Music News

18 Nov 2022

NCT Dream Announce Comeback With Holiday Mini Album ‘Candy’

Get ready for a very NCT Christmas! On Thursday, NCT Dream announced they will spread cheer to their fans during the most wonderful time of year with the release of a special holiday album titled Candy.

“NCT DREAM Winter Special Mini Album Candy 2022.12.19 (KST),” the group tweeted, along with a festive illustrated visual of an NCT Dream house decked out in Christmas-themed regalia with bows, mini Christmas trees, candy canes, peppermints, bows, twinkling lights and more. Candy will mark the group’s first-ever holiday album.

The holiday album will also serve as a comeback for the group — which consists of members Mark, Renjun, Jeno, Haechan, Chenle, Jaemin and Jisung — since the release of Beatbox, the repackaged deluxe version of their second studio album Glitch Mode that contained four additional tracks on the album.

Glitch Mode served as the K-pop group’s last official album release. The project debuted at No. 50 on the Billboard 200 but spent a total of five weeks on the Top Current Album Sales chart following its April release, and reached a peak of No. 5 on the chart.

Up next for NCT Dream is bringing THE DREAM SHOW 2 : In a Dream world tour to Japan. The trek kicks off in Aichi at the Nippon Gaishi Hall on Nov. 23 and will play three nights in Kanagawa at the Nov. 26-28. The Japanese leg of the tour will conclude in Fukuoka for a show at the Marine Messe Fukuoka Hall A on Dec. 1.

See NCT Dream’s Candy announcement below.

18 Nov 2022

Jack Antonoff Blasts Touring Industry & Music Venue Practices: ‘Include Artists in More Areas of Revenue’

In light of fans — and Taylor Swift herself — taking issue with Ticketmaster and Live Nation’s highly publicized Verified Fan Presale failure, Jack Antonoff has a few choice words to share about the touring industry’s treatment of artists.

The Bleachers frontman and producer hit Twitter on Friday (Nov. 18) to blast music venues for taking away the revenue that newer artists have the potential to make from merchandise sales during concerts.

“While we are having the discussion can venues simply stop taxing merch of artists? This is literally the only way you make money when you start out touring,” he started. “The more we make it tenable for young and small artists to make a living on the road the more great music we will get. Touring is one of the most honest ways to make a living. Some of the hardest and most heartfelt work you can do. So why must [they] f— artist[s] so hard?”

The Grammy winning producer continued, “[Simple] solutions, stop taxing merch, stop lying to artists about costs of putting on shows, include artists in more areas of revenue. The stories I could tell from my years of touring are bananas. Young artists on tour are the last to see any money.”

Antonoff’s thread comes at what feels like a watershed moment for the music industry. Ticketmaster and Live Nation have come under fire from Antonoff’s frequent collaborator Taylor Swift, her fans and lawmakers after the disastrous sale of tickets for her 2023 The Eras tour.

The failure has led to the U.S. Department of Justice launching an investigation to see if the companies have abused its market shares in the music industry after 14 million fans attempted to access the presale, experienced major technical difficulties and failed to secure tickets, despite gaining entry into Ticketmaster’s Verified Fan Presale for the event. “It’s truly amazing that 2.4 million people got tickets, but it really pisses me off that a lot of them feel like they went through several bear attacks to get them,” Swift said in a note to fans.

Another one of Antonoff’s collaborators, Lorde, spoke about the harsh realities of touring in a newsletter post to fans, stating, “for pretty much every artist selling less tickets than I am, touring has become a demented struggle to break even or face debt.” According to the “Solar Power” singer, an increase in ticket prices could cover the heightened cost of touring, but “no one wants to charge their harried and extremely-compassionate-and-flexible audience any more f—ing money.”

Antonoff, with the rest of Bleachers, will complete the final dates of the band’s How Dare You Want Tour on Dec. 3-4 at the Zona Festival in Phoenix. The band are confirmed for two festival dates in 2023; the High Water Fest in North Charleston, S.C., on April 15 and the Adjacent Music Fest in Atlantic City, N.J. on May 27.

See Antonoff’s tweets below.

18 Nov 2022

Bruce Springsteen Opens Up About Ticketmaster’s Dynamic Pricing: ‘Ticket Buying Has Gotten Very Confusing’

Following the ticket chaos of Taylor Swift’s The Eras tour this week, the conversation has shifted to Ticketmaster’s monopoly in the business and their out-of-control “dynamic pricing” model.

