Innholdsfortegnelse for August 25, 2018 i Billboard Magazine

BEN GIBBARD SLIDES INTO A BOOTH at Canter’s Deli in Los Angeles with news from his Seattle hometown. “City Hall is fucking insane right now,” the Death Cab for Cutie frontman tells bassist Nick Harmer, drummer Jason McGerr and guitarist Dave Depper. He’s referring to a protest to save the landmark Showbox theater — which has hosted everyone from James Brown to Pearl Jam — from being torn down to build a condominium. The timing is impeccable: With three weeks atop Billboard’s Triple A chart, Death Cab’s recent single, “Gold Rush,” off its ninth album, Thank You for Today, is an anti-gentrification rallying cry. On it, Gibbard, who lives in the rapidly upscaling Capitol Hill neighborhood, sings, “Our haunts have taken flight and been replaced with construction sites.” For…

WHEN “I LIKE IT” LANDED AT NO. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in July, it marked several milestones for Cardi B. The Bronx native, 25, became the first female rapper with two Hot 100 No. 1s in the chart’s history (“Bodak Yellow” was the first, in 2017) and the first female artist with multiple chart-toppers from a debut album since Lady Gaga in 2009. The bilingual track, built around a sample of Pete Rodriguez’s “I Like It Like That,” also marked a more personal achievement: “For ‘I Like It’ to be No. 1 in a country where the origin language is English,” says Cardi, “it shows you if a song is great, it doesn’t matter what language the music is in.” Concocted in several cities over a span…

DISCOVERING NEW TALENT SINCE 1894(!) No. 54 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart Do it for the ’gram Frontman Mitchy Collins, 31, met guitarist Jordan Greenwald, 21, while barhopping in Los Angeles in 2016; drummer Sam Price, 23, joined “last minute” after connecting with Collins on Instagram. “I slid into his DMs, and then we got Chinese food,” says Collins. The trio scoured the app for available usernames before releasing the synth-pop single “broken” in April 2017. “ ‘Lovely’ was taken, so we were like, ‘Is ‘lovelytheband’ taken?’ It worked out.” They got serious in the studio… “I’m bad with opening up. I have the walls of Jericho built around me,” says Collins, who’s also one-half of indie duo Oh Honey. Lovelytheband released its debut EP last September, followed by…

One spring day in 1958, I went to a concert at Brooklyn’s Washington Temple Church of God in Christ and witnessed Aretha Franklin’s first known performance in New York. The audience was audibly excited, there to hear Rev. C.L. Franklin, the king of the Baptist church who, thanks to the dozens of sermons he had recorded, was at the time the most popular pastor on wax. But the reason I, a 16-year-old Jewish boy from Queens, had come to Brooklyn was Franklin’s 15-year-old daughter, Aretha, billed as making her New York debut. By that point, I was a devoted gospel fan. Thanks to my tolerant parents, I had traveled from Forest Hills to Harlem’s cynosure, the Apollo Theater, to hear the great gospel groups: The Famous Ward Singers, led…

With over 800 member companies that represent some 20,000 labels from 53 countries, Merlin is the global digital-rights agency for the world’s independent-label sector. Under CEO Charles Caldas, Merlin uses the shared repertoire of its membership — more than 12 percent of the global digital recorded-music market — to strike the best deal possible with Spotify, Apple Music and other streaming services. Merlin also uses data from digital music platforms to prepare reports that break down payments to labels so that the label, in turn, can accurately pay royalties to artists. In June, Merlin reported it was nearing $500 million in annual collections from digital music providers for its members. When Spotify went public earlier in 2018, Merlin sold an undisclosed amount of stock that it had received when…

