Music

05 Sep 2023

Travis Barker Appears in Son Landon’s TikTok After Leaving Blink-182 Tour Due to ‘Urgent Family Matter’

Following an undisclosed “urgent family matter,” Blink-182‘s Travis Barker made an appearance on his son Landon’s TikTok live on Monday (Sept. 4).

The drummer’s appearance was brief: As Landon chatted and looked at fans’ comments as they rolled in, the Blink-182 drummer gave his 17-year-old son a hooded sweatshirt. Barker did not make any comments pertaining to his recent emergency.

The pop-punk trio announced the postponement of three concert dates in Scotland and Ireland on Sept. 1 via their social media accounts.

“Due to an urgent family matter, Travis has had to return home to the States. The Glasgow, Belfast, and Dublin shows are being postponed,” the band — which also consists of Tom DeLonge and Mark Hoppus — wrote. “More information in regards to his return to Europe and rescheduled dates will be provided as soon as available.” (A spokesperson for the group had not returned Billboard‘s request for additional information.)

Barker has not yet addressed why he rushed home.

The drummer is currently expecting a child — a baby boy — with wife Kourtney Kardashian, who announced her pregnancy with a “Travis I’m Pregnant” sign during Blink’s Los Angeles tour stop at BMO Stadium. Barker is also father to Landon and Alabama Barker, as well as stepdad to Atiana de la Hoya, all of whom he shared with ex-wife Shanna Moakler.

05 Sep 2023

9 Times Artists Defended Their Fans Against Concert Security: Adele, Taylor Swift & More

These stars have their fans’ backs.

Adele in Las Vegas

Adele performs onstage during the “Weekends with Adele” Residency Opening at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace on November 18, 2022 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for AD

Famous musicians would be nothing without their fans. And because of that, many artists feel extremely protective over their listeners, particularly when it comes to concert settings where large crowds and limited space can make some people feel extra vulnerable.

Sometimes, that defensive parental instinct even applies to scuffles between fans and concert security. In these scenarios, it doesn’t matter whether the guardsmen or women were hired for the artists’ benefit — these singers, rappers and instrumentalists will still choose their fans’ side over their crew’s in a heartbeat. Just ask Adele, who fully put one of her Las Vegas shows on pause just to tell off a couple of venue workers who were harassing one dancing concertgoer. Or, take it up with Taylor Swift, who sacrificed singing the lyrics to one of her biggest hits while performing at her Eras Tour to angrily shout at a security guard.

Everyone from Ariana Grande to Beyoncé, Billie Eilish to Elton John and more have also stuck their necks out for people in attendance at their shows, interactions that make for instantly viral moments on social media and prove just how much these stars love their fans.

There’s no doubt that most security personnel have the best intentions at heart, simply wanting to keep both artists and fans safe. But when one of them appears to cross a line, these musicians are the first to step up and make sure that their supporters are all good. 

Keep reading to see nine artists who, at some point in their careers, have called out security for messing with their fans:

05 Sep 2023

Every Country Music Record Broken on the Hot 100 in 2023: From Morgan Wallen to Oliver Anthony Music & More

It’s a good time to be a country artist.

2023 has been an unusually exceptional year for country music. From Morgan Wallen to Luke Combs, Zach Bryan, Oliver Anthony Music and more, country acts are reaching historic highs across Billboard’s charts – including, most notably, on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 songs chart.

