Metallica has announced the opening of The Metallica Black Box which will offer an unprecedented and ongoing deep dive into every era of Metallica from the early 1980s garage days up to its present status as hard rock stars. The project debited with The Black Album Exhibition, the Black Box, Loudwire reports.
ABBA earn their highest charting album ever on the Billboard 200 with their first album in 39 years, as 'Voyage' debuts at No. 2 on the chart, Billboard reports. 'Voyage' starts with 82,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. Of that sum, album sales comprise 78,000, making it the top-selling album of the week and the largest sales week for an album by a group in 2021. Another big feat on Billboard 200 chart this week - Summer Walker earns her first No. 1 album as the singer’s second studio LP, 'Still Over It', arrives atop the list with 166,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. It marks both the first R&B album by a woman to top the Billboard 200 in more than five years and the largest streaming week ever for an R&B album by a woman, Billboard reports.
Venezuela's network of youth orchestras organized a world records attempt at Venezuela’s military academy Saturday where thousands of musicians, mostly children and adolescents, played with a single goal: setting the record as the world’s largest orchestra, Deutsche Welle reports. The musicians performed a roughly 10-minute Tchaikovsky piece 'Slavic March' outdoors under the watchful eyes of independent supervisors with the job of verifying that more than 8,097 instruments were playing simultaneously, which would break the current record. The Guinness World Records will determine within 10 days whether a record was set.
Rolling Stone conducted a 9-months investigation on Marilyn Manson based on court documents and more than 55 new interviews. They found he "conditioned women through flattery and dark humor before introducing a pattern of abuse that allegedly included whipping, carving initials into skin, forced confinement, and rape. Some accusers allege that he plied them with drugs and alcohol, controlled their eating and sleeping habits, and held them captive emotionally and physically until they submitted to his will". A disturbing story on power and abuse of it.
18-year old Kid Laroi has scooped the top prize in the Australian 2021 National Indigenous Music awards, Sidney Morning Herald reports. Kid Laroi, who is now based in Los Angeles, took home the artist of the year award, beating nominees Sycco, Birdz, Miiesha, Baker Boy and Jessica Mauboy. JK-47 claims award for debut album, Budjerah crowned best new talent and Miiesha wins song of the year for 'Damaged'.
The full list of NIMA winners:
Artist Of The Year: The Kid LAROI
Album Of The Year: JK-47 – ‘Made For This’
Song Of The Year: Miiesha – ‘Damaged’
Best New Talent of the Year: Budjerah
Best Film Clip Of The Year: Baker Boy (Feat. Yirrmal) – ‘Ride’
Indigenous Language Award Of The Year: Guwanbal Gurruwiwi and Netanela Mizrahi – ‘The Djari Project’
Community Clip Of The Year: Kakadu Collective & Victor Rostron – ‘Mayali’
Archie Roach Foundation Award: J-Milla
aylor Swift's re-recording 'Red (Taylor’s Version)' smashed the record for the most-streamed album in a day by a female artist on Spotify with more than 90.8 million streams around the globe, Billboard reports. That number only surpasses Swift’s own 'folklore', which previously held the record at 80.6 million streams upon its surprise July 2020 release. Taylor also earned the distinction as the most-streamed female artist in a single day in Spotify's history with more than 122.9 million streams.
Abba's long-awaited 'Voyage' - their first album of new material for 40 years - shot straight to number one on the UK album chart, earning them the biggest opening week of sales for any album in four years, the UK Official Charts reports. Its 204,000 first-week chart sales is the highest since Ed Sheeran's 'Divide'. Aside from Abba, Sheeran and One Direction, only Adele's '25' has breached the 200,000 barrier for first-week sales in the past decade. 'Voyage' is also the fastest-selling vinyl release of the century, overtaking the Arctic Monkeys' 'Tranquillity Base Hotel & Casino' from 2018.
Whet Records – Warner Music Group‘s pan-Asian dance label in China - is launching a ‘metaverse group’ consisting of four virtual characters, Music Business Worldwide reports. 10:22 PM, which UMG refers to as a “next-gen Web3 label”, is getting into the world of non-fungible tokens and virtual artists simultaneously, with the launch of the new group, called KINGSHIP. The characters are from Bored Ape Yacht Club, which UMG says is one of the most successful non-fungible token (NFT) projects of all time. KINGSHIP was formed by 10:22PM’s founder Celine Joshua, who according to UMG “engineered the landmark, first-ever exclusive agreement to create a metaverse group”.
Britney Spears was freed from her conservatorship during a landmark court hearing on Friday, where a Los Angeles judge decided to grant her request for termination of the 13-year-long conservatorship, the New York Times reports. Judge Brenda Penny's decision came after Spears and both of her parents, Jamie and Lynne, filed petitions in support of the dissolution of the conservatorship.
R.E.M.'s frontman made a list of music that was crucial to him at certain points in his life. The list is eclectic, folding in bubblegum pop, unvarnished folk, grunge, electronic music, and more. Pitchfork brings Stipe's music time-line.