Minaj’s ‘Queen’ Bows Travis Scott’s Astroworld notches a second week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 as the set earned 205,000 equivalent album units in the week ending Aug. 16 (down 62 percent), according to Nielsen Music. Of that sum, just over 78,000 were traditional album sales (down 71 percent). Nicki Minaj’s Queen arrives at No. 2, granting the artist her fourth top-two-charting album, extending her own record for the most of any female hip-hop artist. Minaj previously hit the top two rungs with The Pinkprint (No. 2, Jan. 3, 2015), Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded (No. 1, April 21, 2012) and Pink Friday (No. 1, Feb. 19, 2011). Queen launches with 185,000 equivalent album units, of which 78,000 were traditional album sales. Queen, like Astroworld, had its sales…

RADIO SONGS: The week’s most popular songs, ranked by radio airplay audience impressions as measured by Nielsen Music. Stations are electronically monitored 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. DIGITAL SONG SALES: The week’s top-downloaded songs, ranked by sales data as compiled by Nielsen Music. POP/RHYTHMIC/ADULT: The week’s most popular current songs at mainstream top 40, rhythmic, adult contemporary and adult top 40 formats, respectively, ranked by radio airplay detections, as measured by Nielsen Music. Songs are defined as current if they are relatively recently-released titles, or songs receiving widespread airplay and/or sales activity for the first time. Stations are electronically monitored 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. See Charts Legend on billboard.com/biz for complete rules and explanations. All charts © 2018, Prometheus Global Media, LLC…

A ‘Natural’ Fit At No. 1 Imagine Dragons (above) replace themselves atop Hot Rock Songs with “Natural” as it zooms 5-1. The band banks its record-extending fifth No. 1 on the chart, which launched in 2009. “Natural” gains in all metrics, rising by 19 percent in U.S. streams (to 8 million), 17 percent in radio audience impressions (27 million) and 4 percent in downloads sold (19,000), according to Nielsen Music. Imagine Dragons’ previous three singles (“Whatever It Takes,” “Thunder” and Believer,” following first No. 1 “Radioactive” in 2013) also have ruled the ranking, which the group has led for all but five weeks since March 25, 2017. Halestorm lands its fourth Mainstream Rock airplay chart No. 1 as “Uncomfortable” rises 2-1, tying the band with The Pretty Reckless for…

By 2015, Trevor Powers had recorded three successful alternative albums as Youth Lagoon, two of which landed on Billboard’s Top Rock Albums chart. So it came as a shock to fans when he decided to “murder” the project for good. After three years spent traveling and writing, the experimental artist — now 29, and going by his real name — returns with his recently released Mulberry Violence, an album of digitally distorted instrumentation accented by his high-ranging vocals. Powers independently financed and recorded the project at Sonic Ranch, situated on a 2,300-acre pecan orchard in Tornillo, Texas. NAME “Youth Lagoon was a filter. Certain forms of art that you make can become their own physical living creature, and sometimes you have to get to the point where you murder…

FROM Sant Esteve Sesrovires, Catalunya, Spain AGE 25 SOUND OF THE STREETS Growing up outside Barcelona, Rosalía Vila Tobella discovered flamenco as it boomed from the sound systems of cars at the park near her school. “They had these tricked-out speakers, and they would open all the doors,” she remembers. At 13, she first heard legend Camarón de la Isla, marking a “before and after” moment. “Flamenco is the most honest and visceral music. You have to be sincere when you sing it. If you’re not, it doesn’t work.” PRO TIP Rosalía learned guitar and piano, and by 16 was training in flamenco song at a Barcelona conservatory, where she also studied music production. In 2017, she released her first album, an acoustic flamenco throwback called Los Angeles. The…

In the late 1960s, Alice Cooper was seen as a threat to mainstream culture. Five decades later, the “Godfather of Shock Rock” says, “people are unshockable.” On his North American tour in support of his 27th studio album, Paranormal, which hit No. 2 on Billboard’s Hard Rock Albums chart upon release in July, he’s still sticking his head through a guillotine and draping boa constrictors around his neck. But when he’s not onstage, he dials it way back, attending Bible study on Wednesdays and avidly golfing. Now, ahead of a double-disc live album, A Paranormal Evening at the Olympia Paris, out Aug. 31 on earMUSIC, the 70-year-old has found equilibrium, and “couldn’t be having more fun.” How does your faith square with your often macabre stage show? Well, they…

