Music

Just days after CISAC elected Abba cofounder Bjorn Ulvaeus as its next president, the organization has elected South African singer-songwriter and actress Yvonne Chaka Chaka and Mexican composer Arturo Márquez as vice presidents, the organization announced Wednesday. CISAC represents more than 230 authors societies in over 120 countries, and through this community, its role is

M. Shadows, frontman for the band Avenged Sevenfold, has written an eloquent essay in which he pleads for rock and metal fans to consider getting behind Black Lives Matter, offering an argument against the “all lives matter” comeback and expressing regrets over some of his own past imagery or attitudes. The rocker’s 900-word appeal for

Despite coronavirus woes, Grammy Award-nominated Arctic Monkeys drummer Matt Helders has nonetheless reaped a small fortune in profit by unloading his Los Angeles cottage. The 3,000 sq. ft. quintessential California bungalow sold in a bidding war for $3.1 million, $130,000 over the asking price and a whopping $800,000 more than he originally paid five years

In light of the historic unrest that has gripped the nation since the police killing of George Floyd, there might be a temptation to describe “RTJ4” – the latest, and best, collaboration between rapper Killer Mike and rapper-producer El-P – as surprisingly prescient. The first full-length the odd-couple hip-hop duo has recorded in the Trump

UPDATED: If at first a pandemic trips up your initial public offering, try, try again — even during a week of social unrest — especially when investors seem eager to test audio streaming waters in a reinvigorated stock market. That’s the incentive for Warner Music Group to revive the IPO that got scotched earlier this

On the third floor of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., one photograph in particular stands out amid the generally august and serious portraits. While the image looks like it could have been taken at a hip-hop slumber party, the four women laughing in the photo are pioneers:

The Weeknd, who on Monday donated $500,000 to black-empowerment organizations, urged the three major labels, Sony, Universal and Warner, and top two streaming services, Spotify and Apple, to “go big and public” with donations this week. “To my fellow respected industry partners and execs,” he wrote in a post on social media. “No one profits

The second album by rising rapper Gunna debuted at No. 1 on the album chart, a place where it’s recently been abundantly clear that black art matters. Reflecting African American musicians’ ongoing dominance of popular music this year, black artists claim the top six spots on the chart this week, seven out of the top

There’s little question that the rollout of Blackout Tuesday, the music industry’s attempt to take a symbolic pause for the day in a statement of solidarity with the black community, was hasty and more than a little haphazard — but the use of the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag by Blackout Tuesday participants has ended up inadvertently suppressing

In a world more like the one we knew four months ago, Killer Mike would have been promoting “RTJ4,” the new album from Run the Jewels, his group with El-P, this week. But coronavirus, the death of George Floyd at the hand of Minneapolis police, and the ensuing violent protests across the entire country have

As part of the music industry’s Blackout Tuesday protest against racism, Spotify and SiriusXM will go silent in symbolic moments of silence to acknowledge the death of George Floyd. Audio-streaming giant Spotify, as part of its Blackout Tuesday initiatives, is including an 8-minute, 46-second track of silence on select playlists and podcasts. That is meant

Black Lives Matter has a purview much larger than the music industry, but the issues it addresses are front and center on Blackout Tuesday (June 2), in which the music business is essentially stopping everyday operations in a show of solidarity, and to seek ways to create change. In tandem with Blackout Tuesday, the collective

Big Hit Entertainment has apologized for BTS star Suga’s sampling of a speech by infamous cult leader Jim Jones. The song “What Do You Think?,” from Suga’s solo album “D-2,” contained a vocal sample from a 1977 speech given by the cult leader. Jones was responsible for the mass murder-suicide of hundreds of his followers

Sony Music CEO Rob Stringer (pictured with Pharrell Williams in January) has detailed his company’s plans to observe “Blackout Tuesday,” an industry-wide initiative to stand in solidarity with the black community — and in response to the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis at the hand of a police officer, in which all music business

Lennie Niehaus, who went from Stan Kenton sideman to Clint Eastwood’s movie composer during a nearly 60-year career in music, died Thursday at his daughter’s home in Redlands, Calif. He was 90. Niehaus’s two dozen films for Eastwood include original scores for the best picture-winning Western “Unforgiven,” the Charlie Parker biopic “Bird” and the popular

