Jeff Bhasker , A.K.A. Billy Kraven , is a music producer and songwriter. Born to an Indian father and Caucasian mother, he was raised in Socorro, New Mexico where his father is a doctor and the town's mayor. Bhasker left Socorro to pursue music studies at Berklee School of Music , then moved to New York for three years before beginning his career in Los Angeles.
In this exclusive interview with India Currents, Jeff Bhasker opens up about his music and experience in the industry.
JF: Not in a typical way, because there were not many resources around. However, the lack of distractions and outside influences allowed me to do a lot of soul searching, during which I discovered my music passion.
IC: We are all aware of the Indian stereotype of parents wanting their children to become doctors and engineers. How did your family feel about your pursuit of music?
JF: It definitely confused my family of doctors. No one in our family had become a musician. However, they were relieved once I became more successful. Now, of course, they are very proud of the work I have done.
JF: I, initially, wanted to be a jazz musician and composer, but I drifted into recording and production. Technology and computer recording began to take a bigger role, hence making recording more accessible. You could record music on a laptop instead of paying a big fee to use a studio. Eventually, songwriting and recording became my specialty.
IC: You produce music across all genres- rap/hip-hop, rock, pop, R&B, and Bhangra. What are your thoughts regarding the term "genre"?
JF: My first song was the title track on T he Game's Documentary album . After that, there was a lull until I worked with Kanye . My work with Kanye became my calling card. In 2009, my song with Alicia Keys , " Try Sleeping with a Broken Heart ", made me known for my sound. Once I had a hit song, I slowly built up my reputation and became connected with more people.
IC: I assume that each musician you work with has a unique style. How have these different musicians inspired you?
The 50 Best Songs of 2021 So Far | Billboard
When we checked in on the best songs of 2020 last June , the charts (and radio in particular) were dominated by The Weeknd's After Hours and Dua Lipa's Future Nostalgia -- the two big pop albums that weren't afraid to go large with their ambitions, even at the lowest, scariest point of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now it's a year later, the world is opening back up, and the charts (and radio in particular) are currently being dominated by... yep, still After Hours and Future Nostalgia .
And as always, it's not just about the hitmakers, either: While they remain the centrifugal force of the industry, it's been a similarly fruitful time for new artists still in the process of finding their audience, with results that are thrilling even if they never lead to Top 40 ubiquity and contention for the Super Bowl halftime show. Here are our picks for the 50 best songs we've heard from this year so far -- including a handful technically released in 2020, but which were released as singles or peaked on the Billboard charts in 2021.
If the over 2 million videos it's inspired on TikTok are any indication, Wisin, Jhay Cortez, and Los Legendarios' " Fiel " is one of the biggest Latin songs of 2021. Its edgy reggaetón fusion has people of all ages swaying their hips and shaking their hands to a dance challenge; "The people made it viral," artist-producers Los Legendarios told Billboard . Penned by Cortez, the infectious bop is about having a crush on an independent woman. "It's refreshing, and one of my favorite songs on the album because it captivates your ear," Wisin explained. The song should continue to captivate through the summer, with a remix featuring Anuel and Myke Towers set to drop next week. -- JESSICA ROIZ
Memphis rappers Young Dolph and Key Glock effectively function as horror-movie villains on " Penguins ": over a haunted-house beat from BandPlay, the MCs repeat words relentlessly while displaying only the faintest emotion, jolting listeners with lines like "This s--t ain't nothing new, new, new, new, new, new, new, new" until we've reached total submission. " Penguins " showcases a pair of veterans at their most cold-blooded, the song construction tactic working spectacularly. -- JASON LIPSHUTZ
Earlier this year, Taylor Swift opened her vault and pulled this gem out. Left off the original release of Fearless in 2008, "Mr. Perfectly Fine " encapsulates everything we love about Swift -- the bitingly clever lyrics, a boppy tune that straddles the line between pop and country (it was written while she was still considered a country artist after all), and heartache simmering below the surface in a kiss-off song. It's vintage Taylor that still feels fresh in 2021, even following her recent foray into the indie/alternative world. And it's definitely more than fine . -- DENISE WARNER
"Bitch, I'm not your appetizer/ bitch, I'm the lasagna," the acclaimed actress -- known for roles in Transparent and Hustlers -- declares on her debut single. And true to her word, she's serving plenty of layers: "SMB" (that's "Self-Made Bitch") is a classic started-from-the-bottom anthem, but it's also a rallying cry for her fellow trans women who have had to fight for survival. "I feel like it might be going over people's heads," Lysette told Billboard of all the double-meanings in her lyrics. But her wordplay isn't the only thing to feast on — her magnetic delivery stands out all on its own, especially when she draws out her punchlines and makes each syllable a snack. -- NOLAN FEENEY
