Innholdsfortegnelse for Apr-12-14 i Billboard Magazine

Unbundling is the word buzzing around the hallways of Universal Music Group these days following the April 1 announcement by chairman/CEO Lucian Grainge that the company was splitting Island, Def Jam and Motown into three stand-alone labels. But behind the decision was a dash to the top by a trio of UMG veterans . Industry observers postulate that the democratic split, naming Steve Bartels president of Def Jam, David Massey president of Island and Ethiopia Habtemariam president of Motown (in addition to her duties as head of urban at Universal Music Publishing Group), is meant to assuage the trifecta of execs, all of whom were gunning for a bigger role within UMG, by providing each with a fiefdom of his or her own. “Everybody gets what they want,” says a…

Walmart, the largest retailer of CDs in the United States, plans to downsize the amount of space it devotes to discs by 40 percent and could reduce selection proportionately, say label sources. The company hopes to off set the potential sales loss by prominently displaying hit titles at the front of the entertainment department. This strategy reflects a reversal of the chain’s approach to selling music. Previously, Walmart, which Billboard estimates sold $600 million worth of CDs in 2013, relied on an assortment of hot titles, new releases from established artists, Latin music, and rock, R&B and country catalog albums to satisfy its customers. With the 40 percent cutback scheduled to take place in May and June, developing artists, already scarcely represented by the chain, will have a harder time…

“Thin mints don’t make ya thin, ps.” KATY PERRY The artist, on Twitter. “This is not an accident. This is something that could have been avoided.” TOMAS REGALADO The Miami mayor, following the trampling of an Ultra Music Festival security guard. “He would love it, and he would hate it.” CHARLES PETERSON The Seattle photographer famed for his photos of Nirvana, on what the late Kurt Cobain, who committed suicide 20 years ago on April 5, might think of the band’s status as classic rock. Nirvana will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on April 10. “Thanks, dude, for covering my ass on this one.” TOMMY STINSON The Guns N’ Roses bassist, thanking original GNR member Duff McKagan for his surprise return to the band to…

PHARRELL JOINS THE VOICE Pharrell Williams’ domination of pop culture continued with NBC’s March 31 announcement that the singer-songwriter/producer will serve as a celebrity coach for the seventh season of The Voice. Williams, who first appeared on the show in season four as a guest mentor for Usher’s team, will replace the departing Cee Lo Green. Williams has become ubiquitous in recent months by racking up wins and deals in music and fashion. In addition to ruling the charts in 2014, he took home four Grammys, including record of the year for his work on Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky”; had his hit song “Happy” from the Despicable Me 2 soundtrack nominated for an Oscar; and released his second album, Girl, on March 3. He also worked with Hans Zimmer, Kendrick…

PUBLISHING Veteran executive Jennifer Blakeman was named the new chief creative of -cer of Atlas Music Publishing by CEO Richard Stumpf, who also tapped Michael Petersen as COO. Blakeman was senior vp creative for Universal Music Publishing Group and Zomba, and was once a recording artist signed to Warner Bros. Records, with albums produced by Eddie Van Halen and Ted Templeman. She is also an adjunct professor of music publishing at New York University, where she has taught since 2006. Petersen was executive vp/GM of Kobalt U.S. and senior vp business and legal affairs for UMPG, and is known for his pragmatic, artist-friendly approach. He started out as a junior associate at the law firm of Manatt Phelps & Phillips . PUBLICITY After 22 years at MSO, publicity executive Todd…

1 YEAR AGO Last March, Sage the Gemini, 21, self-released two twerk-friendly singles, “Gas Pedal” and “Red Nose,” and watched both blow up online. Usergenerated videos of people doing a dance called “yiking” to the songs were huge on YouTube and Vine. “Red Nose” debuted on Billboard’s Streaming Songs chart dated June 1 and peaked a week later at No. 5. “Gas Pedal” then bowed the week of Aug. 10, peaking at No. 16 on Sept. 7. “My brother Chunky made up the dance,” says Sage. “I knew it was going to be big, but I didn’t know it was going to be that big.” 8 MONTHS AGO With buzz building, Sage announced his deal with Republic in August. A month later, he released the Gas Pedal EP, which featured…