That Aretha Franklin changed every corner of pop is not a shock, not now. But you can also listen to one album of Franklin’s — maybe even a single song — and find all of hip-hop and R&B. Implausible? Goofy? This is the recursive quality of DNA, which is always at once iterated and never fully iterated. In 1972, a Rolling Stone critic wrote that Young, Gifted and Black was erratic, which is true insofar as the wind and the ocean are erratic. We spend a lifetime studying the forces that generate us, and it seems reasonable to say that in 2018, we may have finally caught up with this album. We work backward to the peak, which, if pop song rules obtained, would come about three-quarters of the…

20 No. 1s Franklin scored a record 20 No. 1 hits on Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, beginning with “I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)” in 1967, through “Freeway of Love” in 1985. Only Stevie Wonder has matched that number in the chart’s nearly 60-year existence. 37 Years Nearly four decades elapsed between her first and last hits on the Billboard Hot 100: “Won’t Be Long,” with The Roy Bryant Combo, in 1961, and “Here We Go Again” in 1998. 74 Weeks She held the No. 1 spot on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums longer than any other woman: 74 weeks. And the three albums with the most weeks at No. 1 among female artists are all hers: Aretha Now (1968) finishes first with 17 weeks, while…

In 2015, Aretha Franklin delivered one of her most indelible performances, singing “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman” in tribute to the song’s co-writer, Carole King, at the Kennedy Center Honors. Before starting — and bringing a jubilant King and a teary President Obama to their feet — the singer did something she had done on countless stages before: nonchalantly tossed her purse (here, a sparkly clutch) on the piano. The move spoke volumes about how the singer took care of business. It’s well known that Franklin demanded to be paid in cash, partly because she came up in an era when African-American artists were routinely ripped off by white promoters. “Aretha would put her reading glasses on her nose and she would be there while you…

Record labels and publishers featured on Billboard’s Indie Power Players list are defined as independent because they’re not owned by the three major music groups: Sony, Warner and Universal. Distributors are defined as independent based on the repertoire they market, largely from labels not under the majors’ umbrellas. Seven of the distributors included here are independently owned and market indie repertoire. However, four other distributors here qualify only by the repertoire they market. The Orchard is owned by Sony, Alternative Distribution Alliance by Warner and Caroline by Universal, which also has a minority stake in Ingrooves. The criteria above differ from how Billboard and Nielsen Music classify titles for the Independent Albums chart, where releases distributed by both indie distribution companies and the indie distribution arms of the majors…

The American Association of Independent Music — known as A2IM — is the nonprofit trade association representing the interests of over 550 indie record labels. A2IM presented its annual Indie Music Week — four days of workshops and panels — in New York in June, culminating with the members-only Libera Awards. Defining its membership, A2IM CEO Richard James Burgess has stated that an independent label “must own 50 percent or more of its masters and, as it stands, no independent has more than 5 percent [of] global market share. Similarly, a distributor must be 50 percent or more owned independently of the major labels.” (For a definition of “independent” as it is used in compiling the Indie Power Players list, see page 62.)…

Franklin Flies Back To Top 10 Aretha Franklin tallies her highest-charting album on the Billboard 200 in 46 years as 30 Greatest Hits re-enters at No. 7 following her death on Aug. 16. 30 Greatest Hits returns with 35,000 units earned in the week ending Aug. 16 (with 13,000 of that sum in album sales), according to Nielsen Music. Hits is up 13,048 percent in units earned, while the album’s sales soared 12,693 percent. The surge largely comes from one day of reaction to Franklin’s death, as she died on the final day of the tracking week. 30 Greatest Hits is Franklin’s highest-charting album since 1972, when Amazing Grace peaked at No. 7 on July 22, 1972. All told, 30 Greatest Hits is her seventh top 10 LP on…

