Rock
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If it’s not already cold enough for you out there, Olivia Rodrigo served up some serious pop chills on Monday night (Dec. 11) during a performance of her soundtrack song for The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, “Can’t Catch Me Now.” Fresh off a cake-smashing Saturday Night Live performance and a trip […]
In a September interview with The New York Times, Rolling Stone founder Jann Wenner was asked why The Masters: Conversations With Dylan, Lennon, Jagger, Townshend, Garcia, Bono, and Springsteen, his book interviewing rock icons, didn’t include the perspectives of women or people of color. The media mogul responded bluntly: “None of them were as articulate enough on this intellectual level.” Condemnation came swiftly, even from the publication that Wenner had founded. Critics pointed to his comments as yet another example of the strident gatekeeping that has held rock music back, making it harder for anyone but straight white men to succeed.
Yet one of the biggest rock albums of 2023 has served as an antithesis to Wenner’s claim, as the indie-rock supergroup boygenius dominated the space this year. Formed by Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus, the trio’s cult-favorite 2018 self-titled EP made an impact on the artists’ respective fans, leading to bigger gains for their subsequent solo albums and building even more anticipation for their long-awaited reunion this year.
Aptly titled The Record, the band’s first full-length debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 and scored top spots on the Top Rock Albums and Adult Alternative Airplay charts. A sold-out arena tour, prominent Coachella slot, Saturday Night Live performance and six Grammy nominations followed. As Bridgers told Billboard earlier this year, “Sh-t keeps happening to us where you are then confronted with each other or other people being like, ‘How sick is that?!’ ”
The band’s big year stands in stark contrast to its introduction: While its debut EP earned rave reviews and a fervent fandom, the project never broke onto the Billboard 200 and peaked at No. 24 on the Top Alternative Albums chart. Yet for Jeff Regan, senior director of music programming at SiriusXM and host of Alt Nation’s Advanced Placement, The Record was always destined to dominate the rock scene. “When you hear that this amazing [group] is getting ready to present new music, your ears perk up immediately,” he says. “With boygenius, you have three authentic artists who are bringing not just three fan bases together, but three distinct styles and bodies of work together.”
Regan is quick to point out that the band’s achievements in 2023 cannot simply be qualified as three previously successful artists uniting their fans. While Bridgers’ profile has exponentially grown since the group formed in 2018 — her 2020 album, Punisher, helped her earn a best new artist Grammy nomination and even secured her an opening slot on Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour — Regan says it’s the quality of boygenius’ output, and its fans’ appreciation for it, that made The Record such a standout hit. “A lot of the boygenius fans understand that we had to carve out the time for this,” Dacus told Billboard earlier this year. “People know this is a rarity and that there’s no guarantee that it’ll continue. Like, we will continue to be boygenius and be friends, but we also will get back to our own things.”
Focal single “Not Strong Enough” ruled the Adult Alternative Airplay chart for seven weeks. The song has since earned a Grammy nomination for record of the year — boygenius is the only band, and only rock artist, in the running this year.
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Regan credits its success to the band’s eagerness to be vulnerable with its audience; throughout The Record, the three members of boygenius share a holistic view of their internal life, processing every emotion from grief to anger to joy.
“We all love a catchy song that grabs your ear and rattles around in there for a while, and those things come and go and that’s great,” Regan says. “With boygenius, there is this connection point with their fans and just a genuine approach to the music itself. They’re not doing this because they need to. They’re doing this because they found something in each other — and that is a very healthy thing for music.”
Boygenius is directly playing to a historically underserved market in the music business: the LGBTQ+ community. As Billboard reported in a 2022 study with Luminate, LGBTQ+ audiences regularly outspend their straight-identifying counterparts on music, including merchandise, live shows and especially physical sales. Of The Record’s first-week sales, a whopping 67% were vinyl purchases, helping score the group a No. 1 debut on Billboard’s Vinyl Albums chart. Beyond boygenius, Demi Lovato’s Revamped (which reimagined her biggest hits as rock epics) made a top 10 entry on the Top Rock Albums and Top Alternative Albums charts, while queer-fronted rock group Greta Van Fleet notched its third No. 1 on Top Rock Albums with Starcatcher.
