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30 Nov 2023

Lil Nas X Proclaims He Can ‘Get on My Knees for Multiple Reasons’ With Gospel-Tinged Teaser

After pole dancing his way into hell and grinding on the devil, Lil Nas X is ready to climb his way back up to the pearly gates with an enchanting new clip.

In a tweet on Wednesday evening (Nov. 29), the “Industry Baby” singer shared a video of himself lip-syncing to an unreleased song. Dressed in a long denim skirt and a T-shirt saying “if God doesn’t exist, then who’s laughing at us?,” Lil Nas sang out a prayer in the new clip. “Father stretch my hands/ The lonely road seems to last the longest,” he crooned. “Help me with my plans/ Everything seems to go nowhere.”

Calling on “angels” to help him “keep my faith” at the end of the clip, the 24-year-old made his intentions crystal clear in the clip’s caption. “y’all mind if i enter my christian era,” he asked his followers.

Of course, releasing a gospel-adjacent song doesn’t change who Lil Nas is at his core — a top-tier troll. When some X users began criticizing the rapper for “mocking” Christianity, he made sure to put them in their place. “making christian music does not mean i can’t suck d–k no more,” he wrote. “the two are not mutually exclusive. i am allowed to get on my knees for multiple reasons.” When one user tried to clap back and tell the singer that’s “not how Christianity works,” Nas was swift in his response: “watch out everybody it’s the christianity correctional officer.”

While Lil Nas was more than happy to mess with trolls and joke about his shift in sound, he did get very real with his audience, asking them to take his music a little bit more seriously. “y’all see everything i do as a gimmick. when in reality im just an artist expressing myself in different ways,” he wrote. “whether im a cowboy, gay, satanic, or now christian y’all find a problem! y’all don’t police nobody else art like mine. y’all hate me because im fun cute and petite.”

Billboard has reached out to representatives for Lil Nas X for more information on the release of his new song.

The new song clip comes amid a quiet period for the “Old Town Road” singer. His last single “Star Walkin’,” a collaboration with the multiplayer online game League of Legends, was released in September 2022, peaking at No. 32 on the Billboard Hot 100 the following October.

Lil Nas is well aware that his fans miss hearing new music from him: In a tweet mimicking Spotify Wrapped posts from other artists, the rapper joked that he earned a grand total of 2 streams in 2023. “damn not releasing music really starting to take a toll on my career,” he quipped.

Check out the full teaser for Lil Nas X’s stirring new song below.

30 Nov 2023

Mariah Carey’s ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You’ Breaks Into TikTok Billboard Top 50’s Top 3

Mitski remains at No. 1 on the TikTok Billboard Top 50, while Mariah Carey draws ever closer to the top on the Dec. 2-dated survey.

The TikTok Billboard Top 50 is a weekly ranking of the most popular songs on TikTok in the United States based on creations, video views and user engagement. The latest chart reflects activity Nov. 20-26. Activity on TikTok is not included in Billboard charts except for the TikTok Billboard Top 50.

Mitski’s “My Love Mine All Mine” rules for a sixth week, extending its standing as the TikTok Billboard Top 50’s longest running No. 1 since its September inception. The song drew 11.8 million official U.S. streams on platforms that report to the Billboard Hot 100 through Nov. 17-23, according to Luminate.

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Lil Mabu and Chrisean Rock’s “Mr. Take Ya B-tch” ranks at No. 2 on the TikTok Billboard Top 50 for a third straight week, while a newcomer in the top three is Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” which rises two spots to No. 3, becoming the first holiday song to reach the tally’s top three. It’s one of four such hits on the latest survey; Wham!’s “Last Christmas” shoots 17-14 and Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” jumps 25-18, while The Ronettes’ “Sleigh Ride” debuts at No. 46 – specifically the PhatCap! trap remix of the classic holiday tune.

Even Thanksgiving gets in on the action on the latest chart, with DJ Suede the Remix God’s “Beans Greens Potatoes” bowing at No. 49. The song is a remixed version of a sermon by gospel singer Shirley Caesar during a performance of her song “Hold My Mule”; better known as the You Name It challenge, the performance went viral in 2016 and resurfaces each Thanksgiving due to its mention of popular food items often served for the holiday. Multiple uploads using “Beans Greens Potatoes” yielded significant numbers on TikTok in 2023, including one from popular account Olive.and.Gus, which featured dog Olive patiently waiting for Thanksgiving dinner.

Back to the upper reaches of the TikTok Billboard Top 50, Darell’s “Lollipop” vaults 46-4 – a new peak for the song, which previously reached No. 28 in October. The track has benefited from dance challenges using it that took off in early fall (after the song’s July 2023 release), with Darell himself taking part. Some of the more recent high-performing uploads of the challenge feature users from different countries squaring off with their own takes on the dance.

