Innholdsfortegnelse for Oct-04-14 i Billboard Magazine

MEGHAN TRAINOR’S ODE TO BODY BEAUTY, “ALL About That Bass,” tops the Billboard Hot 100 for a third week, but Jennifer Lopez bounds in at No. 18 with her own celebration of curves, “Booty” (featuring Iggy Azalea or Pitbull). Pitbull raps on the original version, from Lopez’s A.K.A., but Azalea replaced him for the single, released commercially Sept. 23, and saucy video, released Sept. 18. Unsurprisingly, “Booty” bows with 92 percent of its Hot 100 points owed to streaming, with almost all from Vevo on YouTube clicks for its steamy clip, which showcases its co-stars’ twerking talents. “Booty” rockets onto Streaming Songs at No. 3 with 9.2 million plays, according to Nielsen BDS. Meanwhile, R&B/hip-hop singer Jeremih jumps 12-10 on the Hot 100 with “Don’t Tell ’Em” (featuring YG). The…

The frontrunners in the 2014 nominees — see it all play out when the show airs on Univision Nov. 20 CALLE 13 The rappers score nine nods for Multiviral, making them the most-nominated act in Latin Grammys’ history. While rebellious lyrics and music make the duo pariahs at mainstream Latin radio, it is a Latin Recording Academy and critical darling. CARLOS VIVES & ANDRES CASTRO After a decade of silence, Vives (left) was the big Latin Grammy winner in 2013 with Corazon Profundo, his pop/tropical/Colombian folk comeback. Mas + Corazon Profundo scores six nods; collaborator Castro gets eight, including two for co-writes with Prince Royce. ENRIQUE IGLESIAS & DESCEMER BUENO Despite a Latin Grammy win in 2003, Iglesias (left) has been nominated only three times before, in keeping with the…

EVER SINCE TECHNOLOGY GAVE US the ability to put an endless number of tracks on a recording and to manipulate a voice into perfect pitch, the sound of popular music has changed. It has affected nearly every genre of music. All of this finally hit home earlier this year when I was recording my latest album, This Is M.E., my first on my very own independent label, ME Records. (I’m very “me, me, me” these days.) With the guidance of my brand-new managers, Steven Greener and Larry Mestel of Primary Wave, I found myself in the studio creating music with their client, a fiery young hip-hop producer named Rocc Starr, who has Chris Brown, Usher and Jennifer Lopez, to name just a few, on his list of productions. It was…

SINCE THE LIVE EVENT BUSINESS rebounded in 2010, VIP programs, which offer seats closer to the stage, meet-and-greets with the artist and, in one extreme case, a private jet to the festival grounds (see story, below), increasingly have become big business. “We’re at a point where most tours have some sort of VIP ticket packaging,” says Zeeshan Zaidi, senior vp/GM of artist services at Ticketmaster. “It’s definitely a growing area.” Jennifer Breithaupt, senior vp entertainment marketing at Citi, which has worked with Billy Joel, John Legend and Katy Perry to create VIP opportunities for its cardholders, agrees, saying, “2014 is truly the year of experience for fans. There are so many unique packages offered.” Due to the exclusive perks they provide and the premium prices they command — from $175…

With two notable exceptions, comic actors pursuing parallel careers as bluegrass musicians are a rare breed. Ed Helms of The Office and the Hangover trilogy is one of them: He’s a regular performer who also co-created the annual Bluegrass Situation festival in Los Angeles in 2010. Helms, 40, caught up with Billboard to discuss the Bluegrass Situation’s stylistic expansion and move to larger digs at the Theatre at the Ace Hotel (taking place Oct. 10 and 11), and the influence of that other prominent actor/bluegrass musician, Steve Martin. Why reposition the festival as more roots than bluegrass? When we started at Largo, part of the mission was to give the scene a rallying point. We’re definitely using the word “bluegrass” as an inclusive term in the tradition of events like…

Christina Milian announced a new role as brand ambassador for Los Angeles’ Chicken & Rice. The singer will help produce franchises globally and across the United States. Axwell & Ingrosso signed an exclusive contract with Universal Music. Their debut album, expected in 2015, will be released by Def Jam Recordings in the United States and Virgin/EMI in the United Kingdom. Zac Brown’s Southern Ground Artists announced a partnership with Universal’s John Varvatos Records, Big Machine Label Group and Republic Records. The deal will include future releases from Zac Brown Band and Southern Ground’s artists. The Fader announced former editor Naomi Zeichner’s return as editor-in-chief. Grammy-nominated singer Keyshia Cole was arrested on suspicion of battery after an altercation in Los Angeles, and was reportedly released from custody the same day. Record…

IN THE WEEK HER FIRST full-length album, Souled Out, debuted, singer Jhene Aiko cooked up a novel idea for its rollout: She performed for a crowd of 80 at the popular — and legal — West Hollywood pot shop The Farmacy. Aiko announced the pop-up gig to her 650,000 Twitter and 1.7 million Instagram followers an hour before the Sept. 16 show. “I didn’t know what to expect, but I’m glad people came,” she says. And while baked goods were passed around, everything was aboveboard with attendees all card-carrying medical marijuana patients. (In California, marijuana is legally available with a doctor’s prescription.) The set had the full support of her label, Def Jam. “They know I partake,” joked Aiko, 26, who headed on tour with The Weeknd and Schoolboy Q…