As of the latest list (dated Sept. 9), four country songs (defined as those that have also appeared on the Hot Country Songs chart) have hit No. 1 on the Hot 100 this year: Wallen’s 16-week juggernaut “Last Night,” Jason Aldean’s one-week leader “Try That in a Small Town,” Oliver Anthony Music’s two-week viral No. 1 “Rich Men North of Richmond,” and, as of this week, Zach Bryan’s “I Remember Everything,” featuring Kacey Musgraves. Dating to the Hot 100’s launch in 1958, only one other calendar year has brought four-or-more country No. 1s: 1975, when five reached the summit (listed below in chronological order of when they topped the Hot 100):

“(Hey Won’t You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song,” B.J. Thomas
“Before the Next Teardrop Falls,” Freddy Fender
“Thank God I’m a Country Boy,” John Denver
“Rhinestone Cowboy,” Glen Campbell
“I’m Sorry,” John Denver

“Last Night” has been particularly historic, as its 16 weeks atop the Hot 100 from March to August mark the most weeks ever at No. 1 for a non-collaboration, and tie it for the second-most overall. It also became the first chart-topper by an unaccompanied solo male country artist in over 42 years, since Eddie Rabbitt’s 1981 hit “I Love a Rainy Night.”

Meanwhile, Luke Combs’ cover of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car” has spent eight weeks at its No. 2 high on the Hot 100, becoming his top-charting song. It has also crowned the all-format Radio Songs chart, Country Airplay and Adult Pop Airplay, and has reached the top 10 on Pop Airplay and Adult Contemporary.

Even further, 11 country songs have hit the Hot 100’s top 10 this year, almost quadruple the three that reached the region in all of 2022 (Combs’ “The Kind of Love We Make” and Wallen’s “You Proof” and “Don’t Think Jesus”). Three country hits also appeared in the top 10 in 2021 (Gabby Barrett’s “I Hope,” featuring Charlie Puth, Taylor Swift’s “All Too Well (Taylor’s Version)” and Walker Hayes’ “Fancy Like”), after four did in 2020 (“I Hope,” Dan + Shay and Justin Bieber’s “10,000 Hours,” Combs’ “Forever After All” and Wallen’s “7 Summers”). “10,000 Hours” was the only country song to reach the Hot 100’s top 10 in all of 2019.

Zach Bryan has also achieved historic heights. This week, he becomes just the second country artist to chart at least 18 songs on the Hot 100 in a single week, after Wallen. “I Remember Everything” also becomes the first song to ever to top the Hot 100, Hot Country Songs and Hot Rock & Alternative Songs charts. Before this week, his breakout song “Something in the Orange” climbed to No. 10 on the Hot 100 in January, later becoming the longest-charting country song by a male artist, spending 66 total weeks on the survey.

The genre’s 2023 success doesn’t end with Wallen, Combs and Bryan, though. Multiple other country artists have also scored their first Hot 100 entries this year, including Tyler Childers (“In Your Love”), Hailey Whitters (“Everything She Ain’t”) and Warren Zeiders (“Pretty Little Poison”).

As Billboard reported in July, country music consumption in the United States increased by 20.3% year-over-year in the first 26 weeks of 2023, according to Luminate. That’s a significant improvement from the 2.5% growth that it experienced over the same period in 2022. Only K-pop (up 46.2%) and Latin (up 20.6%) saw sharper growths. While that surge is driven mostly by Wallen, a whole new crop of country artists is also contributing, including Bailey Zimmerman, Jelly Roll, and Nate Smith.

As country music continues its chart domination into 2023’s fourth quarter, here’s a look at every country music milestone and record that’s been broken on the Hot 100 in 2023, recapped in chronological order.

05 Sep 2023

Halle Bailey Confirms Debut Solo EP Is ‘Definitely’ Coming ‘Before the End of the Year’

We just got one step closer to Halley Bailey’s debut solo project. In a new interview with Cosmopolitan, the younger half of Grammy-nominated R&B duo Chloe x Halle revealed that her debut solo EP will “definitely” be released “before the end of the year.”

Last month (Aug. 4), Bailey unleashed her debut solo single, a gospel and jazz-tinged empowerment anthem titled “Angel.” In her Cosmo interview, the multitalented artist touched on how her recent life experiences have influenced the creation of her upcoming project. “Ariel was my college experience. She was the one to say, ‘Look, look what you have in you. You can.’ Nettie was the same type of lesson, almost in a spiritual way. These characters are speaking to me and teaching me,” she said. “It’s cool to learn things about life through their eyes. And all musical inspiration really just comes from life experiences. Love has been a really big one for me too, because that’s something I’m experiencing for the first time.”

