Rock
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Ben Wyatt: “Get this — I just asked the DJ what R.E.M. albums he has. He’s got Monster, but not Automatic for the People.”
Leslie Knope: “Wow.”
Ben: “I know. It’s like, ‘What is this, a mid-‘90s party?’ No, it’s an early-‘90s party.”
——————–
In a 2013 episode of NBC’s Parks and Recreation, Leslie and Ben attend an early-1990s fête, the domain of, as Ben correctly notes, R.E.M.’s 1992 LP Automatic for the People.
Had the DJ been more up on the timeline of R.E.M.’s discography — and Billboard chart history — he would have known that Monster made its mark on surveys in 1994-95. The set debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 dated Oct. 15, 1994, with 344,000 copies sold in the United States, according to Luminate. (No data available on how many sold in Pawnee, Ind.) The frame marks the band’s best since Luminate began tracking sales in 1991, outperforming by 57% the 218,000 that Automatic for the People moved in its first week in October 1992, when it opened at its No. 2 peak.
Monster became R.E.M.’s second of two Billboard 200 No. 1s, after Out of Time also led for two weeks, in May and June 1991.
“It’s obvious that this album was eagerly anticipated by R.E.M.’s fans,” then-Billboard associate director of charts/retail Geoff Mayfield wrote upon Monster’s chart bow. (In that pre-Halloween issue’s Chart Beat column, Fred Bronson titled his recap of the arrival “‘Monster’ Mash.”)
Billboard’s review of Monster in the Oct. 1, 1994, issue praised R.E.M.’s crunchier turn on the set: “After a glorious acoustic phase, band reverts to the power-pop sound it sported in the late ‘80s, now sharpened with an industrial edge. Monster will live up to its name at rock, pop, college and alternative formats, reaffirming the band’s place as one of the most compelling, and uncompromising, in America.”
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Monster yielded the two most recent of R.E.M.’s six No. 1s on the Alternative Airplay chart: “What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?” for two weeks beginning in September 1994 — as it became the first song to debut at the list’s summit– and “Bang and Blame” (three weeks that December). The former also hit No. 10 on Pop Airplay, while three more cuts from the set reached Alternative Airplay, in 1995: “Star 69” (No. 8), “Strange Currencies” (No. 14) and “Crush With Eyeliner” (No. 33).
Warner Records re-signed R.E.M. (which had joined the label for 1988’s Green) to a reported $80 million contract in August 1996. The deal signified just how high the band had risen since releasing its first single, the eventual classic “Radio Free Europe,” on indie Hib-Tone in 1981. (The group signed with I.R.S. in 1982.)
In 1997, drummer Bill Berry left R.E.M., which continued as a trio of lead singer Michael Stipe, bassist Mike Mills and guitarist Peter Buck. The group was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2007 and upped its count to 10 Billboard 200 top 10s through its last LP of all-new music, Collapse Into Now, in 2011. That September, Stipe, Mills and Buck announced their amicable split on R.E.M.’s website.
On June 13, R.E.M. — including Berry — reunited to perform its highest-charting Billboard Hot 100 hit, “Losing My Religion,” which rose to No. 4 in 1991, at the Songwriters Hall of Fame annual celebration in New York, where the band was among 2024’s enshrinees.
“Writing songs and having a catalog of work that we’re all proud of that is out there for the rest of the world for all time is hands-down the most important aspect of what we did,” Stipe told the audience. “Second to that is that we managed to do so all those decades and remain friends. And not just friends, dear friends.” He added, “We are four people that very early on decided that we would own our own masters and we would split our royalties and songwriting credits equally. All for one and one for all.”
iHeartMedia has announced the lineup for the 2025 iHeartRadio ALTer EGO Presented by Capital One, set for Jan. 11 at the Kia Forum in L.A, and will feature performances from some of the biggest names in alternative rock.
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Among the star-studded bill includes Cage The Elephant, Fontaines D.C., Glass Animals, Incubus, St. Vincent, The Lumineers, The Head And The Heart and The Offspring, with a special solo performance from Damiano David of Måneskin.
Hosted by Woody from The Woody Show, the concert is set to be one of the most anticipated alternative rock events of the year.
