May 25, 2017 Page 1 of 22
INSIDE
Read Scooter
Braun’s Touching
Message to
Ariana Grande
Bombing Victims:
‘I Will Honor All
of U By Laughing
Loving and Living’
Manchester
Bombing Update:
Arrests Continue
as England
Holds Moment of
Silence & Millions
Raised for Victims
Live Nation
Reportedly
Offering Refunds
on UK Concerts
in Wake of
Manchester
Attack
BBC Radio
Festival Tightens
Security After
Manchester
Bombing
Live Music After Manchester:
Concert Business Faces Security
Challenges Beyond Its Gates
BY DAN RYS
The house lights had just come on when the chaos
began. At 10:33 p.m., moments after Ariana Grande
finished her final song at the United Kingdom’s
Manchester Arena, a suicide bomber detonated
an improvised explosive device in the foyer of the
21,000-capacity venue, just as fans were flooding
toward the exits. Twenty-two people died, including an 8-year-old girl, and 59 were injured, in what
the city’s chief constable, Ian Hopkins, called “the
most horrific incident we have had to face in Greater
Manchester.”
Grande, who escaped the blast unharmed along
with her touring team, wrote on Twitter that she was
“broken.” Two days later, the singer’s management
canceled her upcoming shows in London, Belgium,
Poland, Germany and Switzerland and also
suspended the remainder of her Dangerous Woman
Tour, which had already grossed $24.5 million
in North America over 30 nearly sold-out dates,
according to Billboard Boxscore.
The May 22 bombing was the second terrorist
attack on a major music venue in a European city
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in less than two years. On Nov. 13, 2015, terrorists
stormed Le Bataclan theater in Paris during an
Eagles of Death Metal concert, killing 89 people
in an attack that also involved multiple locations
around the city.
“Once again, we try to make sense of a senseless
act of violence,” wrote Lucian Grainge, Universal
Music Group chairman/CEO, in a memo to his
staff on May 23. (Grande is signed to UMG through
Republic; a UMG executive died in the Bataclan
attack.) “The fact that such an unspeakable act can
be committed at a place where innocent people —
including so many young people — come together
peacefully to enjoy music reflects a level of evil
beyond comprehension.”
For some, the Manchester bombing seemed to
hit closer to home than the attack in Paris, or even
the June 2016 mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub
in Orlando, perhaps because so many people
could imagine themselves or their children in the
audience.
Grande, a 23-year-old former Nickelodeon
star, appeals to a young demographic, and many
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Page 3 of 22
[In Brief]
attendees in Manchester had been
dropped off or accompanied by parents.
That reality fueled extensive TV coverage
of the tragedy, with networks replaying
heartbreaking interviews with parents
who came to pick up their children, only
to be met with confusion and turmoil.
The three major U.S. cable news stations
that covered the aftermath of the attack
live — CNN, Fox News and MSNBC —
averaged between 6 million and 7 million
viewers between 7 p.m. and midnight EST,
according to Nielsen data.
“It’s an isolated incident in another
part of the world,” says Steve Kirsner, vp
booking at SAP Center in San Jose, Calif.,
which hosted Grande’s March 27 show.
“But it’s one of those things that keeps you
up at night.”
The Manchester Arena, run by SMG
Europe, is the second-highest-grossing
venue in the United Kingdom and the
fourth-highest in the world, and it is highly
regarded within the touring industry.
“SMG is a very good company; this isn’t
like a bunch of kids putting on a show in
their backyard,” says Steve Adelman, vice
president of the Event Safety Alliance.
But experts say the venue’s sheer size and
location, connected to the city’s Victoria
train station, made it an attractive target.
Just 18 months ago, the Bataclan attack
resulted in widespread calls for increased
security at concerts, and many venues
introduced metal detectors and other
measures. But the Manchester explosion
occurred in an atrium that housed a box
office and was outside the gate, and thus
the metal detectors.
“We’ve learned how important
perimeter protection is,” says Lou
Marciani, director of the National Center
for Spectator Sports Safety and Security.
“Now, they aren’t going into the stadium
but [rather] attacking the areas around
them. And that puts pressure on everyone.”
“No one can say that venue security
wasn’t sufficient,” says Randy Phillips,
former AEG Live CEO and current
president/CEO of the festival company
LiveStyle. “[The bomber] didn’t get
inside.”
To security experts, the fact that
the attack happened outside the gate
underscores the challenge of protecting
not only venues themselves, but also
entrances and exits, both before and after
events. Security measures have gotten
demonstrably better in recent years, say
several experts, but there is a limit to their
effectiveness. “The expansion of security
measures pushes softer target areas further
away from the secured location, but they
cannot entirely eliminate vulnerabilities,”
warned a U.S. State Department memo
released the night of May 23, a copy of
which was obtained by Billboard.
“The bomb was in a public area; the
correct analogy for Manchester is not
Le Bataclan, it’s not a nightclub, it’s the
[April 2013] Boston Marathon bombing,”
says Adelman. “People are following this
because it’s horrific to see bleeding young
people. [But] it could have been a sporting
event or a political rally — it could have
been a chili cook-off for all the difference it
makes.”
Although experts maintain that terrorist
attacks remain exceedingly rare, the
prominence of the news coverage could
lead to an exaggerated sense of insecurity
among concertgoers, and especially their
parents, says Phillips. “Where this affects
us isn’t adults — adults aren’t not going to
go to a concert. It’s the younger generation,
kids who are 8 to 12 and like to do things
that their older siblings do but need their
parents’ permission. When I did the last
Katy Perry concert [at AEG], there were
young kids. So the concert promoters, in
a situation like that, have to make those
parents feel secure.”
