Pop

23 Apr 2024

Taylor Swift Welcomed Fans to ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ in Sweet Hand-Written Record Store Day Note

Taylor Swift has given Swifties so many ways to interact and ingest her just-released 11th studio album, The Tortured Poets Department. There are multiple vinyl versions, that whole surprise second disc that came out after the LP dropped on Friday, as well as some track-by-track notes on the songs she recorded for Amazon Music.

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But if you’re one of those spin the black circle fanatics who rushed out to your local record store last week for Record Store Day to cop some Taylor treats, she also tucked a sweet note into the vinyl versions of TTPD. Amoeba Records posted a copy of the hand-written letter titled “From the Desk of Taylor Swift.”

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“Happy Record Store Day! Thank you from the bottom of my heart for welcoming The Tortured Poets Department into your vinyl collection and your life,” Swift wrote to RSD attendees, despite TTPD not being an official RSD release. “It’s my goal to create a memento you’ll want to keep forever, and I hope you’ll feel that with every turn of the page of the lyric book, every secret thought poured into this work. It’s an honour to be able to trust you with my feelings. Love, Taylor,” she continued.

Swift didn’t need to be included in RSD to smash records with TTPD, which set a new high-water mark for the most-streamed album in one day on Spotify (300 million), as well as instantly becoming the most-streamed album in its first day on Amazon Music on Friday on its way to selling 1.4 million copies in its first day of release in the U.S.

Check out Swift’s note below.

23 Apr 2024

Madonna Enters the Marvel Universe In NSFW ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ Trailer: Watch

The latest epic from the Marvel Cinematic Universe brings together three giants of popular culture: Deadpool, Wolverine and Madonna.

Marvel’s forthcoming action-comedy “Deadpool & Wolverine” is a superhero dream team, which sees Hugh Jackman reprise his role as the hard-as-nails X-Man Wolverine alongside Ryan Reynolds’ reckless (and foul-mouthed) Deadpool.

The trailer should fill the cups for anyone weaned on Marvel, comics, action and ‘80s music.

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It’s a two-and-a-half-minute NSFW blockbuster, loaded with fight sequences, drug references, Deadpool crashing through the fourth wall and a carpeting of f-bombs, soundtracked to the Madonna classic “Like a Prayer.”

The Queen of Pop’s Billboard Hot 100 leader from 1989 gets a dancey-upgrade for the clip, which was shared on Reynolds’ YouTube page and can be seen in full below.

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Madonna justified her royal status earlier this year as “Popular,” her collaboration with the Weeknd and Playboi Carti, creates an impressive piece of U.K. chart history when it became the U.S. pop veteran’s 64th top 10 single, extending her lead as the female artist with the most top 10s in Official Chart history.

Madonna sets chart records for fun. According to the Official Charts Company, the superstar singer has 12 U.K. No. 1 albums, the most among solo female artists, though Taylor Swift is days away from equaling that feat. The Like a Prayer LP, which recently celebrated its 35th anniversary, is one of those leaders (it logged two weeks at the chart summit).

When “Popular” splashed on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2023, Madonna joined Cher as the only women to have debuted titles on the chart in five separate decades (Madonna has debuted songs on the Hot 100 in the 1980s, ‘90s, 2000s, ’10s and now ‘20s).

Directed by Shawn Levy, Deadpool & Wolverine is due out July 26 and is Marvel Studios’ first R-rated film. The forthcoming film is the third in the Deadpool series and follows Deadpool 2 by six years.

22 Apr 2024

Get a Blast From the Past With This Frosty Time Throwback Playlist

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Get a taste of nostalgic sounds, from classic songs that have seen revivals to more recent hits

Frosty Time Throwback Playlist image featuring Wendy's NEW Orange Dreamsicle Frosty

This article was created in partnership with Wendy’s NEW Orange Dreamsicle Frosty.

The power that music has to bring us back to a moment in time is priceless. It is no secret that nostalgia is bigger in music than ever before with artists sampling legacy tracks, recreating sentimental sounds and incorporating retro aesthetics across their visuals. Artists are navigating the careful balance of honoring the past while creating art to last long into the future, hoping to reach older and newer generations alike. 