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“For the 8th year in a row, every other option was exhausted, and with the announcement looming, a decision had to be made,” said Woody. “That’s when we were handed the keys and warned that we had better not screw this up. It’s an honor — one we fully intend to live up to. Here’s hoping Jan. 11 arrives before iHeart realizes their mistake!”
The event will broadcast live for fans on iHeartRadio Alternative and Rock stations across the country and on iHeartRadio.com.
Now in its eighth year, the iHeartRadio ALTer EGO event continues to grow, attracting top-tier alternative acts. The festival is part of iHeartMedia’s lineup of nationally recognized concert events, including the iHeartRadio Music Festival and Jingle Ball, with Capital One as a returning presenting partner.
“We are thrilled to present this incredible lineup of artists representing all genres of Alternative and Rock returning to one of the most iconic Rock venues Los Angeles has to offer, the Kia Forum,” said Lisa Worden, Program Director for ALT 98.7 and Senior Vice President of Rock and Alternative for iHeartMedia.
“It’s our 8th year doing this and each year it keeps getting better.”
Capital One cardholders will have exclusive early access to presale tickets starting on Oct. 22 at 10 a.m. PT, lasting through Oct. 24 or until supplies run out.
The presale tickets come with an option to add a Capital One Access Pass, allowing attendees to experience a private soundcheck performance by Cage The Elephant, along with complimentary food, drinks, and more. General ticket sales will begin on Oct. 25 at 12 p.m. PT through Ticketmaster.
Listeners will also have access to a limited number of tickets through ALT 98.7’s 24-hour VIP-Sale. Fans can register to become an ALT VIP to access tickets beginning Thursday, Oct. 24 at 10 a.m. PT through Friday, October 25 at 10 a.m.
For more information on presales and tickets, visit iHeartRadio.com.
Jon Bon Jovi announced his endorsement of Democrat Kamala Harris for President in a song on Friday, spotlighting the patriotic Forever album tune “The People’s House” featuring the War and Treaty in a post explaining his decision.
“The People’s House is a song that celebrates this beautiful place that we call home, from sea to shining sea. @thewarandtreaty,” Bon Jovi wrote. “The truth matters. And the truth is on election day I’ll be voting for @KamalaHarris and @TimWalz because I believe in the power of we, not of me. I’ve written a song reminding us that out of many, we are still one.”
Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff thanked the Jersey rocker in a Bon Jovi-quoting post on X, writing, “It’s my wife, and it’s now or never. Election’s coming in November. Thanks for supporting Kamala, @JonBonJovi!” alongside a pic of him posing with the band’s singer.
Bon Jovi has long been a supporter of the Democratic party, lining up behind President Joe Biden at the current commander in chief’s 2021 inauguration day “Celebrating America” concert, where he performed an acoustic take on the Beatles’ “Here Comes the Sun,” as well as a pre-election “I Will Vote” concert that also featured Jennifer Hudson, Ciara, Ne-Yo, Sara Bareilles, A$AP Ferg, P!nk, John Legend and others.
After replacing Biden following the President’s surprise decision to drop out of the race in July following a disastrous debate performance against three-time candidate former President Donald Trump, Harris has racked up a bumper crop of A-list endorsements. Among the chart-topping musicians lining up behind the Vice President and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz are: P!nk, Billie Eilish, Charli XCX, Beyoncé, Neil Young, Stevie Wonder, Megan Thee Stallion, Olivia Rodrigo and Taylor Swift.
Twice impeached convicted felon Trump reacted with his typical disdain when Swift helped cap August’s Democratic National Convention by posting a full-throated endorsement of Harris, announcing on his Truth Social platform, “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT.”
Check out Bon Jovi’s post and Emhoff’s response below.
Darius Rucker isn’t exactly feeling like a spring chicken after a recent onstage mishap at a Hootie & the Blowfish concert. As captured on video by a fan, the 58-year-old singer/songwriter took a tumble while performing with his band at Riverfront Revival in Charleston, South Carolina, on Saturday. In the middle of singing the opening […]
Robert’s Smith’s songwriting in The Cure has long focused squarely on melancholy and dark themes. But on the band’s long-awaited upcoming album, Songs of a Lost World (Nov. 1), he takes on a bit of real-life heartache that he said inspired him to pay tribute to his late brother. In a nearly two-hour interview with British journalist Matt Everitt — which can be unlocked by flipping to the album’s release date in Roman numerals here — Smith explains the origins of “I Can Never Say Goodbye.”
