Pop
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Olivia Rodrigo‘s Guts are all over the Billboard charts — and she couldn’t be happier. On Sunday (Sept. 17), the Grammy-winning pop star celebrated her sophomore studio album reaching No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and U.K. albums chart with an Instagram post. “I’m grateful all the f–king time💗💗💗thank u guys for the most love […]
Surprendre, Bunheads! Pop superstar Kim Petras is here to say “bonjour” to her fans with a special surprise project. On Monday (Sept. 18), Petras is set to surprise drop her French-pop album Problématique via Repbulic / Amigo Records. Across 10 tracks, Petras delves into ecstatic pop sounds, ranging from funk (“Born Again”), to R&B-pop (“Deeper”) […]
The long wait is almost over. Blink-182 finally announced the release date and track list for their eagerly anticipated reunion album on Monday morning (Sept. 18). The trio’s first new album with returning OG member singer/guitarist Tom DeLonge since 2011, ONE MORE TIME…, is due out on Oct. 20 via Columbia Records; the title track will drop at 10 a.m. ET on Thursday (Sept. 21).
The news was announced via a nearly four-minute video montage uploaded on Monday in which the group — which also includes bassist/singer Mark Hoppus and drummer Travis Barker — discussed childhood trauma and chaos that birthed the band in a chat with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe; that full interview will be uploaded soon.
“Blink was always a way to force the happiness in the room,” says DeLonge in the clip, which chronicles the hurt feelings and press pile-on that accompanied the guitarist’s departure in 2015. “I definitely didn’t want to hold these guys back in any kind of way,” the band’s co-founder says emotionally in the Lowe interview, recalling a conversation with his wife in which he told her he might not ever play music again.
However, when Hoppus shared that he was battling the blood cancer diffuse large B-cell lymphoma — the bassist announced in April 2022 that he was cancer-free — DeLonge said the news made him think that playing music with his friends was “the only thing I want to do.”
The video preview features a sneak listen to three new songs, including the emotional title track ballad, which Barker says dives into the question of “why does it take these catastrophes like me being in a plane crash or Mark being sick for our band to get back together?” Barker was nearly killed in a Sept. 2008 plane crash that took the lives of four passengers and critically injured his friend Adam “DJ AM” Goldstein.
The song tackles those traumas head-on with the lines, “I wish they told us it should take a sickness/ Or airplanes falling out the sky.” Hoppus tells Lowe that the chemotherapy he underwent “wrecked” his vocal cords and resulted in him visiting a vocal coach to even get him to the point where the band could play Coachella earlier this year. “When it’s the three of us onstage I feel unstoppable, we f—ing crush,” Hoppus says.
The bassist also dives into the intense feelings he felt after his diagnosis and the struggle during treatment, with DeLonge saying once he heard his friend was sick “nothing matters, really,” and Barker adding that he always knew the trio’s “brotherhood wouldn’t ever deteriorate… or wouldn’t be there.” Other songs previewed in the video include the uplifting rocker “You Don’t Know What You’ve Got” and the blitzing “Anthem Part 3.”
According to a release announcing the project, ONE MORE TIME… was recorded during the band’s 2023 reunion tour, which kicked off with a surprise last-minute addition to the lineup for April’s Coachella Festival. Produced by Barker, it features 17 new songs that “capture the band at the top of their game, layering in themes of tragedy, triumph and most importantly, brotherhood.” To date they’ve previewed the collection with the single “Edging,” which hit No. 1 on the Billboard Alternative Airplay chart in November, after topping the all-rock-format, audience-based Rock & Alternative Airplay chart.
Hoppus promises that this is, without a doubt, “one of the best albums we’ve ever made.”
Check out the track list for ONE MORE TIME… and watch the trailer below.
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ONE MORE TIME… tracklist
“Anthem Part 3”
“Dance With Me”
“Fell in Love”
“Terrified”
“One More Time”
“More Than You Know”
“Turn This Off!”
“When We Were Young”
“Edging”
“You Don’t Know What You’ve Got”
“Blink Wave”
“Bad News”
“Hurt (Interlude)”
“Turpentine”
“Fuck Face”
“Other Side”
“Childhood”
If you’re still not done hyperventilating over *NSYNC‘s surprise reunion at the 2023 MTV VMAs and the announcement that the beloved boy band have recorded a new song for the Trolls Band Together threequel, member Joey Fatone has some some advice for you: keep beating that drum. Fatone was one of several *NSYNCers who were out and about over the weekend dropping tantalizing teases about the potential extension of the one-off get back.
