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It’s been nearly two years since Olivia Rodrigo dropped her debut album Sour, and now her army of fans has reason to suspect new music is finally on the way from their queen.
The speculation arose Wednesday (Nov. 30) when the singer sent a special video message to her top fans as part of this year’s Spotify Wrapped. “Hey, it’s Olivia! I just wanted to say thank you so much for listening to my music this year,” she said in the fan-captured clip. “I really, truly couldn’t be more grateful and I’m so excited for next year, and all of the new things and new music that 2023 will bring. So I’m sending so much love your way and thank you again! Bye!”
Rodrigo’s first album shot to No. 1 all over the world upon its May 2021 release and contained the smash singles “Drivers License,” “Deja Vu,” “Good 4 U,” “Brutal” and “Traitor,” as well as fan-favorite cuts like “1 Step Forward, 3 Steps Back,” “Happier” and “Jealousy, Jealousy.”
Plenty has happened in the Disney star’s life since she unveiled Sour, though. She’s embarked on her first headlining tour across North America and Europe, starred in season 3 of High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, and premiered both her concert film Sour Prom and Disney+ documentary Driving Home 2 U (A Sour Film). Oh, and she also picked up her first trio of Grammy Awards at the 2022 ceremony for best new artist, best pop vocal album and best pop solo performance.
Most recently, Rodrigo honored Carly Simon with a performance of “You’re So Vain” at the ’70s icon’s induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as part of the class of 2022 and interviewed former co-star Jenna Ortega about her starring role in Netflix’s Wednesday.
Watch Rodrigo hint at new music to her Spotify Wrapped fans below.
The Project
I Love You Jennifer B, out now on Rough Trade Records.
The Origin
Though they were both drawn to the Guildhall School of Music in London for its rare, genre-inclusive approach to music academics – teaching everything from electronic production to jazz piano – Georgia Ellery and Taylor Skye were not the most likely duo at the school to form a band. Ellery arrived her first year at the school as a violinist with no experience writing songs, while Skye was busy scoring scenes in feature films. “But I think we were both looking for each other,” Ellery says wistfully, looking back on the time she still says is “definitely the most formative of my life.”
Inspired by the emerging experimentalist pop scene at the school, Ellery tried to write songs on her own, setting down her trusty violin in favor of a piano or guitar. After penning her first one, Ellery took it to Skye to produce, given her admiration for his soundtrack work and their shared love of James Blake, Four Tet and of Annie Mac’s BBC 1 radio show. “I’ve never really enjoyed playing by myself, so it just made a lot of sense to work together,” Ellery explains. “He was looking for a band, I was looking for a band, so the two just kept going after the first song.”
Soon, the duo was self-releasing their music, which ultimately sounded as jarring as the name they assumed to do it: Jockstrap. When asked why they chose the moniker, Skye just shrugs. “We like heavy metal names.”
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The Sound
Made up of Ellery’s soul-baring songwriting and Skye’s bombastic electronic production, Jockstrap’s I Love You Jennifer B is a commanding front-to-back listen, and is already beloved by tastemakers like Jamie xx and Populous. At times, I Love You Jennifer B is longing, and at other times frenetic, but that’s what makes it brilliant: it is committed to subverting expectations at every turn.
Skye says it was always a conscious choice to put together a full project’s worth of songs, but Ellery also says, “We weren’t writing for cohesion.”
The Breakthrough
When releasing their first songs, Jockstrap took inspiration – knowingly or unknowingly – from Skye’s early-Uni roots, scoring scenes in his dorm room. The duo paired their music with visuals they created themselves; sure, saving the money as a then-independent band was helpful, but making music videos from scratch was also a way to illustrate a bigger artistic vision.
“We had this sort of plan of how we should self-release,” says Ellery of their first songs. The band put out homemade videos as well as linked up with a local magazine to premiere them. “We were just so driven and determined to make it a real thing,” says Ellery. “I think we did it the correct way, because our team just kind of came to us after.” The music videos and songs led to their record deal with Rough Trade Records, two EPs and finally, their debut album.
The Piece of Studio Equipment Jockstrap Cannot Live Without
Skye: “My PSP vintage warmer.”
Ellery: “My trusty old Audio Technica headphones that are dirt cheap.”
The Artist They Believe Deserves More Attention
Skye: “MT Hadley”
The Takeaway That They Hope Fans Have When They Hear the Album
Ellery: “We truly hope that there’s a banger in there for everyone. That at least one song screams at them.”
The Advice Every Indie Artist Needs to Hear
Ellery: “Take control and make your own music video. Try to get your own premieres in magazines, don’t wait on others to do it.”
The Thing That Needs to Change in the Music Industry
Ellery: “More women. Less misogyny.”
