Pop Superstar The Weeknd Celebrated as 2021 Songwriter of the Year at Ascap Pop Music Awards
NEW YORK , April 13, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Honoring pop music's hottest songwriters, producers and publishers, The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) today announces the winners of the 2021 ASCAP Pop Music Awards , which will be celebrated on @ASCAP social media through April 15 . After a record-setting year following the release of his double platinum album After Hours , pop superstar Abel " The Weeknd" Tesfaye is named ASCAP Songwriter of the Year for the first time in his career.
Known for his signature alternative R&B sound, velvety voice and pitch-perfect falsetto, The Weeknd undeniably dominated the charts in 2020. Taking home the ASCAP Songwriter of the Year honor and two most-performed song awards for smash hits "Blinding Lights" and "Heartless," The Weeknd is now a 13-time ASCAP Awards winner. As the critical and commercial success of After Hours continues, "Blinding Lights" closes in on diamond-certified status, while becoming the first song in history to spend an entire year in the Billboard Hot 100's top 10.
ASCAP Pop Music Awards Song of the Year goes to Post Malone's megahit "Circles," honoring ASCAP hitmakers Louis Bell , Kaan Güneşberk and Billy Walsh alongside publishers Nyan King Music , Sony Music Publishing and Universal Music Publishing Group. The third single off the chart-topping album Hollywood's Bleeding , "Circles" spent 39 weeks in the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 and marks the artist's first #1 hit as a solo billing.
Jim-E Stack, Pop Music's Secret Weapon, Branches Out On His Own
Los Angeles-based producer and songwriter Jim-E Stack is no stranger to collaboration. His second solo LP, EPHEMERA , released at the end of 2020, featured a running list of Stack's collaboratoes—Ant Clemons, Bon Iver, and Empress Of, among them. Indeed, since the 2014 release of his first LP, Tell Me I Belong , Stack has made a name for himself as a zelig-like musical virtuoso, racking up credits on tracks as diverse as Haim's electro-folksy "Want You Back" and Diplo's downtempo R&B groove "New Shapes," featuring Octavian. All that is to say, Stack, who was born James Harmon Stack, is an artist of many talents, but one who, self-admittedly, has found a new sense of freedom with EPHEMERA . Here, he speaks with long-time collaborator and partner, the musician Kacy Hill, discussing his creative process, the revelations made during the making of EPHEMERA , and a dream he had starring Kanye West.— JOSEPH AKEL
HILL: Yeah, it’s a pajama type of day. Sorry if Mochi [Hill's cat] jumps up, she’s right behind the computer. So, what do you think makes a Jim-E Stack song different from a song you might make for someone else’s project?
STACK: What makes it different is that it probably relies a little less on the vocal than a song would for another person’s project. I think a good chunk of my album, if not most of the songs, are basically only half-vocaled. And then, other parts just show off the instrumentation a bit more — like acoustics, guitar riffs, or that kind of stuff. But more than anything else, a song that's my project, is all about realizing my vision and having it be something I want to listen to. I'm the only decider for how it should come out. It’s completely self-indulgent in that way, whereas if it’s for your album or for someone like Justin [Vernon's] stuff or Lorely I’m following their lead, so this is my one opportunity to do my thing exclusively.
HILL: Totally. Do you enjoy that level of control? Because, when you're making someone else’s album, even though it’s collaborative, you’re obviously in service of someone else’s vision.
HILL: Do you feel like this is liberating to be able to call the shots and not rely on someone else’s vision?
STACK: That part of it is nice, but I honestly don’t know if it’s liberating because it puts more pressure on me. Whereas, when I'm working on someone else’s stuff and there are decisions to be made in the production and writing of which I’m unsure, I can always defer to the person whose song it is to make that decision, and I don’t have to make a big call. That’s why my album ended up being pretty short and sweet and to the point, because each song is entirely up to me. Every little thing that’s done is my decision and I can be, as you know, someone who often takes a while to settle on deciding something, one way or another.
HILL: I love this album because well, number one, I've seen you from start to finish with it and heard a lot of [the songs] in their demo state. I think it’s such a good capsule for how you’ve defined your sound over the last three or four years. It feels like there’s such a distinct Jim-E Stack sound now. This album is just the perfect sampling of that.
