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Sabrina Carpenter is up to something. This week, the pop star has been taking to the streets to tease a new project, first with a clip of herself trying to hitchhike followed by a series of mysterious billboards. On Monday (June 2), Carpenter first got fans paying attention by posting a video on social media […]
With Tha Carter VI set to arrive on Friday (June 6), Lil Wayne is plotting a North American tour to bring the album with him on the road later this year. Announced on Tuesday (June 3), Weezy’s Tha Carter VI Tour is slated to kick off on Friday with a celebratory show at the iconic […]
Mariah Carey is stepping into a new era. After going nearly seven years without dropping a proper album, the pop superstar appeared to tease on social media that she has a new LP in the works — and the first taste of it may be coming sooner than you think.
In one video posted Monday (June 2), Mimi looks as glamorous as ever while sitting in a car, listening to a single with a groovy club beat on the radio. The video then cuts to a shot of the screen displaying an untitled track — “T:D_MC16.mp3.” “To show my appreciation for your support, thank you DJs,” Carey’s smoky voice says as the track heats up.
The clip then pans to the car’s license plate, which displays the following: “MC16.” The caption reads, “What’s your type?” — the same message that the video ends with.
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Based on the license plate, it looks like the Songbird Supreme is finally following up 2018’s Caution, which was the 15th album in her discography — as in, her next LP will be her 16th, or “MC16.” It would also appear that the first single could arrive Friday (June 6), based on another video Carey posted on Instagram one day after the first one. In the second clip, she sits again in a car while music plays on the stereo system, the engine loudly running before the shot cuts to a message reading, “June 6.”
Billboard has reached out to Carey’s reps for comment.
Though the “Obsessed” singer has been active over the years with her yearly “All I Want for Christmas” pushes, fans have been growing increasingly impatient for fresh music. Carey’s last album, Caution, reached No. 5 on the Billboard 200, one of 18 top 10 entries she’s scored on the chart over the course of her career.
The new teasers come just a few days after Carey celebrated the 20th anniversary of one of her most iconic albums, The Emancipation of Mimi, which spent two weeks at No. 1 in 2005. To mark the occasion, she recently released a special multi-disc anniversary edition of the project, featuring remixes, bonus tracks, radio mixes and a cappella cuts compiled together in one place for the first time.
See Carey’s posts below.
Shane Hawkins set the record straight on which Foo Fighters song was his late dad Taylor Hawkins‘ favorite to play during a recent drum clinic at the Dead Famous cocktail bar in Newquay, England. “All right, this is another one of my dad’s that I like to play,” Hawkins, 18, told the crowd at the […]
Hawaiian singer-songwriter Maoli signed with WME for global representation in all areas. According to a press release, Maoli has racked up more than half a billion streams globally across nine independent album releases. He’s managed by Jason Gibbs, Shawn Dailey and Emilie Glover at Red Light. Maoli is currently on a tour of the U.S. […]
Source: Gregory Bojorquez/Phil Faraone/MTV1617 / Getty
Clipse have revealed that their departure from Def Jam was reportedly sparked by a dispute over Kendrick Lamar’s guest verse on their upcoming album, “Let God Sort Em Out”.
In an interview with GQ, Pusha T recounted that the label pressured them to censor or remove Lamar’s verse from the track “Chains & Whips.” Pusha refused, saying, “They wanted me to ask Kendrick to censor his verse, which of course I was never doing.” After a month-long standoff, Def Jam’s legal counsel Steve Gawley reportedly told them the label would simply drop Clipse from their roster.
The tension was reportedly fueled by the fact that both Clipse and Lamar have long-standing feuds with Drake, who is currently engaged in a high-profile legal battle with Universal Music Group (UMG), Def Jam’s parent company. The optics of two of Drake’s biggest rivals collaborating while he sues UMG made the label uncomfortable, further complicating the situation.
Rather than compromise their artistic integrity, Clipse opted to part ways with Def Jam. Pusha T, who remains a prominent solo artist, negotiated a full release that allowed the group to sign with Roc Nation for their long-awaited reunion project. Neither Def Jam nor UMG have publicly addressed the claims made by Pusha.
