Innholdsfortegnelse for Feb-21-15 i Billboard Magazine

JUST CALL THEM THE Fab Three: Rihanna, Kanye West and Paul McCartney’s “Four Five Seconds” vaults 15-6 on the Billboard Hot 100. Fueling the song’s surge: the premiere of its official video on Feb. 3 and the trio’s performance of it at the 57th annual Grammy Awards on Feb. 8. “Four Five Seconds” jumps 4-3 on Digital Songs (181,000 downloads sold, up 31 percent, according to Nielsen Music) and 36-22 on Radio Songs (46 million audience impressions, up 33 percent). It also enters Streaming Songs at No. 34 (3.8 million U.S. streams, up 830 percent), adding top Streaming Gainer honors on the Hot 100. With the song’s Hot 100 advance, McCartney makes history: He returns to the top 10 after a gap of 29 years and two weeks, ending the…

The Latin Music Awards’ top finalists are not a big surprise: Romeo Santos and Enrique Iglesias lead with 21 and 19 nods, respectively, while hot newcomer J Balvin has 12. But there is plenty between the lines of the 67 categories of the awards, which will air live on Telemundo on April 30. Santos (right) and Iglesias’ nods broke the record 18 held jointly by Tito “El Bambino” and Don Omar. But the six nominations for Iglesias’ “Bailando” means the song won’t top the record 11 won by Flex’s “Te Quiero” in 2009. The mother vs. daughter matchup for Hot Latin Songs artist of the year, female is a BBLMA first, and a bittersweet one: The late Jenni Rivera (left), who died in 2012, is up against her 29-year-old daughter,…

The complex issue of copyright reform took center stage during the Grammy Awards telecast on Feb. 8 when Recording Academy chief Neil Portnow urged Congress to ensure that “new technology [pays] artists fairly.” His comments echoed some of the contents of a 250-page music-licensing report issued just three days earlier by the U.S. Copyright Office. Congress may or may not enact some of those recommendations into law — but if it does, the ramifications are enormous. 1. Recommendation “More equal footing” for master and musical work rates. Record labels currently earn up to 12 times more digital performance royalties than publishers. Winner/loser Digital services will be hard pressed to pay much more, so greater parity between rates means publishers’ gains will be labels’ losses. 2. Recommendation Bundled rights: That is,…

USHER WITH A HARP. KATY PERRY with a piano. Kanye West with a McCartney — far more than in 2014, the Grammys were ballad-heavy, featuring lonely performers on bare stages and sad songs with gospel choirs. Call it the Gloomys; ratings dipped to the lowest level in nine years (down 8.3 percent in overall audience, to 24.8 million viewers, according to Nielsen). Much of the rowdiness came from older performers: AC/DC delivered the loudest Grammy opening in history with “Rock or Bust” and “Highway to Hell,”Annie Lennox sprinkled diva dust on Hozier’s “Take Me to Church” and then stole the stage with “I Put a Spell on You” — while today’s pop stars opted for statement moments, addressing domestic abuse (Perry), racial tension (Pharrell Williams, Beyoncé, John Legend and Common),…

Sam Jackson Does Russ Better Than RussDef Jam co-founder Russell Simmons has been hearing for weeks that Samuel L. Jackson channeled him to portray the lisping, baseball hatand-Adidas-wearing villain Valentine in Kingsman: The Secret Service. And after seeing the movie, he agrees there’s a resemblance. “My driver and everybody who saw it with me were laughing. They said, ‘That’s you, Russ!’ ” he tells Overheard, but says the lisp that Jackson affects in the movie is much heavier than his own. “I used to speak that way but haven’t for years now, “ explains Simmons, although he adds that seeing the movie prompted him to “speak with a heavier lisp than usual” while presenting the NAACP Image Award to Clive Davis. “I was channeling Sam Jackson channeling me,” says Simmons.…

Forty-five years after his first music credit as a composer on the Oscar-winning short The Resurrection of Bronco Billy, legendary director John Carpenter (Halloween, The Thing), is stepping out as a musician. The 67-year-old’s debut album, Lost Themes, released Feb. 3 on Sacred Bones, is a startlingly vital collection of propulsive instrumentals. Why did you wait until now to release a proper album? It’s all serendipitous. I got a new music attorney who said to me, “You got anything?” I realized I had this album my son Cody, godson [Daniel Davies] and I did. Next thing I know, she calls back and says, “We got a record label.” My 30-year-old children — I’m exploiting the hell ou t of them. We’re working on another album as we speak. What do…

