Music

Anyone who feels the Grammy Awards can be stodgy today might want to consider how far the show has come since the 1990s. Not only was it an utterly abysmal time for fashion — The hair! The shoulder pads! The big, stiff suits! — but the music industry was riding the CD boom, which took profits

During a press interview for Brian May’s reissue of the 1998 album “Another World” on the “Debatable” SiriusXM program, the Queen guitarist shared his thoughts and remembrances of late Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins. The 50-year-old drummer unexpectedly died on March 25 in Bogotá, Colombia where the Foo Fighters were scheduled to perform. Rock fans

The Queens from “RuPaul’s Drag Race” will kick off Grammys Sunday with a fashion show recreating iconic looks from the awards show’s past. CBS and the Recording Academy have partnered with TikTok for two livestream events on music’s biggest night. The 30-minute runway starts at 11 a.m. PT this Sunday on TikTok. Season 12 winner

Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith has shared a tribute video to Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins, who died on March 25 at the age of 50. The video is a compilation of Smith and Hawkins’ most memorable moments together captured on camera, including many clips from touring. Foo Fighters first opened for the

Olivia Rodrigo would appear to be close to a shoo-in for several Grammys, but when it comes to what’s generally considered the most prestigious prize, album of the year, there’s a serious competitor packing heat, and he’s old enough to be her grandfather’s grandfather. Rodrigo has a decent shot at winning the Grammys’ quadruple crown,

If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission. No one will be leaving this year’s Grammy Awards empty-handed. Before the biggest names in the music industry take their seats at the MGM Grand Garden Arena this Sunday, they’ll make their way through

Nathan Kim is a rising star: a dancer, choreographer and actor. He was featured in the dance troupe in the showstopping “Euphoria” routine at the end of Lexi’s school play, and is working alongside Charli XCX on her upcoming tour. His moves have gone viral, but Kim isn’t even on TikTok — he doesn’t have

The best in music are all headed to Sin City where the anticipation is higher than ever for the 64th Grammy Awards in Las Vegas’ MGM Grand Garden Arena. With a lineup that includes Olivia Rodrigo, Lady Gaga, BTS, Billie Eilish, Silk Sonic, Brandi Carlile, Lil Nas X with Jack Harlow, Jon Batiste, John Legend,

Country star Eric Church, who’s taken a social media battering for canceling a sold-out concert to attend an NCAA tournament game, is looking to make it up to Texas fans who were unhappy about being spurned for a ballgame. Church sent a message to ticketholders — or former ticketholders — for the show that was

When Anthony Kiedis told Variety about the unspoken, unwritten law of Red Hot Chili Peppers, one “where anything goes, anything is welcome,” the vocalist could’ve been talking up the gloriously manic mess of “Unlimited Love” (the “anything goes” bit), and the return of guitarist-composer John Frusciante (the “anything welcome” part) to the RHCP fold. What

As we head into Grammy weekend, Harvey Mason Jr, the CEO of the Recording Academy, deserves to be commended for restructuring the organization to credit and support songwriters like never before. Among the positive changes under his watch: establishing a songwriter wing and including writer credits on albums. Seeing as Harvey is a publisher and

Emmy-award winning composer Geoff Zanelli is slated to compose the music for “The First Lady,” premiering on Showtime. The new hour-long anthology drama follows the lives of three of America’s First Ladies and stars Viola Davis as Michelle Obama, Michelle Pfeiffer as Betty Ford and Gillian Anderson as Eleanor Roosevelt. Zanelli served as composer of

Lady Gaga has joined the lineup for this year’s Grammy Awards, taking place Sunday night in Las Vegas, the Recording Academy and CBS announced this morning. The 12-time Grammy-winner is up for another five awards this year, including two of the top categories, Record of the Year and Album of the Year, for her duets

Each of the four albums that soulful contralto vocalist, composer and producer Jazmine Sullivan has crafted since 2008’s “Fearless” has been a work of emotionally frank and revelatory lyrics. All  also have received Grammy nominations. Her latest, 2021’s “Heaux Tales,” finds the Philadelphia native pushing herself vocally and stretching her storytelling into more arduous terrain,

