It had been reported that boyband One Direction would be taking a break next year following what has been described as a rollercoaster year for them but their publicist has now confirmed that this is not the case.
I have previously talked about how Justin Bieber has learnt to use the media to his advantage despite keeping up the pretence that he hates them and unsurprisingly other stars also seem to adopt a similar strategy.
One of the media’s biggest poster children, who can attribute much of his success to the coverage he has received from various media outlets has slammed Hollywood Life, claiming it is “complete garbage”.
So the Eurovision Song Contest is over for another year and yet again the UK performed poorly points wise, although managed to avoid getting that infamous “nul-pois”.
Snoop Dogg has revealed in a recent interview that he has no regrets over the lyrics in some of his older songs which have been accused repeatedly of being misogynistic.
It has been announced that Lady Gaga and Sir Paul McCartney have recorded a duet together.
Kanye West has voiced his annoyance over how much of his Billboard Music Awards performance was censored. The heavy censorship lead to over a minute’s worth of silence for the viewers who were watching at home.
Boyband Blue have not had the best of luck since their decline from popularity. Now Lee Ryan has become the fourth and final member of the band to file for bankruptcy.
The rumours over the star judges for this year’s X Factor have already started flying around the internet and the latest has been that Louis Walsh has been fired from the show.
Madonna has long been known as the Queen of Pop and has now made chart history by getting more number ones on the Billboard chart than any other artist.
Brandon Flowers, lead singer of band the Killers has expressed his opinion that if the band’s massive hit Mr Brightside had been released today, it would have been a flop.
The chief executive of Warner Music Group, Stephen Cooper has revealed that streaming of music now makes the company more money than downloads.
One Direction’s Louis Tomlinson and producer Naughty Boy have very publically exchanged cross words with each other on Twitter which was entertaining enough in itself but now Tomlinson’s former band mate Zayn Malik has also waded into the fight.
An album of previously unheard Kurt Cobain material is to be released this summer.
The last few years have seen a resurgence of bands from the 90s and 2000s reuniting. Whether that be because of a genuine need for nostalgia in the market, or just because the pop stars of our youth are struggling to pay the mortgages on their fancy homes, we are still being bombarded.
Beyoncé has reportedly signed three young girls after hearing them perform covers of her own songs on YouTube.
There has been yet another twist in the tale of Blurred Lines and the legal action bought against it.
Back in March, Marvin Gaye’s family who started legal action against the song’s writers and performers won their case when a court concluded that Blurred Lines copied Gaye’s Got to Give it Up. Now, lawyers representing Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke are pushing for a new trial, citing “errors in jury instructions, improper testimony from a musicologist and insufficient evidence to support the initial ruling.”
Streaming is an area of the music industry that has thrived recently but its success has had an unfortunate side-effect, becoming responsible for a decline in the sales of digital downloads.
Spotify has been analysing how their users listening habits change over time and have used some fancy and complicated algorithms to identify that 42 is the age where many people experience a musical midlife crisis.
The tide could already have changed for Jay-Z’s Tidal streaming service after it dropped out of the US iOS chart.
Top of the Pops is rumoured to be making a comeback with Fearne Cotton and Dermot O’Leary at the helm.
Two years after it was rescued from the brink of ruin, music retailer HMV has become the top seller of physical CDs and vinyl.
It was finally officially confirmed earlier this week that Olly Murs and Caroline Flack will be replacing Dermot O’Leary as hosts of the X Factor for the upcoming new series.
It has been revealed that revenue from digital music matched physical sales for the first time last year.
Revenue from digital sales accounted for 46% of overall income with physical media such as CDs and vinyl matching also with 46%. The rest was made up of things such as advertising and rights for performances.
Social media has been reacting loudly the last few days over the cringe-worthy moment when 56 year old Madonna strutted on stage at Coachella while 28 year old Drake was performing and proceeded to give him a very lengthy kiss.
Nelly has been arrested on drug related charges.
The rapper was in Tennessee when the smell of marijuana was recognised as coming from his bus. It was pulled over and searched and "a plastic bag that contained five rocks that tested positive for methamphetamine, as well as a small amount of marijuana and drug paraphernalia" was found on board.
Once a pop group has had its heyday, can things ever really be the same? Can reunions work and help groups relive their glory days or are they just a shameless way of milking more money out of their waning popularity?