Elton John “Elton is one of the dudes I grew up listening to, for his melodies,” says Reynolds, who first heard John through his father. Paul Simon “I appreciate how effortless he is, lyrically, in his storytelling. And his sound has that world-music feeling,” says Reynolds. Phil Collins “I was definitely listening to a lot of Phil Collins” during the making of Smoke + Mirrors, he says. “I love Phil Collins.” Harry Nilsson “Me and My Arrow” inspired Reynolds’ daughter’s name. “I listened to him more than any other artist growing up — he’s who my dad liked the most.”…

A NY BILLIONAIRE CONTROL FREAK with a fetish for whips and chains who’s set on making a mixtape for a prospective love slave would do well to begin with Annie Lennox’s version of “I Put a Spell on You.” Outwardly elegant, the retro-soul burner (forcefully performed by Lennox and Hozier at the Grammys) barely masks the monstrous possessiveness driving the 1956 Screamin’ Jay Hawkins original. In response to that tune, a young lady unsure about the whole bondage thing might blast U.K. singer Laura Welsh’s “Undiscovered,” a synth-pop call-out for human connection co-penned by Dev Hynes. So begins the soundtrack to Fifty Shades of Grey, Sam Taylor-Johnson’s anticipated film adaptation of novelist E.L. James’ pop-erotica blockbuster that brought S&M to the bookshelves of women worldwide. This collection — the latest…

3.0/5.0 PRODUCER Jose Gonzalez LABEL Mute RELEASE DATE Feb. 17 EVER SINCE HIS TRANSFIXING 2005 cover of The Knife’s “Heartbeats” earned him an international following, Swedish troubadour Jose Gonzalez has developed one of the most recognizable sounds in indie rock. His voice is a singular instrument, warm and textured, like a soft leather glove rubbing against skin, and he complements it with circular melodies played on a custom-tuned guitar, working in the astral-folkie vernacular explored by John Fahey, John Martyn and, of course, Nick Drake. But fans of “Heartbeats” may be disappointed to find that Gonzalez’s third solo record, Vestiges & Claws, his first solo set since 2007’s In Our Nature, houses some of his least tuneful material to date. The 36-year-old is no stranger to melody; “Stay Alive,” his…

FROM ITS GRAND DEBUT IN 1929 THROUGH ITS LAST PICTURE show in 1977, and through decades of neglect since, the Kings Theatre rose in all its ornate glory above Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn. When word came of plans to restore the Kings, it brought cheers from many who grew up in the neighborhood. “It was one of those beautiful old movie palaces of the past,” wrote Barbra Streisand on her website. “I was 13 years old when I started spending many a wonderful afternoon there, partly because it had double features, air conditioning and great ice cream cones.” On Feb. 3, Diana Ross, 70, performed at the Kings’ reopening, a celebration of a restoration that comes amid a wave of success for historic venues. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio…

The superstar’s 1989 album continues to rack up big chart achievements: Swift reigns atop the Billboard 200 for an 11th nonconsecutive week, while also collecting another airplay chart-topper with the set’s second single, “Blank Space.” 11 With an 11th week ruling the Billboard 200, 1989 ties Fearless as Swift’s longest-running No. 1. Since 2000, only four albums have spent at least 10 weeks at the summit. During that span, Swift’s two LPs are joined by Adele’s 21 (24 weeks) and the Frozen soundtrack (13). 77 On Top Album Sales, 1989 is No. 2 (77,000 sold in the week ending Feb. 8, according to Nielsen Music) behind Now 53 (99,000). It’s the first time the week’s top seller didn’t lead the Billboard 200 since it became a multimetric consumption chart in…

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band The Grateful Dead (above) makes its first appearance on the Billboard Artist 100, debuting at No. 84. The group arrives thanks to 15,000 units sold of Dave’s Picks, Volume 13: Winterland, San Francisco, CA-2/24/74, according to Nielsen Music. The sum is the band’s best since September 2013, and was generated solely by Internet and mail-order sales through the group’s official website. The set — which enters Top Album Sales at No. 21 — is also the band’s 66th entry on the Billboard 200 (No. 32), dating to its first in 1967, and the 10th charted title in the Dave’s Picks series, which revives classic performances handpicked by Dead archivist David Lemieux. Among other debuts on the Artist 100, Robin Schulz bows at No.…

Your seventh albumAfraid of Ghosts, which debuts at No. 104 on the Billboard 200, was written after your father’s death. How did that affect your writing process? For some reason, it’s sadly a lot easier to write songs when you’ve experienced some sort of heartbreak or loss. I don’t think it necessarily came as hard to write the words down; it was more about, “What’s the soundtrack to these words?” I think that was my biggest fear: completely trainwrecking the record by not doing the words justice musically or overdoing it. Ryan Adams produced the LP. How would you describe your working relationship? I just trusted him. I knew he wouldn’t let the songs be overhyped or oversold. I was like, “I’m going to let Ryan be Ryan.” I figured…