When you’re nervous about saying something in public, the most common piece of advice is to imagine your audience in their underwear. Well, Sam Smith has something very public to say — and they just decided to flip that advice around.
In a new clip posted across their social media accounts on Wednesday (Nov. 30), Smith teased one of the songs off of their new album, titled “I’m Not Here To Make Friends.” In the video clip, Smith is seen looking over a tall balcony, wrapped in a pashmina. As they begin to mouth along with the words, the camera pans down to reveal they’re wearing very little else; a pair of briefs and fishnets barely cover a dancing Betty Boop tattoo on the star’s thigh as they groove along to the track.
The song clip itself offers yet another new sound for Smith as they venture into disco — a four on the floor beat pairs with a grooving baseline as Smith croons about what they’re ready to offer a lover. “I could ease your appetite/ No you’ve never been this high,” they sing. “Don’t be scared if you like it/ ‘Cause I’m not here to make friends.”
The new teaser comes as Smith continues to ride the high of “Unholy” — the Kim Petras collab spent its ninth week on the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 3, as well as a seventh week at No. 1 on the Billboard Global Excl. U.S this week. Both “Unholy” and “I’m Not Here To Make Friends” are set to appear on Smith’s fourth studio album Gloria, which is due out Jan. 27 via Capitol Records.
Check out Smith’s full song teaser below.
ARMY, there’s just a few more days to go until RM’s debut solo album, Indigo, arrives. To further drum up anticipation for the LP, the BTS rapper dropped the official teaser for the album’s lead track, “Wild Flower,” on Wednesday (Nov. 30).
While the teaser gives little instrumentally, “Wild Flower” — which features South Korean rock singer youjeen — has atmospheric drum and synth beats. The video itself is based in nature, with the camera going through a serene field of wheat before panning to RM walking on a plain and admiring the sunrise. The scene then cuts to a perspective from above the clouds, which rumbles with pockets of lighting, then pivots back to a wide angle of RM atop a mountain with one tree.
The video concludes with the release date and time for “Wild Flower”: Dec. 2 at 12 a.m. ET and 2 p.m. KT. Indigo will also be released on Dec. 2.
As for the rest of the the album, RM teased its themes in a preview video shared on Nov. 22. “Record of RM: Indigo. From the colors of nature, human, etc. Documentation of my youth in the moment of independent phase. Sun-bleached record faded like old jeans. The last archive of my twenties,” the video read.
Though Indigo will be RM’s first full-length solo album, the rapper previously released two mixtapes. He was the first of the BTS members to share solo material, dropping his self-titled mixtape in 2015, which contained singles “Do You,” “Awakening” and “Joke.” RM then released a second mixtape in 2018 titled Mono. “Forever Rain” was released as the only single from the latter body of work; the set debuted at No. 26 on the Billboard 200.
Watch the teaser for “Wild Flower” in the video above.
Get ready to learn exactly 73 new facts about Jenny from the block. For Vogue‘s latest “73 Questions” video, Jennifer Lopez opened up about the sequel to one of her movies she’d most like to make (hint: it would also star her husband, Ben Affleck!) and talked about new music, motherhood and more.
Wearing khaki trousers and a cropped white button-up, J. Lo started the video by opening her front door to greet Vogue and let viewers in to her Los Angeles home. On a wooden table in her entryway rests a framed photo of her and Affleck, her husband since July of this year, who was the subject of a couple of the “On the Floor” singer’s answers.
When asked about who makes her laugh the most between takes on film sets, a small smile spread across Lopez’s face. “My husband,” she said, grinning. “Ben.”
The Marry Me actress also revealed that of all the films she’s made, she’d most want to star in a sequel to Gigli — aka, the movie set on which she first met Affleck.
Lopez announced just days prior to the Wednesday (Nov. 30) “73 Questions” interview that she’ll be releasing her first proper album in eight years in 2023. In celebration of the 20th anniversary of her 2002 hit record This Is Me … Then, the new album will be titled This Is Me … Now, and will feature 13 tracks.
“People think they know things about what happened to me along the way, the men I was with — but they really have no idea, and a lot of times they get it so wrong,” she said in her Nov. 8 Vogue cover story. “There’s a part of me that was hiding a side of myself from everyone. And I feel like I’m at a place in my life, finally, where I have something to say about it.”
The Bronx native spoke in more detail about her new music, life and her decades-long career for “73 Questions,” opening up about her sprawling film credits — Hustlers challenged her the most, her title character in Selena is the most like her in real life — as well as parenting her two children, Max and Emme.
“The most rewarding thing is that they wind up teaching you,” she said of her kids, adding that the “teenage years” are the most intimidating.