The warm, fuzzy feeling of revisiting a memory when you hear a song is great– but what if you could taste the nostalgia too? Wendy’s New Orange Dreamsicle Frosty is a blast from the distant present. It’s the same classic Dreamsicle flavor you grew up with, made for the now. Make today one of the good ol’ days by getting yourself a New Orange Dreamsicle Frosty and pairing it with the playlist below, ranging from classic songs that have seen recent revivals to more current hits with iconic samples.

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Dreams — Fleetwood Mac
The hypnotic, soft rock sound of Fleetwood Mac was recently discovered by a new generation when “Dreams” went viral thanks to content creator Nathan Apodaca. Originally released in 1997, the song saw new life when Apodaca shared a viral video in which he was longboarding to work and drinking juice.

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CONTIGO — Karol G, Tiësto
Reggaeton superstar Karol G is inspired from a global landscape of sounds, including 2007 hits. She personally received Leona Lewis’s blessing to sample “Bleeding Love” and then reimagined the track with Tiësto to create an infectious summertime vibe.

What You Won’t Do For Love — Bobby Caldwell
Foodies are uniting on TikTok to show their favorite eye-catching dishes, soundtracking videos with Bobby Caldwell’s “What You Won’t Do For Love.” Caldwell’s soulful vocals have resonated with new audiences, pushing the song to the top of the TikTok Billboard Top 50 chart on the ranking dated Feb. 24.

On My Mama — Victoria Monét
Victoria Monét has deep roots in pop music, so it’s no surprise that her inspirations range from icons like Beyoncé to Bob Marley. Her breakout hit “On My Mama” honors another inspiration by Chalie Boy’s 2009 single “I Look Good” – and his contribution was so important to her that she invited him to have a cameo in the official video.

Wild Thoughts — DJ Khaled feat. Rihanna and Bryson Tiller
“Wild Thoughts” is an undeniable summer smash. The single, sampling an iconic riff from “Maria Maria” by Santana, was one of the top songs on Billboard’s 2017 Songs of the Summer chart and peaked at No. 2 on the Hot 100.

Players — Coi Leray
Coi Leray consistently releases viral hits with samples honoring hip-hop’s greats. “Players,” one of Leray’s biggest hits, interpolates legend Grandmaster Flash’s song “The Message,” bringing the 1982 release back into the spotlight over 30 years after its release.



Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes) — Edison Lighthouse
The English pop-rock sound of The Beatles extended with Edison Lighthouse and their song “Love Grows.” The bubblegum smash experienced an unexpected revival when TikTok users made its lyrics into a meme, causing the song’s consumption to rise by 1,490 percent.

Fast Car — Luke Combs
Tracy Chapman’s GRAMMY-winning hit “Fast Car” has been widely celebrated since its release in 1988. Most recently, it was covered by country star Luke Combs in 2023, peaking at No. 2 on the Hot 100.

No Clarity — Ice Spice
Before Ice Spice rose to fame with her song “Munch,” she went viral on a smaller scale when she reimagined Zedd’s 2012 hit “Clarity.” Her producer, Riot, flipped the dance track into a New York drill song, perfect for Spice’s flow.

Safaera — Bad Bunny
Bad Bunny’s experimental Reggaeton hit “Safaera” ended up being one of the most critically acclaimed tracks from the album ‘YHLQMDLG.’ The song pulls inspiration from multiple samples, the most prominent being Missy Elliott’s “Get Ur Freak On.”

22 Apr 2024

It’s Official: Rihanna’s ‘Diamonds’ Is a Diamond-Certified Record

Rihanna‘s 2012 smash “Diamonds” is staying true to its title 12 years later by earning diamond certification from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on Monday (April 22).

Roc Nation officially announced the news via X on Monday morning, revealing that the single has accumulated 10 million equivalent song units. According to the RIAA, one equivalent song unit is equal to a single digital song sale, or 150 on-demand audio and/or video streams. This is Rihanna’s third song to achieve diamond status, following her 2010 “Love the Way You Lie” collaboration with Eminem (certified on May 9, 2013) and her 2011 “We Found Love” collaboration with Calvin Harris (certified on April 27, 2023).

Rihanna released “Diamonds” as the lead single from her 2012 seventh studio album Unapologetic, which was nominated for the best urban contemporary album at the 2014 Grammy Awards. It earned RiRi her 12th No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100, where it spent three weeks on top of the chart. The song also topped Billboard‘s Dance Club Songs (1 week), Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs (14 weeks) and Rhythmic Airplay charts (10 weeks).

