Music

Yoshiki, leader of the group X Japan, has donated $100,000 in support of mental health to MusiCares to help music creators and industry professionals affected by depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, or other mental health concerns, the organization announced Monday. MusiCares is the Recording Academy’s charitable wing, helping music people in need since 1989. The announcement

A bustling red carpet of reporters, TV crews and photographers jostling for space, a celebrity who’s who in dress to impress couture, crowding into a theater foyer sipping champagne and happily chatting close together before entering a capacity theater of 2,000 to watch the opening night of one of the most awarded, praised and popular

There’s no question that the Verzuz musical battles — which find one artist or producer pitting their hits against another’s, in (mostly) friendly competition — have captured the imaginations of millions of online viewers since hitmakers Timbaland and Swizz Beatz launched the series last March. The series has seen veteran rapper Snoop Dogg go up

British singer, songwriter and actor ARLO has signed with Arista Records, the U.S. label owned by Sony Music Entertainment. London-based ARLO will release new music this year with Arista. ARLO, who was named one of the new influential faces in the U.K. in 2019 by London newspaper The Evening Standard, has garnered millions of music

The music lovers of Los Angeles no longer need to pray for their mecca to return. Amoeba Music’s Hollywood branch is reopening April 1, and hoping to make fools of everyone who would maintain that physical media is dead. It’s in a new location on Hollywood Blvd., just east of its world-famous intersection with Vine.

Lady Gaga turns 35 on March 28, and there is no one quite like her. As audiences watch the internet for new photos from the set of her upcoming movie “House of Gucci,” Gaga — born Stefani Germanotta — remains an unstoppable force. She continues to collect awards, most recently winning the best pop duo/group

Steven William Johnson, the drummer for Grammy-winning band Alabama Shakes, has been arrested and is facing child abuse charges. According to the Associated Press, Johnson was arrested on March 24 after he was indicted on charges including “willful torture, willful abuse and cruelly beating or otherwise willfully maltreating a child under the age of 18.”

Tonight, the 52nd NAACP Image Awards will air live on BET at 8 p.m. ET/ 7 p.m. CT, and will simulcast on CBS, BET Her, VH1, MTV, MTV2 and LOGO. Anthony Anderson returns as host for the eighth year in a row, entering the premiere event already a winner. During Friday’s non-televised ceremony, he won

Following the release of his red-hot music video for “Montero (Call Me By Your Name),” Lil Nas X isn’t holding back when it comes to responding to haters on Twitter. The video — which dropped on March 25 and is already trending No. 1 on YouTube — features the “Old Town Road” singer pole dancing

As the music-publishing market continues to heat up to unprecedented levels, songwriter groups have begun speaking out for more equitable treatment. On the heels of a “Pay Songwriters” petition launched in the U.K. last week calling for greater compensation for songwriters comes a social media post from an anonymous group calling itself “The Pact” calling

Although Donald Fagen and Walter Becker certainly did not write “Dirty Work” with the idea of it being about reluctant mercenaries — let alone costumed antiheroes and anthropomorphized sharks — the song’s theme of reluctant conscription somehow perfectly and comically fits the “Suicide Squad” concept. That helps explain why the 49-year-old album track suddenly found

Last night, I saw something I didn’t quite believe I ever would get to see: An openly gay music superstar indulging in a sex-and-drugs-and-sin video fantasy. In his instantly viral music video for his latest single, “Montero (Call Me By Your Name),” Lil Nas X is unabashedly queer and unmistakably horny (literally and figuratively), ending

Some artists are coy about their sexuality, and some just go for it. While Lil Nas X came out more than a year ago, the sexual themes of his new song “Montero (Call Me by Your Name),” and especially the imagery of its video, are not subtle, to say the least. Nas (real name: Montero

Janelle Monáe pays tribute to legendary Black female entertainers in Ralph Lauren’s fashion film for its spring 2021 collection. The 20-minute “Casablanca”-inspired movie, which premiered on Thursday night on ralphlauren.com, features the song “Dorothy Dandridge Eyes.” “Dorothy Dandridge, Josephine Baker, Ella Fitzgerald — we love you,” Monáe says mid-song. “Sarah Vaughan, Lady Day — we

Rabbi Sharon Brous, the charismatic spiritual leader and founder of the trendy, progressive IKAR congregation — whose members include both Steven Spielberg and Mayor Eric Garcetti — remembers the first time she heard Hillel Tigay perform his song “Alive” during Rosh Hashana services at the Los Angeles temple. “I was completely floored,” she says of