Rounding out the top five, JID’s “Surround Sound,” featuring 21 Savage and Baby Tate, surges 13-5 for its first week in the top 10. The leap is concurrent with the song’s return to the Hot 100 for the first time in nearly two years; after debuting at No. 90 in January 2022, it re-enters at No. 95 on the Dec. 2 ranking. The song is achieving new life thanks to a trend in which users mount or tape a phone to the ceiling and record what happens below, often a choreographed dance. In the Nov. 17-23 Billboard chart tracking week, the tune jumped 41% to 5.7 million streams.

One of the high-profile debuts of the week is Olivia Rodrigo’s “Can’t Catch Me Now,” which starts at No. 32. The song bows concurrent with the premiere of the movie The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (Nov. 17), on whose soundtrack it’s featured. Many uploads spotlighting the song soundtrack content from the Hunger Games franchise both old and new, whether it’s ranking characters based on attractiveness or acting as a music bed for pivotal scenes from the series’ initial four films.

See the full TikTok Billboard Top 50 here, also featuring debuts from Kanye West, SZA and more. You can also tune in each Friday at 3 p.m. ET to SiriusXM’s TikTok Radio (channel 4) to hear the premiere of the chart’s top 10 countdown, with reruns airing throughout the week.

30 Nov 2023

Bored Ape Supergroup KINGSHIP Now Has a Habitat in Roblox

Roblox players are about to get an eyeful — and potentially an earful — of KINGSHIP, the metaverse “supergroup” comprised of and managed by a shrewdness of Bored-and-Mutant Ape NFTs.

10:22PM, the Web3 label of Universal Music Group founded by Celine Joshua, announced on Thursday the launch of KINGSHIP Islands — an immersive in-game experience wherein Robloxers can work to unite the four band members on something called the “Floating Villa,” plus earn reward accessories and “acquire emotes for their avatars.” For minors with parents who are cool and totally not a drag, players can purchase customized animated heads and bodies for their avatars using Roblox’s facial animation technology.

As the game environment ages, more free virtual goods will be added along with new music produced by Hit-Boy and James Fauntleroy, the KINGSHIP “sonic creative team” that was announced a year ago. The band’s label said the pair — officially co-executive producers — are “overseeing the evolution of the group’s music direction and sound.”

The supergroup has yet to release music, and their manager Manager Noët All could not be reached for comment.

KINGSHIP Islands is free to play for any Roblox user, who must first complete various quests to gain access to the Floating Villa. Wanna skip all that? Owners of one of the 5,000 KINGSHIP Key Cards qualify for VIP access, along with special badges and other metadoodads. Key Card holders can access the villa at any time because they will have a special Roblox badge, which provide unique roles inside experiences, the label said.

The aforementioned Floating Villa, part of KINGSHIP Islands.

When they were released in July of 2022, the entire batch of Key Cards sold out in the span of a day, though they continue to trade on the secondary market. Over the last 30 days, 66 cards have been resold on OpenSea at an average price of 0.0592 ETH, or roughly $120 at the current exchange rate. The cards were designed to unlock forthcoming partnerships with major brands (see: Roblox), as well as unique artwork and immersive digital experiences.

10:22PM’s KINGSHIP project made its debut in November 2021 and is comprised of mutant ape Captain (vocals, bass) and bored ones KING (lead vocals), Arnell (beats, producer, drums) and Hud (guitar, keyboards, vocals). Avid NFT collector Jimmy McNeils supplied the apes for KINGSHIP from his own collection. At the time of launch it was billed as a “landmark, first-ever exclusive agreement to create a metaverse group.”

Hey look, a trailer:


https://youtube.com/watch?v=ctKRgBhlhgQ&version=3&rel=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&fs=1&hl=en-US&autohide=2&wmode=transparent

30 Nov 2023

Tony Gonzalez Praises Taylor Swift Amid Her Travis Kelce Romance for Bringing ‘New Audience’ to NFL

Taylor Swift has become a full-blown Chiefs fan amid her romance with Travis Kelce, and now, former Kansas City star Tony Gonzalez is returning the love. 

On the Thursday (Nov. 30) episode of The Kelly Clarkson Show, the retired tight end praised the pop star for generating more buzz for the NFL. “I think it’s great that Taylor’s done this for the NFL,” he said. “She’s brought a whole new audience.” 