Ariana Grande (below) leaps 11 spots to No. 1 on the Billboard + Twitter Top Tracks chart with “One Last Time,” the new single from her sophomore album, My Everything. The song’s surge comes from a flurry of recent activity beginning with the track’s live debut on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Feb. 1. Two days later, Grande teased the song’s arrangement for her upcoming Honeymoon Tour on YouTube, spurring “Time” to No. 1 on the realtime Billboard + Twitter Trending 140 tally. Ahead of the tune’s music video release the week of Feb. 16, Grande launched a hashtag countdown campaign and offered the “Time” lyric clip, which gathered more than 455,000 worldwide plays for the week ending Feb. 8, according to Next Big Sound. At No. 11,…

Bob Dylan’s 36th studio album, Shadows in the Night, opens at No. 1 on Top Rock Albums with 50,000 sold (physical copies account for 71 percent of total sales), according to Nielsen Music. Shadows also starts in the top 10 on the Billboard 200 (No. 7; see page 64) and opens at No. 1 on Vinyl Albums with 4,000 sold (his third leader on the latter list). Dylan’s latest is a collection of American pop standards, each previously sung by Frank Sinatra, including Rodgers & Hammerstein’s “Some Enchanted Evening” and Irving Berlin’s “What’ll I Do.” To promote the album, Dylan gave a single, exclusive interview to AARP, and distributed 50,000 free copies of the album to randomly chosen AARP Magazine subscribers. Imagine Dragons scores their first leader on Triple A…

Christian pop singer Jeremy Camp lands his third No. 1 debut (and sixth overall leader) on Top Christian Albums as I Will Follow bows with 18,000 copies sold in the week ending Feb. 8, according to Nielsen Music. That’s the Indiana native’s biggest weekly sum in nearly five years, and his largest since We Cry Out: The Worship Project arrived at No. 1 with 22,000 sold (Sept. 11, 2010). He notched his best sales week when Restored entered at No. 3 with 33,000 (Dec. 4, 2004). Camp, who enters the Billboard Artist 100 at No. 59, also sets a new peak on Hot Christian Songs with “He Knows,” the lead single from the new set, which jumps 6-4. Needtobreathe, meanwhile, claims its best rank in seven years on Hot Christian…

BOB DYLAN’S PLANET WAVES BECAME his first No. 1 on the Billboard 200 at a time of great change — and enormous publicity — for the singer-songwriter. After more than a decade with Columbia, Dylan departed in 1973 for Asylum Records. Though his work with the former label had been successful (including eight top 10 albums), a chart-topper still eluded him. For Planet Waves, Dylan, then 32, reteamed with The Band — his former backing group, which had become a major star in its own right by 1973 (clocking three top 10s on the Billboard 200). Further stirring attention was the announcement that a tour would follow: Dylan’s first proper trek since 1966. The 40-city tour launched on Jan. 3, 1974, and Planet Waves’ release followed on Jan. 17. The…

YOU DIDN’T HAVE TO LOOK TOO far to spot the action at Clive Davis’ pre-Grammy gala on Feb. 7. Ground zero was table 108, where Apple CEO Tim Cook, senior vp Internet software and services Eddy Cue, iTunes vp Robert Kondrk and Beats co-founder and title-less Apple executive Jimmy Iovine were seated alongside former U.S. Vice President Al Gore and former House speaker Nancy Pelosi. After a shout-out from the party’s host (Davis called Cook a “special human”), music execs lined up single file for an audience with the Apple contingent — not to mention selfies and overshares about their first Macs. Cue and Kondrk happily obliged, posing with Universal Music Group chairman/CEO Lucian Grainge and Glassnote founder Daniel Glass, and asking greeters if they already had “met with Jimmy.”Goodfellas…

8:11 The evening gets its first spike when Taylor Swift introduces best new artist, won by Sam Smith 26.5M VIEWERS 69.3K TPM 8:38 Miranda Lambert leads a bump with her “Little Red Wagon”30.5M VIEWERS 71.4K TPM 8:50 Viewership peaks with West’s performance of “Only One”31.3M VIEWERS 78.8K TPM 9:26 Annie Lennox’s rousing “I Put a Spell on You,” performed as a medley with Hozier’s “Take Me to Church,” leads to a 419 percent Spotify spike for the ex-Eurythmics singer during the next 24 hours 27.7M VIEWERS 45.5K TPM 8:54 Madonna’s aerodynamic “Living for Love” brought Twitter to a pre-Kanye West peak 31.1M VIEWERS 68.9K TPM 9:11 Electric Light Orchestra and Ed Sheeran team up for ELO’s 1977 hit “Mr. Blue Sky,” leading to the show’s most-Shazamed song 28.1M VIEWERS 56.7K…