So far AEG, which still oversees tours
by Perry, as well as Ed Sheeran and Justin
Bieber, hasn’t seen ticket sales soften for
concerts that appeal to young female fans
like Grande’s. But the prospect “makes me
very nervous,” says a senior executive at
the company. “We haven’t been flooded
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Page 4 of 22
[In Brief]
with refund requests, but everyone is
paying special attention right now.”
Several major arenas are heightening
their security measures. The Madison
Square Garden Company committed to
“greater on-site police presence” and
“increased diligence in screening” in an
internal memo sent on May 23, and other
U.S. arena executives emphasized that
they maintain close contacts with local,
state and federal law enforcement agencies
to assess potential threats. “We all know
we’re soft targets, just like shopping malls,
movie theaters and restaurants,” says Lee
Zeidman, president of the Staples Center
in Los Angeles. “We learn from every event
we put on and we make sure our security
team is well-trained and highly visible.”
Any additional security is likely to
create additional costs, a fact that seems
insignificant in the wake of this tragedy but
could weigh on the minds of venue owners,
particularly independent ones, as months
pass. “You’re going to have to spend more
and do more in terms of security, and that’s
going to be passed on to the consumer,”
Adelman says. Phillips expects that the
security costs for at least some festivals,
including insurance, could double to about
20 percent of the overall budget.
And even the most thorough precautions
have limits, especially when it comes to
the areas outside venues. “There is no
level of security that will always prevent
every attack; if I have an outdoor stadium,
I secure it as best I can, but I can’t control
the airspace,” says one security consultant,
who requested anonymity. “But if I can
control 99 percent of what happens, I can
focus on what else it is I can’t control.”
Inevitably, the concert business will
return to normal, or at least what now
passes for it. “Shootings happen at movie
theaters and shopping malls, but that
doesn’t stop millions of people from
going shopping or to see a movie,” says
one venue executive. “Unfortunately this
has become part of our daily life, and we
simply adapt to it.”
Additional reporting by Robert Levine and
Dave Brooks.
Read Scooter
Braun’s Touching
Message to Ariana
Grande Bombing
Victims: ‘I Will
Honor All of U By
Laughing Loving
and Living’
BY GIL KAUFMAN
The horror of Monday night’s (May 22)
suicide bomb attack on an Ariana Grande
concert at the Manchester Arena in England will be with the survivors forever. But
it doesn’t have to define the victims, or
Grande, or her manager, Scooter Braun.
In a touching message posted on Twitter
Thursday morning (May 25) Braun —
who also manages Justin Bieber, among
others — wrote of how he he went out to
dinner with his parents for Korean BBQ on
Wednesday night and “experienced joy”
for the first time in days. They drank, ate
and laughed with the tables around them,
even as Braun came to some emotional
realizations about the impact the attack has
had on him and how he will live with it for
the rest of his life.
“I remembered...we r free. We are all
different but we r free to enjoy each other’s
company,” he wrote in a series of tweets
about the aftermath of the terror attack
that killed 22 and injured dozens of others.
“I will honor those that r lost by living each
day full. Full of fun, full of laughter, full
of joy. I welcome the differences of my
neighbor, the wish of terrorism is to take
away that feeling of freedom and joy. No.
That is my answer. No. We cant allow it.
Fear cannot rule the day.”
Braun wrote that more people die from
car crashes each year than terrorism, and
yet, he will still get in his car, a form of
coping that conforms with a number of
suggestions offered up to Billboard by
mental health experts for dealing with the
aftermath of traumatic events.
https://twitter.com/scooterbraun/
status/867615945685999616?ref_
src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_
url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.billboard.com
%2Farticles%2Fcolumns%2Fpop%2F78
09328%2Fariana-grande-attack-scooterbraun-touching-message
“I will choose to live then to be afraid,”
he wrote in what, at press time, was a series
of 10 tweets. “So...Manchester I stand
with you. Jakarta I stand with u..children
of Syria I stand with you. We will honor
you by not giving in to the darkness. So
if u think u scared us...if you think your
cowardice act made us change how we
live...sorry. All you did was make us
appreciate every day. With extraordinary
evil we must fight with extraordinary
greatness. Fight on. Goodnight world.
Tomorrow I live full.”
https://twitter.com/scooterbraun/
status/867617514347347968?ref_
src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_
url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.billboard.com
%2Farticles%2Fcolumns%2Fpop%2F78
09328%2Fariana-grande-attack-scooterbraun-touching-message
Braun said he will honor all of the
victims by “laughing loving and living,”
and by living his life in full for every
“wonderful innocent child whose life was
taken too soon. Am I angry? Hell yes. But
how will we respond? With everything you
think you took from us... love and joy and
life!”
https://twitter.com/scooterbraun/
status/867618925835567109?ref_
src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_
url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.billboard.com
%2Farticles%2Fcolumns%2Fpop%2F78
09328%2Fariana-grande-attack-scooterbraun-touching-message
Page 5 of 22
[In Brief]
Manchester
Bombing Update:
Arrests Continue
as England Holds
Moment of Silence
& Millions Raised
for Victims
BY GIL KAUFMAN
The United Kingdom held a national moment of silence on Thursday morning (May
25) at 11 a.m. BST to honor the 22 dead and
dozens wounded in Monday’s bomb attack
outside an Ariana Grande concert at Manchester Arena. BBC News reported that
emotional gatherings occurred across the
nation, including one in St. Ann’s Square in
Manchester where the silence was followed
by applause and cheers of “Well done Manchester!” as well as a spontaneous crowd
rendition of Oasis’ moving ballad “Don’t
Look Back in Anger.”
https://twitter.com/ManchesterArena/
status/867666563654180869/
photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_
url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.billboard.com
%2Farticles%2Fnews%2F7809304%2Fma
nchester-bombing-update-raids-continuemoment-of-silence-charity-raises-millions
Even as the victims were being
remembered, the probe into the attack
intensified and widened amid pushback
from British authorities over the handling
of sensitive intelligence by U.S. agencies.