This move underscores the ongoing tension in Hip-Hop’s most talked-about rivalries, particularly as Pusha T continues to stand firm against Drake, a beef that escalated when Pusha exposed Drake’s secret child in “The Story of Adidon,” a diss track that defined their feud.
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Lenny Waronker says his that receiving the Ahmet Ertegun Award at this year’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony will be “very nice” but also acknowledges that “it scares me a bit.”
“What they’re going to be doing certainly will take the pressure off of having to get up and make a speech, ’cause I’m not going to have to make a speech,” the longtime record executive tells Billboard. “There’s going to be a lot of video and things like that. But when you get right down to it, it’s nice. It’s an honor and it’s important and it feels good.”
Two of his five children have followed Waronker into the music business – singer-songwriter Anna Waronker, who founded the rock band that dog, and drummer Joey Waronker, who’s worked with everyone from Beck to R.E.M. and will be on the road playing with Oasis this summer.
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The elder Waronker, 83, is being honored for more than six decades of groundbreaking work, as a producer as well as the former president of Warner Bros. Records and co-founder of DreamWorks Records, playing an instrumental role in the careers of artists such as Randy Newman, James Taylor, Rickie Lee Jones, Maria Muldaur, Rod Stewart, Eric Clapton, Prince, John Fogerty, R.E.M., Rufus Wainwright and Elliott Smith. Since 2010 he’s been back at Warner working as a consultant or, as he puts it, “a senior A&R executive” who’s helped with projects by Jenny Lewis, Gary Clark Jr., Kimbra and more.
Being behind the scenes was part of Waronker’s DNA. Growing up in Los Angeles’ Pacific Palisades with childhood friend Newman, his father Simon transitioned from playing violin in the 20th Century Fox Orchestra to a contractor, then founded Liberty Records in 1955. “I was exposed to music at a very young age,” says Waronker, who spent summers at Liberty while attending the USC Thornton School of Music. He joined the company full-time after graduating, working for the label’s publishing division, Metric Music, where he produced song demos.
“The door really opened when my father started (Liberty). I grew up watching a record company being built and being part of it. I knew what was going on; when he would sign an act that I was familiar with I’d be excited, and when he lost an act…I got to understand that kind of disappointment.”
Waronker subsequently became one of Warners’ most prolific in-house producers, bringing Newman and Van Dyke Parks to the label and helming albums by Jones, Muldaur, Harpers Bizarre, the Everly Brothers, Ry Cooder, Arlo Guthrie and Gordon Lightfoot. He also worked on specific tracks for Taylor (“Shower the People,” “Mexico,” “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)”), Michael McDonald (“I Keep Forgettin’”), Clapton (“Forever Man”) and Stewart (“Broken Arrow”). Mo Ostin — who received the Ertegun Award in 2003 — made Waronker head of A&R in 1970 and company president in 1982.
“I had two careers, in a way,” says Waronker, who brought producers such as Ted Templeman (formerly of Harpers Bizarre), Russ Titelman, Gary Katz, Michael Omartian and others into the Warner ranks. As a producer himself, he notes, “I was pretty judgmental — which of course is stupid, but there you go.”
Ultimately, Waronker says he realized “I was surrounded by great artists, so I had to keep reminding myself, ‘Don’t worry. Keep your mouth shut when something’s going good.’ If I had some idea that could make a record better, say something. I had an enormous amount of respect for the artists; a lot of time it’s staying the hell out of the way when you’re dealing with the kind of people I was dealing with and being as supportive as you can.”
Waronker says he applied that philosophy in his executive roles as well. “When you’re around somebody like (Ostin), if you’re paying attention and listening and asking questions, you’re gonna do OK,” he explains. “(Ostin) wanted a creative community as much as a record company. The relationship part of that was a big, big reason for my having any success as an executive.