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER’S INAUGURAL Oscar Song Summit, hosted by Scott Feinberg on Feb. 2 immediately following the Oscar Nominees Luncheon, was for the most part a convivial affair, until Diane Warren lashed out at (an absent) Rita Ora. The 24-year-old British newcomer sings Warren’s Academy Award-nominated tune “Grateful” in the film Beyond the Lights — and will perform it during the Oscar telecast on Feb. 22 — but Warren, 58, is angry that Ora hasn’t done more to promote it. “It’s a little frustrating,” complained Warren, a seven-time Oscar nominee who really wants to win this time. “It’s like, there’s no support. She’s going to sing for, what, a billion people? What an opportunity! And she tweeted about it twice. I’m like, ‘Really?’ ” Ora has 4.3 million Twitter followers.…

PRINCE ROYCE IS LITERALLY TRYING TO FIND HIS VOICE. Eyeing a pop breakthrough with his first English-language album, the Bronx-born bachata star met his vocal coach for the first time only 10 minutes ago. But they’re already locked in, working through each line of the 25-year-old’s slinky, Snoop Dogg-assisted R&B single, “Stuck on a Feeling” (which is No. 45 on the Feb. 21 Billboard Hot 100). It’s impressive to hear — until Mauli B., who has worked with Katy Perry and Boyz II Men, instructs Royce to replace every syllable with “nay.” Then it’s hilarious. “Make it really witchy,” the coach says, “and put your finger right here.” Royce smushes the tip of his nose and brays with poise. “I wouldn’t say I’m changing myself to find a new audience,”…

I THAS BEEN A WILD AND CRAZY 40 YEARS OF BIG LAUGHS, BITING SATIRE — AND, OF course, unforgettable music. Saturday Night Live celebrates its 40th anniversary on Feb. 15 with a three-hour special and Saturday Night Live: The Book (Taschen), featuring photos of onstage and behind-the-scenes action. The show has launched numerous actors and comedians, but has also hosted legendary musicians. Edie Baskin and Mary Ellen Matthews, the photographers of the program’s commercial-break bumper portraits, captured them all (Baskin until 1999, and Matthews ever since). The pictures — shot in 30 minutes or less on the Thursday before the show — appear for seconds, but they’re a lasting testament to music’s impact on SNL, and vice versa. The pair dish on its favorite shots through the years.…

What To Buy, Wear And Know Now IT WAS THE AMERICAN DREAM, REALIZED. IN JUST eight years, a shop owner on Los Angeles’ Melrose Avenue transformed his shoe store into a footwear empire: L.A. Gear, a brand that, at its peak in 1990, grossed $818.8 million in net sales and held 12 percent of the U.S. athletic-shoe market (behind Nike and Reebok). Its advertising featured Paula Abdul and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, even a collaboration with Michael Jackson. But the company crashed as quickly as it sprang up. Despite the release of the highly popular L.A. Lights sneaker in 1992, profits tanked (reportedly due to marketing gaffes and bloated inventories), and by 1998 L.A. Gear had filed for bankruptcy. Now, hip-hop artist Tyga, 25, is helping spearhead L.A. Gear’s relaunch. In his…

WHEN BOBBY SHMURDA, THE charismatic star of the surprise 2014 hit “Hot N—a,” emerged from the back of a New York County Supreme Court room in January, the 20-year-old looked sad and serious. Shmurda sat very still at the defense table, showing none of the viral persona that was responsible for 102 million YouTube views, a $2 million record deal and the international “Shmoney Dance” craze. Today he was just another young man before the judge, one of 13 reputed members of the East Flatbush, Brooklyn, alleged gang GS9 (“God’s Sons”) to have his case called. “When I see the judge and the DA, I just see a bunch of people trying to take my life away for being blessed,” says Shmurda, who talked with Billboard from the Manhattan Detention…

ANGELO TORMENTED HIS FANS BY making them wait nearly 15 years for his Black Messiah album, but in many ways New Yorkers had it the worst. Since he first emerged from his self-imposed hibernation in 2012, the singer has toured Europe and the United States, but skipped New York. He performed within city limits three times in those years: Two shows were sloppy, covers-heavy sets, and one was an electrifying but tantalizingly brief two-song romp at the Music of Prince tribute concert at Carnegie Hall. New York hadn’t seen a proper D’Angelo concert since his transcendent Voodoo Tour in March 2000. But at his Feb. 7 concert at Harlem’s Apollo Theater, D’Angelo delivered a performance that, much like Black Messiah, justified the wait. Not only was it the premiere of…