As Regan says, it’s about time that queer artists and queer fans begin taking up space in the genre. “I mean, shame on us, the alternative rock space, for taking so long to come around,” he says. “We’re supposed to be the ones on the cutting edge — we’re supposed to be the ones taking the sounds, the culture that historically would be on the fringe and bring them into the middle of the dancefloor. It sucks that it took all this time to do it, but when it’s done by artists like this, they get to hold up a mirror to the audience and say, ‘It’s safe. You can be yourself with us because we’re being ourselves with you.’ ”
Despite what self-proclaimed sentinels like Wenner might say, boygenius spent 2023 definitively showing that women and queer artists can be just as “articulate” and “intellectual” as any other straight, white, male master of rock music — and in this case, they can open the door for even more articulate, intellectual rock stars to come.
This story originally appeared in the Dec. 9, 2023, issue of Billboard.
Noah Kahan has had a nonstop year — and as a result, the artist has enjoyed a never-ending string of successes. Below, we chart the milestones that propelled the singer-songwriter through a breakout 2023.
Jan. 6: Kahan’s Stick Season summer tour sells out.
March 31: Kahan begins an 11-night opening run on the U.K. dates of Dermot Kennedy’s Sonder tour.
May 25: Kahan announces The Busyhead Project, which supports and funds mental health organizations that provide care to underserved communities.
June 9: Kahan releases Stick Season (We’ll All be Here Forever), the deluxe edition of his 2022 third album.
June 24: Stick Season hits a new peak of No. 3 on the Billboard 200 (after debuting at No. 14); Kahan makes his Billboard Hot 100 debut with “Dial Drunk,” which enters the list at No. 43.
July 8: Kahan teams with Ranger Station on a Stick Season candle.
July 17: Kahan releases the “Dial Drunk” remix featuring Post Malone, which they later live debut during one of Post’s tour stops.
Sept. 9: Kahan earns his first No. 1 on a Billboard airplay chart as “Dial Drunk” climbs to the top of Adult Alternative Airplay.
Sept. 13: Kahan hits 1 million followers on Instagram.
Sept. 15: Kahan releases a new version of “Call Your Mom” featuring Lizzy McAlpine.
Sept. 20: Kahan announces his We’ll All be Here Forever World Tour, including stops at the Hollywood Bowl, Madison Square Garden and Fenway Park.
Sept. 22: Kahan features on Zach Bryan’s Boys of Faith EP, guesting on the track “Sarah’s Place.”
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Oct. 2: Olivia Rodrigo covers Kahan’s hit “Stick Season” on BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge.
Oct. 6: Kahan teams with Kacey Musgraves for a new duet rendition of “She Calls Me Back.”
Oct. 10: The Busyhead Project announces it has raised $1.9 million for mental health services.
Nov. 10: Kahan earns his first Grammy nomination, for best new artist; a “Northern Attitude” remix with Hozier arrives.
Dec. 1: Kahan and Gracie Abrams team up for a new version of the former’s “Everywhere, Everything.”
Dec. 2: Kahan makes his musical guest debut on Saturday Night Live.
This story originally appeared in the Dec. 9, 2023, issue of Billboard.
Ed Sheeran can’t get enough of The Darkness. The British glam rockers hosted a surprise pop-in from the “Eyes Closed” singer on Saturday (Dec. 9) during their set at London’s Roundhouse, where Sheeran played an unannounced six-song warm-up set, which, (according to setlist.fm) featuring Sheeran playing such hits as “Shivers,” “Thinking Out Loud,” “Bad Habits” […]
Last week, Billboard revealed its year-end Boxscore charts, ranking the top tours, venues, and promoters of 2023. That coverage included analysis of the new wave of genre diverse artists crashing stadium stages, and in turn, our charts. This week, we are breaking down the year’s biggest tours, genre by genre. Today, we continue with rock. […]
The lineup for the Hollywood portion of the 2024 Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest was revealed on Thursday night (Dec. 7), and it is jam-packed with pop, hip-hop, R&B and rock stars. The list includes Green Day, Janelle Monae, Ludacris and Reneé Rapp, as well as “Barbie” band Aqua, Bebe Rexha, […]
For years, Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan sketched out his funeral plans to his friend, Philip “Philly” Ryan of Nenagh, County Tipperary, Ireland. “He kept it simple. He wanted it the same as his mother’s,” says Ryan, owner of the 152-year-old family business JJ Ryan Undertaker in Nenagh, where MacGowan’s late mother, Therese, grew up. “A private few prayers and a rosary. A public mass and a private cremation.”
