Music News

07 Dec 2022

Adam Levine Is Google’s Top Trending Musician of 2022

Google released its Year in Search for 2022 on Wednesday (Dec. 7), and the trends in the United States throughout the year paint a picture of the most popular stories, songs and events of the year.

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The top musician that was searched on Google this year was Adam Levine, most likely in connection to his alleged affair with Instagram model Sumner Stroh that made waves throughout the Internet back in September. Following Levine, Mary J. Blige, Lil Tjay, Kendrick Lamar and Migos wrap up the top five.

For people in general, Johnny Depp and Amber Heard both made the top five, as their defamation trial was made available for the public to livestream throughout the spring. Will Smith was also in the top five searched people, as a result of his headline-making incident at the 2022 Academy Awards, during which he stormed the stage and slapped Chris Rock across the face.

As far as songs, the Encanto hit, “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” topped the list. The film’s “Surface Pressure” followed, and the TikTok-viral track “Jiggle Jiggle” by Duke & Jones and Louis Theroux. Rounding out the top five are Sam Smith and Kim Petras’ collaboration, “Unholy,” and Harry Styles’ Harry’s House smash, “As It Was.”

“We Don’t Talk About Bruno” also came in at No. 3 on the year’s top trends on Google’s “Hum to Search” feature. The top song on that list was Backstreet Boys’ “Everybody (Backstreets Back),” followed by “Never Gonna Give You Up” by Rick Astley.

See Google’s full Year in Search 2022 report here.

07 Dec 2022

BTS’ V Taps Into His Inner Equestrian in ’Me, Myself & V’ Concept Film

BTS‘ V has been a superstar in the 2010s and 2020s, but what if he traveled back in time to the ’40s or ’50s?

In the K-pop idol’s photo folio concept film, which arrived on Wednesday (Dec. 7), fans see him donning some of the classy hallmarks of yesteryear in a stunning video. To fit the vintage theme, the video — titled “Me Myself and V, ‘Veautiful Days’” — starts off in a sepia tone before cutting to black-and-white footage of him reading an elaborately bound book in the grass while wearing an all-white suit and a hat with a wide brim.

Some of vintage V’s interests include gazing through telescopes, riding a bicycle through the countryside and spending time with majestic horses.

Fans were impressed by the beauty of the concept film. One Twitter user wrote, “V is breathtakingly beautiful and his old soul comes right through with his concept. Thank you #V…If Tae ever decides to do a period drama/movie (actually I’d watch no matter what) I will be first in line to watch.” Another user added, “Taehyung’s soul is genuine and romantic. It’s elegant, royal and veautiful like I’m lost for words right now.”

The release date for V’s forthcoming book of photos has yet to be announced, but the photo folio gives fans something to look forward to while they wait for his solo album. The K-pop singer hopped on Korean media platform Weverse in March and answered a couple of questions regarding the anticipated release of his solo music. He told an inquiring fan that he will “release it within the year,” according to a translation by Koreaboo.

Watch V’s photo folio in the video above.

07 Dec 2022

Mariah Carey Hilariously Chides Stephen Colbert Over ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You’ Lyrics

Mariah Carey graces The Late Show With Stephen Colbert with her presence on Wednesday night’s (Dec. 7) episode, and in the lead-up to the sit-down, the talk show gave fans a sneak peek at the Queen of Christmas taking Stephen Colbert’s famed “Colbert Questionert.”

The host kicks off the round of questions by asking, “You only get one song to listen to for the rest of your life. What is it?” Mariah’s answer turns out to inadvertently be one of her very own. “Stephen Colbert’s latest hit,” she replied cheekily, to which Colbert informed her, “The last song I sang was ‘All I Want for Christmas’ on this show, last night, actually. … I ended the monologue singing your song last night!”

Of course, the icon wanted to know just how much of her No. 1 hit the host crooned, and he treated her to the song’s iconic intro and part of the chorus. “You skipped a little part of the B section, but that’s all right,” Mariah sang along to the melody as the audience erupted into laughter with her.

“All I Want for Christmas Is You” has already begun its now-annual journey up the Hot 100 for this Christmas season. On the chart dated Dec. 10, the 1994 single sits at No. 2, just behind Taylor Swift’s “Anti-Hero.” It’s peaked at No. 1 three years in a row now, dating back to its first ascension in 2019.

