Music

BTS delivered a heartfelt video speech at Variety‘s Hitmakers event on Saturday, after being awarded record of the year for “Butter.” While accepting the honor, RM reflected on what the success of the hit song means to them, and described what it was like to perform their first shows since 2019 this past week. “We’d

Back in 2013, Austin Rosen wanted to give creators a base from which to build a career, so he started his own management company. That business has proven to be wildly successful for Electric Feel Entertainment, where Rosen’s stable of hitmakers has contributed to an aggregate 215 billion audio streams. Among them: Louis Bell, Blake

When Polo G began planning the rollout of what would become his breakout single, “Rapstar,” the song didn’t even exist — at least not in its current form. Instead, both the creation and promotion of the song evolved in a masterfully drawn­out tease cam­paign, engaging fans over the course of nearly an entire year. Upon

“I wanted to make Pop Smoke a superstar,” record executive and artist manager Steven Victor says wistfully. He succeeded — the young rapper has two songs on Variety’s Hitmakers 2021 list, “What You Know Bout Love” and “For the Night” — but tragically Pop Smoke, born Bashar Jackson, was fatally shot in a rented home

For a band from England, Glass Animals, Variety’s Group of the Year, has spent so much time touring the United States, it may as well be American. “I feel comfortable here, and I get to eat all the food I grew up with, like Hot Pockets,” says Dave Bayley, the quartet’s ringleader and songwriter-­producer, on

What does the future hold for the Film Musicians Secondary Markets Fund? Like so many aspects of a rapidly changing media business, that’s hard to predict. When union musicians struck the networks and studios in 1980, the hope was to gain residual payments for reruns of network TV series, something that had been overlooked in

The Film Musicians Secondary Markets Fund every year pays thousands of musicians for their movie and TV work when it appears on cable, free TV, streaming services or home video. But not every musician is aware of this benefit when they begin their recording career, and many who have left the business are still owed

City Girls’ hustle is strong. The hip-hop duo — composed of JT and Yung Miami — have been friends since middle school and were forced to grow up fast due to their circumstances. But even back then, they realized the future is female. Sadly, City Girls’ story is not atypical. Both grew up in tough

The Film Musicians Secondary Markets Fund, which collects and distributes residuals to union musicians who play on films and TV shows, will mark its 50th anniversary in 2022. It’s become a financial lifeline for many musicians, from helping them to achieve financial security to being a primary income source during their retirement years. Every July

Variety‘s annual Hitmakers event, presented by Peacock and comedy series “Girls5eva,” takes place Dec. 2, returning to an in-person red carpet and invite-only brunch after last year’s virtual event. A red carpet pre-show hosted by Variety‘s Marc Malkin, Angelique Jackson, Elizabeth Wagmeister and Clayton Davis begins at 11:30 a.m. PT, with the awards ceremony following

The Astroworld tragedy resulted in 10 deaths and hundreds of injuries, and has spawned some 275 lawsuits alleging negligence and misconduct on the part of the concert promoters, the venue and headliner Travis Scott. Attorneys on both sides of the sprawling litigation have filed a motion to consolidate those cases before a single judge for

For the three central members of Genesis, all 70 years of age and older, to title their latest concert showcase “The Last Domino? Tour” — with lead vocalist Phil Collins nestled into a chair — shows that the prog-pop ensemble has a black comic streak up its sleeves. But the tour is no joke. To

When R&B-pop wunderkind Khalid tweeted in October that his next work “was no longer an EP, it’s way more special to me,” the heartfelt 23-year-old vocalist-songwriter set a high for what would become his first “tape” – don’t call it a mixtape!  –  “Scenic View.” Dropped Friday morning, “Scenic View” is a pulsating, minor marvel

Since his career as a hitmaker first took off with Kelly Clarkson’s 2004 smash “Since U Been Gone,” Lukasz Gottwald — a.k.a. Dr. Luke, Tyler Trax and others — has reigned as one of the world’s top hitmakers via songs with Miley Cyrus’ “Wrecking Ball,” Katy Perry’s “California Gurls,” Britney Spears’ “Hold It Against Me,” Pink’s “U + Ur

As 2021 draws to a close, to say the hits keep on coming for Columbia Records would be an understatement. At press time, Variety’s Hitmakers Label of the Year, led by chairman and CEO Ron Perry (pictured at left) and executive VP-general manager Jenifer Mallory (right), had the top three songs on Mediabase’s Top 40

