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Elvis Presley listens to Bill Haley tune a guitar.

Drums, guitar, voices, and elation: the Beatles’ “She Loves You” is the essence of pop, a too-good-to-be-true, you-won’t-believe-your-ears burst of youthful hilarity. Yes, hilarity; all those yeahs and oohs are about the singer finding out that someone loves his friend. The friend thought that she didn’t love him—but the singer found out that she does! Ooh! It’s wonderful, as happy and ridiculous as love. Bob Stanley’s new book, “Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!: The Story of Pop Music from Bill Haley to Beyoncé,” like the song it takes its title from, is an exuberant celebration of the silly and the sublime. Stanley, a British music journalist and co-founder of the pop group Saint Etienne, loves pop and has a deep, knowing respect for it. His book is comprehensive—some six hundred pages—yet nimble. He is pro-joy and anti-snobbery; his writing delights and surprises, and his description of the music makes you want to dance to it.

Books about rock and pop are plentiful; attempts to explain the entire development of pop—how it happened, and why—are not. Great pop, Stanley says, comes from “tension, opposition, progress, and fear of progress.” Among the tensions: those “between industry and the underground, between artifice and authenticity, between the adventurers and the curators, between rock and pop, between dumb and clever, and between boys and girls.” The best pop comes from “juggling those contradictions rather than purging them”—from taking the most interesting sounds from disparate places, modifying them, personalizing them, and making them new. Saint Etienne, Stanley’s coed three-piece, has long embodied this philosophy: its buoyant, literate dance pop incorporates melodic sixties influences like the Beach Boys and girl groups; disco, folk, house, and other genres; dialogue from British realist cinema; and ingenuity: its cover of Neil Young’s “Only Love Can Break Your Heart” is a melancholy delight, the perfect soundtrack to a mesmerized trance at home or on the dance floor. Stanley doesn’t discuss Saint Etienne except for a brief note in the introduction. He dives eagerly into the story of everybody else.

“The story of pop music is largely the story of the intertwining pop culture of the United States and the United Kingdom in the postwar era,” he begins. As I bopped along, from jump blues to Elvis to skiffle, from soul to the British Invasion to Dylan to Haight-Ashbury and bubblegum and ska and glam and punk and “Thriller” and metal and hip-hop and Britpop and on and on, one song, marvellously evoked, stayed in my head all the way through. Stanley gives the song its due in Chapter 1:

There are a few intros in the pop canon that give you an adrenaline shot within a second—literally—of them starting up. . . . The hard, silver chord that opens “A Hard Day’s Night” is one; there’s also the oddly dolorous but huge sound that opens T. Rex’s “Metal Guru,” the barely controlled bagpipe glee of the Crystals’ “Da Doo Ron Ron,” the cascade of Pepsi bubbles on Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.” Right at the beginning, there was the sharp double snare hit, followed by “One two three o’clock, four o’clock rock . . . ”

The way Stanley tells the story of Bill Haley and “Rock Around the Clock” is characteristic of his approach: he evokes both the magic of the music (“an unfeasibly fast-picked guitar line . . . a total blast, like a double-speed ‘Tom and Jerry’ party piece—not violent, but exciting enough to make you laugh out loud”) and the less magical humans who create it. Bill Haley may have invented rock and roll, but he was no pop idol: in 1957, when he went to tour Britain at the height of his fame, “Thousands of fans met him and the Comets, the saviors of modern youth, at Southampton. They were expecting a sun god,” Stanley writes. Instead, they got “Uncle Bill who was a bit too loud and sweaty at a wedding party, who had dark rings under his sleeves, making bitter, off-color jokes about his ex-wife.” So much for the American Invasion. (Then, in Chapter 2, along comes Elvis, who, with “Heartbreak Hotel,” makes Americans realize that they have hormones that “Haley, Eddie Fisher, and Perry Como” are “never going to stir,” and promptly takes over the world.) But Stanley isn’t mocking Haley—he respects him, and he sees life as it is.

Stanley proceeds chronologically, but story by story: each chapter describes a group, genre, or time period that makes its own narrative whole. Thus the chapter on the Beatles goes from Quarrymen to post-breakup, with each ex-Beatle becoming a solo artist and somehow too much himself, and then as the next chapter begins you’re back in 1961, at the dawn of Merseybeat. This jumping around, if disorienting, feels right—true to the integrity of each little world. As the book progresses, Stanley illustrates and celebrates the forces he’d referred to earlier that create brilliant pop, among them the intermingling of cultures and genres (the British discovery of American blues; early-seventies ska); industry (the Brill Building, Motown, and beyond; the hardworking musicians of ABBA); reactions against forms that had become too dominant (the rise of the singer-songwriter era, glam, punk); spontaneity and inventiveness (British teens becoming skiffle musicians, via washboards, buckets, and mops; the creation of hip-hop and break dancing in the South Bronx, via sound systems and block parties). Reading through the book, you feel modernity happening again and again, music expanding and shifting and growing richer, to dizzying, exhilarating effect.

The stories are full of underappreciated characters (the Shadows, Eddie Cochran, Joe Meek, Wanda Jackson, the Bee Gees) and songs (“Fujiyama Mama,” “Sugar, Sugar”) and unexpected views. For the American reader, this is in part because Stanley is British—he doesn’t necessarily worship Buddy Holly or Johnny Cash or the Pixies the way most of us do, nor does he apologize for it. (Though he does suggest that he might someday love Steely Dan more than he does now.) When he’s critical, it’s often to point out what he sees as musical conservatism (Phil Collins, Live Aid, heavy metal), personal meanness (Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis), or unhelpful hype (British journalists’ outsized role in the creation of Britpop). He has good taste, and sometimes it will match yours and sometimes it won’t. He loves glam but is surprisingly acid about New Wave (“a slew of balding and/or bespectacled singer-songwriters emerged to take out their physical shortcomings on the public”). I was charmed by his crazy rhapsodizing about Christopher Cross’s “Sailing” (“gorgeous,” and “just like a flotation tank”) until I read the things he had to say about Linda Ronstadt (“You’re No Good” was “overcooked and turned to slurry”), and about “Double Fantasy,” one of the first albums I bought with my own money (“a thin stew of icky philosophies mushed in a blender”). (I guess I’m into gruel.) But he’s always interesting and entertaining. Without coming across as a know-it-all, he connects many dots for us—as when he helpfully points out, in a footnote, the songs that feature or adapt the Bo Diddley rhythm, from “His Latest Flame” to “Magic Bus” to “How Soon Is Now?,” or makes stern, smart observations about the parallels between Madonna and Prince.

Stanley is very clear about the correct spirit of rock and roll. Early on, he writes, “When later generations coined the term ‘rock ’n’ roll lifestyle’ . . . they did the innovators a bad disservice: first-wave rock ’n’ roll was fast-moving, fun, disposable, and defiantly youthful, no time for cliché. There is more rock ’n’ roll in the three minutes of passionate dishevelment in Barbara Pitman’s ‘I Need a Man’ than the combined catalogues of Aerosmith and Mötley Crüe.” And “The Stones were the Bartlebys of modern pop, and could be seen either as refuseniks, street-fighting men, or—forty years on—as libertarians, avatars of the new right. . . . Their nonchalance has been taken up by hundreds of bands in the last forty years, from the Doors onward, to excuse lethargy, tedium, childishness; it’s been a serial abuse of the term ‘rock ’n’ roll.’ “ You can love the Rolling Stones and still want to high-five Stanley for this. Right on.