Later this month, Carey is bringing her Christmas spirit to New York City and Toronto for a quartet of Merry Christmas to All! holiday concerts, and will also get her very own primetime holiday special on CBS.

Watch a preview of Mariah’s festive “Colbert Questionert” below.

07 Dec 2022

Peter Cooper, Grammy-Nominated Producer, Journalist & Historian, Dies at 52

Peter Cooper, a Grammy-nominated producer, highly regarded Nashville journalist and Country Music Hall of Fame executive, died Dec. 6. He was 52.

His family confirmed the death, posting on Facebook that he died in his sleep after suffering a severe head injury following a fall late last week.

A South Carolina native, Cooper joined the staff of The Tennessean as its prime music writer in 2000 before moving to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2014 as museum editor.

“He grew to assume the role of museum senior director, producer and writer, driving several important creative initiatives and bringing a poetic grace to them all,” the hall’s CEO Kyle Young said in a statement. “He developed and implemented mission-oriented programs, exhibitions, podcasts and, as a writer, elegantly described the rich character of the country music story. His talents were immense, but his heart was even bigger, and he touched the lives of those he encountered in immeasurable ways. Our thoughts are with his family during this difficult time.”

For all his talents, many saw Cooper first and foremost as a journalist, who brought tremendous empathy to the subjects he covered, including such titans as Johnny Cash, George Jones and Kris Kristofferson, who reportedly told Cooper that he looked “at the world with an artist’s eye, and a human heart and soul.”

Ricky Skaggs tells Billboard he considered Cooper “one of the most gentle and soft-spoken men I ever knew. His knowledge of music, the writers, the players and singers was really unmatched in Nashville. Our industry lost a vital voice for our times. He will be sorely missed!”

Best-selling biographer/journalist Alanna Nash added, “One of the many things that separated Peter from the rest of us who do this work, aside from just the breathtaking humanity that imbued his writing, was his side gig as a musician and his intimate understanding of the torment artists endure. He wrote journalism from the inside of the story, from its guts, because he lived all the wrenching passion and rode every threadbare highway. You don’t drive Hank Williams’ 300-mile ‘last ride’ from Knoxville to Oak Hill, W.V., as Peter did for a story about the 50th anniversary of Williams’ death, without feeling that same pain.”

Like Tom T. Hall, whom he revered, Cooper was, above all, a storyteller through his reported pieces and his own career as a performing singer/songwriter. An accomplished musician, he released several albums as part of the duo Eric Brace & Peter Cooper and was in the trio Eric Brace, Peter Cooper and Thomm Jutz.

His songs had been recorded by John Prine, Todd Snider, Bobby Bare and Mac Wiseman, among others. 

Cooper received a Grammy nomination in best children’s album for 2011’s I Love: Tom T. Hall’s Songs of Fox Hollow, a tribute album to the songwriter’s story songs.

A memorial service will take place in early 2023. In lieu of flowers, his family asks that donations be made to the Baker Cooper fund to support his 12-year-old son’s education care of Wells Fargo Bank or to the Country Music Hall of Fame. 

–Assistance in preparing this story provided by Jessica Nicholson.

07 Dec 2022

Iggy Pop Breaks Longevity Record on Mainstream Rock Airplay Chart

After a record 31 years away, Iggy Pop is back on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart.

“Frenzy,” the Godfather of Punk’s lead single from his upcoming album Every Loser, debuts at No. 38 on the ranking dated Dec. 10.

Iggy Pop makes his first appearance on the list since “Candy,” a duet with Kate Pierson of The B-52’s, peaked at No. 30 in January 1991 and charted into that February.

In between “Candy” and “Frenzy,” Iggy Pop has stayed busy, releasing nine albums between 1993 and 2019. While none spurred singles that reached Mainstream Rock Airplay, he appeared on Alternative Airplay with two tracks (“Wild America,” No. 25, 1993; “Little Know It All,” No. 35, 2003) and Adult Alternative Airplay with one (“Gardenia,” No. 26, 2016).

Iggy Pop’s 31-year absence from Mainstream Rock Airplay breaks a record set earlier in 2022 by Jeff Beck. Beck had been away for 28 years, from his Seal co-bill “Manic Depression” in 1994 to his featured turn on Ozzy Osbourne’s “Patient Number 9” this year.