And though he hasn’t played professionally since 2013, Gonzalez recently saw Swift’s impact in action when a young fan approached him at the airport. “Men usually come up to me … and occasionally a woman — but a 10-year-old girl?” recalled the Hall of Famer, laughing. “I was like, ‘Oh, how cool, I’m getting so popular!’ She goes ‘Hi, is your name Tony? Do you know Travis Kelce?’” 

Gonzalez — who started his career with the Chiefs and was later traded to the Atlanta Falcons — is one of many NFL pros to approve of the “Anti-Hero” singer’s enthusiasm regarding the league, following similarly positive remarks from the likes of Magic Johnson, who co-owns the Washington Commanders, Thursday Night Football announcer Al Michaels and even NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. Others, however, have criticized sports media outlets’ coverage of Swift’s attendance at Kelce’s games. (Clarkson herself came under fire last month for saying that watching games on TV felt more akin to “Housewives” ever since Swift joined Chiefs Nation.) 

Gonzalez’s interview on the Kelly Clarkson Show comes shortly after Kelce became the fourth and fastest tight end to ever reach 11,000 receiving yards in the NFL. Earlier this month, he also broke Gonzalez’s record for most receiving yards in Chiefs history, something Gonzalez congratulated his successor for on Twitter. “Congrats and well earned my friend! Keep it going ??,” he wrote. 

Gonzalez also gave Kelce props for the record when talking to Clarkson, adding that the Ohio native is “such a good dude.” 

Watch Tony Gonzalez’s interview above. 

30 Nov 2023

Harry Styles, Morgan Wallen & More Lead New Generation of Stadium Headliners

A decade ago, the top eight acts on the 2013 Billboard Boxscore Top Tours chart each took in more than $100 million in ticket sales. Of those, Taylor Swift and Rihanna were young superstars; Pink and Beyoncé were each in their second decade as solo performers; and three — Bruce Springsteen, Bon Jovi and The Rolling Stones — were legacy rock acts. (The eighth was Cirque du Soleil’s Michael Jackson show.) Those results were typical for the time, which was why concert industry executives feared for years that their business wouldn’t have a steady supply of superstars that could fill stadiums and arenas after acts like the Stones and Elton John retired.

Now in 2023, the second full year of post-pandemic touring, 17 acts reached the $100 million mark (and 13 hit the inflation-adjusted equivalent of $132 million). Of those, nine released a debut album after 2010: Harry Styles, Morgan Wallen, Ed Sheeran, The Weeknd, BLACKPINK, Karol G, Drake, Luke Combs and Post Malone.

They look and sound differently, too. Unlike the rock acts that dominated the Boxscore charts in 2013 and for many of the years before and after, this new generation of headliners leans more toward pop, either in terms of genre (Styles, Sheeran, BLACKPINK), radio airplay (The Weeknd, Post Malone) or both. They’re more diverse, both personally and in terms of audience appeal, and more likely to score hits on the Billboard Hot 100. And they have enough drawing power to charge as much or more than legacy rock acts that appeal to an older, and presumably wealthier, audience.

To understand why so many newer acts can now gross more than $100 million, it helps to look at how that happens. To score those kinds of results, an act needs to not only sell a lot of tickets — it needs to sell them for a fairly high price. For years, most stadium acts had their roots in classic rock, and they alone could break the $100 mark for per-ticket pricing, at least partly because their audience tends to have more money and partly because fans knew they wouldn’t tour forever.

Some younger top acts use elaborate productions and cultural cachet to create that same sense of event — the fear of missing out — that makes fans willing to part with more money. That’s at the heart of the year’s top outing, Swift’s The Eras Tour, which Billboard Boxscore estimates brought in $920 million. (Swift and her team opted not to report attendance or ticket sales to Billboard Boxscore, which disqualifies her from the chart. Swift, who has previously reported her ticket sales, is not the first act to opt out, but she’s the first who would have been a contender for the top spot.)

If Swift had reported her numbers, she would certainly come in ahead of the official No. 1, Beyoncé’s Renaissance world tour, which took in $570.5 million from 55 shows during the tracking period. (Beyoncé played a final show on Oct. 1, which added $9.3 million to the tour’s overall haul.) That’s the highest single-year gross ever reported to Boxscore. Some of that success was due to pent-up demand — Beyoncé hadn’t performed as a solo artist since the 2016 Formation World Tour — and some resulted from more aggressive pricing. Many acts have raised ticket prices, apparently in order to capture more value that might otherwise go to scalpers.