“I wrote this song a lot of different ways, until I hit on a very simple narrative of what actually happened on the night he died,” he said of the song dedicated to his late older brother, Richard, while also copping to the Cure’s songs always having an edge of the “fear of morality” in them. “It went all around the houses and I went everywhere with this song to sum up how I felt. In the end, it turned into a reasonably bleak little vignette.”
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The singer said he struggled to balance the “outpouring” of emotion he felt at the time with the need to write a coherent song, admitting that some earlier versions of the tune were “too overwrought” for general consumption. For the record, he loved them, but other people suggested they night be “too much.” In fact, when Smith, 65, performed “Goodbye” live on the Cure’s 2023 tour, he said he had trouble not going over the top and being overcome by emotion in concert.
Smith continued, “I wrote the song about it, and the music itself was what I wanted to breathe. I didn’t want the words to dominate the song, in a way that the music can become a backdrop to what you’re singing. In this, I think the music is more important than what I’m singing in a way. It’s a very difficult song to sing. People say ‘cathartic’ too much, but it was. It allowed me to deal with it, and I think it’s helped me enormously.”
Realizing he hasn’t got “that many more albums” in his future, Smith said he wanted his new songs to “mean something,” as opposed to some older Cure songs he said were not as personal. “On this album they all matter [to me],” he said of songs such as “I Can Never Say Goodbye,” which finds him singing, “Something wicked this way comes/ To steal away my brother’s life/ Something wicked this way comes/ I could never say goodbye.”
“When you’re younger, you romanticize [death], even without knowing it. Then it starts happening to your immediate family and friends and suddenly it’s a different thing. It’s something that I struggled with lyrically: how to put this into the songs? I feel like I am different person than I was when we last made an album. I wanted that to come through.”
Songs of a Lost World is the Cure’s long-awaited follow-up to 2008’s 4:13 Dream; so far the group has previewed the LP with the songs “A Fragile Thing,” as well as “Alone.”
Neil Young has made it clear he’s no fan of Donald Trump. The “Keep on Rockin’ in the Free World” guitar hero has threatened to sue twice impeached convicted felon Trump before for playing his songs at campaign rallies, and over the weekend Young made it clear that he does not want to give the former President a second chance in Washington.
“Kamala Harris — She is an honest forthright truth teller who is experienced in the White House, free from ambiguity or evasiveness, who goes straight to the point,” wrote Young on his Archives site on Friday about the sitting Vice President, who is less than a month away from possibly becoming the nation’s first female President.
“Clear headed, young enough to hold the office for a couple of bright future terms, Kamala Harris is a good person who is unafraid to take on criminals and uphold the law of the USA. She’s my candidate for the future of this country,” he continued.
Toronto-born Young, 78 — who became a naturalized American citizen in 2020 — has been very vocal about his disdain for Trump, who continues to peddle the false narrative that he won the 2020 election over President Joe Biden, while over the weekend hurling his latest insult at his opponent when he referred to former Senator and California Attorney General Harris as “retarded.”
“Kamala Harris will take on the billionaire class and make them pay their fair share of taxes,” Young concluded. “She will not owe them favors. She is a kind, considerate American. Cast your vote for a beautiful future for your family. Kamala Harris for President.”
After years of threatening to sue Trump for using his music at campaign rallies without permission, as well as penning a scathing open letter to the former reality TV star in which he referred to Trump as “a disgrace to my country,” Young’s endorsement is a double-down on his August decision to let Harris’ VP pic, Gov. Tim Walz, officially use his song “Rockin’ in the Free World” during campaign events.
Young joins a growing list of A-list stars who’ve stepped up to support Harris since she unexpectedly jumped into the race in July when President Biden agreed to not seek a second term. Among the artists proudly supporting Harris are: Beyoncé, Charli XCX, Billie Eilish, Barbra Streisand, Taylor Swift, Megan Thee Stallion, P!nk, Bon Iver, Bruce Springsteen, Olivia Rodrigo, Ariana Grande and many more.
In recent years, The Cure’s Robert Smith has been vocal about the shifting touring and ticket market. In 2023, the singer convinced Ticketmaster to give partial refunds to fans who had purchased tickets to their Songs Of A Lost World tour, hitting back at “unduly high” fees. For their U.S. run of dates, the band had kept the prices purposefully low to stay affordable, with some priced at $20, but the fees occasionally outstripped the value of the ticket.