This week confirmed rumours that Ian C Bouras was releasing a new album named 'Pieces of the Past'. Already causing a buzz online, the New York City musician, producer and guitarist has put together some of his best pieces of the past. This marks the name perfectly for this compilation album.
Kanye West is not the most modest of people and a new product created by three brothers will certainly serve to inflate his ego. The Book of Yeezus was created initially as a joke by a group of brothers hoping to make an ironic comment on modern society the superstars it champions.
You’ve probably heard of the 27 club: a group of musicians and singers who have all died at the age of 27. Many famous artists including Kurt Cobain and Amy Winehouse have died at this young age and it has built up something of a mythology around it. Now Dianna Theodora Kenny, professor of psychology and music at the University of Sydney has studied the deaths of 12,665 musicians to build up a picture of the causes of death and at what age they were when they died to see if there is any truth to the concept of the 27 club.
This week saw the launch of TIDAL, Jay-Z’s answer to other streaming services such as Spotify. With the market becoming hugely saturated with different services, each claiming that they offer users the best experience for users, can it really compete with the best of them?
Sia has premiered the video for her new single Big Girls Cry, completing a trilogy of videos featuring young dancer Maddie Ziegler.
It was announced today that sales of albums that are considered “pop” overtook sales of those classified as rock last year for the first time since 1999. This is an interesting claim and shows a shift in the types of music the British public began listening to in 2014.
The saga following Zayn Malik’s departure from One Direction continued with a new twist today that had both fans and former band mates up in arms.
Jay-Z is about to enter the fray with other music streaming services with his newly acquired TIDAL.
It has been announced that Dermot O’Leary is leaving the X Factor after presenting the show for eight years.
Festival goers in the US will be sad to hear that selfie sticks have now been placed on the banned list for many festivals this year.
Following concerns over music videos being overtly sexual and inappropriate for younger audience, the Government has decided to back a pilot scheme where online videos will receive a classification from the BBFC.
After much speculation, Zayn Malik has broken many teenage hearts and officially left One Direction.
Yet another Spice Girls reunion has been hinted at; this time in order to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the release of breakthrough single Wannabe.
Emma Bunton hinted in an interview that the only thing that was holding back another possible reunion was scheduling. She said: "I was with Geri and Mel B just recently, we love each other and we love performing together.
Cheryl Fernandez-Versini has spoken out to criticise the music industry for the way it forces women to sexualise themselves in order to sell music.
The decision by the organisers of Glastonbury to book Kanye West as headliner of this year’s festival has caused some trepidation amongst music fans.
The study, conducted in Belgium and published in Springer's journal Sex Roles, aimed to find out if such a bombardment of sexualised images actually skews the way that children view sex later in life and if it gives them unrealistic ideas of how sexually active their peers are.
Scores of pre-teenage girls are facing the prospect of having to go through a very difficult time in their lives, after which they will never be the same. Zayn Malik has left One Direction’s tour having been signed off with stress.
One man has set himself the task of avoiding all sources of music for Lent in order to make a documentary on the subject for BBC Radio 4.
YouTube have announced that they are launching new tools that will help new and emerging artists to gain exposure.
The British public have believed for years that Simon Cowell, self-styled “Mr Nasty” is the worst of the TV judges but New Zealand have proved that they can go one better.
It has been announced by organizers at this year’s South by Southwest Festival in Texas that a fleet of St Bernards will be patrolling the site with emergency batteries for festival goers to re-charge their smartphones.
Jay Z's next battle might be with the likes of Spotify and Apple. On Friday, the rapper made a 56 million dollar bid to buy the Swedish streaming company that competes with Spotify and Apple.
In a landmark case, it has been ruled that Robin Thicke and Pharrell must pay the estate of Marvin Gaye $7.3 million in damages over copyright infringement.
It seems as though a war is currently being waged against free music. I recently wrote about Taylor Swift and her recent one woman stand against streaming service Spotify after she removed all of her music from the site.
A new YouTube trend seems to have us well and truly in its grip and the person heading this exciting new craze? It’s none other than Britney Spears.
Do you leave music on for your pets when you leave the house in the hopes that they won’t get lonely while you’re gone and start shredding your furniture? Apparently you’re not alone! Now there has been an actual scientific study to measure what music appeals the most to cats.
Madonna has revealed her dismay over the fact that her latest album Rebel Heart was leaked ahead of its official release. She has described the leak as “artistic rape” and though that may sound a bit dramatic, it probably accurately encapsulates the feelings that artists that have been through similar things go through.