This winter Bailey will star as Young Nettie in the film adaptation of The Color Purple musical directed by Blitz Bazawule and produced by Oprah Winfrey, Steven Spielberg, Scott Sanders and Quincy Jones. The Color Purple, which is currently slated for release on Christmas Day, will also star Fantasia Barrino, Taraji P. Henson, Ciara, H.E.R., Aunjanue Ellis, Colman Domingo, Danielle Brooks and Phylicia Pearl Mpasi.

The film will mark the second cinematic event that Bailey has lent her talents to this year. A few months ago, she starred as Princess Ariel in Disney’s live-action remake of The Little Mermaid, which grossed more than $118 million during its opening weekend, which happened over Memorial Day. Bailey also blessed the Rob Marshall-helmed film’s hit soundtrack with her inimitable voice, treating audiences to stunning renditions of Little Mermaid classics such as “Part of Your World” and impressive new songs including “For the First Time.”

“This has been a really beautiful transformative time for me. I have all this new material to write about,” she gushed. “I was very creatively inspired, and then from there, I fell in love. And so I really just played with those themes in my music. Sound-wise, it’s a little modern R&B-ish, with all the jazz elements and hints of pop that I love.”

Once her EP arrives later this year, both members of Chloe x Halle will have officially released solo projects. Older sister Chloe Bailey, known mononymously as Chlöe, released In Pieces, her debut solo studio album, earlier this year. Featuring singles such as “Pray It Away” and the Chris Brown-assisted “How Does It Feel,” In Pieces peaked at No. 119 on the Billboard 200.

As a duo, Chloe x Halle have earned two entries on the Billboard 200: 2018’s The Kids Are Alright (No. 139) and 2020’s Ungodly Hour (No. 16). They have also earned one entry on the Billboard Hot 100: “Do It” (No. 63), the lead single from Ungodly Hour.

05 Sep 2023

Ariana Grande & Miley Cyrus Look Back on Their Flirty ‘Don’t Dream It’s Over’ Duet: ‘Love You Always’

Ariana Grande and Miley Cyrus are still good friends, eight years after their iconic duet of Crowded House’s “Don’t Dream It’s Over.”

In a recent TikTok, Cyrus looked back on the performance as part of her ongoing “Used To Be Young” video series, which she launched last month in celebration of her new single of the same name. She and the “Positions” pop star recorded their cover of “Don’t Dream It’s Over” in 2015 to benefit Cyrus’ Happy Hippie Foundation, dressed in adorable animal onesies and singing with a live band.

“I was flirting with her, and she was a little scared,” Cyrus said, watching footage from the performance on an iPad. “We were having fun!”

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In the video, the “Flowers” musician — still sporting her trademark Bangerz era pixie cut — tells a slightly flustered Grande that she looks cute in her onesie, causing the two to miss one of their entrances. “Sorry, I was flirting!” Cyrus, then 22 years old, tells the band.

Two years later, Cyrus and Grande would perform the same duet at the latter pop star’s One Love Manchester event, which raised funds for victims and families affected by the terrorist bombing attacks at Grande’s 2017 Manchester Arena concert.

“Ariana’s a real friend,” Cyrus added in her “Used To Be Young” video. “There’s never been a time where I’ve asked her to do something that was important to me that she didn’t come through. And same thing for me with her.”

Afterward, Grande reposted the video onto her own Instagram Story and called Cyrus “my sweet.” “Love you always @mileycyrus,” continued the R.E.M. Beauty founder. “we #usedtobeyoung !!!!”

The pair’s 2015 duet is one of many career highlights Cyrus has reflected on for “Used To Be Young,” with the Black Mirror alum also touching on her brutal Hannah Montana era work schedule, her surprisingly successful debut single “See You Again,” and that one photo of her with Taylor Swift and Demi Lovato that she hilariously says should’ve been fans’ first sign that she’s bisexual.