Harry Styles has used his solo career to lean into the music of bygone decades before, with his first two albums heavily drenched in the rock singer-songwriter stylings of the ’70s. His new single, too, has a flair for music as it was — but it’s far from a rerun of those previous albums. “As

When the Nashville chapter of the Recording Academy held its annual pre-Grammys celebration for Tennessee-based nominees in early March, one of those contenders, Yola, filed a report from the party on Instagram. “The vibes were strong,” she wrote, “and so was the melanin!” Looking at the nominations in the country, folk and American roots categories,

Music fans were out in force on Hollywood Boulevard this morning for the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Hollywood Walk of Fame star dedication ceremony. With a soundtrack provided by the USC marching band, and in front of hundreds of cheering spectators, Anthony Kiedis, Flea, Chad Smith and John Fruiscante made the most of the photo

Bertelsmann has announced its annual results, including details of its music division’s financial performance in 2021. BMG’s figures show its strongest performance yet, based on its investment in acquiring music catalogues and the performance of its recordings business, where vinyl sales more than doubled. Major catalogs acquired by the company in 2021 include Tina Turner,

Throwback songs, evoking a certain musical style or era, have been a hallmark of pop music for as long as there’s been pop music to throw back to. It’s a very specific art form: It must be a great song as well as a nostalgia trip for those who remember, and a vicarious saunter through

On the day before Thanksgiving 2021, Variety interviewed Michelle Zauner about her close friend Sasami and her new album “Squeeze” for our “Up Next” series — and since Zauner had just received two Grammy nominations two days before, we asked her about those as well, along with the success of her moving memoir about the

There’s only one thing rarer than a March heatwave in the U.K. – and that’s a British alternative group topping the U.S. charts. So Glass Animals’ slow-burn ascent to the Billboard Hot 100 summit with “Heat Waves” represents a highly unusual double whammy. The song took a record 59 weeks to hit the top and,

The Copyright Royalty agreed to unfreeze the 9.1 cent mechanical royalty rate it pays to songwriters and publishers on Tuesday, setting the stage for the next battle over the rate in the 2023-2027 period. The rate, which is set every five years, is traditionally a hard-fought and contentious battle between music publishers and streaming services

On the last day of Women’s History Month, results of a new research report reveal from the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative concludes that, for women in music, “the last decade has been one of insignificant change in the recording studio.” The study, titled “Inclusion in the Recording Studio?” is the fifth annual report on the

With the Go-Go’s now finally inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last year — about 15 years after it should have happened — are there any other major injustices in the world left to correct? Headlines say yes, actually, but still, it was easy to focus on tiny moral conquests that have

SPOILER ALERT: Do not read ahead if you have not watched Season 7, Episode 4, of “The Masked Singer,” “Masking For It — The Good, the Bad and the Cuddly — Round 2,” which aired March 30 on Fox. It was a brief, but eventful, tenure on “The Masked Singer” for supermodel Christie Brinkley, who

Roy Lenzo went from sleeping on a recording studio couch to co-producing Lil Nas X’s chart-topping “Montero (Call Me by Your Name)” in two years. The next chapter in this modern-day fairytale will be written on April 3 at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards. Lenzo is in the running for song of the year and

Def Jam Record­ings celebrated Women’s History Month — in partnership with LUCID Motors — with a special event recognizing its own female staff. Held March 28 in Beverly Hills, “The Women of Def Jam” brought out the iconic label’s executive team, staff and VIP guests as well as artists like Kendra Jae, DaniLeigh, Pap Chanel,

When the Grammy nominations were announced in November, the man who surprised everyone with the biggest stack — 11 — was Jon Batiste, known to TV audiences as Stephen Colbert’s musical director, and nominated this year for his wide-ranging album, “We Are,” and the soundtrack from Disney-Pixar’s “Soul.” His work in multiple genres makes him

The Prince Estate has and Sony Music have announced a deluxe release of “Prince and The Revolution: Live,” the legendary 1985 concert toward the end of the 100-date “Purple Rain” concert tour which was originally broadcast via satellite from the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, New York on March 30, 1985. The film was first released

John Swenson, a veteran of rock journalism’s early years at Rolling Stone and Crawdaddy and later a chronicler of jazz, died Monday at 71 at his home in Brooklyn. He was reported to have been battling cancer for several years. Swenson started writing about music in 1967 and became one of the most familiar bylines