Music

It would’ve been Halsey’s week to finally land a No. 1 album, but Kanye West had other plans, and his surprise drop of “Donda” on a Sunday morning thwarted her once again. Both artists had a lot to celebrate, though, with infrequently seen six-figure album-equivalent debuts, and, in West’s case, bragging rights to the biggest

Just a couple of weeks after Drake cryptically revealed the release date of his new “Certified Lover Boy” album on ESPN’s flagship program “SportsCenter,” the network has announced that it will work with the superstar rapper throughout the entire NFL season to curate music for select Monday Night Football games. According to the announcement, ESPN

In the wake of Monday’s news that actor Michael K. Williams, known for his role in “The Wire,” “Lovecraft Country” “Boardwalk Empire,” and more had passed away at the age of 54 from a reported drug overdose, the internet was filled with tributes from his film and television contemporaries, along with clips of Williams’ most

Sony Music Entertainment Korea (SMEK) has appointed Bobby Youngchan Ju as its new managing director. He will oversee all of the company’s operations in the country, build and strengthen strategic partnership, and grow SMEK’s local roster. He takes the reins from Joseph Chang, and will report directly to Shridhar Subramaniam, Sony Music’s president of corporate

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. The Mondo company is known for producing the rare and extraordinary. From t-shirts, limited-edition movie prints to remastered

Radiohead has announced the forthcoming release of “Kid A Mnesia,” a multiple format triple-album release marking the 21st anniversary of the group’s influential “Kid A” and “Amnesiac” albums, due November 5 via XL Recordings. Those two albums, the group’s fourth and fifth, found the band moving away from the rock sound that had vaulted them

“Black Panther” was an international cultural phenomenon and the Marvel movie’s Oscar-winning score, by Swedish composer Ludwig Göransson, was equally thrilling for its unique blend of African influences, traditional orchestra and modern production techniques. On Friday, Saturday and Sunday (Sept. 10 – 12), that music will be performed live-to-picture by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Senegalese

The U.K. regulator Competition and Markets Authority has raised concerns around Sony Music’s purchase of Kobalt’s recorded-music services division AWAL, after the first phase of its investigation into the acquisition. The investigation found that the distribution of recorded music in the U.K. is currently “highly concentrated,” with the three major labels accounting for the majority of the

Rising indie quartet Big Thief have surprise-released a new song called “Certainty” that was written and recorded directly to 4-track during a three-day power outage. The recorder was plugged into a cigarette lighter, according to the announcement. Guitarist Buck Meek explained the complicated jerry-rigged recording process. “On the third day of the outage, I found

Republic Records has promoted Alex Coslov to senior VP of marketing strategy, the label’s executive VP and general manager Jim Roppo announced on Monday. He is based at the Universal Music label’s New York headquarters. According to the announcement, Coslov will continue to devise, engage and enact marketing strategies and initiatives for a diverse roster, including Pearl

Beyond the delta variant’s uptick and last week’s visitation of Hurricane Ida, Jay-Z’s annual Made in America music festival in Philadelphia — canceled in 2020, as were most music festivals, due to COVID-19 — could have been a wash. Bonnaroo in Tennessee certainly felt the water-logged wrath of Ida, and ceased plans for its 2021

“The Pink Floyd Exhibition: Their Mortal Remains” has just opened at the Vogue Multicultural Museum, making its first U.S. stop on an international tour in the heart of Hollywood. Down on the corner, and in surrounding blocks, you can find tourist shops selling “Dark Side of the Moon” T-shirts (mostly unlicensed, probably) — but it’s

Amid the dramas and controversies spawned by the long-awaited release of Drake’s “Certified Lover Boy” album, the biggest may have been the surprising presence of a songwriting credit on the song “TSU” for fallen R&B superstar R. Kelly, who is currently on trial for sex trafficking and racketeering charges amid allegations of sexual abuse against

Rickie Lee Reynolds, guitarist for rock band Black Oak Arkansas, died on Sunday morning. He was 72. Reynolds’ daughter, Amber Lee, confirmed the news of his death on Facebook, as did current Black Oak Arkansas member Sammy Seauphine. According to Lee’s previous posts, Reynolds had been hospitalized due to COVID-19 and then suffered from kidney

Pink Floyd fans can set the controls for the heart of Hollywood Blvd. now that a touring version of an exhibition devoted to the group’s 55-year history has touched down in the U.S. following a celebrated run across Europe. The group remains truly in vogue, and in Hollywood’s former Vogue Theatre, in an installation of