TOVE LO IS BREAKING OUT WITH HER HAZY POP JAM “HABITS (Stay High)” — which moves 16-13 on the Oct. 4 Billboard Hot 100 — from debut album Queen of the Clouds, due Sept. 30 on Island Records. Despite the song’s lyrics, staying high isn’t really a habit for the 26-year-old Stockholm resident, born Tove Nilsson. But she does have some other quirks she just can’t shake. 1 The first line of “Habits” is “I eat my dinner in my bathtub.” Tove Lo sleeps there too. “I always take a bath when I come home drunk, and I sometimes fall asleep, which is bad. But I always wake up when the water hits my face. So far, I haven’t drowned.” 2 She leaves never-ending voicemails. “Instead of just saying, ‘Hey,…

From Long Island, N.Y. Age 21 Launch pad Born Ryan DeRobertis, Saint Pepsi honed his skills as a teen, but it wasn’t until he began releasing projects in late 2012 that the Internet took notice. Sound He’s a self-described “ambassador” of vaporwave, a buzzy genre where digital artists like Yung Bae and Internet Club mine obscure samples — 1980s Japanese pop hits, ’90s commercials — for tracks. Influences Reared on Duran Duran and Prefab Sprout, Saint Pepsi’s influences span producer Trevor Horn to Drake, whose run on Degrassi led to an obsession with the show. “It’s hard to transition from one industry to the other,” he says, “and Drake has definitely dealt with a lot of that — but not as much if he wasn’t as good as he is.”Stepping…

What To Buy, Wear And Know Now WHEN SCANDINAVIAN ALTERNA-ROCK singer Lykke Li, 28, who is praised equally for her cool androgynous style as for her melancholic 2014 hit, “No Rest for the Wicked,” needed a pair of fashionable-yet-functional shoes to wear on tour, she turned to Stockholm-based designer — and her pals — Nicole Wilson and Behnaz Aram at & Other Stories (H&M’s fashion-forward sister label). “She came into our atelier and we started to draw together and collect ideas. She loves black and a minimalistic silhouette, so that was our starting point,” says Aram. The creative confab resulted in a razor-sharp, 30-piece capsule of gender-blending readyto-wear, shoes and accessories, all spun in Li’s signature palette of blacks, whites and brushed metals. Landing online and at the retailer’s first…

THE REMOTE TOWN OF Port Antonio, Jamaica, may seem sleepy and secluded compared with the popular resort destinations of Negril and Montego Bay, but thanks to producer Jon Baker and his boutique hotel group, the Geejam Collection, the area has upgraded its star status without losing its charm. “It’s no secret we’ve had high-profile people down here — but it’s obviously a secret when they’re here,” says Baker, 54, of the music-star draw in his collection, Geejam Hotel, which he named after his former independent label, Gee Street Records. Guests at the lush sixacre estate — which comprises three deluxe cabins, one suite and a self-contained threebedroom villa — have included Katy Perry, Grace Jones and Rihanna, who filmed her “Man Down” video on the premises in 2010. “The beauty…

1. SHOWING HENDRIX’S EVOLUTION “He started off with a very small wardrobe. In New York, he doesn’t have a lot of money. So he wears a London Fog trench coat and a couple of shirts and trousers. Then it’s the influence of going to London — and a progression in his life — that the clothes come to reflect. He is this amazing artist. Wherever he goes, he embodies everything around him and is inspired by everything around him. So when he goes to London, whether it’s conscious or not, he just soaks it all up.” 2. CONVEYING HIS MESSAGE “He’s quoted saying he sees the world in colors, not [skin] color, which is in the scene when he meets Malcolm X. This is mirrored in how he dresses.” 3.…

$1.3B Projected spending on U.S. live music and event sponsorship in 2014, according to analytics firm IEG. $322M Estimated global synch revenue in 2013, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry. $260M Anheuser-Busch’s estimated spend on U.S. live entertainment sponsorships in 2013, including sports and music. $40M Minimum revenue SFX expects from MasterCard, T-Mobile, Anheuser-Busch and Viagogo in 2014. 28.2M Number of YouTube views Train’s holiday anthem for Coca-Cola, “Shake Up Christmas,” has generated since 2011.…

While Nicks was recording 24 Karat Gold on a strict threemonth deadline, she also had to create cover art for the album. But she didn’t have a concept, and there was no time for a photo shoot, so for the cover art and CD booklet, Nicks says, “We used Polaroids I took between 1975 and 1987,” a period when Fleetwood Mac was often on tour. “I used to stay up half the night when I was on tour, because I wanted to learn to be a great photographer,” she recalls. But because of her schedule, Nicks was usually the subject of her pictures. “I couldn’t find anyone to model for me, because I worked so late at night.” And like a lot of photographers, she was demanding, too: “I’d say,…

TONY BENNETT HAS COMPARED LADY Gaga to Ella Fitzgerald, but he has also compared her to Picasso — so let’s just say she winds him up in a way that’s not to be fully trusted. The two met at a benefit in 2011, and the subsequent Gaga track on Bennett’s Duets II sparked a love match that bridged the six decades separating these two Italian-Americans with New York roots. But on Cheek to Cheek, this much is clear: She sings like a real musician, crawling inside melodies and finding new ways to bring unexpected flashes of light and drama to this set of familiar tunes. Many pop stars fake their way through standards; few have her facility, and fewer still her smarts. That she’s a little more Broadway than Birdland…

