Madonna will co-write and direct a movie about her rise to fame, with the help of Oscar-winning 'Juno' screenwriter Diablo Cody, Entertainment Weekly reports. The script is expected to chart Madonna's rise from Michigan, to the slums of New York City, to global superstardom - via songs such as 'Like A Virgin' and 'Vogue'. “The focus of this film will always be music. Music has kept me going and art has kept me alive" - Madonna said in an announcement of the movie.

Sufjan Stevens says 'Sugar' is "about the desire for goodness and purity", and the hypnotics quality of the song makes a case for it; Amanda Ong is a singer-songwriter on the rise, her beautiful voice promises a lot - 'Leave Me Alone'; it's hardly a new song, but Brandi Carlile's version on 'Mad World' sang from the bottom of her lungs ads a new dimension to it; Slowthai's 'Feel Away' is, well, different - it's gentle and mellow, with a video of James Blake singing from rapper's uterus!; Death Valley Girls sing for love and joy on 'Under the Spell of Joy'; Small Bills is a new project, made of rapper Elucid and producer the Lasso, their first single 'Safehouse' goes from afro-beat to funk, from discomfort and uncertainty.

The plastic crown worn by the Notorious B.I.G. at his last photo shoot sold for $594,750 at Sotheby's auction, New York Post reports. The crown was originally purchased for $6 at a novelty store, and Brooklyn-based photographer Barron Claiborne made pictures of Biggie wearing the crown for the cover of Rap Pages magazine in 1997, just three days before rapper's death. Biggie's publisher Sean 'Puffy' Combs didn't like it, “he said it would make Biggie look like Burger King”. The auction also included love letters written by Tupac Shakur at 16 - a total of 22 handwritten letters sold for $75,600, BBC reports.

The new documentary 'Sleep' by Natalie Johns is about what many consider Max Richter's magnum opus - an eight-and-a-half-hour composition 'Sleep' with 204 movements in a plangent, ambient and mellow vein, designed to be listened to while the audience is asleep. This new docu focuses on an open-air event in the Grand Park in Los Angeles. Guardian's Peter Bradshaw says the docu on "this toweringly quixotic work" is a "beguiling film" and "anything but a snooze".

Moroccan-French quartet Nadya! released their debut album - a "fusion of contemporary rock and funk and ancient traditional Moroccan musical forms including gnawa and chaabi", the Quietus says in their review of fresh sound on ancient music on 'Bab L' Bluz'. "And while influenced by music from across North Africa there is a fluid thread... to what they describe as the origins of the music, gnawa trance, and Malian blues".

"Reading history, literature, poetry, and economics is a pleasure and a necessity; learning how the world works and our relation to it, as banal as it sounds, is an essential component of the writing life" - music writer Alfred Soto shares a bit of advice to music journalists in MJI interview. He also believes blogging still helps, he keeps one - Humanizing the Vacuum.

"There’s no freewheeling carnage here, nor the chance to indulge in the classic fest camping ritual. Instead, this is a communal celebration of excitement at actually being outside and watching music" - NME reports from Wild Fields, a socially distanced festival, perhaps a new model for festivals. It is modest - there are three stages, two bars and a merch stand, the audience is spread in pods, and the line-up is made of local bands. "By providing a legitimate festival experience – or at least the closest we’ll get to it this year – the team have forged a celebration of everything we’re missing in 2020: the dissonant echo from a stage plopped in the middle of a field as we escape the real world, and all its woes, for the spiritual relief of music in the company of like-minded souls" - NME argues - "It all creates an atmosphere that digs into the heart of what festivals have always been about: escapism".

Author Justin Quirk talked to The Word podcast about his latest book 'Nothin’ But A Good Time: the Spectacular Rise and Fall of Glam Metal' on the age of the big hair, big songs, and big fun. Quirk was a big fan, knows a lot, but however, says you can draw a link between Kiss and Trump. Informative and entertaining!!!

Resident Advisory and Guardian both report about the Beirut club-scene, or rather what's left of it after the big explosion. As much of Lebanon's nightlife was centred a short walk away from the port where the ammonium nitrate was stored, hundreds of bars, clubs and restaurants were hit hard by the blast. People's attitude towards music has also changed - Rend Shamma, 34, art director of nightclub Überhaus says “So many people say it’s hard to even listen to music now. The few times I’ve tried, it doesn’t feel good. I drive in silence”.

In this week's edition of Tusk is Better Than Rumours, the avant-guard newsletter presents Zeena Parkins, a harpist who "did for the harp what John Cage did for the piano - expanded its possibilities by testing its limits". Parkins experiments with techniques, plays both acoustic and electric harp, makes a harp sound like an electric guitar. So, there's much more to the harp than we usually think...