In including all of pop history in “Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!,” or as much of it as he can, Stanley demonstrates that correct rock-and-roll spirit. You, the music-loving reader, get to embrace the genres and individuals you love as well as those you’ve spent a lifetime not learning about: Pink Floyd, say, or bubblegum, or the Eagles, or acid house. It’s good to have the whole messy, sprawling family together. It gives you perspective. And perspective is a useful thing to have if you’re a fan who’s lived through the rise and fall not just of genres but of formats, and of the recording industry itself. Stanley ends on a hopeful note, finding promise in Missy Elliott’s use of a tumbi in “Get Ur Freak On” and in the hints of the Chi-Lites, northern soul, and Blondie in Beyoncé’s “Crazy in Love.”

In an early chapter, Stanley writes that Phil Spector “condensed pop to romance and sex, crushes and breakups, love and pride. For many people who bought his records, he gave the subject matter the backdrop it deserved: this was the stuff of life itself.” Stanley’s book gives all of pop its due; the many genres and artists he celebrates seem to be variations on expressing that stuff of life. Of the Beatles, he writes, “The secret was nothing more than their fandom.” They were “cultural omnivores” who, “through their appetite for cultural newness and apparent fearlessness, seemed to speak a future language.” They listened to everything they could, they made those sounds their own, and they made them new. They said yeah.