Watch Miley’s TikTok below:

05 Sep 2023

Recording Academy Sets Deadline for District Advocate Day Registration

The deadline for Recording Academy members to register for District Advocate Day is Friday (Sept. 8). The Academy calls the day, which is set for Oct. 5 this year, “the largest grassroots advocacy movement for music and its makers.”

On District Advocate Day, Recording Academy members visit the local district offices of their elected representatives to discuss issues affecting their livelihoods and careers. including fairer compensation for songwriters, performers, and studio professionals.

In a video message urging members to sign up, Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason, jr. said “It’s a chance for us as music people to talk directly to people who make the laws that affect us. …It’s crucial that the people that create and perform that music are not held back by outdated and unfair legislation. So, join the Recording Academy as we work to ensure that music and all its makers are valued today and into the future.”

Mason added that members won’t be sent off to meetings with their elected representatives (or, often, their staffs) unprepared. After members register, “the Recording Academy advocacy team will set you up with the materials and information you need to be a successful advocate.”

Focus areas this year will include AI, live event ticketing reform, the RAP (Restoring Artistic Protection) Act and the HITS (Helping Independent Tracks Succeed) Act. The RAP Act and the HITS Act were also priorities last year, but those bills have yet to become law.

While meetings are generally held in local district offices, some meetings are held in local community spaces like a recording studio, performance venue, or other music-related business.

District Advocate Day was created in 2014. It has been held every year since except 2021, when the Academy pivoted to a smaller, virtual “Behind the Record x Advocacy” Day.” The 2020 event, amid the pandemic, was virtual. In 2022 it returned in person.

Nearly 2,000 Academy members took part in the event last year, which was held on Oct. 6, 2022. They were involved with almost 200 scheduled meetings, reaching 75% of Congress. Meetings took place across 44 states and the District of Columbia.

Last year, Recording Academy members advocated for four bills being considered by the 117th Congress – the HITS Act, the RAP Act, the PEACE (Promoting Peace, Education, and Cultural Exchange) Through Music Diplomacy Act and the American Music Fairness (AMFA) Act.

So, what happened to those bills?

The PEACE Through Music Diplomacy Act was signed into law by President Biden as a part of the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act in December 2022.

The RAP Act continued to gain supporters after District Advocate Day 2022. The bill was reintroduced in the House in the 118th Congress at Grammys on the Hill Advocacy Day in April 2023; the Academy is looking towards it being introduced in the Senate.

In December 2022, the House Judiciary Committee passed the AMFA Act out of committee. The favorable voice vote — with no recorded votes against the bill — marks the most significant action by Congress on performance rights in the last 12 years. The bill was reintroduced in the 118th Congress by Sens. Alex Padilla (D-CA) and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Reps. Darrell Issa (D-CA) and Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) in February 2023 with Recording Academy support.

The HITS Act continued to gain supporters in both the House and Senate after District Advocate Day 2022. This year, it was reintroduced on a bipartisan, bicameral level in the 118th Congress by Reps. Linda Sánchez (D-CA) and Ron Estes (R-KS), and Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) in February 2023 with Recording Academy support.

05 Sep 2023

R&B/Hip-Hop Fresh Picks of the Week: JID & Lil Yachty, Jorja Smith, Tisakorean & More

New month, new week, new Fresh Picks. We’re starting September off with a range of sounds by vets like JID, Lil Yachty, Jorja Smith and Baby Tate as well as newcomers Chase Shakur, Ama Lou, Tisakorean and midwxst. A good mix of rap and R&B to help you lock in and power through this short work week.

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Don’t forget to share the wealth and check out our September Fresh Picks (so far) in the Spotify playlist, linked below.