FILTER MAGAZINE’S YACHT CLUB PARTY When & Where: April 10, 9 p.m.-1 a.m.; undisclosed location Who: Mayer Hawthorne and ASTR perform at this bash, which is sponsored by American Eagle Outfitters’ aerie line. TILLY’S AND DICKIE’S PRESENT THE DESERT LOUNGE When & Where: April 10, 5-10 p.m.; April 11, 11 a.m.-7 p.m.; Ace Hotel and Swim Club Who: DJ Mom Jeans, (actor Danny Masterson) opens the Ace’s Desert Gold Celebration. MARC BY MARC JACOBS EYEWEAR PARTY When & Where: April 10, 10 p.m.-late; Ace Hotel Who: The Desert Gold Celebration continues with DJ Day’s weekly Ace ¡Reunion! party. DETAILS @ MIDNIGHT When & Where: April 11, 10 p.m.-2 a.m.; private residence Who: This private fete, thrown by Details magazine and Lexus, will feature DJ sets by The Knocks and Hannah…

“What is the one thing a ginger misses about partying?” Pause. “the invitation.” So says music’s Great Red Hope, a self-deprecating, unglamorous heartthrob who attracts fans to arenas with just an acoustic guitar, was taylor Swift’s date on Oscar night and is a talent Pharrell Williams calls “one of the most impressive, underestimated singer-songwriters of our time” ED SHEERAN has found the perfect way to shield himself from fans: he is walking down lower Broadway carrying a load of five boxes he just picked up at new York’s most famous sneaker boutique. You can barely see his red hair peeking out over the top of this two-foot pile of footwear. Mind you, he didn’t buy the most expensive shoes Flight Club has to offer — those would be the Kanye…

Her five years off were packed with lows (meltdowns, label shakeups) and highs (marriage, kids), but pop’s outspoken Brit is ready to put behind the “ego and narcissism” of her early work and prove what a nice person she is — but not before she shows you, as she says, how hard it is out there for a bitch LILY ALLEN APPEARS IN THE LOBBY OF Manhattan’s Mercer Hotel late one cold spring afternoon, wearing a denim jumpsuit and silver Louboutin stilettos. There’s an electric blue Chanel purse slung across her narrow shoulder and a stack of thank-you notes in her manicured hand. After taking a sip of a vodka soda with extra limes, she kicks of her shoes, crosses her legs underneath her and explains that she plans to…

KIESZA It’s a cold and windy spring day in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg nabe, so singer Kiesza’s distinctive crimson bouffant is obscured under a black hood. Still, that doesn’t prevent a fan from recognizing her on the street, mere blocks away from where she filmed the single-take, epically choreographed video for her breakout single, “Hideaway”: “Wait a minute, I know you! Aren’t you the girl from the dance video?” This is the first such encounter for Kiesza, 25, but it certainly won’t be the last. “Hideaway” is a joyous celebration of everything you loved about early-’90s dance music, with modern flourishes — repurposing moves from “Poison,” “2 Legit 2 Quit” and Janet Jackson over a beat that suggests Robin S. remixed by Disclosure. At the center of the clip is Kiesza, who…

PRODUCER: SOHN LABEL: 4AD RELEASE DATE: April 8 SOHN, a Vienna-based, London-born singer/songwriter/producer with a stirring falsetto, also happens to be an admirably economical music critic. In an interview with Billboard last fall, he reduced his woozy brand of electro-tinged R&B to a single word: “wavy.” Tremors, SOHN’s debut album due April 8 on 4AD, is certainly fluid. His songs move in overlapping segments of undulating synths and precision-cut vocal loops, rarely ending in the place they began. As hinted at in the album’s title, another single-word descriptor, movement is a central preoccupation for SOHN — both within the music itself and, thankfully, the body of the listener. Count Lorde and Miguel among the moved. Since the release of “Bloodfows,” his mesmerizing debut single for 4AD posted to SoundCloud in…