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Early summer 2007, I spent all my non-working hours sitting next to the warm, greasy swimming pool of my apartment complex listening to Hanson’s “MMMBop” on repeat through a crummy pair of earbuds. I was, admittedly, feeling a bit lost at this point in my life, so there was something comforting in recognizing and fulfilling my part in such a straightforward symbiotic relationship: my job was to listen to “MMMBop,” and the job of “MMMBop” was to make me want to keep listening. As long as I kept hitting repeat, something in the world was working exactly how it was supposed to.
Around this same time, I was getting serious about writing fiction, and one day a question occurred to me: Is there a literary equivalent of pop music? Is it even possible to reproduce that catchiness, that playfulness, that danceability with the written word?
I certainly want it to be possible, so I’ve been kicking the question around ever since. It’s a tough one to answer, though. One big challenge lies in defining pop music, a genre that encompasses everything from “We Belong Together” to “The Twist” to “Shake It Off.”
Most broadly, pop music is music that’s popular. Based on that definition, the answer to my question is obvious: The literary equivalent of pop music is literature that’s popular. Pull up The New York Times bestseller list, see what’s at the top, and there you go — nice and easy. But to paraphrase the great Tina Turner, we’re not going to do this nice and easy. We’re going to do this nice and rough — to understand how pop music works, we’re going to look at an explanation of how popular movies work according to Roberto Bolaño’s “The Return,” a short story which itself might be the literary equivalent of a pop song.
At the beginning of Bolaño’s story, the unnamed narrator dies — “death caught up with me in a Paris disco at four in the morning” — and then, as a ghost, follows his corpse around to observe its postmortem fate. In describing the experience of dying, the narrator invokes the 1990 Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze movie Ghost. When he saw the movie in theatres, the narrator dismissed it as kitsch, especially the scene where Patrick Swayze’s character dies and “his soul comes out of his body and stares at it in astonishment. Well, apart from the special effects, I thought it was idiotic. A typical Hollywood cop-out, inane and unbelievable.” However, much to the narrator’s chagrin, on dying he finds himself, a disembodied soul, staring down at his own corpse: “I was stunned. First, because I had died, which always comes as a surprise, except, I guess, in some cases of suicide, and then because I was unwillingly acting out one of the worst scenes of Ghost.” The movie’s depiction of dying may be completely inane, but it also turns out to be true.
Though initially dismayed that such a meaningful moment in his own life so closely resembles the death scene from Ghost, the narrator’s opinion of the movie improves after some consideration. Though he prided himself in life on being a man of refined taste, he concedes after his death that “there is sometimes more to American naiveté than meets the eye; it can hide something that we Europeans can’t or don’t want to understand.” The narrator discovers that in Ghost, the truth about death is hiding in plain sight, obscured not by layers of symbolism or ambiguity, but by its own kitschiness. Because it resembles so many other lazy Hollywood depictions of death, it might seem meaningless, but banality and truth are not mutually exclusive, an idea that’s key to understanding pop songs.
Take the lyrics of “MMMBop,” which manage to be completely bland, and at the same time, deeply preoccupied with some heavy existential ideas. About a third of the way through the song, the brothers put forth the following proposition: “Plant a seed, plant a flower, plant a rose / You can plant any one of those / Keep planting to find out which one grows / It’s a secret no one knows.” That last line signals a preoccupation with the unknowability of the future that only increases as the song continues, reaching an apex with the final insistent refrain: “Can u tell me? oh / No you can’t ‘cause you don’t know / Can you tell me? / You say you can but you don’t know / Say you can but you don’t know.” Amid all the ba duba dops, then, Hanson is wrestling with a relentlessly ambiguous universe and a completely unknowable future. These are big ideas — truly — and I’m not cherry-picking lines, either. Take a look at the full lyrics of the song, and the existential preoccupations become even more apparent. Ghost-like, Hanson’s song obscures its insights by stating them so unremarkably. The larger insights are also obscured by the fact that the lyrics are nearly unintelligible as sung, and while that may be completely appropriate to their larger thematic interest in the incoherent, it does mean that they lose their frightened edge for listeners and fail to create contrast with the song’s sunny melodies.
A better and more recent example of a pop song grappling with big ideas that we “can’t or don’t want to understand” is Carly Rae Jepson’s “Call Me Maybe.” Where “MMMBop” focuses on unknowability, “Call Me Maybe” explores the frighteningly compulsive nature of infatuation. Again, there’s an occasional triteness to the lyrics, especially in the verses, that belies its weighty preoccupations. A line like “I trade my soul for a kiss” may be hackneyed enough to blow by unnoticed, but it’s still describing a willingness to make a Faustian bargain. Adding to the singer’s angst is her self-awareness that the infatuation in question is just that — an unexpected (“I wasn’t looking for this”), unshakeable (“but now you’re in my way”) obsession with a near stranger (“Hey I just met you”). The singer finds herself in thrall to forces beyond her control, but what delights and disturbs me most about “Call Me Maybe” is the way it replicates that same compulsion in its listeners, just as Ghost’s depiction of dying is mirrored in the narrator’s own death.
In a 2013 interview with Mashable, Taylor Hanson (of Hanson) lays out his criteria for a great pop song: “Does it get in your head? Do you sing it over and over? Do you wanna sing it?” That last question gets at one of the more unsettling qualities of a catchy pop song, that sometimes, even if we don’t want to, we might find ourselves not only replaying a song again and again in our minds, but actually singing it out loud and maybe even dancing. It’s such a commonplace occurrence that it’s easy to think nothing of it, but really there’s a kind of possession taking place, a mysterious outside force commandeering our minds and compelling us to use our bodies (to sing or to dance) in ways that are not always voluntary. A catchy song is not unlike that creepy fungus that hijacks the brains of ants and compels them to climb higher and higher and higher so the fungus can sprout from the ant’s head and spread its spores.
And that compulsion brings us back to “The Return,” where the narrator’s dismay arises in large part from the fact that he’s “unwillingly acting out one of the worst scenes of Ghost” (my italics). He’s become an active participant in a piece of art which he disapproves of, and it’s happening against his will. At this point, though, the effects of pop music diverge from the dynamic in Bolaño’s story. In “The Return,” there’s no indication that the narrator’s death resembles that scene in Ghost because he saw the movie; there’s no causality there. Instead, the movie is accurately (and probably accidentally) describing a phenomenon that the movie itself has no direct effect on.
In contrast, a song like “Call Me Maybe” not only describes the frighteningly compulsive experience of infatuation (just as Ghost depicts the experience of death), it also generates a new compulsion in its listeners, a compulsion to sing along and dance along and, at the height of the song’s popularity a few years ago, to produce lip-sync tribute videos. This last phenomenon is pop music possession at its most explicit. If you haven’t seen any of these videos, here’s how they work: A group of people, sometimes famous, sometimes not, films themselves lip-syncing to Jepson’s song, and then they post their video on YouTube. These videos are then viewed (tens of millions of times, in some cases) by people who, in turn, create lip-sync videos of their own, and so it goes, on and on and on.
Unlike the narrator of “The Return,” these lip-syncers go out of their way to channel a piece of popular art through their own bodies; there’s a palpable eagerness there to be a conduit for the song. This is where Taylor Hanson’s third criteria is illuminating — plenty of pop songs might get stuck in your head, but a great pop song is one you want to get stuck in your head. It’s a form of voluntary possession in which the makers of these tribute videos capture — and create — a very public form of ecstatic experience, of being swept by something big and incomprehensible.
Because there is something big and incomprehensible about songs like “MMMBop” and “Call Me Maybe.” I just checked and, three years after its release, the official music video for “Call Me Maybe” has over half a billion views on YouTube. Granted, it’s a plenty catchy song that holds up on repeat listens, but who can fully account for that degree of widespread enthusiasm? There’s something majestic and frightening in the scope of its popularity which for me pushes “Call Me Maybe” into the territory of the sublime. To borrow 18th-century essayist Joseph Addison’s description of the Alps, Jepson’s song, and others like it, “fill the mind with an agreeable kind of horror.” That seemingly irreconcilable tension — agreeability and horror — is essential to great pop music.
This is why, for instance, Michael Jackson’s Thriller is the greatest pop album of all time. Jackson and producer Quincy Jones astutely foreground that tension between agreeability and horror throughout, creating music and lyrics (and music videos) that are catchy and danceable, and at the same time, preoccupied with discomfort. In “Billie Jean,” the tension arises from a baby’s disputed paternity. In “Beat It,” it’s knife fights. In “Thriller,” it’s werewolves. And start to finish, the album is compulsively listenable. Even the train wreck of “The Girl is Mine” (the doggone girl is mine — what?) is hard to turn away from.
So, to return to our initial question — if these are great pop songs, then what are their literary equivalents? (I’m going to exclude poetry at the outset as being too close to music to be an equivalent.) We’ve already looked at some key concerns and characteristics of pop music — compulsion and tension, agreeability and horror, banality and truth. I’d also add that pop songs are short, usually under five minutes, so their literary equivalent needs to be short as well. For that reason I’m excluding novels. Short stories, though, can be read in one sitting.
And of course, great pop songs have great hooks, so their literary equivalent needs to be both attention-grabbing and memorable. For a perfect case in point, here are the first lines of “The Return:” “I have good news and bad news. The good news is that there is life (of a kind) after this life. The bad news is that Jean-Claude Villeneuve is a necrophiliac.” It’s a memorable opening — and premise — that in lesser hands might produce a story that coasts on shock value. Instead, Bolaño develops a complex and surprising relationship between the narrator’s ghost and (fictional) French fashion designer Jean-Claude Villeneuve.
Like “MMMBop” and “Call Me Maybe,” “The Return” capitalizes on a tension between the agreeable and the horrible. While certain elements of the story — death, necrophilia — might inspire unease or distaste in readers, other elements — the story’s humor, its compassion — make the story not just palatable, but pleasant. It’s a fun read that also grapples with overwhelming concepts like death, compulsion, sex, and loneliness.
For all its pop-musicality, though, “The Return” is not an especially well-known story, at least not yet. And while we have rejected popularity as the sole defining characteristic of pop music, it is an important element. For that reason, Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” serves as a useful case study. Like “The Return,” it’s a story with a horrifying core — the random and ritualistic selection of a small-town resident for stoning — made agreeable by its engaging narrative elements — a stunning concision, a compelling sense of mystery. The story has also achieved the ubiquity of a “Hey Ya!” or an “Imagine.” Everyone reads this story in junior high, and with the possible exception of “The Most Dangerous Game,” no other 20th-century short story has insinuated itself so completely into the pop culture lexicon.
“The Lottery” also shares with “The Return” a counterfactual, high-concept premise that resists easy allegorizing. This play with realism correlates to another widespread characteristic of pop songs, the nonsense lyric. The chorus of “MMMBop” is fun to sing along with and it also means nothing, at least in a conventional sense. What’s more, you’re not going to find a lot of people puzzling over what mmmbop ba duba dop actually signifies, because signification isn’t the point.
No story exemplifies this dynamic better than Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings,” in which a winged old man shows up outside the house of a poor couple where he’s caged and examined until, at the end of the story, he flies away. The story’s characters, as well as its readers, find themselves asking questions that listeners of “MMMBop” don’t bother with — what does this nonsensical figure mean? But the story’s refusal to yield any clues as to the old man’s provenance or nature makes a strong case that we should read the story the same way we listen to the chorus of “MMMBop.” It matters less what the old man means, and more how his enigmatic presence fits within and affects the rest of the narrative.
Of course, some readers will persist in being frustrated by “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings,” just as many listeners are enraged by pop songs like “MMMBop” or “Call Me Maybe.” I think that’s true, actually, of all three stories I’ve mentioned, that they’re just as likely to inspire consternation as admiration.
Part of the reason for that is their ability to get under a reader’s skin. You may hate “The Lottery,” but if you’ve read it, you’re likely to remember it for a very long time. Similarly, people who hate “MMMBop” don’t hate it because it’s forgettable, they hate it because they can’t get it out of their head. Even that hatred, though, is a remarkable artistic feat. Love and hate are, after all, both forms of devotion, and the ability to inspire that devotion is, the more I think about it, the most essential characteristic of a truly great pop song.
When, in 2007, I fell in love with “MMMBop,” I felt an irresistible urge to share the song with others, to ask them to listen and to consider if maybe, like me, they’d dismissed it too readily when it first came out 10 years earlier. We’ve already discussed how that compulsion to share is a strange, overwhelming force, and it’s a compulsion I feel again now. As I’ve thought through the possible criteria for determining the literary equivalent of a pop song, I’ve thought of so many stories that fit the bill, stories that have gotten under my skin, stories that I have to share. Unable to resist that urge, I’ve put together a Thriller-sized playlist of nine pop-musical short stories:

