Innholdsfortegnelse for Aug-01-15 i Billboard Magazine

TO SAY THAT NEWS TRAVELS FAST IN NASHVILLE IS LIKE saying that water is wet. Rumors of Billboard’s first-ever Nashville Power Players list were circulating by the time the initial planning meeting was over. With our other power lists, we’d had a few weeks before we needed to worry about plugging leaks; with Nashville, I scarcely made it through the day before I began writing coded emails. Power in country music is concentrated in Nashville, the beating heart of the genre, which is continually growing from a keeper of tradition to a bona fide progressive force. There, an interwoven community of executives who put the music on radio and into arenas; a collective of artists and songwriters who ignite reinvention; and a team of civic leaders who keep the lights…

Letters to Cleo’s frontwoman bids farewell to TT the Bear’s Place, the Boston haunt that kick-started her alt-rock music career, as it closes July 25 I have a history with TT the Bear’s Place. Not an I-lived-at-that-club-in-the-’90s history. More like: That building and those people altered the course of my life forever. At 18, most kids were heading off to college. I couldn’t afford school, so I waited tables, joined my cousin Greg McKenna’s rock band and started playing Boston’s many clubs. Our first band, Rebbecca Lula, brought in enough tickets and beer-chugging Dot Rats [natives of nearby Dorchester] that the club was always happy to have us even if our music was some ’80s aural clusterf— of The Jam, Devo and The English Beat. During those years, TT’s became…

Latin alternative’s great crusader on the 20th anniversary of his label, his booming synch business and why he doesn’t mind when his acts get poached IT’S SURPRISING AT FIRST TO learn that Tomas Cookman, the most fervent ambassador of Latin alternative music, spent his teen years as a dyed-in-the-wool punk rocker in New York, hanging out at CBGB, rocking skinny black slacks and pink socks, and drumming in a band called The Colors, whose first EP was produced by Blondie drummer Clem Burke. It seems unlikely not because the executive is a married, 54-year-old father of two, but because he lives and breathes Latin music. In fact, July is a milestone month for his two most prominent enterprises in the genre: It’s the 10th anniversary of his independent label Nacional…

ENJOYING A REFRESHING MOSCOW MULE ON A sunny afternoon on Manhattan’s Randall’s Island, Kevin Parker, the one-man creative force behind Australian psychedelic rock project Tame Impala, fiddles with the wooden mala prayer beads wrapped around his wrist, one of many bracelets given to him by fans while on tour this summer. It’s a reminder of where he has been recently and a good indicator of how far he has come. “I used to think interacting with people in the audience, touching people in the crowd, was a total ego-based thing,” says the 29-year-old singer/multiinstrumentalist. “I never realized how fulfilling it would be. It’s more about being on the receiving end — it’s people giving. That’s a powerful realization.” And a well-timed one. Parker and Tame Impala (which includes keyboardist/guitarists Dominic…

Charli XCX and Jack Antonoff are joining forces on the Charli and Jack Do America co-headlining tour, which began July 21. They’re both alt-pop powerhouses, but when it comes to their respective road habits, the British songstress, 22, and the Bleachers/Fun member, 31, are polar opposites. PRESHOW RITUALS Charli XCX “Me and my crew party. I make this drink with vodka, champagne, cranberry juice, orange juice, lime juice and Red Bull. It sounds awful, but it’s good. It gets me f—ed up!” Antonoff “I slowly cut up a coconut with a machete and eat the whole thing. It’s relaxing — my form of meditation.” POSTSHOW DEBAUCHERY Charli XCX “Strip clubs! Our favorite is in Fort Lauderdale, [Fla.], called Pure Platinum. If we can’t go to one, we’ll get all of…