Reaching No. 25 on the Hot 100 thusfar, Glass Animals' " Heat Waves " marks the London-based alt-pop group's first-ever entry on the chart. And the fan-favorite fourth single from their third studio album Dreamland is still on fire, steadily climbing the listing thanks to its wavy production and relatable breakup lyrics. Earlier this year, frontman Dave Bayley revealed to Billboard that the bop was crafted in an hour, proving that Glass Animals heats up under pressure. -- DARLENE ADEROJU
When Yola announced her new album Stand For Myself in April, she said she had been "brainwashed" out of her own majesty -- and the first single "Diamond Studded Shoes" serves as a reclamation of magnificence. The catchy, upbeat chorus of "we know it isn't, we know it isn't" has fans tapping their feet, while the British crooner delivers a message of empowerment and, most importantly, understanding for Black folks who feel drained by historic and ongoing racism. In 2021, Yola is going to remind us all how to stand up for what we believe in, and "Diamond Studded Shoes" is just the beginning. -- TAYLOR MIMS
You don't need to understand the precise entanglements at the heart of Machine Gun Kelly and Blackbear's " My Ex 's Best Friend " -- MGK sings " My boy's new girl is your best friend ," which presupposes a quartet of competing motivations and Twelfth Night -style mishaps -- in order to shout along to the chorus, "I swear to GOD, I never FALL IN LOVE, then you showed up and I CAN'T GET ENOUGH OF IT!" MGK's Tickets to My Downfall album has demonstrated remarkable staying power as a new-school pop-punk pivot from the rapper, and " My Ex 's Best Friend " is one of the biggest reasons why. -- J. Lipshutz
All The Best New Pop Music From This Week: Billie Eilish, Dua Lipa
This week in the best new pop music saw some exciting releases by some of today’s biggest pop stars. Billie Eilish offered another look of her upcoming album, Dua Lipa debuted a jazzy tune, and Hayley Kiyoko issued a bouncy track about self-reliance.
After announcing her highly-anticipated sophomore album Happier Than Ever , Billie Eilish offered a preview of its matured sound with her stripped-down ballad “Your Power.” This week, Eilish returned with “Lost Cause,” another album preview with equally sparse instrumentation. With her sultry lyrical delivery at the forefront of the track, Eillish issues a kiss-off tune about standing up to a deadbeat guy.
The last we heard from Dua Lipa, she was earning a Spice Girls cosign for her ’90s-inspired Brit Awards performance . Now, the singer departs from the revved-up music on her Future Nostalgia release to showcase her ability to draft more intimate songs. Her new track “Can They Hear Us?" was written for the film Gully . The loungy track is Lipa’s version of a lush piano ballad, featuring gentle keys underneath Lipa’s room-filling vocals.
Following up on her sunny 2021 single “ Find My Friends ,” Hayley Kiyoko returns with the heartwarming love song “Chance.” Over a bouncy beat, Kiyoko delivers a poignant reflection about finding the self confidence to take a chance on romance. "'Chance' is a song based on those moments when I denied my true feelings for someone out of fear of rejection, and therefore didn't allow someone to take a chance on me," Kiyoko said of the track. "I hope this song empowers people to push past their own self-doubt and realize how worthy they are of love."
Jack Mayer is back and he’s got an album to prove it. Announcing his upcoming LP Sob Rock , the singer returned to showcase his ’80s-inspired pivot with the synth-heavy single “Last Train Home.” The jaunty tune even features backup vocals by country star Maren Morris, further blending genre lines.
After issuing his 2021 return with the opulent track “100 Millones,” Bad Bunny looks to mend a broken heart with his emotional track “Yonaguni.” Named after a Japanese island with mythic connections, the song features the singer’s lovelorn vocals as he delivers lyrics about learning to love again.
British duo Jungle continues to preview their liberating third studio album Loving In Stereo with the funk-forward track “Talk About It.” The song continues their signature dance-ready sound, infusing a cascade of percussion with luminous production. "The bass riff and drum break were recorded very early on during the process of making this record and it was one of the songs where we really bottled the essence of the idea from very early on and not over-work it,” said Jungle’s Tom McFarland about the track.
16-year-old songwriter Glaive first began making music at the onset of the pandemic. After finding breakout success with his hyperpop-leaning sound, Glaive shares his new track “Detest Me” as the second single of his forthcoming EP All Dogs Go To Heaven . The track is a reflection on growth and the inevitable change that comes along with it, combining upbeat instrumentals with emotional lyrics.
