Innholdsfortegnelse for Jun-14-14 i Billboard Magazine

Cover girl Iggy Azalea’s “Fancy” maintains its hold on the Billboard Hot 100’s top spot, but it might have a “Problem,” thanks to Ariana Grande. “Fancy” (featuring Charli XCX) spends a second week at No. 1, and Grande’s “Problem” (featuring Azalea) bullets at No. 2. It’s another historic week for Azalea: No act has charted two debut Hot 100 hits at Nos. 1 and 2 at the same time since 1964, when The Beatles achieved that feat with “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and “She Loves You.” “Fancy” and “Problem” seem poised to spar for the title of summer’s top song. Yes, “Fancy” is still No. 1, but “Problem” nabs both Airplay and Streaming Gainer honors, surging by 29 percent in radio audience and 25 percent in streams, according…

Queens rapper 50 Cent is known for cutting people off . For his fifth studio album, Animal Ambition, he has severed ties with his longtime label Interscope to start independent G-Unit Records through Caroline/Capitol. He also reunited with his G-Unit cohorts at WQHT (Hot 97) New York’s Summer Jam on June 1 (despite a scuffle), and will launch his first TV show, Power, the hour-long Starz drama about a drug kingpin ready to go legit, on June 7. The 38-year-old impresario sat down with Billboard to talk about the new album, the show and why he left Interscope. He had nothing to say, however, about Jimmy Iovine’s new deal with Apple. How are you feeling about going indie for the first time? It allows me the ability to release things…

For a laptop-sized device, the Novation Launchpad is having an outsized influence on EDM. Designed by U.K. audio gear manufacturer Focusrite, the Launchpad is a MIDI controller that features a grid of 64 colorful, programmable LED-lit push buttons that are played like an electronic keyboard-drum kit hybrid. The controller’s popularity has sparked a trend of homemade YouTube performance videos that have drawn hundreds of millions of views. According to Focusrite global marketing and sales director Damian Hawley, these viral videos have, in turn, driven a “sustained” 400 percent increase in worldwide sales — “multiple thousands” of controllers per month — since 2011. NOVEMBER 2009 Focusrite releases the Novation Launchpad. During the next four-and-ahalf years, the keypad, which today costs $199 and is supplemented by an extended product line that includes…

Can a song change your life? So read the original title of the forthcoming musicthemed rom-com Begin Again, set for national release July 11 and starring Keira Knightley and Adam Levine in his film debut, but the question could just as easily apply to a movie already out: The Fault in Our Stars. The soundtrack to the epic tearjerker starring Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort, which Atlantic Records released 17 days ahead of the film’s June 6 opening, already has sold more than 47,000 copies, making it the second-biggest-selling soundtrack for a film released in 2014. (At No. 1 is Divergent, with 79,000 units sold. The unstoppable Frozen arrived in 2013 but has moved 2.5 million so far this year.) Standing to benefit exponentially with the film’s wide opening is…

“What time should I show up for work?”, —DR. DRE The hip-hop producer-entrepreneur who just joined Apple, joking that he wanted to arrive at the company’s campus before CEO Tim Cook. “We are only in our 20’s we all do stupid things at this age … We all have a lot of growing up to do in an extreme circumstance.”, —LIAM PAYNE The One Direction singer, reacting to the leak of a video that appears to show band members smoking marijuana. “Is it still ok to listen to Broods in my dressing room even though they’re like next door?”, —ELLIE GOULDING The “Burn” songstress, proclaiming her fandom of opening act Broods. “I could listen to Bruce Springsteen for the rest of my life. I think I will.” —LADY GAGA The…

“I CAN COMPENSATE FOR ALL OF MY WEAKNESSES WITH fashion. Even as a child I remember thinking, ‘She can beat me, but she cannot beat my outfit,’ ” said Rihanna during her acceptance speech for the Fashion Icon Award at the Council of Fashion Designers of America Awards, held at Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center . RiRi, who accepted the honor from Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, shined bright like a diamond in a barely there nude fishnet dress by designer Adam Selman. The shocking, sheer custom gown was encrusted with 216,000 Swarovski crystals, which were the only things keeping her covered, except for an occasional, strategically placed fur stole. The singer’s jazz-age look channeled famed dancer Josephine Baker. Considered the Oscars of fashion, the CFDA Awards were co-hosted by…

