Music

Aaron Carter’s death was caused by drowning and the effects of alprazolam, a generic form of Xanax, and inhaling difluoroethane, according to a copy of his autopsy report viewed by Variety on Tuesday. The manner of his death was ruled an accident by the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner, with the first cause

Last week, I went to see one of my favorite artists, Theo Katzman, play the Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles. Theo, who I recently featured on the New Music Business podcast, is a completely independent artist — no label; no manager.  I wanted to avoid the exorbitant service fees tacked onto the tickets when purchasing

The fast-rising Afropop singer Ayra Starr says she always knew she was destined for greatness. It didn’t take long: She’d signed with the major African label Mavin, racked up hundreds of millions of streams, headlined a U.K. tour and gotten cosigns from many of her idols, all before her 21st birthday this coming June. After

The LA Phil has announced the full summer season for Hollywood Bowl’s sister venue across the gorge, the Ford, with a typically eclectic and cross-cultural lineup that includes Mac DeMarco, Lucinda Williams, Jorge Drexler, the Milk Carton Kids, Darren Criss, Arooj Aftab, Meredith Monk, José James, a kids’ show by the Bob Baker Marionette Theater,

Mac DeMarco is hitting the road with his road trip instrumental album “Five Easy Hot Dogs.” The indie singer-songwriter will perform one night in Los Angeles and three nights in New York, Paris and London in support of the record, which he released in January. DeMarco will be accompanied by a full band, playing an

Megan Thee Stallion has shared a deeply personal retelling of the ups and downs of her life since Tory Lanez shoot her in the foot back in 2020. In an essay penned by Megan for Elle, the Texas-born rapper states this is the “final time that I’ll address anything regarding the case in the press,”

There could probably be no better evangelist for anything than the immensely respected Rhiannon Giddens, and the banjo is lucky to have her. The singer and multi-instrumentalist has been spreading the gospel of that instrument generally and its roots in Black culture specifically for years, in her live performances and as a member of a

In an unusual move that seems intended to eliminate age-discrimination in music releases, BMG, one of the world’s largest music companies, announced Tuesday that it will abandon the “outdated” industry distinction between “frontline” — a.k.a. new releases — and older catalog recordings. The company, which notes that older catalog recordings account for up to three

Lana Del Rey, Boygenius and Maggie Rogers will headline the Washington, D.C.-area’s longrunning All Things Go festival, taking place at Maryland’s Merriweather Post Pavilion for two days: Saturday September 30 and Sunday October 1. Also on the bill are Carly Rae Jepsen, Mt. Joy, Muna, Arlo Parks, Lizzy McAlpine, Tegan And Sara and Fletcher and

Justin Bieber came to the defense of Frank Ocean in an Instagram post in which the “Peaches” singer praised Ocean’s controversial Coachella performance. Ocean headlined Coachella 2023 along with Bad Bunny and Blackpink, but his April 16 set proved to be a massive disappointment for fans after he started an hour late, skipped over many

For the sixth week in a row, Morgan Wallen’s “One Thing at a Time” tops the albums chart at No. 1 and its leading single, “Last Night,” adds a third nonconsecutive week atop the singles chart. In its latest tracking week, “One Thing” (released via Big Loud/Mercury/Republic Records) collected the equivalent of 167,000 album sales

Artists spend months rehearsing for — and years dreaming about — headlining the Coachella festival, the biggest in North America. So the fact that Frank Ocean’s festival-closing performance — his first in nearly six years — was so shambolic left many concertgoers distressed, depressed, annoyed and other similar emotions (and left exponentially more people feeling similar kinds

There’s no question that the most-talked-about performance of Coachella weekend one was Frank Ocean’s festival-closing, wildly uneven set. But that’s unfortunate seeing as the desert gathering, often seen as a state-of-pop-music coming out party, had an enormous amount of interesting and often great stories and sets over the course of three days. The biggest takeaway,

Universal Music Group Nashville (UMGN) has tapped Lori Christian and Rob Femia to join its executive board. Christian has been upped to executive VP of marketing, while Femia has been named executive VP of business and legal affairs for the label group consisting of Capitol Records Nashville, EMI Records Nashville, Mercury Nashville, and MCA Nashville.