In a new, lengthy interview, first published in the The Times, Smith has commented further on Ticketmaster’s practices and specifically their dynamic pricing model.
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“I was shocked by how much profit is made [by ticketing],” Smith said. “I thought, ‘We don’t need to make all this money.’ My fights with the label have all been about how we can price things lower. The only reason you’d charge more for a gig is if you were worried that it was the last time you would be able to sell a T-shirt.”
He continued: “But if you had the self-belief that you’re still going to be here in a year’s time, you’d want the show to be great so people come back. You don’t want to charge as much as the market will let you. If people save on the tickets, they buy beer or merch. There is goodwill, they will come back next time. It is a self-fulfilling good vibe and I don’t understand why more people don’t do it.”
“It was easy to set ticket prices, but you need to be pig-headed. We didn’t allow dynamic pricing because it’s a scam that would disappear if every artist said, ‘I don’t want that!’ But most artists hide behind management. “Oh, we didn’t know,” they say. They all know. If they say they do not, they’re either f–king stupid or lying. It’s just driven by greed.”
You can watch the full interview with Smith at The Cure’s website.
The Cure are releasing their first album in 16 years, Songs Of A Lost World, on Nov. 1 and the LP will be accompanied by a string of shows in London on release week. The band have shared two songs from the record so far, brooding opener “Alone” and “A Fragile Thing.”
Smith’s comments arrive not long after the controversial ticket sale for Oasis’ reunion tour in 2025. Dynamic pricing was used in the process for the band’s 19 stadium dates in the U.K. and Ireland, causing ticket prices to rise and fans forced to make quick decisions on prices that were higher than initially advertised.
The fallout and anger from fans prompted the U.K.’s Competition and Market Authority to investigate the use of the sale tactic. Oasis, who will be playing a run of shows next summer across the globe, distanced themselves from the dynamic pricing model and opted against using the method for their North American dates, which went on sale earlier this month.
Ticketmaster introduced the dynamic pricing scale in 2022 in a bid to help combat touts and the secondary ticket market. The company insists that bands and promoters set the ticket prices and that dynamic pricing is only used with approval by the artist’s team.
Liam Gallagher isn’t amused by Saturday Night Live‘s take on his tumultuous relationship with brother Noel.
The long-feuding Oasis siblings were portrayed by SNL cast members James Austin Johnson (Noel) and Sarah Sherman (Liam) during the “Weekend Update” segment of the long-running NBC sketch comedy show’s episode on Oct. 12.
In the sketch, “Weekend Update” host Colin Jost interviews the brothers about the North American leg of their 2025 Oasis reunion tour and whether they’ll break up before the launch.
“I’m cool if he’s cool,” Johnson’s Noel responds. “I’m cool, I’m cool, I’m cooler than you are,” Sherman’s Liam hits back. Unconvinced, Jost says, “Great. So, that’s a no.”
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The skit continues with Noel and Liam mostly bickering and answering questions with the lyrics of “Wonderwall,” while only agreeing on topics like cartoon characters, their favorite Sex in the City boyfriend, and the best Will Smith film.
Sherman’s Liam also claims their feud began at London’s Wembley Stadium in 1993 when Noel told the Spice Girls that his brother had a “crooked knob — you said me knob bended like Beckham!”
As expected, the real Liam Gallagher didn’t take too kindly to SNL‘s interpretation of his relationship with Noel. “Are they meant to be comedians,” he commented on X (formerly Twitter) early Sunday under a post linked to the skit.
Oasis announced their long-awaited reunion tour in late August. The global trek is scheduled to launch in September 2025 with multiple dates in the United Kingdom, followed by performances in North America, Europe, and Australia.
Oasis split in 2009 after years of massive chart success and tabloid headlines in the U.K. tied to the Gallagher siblings’ fierce rivalry, with main songwriter older brother Noel quitting the band after a backstage fight with Liam at a show near Paris that year. The brothers haven’t performed live since then, though they often play Oasis songs during their solo gigs and with their side bands and, until the reunion announcement, continued to snipe at each other online and in the press.