W WHEN CELEBRITIES WAX POETIC ABOUT THEIR FIRST BEAUTY obsessions, long-discontinued products from brands like Wet n Wild and Bonne Bell get mentions. For Ella Yelich-O’Connor, aka Lorde, the special product she saved up to buy growing up in New Zealand was MAC lipstick in Snob. Her affinity toward the brand continued when the now-17-year-old began working with fellow New Zealander Amber Dreadon, a MAC senior makeup artist, for her live performances and music videos. That’s when neutral light pink Snob ceded the spotlight to rich purple shades Cyber and Heroine. Soon the media was calling to find out what lipstick Dreadon was using on her increasingly popular client. It was only a matter of time before musician-loving MAC came a-knockin’, beauty contract in hand. In March, Lorde announced the…

1 PUSSY” (2011) Azalea burst onto the scene when this explicit and hilarious track went viral in 2011. The equally NSFW video ends with shots of Azalea enjoying ice cream intercut with bits from a YouTube cat video called “Kittens Inspired by Kittens.” 2 XXL FRESHMAN CLASS COVER (2012) On the strength of “Pussy” and the mixtape Ignorant Art, Azalea became the first female and first non-American rapper to make the hip-hop magazine’s venerable list, alongside future stars like Macklemore and French Montana. 3 GRAND HUSTLE (2012) A deal with T.I.’s Grand Hustle label conferred major credibility. She and T.I. collaborated on “Murda Bizness” from her Glory EP. 4 “WORK” (2013) “Walk a mile in these Louboutins/They don’t wear these shoes where I’m from.” This single from her Change Your…

Paul McCartney knew he was in trouble the morning he couldn’t lift his head off the pillow. He awoke facedown, his skull feeling like a useless dead weight. Day by day, his condition had been worsening. His sleepless nights were spent shaking with anxiety; his days were characterized by heavy drinking and self-sedation with marijuana. For the first time in his life, he felt utterly worthless. Everything he had been since the age of 15 had been wrapped up in the band. Now, he was 27, and even though he couldn’t tell the world, that period of his life was almost certainly over. This was an identity crisis in extremis: Who exactly was he if he wasn’t Beatle Paul McCartney? If any word sums up McCartney in the 1970s, it…

Klara and Johanna Soderberg, sisters from the suburbs of Stockholm, lived out their teenage dream in an unlikely place: Omaha, Neb., where they recorded their major label debut, Stay Gold, due June 10 on Columbia Records, and home of the band that made them want to be musicians, Bright Eyes. “They were our biggest heroes,” says Klara, killing time in a cramped dressing room five hours before a sold-out headlining show at Los Angeles’ El Rey Theatre. “They inspired us to make music that felt honest and real.” The drummer’s sound-checking muffles the music playing over the theater’s PA: early Fleetwood Mac and Neil Young’s Harvest, two other influences heard on Stay Gold. First Aid Kit’s journey began in 2008, when then-15-year-old Klara filmed herself and her sister performing Fleet…

How the singer-songwriter-producer deposed Pharrell Williams to claim the top spot on the Hot 100 for the first time in his 10-year career THE VOICE JOHN LEGEND “Other writers and artists I was working with at the time reacted strongly to ‘All of Me.’ I remember Amanda Ghost cried the first time she heard it. All it took was the right exposure for it to seep into the public consciousness. I’m like, ‘This song is for everybody. Why does it only have to be on this or that format?’ ” THE CO-WRITER TOBY GAD “John knew he wanted to write a song to his then-fiancee [Chrissy Teigen], and already had the words ‘all of me.’ The writing happened really fast — maybe three hours, just the two of us bouncing…

DESPITE THE BAND’S NAME — and its screaming fan base — Camila is not a woman. Camila is a trio of Mexican guys, so convincing in their big, melodic songs bursting with R’B touches that they held sway as Latin pop’s top group for two superb albums that sold in excess of 1 million copies each. Following its eponymous sophomore set in 2010, Camila toured to exhaustion and lost a singer (Samo) to his own fledgling solo career. Now, the group has re-emerged as a duo with Elypse. The lineup is smaller, but the sound is bigger, augmented by a splendid string orchestra. And the songs are even better. Elypse boasts 12 tracks — all single worthy, all bearing the Camila stamp of muscular melodies and lush harmonies (courtesy of…