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She embarked on the Diamonds World Tour in support of Unapologetic, which she announced after opening the 2012 MTV Video Music Awards alongside her current partner A$AP Rocky, with whom she shares two sons RZA and Riot Rose Mayers. She reflected on their performance in her recent Interview cover story. “He grabbed my a– … So when he grabbed my a– that night, everybody thought I was about to … My team was worried that I wanted to have his head on a f–king mantle,” she said. “But I was like, ‘Ah, nah.’ That’s why everybody was like, ‘Oh my god. She likes him.’”

Listen to “Diamonds” and read Roc Nation’s post below:

22 Apr 2024

Rachel Chinouriri’s Conversational ‘It Is What It Is’ and 4 More Cool New Pop Songs This Week

Looking for some motivation to help power you through the start of another work week? We feel you, and with some stellar new pop tunes, we’ve got you covered.

These tracks from artists including Alfie Templeman, Debbii Dawson, Nxdia and more will get you energized to take on the week. Pop any of these gems into your personal playlists — or scroll to the end of the post for a custom playlist.

Coolest Pop Song of the Week: Rachel Chinouriri, “It Is What It Is”



Whether you’ve caught wind of Rachel Chinouriri through her TikTok-viral lullaby “So My Darling” or her blog-approved confection “All I Ever Asked,” the singer-songwriter has established herself as a must-follow for any pop fan looking for potential new stars. The London native has charmed festival audiences, and opened on Lewis Capaldi’s tour after sending the hitmaker a drunk DM; she possesses the ability to apply her vocal lilt to dance-friendly sprints like her 2022 single “I’m Not Perfect (But I’m Trying),” as well as jazzy nod-alongs like this year’s “What a Devastating Turn of Events,” which doubles as the title for her upcoming debut album.

There’s a lot to like about Chinouriri ahead of that project, due out May 3, and now new single “It Is What It Is” can be added to the list. As the whistle hook and bass creep are introduced on the track, two of Chinouriri’s friends caution her against reaching out to a dude — “No, no, NO, Rachel!” — in voice-note form, setting up the conversational tone and emotional exhaustion she adopts on the song’s verses. The way Chinouriri talks through her knotted-up feelings about an imperfect relationship, then pauses to drop a pristine chorus, is reminiscent of how The Streets’ Mike Skinner constructed his best songs two decades ago. This is storytelling and pop craft at a high level.

What a Devastating Turn of Events contains more moments that showcase Chinouriri’s talent and ambition, but “It Is What It Is,” arriving two weeks ahead of the album, makes for a strong introduction to her appeal for unfamiliar listeners.

Here are some more new pop songs worth checking out this week…

22 Apr 2024

What’s Your Favorite Track From Taylor Swift’s ‘The Tortured Poets Department?’ Vote!

Taylor Swift called on all the tortured poets with the release of her 11th studio album, The Tortured Poets Department on Friday (April 19).

What was originally slated to be a standard 16-track album turned into a 31-song anthology when Swift surprised fans just hours after release with an additional second half of the project. “It’s a 2am surprise: The Tortured Poets Department is a secret DOUBLE album,” she wrote on Instagram. “I’d written so much tortured poetry in the past 2 years and wanted to share it all with you, so here’s the second installment of TTPD: The Anthology. 15 extra songs. And now the story isn’t mine anymore… it’s all yours.”

Following its release, The Tortured Poets Department sold 1.4 million copies in traditional album sales on its first day, according to initial reports to data tracking firm Luminate. That marks Swift’s biggest sales week ever for any album in the U.S. (Luminate’s sales, streaming and airplay data powers Billboard’s charts. All numbers in this story are for the U.S. only.)

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In less than 12 hours after its release, The Tortured Poets Department become Spotify’s most streamed album in a single day in 2024 so far. The 31-track double album snagged the honor from the previous record-holder, Beyoncé’s Billboard 200-topping Cowboy Carter, which ultimately earned 300.41 million on-demand official streams in its first full week of release. The pop superstar’s latest release also became the first album in the streaming service’s history to have more than 300 million streams in a single day.

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With 31 heart-wrenching tracks sprawling two hours of play time, we want to know which song on Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department is your favorite. Let us know by voting in our poll below.