Are you ready for deep-fake-Drake? Many fans are, at least as an amusing lark, as an apparently artificial-intelligence-generated “collaboration” between “Drake” and “the Weeknd” began to go viral over the weekend, for how closely the styles of the two superstars are mimicked in a track titled “Heart on My Sleeve.” It’s no joke, though, to

Vicky Cornell, on behalf of the Estate of Chris Cornell, and the surviving members of Soundgarden — Kim Thayil, Matt Cameron and Ben Shepard — have settled a contentious legal battle that will allow the release of new music the band had been working on up to the time of the singer’s death from suicide

Eric Clapton announced Monday that his recurring Crossroads Guitar Festival will take place in Los Angeles this fall, with a roster of 41 guest musicians or bands set to take the stage across two nights at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles Sept. 23-24. Musicians due to perform one or both nights include Santana, the War

Ahmad Jamal, one of the most elegant, eloquent and influential pianists and composers in modern jazz, died on Sunday, his wife, Laura Hess-Hey, and his daughter, Sumayah Jamal, told the Washington Pst. The pianist was 92 and died in Ashley Falls, MA, after a battle with prostate cancer. Renowned for his economical and deliberate style,

Sunday night’s Coachella-headlining performance by the enigmatic R&B star Frank Ocean was unquestionably the most highly-anticipated set of the festival. The singer, who had not performed live in nearly six years, was set to headline the fest in 2020 before the pandemic hit, and then again last year before he postponed it to 2023. Rumors

Radiohead guitarist and Academy Award-nominated composer Jonny Greenwood has long had an affinity for Israel. Radiohead first toured the country in the mid-1990s and Greenwood married Israeli visual artist, Sharona Katan. Now Greenwood is pairing with acclaimed Israeli singer Dudu Tassa for a collaborative album, “Jarak Qaribak,” which is due out June 9 from World

The inaugural American Music Honors awards show — a fundraiser for the Bruce Springsteen Archives and Center for American Music at Monmouth University — launched Saturday night without two very important presenters in attendance: Bruce Springsteen and Patti Scialfa. Bob Santelli, the Archives’ executive director, broke the news that the Springsteens were both diagnosed with

The last time powerhouse Korean girl group Blackpink played Coachella, during a much-hyped mid-day set in 2019 on the Sahara stage, they were a different band and the world was a different place. That pre-COVID version of the group was the first K-Pop band to play North America’s most important festival, and the group had

There’s always been a place for mystery in pop music, and on this year’s Coachella lineup, there was no name on the bill more mysterious than that of Jai Paul, the reclusive British producer whose only official album, “Leak 04-13 (Bait Ones),” is actually a finished version of an unofficial album leaked a decade ago.

Halsey and Capitol Records are going their separate ways, spokesperson for both the artist and the label confirmed to Variety Saturday. “After eight great years the decision to leave Capitol is bittersweet, but we are excited about exploring a new partnership and sharing new music with fans,” said Halsey’s managers, Anti-Pop’s Jason Aron and Anthony

The Coachella festival probably has more top-shelf musical talent in one place at one time than any other event in the world, and 2023’s day one was no exception: All three Boygeniuses — Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus — joined Muna for an afternoon finale, the two surviving members of De La Soul

A veteran of stage and screen, Tony winner Jane Krakowski returns to “Schmigadoon!” In the second season of Apple TV+’s musical series, Krakowski plays Bobbie, a trial lawyer who sings and dances while roller-skating blindfolded, holding sparklers in her hands and doing splits and flipping around on a trapeze bar. “We tried to pick things

Over the last two decades, Coachella has maintained its trend-setting reputation by hosting special guests, surprise sets and unexpected reunions before other fests get ahold of them. But never before have the three converged the way they did tonight, when the reunited classic lineup of Blink 182 played its first show in almost a decade

The Coachella livestream on YouTube is the next-best thing to being there, and in some ways it’s even better: There’s no crowds, travel, heat or dust unless you want them, and you’ve got the best seat in the house.  This Friday, the 22nd edition of Coachella will kick off with the first of two weekends

When Variety asked the members of Boygenius in an interview earlier this month about the setlists for their upcoming shows, they made it clear — no solo material, just band stuff, because that’s sufficient to fill festival-length sets anyway. On top of that, perhaps unspoken is the idea that keeping to Boygenius selections helps keep

Mark Sheehan, guitarist and co-founder of Irish rock band the Script, has died after a short, undisclosed illness. He was 46. The band announced the news on social media Friday, writing: “Much loved husband, father, brother, band mate and friend Mark Sheehan passed away today in hospital after a brief illness. The family and group