“I’m so grateful to be here performing in the USA — the greatest country in the world!” —ARIANA GRANDE The pop singer, during a performance in Tampa, Fla. — her first since surveillance video featured her saying “I hate America.” “F— these motherf—ers!” —LEE DANIELS The Empire creator, on Instagram after the hit Fox show failed to get an Emmy nomination for outstanding drama. He later clarified that he was just “having fun.” “This is not the future we envisioned.” —BLAKE SHELTON and MIRANDA LAMBERT The country stars, announcing their divorce in a statement to TMZ after four years of marriage. “When the quality is back, I’ll give it another look.” —NEIL YOUNG The rock veteran, explaining why he’s pulling his music from streaming services, in a post on Facebook.…

Today’s country music is about crunchy guitar riffs, hip-hop beats and massive audiences that fill arenas, stadiums and bank accounts. Last year, the genre accounted for $830 million (12 percent) of total U.S. music sales and $397 million (15 percent) of the domestic touring business — and took aim at the future in an industry seen as constrained by the past. In its first assessment of influence in country music, Billboard ranks who’s got the most muscle in Music City 1 SCOTT BORCHETTA President/CEO, Big Machine Label Group SCOTT BORCHETTA ISN’T THE MOST POWERFUL PERSON IN NASHVILLE thanks to his company’s market share. At best, Big Machine Label Group finishes third among country labels in the first half of 2015 with a 10.1 share of the market when sales by…

ON A HOT JULY AFTERNOON, THE SCENE backstage at Luke Bryan’s show in Northern Virginia feels like a verse from one of his goodtimes-fueled hits. The country superstar, 39, is happily tossing a football across a parking lot behind the Jiffy Lube Live amphitheater in Bristow. It’s the first night of a two-night stand, which means things are going to heat up after the show. “We’ll have a fun little atmosphere, call some food trucks to come out,” says Bryan with a dollop of South Georgia drawl. “Our whiskey bill is the highest in all of North American touring, I promise you.” Bryan is, by many measures, the planet’s biggest country star, riding a five-year hot streak where he has released three No. 1 Billboard 200 albums, dominated country radio…

Fifteen years after naming her debut Who Is Jill Scott?, the artist is still looking for what she calls her “truest myself” on new album Woman (July 24, Blues Babe/Atlantic). Recorded in Nashville, it’s Scott’s first LP since 2011’s chart-topping The Light of the Sun, and second since the birth of her now-6-year-old son. Scott, 43, explains why she feels more “connected” to herself than ever before. MY NEW ‘CHILD’ “Releasing an album is like putting your child out into the world. I was talking to a friend and telling her I’m hyper-emotional. It’s like being pregnant — I felt almost bipolar with these emotions. And she said, ‘You’re giving birth to a full-grown woman. What do you expect?’ I hadn’t really thought of it like that.” MY NEW MUSE…

DUO JUMPS IN High Dive Heart arrives with its EP Sonic Graffiti, released July 17 on independent A Beautiful Army of Trees. The pair consists of Jason Reeves (who has written with Colbie Caillat) and Nelly Joy, formerly of JaneDear Girls, who hit No. 10 on Top Country Albums in 2011 with their eponymous debut. High Dive Heart’s melodic single, “Vintage,” was produced and co-written by Nashville vet Nathan Chapman. LANE’S COUNTRY PATH Olivia Lane is bubbling under the Country Airplay chart with the plucky “You Part 2” (Big Spark). The cut earned a 17 percent gain in audience for the week ending July 19, according to Nielsen Music. Originally from Houston, Lane, who turned 24 this month, graduated from the University of Southern California in 2013 and moved to…

Winehouse Remembered Amy Winehouse (above) debuts on the Billboard Artist 100 at No. 97, up by 62 percent in overall activity and fueled by the buzz of the new documentary Amy, which opened in theaters July 3 and celebrates the late singer-songwriter. Winehouse, who died at age 27 in 2011 from alcohol poisoning, bows with the bulk of her chart points from album sales (88 percent). Her 2007 breakthrough Back to Black blasts 65-33 on Top Album Sales with 7,000 sold, according to Nielsen Music, marking its best sales frame since the week ending Dec. 25, 2011 (when it sold 12,000, thanks to a 50 percent Christmas-week gain). The set includes her tragically appropriate signature hit “Rehab,” which rose to No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 in June 2007.…