“We’re excited for *NSYNC to come out with a song,” Fatone shared during a panel discussion at the ’90s Con in Florida on Sunday according to People. “Which is crazy to say after 25 years. And no, I don’t know if there is a tour!”
While there is no official talk of a tour — or any additional *NSYNC activities — at the moment, Fatone told thirsty fans that if they want to see the quintet that also features Justin Timberlake, JC Chasez, Chris Kirkpatrick and Lance Bass keep the good times rolling they should hit up their former label. “If the fans want it that much yell at the companies, yell at Sony, yell at RCA, yell at them to say that they need an *NSYNC album,” Fatone counseled.
After the VMAs appearance, the band dropped their first new song in more than 20 years, “Better Place,” which will be released on Sept. 29 and appear in the Trolls movie, due out on Nov. 17. Fatone went on to suggest that Timberlake’s upcoming unnamed solo album might be another chance for them to revisit the “Better Place” magic.
“Obviously Justin’s coming out with his album, so he’s probably going to be doing a tour, I’m sure he’s doing that. Then hopefully, cross our fingers — I can’t promise — but hopefully we do something together,” Fatone said; at press time a spokesperson for Timberlake had not returned a request for comment about any other potential *NSYNC activities involving the band’s biggest break-out member.
TMZ caught up with Chasez at LAX over the weekend and while he said he was focused on promoting the single at the moment, the singer teasingly added, “anything is possible.” The gossip site said it also talked to Bass, who used the opportunity to say that if fans wanted the band to keep the reunion going for a tour and/or album, they should support the ongoing Hollywood writers/actors strike.
“Better Place” is the first new *NSYNC song since 2002 and their VMA appearance — where they presented Taylor Swift with the best pop award for the “Anti-Hero” clip, was their first time on the awards show’s stage since 2013, when they gathered for Timberlake’s Video Vanguard Award medley performance.
While no other *NSYNC activities have been announced so far, the guys continued to stoke the flames in a Friends-themed video they posted last week. In the clip on their official Insta, they used the audio of Joey and Rachel from “The One With All the Resolutions” episode, with Timberlake mouthing, “Do you know something?” as Fatone responded, “Do you know something?” and so on and so on as they appeared to be holding back on another surprise.
JT stars in the upcoming film, returning as the main troll Branch alongside Anna Kendrick’s Poppy. The new movie’s plot follows as Branch reunites with his brothers to get their childhood boy band, BroZone, back together. While *NSYNC reunited for the soundtrack, in the film, Timberlake’s bandmate brothers are voiced by Troye Sivan, Eric André, Daveed Diggs and Kid Cudi.
Check out the Friends tease below.
If you’ve been blasting Olivia Rodrigo‘s GUTS album in your room lately and you find your dad singing along a bit too excitedly to “Get Him Back!,” you’re not alone. The 20-year-old singer told People magazine that her angsty pop-punk anthems about teenage drama and the pain of being pure at heart appear to be landing with fans beyond her Gen Z target audience.
“I actually think that I’m really excited by the way that people are getting behind artists that normally would be deemed for young people,” she told the magazine. “I love interacting with fans who are my age and people who are going through the struggles that I’m going through in real time, but it’s been really fun also to experience those girls’ dads be like, ‘Wow, I remember when I was going through that heartbreak.’”
Specifically, Rodrigo said her Grammy-winning Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 breakthrough single “Drivers License” seemed to cross over to a much wider audience than listeners her age experiencing the highs and lows of first love. “I remember when that came out, people of all walks of life would just come up to me and be like, ‘I remember exactly where I was when I was experiencing that heartbreak for the first time,’” Rodrigo said of the 2021 hit. “It’s just such a cool thing to see that we’re all so much more alike than we are different. It just makes me feel less alone. I’m just like, ‘Wow, my experiences aren’t really that unique. Everyone has experienced some sort of pain or loss and insecurity.’”
The good news for Rodrigo — whose sophomore album, GUTS, just debuted at the top of the Billboard 200 album chart in its first week — was that her songs are making it so that “people are starting to take teenage girl music a little more seriously, which I’m really happy about.”
