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Bad Bunny debuts at No. 1 on the TikTok Billboard Top 50, and LiAngelo Ball and Flawed Mangoes make their way into the top 10. Keep watching to see where they land! Tetris Kelly:This week sees two top 10 debuts and one of them is taking the top spot. Bad Bunny’s “DTMF” debuts at the […]
Doja Cat has partnered with Red Cross and an artist to sell a collection of clothes to aid those affected by the wildfires, and Snoop Dogg is thinking of doing a concert to help victims. Keep watching to learn more about how artists are helping. Tetris Kelly:Doja Cat and Snoop are showing their support for […]
Billboard cover star and the ‘Future of Hopecore’ artist, Flawed Mangoes, is bringing out the emotions through his music. He sits down and shares his thoughts on “Killswitch Lullaby” going viral on TikTok, meeting with Kai Cenat, his creative solo process and more! Flawed Mangoes: You know what it says? Yes, I know what this […]
Ariana Grande and Selena Gomez have both been nominated for their roles in ‘Wicked’ and ‘Emilia Pérez’ as Best Supporting Actress. Keep watching to see what other awards their respective films were nominated for! Tetris Kelly: From the Golden Globes and now on the road to the Oscars, both Selena Gomez and Ariana Grande have […]
Drake filed a lawsuit against UMG for defamation over Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us.” Keep watching for the full details of the case. Tetris Kelly:Is Drake ending his legal beef against UMG and Kendrick? From ending the petition to filing a lawsuit, we got the story. The Canadian rapper has filed an official lawsuit on […]
Skillet’s John Cooper has a good sense of humor about some of the hard lessons he’s learned about the music business in nearly three decades as a musician. The outspoken, gregarious singer, fresh off the release of a new album (Revolution) and a European tour, laughs heartily when asked what lessons he wish he learned early his career.
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“I would go back to my younger self and say, ‘They call it the music business for a reason,” he tells Billboard’s Behind the Setlist podcast. “That part — ‘business’ — actually matters. Because when you first start — I mean, I don’t know if everybody’s like this, but I certainly was like, ‘No, no, it’s not a business, it’s art. It’s no business involved. It’s just what I want to sing about. It’s all about me and my feelings and my artwork, and I’m never gonna let anybody bastardize my art.’ And you just end up making a bunch of dumb decisions because you don’t realize that, yes, it is about art, but you still got to pay bills. And you’re in the van in the middle of the night — if anybody’s in a band out there, they’re going to know what I’m talking about — you’re driving the van, and all of a sudden you feel something. You look out the side as you’re driving and you see one of the wheels from the trailer going past you [and] it flies off in the middle of the night. And I’m sitting there going, ‘I don’t care. It’s all about my art.’ That’s not real! You’ve got to pay for that, man!”
It took Cooper a few years to realize he needed to be more hands-on and not expect others to handle his business the way he wants. “If you want it done right, you have to get involved,” he insists. “That’s not to say [my manager and business manager] didn’t do their job, but they’re never going to do it the way you want it done. And it’s easy to complain about it, but just get your hands dirty.”
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The need to be more involved in the business side of his career “really hit home” early in Cooper’s career when the person preparing his taxes asked to see his taxes for the band’s first four years. “And I said, ‘Well, we lost money for the first four years, so I didn’t turn them in,’” Cooper recalls. “He’s like, ‘Well, you’re gonna pay for that now. You’ve gotta pay a fee for not doing it right.’ And so I would go back and just say [to my younger self], ‘Hey, yes, it’s about the art, but you can’t be a moron. You’ve got to grow up.’”
Over time, Cooper has learned the business side of music from a variety of people, including a manager that arrived six years into his career and his business manager. He also took inspiration from Mötley Crüe bass player Nikki Sixx, who Cooper says “understood it’s about art, but you got to take care of your business. You want to be around for 30 years? You better get it in gear, son!”
The lessons Cooper learned will help now that Skillet is independent and self-releasing its music. After nearly two decades with Atlantic Records — 99% of which was positive, Cooper says — the band released Revolution on its own Hear It Loud imprint. While Atlantic Records helped Skillet find mainstream success (“Awake and Alive” reached No. 1 on the Billboard Active Rock chart in 2011) there was more bureaucracy than Cooper would have preferred. “A lot of red tape,” he says. “A lot of people having to approve the songs.” Now, Skillet now has greater creative control and can release music more frequently.
“We wrote 11 songs for this record, and I loved it,” he says. “I loved making the project. It was so much fun. We wrote, recorded and released this album in 13 months. And I’ll tell you what, it was so fun, and I love the music.”
Listen to the entire interview with Skillet’s John Cooper using the embedded Spotify player below, or go to Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeart, Amazon Music, Podbean or Everand.
Cardi B took to Spaces to accuse Offset and his mother of stealing from her, and reiterating she wants the divorce papers signed. Keep watching for her rant. Cardi B:I ain’t listen after you and your momma robbed me. Yeah, you and your mom robbed me cold, right under my nose. Tetris Kelly:Cardi say what?! […]
Billboard cover star & the ‘Future of Latin’ singer Xavi is making his mark. The young singer is sacrificing his youth to put in the work to take over the Latin music, and he shares how he first started getting into music, how he created “La Diabla,” why he’s putting love and passion into his music and more!
Xavi:
Yes, sir. We speaking English today. Hey Phoenix, Arizona, is where we at. Billboard! I grew up listening to Vicente Fernandez, Selena, you know, the typical music where like, that’s what my mom would wake me up to, you know, like she would be cleaning and she would put on Selena, Vicente. You know, I feel like I just grew up with all that music and then going to the U.S., there was a whole different world, you know. And I got to, like, hear Justin Bieber, Daniel Caesar and a lot of other ones, you know. I was, like, I was a little kid, so I would, like, dress up, yeah, I don’t know. I just really liked his music and like style. Instead of, like, expressing my emotions, I expressed it through music.
Lyndsey Havens:
Do you remember the first time that you actually started writing out lyrics for your own music?
Oh my gosh, it was a long time ago, but yeah, I do remember. I was 12, and I remember I would just like freestyle songs and stuff, and so, like, I got to a point where I was like, Wait, why am I not writing this, you know? So I started writing it, and I didn’t have the best handwriting, you know, but we made it work, and we wrote a little song, but it’s an old, old, old song. I don’t even remember it, but yeah, I was told when I wrote my first song.
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Carrie Underwood is speaking out after receiving backlash following the announcement that she will be performing at Trump’s inauguration. Keep watching to see what she had to say! Tetris Kelly: The internet found out Carrie Underwood would be singing at Trump’s inauguration and it’s causing a roar of online backlash and she’s spoken out. After […]
As wildfires continue to threaten Los Angeles and surrounding areas, organizers behind awards shows and related events are figuring out how to pivot to best support the community. Should they move forward and become fundraisers for relief efforts? Or is it best to cancel or postpone to a later date? Explore Explore See latest videos, […]