“It was a time for experimentation and learning about what you could and couldn’t do. In those days it wasn’t just about the hits; at least in my mind, signing an artist was important because it gave the creative community a sense of what the company stood for. We really took advantage of that, big time. When I think about it now it’s like, ‘Jeez, how did that happen?’ But if you have a point of view and you have strong beliefs about what you’re doing, who you work with, what the company stands for, and you’re right, the rest sort of takes care of itself.”
Prince was, of course, one of those prestige acts on the Warner roster — and one who made Waronker realize the value of standing back and letting the artist follow his muse. “He was incredibly focused, very strong. He knew what we wanted. Every once in awhile he would open up, but mostly he knew what he was doing and wasn’t interested in (outside) ideas. So it was one of those things where he had it and he wasn’t cut out to sit and listen to somebody else talk about his music, which is good and bad because everybody can use help. But he was amazing, what can you say?”
Waronker and Ostin presided over what was considered a golden age for Warner until the early ‘90s, when a corporate reorganization after the death of Time Warner chairman Steve Ross in 1992 led to them leaving the company in 1994. With DreamWorks, Waronker steered the company to nearly five-dozen gold or better albums and more than two dozen Grammy Awards before he left.
“At the time I was starting to get antsy and (then-Warner chairman) Tom Whalley asked me to come in as a senior A&R executive who could help the younger A&R people and get involved, and that idea sounded good to me,” Waronker remembers. “So I went there and I found that it was fun. I like the young A&R (staffers); they were all very open and incredibly respectful, and that felt good. If someone is struggling, I know what that’s like and I know what to say to them.
“What was surprising to me was the amount of knowledge (current Warner staffers) had about what made us tick in the ‘60s, ‘70s, ‘80s, early ‘90s, whatever. They tried to hold onto as much of that as they could. Again, you get the right people — that’s artists, too — and you’re gonna be in good shape.”
The upcoming Rock Hall honor does have Waronker reflecting on his career, of course. But he doesn’t expect that will turn into something more, like a memoir. “Nah, I don’t want to do that,” he says. “If you’re going to write you have to tell the truth, and I just didn’t want to do that. I’m not good with dishing stuff. Most of these books are a good attempt at telling the truth, but having to tell the real truth, then it becomes my truth, and I’m not interested in it.”
The Rock Hall induction ceremony takes place Nov. 8 at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles and will stream live on Disney+, moving to Hulu the next day and an ABC special later. Performer inductees are Bad Company, Chubby Checker, Joe Cocker, Cyndi Lauper, Outkast, Soundgarden and the White Stripes. Salt-N-Pepa and Warren Zevon will receive the musical influence award, with Thom Bell, Nicky Hopkins and Wrecking Crew bassist Carol Kaye receiving the musical excellence award.
The hunt is on for an iconic but missing artifact from Robert Zemeckis’ classic 1985 film Back to the Future.
Gibson Guitars and Universal Home Entertainment, in conjunction with filmmaker Doc Crotzer, have launched Lost to the Future, a search for the Gibson ES-345 Cherry Red guitar that Michael J. Fox, as Marty McFly, played in the beloved film. As fans well know, Fox picked up the guitar during the movie’s Enchantment Under the Sea high school dance, where he performed the Penguins’ “Earth Angel” and then shredded Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode.”
The guitar, which was rented as a prop from Norm’s Rare Guitars in Tarzana, Calif., has been missing for several decades. Now Gibson and Crotzer (Road House, Shotgun Wedding, Glee) have begun a “true crime search” for the instrument, and the filmmaker is planning to make a documentary about the endeavor.
“Back to the Future made me want to make movies as a kid, and made me want to pick up a guitar,” Crotzer tells Billboard. “I’m a guitar player but I’m just a hobbyist; I went on with my (filmmaking) career, but I had always wondered what happened to that guitar. Over the last however many years so many props from the movie have surfaced…but (the guitar) had never surfaced.”
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Gibson’s director of brand experience Mark Agnesi, who previously worked at Norm’s Rare Guitars before joining Gibson, also cites the “Johnny B. Goode” scene as one of his inspirations to play. “I’ve been searching for this thing for 16 years now,” he says. “I started searching everywhere. Norm’s has this big warehouse of guitars and occasionally I’d go in and look for certain things, and every time I’m in there I was always looking around for (the Back to the Future guitar), but to no avail.”