The Songwriters Hall of Fame will celebrate the 100th anniversary of ASCAP, the 75th anniversary of “Over the Rainbow” and these songwriters, ready to reminisce. Doug Morris, chairman/CEO, Sony Music, “Sweet Talkin’ Guy” “I was working in A’R for Laurie Records, the label Dion was on, when I wrote ‘Sweet Talkin’ Guy.’ It was very heavily influenced by one of The Supremes’ songs. I was writing it for The Chiffons, so lyrically it would have to be something that they were interested in. They loved it and did a great live take on it. As soon as it came out, WMCA [in New York] played it and the reaction was immediate. It was really exciting to me. You could hear it everywhere you went. [It] gave me good insight into…

M Mariah Carey and Austin Mahone are the top two debuts on the Billboard 200, with both artists finally seeing their respective albums debut after long development periods. After a series of delays, Carey’s Me. I Am Mariah … The Elusive Chanteuse arrives at No. 3 with 58,000 sold in the week ending June 1, according to Nielsen SoundScan. That’s her lowest start for a studio album since SoundScan started tracking sales in 1991. It’s her first studio project since 2009’s Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel debuted with 168,000 at No. 3. The new album’s soft bow can be explained partly by Carey’s current lack of a hit single. She last charted on the Billboard Hot 100 for one week on March 1 with the album’s “You’re Mine (Eternal),” which…

Your company is losing one of the biggest names in the business, a genuine titan who has tight personal ties to scores of topselling artists and has put out many of the highest-grossing albums of the last quartercentury. So you’re freaking out, right? Wrong. Jimmy Iovine’s exit from Interscope Geffen A’M as part of the Apple-Beats deal may have robbed the label of its house guru. But the transition to the new chairman/CEO, John Janick, 36, is going about as smoothly as a succession could. That’s due in no small part to Iovine, who saw it coming — he was in talks with Apple CEO Tim Cook long before word leaked — and put a strong plan in place. In fact, Janick has been “100 percent running” day-to-day operations for…

HELLO ‘GOODBYE ’ Canadian DJ Glenn Morrison is headed south as “Goodbye” (Robbins), featuring Islove, is bubbling under at top 40. SiriusXM is leading the dancepop song’s U.S. breakthrough, having played it 121 times combined on Hits 1, 20 on 20 and The Pulse during the Nielsen BDS week ending June 1. Morrison took up house music in his early 20s thanks to a close friend and fellow Torontonian: Deadmau5. ‘DOWN’ ON THE WAY UP In May, singer-songwriter Ryan Kinder was on his first national radio promo tour when he learned that his label, Bigger Picture, had suspended operations. Undeterred, Kinder debuts introductory song “Kiss Me When I’m Down” at No. 59 on the Country Airplay chart. His label situation remains unclear, but Kinder’s upcoming LP is being co-produced by…

Singing competition shows are in trouble. Fox canceled The X Factor in February. In May, both The Voice and American Idol had dramatic ratings declines for their season finales. Idol’s plunge was particularly drastic, falling from 30 million viewers per episode at the peak of its popularity to 10.1 million today — a showing that may have contributed to the recent exit of Fox’s top entertainment executive, Kevin Reilly. ABC is hoping to reverse the trend with a U.S. version of a popular Israeli show, Rising Star, lauching in June. But over on Spanish language networks, the genre is blossoming. Univision and Telemundo have announced the launch of four new music competitions set to debut in the coming months, joining La Voz Kids (The Voice Kids), now in its second…

Think Like A Man Too Epic Records June 17 Sony Music is taking a different approach to the Screen Gems sequel, releasing an album of new music from Mary J. Blige rather than a sampler. Jersey Boys Rhino June 24 The Four Seasons’ chief songwriter Bob Gaudio produced a collection of the act’s recordings mixed with performances from the film and Broadway show. Begin Again ALXNDR/222/Interscope July 1 Adam Levine makes his big-screen debut. Gregg Alexander (New Radicals) wrote original songs, with Levine and Keira Knightley among those handling vocals. Wish I Was Here Columbia Records July 15 Zach Braff’s second directorial effort, 10 years after Garden State, features new music from The Shins and Bon Iver and a duet between Cat Power and Coldplay. Get On Up: The James…