Yesterday was International women’s day and to celebrate, Spotify have released the figures for the most streamed female artists. Rihanna was revealed to be the most streamed female, meaning that she is currently the most popular female artist in the world.
Four major ticket resale sites have announced that they will be changing the ways they operate in order to avoid misleading customers. Stubhub, Seatwave, Viagogo and Get Me In have all agreed to changes that will mean that consumers get clearer information about the tickets they are purchasing.
The court case brought against Robin Thicke by Marvin Gaye’s family over claims that his song Blurred Lines copied Gaye’s Got to Give it Up is due to end on Friday and could well set a dangerous precedence for artists in the future.
Not many things are certain in the world of music but one thing that is certain is that if media outlets ban a song from being played; that song is going to be a hit. The latest casualty of censorship is band Muse and their latest single which is currently being referred to as “Psycho”.
Since the emergence of downloading as an alternative to fans consuming music through traditional methods, certain people within the music industry have become twitchy. One of the most notable examples from this time is the legal debate between Metallica and Napster. The root of the dispute was that Metallica (particularly the delightful Lars Ulrich) were losing out on revenue when their music was being illegally downloaded.
The time of year where we throw caution to the wind and leave even the tiniest shred of actual musical taste at the door is once again upon us. That’s right; it’s Eurovision time!
We’re constantly being told that listening to loud music is bad for our hearing and let’s be honest, very few of us ever actually listen and turn the music down. New findings by the World Health Organization say that 1.1 billion young people are permanently damaging their hearing by listening to “too much, too loudly” and suggest that we should only be listening to music for one hour a day in order to minimise damage.
No matter how much of a hardened connoisseur of music you are, it’s difficult to ignore that trends come along and have an impact on the industry, whether it be a small ripple in the pool something more enduring.
At the moment, the whole concept of twerking is extremely prominent in pop culture with Miley Cyrus bringing it to the forefront of our minds so that it has become more than just a dance move that one artist attempts to pull off. Brave any nightclub on a Saturday night and you will see plenty of people who think that they can also manage it. The move has become ingrained in our minds.
Plans have been announced to create a global release day for albums and singles to try and combat piracy. This would mean that instead of albums being released on a Monday as is currently the norm in the UK, they would instead be released on a Friday to fall into line with countries such Ireland and Germany.
The biggest event in the British music industry calendar is upon us once again. The Brit Awards bring together the very best and brightest names on the British pop music scene and over the years have showcased soon of weirdest and most wonderful collaborations.
Noel Gallagher has never been well known for mincing his words and he does not seem to have mellowed at all with age. In a recent interview, the former Oasis star pulled no punches when talking about Kanye West’s recent stage invasion at the Grammy Awards where West exclaimed that Beck, who won the award for Best Album, should make way for a “real artist”. He was referring to Beyoncé.
With Ellie Goulding’s latest single “Love me Like you Do” spending its third week at number one, could the days where songs cling on to that highly sought after top spot for weeks on end be making a comeback?
This weekend saw the last of the blind auditions on the BBC’s talent show “The Voice”. The novelty of the spinning chairs has always been an immensely popular element of the format; creating the drama that audiences crave from their Saturday night TV. Sadly for the BBC, this is where it all seems to go wrong for their answer to Simon Cowell’s “X Factor”.
In this age where promotion through social media has become highly prolific and important in getting both new and existing artists recognised, is funding new material through Kickstarter and similar sites the way forward?
Write a comment In psychology, there’s a recurring idea that “the psyche is image.” Every thought that drifts through our mind is painted, sculpted, also composed. Each mental scene carries the transcendental, divine hue of poetry. It’s fascinating, then, that “Floating gold”—an ambient, nearly 70-minute odyssey of psychedelic textures—finds its inspiration in an unexpected place: the waiting line for Disneyland's Pirates of the Caribbean ride. It’s a reminder that no matter what we’re doing, even standing in line, our minds weave everything into poetry.
Write a comment The one-chord, constant strumming of the guitar, paired with an upbeat singer, has been a signature of the rock-pop movement for decades. Often stereotyped or caricatured, we imagine beautiful singers strumming away with conventionally angelic voices—this representation, across various forms of media, is almost inevitably accompanied by insinuations of a lack of depth in both the music and the artist.
