British music festival Glastonbury is banning plastic bottles in a bid to stem the tide of waste - they will not sell single-use plastic water bottles this year owing to concerns about their impact on the environment. In 2017, visitors to the festival got through 1.3m plastic bottles. Festivalgoers have also been urged to carry […]
PopMatters' new edition of Brits in Hot Weather, where they showcase five songs from five British artists, presents edgy electropop from Elephant Trees, Afrobeat-tinged house from DJ Chillz, haunting dream pop from Dream Reporter, soulful house from Szjerdene, and the ambient soundscapes of Gagarin.
Why are promoters hiking their ticket prices up so much, and how much do the artists have a say in setting ticket prices? - NME asks after The Who announced they will charge 200 pounds for better tickets for their Wembley concert. Gideon Gottfried from Pollstar points out that artists rarely make money from albums […]
Ukraine's Eurovision entrant Maruv, has been dropped from european song contest in a row related to tensions between her country and Russia. Maruv's song, 'Siren Song', won a public vote on Saturday, but the singer later fell out with the country's national broadcaster (here her performance of the song). She was given 24 hours to […]
American r'n'b star Drake is the world’s best-selling recording artist of 2018, global recording industry trade organization IFPI has announced. Drake is the only artist to hold this title more than once, with his first being in 2016. Released in June of last year, his fifth album 'Scorpion' and songs from it broke multiple streaming […]
Guardian's Rhik Samadder got proper upset by post-Oscar comments about Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper's "secret love". "When did we lose all desire to distinguish between art and life? Why do we want to own celebrities’ souls, imprisoned in hashtags and gifs and gossip, regardless of the human fallout?... We should recognise that #friendshipgoals and […]
The leader and singer of british synth pop stars Talk Talk, Mark Hollis has died. Guardian published the nicest obituary: "He was an artist with a completely singular and uncompromising musical vision that would eventually spawn an entire musical sub-genre... The music mapped out a new territory somewhere between avant-garde rock, jazz, modern classical and […]
R Kelly was released on bail on monday, after a 47-year-old woman from suburban Chicago, allegedly a friend of his, posted the bail — 10% of the $1 million bond set by a judge. Since his arrest on Friday, Kelly struggled to come up with the funds to cover his bail. His lawyer, Steve Greenberg, […]
'Bohemian Rhapsody', the authorised biopic of Queen and Freddie Mercury, won record four Oscars last night, including best actor for Rami Malek, who won rave reviews for playing the late singer. Lady Gaga was among the winners for the best original song prize for 'Shallow' from 'A Star Is Born' after performing an impassioned duet […]
With it's numerous subgenres and releases, it's not easy to keep track of metal releases. PopMatters helps out by picking out a number of exciting releases (wich audio). This february it's 16 metal albums, of various subgenres - prog, doom, sludge, trash, psychedelia etc.
The organizers of the Paris 2024 Olympics have proposed breakdancing as one of the new olympic sports - others that are being considered for inclusion are surfing, climbing, and skateboarding, which are already slated to make their Olympics debut the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. Breakdancing was a part of the program at the 2018 Youth […]
The Oscars are coming, so Pitchfork made a list of 50 greatest original compositions for film. It goes from 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' to 'Blade Runner', with quite a diverse choice in between.
