Music

Thom Yorke closed out the first of two sold-out shows at L.A.’s Greek Theatre on Tuesday night by performing a new song from the “Motherless Brooklyn” soundtrack. He dedicated the somber piano ballad, “Daily Battles,” to the film’s director-star Ed Norton, who stood in wonderment only a few feet from the stage. “If I f—

Filmmakers and studios are still scrambling to complete their holiday releases, and not all of the songs you’ll be hearing about during awards season are set. But at least a dozen tunes are in contention for that all-important Oscar shortlist to be revealed Dec. 16. Although the new song Taylor Swift and Andrew Lloyd Webber

JOKER, Hildur Guðnadóttir It isn’t often that an actor’s performance is transformed by the score (usually because the music is recorded long after the actors have gone home). But it happened on “Joker,” when director Todd Phillips played an early version of composer Hildur Guðnadóttir’s theme on the set and actor Joaquin Phoenix began dancing

Seeing that director Noah Baumbach enlisted Randy Newman to write the score for his Netflix film “Marriage Story,” you might think he was casting against type, if your knowledge of Newman’s movie work doesn’t extend back to a time before Pixar. If you left off with the legendary singer-songwriter’s composing work some time in the

Rough versions of 12 previously unreleased songs by Lou Reed recorded for Andy Warhol have been discovered on a cassette tape from 1975, stored in the archives of the Warhol Museum. The songs, which are on one side of the cassette, are based on Warhol’s book, “The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (From A to B and Back Again).”

October 30, 2019 3:43PM PT In today’s TV News roundup, Netflix releases the Season 2 trailer for “The End of the F***ing World” and Quibi greenlights a show from Kiari “Offset” Cephus. FIRST LOOKS Netflix released a dialogue-less Season 2 trailer for the dark comedy series “The End of the F***ing World,” which premieres Nov.

October 30, 2019 12:03PM PT In one of the most awesome moves we’ve seen in a long time, John Fogerty is using the money he was paid for the canceled Woodstock 50 festival to donate a home to a U.S. war veteran. There will be a groundbreaking ceremony around the donation on Nov. 11 —

October 30, 2019 11:05AM PT Anthem Entertainment announced that they have acquired a catalog of songs from Boardwalk Music Group, which were co-written by songwriter Eric Frederic (Ricky Reed). The catalog includes hits by artists such as Halsey, Leon Bridges, Lizzo, and more. The acquired catalog includes the smash single “Truth Hurts” from Lizzo, which

October 30, 2019 9:33AM PT There aren’t many music honors that Taylor Swift hasn’t yet received, and another one is on the way: She’ll receive the “Artist of the Decade” award at next month’s 2019 American Music Awards, show producers Dick Clark Productions announced on Wednesday. She is already up for five nominations at the

Sony Music saw another robust quarter, as its global streaming revenues climbed to $622 million — 21.4% over the same period last year — and its total recorded music revenues jumped 10.5% to $1.04 billion, according to a report for the quarter released early Wednesday, according to Music Business Worldwide. The report, part of Sony’s

Among the many speakers and panelists at Variety’s 2019 Music for Screens Summit, the composer for “Joker” spoke about how her score inspired Joaquin Phoenix’s performance, Robbie Robertson talked up Martin Scorsese, Cameron Crowe talked stage musicals, branding experts spoke about how synchs and Shazam increasingly work in synch, and music supervisors fought for their

For music supervisors, 2019 was arguably the field’s best year yet. Finally accepted to the Television Academy as members four years ago, they received further validation in 2017 in the form of their own Emmy category. A decade after the Guild of Music Supervisors [GMS] was established, it seems now, at long last, the music

Chasing the ever-lucrative, ever-changing market for children’s entertainment has always been a struggle, and nowhere are the challenges more acute than in music. Variety’s Music for Screens summit will bring together execs from Disney Channel, DreamWorks Animation and eOne, along with songwriters Antonina Armato and Kay Hanley, for a panel moderated by BMI’s VP of

As guitarist and chief songwriter with the Band, one of the most influential groups of the 1960s and ’70s, Robbie Robertson’s legacy was established long ago. After its early days with blues singer Ronnie Hawkins and a tumultuous stint as Bob Dylan’s backing band at the peak of his near-hysterical mid-1960s fame, the Band began

Getting the right synch or licensing opportunity can make a career. Just ask Lizzo, whose single “Truth Hurts” fizzled upon its initial release in September 2017. But after a lyric from the song inspired the #DNATest challenge on social media platform TikTok the following year, the brassy tune became a runaway smash. It was followed