FIFTH HARMONY HAS HIT a new high note as “Worth It” becomes the group’s biggest single — and it’s still growing. The song from the all-female pop quintet, which broke through after forming (and placing third) on the 2012 season of Fox’s since-canceled The X Factor, keeps its No. 14 rank on the Billboard Hot 100 for a second week. It also bullets at No. 10 on the Radio Songs chart with 79 million in audience (up 7 percent), according to Nielsen Music. The track, featuring Kid Ink, has sold 1.2 million downloads to date. Like the group’s 2014 hit “Boss,” “Worth It” features a message of self-empowerment, made clear in its chorus: “Give it to me, I’m worth it!” “It speaks to women of all demographics,” says WODS Boston…

In its second year, the portal is reducing its concert-every-day streaming schedule as the jury remains out on its success Yahoo and Live Nation’s ambitious undertaking to live-stream a concert per day for a full year (dubbed Yahoo Live) finished its first run on July 14, and the results are in: The program logged 125 million live streams from 225 global markets, with a largely millennial audience that spent an average of 24 minutes with each stream. Though that averages out to roughly 342,000 viewers per concert, Yahoo Live is returning for a second year with a slight shift in focus — instead of one concert per day, live streams will be staggered to three or four per week to better maximize Yahoo and Live Nation’s marketing support. “We looked…

Midyear Boxscore charts show fans flocking to familiar sounds from One Direction, The Rolling Stones and Foo Fighters A AS THE OPENING RIFFS OF “JUMPIN’ Jack Flash” sliced through the Midwest summer air, the fans at the Rolling Stones concert at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on July 4 roared at a volume that would rival the postshow fireworks on this holiday night. In a summer of tours where familiar hits are minting box-office gold — One Direction’s singalong pop, Foo Fighters’ rampaging rock, Kenny Chesney’s warm country baritone — the Stones’ unrivaled canon fits right in with what’s selling tickets now. The Stones’ Zip Code Tour of stadiums was just getting underway during the period covered by the Billboard Boxscore midyear recap (Nov. 12, 2014 to June 2, 2015). But…

Haim Hearts Tobias Jesso Jr. No wonder the Internet was convinced Tobias Jesso Jr. dated Alana Haim. On July 17, the youngest Haim sister — Jesso says they’re just great friends — and her sibs Danielle and Este danced to Jesso’s set at the Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago. “They were rooting him on like proud parents,” says one festivalgoer, who also saw the ladies letting their freak flags fly during Chvrches’ performance. The Dead Dethrone U2 In Chicago When Brooklyn Bowl owner and concert promoter Peter Shapiro ran into Bono backstage at New York’s Madison Square Garden on July 19, he couldn’t help but gloat a little. Shapiro, who produced The Grateful Dead’s Fare Thee Well shows in Santa Clara, Calif., and Chicago earlier this summer, informed the Irish…

DAVID HAJDU Who Music critic for The Nation and author of Lush Life and other books. Big gigWaiting for the Angel, out Aug. 28 on Miranda Music. Hajdu collaborated with songwriters and composers including Jill Sobule. They wrote the music, he penned the lyrics, and the resulting songs were recorded by different singers and musicians. Sounds like Chet Baker and Annie Proulx trading riffs at The Blue Note. Why “People of a certain age did not want to be novelists or movie stars; they wanted to be rock stars,” says Hajdu, 59. “I don’t think that’s true anymore. I have a 12-year-old, and he’d rather develop apps.” THE SEQUOIAS Who Cover band that includes New Yorker editor David Remnick, writer John Seabrook and Bloomberg Politics editor John “Arms Akimbo” Homans.…