"Conspiratorially-minded pop stars have always been the best to hang out with. Every quote is paranoid gold, every story full of mystery and intrigue and, Jesus, have they got the best drugs" - NME's Mark Beaumont wrote in response to Ian Brown's tweet-trum “NO LOCKDOWN NO TESTS! NO TRACKS! NO MASKS NO VAX!”.

An interesting thread at Music REDEF about how some songs came to life: Lynyrd Skynyrd's 'Free Bird' turned from a four-minute ballad into a nine-minute guitar epic because singer Ronnie van Zant needed time to rest his voice so the other guys needed to fill in the space. Jay-Z had to lie to get the rights to a sample from 'Annie' for 'Hard Knock Life'. Rick Astley made a tea, producer Mike Stock sang the melody into his ear, Astley went into the studio, next day 'Never Gonna Give You Up' was a hit...

Ghost Cult magazine reached out to Facebook to find out what exactly do the new rules, coming in effect October 1, mean to FB video-streamers. In short, videos with music are okay, but not long interrupted videos, uploads of entire albums with no visual, or long music clips with no video, uninterrupted.

The documentary about Harlem’s historic Apollo Theater won the Emmy for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special, beating Spike Jonze’s 'Beastie Boys Story', Michelle Obama documentary 'Becoming', 'Laurel Canyon: A Place in Time', and 'The Great Hack', Pitchfork reports. Director Roger Ross Williams said in his acceptance speech “As Ta-Nehisi Coates says in the film, ‘Our music is so beautiful that even those with their boots on our necks can't help but sing along’". Emmys are being awarded until Saturday, ET Online will list all the winners.

Music manager and promoter David McLean is turning his career into film, 'Schemers', which tells the story of his early days attempting to book Iron Maiden. He shared some anecdotes with the Guardian: "I was used to promoting bands who turned up in a transit van but Iron Maiden turned up in a huge tour bus. Their tour manager said: 'Where’s the crew?' I went: 'The crew?' I ran outside, found four inebriated people standing nearby and went: 'That’s the crew'... The venue held 2,000 but we’d only sold 200 tickets because I’d forgotten to put up any posters. We took the band to the pub. When we came back, people were queuing round the block. It sold out on the door".

Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl has shared a video of a new theme song he wrote for the 19-year-old drummer-wunderkind Nandi Bushell. Grohl plays guitar, drums, and bass on the track, while his daughters (The Grohlettes) provide backing vocals - “She got the power/ She got the soul/ Gonna save the world with her rock and roll!”. Bushell reacted to the video saying “I can't believe Mr. Grohl wrote a song about me!?!".Tweet Fighters

"Me and my homeboys sittin' up here talkin' about all the people that President Trump disrespected. Women, gays, transgenders, blacks, Mexicans, Asians, and now veterans" - Snoop Dogg said in a video post about the American president, adding "hmmm. Seems like he's disrespecting every color in the world and everything that ain't what he is, which is a racist". Snoop believes Trump needs to the changed, All Hip Hop reports - "so, the next motherf##ker, you better tell us what we gon' get for your vote. You better show up and deliver, period. We just want some peace, love, equality, and tranquillity for everybody. All lives. Just basic conversation. Now carry on".

An auction featuring items from the collection of long-time Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman broke records for the most expensive bass guitar, amplifier, and - a toilet seat, Rolling Stone reports. The record-breaking bass is Wyman’s 1969 Fender Mustang bass with a competition orange finish, which Wyman used on Rolling Stones recordings between 1969 and 1970. It sold for $384,000. Wyman’s 1962 Vox AC30 Normal model amplifier sold for $106,250. The star of the auction was a plush yellow toilet seat cover embossed with the Rolling Stones’ tongue logo which sold for $1,142, another world record, this one for most expensive toilet seat cover. The auction featured over 1,000 lots from Wyman’s archive, including instruments, gear, stage-worn costumes, awards, personal items and ephemera from his time with the Stones and as a solo artist.

The music of the late Johnny Cash - including songs 'Ring of Fire' and 'Walk the Line', will be reimagined by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra for a new 12-track album that is set to arrive in November, Uncut reports. The album sees Cash’s original vocals being complimented by the orchestra. Johnny Cash’s son, John Carter Cash, says his father was a fan of the RPO: "I was around ten years old and he and I went to see three films from the James Bond saga at a festival in New York. When the theme for Goldfinger began, he leaned over to me. 'That’s the finest orchestra in the world, son', he said. ‘That’s the Royal Philharmonic’".