It’s not just dads, though, according to The Daily Beast (pay-walled). The site spoke to AP reporter Maria Sherman, who said that she’s noticed another recent evolution in the demo obsessing over Rodrigo’s music that further widens the singer’s reach. “We’re seeing that conversation evolve where it’s accepted that people of all ages, particularly older women, are relating to and feeling for Olivia Rodrigo, and now there’s a connection with men, too,” she said. “Not to say that they weren’t listening to it, but I’ve certainly seen this conversation come up quite a bit.”
These millennial men, dubbed “Rodri-Bros” by the Beast, have no problem singing along, and relating to, the singer’s emo tales of romantic wreckage. One of those bros, 35-year-old Brooklynite Jeff, said he was a fan because of the “Gen Z of it all. I think I’m just sort of fascinated by that generation. In the last few years, I’ve started realizing that as a smack-dab-in-the-middle millennial, I’m no longer part of the young, fun, progressive generation, at least comparatively. I really like the openness and maturity and vulnerability in her music that I think is indicative of a lot of Gen Z.”
The allure might also have something to do with an initial attraction to Rodrigo’s signature sound, which mixes pop songcraft with a heavy nod to late ’90s and early 2000’s bands that appealed to these guys in the first place, including My Chemical Romance, Paramore and Dashboard Confessional.
The main reason so many of these wicked sensitive dudes say they aren’t afraid to harmonize along with “Deja Vu,” though, is precisely because Rodrigo taps so directly into the universal feelings of being a teenager. “She captures a lot of the experience of being an insecure teen without compromising a more adult voice to do so,” said married high school teacher Jesse, 34. “Even if you don’t like her music, I don’t know that there are many artists that are able to thread that needle in the same way.”
BTS member Suga will enlist for mandatory military service in South Korea by the end of the week, representatives for the K-pop group announced.
“We have further information regarding SUGA’s military service,” BIGHIT Music wrote in a notice dated Sept. 17 on the fan community platform Weverse. “SUGA will be beginning his required service on September 22.”The announcement continued: “There will not be any official events taking place on the day he starts his service or on the day he enters the training camp. We kindly ask fans to refrain from visiting SUGA at his workplace during the period of his service. Please convey your warm regards and encouragement in your hearts only.”
“Furthermore, please be mindful to avoid getting adversely affected by unauthorized tours or package products that illegally use the artist’s intellectual property,” BIGHIT warned. “Our company will take appropriate measures against attempts at any commercial activity that make unauthorized use of artist IP.”
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“We ask for your continued love and support for SUGA until he completes his service and returns. Our company will also strive to provide all the support he needs during this time,” the update said.
Suga also went live on Weverse the day of the announcement. According to a fan translation, he told ARMY his enlistment is not something to cry about, and reminded them that they’d meet again in 2025. He responded to comments about his new, shorter haircut he debuted on the livestream, admitting that he’s still getting used to it.
On Aug. 7, BIGHIT told the BTS ARMY that Suga had begun the process to initiate his military service, soon after wrapping the Asian leg of his Agust D-DAY tour in support of solo album D-DAY, which he released under the moniker Agust D.
BIGHIT first revealed in October 2022 that BTS — Suga, RM, V, Jin, Jung Kook, J-Hope and Jimin — would not be able to perform together as a whole group until 2025 due to their mandated military service. Jin was first to enlist, followed by J-Hope and now Suga.
Taylena alert! Selena Gomez showed off some sweet selfies with Taylor Swift on Saturday (Sept. 16). Gomez posted a pair of pictures on Instagram, pointing out in the caption that Swift is perpetually at the top of her game. “Thas my best frien -she a real bad,” Gomez wrote in a sweet Instagram update. The […]
*NSYNC set Tuesday night’s 2023 MTV Video Music Awards on fire when they reunited during the broadcast and presented Taylor Swift with the best pop Moon Person for her Midnights hit “Anti-Hero.” The group — consisting of Justin Timberlake, JC Chasez, Joey Fatone, Chris Kirkpatrick and Lance Bass — spent their time onstage reminiscing about their MTV salad days, basking in the glow of the adoring audience, and getting some serious love from a gobsmacked Swift.
But after Swift admitted she was “not doing well” pivoting from hugging her childhood pop crushes to accepting the award, she also said the thing that was probably on everyone else’s mind: “Are you doing something? What’s going to happen now?”
And then… nothing else happened.
