Innholdsfortegnelse for Jul-04-15 i Billboard Magazine

GIRL POWER REIGNS SUPREME — AT LAST — ON country radio. Kelsea Ballerini is the first woman to send a debut single to No. 1 on Billboard’ Country Airplay chart (see page 65) in more than nine years as “Love Me Like You Mean It” (from her debut album The First Time, released in May on indie label Black River) rises 2-1. On the Billboard Hot 100, the track bullets at No. 46. It’s the first careeropening single by a solo female to crown Country Airplay since Carrie Underwood’s “Jesus, Take the Wheel” in 2006, released to country radio after she won American Idol in 2005. “I’ve been writing songs since I was 12, and so many times I’ve wondered if I was good at it,” Ballerini, 21, tells Billboard.…

WHAT A DIFFERENCE ONE Tumblr post can make. On June 21, Taylor Swift wrote an open letter to Apple declaring that she’d be withholding her hit album 1989 from the company’s new streaming service because it didn’t plan to pay artist royalties for music consumed during its free, three-month trial period. Many indie labels worried about these terms, too — Beggars Group said on its blog that Apple’s service was “taking the ‘mium’ out of freemium” — but the issue didn’t make headlines until Swift addressed it. By evening, Apple had announced that it would pay those royalties — a message that the Apple executive who oversees iTunes, Eddy Cue, called Swift personally to deliver. (Apple says this had been decided already, but the timing of its announcement couldn’t have…

PETER SHAPIRO — CO- PRODUCER of The Grateful Dead’s Fare Thee Well shows in Chicago and California, owner of the Brooklyn Bowl franchise and more — isn’t just a Deadhead. He dates the beginning of his career to a 1993 show in Chicago that inspired him to produce two documentaries on the group while still a film student at Northwestern University. After a brief stint as a filmmaker, Shapiro entered the live-music business as owner and operator of the jam-band mecca Wetlands in Lower Manhattan in 1996. After rising real estate costs forced the club to shutter in 2001, Shapiro set his sights across the river, and opened the first Brooklyn Bowl, a sprawling venue with great sightlines and sound, food and, yes, bowling. The franchise has since expanded to…

YES, LADY GAGA SLAYED 4 NON BLONDES’ 1992 HIT “WHAT’S UP,” DR. JOHN FUNKED UP the Towering Song award winner “What a Wonderful World” and Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter rocked a rare performance of The Dead’s “Ripple.” But it was funnyman Stephen Colbert, clad in a black Stetson and a shearling-lined denim jacket, who stole the show with a surprise induction of Toby Keith. “Why the hell is Stephen Colbert honoring Toby Keith? I don’t know why I was asked, but I will tell you why I showed up: because Toby has always showed up for me,” the TV host said during his speech, before performing a convincing rendition of the country star’s “As Good As I Once Was.” Ever the hot ticket, the 46th annual event packed its…

Gigi And Joe Heat Up Hollywood All eyes were on Joe Jonas and Gigi Hadid at the Abbey nightclub in West Hollywood on June 18. The singer and the model, who are reportedly dating, kicked back at the club with a group that included Joe’s brother Nick Jonas. The couple spent the evening whispering in each other’s ears and locked lips after Hadid danced to Britney Spears’ “Oops!... I Did It Again.” Nicky Jams In English Is Nicky Jam Latin music’s next crossover star? A source says RCA Records is in talks to release an English-language version of the Puerto Rican reggaeton artist’s “El Perdon” (Forgiveness), which features Enrique Iglesias The original Spanishlanguage track, released by RCAs sister label Sony U.S. Latin, has spent 15 weeks atop Billboard’ Hot Latin…

“I just played a gig inside a giant owl and my girl just changed the entire music industry, what a day.” — CALVIN HARRIS The DJ, tweeting after his set at Electric Daisy Carnival about his girlfriend Taylor Swift, who successfully lobbied Apple Music to pay streaming royalties during its 90-day trial period. “I can’t write a song to save my life. I sit at the piano and try, but all I want to do is rewrite ‘California Girls.’ ” BRIAN WILSON The Beach Boys member, in an interview with Rolling Stone. “If I were to make a song about Kylie Jenner it would be way more special and classier.” —TYGA The rapper, tweeting about his girlfriend, after many assumed explicit sexual lyrics in a new song were about her.I…