Freshest Find: BlakkBoyz, JID & Lil Yachty, “Van Gogh”

This week’s freshest find goes to new duo BlakkBoyz, aka J.I.D. and Lil Yachty, who just dropped a heater of a two-pack called BlakkBoyz present Half Doin Dope/Van Gogh. “It’s Lil Boat and JID, as far as your eye can see/ You know what I’m sayin’, it’s water on me/ You feel me, you get that?/ You got that? Is that understood?” Yachty asks in the beginning.

The Atlanta rappers join forces here for “Half Doin Dope” (feat. BabyTron) and “Van Gogh,” where JID does what he does best — flexing his cadence and crisp delivery — while Yachty continues to delve deeper in his rap bag. The latter has been on a hot streak all year, releasing his acclaimed psych-rock album Let’s Start Here. in January and his TESLA EP last week. JID has also been working this year, touring with Smino and securing synchs in a Coca-Cola commercial and in Creed III.

Jorja Smith, “Falling or flying”

Jorja Smith is continuing the rollout of her upcoming album falling or flying (out Sept. 29) by releasing its stripped-back title track. “I don’t really have an in between. I’m either happy or sad, obsessed or completely unfocused, up or down,” she told Billboard last month. “I feel like I’m flying in my career, and then other times, I feel like I’m falling because the pressure can feel [like] too much.” The new record sees her trying to find balance as she embraces womanhood and all that comes with it.

Tisakorean, “Rando”

Tisakorean keeps a bando and doesn’t talk to randos. Sonically and visually, the Houston rapper has made a name for himself online for being silly and putting an equally amusing spin on the early 2000s southern rap aesthetic via big and tall tees, oversized jeans/shorts and doing classic dances that defined that time period. On “Rando,” he leans into the early ’00s ringtone sounds, rapping over basic production embedded with cell phone beeps and claps

Baby Tate is in the middle of New Jersey, crying in the club. The rapper-singer is the latest artist to capitalize on the Jersey Club sound, and she is doing so with her family in tow. Her mother, grandmother, aunt and cousins make an appearance in the song’s video, which was partly shot at the Lower Trenton Bridge. “You left me feeling busted/ I had to call my cousins/ They flew me out and got me drunk,” she sings, with them in cheering in the background.

Chase Shakur, “exit 65”

Expanding on his 2022 EP It’ll Be Fine — which explored the ups and downs of a tumultuous romance — Chase Shakur is now sifting through the relationship’s aftermath on it’s not you, it’s me…it’s love. The EP is the deluxe edition of his it’s not you, it’s me project that he released earlier this summer and includes three new tracks: “nite,” “exit 65,” and “you’re so lovely.” With “exit 65,” the Def Jam newcomer is on the way to his ex-lover to save face.

midwxst, “ready for you”

midwxst wants to “see my name on Billboard before the year ends.” The 20-year-old is making a second appearance in Fresh Picks this week for his new “ready for you,” the outro track on his new album E3. The 12-song record tells the story of a character named E3, narrated by midwxst, who provides listeners a path forward through relationships, identity formation and the internet.

Ama Lou, “Played Me”

Ama Lou’s new album I Came Home Late is the project she knew she needed to make. “It’s definitely the most personal music I’ve ever released,” she says in a press statement. “I dove deep into my songwriting origins for parts of the album. ‘Bad Weather’ was written at the age of 12, but I wrote most of these songs on the fly. It’s a good reflection of my range as a songwriter and my life over the past few years.” Standout track “Played Me” sees the London-raised singer accepting the fact that she’s been played, though she won’t go down without a fight as she promises that the “investigation will continue.”

05 Sep 2023

Olivia Rodrigo Feels She Has a ‘Responsibility’ to Warn Song Subjects After Joshua Bassett ‘Drivers License’ Fallout

Olivia Rodrigo is taking the lessons she learned from Sour with her as she gears up to release Guts, her sophomore album arriving Friday (Sept. 8). And yes, that includes how she handles her past and present relationships in scenarios where her songs spark public intrigue in her personal life, i.e., the response that erupted over her rumored ex-boyfriend Joshua Bassett a couple years ago.