HITS NEIL YOUNG AND JIMMY FALLON, “OLD MAN,”THE TONIGHT SHOW STARRING JIMMY FALLON (FEB. 4) After years of doing a spot-on impression of Young, Fallon finally performed alongside the real-life rock icon on “Old Man,” hitting the timeless harmonies of the Harvest classic. Kudos to Fallon for working up the courage to hold his own next to Young — who was a pretty good sport about the whole thing. SHARON JONES, “MAKING UP AND BREAKING UP,”THE LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN (FEB. 2) The retro-soul star earned a big kiss from the host after her first Letterman gig since beating cancer, bringing fired-up gusto to a gentle doo-wop tune with help from Paul Shaffer and company. (The Daptones, her usual backers, were stranded at a Memphis airport.) IGGY AZALEA AND…

IN THE COMPETITIVE venue market of Los Angeles, the newly refurbished Forum is edging out its rival Staples Center in concert bookings for the first half of 2015. At press time, The Forum has 19 shows taking place in the first half of the year, most notably the five-night run by U2 from May 26 to June 3, compared with nine concerts at Staples Center. The count for both halls is based on shows that have occurred since Jan. 1 or were announced through their online listings and does not include non-concert bookings. The AEG-run Staples Center was booked for more than a week for the Feb. 8 Grammy Awards, and also is home to the Los Angeles Lakers, the L.A. Clippers, the L.A. Kings and the L.A. Sparks, so…

SNAPCHAT FUELS NEW ‘HIGH ’ Formed in Red Bank, N.J., in 2010, pop-rock quartet Young Rising Sons signed with Canvas/Interscope in 2014. Now, its major-label debut single, “High,” is bubbling under the Adult Top 40 chart. Helping the song’s profile: its synch in Snapchat’s campaign for the app’s new multimedia feature Discover. The one-minute spot has drawn 350,000 YouTube views since its Jan. 26 posting. THE AVENER ARRIVES After crowning multiple European charts, French producer-DJ The Avener (real name: Tristan Casara) scores a stateside breakout hit with “Fade Out Lines” (Casablanca/Republic). The track, which has 18 million Spotify plays, is a house reworking of Phoebe Killdeer & The Short Straws’ bluesy 2011 original. The 28-year-old artist’s debut album is due later this year. CAM MAKES NO ‘MISTAKE’ A year after…

More than two years after Fifth Harmony (above) formed on the second season of the now-defunct Fox reality competition show The X Factor, the girl group arrives on the Billboard 200 with its first full-length album, Reflection. The set debuts at No. 5 with 80,000 units earned in the week ending Feb. 8, according to Nielsen Music. The delayed set was initially scheduled for release on Nov. 17, 2014, but was pushed back to December. Then it moved to Jan. 27, and then its final release date: Feb. 3. Partially due to the multiple delays, the album had a lengthy preorder window on iTunes: 23 weeks. The lengthy buildup to the release likely helped its digital sales as it bows with 41,000 downloads (No. 1 on Digital Albums), making up…

Sales for Missy Elliott (below) surged following her guest turn during the Feb. 1 Super Bowl halftime show continues as she rushes both the Billboard 200 and Digital Songs charts. On the former, three of her albums return to the list (at Nos. 38, 40 and 66); on the latter, she debuts at Nos. 9, 14 and 18 with the three tunes she sang during halftime with Katy Perry. Collectively, Elliott sold 272,000 song downloads in the week ending Feb. 8 (up 282 percent compared with the 71,000 sold in the previous week). Her biggest seller of the latest week was “Work It” (one of the tunes she sang at the Super Bowl), which moved 83,000 downloads (up 300 percent). Her other two halftime tracks also are her second- and…

“Trap Queen,” the viral hit by Fetty Wap, enters the Streaming Songs tally at No. 45 (3 million U.S. streams, up 34 percent in the week ending Feb. 8, according to Nielsen Music); it ranks at No. 4 on Emerging Artists. The New Jersey rapper’s single blew up on SoundCloud last summer (it has 11 million plays on the platform), which landed him a deal with 300 Entertainment. The song also breaks into the top 20 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hip Songs, rising 22-20 in its fourth chart week. The popularity of “Trap Queen” is primarily derived from YouTube, where multiple tagged uploads featuring the track make up 78 percent of its streams for the week. (It also is up on Spotify, which is the second-most-significant contributor.) On the Social 50 chart,…