One could argue that most hip-hop is actually protest music, but there’s no mistaking the anti-police-violence message of a new song and video called “Pig Feet” by jazz musician Terrace Martin, who is accompanied by rappers Denzel Curry, G Perico and Daylyt and saxophonist Kamasi Washington, who worked with Martin on Kendrick Lamar’s groundbreaking “To

CAA has announced a multi-pronged approach to deepen its commitment to diversity and inclusion within the company and in Hollywood at large, as protests over the killing of George Floyd consume the country. As corporations speak out in support of the Black Lives Matter movement in social media posts, the agency rolled out some immediate

Jon Platt, chairman and CEO of Sony/ATV, the world’s biggest music publishing company, is one of the most powerful and influential publishers of the past 25 years, having worked with Jay-Z, Beyonce and Rihanna since early in their careers. He is also the highest ranking black executive in the music industry. Platt wrote an op-ed

The call for Blackout Tuesday — in which the music industry will basically stop everyday operations to protest police violence against the black community — rose so quickly over the weekend that many people are uncertain what the day is intended to accomplish. #TheShowMustBePaused, an initiative created by Atlantic Records exec Jamila Thomas and Platoon’s

As the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police has become the flashpoint of weekend protests in nearly every state in the U.S., Jay-Z reached out to Minnesota Governor Tim Walz to tell him that “Justice needs to be served here.” Walz then announced that state attorney general Keith Ellison will head

Epic Records has named Gina Harrell senior vice president, video production and content development. The appointment reunites Harrell with Sylvia Rhone, chair­­­woman and CEO of the Sony Music label, to whom she reports — the two executives previously worked together at Elektra Records and Universal Motown Republic Group. Harrell is a veteran of music videos,

The Jersey Shore will host at least one concert this summer season. Announced Monday, a new drive-in series will launch at Monmouth Park Racetrack in Oceanport, New Jersey with local favorites Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes set to play on July 11. “The Asbury Jukes and I are so excited that we can play

Rapper T.I., DJ D-Nice, K-pop artist Ailee, YouTube’s Tuma Bassa and top music attorney Kenny Meiselas are some of the scheduled participants in the digital edition of Midem 2020. The annual international music conference was slated to be held June 2 to 5 in Cannes, France, but due to the coronavirus pandemic, the physical confab

KCON recently announced that they will be partnering with YouTube for their 2020 event to stream a weeklong event from June 20 to 26. This follows a recent announcement that KCON 2020 LA would be postponed. KCON 2020 NY has also been canceled due to coronavirus concerns. The lineup consists of AB6IX, Astro, Ateez, Bvndit,

I had to go to Minneapolis. I needed to be right there on 38th Street and Chicago where George Floyd’s life was tragically stolen from him. I needed to see the people in that community — how much love they had for their community and their people and how much pain this has caused. We

Occasionally a high-profile film or TV documentary arrives at just the right time to appear as if it were created to address the frustrations created by another high-profile documentary, however coincidental the timing. That’s certainly the case with Alison Ellwood’s “Laurel Canyon,” a feature-length doc about the Los Angeles rock scene of the ‘60s and

As protests around George Floyd’s shocking death at the hands of Minneapolis police erupted across America late last week, musicians and the music industry have been quick to weigh in on social media and call for a “Tuesday blackout,” in which companies would participate as a sign of protest. Among the calls to action, Universal

Lil Wayne had a special guest on his Young Money Radio show Friday night: Dr. Dre, the legendary producer, entrepreneur and former member of N.W.A, who, as his discography and the biopic “Straight Outta Compton” show, knows more than a little about police violence. Dre pulled no punches in discussing the ongoing wave of police

There’s been no shortage of musicians sounding off on social media, calling for an end to police violence and racism in the wake of George Floyd’s death at the hands of a Minneapolis law-enforcement officer, but as protests broke out in at least 17 cities across the United States, artists including Lil Yachty, J. Cole,

Early in March, Constantine Maroulis took to the stage for a performance at the legendary New York City Jazz Club, Birdland. Little did he know, he would be one of the last entertainers to grace an NYC venue before the lights went out on Broadway. “My last show in New York city turned out to