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It’s hardly the first time that an artist’s tour tickets have been blown into wildly expensive territory on Ticketmaster. When Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band’s 2023 tour tickets went on sale a few months back, some ended up costing thousands of dollars.

In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Springsteen gave his two cents on the struggle between balancing affordable tickets and making enough money for his band. “What I do is a very simple thing. I tell my guys, ‘Go out and see what everybody else is doing. Let’s charge a little less.’ That’s generally the directions,” he shared. “They go out and set it up. For the past 49 years or however long we’ve been playing, we’ve pretty much been out there under market value. I’ve enjoyed that. It’s been great for the fans.”

He added, “This time I told them, ‘Hey, we’re 73 years old. The guys are there. I want to do what everybody else is doing, my peers.’ So that’s what happened.”

The Boss followed up by nothing that “ticket buying has gotten very confusing, not just for the fans, but for the artists also,” and that “most of our tickets are totally affordable.” He then concluded by noting, “We have those tickets that are going to go for that [higher] price somewhere anyway. The ticket broker or someone is going to be taking that money. I’m going, ‘Hey, why shouldn’t that money go to the guys that are going to be up there sweating three hours a night for it?’ It created an opportunity for that to occur. And so at that point, we went for it. I know it was unpopular with some fans. But if there’s any complaints on the way out, you can have your money back.”

18 Nov 2022

Landon Barker Says Dad Travis Barker Is ‘Always In My Corner’

Landon Barker opened up about his relationship with Travis Barker in a new interview on Friday (Nov. 18).

“He’s always in my corner,” the 19-year-old told E! News. “He’s always there for me as I am for him.” That support naturally extending to the younger Barker’s budding rock music career, with his famous dad making a surprise appearance during his show at The Roxy in L.A. last month to perform a yet-to-be-released collaboration together.

Landon also commented on what it’s like seeing his dad reunite with his Blink-182 bandmates for their upcoming reunion tour and new musical era, saying, “I guess the best way to say it is he’s making s–t happen and doing things that he genuinely enjoys. If that’s putting Blink back together, if that’s being in the studio, whatever it is, I feel like he’s prioritizing what he wants and people are impressed by it and people enjoy it. I feel like he’s really just doing what makes him happy.”

Most recently, the famed drummer has been spending time in the studio with The Veronicas as the Australian sibling duo charts a new course under John Feldmann’s label Big Noise. Earlier this week, he rang in his 47th birthday with sweet well wishes from wife Kourtney Kardashian, her sisters Kim and Khloé Kardashian, Kris Jenner and more.

Barker and the other two-thirds of Blink-182 are slated to kick off their hotly anticipated world tour next March with stops in North America, South America, Mexico, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. The international trek will also include headlining slots at 2023 Lollapaloozas in Chile, Argentina and Brazil as well as next year’s iteration of When We Were Young.

18 Nov 2022

R&B Singer B. Smyth Dies at 28 From Pulmonary Fibrosis

B. Smyth, born Brandon Smith, has passed away following a long battle with pulmonary fibrosis. He was just 28 years old.

The news was shared on the R&B singer’s Instagram page in a video made by his older brother, Denzil, who confirmed that Brandon had passed away Thursday morning (Nov. 17) from respiratory failure caused by his lung disease. According to Mayo Clinic, pulmonary fibrosis occurs when lung tissue becomes damaged and scarred, making it progressively more difficult to breathe.

“So on behalf of my brother and my family we want to say thank you to all of you for all of your love & support throughout the years,” Denzil captioned the video. “We ask for privacy during these difficult times. We also want to say thank you for all of your prayers.”

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Denzil said in the video that before his brother died, Brandon had asked him to make a video for fans to watch after he passed. According to Denzil, Brandon always talked about how much he and his fans loved each other, and he was always pushing himself to give his fans the best possible content.

“My brother was very excited to see a lot of you create challenges for his latest released single #Twerkoholic part 2,” he wrote in the caption. “While he was in the ICU, it really brought him a big smile to his face.”

Born in Florida, Brandon kicked off his career as an artist in 2012, signing a record deal with Motown Records and releasing his debut single, “Leggo,” with 2 Chainz. He released two EPs and several singles during his career and had entries on a handful of Billboard‘s R&B/Hip-Hop charts.

Listen to Denzil’s announcement about the passing of B. Smyth below.

