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29 Mar 2023

Skrillex to Play 5-Hour Set at Red Rocks Amphitheatre

Skrillex is taking the rumble to the Rockies. On Wednesday (March 29) he announced a show at Colorado’s famed Red Rocks Amphitheatre that will happen next month.

The set, going down on Saturday, April 29, will feature Skrillex playing a five-hour set from 7 p.m. until midnight, local time. This format emulates his show last month at Madison Square Garden, where he — along with co-headliners Fred again.. and Four Tet — played for five hours, from 7 p.m. to midnight ET.

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Tickets for the Red Rocks show go on sale this Friday (March 31) at 12 p.m. ET.

This show announcement comes in the wake of the release of a pair of Skrillex albums, Quest For Fire on Feb. 17 and Don’t Get Too Close, which was surprise released the following day, Feb. 18. Skrillex has not announced a full tour behind these albums, instead opting to play prestige venues like MSG and Red Rocks, along with a hefty list of summer festivals: Something In The Water, Hangout, Movement and Elements, plus a series of European events including Primavera in Barcelona and EXIT in Serbia. This Euro run also includes a show at Ibiza’s influential techno mecca DC10.

Quest For Fire is currently sitting at No. 11 on Dance/Electronic albums, where it peaked at No. 2 upon release and is currently its fifth week on the chart. Album singles “Rumble” and RATATATA” are currently at No. 20 and No. 18 on the chart, respectively. Skrillex also appear on this same chart for “Baby again,” his recently released earworm single with Fred again.. and Four Tet.

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29 Mar 2023

Coi Leray’s ‘Players’ Deconstructed: Hits Honoring the ’80s Are on the Rise

As previously reported, Coi Leray lands her first Billboard Hot 100 top 10, as “Players” jumps to No. 9 on the April 1-dated chart.

Here’s a look at the sonic and lyrical elements that have helped the song surge, as well as a notable trend that “Players” furthers among recent hip-hop hits.

Overt Retro 1980s Influence

Over the past decade, hip-hop songs with an overt retro 1980s influence have been few and far between, with only three making it into the Hot 100’s top 10 from 2013 to 2021:

  • Eminem’s “Berzerk” (No. 3 peak, 2013)
  • Rae Sremmurd’s “Black Beatles,” featuring Gucci Mane (No. 1 for seven weeks, 2016-17)
  • Post Malone’s “Congratulations,” featuring Quavo (No. 8, 2017)

In contrast, over just the past year, three overt retro ’80s-driven songs have hit the Hot 100’s top 10:

  • Latto’s “Big Energy” (No. 3, April 2022)
  • Nicki Minaj’s “Super Freaky Girl” (No. 1, one week, August 2022)
  • Coi Leray’s “Players” (No. 9, to-date, April 2023)

Honoring the Past

Notably, all three such Hot 100 top 10s over the past year revisit, and reinvent, classic hits from the early ’80s:

  • “Big Energy”: samples Tom Tom Club’s “Genius of Love” (a No. 31 Hot 100 hit in 1982)
  • “Super Freaky Girl”: samples Rick James’ “Super Freak” (No. 16, 1981)
  • “Players”: samples Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five’s “The Message” (No. 62, 1982)

The above three originals also hit Nos. 2, 3 and 4, respectively, on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart in 1981-82.

What’s Common, and Uncommon, Among Current Hits

Digging deeper into these three most recent ’80s-influenced hip-hop hits, they share the following key commonalities, which are in line with newer hip-hop top 10s on the Hot 100:

  • The songs feature a combination of sung and rapped vocals.
  • They possess two verses and three choruses each.
  • All have their choruses preceding the first verse, a quality more popular in hip-hop than in pop.

In addition, the songs also share qualities that are less common in hip-hop, helping distinguish them while still fitting in among other hits. In addition to their ’80s sample-driven melodies:

  • They feature solo female lead vocals.
  • All feature a pre-chorus, which is uncommon among hip-hop top 10s.

‘Girls Is Players, Too’

Further, “Players” further stands out for its female empowerment lyrical theme, which is highly uncommon among recent Hot 100 top 10s.

