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27 Jan 2023

Country Music Artists Who Have Performed the National Anthem at the Super Bowl

Eight-time Grammy winner Chris Stapleton will become the latest country artist to usher in the Super Bowl, with a performance at Super Bowl LVII on Sunday, Feb. 12 on FOX, just prior to the game’s kickoff at 6:30 p.m. ET at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.

Stapleton is known for his bluesy, supple vocal delivery as well as his songwriting chops (in addition to his own material, he’s written hits for Kenny Chesney, Josh Turner and Darius Rucker, among others). He’s also the reigning CMA male vocalist of the year, having won in the category six times. This year’s Super Bowl pregame performance lineup also includes R&B artist Babyface performing “America The Beautiful,” while Abbott Elementary star Sheryl Lee Ralph will perform “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” Rihanna is this year’s Super Bowl Halftime Show performer.

Stapleton is the third consecutive country singer to handle national anthem duties prior to the big game since 2021–Eric Church joined Jazmine Sullivan for a rendition of the anthem in 2021, while Mickey Guyton performed the national anthem last year.

Here, Billboard looks back at other country music artists who have performed the national anthem throughout the years.

27 Jan 2023

A Roundup of Country & Americana Festivals in 2023 (Updating)

Nothing goes together better than summer heat, cold drinks, good friends and country music. Throughout much of the year, country music fans gather at events across the nation (and abroad) to see their favorite country music artists perform.

Below, Billboard looks at many of the top country music festivals slated for 2023, including some of each festival’s top performers, from established artists such as Tim McGraw and Miranda Lambert to hot-shot newcomers including Bailey Zimmerman, Megan Moroney and Zach Bryan. Names including Luke Bryan, Cody Johnson and Zac Brown Band proliferate several festival lineups this year, headlining festivals including Country Thunder festivals, C2C and Windy City Smokeout.

Taken altogether, these numerous country fests offer a glimpse into the breadth of the country music moment, from Texas natives like Lambert, Johnson and Parker McCollum, to pop-leaning vocalists Dan+Shay, to ’90s country stalwarts Brooks & Dunn and Dwight Yoakam.

In addition to stellar lineups, these festivals also offer a range of activities and food offerings, including camping, line-dancing, food trucks, and merch vendors selling an array of items. See below.

27 Jan 2023

Chris Brown Builds “Department Store” For His Massive Clothing Collection, Twitter Says It’s Giving TJ Maxx Vibes

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In My Feelz Festival 2022

Source: Scott Dudelson / Getty / Chris Brown

Look at him now. Chris Brown took to Instagram to stunt on us and show his massive clothing collection, and folks were not impressed.

The 33-year-old singer hopped on the gram to take us on a tour of his “department store” he had to build on his property to house the massive collection of clothes he has accumulated over the years.

“Department store outside of my house, let me show y’all what this look like,” Brown said to the camera as he turned the focus to all of the racks full of coats and blazers inside the white warehouse-style building.

It appears the “Fine China” singer has hundreds and thousands of hoodies and shirts that he has no room for in his posh home, telling viewers, “I got drip man, come and see me.”

While he thought he was flexing on us, some people in The Shaderooom’s comment section. “It might be Drip but it’s organized like Marshalls …,” one follower said in response.

“Chris That’s A lot clothes but get somebody to organize all that stuff, It’s giving Burlington Coat Factory vibes or Walmart after on Black Friday vibes. S—t just all over the place,” another follower wrote.

Keeping with it giving discount department store vibes, “thought it would look like a Gucci store it’s giving tj maxx gold collection … it needs some organising.”

As expected, Twitter also had thoughts on Chris Brown hoarding so much clothing. You can see those reactions in the gallery below.

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Photo: Scott Dudelson / Getty

1. Listen to Pac

3. Howling

4. Truuueeee

5. Exactly

27 Jan 2023

The Dream Setlist for John Mayer’s Solo Acoustic Tour

2023 is off to a strong start for John Mayer fans. The guitar pro announced a solo acoustic arena tour on Thursday (Jan. 26), featuring 19 stops across North America this spring.

“I began my career on stage with only a guitar and a microphone,” he shared. “A lot has changed since then, but I knew one day I’d feel it in my heart to do an entire run of shows on my own again, just like those early days.”

It was unclear what was to come for the artist after Mayer announced his departure from Columbia Records after 21 years in March 2022. The only thing that was clear was that John wasn’t calling it quits, sharing at the time that “I love music more than ever, and I believe some of my best work still lies ahead.”

This run of shows marks Mayer’s first solo endeavor since the departure, with attendees having “acoustic, electric and piano” picks both new and old to look forward to on the special tour.

