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01 Nov 2023

Britney Spears Shot Her ‘Overprotected’ Music Video Minutes After Getting Justin Timberlake Breakup Text

Pain and heartbreak have resulted in some of the most moving and seminal works in pop music history, and this appears to be true for Britney Spears, according to “Overprotected” music video director Chris Applebaum.

In an exclusive new clip from a forthcoming Impact x Nightline episode that details the aftermath of Spears’ memoir The Woman in Me, Applebaum recounts the fated breakup text that spurred an unforgettable performance.

“I walk into her trailer, and Britney’s not dressed for the next scene,” Applebaum recalls. “She’s not ready, her hair and makeup isn’t ready. She’s still in a Juicy Couture sweatsuit, and I could immediately tell something was wrong. I asked her if everything was OK, and she said, ‘No, things are not OK, because look,’ and she held out her flip phone and I saw this text which said, ‘It’s over,’ which was from her boyfriend at the time, Justin Timberlake.”

Timberlake and Spears dated from 1999 to 2002, and their coupling quickly became one of the most recognizable relationships in pop culture history. In her memoir, Spears recounts her entire relationship with the “Cry Me a River” singer, revealing some bombshells in the process. In The Woman in Me, Spears claimed that she had an abortion during their relationship. “If it had been left up to me alone, I never would have done it, and yet Justin was so sure that he didn’t want to be a father,” she wrote. “To this day, it’s one of the most agonizing things I have ever experienced in my life.”

That shocking revelation wouldn’t be the last time Timberlake shattered Spears’ world. “It seemed like that was the end of the video shoot, and I acknowledged that with everybody,” Applebaum says. “But, on the other hand, if you feel like you wanna get out there and show him that he just lost the best thing that he ever had, let’s do it. Ten to 15 minutes later, she came out and she was on fire. This was the Britney that everybody knows and loves.”

Applebaum directed the music video for the song’s Darkchild remix. The clip featured references to both Spears’ passion for dance and the predatory nature of paparazzi. “Overprotected” — the second international single from 2001’s Britney album — ultimately peaked at No. 86 on the Billboard Hot 100 and earned a Grammy nomination for best female pop vocal performance.

The forthcoming “It’s Britney” episode of Impact x Nightline will stream starting Thursday (Nov. 2) on Hulu and is set to feature exclusive first-hand accounts of Spears’ talent, work ethic and creative genius in the wake of the release of The Woman In Me. In addition to Applebaum, Dan George, the tour manager and creative producer behind Spears’ 2009 Circus Tour, also provides a first-hand account of Spears’ life and career around the time her conservatorship began.

Watch an exclusive clip from the upcoming Impact x Nightline “It’s Britney” episode above, and revisit the “Overprotected (Darkchild Remix)” video below.

01 Nov 2023

Is the Music Industry Losing Money to Sped-Up Remixes?

In the TikTok era, homemade remixes of songs — typically single tracks that have been sped up or slowed down, or two tracks mashed together — have become ever more popular. Increasingly, they are driving viral trends on the platform and garnering streams off of it. 

Just how popular? In April, Larry Mills, senior vp of sales at the digital rights tech company Pex, wrote that Pex’s tech found “hundreds of millions of modified audio tracks distributed from July 2021 to March 2023,” which appeared on TikTok, SoundCloud, Audiomack, YouTube, Instagram and more. 

On Wednesday (Nov. 1), Mills shared the results of a new Pex analysis — expanded to include streaming services like Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, and Tidal — estimating that “at least 1% of all songs on [streaming platforms] are modified audio.”

“We’re talking more than 1 million unlicensed, manipulated songs that are diverting revenue away from rightsholders this very minute,” Mills wrote, pointing to homemade re-works of tracks by Halsey or One Republic that have amassed millions of plays. “These can generate millions in cumulative revenue for the uploaders instead of the correct rightsholders.”

Labels try to execute a tricky balancing act with user-generated remixes. They usually strike down the most popular unauthorized reworks on streaming services and move to release their own official versions in an attempt to pull those plays in-house. But they also find ways to encourage fan remixing, because it remains an effective form of music marketing at a time when most promotional strategies have proved toothless. “Rights holders understand that this process is inevitable, and it’s one of the best ways to bring new life to tracks,” Meng Ru Kuok, CEO of music technology company BandLab, said to Billboard earlier this year. 

Mills argues that the industry needs a better system for tracking user-generated remixes and making sure royalties are going into the right pockets. “While these hyper-speed remixes may make songs go viral,” he wrote in April, “they’re also capable of diverting royalty payments away from rights holders and into the hands of other creators.” 

Since Pex sells technology for identifying all this modified audio, it’s not exactly an unbiased party. But it’s notable that streaming services and distributors don’t have the best track record when it comes to keeping unauthorized content of any kind off their platforms.

It hasn’t been unusual to find leaked songs — especially from rappers with impassioned fan bases like Playboi Carti and Lil Uzi Vert — on Spotify, where leaked tracks can often be found climbing the viral chart, or TikTok. An unreleased Pink Pantheress song sampling Michael Jackson’s classic “Off the Wall” is currently hiding in plain sight on Spotify, masquerading as a podcast. 

“Historically, streaming services don’t have an economic incentive to actually care about that,” Deezer CEO Jeronimo Folgueira told Billboard earlier this year. “We don’t care whether you listen to the original Drake, fake Drake, or a recording of the rain. We just want you to pay $10.99.” Folgueira called that incentive structure “actually a bad thing for the industry.”

In addition, many of the distribution companies that act as middlemen between artists and labels and the streaming services operate on a volume model — the more content they upload, the more money they make — which means it’s not in their financial interest to look closely at what they send along to streaming services. 

However, the drive to improve this system has taken on new urgency this year. Rights holders and streaming services are going back and forth over how streaming payments should work and whether “an Ed Sheeran stream is worth exactly the same as a stream of rain falling on the roof,” as Warner Music Group CEO Robert Kyncl told financial analysts in May. As the industry starts to move to a system where all streams are no longer created equal, it becomes increasingly important to know exactly what’s on these platforms so it can sort different streams into different buckets.

In addition, the advance of artificial intelligence-driven technology has allowed for easily accessible and accurate-sounding voice-cloning, which has alarmed some executives and artists in a way that sped-up remixes have not. “In our conversations with the labels, we heard that some artists are really pissed about this stuff,” says Geraldo Ramos, co-founder/CEO of the music-tech company Moises. “They’re calling their label to say, ‘Hey, it isn’t acceptable, my voice is everywhere.’”

This presents new challenges, but also perhaps means new opportunities for digital fingerprint technology companies, whether that’s stalwarts like Audible Magic or newer players like Pex. “With AI, just think how much the creation of derivative works is going to exponentially grow — how many covers are going to get created, how many remixes are gonna get created,” Audible Magic CEO Kuni Takahashi told Billboard this summer. “The scale of what we’re trying to identify and the pace of change is going to keep getting faster.”

01 Nov 2023

Travis Barker Confirmed the Hard-Hitting Name of the Baby Boy He’s Expecting With Kourtney Kardashian

Travis Barker and Kourtney Kardashian could be parents by the time you read this. The Blink-182 drummer and the reality TV star are expecting their first child together any minute now and in a new podcast interview on One Life One Chance with Toby Morse, Barker seemed to accidentally reveal the name of their soon-to-bounce baby.

In fact, according to Barker, Kardashian’s due date was yesterday (Oct. 31). “When Rocky’s born I’ll be the father of seven,” Barker said proudly on the show about his father duties in his blended family with Kardashian. The child’s until-now kind-of secret name was first revealed when host Morse asked Barker if he’d ever reunite with his all-star punk-hip-hop group, The Transplants.

The group fronted by Rancid singer/guitarist Tim Armstrong and Rob Aston has been on an unofficial hiatus since 2017, but Barker said they were signed up to play a benefit show this year before life got in the way. “There’s one that’s a benefit for Hawaii that we were going to do, but it’s the week that Rocky’s due,” Barker said, appearing to confirm rumors that the baby’s name is Rocky. Barker then revealed the baby’s full handle: Rocky Thirteen Barker, which Morse dubbed “such a hard name.”

“I was like, ‘he’s going to come out of my wife’s vagina doing front kicks and push-ups,’” Barker laughed, before saying that Kardashian’s due date was Halloween. Morse joked that the dress-up loving couple could not have planned it better. “I know. It’s either Halloween or like, the first week of November,” Barker said.

Back in July, Barker and his 17-year-old daughter from his previous marriage, Alabama, joked about some potential baby names, with ‘Bama tossing out high-end ones including, “Audemars, Milan f–kin’ Patek.” At the time, Travis said he had something more punk rock in mind, first floating the “Rocky Thirteen” moniker. Barker explained that the name was not inspired by Sylvester Stallone’s fictional Philly pugilist, but rather by Suicidal Tendencies guitarist Rocky George and the drummer’s favorite number.

Barker and Kardashian — who has three children with her ex Scott Disick: Mason, 13, Penelope, 11 and Reign, 8 — announced they were expecting their first child together in June. The baby news reveal came in early June when Kardashian held up a “Travis I’m Pregnant” poster in the crowd at Blink-182’s concert in Los Angeles. Last month, Kardashian revealed that she had an ultrasound that “saved my baby’s life,” following urgent fetal surgery in September that had Barker flying home from Blink’s overseas tour.

Listen to Barker on One Life One Chance with Toby Morse below (baby talk comes at 1:16:09 mark).

01 Nov 2023

Brandon Lake’s ‘Coat of Many Colors’ Sparkles as His First No. 1 on Top Christian Albums Chart

Brandon Lake scores his first No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Christian Albums chart as Coat of Many Colors blasts in atop the survey (dated Nov. 4). Released Oct. 20, the 16-track set earned 9,000 equivalent album units through Oct. 26, according to Luminate.

The 33-year-old singer-songwriter from Charleston, S.C., leads the list for the first time among four appearances. He previously hit the top 10 with his first entry, House of Miracles, which reached No. 6 in June.

“Today I am in awe and wonder of how God continues to use this music to love and encourage others,” Lake tells Billboard. “It’s something I will never get used to. I have learned that most of our life is not lived in the palace – it is us enduring pit after pit. My prayer is that this album would meet you where you are and help remind you that God is with you in the pit.”

Concurrently, the lead single from Coat of Many Colors, “Praise You Anywhere,” hops 4-1 on the streaming-, airplay- and sales-based Hot Christian Songs chart. It drew 5.6 million airplay audience impressions and 2 million official streams in the U.S. in the tracking week.

Lake tops Hot Christian Songs with a third title (among five top 10s), following his featured turn on Elevation Worship’s “Graves Into Gardens,” which led for two frames weeks in February 2021, and his own “Gratitude,” which dominated for 15 weeks beginning this February. He is the only act to have led the chart with multiple songs this year.

Lake co-authored “Praise You Anywhere” with Hank Bentley, Ben Fielding and Jacob Scooter, while Bentley and Scooter co-produced the track.

Lake is also the first artist this year to open at No. 1 on Top Christian Albums while simultaneously hitting the top of Hot Christian Songs. TobyMac last achieved such a double-up in September 2022, when his album Life After Death arrived at No. 1 on Top Christian Albums as “The Goodness,” featuring Blessing Offor, rose to the Hot Christian Songs summit.

Currently on his Coat of Many Colors Tour — which launched earlier in October and includes supporting act Benjamin William Hastings — Lake makes his next stop in Greenville, S.C., on Nov. 5.

01 Nov 2023

Morgan Wallen, Alan Jackson, Kenny Chesney, Luke Combs, Kelsea Ballerini & More Added to CMA Awards Performers Lineup

A second round of performers has been added to the 57th annual CMA Awards, led by Morgan Wallen, Kenny Chesney, Luke Combs, Kelsea Ballerini and Alan Jackson.

Also performing are Dan+Shay, Jordan Davis, HARDY, Cody Johnson, Post Malone, Mac McAnally, The War and Treaty and Zac Brown Band. Luke Bryan and Peyton Manning will again co-host “Country Music’s Biggest Night,” which will broadcast live via ABC from Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena on Nov. 8 and will be available the following day on Hulu.

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Chesney will honor the late Jimmy Buffett by collaborating with 10-time CMA Award winner and longtime Coral Reefer band member Mac McAnally, as well as Jackson and Zac Brown Band. Meanwhile Wallen will join HARDY and Post Malone for a medley of classic country songs, while Wallen will also perform a second time with a surprise guest to perform a track from Wallen’s album of the year-nominated project One Thing at a Time.

Female vocalist and album of the year nominee Ballerini will perform Rolling Up The Welcome Mat’s open-hearted “Leave Me Again.” Reigning two-time entertainer of the year and four-time nominee this year Combs will perform his new single “Where the Wild Things Are.” This year’s vocal duo of the year nominee Dan + Shay will offer up their single “Save Me The Trouble,” while three-time nominee this year Davis will perform “Next Thing You Know.”

Male vocalist of the year nominee Johnson will perform his ballad “The Painter,” from his upcoming album Leather. Three-time nominee this year McBryde will perform “Light On In the Kitchen,” from her album The Devil I Know, and The War And Treaty, first-time nominee this year for Vocal Duo of the Year, will perform “That’s How Love Is Made.”

Presenters for “The 57th Annual CMA Awards” will be announced in the coming days. Tickets for “The 57th Annual CMA Awards” are on sale now through Ticketmaster.

01 Nov 2023

Apple TV+ Announces Three-Part ‘John Lennon: Murder Without a Trial’ Documentary Series

Apple TV+ announced a new three-part documentary series delving into the 1980 murder of late Beatle John Lennon. With narration from 24 star Kiefer Sutherland, John Lennon: Murder Without a Trial promises to present exclusive eyewitness interviews and previously unseen crime scene photos that will shed “new light on the life and murder” of the rock icon, as well as the investigation and conviction of his confessed killer, Mark David Chapman.

A release announcing the series says it is “the most thoroughly researched examination of John Lennon’s 1980 murder, which shocked and saddened the world.” The production was reportedly given extensive Freedom of Information Act requests from the New York City Police Department, the Board of Parole and the District Attorney’s office and features “exclusive interviews with eyewitnesses — speaking for the first time — along with some of Lennon’s closest friends, revealing shocking details of Lennon’s tragic murder.” The series will also feature interviews with Chapman’s defense lawyers, psychiatrists, detectives and prosecutors.

The show was directed by Nick Holt (Responsible Child) and Rob Coldstream (Jade: The Reality Star Who Changed Britain) and produced by Apple TV+ and 72 Films. At press time a release date for the series had not been announced. Lennon’s killing has previously been the subject of a number of films, including 2007 biographical drama Chapter 27 starring Jared Leto.

Lennon was shot and killed on Dec. 8, 1980 outside his New York apartment building, the Dakota, by Chapman, a disturbed Beatles fan who said he was inspired to murder the beloved musician by the hypocrisy-hating fictional misanthrope Holden Caulfield from J.D. Salinger’s iconic 1951 novel The Catcher in the Rye. Chapman was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 20 years to life in prison; he became eligible for parole in 2000 and has been denied release 12 times since.

The news of the docuseries came just days before the release of what has been dubbed the the final-ever Beatles song, “Now and Then,” which will drop on Thursday (Nov. 2), followed on Friday (Nov. 3) by a Peter Jackson-directed music video featuring previously unseen footage of the Fab Four. “Now and Then” is the final song written by Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, and it was finished by living members McCartney and Starr more than 40 years after the group began work on it.

The double A-side single will also include a touching throwback with the inclusion of the band’s 1962 debut single, “Love Me Do,” featuring the original cover art shot by Ed Ruscha.

01 Nov 2023

Mariah Carey Scares Off Halloween and Jumps Right Into Christmas Season: ‘It’s Time’

There are good reasons why Mariah Carey is considered the Queen of Christmas. One of them is her punctuality. MC wasted exactly zero minutes getting into the holiday spirit in what has become her annual ritual of warning the Lambily that Christmas is coming, but they should not jump the gun and start stringing lights before Halloween is over. “Not yet,” she likes to tell them.

But, man, the minute the clock strikes 12:01 on Nov. 1, Mariah is ready to rock around the Christmas tree! In her latest reveal on Tuesday night (Nov. 31), the singer posted an elaborate 35-second video captioned with her now-familiar seasonal kick-off kicker, “It’s…… TIME!!!,” followed by pumpkin, block of ice and Christmas tree emoji and the hashtag #MariahSZN.

The accompanying clip opens with a shot of a frozen vault with a red countdown clock above it that reads “November 1 12:00.” The vault opens to reveal a bevy of Carey’s assistants dressed in a variety of scary masks using hair dryers to help Mariah escape from a giant block of ice.

Mariah being Mariah, she finishes the job by hitting one of her signature high notes, cracking the ice with a trill of “It’s time!!!!” as the block shatters and she emerges in a red and white Santa-style costume while snow falls amid a forest of Christmas trees. Her twins, 12-year-old Monroe and Moroccan, join in the festivities and dance around with a crew of revelers as Carey’s iconic holiday hit, “All I Want For Christmas Is You” officially blasts out for the first time this season.

The 1994 hit has long been a Christmas staple, but it never hit No. 1 until 2019 and has since ranked as the most popular holiday song of all time on the Billboard Holiday 100. Carey is slated to hit the road for her 13-date Merry Christmas One and All! tour on Nov. 15 in Highland, CA and ride her sleigh across North American until a Dec. 17 gig at Madison Square Garden in New York.

Watch Mariah invite the holiday season in below.

01 Nov 2023

Depeche Mode Capture Darkness and Light For Late-Night Performance: Watch

When Depeche Mode lost co-founder Andy Fletcher to a rare heart condition, the surviving band members didn’t buckle. They grieved, created music and confronted death head on.

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Dave Gahan and Martin Gore pressed forward, now representing Depeche Mode as a duo, and released their 15th studio album Memento Mori, or “remember you must die” in Latin.

The album hit No. 2 in DM’s homeland, the U.K., and No. 14 on the Billboard 200.

“Ghosts Again,” the lead single from Memento Mori, snagged a piece of chart history when it entered the top 10 on Billboard’s Rock & Alternative Airplay chart. With that effort, nearly 14 years after DM’s first chart appearance on the chart, and first top 10, the synth-pop outfit set a new mark for the longest wait between an act’s first entry and first top tier appearance on the tally.

The Rock And Roll Hall of Fame-inducted act is currently on another North America run, in support of Memento Mori. It’s the third leg in DM’s latest global tour. The fourth, Europe, starts late January 2024.

“This is the first time we’re doing something like this without Fletch,” Gahan told Rolling Stone earlier this year. “All the songs were already written before Fletch passed, but when something happens, an event like this in your life, songs change: They take on different forms and have different meanings when you sing them. I think when I was singing some of the vocals, I was reflecting on all kinds of things, but certainly Fletch came up in my mind quite a lot.”

For a final tuneup, Gahan and Gore stopped by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, for a rendition of album track My Favourite Stranger,” a performance that captures both darkness and light.

Next up, DM visits Centre Bell in Montreal, QC this Friday (Nov. 3).

Watch the late-night performance below.


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

01 Nov 2023

‘The Voice’: Eli Ward and Jason Arcilla ‘Serenade’ Gwen Stefani In Battle

Some battles end in tears, or stunned disbelief. When Eli Ward and Jason Arcilla went head-to-head Tuesday night (Oct. 31) on NBC’s The Voice, they wrapped it up with laughter, like two old buddies catching up, cracking open a few cold ones.

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The Team Gwen pair tackled Bread‘s “Make It With You,” bringing their own flair to the corny pop-rock number which led the Billboard Hot 100 for a single week in 1970.

“Gwen, what a song choice,” John Legend remarked. The performance was “so like fun and soulful” and “you got these handsome gentlemen to serenade you,” he quipped. The lads were smooth, Legend acknowledged. Arcilla had a “gentleness” of tone, he continued. And Ward, :I loved how confident and in command you felt the whole time.” If he had to choose, Legend would side with Ward.

“You guys sounded great together, you were having fun,” remarked fellow coach Reba McEntire. “I loved the little choreography moves.” If she had to pick, she’d go with Ward.

Niall Horan was impressed with Ward’s “’50s meets ‘70s” smoothness – and his biceps (the Waterloo, IL native is a Division I athlete at the University of Iowa with the cross-country track team). “Your tone is really pure and classic.” Arcilla, the 34-year-old who lives in Pukalani, Hawaii, has “an etherealness” to his voice. It’s a tough choice. If the Irishman had to make it, he would lean ever so slightly in the direction of Arcilla.

Stefani had to make the cut, and she wasn’t happy about it. “This is impossible right now,” she remarked. “I have zero, zero idea of what to do now.” After praising both singers, and remarking on their growth during the contest, she settled on a winner, someone who is “ready right right now.”

And that was Arcilla.

In the aftermath, the No Doubt singer explained her decision. “Jason has the kind of voice that has this breathy, airy, serene quality that I would actually listen to on a record. I think that he’s just really gifted.”

Watch below.


https://youtube.com/watch?v=8CCdUz2Hlu0&version=3&rel=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&fs=1&hl=en-US&autohide=2&wmode=transparent

01 Nov 2023

Bad Bunny Turns Into Nosferatu For Creepy ‘Baticano’ Music Video: Watch

The Nosferatu, a vampire so iconic in the annals of horror, it ranks right up there in the rogues’ gallery alongside Frankenstein’s Monster, Michael Myers, and Jason, has just had an update — thanks to Bad Bunny.

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Just in time for Halloween, the Puerto Rican superstar gets his creep on for “Baticano,” lifted from Nadie Sabe Lo Que Va a Pasar Mañana, his third and latest No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart.

Directed by Stillz, the music video has all the angles, shadows and hallmarks of the 1922 version of Nosferatu, a benchmark in German Expressionism filmmaking. Steve Buscemi plays the father figure/mad scientist, who tells the pointy-eared creature, “they’re not ready for you in this world. But you are beautiful. Remember that. You are too perfect for this world.”

Bad Bunny is following in some mighty footsteps. Max Schreck’s performance in that early film was so compelling, Willem Dafoe reprised the role for 2000’s Shadow of the Vampire, which posited that, just maybe, Schreck was an actual garlic-hating, sunshine-avoiding vampire. Werner Herzog helmed the 1979 remake of Nosferatu the Vampyre, with Klaus Kinski, in the lead role, creepier than a box of spiders. Robert Eggers directs an update on the blood-sucking count, due out in 2024.

All 21 songs from Bunny’s new album (which translates to “Nobody Knows What Is Going to Happen Tomorrow”) went on to enter the Billboard Hot 100, including “Baticano,” which bowed at No. 78 last month. It’s his fifth solo studio album, following last year’s blockbuster Un Verano Sin Ti. His 2022 album spent 13 weeks atop the Billboard 200 albums chart and topped the year-end Billboard 200 as well — the first Spanish-language album to do so.

Following its release, Nadie Sabe Lo Que Va a Pasar Mañana was confirmed by Spotify as the platform’s most-streamed album in a single day in 2023 so far.

Watch the music video for “Baticano” below.