The timing of the reunion was fitting, since less than 48 hours later, *NSYNC announced their first new song since 2002, “Better Place,” their boppy contribution to the upcoming Trolls Band Together threequel starring Timberlake; the song is due Sept. 29. In the lead-up to the awards show, longtime fans were freaking out over posters around New York that appeared to tease the iconic *NSYNC logo that led to this site. That led to rampant speculation that, as Swift suggested, “something” would happen during the prime VMA spot at the top of the nearly four-hour program.
The band did not, however, mention the movie, nor the song, during their appearance, which came in the midst of the the ongoing Hollywood writers and actors strike that began in May when members of the Writers Guild of America walked out, followed by SAG-AFTRA members joining them in July, effectively shutting down Hollywood.
*NSYNC did end up promoting the song in an Instagram post first shared on JT’s feed Thursday (Sept. 14), in which the quintet shared their emotional studio reunion (though there were no tags relating to the film, soundtrack or studio on the post). “So many stars aligned, that’s why I hit y’all,” Timberlake tells his bandmates in the video. “If we do this song, it’s a love letter to our fans. I would be honored to have the group on this song. Who’s ready for a reunion?” The clip then shifts to Timberlake behind the boards giving the rest of the group direction on their vocal tracks while recording his own vocals.
The post begged the question: Did *NYSNC break the rules regarding the promotion of movies and/or soundtracks during the strike?
Earlier this summer, SAG-AFTRA chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland broke down the strike rules about promotion of new or previously completed projects, noting that artists are expected to avoid promoting music created for TV, film or streaming under the old contract during the strike.
“Musicians who are members of SAG-AFTRA are equally subject to the rules around the strike — we cover vocalists in the music industry, as well as vocalists in the film/TV/streaming side and some broadcast journalists — and when any member is working on a project as an actor, then the rules mean that they are not in a position to promote that project, even if they are more generally known as a singer or recording artist,” Duncan Crabtree-Ireland previously told Billboard.
At the time, however, Crabtree-Ireland also said that members cannot enter into any new music licensing agreements or approve any new tracks for film or TV projects and must cease promoting songs already licensed for the duration of the strike.
However, when reached following the VMAs — without specifically mentioning the band or the song — a spokesperson for SAG-AFTRA told Billboard in a statement that: “While some songs are made for a movie under our Theatrical CBA, others are made under our Sound Recording Contract and acquired via a license deal. Songs that are not made under our Theatrical CBA are not subject to the strike order and promotional rules.”
At press time, spokespeople for Timberlake and Trolls studio DreamWorks Animation could not be reached for comment on the promotion of the song, though a source confirmed to Billboard that the track was covered under the Sound Recording Contract.
The 2023 VMAs were noticeably light on the usual parade of A-list and up-and-coming Hollywood actors taking the stage to introduce acts or musicians plugging their latest acting gigs as promotion has ground to a dead halt while the dual strike by actors and writers enters the fall with no end in sight.
The *NSYNC exception is different from the one governing Swift’s recent announcement and promotion of her Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour concert film. After that project was announced, a source close to the film confirmed to Billboard that the Eras doc obtained clearance under an interim agreement struck by SAG-AFTRA covering individual non-AMPTP (Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers) productions that meet the same standards the unions are seeking in their negotiations with the studios; the source added that the clearance was nailed down before the Eras doc was shot in Inglewood, California, during the first three nights of the singer’s six-night run at SoFi Stadium.
Billboard also confirmed that the Swift film is included under an assumed name on the list of approved interim agreement projects.
For now, it’s unclear how much, if any, further promotion *NSYNC will do for the song that appears in Trolls Band Together, in which Timberlake’s Branch reunites with his brothers to get their childhood boy band, BroZone, back together. Though *NSYNC got back together to record the song — and fans are predictably freaking out — in the film, Timberlake’s bandmate brothers are voiced by Troye Sivan, Eric André, Daveed Diggs and Kid Cudi.
V‘s Layover track “Blue” got the music video treatment earlier this week, showcasing the BTS member in black and white while he impatiently searched for someone at an apartment complex to no avail. The impatience from the video took a back seat in V’s live performance of “Blue” on Friday (Sept. 15) for Naver’s NPOP, […]
Over the past week, the rumor mill has been exploding with speculation that Eras Tour powerhouse Taylor Swift has spending some, allegedly romantic, time together with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce. During a post-game interview on Thursday night (Sept. 14), Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce, Travis’ older brother, shared his thoughts on all […]