While he can rip up an electric solo like no other, some of his best lyricism and guitar work shine on his acoustic tracks. This was made abundantly clear during several stops of the 2022 Sob Rock tour, when Mayer pivoted to an acoustic-heavy format after several of his band members tested positive for COVID-19.

Could those set of shows have been the inspiration for this stripped-down trek? Of the 20-plus years of songs in his catalog, here are 24-ish songs we hope to hear on the solo tour, with a focus on the acoustic and piano favorites.

27 Jan 2023

J-Hope Drops Teaser Trailer for ‘J-Hope IN THE BOX’ Documentary

J-Hope unveiled the first look at his upcoming documentary J-Hope IN THE BOX on Thursday.

“The start of this project?” the K-pop idol asks as the 30-second clip starts. “People in the world don’t know what kind of music J-Hope of BTS makes… I come out of the box and I want to welcome the larger world.”

The documentary promises to follow the BTS rapper through the release of his debut solo album Jack in the Box, including his historic, headlining performance at Lollapalooza 2022 last August. All of his BTS bandmates make an appearance in the trailer as well, posing for a photos together as J-Hope’s single “Arson” plays over the scene.

J-Hope IN THE BOX is set to premiere on Weverse and Disney+ around the world on Feb. 17, though ARMY and other fans will be able to start pre-ordering the music film one week earlier on Feb. 10.

Upon its release last summer, the old-school hip-hop-leaning studio set — which was preceded by lead single “More” — landed at No. 5 on Billboard‘s Top Album Sales chart and also scored J-Hope a top 20 hit on the Billboard 200 at No. 17.

At the time, the rapper confessed to NME that he was “a bit worried at first, because the Jack in the Box album contains my story and what I really wanted to do…I’m very grateful and feel motivated. So, for those who supported my music, I want to try many different things with my music, and show them all going forward.”

Since then, he’s performed a medley of Jack in the Box tracks at the 2022 MAMA Awards, appeared on New Year’s Rockin’ Eve to ring in the new year and most recently sat front row with Jimin at Paris Fashion Week.

Watch the teaser for J-Hope’s IN THE BOX documentary below.

27 Jan 2023

JAY-Z Settles With Photographer Jonathan Mannion Over Use of ‘Reasonable Doubt’ Cover Art

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Jonathan Mannion & JAY-Z Settle Photos Lawsuit

Source: Jim Spellman / Getty / Jonathan Mannion

After shocking the Hip-Hop world when he sued Jonathan Mannion, the photographer who took the iconic Reasonable Doubt cover art, JAY-Z and Mannion have come to an agreement on the matter.

In June 2021, Jigga slapped Mannion with an unexpected lawsuit for selling photographs, specifically the ones he shot for the Reasonable Doubt cover art, without his consent.

The Brooklyn rapper/mogul demanded Mannion fork over millions of dollars after asking Mannion to cease his sale of the merch featuring the photos. The two men tried to settle in January 2022 but failed and were set to battle it out in court in March, but a resolution in the matter has been met.

According to court documents obtained by AllHipHop, JAY-Z and Jonathan Mannion were working diligently to reach a settlement asking the judge to vacate the trial, implying that cooler heads have prevailed.

Crisis Averted

They have until February 17 to file the necessary paperwork. According to the documents, the “parties have engaged in settlement discussions and agreed in principle on the terms of the settlement, which includes a stipulated dismissal of this action, subject to execution of a long-form settlement agreement.”

At the time of the lawsuit’s announcement, Jonathan Mannion’s attorney said, “Mr. Mannion has created iconic images of Mr. Carter over the years, and is proud that these images have helped to define the artist that Jay-Z is today. Mr. Mannion has the utmost respect for Mr. Carter and his body of work, and expects that Mr. Carter would similarly respect the rights of artists and creators who have helped him achieve the heights to which he has ascended. We are confident that the First Amendment protects Mr. Mannion’s right to sell fine art prints of his copyrighted works, and will review the complaint and respond in due course.”

We’re happy to see the two legends in their respective crafts have worked things out.

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Photo: Jim Spellman / Getty

27 Jan 2023

The Ledger: The Top 10 Streaming Tracks Got Younger in 2022, But Popular Music Still Aged

The Ledger is a weekly newsletter about the economics of the music business. An abbreviated version of the newsletter is published online. The Ledger is sent to Billboard Pro subscribers. You can also sign up here to receive The Ledger and many other Billboard newsletters.

A youth movement of sorts hit music’s top 10 tracks in the U.S. last year, even as music consumption generally shifted toward older recordings.