Like Beyoncé’s shows, Coldplay’s Music of the Spheres world tour, which came in at No. 2 with $342.5 million from 55 concerts, had an elaborate visual component. So did Styles’ arena outing, which took in $338.2 million from 69 concerts, including nine at the Los Angeles Forum. Rounding out the top five were Wallen ($260.4 million from 44 shows) and Sheeran ($256.9 million from 46). Filling out the top 17 tours that grossed over $100 million were P!nk, John, The Weeknd, Depeche Mode, BLACKPINK, Karol G, Drake, Combs, Metallica, Dead & Company, Post Malone and George Strait.

The concert business isn’t only reacting to this trend toward younger and more diverse artists — it has played a role in making it happen. Over the last decade, the industry has shifted its focus from breaking individual acts as top touring attractions to creating a venue network that can identify artists with growth potential.

AEG and Live Nation have both adopted this strategy, and each has its own club and theater network that it uses to court artists like Wallen, Karol G, Combs and Post Malone. From there, artists can be steered into the company’s other divisions, including festivals or specialty promoters like The Messina Group, which is half-owned by AEG and this year produced tours by Swift, Strait, Eric Church and others.

This approach to developing artists as live acts focuses on boosting them to a certain level of popularity before moving on to the next. It’s paying off. The total gross of the top 10 tours is up 22% from 2022, to $2.7 billion, while the total for the top 100 is up 17%, to $7.5 billion. (These figures undercount industry growth because the time period that Boxscore used is a month shorter than in previous years — Nov. 1, 2022, to Sept. 30, 2023, rather than the previous period of Nov. 1 to Oct. 31.) That means 36% of the money taken by the top 100 tours went to the top 10 — and 51% went to the top 20.

That sharp rise in revenue partly comes from increased ticket prices, especially for younger artists. In fact, in a break with long-standing industry practice, younger acts are now charging more for some tickets than veterans. This year, it cost an average of $33 less to see the oldest of the top 10 touring acts, 76-year-old John (average: $166), than the youngest, 29-year-old Wallen (average: $199).

That might not last. The average price for the top 100 tours is now around $122, and fans may not be able to pay much more. A recent Peak Performance study by UTA Intelligence and Variety surveyed 1,500 concertgoers and found that over 62% said the biggest impediment to seeing more shows was the price, while 38% said the sole reason they didn’t go to a concert they wanted to attend was the expense.

30 Nov 2023

Nicki Minaj Teases Lyrics, Promises That ‘Pink Friday 2’ Is ‘Beyond Anything I Could Have Imagined’

Nicki Minaj offered up a stern warning and an exciting promise about her upcoming Pink Friday 2 album in a series of early morning tweets on Thursday morning (Nov. 30). “December 8th is COMING SOON,” she wrote about the collection due out on her birthday, before adding an ominous alert.

“If you on my $h!t list, you will never EVER recover. The. Fkng. End.”

Nicki also teased that her fifth studio collection is a certified classic that she can’t wait to share with the Barbz. “This album is just beyond anything I could have imagined,” she tweeted hours before. She also appeared to share some lyrics from an unnamed track on the collection, which read, “I just wanna watch him do his push-ups w/his sweats on/ Every time he hit it, he gon nail it like a press-on/ When I ride his d!&@ the only time he gettin flexed on/ Hit it from the bak with my pumps & my dress on.”

The hard-hitting bars are just the first in what Minaj promised would be a series of new lyrics, with a line slated to drop every day until Dec. 8. But before that, she let the Barbz decide something crucial: “on a scale from 1-10, how hard you want me to go on #PinkFriday2,” she asked, with the options including “TEN (to the white meat), EIGHT (foot on necks), FIVE (let’m live but ntm) and ONE (#NiceNicki #PopStar).”

Never one to soft-pedal her skills, Minaj has been stoking the hype train all week, assuring Barbz on Monday that it had just dawned on her that she is about to release “one of the greatest albums of ALL TIME.” She followed that promise up on Wednesday with an all caps second assurance that minds will be royally blown. “Right now as a type this mthaPHUCKAZ HAVE NO PHKNG IDEA WTF IS ABOUT TO PHKNG HAPPEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THE ENTIRE INDUSTRY WILL CHANGE AFTER DECEMBER 8th, 2023!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I SHALL APOINT BARBZ ONLY!!!! EVERY CONGRESSMAN, SENATOR, PRESIDENT, MONARCHY, YOU NAME IT!!!!!”

She also responded to a tweet from the Walmart account (“nothing but respect for the queen of rap! [heart emoji],” writing, “Can’t wait to go to Walmart & pick up my 5th album. My goodness [crying face emoji].”