JOSH ALTMAN, 36 THE ALTMAN BROTHERS/DOUGLAS ELLIMAN BEVERLY HILLS Altman recently closed Miley Cyrus’ $5 million buy of a ranch home in Hidden Hills. He also has worked with Kanye West and DJ Skee, among others. A star of Bravo’s first Million Dollar Listing, Altman once dreamed of a music business career. “Only until I bought my first home and fipped it did I quit — when I realized real estate was a lot more profitable.” HIS PERSONAL ABODE A contemporary house, done in white and gray, in Hollywood Hills’ Bird Streets neighborhood. CINDY AMBUEHL, 51 THE AGENCY LOS ANGELES Ambuehl helped spark a bidding war over the five-bedroom Santa Monica home of composer Jonathan Elias earlier this year. It went for $8.6 million — about $500,000 more than asking.…

BRANDI HUNTER, 40 KELLER WILLIAMS ATLANTA Hunter counts among her clients rapper 2 Chainz, music entrepreneur Mickey “Memphitz” Wright and singer-songwriter Kandi Burruss, who found her latest home through the agent. The property had been valued at $3 million, but Hunter says Burruss bought it in 2010 at foreclosure for a much lower price (which she declines to divulge). Renovated since, “the home is an entertainer’s dream,” says Hunter. HER PERSONAL ABODE A 6,500-square-foot mansion with ample space for Hunter and her three teenage sons. JADE MILLS* JADE MILLS ESTATES/COLDWELL BANKER BEVERLY HILLS A onetime cocktail waitress, Mills has a music biz client list that ranges from Gwen Stefani to Lionel Richie. In June, Mills listed the Mulholland Estates mansion of former Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash for $11 million,…

Winehouse is the sound of when you decide to f— your life up — the day you make the decision to fall in love with the wrong person, get pissed, get high. It’s the sound of someone incredibly funny and charismatic and talented setting fire to themselves. But with swagger. She came from that school that believes you put a chunk of yourself — blood, guts, tears, mad hair — into a record. It’s so common, in the early years of creativity, to think you can only summon up the requisite heat by burning yourself up. We respond to anyone who wants to do that, even though it’s awful and destructive, because that’s a form of love: loving music so much, wanting to make it, be in it. We think…

3.5/5.0 YEARS & YEARS Communion nterscope FIVE YEARS AGO, WHEN SAM Smith and Disclosure were still teen unknowns, fellow Brits Years & Years were an indie-leaning quintet with live guitars and drums. Now that soulful house music is among England’s chief exports, and the group has morphed into an electronic trio with a knack for emotive dance singles, it’s tempting to accuse Years & Years of opportunism. But they’ve got their own thing, and that’s one reason their debut, Communion, stands out. True, the album does feature “Real,” “King” and “Desire,” pop-house hits that earned the band a slot opening for Smith on tour and the coveted BBC Sound of 2015 prize. But behind the dance bump, Communion is confessional synth-pop with a heart full of heavy feelings. On the…

VHS Kidinakorner/Interscope 3.0/5.0 Jingle-friendly alt-rockers take a page from Imagine Dragons THE STALLED MOMENTUM OF 2013’S alt-radio breakouts Imagine Dragons has left the door open for another genre- neutral act to invade the airwaves, further redefining what a rock band in 2015 can be. Enter X Ambassadors, who share the Dragons’ same producer (Alex Da Kid) and label, not to mention the built-in commercial appeal: Singles “Jungle” and Alternative No. 1 “Renegades” have multimillion-dollar ad campaigns for Beats and Jeep behind them, respectively. But unlike the Dragons’ belabored sophomore album, Smoke + Mirrors, there’s something easy and effortless to the stuttering electro-gospel stomp of X Ambassadors on debut VHS. The band makes Yeezus-fltered guitars, Southern Gothic howls and, of course, hand claps aplenty sound authentically swampy, belying the quartet’s Ithaca,…

4.0/5.0 VINCE STAPLES Summertime ’06 Artium/Def Jam MOST PEOPLE LOOK BACK at the summers of their youth as a dreamy mix of beach trips, bike rides and puppylove crushes. But rapper Vince Staples, on his debut full-length Summertime ’06, has different memories: running from police, dead bodies in alleys, gang tattoos (and thus gang beefs) out in the open thanks to the stifling heat. It’s an uncompromising vision of his Long Beach, Calif, upbringing, one packed with enough dour details and bigger-picture philosophizing to fll an hourlong album. If this sounds like an ambitious feat for a debut LP from a 21-year-old rap rookie, that’s because it is. There’s a lot, sometimes too much, to take in, but Staples has tons to say, in a delivery that finds middle ground…

NEARLY HALF A CENTURY SINCE HIS debut, James Taylor scores his first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 with Before This World. The set, released June 16 on Concord Records, arrives atop the July 4 chart — more than 45 years after he debuted with Sweet Baby James on March 14, 1970. The new record launches at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 97,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending June 21, according to Nielsen Music. Of its start, pure album sales equated to 96,000 copies sold — Taylor’s best debut week for a full-length since his last set of original material, 2002’s October Road, launched at No. 4 with 154,000 sold. Taylor surpasses Black Sabbath for the second-longest wait for a No. 1. The hardrock…