A’R executive-turned- PR mavenDorothy Carvellois shopping around Anything for a Hit, a memoir of her often surreal experiences in the music business during the late 1980s and ’90s. She began her career in 1987 as an assistant toAhmet Ertegun, the legendary Atlantic Records founder, and went on to become the label’s first female A’R executive. In an interview, Carvello, 50, shares a choice tale from her manuscript. “Ahmet was at home in the White House or a crack house. He could hang out with anybody. In 1988, Atlantic and Geffen Records were both trying to sign Skid Row. Geffen was offering the better deal. So we brought in Ahmet. He arranged for the corporate helicopter to take five of us to Allentown, Pa., where the band was playing. We got…

Are coffee brands becoming the new celebrity clothing lines? James Murphy, Beck and St. Vincent have all recently joined the list of musicians releasing their own signature blends with hip coffee companies. “I love coffee. I sometimes get excited at night thinking of the coffee I’ll get to drink in the morning. Coffee is a reason to wake up,” says Annie Clark (aka St. Vincent) of her new signature Chicago-based blend, Bring Me Your Mugs, with Intelligentsia Coffee, available at its stores in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles. Says Clark of the brand: “I have stood at their counter waiting for my order, like a fan waiting for a show.” Murphy’s espresso, House of Good, can be picked up at select Blue Bottle locations, and Beck’s limited-edition L.A.-based blend…

MAC’s musicians may dominate the prestige market, but the mass brands have a few chart-toppers of their own as spokesmodels. RIMMEL Last fall, the London-based brand that has been in business since 1834 added Rita Ora as its newest musician spokesmodel. Other songstresses who have fronted for the brand include Solange Knowles and Zooey Deschanel. COVERGIRL The Procter ’ Gamble company has long aligned with musicians. Current faces include Katy Perry, Pink, Janelle Monae and Queen Latifah, who has the Queen Collection with the brand. L’OREAL The world’s most profitable beauty brand — 2013 sales revenue was $31.3 billion — can afford to pay for some famous faces, such as Jennifer Lopez, whose multiyear contract is said to be in the millions.…

Iggy Azalea’s management company, Turn First Artists, is that rare thing in the music business: a power center controlled by women. In 1996, when she was pregnant with her first child and a recent law school grad, Azalea’s manager Sarah Stennett found herself surrounded by a U.K. music business fueled by cocaine and alcohol. It wasn’t her scene, but it was her big break. When her boss Paul Spraggon — who represented the then-hot Jamiroquai and Prodigy — left his firm, she pleaded with him to take her along. “He was a bit off the rails,” she recalls. “I told him, ‘I know I’ve got no experience, but I’ll go out and get the clients and you can train me.’ And he was so drug-addled and in a crazy world…

THE HOT NEW RELEASES NOW Also... JACK WHITE’S COUNTRY KICKLazaretto, the singersongwriter-guitarist’s excellent second album, has both twang and headbang. “IT’S ALWAYS BEEN ABOUT OUR VOICES” Sweet-voiced Swedish sister duo First Aid Kit shows off its muscled-up folkpop in Los Angeles. ROAD MAP Can’t-miss shows and festivals around the world with Dave Chappelle, Katy Perry, Jason Aldean, Skrillex, Future Islands and Black Sabbath. T The teenagers spy him from across a coffee shop in San Francisco’s SOMA district. “Excuse me. Are you G-Eazy?” The Berkeley, Calif.-bred rapper in the motorcycle couture jacket nods and smiles at his curly-haired, 15-year-old fan. “I just wanted to say that I’m in awe of your music. We just love you,” says the teen, who awkwardly gestures toward two equally enraptured friends. They need a…

CALGARY, ALBERTA, CANADA Head north for the eighth annual Sled Island Music and Arts Festival, featuring over 250 bands, films, artists and comedians spread across 30-plus venues in Calgary June 18-22. Spiritualized, Neko Case, Rocket From The Crypt and Bob Mould are among the acts playing. MORRISON, COLO. Cee Lo Green and Lionel Richie will hit Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, Colo., on June 11 as part of Richie’s All the Hits All Night Long summer tour. LAS VEGAS For one weekend each year, all the action in Sin City goes down off the Strip. The Electric Daisy Carnival (June 20-22) is one of the largest EDM festivals in the world, and it’s already sold out. Held at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the crown jewel event for the U.S. dance…