22 Apr 2024

BTS Launches Mental Health Initiative With UNICEF

It’s take two for BTS and UNICEF. The K-pop superstars and United Nations Children Fund announced the #OnMyMind initiative on Monday (April 22), the second chapter of their Love Myself campaign. The new initiative aims to improve and support the mental health youth around the world.

To help kick off #OnMyMind, BTS, label Big Hit and UNICEF are offering those who wish to participate the opportunity to send electronic postcards via the Korean Committee’s UNICEF website to share their stories, what’s on their minds, challenges they may be facing and more. These e-postcard submissions may then appear on the website’s gallery for others to view to help promote a sense of community and support.

BTS previously partnered with UNICEF in 2017 for its anti-violence campaign Love Myself — named after the global superstars’ album trilogy — to help make the world a safer place for children and teens, and for them to live happy lives without any fear of violence. To celebrate the initiative’s fifth anniversary in 2022, the septet — which is comprised of RM, V, SUGA, J-Hope, Jimin, Jung Kook and Jin — released a message for ARMY that November, urging them to continue to love themselves and to help each other do the same.

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“I’m delighted and proud that our Love Myself message comes to many people’s minds in their daily lives,” SUGA said at the time. “But, at the same time, I’m afraid there might be people who still don’t know how to love themselves.”

Added J-Hope: “If you find anyone who needs the strength to love themselves, please reach out first. Please teach them how to love themselves, and give them the energy of hope.”

RM ended the message to fans by saying at the time, “We believe that you will continue to support the Love Myself campaign to create greater positive energy in people’s lives.”

According to a press release, ARMY and BTS’ contributions to the Love Myself campaign have totaled more than $6.6 million as of March 2024.

22 Apr 2024

Taylor Swift Recorded ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ Track-By-Track Commentary For Amazon Music

Now that you’ve spent the entire weekend obsessively poring over all the lyrics on Taylor Swift‘s sprawling, 31-track The Tortured Poets Department, the singer has graciously stepped forward to offer Swifties some additional context.

On Monday morning (April 22), Amazon Music launched a track-by-track album experience featuring Swift providing commentary on the songs interspersed throughout the album’s tracks; Swifties can also listen to the album with Taylor’s full commentary by saying, “Alexa, I’m a member of The Tortured Poets Department” or in the Amazon Music app.

Describing the first single, “Fortnight,” which features Post Malone, Swift says, “‘Fortnight’ is a song that exhibits a lot of the common themes that run throughout this album. One of which being fatalism — longing, pining away, lost dreams. I think that it’s a very fatalistic album in that there are lots of very dramatic lines about life or death. ‘I love you, it’s ruining my life.’ These are very hyperbolic, dramatic things to say. It’s that kind of album.”

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Speaking of another song fans have cued in on, “Clara Bow,” Swift says it was inspired by her experiences in the entertainment industry and the tendency to pit female artists against each other. “‘Clara Bow’ is a song that I wrote as a commentary on what I’ve seen in the industry that I’ve been in over time,” Swift says. “I used to sit in record labels trying to get a record deal when I was a little kid. And they’d say, ‘you know, you remind us of’ and then they’d name an artist, and then they’d kind of say something disparaging about her, ‘but you’re this, you’re so much better in this way or that way.’ And that’s how we teach women to see themselves, as like you could be the new replacement for this woman who’s done something great before you.”

Her collaboration with Florence Welch of Florence + the Machine, “Florida!!!,” is described as being inspired by true crime. “I’m always watching Dateline. People have these crimes that they commit; where do they immediately skip town and go to? They go to Florida,” Swift says. “They try to reinvent themselves, have a new identity, blend in. I think when you go through a heartbreak, there’s a part of you that thinks, ‘I want a new name. I want a new life. I don’t want anyone to know where I’ve been or know me at all.’ And so that was the jumping off point. Where would you go to reinvent yourself and blend in? Florida!”

The singer’s 11th studio album instantly became the most-streamed album in its first day on Amazon Music on Friday on its way to selling 1.4 million copies in its first day of release in the U.S.