"Much like with Louis CK, R. Kelly and Woody Allen, it’s now easy to see how Ryan Adams used his art as a sort of staging ground for the power-wielding abuses and transgressions in his personal life. The singer’s finely-tuned performance of emotional neediness was part and parcel with the pattern of manipulation and alleged […]
Bethel Woods Music and Culture Festival is taking place on the same dates and at the same site as Woodstock 50 years ago. It's August 15th-18th, Ringo Starr and the Edgar Winter Band will perform Friday, August 16th, while Santana and The Doobie Brothers are scheduled for Saturday the 17th. Official Woodstock event organised by […]
Beyonce and Jay-Z posed in front of a portrait of Meghan Markle wearing a crown as they accepted the Brit Award for best international group. Writing on Instagram, Beyonce said: "In honour of Black History Month, we bow down to one of our Melanated Monas. "It’s no stretch to interpret the display as a show of […]
Peter Tork, singer, bassist and co-founder of The Monkees, has died at the age of 77. Initially conceived as America’s answer to The Beatles, The Monkees were assembled by television producers specifically for a television series, which aired from 1966 to 1968. However, the band’s popularity would ultimately grow far beyond the small screen; members […]
Three times as many male as female pop stars appeared on last year's biggest hit singles - ninety-one men or all-male groups were credited on the british Official Chart Company's top 100 most popular songs of 2018 - compared with 30 female acts. Thirteen of the most popular 100 songs of 2018 were credited only […]
Nick Cave is bringing his ‘Conversations’ tour to Europe - he just finished Australian leg of the tour, and it sees Cave taking a widespread selection of questions from fans and performing some of his most iconic tracks on piano (NME). Describing the tour as “an exercise in connectivity”, he considers topics such as grief, […]
A grand jury has secretly been assembled in Chicago to discuss the possibility of indicting the R&B singer on criminal charges. Grand jury comprised of citizens from Chicago was formed after attorney Michael Avenatti delivered video footage of R. Kelly engaged in sexual activity with a 14-year-old child, All Hip Hop reports. Similarly, Ryan Adams' […]
Slash has confirmed that Guns N’ Roses are working on new material - “Axl, Duff, myself, and Richard have all talked about … there’s material and stuff going on already for a new record”. Don't expect a date yet: “It’s just, with Guns N’ Roses, you don’t go, ‘Oh, there’s a plan, and it’s gonna […]
A New York Police Department commander Emanuel Gonzalez is under investigation after allegedly telling his colleagues to “shoot 50 Cent on sight”. Police chief made the alleged comment in June last year during a briefing at New York’s 72nd Precinct in Sunset Park, ahead of the rap icon’s scheduled appearance at a boxing match in […]
A documentary about singer and songwriter Chris Cornell, core member of Soundgarden, Temple of The Dog and Audioslave, is being produced by actor Brad Pitt, his widow Vicky Cornell and production company Film 45 from California. The film will follow the life and career of Cornell, and will be directed by Berg ('Lone Survivor', 'Deepwater Horizon'). Variety...
When asked by TMZ if he would ever consider staging a second Fyre Festival, New York rapper Ja Rule kept the door wide open: "In the midst of chaos is opportunity. I’m working on a lot of new things". He went on to call Fyre Fest “the most iconic festival that never was”, before slyly adding, […]
A brilliant mash-up of 'Fyre' documentary and Steven Spielberg's 'Jurassic Park', about the ill-fated luxurious festival, has arrived online. While keeping to the documentary format of 'Fyre', the trailer for 'Jurassic Fraud' sees John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) assuming the role of infamous Fyre founder Billy McFarland. As well as featuring footage from Jurassic Park, the Nerdist creation is cleverly interspersed with mocked-up […]
American actress, musician, and singer Rain Phoenix shared her first single as a solo artist. 'Time Is The Killer' features Michael Stipe, it appears on a new release 'Time Gone', out today, and in arrives with a new video directed by Bobby Bukowski and Bradley Gregg (video here). A lot of connections among them - […]
Hip-hop pioneer Grandmaster Flash, violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter and music charity the Playing for Change Foundation have been named recipients of the 2019 Polar music prize. The Swedish award is considered the music world’s equivalent of the Nobel prize. Previous laureates include Metallica (2018), producer Max Martin (2016), György Ligeti (2004) and Joni Mitchell (1996). Abba manager […]
British-american rapper 21 Savage has been granted a release from custody on bond. The 26-year-old had been arrested last week by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) who said the rapper, whose given name is She’yaa Bin Abraham-Joseph and was born in Britain, was living in the US with an expired visa. Vulture...
“My daughters are obsessed with Billie Eilish. The same thing is happening with her that happened with Nirvana in 1991. People say, ‘Is rock dead?’ When I look at someone like Billie Eilish, rock and roll is not close to dead!” - Dave Grohl said to Live Nation CEO's Michael Rapino at a one-on-one discussion […]
50 Cent announces he’s in full support of a publicized boycott against Gucci amid a blackface sweater going viral. He said he's gonna give all his Gucci stuff to the homeless (SOHH). Lil Pump has also announced his decision to boycott the fashion brand, but revealed why he’ll still perform his standout track 'Gucci Gang' […]
"For the last decade, Marina – formerly Marina and the Diamonds – has sat on the precarious fence between mainstream and underground pop: someone with that curious, 21st-century kind of fame where you can rack up tens of millions of streams without ever having a Top 10 single. The Welsh native’s first solo work in […]