Songwriters are almost be definition song sellers, but when it comes to taking the path to a best song nomination at the Oscars, there are still a number of steps that may come as unexpected to a tunesmith finding her way into Academy-land. “In some ways it is like a political campaign,” says Ray Costa,

Today’s media composers area diverse lot, and by the looks of this year’s awards crop, particularly successful at finding fresh musical solutions to dramatic problems. Variety‘s Music for Screens Summit showcases several of these creatives, including composers Michael Abels (“Get Out,” “Us”), Siddhartha Khosla (“This Is Us,” “Looking for Alaska”) and Amie Doherty (“Undone,” “Here

“I look at production music as a business of content and repertoire,” says Universal Production Music (UPM) president Michael Sammis from his memorabilia-adorned Santa Monica office. “What it commands in value depends on the quality of the content and needs of the individual client.” Quality is the key word when it comes to the business

The ASCAP Foundation will give singer-songwriter Natalie Merchant its Champion Award for her charity and humanitarian work at a ceremony being held Dec. 11 in New York City. Also being celebrated at the annual awards gala is Francisco Núñez, the founder and artistic director of the Young People’s Chorus of New York City and a composer/conductor.

For Coldplay’s eighth studio album, “Everyday Life” (out Nov. 22), the band has engaged in a decidedly old school roll-out. From the visuals, a 1919 image of guitarist Jonny Buckland’s great-grandfather’s band serves as the album cover and the official publicity photo, to the 500 manually typed and hand-signed postcard notes to fans around the

October 28, 2019 2:43PM PT Bill Condon is back in business with Disney, developing a musical based on Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.” Oscar-winning songwriter Stephen Schwartz has written the music for the film, told from the point of view of Jacob Marley. In Dickens’ story, Marley is Ebenezer Scrooge’s deceased business partner. He warns

A federal appeals court has revived a lawsuit claiming that Taylor Swift ripped off the chorus of her hit song, “Shake It Off.” The district judge dismissed the suit in February 2018, finding insufficient similarity between the song and the 2001 composition, “Playas Gon’ Play.” Judge Michael Fitzgerald held that the songwriters of the earlier

YoungBoy Never Broke Again has topped the Rolling Stone Artists 500 chart — which covers most-streamed artists — for the second consecutive week, according to results posted by the magazine on Monday. The chart covers the week of October 18 – 24. The Louisiana-spawned rapper’s total streams dipped to 149.7 million from 184.6 million, but

October 28, 2019 8:05AM PT Uber-music producer Rick Rubin (in)famously lost his two Malibu homes to the unforgiving flames of last year’s Woolsey Fire, but he hasn’t abandoned the seaside city just yet. On the contrary, records show the legendary Def Jam Records co-founder has doubled down on his local property holdings, having splashed out

Jon Bon Jovi went home Sunday night (Oct. 27) for the 11th annual New Jersey Hall of Fame induction ceremony. The rocker helped induct Southside Johnny Lyon with the honor at the Paramount Theatre in Asbury Park. Bon Jovi was reverential, telling the audience that without Southside Johnny, there wouldn’t be a Jon Bon Jovi.

Downtown Music Publishing has signed a global publishing agreement to represent the entire catalog of the legendary jazz trumpeter and composer Miles Davis. The long-term agreement, signed with the Davis estate, covers the artist’s entire songbook of more than 250 compositions, including songs from albums such as “Jack Johnson,” “Bitches Brew,” “In a Silent Way”

The REVOLT Summit touched down in Los Angeles this weekend (Oct. 25 – 27), following the success of the conference in Atlanta just six weeks prior. Presented by AT&T, the confab took place at The Magic Box in downtown L.A. and featured dozens of panels and performances, bringing to the stages such hip-hop greats as

At Hozier’s sold-out show at L.A.’s Greek Friday night, one of the first things you couldn’t help noticing on stage —because it’s still an anomaly — was that his eight-piece lineup was half-male, half-female. Knowing his penchant for socially conscious songs, his decrial of “the anthems of rape culture” in his lyrics, and a general

Paul Barrere, the singer-guitarist who was instrumental in keeping the group Little Feat going for decades after the death of founder Lowell George, has died at 71. Barrere died from the complications of liver cancer, which he’d been diagnosed with in 2015, following a battle with Hepatitis C that first came to light in 1994.

It wasn’t hard to be skeptical when Prince’s autobiography, “The Beautiful Ones,” was first announced earlier this year. In the rare interviews that he gave, the late artist was famously private, cryptic and confounding when it came to discussing his own life, often answering direct questions in confusing or oddly symbolic terms. The official description