L LAUDED singer-songwriter-guitarist discovers own teenage writings in attic, mines them for new album. So goes the official backstory for Jack White’s latest. The writings in question are short stories and plays composed when their author, now 38, was 19. With that in mind, you might expect to find at least a hint of youthful autobiography on Lazaretto, but not so fast. These 11 songs seem to be far less plainly personal statements than those on his previous solo release, 2012’s Blunderbuss. Whereas that album was clearly a breakup record, the lyrics on this one cover their tracks in whimsy and wordplay, even as its music is more eclectic and often more energized than that of its predecessor. Lazaretto’s general mood is one of vague existential dissatisfaction, which can take…

After shoring up her core hip-hop base by leaking hard-charging street tracks “Lookin Ass,” “Boss Ass Bitch” and “Chiraq,” Nicki Minaj returns once again to the top 40 well on the Dr. Luke-produced “Pills N Potions,” the first official single from her forthcoming third album, The Pink Print (Young Money/Cash Money/Republic). Co-written by Ester Dean, who also helped pen Minaj’s 2011 crossover hit “Super Bass,” “Pills” is an even more potent pop opiate punctuated by the line, “Pills and potions, we’re overdosing/I’m angry, but I still love you.” Opening with dulcet percussion and Minaj’s almost startlingly sweet singing, “Pills” careens into a pair of barbed rap verses that target unnamed former allies, which helps bring home the song’s bittersweet message. Demonstrating what makes Minaj one of hip-hop’s most dynamic figures,…

D During her more than 10 years with Anschutz Entertainment Group in Los Angeles, Cara Vanderhook has helped manage media campaigns for numerous high-profile events, including the Grammy Awards, the NBA Finals, the NHL’s Stanley Cup championship, the groundbreaking of AEG’s $3 billion L.A. Live district, hundreds of concerts and the public memorial service for Michael Jackson. As director of communications and social media for the Staples Center, Nokia Theatre and L.A. Live, Vanderhook, 34, is the digital voice for those first two venues (a separate team posts for L.A. Live) with a total audience on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram of nearly 300,000. Vanderhook also is vp agenda for the annual Event ’ Arena Marketing Conference. But one item she definitely did not place on the confab’s schedule: her own…

The Billboard 200 Kiss At 40 Kiss celebrates the 40th anniversary of its debut release as the new retrospective Kiss 40 arrives at No. 30 on the Billboard 200. The 40-track collection sold 7,000 copies in its first week (ending June 1), according to Nielsen SoundScan. It’s the 35th charting album for the recent Rock and Roll Hall of Fame honoree — the third-most charting albums among American bands. Kiss previously was tied with Pearl Jam (with 34) and is behind only The Grateful Dead (60) and The Beach Boys (48). Forty years ago this month, Kiss was in the middle of its maiden chart run with its self-titled debut album, which bowed Feb. 18, 1974. The set arrived on the April 20 chart at No. 192 and eventually reached…

The Champagne corks have popped. The principals have taken a victory lap. And the Beats team even has gone shopping, with the newly richer-than-rich Jimmy Iovine wading into the bidding for the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers and Dr. Dre reportedly buying a $50 million Los Angeles mansion from New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and his supermodel wife, Gisele Bundchen. But there still is plenty of work ahead for the lawyers and accountants, as they begin ironing out the details of the Apple-Beats deal in earnest — a process that could drag on until fall. Meanwhile, at Apple HQ in Cupertino, Calif., preparations are underway to welcome a very different kind of company. Billboard analyzes some of the biggest challenges ahead for the merged venture. LIVING WITH BOSSES The Beats…

W We realized we had a problem the day we went on sale,” reflects Michael Cohl. It had been four days since he officially pulled the plug on the Jesus Christ Superstar Arena Spectacular tour before the cast could do its first show, which had been scheduled for June 9 in New Orleans. Looking back on what went wrong, Cohl, who was producer of the tour with Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Really Useful Group, is philosophical — convinced he had done everything he could to keep the lights on, but was done in by ticket sales he describes as “horrific.” “We all worked very hard reinventing things, rethinking things, fighting the good fight,” says Cohl. “And it just got to the point ... Look, it is a business, let’s face it.…