 
1. “The Lottery,” by Shirley Jackson (from The Lottery and Other Stories)
2. “The Return,” by Roberto Bolaño (from The Return)
3. “Good Country People,” by Flannery O’Connor (from A Good Man is Hard to Find)
The names alone of the two main characters (Manley Pointer and Hulga) are worth the price of admission, and the story just gets better from there. Its jokey setup — a woman with a PhD in philosophy sets out to corrupt a naïve-seeming bible salesman — serves as a funny vehicle for a troubling exploration of condescension and pain.
4. “UFO in Kushiro,” by Haruki Murakami (from After the Quake)
After the Kobe earthquake of 1995, Komura’s wife leaves him, explaining in a note, “you are good and kind and handsome, but living with you is like living with a chunk of air.” What follows has the feel of a verse/chorus/bridge song structure as seemingly disparate narrative elements — the accusing note, a package whose contents are unknown to Komura, an extended conversation with the sister of a colleague — trade back and forth until they all come together, more-or-less, at the end of the story.
5. “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings,” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (from Collected Stories)
6. “The Cats in the Prison Recreation Hall,” by Lydia Davis (from The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis)
A prison recreation hall is infested with cats and then the warden gets rid of them — that’s basically the whole story. But the simple premise yields an engaging pop-song-short two-page narrative about power, cruelty, and the passing of time.
7. “End of the Line,” by Aimee Bender (from Willful Creatures)
“The man went to a pet store to buy a little man to keep him company.”
Another killer hook, this time for a story that takes a whimsical premise and follows it to dark places. By the end, the reader is left with the troubling question of whether the big man subjects the little man to a series of cruel humiliations because he can’t see his pet’s humanity or because he can.
8. “Eisenheim the Illusionist,” by Steven Millhauser (from We Others: New and Selected Stories)
Nineteenth-century Austrian magician Eisenheim stages increasingly audacious illusions that captivate the public and trouble government officials. It’s not just the descriptions of the magic tricks that captivate, though. The narrative itself contains flourishes and reveals that, rather than feel cheap or contrived, organically grow out of the story’s interests in spectacle.
9. Dormitory, by Yoko Ogawa (from The Diving Pool)
Tiny mysteries accumulate in this story, creating a tone both haunting and precise. The narrative’s indelible physical details — a stained ceiling, omnipresent bees, rigorous five-item to-do lists — ground the reader in a distinctly tangible world, which makes the dread-filled, disorienting effect of the story’s conclusion all the more affecting.

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Shawn Mendes' Manager Discusses Breakout 2016, Fan Outreach & Grammy Reaction

"Shawn was more excited and proud to see Chance the Rapper up [for a Grammy] than he cared that he wasn't," Andrew Gertler tells Billboard.
Although Shawn Mendes came into 2016 with a No. 1 album, a top 10 single and multiple tours already under his belt, the Canadian singer-songwriter spent the year spinning teen stardom into something even sturdier. Mendes followed up last year’s debut Handwritten with Illuminate , which scored his best sales week to date upon its September release; “Stitches” was succeeded by “Treat You Better,” another top 10 smash on the Billboard Hot 100 , as well as “Mercy,” both of which he performed on Saturday Night Live earlier this month; and his first headlining tour in support of Handwritten earlier this year has led to the Illuminate world tour, set to hit arenas beginning next spring.
Also in 2016: Mendes turned 18 years old. “It’s easy to forget that he’s still that young,” Andrew Gertler, the former Vine star’s longtime manager, tells Billboard. "I think we both have these moments of pinching ourselves, and he’s sometimes like, Wow, I’m only 18 . … He has those teenage moments, but he’s also very conscious of protecting the fact that he is still a teenager. Where I think he’s making music that might go beyond someone of his age at the time, a lot of his fans are his age and his peers, and he relates to them. He tries to maintain that authenticity.”
Gertler says that the creation of Illuminate , which was recorded in upstate New York and released just 17 months after Handwritten debuted at No. 1 in April 2015, was the defining process for both of their professional years; fresh off the surprise top 40 success of “Stitches,” Mendes wanted to prove himself an enduring songwriter with his sophomore album. " Handwritten was a great accomplishment, but now he’s been able to bring it as a mature storyteller,” Gertler explains. "I think that payoff of going from an artist known to the world for his hit song ‘Stitches’ and a teenage fan base, and then to harness that and end up on
SNL at the end of the year -- to me, that was the most memorable thing of this year, how far he came.”

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'The First Noel' Christmas Musical Opens at The Apollo, Bringing Refreshing Complexity to Seasonal Fare

Rolling out a new Christmas musical is a daunting feat -- after all, the holiday season is when people return to perennial favorites, seeking comfort in familiarity and entertainment that appeals to multiple generations.
To that end, The First Noel -- a Christmas-themed musical from the Classical Theatre of Harlem that opened at the Apollo Theater Tuesday (Dec. 13) night in New York City -- faces an uphill battle: Delighting an audience that is naturally going to compare it to other Christmas plays/musicals/movies they've known and loved for years.
But The First Noel , which takes place in current-day Harlem but mostly plays out in flashbacks to 1985, manages to deftly combine the familiar and the novel to create an original Christmas musical that feels simultaneously relevant to 2016 (gentrification is an underlying theme) and universal (the task of pulling together a family divided at the holidays is the main mission of The First Noel ).
Similarly, the music from Lelund Durond Thompson and Jason Michael Webb (writers of the book, music and lyrics) is mainly original, but it eases in new ears by incorporating a few Christmas classics and mining genres that are particularly warm and welcoming: Gospel, soul, and even a little New Orleans R&B.
The story focuses on adult Noel (Ashley Ware Jenkins) remembering her life as eight-year-old Noel (Nia Bonita Caesar), a young girl in Harlem who desperately wishes her family would celebrate Christmas despite her mother's stringent anti-holiday policy in the house. What could seem like a generic Christmas story foundation (a child who radiates the spirit of Christmas facing off against a cold-hearted grownup) is actually quite poignant and complicated, as it turns out Noel's mother, Deloris, is haunted by the loss of another daughter (also named Noel, i.e., the first Noel), a girl who passed away nine years earlier around Christmas while Noel was still in the womb.
The dream sequences from her mother are particularly innovative and affecting, depicting joyous seasonal celebrations that suddenly morph into her daughter's funeral. They're painful, inventively staged and haunting.
The rift that death created between Deloris (played by Soara-Joye Ross, who makes the pain of loss feel real with every line and note) and her mother Ethel (Tina Fabrique, the show's MVP*** who makes us empathize with Ethel's flaws and stuns the audience with the hearty depths of her voice) is one of the central conflicts of the play, along with the tension that loss creates between Deloris and her more even-keeled husband Henry (Ken Robinson, who gives the stage a firm, dramatic heft) and the trouble that starts between Deloris and her daughter.
Yes, it's much more weightier than you might expect from a holiday musical, but the emotional complexities of the story help make the comic moments (provided by the instantly likable Brian D. Coats and the lovably gruff Lizan Mitchell) that much more satisfying.
The most ingenious comedic moments, however, come via segments that cleverly tease the similarities between TV advertisements and televangelists. Much of the music in The First Noel is religious, and the tone is certainly reverent overall, but the performance from Mykal Kilgore -- of viral group Postmodern Jukebox and
The Wiz Live! fame -- as Benny Raindrop hysterically draws a parallel between the glibness of a preacher and the smooth talk of TV ad actors. Additionally, his affinity to musically stutter over syllables like a preacher gripped by the Holy Spirit is imposingly believable.
Like any good Christmas yarn, The First Noel
comes to a satisfying conclusion -- but unlike many a Christmas tale, it's hardly a pandering happy ending (but at the same time, don't fret --it's not a depressing conclusion either). Instead,
The First Noel is a distinct holiday story that's as believably specific as it is emotionally universal. And from the gorgeous recurring original "Life Happens" to the spot-on commercial jingles to the Baptist ecstasy of closing number "O Come, O Come Emmanuel," the music is a refreshing, fulfilling alternate to the usual glut of standard fare or top 40 holiday pop.
***Whether singing gospel-pop or New Orleans R&B-inflected numbers like "Make What You Want" in The First Noel, Tina Fabrique is the show's MVP. If you see the show and think, 'Hmm, I've heard that voice before,' you definitely have -- she sang the iconic TV theme to Reading Rainbow back in the day. And yes, her acting is as flawless as her voice.
The Apollo Theater Presents The Classical Theatre of Harlem's The First Noel is at The Apollo through Dec. 18, 2016.