The modern tour bus is often tricked out with technology that allows bands to record while on the road. But sometimes the most important questions aren’t digital. Like where can The Mavericks frontman Raul Malo put his shoes? Or the rest of the band, for that matter? In the tight confines of a tour bus, on the road for weeks on end, keeping musicians from tripping over their footwear is but one small example of the attention to detail tackled by the team at Pioneer Coach, the entertainment coach leasing company. Touring artists “love the shoe storage in the bunk area,” says Wayne Linder, GM at Pioneer Coach, which counts The Mavericks among its many clients. For The Mavericks, currently on a 20th-anniversary tour behind their album In Time, Pioneer…

LEGEND Bullets indicate titles with greatest weekly gains. Album Charts Recording Industry Assn. of America (RIAA) certification for physical shipments & digital downloads of 500,000 albums (Gold). RIAA certification for physical shipments & digital downloads of 1 million units (Platinum). Numeral noted with Platinum symbol indicates album’s multiplatinum level. RIAA certification for physical shipments & digital downloads of 10 million units (Diamond). Numeral noted with Diamond symbol indicates album’s multiplatinum level. Latin albums certification for physical shipments & digital downloads of 50,000 units (Oro). Latin albums certification for physical shipments & digital downloads of 100,000 units (Platino). Numeral noted with Platinum symbol indicates album’s multi-platinum level. Digital Songs Charts RIAA certification for 500,000 paid downloads (Gold). RIAA certification for 1 million paid downloads (Platinum). Numeral noted with platinum symbol indicates…

It’s a toss-up whether Nashville will return to Nashville. Just two months ago, the hourlong soap set in country music’s epicenter appeared destined for cancelation — according to a source, crew members were informed they should look for work come May. Season-two ratings have steadily eroded since an audience of 6.5 million watched the Sept. 25 premiere. The show’s audience was 5.2 million on its last broadcast — March 26 — according to Nielsen. Its season average is 5.5 million. But the lack of hits on ABC’s schedule has put Nashville on life support. And a source close to the production tells Billboard that the network “has invested heavily in the show” and that “by no means is it on its last legs.” A flurry of activity will close out…

When “Move That Dope,” the latest single from Epic Records rapper Future, was released in March, its drug-chase music video got big play on YouTube and Vevo. But Epic’s real marketing coup was a retro-styled Internet video game that put players behind the wheel of a car, a la Grand Theft Auto, and challenged them to move their own dope while evading the police. In its first 10 days, the free Move That Dope game, created by a firm called The Uprising Creative, ignited on Twitter and in the blogosphere. The game racked up 38,000 unique views and, through a link where players download the single, helped fuel 11,000 sales, according to Nielsen SoundScan (a gain of 83 percent from the previous week). More importantly for Epic, which is trying…

Fans have been waiting for a Wu-Tang Clan reunion record since 2007 — but would one pay millions to hear it? That’s what the rap group is counting on by manufacturing only one copy of its new 31-track album, The Wu — Once Upon a Time in Shaolin. “Of ers have come in at $2 million; somebody of ered $5 million,” Wu-Tang’s leader, RZA, tells Billboard. “I don’t know how to measure it, but it gives us an idea that what we’re doing is being understood.” The concept of the one-of , one-of-a-kind record is as old as the phonograph itself (before mass production, every record was by necessity a unique performance). But there’s no question that Wu-Tang Clan has turned the idea — as well as the entire model…

When it was disclosed recently that Rolling Stone founder Jann Wenner would cooperate with a writer on a seven-figure biography for Alfred A. Knopf, skeptics were quick to point to similar previous projects that had fizzled when Wenner got cold feet. But people who know the legendary editor, 68, say he has been talking about legacy and mortality lately, and that with the approaching 50th anniversary of Rolling Stone in 2017, the timing is right. What’s more, the book’s author, New York contributor Joe Hagan (and former Rolling Stone/Men’s Journal contributing editor) discussed the fate of the previous biographies with Wenner and negotiated a “methodical” agreement that defined the parameters of Wenner’s cooperation this time around, according to a source familiar with the deal. Wenner also agreed “to write a…