Rapper Kid Ink (above) scores his first No. 1 on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums as Full Speed arrives with 29,000 copies sold in the week ending Feb. 8, according to Nielsen Music. It’s the fourth top five entrance for the Los Angeles-based MC, following 2014’s My Own Lane, which debuted at No. 2 on the list (50,000). Prior to its release, the new album spawned the hit “Body Language” (featuring Usher and Tinashe), which reaching No. 15 on Hot Rap Songs on Jan. 24. The track continues to climb the Billboard Hot 100, jumping 94-85 in its 18th week. Also making chart news are Rihanna, Kanye West and Paul McCartney, who step 2-1 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs with “Four Five Seconds,” taking both Airplay and Streaming Gainer honors. The climb gives…

A-Trak — with Milo & Otis and featuring Rich Kidz — attains his first Hot Dance/Electronic Songs top 10 with “Out the Speakers” (14-10). Following its Feb. 1 airing in a Super Bowl TV commercial for MTN DEW Kickstart (a blend of Mountain Dew, juice and coconut water), “Speakers” has seen its stats skyrocket. The track, out since last May, debuts at No. 9 on Dance/Electronic Streaming Songs with 1.8 million U.S. streams in the week ending Feb. 8 (up 163 percent), according to Nielsen Music. Of those, 97 percent came from YouTube, which houses the ad featuring the “Speakers” audio. The Fool’s Gold founder also debuts on Dance/Electronic Digital Songs at No. 14 (9,000 units; up 264 percent). Elsewhere, veteran director/composer/writer John Carpenter crowns a Billboard album chart for…

ON THE 35TH FLOOR OF THE SONY building in Manhattan, two conference rooms have been requisitioned for what stylist Maeve Reilly calls her “pop-up store.” One is circled with racks of high-fashion finery; a large table overflows with jewelry and accessories, the floor littered with dozens of pairs of shoes. The artists signed to Wondaland —Janelle Monae’s Atlanta-based label, which recently entered a joint venture with Epic — wait their turns for a photo shoot in the next room, dressed in outfits that share a Prince-esque theme. That consistency carries over to every aspect of the label, whose artists hew a bass-heavy fusion of R&B and hip-hop. “It’s not just one type of artist, but there’s a connective tissue,” says Monae’s manager Mikael Moore, who also heads up the five-employee…

GARY RICHARDS AND HIS friendly rival Pasquale Rotella are the twin peaks of the modern-day EDM industry. But where Rotella’s Insomniac Events specializes in lurid mega-fests like the mammoth Electric Daisy Carnival, Richards’ Hard Events plays down the pyrotechnics and focuses on the music. As the 44-year-old CEO of Hard — which Live Nation purchased in 2012 after five years as an independent (terms of the deal were not disclosed) — Richards is known for his tastemaking festivals, including Hard Summer (which drew 100,000 fans in 2014), Day of the Dead (80,000) and the Holy Ship cruise (the second leg of which launches Feb. 18). His events helped break some of the scene’s biggest stars, including Skrillex, Diplo and Justice. A skilled DJ himself — working under the name Destructo,…

When the Beverly Hills fire marshals gave the all clear to Clive Davis’ annual pre-Grammy gala on Feb. 7, the party hadn’t even started — but a cordoned-off room where the evening’s performers participated in a ritual preshow portrait session (seen here and previous pages) was already packed to capacity with music stars. “It can be nerve-wracking on that stage because you’re there with your peers — people who know music,” said Jennifer Hudson, who performed the song “Trouble” with Iggy Azalea at the seated soiree an hour later. Added Aloe Blacc, “This is the Grammys before the Grammys.” Inside the Beverly Hilton hotel ballroom that evening, political powerhouses like Al Gore and Nancy Pelosi bumped elbows with guests including Miley Cyrus and boyfriend Patrick Schwarzenegger, Jamie Foxx, Taylor Swift,…

Shakira & Wyclef Jean “Hips Don’t Lie” (2006)Quotable “Why the CIA wanna watch us? Colombians and Haitians, I ain’t guilty, it’s a musical transaction” —Wyclef Jean Enrique Iglesias & Lil Wayne “Push” (2008)Quotable “Move it like clockwork/Your body screaming and your booty is an outburst” —Lil Wayne Romeo Santos & Drake “Odio” (2014)Quotable “You look like you drawn by an artist/No you — you look like Bernice and Yaris” —Drake (who has been linked to Latina models Bernice Burgos and Yaris Sanchez)…