After being announced as Apple’s Up Next artist this month, recent Uproxx cover star Fousheé shared her debut project Time Machine . The mixtape featured her whimsical track “My Slime,” a tender reflection on the euphoria of a new romance. Crisp and intimate, the song leans on gentle guitar and Fousheé silken voice.
Fact Check-Jamaica has not banned K-Pop | Reuters
A satirical website article which claimed that Jamaica had banned K-Pop, has been taken seriously by some social media users.
The article from 2018 ( here ), alleged that Jamaica was the first country to make South Korean pop music K-Pop illegal.
Satire8.com's website has a disclaimer on its "About" page saying it is "a satire news and humor website," and "The website publishes fake news, shocking rumors and reports with incisive sarcasm, and humor." ( www.8satire.com/about/ ) Their "Legal Notice" is visible www.8satire.com/legal-notice/ .
False claims about Jamaica's K-Pop ban were debunked in 2018 by Buzzfeed News, here . The report includes a tweet from Roberta Nesta Morgan, spokesperson at that time for the Office of Prime Minister (of Jamaica), who stated, "This is NOT TRUE!!!!!"
There was no immediate response to a Reuters request for comment from a representative in the Communications Office of the Prime Minister in Jamaica.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work here .
VINCINT on debut album There Will Be Tears | EW.com
"You can expect to cry, and the unexpected thing is that it won't be sad all the time," the singer says of his new record
"I love the joy in it," he tells EW, "I love the idea that you could listen to a song and dance your ass off so much you may pass out, but you're still crying at the same time."
Vincint plans to bring that energy to his debut album There Will Be Tears (out June 11). Since dropping his first single "Marrow" in 2018, the Philadelphia-born singer has stayed busy, becoming a finalist on the singing competition show The Four , releasing his soulful 2020 EP The Feeling , and having his song "Be Me" featured in the Queer Eye season 5 trailer.
VINCINT : My dad was a singer in a gospel group called Christian and Gospel Singers and I started music because of them. Then I found all the divas because of my mother and her obsession with Celine Dion, Mariah Carey, Beyoncé, and every other woman you can think of who sings. That's how I found my voice in music.
I didn't really listen to a lot of male singers other than my father. That influenced my sound and the way that I write because the women I looked up to always write about the things that they felt they couldn't say with their speaking voice.
I want to go back to your first single, "Marrow." What made it the right song to introduce people to your music?
It's funny because it's so opposite from what I do now. It's an R&B-ish song. I was trying to find my voice and I was figuring out what I wanted to say and talk about. I wrote a song about loving someone so deep you could feel it in your bones. For me, I wanted to introduce people just to my voice, so they could hear who I was and what my writing sounds like. I wanted to make sure people heard me first before they saw anything. It was me finding my place in music, for sure.
"Remember Me" feels it was more in line with the music you're making now. How did it compare to "Marrow" and what inspired it?
Yeah, it was the first time I was true to myself. I was a little afraid at first about putting out music and doing pop and being Black. Then I just stopped worrying about what other people were going to think about and started making the things that really made me happy.
New pop music radio show available for syndication – RadioToday
A new pop music show with interviews and the latest releases will be available for radio stations from August.
The A-Grade Pop Show, hosted and produced by Luis Wyatt, will be an hour-long show home to the week’s pop tracks from the UK and around the world.
Luis, who won Best Male Presenter at the Community Radio Awards 2020, told RadioToday: "I have noticed that both community and local commercial radio stations are passionate about the idea of playing new music but have found it difficult to stay on top of the weekly releases.
"Sometimes they struggle to find the appropriate tracks to appeal to a wide-ranging audience which they often have to do. My new show aims to solve these issues."
Luis has been heard across many community radio stations and is a former Global Academy student. He's been producing this show weekly and building its reputation via Spotify and says he is ready to transfer it to the airwaves.
JESSIA, who had collaborated with Grammy-nominated pop star Bebe Rexha, was a recent guest on the show.
One of the first stations to confirm taking the new programme is online service Ultimate Radio, where Mark Fielding comments: "We are delighted to confirm that we will be playing Luis' new A-Grade Pop Show. As an online station we find it hard to attract the well-known artists that this show manages to get.”
Cruel World 2022: Classic alternative and dark-pop music fest set to return
A product of Goldenvoice, Cruel World is scheduled for May 14, 2022, at the Brookside at the Rose Bowl, located in the Los Angeles suburb of Pasadena. Last year’s fest was to be held at Los Angeles' Grounds at Dignity Health Sports Park.
And the inclusion of Morrissey up top means we can all leave early to beat the traffic. If he shows up at all, of course.
"The promoters of Cruel World 2020 were indeed prescient with their festival's title. Covid-19 unleashed a world of pain and put their bucket list line-up of influential artists on ice,” Devo's Gerald Casale tells Rolling Stone . “In May of 2022 that ice will finally thaw and Devo will be honored to be part of it all."