Longest Gaps Between Mainstream Rock Airplay Entries
31 years, nine months, two weeks, Iggy Pop (1991-2022)
28 years, four months, Jeff Beck (1994-2022)
27 years, five months, Elton John (1992-2020)
25 years, 11 months, three weeks, Brian May (1993-2019)
23 years, four months, three weeks, Charlie Daniels (1987-2011)

“Frenzy” is Iggy Pop’s sixth Mainstream Rock Airplay appearance, dating to the chart’s 1981 inception. He achieved his best with “Real Wild Child,” which hit No. 27 in 1987.

Every Loser is due as one of 2023’s first album releases, on Jan. 6.

07 Dec 2022

Stevie Nicks Praises Lizzo’s Selfless People’s Choice Awards Speech: ‘Your Name Is in the Stars Now’

Stevie Nicks is praising Lizzo for her powerful speech at Tuesday’s 2022 People’s Choice Awards.

After being presented with the People’s Champion award by her mother, Shari Johnson-Jefferson, Lizzo admitted she’d gone back and forth about accepting the award in the first place, and then gracefully turned the spotlight over to a number of activists, artists and other champions she invited up onstage.

Nicks was impressed with the selfless gesture, and she posted her appreciation Wednesday (Dec. 7) on Instagram.

“Dearest Lizzo~ In my opinion~ your presentation last night on the People’s Choice Awards was not only so beautiful and so needed~ that you get the award for being a great woman of our time,” the Fleetwood Mac legend wrote in an open letter to the Special singer on Instagram. “I was so impressed and so touched that you put that together and pulled it off. It was stunning~ and everyone heard you. You have given all women soundbites forever~ flute player, singer, songwriter, future politician…? Your name is in the stars now~ Much Love, Stevie Nicks.”

Appropriately enough for the People’s Choice Awards, Lizzo turned her acceptance speech over to the people, highlighting an impressive array of activists who are effecting real change every day.

“To be an icon isn’t about how long you’ve had your platform,” Lizzo said on stage. “Being an icon is what you do with that platform. And ever since the beginning of my career, I’ve used my platform to amplify marginalized voices. So tonight, I am sharing this honor — make some noise for the people, y’all,” she said before introducing Mary Copeny (i.e. “Little Miss Flint”), Beauty 2 the Streetz founder Shirley Raines, Women’s March Foundation president Emiliana Guereca and many more.

Just last week, Nicks penned a poignant handwritten letter to her Fleetwood Mac bandmate Christine McVie after the “Songbird” singer died at age 79.

Read Nicks’ tribute and watch Lizzo’s full speech below:

07 Dec 2022

Sabrina Carpenter Celebrates the ‘Hoelidays’ With ‘A Nonsense Christmas’

Sabrina Carpenter is bringing the heat to the holiday season with a spicy new remix of her Emails I Can’t Send fan-favorite, “Nonsense.”

In “A Nonsense Christmas,” the 23-year-old pop star switches up the goofy lyrics to take on a more festive, flirty spin. Think I only want you under my mistletoe / I might change your contact to ’Has a huge North Pole’ / You said you like my stockings better on the floor / Boy, I’ve been a bad girl, I guess I’m getting coal,” she sings in the opening verse, later noting in the chorus that “Lookin’ at you got me thinkin’ Christmas.”

“y’all made me do this,” Carpenter tweeted announcing the single on Wednesday (Dec. 7). “‘A Nonsense Christmas‘ is out now on all streaming platforms happy hoelidays!!”

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Last month, the star revealed to Billboard on the American Music Awards red carpet that the original version of “Nonsense” was the “most fun” song to write. “It’s just the silliest song,” she continued of the track, “and when we were writing it, I was like, ‘It’s never gonna be put out.’ … At first I was like, ‘It doesn’t make sense with the album,’ and then I kind of realized that there’s a lot of dual feelings to heartbreak and grieving and moving on, and it can happy and sad and confident and insecure. So yeah, that’s one of my favorites too.”

Emails I Can’t Send as a whole peaked at No. 23 on the Billboard 200 upon its release, giving Carpenter the highest chart entry of her career.

Listen to “A Nonsense Christmas” below.