“ Even though I went cray in high school, now I haven’t kissed a boy in forever.” —MEGHAN TRAINOR The “All About That Bass” singer, in an interview with Seventeen. “ She wants to get in the studio, and we’re definitely going to.” —KANYE WEST The rapper, on On Air With Ryan Seacrest, revealing he and Taylor Swift, whom he famously interrupted at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, are going to make music together. “ Grace Jones and Naomi Campbell both did Playboy covers so you know I was like hell yeaaaaaa!!!!!” —AZEALIA BANKS The rapper on Twitter, after announcing she would be posing nude for an upcoming issue of Playboy. “We’re not even sure he likes guacamole.” —MONOTONE INC. Jack White’s management in a statement to the University…

BUT SECRETLY WEIRD Top 40 outliers . IMAGINE DRAGONS almost stole the Grammys with an unprecedented $8 million Target commercial, but singer Dan Reynolds is still “depressed as hell”: by the pressures of dodging the sophomore slump, his conflicts with his Mormon faith and the burdens of fame: “It’s lonely when your life changes like this” AT THIS YEAR’S GRAMMYS, during which artists from Katy Perry to Beyoncé sang earnest devotionals, Imagine Dragons staged a bold experiment in how to promote an album: They performed live in a four-minute TV ad for Target. Using 22 cameras, music video director Jonas Akerlund dramatically captured the band playing its soaring new single “Shots” in its entirety downtown in Las Vegas, the band’s hometown. Put off by the overt, well, commercialism of the…

STRUTTING INTO Universal’s Manhattan headquarters on a bleak, frigid evening, Madonna looks like a naughty princess come to toss off some knowledge to the peons. It’s an image enhanced not only by her outfit — a formfitting black blazer with arm poufs; a silver Chanel whistle, hanging low on a necklace; and aubergine-hued lace gloves topped with a diamond skull ring — but also the servant that trails in her wake, carrying an old-timey glass bottle with a black ribbon tied around the neck. It looks like a vessel from a cartoon — it might have smoke billowing out the top and the caption, “Drink to Grow Strong,” but it’s just good old tequila. “We’re playing a drinking game,” announces Madonna, plunking two shot glasses on a coffee table. “If…

4.0/5.0 PRODUCERS Raul Malo, Niko Bolas LABEL Valory Music RELEASE DATE Feb. 17 No matter how The Mavericks have been positioned in the business — platinum-selling 1990s country stars or recently reunited Americana-Latin mash-up — they’ve presented an alternative to whatever popular sounds surround them at the moment. For starters, they developed a habit of darting from stylishly retro honky-tonk to plush pre-rock pop ballads and peppery Tejano rhythms (and country hasn’t exactly flaunted a Latin influence in the many decades since the format shed the “western” half of its name). After what turned out to be a decadelong hiatus, The Mavericks regrouped with an altered lineup —including singing/songwriting frontman Raul Malo, founding drummer Paul Deakin and longtime guitarist Eddie Perez — and cut last January’s sprawling, red-blooded comeback album…

KENDRICK LAMAR “ THE BLACKER THE BERRY” TOP DAWG ENTERTAINMENT/INTERSCOPE 4.5/5.0 Fresh off scoring two Grammys for his self-love anthem “i,” Lamar flips to beast mode on the serrated “The Blacker the Berry,” an aural manifestation of #blacklivesmatter. Over an ominous, attacking Boi-1da beat, Lamar swings at racial injustice, letting rage break his usual cool veneer. Feel uncomfortable after listening? That’s the point. — STEVEN J. HOROWITZ UNKNOWN MORTAL ORCHESTRA “MULTI-LOVE” JAGJAGUWAR 4.0/5.0 UMO swings a little harder on “Multi-Love.” The title track off the rock trio’s forthcoming LP features a dusty funk drum break that anchors psychedlic organs and singer Ruban Nielson’s floating, cotton-candy falsetto —but the result is nonetheless brighter and more polished than the band’s ever sounded. —HARLEY BROWN SAY LOU LOU “NOTHING BUT A HEARTBEAT” A…

FEBRUARY 5 | BOUCHON | LOS ANGELES Billboard kicked off Grammy Week with The Power 100 at Bouchon in Beverly Hills. Honoring the top 100 power players in the music industry, the annual event was sponsored by American Airlines, Citi and Hyundai. 1 From left: Recording Academy president/CEO Neil Portnow, Guggenheim Entertainment copresident Janice Min, Billboard editor-in-chief Tony Gervino and the No. 1 honoree on The Power 100, UMG’s Lucian Grainge, pose for a picture. 2 Citi outfitted the event with breathtaking floral arrangements, including a custom floral wall celebrating the Power 100 honorees. 3 Allen Stone (center) and the band Bonavox — a finalist in the 2014 Hyundai Grammy Amplifier Program — rocked the crowd with a rendition of Ginuwine’s “Pony.” 4 Hyundai provided rides for all the honorees…