Your major-label debut, Sing It All Away, enters at No. 45 on Top Album Sales and No. 71 on the Billboard 200. As a group best-known for YouTube covers, is it hard to shake that stigma when releasing original music? We definitely didn’t view it as an obstacle. I don’t think Walk Off was ever a cover band. At times, just because of YouTube, people will think that. People would search for [other artists’] songs and then find us, whereas if we were putting an original song on YouTube, they wouldn’t find us. It just kind of worked out in a way that allowed us to introduce our sound and style to a lot of people, and that brought them into the world of what Walk Off the Earth is.…

Justin Bieber (above) ascends 2-1 on the Social 50 chart, retaking the top slot for the first time since Nov. 29, 2014. His rise comes as a result of a busy week at Electric Daisy Carnival in Las Vegas (June 19-21) — which was wellcovered on social media — where he hung out with Diplo and Skrillex, among others. Tweets about Bieber caused a 132 percent rise in mentions on Twitter for the week ending June 21, according to Next Big Sound, and more than 28 million Instagram likes. The latter translated into more than 767,000 new followers on the platform. Taylor Swift could return to the top of the July 11 chart. Her ascent may be fueled by a muchdiscussed Tumblr post on June 21 (the final day of…

Trey Songz (above) crowns Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop as “Slow Motion” steps 2-1 in its 18th week (up 1 percent in spins in the week ending June 21, according to Nielsen Music). The rise marks Songz’ ninth trip to the peak as he ties Jay Z for the sixth-most chart-toppers on the list (Drake leads with 21). Meanwhile, the track continues at No. 10 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs for a second week, increasing by 2 percent to 6 million weekly clicks. The streams allow “Slow Motion” to remain at No. 4 on R&B Streaming Songs for a third straight week. Meanwhile, Miguel soars 49-28 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs with “Coffee” in its seventh week, earning Digital and Streaming Gainer honors. Streaming was up 58 percent to 7.8 million weekly streams during the…

Dance legend Giorgio Moroder (above) makes his first appearance on a Billboard album chart in nearly 38 years as Deja Vu opens at No. 1 on Top Dance/Electronic Albums. The comeback set sold 7,000 copies in the week ending June 21, according to Nielsen Music. Deja Vu also enters at No. 72 on the Billboard 200, marking Moroder’s first appearance there since From Here to Eternity peaked at No. 130 in December 1977. The three-time Academy Award winner and four-time Grammy winner also lands two tracks on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs: The title track (featuring Sia) re-enters at No. 37, while “Tom’s Diner,” the Suzanne Vega remake featuring Britney Spears, debuts at No. 38. Fellow dance icon Madonna scores a re-entry at No. 5 on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs with “Bitch I’m…

FIVE YEARS AGO, THE PLUGS were pulled on two of the biggest-selling franchises in video game history. After generating $2 billion and $1.7 billion in revenue, respectively, Guitar Hero and Rock Band were discontinued by their publishers as sales nosedived due to overhype and oversaturation. Today, like a pair of reunited stadium-rock acts, the games are poised for a comeback: Harmonix announced in March it will release Rock Band 4 this fall. Activision followed with news of a new Guitar Hero Live coming in October. Both companies unveiled early versions of the games to tens of thousands of players — and rave reviews — in June at the annual E3 video game convention in Los Angeles. But the resurrection of these two once-towering franchises prompts the question: Is this the…

6/22 SHRUG OFF THE COMPETITION On the heels of Apple’s Swift turnaround news, the arrival of Google’s new free radio service is met with a collective shrug, despite boasting noninteractive and Digital Millennium Copyright Act-compliant music (meaning skips are limited and upcoming songs aren’t announced). In the curation realm, the powered-by-Songza platform meets Apple halfway via playlists. 6/23 REACH AN INDIE LABEL DETENTE With creators and rights holders bristling about receiving no streaming royalties during the free trial period, Apple and the indies come to an agreement. One week ahead of launch, Beggars Group (Matador, 4AD, XL), PIAS and independent rights group Merlin (representing 20,000 labels and distributors) sign on. Apple breathes a sigh of relief that Adele’s songs are onboard. 6/24 LOCK IN EXCLUSIVE CONTENT Apple announces that a…