Watch Jennifer Lopez answer 73 questions for Vogue below:
After bursting onto the pop scene in 2009 as the featured vocalist on Flo Rida’s “Right Round” and with her own Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 “Tik Tok,” Kesha (going by Ke$ha at the time) quickly established herself as one of the top party-girl singers of her generation. After the success of her debut album Animal and its follow-up EP Cannibal (both 2010), Kesha took her second studio album, Warrior, as an opportunity to show the world there was more to her than just tipsy club anthems.
Released 10 years ago (Nov. 30, 2012 in Australia; Dec. 4, 2012 in America), Warrior saw Kesha building upon the pop aesthetic she had already established—one of joy, fun and freedom—while realizing more of her potential as an artist, successfully incorporating rock, punk and country into her existing palette of pop, hip-hop and dance. On top of that, Warrior saw her becoming more lyrically raw and personal on a handful of tracks — this newfound vulnerability helped manifest the album’s central theme of embracing your inner warrior.
While Warrior didn’t achieve as much success as the Billboard 200-topping Animal, peaking at No. 6 on that chart, its lead single “Die Young” was a commercial success, reaching No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100. Subsequent singles “C’Mon” and “Crazy Kids” peaked at Nos. 27 and 40, respectively.
Ultimately, the album continued to demonstrate Kesha’s star power and ability to make a mark on the pop music industry — and in some ways, it gave hints of what was to come on her triumphant return in 2017 with Rainbow.
Here, we rank all the standard tracks of Warrior in celebration of it turning 10.
The new year will bring a bounty of BTS material for ARMY. In the midst of the group’s ongoing hiatus and flurry of solo activity, Disney+ has announced that it will air a documentary series about the K-pop icons in 2023 that promises to feature plenty of unseen footage from throughout their rise to global stardom.
BTS Monuments: Beyond the Star is described as a “music docu-series” focusing on the seven-member group that will stream exclusively on Disney+ that will “chart the incredible journey of 21st century pop icons BTS,” according to NME. Promising “unprecedented access,” the series will feature music and video footage shot over the band’s nine-year career, as well as a look at their daily lives and thoughts as they plan for their “second chapter.”
In a preview video unveiled on Wednesday (Nov. 30) on the Disney+ Singapore Twitter feed, the band promise that the series will feature the timeline of their growth and music from the beginning through today via “candid stories that have never been told.” Spokespeople for BTS and Disney+ could not be reached for comment at press time about the air date of the show in the United States.
Disney+ hasn’t yet announced when the shows will air in the U.S. “I hope you find new sides of us that are previously unseen,” Jungkook says at the end of the clip. BTS announced in July that they were going on hiatus, later promising to reunite at some point. In the meantime, they are all working on solo projects and the members are expected to begin signing up for their mandatory military service.
In the meantime, Jungkook recently performed at the opening ceremony for the World Cup in Qatar and RM is preparing the release of his debut solo album, Indigo, due out on Friday (Dec. 2).
Check out a preview of Beyond the Star below.
After making his move for solo superstardom with 1979’s Off the Wall album — a tricky-enough transition from his childhood as the Little Brother in Charge in the Jackson 5 — Michael Jackson set out to beat himself when Thriller was released 40 years ago on Nov. 30, 1982.
With his trusted producer Quincy Jones back behind the boards, the then-burgeoning King of Pop delivered his crowning achievement — one that even he would fail to top before his untimely death at just 50 in 2009. The nine-track set topped the Billboard 200 for 37 nonconsecutive weeks and spawned seven singles — all of which hit the top 10 on the Hot 100, with “Billie Jean” and Beat It” going all the way to No. 1.
Sweeping the Grammys in 1984 (it nabbed eight trophies, including album of the year), Thriller went on to become one of the best-selling albums of all time. It defined the modern pop blockbuster, leaving a blueprint for everyone from Usher and Justin Timberlake to Beyoncé to (of course) baby sis Janet Jackson.
Although Jackson’s crossover moves would never quite get him his soul card back, it opened up the eyes and the ears of the industry — and audiences around the world — to what music could sound, look and feel like if we blurred those tired old color lines.
And the thrill isn’t gone: The LP returned to the top 10 on the Billboard 200 chart (dated Dec. 3, 2022) thanks to its 40th-anniversary reissue.
Here, we rank all nine tracks on a moonwalking masterpiece that provided the soundtrack for a generation.
Chuu is no longer a member of the K-pop girl group LOONA, and the events surrounding the exit have raised eyebrows in Korea’s media and music industry.
BlockBerryCreative, the K-pop girl group’s label, announced through LOONA’s online “fan cafe” on Friday that Chuu had been expelled and withdrawn from the 12-member outfit. The fan cafe post is only available to subscribers of the Korean site, but local media widely shared the news and statement. In the report, the agency cited an investigation that found Chuu using “violent language” and “misuse of power toward staff” (as shared by translations from Soompi).