A growing source of tension in the
investigation is the steady drip of leaks
to the U.S. media from the Trump
administration, a situation UK Prime
Minister Theresa May intends to bring up
when she meets the U.S. president at at
NATO summit in Brussels on Thursday,
according to CNN. “I will make clear to
President Trump that intelligence that
is shared between our law enforcement
agencies must remain secure,” she said.
British intelligence is concerned that the
leaks — which Manchester Mayor Andy
Burnham said were “arrogant” — could
compromise the fast-moving investigation.
The discomfort grew on Wednesday
(May 24), after The New York Times
posted a story that contained a number
of photos of what are believed to be
the detonator, a battery and shrapnel
that bomber Salman Abedi used in the
attack. The paper described the powerful
explosive housed in a metal container filled
with nuts and screws concealed either
in a black vest or blue backpack, with a
hand-operated detonator and a 12-volt
battery power source. A review of the site
shows that the majority of the fatalities
occurred in a “nearly complete circle”
around the bomber, whose “upper torso
was heaved outside the lethal ring toward
the Manchester Arena entrance.” The
sophistication of the bomb — which may
also have contained a redundant timer
switch as back-up — suggests possible
outside help in devising the device.
England’s National Police Chiefs’
Council warned shortly after that leaks
of the photos that publicly sharing such
potentially crucial evidence “undermine
our investigations.” U.S. intelligence
receives updates on the investigation
because of the Five Eyes intelligence
sharing agreement, which includes
England, the U.S., Australia, Canada and
New Zealand.
UK Home Secretary Amber Rudd
has said that the bomber was on the
intelligence service’s radar before the
attack and that he’d been in Libya for three
weeks before returning home just days
before he set off an improvised explosive
device in the suicide bombing.
A family friend told CNN that the
assailant’s father — who was arrested on
Wednesday in the probe along with his
younger brother — had taken his sons to
Libya in mid-April and confiscated their
passports so they couldn’t return to the
UK, where both had reportedly been
in trouble with gangs. Salman Abedi,
however, convinced his father to give his
passport back by claiming he was going to
pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia, returning to
England instead.
As the families of the many teenage
victims continue to mourn the loss of
young lives, Queen Elizabeth II visited with
some of the wounded at the Manchester
Royal Infirmary and Children’s Hospital
Thursday morning, even as two more men
were arrested in the probe, bringing the
total number in custody so far to eight,
according to CNN.
Charity drives to raise money for the
victims include one by the Manchester City
and Manchester United football teams,
who have jointly pledged more than $1.3
million for an emergency fund, according
to BBC News; a group of organizations,
individuals and community groups have
raised a total topping $2.6 million in the
past 24 hours, which will be rolled into the
British Red Cross’ “We Love Manchester
Emergency Fund.” At press time, there
were 116 known injured, 75 of which
remain in hospital including 23 in critical
condition, five of whom are children.
https://twitter.com/AP_Europe/
status/867705488863092736?ref_
src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_
url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.billboard.com
%2Farticles%2Fnews%2F7809304%2Fma
nchester-bombing-update-raids-continuemoment-of-silence-charity-raises-millions
Live Nation
Reportedly
Offering Refunds
on UK Concerts
in Wake of
Manchester Attack
BY GABRIELA TULLY CLAYMORE
Concert-promoter behemoth Live Nation
is offering refunds to ticketholders fearful
of attending upcoming shows in the UK.
Following the terrorist attack in Manchester, England at an Ariana Grande show that
Page 6 of 22
[In Brief]
left 22 dead and dozens more wounded, the
UK has raised its threat level to “critical.”
Prime Minister Theresa May warned
citizens that British intelligence officers
believe another attack could be imminent.
TMZ reports that Live Nation will
offer refunds to major concerts in the UK
including Iron Maiden, Katy Perry, KISS,
Robbie Williams, Phil Collins, Depeche
Mode, and James Arthur. A Live Nation
source told TMZ that they have yet to
decide whether or not to offer refunds in
other countries.
This article originally appeared on
Stereogum.
security.”
Manchester police had arrested five
people in connection with the attack as of
Wednesday afternoon, with three more in
custody on Thursday. The bomber, Salman
Abedi, a 22-year-old British citizen who
grew up around Manchester, died in the
attack.
Britain held a national minute of silence
on Thursday at 11 a.m. local time to
remember those who died or were affected.
Officials said flags will remain at half-mast
on government buildings until Thursday
night. Radio 1 focuses on modern and
current popular music. Like Manchester,
Hull lies in the north of England, but east
of the city that was hit by Monday night’s
bomb attack.
This article originally appeared on The
Hollywood Reporter.
BBC Radio Festival
Tightens Security
After Manchester
Mass Appeal Joins
Bombing
Forces With Pulse
BY GEORG SZALAI
Music Group
The weekend event in Hull will feature
such music stars as Katy Perry, Kings of
Leon, Rag’n’Bone Man, Rita Ora and The
Chainsmokers.
The BBC said Thursday (May 25) that
Radio 1’s Big Weekend festival will take
place “as planned” this weekend in Hull,
England after the Manchester bombing
at an Ariana Grande concert that killed 22
people and left dozens injured.
“After conducting a full review of the
festival, in conjunction with the police and
partners, various extra security measures
have been put in place to ensure the safety
of those attending,” the BBC said. “As part
of this, everyone that enters the site will go
through two rounds of thorough searches
– one round conducted at transport hubs
where police will be present, and a second
round of security procedures at the
entrance gates.”
Added the public broadcaster: “We ask
for the patience and cooperation of anyone
coming to the event on the weekend and
that they allow extra time to pass through
BY MARC SCHNEIDER
Mass Appeal, the 21-year-old graffiti/urban
culture ‘zine that has evolved to include
TV and film production as well as a record
label and creative services division, announced on Thursday a new music publishing joint venture with Pulse Music Group,
the indie music publishing, management
and music services company.