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Eliminated But No. 1: 'The Voice' Singer Christian Cuevas Debuts Atop Hot Christian Songs

Although he didn't win season 11, Cuevas crowns the latest chart.
For the second consecutive week, a contestant from season 11 of NBC's The Voice arrives at No. 1 on Billboard's Hot Christian Songs chart. This time it's 20-year-old Christian Cuevas , whose version of Israel & New Breed 's "To Worship You I Live (Away)" opens atop the chart dated Dec. 24.
Competing in the semifinals for Team Alicia, Cuevas performed the song Dec. 5 and, despite his elimination following the episode, the recording sold 19,000 downloads in the tracking week ending Dec. 8, according to Nielsen Music. In addition to bowing atop Hot Christian Songs, "Worship" begins atop Christian Digital Song Sales.
(Israel's original was released on his set Alive in South Africa , which reached No. 3 on Top Christian Albums in 2005.)
In topping Hot Christian Songs with "Worship," Cuevas follows fellow Voice competitor and
newly crowned champion (Dec. 13), Sundance Head , of Team Blake (Shelton), whose cover of
Tom T. Hall 's "Me and Jesus" debuted atop the chart a week ago. The tracks are the sixth and seventh, respectively, by Voice finalists to open atop the list, dating to the first, by Meghan Linsey, in May 2015; see below. (Two prior titles had debuted at No. 1 since the chart launched in 2003: Matthew West 's "More," in 2004, and Carrie Underwood 's "Something in the Water," in 2014.)
Contestants from The Voice to Debut at No. 1 on Hot Christian Songs
"To Worship You I Live (Away)," Christian Cuevas, Dec. 24, 2016
"Me and Jesus," Sundance Head, Dec. 17, 2016
"Mary Did You Know," Jordan Smith, Jan. 2, 2016
"Amazing Grace," Braiden Sunshine, Dec. 26, 2015
"Hallelujah," Jordan Smith, Dec. 19, 2015
"Great Is Thy Faithfulness," Jordan Smith, Dec. 5, 2015
"Amazing Grace," Meghan Linsey, May 23, 2015

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Is Swedish House Mafia Reuniting in 2017? Multiple Sources Say Yes - But Manager Says No

Swedish House Mafia will reunite and tour together in 2017, multiple sources close to the situation tell Billboard, although the group's longtime manager Amy Thomson categorically denied to Billboard and via Twitter that a reunion is in the works.
The sources indicated that performances are likely to include Miami's Ultra Music Festival (where SHM members Axwell & Ingrosso are already billed as headliners), as well as New York and Los Angeles stops.
However, "There's no reunion of Swedish House Mafia planned at all," Thomson tells Billboard . "Even if there was, it's ridiculously private. They're not playing at Ultra. There's no reunion tour planned."
The sources maintained that the reunion is on.

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Lets talk about "Wizkid"

WizKid – Ojuelegba
Ayodeji Ibrahim Balogun, better known as WizKid, is a Nigerian artist, songwriter and performer who rose to prominence in 2010 with the release of the song ‘Holla At Your Body’ from his debut studio album titled ‘Superstar’. His second studio album titled ‘Ayo’, released under Starboy Entertainment, featured the song that would set him apart as one of Africa’s biggest artists titled ‘Ojuelegba’. The ‘Ayo’ album reached the number one spot in the iTunes world music category in less than 24 hours of its release, and ‘Ojuelegba’ was remixed by prominent hiphop artists Drake and Skepta. The video for the song has since amassed over 5 million views on YouTube. He has won numerous awards, including Song of the Year for ‘Ojuelegba’ at the 2015 Afrimmas, Most Gifted Duo/Group or Featuring at the 2014 Channel O Music Video Awards, Artist of the Year at the 2012 Headies Awards and Best International Act Africa at the 2012 BET Awards. He has landed notable endorsements, including a Pepsi endorsement with fellow musician Tiwa Savage in 2012. He made history in 2014 by becoming the first ever Nigerian musician to have over 1 million followers on Twitter.

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Lets talk about "AKA"

Kiernan Forbes, better known as AKA, is a South African hiphop artist who first noticed on the music scene in 2002. He has come a long way since he was part of the rap group Entity which produced the hit titled ‘Touch N Go’ and was nominated in 2005 for ‘Best African Hip Hop’ at the KORA Awards. The group disbanded in 2006, and in 2009, AKA dropped his debut solo album titled Alter Ego’ which featured his top singles ‘Victory Lap’, ‘All I Know’ and ‘Bang’ featuring Khuli Chana. He released his sophomore album in 2014 titled ‘Levels’ which featured smash hits such as ‘Congratulate’ and ‘Run Jozi’ with K.O. His biggest singles for 2015 include the collaboration with Nigeria’s Burna Boy and South Africa’s Da L.E.S and JR. The single scooped the Best Collaboration award at the 2015 MTV Africa Music Awards and the 2015 Afrimmas, and stayed on the number one spot on the iTunes Chart for nine consecutive weeks. His second single ‘Baddest’ featuring Burna Boy, Yanga and Khuli Chana is also on the iTunes Top 100 charts. He recently recorded a remix of the song featuring some of South Africa’s top female rappers Gigi Lamayne, Fifi Cooper, Rouge and Moozlie.