David and Yael Penn are the co-founders of Hit Songs Deconstructed, which provides compositional analytics for top 10 Billboard Hot 100 hits. In 2022, Hit Songs Deconstructed and fellow song analysis platform MyPart partnered to launch ChartCipher, a new platform analyzing hit songs, as defined by Billboard‘s charts.

29 Mar 2023

Lionel Richie Jokes His Stamina Has Gone From ‘All Night Long’ to a ‘Fierce 15 Minutes’

Lionel Richie may be 73 years old but he can still go “All Night Long”…well, kinda.

On Tuesday (March 28), the singer-songwriter stopped by The View with his fellow American Idol judges, Katy Perry and Luke Bryan. The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer joked about his Grammy-nominated 1983 hit after host Sara Haines brought up the track’s looming 40th anniversary. “I have to really, really say to you: when I wrote ‘All Night Long,’ it was truly all night long. Now my ‘All Night Long’ is down to a fierce 15 minutes. But don’t worry about it, we’ll talk about that later.”

“Is this show live? Is this show live?” a wide-eyed Perry asked over the hosts’ laughter before offering her co-star a handshake and adding, “15 minutes? That’s long, bud!”(Richie also got an uncertain congratulations from Bryan.)

Richie then leaned further into the joke, quipping, “And don’t you forget that, all right?” before Perry jumped into loudly add, “As long as it’s not four times a night, you know, seven days a week!”

Bedroom jokes aside, the trio of judges also opened up about the newest season of Idol, with Richie explaining that they’re never looking for “just another singer” during the audition rounds of the show. “We’re looking for characters, we’re looking for people who have unique qualities,” he continued. “Originality. For example, it’s not karaoke. We’re looking for, what’s the unique thing you have?”

American Idol is currently airing Sunday and Monday nights at 8 p.m. on ABC. Watch the entire interview below.

29 Mar 2023

Larry June & The Alchemist Talk Bringing the Coasts Together on Joint Album ‘The Great Escape’: ‘Put It Next to All the Other High-Level S–t and Let It Compete’

“Deviated leather and it’s 911, bend the corner, I’m on Haynes Street coppin’ a windbreaker,” raps Larry June in the opening line of The Great Escape. For June and his partner-in-crime, The Alchemist, this isn’t just an album but an experience. June’s effortless flow, combined with Al’s signature beats, creates a sonic journey that transports you all over the globe. This 15-track project showcases June’s ability to blend his laid-back, introspective lyrics seamlessly with the producer’s eclectic, sample-heavy sound.

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It’s a partly sunny day in New York City, and the duo has come to Billboard headquarters to preview their highly anticipated collaboration. Interestingly, when June visited the offices back in 2017, he was considering quitting rap. Now, the tides have shifted, and the West Coast rhyme slinger is one of the genre’s most beloved acts. As The Great Escape is finally set to release this Friday (March 31), fans have been eagerly anticipating its arrival. The stakes are high, with some of the biggest names in rap (Big Sean, Action Bronson, Joey Bada$$ and more) slated to dish out heat on the duo’s hotly anticipated effort. 

“I was challenged on a lot of the beats,” says June of the experience. “It was like a different bag when I was working with Al. You’re thinking Mobb Deep. You’re thinking all that. It’s a different bar.”

Following the release of his latest album, 2022’s Spaceships on the Blade, the San Francisco native earned praise for his ability to flawlessly blend different styles and create a truly unique sound. June’s penchant for classic funk and melodic ad libs place him in a rarefied position in hip-hop, as listeners from both coasts lean to him for late-night cruising music. And this project feels like a perfect match with The Alchemist – who’s been producing classics for over 20 years — by his side. 

“He’s fun to work with, and super-easy,” the producer says of his new full-album collaborator. “I work with a lot of different artists, and Larry is kind of how his music is. He’s positive and excited about s–t when he’s doing it.”