You need the perfect soundtrack to prance like a pro. Just ask the stars of Oxygen’s The Prancing Elites Project, which follows a troupe of five gay, gender-bending dancers based in Mobile, Ala. Fresh off news that the show was greenlit for a second season, the squad picks its favorite prance anthems. Kareem Davis, 24 Katy Perry, “Roar” “The message it sends is empowering, especially to those that have been bullied or put down.” Adrian Clemons, 24 The Gap Band, “Outstanding” “Growing up, my mom used to always play this song around the house. I love lead singer Charlie Wilson’s voice. The chorus makes you want to get up.” Tim Smith, 24 Ne-Yo, “She Knows” “It makes me feel like I’m on top of the world, like I can hold…

The evolution of the 3 pillars of the country lyric: pickups, 10-gallons and cowboy boots ’50s ’90s Today TRUCKS “The Ford F-100s in blue were go-tos,” says Nashville auto consultant Gary Mason. “But pickups weren’t for fun back then. They symbolized work.” “The Chevy 1500 series Silverados were hot,” says Mason. “They were the first to have the short bed, which was what everyone was after.” Talk about getting a lift. The Silverado from Florida Georgia Line’s “Cruise” video is among the many pickups with raised tires. HATS “Hank Williams and Bob Wills were the trendsetters,” says stylist Trish Townsend. Most hats were made of straw or felt to help keep the cost down. “This was the decade for hats,” says Townsend. Garth Brooks often wore a black Stetson, and…

MY CAREER HAS BEEN LIKE THAT RAMP,” Dierks Bentley says, crossing a dirt parking lot as he leaves a Billboard photo shoot. He nods in the direction of a long loading ramp that slopes up from the mud onto the rear of a flatbed truck. The simile isn’t entirely accurate — his career arc has included a precipitous dip in the middle — but the idea of a gradual climb holds true for Bentley, a tortoise among hares. He climbs into his own truck, a junkyard Chevy that appears to be white underneath the layers of dirt. His former blond curls have been shorn to a semi-mohawk that’s in danger of becoming a mullet. People magazine recently named the green-eyed 39-year-old “Country’s Hottest Guy,” which he has turned into a…

T THE CROWD WAS OLD FOR BEATLEMANIA-STYLE hysterics. But when Paul McCartney played the Times Union Center in Albany, N.Y., last July, grown-ups were reduced to tears. “I saw older men who were sitting in their seats and crying,” recalls arena GM Bob Belber of the July 5, 2014 show. “They were just so amazed that they were able to see Paul McCartney live.” All the more astounding for fans was the fact that McCartney played his only Northeast show of 2014 in Albany, 150 miles upriver from Manhattan, population approximately 100,000 — a city that is the capital of New York State but which sometimes suffers a “Smallbany” inferiority complex. The decision was less surprising to those who had been paying attention to the growth of the Times Union…

N NEARLY 17 YEARS AFTER TYRESE DEBUTED on Billboard’s charts, the singer-actor (and Furious 7 co-star) achieves his first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 with Black Rose. The set opens atop the list with 77,000 equivalent-album units earned in the week ending July 16, according to Nielsen Music. (The latest Billboard 200 is the first to use Nielsen Music’s new tracking week that runs Friday through Thursday.) Black Rose was released on Tyrese’s own Voltron Recordz label through Caroline, Capitol Music Group’s independent services division. Tyrese debuted on the Billboard charts on the Aug. 8, 1998 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay list with “Nobody Else.” It was the first of 20 hits on the tally to date for the entertainer, who is currently on the chart with the Black Rose cut…

The smooth sounds of sibling duo The Carpenters, who came to epitomize easy listening in the pre-disco 1970s, topped the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time when Burt Bacharach and Hal David’s “(They Long to Be) Close to You” hit No. 1 on July 25, 1970. It was the first of three No. 1s for the brother-sister act — arrangerinstrumentalist-vocalist Richard Carpenter (then 23 years old) and drummer-vocalist Karen Carpenter (20). Together, they claimed 17 consecutive top 40 hits and three Grammy Award wins between 1970 and 1976, and a total of 27 Hot 100 hits, the second-most of any duo in Billboard chart history behind Hall & Oates. Their popularity and squeaky-clean image also earned them plenty of TV exposure, including a summer replacement series, Make Your Own…