ALT-J’S 2012 DEBUT, AN AWESOME WAVE, WAS a friction-filled marriage between experimentalism and pop, echoing Radiohead at its most electronic and The Flaming Lips’ willingness to let their freak flags fly. Even the most vociferous critics of the Leeds, England-based quartet couldn’t argue that it wasn’t an ambitious effort. When the band was awarded Britain’s prestigious Mercury Prize for one of the year’s best albums, the distinction felt well-earned — if only for the number of ideas thrown against the wall that actually stuck. Two years later the quartet has become a trio after the departure of bassist Gwil Sainsbury. While the personnel change is only surface deep (additional musicians were recruited for both recording and touring), it’s difficult not to subconsciously tie the lineup paring to Alt-J’s newly streamlined…

Nostalgia was the selling point at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center on Sept. 19, where last-man-standing rap zine The Source held a concert for its 25th anniversary. Relative newcomers Currensy and Dom Kennedy opened the night, but it was electric sets from veterans Wu-Tang Clan, Lil’ Kim, The Diplomats and Bone Thugs-N-Harmony that justified the fete. Live hip-hop suffers when an MC lacks stage presence, but the headliners showed that performance is a muscle that, if flexed over time, will only strengthen. Bone Thugs rallied the brimming crowd with “Crossroads” while Cam’ron, Jim Jones, Freekey Zekey and Juelz Santana paraded through Diplomats cuts such as “Oh Boy” and “Hey Ma.” But the most arresting sets came from Lil’ Kim and Wu-Tang. Fresh off her mixtape Hard Core 2K14, Kim staged a vigorous…

EVERY PERFORMANCE BY EVERY act in every venue, almost without exception, starts with a deal between a seller and a buyer. The sellers are the booking agents representing artists; the buyers are the venues, from clubs to stadiums. The annual International Entertainment Buyers Association conference will bring them all together Sept. 27-30 in Nashville. “An act has to be on the radar of talent buyers to get offers and dates,” says Barry Jeffrey, an agent with William Morris Endeavor (WME) in Nashville and a member of the IEBA governing board. “The buyer’s time is valuable,” adds Jeffrey, “and IEBA gives them an opportunity to see more than 50 artists perform in three-and-a-half days.” The IEBA conference has a history of showcasing hitmakers. Those who played the event early in their…

9% “Cool Kids” finally becomes a top 10 airplay hit, rising 11-10 on the Adult Top 40 chart. The dreamy, retro-sounding cut gains by 9 percent in detections in the week ending Sept. 21, according to Nielsen BDS, for an average of 37 weekly plays per station. 686K Through Sept. 21, the song has sold 686,000 downloads, according to Nielsen SoundScan. It was commercially released in July 2013, but has sold 93 percent of its total since June 2014. 17% “Cool Kids” garnered 3.3 million streams in the week ending Sept. 21 (up 17 percent), according to BDS. It holds at No. 32 on Streaming Songs for a second week — its chart peak. —KEITH CAULFIELD TOMORROW’S HITS NEW ‘BLOOD’ New Jersey native Bea Miller, 15, bubbles under the Adult…

ON THE MORNING OF SEPT. 16, AS Clear Channel was three days out from the iHeartRadio Music Festival held at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand Garden Arena, the company made a surprise announcement that shocked most of its 20,000 employees: It had a new name. “We came in that day and there was a company-wide email that all our email suffixes had been changed,” one staffer tells Billboard. “We had no idea.” Switching the moniker was the result of a top-secret rebranding mission that came in the middle of planning the festival’s two-night lineup of pop, country and EDM all-stars. But the iHeartMedia announcement was merely the formalization of an aggressive digital repositioning for Clear Channel that has been in place ever since Bob Pittman, a co-founder of MTV Networks, joined…

The year 2015 will mark songwriter-producer Rodney Jerkins’ 20th in the music business. His first 19 have seen him produce or co-produce 16 top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 for the likes of Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey and others, including four No. 1s. And next year is shaping up to be a banner celebration. The Los Angelesbased Grammy winner recently wrapped executiveproducer duties on Mary J. Blige’s Capitol Records debut, The London Sessions (due in December), and in July launched his new label, Evolve, in partnership with Capitol Music Group. How did The London Sessions come about? It was the day after Mary and Sam Smith had taped the live video for “Stay With Me.” Steve [Barnett, Capitol chairman/CEO] and I pitched the idea of putting…

YouTube makeup sage Michelle Phan has found one way to get around any legal issues involving the use of music on her channel: She has joined forces with Cutting Edge Group, the financier behind more than 400 film scores and owner of the Varese Sarabande label, to create Shift Music Group, a joint venture to finance music projects and support them across social media platforms. “All of it has to be within her taste,” says Cutting Edge CEO Philip Moross. “We’ll finance and own the publishing and the masters to promote and secure additional work” for artists, both new and established. Phan, who is in a legal battle with dance label Ultra over alleged misuse of its music, is one of the biggest stars on Google’s video-sharing platform, with 7…