They aren’t the only ones who were inspired by the scene, of course. When Fox joined Coldplay at last year’s Glastonbury Festival in England, frontman Chris Martin told the crowd that, “The main reason why we’re in a band is because of watching Back to the Future,” adding that Fox is “our hero forever and one of the most amazing people on Earth.” In a new video announcing the Lost to the Future project, John Mayer notes that the scene “was a big Rocky moment for a lot of kids,” while Jason Isbell explains “that’s the most iconic guitar from a movie. I don’t think anything else comes close…That was a huge deal for me. The world needs to see that guitar.”
Those with leads about the guitar’s whereabouts are asked to call 1-888-345-1955 or send a message via www.LostToTheFuture.com.
The trail for the guitar is indeed cold. It was apparently sold, then sold back to Norm’s and then presumably resold again. “Back then there was no digital record of that stuff; it was all hand-written receipts and stuff,” Gibson’s Agnesi says. “We know it was returned to Norm’s. At that time in the mid ‘80s there was a Japanese vintage guitar boom; charter buses of Japanese tourists were pulling up and buying everything in sight. So it could be someone has it in Japan. We don’t know. The possibilities of where it could be are endless.”
The guitar’s serial number is not known, but there is a unique tell that will allow it to be authenticated, according to Agnesi; the inlay on its 12th fret is solid, not split like the others on the neck, which was standard for the ES-345 at the time. “That anomaly is the smoking gun we’re looking for, thank God,” Agnesi says. “That will not be on any other guitar. Either someone custom-ordered it that way or it would be marked a factory second on the back of the head stock. That’s how we’ll know we’ve found the guitar we’re looking for.”
Filmmaker Crotzer adds that the tell is “the most amazing coincidence. I personally believe it’s like some higher power giving us the opportunity to find the thing.”
An irony is that while Back to the Future is set in 1955, the ES-345 was not yet in production in 1958, and not made in cherry red until the following year. “Norm has publicly said he knew that guitar was wrong for the era,” Agnesi notes, adding that in ’55 Berry was playing a Gibson ES-5 Switchmaster. But the filmmakers, he says, wanted something slimmer and more streamlined. “They wanted that Chuck Berry 345 look even though it wasn’t the right guitar for the time period,” Agnesi says. “They were willing to take some small liberties and have fun in the movie with it. If not for that guitar, the scene might not have been as impactful.”
It also dovetails with the fact that “Johnny B. Goode” wasn’t released until 1958 — adding to Marty McFly’s future prognostication that, “I guess you guys aren’t ready for that yet, but your kids are gonna love it.”
Charles Berry says that his father was not bothered by those historical inaccuracies, however. “Dad was fairly laid back when it came to stuff like that,” he says, adding that the family didn’t know about the “Johnny B. Goode” scene “until maybe a month or two before. It’s just like (the 1987 documentary) Hail! Hail! Rock ‘n’ Roll; he said, ‘Oh yeah, by the way, they want to make this movie about me.’ (Back to the Future) was the same type of thing; he comes to the house and says, ‘Yeah, there’s this movie coming out, in one of the scenes this kid’s playing ‘Johnny B. Goode.’ ‘Really?!”
Seeing the film, the younger Berry — who owns some of his father’s old guitars and administrates the loan or donation of others to museums — says, “We got a kick out of it. It’s a very good movie, a nice wholesome movie. Michael J. Fox did a really cool job. It may not be exactly the right guitar, but we’ll take it.”
The scene famously ends with one of the band members, ostensibly Berry’s cousin Marvin, calling the rock n’ roll pioneer and holding the phone up to hear what’s being played on stage. “Besides, ‘What’s it like to be Chuck Berry’s son?,’ after ’85 the most-asked question I get is, ‘Does your dad really have a cousin Marvin?’” says Charles Berry with a laugh. “No, it was just in the movie.”