Country Radio Gives Bachman A ‘Look’ Singer-songwriter Joe Bachman gains traction just beneath Billboard’s Country Airplay chart with “Lookatchu,” a banjoled uptempo track released on indie label Rock Ridge and written by top-shelf tunesmiths Josh Kear, Ed Hill and David Frasier. The Philadelphia-born Bachman is already a seasoned live performer, having worked roughly 200 shows per year for the past decade. He’s currently in the studio working on his second full-length album, following his self-released One in 2012. SomeKindaWonderful Hits ‘Reverse’ Kicking off with a stuttered drum beat that recalls The Ronettes’ “Be My Baby,”SomeKindaWonderful’s debut single, “Reverse,” was born by chance. In January 2013, singer Jordy Towers was visiting family in Olmstead Falls, Ohio, when he met guitarist Matt Gibson and drummer Ben Schigel at a bar. The trio…

It’s the day after George Tandy Jr.’ first opening slot on a big tour —Marsha Ambrosius’ Friends & Lovers run — and he’s still excited. “It was the largest audience I’d ever been in front of,” says the singer-keyboardist, 31, of his March 27 gig at Detroit’s Saint Andrew’s Hall. “I’m on a mission. I’ve got to put the face to the song.” The song in question is “March.” Its downtempo blend of gospel, R&B and jazz might be a bit unorthodox for contemporary radio. But its inspirational lyrics — “Let the clouds bring a storm/Bring us pain … we still march” — are attracting major syndicated radio personalities, most notably Steve Harvey. After Harvey invited Tandy to his self-titled morning show on March 18 — where he called “March”…

I thought music was complicated, but it’s a f—ing breeze compared to this,” says a laughing Paul Weller as he surveys the surrounding clothes rails on which hangs the debut collection of his first stand-alone menswear label, Real Stars Are Rare. It’s a line heavily influenced by Weller’s own style, developed with the help of Phil Bickley, owner of West London menswear store Tonic. “This is a totally new world to me,” continues Weller, “so it’s really opened my eyes as to what goes into it.” In a small nondescript London showroom that houses the label’s autumn/winter 2014 launch collection, just a few minutes’ walk away from the busy shopping mecca that is Oxford Street, the 55-year-old artist looks every inch the well-dressed English gent dressed in a stone trench…

Pharrell Williams Besides “Sing,” the hitmaker also collaborated on the track “Tonight, Tonight, Tonight.” “Ed’s guitar playing is extraordinary,” he says . “He doesn’t get enough credit for that.” Elton John Sheeran is managed by Stuart Camp at John’s Rocket Music Entertainment Group. “He steps in with advice when I ask for it,” says Sheeran of John. The two performed “The A Team” at the 2013 Grammys. Taylor Swift The two co-wrote “Everything Has Changed” for Swift’s 2012 album, Red, and Sheeran opened 66 dates on Swift’s tour — which he commemorated by getting a “Red” tattoo on his left arm. Says Swift, “I love that he’s explored so many corners of where his music can go.” Jamie Foxx A gig at Foxx’s club The Foxxhole led to an invitation…

ON LADY GAGA “Lady Gaga is good, but she’s a new artist. Britney Spears is a legend. They are two different artists, two forms of entertainment but very different. It’s like comparing Picasso to Dali.” (2009) ON MADONNA “I haven’t got anything against [Madonna] at all, but I don’t think anything she’s done since the early ’80s has really been like, ‘Wow.’ She might have meant something once but I don’t know many people my age who care.” (2006) ON JAMES BLUNT “James Blunt rhymes with his surname.” (2006) ON PARIS HILTON “She’s hideously untalented. Her music is Auto-Tuned. You can hear it. I know because my sister saw her in Ibiza [Spain] and said it was the worst thing she had ever heard.” (2006) ON ELTON JOHN “F— of…