1 USHER UR Experience Soundcheck Party Package Price $495-$575 What You Get One reserved ticket in the first 10 rows; private soundcheck performance; postsoundcheck Q&A with Usher; preshow lounge with buffet dinner and bar; additional commemorative items. 2 LUKE BRYAN I Don’t Want This Night to End VIP Package Price $216 What You Get One premium ticket (location varies by venue; at L.A.’s Forum, it was in the first 15 rows); two-song acoustic preshow performance; lounge with cash bar; limited-edition poster and exclusive gift. (Last year’s was a set of shot glasses.) 3 5 SECONDS OF SUMMER Soundcheck Experience Price $175 What You Get Premium ticket; access to soundcheck followed by a Q&A session with the band; “crowd-free” merchandise shopping. 4 ARIANA GRANDE Ultimate VIP Meet & Greet Experience Price…

LATIN MUSIC ACTS HAVE received a bounty of screen time on U.S. TV in recent weeks, thanks to a headon competition between a pair of Spanish-language singing competitions. Univision’s Va por Ti (roughly, “I’m Betting on You”) and Telemundo’s Yo Soy el Artista (“I Am the Artist”) are entering their third week of vying for Sunday’s family-driven 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. slot. Both shows are new formats developed specifically for each network: On Va por Ti, celebrity coaches are eliminated along with their pupils, while Yo Soy el Artista seeks acts that can sing, dance and act. But both feature familiar staples: hungry contestants, voting fans, celebrity coaches and judges (rocker Alejandra Guzman and pop star Jencarlos Canela on Va por Ti; pop singer Luis Fonsi and tropical star…

French Montana (left) and Snoop Dogg got in some laughs while presenting onstage at the taping of the BET Hip Hop Awards at the Boisfeuillet Jones Atlanta Civic Center on Sept. 20. 1 Billy Joel (left) joined New York Governor Andrew Cuomo in the annual beach clean-up at Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Park in Oyster Bay, N.Y., on Sept. 20. 2 Miley Cyrus at Arena Ciudad de Mexico in Mexico City on Sept. 19. 3 Ryan Adams performed at the iTunes Festival at the Roundhouse in London on Sept. 21.…

It’s no surprise John Mellencamp — who is known for his candor — called his new album, released Sept. 23 on Republic, Plain Spoken. The rock’n’roots legend, who turns 63 on Oct. 7, continues to be an open book on everything from his new lifetime recording contract to an invaluable lesson he learned from James Brown. Plain Spoken’s “Blue Charlotte” deals with mortality. Is that something you think about more now that you’re in your 60s? I’ve always thought about it. I think most people do. I’ve got teenage boys who talk to me about it; I’ve got girls in their 30s who talk about it. It’s in the back of people’s minds that “Hey, I’m not going to be here forever.” Do you feel you’ve handled getting older gracefully?…

After dancing, fighting and crying in Footloose, Divergent and The Spectacular Now, respectively, actor Miles Teller is tapping into his high school band roots. The 27-year-old Floridian, who started drumming when he was 15, playing “bad rock’n’roll,” puts his skills to the test in Whiplash (Oct. 10), a psychodrama about an obsessive young musician pushed to the limit by a demanding teacher. Teller’s first foray into jazz drumming, the gig meant learning challenging music like Duke Ellington’s “Caravan” and a grueling practice schedule — “four hours a day, three days a week.” Your character, Andrew, has one unnerving battle after another with his teacher. Have you had any experiences like that? I didn’t have anyone as intense as that, thank God. For acting, my [college] teachers would critique everyone and…

COMPI LED BY J E SS ICA LETKEMANN “I can’t stop farting today.” —RITA ORA The British pop starlet revealing way TMI on Twitter. “Does anybody have a cigarette? I’m looking forward to that first smoke. I’ve been looking forward to [it] for about 30 years.” —LEONARD COHEN The iconic musician, telling a New York crowd how he’s celebrating his 80th birthday. “Of course I got lipstick all over my lil’ nose in about 5 seconds, nothing’s changed.” —LORDE The “Royals” singer on Twitter, suggesting that nothing’s different about her life despite her fame. “We go hard or we go home we gon’ do this all night long! #werk” —MADONNA The pop legend hit the town with rap’s reigning queen Nicki Minaj, posting an Instagram of their adventures and captioning…

With the launch of renaissance man Pharrell Williams’ first fragrance, Girl, inspired by his album of the same name, the mogul adds perfumer to his résumé. Released in collaboration with Comme des Garçons and sold exclusively at Sephora, the woody, unisex aroma also features a uniquely Pharrellean flair: a bottle designed by street artist Kaws. —NICK WILLIAMS BILLBOARD STAFF SMELL TEST “It’s perfect for any high-glam event: from a black-tie wedding to a front-row ticket at the Barclays Center. The sneaky lavender notes keep it female-friendly.” —Carson Griffith, 29, contributing editor “I love the mix of musk, leather and kush. In other words, it smells like the inside of @PharrellHat. It’s perfect for covering up post-skateboarding B.O. or Coachella dust storm stench.” —Alex Gale, 36, senior editor “It’s perfect for…