Minaj pushed the album’s original Nov. 17 release date back earlier this month to avoid a conflict with good friend and longtime mentor Lil Wayne’s joint album with 2 Chainz, Welcome 2 Collegrove. The rapper previously said that she delayed the collection because she had writer’s block during her pregnancy and didn’t want to say “freaky” stuff. Pink Friday 2 is the follow-up to Minaj’s 2018 album, Queen.

Check out Minaj’s tweets below.

30 Nov 2023

Roger Bonds, Former Diddy Bodyguard, Backs Cassie’s Claims

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Roger Bonds, a former head of security for Sean “Diddy” Combs, who was named in the explosive lawsuit brought by Casandra “Cassie” Ventura, has vowed to tell his side of the story. Bonds was named in Cassie’s lawsuit and seemingly backed up claims made by the singer in a recent video.

Roger Bonds, who worked with Diddy over a decade ago, took to his Instagram page on Tuesday (November 28) to share his side of the story. In Cassie’s lawsuit, Bonds was mentioned as the individual who stopped a violent moment between her and Combs. While Bonds never mentions Combs by name, he added that the incident named in the lawsuit was just one of many.

Bonds added in the description of the Instagram post that more details would emerge and it appears he is gearing up to release a  documentary or book as the hashtags for the post read “#2FacesTHEDOCUMENTARY” and “#ROGERBONDSMYTRUTH.”

After sharing the video and the potentially damning information within, it appears that Bonds has deleted his Instagram page for reasons unknown to us. Given the fact that Cassie settled the case one day after bringing the lawsuit to Diddy, it could be speculated that Bonds cannot legally speak on the case although, to our knowledge, he had no such agreement with Combs.

Below are some videos and replies obtained from X, formerly known as Twitter. One such reply makes mention of Bonds’ son, who was accused of murder in Africa, something Bonds addressed in a DJ Vlad interview over a year ago.

As more information about Roger Bonds becomes public, we’ll return with updates.

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Photo: Getty

30 Nov 2023

How Slow Pulp Drew on Both Lucinda Williams and ‘The O.C.’ for Breakthrough Album ‘Yard’

The Album

Yard, out now on ANTI- Records.

The Origin

Guitarist-producer Henry Stoehr and drummer Teddy Matthews met as youngsters in a McDonald’s ball pit in their native Madison, Wis., and they’ve been playing music together almost as long. They formed a band with buddy and future Slow Pulp bassist Alex Leeds as preteens and kept making music as teens and, later, students at University of Wisconsin, Madison. That’s where they met singer-guitarist Emily Massey, who was in another band, but began writing with Stoehr for fun.

The creative relationship blossomed and Stoehr invited Massey to join the nascent Slow Pulp. Initially, Massey explains, she “was just kind of an auxiliary member,” helping with rhythm guitar and backing vocals. But while recording 2017’s EP2, Stoehr and Leeds asked Massey to sing lead on a couple of their songs. “They were like, ‘How about you sing this song as well?’ And then we started sprinkling in the songs that we had been writing together,” Massey, now 28, recalls. “It just kind of slowly transitioned into me kind of taking the frontperson role.”

The Sound

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“Lucinda Williams’ album Car Wheels On A Gravel Road, that’s my gold [standard], like, this is how I like music to sound, production-wise” says Stoehr, 29, who produced Slow Pulp’s debut full-length, 2020’s Moveys, and its follow-up, September’s Yard. Massey shares the affinity: She wrote some of Yard‘s songs at a cabin where Williams’ Grammy-nominated 2001 album Essence was one of the few CDs on hand. “She’s just an incredible songwriter,” says Massey, noting the “production cues that [Slow Pulp] took from that Americana world for some of the songs” on Yard.

Stoehr and Massey also gush about the soundtrack to seminal ’00s teen TV drama The O.C., explaining the impact the set of canonical alt-rock and indie-pop songs had on them as younger Millennials. “Overall, on [Yard], there’s a little more earnestness and exposed emotion. And I feel like that [O.C.] era of music was all about that.”

And when it comes to the tried-and-true “Artist A x Artist B = Artist C” equation, one could do worse than encapsulating Slow Pulp’s emotional and vibrant indie-rock than “Lucinda Williams x The O.C. soundtrack.” On Yard, the band’s upped the rootsy quotient – like on late-album standout “Broadview,” a gem laden with steel guitar, harmonica, and banjo that sounds like Slow Pulp exhumed and rerecorded a lost demo from Neil Young’s Harvest.

The Record

Like many young bands, Slow Pulp’s rise is forever linked to the pandemic. The quartet finished its debut, Moveys, in the early months of COVID; around that time, Massey says her own health issues and a serious car accident involving her parents were among the factors that forced the band to “take a breather for a second.”

