Rock
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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.”
Thirty Seconds to Mars‘ sixth album, It’s the End of the World But It’s a Beautiful Day, has topped this week’s new music poll. Music fans voted in a poll published Friday (Sept. 15) on Billboard, choosing the latest from brothers Jared and Shannon Leto as their favorite new music release of the past week. […]
U2 has unveiled a brand new song ahead of its Las Vegas residency. On Saturday night (Sept. 16), the veteran U.K. Rock and Roll Hall of Famers debuted new track “Atomic City” during a music video shoot in downtown Las Vegas. The song is expected to be released in conjunction with the launch of U2’s […]
“We called this the Good Riddance Acoustic Shows, but we’re doing things from previous times … and future times,” teased singer-songwriter Gracie Abrams. Talking to the packed yet intimate room at the Masonic Lodge at Hollywood Forever in Los Angeles (which has a capacity of around 150) on Sept. 14, Abrams was joined onstage by her close […]
Hozier lands two straight No. 1s on Billboard’s Adult Alternative Airplay chart for the first time with “Francesca,” which lifts to the top spot on the tally dated Sept. 23.
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The song follows the two-week reign of “Eat Your Young” in May. It’s Hozier’s his fourth No. 1 in all, following “Take Me to Church” (August 2014) and “Nina Cried Power,” featuring Mavis Staples (October 2018).
Concurrently, “Francesca” ranks at No. 25, after rising to No. 23, on the all-rock-format, audience-based Rock & Alternative Airplay chart with 1.5 million audience impressions, up 7%, Sept. 8-14, according to Luminate. “Eat Your Young,” peaked at No. 7 in June; Hozier’s overall best, “Take Me to Church,” reached No. 3.
On the most recently published, multi-metric Hot Rock & Alternative Songs survey, “Francesca” appeared at No. 45, after reaching No. 22 earlier in September. In addition to its radio airplay, the song earned 1.1 million official U.S. streams in the Sept. 1-7 tracking week.
“Francesca” is the second single from Unreal Unearth, Hozier’s third studio album. It debuted at No. 1 on the Top Rock & Alternative Albums tally dated Sept. 2 and has earned 168,000 equivalent album units to date.
Hozier is currently on the road, with shows scheduled through Dec. 22. “I’m just excited to share the work live with a fan base that has been with me now for 10 years,” he recently told Billboard. “We’ve been bringing this killer nine-piece band to these tiny rooms. It’s a band that really needs to be on bigger stages. It has been tough in these club shows where there’s curfews in these cities, [so I’m excited] to be able to expand the setlist and actually offer a wider representation of the discography, and have a bit more time to play with the ebb and flow of the set.”
All Billboard charts dated Sept. 23 will update on Billboard.com on Tuesday, Sept. 19.
Corey Taylor scores his second solo No. 1 on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart, as “Beyond” rises to the top of the survey dated Sept. 23.
“Beyond” follows the reign of Taylor’s “Black Eyes Blue,” for two weeks in October-November 2020.
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Taylor first appeared solo on the ranking as featured on Apocalyptica’s “I’m Not Jesus,” which hit No. 6 in May 2008. In between “Black Eyes Blue” and “Beyond,” he reached No. 10 as a lead act with “Samantha’s Gone” in March 2021.
Taylor has been a force on Mainstream Rock Airplay through the years, though. Slipknot boasts seven top 10s with him as frontman, paced by a pair of No. 2 hits in “Snuff” in March 2010 and “The Devil in I” in November 2014. Plus, Stone Sour with him as singer has 10 top 10s, including four No. 1s, most recently “Song #3” in July 2017.
Concurrently, “Beyond” places at No. 8, after rising to No. 6, on the all-rock-format, audience-based Rock & Alternative Airplay chart with 2.7 million audience impressions, up 9%, Sept. 8-14, according to Luminate. It’s Taylor’s top-performing solo song on the list, surpassing the No. 11-peaking “Black Eyes Blue.”
On the most recently published, multi-metric Hot Hard Rock Songs ranking (dated Sept. 16), “Beyond” debuted at No. 17. In addition to its radio airplay, the song earned 214,000 official U.S. streams Sept. 1-7.
“Beyond” is the lead single from CMF2, Taylor’s second solo album, out today, Sept. 15.
All Billboard charts dated Sept. 23 will refresh on Billboard.com on Tuesday, Sept. 19.
Demi Lovato is ready to rock! The star unveiled a new album on Friday (Sept. 15) featuring reimagined, rock versions of their old tracks, fittingly titled Revamped. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news The 10-track LP features some of their biggest hits (“Heart Attack,” “Sorry Not Sorry”) alongside fan […]
Even though he’s already topped the Billboard 200, Billboard Hot 100 and Artist 100 with the release of his new self-titled album, it looks like Zach Bryan has a few more musical tricks up his sleeve. In a series of social media posts Thursday (Sept. 14), one of those tricks could be a project with “Dial Drunk” crooner Noah Kahan.
“Hardest working man in music,” Bryan captioned a snap of Kahan, who was petting Jack, Bryan’s pet dog, while holding an acoustic guitar on his lap in what appears to be a home recording studio. “Let’s goooo @noahkahanmusic.”
The Grammy-nominated “Something in the Orange” singer also shared the picture to his X (formerly Twitter) page, writing, “Jack, huge Noah guy.” Kahan reposted Bryan’s snap with the caption “High praise from the [GOAT],” with a goat emoji.
In an Instagram Story posted four hours earlier, Bryan showed he and his collaborators working on some music. “Another hard earned day for Jack at the office,” he wrote.