Ibiza Stay: Ibiza Gran Hotel (ibizagranhotel.com). Why: The island’s only casino. Past guests: Calvin Harris, Kanye West Rio de Janeiro Stay: Hotel Fasano (fasano.com. br). Why: Sleek interior and prime location on Ipanema Beach. Past guests: Lady Gaga, Will Smith Miami Stay: The Setai Miami Beach (thesetaihotel.com). Why: Lenny Kravitz-designed on-site recording studio. Past guests: U2, Madonna Prices start at $395 per night; geejamhotel.com.…

AALIYAH: THE PRINCESS OF R& BASED ON Aaliyah STARRING Alexandra Shipp MORE NEWS Wendy Williams exec-produced this Lifetime Original Movie out Nov. 15. MILES AHEAD BASED ON Miles Davis STARRING Don Cheadle MORE NEWS Shot with the help of $343,000 crowdsourced from Indiegogo and full support from the legendary trumpeter’s estate. LOVE & MERCY BASED ON Brian Wilson STARRING Paul Dano, John Cusack, Elizabeth Banks MORE NEWS Lionsgate recently acquired this Beach Boys biopic for a reported $3 million. STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON BASED ON N.W.A STARRING Corey Hawkins, Jason Mitchell MORE NEWS Ice Cube’s son will play his father and F. Gary Gray (The Italian Job) will direct. I WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU: THE WHITNEY HOUSTON STORY BASED ON Whitney Houston STARRING Yaya DaCosta MORE NEWS Angela Bassett directs this…

55th anniversary of the CLIO Awards, Billboard has partnered with the international advertising honors to curate the first CLIO Music Awards. The annual category recognizes creative achievements in event marketing, film (commercials, short-form, long-form and series) and innovative media. Blondie will receive the first Honorary CLIO Music Award, Whoopi Goldberg will host, and Aloe Blacc will perform at this year’s ceremony, which takes place Oct. 1 at Cipriani Wall Street. Both Billboard and the CLIOs are owned by Guggenheim Media.…

Woodstock (1970) Half a million saw the most famous festival of all time firsthand, but its legend took root with millions more thanks to this doc. Stop Making Sense (1984) If we could choose only one concert film, it would be this Jonathan Demmedirected classic that captured Talking Heads at their oddball best. Sign O’ the Times (1987) Prince, in his absolute performing prime, cavorts through a salivating set with his arguably bestever band in this out-of-print gem. Dave Chappelle’s Block Party (2006) With Kanye West, Lauryn Hill and Chappelle rocking a pre-gentrification Brooklyn block, Michel Gondry caught a once-ina-lifetime moment. Shine a Light (2008) Martin Scorsese lensed The Rolling Stones at New York’s Beacon Theatre, showing all three cultural institutions’ staying power. OUT NOW Jennifer Hudson JHUD (RCA) Tony…

JESSIE J FEATURING 2 CHAINZ “BURNIN’ UP” LAVA/REPUBLIC Jessie J is sticking the landing on her U.S. comeback thanks in part to her Rolodex: After tapping Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj for “Bang Bang,” the British singer recruits 2 Chainz for “Burnin’ Up.” While her vocals flirt with ostentatiousness, 2 Chainz is all chill, smoothly rhyming “corridor” with “Oreo.” —JASON LIPSHUTZ HOLLY HERNDON “HOME” RVNG INTL. On “Home,” singer-songwriter Holly Herndon revels in sonic juxtaposition, pairing harsh electronic buzzes and bleeps with ethereal choral harmonies. “I want you to show your face,” she sings. “I know that you know me better than I know me.” Who’s watching: a voyeuristic lover? The NSA? Her dread somehow becomes our own. —RYAN REED GARTH BROOKS “PEOPLE LOVING PEOPLE” PEARL/RCA NASHVILLE Skrillex and Diplo’s…

LADY A SECURED ITS CROSSOVER STAR status with country- and AC-approved hits “Need You Now” and “Just a Kiss,” but little in the group’s repertoire has elevated it beyond midtempo maestros — until now. The trio’s fifth proper album, 747, ditches pianoheavy ballads in favor of fully fleshed-out productions and a notable boost in confidence. Leadoff track “Long Stretch of Love,” a crisp, pulsating rocker that highlights Lady Antebellum’s knack for memorable song structure, exudes this newfound self-assurance. Later, co-lead singers Hillary Scott and Charles Kelley perfect their harmonizing on the fiddle-laced “Down South,” an ode to the band’s Nashville roots; “Lie With Me,” a bittersweet tale of not wanting to let go, wouldn’t sound out of place in a country version of a John Hughes movie (don’t worry, that’s…

EVEN THE HEAVY METAL GODS HAVE TO do their laundry. Judas Priest’s Rob Halford is calling from his home in England to talk about the upcoming tour by the veteran metal act, and he notes that he’s busy washing his underwear at the moment. Thanks for that, Rob. Of course, his leather garb with metal studs doesn’t go through the spin cycle in his own laundry room. “That’s all taken care of by the wonderful team we have on the road crew,” Halford says. Plenty of care is being taken in and around Judas Priest these days. This year marks the 40th anniversary of the band’s debut album, Rocka Rolla, which was released five years after the group formed in Birmingham, England. It’s time to recognize Priest’s place as a…