THE RELATIVE LACK OF female artists on the country airwaves is one of Nashville’s most heated topics in 2015, with such artists as Miranda Lambert, Martina McBride and Kacey Musgraves firing back at country radio consultant Keith Hill for a hamfisted metaphor in which he called women the “tomatoes” of the country radio salad. But what about Nashville’s increasingly influential tech scene? Heather McBee, a 20-year veteran of Sony Music Nashville, found herself the accidental “poster child of women in business in Nashville,” caught in the middle of a barrage of sexist comments at the city’s 36/86 conference. Halfway through a June 10 panel that already had seen a string of off-color remarks about female artists from Big & Rich’s John Rich, Mark Montgomery, co-founder of Nashville tech-incubator FLO Thinkery,…

THE FESTIVALWIDE EVACUATION that hit Dover on day three of Firefly, thanks to thunderstorms, may have scrapped headliner Kings of Leon and turned what would’ve been EDM prince Steve Aoki’s Saturday night set into a 2 p.m. Sunday mud rave, but Mother Nature didn’t sideline the weekend’s biggest draw: Paul McCartney. The legend lit up the grounds — literally — with a twoand-a-half-hour Friday night headlining set that featured a career’s worth of hits and culminated in wild pyrotechnics on encore “Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End.” Fortunately, the skies cleared up for a jubilant festival-closing set from The Killers. “The gods are smiling on us tonight,” a jaunty Brandon Flowers said before launching into a run that honored the rained-out Kings of Leon with covers of “The Bucket” and “Use…

LINDSEY STIRLING Mountaineering in Utah “I have two weeks off for a family reunion. We’re going to be rocking it in the mountains of Utah. It’s beautiful there. I’m so excited we’re all going to be in the same spot.” MØ Hiking in Norway “I’m taking off to go to the north of Norway and hike for a week — no telephone, no Internet, no anything. Just hiking, going from cabin to cabin. That’s going to be so nice.” T-PAIN Flossing in Florida “There are some islands in the Florida Keys that I want to rent. You can rent entire islands for $1,200 a day — a whole island! We’ll kick it for a week and get our swim on. I’ll have my manager pay for it. (Laughs.)” LITTLE DRAGON’S…

NAME Gallant FROM Columbia, Md. AGE 23 BACKSTORY The rising alt-R&B singer-songwriter (full name: Christopher Gallant) began recording songs in middle school to parse his teen emotions. “It started to be a cathartic thing,” he says, “the same way that you would write something in your diary.” BIG BREAK After graduating from New York University, he moved to Los Angeles and was discovered by manager Jake Udell, the man behind EDM breakouts Krewella and Zhu. Udell says he was driven to tears by Gallant’s soaring falsetto, sleek hooks and deep songwriting, which draw upon diverse influences from Babyface to Incubus. LIVE WIRE “My live show is almost like a meditation,” says Gallant, whose high-energy, sold-out showcase at Los Angeles’ Bardot on June 1 drew big names like Skrillex and producer…

“Once, when discussing the terms of a proposed offer, I used the term ‘all cash’ - to which the musician [buyer] sweetly responded, ‘I don’t have an issue with that, but do I need to line up a Brink’s truck?’” -Wendy Maitland, Town Residential, New York “Bono wanted to scout properties [for a lease in Beverly Hills ] in the middle of the night because he didn’t want anyone to know he was out here. We were looking at midnight - totally incognito. It didn’t work. When Bono leased the place, people were coming up to the gate and ringing the bell, trying to meet him.” -Cindy Ambuehl, The Agency “I was showing a huge singing star a property, and she closed her finger in the door of the car.…

Posh Beverly Hills is among the California cities facing a mandatory cut in water use of up to 36 percent under Gov. Jerry Brown’s drought-fighting rules. The parched state “is affecting us all in a very sad way,” says Cindy Ambuehl of The Agency. “I wish we could have tunnels and pipes [from] Alaska and Washington loaded with water. But it’s not affecting us in the luxury [property] market,” she adds. Josh Altman of The Altman Brothers/Douglas Elliman agrees. “I never have clients who are concerned about that,” he says. “I guess when you have a certain amount of money, you aren’t concerned about water bills.”…

Overall Appeal Vince poplin shirt, $195; vince.com Levi’ denim overalls, $98; us.levi.com Grown-Up Grunge Baja East sleeveless tribal shirt, $695, plaid skirt, $595, and drop-crotch pants, $695; bajaeast.com Loeffler Randall suede and leather Liz boots, $475; loefflerrandall.com Lady Grey silver Arc cuff, $265; ladygreyjewelry.com Dannijo Tinka crystal necklace, $245; dannijo.com Jennifer Fisher brass square hoop earrings, $250; jenniferfisherjewelry.com Page Sargisson Double Diamonds ring, $715, and Chevron diamond band, $3,000; pagesargisson.com “Fans are so tired to the old Tori, that girl on YouTube with just her guitat. But by the end of my show and the new tracks, they’ve transformed.” TWO NIGHTS AFTER PERFORMING IN MINNEAPOLIS, THE 10th stop of an 18-city North American headlining tour, Tori Kelly sits in a room at downtown Atlanta’s Omni Hotel, still buzzing from a…