There’s a buzz of excitement as June and Alchemist walk inside the legendary Ludlow House with some of the most prominent tastemakers in the music industry in attendance, including journalists Brian ‘B.Dot’ Miller and Sway Calloway, former NBA players Richard Jefferson and Al Harrington, and artists such as Trinidad James and Joey Bada$$. Later that night, Jermaine Dupri and Action Bronson join the festive soiree as they look to support their fellow comrades on their release. With drinks flowing and music blasting, it’s clear that Larry June and The Alchemist have delivered an early album-of-the-year contender.

“I don’t want this to be like a slept-on record, or it gets just credibility — we need to push this s–t on,” says Alchemist. “Put it up next to all the other s–t that’s out there on the high level and let it compete.”

Below, Billboard speaks to June and Alchemist about their new album, The Great Escape, recording the album in different parts of the world, their favorite features and more.

You guys recorded in a couple of different locations like Malibu and Mexico City. What was the thought process behind that? 

Larry June: We just were traveling through that s–t. We kind of was hanging out a lot and it was coming together. I had some s–t to do in Mexico City. We shot a video, got a little work done. We really were listening to beats in different places. We would get to locations to listen to beats, nice ocean views and s–t — I’ll think of something, and I’ll take it to the house and record. Or I might do a little here and there. It’s just vibin’ for real.

Alchemist: It’s a different energy.

Larry June: Different energy. That’s all it was.

Alchemist: I’m always in a dark room with no clocks. In the studio, it’s like a f–king casino, you know what I’m saying? I know I can work good there, but I felt like, especially for this s–t, it was like, “Let’s get some different scenery. Let’s just go bug out. Go to Malibu and get on a studio crib.” So, we were kind of just picking different spots. Plus, [June] cooks anywhere. You know what I’m saying? He doesn’t really need a studio, he never did, so for me, it was cool to grab the machine and bring some disks and let’s go over there and start a record. 

Your chemistry is strong together. It feels like this is your fifth project. Was that just something that kind of came about? Were y’all friends before this?

Larry June: Nah, man. We just became good friends in the process. I was a fan, you know what I’m saying? We got together. He was cool as hell. S–t, we just started kicking it. I started coming to the studio every day. I don’t even go to studios like that. I was listening in the studio every day, just listening to the beats. Smoked, ordered food.

I know, in music, there’s a lot of egos involved and sometimes, things don’t work out the way you know you kind of want to. Why don’t you guys have a problem collaborating with others? 

Larry June: S–t, it’s the colliding of the sounds that is dope. I mean, you can work with people who are actually dope and you can come together and build something powerful, then why not? And I f–k with producers and a lot of rappers too, but mainly producers. I really f–k with the producers. I did s–t with Sledgren. Cardo. Harry Fraud. [Alchemist] was on my list. Like, “I’ve got to get to Alchemist.” We got the same barber and s–t. I’m like, “Tell this n—a Alchemist, ‘It’s time, man.’” It took like a year, [but] it finally happened.

The Alchemist: I think too, it’s like, being secure. Some guys, the ego thing is likely to compensate — but when you’re really secure and you feel good about what you do, you’re not afraid. I’m going to reach out to anybody. And I noticed that about him too. Some guys you work with, they go, “Let’s send a verse to somebody. Let’s send a record.” And then it doesn’t come in two days. “Nah, man. He doesn’t get it.”

It was never like that with him, ever. He was all positive — even if something didn’t come through or not, I’ve never seen him put out his chest like that, like most rappers at some point do. But to me, that means he’s secure. He’s full of confidence. He knows he’s that dude. That’s how it works.

Larry June: That’s why I didn’t do features for a long time. A lot of people didn’t really understand what I was doing for a long time, so I had to put out multiple projects and go hit the ground and go build my s–t hand-to-hand. Now everybody is like, “Oh, s–t. Larry. We f–ked with the brand.” You’ve got to really try and build it. You’ve got to go hit the streets. So, I’m a hustler first. I was outside f–king around, getting my bread, and I just put that back into the music. Did the same hustle. Hand to hand, you know what I’m saying? Ground patrol, really f–king with the people and s–t. You know what I mean? It becomes undeniable where you have to f–k with it.