T Two shows at the Hollywood Bowl (May 31 and June 1), which sold out some 36,000 seats in 10 minutes (ticket prices ranged from $39 to $150), marked another career high for Bruno Mars, who has landed 17 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, 11 of them in the top 10. The concert feat did not go unappreciated by the singer, who name-checked local venues like Irish watering hole Molly Malone’s, where he had played in a bar band just six years ago. This audience, of course, had a much more upscale vibe. A mix of business associates, including super-agent Patrick Whitesell, who signed Mars to William Morris Entertainment, and Julie Greenwald, the Atlantic Records chairman/COO who gave him a record deal; fans (Lea Michele, Paula Abdul); and friends…

These are rough days for Fuse, the embattled music network. It has already shed roughly half of its 200-person staff and canceled Fuse News, a halfhour program launched in January 2013 with celebrity hosts like Jack Osbourne and Alexa Chung. But according to multiple executives familiar with the company’s plans, it’s the current management, MSG Media, doing the housecleaning — not Nuvo TV (Jennifer Lopez is a part owner and chief creative officer) and parent company SiTV Media, which expects to finalize its $226 million acquisition of Fuse by early July. There’s little question that action was needed. Fuse News often rated at the bottom of Nielsen’s cable rankings. “Things were so bad that it got what TV industry people call ‘hashmarks,’ or no registered audience,” says one executive familiar…

05-23 Tom Mackay was promoted to executive vp/GM of the West Coast for Republic Records. He was instrumental in the 2011 launch of NBC’s The Voice and spearheaded soundtracks for such titles as The Hunger Games, Son of God, Muscle Shoals and The Walking Dead. 05-24 Rapper Kanye West wed fiancee Kim Kardashian at Fort Belvedere, a 400-year-old landmark, in Florence, Italy. The wedding was preceded by a rehearsal dinner at the Palace of Versailles in France, which included a three song serenade by singer Lana Del Rey. Guests included Big Sean, Tyga, Alexander Wang, Steve McQueen, David Blaine and Serena Williams. 05-26 Paul Davidson was appointed senior vp film and TV for The Orchard, where he will head the company’s Los Angeles office. 05-26 Marcee Rondan was promoted to…

When the recording industry introduced the Parental Advisory: Explicit Content label in 1994, it inadvertently attracted the very music-buying population it intended to protect: young, angsty teenagers with disposable income (read: allowance). For what could be more appealing than something, anything, found unsavory by parents? Designer Alexander Wang, 30 — who came of age in the 1990s and can be credited with much of that decade’s current hold on fashion — cleverly reappropriated the message for his spring/summer 2014 womenswear collection. Using sheer nylon material and a strategically placed message over naughty bits, he achieved the same be-warned-but-come-hither effect. Alexander Wang Parental Advisory Sweatshirt, $995, alexanderwang.com Lily Allen The brazen singer is so fond of the warning label, she not only rocks the sweatshirt, her new video “Sheezus” opens with…

People have debated her talent and hip-hop credentials, but the one thing that is not in dispute is that IGGY AZALEA, the plucky white rapper from Australia, is sitting atop the Billboard Hot 100 And she plans to stay L Late one early-summer Saturday night, Iggy Azalea, one of the hottest pop stars on the planet, enters the lobby of Manhattan’s Mondrian Soho, one of the hottest hotels on the planet. In the lush garden patio, expensively dressed couples finish up elaborate dinners, while in the bar, women in this season’s Louboutins are halfdancing to a steady electro throb and fielding the attentions of well-heeled bankers. Tall and pale, wearing track shorts and dirty sneakers, her blonde hair pulled back from her face, Azalea looks like a gangly teenager who…

Neil Patrick Harris Hedwig and the Angry Inch Regarding his gender-bending, musical turn as Hedwig in the long-awaited revival, he says, “That part is so unlike anything I have ever wanted to do, and ever been able to do or ever thought I could do.” Andy Karl Rocky To endure the rigorous demands of his title role, Karl carefully maintains healthy habits. Or as he puts it, “I live like a nun who gets punched in the face.” Jefferson Mays A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder On playing eight characters in the musical, he says, “It’s more athletic than artistic sometimes. Everything happens so quickly, and I am in perpetual motion.” James Monroe Iglehart Aladdin “I knew I wanted to be a Disney character, I just didn’t know how…