Future doesn’t get caught up in the nuances of his growing fame. Despite a packed promo schedule for his second album, Honest (due April 22 on Freebandz/Epic), it’s his future wife, singer Ciara, and their forthcoming collabo — a baby boy — he’s thinking of on a March afternoon, leaning back in a booth at an upscale Chinese restaurant in Manhattan. “I know I haven’t always done things the right way,” says Future, 30. “I’m just trying to reflect on how to make myself better, how to become a better man, a better father, a better person, a better artist . I wanted to touch on subject matter that doesn’t always get touched on.” He’s discussing next single “I Won,” in which he and Kanye West drop funny but sincere…

PRODUCERS: Taylor Kirk, Simon Trottier LABEL: Arts & Crafts RELEASE DATE: April 1 It’s been a long walk for Taylor Kirk, the booming whisper at the fore of the Ontarioborn Timber Timbre, a band that has evolved purposefully, slowly and — if the fatalist poetry and melancholic beauty of the group’s fifth album, Hot Dreams, are to be taken at face value — painfully. On the band’s first two albums, Timber Timbre rose hairs with bare-boned acoustic instrumentation and a quirky intelligence. “Oh Messiah,” from the group’s 2007 debut, Medicinals, repurposed lyrics from “Twist and Shout” to exorcise a haunted corner of Kirk’s mind. “Magic Arrow,” from 2009’s self-titled set, was so spare it creaked, providing the perfect soundtrack for a harrowing episode from the third season of Breaking Bad.…

Innovations in digital communication — so essential to touring artists — are not limited to the nation’s highways. They’re on the rise for acts that charter planes, as staying “connected” is of paramount importance, even aloft. “The advancements of Wi-Fi-enabled business jets is one of the most important amenities and innovations in the new wave of private jets,” says Adam Hasiak, global private aviation director for Skynet Aviation Group. “The majority of private jets do not have Wi-Fi capabilities due to multiple factors, most importantly cost. However, there are new technologies and advancements in this field that are making way for more cost-efficient ways to outfit private aircraft with full Wi-Fi capabilities.”…

On Dec. 20, 1984, Harry Belafonte placed a call to nonprofit consultant/music manager Ken Kragen in hopes of staging a concert to raise funds to fight hunger in Africa — specifically Ethiopia, where famine killed nearly 1 million in 198 3 and 198 4. Kragen, who managed Lionel Richie and Kenny Rogers at the time, thought a supergroup charity single would make more of an impact. He initially planned to recruit a dozen artists for the song, but industry response was so enthusiastic (perhaps inspired by the success of 1984’s “Do They Know It’s Christmas?,” a similar charity single from British and Irish stars) that 50 artists ended up in the group, dubbed USA for Africa — including Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan. Richie and Michael Jackson wrote the song,…

Pete Townshend has written his first song for a TV show, composing and performing “It Must Be Done” for FX’s The Americans with the show’s composer Nathan Barr. It will appear in the season finale on April 30. Prior to that, Townshend’s 1980 hit “Let My Love Open the Door” will be featured on the season opener of Showtime’s Californication on April 13. What elements of the show did you want to incorporate into the song? Here’s this couple whose whole life is about duty, duty without honor, duty without explanation. There are no accolades. They’re not living a lie but doing things they find hard to do. Everybody has a part of their life that’s difficult to explain. For me, it’s “Why the f— am I in The Who?”…

WE tv, the cable channel owned by AMC Networks, is giving an unexpected boost to female R&B acts with a slate of urban music-themed reality programs designed to appeal to the lucrative 25-54 African-American female demographic. The small cable and satellite channel has four programs that showcase female R&B singers, including Braxton Family Values, the hit show about Toni Braxton and her singing sisters that recently was renewed for a fourth season. Additionally, WE tv gave a second season to SWV Reunited, a program that chronicles the comeback efforts of ’90s trio Sisters With Voices. Rounding out the network’s R&B lineup is Tamar & Vince, the 2012 spinoff of Braxton Family Values that features one of the Braxton siblings, Tamar, and her husband, Streamline Records founder Vincent Herbert, and Mary…