You both have great ears production wise – it’s high-level. Where did you kind of develop that?

Larry June: Man, I made beats first, but I fell off. So, I understand just the sounds of making it. So, when I hear a beat, I’m thinking about what can I add to the beat as if I was an instrument. It has to sound good on this.

We did eight bars on “60 Days.” I thought the beat was riding was so hard. I could have played the beat without no vocals on it anyway — just played that, sliding down the PCH. I don’t want to rap when it’s too long. Let me just say a couple of bars, sprinkle it on there and keep it rocking. Some of the beats, I would probably have just played with nothing on there. I’d just be talking on them motherf–kers. Something to slide to. That’s probably why I like working with producers, man — because I understand what a producer does.

Alchemist: I got a good theory about what you were talking about. Where he got that ear? I think a lot has to do with the music that you were around as a kid, that your parents listened to. Any time I’m working with artists, and once I start figuring out their bag of sound they like — when I start talking to them about the s–t their parents listened to in the house, it’s literally similar. I don’t even know, but I’m sure your pops and mama were listening to some good music.

Larry June: Yeah, my mom used to play that Musiq Soulchild.

Alchemist: Subconsciously. It just attracts you, because it’s so normal and you’re hearing it. Like even me, whenever that stuff that my pops used to listen to. He used to listen to, like, bossa nova. He would listen to weird rock groups. ABBA. Perez Prado.

Larry June: I listened to a lot of neo-soul growing up. I remember my mama playing it in the crib, over and over. Jill Scott and all of that. The same melodies, for sure. Subconsciously. Donell Jones and all that. I loved the melodies.

Knowing how this project sounds sonically, Larry, do you now have an elevated taste when it comes to production on who you want to collaborate with next after working with Al?

Larry June: For sure. I’m just paying attention to the details a little more — like, lyrically. It has opened up a whole new bag for me. S–t, I’m still building. [Al’s] legendary. I’m still building, trying to make people believe in my sound — so, dope, for sure.

I think it helped though — like I said, helped me rap better […] I feel like I did it perfectly for what it was, and the next one’s going to be even harder. This was the hard part. Now, we’ve got a bag. Even the “60 Days” joint. That was the last one we did. We did that s–t quick. It was just easy, you kind of figured the bag out already.

But even before, working with Al we spoke about this: You’ve gained respect on both coasts, not just the West. You sold out Irving Plaza in NYC your last tour. The respect is there.

Larry June: For sure, and I’m going to continue to do that. But I feel like, with this one, it was just more like — the real hip-hop fans, the real day ones. You know what I mean? Born in ’91. Not old heads, but it can be younger people too. Like, we were in the studio with Earl [Sweatshirt]. They are dissecting everything. “Oh, rewind that, he said what?” It’s like there was pressure on you, like, “Oh nah, them not bars.”

But I just stopped thinking about that part. I just started talking about my s–t. “Deviated leather and it’s 911, bend the corner, I’m on Haynes Street coppin’ a windbreaker…” You know what I’m saying? I’m just saying, f–k it.

The Alchemist: I love that line.

Larry June: I’m just going to go ahead and just give you what I did. I stopped thinking too much. I was thinking too much.

Alchemist: But I was there to keep checks and balances. That line, exactly, was why I wanted to start. That’s the first song. That the first line that comes on. “Deviated leather and it’s 911, bend the corner, I’m on Haynes Street coppin’ a windbreaker…” That’s how you start an album. F–k what the beat sounds like. That image was like, “D–n.” Because I’m big on the first thing that you hear — presentation is everything to me. So, I felt like, “D–n, if we can get them that image in the first two bars, that’s it.”

The opening bar sets the tempo.

Larry June: You know what I learned on this project? No matter what or who you rap with, the people want you to be you. So, I just stay in my bag, no matter what. Even if it’s not the most complex bars. They’re here to hear Larry June. It worked out smooth. He made me comfortable.