Don’t like music mixed with politics? “Then don’t listen to our band,” says Conor Oberst, speaking not about Bright Eyes — his renowned, long-running indie-folk project — but Desaparecidos, the Nebraska punk group the 35-yearold formed in 2001. After splitting in 2002, Oberst and the band are back with second album Payola (June 23, Epitaph), a rousing set of songs about war, racism and more. Is it possible you’re more pissed off now than you were at 21? (Laughs.) Anyone that’s observant of the world and capable of empathy can always find a lot to be upset about. There’s something good about being able to get angry. Are these songs for you or for kids in the audience? It’s for both of us. Music has an ability, beyond other ways…

Since 2007s Dignity, Hilary Duff has been focused on her personal life: She married former NHL player Mike Comrie in 2010, had a son and then divorced in 2014. She’s now back to the professional grind with a new show, TV Land’s Younger, and a new album, Breathe In. Breathe Out, due June 16 on RCA. The former Lizzie McGuire star, 27, gives her musical point of view. MY FAVORITE NEW-ALBUM TRACK “ ‘One in a Million.’ It’s a ‘f— you’ anthem about a guy who’s not treating you right.” MY BIGGEST MUSICAL STRUGGLE “Finding my actual voice again. If you’re not using your voice, you lose confidence in it.” MY POP HERO “Britney Spears. Growing up was a huge fan — along with every other girl.” MY BIGGEST MISTAKE…

Sam Smith’s Grammy-winning full - l e n g t h debut album, In the Lonely Hour, celebrates its one-year anniversary on the Bill board 200 after debuting on July 5, 2014 at No. 2 - its peak so far. 2MIn the Lonely Hour has sold 2 million U.S. copies through June 21, according to Nielsen Music. Since its debut, it has yet to sell less than 10,000 copies in a week, and consistently has been among the week’s top 30 sellers . 8.9 M Smith’s album has churned out such m e g a – selling hits as “Stay With Me” ( 4.1 million downloads sold) and “I’m Not the Only One” (2.3 million) . Collectively, Smith’s songs from In the Lonely Hour have sold 8.9 million. 4 The…

Nate Ruess (above) enters the Billboard Artist 100 at No. 50 powered by the start of his first solo album, Grand Romantic. The set starts at No. 1 on Top Rock Albums and Alternative Albums and No. 5 on Top Album Sales with 28,000 copies sold, according to Nielsen Music. Ruess, who broke through fronting alt-pop trio Fun, which reached No. 3 on the Billboard 200 with 2012’s Some Nights, begins on the Artist 100 with 96 percent of his activity from his album’s first-week sales. Meanwhile, Third Eye Blind bows at No. 67 on the Artist 100, fueled entirely by the arrival of its fifth studio set, Dopamine, which opens on Top Rock Albums and Alternative Albums at No. 3 and Top Album Sales at No. 7 (22,000). On…

Rock band Our Last Night achieves its first No. 1 on a national Billboard chart as its new album Younger Dreams arrives atop Heatseekers Albums (5,000 sold in the week ending June 21, according to Nielsen Music). The group, which first charted in 2008 while on Epitaph Records, self-released its latest set, which also launches No. 7 on Independent Albums. Elsewhere on Heatseekers Albums, family group The Willis Clan rises 6-2 with Heaven (4,000 sold; up 95 percent) following the June 16 season finale of the band’s TLC reality series The Willis Family. Heaven has sold 15,000 copies in total. Further down the list, at No. 8, teen Japanese rock trio Babymetal reenters with its self-titled album (2,000 sold; up 807 percent) following its reissue. The set also returns to…

“Girl Crush” by quartet Little Big Town (above) nears history as it rules Hot Country Songs for a ninth week. The reign is the longest by a group (of at least three members) in nearly 5 6 years. Only one song by a group has led longer since the list launched as a multimetric ranking in 1958: “The Three Bells” by trio The Browns rang up 10 weeks at No. 1 beginning on Aug. 31, 1959. (The most weeks on top by any act: Duo Florida Georgia Line dominated with “Cruise” for 2 4 frames in 2012 and 2013.) “Crush” has benefited from the buzz of its lyrics, which mention a woman who’s jealous of another female’s desirability (Billboard, April 11). It leads Country Digital Songs for a ninth week…