The companies said the new partnership
will focus on discovering up-and-coming
artists, songwriters and producers, using
Mass Appeal’s clout and contacts to help
close the deals and then promote the
song catalogs. As part of the pairing, the
firms will also work on original content
for Mass Appeal’s media projects. Pulse
will handle worldwide music publishing
administration for the partnership.
“Publishing has been one of the key
missing pieces to the evolving Mass Appeal
brand,” noted Mass Appeal CEO Peter
Bittenbender in a statement. “From the
minute we met the team at Pulse, it was
clear we had a shared vision for the future
of the industry and common passions
for music and culture. We are thrilled to
grow this new division with our incredible
partners at Pulse.”
This is just the latest foray into new
territory for Mass Appeal, founded in
1996 as a graffiti ‘zine. In 2014 it worked
with Nas to launch Mass Appeal Records,
which has released new music from Run
the Jewels and Dave East, along with
posthumous records by J Dilla and Pimp
C. In the television space, Mass Appeal has
partnered with CNN, TBS and Comedy
Central, among others, to create urban
culture-themed programming.
Earlier this year, the company
announced it had raised $6 million in a
series A funding round led by Universal
Music Group.
Founded in 2010, Pulse Music Group’s
client roster includes artists Miike Snow,
Galantis, Jukebox the Ghost, Børns, Wild
Belle and — conveniently — Mass Appeal’s
Run the Jewels and Dave East. Its slate of
cross-genre songwriters include El-P from
RtJ, Luke Laird (Carrie Underwood, Little
Big Town), Bonnie McKee (Katy Perry,
Kesha) and BloodPop (Lady Gaga, Justin
Bieber). In August 2016, Pulse announced a
joint venture with Marc Anthony’s Magnus
Media.
“Our vision in founding Pulse was to
align ourselves with artists and creative
companies at the vanguard of culture,”
said founder and co-CEO Josh Abraham.
“We couldn’t be more excited to add Mass
Appeal as a creative partner.”
Page 7 of 22
[In Brief]
Wax Poetics
Founder Andre
Torres Joins
Universal Music
Enterprises to
Unearth New
Value From HipHop’s Golden Era
BY DAN RYS
To vinyl fanatics, Andre Torres is living the
dream. As founder of Wax Poetics, a magazine for hip-hop, jazz and soul crate-diggers that he launched in 2001, Torres has
been a champion for lost classics for the
past 20 years. Now, after stepping down
from the publication in 2016 and spending
a year as executive editor at lyrics site Genius, Torres has been named the first-ever
vp urban catalog at Universal Music Enterprises, the major’s global catalog division,
reporting to UMe president/CEO Bruce
Resnikoff.
In an interview this month, Resnikoff
explained his decision to expand into
urban with Torres’ hiring. “When I started
in this business, catalog releases and
marketing favored classic rock and pop,”
he told Billboard’s Robert Levine. “We’ve
always had a strong urban catalog — look
at Motown. But there are hip-hop catalogs
from the ‘90s and the ‘00s that have yet
to be marketed [as reissues]. So I hired
Andre Torres to oversee our urban catalog
business.”
For Torres, whose time at Wax Poetics
was often spent digging up those old
recordings and giving them a new luster in
the pages of the magazine, the chance to
get into Universal’s vast archives — which
include iconic hip-hop labels like Def Jam,
Ruff Ryders, Roc-A-Fella, No Limit and a
slew of others — was irresistable. “I would
have never been able to write this job
description, because it would have seemed
like a dream come true,” Torres tells
Billboard. “This is our classic music. This is
what we see as the future of catalog.”
As he looks to get his new job under way,
Torres explains to Billboard his plans to
revitalize an archive of pioneering labels
to give their records another spin, and lays
out his plans for what the catalog business
could be as hip-hop comes of age.
This role is a newly-created position for
UMe. Why is it necessary now?
Look at what they’ve done for The
Beatles, The Beach Boys, Frank Sinatra,
the guys who traditionally got that box-set
treatment. Hip-hop is now 40 years old.
We grew up with a different set of heroes,
and a lot of these titles on the urban side
have been out of print for 20, 30 years. A
lot of these artists have never gotten their
proper due for the culturally relevant,
groundbreaking music that they were
making.
Traditionally, hip-hop has always been
thought of as the hot new thing. Certainly
streaming music and all the data that’s
coming from Spotify, Apple, Tidal, is
showing that what we thought maybe at
one point didn’t have a lot of shelf life is
actually what people are coming back to
these streaming services for. And it’s not
just hip-hop, it’s a lot of catalog that’s being
streamed.
As we move from an ownership model to
a consumption model, the role that catalog
plays in peoples’ lives is much different.
You don’t have groups of people who are
splintered off into, “I only listen to old
hip-hop,” versus, “I only listen to new hiphop.” It’s side by side; all that is existing
at once. With that data, we can clearly
see there’s a group of fans out there who
have been under-served out there. There
is a desire for deluxe packaging, creative
marketing campaigns around catalog.
I’m looking at collaborations and working
with brands and really bringing the
urban catalog back into everyday life and
inserting it into culture, where people are
into this experience on a daily basis, where
a traditional record label hasn’t seen that
aspect of it. That’s where I feel I could do
some good here in repositioning catalog,
especially on the urban sense.
What types of products are you looking
to release?
We’re looking at deluxe editions, box
sets, lots of content creation on the digital
side. We’re dealing with Spotify, Apple,
Tidal, coming up with creative ways to
document certain periods of time, like
the Golden Era, and taking a close look at
groups on our catalog — whether it be a guy
like DMX, or a label like Ruff Ryders, or a
group like Eric B. and Rakim who have the
30th anniversary of their debut album this
year — it’s about including this music in
what’s already being done on the rock side.