29 Mar 2023

George Michael’s ‘Careless Whisper’ Music Video Joins Billion Views Club on YouTube

Just like time, a billion views probably can’t mend the careless whispers of a good friend — but it’s still a pretty major milestone. The music video for George Michael‘s iconic 1984 hit “Careless Whisper” recently surpassed the momentous view count, thanks to the help of hundreds of thousands of average views per day.

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Though the video was uploaded to YouTube in 2009 and first created two decades prior to that — the clip is seriously a time capsule of the mid-80s — it still reaches an average audience of more than 400,000 global views each day. It stars Michael — looking glam in gold earrings, a suit and his trademark poofy hair — serenading the camera as he reflects on clips of him cheating on his significant other. There’s vintage swimwear, sailboats and Miami sunsets, a perfectly dramatic backdrop for the pop star to profess his regret over an affair.

The ballad, which was credited to “George Michael” or “Wham! featuring George Michael” depending on the country of release, served as Michael’s pivot away from Wham! into an extremely successful solo career. Thanks in part to its instantly recognizable featured saxophone solo, “Careless Whisper” remains one of the musician’s most well-known songs of all time, spending three weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 in ’84 and ’85. Only “Faith” has surpassed that chart reign, having clocked four weeks at No. 1 in 1987; “One More Try” also spent three weeks in the prime spot in 1988.

The two-time Grammy winner passed away in 2016, but not before sharing one last project with the world: his autobiographical documentary, Freedom. Of his legendary, decades-long career, Michel professed in the doc that he hoped to be remembered as “one of those last kind of big pop stars, in a sense that there was a certain glamour to it.”

“But really, it’s just the songs, and I hope that people think of me as someone who had some kind of integrity,” he continued at the time, jokingly adding: “Very unlikely.” 

Watch George Michael’s billion-times-viewed music video for “Careless Whisper” above.

29 Mar 2023

Jerry Lorenzo Says His Fear of God x Adidas Collection Will Be Unveiled Next Month

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The Business Of Fashion Presents VOICES 2022 - Day 2

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After years of theories and hype, the adidas and Fear of God collaboration is finally upon us. We’ve gotten a sneak peak at what Jerry Lorenzo and his brand have been crafting in the lab.

Three years after leaving Nike to work with adidas, Jerry Lorenzo is finally ready to unveil what he and adidas have been cooking up in the kitchen. In a statement released to Complex, Lorenzo let it be known that the time to drop the collection is upon us and we can’t wait to see what they have in store for us mortals. After a leaked pic of the sample Fear of God x Adidas silhouette dropped on social media, Jerry Lorenzo reached out to Complex to let them know he’ll be revealing the collection himself next month and to not believe everything they see on the internet.

“This is not the basketball sneaker from Fear of God and Adidas,” Lorenzo said of today’s leak, adding that the Fear of God x Adidas performance sneakers and ready-to-wear collections will be officially unveiled on April 19 during the Hollywood Bowl showing of Fear of God’s 8th Collection. 

Truth be told, these sneakers ain’t bad though. Just sayin.’

Whether or not these sneakers are actually part of his collection or something someone put together at home in hopes of getting noticed by Adidas or Lorenzo himself is anyone’s guess, but the man obviously isn’t too happy with heads jumping the gun on something he’s been working on for the past few years.

That being said, now we’re more hype to see what the collection from the Fear of God x Adidas will be looking like as Lorenzo seems confident that heads will be more than pleased with what he’ll be unveiling at the Hollywood Bowl come April 19.

Are you looking forward to the Adidas x Fear of God collection? Do y’all think Jerry Lorenzo can salvage what’s left of Adidas popularity post-Kanye West? Let us know in the comments section below.

29 Mar 2023

Reba McEntire Gushes Over Her Love of Aretha Franklin, Sings ‘Respect’ With Jennifer Hudson

Like Jennifer Hudson, country icon Reba McEntire counts herself as a major Aretha Franklin fan — so much so, that the 68-year-old gushed over how much she loves Franklin during the Tuesday (March 28) episode of The Jennifer Hudson Show.

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“You covered Aretha Franklin’s ‘Respect’ in 1980?,” Hudson asked the country star, who sang Franklin’s signature hit at the 1988 CMA Awards. “How did that come about?”