Don Omar (above) leads Top Latin Albums for a .fifth time as his new release, The Last Don ll, opens atop the list with 7,000 copies sold in the week ending June 21, according to Nielsen Music. It concurrently crowns Latin Rhythm Albums, tying Omar with Daddy Yankee and Wisin & Yandel for the most No. 1s on the chart (seven). Omar’s set comes 12 years after its first installment, The Last Don, which peaked at No. 2 and has sold 411,000 units. The latest single from the new album, “Perdido en Tus Ojos” (featuring Natti Natasha), hops 18-14 on Hot Latin Songs — a new peak, taking Digital Gainer honors (up 30 percent to 4,000 downloads). Also on Hot Latin Songs, Romeo Santos makes history as he spends a…

The Divine Intervention Tour by Bette Midler above) earns 16 slots on the Boxscore chart based on ticket sales from U.S. and Canadian venues. Philadelphia’s Wells Fargo Center produced the highest gross and attendance counts among the shows reported since the tour began in early May. Ranked at No. 13, the June 16 performance logged $1.4 million in box-office earnings from a sellout crowd of 11,670. The 10-week tour launched May 8 with shows tapped for arenas in 24 North American cities through the end of June, followed by a five-city stretch in the United Kingdom in July. Supporting her album It’s the Girls!, Midler’s ongoing tour has generated $19.5 million in box-office sales so far, with only five venues yet to be reported from the opening leg that closes…

When Donald Trump’s June 16 presidential-bid speech addressed the topic of immigration reform, he alluded to Central and South Americans as drug pushers and rapists (his words: “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best ... They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists ... It’s got to stop fast”). The business mogul-turned-candidate instantly turned off a swath of potential voters, but surprisingly, it took Latin artists a minute to speak — and act — out. But on June 22, Colombian rapper J Balvin told Billboard he was canceling his live performance at the July 12 Miss USA pageant, a production that falls under the banner of the Miss Universe Organization, a Donald J. Trump and NBCUniversal joint venture. (The Hispanic network Univision followed suit on June 25,…

When Foo Fighters’Dave Grohl, 46, took a spill onstage in Gothenburg, Sweden, on June 12 - dislocating his ankle and, as he wrote, “snapping my fibula like an old pair of take-out chopsticks” - he was able, remarkably, to finish the show. The band was forced to cancel the remainder of its European tour , but the real pain will come if the Foos are forced to call off all or part of their upcoming North American run, set to begin July 4 in Washington, D.C. While there’s no indication yet that the tour is in jeopardy, the band’s handlers gave Billboard a “no comment” when asked whether it will begin as scheduled. While most of these costs will be covered by insurance, below is a look at the potential…

In response to trade group IFPI’s global release date announcement, Billboard and Nielsen Music will adjust the tracking weeks for most Billboard charts. Starting July 10, the official street date for all new album releases will be Friday (instead of the current Tuesday). For all sales-based charts (ranking both albums and tracks), Billboard and Nielsen will cover an adjusted sales period of Friday to Thursday, as opposed to the Monday-to-Sunday cycle that has been utilized since the advent of Nielsen Music’s point-of-sales tracking in 1991. Streaming services will now also be tracked from Friday to Thursday. Radio charts, including the all-format Radio Songs and genre tallies, will run on a Monday-to-Sunday cycle. Notably, Radio Songs, which informs the Hot 100, will sync up to that Monday-to-Sunday period after formerly encompassing…

IN BLACK AND WHITE, ANALOG TAPE PLAYERS whirl. The singer warms up his voice with a gospel “whoa” to awaken rural spirits. He gently tunes his guitar, sheepishly scrutinizes the camera, steps to the microphone, and the scene shifts. The silhouette of Leon Bridges walks in slow motion down a darkened street under a faded marquee: leather shoes shined, slacks pressed, felt hat tilted at a rakish angle. The malt-shop soul beat shuffles. Then he belts out: “Baby, baby, baby, I’m coming home.” This, the opening scene from the video for “Coming Home,” was most people’s first look at Bridges, a 25-yearold Fort Worth, Texas, native who sparked a furious bidding war shortly after a stream of the song premiered last fall on taste-making blog Gorilla Vs. Bear. Since then,…

YG unbuckles his belt and slides down his jeans to right below his hip joint — just enough to show the bandages covering his fresh bullet wounds. On June 12, the Compton, Calif, rapper born Keenon Jackson, 25, was shot after a recording session in Studio City, where he was working on second album Still Krazy, the follow-up to My Krazy Life (home to the top 20 smash “My Hitta” and widely hailed as one of 2014’s best rap albums). Seven days after the shooting, YG, previewing his new album at a West Hollywood studio, leans down — he’s already able to walk around without crutches — and whispers: “Listen to this track real good. It’s about the situation that happened.” A new G-funk-inflected song called “Twist My Fingers” blares,…