It’s serving this audience just as well as the
rock audience has been served.
I’m looking at, “What does the box
set of the future look like?” When you’re
trying to either reintroduce these artists
to an older audience or introduce them to
a younger audience for the first time, it’s
about creating a narrative and looking at all
those different elements — from physical
products to digital plays to merchandising,
pop-ups, working with brands — to provide
a cultural moment. Is it a headset with a VR
experience for someone like my son who
has never bought an album? I’m looking to
reinvent this catalog game.
You guys are releasing the Beatles box
set: six discs, $150, all for an iconic album
like Sgt. Pepper. Which hip-hop albums
might deserve that type of treatment?
When you look at our catalog: Def Jam,
Interscope, Priority, certainly a guy like Jay
Z’s catalog starting with Reasonable Doubt
which turned 20 years old last year, the
first rapper to get into the Songwriters Hall
of Fame — he’s like our Beatles. I’d say 95
percent of his records would warrant that.
Certainly someone like Kanye; I’m dying to
do something with 808s and Heartbreak,
that was a game-changer, especially when
you look at a lot of the kids who are hot
right now, and that turns 10 years old next
year. If you look at a rock act, they would
have taken another 10 years before they
looked at that record, but for me, it’s about
celebrating it now, and continuing to do
that over the next 10 and 20 years.
I think artists like Kanye, Pharrell, who
have always come into the game with a
Page 8 of 22
[In Brief]
real vision, would provide me with a good
platform to do creative things. When you
look at the Republic side with The Weeknd
and Drake and Lil Wayne’s catalog,
especially Tha Carter series — there’s a lot
of potential there to do some great stuff
that may not have been thought about.
There’s a wealth of material there, and
that’s really just the hip-hop side. I have
everything going back to Stevie Wonder
and James Brown to the whole Blue Note
catalog and George Clinton. A lot of those
guys never really got this treatment either.
So for me, it’s two-fold in making sure we
hit the nostalgic hip-hop heads, the newer
kid who could be buying Kendrick Lamar
vinyl, all the way back to someone who’s
digging in the crates and wants to see that
kind of experience for someone like a
Stevie Wonder or a Marvin Gaye.
The box sets we all know well will often
have different versions of songs, early
versions with different lyrics. Are we
talking about lost verses or things like that?
I’m digging into the archives. Sometimes
it’s working directly with the artist to see
if they have extra material. We have the
whole Gang Starr catalog and I’ve been
talking to DJ Premier’s team a lot and
there’s definitely some material there
that hasn’t seen the light of day yet.
Traditionally, a lot of hip-hop dudes have
sat on that stuff. But if you look at Fade To
Black, you see Jay Z recording multiple
tracks with Rick Rubin. Only one made it
onto the album, but you know there are like
five others.
But this is really about the fans and
letting them inside the process and behind
the scenes. And I think with the right
conversations and the right packaging
and showing how we can present these
box sets and market them, these are
the conversations I’ve been having with
various artists’ camps about letting us
into those vaults and getting access to
some of that material. And it is an ongoing
conversation and there’s definitely a
learning curve there, but that’s the goal,
to fatten up some of these packages with
unreleased material.
Sampling is a problem with older rap
records. Will you tackle that issue?
Without a doubt. Thank God there’s
already been some proactive movement
on that side with a group like Public
Enemy, which used hugely sample-centric
production from the Bomb Squad and for
a while there a lot of that stuff was locked
up in sample purgatory. But in the last
few years, there have been great efforts
in cleaning all that up and now it’s pretty
much where it needs to be to where we’re
working with Public Enemy’s camp about
putting together some sort of career look
box set in the next year or two.
There are still some of those that are still
lying around that haven’t been addressed
yet and we’ll have to look at them on a
case-by-case basis. But if the album is
culturally-relevant enough and important,
it warrants that extra work in order to get it
back out into the world. That’s something
I’ve been doing a lot on the back end just
to make sure we’re working with artists
and creating a relationship that everyone’s
comfortable with. I want them to be
involved in this process and know where
the hurdles are. Sometimes these things
pop up as you’re in the process and we just
want to make sure we’re moving in tandem
with what they’re doing.
This article originally appeared in the June
3 issue of Billboard.
IMS Biz Report:
Global Electronic
Market Up 3% to
$7.4 Billion
BY BILLBOARD STAFF
The International Music Summit in Ibizia
today released its 2017 IMS Business Report, an annual in-depth economic study of
the electronic music industry. The report,
which looked at industry data from 2016,
reported the dance music market was up
3% to $7.4 billion dollars, up from $7.1
billion the year before.
Some of the reports other highlights
included:
- In the U.S., sales of electronic music
were up across all formats including
albums, singles and on-demand streaming.
The genre now ranks as the fifth most
popular genre behind rock, R&B/ hip-hop,
pop and county and ahead of Latin music.
- For on-demand streaming, dance is
now the fourth most popular genre with
a 6% share of the market. The report also
said that 57% of total Dance sales are from
streaming – the highest of any genre in
the U.S. And Spotify, the world’s largest
streamng service, has some 12 Billion
electronic music streams a month.
- In terms of global markets, the report
noted that Mexico and Brazil are among
the top ten countries to stream electronic
music. In France, dance music received the
most radio airplay of any genre with 29%
share of the market. In Germany dance
music sales are at an all-time high with a
7% share—double what it was three years
ago.
- In the live market, Forbes’ estimated
earnings of Top 12 DJs fell 1% in 2016 to
$300 million, which is still 12% higher
than it was in 2013. The biggest earner was
yet again Calvin Harris who earned $63
million dollars. Overall 16% of people in
the U.S. in 2016 attended a club event with
DJs.
The report noted the expansion of the
live market in Latin America with Ultra
Brazil and Argentina, four festivals in
Mexico and the Baum Festival in Bogata.