Writing for Yard began in earnest in early 2022, and by February 2023 the band had submitted the record – and signed with eminent indie label ANTI-, currently home to an eclectic roster that includes Fleet Foxes, Mavis Staples, MJ Lenderman and Japandroids. “They were very down for just letting us take a lot of creative control, which is something that was really important to us,” Massey says.

As she did for Moveys, Massey tracked many of Yard‘s vocals in her musician father’s home studio – “It wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows; we definitely are good at arguing,” she says with a laugh – and Stoehr ornamented tracks the band recorded with “sound candy type of stuff” to make them pop. The technical prowess helps Slow Pulp’s sharper-than-ever songwriting, chock-full of huge hooks and vivid lyrics, shine.

“Songs like ‘Broadview’ and ‘Yard’ have a different flavor than some of the music that we’ve done before,” Massey says. “And ANTI-, those were some of their favorite songs, like from the jump. That felt cool to have a label be excited about new things and new sounds that are kind of taking a risk.”

The Breakthrough

When Slow Pulp released EP2, influential YouTuber thelazylazyme gave its closing track, “Preoccupied,” a boost by sharing it. “That was the turning point of, like, ‘Maybe we should look into taking this a little bit more seriously,’” says Massey, explaining how the recognition prompted Slow Pulp to relocate to Chicago.

In 2019, the band opened for Alex G on tour – and noticed a pronounced change in the audiences compared to other support slots it had played before. “That was the first tour we went on where the person we were opening for’s fans were pretty receptive,” Stoehr says. “People were liking it.”

And when touring opened back up following the pandemic, Slow Pulp shored up its indie-rock bona fides with coveted slots supporting Alvvays, Pixies and Death Cab For Cutie.

The Future

In early November, Slow Pulp took the stage – to Phantom Planet’s O.C. theme “California,” naturally – for a sold-out show at New York’s Bowery Ballroom, the third of three sold-out Manhattan club shows. The raucous Big Apple crowd has been the norm since Slow Pulp hit the road days after Yard’s release.

“One of our favorite shows that we played on this tour was in Minneapolis,” says Massey, recalling the band’s second stop this fall. “The album hadn’t even been out for a week, and the crowd sang every song. It was just like, ‘What?! How is this happening?’”

The band’s wrapping the year with a European tour – and is already booked for Spain’s Primavera Sound and the Netherlands’ Best Kept Secret in June 2024. Says Massey: “It feels like this big dream is coming true.”

The Piece of Studio Equipment They Cannot Live Without

Stoehr: “The AKG C414 [microphone]. The gold and black one.”
Massey: “My MacBook.”

The Artist They Believe Deserves More Attention

Massey: “Ratboys. They could be huge. The record they put out this year is really so, so cool.”
Stoehr: “They’re an amazing band. There’s this other small band from Madison called She’s Green that I think are really sick.”

The Advice Every Indie Artist Needs to Hear

Massey: “Have fun. That’s something that we like have to remind ourselves of sometimes. I’ve had a really hard time letting myself just fail and make things that are horrible. That’s OK! Make stuff that’s really bad. Make bad songs and it gets you to the good ones. Don’t be so hard on yourself.”

The Most Surprising Thing About the Music Industry So Far

Massey: [long pause] “People listen to our music.” [laughs]
Stoehr: “Yeah, probably that.”
Massey: “That’s pretty surprising, always.”

The Thing They Hope Fans Take Away From Their Album

Massey: “Letting yourself have a certain compassion for yourself. That’s the big takeaway. We all have moments of a lot of self-doubt; there are a lot of things that we’re so hard on ourselves for. And to be able to work towards finding the places where you feel you’re able to care for yourself, outside of all the things that are happening. A lot of this record is about gratitude and reflecting on relationships and things that get you to the place you are now.”

30 Nov 2023

Watch Beyoncé, Elton John & Yes, Taylor Swift Race to Boxscore Gold

Another year, another Boxscore recap. After Ed Sheeran scored consecutive wins in 2018-19, Elton John and The Rolling Stones led abridged COVID-flanked charts in 2020-21, and Bad Bunny broke ground in 2022, Beyoncé rules the 2023 year-end Top Tours ranking.

According to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore, the Renaissance World Tour grossed $570.5 million during the 2023 tracking period – Nov. 1, 2022-Sept. 30, 2023 – and another $9.3 million on its final show on Oct. 1. But the tour didn’t even begin until May 10 – and now, you can take a look at how the Top Tours chart took shape, from start to finish.