The beloved singer-songwriter, who pioneered a punk approach to Irish music anddied last Thursday at 65, perhaps didn’t anticipate the crowds — Ryan predicts 5,000 to 10,000 mourners for MacGowan’s funeral mass Friday afternoon at St. Mary of the Rosary Church in Nenagh, population 8,000, after a procession with a horse-drawn carriage near MacGowan’s home in the Dublin area. After the mass, a second funeral procession will travel through Nenagh. “The whole town will stop for a few hours while it’s happening,” says Michael O’Connor, the town and county’s director of roads, transportation, active travel, health and safety, adding that Nenagh will add 1,500 local parking spaces for the occasion. “We’ll have his more famous songs played on the public-address system. We’re delighted that he’s coming home.”
“It’s a big effort down here,” Ryan says by phone from Phil Ryan’s Pub, across the street from the undertaker, where he reminisced about his friend’s Nenagh presence and discussed how the town is preparing for the influx of mourners and fans.
What have the logistics been like for the funeral mass?
The local council, the police, they’re all working together on it. It should pack up nicely. We’re going to bring it up to the Barracks Street end of Nenagh, turning up Pearse Street and onto Church Road. It’s kind of the long way around, so less people to line the routes. Nenagh’s a big enough church for a huge crowd. We’re going to put some amplification outside for the overflow so they can all hear the mass. We’re all going to do our best.
What’s the most attendance you’ve had at a funeral in Nenagh?
Funerals down here are big. Two thousand, regularly. Anything of that size, no. It’s massive.
Have you had to hire more employees for the occasion?
Absolutely. We have security, extra staff on the hearse and my funeral home. I don’t foresee any problems, because, whatever we do, we do funerals very well. It’s a great tradition and we want to give him a good send-off.
Shane MacGowan, vocals, performs with the Pogues on December 4, 1990 at Vredenburg in Utrecht, the Netherlands.
Frans Schellekens/Redferns
What was your friendship like with MacGowan?
Shane didn’t have that many friends, but I was lucky enough to be one of his close circle. I own the pub as well. The funeral parlor is across from the pub. That was his favorite pub in the country. He was a shy guy behind it all and he loved to come in and just while the time away with the locals. Some stories and laughing. He’d never get up and sing and take over the place. He would never do that.
When was the last time you saw him?
Two weeks ago tomorrow. He was released from the hospital on a Tuesday. A lot of fanfare to him was going home for Christmas. Myself and Brendan Fitzpatrick, his driver for 20 years, went to see him in his apartment. You know what, we knew he was in big trouble. The poor man. We spent a couple of hours with him and we left. I normally go up to him on a Wednesday — I just was a little busy last Wednesday and didn’t make it up. I probably would have gone up on Thursday, but he died on Thursday.
His behavior at Pogues concerts suggested he was a big, boisterous personality. Was that true in your friendship?
No. No. He was anything but boisterous. That was a persona onstage, with that roar of his. Shane was a very, very quiet and gentle person and very kind. Very conscientious. Look, I suppose we all have our moments when we’re on a bender, but I can tell you he was a gentleman.
Did he discuss what he wanted for his service with you before his passing?
Yeah, he did. Black Sabbath played in Dublin in 2017. That night, we went to a party in Dublin. He was in great form. Same night, he called me and told me what he wanted. We met Nick Cave another night. All night, he was telling Nick, “This is Philly. This is me undertaker!” He was saying, “Shane, I know. You said it already.” It was a running joke.