AGEISM? HARDLY. WITH TOUR TICKETS SELLING BRISKLY AND A NEW ALBUM BRINGING MAJOR BUZZ, THE 49-YEAR-OLD BUCKS THE TREND T TIME CAN BE CRUEL TO THE female pop star rounding 50. No matter how little her talent might diminish, under the spotlight’s glare, critics gleefully count wrinkles and listen for pitchy vocals in a way that rarely happens with male artists. Just ask Madonna, 56, or 45-year-old Mariah Carey, whose journeys into middle age have been challenging at best. Britney Spears, 33, Jennifer Lopez, 46, Celine Dion, 47, and Shania Twain, 49, already have taken the Vegas route. Can Janet Jackson, at 49, avoid the syndrome? She’s off to a strong start. Since a May 16 online tease, Jackson has rapidly reeled off news about the launch of her own…

Some of the biggest names in EDM — like Tiesto, David Guetta, Steve Angello and Richie Hawtin, among others — are helping nascent music-technology companies get their products off the ground and funded MUSIC MESSENGER The app lets users send messages that include music. Based in Israel, Music Messenger was founded in 2014 by Oded Kobo, who created the messaging service Pheed. RECENT FUNDING $30 million DOPPLER LABS Developer of a wireless, interactive listening system that, through a smartphone app and a pair of headphones, allows a person to fine-tune the audio mix at concerts and elsewhere. RECENT FUNDING $17 million LANDR A cloud-based audio and music mastering service. After a free trial period, users pay between $6 and $39 per month, depending on audio resolution. RECENT FUNDING $6.2 million…

Pitchfork Music Festival CHIC AGO, JULY 17 – 19 THE 2015 PITCHFORK MUSIC FESTIVAL, NOW IN its 10th year, will be remembered as the weekend that Chance the Rapper became a star. Headlining Sunday night, the Chicago native shimmied across the stage, brought out gospel veteran Kirk Franklin and a white-robed choir, made three outfit changes and generally put every other artist to shame with his generosity (“This whole show is for you!” he insisted) and theatricality. The festival’s other impressive headliners included the reunited Sleater-Kinney, which weathered guitarist-vocalist Carrie Brownstein falling onstage on Saturday; and Wilco, playing its new album, Star Wars. Aside from a brief thunderstorm, the atmosphere at Union Park was congenial, with such performers as Kurt Vile and Caribou offering loose, chilled-out afternoon sets and artists…

Sitting stoically in Billboard’s New York offices, OMI looks like he’s the calm, cool, collected type — or about to pass out from exhaustion after months of whirlwind travel and promotion. “I’ve just never been the get-excited type — but inside I’m screaming with excitement,” assures the Jamaican singer, 29. His reggaepop single “Cheerleader” (Ultra) just crowned the Billboard Hot 100 after topping charts all over the world, from Sweden to Australia to the United Kingdom. It has been a slow climb: The original was a hit in his native Jamaica in 2012, but it’s the 2014 remix by Felix Jaehn that has blown up. OMI, born Omar Samuel Pasley, isn’t celebrating — yet. “I try to stay focused. Whatever I did to get me to this point, I’m going…

7:00 p.m. It’s Friday night in Manhattan, and the members of MS MR are ready to celebrate. Not only is the July 17 release of the acclaimed alt-pop band’s second album, How Does It Feel (Columbia), around the corner, but a few hours earlier, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of marriage equality. Singer Lizzy Plapinger, 27 — who also is co-founder of Neon Gold, the highly influential label behind early music from Ellie Goulding, Passion Pit and Charli XCX — and producer Max Hershenow, 27, arrive at West Chelsea’s McKittrick Hotel to take in a performance of the immersive, Macbeth-inspired theater experience Sleep No More. 8:18 p.m. Like the other audience members, the two are given white masks and separated to wander through Sleep No More’s sometimes-racy, sometimes-bloody interactive…

