Pop
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Billboard’s Friday Music Guide serves as a handy guide to this Friday’s most essential releases — the key music that everyone will be talking about today, and that will be dominating playlists this weekend and beyond.
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This week, Jung Kook makes an extended statement, The Beatles give one last farewell, and Olivia Rodrigo remains impossible to pin down. Check out all of this week’s picks below:
Jung Kook, Golden
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Jung Kook has spent his entire career on an upward trajectory — first within BTS, scoring global hits and conquering stadiums, and more recently as a solo artist, notching billions of streams (literally) with a sleek brand of pop and smart collaborations. Golden, his debut solo album, takes some time to reflect on those dizzying highs, but also wants to keep the good times rolling: “Closer to You” (created with Major Lazer) allows Jung Kook to hop between forceful declarations and intimate breaths, while songs like the yearning dance track “Somebody” and the opulent surefire hit “Standing Next to You” demonstrate why Jung Kook deserves to be considered a superstar on his own.
The Beatles, “Now and Then”
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Positioning a piece of music as “the final Beatles song” naturally provides it with weighty expectations that are impossible to match — so consider “Now and Then,” a demo recorded in the ‘70s that was revived with modern technology and features all four members, a surprise treat hiding in their hallowed discography instead. Along with a new music video directed by Peter Jackson, the wistful, understated “Now and Then” serves as a subtle reminder of the band’s continued power, now more than a half-century removed from their original studio album.
Olivia Rodrigo, “Can’t Catch Me Now”
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Although some of the lyrics to Olivia Rodrigo’s new single “Can’t Catch Me Now,” which comes from the soundtrack to The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, seem to document an action sequence from the upcoming prequel film (“But I’m in the trees, I’m in the breeze / My footsteps on the ground,” Rodrigo sings), the pop superstar provides a gentle touch to the lilting acoustic track reminiscent of the softer moments from recent sophomore album GUTS. Instead of aiming at flash for the end credits, Rodrigo has unveiled a heartfelt new edition to both the Hunger Games musical canon and her own catalog.
Megan Thee Stallion, “Cobra”
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Megan Thee Stallion’s “Cobra” opens with a two-note electric guitar chug that serves as a snarl — and while Meg has flaunted plenty of braggadocio over the course of her career, her new single warns against getting too close because of how wounded she’s feeling. “Ayy, damn, I got problems / Never thought a bitch like me would ever hit rock bottom,” she spits, locating an impressive balance between emotional vulnerability and head-knocking hooks on “Cobra.”
Marshmello, Sugar Papi
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Marshmello has founded a sprawling, globe-trotting career on deferential collaboration, bending his aesthetic towards various artists in the worlds of pop, rock, R&B, country and everything in between. Sugar Papi, a full-length journey into Latin music, unsurprisingly features a star-studded guest list that includes Young Miko, Nicky Jam, Farruko, Anuel AA, Manuel Turizo and Fuerza Regida, among many others — yet the project sounds authentic and hard-earned, with Marshmello augmenting his featured artists without ever overpowering them, a skill that he’s developed throughout his run.
Editor’s Pick: Spiritual Cramp, Spiritual Cramp
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The members of San Francisco punk group Spiritual Cramp have been kicking around for years, both releasing EPs together and operating separately in other projects — but their self-titled debut carries the kinetic energy of a brash young band barging onto the rock scene with intentions of shaking things up. The hooks here are stylish and relentless, each sugary melody cloaking the band’s anger at the state of the world; like plenty of great punk groups, Spiritual Cramp want you to hum along and question authority in equal measure.
With a full day to absorb the melancholy strains of the final Beatles song, “Now and Then,” fans had ample time to prepare for the accompanying video directed by Oscar-winner Peter Jackson.
