The Weeknd, as a digital avatar, teased a new song and played his After Hours hits during TikTok’s “The Weeknd Experience” Friday, the Trump-targeted app’s “first-ever interactive augmented reality broadcast.” The 20-minute performance featured virtual renditions of “Pray for Me,” “Blinding Lights,” “Save Your Tears,” the remix of “In Your …
Read More »Old Crow Medicine Show, Cam Set for 'Live at the Ryman' Series
Cam and Old Crow Medicine Show are among the artists confirmed to perform for “Live at the Ryman,” a new ticketed livestreaming series at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium. The series kicks off Friday, August 14th with a performance by the duo For King & Country and runs weekly through September 18th. …
Read More »For Black Pop Stans, the Bare Minimum Is No Longer Enough
Angela H. was marching in a Black Lives Matter protest in Hollywood on June 2nd when her friends pointed out something surprising. They’d spotted a man in black gloves, sunglasses, and a hoodie nearby in the crowd — and he looked just like Harry Styles, a pop star Angela has …
Read More »Hayley Williams Urges People to Stay Out of Nashville During Pandemic Spike
Hayley Williams has a message for tourists thinking of visiting her hometown of Nashville during the ongoing health crisis: Stay away. The solo artist and leader of Grammy-winning Tennessee band Paramore posted a series of quietly passionate videos to Instagram on Monday expressing her frustration with the city’s unabated party …
Read More »The 1975, Nile Rodgers, Niall Horan Sign Open Letter Condemning Racism
The 1975, Lewis Capaldi, Niall Horan and Rita Ora were among the hundreds of U.K. artists, songwriters and producers to sign their name to an open letter decrying racism. “We, representatives from the music industry, write to demonstrate and express our determination, that love, unity and friendship, not division and …
Read More »Recording Academy Aligns With HITS Act to Help Indie Artists
The Recording Academy announced Friday it has aligned with the Help Independent Tracks Succeed (HITS) Act, a bipartisan bill that allows independent music makers to expense the cost of new studio recordings on their taxes — up to $150,000. The act was introduced Friday by Rep. Linda T. Sánchez (D-Calif.) …
Read More »Going Inside PJ Harvey's Powerful, Intimate Early Demos
When PJ Harvey started releasing records in the early Nineties, her raw lyrical depictions of sex and violence made people uncomfortable; it wasn’t often you heard a young, female artist (or a male one for that matter) sing something like “I’ll make it better/I’ll rub ’til it bleeds.” But Harvey …
Read More »New York Health Commissioner: Chainsmokers Show 'Mocks New Yorkers' Work to Flatten the Curve'
Last weekend, the Chainsmokers headlined an outdoor charity concert in the Hamptons that was touted as a drive-in show where guests would be allowed to sit outside their cars in designated areas that were at least six feet apart. Still, photos and videos from the event showing packed crowds with …
Read More »Bubba Wallace Is By Himself, Again
Darrell “Bubba” Wallace Jr., the only African American top-tier driver in all of NASCAR, recently hit a wall, literally, crashing during the qualifier for the Cup Series All-Star Race in Bristol, Tennessee. But by the end of June — after spearheading a successful campaign to ban the Confederate flag from …
Read More »Lucinda Williams Talks Trump Criticism, Tornado Recovery on Chris Shiflett Podcast
Lucinda Williams was six weeks away from the release of Good Souls Better Angels when the World Health Organization sounded the alarm on COVID-19, officially deeming the outbreak a pandemic. Since then, the songwriter has barely left her new home in East Nashville. Even so, Good Souls Better Angels feels …
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