As they crammed into a closet lined with mattresses at the home of their manager Johnny Wright to put their spin on Christopher Cross’ Yacht Rock classic “Sailing,” little did the members of *NSYNC realize how the casual recording might impact music 25 years later. Chris Kirkpatrick, Joey Fatone, JC Chasez, Lance Bass and Justin

Dell Furano, a pioneer in rock merchandising as the co-founder of Winterland Productions and later founder of Epic Rights, an entertainment agency and brand management company, has died. He was 69. The cause of death was not immediately revealed. Motley Crue manager Allen Kovac said of Furano, whose Epic Rights is handling the merchandising for

Sarah Harding, member of the British pop group Girls Aloud, died on Sunday morning of breast cancer. She was 39. Harding’s mother announced her death on her Instagram page, along with a heartfelt message. “It’s with deep heartbreak that today I’m sharing the news that my beautiful daughter Sarah has sadly passed away. Many of

André 3000 is clarifying his contribution to unreleased “Donda” track “Life of the Party” after Drake leaked the song on SiriusXM’s Sound 42 show. The song’s leak adds fuel to the ongoing tension between Drake and Kanye West, as both rappers have taken shots at each other on their new albums. On “Life of the

For a band that’s now thought of as the Beatles of heavy metal, not to mention one of the four or five greatest rock ‘n’ roll bands of all time, Led Zeppelin got shockingly little critical respect back in the day. You could say that sort of thing happens a lot — in music (just

The stakes were always high when it came to working with Beyoncé. Already a superstar and a three-time Grammy winner as a member of Destiny’s Child, with four Billboard Hot 100 No. 1s under her belt, when she went solo in 2003 with the release of “Dangerously in Love,” she set a dizzying pace right

Last month, in response to being doxxed by Kanye West, as their feud escalated while their respective album releases approached, Drake posted the most carefree possible video of himself — chuckling in a convertible, the Toronto night sky gliding behind him, a lover’s heart etched into his hairline, beaming and seemingly even tickled by the threat.

Singer-songwriter Lucy Dacus announced on Thursday that in the wake of Texas Senate Bill 8 — which makes the country’s second-most populous state’s abortion ban the most restrictive not only the U.S., but one of the most restrictive in the world — she will donate the proceeds from the four Texas dates on her forthcoming tour

It’s a bad day for everyone who only discovered “Dawson’s Creek” in recent years and had gotten married to the idea that Jann Arden’s “Run Like Mad” was the theme song for the 1998-2003  teen television series. For all of the show’s other fans, apart from that tiny, tiny sliver, it’s a good day, as

Broadway took its next step toward reopening Thursday night, carefully and deliberately on the backs of two shows telling stories of fear and resilience. “Hadestown,” the 2019 Tony-winning best musical, and “Waitress,” returning again for a revival engagement starring Sara Bareilles, welcomed audiences into their theaters for the first time in nearly 18 months —

System of a Down released “Toxicity,” its second studio album, back on September 4, 2001, unleashing onto the world a unique concoction of hard rock with Armenian folk influences and Middle Eastern melodies. A relentless assault of crushing drop tuned guitar and bass riffs, intricate and powerful drumming with dynamic vocals ranging from frantic guttural

BTS are set to appear on a special episode of YouTube Originals’ weekly music series “Released” on Thursday, September 9 at 11:45 PM ET, which will lead directly into the premiere of “BTS ‘Permission to Dance’ MV (Shorts Challenge ver.)” on September 10 at Midnight ET. The band will be joined by Coldplay frontman, Chris

After weeks of grueling work on Kanye West’s “Donda” album, producer and self-proclaimed ‘synth god’ Mike Dean is ready to kick back with a new project of his own. Two sold-out solo headlining shows at the Echoplex in Los Angeles on August 21 and 22 provide the contents of a new visual album, “ECHOPLEX (Live

After months of speculation, delays and heart-shaped haircuts — and a surprisingly tight lid on the content — Drake’s new studio album, “Certified Lover Boy,” has finally arrived… an hour behind its expected release time, coming in at 1 a.m. ET instead of midnight. For an album he first promised would come out a year

Mikis Theodorakis, the celebrated Greek composer of “Zorba the Greek,” “Z” and “Serpico” and among the most politically active of all 20th-century composers, died Thursday at his home in Athens. He was 96. His official website listed the cause of death as cardiopulmonary arrest. “Today we lost a part of Greece’s soul,” Greece’s cultural minister,