The video announcing the search also features Back to the Future co-screenwriter Bob Gale, co-stars Lea Thompson and Christopher Lloyd, and Huey Lewis, who had an uncredited bit part and, with his band the News, scored a Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hit with “The Power of Love” from the soundtrack. “Back to the Future, it keeps growing; it’s like a Wizard of Oz for a new generation,” says Lewis, adding that, “it’s fascinating (the guitar) has not turned up. It’s a very distinctive one. Whoever has this guitar must not have heard that they’re searching for it yet. Once the word is out, if you’ve got a 345, you’re going to look and see if that’s the one.”
The search is part of a number of Gibson initiatives related to the film and the guitar’s legacy in it. An episode of Gibson TV: The Collection that premieres in October features Fox talking about his own history of guitar playing and his collection of 40-some instruments. The same month, Gibson and Epiphone will release new custom models of the ES-345 as well as Back to the Future-themed apparel, and Gibson Gives will announce a partnership with the Michael J. Fox Foundation.
“I just wanted to be a rock n’ roll guitarist,” Fox says in The Collection. “That’s all I wanted to do. I became an actor instead of a guitarist…It’s always been a passion of mine, rock n’ roll — especially the guitar.” He adds that the ES-345 in the film “was such a good guitar. It’s like Excalibur…. Being 23 years old and that scene, I was having the f–king best time. But I didn’t realize the influence it had on people. It’s just expressing my love for the guitar and all the great players.”
Crotzer says all of that will be part of the Lost to the Future documentary. A happy ending is hoped for, but Crotzer is also out to tell the greater story surrounding it.
“We’ve realized (the story) is bigger than we thought,” he says. “The through-line is the true crime search for this guitar, but the emotional core of it is tracking how it inspired a generation of kids, whether they went on to become Chris Martin or went off to do completely other things. There’s a collective experience here that we really want to capture.”
After Taylor Swift surprised the world late last week with the news that she now owns the masters of her first six albums, once the dust settled, fans wondered: Will the final two planned re-recordings of her self-titled 2008 debut album and of 2017’s Reputation ever see the light of day?
The thing is, even though Swift no longer has an express reason to re-record the projects to reclaim their ownership, her fans have grown accustomed to the fanfare around the Taylor’s Version releases, including unheard “From the Vault” tracks and new music videos.
Swift addressed the burning question directly in her open letter to fans posted on her website Friday, revealing that she had only re-recorded “a quarter” of Reputation, while she had “completely re-recorded my entire debut album, and I really love how it sounds now.” She also said both “can still have their moments to re-emerge when the time is right, if that would be something you guys would be excited about. But if it happens, it won’t be from a place of sadness and longing for what I wish I could have. It will just be a celebration now.”
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On the new Billboard Pop Shop Podcast, Katie & Keith are talking all about Swift being reunited with her first six albums and what the circumstances might be for their Taylor’s Version re-releases.
Listen to the full podcast here:
Also on the show, we’ve got chart news on how Alex Warren hits No. 1 for the first time on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart with “Ordinary,” and, while Morgan Wallen’s I’m the Problem holds at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for a second week, two more Wallen albums join Problem in the top 10, making him only the seventh act in the last 60 years to have at least three albums simultaneously in the top 10.
The Billboard Pop Shop Podcast is your one-stop shop for all things pop on Billboard‘s weekly charts. You can always count on a lively discussion about the latest pop news, fun chart stats and stories, new music, and guest interviews with music stars and folks from the world of pop. Casual pop fans and chart junkies can hear Billboard‘s executive digital director, West Coast, Katie Atkinson and Billboard’s managing director, charts and data operations, Keith Caulfield every week on the podcast, which can be streamed on Billboard.com or downloaded in Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast provider. (Click here to listen to the previous edition of the show on Billboard.com.)
What will be the No. 1 song of the summer of 2025? We begin making our way toward the answer, as Billboard’s annual Songs of the Summer chart returns to Billboard.com. The 20-position Songs of the Summer running tally tracks the most popular titles based on cumulative performance on the weekly streaming-, airplay- and sales-based […]