I discovered Frankie Knuckles at age 15 when I was living in Chicago. It was around 1984 or 1985, and house music was really cutting its teeth. I had started going to these juke bars and teen bars, one of which was Medusa’s, where Frankie would spin on Friday nights. He was the guy bringing in all this brand-new music. DJ and fellow Chicagoan Kaskade remembers the man who “built the foundation” of EDM Today, it’s easy for us to look back 30 years and say, “Oh, that’s cool,” but Frankie really was out on a limb — playing something so different and fresh and always treading new territory. He exemplifed everything that was happening in Chicago at the time — he was the center of that universe. He was…

DEATHS Music producer Trevor Horn’s wife and business partner Jill Sinclair, who cofounded the SPZ Group with Horn in 1984 and signed acts Frankie Goes to Hollywood and Seal, died March 22 at their London home, eight years after suffering brain damage in a shooting accident. She was 61. Dave Brockie, frontman of the gore-loving heavy metal band Gwar and known to fans as Oderus Urungus, died March 23 at his home in Richmond, Va. He was 50. Comedian, actor and pitchman Eddie Lawrence, whose 1956 single “The Old Philosopher” reached No. 34 on the Billboard Hot 100, died March 30. He was 95. ENGAGEMENTS Singer Elton John, 67, and his life partner of 21 years David Furnish, 51, are planning to marry in May, prompted by the legalization of…

The first New York performance from Bleachers, fun. guitarist Jack Antonoff’s new solo project, was a sellout at Brooklyn’s 600-capacity Music Hall of Williamsburg on March 27. The venue was filled with fun. die-hards, some followers of Steel Train (the band he played with before joining .fun in 2008) and, of course, more than a few Girls fans gawking at Antonof’s girlfriend Lena Dunham, who was beaming and whipping her bob haircut from the balcony. But Bleachers are quickly building their own fan base, thanks to a forceful introductory single that’s moving up the charts: In mid-February, Antonoff officially announced the long rumoured project with “I Wanna Get Better,” built around chopped keyboard samples and a 1980s pop-rock vibe reminiscent of Simple Minds and Madness. The song rises 19-16 on…

It’s like a bird dropping stuff on your head,” cracked comedian Kevin Hart of the Kids’ Choice Awards annual slime-at-hon. The lucky recipients of a bucket’s worth of green goop: host Mark Wahlberg and singer Austin Mahone. Guests at the USC Galen Center in Los Angeles were also treated to crowd-pleasing performances by Aloe Blacc, Cody Simpson and American Authors, the lattermost delivering their hit single, “Best Day of My Life.” Nickelodeon’s 27th annual fan-voted event showcased stars embracing vibrant spring fashions, including Glee star Lea Michele in Elie Saab, Pia Mia in full denim and Pharrell Williams sporting a neon Spongebob onesie. Producerscreenwriter Dan Schneider, who created Kenan & Kel and iCarly, took home the first Kids’ Choice lifetime achievement award, while One Direction, Selena Gomez and Justin Timberlake…

Liam Gallagher has nabbed a number of accolades for his menswear line, Pretty Green, since starting it in 2009: He picked up the menswear brand of the year honor at the Drapers Fashion Awards in 2010 and was named best breakthrough international brand at the WGSN Awards in 2011. That same year, Paul Weller designed six pieces for Gallagher’s line, which has stores in London, Glasgow and Tokyo. Leona Lewis’ fashion designing career never made it to retailers. The 2006 U.K. X Factor winner formed a fashion company in 2010 with then-boyfriend Lou Al-Chamaa called LOA Clothing. Fans did receive a sneak peak of Lewis’ vegan creations, however: In 2011, she modeled three different looks on the red carpet that she designed and created herself, including a crop top shaped…

