 million U.S. streams, a 214 percent rise, according to Nielsen Music, following the March 16 premiere of its official video. The song also re-enters Billboard + Twitter Top Tracks at No. 8.…

Marina & The Diamonds, aka solo singer Marina Diamandis (above), debuts at No. 8 on the Billboard 200 with Froot, notching her first top 10 album. The set is her third studio effort, and it moved 46,000 units in its first week. Of that figure, 43,000 were pure album sales — her best sales week ever. She previously visited the Billboard 200 with 2012’s Electra Heart (peaking at No. 31) and 2010’s The Family Jewels (No. 138). The bulk of the new album’s first week was powered by download sales (38,000), which isn’t surprising considering the kind of digital-friendly audience Marina has garnered during the past few years. Said audience is engaged with Marina on the Web (she has 914,000 Twitter followers and 1.1 million likes on Facebook) but that…

The likely last new album entry from Fox’s Glee arrives at No. 63 on the Billboard 200 (and No. 50 on Top Album Sales) as the EP Glee, Season Six: Dreams Come True takes a bow. The set moved 8,000 units in the week ending March 22, according to Nielsen Music, with slightly more than 5,000 owed to traditional album sales. It’s the best sales week for the musical-comedy series since April 12, 2014, when Glee, the Music: Celebrating 100 Episodes bowed at No. 22 on the Billboard 200, selling 13,000 copies. Glee wrapped its six-season run on March 20. The Dreams Come True EP boasts an original tune written by the cast’s Darren Criss: “This Time,” which was performed on the finale by castmate Lea Michele. In total, Glee…

Hip-hop typically does well on Billboard’s social charts, but the genre makes an especially strong showing on the April 4 charts, as two of rap’s most buzzworthy acts take the charts by storm. On Billboard + Twitter Top Tracks, Earl Sweatshirt (above) notches the top debut with “Grief” (No. 4) — the only advance-release song from his album I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside. (The set arrived March 23 and likely will make a top 10 debut on the April 11 Billboard 200, according to industry forecasters.) “Grief” arrives after accumulating a sizable volume of activity on Twitter after spending a combined two-and-a-half hours at No. 1 on the realtime Billboard + Twitter Trending 140 chart in the 24 hours after its official music video debuted on Vevo…

Fetty Wap (above) rises 2-1 to crown Hot Rap Songs with “Trap Queen,” earning the rapper his first chart-topper and ending Pitbull’s seven-week No. 1 run with “Time of Our Lives,” with Ne-Yo. An 11 percent increase in U.S. streams to 10.6 million in the week ending March 22 (according to Nielsen Music) assists Wap’s climb, while downloads reached 76,000 for the week (up 12 percent), its best sales frame yet. The 24-year-old New Jersey native also lifts 34-27 on the Billboard Artist 100 chart, reaching his highest peak to date. Meanwhile, rap duo Rae Sremmurd earns its first No. 1 on the Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop airplay chart as “Throw Sum Mo” (featuring Nicki Minaj and Young Thug) hops 3-1. Minaj nets her seventh chart-topper, while Young Thug logs his second.…

Following well-received appearances at South by Southwest, international electronic trio Years & Years re-enters Top Dance/Electronic Albums at No. 2 with its Y & Y EP. According to Nielsen Music, the four-track release sold 3,000 units (up 494 percent), nearly triple its previous best when the title debuted on the Feb. 21 chart at No. 11 with 1,000 units. Two EP tracks impact Hot Dance/Electronic Songs as “Desire” debuts at No. 21 while “King” cruises 43-28, spurred by download spikes of 1,400 percent for the former (No. 7 on Dance/Electronic Digital Songs with 13,000) and 243 percent for the latter (No. 39, 4,000). Additionally, “King” captures 501,000 U.S. streams (up 80 percent), with Spotify accounting for 86 percent of that sum. David Guetta darts 18-10 on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs with…