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Lets talk about "Davido"

Davido is one of Africa’s most prominent artists who rose to fame in 2011 with the release of his debut album titled ‘Omo Baba Olowo’. The album’s lead single was the song titled ‘Back Then’, but the song that put him on the African map and the one that topped most music charts, including the YFM music charts and GoldMyne’s top 10 songs of 2012 list was ‘Dami Duro’ featuring American-Senegalese hiphop artist Akon. The popularity of “Dami Duro” extended to the political world, where the governor of Oyo State in Nigeria Abiola Ajimobi sang the song while giving a speech at the
University of Ibadan . His 2014 single ‘Aye’ gained massive popularity on the continent, amassing over 27 million views on YouTube and winning numerous awards including Song of the Year at the 2014 Headies and Hottest Single of the Year at the 2014 Nigerian Entertainment Awards. ‘Skelewu’ was another smash hit from Davido which topped most music charts on the continent including reaching number 1 on Afribiz’s Top 100 chart. The dance for the song was very popular, with Davido releasing an instructional dance video for the song and creating a competition out the video were fans created and uploaded videos of themselves dancing to the song. Other popular hits include ‘Tchelete (Goodlife)’ which is a collaboration with South African pop duo Mafikizolo, ‘Naughty’ featuring Ivorian DJ Afafat and ‘Fans Mi’ featuring US rapper Meek Mill. Davido has won numerous awards including Music Video of the Year for ‘Aye’ at the 2014 Ben TV Awards, Best International Act: Africa at the 2014 BET Awards, Best Male West Africa at the 2015 Afrimmas and Best Male at the 2014 MTV Africa Music Awards. He is co-owner of the music label HKN Music, which he owns with his elder brother Adewale Adeleke.

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Rick Ross Announces Partnership With Rich Hair Care

Rick Ross announced a new business partnership with the luxury hair care line, Rich Hair Care, on Monday night (Dec. 12) at the Maybach Music Group-sponsored “Beauty & Belaire” event at his Atlanta home.
"This is an amazing new venture for me, and one that I am most excited about. Beauty and Hair care are both huge markets,” said Ross in a release.
The partnership comes after a busy year for the Bawse after announcing last month that his debut album under Epic Records, Rather You Than Me, will be released in 2017. The hip-hop mogul also has investments in his beloved Wingstop and Checkers/Rally’s burger chain

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Frankie Valli Not Crying as 'Jersey Boys' Prepares to Close

The guy who gave us the song "Big Girls Don't Cry" isn't tearing up over the imminent closing of the Broadway show about his life, Jersey Boys.
"I'm not sad," Frankie Valli said by phone. "I never dreamed it would last 11 years. The beauty about this whole situation is it's not over. It is now beginning to happen in other parts of the world."

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Lady Gaga, Stevie Wonder & More Pay Tribute to Tony Bennett for 90th Birthday Celebration TV Special

The Radio City Music Hall gala will air Dec. 20 on NBC.
Most people are barely able to blow out the candles on their cake when they turn 90, but that’s hardly the case with Tony Bennett, whose landmark birthday was celebrated in an all-star concert taped Sept. 15 at Radio City Music Hall. In this celebratory evening of music, the nonagenarian singer -- whose career is still going strong -- demonstrated his formidable lung power with a trademark rendition of “Fly Me to the Moon,” performed sans amplification. Considering the vastness of the venue, that’s no small feat. The show, called Tony Bennett Celebrates 90: The Best Is Yet to Come , airs Dec. 20 on NBC.
That the venerable singer is beloved was made amply evident by the sterling roster of performers on the bill. The show’s genial host was Bennett himself -- well, not really: It was actor Alec Baldwin, doing his hilariously expert impression. “I know your birthday was a couple of months ago,” he told Bennett, who was sitting in a prime seat in the auditorium. “But when you’re 90, every day above ground is a call for celebration.”

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Hitmakers Mosty & Feid Sign Publishing Deal With UMPG

Universal Music Publishing Group has signed an exclusive, worldwide publishing administration deal with Colombian management and publishing company Dynasty Music Group.
Under the deal announced today (Dec. 13), UMPG will represent the company's entire roster of artists including J Balvin hitmakers Mosty and Feid, as well as their newly signed songwriters/producers Jowan and Rolo. Dynasty Music Group is based in Medellín and owned by Juan Pablo Piedrahita and Daniel Giraldo.
Feid, real name Salomon Villada Hoyos, recently released his single "Qué raro" featuring J Balvin back in Oct. The songwriter and producer also co-wrote Balvin's smash hit "Ginza" and has worked with other major artists such as Nicky Jam , Reykon and Alberto Stylee.

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Lil Uzi Vert Charged Over Atlanta Dirt Bike Ride

Rapper Lil Uzi Vert has been charged with reckless driving and a host of other counts after police say he and another man raced through the streets of Atlanta on dirt bikes.
Police say the 22-year-old, whose real name is Symere Woods, and another man were observed by officers riding the bikes Thursday night. They say the men rode on sidewalks, drove up a street the wrong way and crossed five lanes of traffic without using turn signals.

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Barbra Streisand's 'Magic' Tour Wraps With $46 Million Earned

Barbra Streisand takes the No. 1 slot on
Billboard’s latest Hot Tours recap (see list below) with $10.7 million in ticket sales earned at concerts in four U.S. markets during November and December. The sold out shows at arenas in Houston, Tampa, Ft. Lauderdale and Miami were the only fall dates on the legendary artist’s The Music… The Mem’ries… The Magic! Tour that hit nine North American cities during the summer in August.
The tour’s opening trek ran for three weeks ahead of her Aug. 26 album release Encore: Movie Partners Sing Broadway . With the fall concerts added to the overall counts, the final box office gross reached $46 million from 177,524 sold seats at 14 concerts in 13 cities.
Kicking off the fall stint was a performance at the Toyota Center in Houston on Nov. 27, the singer’s first-ever concert in the city. With 11,591 fans in attendance, box office revenue surpassed $3 million to rank as the venue’s highest-grossing concert in 2016, according to Billboard Boxscore. Streisand also performed for the first time ever in Tampa, the next stop on the schedule, playing to a crowd of 10,035 at Amalie Arena on Nov. 30. With $2.4 million in sales, the sold out show was also the Tampa venue’s top-grosser this year.

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Beyonce Tops Google's Year-End List of Top Searches

Google's year-end list of most-searched artists and songs is topped by, who else? Beyoncé . Not only did Queen Bey beat out the rest of the top five -- Céline Dion , Kesha, Kehlani and Coldplay --her song "Formation" even bested Prince's "Purple Rain" and Rae
Sremmurd's ubiquitous "Black Beatles."
The top 10 music artist search list, according to data provided by Google, is a fascinating snapshot of 2016 virality, from 'Yonce's world-killing Lemonade album (and tour) helping vault her to the top, to Dion just below, with her return to Las Vegas and the tragic death of her longtime husband Rene Angelil, and then Kesha, who earned headlines all year courtesy of her ongoing legal battle against onetime mentor/label boss/producer Dr. Luke. Kehlani made news in 2016 thanks to her spot on the Suicide Squad soundtrack, news about her upcoming debut album and a brief hospitalization in May.