1 The PPL Center “fills a void” in Allentown, Pa., the state’s third-largest city, says GM Gunnar Fox. “Previously, patrons had to drive over an hour to Philadelphia or New York City to attend a major entertainment,” he notes. The venue especially benefits from its link to Global Spectrum management, which handles Philadelphia’s Wells Fargo Center, and parent company Comcast Spectacor. “These relationships,” says Fox, “create the opportunity for acts to extend their tours beyond the Wells Fargo Center and link to another Global Spectrum venue,” such as the PPL Center or Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, N.J. 2 “I describe Huntington, W.Va., as the smaller market that could — and does,” says Brian Sipe, GM of the Big Sandy Superstore Arena, a venue managed by SMG, which operates theaters,…

Brown No. 1? No Probz Chris Brown blasts 25-1 for his first week atop the Billboard Artist 100. The R&B/hip-hop/pop singersongwriter vaults to the summit with 66 percent of his chart points (which surge by 361 percent) from album sales, as sixth studio set X starts at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 with 145,000 copies sold, according to Nielsen SoundScan. With three songs from the album ranking on the Billboard Hot 100 (see page 1), digital song sales (17 percent), streaming (8 percent) and radio airplay (5 percent) account for his nextgreatest Artist 100 points contributors. Brown narrowly claims the Artist 100’s top spot over runner-up Barbra Streisand, who wins the race to No. 1 on the Billboard 200, where her duets set, Partners, debuts with 196,000 sold. Unlike…

REPORTS THAT APPLE WOULD SHUT down Beats Music were quickly refuted by both companies on Sept. 22. But there’s little question that big changes are in the works: CEO Ian Rogers now also heads up iTunes Radio, an undisclosed number of employees will exit the company in the coming months, and a source close to the situation tells Billboard that “changes to any existing product are always a possibility.” Will it just be a nominal rebranding, or is the service about to be absorbed by Apple? An Apple representative declined to comment, but the latter scenario is far from unthinkable. Beats Electronics is overwhelmingly associated with headphones, and its music service had subscribers in the low six figures in April, the last time numbers were available. Still, although Beats Music…

WHAT’S THE ISSUE? The major labels and artists contend that digital radio services like SiriusXM and Pandora must pay for music they broadcast from master recordings made before 1972. The services argue that since the master recording copyright didn’t exist in federal law until 1972, they are only required to pay performance royalties for recordings made that year and after. WHY DOES THIS CURRENTLY INVOLVE ONLY DIGITAL SERVICES? The United States is one of three countries that doesn’t pay performance royalties for master recordings. U.S. terrestrial radio must pay royalties only to publishers and songwriters, not labels and artists. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act granted performance rights to artists and master recording owners, thus digital services must pay royalties. WHAT’S AT STAKE? In 2013 alone, Sound-Exchange estimates that digital services…

BONNAROO’S ROLL LIKE A ROCK STAR FESTIVAL PRODUCER AC Entertainment/Superfly Presents ADMINISTRATOR CID Entertainment PRICE $35,000 Bonnaroo’s VIP experience is noted for its accommodations: a fully loaded tour bus, the kind that actual rock stars use, stocked with whatever the VIP requests. The buses are stationed in a secluded wooded area close to the main stage. Eight tickets and all-access laminates, on-site gourmet catering, open bars, a 24/7 liaison and golf-cart transportation are included. BILLIONAIRES ROW AT BURNING MAN FESTIVAL PRODUCER None ADMINISTRATOR David Precheur PRICE $50,000 Although Precheur declines to name names, VIP “burners” are flown to the Burning Man site in a private plane and stay on Billionaires Row in primo RVs located at a camp that caters to their whims. Each RV is equipped with the guests’…

WHEN ANDRE HARRELL first met Sean Combs, the future Puff Daddy was but a wide-eyed intern at Uptown Records, the urban label Bronx native Harrell, 56, founded in 1983 that launched future R&B/hip-hop queen Mary J. Blige. Thirty years later, it was Combs who hired his former mentor to help him run fledgling cable TV network Revolt. But trading hit records for ratings hasn’t been easy for either music veteran at the year-old company. With a programming slate that includes music videos and news programs, Revolt, one of about 10 channels chosen by Comcast for carriage (in fulfillment of a 2011 agreement when the cable giant bought NBC Universal to provide more diversity across the dial), is trying a formula that some argue died the day MTV took the word…

“Weird Al” Yankovic, who resurrected his recording career with a No. 1 album in July, has long resembled Jesus, and now he’s playing him in The Moving Picture Co. 1914, a 22-minute silent film directed by triple Emmy winner Mark Kirkland, who directed around 80 episodes of The Simpsons. “It’s the role Weird Al was born to play,” says the film’s dp, Roberto E. Lepe. Kirkland adds: “He plays an actor re-enacting the Last Supper for a silent film in 1914, but a chase scene disturbs the supper.” The film had its Oscarqualifying screening the weekend of Sept. 20, when it also won two awards at the Big Bear festival. “Al was the first person who came to mind,” says Kirkland (also appearing: Robot Chicken producer Matt Senreich and Oscarwinning…