07 Dec 2022

Booker T. & The M.G.’s Frontman Booker T. Jones Remembers Stax Records Founder Jim Stewart

Jim Stewart, the Father of Stax, is dead. The ship has lost its captain, and our hearts are lost at sea. As eternal as he seemed to a young boy like me, I thought this day would never come as he pulled me into his dream of making music for the world. 

There was an intense fire burning in Jim’s chest, born of the love of music, and that fire quickly spread to those around him. What was Jim’s thought process, putting his country music studio smack dab in the middle of South Memphis? The young neighborhood musicians found Stax on their own. They biked to the studio; they worked at the market across the street from the studio; they ditched high school to record at the studio. Stax became a haven, an outlet for the young songwriters in the neighborhood to express themselves. 

Jim never admitted that he believed in me. What if your boss was a small, reclusive lion who never told you exactly what he expected — or what he wanted of you besides showing up for work on time? I would have preferred the lion’s roar to the slightly turned head and his look of feigned disinterest. In hindsight, though, I realize it was often that look of disappointment that spurred me to try to make better music. 

After Booker T. & The M.G.’s recorded “Behave Yourself,” Jim liked it so much that he wanted to put the song out as a single. Jim pushed the band on the spur of the moment, to come up with a B-side for “Behave Yourself.”  Lucky for me I had been working on a bluesy musical sequence, I taught it to the band, and it became “Green Onions.” So Jim gets the credit for pushing us to record the song which became the iconic “Green Onions”. 

Such was the nature of Jim Stewart, the driving force behind the great Stax Records of Memphis, Tennessee. For me, he was the source of countless hours of musical joy, as well as the privilege of making music in a studio less than two blocks from my childhood home. 

Jim fought for Stax Records to the bitter end, sacrificing house, home and well-being. For his gifts to me, the Stax Family, and the world, may he rest in God’s peace. 

Farewell to a King. 

07 Dec 2022

Here’s Why Florence Welch Is Now a Fan of TikTok

While Florence + the Machine‘s Florence Welch was previously not exactly a fan of using TikTok to promote her music, she’s since come around, she reveals in an interview with The New Yorker.

She explained to the magazine that as she was preparing to release Dance Fever earlier this year, her label kept asking her what she was going to do on the video-sharing app to help promote the album, noting that going viral could potentially help boost streaming numbers. Her response to her label, according to Welch?

“Oh, I actively don’t want to go viral. Anytime anything of mine has gone remotely viral, it’s filled me
with dread. Any kind of attention that is not directly related to the work or an album, I don’t want it,”
she recalled. “My fans, the people who follow me, are not going to believe that I just suddenly decided to do TikTok.”

After her label asked her to engage more with the platform, Welch posted a video of
herself performing a snippet of her song “My Love” in March. She captioned the a cappella clip, “The label arebegging me for ‘lo fi tik toks’ so here you go. pls send help.” The clip subsequently did experience some viral success — just as her label wanted. (Dance Fever subsequently peaked at No. 7 on the Billboard 200 after its May release.)

Reading the comments on the post changed her mind about the platform, the Grammy-nominated artist told The New Yorker. “I found [the TikTok community] to be anarchic and hilarious and weird in a way that I really enjoyed,” she shared.

“I feel like it’s a platform on which you can be stranger,” she added. “Like, if I just want to drink fake blood in a graveyard, TikTok is an environment that would embrace that.”

07 Dec 2022

JUJU Talks Self-Acceptance & Celebrating Individuality for Billboard Japan Women in Music

J-pop songstress JUJU spoke to Billboard Japan for its latest Women in Music interview featuring trailblazing women in the Japanese music industry. The initiative launched this year in the same spirit of Billboard’s annual Women in Music issue that began in 2007, with a mission to produce interviews, live performances and panel discussions focusing on women who continue to break new ground in Japan’s music business.

The 19-year veteran of Japanese showbiz continues to make great strides this year, including her new song “Hana” (Flowers) written as the theme for the movie Motherhood, which hit Japanese theaters in November. The pop star who has inspired legions of fans with her powerful vocals throughout her music career shared her thoughts on self-acceptance and celebrating individuality in this latest interview.

Have you ever felt that being a woman was an obstacle in your career?