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Deezer Finds Kanye West and Marvin Gaye Are on Different Ends of the 'Sexy Voice' Spectrum

Kanye West may be famous , but his presence will not make you stronger in the bedroom. And you'll be saying sorry and end up having to love yourself if Justin Bieber ever rears his head on your sexy playlist.
Aaand, scene.
Today's comedy gold has been inspired by new research via sex expert Tracey Cox and the Paris-based streaming service Deezer, which recently surveyed its users on the overall impact music has in the boudoir.
While 30 percent of respondents said music makes them more aroused, and 25 percent believe it makes sex better, nearly half (49 percent) said Kanye's music was a turnoff and that they skip his songs in the bedroom. A nearly identical number of people (48 percent) said the same about Bieber's voice. Other undercover flops include Iggy Azalea and System of a Down.
On the other end of the spectrum, no one can (or ever will) beat Marvin Gaye, who got a thumbs up from 27 percent of respondents in a list of sexiest voices. Following Gaye is Lionel Richie with 18 percent, Luther Vandross at 16 percent, John Legend with 13 percent and Usher rounding out the top five with 12 percent. When it comes to "go to" songs for getting in the mood, Gaye rises to the top again with "Let's Get It On." Other mood enhancers include Rihanna 's "Skin," Ellie
Goulding's "Love Me Like You Do" and INXS ' "Need You Tonight."
"Music is a powerful, potent aphrodisiac so I'm not surprised so many Americans find it improves their sexual experiences," said Cox. "Listening to music causes our brain to flood with dopamine, the pleasure hormone. The same thing happens when we're getting intimate, so it effectively puts our bodies ‘in the mood.'"
According to Deezer, over 60 percent said the rhythm of a song was the key factor in music's ability to improve sex, followed by an artist's voice and the song's melody. "Physiologically, people's bodies love deep bass sounds, which, if loud enough, also produces vibration and make it powerfully arousing," said Cox.
The research also found that Saturday night from 8 pm until 10 pm was the most popular time for people to hit the sheets. Unsurprisingly, certain genres of music have an either positive or negative affect on festivities: R&B (nearly 30 percent), rock (20 percent) and pop (15 percent) topped the "turn-on" list, while heavy metal and rap (45 percent each) are major "turn offs."
Deezer is using the research as a way to nudge its active users (10 million worldwide at last count) to try its Flow playlist feature, which "identifies and recommends music to suit your personal tastes" using a mix of human editors and algorithmic analysis, commented head of editorial/content Roman Tagoe .
Sexy Lists:
The sexiest voices to listen to while having sex:
1. Marvin Gaye (27%)
2. Lionel Richie (18%)
3. Luther Vandross (16%)
4. John Legend (13%)
5. Usher (12%)
6. Frank Sinatra (12%)
7. Michael Bublé (11%)
8. R. Kelly (11%)
9. Bruno Mars (9%)
10. Rihanna (9%)
Least sexiest:
1. Kanye West
2. Justin Bieber
3. 50 Cent
4. Eminem
5. Jay Z
6. Iggy Azalea
7. Lady Gaga
8. McFly
9. Skepta
10. System of a Down
Top 10 ‘go to' songs to get Americans in the mood:
1. Let's Get It On – Marvin Gaye
2. Love to Love You Baby – Donna Summer
3. Skin – Rihanna
4. Drunk in Love – Beyoncé
5. Sexy Back – Justin Timberlake
6. Love Me Like You Do – Ellie Goulding
7. Lollipop – Lil Wayne
8. Need You Tonight - INXS
9. Magic – Coldplay
10. Intro – The XX

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Warner Music Group Hires Chief Information Officer, Adds New Data Role

Warner Music Group is shaking up its technology and data areas with the hiring of media and music veterans Ralph Munsen and Vinnie Freda to Chief Information Officer and Chief Data Officer, respectively. Both will be reporting directly to CEO Steve Cooper .
WMG said Munsen's responsibilities as CIO will include developing solutions -- and the systems and platforms to implement them -- that serve both the creative and commercial needs of WMG’s divisions, artists, and business partners. Munsen comes to the label after holding various senior roles at Accenture, EMI Music, Clear Channel/ iHeartMedia, Hachette Book Group and most recently, the media investment firm GroupM.
As CDO (a newly created post at WMG), Freda will zero in on strategy for data management throughout the label group. He was most recently president and COO of INgrooves Music Group, which followed more than two decades spent in various exec roles at MCA and Universal Music Group.
"The establishment of these two interdependent senior management posts reflects the importance of providing advanced tech solutions and comprehensive, user-friendly data to our teams across the globe," said Cooper in a statement. "Ralph and Vinnie both bring decades of deep experience and a forward-thinking, agile approach, which makes them ideally suited to WMG. Together, they will spearhead our efforts to deploy innovative technological tools while ensuring that data, accompanied by our instincts and expertise, is at the heart of our decision-making and best-in-class services for artists and songwriters."

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Coheed and Cambria Get Personal in 'Colors' Video: Premiere

Coheed and Cambria couldn’t let 2016 end without giving one last gift from the deluxe edition of its eighth studio album, The Color Before The Sun: Deconstructed . Thus, the progressive rockers have teamed up with Billboard to bring you the premiere of their music video, “Colors.”
"Colors brings us to the end of our album cycle, a tribute to all the fans that made it a successful one," frontman Claudio Sanchez says in a statement.
The deluxe edition was released Aug. 19 through 300 Entertainment and was followed by the band's highly anticipated fall tour with Saves the Day .
The original 10-track record was Coheed’s first non-concept album, marking the band’s departure from their sci-fi storyline The Amory Wars . In contrast, the deluxe edition is a sprawling 30 songs, featuring live performances and acoustic demos.
Much like the deluxe edition offers never-before-heard demos, the footage in Coheed's new video offers a look at the group behind the scenes: warming up for shows, goofing around backstage and an exuberant live performance.
“Colors” exudes an alternative rock vibe, beginning with the bass drum simply keeping time with Sanchez’s almost whisper-like vocals, gradually growing until bursting into the chorus.

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Young Thug Says His Mom Made Him Go Back to Airport & Apologize for Berating Airline Employees

It looks like Young Thug 's mother has talked some sense into him. After the rapper was filmed last week berating Alaska Airline employees over a flight he missed to a concert in Seattle, he posted to Instagram on Tuesday (Dec. 13) that he had gone back to make amends.
"When your mama make u go to the airport and apologize," he wrote with a photo of himself at the airport. He added, "sorry love ones...."
Young Thug had called the airline employees by calling them "peasants" and "ants," saying the women's hair was "nappy" and telling them they "look like Africans."
Needless to say, he caught some heat online, prompting him to address the issue on social media. Now it looks like he's addressed the issue in person, directly with those affected. Maybe Young Thug is growing up.