I imagine the pub will do well this weekend.
Oh, jeez, it’s humming all week. We’re going to convert the lounge into the Shane MacGowan Lounge. We’re going to do something memorable for him.
On Dec. 9, 2003, Hoobastank followed up their breakthrough self-titled debut with what would end up becoming the biggest album of their careers. The Reason peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 chart, and when its title track was chosen as its second single, the yearning alt-rock sing-along became a smash hit, reaching No. 2 on the Hot 100 and scoring Hoobastank a pair of Grammy noms.
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Next week, the veteran band will celebrate the 20th anniversary of The Reason by performing the album in its entirely during an intimate show at The Echo in Los Angeles on Monday (Dec. 11). The album is also receiving a special edition vinyl reason, with new album artwork and a previously unreleased cover of Rod Stewart’s “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy?” included.
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Prior to the band celebrating the milestone, Hoobastank guitarist Dan Estrin answered 20 questions about his upbringing, The Reason turning 20, and the band’s plans for next year.
What’s the first piece of music that you bought for yourself, and what was the medium?
Guns N’ Roses, Appetite for Destruction. On vinyl. With the original album artwork. Yes I still have it!
What was the first concert you saw?
Lollapalooza, 1992. Irvine Meadows. Irvine CA.
What did your parents do for a living when you were a kid?
My dad had his own business supplying/selling clothing to stores, and my mom worked at a film company.
Who made you realize you could be an artist full-time?
I don’t remember it being someone specific. I just blindly went for it. And I think I came to the realization on my own. My parents were always extremely supportive though.
What’s at the top of your professional bucket list?
We have played so many amazing venues in our career. But we’ve never played Madison Square Garden. One of these days! We’ve also never won a Grammy. Nominated for three. But lost.
How did your hometown/city shape who you are?
These are the things that were always around us. The stuff that we grew up doing, things we were exposed to, which had to have shaped who we are. Skateboarding, riding BMX, snowboarding, motocross, going to the beach, swimming, hiking, baseball, basketball, listening to and playing music. Going to local shows. Hanging with family.
What’s the last song you listened to?
Fleetwood Mac, “The Chain.”
If you could see any artist in concert, dead or alive, who would it be?
The Beatles, Elvis, Michael Jackson, Nirvana, Pink Floyd.
9. What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen happen in the crowd of one of your sets?
Recently, we were outside onstage looking out at a sea of people. And way out in the distance was the most amazing lightning storm I have ever seen. That… Or a dude, crowd-swimming in his wheelchair. That was pretty awesome!
How has your creative process changed over the years?
It honestly hasn’t changed too much. I still pick up my guitar or bass and randomly put my fingers somewhere. Sometimes I play something that inspires me, and other times I don’t. If I play something I like or I find interesting I quickly record it on my phone leaving myself a note. Then I’ll go work on it at some point later in my studio. What has drastically changed is the technology. I just have so much more access to so many tools that allow me to be creative.
11. The Reason is about to celebrate its 20th anniversary. How do you look back on that moment for that band today?
That was by far the most exciting, fulfilling time of my life. I look back and have the fondest and best memories. Creating music with my friends for a living has been an absolute dream come true.
Hoobastank’s self-titled album achieved plenty of success two years before The Reason. What did the band set out to accomplish with its follow-up?
I think we were just riding high at the moment. Everybody in the band felt great after the success of our debut self-titled album. I personally felt extremely confident at that time. Very focused, driven and obsessed with creating and writing songs. We never got together as a band to discuss what we wanted to accomplish with its follow-up. We didn’t really have to. It was somewhat unspoken and obvious where our heads were at.
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“Out of Control,” not “The Reason,” was the album’s lead single. Why was that the right decision for you guys?