For the first month, Coldplay and Elton John dominated the race. John began ahead with $7.8 million on Nov. 1 from a show at Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium. The final shows of Coldplay’s 10-night run in Buenos Aires gave them the lead by Nov. 2, but a week later, John resumed his reign.

After dominating the 2022 year-end charts, Latin music reigned in December and into the new year. Bad Bunny took over first, before ceding to Daddy Yankee, whose farewell La Ultima Vuelta World Tour grossed $72.5 million between early November and its late December finish.

The Brits returned to the top in January, as John reclaimed the No. 1 spot, followed by Harry Styles.

Notably, figures for Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour have not yet been reported to Boxscore. While that disqualifies her from appearing on year-end charts, Billboard’s projections place her at the center of the year’s biggest touring acts.

Based on estimates, Swift would have ended the Styles era around mid-April, becoming the first artist in 2023 to gross $200 million, $300 million, $400 million, and beyond. By the end of August, The Eras Tour played its last shows of the tracking period, with more than $800 million in the bank.

Based on official figures, Styles and John continued to flip the top spot well into the summer, until Beyoncé broke through in August. The Renaissance World Tour brought her to the top 10 within a month of launching, with $85.8 million by June 5 and $141.8 million by the end of its first leg (June 28).

Kicking off the North American leg on July 8, Beyoncé kicked into high gear, averaging nearly double the nightly grosses of her European shows. Her three shows at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Aug. 11-12 and 14 charged the tour’s overall gross from $324.8 million to $364.6 million, pushing the Renaissance World Tour to No. 1, where it’d stay through the end of the tracking period.

Ultimately, at $570.5 million, Beyoncé enjoys a 67% lead over Coldplay, which snuck by Styles at the last minute to land at No. 2.

Though they never occupied the top spot, BLACKPINK and Ed Sheeran were among the top 10 throughout most of the year. The K-pop girl-group spent the first four months of the tracking period in the top five, before dipping off the graph and returning to the top 10 for year’s end. Sheeran took the early months off from touring, and then shot onto the list by late February. For his part, Morgan Wallen blossomed in the late months with stadium shows in support of One Thing at a Time, ultimately yielding the biggest year-end gross for a country tour ever.

Click here to see the full year-end 2023 Boxscore charts.

30 Nov 2023

BLACKPINK, Karol G & More Are Diversifying Stadium Stages — and Boxscore Charts

From K-pop to Latin and beyond, Billboard’s Boxscore charts are undergoing a facelift, spotlighted by a diverse crop of artists crowding the 2023 year-end report. While pop and rock have long dominated the touring space, the two central genres’ combined market share has dropped from 69% in 2019, to 59% in 2022, and now to 48% in 2023.

Traditionally, the common threshold for a stadium tour is that the artist in question should be generally ubiquitous: recognizable by face and name, with a handful-plus of sing-along hooks, and accessible across generations, genres and cultures. That explains the sustained success of veteran acts such as Elton John, Madonna and The Rolling Stones.

But even without discographies that date back to the 20th century, contemporary acts have infiltrated the stadium space while still operating as current hitmakers. Beyoncé, Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift have broken ground with record-breaking global tours that eschew past notions that underestimated young audiences. Those acts, though still building their own legendary discographies, pass the various tests mentioned above, with widespread recognition and iconic hits.

In the post-pandemic era, the goal posts have shifted once again. Beyond the slew of mainstream stars that fit the established mold – generally from mainland U.S., Canada or the U.K., performing in English, and catering to pop or an adjacent radio format – stadium stages, and therefore the upper reaches of the year-end Boxscore charts, have some fresh faces.

Rounding out the top 10 of the 2023 Top Tours chart, BLACKPINK grossed $148.3 million and sold 703,000 tickets from 29 reported shows in the eligibility window. Next, Karol G is No. 11 with $146.9 million and 843,000 tickets sold from just 19 dates. Side by side, they lead genre rankings for K-pop and Latin, respectively.

Next to artists such as The Weeknd, P!nk and Luke Combs, BLACKPINK and Karol G stand out as stadium stars and Boxscore chart-toppers. The nine acts that ranked higher on Top Tours have, on average, 12 top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart. BLACKPINK and Karol G, on the other hand, have spent a combined total of one week in the top 10, when Karol G’s “TQG,” with Shakira, hit No. 7 earlier this year.

This puts both acts at odds with the presumed criteria for stadium acts. Neither artist has conquered the Hot 100, nor have they been nominated for a general-field Grammy award, hosted Saturday Night Live, or made hyped-up cameos or supporting turns in a major film or television series. To boot, their careers are young. Karol G released her first album in 2017 and BLACKPINK did so in 2020. Depeche Mode – the only other act in the top 10 without a No. 1 hit on the Hot 100 – has been building its fan base for more than 40 years.