Speaking to Phoebe Bridgers in a candid piece with Interview magazine published Tuesday (Sept. 5), the 20-year-old star revealed she now feels a “responsibility” to send her songs to their subjects before releasing them to the world, touching on the “overwhelming” public response to “Drivers License” in 2021. In that case, fans were quick back then to pin Bassett — Rodrigo’s High School Musical: The Musical: The Series costar — as the unfavorable ex-boyfriend she describes in her heartbroken lyrics.

“I feel like last time, there was so much weird media s–t and I had no idea how to deal with any of it,” she reflected. “Literally, it was the first song out of the gate and all of that s–t happened. I felt so ill-equipped.”

Bassett has since been open about feeling blindsided by the song as well as the hate he received from listeners, at one point revealing he was hospitalized due to a near-fatal case of septic shock caused by stress following the release of “Drivers License.” Sabrina Carpenter, whom fans also targeted after connecting her to the song, has also been vocal in her music about the backlash she received due to speculation that she “stole” Bassett from Rodrigo.

“That was an overwhelming experience, but now I definitely feel a responsibility [to give a heads up],” Rodrigo added to Bridgers. “I just try not to think about it during the writing process.”

The revelation follows the release of two singles from Guts — “Vampire” and “Bad Idea Right?” — both of which have already been examined by fans wondering which of Rodrigo’s rumored ex-boyfriends might’ve inspired the tracks. The trend is sure to follow come Friday, when the rest of Guts‘ 12 tracks are unveiled.

The “Deja Vu” singer also congratulated Bridgers on finishing her run as an opener on Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, calling Swift’s global trek “the tour of all tours.” The compliment comes amid fan speculation that Rodrigo has fallen out with Swift following some past crediting drama over the former’s single “Deja Vu,” something Rodrigo has seemed to avoid addressing in other recent interviews.

05 Sep 2023

7 Must-Hear New Country Songs: Billy Strings, Molly Tuttle, Larry Fleet, Carter Faith & More

In this week’s batch of new country music, bluegrass luminaries Billy Strings and Molly Tuttle team up for a sterling collaboration, while Brian Kelley, Carter Faith, Larry Fleet, Jobi Riccio, and more also offer new tunes.

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Billy Strings and Molly Tuttle, “Listen to the Radio”

Two of bluegrass music’s greatest forces team up on this tender cover of a Nanci Griffith classic. Tuttle takes the lead here, her sweet vocals capturing hints of Griffith’s vocal stylings, with Strings offering plaintive harmonies as they sing of a young girl who chases the strains of Loretta Lynn and Merle Haggard flowing from her radio. Shimmering, virtuosic mandolin and guitar wrap around this dreamy outing. Both Strings and Tuttle (the latter with her Golden Highway band) are nominated for International Bluegrass Music Association’s top honors this year.

Brian Kelley, “Dirt Cheap”

Written by Andy Sheridan, Seth Ennis and Wyatt McCubbin, with production by Dann Huff, Kelley’s latest solo effort finds him veering toward a vocal with heavier twang, backed by plenty of banjo and steel guitar.

On “Dirt Cheap,” he contemplates trading the hustle of city life for more time spent on a porch swing or by the pond, in a rural community and celebrating life with those he loves. Though lyrically, the song falls squarely in line with a plethora of other songs on country radio that celebrate rural living, this song marks a welcome change from his hip-hop-flecked FGL days, but Kelley’s vocal feels more relaxed and right at home on this radio-friendly track.

Tyler Braden, “Friends”

Braden follows his breakthrough songs — including “Try Losing One” and “Little Red Wine” — with “Friends,” written by Brent Anderson, Randy Montana and Lynn Hutton. The song finds Braden unfurling his true hurt and skepticism when an ex-lover wants to continue being friends, and act as though their deeper relationship never happened. Braden’s dusty, acid-fueled rendering conveys all the sarcasm, pain and bewilderment of the song’s essence, furthered heightened by rock-propelled production.