PUNK IS NOT AN IDEOLOGY. It’s not a religion. It was just a moment,” says poet and punk-rock icon Richard Hell, and few documents captured that snotty, incendiary moment as well as Christopher Makos’White Trash. The 1977 photography book of New York scenesters and new music artists evoked the “flamboyance in the ruins,” says Hell, of the movement that had taken root at CBGB and on the streets of down-and-out Manhattan. Almost 40 years later, the images still sear in a newly expanded edition. White Trash Uncut features 12 previously unpublished photos, including shots of flmmaker John Waters and his gender-bending star Divine, and a triptych of Debbie Harry standing on a stool in shades and a Black Sabbath T-shirt. A member of Andy Warhol’s Factory crowd, Makos was in…

“We wanted to stay under the radar for as long as we could — now is the time for us to really show the world what we’re about,” says Ashton Irwin, the 19-year-old drummer of Australian pop-rock band 5 Seconds of Summer, which released its stateside debut EP, She Looks So Perfect, April 1 on Capitol Records. Mission accomplished. The group has received little radio play (it just debuted at No. 40 on the Mainstream Top 40 chart dated April 12) and even less media exposure in the United States, but industry forecasters expect the EP to sell between 140,000 and 160,000 in the week ending April 6 — which could place it at or near No. 1 on the Billboard 200 dated April 12. The coup was boosted by…

YC “Racks” feat. Future (2011) PEAK ON HOT R&B/HIP-HOP SONGS #6 Future’s chart debut gave YC his only hit. Sales 725K Rihanna “Loveeeeeee Song” feat. Future (2012) PEAK ON HOT R&B/HIP-HOP SONGS #14 Future introduced his sensitive side here, his first song with a pop star. Sales 651K Drake & Lil Wayne “Love Me” feat. Drake & Future (2013) PEAK ON THE HOT 100 #4 On his only Hot 100 top 10, Future shares hook duties with Drake. Sales 1.9M Ace Hood “Bugatti” feat. Future & Rick Ross (2013) PEAK ON HOT R&B/HIP-HOP SONGS #9 Future’s sung chorus landed Ace Hood his biggest hit... Sales 1.2M Rick Ross & Rocko “U.E.O.N.O.” feat. Rick Ross & Future (2013) PEAK ON HOT R&B/HIP-HOP SONGS #5 ...but his rapped hooks, like this one,…

“Fever” (Nonesuch Records) isn’t just the title of the lead track from The Black Keys’ upcoming eighth studio album, Turn Blue — it truly raises body temperatures. Eschewing the gritty blues touches that have been hallmarks of the duo’s garage veneer, the song, produced by the band and Danger Mouse, is a churning swirl of mod dance-rock, grounded by fuzzy picked bass on the bottom and a candy-colored farfisa melody on top. Patrick Carney’s four-on-the-floor drumming is relentlessly machine-like, and Dan Auerbach provides uncharacteristically understated support for the groove on guitar. A subtle key modulation about three-quarters of the way through steers the song down an even more psychedelic rabbit hole, while Auerbach sings about the “cold, pale light in your eyes.” He’s talking about a pleasure/pain love scenario, but…

Disney’s Frozen soundtrack refuses to release its icy grip on the No. 1 slot on the Billboard 200, as the album spends its eighth nonconsecutive week atop the list. It has now spent more weeks at No. 1 than any album since Adele’s 21 closed out a 24-week run at No. 1 in 2012. Frozen sold another 161,000 copies in the week ending March 30, according to Nielsen SoundScan — down 20 percent compared with the week previous. Since SoundScan — and its point-of-sale data — began powering the Billboard 200 in 1991, Frozen is just the 20th album to spend at least eight weeks at No. 1. In that span of time, 21 has ruled the longest, followed by Whitney Houston’The Bodyguard soundtrack (with 20 weeks at No. 1)…