Aldean & Lambert Taste No. 1 Jason Aldean’s “Drowns the Whiskey” (featuring Miranda Lambert) ascends 3-1 on Country Airplay. It increases 9 percent to 38.6 million audience impressions, according to Nielsen Music. Aldean earns his 19th No. 1, while Lambert lands her fifth and first since her Keith Urban duet “We Were Us” on Dec. 7, 2013. “I’ve always loved this song,” says Aldean (above, with Lambert). “It was really a cool moment for me when Miranda agreed to sing on it in the first place, so for it to become a single and then to go to No. 1 is really special.” “Whiskey” is the second single from Aldean’s LP Rearview Town, which debuted atop the all-genre Billboard 200 and Top Country Albums charts (April 28). First single…

A Solo Quavo Arrives Trippie Redd earns his first top 10 on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums as Life’s a Trip debuts at No. 4. The 19-year-old previously charted with two mixtapes, A Love Letter to You (No. 32) and A Love Letter to You 2 (No. 19). Trip, his debut studio full-length, starts with 72,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending Aug. 16, according to Nielsen Music. Its arrival coincides with the debut of its single, “Taking a Walk,” at No. 22 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. It marks Redd’s highest-charting hit as a lead artist. He only fared better through a feature on XXXTentacion’s “F**k Love,” which reached No. 18. Meanwhile, Quavo (above) claims his first entry on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs without any other billed acts as “Workinme”…

The King & Queen Don Chart Crowns Elvis Presley leads the Top Christian Albums chart for the first time as Where No One Stands Alone bows with 18,000 equivalent album units, according to Nielsen Music. The set, produced by Presley’s daughter, Lisa Marie Presley; Andy Childs; and Joel Weinshanker, features new instrumentation and backing vocals from artists who worked with the King of Rock’n’Roll, including Darlene Love. The title track, a reimagined duet with Lisa Marie, debuts at No. 37 on Hot Christian Songs, marking each artist’s first appearance on the chart. While the LP is Presley’s first No. 1 on Top Christian Albums, which launched in 1980, it’s his ninth entry and third top 10 following Elvis: Ultimate Gospel (No. 9, 2004) and Elvis: Christmas Peace (No. 10,…

LEGEND Bullets indicate titles with greatest weekly gains. Album Charts Recording Industry Assn. of America (RIAA) certification for physical shipments & digital downloads of 500,000 albums (Gold). RIAA certification for physical shipments & digital downloads of 1 million units (Platinum). Numeral noted with Platinum symbol indicates album’s multiplatinum level. RIAA certification for physical shipments & digital downloads of 10 million units (Diamond). Numeral noted with Diamond symbol indicates album’s multiplatinum level. Latin albums certification for physical shipments & digital downloads of 30,000 units (Oro). Latin albums certification for physical shipments & digital downloads of 60,000 units (Platino). Numeral noted with Platino symbol indicates album’s multiplatinum level. Digital Songs Charts RIAA certification for 500,000 paid downloads and ondemand streams where 100 streams equal 1 download (Gold). RIAA certification for 1…

“WHEN I GET ONSTAGE, WE ARE GOING TO GO fucking hard in the rain,” Halsey tweeted Saturday night (Aug. 18) ahead of her headlining set at the Billboard Hot 100 Festival. And though the drops stopped falling just as the pop star took the stage, she made sure to deliver on her promise by performing a showstopping set complete with a stripped-down version of her Chainsmokers collaboration “Closer” and her hopeless fountain kingdom hits. The fourth annual event, which returned to Northwell Health at Jones Beach Theater on Long Island, included a handful of solo stars in the making, like Sabrina Carpenter, Kim Petras and Daya, while rising trios such as Cheat Codes and lovelytheband, whose debut single, “broken,” cracked the Hot 100 chart for the first time in…