As long as we have been a band, we have always written and played different styles of songs, whether the song was heavy rock or a slower ballad. But the majority of our songs leaned towards being rock or heavy rock. So we always wanted to lead with a song that we felt represented us best. “Out of Control” was that song for us. We knew we were going to get to “The Reason” at some point, but we were very adamant about leading with a rock song.
“The Reason” reached No. 2 on the Hot 100. How surprised were you that the song became one of your defining hits?
I think we were surprised at how massive it became, and still is. But we also knew the record company loved the song and was going to do everything they could to get it out there.
“The Reason” is a perennial karaoke and cover-song favorite. Do you have a favorite version of the song that’s not your own?
Every single day, we get tagged in videos of people covering it. It’s pretty amazing. All different styles, from funk versions to Steve Aoki doing a remix at Tomorrowland. We’ve seen a country version, a group of dads that sing and harmonize together, punk rock versions, heavy metal versions, people playing it on drums, guitar, bass and piano. Different vocal performances and Latin versions. And so on. It’s insane! My favorite karaoke videos are when it gets to the bridge where the lyrics belt out “and the reason is youuuu.“ Watching and hearing the entire bar sing It together is always awesome!
What’s one thing your most devoted fans don’t know about Hoobastank?
I honestly have no idea what our fans don’t know. If they are hardcore devoted fans, then they probably know everything. We are pretty transparent. So if they don’t know something, chances are it’s intentional and this is the last place I would say it!
What’s your karaoke go-to?
I don’t karaoke. I actually never have. I go up onstage and play music with my best friends! No disrespect to all you karaoker’s. I’ve seen some pretty badass performances. I just need my guitar as my security blanket.
What movie, or song, always makes you cry?
“Dust In The Wind” by Kansas. There is so much emotion in the melodies, music and lyrics. the middle section violin solo gets me every time. The George Michael cover of “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” with Elton John is another one.
What’s one piece of advice you would give to your younger self?
Chill the f*ck out! Sometimes I wonder what’s the one piece of advice my younger self could give/remind my current older self.
What can Hoobastank fans look forward to in 2024 and beyond?
Hopefully some new music. We have been sending ideas back and forth to each other. Getting together to try working new song ideas out. We will also be out on the road off and on all year, celebrating The Reason 20-year anniversary.
Iron Maiden‘s first show scheduled in Bogota, Colombia, in 13 years drove fans to snatch up 42,000 tickets in 21 minutes to sell out El Campín Stadium 11 months before the Nov. 24, 2024, date. It is the first show in Colombia to sell out so far in advance, according to promoter Move Concerts.
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“We all expected strong sales given the long wait since they last performed here, which was on March 20, 2011, but never in our wildest dreams did we think it would blow out in 21 minutes and smash sales records,” Alfredo Villaveces, Managing Director of Move Concerts Colombia, said in a press release. “And if we factor in the fact we went up so far ahead of the show date – something no other artist had done here – it is truly amazing.”
According to the press release, the time span clocked for tickets sold broke the sales velocity records of all previous international acts who have performed in the past in Colombia, including The Rolling Stones, Coldplay, Madonna, Ed Sheeran and The Weeknd.
But compared to all performing artists, including Latin American, Iron Maiden’s sellout pace was exceeded by Colombian superstar Karol G, who recently performed two sellout stadium shows in her hometown of Medellín as part of her Mañana Será Bonito Tour.
Formed in Leyton, East London, in 1975, the English heavy metal band is known for classics such as “The Trooper,” “Hallowed Be Thy Name” and “The Number of the Beast.” On the Billboard charts, the band has had four top 10 albums on the Billboard 200.
Iron Maiden’s 2024 Future Past World Tour will also include two shows in Chile, at the 60,000-seat Estadio Nacional in Santiago, on Nov. 27 and 28, 2024. Tickets for those dates are on sale now and, according to Move Concerts, more than 95,000 have been sold so far.
Find more info on the tour below:
The Red Hot Chili Peppers got a lump of coal in their stocking this week. The band announced on Tuesday (Dec. 5) that they’ve been forced to drop off the lineup for the 2023 KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas show due to a medical issue. “It is with deep regret that we will not be able […]