SORRY, KANYE. BECK’S SURPRISE WIN FOR album of the year at the 57th annual Grammy Awards (Feb. 8) stirs a big re-entry for the singer-songwriter. His winning set, Morning Phase, vaults back onto the list at No. 39 with 12,000 equivalent- album units earned in the week ending Feb. 8 — up 771 percent — according to Nielsen Music. This is its first week on the chart since the tally dated Sept. 20, 2014. It’s due for an even larger rise in the Feb. 28 issue, following the first full week of impact from the show. Morning Phase is the first set to win the album of the year Grammy and subsequently re-enter the chart since 2009, when Robert Plant and Alison Krauss’Raising Sand won the honor. In the sales…

Diana Krall collects her sixth top 10 album on the Billboard 200 as her new covers collection, Wallflower, blooms at No. 10 with 44,000 copies sold in the week ending Feb. 8, according to Nielsen Music. The set features Krall’s takes on such pop oldies as The Eagles’ “I Can’t Tell You Why,”The Mamas & The Papas’ “California Dreamin’ ” and Crowded House’s “Don’t Dream It’s Over.” Krall also celebrates her 11th No. 1 on the Traditional Jazz Albums chart with Wallflower as the album bows atop the list with 43,000 pure albums sold. (The Billboard 200 measures popularity based on multimetric consumption, including traditional album sales, track-equivalent albums and streaming-equivalent albums.) Traditional Jazz Albums, she surpasses Miles Davis to tie Tony Bennett for the second-most No. 1s in the…

What a difference a week makes. After a performance on the Grammy Awards, Brandy Clark (above) bounds back onto Heatseekers Albums at No. 7 with nominated effort 12 Stories. It sold 2,000 copies in the week ending Feb. 8 (the same day as the awards), rising by 275 percent. The album hasn’t sold this well in a week since the frame that ended Dec. 22, 2013 (two months after the set was released). 12 Stories also returns to the Top Country Albums tally, at No. 29. The set was up for best country album at the Grammys, while Clark was in the running for best new artist. While she won neither category, Clark still earned a coveted performance slot on the show, singing the album’s “Hold My Hand” with Dwight…

Sam Hunt (above) nabs his second straight leader on Hot Country Songs with “Take Your Time” (5-1), becoming the first artist in nearly three years to reign with two introductory singles (counting only promoted, nonseasonal tracks). Hunt’s first hit, “Leave the Night On,” topped the chart on Nov. 14, 2014. Before Hunt, Brantley Gilbert was the last newcomer to arrive with back-to-back leaders, reigning with “Country Must Be Country Wide” (Dec. 3, 2011) and “You Don’t Know Her Like I Do” (July 21, 2012). Hunt’s new No. 1 tacks on the chart’s Streaming Gainer honor with 1.9 million total U.S. streams (up 19 percent), according to Nielsen Music. Heartland’s 8-year-old “I Loved Her First” re-enters Hot Country Songs at No. 7, driven by viral video plays for a user-generated clip…

Salsa singer Ismael Miranda crowns Tropical Airplay with “Son 45” (5-1), earning his second No. 1 on the chart, and his first in a decade. Miranda last capped the ranking in 2005 when “Se Fue Y Me Dejo” (featuring Cheka and Andy Montanez) spent a week at the top. The celebratory “Son 45” (written and produced by Victor Manuelle) recounts the salsa veteran’s 45-year career, proudly declaring his roots in the genre. Miranda becomes only the second member of Fania All Stars (the legendary musical ensemble formed by Fania Records in 1968) to have two No. 1s, matching Celia Cruz’s tally. Regional Mexican band Voz de Mando earns its first No. 1 on the pan-genre Latin Airplay list as “Levantando Polvadera” levitates 3-1. The song is the act’s ninth chart…

No. 1 among the topgrossing boxscores of the week is Foo Fighters with $3.1 million in sales from a performance in Bogota, Colombia, the final stop on the band’s January swing through seven Latin-American cities. The 16-day South America trek was the second leg of a tour that launched in December in support of the rock group’s Sonic Highways album. South America was the first of five continents included on the band’s 2015 itinerary, which is booked through Oct. 7. The opening performance on Jan. 15 was held in Santiago at Chile’s National Stadium. Concerts followed in Argentina and Brazil before the final show on the Latin-American trek at Bogota’s Estadio el Campin. Produced by concert promoter Ocesa, the performance on Jan. 31 was attended by 36,883 fans. Eight venues…