Carter Faith, “Carolina Burns”

“I still wear a grudge like a f–ked up crown,” Faith sings, offering a sharp-witted elegy for a past relationship — one still seared into her memory, even as her ex-lover has long since left the emotional ashes behind. Faith wrote this track with Lauren Hungate and Tofer Brown, with Brown also handling the song’s dreamy, soft-focus production. Faith’s lilting, summery vocals soothe her bone-deep observations, in a convergence of country, pop and Americana elements that’s uniquely her own.

Larry Fleet, Earned It EP

Fleet issues his third studio project, with 21 tracks of smooth, ’80s and ’90s country-influenced songs that touch on spirituality, loss, love, barrooms, youthful revelries and hard-earned wisdom and gratitude. He takes saw-dusted romantic chances in “There’s a Waylon,” laces a fiddle-and-piano jam-band vibe around late-night vibes in “Taking the Long Way,” and recalls midnights spent covertly soaking in soul-saving classic rock in “Devil Music.” Fleet is a writer on nearly every track on the project, further cementing his imposing talents as both songcrafter and vocalist, with a style that delves into blues, rock and retro-country with ease.

Jobi Riccio, “Sweet”

Riccio, the winner of the 2023 John Prine Songwriter Fellowship at Newport Folk, releases a new album, Whiplash, this month via Yep Roc Records. On “Sweet,” Riccio dabbles with a “Sweet Home Alabama” groove, but vocally inhabits an insouciance towards changing personality traits or personal preferences to please a lover — or anyone else, for that matter.

Bryan Martin, “We Ride”

Martin’s “We Ride,” which he wrote with Vernon Brown (with production from Nick Gibbens), currently resides just outside the top 40 on the Hot Country Songs chart, and is included on Martin’s 2023 album Poets and Old Souls. Here, his grizzly vocal soars over lyrics that pair perspective on everyday struggles on lines including “Hard to make a living while the gas is so high,” with a rock-seared, ramblin’-man sense of defiance and honesty — all elements that are finding popularity within the ever-expanding country music genre, in songs from artists including HARDY, Jelly Roll and Oliver Anthony.

05 Sep 2023

Taylor Swift’s Music Inspires Inmate to Write Emotional Essay About How Her Music Has Impacted His Life in Prison

Taylor Swift tends to have a deep impact on her fans. You could see if in the sea of Eras-inspired outfits during the singer’s epic Eras Tour this summer, not to mention the river of joyful tears that would often accompany each night’s secret song segment.

But in an essay for The New Yorker, writer Joe Garcia muses on the surprisingly deep connection he developed to Swift’s music while serving a life sentence for murder in some of California’s most unforgiving prisons.

Writing about anxiously awaiting the release of 2012’s Red album, Garcia said that he was immediately obsessed with “All Too Well” — dubbing her recent 10-minute Taylor’s Version “even better” — putting the song on repeat when he played his CD copy. “As Swift sang about love’s magical moments, how they are found and lost again, I thought about a time before my incarceration, when I briefly broke up with the woman I loved,” he recalled in a story straight out of a Swiftian saga. “She came to my house to return one of my T-shirts. When she hung it on the doorknob and walked away, I was on the other side. I sensed that someone was there, but, by the time I opened the door, she was gone.”

Garcia, an avowed Prince fan, wrote that the first time he became aware of Swift’s music was when he was in the Los Angeles County jail awaiting a transfer to prison on a murder charge. He recalled copies of the Los Angeles Times getting passed around from prisoner-to-prisoner in lock-up and gazing at the singer’s “wide-eyed face” in the Calendar section as he took in the gang fights and race riots around him, thinking her rocket ride to teenage stardom was an “injustice.”