Tickets go on sale to the general public on Friday (June 11) at noon PST via cruelworld.com . Sign up for pre-sale access here , and eyeball the full fest lineup below.
Folk singer/songwriter goes with old standards for Folk Club show - Chicago Tribune
When he performs virtually on June 20 for the Lake County Folk Club, he'll strum his banjo or acoustic guitar while singing one of the first songs he wrote.
Then he'll regale the Zoom audience with some old pop standards like "The Glory of Love" and "Shine on Harvest Moon" and then one of his newer more reflective tunes — adding other musical styles along the way.
"I'm old enough now to remember when John Denver was on the radio, and hearing Gordon Lightfoot, Peter Paul and Mary and their songs and the acoustic guitar … Music (back then) seemed a place to go to gain some insight into what was going on in the world," Dvorak, 62, said.
When in high school, a friend gave him a biography of Bob Dylan to read. "I thought, 'Oh my goodness, I want to be him,'" Dvorak recalled.
Dvorak said he dreamed of hanging out in Greenwich Village with folk musicians. "It seemed so appealing to me. I kept looking around LaGrange, Illinois (where he grew up), for such a place," he said.
Dvorak picked up a guitar, learned how to sing and write his own songs. "It just seemed something that drew me in and is still drawing me in," he says of folk music. "It gives you access to expression, both personal and at the same time universal," he said.
He's always loved the sound of the banjo and when a friend left his banjo at his home, he learned to play.
"I had no idea how to play it. I didn't know how to read music," he said. But he watched people play, listened, practiced and found books to teach him.
When he was 21, he drove from his suburban Chicago home to Champaign Urbana to purchase a long-necked banjo for $250. "I borrowed a car — my car didn't run — and I only had $25 in the bank. But I had a new banjo.
Pop Music：An Underestimated Art | Teen Ink
Nowadays as pop music becomes a symbol of new fashion, controversies have been arisen on the topic of the cultural value of pop music itself. While a large group of critics with a conventional mindset will naturally consider pop music inferior to classic music, it has to be admitted that pop music today deserves much more serious studies than it does now.
What should be noticed first for its marvelous historical value is the spiritual content of pop music. The earliest pop music emerged in the mid-20s when the WWII had just taken its heavy toll on human beings. Traumatized from warfare and longing to make a change to the cold world, the young men then rebelled against the old traditions and planned to establish a more peace-loving world with their own hands, in which pop music served as a carrier of their revolutionary spirits and dreams for a better future. Though their reform is not, from the historical view, an entirely successful one, the spiritual content of a bold heart that is willing to face changes and overcome obstacles is successfully conveyed through the pop music pieces that last till today, and is undoubtedly worth our respect and studies.
With no exaggeration, the innovative techniques employed in pop music pieces are a monument in the history of music, and once carefully studied, they will surely be treasures for the future.
Most titles of pop music that appeared in this essay belong to music pieces that prevailed once and have become classic pieces today, for which people may argue whether they should be considered as pop music as well. My opinion: since they continue to win the hearts of the audience even after decades, why not?
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Origin of ordinary things: The evolution of Pop | The New Times | Rwanda
The dance music element of western pop music can be traced back to the ragtime, which was very popular in African-American communities. Ragtime later on turned into the earlier form of Jazz that was enjoyed for its dance ability. These genres originated from black communities and spread to white communities whenever blacks were invited to perform in white communities’ concerts.
Encyclopaedia documents that the blues, R&B as well as Rock n’ Roll are one of the styles that contributed to the development of Pop. The rise of the emotional and crying singers in the late 1940s began the pop music vocal style which was a combination of the above genres.
After the US, in Iran, the emergence of Vigen Derderian, also known as the Sultan of Pop, made a hit after the music industry was dominated by Persian classical singers. Then, Vigen combined the Persian melodies and Persian lyrics with guitar and that made him the first male pop star in the country.
In the 1960s, the Beatles, the Beach Boys, were the dominant teen idols of Pop in the western part of the world and that went along with one of Iran’s pop stars winning an international music prize in 1971.
So, as Pop kept spreading in all parts of the world, from Iran to Turkey and Britain, the notable highlights for Pop music in the 1980s are Michael Jackson’s second epic label release ‘Thriller’, which became the best-selling album of all time.
Michael Jackson was the most successful artiste of the 1980s, selling 133 million copies of only two albums.
In the next years, more stars ventured in the Pop career and it is considered as one of the most preferred having stars like Madonna, Britney Spears, Mariah Carey, Janet Jackson, Rihanna and Beyoncé among others.
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