Brazil also has seven of the top 100 clubs
as ranked by DJ Mag. Mexico also saw
revenues from electronic dance music
increase 24% year-over-year.
In terms of M&As, the report noted
Sony Music UK’s acquisition of Ministry
of Sound for $87 million dollars and the
Trilantic Capital Partners’ acquisition of
the Pacha Group for what was reported to
be over $390 million.
The IMS Business Report was written
and delivered by Kevin Watson, a Londonbased strategy specialist who founded
Danceonomics.com, an information hub
for the electronic music industry.
Page 9 of 22
[In Brief]
Spotify Adds
Former Disney
COO Tom Staggs
to Board: Report
BY GEORG SZALAI
Music streaming service Spotify has added
four new board members, including former
Walt Disney COO Tom Staggs who was
seen as the likely successor of Disney boss
Bob Iger before surprise news in April 2016
that he was stepping down.
The other new board members are
Shishir Mehrotra, YouTube’s former head
of product; Padmasree Warrior, who heads
of the U.S. unit of Chiense electric auto
firm NextEV; and Cristina Stenbeck of
Swedish investment firm Kinnevik.
The Financial Times reported the news,
citing people familiar with the situation.
Spotify did not immediately comment.
The addition of Staggs brings further
entertainment industry expertise to the
company’s board, which previously added
Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos.
Spotify has been understood to be looking
at expanding its video offerings.
This article was originally published by The
Hollywood Reporter.
Statik Selektah
Talks Management
Deal With Roc
Nation
BY CARL LAMARRE
Since 2007, Statik Selektah — born Patrick
Baril — has been a staple in the production
world. The Boston native’s affinity for hiphop and everything boom-bap has allowed
him to connect with some of rap’s biggest
names.
With an unblemished resume that
includes Eminem, Nas, Action Bronson
and Joey Bada$$, Selektah is quickly
becoming hip-hop’s secret weapon.
This year, the producer made a huge
splash when he cooked up two tracks
for Joey Bada$$’s acclaimed album AllAmerikkkan Badass. The project’s final
song “Legendary,” which features J. Cole,
showcases Selektah’s pristine beat-making
abilities. In hopes of cementing himself as
a premier household name, the “Detroit
Vs. Everybody” producer recently inked a
management deal with Jay Z’s Roc Nation.
Selektah spoke to Billboard about his
new deal, his plans to expand his brand,
working on Nas’ forthcoming album, Joey
Bada$$’s growth, and why his project with
2 Chainz will have New York listeners in a
frenzy.
I’m trying to cover the whole spread — that
includes other kinds of music, too. I want
to do more R&B, more reggae, everything.
I’ve known [Roc Nation management
rep] Kristi [Clifford] over there for a long
time and she had mentioned my name.
My name came up in a meeting when they
were talking about The LOX. I wasn’t on
the last LOX album and Kristi spoke up and
said that [I’m] on the next one, so it kind
of started a conversation and we started
throwing out ideas with me coming up [to
Roc Nation]. A lot of the people up there
was familiar with what I was doing. I played
some music and it just all came together
really good. The whole staff up there is
exactly what I need for my movement to
go to the next level. I think I bring my own
flavor of what I do as well.
I met Joey when he was 16-years-old.
He was making a mixtape, you know what
I mean? I watched him go from a huge
Internet success to starting a tour with him.
We’ve been around the world a bunch of
times. I mean, we’ve probably done 600,
700 shows together in the last four years.
I did the math one time and it was a lot.
[Laughs]. It was real dope that I produced
the record “Legendary” with J. Cole —
another Roc Nation artist — on Joey’s
album [All AmeriKKKan Bada$$]. I just
think it marks this moment in time. Just the
way the dots connected was real special.
Congrats on signing a management
deal with Roc Nation. How did everything
come together?
What you are trying to accomplish with
your move to Roc Nation?
Honestly, I wanna pick my placement
game up. I’ve worked with everybody
from Eminem to 2 Chainz to Nas — a lot
more recently with Nas. I’ve been in the
studio with him. The next level to me is
like being on every album that comes out
that matters. I grew up looking up to DJ
Premier, who would have the illest hip-hop
joint on everybody’s album. That’s exactly
what I want to do. I’ve been doing it for a
little while, especially with the new cats
like Joey Bada$$ and Action Bronson, but
You’ve mentioned being in the studio
with Nas. What’s the latest on his new
album?
Some of it is top secret but I will tell you
that he’s working on Fashawn’s album. He’s
signed to Nas’ label Mass Appeal. They
got a new studio over [at the Mass Appeal
office], so I’ve been going over there and
working with him. Nas has been working
on this album for a long time so at any
given moment, he can change his mind.
I’m not even really sure where he stands
with the album, but I will tell you that we
have some joints in the stash. So, hopefully,
one of those either makes that, or I know
that Lost Tapes 2 is eventually coming out.
It’s just if the vibes are right.
You’ve had a relationship with Joey
Bada$$ since he was 16. How would you
describe his growth thus far in music?
Your album 8 is slated for a late
summer release. What can we expect in
terms of artists and sounds on the new
project?
I’m really excited about it. I’ve been
really stepping up my game musically. You
know, you can expect that Statik sound,
but it’s just a lot bigger. I got 2 Chainz on
there. Me and him have a project that’s
dropping really soon. Of course, the
fam like Joey Bada$$, Action Bronson,
Termanology, Run the Jewels, The LOX,
Wale, Black Thought, Raekwon, Freddie
Gibbs, Westside Gunn and Conway — who
just signed to Shady Records. I’ve been
messing with them since the beginning.
Page 10 of 22
[In Brief]
I’m really excited about that. G-Eazy,
Royce Da 5’9’, and obviously, the late, great
Sean Price. You know, me and Sean have
been close so I’m happy I got something
underneath for this one.
You and 2 Chainz have a project on the
way. What did he bring to the table that
amazed you the most as an artist?