18 Nov 2022

Taylor Swift Says Ticketmaster Meltdown ‘Pisses Me Off’: ‘I’m Extremely Protective of My Fans’

Taylor Swift has spoken on the Ticketmaster fiasco, and it seems that she’s just as angry as her fans are. In a lengthy Friday (Nov. 18) message posted to her Instagram story, the 11-time Grammy winner shared that the mass outages and hours-long delays her fans experienced while trying to purchase tickets during her Eras Tour presale on Nov. 15 “pisses” her off.

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“Well. It goes without saying that I’m extremely protective of my fans,” she began in the statement. “We’ve been doing this for decades together and over the years, I’ve brought so many elements of my career in house. I’ve done this SPECIFICALLY to improve the quality of my fans’ experience by doing it myself with my team who care as much about my fans as I do.

“It’s really difficult for me to trust an outside entity with these relationships and loyalties, and excruciating for me to just watch mistakes happen with no recourse,” Swift continued. “There are a multitude of reasons why people had such a hard time trying to get tickets and I’m trying to figure out how this situation can be improved moving forward. I’m not going to make excuses for anyone because we asked them, multiple times, if they could handle this kind of demand and we were assured they could.”

So many attempts — 14 million, to be exact — flooded Ticketmaster’s website on the day of the presale that the company’s site experienced major technical difficulties, causing some Swifties to walk away without securing a single ticket, even though they had previously been sent a special “Verified Fan” presale code by Ticketmaster. Hours later, the company posted a statement saying that it had been unprepared for the “historically unprecedented demand” Swifties exhibited that day, and postponed other Eras Tour onsales scheduled for that day.

Consumer response to the situation was so overwhelmingly negative, Live Nation chairman Greg Maffei appeared on CNBC to apologize to fans.

“It’s truly amazing that 2.4 million people got tickets, but it really pisses me off that a lot of them feel like they went through several bear attacks to get them,” Swift added in her note. “And to those who didn’t get tickets, all I can say is that my hope is to provide more opportunities for us to all get together and sing these songs.”

“Thank you for wanting to be there,” she concluded. “You have no idea how much that means.”

18 Nov 2022

Snoop Dogg Gets Into the Pet Business With Snoop Doggie Doggs Clothing & Accessories

Snoop Dogg is here to make your dog the most fashionable pup in town. On Tuesday (Nov. 15), the “Doggyland” rapper announced the arrival of his pet line, Snoop Doggie Doggs, in partnership with SMAC Entertainment, Little Earth Productions, Inc. and Amazon.

“If my dogs ain’t fresh I ain’t fresh. These dogs and their apparel are a reflection of Tha Dogg himself, so they gotta look the role of a Top Dog, ya dig?!?!” Snoop Dogg said of the line in a press release.

Snoop Doggie Doggs has accessories for dogs ranging from pet harnesses, bandanas, hats, leashes and collars. Clothing is also available, and ranges from jerseys, hoodies and shirts. For dog lovers who wants their pet to live in the lap of luxury, silver and gold doggy bowls are offered in small and large size. And for owners whose pup is in need of another toy for their good girl or boy’s collection, three options on the site include a “Doggie Doobie” blunt shaped toy, a boom box toy that plays audio of Snoop rapping “bow wow wow, yippie yo, yippie yay,” and a steering wheel shaped toy inspired by low riders in Southern California.

While the line is primarily meant for dogs, cats have not been excluded from the rapper’s newest business venture — the brand’s official website, snoopdoggiedoggs.com, also feature cats wearing bandanas.

Snoop Doggie Doggs is available to shop on snoopdoggiedoggs.com and on Amazon now. See the first advertisement and a preview of the collection below.

18 Nov 2022

Justin Bieber’s Deflated Bored Ape NFT Says ‘Sorry, Not Sorry’ Amid Crypto Meltdown in ‘Late Show’ Bit

Remember way back last year when Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs were all the rage thanks to high-dollar purchases of the digital images of cartoon apes that were snapped up by everyone from Snoop Dogg to Madonna, Gwyneth Paltrow and Paris Hilton?

Well, in the wake of the implosion of the FTX platform and a precipitous meltdown of digital currency prices over the past month, one of the celebrities who bet, and spent, big on Bored Ape is likely feeling pretty humbled this week. A video parody that opened The Late Show on Thursday night (Nov. 17) chronicled the reported precipitous plunge in value of Justin Bieber‘s Bored Ape.

The bit included tape from a report about the parallel tanking of crypto art that noted that an Ape purchased by Bieber in January for $1.3 million is now worth around $69,000, a calamitous come-down for the series of more than 10,000 NFTs that became the best-selling NFT art collection ever with a one-time reported value of more than $1 billion.