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The Fat Jew Announces IRL Tour 2017 With Major Behavior, Dillon Francis & More: Exclusive

We told you back in September all about The Fat Jew and his Major Lazer tribute band, Major Behavior. He teamed up with NYC-based DJ Maachew Bentley to rock the house with Major Lazer inspired tunes, so basically moombahton, reggae, Miami bass, dancehall, and the like. The Fat Jew steps in for Diplo , so there's literally no way it could suck.
Of course, one of the best parts of Major Lazer is the wild live show, so Major Behavior are set to hit the road, packin' their tour bus with hijinks and hairspray, and they need you to bring the booty. It's all part of the 2017 IRL tour, which brings a totally free musical experience, complete with free entry, free drinks, and free goodies.
Joining the jokesters are bass-loving, fun-seeking dance stars Dillon Francis in Montreal, RL Grime in Tempe, Ariz., and Party Favor in New York, with additional support from PizzaSlime. There's one more secret, special show and location yet to be announced.
Think of it like a mini Mad Decent Block Party, except you don't have to spend any money and Diplo put on some pounds. The whole thing is brought to you by Four Loko, and if you need to be told about Four Loko, you're probably too young for the party.

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Kanye West's Blonde Hair & the Psychology of Celebrity Hair Changes

Kanye West has been spotted in public for the first time following his recent hospitalization for exhaustion and sleep deprivation.
According to a photo taken by artist Giovanni
Bassan, the rapper stopped by the MOCA Pacific Design Center to get a preview of fashion designer Rick Owens' furniture exhibition, which runs Dec. 17 until April 2, 2017. The image revealed that Yeezy, clad in a crewneck sweater and black pants, had gone blond.

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Snapchat Users Can Shazam Songs Without Leaving the Messaging App

Going viral has just gotten easier, as the result of a partnership between Shazam and Snapchat. With today’s new release of the popular messaging app, users can now launch Shazam’s music recognition technology and share songs without leaving Snapchat.
The update also debuts the long-awaited Snapchat Group Chat feature, which allows simultaneous sharing with up to 16 contacts. Positioned by Snapchat Inc. as a way for family members to stay in touch over the holidays, it also enables multiplexed music sharing.
Holding down anywhere on the camera screen within Snapchat will prompt Shazam to identify music playing nearby, launching a pop-up box that will allow users to retrieve more info, including lyrics, preview the audio, play a Vevo clip, or share. As with other Snapchat communiqués, the message -- and presumably the song, if it’s not saved separately -- will disappear.

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Masta Killa Recruits Method Man and Redman for Adult Swim Single 'Therapy': Premiere

There is magic whenever any members of the
Wu-Tang Clan join forces on a track. Today, as part of the Adult Swim Singles Program, Wu-Tang's Masta Killa recruits fellow Shaolin swordsman Method Man and frequent Wu collaborator Redman for a new single, "Therapy."
With a steady piano-centered uptempo beat provided by PF Cuttin, Masta Killa, Mef and the Funk Doc cut right to the chase, with MK dropping the thesis statement in his first bar: "Yo, I gotta be around this music / It's therapeutic," echoed by Method Man with his impeccable flow in the opening of his second verse as well before Redman comes through with some typically funny and quotable bars of his own.
"Therapy" is the first single off Masta Killa's forthcoming new album, Loyalty Is Royalty , which is due out on Nature Sounds, and he had some praise for Adult Swim for helping promote the track. "Adult Swim is always crazy; they give it to you raw, straight no chaser and that's what this music stands for," he said in an email. "There needs to be more major outlets for music in its raw form where it doesn’t have to be watered down or politically correct. Big respect to Adult Swim for that."

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'80s Hitmakers Animotion Debut New Single 'Last Time' From First Album In 28 Years: Exclusive

The reformed 'Obsession' band returns with 'Raise Your Expectations' in 2017.
In 1984, L.A. New Wave band Animotion released "Obsession," one of the best and most iconic hits of the '80s. Their last album was in 1989, but in 2017, original members of the synthpop group will unleash their first new album in 28 years, Raise Your Expectations. Today is excited to premiere the first single from that project, "Last Time."
The newly reformed Animotion includes both original frontpeople, Bill Wadhams and Astrid Plane, and the first offering from the band's return strikes an effective balance between the distinctive sound of '80s pop and more modern production techniques. Listen below.
"The new Animotion album, Raise Your Expectations is a collaboration between original members Astrid Plane, Don Kirkpatrick, Greg Smith and myself with producers Chuck Kentis and Joman," Wadhams tells said. "Animotion guitarist Kirkpatrick has been in Rod Stewart’s band for over a decade, working with Rod’s musical director and keyboard player Kentis. When Animotion was signed to Invisible Hands Music in London, Don suggested that Chuck co-write and produce tracks for the album. The song 'Last Time' was a late entry to the project. Chuck’s son Avery Kentis often takes over his father’s studio, composing soundtrack music for student films. Chuck came across an 80s influenced demo that Avery had recorded and shared it with the band. Don and I immediately took to it and added guitars, melody and lyrics. That was the genesis of 'Last Time.' Coincidentally, I was so impressed with Chuck’s other son, filmmaker Noah Kentis that I hired him as director of the music video for 'Last Time.' It’s an Animotion and Kentis family affair."

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J. Cole Contemplates Life & Death on '4 Your Eyez Only'

The rapper releases his most cryptic album yet.
“Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee.”
John Donne’s quote about the interconnectedness of humanity -- in life and death -- is omnipresent on J. Cole ’s new album 4 Your Eyez Only . "For Whom The Bell Tolls" opens the rapper’s most melancholy and introspective effort to date. Sonically minimalistic, he forgoes catchy hooks and big features for a stripped-down, lyrically-focused album that delves into entangled and complex emotions about life, death and legacy.
4 Your Eyez Only is a personal conversation, first and foremost, with Cole himself. "I see the rain powering down, before my very eyes,” he moans against a jazz-tinged background on the title track. The rapper is self-reflective, digging into his headspace. “I’m searching and praying and hoping for something I know I’m gonna see it… Lord.” Despite critical and commercial acclaim, he grapples with his mortality and what he’ll leave behind. “To die a young legend or live a long life unfulfilled?” he wails on “Immortal.” “Cause they only feel you after you gone, or I've been told/And now I'm caught between bein' heard and gettin' old/Damn, death creepin' in my thoughts lately.”
Although he’s just 31 years old, Cole’s gauging what his existence means. Compared to his contemporaries, he’s markedly reclusive and his tenuous relationship with fame is no secret on wax or in the media. On "January 28th" (which coincides with his birthday) from 2014 Forest Hills Drive , the rapper takes this stance on music industry diplomacy: "Don't give 'em too much you. Don't let 'em take control. It's one thing you do. Don't let 'em taint your soul." Compared to his peers, he’s ostensibly succeeded in flying below the radar; he lives in his native North Carolina, sends nary a tweet -- even to promote his own releases -- and his personal life is shrouded even though he reportedly got married and had his first child in the past year.

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