“WELL, HELLO, ATLANTA,” PURRED “IT” GIRL IGGY AZALEA TO the rowdy (and sold-out) crowd at Piedmont Park for the 2014 two-day Music Midtown festival. Produced by Live Nation, the still-growing event — now in its 16th year — has enjoyed a recent expansion, with organizers upping each night to two headliners. This year the new format hosted the powerhouse foursome of Eminem, Jack White, John Mayer and Zac Brown Band. Azalea, Lorde and Lana Del Rey courted the youth vote, the lattermost artist indulging in selfies with fans prior to her set and enjoying a sea of “Lana Del Bae” signs littering the crowd. Hometown affection was felt for Decatur, Ga.-based B.o.B, rocking a Falcons hat, and Atlanta native T.I., who surprised Azalea on “No Mediocre,” while a nostalgic Mayer…

Tommy Lee’s Dr. FeelgoodWhat do Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon, Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler, Motley Crue’s Tommy Lee, The Runaways’Lita Ford and The Roots’“Captain” Kirk Douglas have in common? They’ve all contributed insights on living a balanced rock’n’roll lifestyle — despite arduous touring and the temptations of life on the road — to The Rockstar Remedy, an upcoming book by Dr. Gabrielle Francis. A holistic doctor who has spent more than 30 years touring with bands, Francis says her book “allows people room for celebration and imperfection while still moving toward vitality.” Linda Perry’s New Project Now that the first season of VH1’s Make or Break: The Linda Perry Project has ended, the show’s songwriting namesake has been coaching the winners, Anjuli Stars and Candice Martello, through the recording of their upcoming…

SCORECARD The Music Stars NFL Fans Love — By Team! Billboard linked with Facebook to find out the tunes football followers listen to the most FOOTBALL SEASON IS IN FULL SWING, AND AS always, music is playing a big part, blaring in stadiums and on telecasts (and sometimes, as in the case of Rihanna tunes being nixed after the Ray Rice scandal, even causing controversy). To find out what each fan base was bumping, Billboard hit up Facebook’s data crunchers, who looked at the music pages liked by fans of each NFL team, and then identified those liked by a higher proportion of each fan base when compared with all football fans as a whole. From there, Billboard ranked each team by taste — subjectively, of course — from best…

From left, for her: TOMMY HILFIGER shirt, $99; tommy. com. CLU Too Basic sweatpants, $117; shopbop. com. JEROME C. ROUSSEAU Lugosi shoe, $895; H. Lorenzo, 310-659-1432. For him: CALVIN KLEIN COLLECTION crew neck T-shirt, $295; calvinklein. com. BALDWIN DENIM The Henley sweatpants, $198; eastdane. com. CALVIN KLEIN WHITE LABEL three-pack logo sport crew socks, $20; calvinklein. com. DIOR HOMME sneaker with polka-dot motif, $1,450; diorhomme. com. For him: SALVATORE FERRAGAMO dress shirt, $370; 800-633-3328. TOMMY HILFIGER sweatpants, $89; tommy. com. HAPPY SOCKS big dot sock, $12; happysocks. com. TOMMY HILFIGER loafer, $249; 212-223-1824. For her: M.NII Smooth Sailing T-shirt, $75; mnii. com. NORMA KAMALI side stripe jog pant, $170; shop. normakamali.com. JIMMY CHOO Luther boot in English floral, $1,250; jimmychoo. com. For him: TOMMY HILFIGER shirt, $99; 212-223-1824. ASOS sweatpants,…

What: Cosmetics line Ardency Inn, founded in 2013 by New Yorkbased former beauty industry execs Gilles Kortzagadarian, 41, and Stephane Siboni, 42, who wanted a brand tailored to musicians and their fans. The line is split into three product collections: Punker, for heavy, dramatic looks; Modster, which is bright and colorful; and Americana, with natural, low-key tones. Where you’ve seen it: On Courtney Love in her “You Know My Name” video. Joan Jett is also a fan. Fresh for fall: Dee Dee Penny of Dum Dum Girls follows other indie acts (Marie de Villepin, Seasick Mama, Holly Marilyn) as brand model this season. In the campaign, she wears the Modster collection, including the new Manuka Honey Enriched Pigments, creamy eye shadow available in 12 shades ($21). —MEG HEMPHILL Ardency Inn…

André Benjamin is stressed. “I am, I really am,” he says. Benjamin — André 3000 to the fans who idolize him as the visionary half of Outkast, Atlanta’s hugely influential, recently reunited hiphop duo — is sitting at a glass conference table at Milk Studios in Hollywood, rubbing his graying temples. He’s just removed the round white Prada sunglasses he’s been rocking all day, although he’s still wearing a fluorescent orange ski cap. “It didn’t get that way until about a year ago,” he says. “Now I’m feeling that pressure of doing something. I really do. I got to get into something.” Funny thing is, Benjamin, 39, is plenty occupied at the moment. A week earlier, on Sept. 12 and 13, he played to 15,000 fans per day at Funk…

THE DAY AFTER HE JOINS BILLBOARD IN NEW YORK FOR A discussion on music and branding, Lars Ulrich will settle into HQ Studio in San Francisco to begin recording Metallica’s first album in six years. And as he prepares to do so, he’s thinking about how the world’s biggest rock band can stay just that — how Metallica can continue to reach the audience that packed 70,000- capacity stadiums in South America in 2014. “You’ve got these kids that weren’t born when the black record came out,” says Ulrich, 50, referring to 1991’s Metallica, the best-selling album of the Nielsen SoundScan era, which moved another 104,000 of its 16 million total in 2013. Whether it’s an established band trying to reach the widest audience possible, or a developing act trying…