Watch SNL‘s “Weekend Update” with Oasis sketch below. For those without cable, the broadcast streams on Peacock, which you can sign up for at the link here. Having a Peacock account also gives fans access to previous SNL episodes.
Coldplay captures its fifth No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart, and first in over a decade, as Moon Music debuts atop the list (dated Oct. 19). The set launches with 120,000 equivalent album units earned, of which 106,000 are in traditional album sales. Both figures represent the biggest week, by units and album sales, for the group since 2015.
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Overall, Moon Music marks the 10th top 10-charting effort for the band. The act previously led the list with Ghost Stories (2014), Mylo Xyloto (2011), Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends (2008) and X&Y (2005).
The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new Oct. 19, 2024-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on Tuesday (Oct. 15). For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.
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Of Moon Music’s first-week units of 120,000, album sales comprise 106,000 (it’s the top-selling album of the week at No. 1 on Top Album Sales), SEA units comprise 13,000 (equaling 16.71 million on-demand official streams of the set’s songs) and TEA units comprise 1,000. The group last garnered a larger week, in either overall units or album sales, with the debut frame of 2015’s A Head Full of Dreams, which bowed with 210,000 units, of which 195,000 were in traditional album sales.
The new album’s opening-week sales were bolstered by its availability across at least eight vinyl variants (including two signed editions, and a Target edition with three bonus tracks) and in six CD variants (including a signed edition, and a “notebook edition” in collectible packaging with bonus voice notes) — all of which were manufactured with eco-friendly initiatives. The set was also available in at least four digital download variants. Of the digital editions, there were two versions that each included 10 bonus tracks each. Coldplay’s official webstore offered the download editions at a discount during release week.
The album’s vinyl sales total 29,000 for the week — Coldplay’s best sales week on vinyl ever.
The new album was preceded by the single “feelslikeimfallinginlove,” which reached No. 81 on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 chart in July. It also reached the top 10 on Alternative Airplay and Adult Pop Airplay, the act’s 15th and 12th top 10 on those tallies, respectively.
The new album’s Oct. 4 release was ushered in with a flurry of media looks, including appearances and/or performances by the band or its frontman Chris Martin on CBS’ Sunday Morning (Sept. 29), QVC (Oct. 2), NBC’s The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon (Oct. 3), NBC’s Saturday Night Live (Oct. 5) and NBC’s Today (Oct. 8).
Notably, among British groups, Coldplay ties for the fourth-most No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200. Leading the pack are The Beatles, with 19 leaders. The Rolling Stones are second, with nine, while Led Zeppelin is third, with seven No. 1s. Coldplay, Pink Floyd and Wings (counting albums billed to either Wings, or Paul McCartney and Wings) are tied with five No. 1s each.
Sabrina Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet falls a spot to No. 2 (with 93,000 equivalent album units; down 8%) after four nonconsecutive weeks atop the list. It’s No. 1 on the Top Streaming Albums chart for a sixth nonconsecutive week. Chappell Roan’s The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess dips 2-3 on the Billboard 200 (56,000; down 12%), Morgan Wallen’s chart-topping One Thing at a Time is a non-mover at No. 4 (50,000; down less than 1%), and Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft is stationary at No. 5 (50,000; up 1%).
Three former leaders are up next, with Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department rising one spot to No. 6 (45,000 equivalent album units; up 1%), Post Malone’s F-1 Trillion dips 6-7 (43,000; down 8%) and Future’s Mixtape Pluto falls 3-8 (40,000; down 28%).
Rounding out the top 10 are Noah Kahan’s Stick Season, descending 8-9 (37,000 equivalent album units; down 2%), and Wallen’s former No. 1 Dangerous: The Double Album, holding steady at No. 10 (32,000; down 2%).
Luminate, the independent data provider to the Billboard charts, completes a thorough review of all data submissions used in compiling the weekly chart rankings. Luminate reviews and authenticates data. In partnership with Billboard, data deemed suspicious or unverifiable is removed, using established criteria, before final chart calculations are made and published.
Stevie Nicks has made her triumphant return to Saturday Night Live. The iconic Fleetwood Mac frontwoman performed on the long-running NBC sketch comedy show for the first time in 41 years during the Ariana Grande-hosted episode on Oct. 12. Dressed in her usual all-black ensemble, the 76-year-old singer-songwriter opened with a powerful performance of her […]