STACK: I'm glad you think that because I think it’s turning into a big thing for me. Looking back maybe three years ago, I felt I was lacking in my own music a sense, I guess, of freedom. Or the looseness that comes with making music with a lot of players, guitarists, keyboard players, and whatever. And that came from me being a laptop producer or musician. I had just found I was like, "Oh, my god I can’t. How do I get to that level of freedom in the music where it feels like meandering in a great way?" That’s something you obviously do super well. The song "Told Me" on your album [ Is It Selfish If We Talk About Me Again ] and obviously Justin's stuff is like that. That was something I was really craving in my own music, and I was fortunate enough to collaborate with people like Justin [Vernon], and you, and Lorely on this album. It let me, for the first time, really get to that place of my music really feeling free, and human, and unencumbered.
HILL: Totally. That’s probably the gift of collaboration, right? Is that you’re ideally either learning something or utilizing someone’s skills who does some things so much better than you do. Neither of us are musicians or a good player, so to work with someone who genuinely is, brings it to another level. What do you think makes a successful collaboration for you? What’s the best feeling for you to come out of the studio with someone and be like, "Wow, I got this from that"?
Phoebe Bridgers Reworks Paul McCartney, and 11 More New Songs - The New York Times
Every Friday, pop critics for The New York Times weigh in on the week's most notable new songs and videos. Just want the music? Listen to the Playlist on Spotify here (or find our profile: nytimes). Like what you hear? Let us know at theplaylist@nytimes.com and sign up for our Louder newsletter , a once-a-week blast of our pop music coverage.
It's been three years since the London artist and Mica Levi collaborator Tirzah released her hypnotic debut album "Devotion," but the new single "Send Me" transports the listener right back to that singularly chill head space. "Send Me" is built from simple materials — a repeated guitar lick, a hi-hat loop and Tirzah's sultry, Sade-like vocals — but combined they somehow create a dense, enveloping atmosphere. "Let me heal and now I'm sure, now I'm sure," Tirzah sings, her words seeming to turn to vapor on the exhales. It's a whole vibe. ZOLADZ
It's only April, but Saweetie is already wishing you a very pretty summer. Her new single "Risky" is at once effortless and exuberant, patiently waiting for whenever the weather permits you to roll the windows down. Drakeo the Ruler's murmuring flow provides a perfect counterpoint to Saweetie's bombast ("All this ice drippin' on my body like a runny nose"), while a minimalist beat provides plenty of space for her personality to shine like a freshly painted ride. ZOLADZ
Hannah Reid, London Grammar's singer, plays a not-so-impartial observer in "Lord It's a Feeling." She stacks up the misdeeds of a friend's callous, cheating lover — "I saw the way you laughed behind her back" — before revealing, "I can admit that I have been right here myself." A decorous string orchestra backs her at first, as she sings in her purest tones. But when her own stake becomes clear, a beat kicks in, her voice hardens and the observer becomes the accuser. PARELES
It's a small world. José González, born in Sweden to Argentine parents, carries on a British tradition of folky, meditative singer-songwriters. "Visions," built from vocal harmonies and acoustic-guitar picking, takes an eternal perspective on "sentient beings" who should "look at the magic of reality/while accepting the honesty that we can't know for sure what's next." Accompanied by his guitar drone, distant electronics and bird song, he notes, as a kind of mantra, "We are here together." PARELES
Place is central to the music of Lea Bertucci, a multi-instrumentalist and sound artist whose recordings often spring from questions about how physical environments express themselves through sound. But her work isn't meant to just document the sonic qualities of a place; through a process of layering and abstraction, Bertucci gives us something closer to the residue of an experience or a vanished memory. On her new self-released album, "A Visible Length of Light," ambient recordings she captured in New York, Rio de Janeiro, California and Nebraska haunt tracks featuring lightly droning organ, bass clarinet, wood flute and saxophone. It's not clear where the sounds on "An Arc of the Horizon" were captured, but instead the music — spatial more than melodic — becomes an environment of its own. GIOVANNI RUSSONELLO
Rustle, resonance and attentive listening are the coins of the realm when the trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith, the multi-reedist Douglas R. Ewart and the drummer Mike Reed come together. They've performed as a trio only rarely, but all three are improvisers and organizers with roots on the Chicago avant-garde and histories of involvement in the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians. "Super Moon Rising" is the centerpiece of their new album, "Sun Beans of Shimmering Light," which connects to a long tradition of recordings by AACM-affiliated musicians that treat sparse and spacious free improvising as a style unto itself. RUSSONELLO
Music from the Middle | Cover Story | Style Weekly - Richmond, VA local news, arts, and events.