Stevie Nicks was sitting in her den in Los Angeles’ Pacific Palisades recently, overlooking the ocean, when the 66-year-old peered out the window and saw black angel wings. The wings were so pretty, she thought about taking a photo. But after several minutes, she heard ambulance sirens and realized that a boat had caught fire: The angel wings were in fact black smoke. It’s telling that she saw beauty in a disaster. Rumours, the 1977 Fleetwood Mac album, is both one of the most elegant pop albums ever made, and one of the most savage. The record chronicles the romantic crossfire between Nicks and guitarist Lindsey Buckingham, a pair of Americans who’d joined the venerable British group two years earlier, and bassist John McVie and keyboardist Christine McVie, who’d broken…

RECENT RUMORS ALLEGING THE IMMINENT divorce of music’s most ubiquitous power couple wasn’t so much the elephant in the arena as it was the raison d’etre for HBO’s On the Run Tour special that aired Sept. 20. The state of Beyoncé and Jay Z’s union has been subject to frenzied speculation during the past few months after Elevatorgate, typically followed by poker-faced damage control. The sprawling two-and-a-half-hour TV special, filmed Sept. 12-13 during the Paris stop of the pair’s blockbuster tour, didn’t just offer a front-row seat for those who didn’t shell out for a ticket: It also presented a sliver of insight into Jay and Bey’s relationship, a rare glimpse of the intimacy they’ve mostly tried to hide. But it also showed who is really in charge onstage in…

Though she has kept a low profile in recent years, Annie Lennox is one of pop music’s greatest chameleons, from her trailblazing run with The Eurythmics to a thriving solo career to her recent involvement in human rights activism. For Nostalgia (Blue Note/Capitol), her first non-holiday album in seven years, Lennox dug through the Great American Songbook of the 1930s and ’40s, delivering stirring interpretations of songs from Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington and Nina Simone. And true to its material, the album will be released exclusively on vinyl for three weeks starting Sept. 30, before hitting other formats on Oct. 21. Though the music takes a look back, Lennox, 59, doesn’t spend much time dwelling on her own celebrity: “At this point in time, less is more for me,” she…

Those looking for a “Helena,” or a return to the opera-rock of My Chemical Romance’s 2006 winner The Black Parade, on former MCR lead singer Gerard Way’s solo debut, Hesitant Alien, should keep the receipt. On the LP, which comes in the wake of My Chemical Romance’s 2013 breakup, Way ages out of arena teen-rock and graduates to the glossy muscle of Britpop. It’s the Pulp album the world didn’t know it needed. As with every Way project, it’s slick and expensive sounding, with smart styling that leads fans into new territory while maintaining the best parts of his dramatic songwriting. Way’s ear for melody means plenty of huge hooks, from the post-hardcore bent of “Juarez” to “Get the Gang Together,” which borrows directly from Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker’s cache…

As Judas Priest recorded its latest album, Redeemer of Souls, last winter, frontman Rob Halford found himself constantly repeating a one-two mantra. “I kept chanting, ‘Heavy metal! Heavy metal! Heavy metal!’ ” he says, “and ‘Energy! Energy! Energy!’ “The end result,” he notes, “is pretty relentless.” No doubt that’s exactly what fans wanted from the British band’s 17th studio album, its first without guitarist and co-founding member K.K. Downing, who announced his retirement in 2011. (He was replaced by Richie Faulkner.) Redeemer of Souls scored two significant firsts in Judas Priest’s 40-year recording career: It made its debut at No. 1 on Top Rock Albums and cracked the top 10 on the Billboard 200 (No. 6) dated July 26, selling 75,000 copies to date, according to Nielsen SoundScan. The new…

BARBRA STREISAND ADDS TO HER LEGEND WITH Partners, her 10th No. 1 album on the Billboard 200. The all-star collaborations set sold a larger-than-anticipated 196,000 copies in the week ending Sept. 21, according to Nielsen SoundScan. That’s the biggest sales week for a female artist in 2014, and the 72-year-old Streisand’s largest sales frame since Dec. 28, 1997, when Higher Ground shifted 402,000. With Partners’ arrival at No. 1, Streisand becomes the only act with No. 1 albums in each of the last six decades. Her first No. 1 came almost exactly 50 years ago, when People hit the top of the chart dated Oct. 31, 1964. She last reached the summit with 2009’s Love Is the Answer. Her 10th chart-topper ties her with Elvis Presley for the fourth-most No.…

GARTH BROOKS MADE HISTORY ON SEPT. 28, 1991, when his third album, Ropin’ the Wind, debuted atop the Billboard 200. The record became the first country title to bow at No. 1. It also dethroned Metallica’s then-5-week-old eponymous album. (No small achievement: The latter recording went on to become the best-selling record — 16 million units — in the United States since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking sales in May 1991.) After moving 300,000 in its first week, Ropin’ the Wind has sold 9.6 million to date and ranks as the best-selling country album by a male artist. Most remarkably, Brooks, then 29, achieved these milestones without the benefit of crossover airplay. Rather, it was his electric live concerts and a string of modern country classics from his first two albums,…