If the Brothers Met — Adam, Jack and Ryan, hence AJR — didn’t exist, Wes Anderson might’ve had to create them for another of his erudite forays into cinema. Or Pasek and Paul could have summoned the bros’ imaginary presence for one of their engagingly sophisticated stage musicals. Or Fran Lebowitz or Tama Janowitz might

Drummer Don Heffington died Wednesday at age 70. He is best remembered by most music fans as a member of  Lone Justice from 1983-86, along with Maria McKee, Ryan Hedgecock, Marvin Etzioni and (as a part-timer) Benmont Tench. But Heffington’s legacy before and long after that stint includes recording or touring with dozens or  hundreds

At just 17, Tate McRae has already cemented herself as one of pop’s fastest rising stars — and she did it all while quarantined in her house. McRae took the pop world by storm in 2020 with the April release of her heartbreakingly honest single, “You Broke Me First.” The song, featuring a hook that

Bob Dylan fired back at a lawsuit filed in January by the estate of cowriter Jacques Levy in the wake of the legendary songwriter’s $300 million-plus sale of his catalog to Universal Music Publishing. In a memo dated Tuesday, Dylan’s attorney wrote that the claims of Levy’s widow, who is seeking $7.25 million from the

One of the major tenets of recovering is owning your past, and no one can accuse Demi Lovato of coming up short on that count. The singer, who long struggled with substance abuse, nearly died of an overdose in 2018, and over the past few weeks she’s told that story as both a confession and

“Dorothy, I don’t think we’re on the Old Town Road anymore,” as the saying goes. Lil Nas X ditches the quaint world of horseback commuting for the highway to hell in “Montero (Call Me By Your Name),” a music video that explores a queer realm of mythological fantasy, trading in his former Western wear for

For most singer-songwriter types, advancing to the wizened age of 31 and then thinking about recording something you wrote as a high school student and didn’t think was strong enough to release then would seem about as agreeable as volunteering for a waterboarding demonstration. But then, most singer-songwriters are not Taylor Swift, who did win

There is even more genius to go around in the story that “Genius: Aretha Franklin” tells than just Aretha’s own. Her classic records wouldn’t have stood the test of more than four and five decades without the chemistry she and her voice formed with the musicians that gave the music its masterful groove. In portraying

A good number of music stars took the death of music impresario Michael Gudinski personally, but few more so than Ed Sheeran, who flew to Gudinski’s native Australia after learning of his passing and quarantined there long enough to be able to perform at a nationally televised state memorial tribute Wednesday. More than that, Sheeran

The staff of Secretly Group, one of the largest independent music companies in the U.S., announced plans on Tuesday morning to form a union to address a list of concerns they’re hoping to correct with a union contract. The concerns include low wages and insufficient health care benefits, as well as “an absence of initiatives that

Molly Neuman is the President of Songtrust. She has previously held leadership roles at Kickstarter, A2IM, Rhapsody, and eMusic. She is on the Advisory Boards of Music Business Association, Women in Music, and has previously served on the boards of SoundExchange and A2IM. Her career in music began as the drummer in the ’90s indie

The Mondo.NYC music and tech conference has announced its 2021 dates and schedule — which is currently a four-day virtual interactive meeting and livestream, although organizers are “hopeful” that conditions will allow at least some elements to take place in person. The conference is produced by the longtime organizers of the CMJ Music Marathon. “Navigating

In observance of Women’s History Month, MIDIA Research and TuneCore/Believe have released a new study on the challenges faced by female creators in today’s music industry. The report, BE THE CHANGE: Women Making Music 2021, collects the views of 401 female creators –artists, songwriters, producers and DJs – from around the world, many of whom

In the wake of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s announcement last month that mass-gatherings can begin a cautious return this summer, the London music festival All Points East has announced more performers for its 2021 edition — scheduled for August 27-30 in Victoria Park — and the country’s largest festival, Glastonbury, is moving ahead with plans

Britney Spears’ attorney has formally requested for Jodi Montgomery to replace Jamie Spears as the conservator of the singer’s person. In court documents filed on Tuesday and obtained by Variety, Britney Spears’ lawyer, Samuel Ingham, requested Jamie Spears’ resignation from the role. “Petitioner has requested the resignation of the current conservator of her person, James