So when the official high-tech sentimental journey dropped on Friday morning (Nov. 3), you could almost hear the nostalgic global sigh at Jackson’s contribution to the final chapter in rock’s most epic tale. The four-and-a-half minute video opens with some guitar tuning and footage of a cassette being pushed into a tape machine as drummer Ringo Starr takes his place behind the kit and bassist/singer Paul McCartney readies his pick.
Once an unseen hand presses play, viewers are magically transported back to the final Beatles recording session in 1995, where McCartney, Starr and guitarist/singer George Harrison began the process of rediscovering a decades-old song demo’d by late bandmate John Lennon. As Lennon’s keening vocals rise up, Jackson juxtaposes a profile shot of Lennon staring out at the sunset with a floating image of the young Beatles goofing around in their prime.
In a release describing the video prior to release, Jackson promised that it would take fans on a “poignant and humorous” journey that invited viewers to celebrate the band’s timeless and enduring love for one another.
Conjuring an image Beatles fans could only dream of, Jackson does that that by sliding a shot of a current-day McCartney in the studio laying down his backing vocals into frame, as he appears to stare across the universe at the ghostly Lennon shadow. The video then cycles through a series of then-and-now pictures and videos of the band in their salad days and a sure-to-be-talked-about sequence in which archival shots of Lennon and Harrison are spliced in aside present-day McCartney and Starr in a recording session.
“Now and Then” is the final song written by Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Starr, and it was finished by living members McCartney and Starr more than 40 years after the group began work on it.
A master of studio tech, the Lord of the Rings director aims to recapture the energy, love and spirit of the group by placing a young Macca next to the now-octogenarian rock icon watching a string section lay down their parts, as a young Harrison goofs around over his left shoulder. Starr plays drums alongside his youthful self and a number of shots find Lennon doing silly dances in a variety of scenarios amid a cascade of previously unseen photos and videos of the band members as children and at the peak of their global pop powers.
In his statement before the video’s release, Jackson described worrying that there was no footage of Lennon’s original late 1970’s home recording of the song’s demon with just voice and piano (and a TV blaring the the background) and none of living members finishing the song last year. Jackson said he was ready to walk away before McCartney and Starr sent him footage of their sessions, with the Beatles’ Apple Corps then stepping in to provide more than 14 hours of long-forgotten film shot during a 1995 session featuring the pair, and late guitarist/singer Harrison in the studio working on the song; Lennon was killed by a deranged fan in 1980 outside his New York apartment building — where the song was demo’d — and Harrison died in 2001.
Jackson also got help from Lennon’s son, singer Sean Ono Lennon, and Harrison’s widow, Olivia, and son, Dhani, who found some unseen home video to add to the project. The band’s original drummer, Pete Best, also offered up some of the earliest film of the band performing in their leather suits that had never been seen before.
With that footage in hand, Jackson — who was also behind the acclaimed 2021 The Beatles: Get Back miniseries — set out to make a project that would “bring a few tears to the eye. The video is complimented by a 12-minute Now and Then — The Last Beatles Song documentary written by Oliver Murray that dropped on Wednesday.
Watch Jackson’s “Now and Then” video below.
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Mariah Carey is the Queen of Christmas… pranks. The singer has now officially joined the list of A-list singers (Rihanna, Britney Spears, Dua Lipa) who’ve participated in the time-honored tradition of scaring the bejeezus out of Jimmy Kimmel in the middle of the night for our amusement.
On Thursday night’s (Nov. 2) Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Carey and her Christmas minions — including accomplices dressed as elves and Santa — snuck into Kimmel’s house in the middle of the night and gently roused the late night host. “Jimmy, I didn’t mean to wake you up, but it’s time!” Carey whispered sweetly as a confused Kimmel was woken from a deep sleep.
“What time is it?” he gurgled. “Hit it!” Carey replied as her holiday staple “All I Want For Christmas Is You” blasted out and the tinsel intruders began throwing fake snow and ringing sleigh bells as lights flashed and Kimmel’s wife Molly danced in glee at her husband’s annoyance. The bit ended with a barefoot Kimmel — wearing Molly’s robe and still rocking his mouth guard — accepted a piece of Carey’s new “It’s Time!” Christmas merch before groggily going off to bed, again.