When it comes to honoring music heroes, Big Sean wears his heart on the sleeves of his prized vintage-shirt collection “You might see other rappers rocking Wu Tang shirts all the time but you’ll never see them rocking a Waiting to Exhale tee.”— Big Sean A T LAST THE FRONT DOOR SWINGS open and Big Sean enters the foyer of his Los Angeles hillside house, a mullet-style Mediterranean overlooking the San Fernando Valley, the 405 Freeway a luminous ribbon of red and white lights in the darkness far below. It is nearly midnight on a Saturday. The 27-year-old Detroit-raised rapper — as well-known for his public romances (and breakups) with Ariana Grande and Naya Rivera as for his hard lyrics — doesn’t know when he last slept. Three flights ago…

1. Chris DeStefano* KNOWN FOR “Good Girl” (Carrie Underwood); “Kick the Dust Up” (Luke Bryan) A PERSONAL SONG I’VE WRITTEN “ ‘Something in the Water’ [Carrie Underwood]. When I’m singing it, sometimes I get a lump in my throat.” 2. Josh Osborne, 35 KNOWN FOR “Take Your Time” (Sam Hunt); “Sangria” (Blake Shelton) WORD I OVERUSE IN LYRICS “ ‘Ceiling fan.’ When [Eli Young Band’s] ‘Drunk Last Night’ went to No. 1, Rhett [Akins] sent me a text that said, ‘ “Ceiling fan” must be the new “tailgate.” ’ ” 3. Luke Laird, 37 KNOWN FOR “American Kids” (Kenny Chesney); “Give Me Back My Hometown” (Eric Church) WHY THERE AREN’T MORE WOMEN ON COUNTRY RADIO “Some of the best writers are female, but as far as writers in Nashville getting…

ON DS2, THE THIRD MAJORlabel album from Atlanta’s Future, the rapper makes things clear from the outset: “I just f—ed your bitch in some Gucci flip-flops,” he announces on opener “Thought It Was a Drought.” He then admits to drinking so much codeinelaced “dirty Sprite” that it colors his urine, declaring, “Bitch, I’ma choose the dirty over you/You know I ain’t scared to lose you.” There’s no civility to be found here. A year after splitting from singer Ciara, his ex-fiancee and son’s mother with whom he’s still publicly feuding, Future is defiantly marking his allegiances — and they’re not to any genteel sensibilities. DS2 is a heavy dose of medication as entertainment, and it’s not for those with low tolerance. DS2 references Dirty Sprite, his 2011 breakthrough mixtape, but…

5 Seconds of Summer is off to a sweltering start with its new single, “She’s Kinda Hot.” The track arrived July 17 and leads the band’s second full-length studio album, due later this year on Hey or Hi/Capitol Records. 39 After only three days of airplay in the tracking week ending July 19, “She’s Kinda Hot” bows at No. 39 on Mainstream Top 40. It marks the fourth chart entry for the group and will most likely rise following its first full week of plays. 125k Industry forecasters suggest “She’s Kinda Hot” could sell upward of 125,000 downloads in the week ending July 23, which could help the song score a top 40 debut on the Aug. 8 Billboard Hot 100. 181% 5SOS garnered a 181 percent gain in Twitter…

Lady A Hits The Dancefloor One of country’s cornerstone acts, Lady Antebellum shimmies onto multiple Billboard dance charts thanks to “Something Better,” its collaboration with DJ Audien. The track starts at No. 27 on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs, where it’s the trio’s first entry, and No. 44 on Dance Club Songs. Lady A, which has tallied 12 No. 1s on Hot Country Songs, crossed the velvet rope onto Dance Club Songs once before: “Need You Now” hit No. 15 in 2010. Originally a smash midtempo ballad (reaching No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100), it charted on Dance Club Songs powered by a Jason Nevins remix. 18% THIS WEEK JAKE OWEN’S “REAL LIFE” STREAMS 1.2 MILLION 22% THIS WEEK THE MINIONS’ “Y.M.C.A.” STREAMS 773 ,000 11% THIS WEEK JILL SCOTT’S “FOOL’S…