Where To Stay With more than 12 room types and 80 cabanas, Papaya Playa Project’s sprawling 2,600-foot eco-chic property n Tulum offers something for every type of traveler (hostelitos start at $50/night). For those with a craving for luxury, the property’s villas are your best bet: The two-bedroom, 2,600-square-foot Casa Madera ($1,575/night) features rustic wraparound terraces, a lap pool, an open-air kitchen and private beach access, while the two-story, 9,000-squarefoot Casa Palapa ($3,675/night) offers panoramic jungle and ocean views, five bedrooms with ensuite bathrooms and three private infinity pools. In addition to water sports, yoga and temazcal (sweat lodge) cleanses, guests can also enjoy full-moon beach parties, where DJs like DJ Solomun spin until sunrise. papayaplaya.com Where To Eat POSADA MARGHERITA Pasta and bread are made fresh daily at this…

MIAMI The best event to meet new clients “in my opinion, is Roy and Lea Black’s annual gala,” says DeBianchi Real Estate agent Samantha DeBianchi of the evening where Aretha Franklin sang in 2014. SAGAPONACK, N.Y. “VH1 Save the Music was my favorite event last year,” says Hamptons agent Matt Breitenbach. “It had a closed guest list with celebrities”—and certainly some home-hunters. PEBBLE BEACH, CALIF. “We like to be where all the wealthy people are because that’s where we pick up a lot of our clientele,” says Altman. “We go to the Concours d’Elegance in Pebble Beach,” where collector cars parade on the 18th green of Pebble Beach Golf Links and funds are raised for charities. Also on Altman’s calendar: Art Basel in Miami, Formula One in Abu Dhabi and…

When Amy Winehouse died from alcohol poisoning in 2011, her obits told the all-too-familiar tale of a gifted young artist for whom tragedy, and vice, were muse. But the heart-rending new documentary Amy, as well as the following exclusive interviews and newly unearthed details, reveal the guilt of those she left behind — and the destruction of her final recordings. “In many respects we can all be blamed for it going wrong,” says her bandleader Dale Davis ONE DAY IN NOVEMBER 2005, AMY WINEHOUSE sat in a car with her friend and co-manager Nick Shymansky, winding through the English countryside toward a rehab center. The singer’s drinking had been getting out of control, Shymansky remembers, and he felt she needed help. When they arrived, Winehouse said she would check in…

3.5/5.0 MIGUEL Wildheart RCA EVER SINCE HIS 2012 BREAKTHROUGH hit single, “Adorn,” Miguel Pimentel has faced a contradiction: There’s the 21st-century loverman vibe much of his public wants him to incarnate — a new-generation R. Kelly, without the repellent baggage — and the more eclectic, left-field artist he justifiably regards as his truer self. He made his loftier aims almost comically clear when he dressed in spiritual-guru white and asked fans to do the same for an invite-only show premiering his new album, Wildheart, in Los Angeles earlier in June. He announced that the record would be about the need to “transcend” social “programming.” (It also might be worth noting that he’s an avowed enthusiast of transcendental meditation.) Miguel’s dualistic, intellect-versus-eros dilemma is far from unique in the lineage of…

by Stephen Witt Viking 4.0/5.0 THE SWASHBUCKLING IMAGE OF A pirate has a different meaning in the music biz, where it generally involves computer nerds and music geeks. So it’s a credit to first-time author Stephen Witt that How Music Got Free makes such a suspenseful, entertaining read out of forbiddingly dense source material. The book switches among three characters: Karlheinz Brandenburg, a key player in the invention of the MP3; Doug Morris, then-head of Universal Music; and Dell Glover, an employee at a North Carolina CD plant who becomes the most prolific pirate in music history, leaking more than 2,000 albums by stashing them behind an oversized belt buckle. Witt’s occasionally overheated storytelling sometimes leads him onto unsteady ground, mostly when describing Morris’ power moves in terms so fawning…

JANET JACKSON “NO SLEEEP” RHYTHM NATION 3.0/5.0 After a seven-year hiatus, Janet Jackson returns to her Velvet Rope-era neo-soul sound for “No Sleeep,” helmed by her old collaborators Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. Her soft, sensual vocals are refreshing in a world of robotic Auto-Tune, but she feels too restrained, doing little to up the midnight-storm beat. —STEVEN J. HOROWITZ SELENA GOMEZ FEATURING ASAP ROCKY “GOOD FOR YOU” INTERSCOPE 3.5/5.0 Former Disney star Selena Gomez casts off the shackles of her tween-idol past on “Good for You” with the help of ASAP Rocky. She sells charged lyrics like “Leave this dress a mess on the floor,” but her PG-13-rated yearning and Rocky’s braggadocio never quite align enough to make thematic sense. —JASON LIPSHUTZ ROBYN FEATURING MALUCA “LOVE IS FREE” KONICHIWA/INTERSCOPE…