While it is unclear if Bryan and Kahan are working on anything together, the link-up marks the union of two of 2023’s brightest stars. Earlier this month, Bryan’s self-titled album became his first set to top the Billboard 200 and spawned the Hot 100-topping Kacey Musgraves duet “I Remember Everything.” Zach Bryan opened with the biggest streaming week for a rock album in history. With a debut of over 200,000 units, Zach Bryan also logged the largest consumption week for a rock album in four years.
As for Kahan, following a deluxe reissue, Stick Season — his third studio album, which was originally released in 2022 — reached a new Billboard 200 peak of No. 3, surpassing its previous peak of No. 14. The record also reached No. 1 on Top Rock & Alternative Albums, Top Rock Albums, Top Alternative Albums and Top Americana/Folk Albums. “Dial Drunk,” the LP’s breakout single, became Kahan’s first Hot 100 hit (No. 25) and received a remix from Post Malone.
Click here to see Zach Bryan and Noah Kahan in the studio.
In the early 2000s, while the alt-rock band Switchfoot was working on their fourth album, The Beautiful Letdown, the group flew to New York to perform for its new label, Sony Music. Midway through one of the cuts from that record, “Dare You to Move,” a top Sony exec walked out of the performance — and frontman Jon Foreman could hear him muttering, “Why do you keep signing this expletive-expletive-expletive?”
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As the band prepares to release a deluxe version of The Beautiful Letdown, which has sold more than three million copies since its release 20 years ago, Foreman recalls the impact of that moment. “That is a pivotal point for us as a band,” he says. “We had a choice: “Do we listen to him, or do we say, ‘Forget him, we’re going to do what we think is right, and we believe in these songs? That’s where we came from. That’s what that album in 2003 represents — an album that almost didn’t exist at all.” (Sony declined to comment on Foreman’s recollections.)
By phone from the band’s San Diego studio, where Switchfoot is rehearsing for a tour on which they will play The Beautiful Letdown in its entirety, Foreman discusses the “Our Version” version of the album, which dropped in August — as well as covers of its tracks performed by the Jonas Brothers, Jon Bellion, Twenty One Pilots‘ Tyler Joseph and others, that fill out the deluxe edition due Sept. 15.
As you rehearse for this tour, playing all those songs again from The Beautiful Letdown, what are you learning about the album?
We’ve grown up as a band, learned how to play our instruments, learned how to play together. It really has been enjoyable to step back in time and remember who we were and what we were singing about and how we were playing.
What were some of the technical challenges of recreating a record from 2003?
It’s all the happy accidents that are funny that are hard to recreate — but we leaned into that. At the beginning of one of the [original] tracks, “Ammunition,” my friend, Matt Beckley, a producer, happened to be in the room when we were tracking that. His laugh is the last thing you hear at the beginning of that track. We tried our best to imitate that, and I said, “Whoa, whoa, whoa,” and called Matt and said, “Can you send us a track of yourself laughing?” So it’s his laugh again. We tried to jump back exactly into the headspace that we were in when we had made the record the first time.
Why did you decide to re-record an “Our Version” of the album?
We all were kind of talking about the album and we thought, “What if we made the album, but this time, instead of for [the Sony exec], let’s record it for everyone who’s supported us the last 23 years — for everyone who’s sung along with these songs?”
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So did you wind up making the album that Sony wanted, back in 2003, or did you release the one Switchfoot had planned to make all along?
The album that came out was entirely our dream — the dream that, with John Fields producing, we loved, and that certain unnamed executive at the top of Sony Records hated. We were relegated to [Sony-owned distributor] Red Ink. It was actually the best thing that could’ve happened to us, because not only did everyone at Red Ink believe in this album and fight for it, it galvanized why we do what we do, and the idea that we don’t play music for the people who don’t understand it. We’re not for everyone, we’re going to be for ourselves. Irrespective of whether people get it or not, we’re going to sing our songs.
Did you wind up working with that Sony executive again?
Fast forward maybe a year and a half, the album had sold 2 million copies, and the same guy comes back, all smiles and handshakes and pictures, with platinum albums and a lot of talk about how “I believed in you guys all along.”
How much did Taylor Swift‘s “Taylor’s Version” re-recordings over the past few years influence Switchfoot’s “Our Version”?
It didn’t have much to do with it. But Taylor has covered two songs from The Beautiful Letdown, one without us and one I got to sit in on. She’s been very supportive.
Tell me about sitting in with her.
We were playing a smaller arena in Arizona [in 2011], and she invited me to come over and play “Meant to Live.” Our friends Needtobreathe were opening the night, and I was struck by just how poised she was on and off stage. She was in complete control, not only onstage but offstage. Everything was accounted for. It’s really fun to see this [Eras] tour blowing up for her.
For the deluxe version, how much input did you have on the reimagined versions from the other artists?
We gave them completely no direction. Some said, “I want you to play the instruments,” and some, like OneRepublic, just wanted to do a more traditional duet. I loved all of it. Jonas Brothers wanted to work with John Fields, who produced the original version. I called Fields and he said, “Oh, is this the talk when you’re going to be the A&R guy and tell me what we’re supposed to do with the track?” And I was like, “Nope! I’m just calling to say hi. I could care less.”
What do you hope both parts of the new version accomplish?
It’s such an odd project, to be honest. Being a songwriter, writing new songs is my favorite thing in the world to do, but to look back and celebrate where we’ve been — that’s what this project is aiming for.
Despite rumors, innuendo and a barrel full of tabloid headlines, one of the reported guests on Taylor Swift‘s 1989 (Taylor’s Version) re-record is never, ever appearing on it. A spokesperson for the singer tells Billboard, “neither Matty Healy nor [The] 1975 are on this album,” putting to rest fevered UK broadsheet reports that the British […]