Whether dance floors are open or closed, pop music retains its power to move us, distilling complex emotional experiences into art that resonates the moment it hits our ears.
That immediacy is a hallmark of songs by indie-pop singer and songwriter Tyler Meacham , including her two newest, which arrive via your preferred streaming platform this Friday.
While neither "Unknowing" nor "Nothing Is Easy" mentions COVID-19 by name, you're likely to see in them some part of your own journey through 2020.
"In a universal sense, it feels like we have been in a place of uncertainty and unknowing for the last year," Meacham says.
Written prior to the pandemic, "Unknowing" hits extra-hard in light of the roller coaster we've all been on – one that's forced us to come to terms with the fact that, as the song states so succinctly, "safety is no guarantee."
For musicians, that upheaval has been devastating. The need for social distancing put a halt to concerts, wiping out a vital line of income for an industry already in crisis over meager streaming royalties. Having released her "Property" EP shortly before the shutdown, Meacham felt the financial effects right away.
Seeking an outlet for that frustration, she opened up on social media, finding validation from fellow musicians and a sense of purpose in enlightening her other listeners.
"There was this kind of confusion about how it was even possible that we were having to deal with this," Meacham says. "A lot of those conversations became moments to educate people. … Our social media accounts can paint one picture of success and acclaim, or whatever the case may be, and then a pandemic hits and you can't really run away or hide the truth. Struggle is real."
The title and tone of "Nothing Is Easy" align closely with that struggle, but true to Meacham's knack for bridging the personal and the prevalent, the song's imagery is timeless. Waiting for a frozen landscape to thaw. Feeling stuck between where you've been and where you're going. "I'm somewhere in the middle now," she sings in one particularly powerful moment. As hard as that lyric hits, given the road to recovery ahead for the music industry, there's hope in reading it as an invitation to consider the big picture.
2021 Latin AMAs: Carrie Underwood, David Bisbal Perform Tears of Gold | PEOPLE.com
Carrie Underwood and David Bisbal brought down the house at the 2021 Latin American Music Awards!
Matching each other in coordinating black ensembles, the two artists performed in front of a gold backdrop as they belted out their tune — Underwood's first-ever bilingual single — which features the pair singing in both English and Spanish.
RELATED: Carrie Underwood's Virtual My Savior Easter Concert Raises More Than $100,000 for Charity
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Another fan said , "@carrieunderwood singing in the #LatinAMAs in Spanish?!👏👏👏Awesome! Muy bien."
Underwood and Bisbal released "Tears of Gold" back in December alongside an accompanying music video directed by Alexis Morante. The song appears on the re-release of Bisbal's album, En Tus Planes .
"Like I'm watchin' the sun explode / I can feel every drop when I watch you go / 'Cause it's rainin', 'cause it's rainin', 'cause it's rainin' / Tears of gold," the duo sing on the track.
"I am very proud of our first collaboration," Bisbal said in a prior statement about the pair's team up, per Rolling Stone . "The video was shot in Los Angeles and it was very special because I love Carrie and truly admire her courage."
"She has shown a profound admiration for the Spanish language with her wonderful vocals on the track and I am honored to collaborate with Carrie on her first bilingual Spanish song," he added. "I hope you enjoy the blend of country and pop music on 'Tears of Gold' as much as we do."
LL Cool J Responds to Being Called 'Pop Rap' Pioneer | Complex
LL Cool J has had many monikers throughout his nearly 40-year career. In fact, Mr. Smith even coined the term “GOAT.” Despite taking on different personas, LL didn’t take kindly to being labeled a pop rapper.
Yet, LL Cool J’s accomplishments—and rejection of “pop music”—leads fans back to the age-old question: “Is it ‘Pop’ because it’s successful?” This moved them to flood the timeline with their take on the phrase “pop rap” while also giving LL his props.
How South Korean Soldiers and YouTube Catapulted a K-Pop Girl Group to Fame – The Diplomat
A screenshot from the now-viral video, with comments from military fans includes on the bottom of the screen.