Carey was in the studio for some couch time as well, laughing about her love of prank calls as a child and revealing that the police got involved one time after the then-11-year-old MC relentlessly called a girl who bullied her as a child. They also, of course, talked about how “All I Want” has become a perennial holiday No. 1, a development that Carey said is “bananas” because it was the first-ever Christmas song she ever wrote.
“I just wanted it to sound like a classic because that’s the kind of Christmas song I want… I just wanted it to be timeless,” she said. The singer said she “hopes” her 12-year-year-old twins, Monroe and Moroccan, like her signature song, but either way the kids will be along for the sleigh ride when Carey embarks on her 13-date Merry Christmas One and All! tour, which begins on Nov. 15 in Highland, CA.
“I’m putting them on my tour, which is coming up soon,” she said. “They’re gonna do various moments of music-making and merriment.” She also pushed back on Kimmel’s questions about whether it really is “time” to start thinking about the holidays when we still have Thanksgiving to get through, a push-back against the Christmas creep that Carey helped pioneer with her “It’s Time!” stunts.
“It’s the season, darling,” she assured Kimmel, but adding, “We have to have Thanksgiving. It’s the holidays, is it not?” Frankly, MC said, she doesn’t disagree with Jimmy that Thanksgiving has become a bit of a “speed bump” on the way to Santa season. “But I had to just go with the flow because everybody was rushing the holiday season and they started playing my song, so I kept being like, ‘not yet, don’t play it yet, why are we playing Christmas songs?’”
So, what was a joke at first became a lean-in with her funny “it’s time” videos over the past two seasons.
The singer also talked about making a cameo in Britney Spears’ best-selling tell-all memoir, The Woman in Me. “I heard something about it,” she said of her mentions in the book, as Kimmel noted that Britney said she loves Mariah, with Carey saying she loves her right back. He then read an excerpt in which Britney wrote about being at an awards show and knocking on Mariah’s dressing room door and being confronted with a “beautiful, otherworldly light,” 20 years before ring lights were a thing.
“Of course I had a ring light [in 2003],” the always perfectly-lit singer said. “By the way, that was super sweet what Britney said about me.”
Watch Carey on Kimmel below.
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It’s been a busy week in New York for Reneé Rapp. Between singing “For Good” for the 20th anniversary of Wicked with fellow singer-songwriter Lizzy McAlpine on Monday (Oct. 30), or serenading Lola Tung with “One Less Lonely Girl” while dressed as Justin Bieber on Tuesday (Oct. 31), the rising star has made the most of her time in the Big Apple.
But during her sold-out performance at the Avant Gardner in Brooklyn on Thursday night (Nov. 2), Rapp brought out her biggest guest yet — pop superstar Kesha. The pair performed a vamped-up, rocked-out version the latter’s 2010 hit “Your Love Is My Drug.”
A little more than halfway through her headlining set, Rapp spoke to her rapt audience about the influential artists who inspired her throughout her life. “I want to talk about the people who, musically, personally, and professionally, I look up to and regard so highly,” she said. “They shaped who I was as a kid, and made me want to be sexy, and funny, and exciting, and outrageous, and loud and, most of all, really f–king sexy. So what better way to honor one of those women, [than] by doing one of their songs?”
Rapp proceeded to perform a sped-up rock version of the pop single, much to the crowd’s delight. But as she reached the song’s second verse, she called Kesha out onto the stage — dressed in all black with a pair of tinted sunglasses and a leather jacket, Kesha acoompanied a visibly stunned Rapp onstage for a rousing performance of the song. “I f–king love you, Reneé,” Kesha declared as they reached the song’s bridge.