After executive-producing Ariana Grande’s Dangerous Woman in 2016, Savan Kotecha witnessed a shift in the singer’s approach for her fourth project, Sweetener. “This is a career-defining album for her, because it shows that she’s an artist willing to take risks,” says Kotecha, 39, who has also worked with Charlie Puth and Britney Spears. With four credits on the album, he explains how three tracks came to be. “No Tears Left To Cry” “She had so many ideas and was like, ‘I want it to be about positivity and love. I don’t have any tears left to cry.’ We were like, ‘That’s it! That’s the way you say it!’ It felt like I watched this pop star turn into this true artist. Her songwriting developed in extraordinary ways.” “Breathin”…

“Here’s how it worked,” Franklin’s brother Cecil once explained: “Aretha heard a song once and played it back immediately, note for note. If it was an instrumental, she duplicated it perfectly. If it was a vocal, she duplicated it just as perfectly … Her ear was infallible.” Franklin was a master not merely at re-creating others’ work, but reinventing it. Many of her cover songs — from her stunning version of the jazz standard “Skylark” to the great awakening that was her version of Otis Redding’s “Respect” — revealed her competitive edge. “When Aretha records a tune, she kills copyright,” saxophonist King Curtis once said, because no one else would come up with a better approach. “That girl pissed all over that song,” Etta James pungently observed, referring to…

Babyface, producer-singer I was fortunate enough to do one show with her up in Oakland, Calif., probably in 2016. I remember coming offstage and going back to see her and her saying, “You was killing them out there, ’Face! I had to come out here and see what was going on!” And then we sat and talked for a little bit. She was actually dealing with the cancer, and her attitude was, “I’m not going to let this beat me. I’m going to keep fighting this. I’m going to fight until the very last minute and keep doing what I do.” Even up to the point of that night, we talked about this guy she was starting to see. She gave me the story of what happened and wanted…

At age 14, Aretha Louise Franklin was already a veteran of the black gospel circuit of the 1950s, a segregated world of charismatic preachers and unbridled vocalists who traveled from church to church, bringing a message of joy, belief and salvation. Because her father, Rev. C.L. Franklin of Detroit’s New Bethel Baptist Church, was a spellbinding powerhouse speaker, Aretha was also “Negro” royalty, a child surrounded by the giants of gospel music — Mahalia Jackson, James Cleveland, Albertina Walker and the young Sam Cooke, who was lead singer of The Soul Stirrers and a teen idol. For all the gifted people Aretha encountered, this budding singer-pianist was not simply a protégée, but a prodigy. Her gift is apparent in a recording made one Sunday morning at a church service…

The voice of the Association of Independent Music Publishers has never been more vital than now, as the Music Modernization Act makes its way through Congress in the face of an end-of-term deadline. “The MMA will update the music-licensing system for today’s online world and correct longstanding programs that have denied songwriters and publishers full control over their works,” read a statement in June, issued by AIMP president Michael Eames, AIMP New York executive director Alisa Coleman and AIMP Nashville executive director John Ozier. Since 1977, AIMP has supported the indie publishing community through education, analysis of business trends and networking opportunities. The second Indie Music Publishing Summit was held in New York in June.…

Striding In, With Confidence Sydney-based pop-punk trio With Confidence (above) debuts at No. 5 on Emerging Artists with its sophomore LP, Love and Loathing. Its first charting title bows at No. 8 on Alternative Albums with 8,000 equivalent album units, according to Nielsen Music. With 7,000 copies sold, the set starts at No. 14 on Top Album Sales. Gabbie Hanna re-enters Emerging Artists at a new No. 8 peak as new single “Honestly” opens at No. 10 on Digital Song Sales with 16,000 downloads sold. Hanna first developed her audience on Vine and now boasts 6.2 million followers on YouTube. Plus, Birmingham, Ala., metalcore band ERRA debuts at No. 9 on Emerging Artists as fourth LP Neon arrives atop Heatseekers Albums and at No. 8 on Hard Rock Albums…