McEntire said the answer was simple, “I like the song. I love the song, I love Aretha.” The three-time Grammy winner also shared an anecdote about an encounter she had with the late Queen of Soul. “I got to meet her, she scared me to death, I wouldn’t even go up to talk to her,” McEntire said, with the American Idol alum adding, “Yeah that scared me too… I got to meet her in Washington, D.C. at Christmas in Washington, and she’s just amazing.”

The pair then paid tribute to their love and respect for Aretha in the most appropriate way — by covering Franklin’s signature 1967 single, “Respect.”

“What you want, baby, I got it/ What you need, do you know I got it?/ All I want you to do for me, is show me some respect when you get home/ Hey, baby/ Give it to me/ Hey baby,” McEntire kicked off the track, with Hudson providing an assist with some ad libbed vocals backgrounds.

Hudson then hopped on the second verse with ease — unsurprisingly, considering she played Franklin in the 2021 biopic, Respect. “I ain’t gon’ do you wrong while you’re gone/ Ain’t gon’ do you wrong ’cause I don’t wanna/ All I’m askin’ is for a little respect when you come home/ Baby/ When you get home/ Yeah,” she sang.

Watch McEntire and Hudson duet “Respect” in the video above.

29 Mar 2023

Madlib Teases Albums From Mac Miller, Planet Asia, & Erykah Badu

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Mac Miller photo shoot for RollingStone.com, Los Angeles, USA - 31 Jul 2018

Madlib is one of the best producers in Hip-Hop and his deft touch behind the boards extends far beyond the genre most associate him with. The Oxnard, Calif. native joined his brother Talib Kweli on Shade 45’s Sway In The Morning, revealing that he’s got albums with the late Mac Miller, Planet Asia, and Erykah Badu in the tuck.

Madlib, who doesn’t do a ton of media appearances, spoke briefly on the aforementioned projects, and considering he has a history with the trio of artists, fans should expect more of that Beat Konducta magic.

“Right now, I’m finishing up the Mac Miller album, Planet Asia album, Erykah Badu album, different stuff,” Madlib said, with Sway Calloway following up to ask if the estate is in support of Madlib working on the Miller project, to which he confirmed they’ve given their blessing. Sway noted that Miller appears on Liberation 2, the joint project featuring the producer and Kweli.

Fans of Planet Asia are well aware of the track Madlib remixed titled “Definition Of Ill,” which stamped the Fresno, Calif. rapper as one of the best lyricists just ahead of the turn of the century in 1999. The Gold Chain Music honcho has remained busy over the past two decades with a number of high-quality projects and this upcoming body of work will add to that.

The Bad Kid also worked in the past with Badu on the albums New Amerykah Part One (4th World War) and New Amerykah Part Two (Return of the Ankh), released in 2008 and 2010 respectively.

Check out Talib Kweli and Madlib on Sway In The Morning below.



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Photo: Getty

29 Mar 2023

5 Ways a TikTok Ban Might Affect the Billboard Charts

With national security concerns over TikTok, owned by Chinese tech company ByteDance, leading to U.S. officials debating a national ban of the service — with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy saying this week that lawmakers would be “moving forward with legislation” — the music industry is left contemplating a landscape without the generationally popular and influential app. The implications of such a ban would be widespread across the business: upending countless marketing and promotion plans, if not entire label departments, and affecting the reach of nearly every major artist, whether long-established or up-and-coming.

The impact on the Billboard charts would also be massive. While TikTok plays are not included in Billboard chart calculations, the exposure granted by viral success on the app has helped launch scores of chart hits over the past half-decade, while also allowing next-gen artists like Lil Nas X and Doja Cat a platform to help establish their personalities and images and cultivate their fanbases, cementing their stardom in the process. In terms of chart repercussions, a ban on TikTok in 2023 would be something like a ban on MTV in 1985 — its removal might not directly affect any metrics, but the lingering reverberations would still be seismic.