Once the song was over, Rapp couldn’t contain her excitement any longer. “Getting to sing with one of your idols, who is unapologetically perfect is so insane,” Rapp said giddily to the crowd. “We just sang a song, like, ‘lovesick crackhead,’ and I’m gonna cry. Oh f–k that was so cool!”
Check out two clips of Reneé Rapp and Kesha duetting to “Your Love Is My Drug” below:
Out of all the days Jung Kook sings about in his hit single “Seven,” Friday just might be the most special one. At long last, the “Golden Maknae” of BTS has finally unveiled his debut solo studio album, Golden. The record — which already features two Billboard Hot 100 top 5 hits — arrived on […]
Kelly Clarkson took on a classic for her talk show’s popular Kellyoke series on Thursday (Nov. 2), delivering a soulful rendition of Nat King Cole’s 1954 track, “Smile.” Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news “That’s the time you must keep on trying / Smile, what’s the use […]
The Queen of Christmas has officially declared that “it’s time” for the holiday season, and she’s now celebrating with some new merch. Mariah Carey took to social media on Thursday (Nov. 2) to share a photo of her 12-year-old twins, daughter Monroe and son Moroccan, whom she affectionately calls “dem babies,” posing in Carey’s new […]
ENHYPEN is making another big splash to extend their dominance beyond the K-pop, beauty and fashion scenes.
Following the news that the group was joining Cardi B, Offset, Lance Bass, Ashley Tisdale and more stars in the cast of Baby Shark’s Big Movie!, the septet teamed with Nickelodeon and The Pinkfong Company to launch a music video for a new single “Keep Swimmin’ Through” for the viral character’s first feature film.
In the visual aquatic extravaganza, ENHYPEN members Jungwon, Heeseung, Jake, Sunghoon, Jay, Sunoo and Ni-ki perform as both themselves and a boy band of beluga whales. The guys deliver inspiring, oceanic-themed lyrics (“So don’t give up when the tide turns against you, you know you got friends in the deep blue”) to the delight of Baby Shark and friends (with appearances by Mommy Shark, Daddy Shark and ENHYPEN superfan William).
After wrapping the U.S. leg of their Fate World Tour in October, ENHYPEN will return stateside to perform “Keep Swimmin’ Through” on Nickelodeon and Pinkfong’s Baby Shark float during the 97th Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on Nov. 23. Nickelodeon described their display as a “25-foot-long Baby Shark balloon and an 18-foot-long float that showcases an underwater seascape featuring the lovable Shark family,” per a press release.
The new collaboration follows the previous Big Movie music video “It’s Stariana!” that introduced Tisdale’s singing starfish character Stariana. Actors like Aparna Nancherla, Ego Nwodim, and Chloe Fineman, plus Baby Shark series regulars like Kimiko Glenn, Luke Youngblood, Natasha Rothwell, Eric Edelstein, Debra Wilson and Patrick Warburton are also on hand for the flick.
ENHYPEN’s “Keep Swimmin’ Through” releases worldwide across streaming platforms tomorrow, Nov. 3. The song comes ahead of the group’s upcoming ORANGE BLOOD album, dropping on Nov. 17, which Jake recently told Billboard is “our best album to date.”
The video will appear across Nickelodeon platforms and stream on Paramount+ leading up to the winter premiere of Baby Shark’s Big Movie. Watch the exclusive premiere of “Keep Swimmin’ Through” below:
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Joe Jonas called for an S.O.S. after an unusual interaction with a security guard at CVS. The Jonas Brother took to TikTok on Wednesday (Nov. 1) to playfully share the moment while walking around in the drugstore’s snack aisle. “I just walked into CVS and the security guy goes, ‘Oh! Joe Jonas?’” he said. “And […]
Zayn Malik will pull triple-duty in the upcoming animated feature 10 Lives, for which he will write new music and perform a duet with Bridgerton star Simone Ashley. Variety reported that Malik and Ashley will both star in the film, in which the singer will play play “tough-guy twins Cameron and Kirk,” with Ashley voicing […]