On February 23, the YouTube channel 비디터VIDITOR posted a compilation video of Brave Girls performing their 2017 song "Rollin'" at various events for those serving their mandatory service in South Korea's military. The video was overlaid with various comments from the performances, mostly from former soldiers reminiscing about how ubiquitous the song was during their service.
The video went viral, people flocked to listen to the song on streaming services, and by March 14 the girls had won their first ever weekly music show award, a full decade after their debut. In the two months since it was posted, the original comment video now has 17.3 million views and counting.
The group is capitalizing on their success story, finally launching their own official YouTube channel this week, appearing on prominent TV shows and YouTube programs , and signing endorsement deals for a video game and a chicken franchise, as well as snack, clothing, and cosmetics companies.
Part of the success story is clearly owed to the military service members for whom the group performed over the years, and their resurgence has been attributed to the Millboard chart – a play on Billboard and military, describing songs that hit it big among service members. Now in interviews, the members regularly thank both the video uploader and all the service members who have supported them and now celebrate their success. The top pinned comment on the original video from VIDITOR is a message from Brave Girls member Yujeong thanking everyone for their interest and for giving them strength to continue in their careers.
But while those who served in the military have a huge role to play in Brave Girls' success, their comeback also reflects broader sentiments in South Korea. Many watching this comeback can empathize with the group's underdog story, and find hope in the fact that they are now gaining success after struggling for 10 long years.
For young people in South Korea, who face high unemployment and underemployment rates, housing crises , and low marriage and birth rates due in part to the financial burdens of raising a family, the idea that there could be a light at the end of a long tunnel of hard work is particularly appealing. "Because of your age, you might think, 'can I start my dream now?' I hope you don't have those thoughts," group member Yujeong said in a recent interview.
Lady Gaga fans clamor for a second Artpop album: What to know - CNET
Back in 2013, Lady Gaga released Artpop, which debuted at No. 1 on the US Billboard 200 albums chart, and which became the ninth global best-selling album of the year, selling 2.3 million copies. Critical reaction was mixed, but fans took it to their hearts.
Gaga's talents have expanded to acting, too. She won a 2015 Golden Globe award for her role in American Horror Story: Hotel, and then moved on to star alongside Bradley Cooper in the remake of A Star is Born in 2018. The two partnered on the hit song Shallow, and that tune won an Academy Award, Golden Globe award, two Grammy Awards, a BAFTA award and a Critics' Choice Movie award.
On April 12, the singer tweeted that she was touched her fans were sending the album up the charts once again.
She followed up with, "I fell apart after I released this album. Thank you for celebrating something that once felt like destruction. We always believed it was ahead of its time. Years later turns out, sometimes, artists know. And so do little monsters. Paws up."
12-time Oscar nominee Diane Warren hopes for 'awesome' win | National News |
A trophy for the Italian-language film's song, "Io Si (Seen)," would be Warren's first after 11 previous Academy Award nominations came up short.
"Yeah, it would be great to win. It would be (expletive) awesome," Warren said. "I feel like a team that's gone to the World Series for decades and decades, and never wins."
A triumph would be especially sweet for the veteran songwriter whose first Oscar bid was in 1988 (for the romcom "Mannequin"). The Academy Awards ceremony, originally set for February and delayed by the pandemic, airs April 25, the birthday of her late father, David Warren, and a coincidence that she calls "so cool."
Warren, who grew up in Los Angeles, recounted her dad's reply: "She has talent. She really, really wants this."
Her gifts and drive led to success in a range of pop music genres and in film, with her past Oscar contenders including "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing," by Aerosmith and featured in 1998's "Armageddon." It was a hit tune, one of Warren's many that include "If I Could Turn Back Time" by Cher. Toss out a big name — Beyoncé, Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga — and Warren has likely worked with them.
She's a confessed workaholic who typically writes solo but joined with Common on the 2019 Oscar-nominated "Stand Up for Something" for "Marshall," a biopic about the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.
Warren's music and lyrics are "amazing," said Pausini, who recorded "Io Si" for the film. The song and the movie carry the same message, "and that's the goal."
"The first thing I came up with, sitting at my piano, was, 'I want you to know that you're seen,' she said, breaking briefly into an a cappella performance. "It's so simple but it's so profound, because we all want to be seen."
When Warren came to his Los Angeles-area home early last year to introduce her creation, she was wearing a cast from a household accident, recalled Ponti, a writer as well as stage and screen director.
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