He’s been killing features and his own
records for a long time. When you hear
these records, it’s just so different. No one
has ever done what he did with this project.
First of all, he’s rapping like he’s from
Brooklyn. It’s just very New York. Basically,
a down South guy made a New York album,
so I’m excited for that.
Do you have a name for the project?
Yeah, we got a name, but I gotta let
Chainz announce that one.
Lastly, is it over for your Boston
Celtics in their playoff series against the
Cleveland Cavaliers?
Listen, they came back in Game 3 and
I didn’t see that coming so we’ll see what
happens [in Game 5]. I got faith. I’ve seen
everything. I’m a Boston fan. I’ve seen the
Red Sox come back. I’ve seen the Celtics
come back. I’ve seen the Patriots come
back from being down at halftime, so you
never know.
Eminem Returns to
Social 50 Chart for
the First Time This
Year
BY KEVIN RUTHERFORD
The rapper returns to the chart for the first
time since the Dec. 31, 2016-dated chart,
after promoting his appearance in the upcoming ‘The Defiant Ones’ documentary.
Eminem makes his first appearance on
Billboard’s Social 50 chart in 2017, and it’s
all thanks to his Instagram account.
With his first post in eight weeks, the
rapper garnered 884,000 new Instagram
follows and 19.5 million Instagram
reactions in the tracking week, according to
Next Big Sound.
The Social 50 is powered by data tracked
by music analytics company Next Big
Sound and ranks the most popular artists
on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube,
Wikipedia, Instagram and Tumblr. The
chart’s methodology blends weekly
additions of friends/fans/followers along
with artist page views and engagement.
The chart’s latest tracking week ended May
18.
The rapper’s post, at first glance, might
have seemed like an announcement of
new music. The post is a black-and-white
photo of the rapper with the word ‘defiant.’
Turns out it’s actually an ad promoting
the upcoming documentary The Defiant
Ones. The four-part film, which focuses
on the partnership of Dr. Dre and Jimmy
Iovine, features interviews with artists
and industry vets like Eminem and will
premiere July 9 via HBO.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BT9_
F8fFk97/
The promo works out for Eminem, who
re-enters the Social 50 at No. 13, his first
appearance since the Dec. 31, 2016-dated
ranking and highest position since last
November (No. 7, Nov. 5).
Meanwhile, Chris Cornell debuts on the
Social 50 at No. 38 following his May 17
death in Detroit. Much of Cornell’s chart
metrics come from Wikipedia views, where
he garnered 1.3 million views, as well as
new followers on Facebook (up 104,000)
and Instagram (77,000). It’s the first time
Cornell or a Cornell-affiliated act makes
the Social 50; none of Soundgarden,
Audioslave or Temple of the Dog (all acts
that he performed with) ever made the
ranking.
Another chart debut belongs to Machine
Gun Kelly, who bows at No. 46. He enters
courtesy of buzz generated by his Bloom
album release, and news of his upcoming
modeling campaign with John Varvatos.
MGK rises 147 percent and 76 percent in
Twitter mentions and Instagram reactions,
respectively.
The Notorious
B.I.G. &
Tupac Shakur
Documentaries to
Premiere on A&E
Next Month
BY CARL LAMARRE
Next month, A&E will relaunch its popular
Biography series by delving into the unsolved murders of rap icons The Notorious
B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur.
On June 28, the network will air its
two-part documentary Biggie: The Life
of Notorious B.I.G. The series retraces
the footsteps of Biggie’s life, his untimely
death, and showcases never-before-heard
recordings from the Life After Death
rapper. His late mother Voletta Wallace,
his widow Faith Evans, Lil Cease and
members of the Junior M.A.F.I.A. will also
make appearances to discuss their fondest
memories of the late Brooklyn lyricist.
A&E will then unveil its six-part
miniseries Who Killed Tupac? on June
29. The series will feature civil rights
attorney Benjamin Crump, who speaks
on the numerous theories that continue to
surround ‘Pac’s death.
“The late Christopher Wallace and
Tupac Shakur continue to impact the world
two decades after their tragic,unsolved
murders and there is still a public longing
to connect with these figures and to
celebrate their legacies,” said Elaine
Frontain Bryant, executive vice president
and head of programming at A&E Network
in a press release.
Adds Bryant: “We pride ourselves in
delivering projects under the Biography
banner that unearth a side of the story
that the public has never seen before. In
the case of Biggie: The Life of Notorious
B.I.G., the foundation of this biography
is exclusive archival footage and audio
recordings of Biggie himself, packaged in a
Page 11 of 22
[In Brief]
way that allows him to tell his own life story
as if its present day and we are truly excited
to be able to bring that kind of intimacy
and connection to his fans.”
The first two hours of Biggie: The Life of
Notorious B.I.G. will premiere June 28 at
9 p.m. ET with the last hour airing June 29
at 8 p.m. ET. Who Killed Tupac? will debut
the first of its six installments on June 29 at
9 p.m. ET on A&E.
Nicki Minaj to
Perform at the NBA
Awards
BY ADELLE PLATON
Nicki Minaj is bringing her A-game to the
NBA Awards. The league announced on
Thursday (May 25) that the Queens rapper
will be performing at the inaugural ceremony, taking place at New York’s Basketball City at Pier 36.
The show will also be hosted by Minaj’s
frequent collaborator and Young Money
mate, Drake. The two recently reunited at
this year’s Billboard Music Awards (May 21)
where the rapper — who won 13 awards —
shouted out Minaj as the “love of his life”
during his final acceptance speech of the
night. “Nicki Minaj, I’m so glad we found
our way back because I love you,” he said.
“And I could never ever ever see it any
other way.”
The NBA Awards will also include
contributions from the Inside The NBA
crew comprised of Ernie Johnson, Charles
Barkley, Kenny Smith and Shaquille O’Neal
alongside other celebrity presenters and
the league’s biggest stars.
