A Cook County, Ill., judge today set a Sept. 14 trial date for R. Kelly, who is charged in four sexual abuse cases in the area, according to the Chicago Sun-Times and the Chicago Tribune. Prosectors did not immediately reveal which of the four indictments they plan to pursue first. Kelly, who remains in federal
Music
CBS Corp. and Viacom are united once again. The merger of the two halves of the Redstone family media empire into ViacomCBS was completed Wednesday, just four months after the boards of CBS and Viacom reached an agreement on an all stock-swap transaction. The combined company’s shares will begin trading Thursday on the NASDAQ index
December 4, 2019 1:21PM PT With Taylor Swift’s Netflix documentary “Miss Americana” set to open the Sundance Film Festival in Jan. 2020 comes word that all of her older material has been cleared for use in the film. The documentary was a flashpoint in the latest public flare-up over Scooter Braun’s acquisition of Big Machine
AEG Presents announced today that Debra Rathwell has been promoted to Executive Vice President, Global Touring and Talent. The appointment was made by Gary Gersh, President of Global Touring and Talent for AEG Presents. She will continue to be based in New York. “Debra continues to bring a wealth of knowledge, expertise and deep relationships
From mega-smash “Big Bank” featuring 2 Chainz, Big Sean and Nicki Minaj to TikTok favorite “Go Loko” with Tyga and Jon Z, 2019 belonged to YG who, in his team-up with producer and fellow West Coaster Mustard, was the soundtrack of the streets. And a multicultural one at that: “Go Loko” features Spanish guitar (played
“Anything Could Happen” was the title of Ellie Goulding’s seventh single, released in 2012, but those three words could double as a mantra for the British singer-songwriter’s entire career. In fact, Goulding was back in her hometown of Hereford, England, the previous year, and she had just finished writing that song (the first single from
Megan Thee Stallion needs a moment. “I’m going from coast to coast, and it’s cold some places and hot some places,” she says after letting loose a wracking cough. “It’s really messing with me.” She’s calling from Indianapolis but soon will head to her hometown of Houston to perform at Travis Scott’s Astroworld Festival. “We’re
Pete Townshend, guitarist and main songwriter of The Who, revealed he’s always regretted not staying to mourn after a stampede at one of the band’s concerts. The stampede, which left 11 people dead and 23 injured in Cincinnati, occurred 40 years ago at the Riverfront Coliseum on Dec. 3, 1979. Instead of staying around, the
Oh my my my! From the giant stages of a sold-out stadium tour — including two nights at London’s 90,000-capacity Wembley Stadium — to the intimacy of a “Saturday Night Live” performance, BTS was everywhere in 2019. Consistently reaching the top of the U.S. charts singing in their native Korean, band members RM, Jin, Suga,
Label heads are not an uncommon sight at West Hollywood’s Soho House, but judging by the surreptitious security guard who trails us discreetly as we walk to the private club’s roof garden restaurant, one begins to comprehend that 10K Projects founder-CEO Elliot Grainge isn’t your ordinary executive. 10K’s new suite of offices at the fabled
Toby Keith once wrote and recorded a song called “I’ll Never Smoke Weed With Willie Again.” Whether he kept true to that word in subsequent years or not is unknown, but it will definitely hold true going into the figure, because no one will smoke weed with Willie Nelson again. Put down “Willie’s smoke-free bus”
While only one person appears on most of the magazine covers, Billie Eilish is actually a duo — at least, musically speaking. Nearly every song the 17-year-old star has ever released was co-written with and produced by her 22-year-old brother Finneas O’Connell, whom she credits and affectionately introduces to concert audiences as “my big brother
On a freakishly cold October Saturday in Texas, Billie Eilish is proving to a sold-out crowd at the Austin City Limits festival just how hard you can rock in a surgical boot. The 17-year-old has been performing with two sprained ankles for weeks, barely slowing down after hurting one by falling down stairs right before
Roddy Ricch went from zero Grammy nominations to three literally overnight. The Compton-born, Atlanta-raised rapper was recognized for his blend of melody and hip-hop, riding a lane of trap rap that’s taken over the streets and beyond. After his first mixtape, “Feed Tha Streets,” Roddy unleashed the London on da Track-produced “Die Young” in July
Post Malone, Billie Eilish and the Red Hot Chili Peppers are heading out on a three-day beach vacation as headliners of the 11th annual Hangout Music Festival in Gulf Shores, Alabama, just announced for May 15-17, 2020. Among the others set for the fest are Lana Del Rey, Cage The Elephant, Juice WRLD, Kane Brown,