Spinner to celebrities like Jay Z and Anna Wintour, DJ Cassidy loves summer — especially this year, which brings the release of his debut, Paradise Royale (Columbia). To celebrate, he offers Billboard his summer soundtrack, perfect for beaches and barbecues. PHARRELL FEATURING JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE, “BRAND NEW” It’s that song you blast as you’re speeding down the highway, in a convertible with a beautiful girl, on your way to an afternoon beach dance sex-tivity MICHAEL JACKSON, “LOVE NEVER FELT SO GOOD” Summer songs should sound like sunshine. Nothing does that better than 1983 Michael with live strings and electric piano. KATY PERRY, “BIRTHDAY” “Birthday” inspires the feeling of Madonna’s “Holiday” and “Borderline.” It’s the fifth act and you’re watching a hundred beautiful women frolic around like it’s their big day. CHROMEO,…

THE ORWELLS With the June 3 release of their second full-length LP, Disgraceland (Canvasback/Atlantic), The Orwells have been touring relentlessly since March. The young Chicago punk band now is heading overseas, hitting the United Kingdom and Japan in June before launching a festival run and a proper U.S. tour later this year. Here’s what keeps the group going onstage, backstage and on those long van rides. PRE -SHOW RITUALS Mario Cuomo, vocalist: We can’t drink in the venues because we’re underage, so we just play NBA Live 2010 in the van and pass around a bottle. BACKSTAGE RIDER Matt O’Keefe, guitarist: Pita and hummus, waters, Red Bulls and a 30-pack of beer. We’re under 21, but some venues will do it anyway. Cuomo: As long as it’s not an IPA.…

PARQUET COURTS’ MISSION STATEMENT for their third LP, Sunbathing Animal, comes toward the end of “What Color Is Blood,” yelped in monotone between stiff guitar stabs. “I’m listening to a different station,” sing frontmen Andrew Savage and Austin Brown. “Slightly harder to find, but with tuning and time, you won’t touch that dial again.” Less frantic and more lyrically complex, Animal isn’t as immediate as Light Up Gold, the band’s breakthrough sophomore effort, lauded for its blistering hybrid of 1970s New York punk rock and ’90s slacker anthems. But with time and attention, these songs show Parquet Courts graduating from being just another band trying to salvage real rock’n’roll. About a year-and-a-half ago, critics and fans noticed the Brooklyn-via- Texas foursome’s lyrics about doughnuts and military drafts, sung over wiry…

I It’s one thing to be born into the family business. But it’s another when your family business is the formidable hit catalog of the legendary husband-and-wife songwriting team of Boudleaux and Felice Bryant, writers of more than 6,000 songs, including nearly all of The Everly Brothers’ classics — “Bye Bye Love,” “Wake Up Little Susie,” “All I Have to Do Is Dream” and many others. Their son, Del Bryant, didn’t stay in the family business full time — he’s stepping down this month from his post as BMI’s president after some 42 years with the organization, and on June 12 will receive the Songwriters Hall of Fame’s Visionary Leadership Award. But it’s hard to imagine a better education for the career he did pursue. Songs and songwriters have been…

Panel: Katrina and the Superdome: Shelter of Last Resort When: June 11 Where: Galeries 1 ’2, New Orleans Marriott As they convene in New Orleans, EAMC attendees will revisit one of the most dramatic episodes in the history of live venues, with a first-hand account of what it was like when more than 40,000 evacuees took shelter in the Superdome after Hurricane Katrina struck the city in August 2005. The building, which was rechristened the Mercedes-Benz Superdome following a naming-rights deal in 2011, has been operated since 1977 by the venue management company known today as SMG. “Katrina and the Superdome: Shelter of Last Resort” is the title of a June 11 opening address at EAMC from Doug Thornton, SMG executive vp stadiums and arenas, who was the key SMG…

CHANCES ARE — PUN INTENDED — THE TERM “greatest hits” would not have become a familiar phrase had it not been for the runaway success of Johnny Mathis’ 1958 album, Johnny’s Greatest Hits. “That was the beginning of all the greatest hits stuff,” Mathis told Craig Rosen for his 1996 Billboard Book of Number One Albums. “It was just another marketing ploy, but no one had really started doing that until that album.” Ploy or not, it worked — big time. The Columbia Records album, which featured the pop crooner’s iconic single “Chances Are,” sailed to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 dated June 9, 1958 and ruled the chart for three weeks. It went on to spend 490 weeks on the chart — a record beaten only by Pink…