ON THE ‘MONEY’ Just in time for summer, new Interscope signee Jason French is bubbling under Mainstream Top 40 with the sunny, reggae-infused “You Just Want My Money.” Belying the song’s lyrical theme, the San Diego native wrote it while trying to make ends meet by working in construction (and writing music in his spare time). Now he’s busy building his career, with his debut full-length due later this year. D.R.A.M.’S BEYONCÉ BOOST D.R.A.M. shimmies 40-39 on Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop with “Cha Cha” (Empire Recordings). The Virginia-based rapper-singer received Beyoncé ’ s stamp of approval in a May 19 Instagram GIF where she shakes along to the singsong track. “Cha,” championed by WENZ Cleveland (34 plays in the week ending June 21, according to Nielsen Music), appears on D.R.A.M.’s #1EpicEP, released…

Adam Lambert (above) notches the Billboard 200’s second-highest debut (after James Taylor’s No. 1 entry, Before This World) as his third album, The Original High, arrives at No. 3 with 47,000 units. The set is Lambert’s first album for Warner Bros. after departing RCA, where he logged two earlier top 10s: For Your Entertainment bowed in 2009 (No. 3 debut and peak) and follow up Trespassing debuted at No. 1 in 2012. The new set’s first week was powered by pure album sales, selling 42,000 copies. Comparably, Trespassing bowed with 77,000 sold. The Original High’ lead single, “Ghost Town,” debuts at No. 73 on the Billboard Hot 100 (Lambert’s 10th entry overall) and bullets at No. 31 on Mainstream Top 40. It’s only the third top 40 radio hit for…

Selena Gomez (below) makes a No. 7 bow on Billboard + Twitter Top Tracks with her latest single, “Good for You.” The singer teased the release of the ASAP Rocky-assisted song on Instagram during the tracking week ending June 21, sharing the single art and selecting a few fans to premiere stills from the tune’s video. (The track itself didn’t actually premiere until June 22.) Gomez’s promotional campaign bumped her Twitter mentions to 364,000 for the week, according to Next Big Sound, a rise of 24 percent. Meanwhile, One Direction bounces to a No. 2 re-entry with “Girl Almighty,” after the group posted its performance of the song from Capital FM’s Summertime Ball in London. (Madonna blocks One Direction from the top slot as “Bitch I’m Madonna” vaults 26-1 after…

Beck (above) appears on multiple Billboard charts with his bright new dance-y single, “Dreams.” With a No. 13 start on Alternative, it’s the genre-shifting artist’s highest debut ever, and his highest peak since “Nausea” reached No. 13 in 2006. “Dreams” is the lead single from Beck’s forthcoming 10th studio album. Beck previously reached the summit of the airplay chart twice: with first entry “Loser” in 1994 and again in 2005 with “E-Pro.” “Dreams” also enters Rock Airplay at No. 8 and Triple A at No. 7. It starts with 22,000 downloads sold in the week ending June 21 and garnered 462,000 domestic streams, according to Nielsen Music. In turn, “Dreams” gives Beck his first top 10 debut and highest start on Hot Rock Songs (No. 9) and Rock Digital Songs…

Matt Redman scores his third No. 1 on Top Christian Albums as Unbroken Praise: At Abbey Road Studios drives in atop the list with 12,000 sold in the week ending June 21, according to Nielsen Music. The new album’s “It Is Well With My Soul” concurrently debuts at No. 36 on Hot Christian Songs, marking Redman’s seventh entry on the tally. Redman previously led the Top Christian Albums chart with 2011’s 10,000 Reasons and 2013’s Your Grace Finds Me. One step behind Redman is Mewithoutyou’s Pale Horses, which rides in at No. 2 with 10,000 sold. That’s the best sales week yet for the band, which previously logged its sales high when 2012’s Ten Stories opened with 9,000 sold at No. 1. On Top Gospel Albums, The Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir’s…

THE RELEASE OF THE BYRDS’ DEBUT single for Columbia Records, “Mr. Tambourine Man,” resulted in two milestones for the 1960s folk-rock movement — one for the Los Angeles band, which formed in 1964, and one for the song’s writer: Bob Dylan. The track entered the Billboard Hot 100 dated May 15, 1965 and rose to No. 1 six weeks later, on the June 26 list. In addition to the band topping the chart on its first outing, the group’s cover of “Mr. Tambourine Man” became, and remains, Dylan’s only No. 1 single, albeit as a songwriter. (As a performer, he has hit No. 2 twice, with “Like a Rolling Stone” and “Rainy Day Women #12 & 35” in 1965 and 1966, respectively.) The song’s success made The Byrds one of…