There were several hurdles Peter Jackson’s “Get Back” had to mount before the eight-hour documentary could premiere on Disney Plus, including persuading the surviving members of the Beatles to OK this pursuit, and sifting through 150 hours of audio and 60 hours of vintage footage and then restoring that delicate footage into crystal-clear quality. The

Mike Dean is fielding texts from Madonna, promoting his latest solo album, “4:22,” nursing a joint and trying to answer interview questions. But there’s beauty in the chaos. Variety’s Hitmakers Producer of the Year does it so effortlessly — like a modern-day maestro conducting his own symphony — as he tries to remember the news

Jay Jay Phillips, a heavy metal musician who appeared on the reality competition show “America’s Got Talent,” has died, his band announced. He was 30. Phillips’ band, Mettal Maffia, made the announcement on Tuesday that the keyboard player had died. TMZ reported on Friday that Phillips died after a battle with COVID-19 over Thanksgiving and

Carter Burwell has scored 19 of the movies of Joel and Ethan Coen, including such classics as “Fargo,” “The Big Lebowski” and “No Country for Old Men,” yet he’s never been nominated for a major industry award for any of that music. That could change this year with his dark and disturbing sounds for Joel

Broadly speaking, record-label bosses tend to have similar backgrounds, rising through A&R, promotion or management ranks, usually hitting a massive success that lands them the big job. And while Max Lousada, Warner Music Group’s head of recorded music, has followed some of that model, his background is unusual by any stretch, and is reflected not

Probably never before in history did as much time transpire between the release of a film’s theme song and the actual release of the movie as in the case of “No Time to Die.” Billie Eilish’s title song, written with her producer and brother, Finneas, came out 20 months before the James Bond film it

Ariana Grande is aiming for the Oscars with her best original song contender, “Just Look Up,” and she’s bringing Kid Cudi with her. The song features in Adam McKay’s new comedy satire, “Don’t Look Up,” (in theaters Dec. 10) about a giant comet headed for earth. Leonardo DiCaprio (“The Wolf of Wall Street”), Jennifer Lawrence

Bola Sete was an astonishing Brazilian guitarist whose music tread the line between jazz (he played with Dizzy Gillespie and Vince Guaraldi) and bossa nova. While his name isn’t as familiar as contemporaries like Joao Gilberto or the generation of Caetano Veloso and Jorge Ben, his instrumental music fits right alongside theirs — it’s surprising he’s

All products and services featured by Variety are independently selected by Variety editors. However, Variety may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes. It’s only been a few months since Blackpink’s Lisa embarked on a solo career with her record-smashing debut

Jerry Moss, who stood at the helm of A&M Records with Herb Alpert for nearly three decades, will be feted at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion for two nights in February, with a lineup of A&M-associated artists that includes Sting, Burt Bacharach and Alpert himself. The Feb. 11-12 shows will also include performances from one of

Singer-songwriter Linda Chorney has belatedly picked up a Grammy nod in the American roots song category, after Recording Academy president-CEO Harvey Mason Jr. personally looked into the mystery of why her name was absent from the official nominations, even though a few early news accounts had listed her as a nominee. It seemed like an

Wendy Goldstein, the newly minted co-president of Republic Records and A&R executive for the Weeknd, Ariana Grande, the Jonas Brothers and now John Legend, received some strong, backhanded inspiration when she was starting out as a 19-year-old assistant in Epic Records’ A&R department. “I was constantly told, ‘Women can’t be A&R people — what’s wrong

Kal Rudman, a legendary radio veteran and founder and publisher of the Friday Morning Quarterback (FMQB) radio-industry “tip sheet,” passed away on Wednesday, December 1 at the age of 91. Just hours after his death, Lucille, his wife of 63 years, also passed away. Upon Rudman’s death, music industry giant and longtime friend Clive Davis

What contrasts in mood the two most dominating songs of 2021 offered us: hovering and over him. With “Levitating,” Dua Lipa floated a record that really did feel lighter than air, while in “Drivers License,” Olivia Rodrigo was crying in a car, seeming anything but liberated by her new vehicular freedom. That the year should

All products and services featured by Variety are independently selected by Variety editors. However, Variety may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes. From sound engineers and screenwriters to celebrity makeup artists and stylists, Variety’s new series “Ask an Insider,” will