Both BLACKPINK and Karol G have, however, reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, perhaps signifying a deep, passionate fan base ready to pay top-dollar for concert tickets, even without the wider-spread recognition that often accompanies hit singles.

Notably, neither are the first of their respective genres to hit the jackpot. Bad Bunny broke ground for Latin artists last year when he ruled the 2022 year-end chart. In doing so, he broke BTS’ record for the highest year-end finish for an act that primarily performs in a non-English language, after the K-pop boy band finished 2019 at No. 3.

If there’s a constant with non-English-language acts playing stadiums, it’s that with the minor exceptions of Bad Bunny and BTS, they’ve been outliers with vast fan bases that sometimes aren’t represented in the mainstream. Initially, Karol G’s team booked six stadiums in “safe” markets. Those dates quickly blossomed to nine when Los Angeles, Miami and New York shows sold out and second dates were added. When all was said and done, she played 19 shows in 16 cities.

“She was the one who insisted on playing the stadium, not a 360 arena,” says her sister, Jessica Giraldo, who oversees Karol G’s businesses. “She was the one who wanted to do a stadium tour. She said, ‘Believe in my vision.’”

When reflecting on the growth of regional Mexican music in 2023 at Billboard’s Latin Music Week, Live Nation’s Jorge Garcia noted, “These are the same people that are buying Drake tickets. They’re also the fans buying the Fuerza Regida ticket.” Once impenetrable lines that divided artists by genre and culture are fading away, quickly.

The 2023 achievements by BLACKPINK and Karol G do a few things. For one, their collective triumph means that Bad Bunny and BTS’ banner years were not anomalies. More than that, both genres have deeper benches than ever. K-pop girl-group TWICE also played U.S. stadiums, while BTS member SUGA conquered arenas as a soloist. Both grossed more than $50 million this year.

Further, 14 artists who primarily perform in Spanish find themselves among the year-end top 100, representing a mix of legacy acts and newcomers; reggaeton, pop and regional Mexican; and artists from Colombia, Mexico, Puerto Rico and more. Latin music’s share of the top 100’s total gross dipped from 12.1% in 2022 to 11.5%, but considering the absence of Bad Bunny’s $373.5 million gross from last year, Latin’s steady hold points toward more growth over the coming years.

The Boxscore arrival of BLACKPINK and Karol G is also a win for gender representation. Women doubled their share of the top 100 tours from last year. Of just 12 woman-identifying acts in the top 100, the genres of K-pop and Latin claim four (TWICE and Ana Gabriel, in addition to BLACKPINK and Karol G).

They’re also skewing the Boxscore charts younger. The members of BLACKPNIK range from 26 to 28 years old, and Karol G is 32, all well below the top 100’s average of 46.6. The two youngest acts in the top 100 are both K-pop groups (ENHYPEN averages 20 and TOMORROW X TOGETHER averages 22). The next youngest are Latin acts (the group Fuerza Regida averages 23 and soloist Peso Pluma is 24). Members of Grupo Firme, SEVENTEEN and Bad Bunny himself are all in their 20s, among others from both genres.

In all, genre diversity helps make 2023 one of the youngest years in Boxscore history. It’s the youngest top 100 since 2014, when One Direction (average age of 21 at the time) was No. 1, and the youngest top 10 since 2001, when *NSYNC and the Backstreet Boys paired up in the top five.

Legacy acts from pop, rock and R&B continue to do stellar business at the box office, proven by the presence of Rod Stewart, Lionel Richie and Journey, among many others. But the push of younger artists from diverse genres only points to the touring industry, and specifically the slate of artists capable of selling out stadiums, being able to replenish itself with fresh faces well into the next decade.

With K-pop and Latin genres leading the charge, the reshaping of the U.S. touring circuit continues. Late last year, Belgium’s Stromae — mixing French-language pop, rap and electronic — played a brief North American tour, including two nights at New York’s Madison Square Garden. Hailing from Nigeria, Asake sold out the Barclays Center in Brooklyn on Sept. 8, while Burna Boy launched a full North American arena tour in early November. If Bad Bunny and BTS blew the door open, then BLACKPINK, Karol G and a growing list of international artists are breaking down the wall.

Click here to see the full year-end 2023 Boxscore charts.

Dating back almost 40 years, all Boxscore rankings are based on figures reported to Billboard. Data is reported from a variety of official industry sources, from artist managers and agents to promoters and venue executives.

All reported shows, worldwide, between Nov. 1, 2022 – Sept. 30, 2023, are eligible for year-end 2023 consideration.