The average age of a track in the top ten on-demand streaming songs in the U.S. was nearly five months younger in 2022 (346 days) than in 2021 (492 days), according to a Billboard analysis of Luminate data. In 2021, the top 10 tracks were evenly divided between current (defined by Luminate as younger than 18 months) and catalog (older than 18 months), as of Dec. 31, 2021. Glass Animals’ “Heat Waves,” released in June 2020, was No. 5 that year. The No. 1 track, Dua Lipa’s “Levitating,” was released in March 2020. The No. 10 track, The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights,” was released in 2019.

In 2022, nine of the top 10 tracks were current releases, meaning they were less than 18 months old on Dec. 31, 2022. “Heat Waves” was the lone catalog track in the top 10. The top track, Harry Styles’ “As It Was,” was a spry 276 days old. Steve Lacy’s “Bad Habit,” the No. 9 track, was youngest at 185 days. “Levitating” still resonated with listeners but slipped to No. 20.

Outside of the top 10, however, the most popular music of the year continued to get older.

From 2021 to 2022, the average age of the top 25 on-demand tracks increased about a month and a half to 470 days old, excluding a notable outlier: Kate Bush’s 1985 recording “Running Up That Hill,” the No. 16 track of the year. Including Bush’s 13,620-day-old (as of Dec. 31, 2022) surprise hit, the average age of the top 25 tracks more than doubled.

Aging was more pronounced beyond the top 25. The average age of the top 1,000 on-demand audio streaming tracks increased from 3,287 days in 2021 to 3,462 days in 2022 — an increase of 176 days, or nearly six months. Notably, some younger catalog titles continued to defy gravity. Chris Stapleton’s 2014 track “Tennessee Whiskey” rose from No. 43 in 2021 to No. 33. Morgan Wallen’s “Whiskey Glasses,” from 2016, climbed from No. 62 to No. 32. The Neighborhood’s 2012 track “Sweater Weather,” a TikTok hit way back in Nov. 2020, improved from No. 76 to No. 34.

The aging of on-demand audio streams mirrors the continuing trend of catalog tracks accounting for a larger share of what Americans stream and purchase. According to Luminate, catalog’s share of total consumption — across all formats — climbed to 72.2% in 2022, up from 69.8% in 2021 and 65.1% in 2020.

Years ago, the line between current and catalog music meant more, since it usually followed the way stores shelved music. “That timeframe makes sense when you are talking about an artist’s typical album release cycle,” says Andy Moats, executive vp and director of music, sports and entertainment at Pinnacle Financial Partners.

In a financial sense, however, current music transitions to catalog over a long period of time. After an initial burst of earnings, music will earn less over some number of years — called “decay” — before settling at a consistent amount of annual royalties. “Most new release decay will occur in the first 36 to 48 months from release,” says Moats, and tracks typically level off and show growth from years 7 to 10.

Outliers like “Running Up That Hill” aside, increased catalog consumption stems mostly from music remaining popular beyond the 18-month mark. (Billboard wrote about the longevity of this “shallow catalog” in April 2022.) Today, catalog is as much about Fleetwood Mac’s 1977 song “Dreams” as The Weeknd’s 2020 song “Save Your Tears,” which remains popular on streaming services and was the No. 19 on-demand audio streaming track in the U.S. last year (down from No. 4 in 2021).

To the experts who value music assets, the ability of a relatively young catalog to increase its market share makes it more attractive. While older songs are typically more appealing to buyers because their earnings potential is more predictable than newer songs still experiencing annual decay, the trends seen in Luminate’s data suggest there could be more deals like Hipgnosis Capital Fund’s $200 million acquisition of Justin Bieber’s songwriting catalog and recorded music royalties. Nari Matsuura, partner at Citrin Cooperman, sees the catalog trends in Luminate’s data as a good sign for relatively young music. “This suggests that the value of newer catalogs should increase since their earnings will not decline as much in the near term but will be sustained at a higher level over a longer period.”

27 Jan 2023

Paul van Dyk Announces Genre-Blending VENTURE X Project: Fans ‘Deserve More Than a Top 10 Dance Chart Set Played From a USB Stick’

Paul van Dyk may have made his name as a trance artist, but his interests and skills extend well beyond the genre. Now, he’s demonstrating how far.

With his new VENTURE X project, the German pioneer is eschewing genre purity and simply playing what he thinks sounds best, with an upcoming tour finding van Dyk fusing progressive, trance and techno.

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“I try to stay curious and open-minded about new sounds, artists, and labels – always have,” van Dyk tells Billboard. “Different aspects of music, its genres and colorations of sound have always been part of my sets. With VENTURE X I take this approach even further, the set will be defined by itself.”

These VENTURE X shows launch on February 17 in Toronto, with the tour then hitting New York City, Montreal, Pontiac, Denver, Portland, San Francisco, and Austin. On the road, van Dyk hopes to satisfy audiences “in a way they didn’t know was possible. I do believe electronic music enthusiasts deserve more than a top 10 dance chart set played from a USB stick.”