TikTok operations in the United States will be taken over by Oracle, the Associated Press reports. TikTok, which says it has 100 million U.S. users and about 700 million globally, is a very popular social media among teenagers. In other TikTok news, NME reports that a TikTok video by 19-year-old Bella Poarch soundtracked by a Blackpool grime song ‘M To The B’ has become the most popular video on the entire platform with over 32 million likes.

Singer Jill Brown has started a record label Criminal Records in an effort to give a voice to jailhouse Scots, BBC reports. "It's to plant a seed of hope to let them see that their lives can be better" - Brown says. An inmate named Ryan (in his early 30s) says that music during his incarceration "means everything really. It gives me something positive to do every day. When I'm in my cell it gives me something to look forward to - hopefully using it to keep me out of the jail when I'm outside".

American 19-rapper/singer PPCocaine is calling herself the "filth queen" of TikTok, and she has lyrics such as “Hold on, bitch, did you hear what the Fuck I said? Shake some ass, hoe” to prove it. Her songs feature some seriously X-rated lyrics, which contrast against her cartoon-like singing voice. She has 3 million TikTok followers, some of whom like to do as they're told, and some are opposed. "I get my music is not for everybody, but bitch, keep your opinion to yourself” - as she's told the LA Times.

Revenues for recorded music in the U.S. increased 5.6% to $5.7 billion in the first half of 2020, TechCrunch reports. Streaming continued to drive the growth as the number of paid subscriptions increased by 24% to more than 72 million on average, growing subscription streaming revenues for first-half 2020 by 14%, over first-half 2019. Streaming music revenues grew 12% to $4.8 billion in the first half of 2020. Physical sales, including vinyl albums and compact discs fell 23%.

Big Sean is opening this week’s Billboard 200 at No. 1 as 'Detroit 2' debuts with a total of 103,000 units (93.55 million on-demand streams, 30,000 album sales). This marks the rapper’s third consecutive No. 1 on the chart, Billboard reports.

he Rolling Stones climbed the top of the UK album chart with their reissue of 'Goats Head Soup', the second time the album has ruled the Official U.K. Albums Chart. With their latest chart feat, The Stones become the first band in history to land a No. 1 album across six different decades, UK Chart report. The Rolling Stones now have 13 No. 1 albums, including the 1973 original edition of 'Goats Head Soup', placing them level with Elvis Presley and Robbie Williams. Only The Beatles have more career No. 1 albums in the U.K., at 16.

Sid McCray, the original singer of legendary punk band Bad Brains, affectionately known as SidMac, has died, CoS reports. McCray led the band from 1977 to 1978, when they were still a jazz fusion outfit known as Mind Power. He’s credited with introducing his bandmates to punk rock, specifically through albums by Sex Pistols and Ramones, when the band took the name Bad Brains. McCray wrote early Bad Brains songs like 'The Regulator', but ultimately stepped aside as frontman to let his friend and guitarist H.R. take over. He was part of the Brains road crew.

Nothing released 'Say Less', powerful, pounding shoe-gaze new single; new Flaming Lips album is made for people wanting some more of psychedelia light, but 'Assassins of Youth' is a stand-out song in any cosmos; singer-songwriter Krystle Warren made a powerful statement about the struggle for Black equality with a cover of Kermit the Frog's 'Bein’ Green'; Off The Meds may eventually take some wrong steps along the way, but for now they're playing good, slightly dark club music - 'Karlaplan'; (fellow Swedes) Dark Tranquility play what they know best on 'Phantom Days' - melodic death metal; Delta Spirit released a new album, with a happy Americana 'It Ain't Easy' as a stand-out song.

Education initiative FutureDJs first managed to get DJ decks recognised as an instrument for GCSE assessment. Last week they went a big step further - London College of Music Examiners published a syllabus that offers grade certifications on CDJs (decks for manipulating music from CDs or digital files). This puts them on a par with classical and jazz instruments, and provides detailed criteria for teachers assessing GCSE-level pupils who work with CDJs. Guardian reports on the big move forward.

Americans purchased $232 million USD worth of vinyl records in the first half of this year, out of a total of $376 million in physical music sales, Pitchfork reports. This marks the first time since the 1980s that CDs were outsold. Streaming revenue brought in $421 million USD in the first six months of 2020.

NME's columnist wrote, as usual, a warm and funny text, this time about music docus: "One of the main reasons we can watch documentaries about hugely successful bands without seething with envy is the knowledge that, had we followed that career path ourselves, our odds weren’t too great of living to be in the documentary"!!! The last one he liked is the one about The Band - "a rare example of bit players striking it big on their own terms, then watching on helplessly as success tugged at their stray flaws until the whole thing unravelled".