Third Man Records today announced the launch of Maggot Brain — a new, full-color quarterly magazine edited by noted Detroit music scribe Mike McGonigal. The December/January/February issue is available now, and yearly four-issue subscriptions are available. The magazine is clearly a nod to Third Man founder Jack White’s Detroit roots — “Maggot Brain,” of course, is the name of
Dolphin Entertainment today announced a major expansion of its entertainment-marketing capabilities through its acquisition of long-running music and entertainment industry PR firm Shore Fire Media. There, it joins 42West, The Door and Viewpoint Creative in the company’s entertainment publicity and marketing group. Founded by Marilyn Laverty, Shore Fire is a wide-ranging firm that represents artists
The color pin wheel of celebrity Jacks finally reaches peak monochromatic glory as Jack Black and Jack White have a long-overdue collaboration in Tenacious D’s new single, “Don’t Blow It, Kage,” produced by White and released on his Third Man label. The song came out as a limited edition 45 last week for Record Store
Filmmakers Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering are directing and producing a documentary about sexual assault in the music industry. The movie, from Oprah Winfrey and Impact Partners, is set to premiere next year on Apple Plus. It follows a former music executive who grapples with whether to go public with her story of assault and
Republic Records has promoted Marisa Bianco to senior vice president of media, the company’s EVP of Media & Artist Relations Joseph Carozza announced today. Since joining Republic Records in 2014, Bianco has spearheaded a media campaign for Jonas Brothers’ No. 1 comeback album, “Happiness Begins” and played a key role in Julia Michaels’ transition from behind-the-scenes songwriter to a solo artist and Grammy Award
As reported last week by Variety, veteran A&R executive Jeff Vaughn has been named president of Capitol Records, it was officially announced today by Capitol Music Group Chairman & CEO Steve Barnett, to whom Vaughn will report. Vaughn will assume his new position on January 1, 2020 and will be based in Hollywood at CMG’s
It’s 2019, and Alanis Morissette has traded her flicked cigarettes for peace signs. Straddling a chair in the middle of the Apollo Theater on Monday night, the singer radiates tranquility, apparently unbothered by what she looks like when she hits the high notes. And, yes, 25 years since the release of her seminal and generation-defining
December 3, 2019 4:55AM PT Jermaine Hall, who has held executive editorial posts at Vibe, XXL, BET and King, today announced a new culture and lifestyle publication called LEVEL, aimed at “Black and Brown men 30 and up.” “The goal is to make Level a home for the mature Black and Brown man, a place
Amid a forest of decade-end statistics posted by Spotify today, Drake and Ed Sheeran hit some notable marks. The full lists appear below, but highlights Drake as the most-streamed artist of the decade, with 28 billion streams; Ed Sheeran clocked the most-streamed track of the decade, with more than 2.3 billion streams). Sheeran, Post Malone,
Joe Smith, whose four decades in the music business included heading Warner Bros. in the 1960s and ’70s, Elektra in the ’70s and ’80s and Capitol in the late 1980s and ’90s, has died at 91, multiple sources have confirmed. “I’m so fortunate to have gotten out of (the music business) when I got out of
There’s no such thing as oversaturation for fans of 20-year-old rapper Trippie Redd, who has released his first three albums in a 16-month time frame. The latest of these releases from the XXXTentacion collaborator, “A Love Letter to You 4,” debuted atop the Rolling Stone albums chart for the period that included the Thanksgiving holiday.
Not only has The Weeknd dropped a couple of hotly anticipated singles from his upcoming album over the last week, well-placed sources on the celebrity real estate street swear the Diamond-certified alt-R&B superstar has also dropped somewhere in the neighborhood of $21 million on a mansion-sized condominium in a posh boutique building along Los Angeles’s
Anyone paying attention will have noticed that Neil Young has been releasing several albums per year, in an effort to get as many of his multiple archival releases onto the market before his 76-year-old Uncle Eddie passes (no joke). Folliwng on stellar archival releases like “Tuscaloosa,” “Hitchhiker” and “Roxy,” he’s now reached to fans to
December 2, 2019 8:05AM PT Ariana Grande has spent most of 2019 on her “Sweetener” tour, and for the past several weeks has been posting about a live album to be released from it. Over the weekend she posted that its deadline is coming up “soon,” which could mean that the album can be expected
December 2, 2019 5:38AM PT Alanis Morissette today announced dates for a 31-date “Jagged Little Pill” 25 th anniversary tour, launching on June 20 in Portland, Oregon. The tour is a virtual badass 1990s female-artist nostalgia tour, as she will be joined by special guests Garbage and Liz Phair. The tour is produced by Live