For the tour, van Dyk’s setup will feature instruments, computers, and sequencers, a set that “enables me to find the right level of energy at any given moment throughout the set, as everything is basically live sequenced and played. And while some fans can get prickly about crossing sounds, he’s got “no worry that genre purists will be alienated, quite the opposite. There’s so much great music out there and my job as a DJ is to introduce it to you. That’s how I see it, at least. Otherwise, I’d feel like a jukebox.”

Indeed, genres hardly matter as van Dyk, who’s been making music for three decades, points out that genre names, sounds, and meanings keep changing anyways. “When I started DJing, all electronic music was called techno…. What was called progressive house some 20 years ago, would probably be called melodic techno these days. There are amazing releases on Drumcode that could easily fit in the trance genre and sometimes what is called techno sounds like chill out to me.”

VENTURE X’s call to arms anthem, itself not falling into one tidy genre-box, is also out today (Jan. 27.) It finds van Dyk collaborating with progressive house duo Weekend Heroes and singer/songwriter Christian Schottstaedt, who together deliver a dark voyage of a track that serves as the project’s thesis statement

“I like the proggy, deeper stuff, but with a tougher approach as you can hear,” van Dyk says. “[Making this music] feels very natural and organic.”

Paul van Dyk

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27 Jan 2023

Emmanuel Acho Packed Up By Black Twitter After Van Lathan Calls Him “Emotional Butler For White People”

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73rd Creative Arts Emmy Awards

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Emmanuel Acho‘s mentions are looking like a warzone. The former NFL player, sports analyst and alleged expert on race relations is getting fried on Twitter after media host Van Lathan took him to task over his approach to discussing racism with white people.

Acho was a guest on Lathan and Rachel Lindsay’s Higher Learning podcast on the Ringer and things got awkward on the top topic of race. Apparently, the Texas-born Acho claims he’s able to see both sides of race debates due to his Nigerian heritage.

“When white people say, ‘Well, racism doesn’t exist,’ I know why they say that. Because I’ve been in them rooms when they’re saying that,” said Acho in a clip Lathan shared of the episode. “When I kick it with Black people and they’re like, ‘All white people are racist,’ I know why you’re saying that. All the while, I have the privilege and luxury of not having generational trauma, because my parents were born in Nigeria. So my method is removing some of the sting, because I don’t have that sting, and trying to deliver it in a manner that people can receive it.”

While Acho went on his suspect spiel in the clip, you could tell that Lathan was stewing, ready to pounce. And he didn’t mince his words.

“Let me tell you why what you just said offends me,” began Lathan. “You’re saying that you didn’t have generational trauma, and you didn’t mean it this way, but you saying [that] in some way meaning that your delivery method to white people is going to be either more effective or more sanitized is, to me, dangerous, and let me tell you why.”

This is where things got extra spice, no pun intended.

“Everybody that you just named, and what you’re talking about, does what they do in different ways,” continued Lathan. “I don’t think that any of the things that they do are necessarily harmful, but what I could say, is a Black man, a prominent one, acting as an emotional butler for white people, and serving them the most milquetoast, un-spicy, unseasoned brand of racial discourse and accountability possible, could definitely be harmful. Like, we’re fighting for our lives, and to me, having a conversation like that, at that particular time, it’s not that it’s a different method. Everybody has a different method. It’s that it’s the wrong method.”

The back and forth started trending after Acho took to Twitter to defend his stance, while claiming that Lathan used his friendship with his co-host to attack him on the show.

A Twitter user (@MindThePit) stated, “Emmanuel’s approach was to suggest he’s better equipped than African Americans to speak because he doesn’t have generational trauma as a Nigerian.”

Acho took exception to this assertion and responded: “I made no such suggestion, that was the reach the host of the show made and led the listener to (at the 39:45 mark). I stated my lineage to allow understanding for my predisposition to be *less* hostile. It was giving the listener insight as to why. Not implying I’m better.”

That’s certainly what it sounded like, though. “I’m not sure what you intended to convey by stating your Nigerian background frees you of ‘generational trauma’ and takes the ‘sting’ out of your convos with white people,” tweeted Lathan along with the clip. “But it feels like your purposefully othered yourself from the descendants of slaves. Why?

“By the way Black Twitter is currently packing up Acho, many would agree. Of course, the MAGA contingent is feeling different, but they’re always at the ready to falsely claim racism was just a fad. Also, Acho played victim with the whole “set up” jig.

Check out some of the slander, and education (no generational trauma since his parents are Igbo’s who left Nigeria, really),  being hurled Acho’s way in the gallery. The vitriol is intense considering Acho’s hosts his own podcast, Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man, which he flipped into a best-selling book.

You can also peep the full convo below.