Surrounded by young men of color who were writing and performing their own hip-hop songs about chasing paper and fame, Garcia focused in on Swift, “actually getting rich and famous. How fearless could any little blonde fluff like that really be?” he wondered. Once he was transferred to the unforgiving Calipatria State Prison in 2009 to serve a life sentence after six years in county jail, he was afforded the “small luxury” of a TV, where he would catch glimpses of Swift’s performances on The Tonight Show and Ellen. He said he was surprised by “how intently she discussed her songwriting,” never daring to tell any of his fellow inmates that he was impressed by Tay’s talent.

Garcia charts his fandom throughout his various transfers to other prisons, recalling how he got a security level bump-down for good behavior in 2013, which led to a move to Solano state prison, where he was forced to rely on a borrowed pocket radio to catch Taylor’s songs after his CD player and TV were lost in transit. “At night, we’d crank up the volume and lay the earbuds on the desk in our cell. Those tiny speakers radiated crickety renditions of Top Forty hits,” he wrote.

He would hear Swift songs almost every hour, at which point he realized he was kind of digging them, including “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together,” which reminded him of the woman he’d lived with for seven years before prison and how they never used the word “never” when they dreamed about getting back together.

“When I heard ‘Everything Has Changed,’ I had to fight back tears of exaltation and grief,” he wrote about thinking back on their first date while listening to the lyrics: “All I knew this morning when I woke/ Is I know something now/ Know something now I didn’t before.”

Alas, he had to leave his copy of Red behind after yet another transfer, which forced him to listen to a country radio station that played a wide variety of Swift’s music, from the twangy “Tim McGraw” to the full pop explosion of “I Knew You Were Trouble.”

“There was, in her voice, something intuitively pleasant and genuine and good, something that implies happiness or at least the possibility of happiness,” he wrote of Swift. “When I listened to her music, I felt that I was still part of the world I had left behind.”

The essay takes Garcia through several other transfers, chronicling the ups-and-downs of coming out as a Swiftie in the prison yard and learning that he wasn’t the only one bumping her tunes behind bars. By the time he was sent to San Quentin prison — around when Swift dropped Lover in 2019 — Garcia says he had accumulated nearly every Taylor song there was.

Whether on radios, boomboxes, TVs, MP3s or CDs, Garcia’s time in prison has been marked by the quest to acquire the latest Swift album. That includes during a harrowing COVID-19 lockdown in June 2020 when he was sent to an isolation cell where, between shivering and sweating through a brain fog for two weeks, he passed the time by making a playlist of the singer’s most uplifting songs. “Listening for the happiness in her voice,” he wrote.

In 2020, the then-53-year-old Garcia learned that he would be eligible for parole in 2024 due to a new California law, an unimaginable ray of light that once again made him think of the lyrics to “Daylight” from Lover: “I’ve been sleeping so long in a twenty-year dark night,” Swift sings. “And now I see daylight.”

He was, of course, psyched to hear about the Midnights album in Oct. 2022, and overjoyed when a volunteer slipped him a copy of it for his birthday a short time later, a kind gesture that nearly brought him to tears. Swift is now 33, the same age Garcia was when he was arrested and he wrote that he wonders if her music would have resonated with him at that age.

“I wonder whether I would have reacted to the words ‘I’m the problem, it’s me,’” from “Anti-Hero,” he wrote of the Midnights single. “Hers must be champagne problems compared with mine, but I still see myself in them. ‘I’ll stare directly at the sun, but never in the mirror,’” she sings on the single. “I think of the three-by-five-inch plastic mirrors that are available inside. For years out there, I viewed myself as the antihero in my own warped self-narrative. Do I want to see myself clearly?”

In a few months, the California Parole Board will ask him questions about his time behind bars, which made Garcia think of the “Karma” lyrics: “Ask me what I learned from all those years/ Ask me what I earned from all those tears.” So, with Taylor’s help, he thinks about what he’s learned and as those questions dog him at night when he’s not sleeping, he said he’ll keep listening to Midnights on repeat.