In one of their signature song parodies, Stephen Colbert and the gang re-purposed one of Bieber’s most beloved ballads to offer some gently stinging commentary on the latest celebrity crypto crack-up in the guise of a message to JB from his Bored Ape. “Is it too late not to say sorry?” the cartoon ape sang over the strains of Justin’s “Sorry.”

“‘Cause I lost you lots of money/ But you have to admit it’s funny/ I’m not even a real baboon/ A million bucks for a dumb cartoon,” the sad simian sang before offering another hot virtual stock tip: invest in a Cautious Cow NFT. NFT Price Floor reported that the floor price for the Bored Ape collection — the price of the cheapest-available NFT listed on the marketplace — is down to around 58.2 ETH, or around $69,800, marking a 33% dip in Bored Ape value in just the last month.

At press time a spokesperson for Bieber could not be reached for comment on the alleged plunge in worth of his digital investment.

Watch the Bored Ape bit below.

18 Nov 2022

Rihanna Bares Booty in NSFW Video Showing Savage X Fenty Lingerie: Watch

Baby, this is what you came for. In a saucy Thursday (Nov. 17) Instagram video, Rihanna showed off both her Savage X Fenty lingerie line and her bare booty — and it’s definitely not safe for work.

In the video, the nine-time Grammy winner stands alone in a room as she models her clothing company’s Renaissance Rose Corset Dress, currently on sale on the Savage X Fenty website. Blowing kisses, staring down the camera and turning around to show how little the dress covers, Ri completed the look with a messy updo, fingerless gloves, leathery black stockings and pumps with heels made to look like rose flowers.

Probably knowing that her video very much speaks for itself, the “Stay” singer simply directed followers to where they can steal her style in her caption. “Savagex.com,” she wrote.

The steamy post comes just over a week after Rihanna’s Savage X Fenty Vol. 4 fashion show premiered on Prime Video Nov. 9. The fluorescent, surrealistic visual experience debuted new pieces in the Fenty Beauty founder’s apparel collections and featured performances from Anitta, Burna Boy, Don Toliver and Maxwell.

Rihanna is still fresh off releasing her first pieces of new music in six years, earlier this month dropping “Lift Me Up,” which debuted at No. 2 on the Hot 100, and “Born Again” as part of the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever soundtrack. Come February of next year, she’ll perform as the headliner at Super Bowl LVII.

Watch Rihanna model her Savage X Fenty lingerie below.

18 Nov 2022

P!nk Promises That Upcoming ‘TRUSTFALL’ Album Is Her Most Fun to Date: ‘It’s Very, Very True To What I Believe’

P!nk has always been about having fun. But on her upcoming 9th studio album, TRUSTFALL, the singer says she’s having the most fun she’s ever had. “It’s very, very true to what I believe and where I am and what I’m feeling and what I think a lot of people are feeling,” she told Good Morning America on Friday morning (Nov. 18) about the vibe of the collection.

The follow-up to 2019’s Hurts 2B Human is due out on Feb. 17 and it will feature her bouncy new double-negative-into-a-positive single, “Never Gonna Not Dance Again,” produced by Max Martin and Shellback. In describing the inspiration for the collection, the singer told GMA that in addition to bringing the party, TRUSTFALL is her favorite album to date because of the leisurely time she had to make it during a difficult stretch in her personal life.

“I took time. I had time and I had a lot of really devastating things happen,” she explained. “My son and I got really sick with COVID. That sort of distilled down for me what actually matters. And it takes a crisis to do that. It takes your kids getting sick to be like, ‘Okay, none of this matters. I wanna see my kids grow up. That’s what I want.’ I want to only put truth into the world. I want to only be authentic. And I want to be kinder and a better person.” P!nk and husband Carey Hart are parents to daughter Willow Sage, 11 and Jameson Moon, 5.

After losing her father Jim Moore in 2021, P!nk said she was reminded that we all have “a certain amount of time left,” a potentially daunting thought that she used as motivation on the songs. “I just started making music and making — speaking in melody,” she said. “And it came together… My album is a piece of me, and I think that I am an example of how you can live authentically and fearlessly, in ways.”

The album will surely get a workout next summer when P!nk heads out for her Summer Carnival tour, which will hit North American stadiums with a lineup featuring Brandi Carlile, Pat Benatar and Neil Girlado, Grouplove and KidCutUp.

Check out the TRUSTFALL album cover below.