Here are five ways the loss of TikTok might most acutely be felt on the Billboard charts — assuming it would take some time for a potential rival app to replace its position of influence and importance within the industry — with particular focus on our flagship songs chart, the Billboard Hot 100.

1. Fewer older songs becoming new hits. One of the most consequential trends in 2020s chart pop has been the preponderance of catalog entries infusing all levels of the Hot 100 — whether in extreme examples like Kate Bush‘s Stranger Things-re-launched 1985 single “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)” reaching the top five in 2022, or subtler cases like Chris Brown‘s 2019 Indigo Deluxe Edition cut “Under the Influence” becoming a 2023 top 20 hit. One thing nearly all these revived hits have in common is TikTok: Whether its newfound popularity was initially reignited there (as with “Influence”), or whether gasoline was poured on the already-existing flame (as with “Hill”), these hits would never have reached the velocity needed to break out as they did without the app.

If TikTok disappeared, it’s possible we’d still see some of these new-old hits — particularly ones like “Hill,” which have the benefit of a major pop culture phenomenon to rally their revival — but we’d almost certainly see far fewer of the “Influence” sort, without a platform for them to unexpectedly catch fire and organically grow into contemporary favorites. And while radio has also started to embrace some of these second-time-around singles, without TikTok to first drum up newfound interest in them (and demonstrate proof of concept of them as modern-day hits), it’s unlikely they’d be willing to take chances on songs like “Influence” as early adopters.

2. Fewer one-offs. Back in 2020, Billboard wrote about a number of artists TikTok had helped launch into the pop mainstream for one song, and asked if the app would be able to help sustain extended careers for them as hitmakers. Based on the great majority of the artists mentioned in the story — Arizona Zervas, Tones and I, Powfu, SAINt JHN, Surfaces, Trevor Daniel, StaySolidRocky, 24kGoldn, Surf Mesa — the answer would appear to be “no”; after their initial TikTok-boosted chart success, none of those artists have yet charted a second top 40 Hot 100 hit, and most have yet to even scrape the chart a second time.

There have been exceptions, of course — particularly the aforementioned Doja Cat and Lil Nas X, two of the biggest stars of the new decade, who were able to launch numerous hits with TikTok’s help and ultimately establish continuous stardom well beyond the app. But the speed with which TikTok generates breakout hits and the relatively anonymous relationship they often establish between listener and song — often divorced from any larger connection with the artist behind them — has been a recipe for creating single successes that prove a foot in the door to the larger mainstream for their artists, but nowhere near a guarantee of additional future hits.

In truth, without TikTok, we’d likely not only see fewer one-off hits, but fewer breakout hits from new artists in general. With the influence of both labels and tastemakers being diminished in the streaming era, and radio positioning itself more as a late-adopter of established hits than a breaker of new ones (a strategy that could reverse, or at least lessen, post-TikTok), TiKTok has been the rare platform over which previously unestablished artists have been able to reach mass audiences — if not necessarily reliably, or repeatedly.

3. Bigger and longer-lasting album bombs. Without the natural rise-and-fall of TikTok virality to help generate prominent movement up and down the Hot 100, stasis will be even more unavoidable on the chart. While that will be felt in every tier of the chart, it will perhaps be most noticeable in the chart’s middle and lower regions — which, without TikTok-driven hits, will become even more the province of the biggest albums of recent weeks.

While highly anticipated albums charting the majority or entirety of their tracklists on the Hot 100 upon their chart debuts is certainly nothing new, in the last couple years some of those albums — like Bad Bunny‘s Un Verano Sin Ti and SZA‘s SOS — have not only overtaken the chart in their first weeks, but had as many as a dozen songs continue to linger on it well after. Big artists and big releases are more omnipresent on the charts than ever, and if TikTok isn’t around to help generate new hits to siphon off momentum from (and ultimately displace) them, those album cuts will continue to play the part of hit singles in the thick of the Hot 100.