Other bits of insight Swift shares include the origin of “My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys,” which she says is a metaphor woven from the perspective of a child’s toy. “Being somebody’s favorite toy until they break you and then don’t want to play with you anymore. Which is how a lot of us are in relationships where we are so valued by a person in the beginning, and then all of the sudden, they break us or they devalue us in their mind,” she says “We’re still clinging on to ‘No no, no. You should’ve seen them the first time they saw me. They’ll come back to that. They’ll get back to that.’”

22 Apr 2024

aespa Drop Teaser Trailer For Debut Studio Album, ‘Armageddon’

K-pop girl group aespa posted a teaser trailer for their upcoming debut full-length studio album on Sunday night (April 21). The four-woman act revealed that Armageddon will be released on May 27 in a 30-second clip that opens with ominous keyboard sounds and an overhead shot of a watery, crop circle-like formation featuring a cryptic formation.

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At press time no additional information was available on the collection, which will reportedly be fronted by the first single “Supernova” on May 13.

Before that, KARINA, WINTER, GISELLE and NINGNING will take a trip to the big screen for a limited run of their live film aespa: WORLD TOUR, which will take fans inside the group’s U.K. live debut at London’s O2 Arena during their 2023 Synk: Hyper Line world tour. The 125-minute film directed by Yoon Dong Oh (NCT Nation: To the World) and Hamin Kim that will hit theaters worldwide on April 24 and 27 includes behind-the-scenes interviews alongside performance footage. Tickets are on sale now and fans can find screening details and participating countries at aespaworldtourincinemas.com.

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The group’s label, SM Entertainment, recently revealed that member WINTER, 23, underwent preventive surgery to treat a collapsed lung. In a statement, SM said that the procedure was intended to treat a pneumorthorax, a condition in which air accumulates in the chest, applying pressure on the lungs and possibly leading to collapse. “Winter is recovering from recent pneumothorax surgery. As the disease is prone to recurrence, the decision was made as a preemptive measure based on the opinions of the medical staff after sufficient discussion,” read a statement from the label.

The statement noted that WINTER’s recovery is a priority and that “future schedules will be made with Winter’s recovery status as the top priority.”

To date, aespa have released four mini albums, including their 2021 debut, Savage, as well as Girls (2022), My World (2023) and Drama (2023). They were most recently heard on the  Rebel Moon – Songs of the Rebellion EP, which also features original songs by Jessie Reyez, Tainy, Tokischa, TOKiMONSTA, Black Coffee and Kordhell inspired by Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon movie series. aespa will kick off a run of SYNK: Parallel Lines tour dates on June 29-30 with two nights in their native Seoul, South Korea.

Check out aespa’s Armageddon album announcement below.

21 Apr 2024

Taylor Swift’s ‘The Tortured Poets Department’: 10 Saddest Lyrics That Will Have You ‘Down Bad’

“Come one, come all, it’s happening again.” Taylor Swift‘s sad lyrics invade The Tortured Poets Department in a way that will have listeners down bad, crying in the gym (or wherever they are), right alongside the poet herself.

Swift asks “Am I allowed to cry?” nine songs into the album. What does it say about you if you only make it to track four and your eyes are already welling up?

On The Tortured Poets Department, Swift opens with a line about her stint as a “functional alcoholic,” goes mad over her typewriter-toting tragic hero, and declares her name is hers and hers alone to disgrace as she pleases, damn it! Melodrama aside, her sad lyrics are most striking when her pen plummets into the illusions of love and the heartbreak she’s needed to write about over the past couple years. Themes of escapism and longing bring on the misty-eyed moments.

“This writer is of the firm belief that our tears become holy in the form of ink on a page,” Swift wrote as she set free The Tortured Poets Department and its sad lyrics on April 19. “Once we have spoken our saddest story, we can be free of it.”

The album was originally announced as a 16-song set, plus four bonus tracks across different physical editions. But two hours after its release, there was much more material to unravel. As Swift explained, “I’d written so much tortured poetry in the past 2 years and wanted to share it all with you, so here’s the second installment of TTPD: The Anthology. 15 extra songs. And now the story isn’t mine anymore… it’s all yours.”

It’s time to grab some tissues and — if it’s your thing — a bottle of wine and have “a hell of a time,” as Swift’s duet partner Florence Welch sings on the cathartic album track “Florida!!!” Here are 10 of the saddest lyrics from the Swift’s album, out of all 31 tracks from the prolific singer-songwriter’s full The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology edition.