At the moment, not at all. This year marks the 19th anniversary of my debut as a singer, but I don’t think I’ve experienced anything where I felt that it was difficult to accomplish because I’m a woman. When I look around me, however, I do feel the need to change the system. The way society works was mostly established more than 60 years ago during the period of economic growth in Japan, and is out of step with the times. Even the systems that were created specifically for women need to be updated by assessing what we really need. For example, a blanket rule for maternity leave isn’t enough, don’t you think? People have completely different potentials whether they’re a woman or a man, in terms of physical strength and family environment and such, but the disadvantages may be greater if everyone is bound by a set of rules that aren’t flexible.

Since you mentioned maternity leave… Your latest song “Hana” is the theme of Ryuichi Hiroki’s new movie Motherhood, which depicts the complicated relationships between mothers and daughters.

The movie is a story that revolves around women, but the title of the theme song “Hana” expresses the idea of respecting all individuals as we live our lives as people, including being women. We all grow up knowing that there are many different kinds of flowers, right? From the kinds we don’t know the names of that bloom on the roadside to the ones in a magnificent bouquet made at a florist, flowers bloom at different times and in different ways, but they’re all splendid. The spirit of the lyrics is, “Wouldn’t it be great if we each could bloom in the place of our choice, in the way we decided, and in the color we want to be?” I hope this song inspires listeners to reflect on whether they’re being true to themselves. I’d like people to remember that it’s OK for you to be who you are.

I get the impression that you firmly believe that people are diverse in their own ways. When did you start thinking this way?

Ever since I was a child, I think. There were a lot of weird adults around me growing up. My family and the other grown-ups around me didn’t care that there were children around and never hid anything from me. Even topics that people would normally be like, “Don’t let kids hear that!” would be openly discussed. Maybe they figured, “If she’s going to eventually hear about it elsewhere, she might as well hear it from us.” Like, “If she doesn’t understand something, she can ask an adult around her on the spot. That way, she won’t end up misunderstanding.” People would come to our parents’ gatherings crying and asking for advice about their problems. Because I grew up in such an environment, I was able to imagine that even those who normally seem happy can have such problems, and I came to think, as a kid, that being a grown-up can be hard.

I spent some time in New York later on, a place where people of different races and languages gather, but I realized that in the sense that people have various worries and problems even if they don’t show it on the outside, the world is no different from the one I’d seen growing up.

How have you dealt with your own worries and problems?

Whenever I’m in a difficult situation, I think back to a letter a friend sent me long ago. It said, “A day is a day, no matter how you spend it.” Things happen as you live your life and sometimes it can be hard. Still, the days go on, and no matter how you spend it, the same amount of time will pass. Then let’s try to not take it too seriously, so that we don’t spend all our time on the hard things. That’s the message I got from the letter. I mean, today is the youngest day of our lives. And tomorrow we’ll be a day older and maybe wiser. So I’m not afraid of getting older, and it’s never too late to start something. After all, a day is a day no matter how you spend it. That’s why I try to think that things will work out no matter how I do it. Though sometimes it’s not good enough even when I do try to think like that.

You know it, but sometimes it’s not good enough. Is there a way to cope when you can’t bring yourself to think, “A day is a day no matter how I spend it?”

I’m the type who doesn’t know when to give up, so I can’t give up on myself when I’m in a bad situation. What inspires me when I want to pull myself up again is a line from Whitney Houston’s “Greatest Love of All”: “I decided long ago / Never to walk in anyone’s shadows / If I fail, if I succeed / At least I’ll live as I believe / No matter what they take from me / They can’t take away my dignity.” I sing this verse out loud when I want to fire myself up.

I’m sure there are many people who are inspired by the way you motivate yourself to perform on stage and by hearing your voice.

I’d be happy if that were so. Even if we have to go through some painful experiences, it’d be nice if we could learn a lot from them. I’ve loved to sing since I was a child and always wanted to be a singer and was lucky enough to make that dream come true. Still, there are times when I feel bad or sad, but each time I think, “Oh, now I have one more thing I can sing about,” so I’m able to continue without breaking down. I think everyone has their own way of putting things into perspective like that, even if they’re not singers.

—This interview by Rio Hirai (SOW SWEET PUBLISHING) first appeared on Billboard Japan.