Kanye’s Trump-Pumped Gain Tweets following Kanye West’s Aug. 9 appearance on ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! help the rapper (below) return to the Social 50 at No. 16. His appearance made headlines after host Jimmy Kimmel asked him about past comments on President Donald Trump, saying, “You so famously and so powerfully said, ‘George Bush doesn’t care about black people.’ It makes me wonder what makes you think that Donald Trump does, or any people at all.” West did not immediately answer the question, and a few moments later, the show went to commercial break. In one of three tweets on Aug. 11 after the episode, West tweeted, “The question was so important I took time to think. And then I was hit with the let’s go to commercial break.…

On September 29, Billboard will celebrate Quincy Jones’ 85th Birthday and 70 years in music. During his career, the world-renown producer has worked with legendary artists such as Michael Jackson, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Ray Charles, Paul McCartney. Quincy has earned himself numerousaccolades including 79 Grammy nominations, 28 Grammy wins, including a Grammy Legend Award, and was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as the winner of the Ahmet Ertegun Award. Please join Billboard in celebrating Quincy Jones 85th Birthday, and recognizing his lifelong success. CONTACT Joe Maimone 212.493.4427 | joe.maimone billboard.com Debra Fink 323.525.2249 | debra.fink@thr.com Lori Copeland 323.525.2020 | lori.copeland@thr.com ON SALE 9/29 | ISSUE CLOSE 9/20 | MATERIALS DUE 9/21 Editorial content subject to change…

Karol G’s ‘Mi Cama’ Rules Karol G (above) notches her first No. 1 on any Billboard airplay chart as “Mi Cama” rises 5-1 on Latin Airplay. The song, a collaboration with J Balvin featuring Nicky Jam, lifts thanks to a 32 percent gain in audience impressions during the week ending Aug. 19, according to Nielsen Music. The track was originally released on May 11. It received its Jam-and Balvin-assisted remix on July 13 and has steadily risen in airplay since. Concurrently, “Mi Cama” becomes her first Latin Rhythm Airplay No. 1, lifting 5-1. Meanwhile, Sinaloense band La Adictiva Banda San Jose de Mesillas logs its sixth Regional Mexican Airplay No. 1 as “En Peligro de Extinción” bumps 2-1 after a three-week period as runner-up. The song rises less than…

Netta Notches First No. 1 Israeli singer and 2018 Eurovision Song Contest winner Netta (above) earns her first No. 1 on a Billboard chart as “Toy” tops Dance Club Songs. The track concurrently jumps 31-27 on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs. Netta (full name Netta Barzilai) became the competition’s fourth Israeli champion on May 12, with “Toy” representing her crowning tune. On Hot Dance/Electronic Songs, English pop-rockers The Vamps score their second entry as “We Don’t Care,” with Sigala, opens at No. 28. The track follows “Too Good to Be True” (with Danny Avila and featuring Machine Gun Kelly), which peaked at No. 42 in April. “True” earns English DJ Sigala his sixth entry on the chart. Canadian DJ Excision (real name Jeff Abel) earns the highest debut on Top Dance/Electronic…

A MISPLACED BACKING TRACK FOR Stevie Wonder helped turn the world on to Tracy Chapman. The Cleveland-born singer-songwriter began busking around Boston while attending Tufts University, where she was discovered by a fellow student and future A&R rep (and Billions showrunner) Brian Koppelman, son of veteran music business executive Charles Koppelman. The elder Koppelman signed Chapman to his SBK Publishing company and later helped get her a deal at Elektra Records, which released her self-titled debut album. Chapman was 24 when her LP entered the Billboard 200 at No. 122 on April 30, 1988, and, thanks to its bittersweet but hopeful, acoustic guitar-driven lead single, “Fast Car,” began a steady ascent. Its rise was hastened that June, when Chapman took part in Nelson Mandela’s Fox-televised 70th birthday tribute at…