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BlockBerryCreative and Chuu’s relationship has been a source of concern among fans and prone to media speculation in the past year.
In the spring, rumors surfaced that Chuu took legal action in 2021 to cut parts of her exclusive contract with BlockBerryCreative. By summertime, the stories evolved to Chuu joining a new management label and setting up her own agency. BlockBerryCreative denied any management changes. Still, the 23-year-old did not participate in LOONA’s world tour that visited North America, Europe and Asia from August to October this year or their recent Japanese single “Luminous.” Chuu has stayed busy, with many television appearances, growing a YouTube channel, and releasing solo singles as LOONA’s most visible member.
In the spring, Chuu was rumored to have taken legal action in 2021 to cut parts of her exclusive contract with BlockBerryCreative. By summertime, the stories ranged from Chuu joining a new management label to setting up an agency all on her own. BlockBerryCreative denied that she was transferring management. Still, the 23-year-old did not take part in LOONA’s world tour that visited North America, Europe and Asia from August to October of this year, or their recent Japanese single “Luminous.” Chuu has stayed busy, with many television appearances, growing a YouTube channel and releasing solo singles as LOONA’s most visible member.
On Nov. 28, BlockBerryCreative followed up with another statement saying that the expulsion was not in retaliation. The label said it’s up to the parties involved to share specific evidence. It asked the media to refrain from speculative reporting, after noting articles that doubted BlockBerryCreative’s claims and intentions.
Billboard repeatedly reached out to a BlockBerryCreative representative for comment as the stories unfolded. The rep confirmed Chuu’s removal from LOONA and pointed to previously shared statements.
Several K-pop stars and industry professionals have shown public support for Chuu. Singer Sunmi posted a selfie of her with Chuu after the expulsion news dropped, while Korean music journalist Joy Park shared her memories of Chuu and a signed LOONA album on her Twitter account. Kim Do Heon, another Korean music critic, criticized BlockBerryCreative’s statement through a Twitter post.
For her part, Chuu shared a short statement through an Instagram Story post. On Monday, the star wrote that she was not contacted about nor does she know anything about the recent events. She shared that she would release another statement soon but told fans she hadn’t done anything they would disapprove of.
Another report surfaced on Monday saying that nine of the remaining 11 LOONA members (Heejin, Haseul, Yeojin, Kim Lip, Jinsoul, Choerry, Yves, Go Won and Olivia Hye) were taking legal action to break their contracts with BlockBerryCreative. The agency dismissed the rumor. A BlockBerryCreative representative told Billboard that the report is “groundless.”
LOONA (whose Korean name translates to “Girl of the Month”) began their journey in 2016 with the ambitious plan of introducing each member with her own solo music and splinter units between the members before all 12 members finally came together in August 2018 for the [+ +] EP. LOONA has since earned multiple entries on World Albums and even sent their [12:00] album to the Billboard 200. The group hit No. 1 on World Digital Song Sales with their songs “365” and “Shake It” and also became one of the few K-pop acts to enter the Pop Airplay chart with an English single, “Star.”
BTS dropped a special episode of their variety web series Run BTS on Tuesday (Nov. 29).
In the nearly 40-minute episode, the K-pop idols take turns hosting their own variety segments while their bandmates chime in with commentary via a shared chatroom.
J-Hope kicked off the proceedings with a silly and absurd round of reviewing toys, starting with — ahem — a pooping pink flamingo. (Don’t worry, “If you are eating right now, please stop right now!!!” flashed onscreen as a hilarious warning before the bird did its business on the accompanying toy toilet.)
“I pooped, I pooped,” the flamingo chirped in its animatronic voice as the boy band members cheered on its, uh, success. Thankfully J-Hope eventually moved on to play with a miniature hair salon, a magic vase that grows a flower when you add water and a child’s play washing machine — though the flamingo stuck around as Hobi’s mascot for the remainder of his segment.
After watching V nearly hit a 300-meter drive in a game of virtual golf, RM took over to host a rapid-fire game of “Ideal Type World Cup,” in which he chose between random, useless superpowers with help from his fellow Bangtan Boys.
Some of the options included becoming the cutest person in the room in any gathering (“It’s like that even now? That’s not a superpower,” Suga argued hilariously), being invisible for five minutes but people can still see your clothes, and constantly flying seven centimeters above the ground. However, the superpower that eventually won the group’s consensus was the ability to rewind time by seven seconds.
While RM will be unveiling his debut album Indigo on Friday (Dec. 2), Jin is reportedly set to become the first member of BTS to begin his mandatory military service in South Korea next month.
Watch the latest episode of Run BTS below.