4. Less alt/indie and regional Mexican. One way TikTok’s imprint has been felt on the Hot 100 has been the rise in crossovers from the indie and alternative worlds. Hits from bands like Glass Animals, The Walters and Måneskin and singer-songwriters like d4vd, Lizzy McAlpine and Mac DeMarco all have found their way to the chart after gaining popularity on the app — where five years ago they likely would have had no real pathway to that kind of crossover success on streaming or radio, with any kind guitar-based rock music an increasingly rare presence in the pop mainstream.

Would they disappear on the Hot 100 without TikTok around to boost them? Maybe not entirely — especially after a pop-punk revival (and guitar-oriented hits from pop stars like Olivia Rodrigo, Juice WRLD and Billie Eilish) helped once again normalize guitar in the top 40 of the early 2020s — but it would certainly be a major additional challenge for newer alt and indie artists to get the kind of streaming exposure they need to cross over.

The same could be said of regional Mexican acts like Grupo Firme, Yahritza y Su Esencia and Peso Pluma — all of whom have suddenly made a genre that had literally zero history on the Hot 100 prior to 2021 into a major factor on the chart, with each act scoring top 40 hits in the last year, boosted enormously by their TikTok presences. Those artists have still yet to achieve even the relatively modest level of stateside mainstream pop exposure or acceptance that most of the aforementioned alt/indie acts have, so losing TikTok would likely be an enormous blow to their chart fortunes.

5. Longer chart runs — but fewer truly historic ones. As already mentioned, TikTok success is one of the primary accelerants on the Hot 100 these days — the force that gets songs zooming up and plummeting down the chart with disruptive speed — and without it, a lot of songs are going to stay in place for a very long time. The slowing pace of radio and streaming in the 2020s has already resulted in seemingly endless, borderline-historic stays for hits like Dua Lipa‘s “Levitating,” The Kid LAROI and Justin Bieber‘s “Stay” and Harry Styles‘ “As It Was” in the chart’s top regions, and certainly without TikTok, there will be even fewer impediments to those songs staying in place for as long as the mainstream will have them.

However, the loss of TikTok could also impact these hits’ endurance in the other direction — preventing them from ever reaching the truly unprecedented territory tread by hits like The Weeknd‘s “Blinding Lights” and Glass Animals’ “Heat Waves.” Those songs’ journeys were marked by late-cresting waves of TikTok popularity, which helped them recapture momentum at key moments in their chart treks, reinvigorating their streaming and radio presences in the process. Without those unpredictable second and/or third lives for the two singles, their respective chart runs would likely never have stretched out as they did — and without the ordered chaos of TikTok, they’re not the kind that anyone could ever meaningfully reproduce inorganically.

29 Mar 2023

No, Lil Nas X Did Not Actually Go on a Date With Michael Bublé: Here’s How the Singer Reacted to the Joke

Finding love is hard, but Lil Nas X is confident that the right person is out there … he just hasn’t met him yet.

On the latest episode of The Late Late Show With James Corden, the “That’s What I Want” artist appeared as a special guest on “Carpool Karaoke” to sing through his hits and even act in a soap opera for the very first time. But there was one moment during the segment that turned more than a few fans’ heads.

Chatting with Corden about his dating life (after noticing a hot man on the street), Lil Nas said that he had used the exclusive dating app Raya, but ultimately, he shared, “I’ve come to know that I don’t like dating famous people.”

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When Corden followed up, asking if any of the famous men he’d met on the app were guests on “Carpool Karaoke,” the rapper didn’t hesitate: “For sure,” he confirmed.

Keeping the bit going, Corden’s immediate first guess as to who the mystery beau could have been was none other than jazz-pop singer Michael Bublé. Bursting into laughter, Lil Nas jokingly quipped, “Yeah, you caught me,” before asking if the “Sway” singer was a gay. “No,” Corden confirmed. “But he’s hot, and he’s got a hell of a voice.”

One person who certainly saw the funny side of the bit was Bublé himself, who retweeted the clip from The Late Late Show. While the original tweet’s caption specified that “@lilnasx isn’t dating @michaelbuble,” the crooner made sure to keep the joke alive. “Clearly out of my league,” he wrote in response.

Check out the full “Carpool Karaoke” segment above, and see Bublé’s response below: