Pop
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Folk legend Joan Baez was having a ball sitting on the couch with an eclectic group of fellow guests on the season debut of John Mulaney’s new Netflix series Everybody’s Live With John Mulaney. But the “Joe Hill” singer whose songs of protest and social justice were a staple of the 1960s folk scene also had some serious things on her mind as well.
In a prelude to a story about “funny person” Martin Luther King Jr., Baez said she needed to “set the context” for what is going on in our country at the moment. “You said I could say anything I want out here,” Baez said to the host. “We’re all here to be silly and have fun, and as long as we recognize the fact that our democracy is going up in flames… we’re being run by a bunch of really incompetent billionaires.”
Baez did not specifically note who said billionaires are, but it appeared she was talking about Donald Trump and DOGE boss Elon Musk, who have been deeply slashing the federal government workforce over the past two months in their attempt to cut government spending in a manner that has raised alarms about the impact on the environment, American’s health and safety of the LGBTQ+ community.
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After Mulaney joked about the thought of Baez driving a Tesla, the singer noted that she actually used to own one of Musk’s all-electric cars after her assistant suggested she try one, but that she now has serious buyer’s remorse.
“I hated that thing,” Baez, 84, said. “But I thought I was supposed to like it. So I drove off in it. Within 45 minutes I had smashed it into an oak tree on my property… I was thinking, ‘That’s a sign.’” While Baez said the crash was not on purpose, the joke came amid a national, and international, backlash against Musk’s chainsaw-like slashing of federal programs that has seen Tesla vehicles and showrooms vandalized.
“I hated it,” Baez added of the car without specifying when she owned it. “It was too big… I sold it and got one-half the amount of money I paid for.”
Baez — who was portrayed by Monica Barbaro in the Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown – appeared on the re-boot of the show alongside actor Michael Keaton, SNL alumni Fred Armisen and Tracy Morgan, popular personal finance columnist Jessica Roy and Christopher Lloyd, and, of course, Mulaney’s sidekick and announcer, comedian/actor Richard Kind.
She also talked about hanging out with civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1960s, saying she heard him tell “dirty jokes” when the cameras weren’t around. “I thought, ‘I am going to get the inside story on how these guys do these marches,’” Baez said, lamenting that instead “They all start telling dirty jokes… from the airport to his favorite little restaurant.” Asked if she remembered any of the bawdy jokes, Baez said, “I do, and I can’t tell them here.”
In addition, Baez proved her ageless nature by gamely dancing along to musical guests Cypress Hill as they performed their 1993 stone cold classic, “Hits From the Bong.”
Mulaney’s series began life as the Emmy-winning, six-episode Everybody’s in L.A. last May during the Netflix is a Joke festival, with a playful live format that focused on a series of very LA.-specific subjects, including coyotes, palm trees, helicopters and the paranormal. It will now air as a series of 12 live weekly shows.
It’s been a long lead-up to Lady Gaga‘s new album Mayhem. Aside from the collaborative Love for Sale LP with Tony Bennett and the Joker: Folie a Deux-accompanying Harlequin set — both of which mostly consisted of covers of pop standards — Mayhem is Gaga’s first official album in nearly half a decade, since the […]
Love is hard, and messy and confusing. That’s the take-away from Haim‘s first new album-tied single in nearly five years. The sister trio dropped their new single, “Relationships,” on Wednesday (March 12), along with a sleek Camille Summers-Valli-directed video in which singer/guitarist Danielle Haim keeps falling in, and out, of love with Queer actor Drew Starkey.
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“Relationships, oh/ What’s all this talk about relationships?/ It feels like everyone’s caught up in it/ Oh, just you wait, you must be new to this,” she sings over the song’s snappy drums and subdued keyboards as she packs, and unpacks, her boxes while moving out, unsure if it’s over or worth another chance.
With time moving backwards and forwards, Danielle can’t figure out how to handle the vicissitudes of love, lamenting, “Why do I have a guilty conscience?/ I’ve always been averse to conflict/ But you really f–ked with my confidence,” as she goes from comfortably lounging with her love to questioning why she’s even trying.
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There are good times, with the couple dancing cheek-to-cheek at a club, their hands all over each other, dressing and undressing each other at home over the soothing jazz pop arrangement produced by Rostam Batmanglij and singer Danielle.
“Relationships” is the first taste of new music from the group’s upcoming follow-up to their Grammy nominated Women in Music Pt. III, which was released in 2020 and reached No. 13 on the Billboard 200 album chart.
The sister band, which also features drummer Alana and bassist Este, began teasing the song earlier this month in a series of posts in which they were pictured walking in a parking lot, soaking in the sun and smiling, a tribute to a viral meme featuring Nicole Kidman depicted the same way in snaps believed to have been taken after the actress finalized her divorce from Tom Cruise in the early 2000s; Kidman has since debunked the theory about the snap, saying it was from a movie.
At press time no additional information was available on Haim’s upcoming fourth studio album. Back in 2023 the group recorded “Home” for the Barbie the Album soundtrack collection.
Watch the “Relationships” video below.
As Chappell Roan prepares to release her highly-anticipated new song “The Giver,” she’s assured fans that this doesn’t mean her pop music is a thing of the past.
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Roan confirmed earlier week that her new single – the first since the release of 2024’s “Good Luck, Babe!” – would arrive on Thursday, March 13, with the fresh track inspired by her lifelong exposure to country music.
“I have such a special place in my heart for country music,” she wrote on Instagram. “I grew up listening to it every morning and afternoon on my school bus and had it swirling around me at bon fires, grocery stores and karaoke bars.”
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“Many people have asked if this means I’m making a country album???” the Missouri native continued “My answer is.. hmm right now I’m just making songs that make me feel happy and fun and The Giver is my take on c–try xoxo may the classic country divas lead their genre, I am just here to twirl and do a little gay yodel for yall.”
Now, the Grammy-winning musician will be appearing on the March 14 episode of Apple Music’s Today’s Country Radio with Kelleigh Bannen, with E! News sharing a new teaser clip that sees Roan expound upon her love of the country genre.
“I wanted to write a country song because I just thought it would be funny,” she explained succinctly. “It’s campy and fun.
“I’m from southwest Missouri,” she continued. “[I] grew up on Christian and country, and then found ‘Alejandro’ by Lady Gaga and I was like, ‘I think I like this, too.’ So, I have kept country in my heart. And it’s so incredibly nostalgic to drive in West Hollywood and have Jason Aldean [playing] or Alan Jackson’s ‘Chattahoochee.’”
According to Roan, one of the biggest inspirations for her pivot to the world of country came by way of Tennessee duo Big & Rich and their Grammy-nominated 2004 single “Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy).”
“I was like, ‘I want to feel that way on stage. I want to feel that,’” she explained. “Because that’s how I write. I’m like, ‘How do I want to walk around on stage and sing?’ And I was like, ‘I want to write that song, but Chappell’s version.’”
In keeping with her previous comments about the decision to venture into the world of country music, Roan also again assured fans they’ll be hearing plenty of the pop music they’re used to moving forward. “I really just did it for fun,” she added. “I’m not switching genres or anything.”
The imminent arrival of “The Giver” will mark Roan’s first release since “Good Luck, Babe!,” which she dropped in April last year. The track — which remains the only song she’s released since breakthrough 2023 album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess — peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 in September.
Roan has been teasing the arrival of “The Giver” for weeks, rolling out a series of characters — a lawyer, a plumber, a private investigator, and now, a construction worker — who can “get the job done” à la the lyrics on the track, which she debuted on Saturday Night Live in November. Fans have spotted the alter egos on billboards all around the country, as well as on Roan’s Instagram.
All of the personas correlate to different special versions of 7-inch single vinyls for “The Giver,” which are available for purchase on Roan’s website.
Little Monsters everywhere are loving Lady Gaga‘s latest album Mayhem, but in a new interview, Mother Monster revealed that one of the most talked-about songs on the record almost didn’t make it into the final product.
Appearing on Las Culturistas With Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, Gaga revealed to the pair that she almost removed late-album standout “How Bad Do U Want Me” from the Mayhem tracklist. “Oh my god, I almost didn’t put that on the album,” she told the hosts. “I was not sure that I should put that on the record, and Michael [Polansky, her fiancé] was like, ‘You have to — your fans are going to love that song.’”
When both Rogers and Yang expressed their dismay at the thought of “How Bad” being cut, Gaga revealed that it’s not the only beloved pop song of hers to nearly get the axe. “Sometimes, when things are really super pop, I just get a weird reaction [to them],” she said. “I felt this way about [The Fame‘s] ‘Just Dance,’ so thank God I didn’t listen to myself then.”
In explaining “How Bad,” Gaga broke down how she’s always felt pigeonholed as “the bad girl” throughout her life, and how she wanted to break that cycle in her current relationship. “I’ve always been at war with this feeling that, if I am interested in someone, they’re actually longing for a ‘good girl,’ but they’re stuck with me,” she said. “There is no actual other good girl, the good girl is in their head, and they’re kind of comparing me the whole time.”
Elsewhere in the wide-ranging interview, Gaga, Rogers and Yang talked about the importance of Saturday Night Live as an institution for both up-and-coming artists and pop stars. In fact, Gaga revealed that before her hilarious performance of “D–k in a Box” with Andy Samberg at the SNL50 concert, she felt a lot of pressure to get it right.
“It’s so funny, at the SNL50 concert the other night, I was nervous to do ‘D–k in a Box,’” she said. “I feel like, if you’re a comedian, being asked to do ‘Who’s on First?’ is probably really [nerve-wracking], and to me, ‘D–k in a Box’ is a classic. So I was like, ‘Oh my god, why did I do this?’ But as I was walking through [Radio City Music Hall], I remembered the last time I had been there was with Tony [Bennett]. And Tony would have said, ‘If you are nervous, it’s because you care.’”
Check out Gaga’s full episode of Las Culturistas below:
Sabrina Carpenter paid homage to a song that her parents probably rocked out to when she was not even a figment of their imaginations during her show at London’s O2 Arena on Sunday night in London. The 25-year-old singer busted out a sprightly, bouncy cover of English new wave band Dexy Midnight Runners’ 1983 Billboard […]
BTS‘ Jin is trapped on a bonkers island in the first trailer for the upcoming Netflix variety show series Kian’s Bizarre B&B. The unscripted Korean series that will debut on April 8 stars beloved webtoon artist and entertainer Kian, who stars in the show alongside the K-pop superstar and SNL Korea comedian Ji Ye-eun, who […]
Lady Gaga has long been known for pulling inspiration from an eclectic mix of artists, and with seventh studio album Mayhem, she’s cited Nine Inch Nails as a major influence.
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During a new interview on The Howard Stern Show on March 12, the pop icon opened up about her admiration for Trent Reznor and his groundbreaking work with the industrial rock outfit.
When Stern played Nine Inch Nails’ “Closer” and asked why she loves the track so much, Gaga didn’t hesitate. “Because it’s so good!” she replied. The 1994 hit, known for its pulsating synths and provocative lyrics, is one of Nine Inch Nails’ most recognizable songs, charting in the top 50 on the Billboard Hot 100 and leaving an impact on rock and electronic music.
Gaga revealed that she’s actually met Reznor but struggled to recall their first meeting. “I forget the first time. I think I black out every time I’m in his presence,” she admitted, adding, “He’s an amazing musician.” When asked if she ever felt intimidated by him, she clarified, “Not intimidated—just really excited, stoked, quiet.”
Earlier this month, Gaga shared that Mayhem, her first full-length studio album since 2020’s Chromatica, is heavily influenced by the sounds of the ‘90s and 2000s. She listed Nine Inch Nails and Radiohead among the artists who helped shape the record’s sonic direction, describing it as a fusion of “’90s grunge influence, 2000s pop influence, funk influence, ‘80s influence.”
She specifically credited “Closer” as a major inspiration for Mayhem’s lead single, “Disease,” which has already sparked discussions among fans about its darker, industrial-tinged sound.
As Gaga gears up for the release of Mayhem, Nine Inch Nails are also making waves with their own plans. The band announced their Peel It Back tour earlier this year, marking their first live performances since 2022. The run will see them hitting stages across the U.K., Europe, and North America this summer, with support from Boys Noize.
Reznor also confirmed at the end of 2024 that new Nine Inch Nails music is in the works, saying, “We’re ready to be back in the driver’s seat.”
Album single “Abracadabra” arrived at No. 29 in its first abbreviated week on the Feb. 15-dated Billboard Hot 100 and debuted at No. 1 on the Hot Dance/Pop Songs tally with “Abracadabra,” becoming the second chart-topper in the survey’s five-week history.
Despite its shortened week, “Abracadabra” boasted the highest sales and streaming totals in the chart’s brief history.
Following the chart’s current reigning champ, the Bruno Mars-assisted “Die with A Smile”, and “Disease” (No. 27), Mayhem already boasted three top 40 hits on the all-genre ranking prior to its March 7 release, marking her first album to do so since 2013’s Artpop. Overall, it’s her 39th entry on the chart dating back to “Just Dance,” featuring Colby O’Donis, which spent three weeks at No. 1
Ask any parent and they will tell you that their kid is absolutely the best, the tops, no matter what anyone else thinks. Britney Spears is exactly one of those proud mamas, as evidenced by a pair of Instagram clips she posted on Tuesday (March 11) of her youngest, 18-year-old son Jayden James, showing off his piano-playing and mumble rapping skills.
In the first video, Jayden can be heard playing an unidentified song on the piano as Britney, 43, walks through her living room and zooms in on a picture of her with her second born before walking over to watch him tickle the ivories. Wearing baggy black jeans, a Muhammad Ali t-shirt and a black wool hat, Jayden fools around on the baby grand as his mom exclaims, “that’s sick!”
As he continues to play, Britney can be heard saying, “Jesus! That’s sick!” She captioned the clip “WOW WOW WOW !!!”
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In the second video, Jayden, now wearing dark shades indoors, walks around mumbling as Britney screams, “Well that was really good! My son just played! Oh my God! I felt it in my bones, and my heart, and my lungs, and my a–, and my throat and my…,” as Jayden appears to complete the thought with “my d–k.”
“Yes sir, yes sir,” Jayden says nonchalantly while Britney enthuses, “Hello, hello, hello, whoa!,” swinging her phone camera back to the piano. Her excitement at their get-back was clear from the caption of the second video: “He’s a genius and I’m in awe of him !!! I can’t believe he’s mine !!! I was honestly scared that’s not normal !!!”
The singer who also shares older son Sean Preston, 19, with her ex Kevin Federline, posted pics in December of what she called a reunion with Jayden after what she said was a two-year period in which she didn’t see her sons. “Best Christmas of my life !!! I haven’t seen my boys in 2 years !!!” she wrote on Christmas Day. “Tears of joy and literally in shock everyday koo koo crazy so in love and blessed !!! I’m speechless thank you Jesus !!!”
Check out the musical mother and child reunion below.
You know how you know you’re a huge pop star? When the mere mention of your name, or a brief, dance-y cameo during the host’s monologue drive the studio audience into uncontrollable shrieking. BTS‘ j-hope knows this feeling.
The singer got ARMY in formation early on Monday night (March 10) during his appearance on The Tonight Show when he snuck out during Jimmy Fallon’s monologue for a bit making fun of the host’s lame dance moves. “I wish I could dance even a 10th as good as he can,” Fallon lamented of his skills compared to his guest, as Roots drummer Questlove assured Jimmy that he indeed had smooth moves. Busting into some seriously cringe dad choreo, Jimmy gyrated to massive screams as a smiling Hobi slipped on stage to show him how it’s done, leaving Fallon thinking that he’d killed it. “You love my dancing!” Fallon blushed.
The singer came back for a sit-down chat, beginning with his favorite things to do when he visits the U.S. Fallon noted that the K-pop superstar recently made his first visit to In-N-Out Burger and he asked how it went. Switching from Korean to English, j-hope said he ordered a cheeseburger, animal-style, a vanilla milkshake and fries. “It was good…. very salty and cheesy and sweety… but not healthy,” he smiled.
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After Fallon shared a recent Instagram post in which Hobi busted out his best Kendrick Lamar “Not Like Us” shuffle dance, the singer confirmed that he’s never met K-Dot, but is definitely down for a collab. “I’m ready for work with you, Kendrick,” he said to screeches from the studio audience as he did a command performance of the signature dance from Lamar’s Drake-destroying single.
In addition to talking about his early days in the underground dance crew Neuron — which was inspired by the first time he heard the clothes-to-the-back kid rap duo Kriss Kross — j-hope said that, like Fallon’s pal Justin Timberlake, when he’s in the studio he can’t help dancing to his own songs and dreaming about what it will be like to perform them live.
“Whenever I listen to music, something come up in my mind,” he said. “And I think of how I want to express that on stage.”
The singer also came back to close the show with a performance of his new solo single, “Sweet Dreams,” with Miguel. Standing on a platform on a fog-shrouded set, Hobi harmonized with the soul singer on the song’s love-filled chorus in his first-ever solo spot on the show, before busting out his melodic rap on the verse while rocking the stage in baggy jeans and fuzzy bunny slippers.
Watch j-hope on The Tonight Show below.