Catch the festivities when the NBA
Awards air on Monday, June 26, on TNT at
9 p.m. ET.
Chris Blue, Winner
of ‘The Voice,’
Debuts at No. 1 on
Hot Gospel Songs
BY JIM ASKER
Crowned the winner of the 12th season of
NBC’s The Voice on Tuesday, Chris Blue
— a worship leader at Cokesbury United
Methodist Church in Knoxville, Tennessee
— debuts at No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Gospel
Songs chart (dated June 3) with his version
of Tamela Mann’s “Take Me to the King.”
As Mann’s original led the list for 25 weeks
in 2012 and 2013, the song is the first to
rule the ranking via more than one version
(dating to the chart’s 2005 inception).
“King,” which Blue performed on the
show’s May 15 episode, competing for
coach Alicia Keys’ team, launches with
30,000 downloads sold, according to
Nielsen Music. It’s only the seventh song
to debut at No. 1 and the first since Kirk
Franklin’s “Wanna Be Happy?” on Sept. 19,
2015. Before “Happy,” Koryn Hawthorne,
a finalist on the The Voice’s eighth season,
launched at No. 1 with her take on the
traditional gospel hymn “How Great Thou
Art” (April 25, 2015).
Another season 12 Voice finalist, Aliyah
Moulden — who, as a member of Blake
Shelton’s team, finished in third place
(behind runner-up Lauren Duski) — starts
at No. 4 on Hot Christian Songs with her
cover of MercyMe’s 2003 hit “I Can Only
Imagine.” After the 15-year-old Moulden
sang the ballad on the show’s May 15
episode, it debuts at No. 1 on Christian
Digital Song Sales with 15,000 sold.
Back to Hot Gospel Songs, “You Waited,”
the new single from Columbia, South
Carolina-based singer-songwriter and
worship leader Travis Greene, storms in at
No. 4, spurred by first-week sales of 3,000
downloads. The song marks Greene’s
highest debut and third top 10, following
two No. 1s: “Intentional” led the list dated
Aug. 1, 2015, and “Made a Way” reigned
for 13 weeks starting Sept. 24, 2016. “You
Waited” is the lead single from Greene’s
album Crossover, due Aug. 18.
On Top Christian Albums, Requiem,
a new set of ancient Gregorian chants
from The Fraternity/Priestly Fraternity
of St. Peter, starts at No. 4 (3,000 units,
all from pure sales). The set yields the
first appearance on a Billboard chart for
the international community of Catholic
priests, known mainly for singing at funeral
masses all over the world. The LP is the
collective’s first major-label release, issued
through Sony Masterworks.
Finally, “Oceans (Where Feet May Fail),”
from Australian worship collective Hillsong
United, which led Hot Christian Songs for a
record 61 weeks, wraps its chart run after a
record 192 weeks. Sung by the group’s Taya
Smith, “Oceans” embarked on the Hot
Christian Songs chart dated Oct. 5, 2013,
and ascended to No. 1 for the first time that
Dec. 7. The track logged all but 10 of its 192
weeks on the chart in the top five.
Meanwhile, sister act Hillsong Worship,
which shares personnel with Hillsong
United, leads Hot Christian Songs and
Christian Airplay for a 14th and ninth
week, respectively, with “What a Beautiful
Name.”
Buena Vista Social
Club Documentary
Redux Brings Back
Departed Cuban
Musicians
BY JUDY CANTOR-NAVAS
One of the most revealing moments of
the new documentary about the Cuban
musicians known to the world as the Buena
Vista Social Club happens early in the film,
when Juan de Marcos González visits the
house in Havana where the actual Buena
Vista Social Club, a neighborhood dance
hall and community center, was located
Page 12 of 22
[In Brief]
before being shuttered by Cuban officials
in the 1960s.
González, the Cuban musician and
producer who acted as Ry Cooder’s A&R
man for the original Buena Vista album,
ducks under a clothesline full of washing,
his graying dreadlocks brushing against a
bright-colored bra. As if the curtains of a
speakeasy have been parted, the surprising
sight of a fully-equipped gym complete
with, as González brightly notes, “very
modern” machines, and patrons in midworkout, comes into view.
As the film continues, director Lucy
Walker, who started work on Buena
Vista Social Club: Adiós in 2015, briefly
references recent significant events
in Cuba and changes in the country’s
relationship with the United States in more
obvious ways. A Cuban radio announcer
informing listeners of Fidel Castro’s death
opens the documentary, which will have
its commercial release tomorrow, May
26. [It had been scheduled to premiere at
Sundance last January, but it was pulled
from the program at the last minute.] The
film also flashes on President Obama
in Cuba, and Buena Vista musicians
performing at the White House.
Twenty years have gone by since the
Buena Vista Social Club album brought
global fame to a group of senior citizens
who were quickly assembled to make a
recording of traditional Cuban music in
a decaying Havana studio; most of the
original principals have since passed away,
and the new film shows that the music
– and cheering crowds – accompanied
them until the end. As any Buena Vista
fan knows, the story of the making of
the album and its main protagonists
– Ibrahim Ferrer, Compay Segundo,
Omara Portuondo, Ruben González and
Eliades Ochoa - was already told in a 1999
documentary directed by Wim Wenders.
In addition to introducing viewers to the
endearing, unsinkable musicians and their
sublimely catchy and culturally significant
music, that film allowed for a revealing
look at the island at a time when it was
still seen by Americans as a forbidden
destination (and vice versa).
Wenders’ film followed the BVSC
artists to New York, where they reached
a crescendo performing at Carnegie
Hall. The new movie wraps up in 2016,
when surviving original members Omara
Portuondo – a riveting presence in both
films – Ochoa, Manuel “Guajiro” Mirabal,
laud player Barbarito Torres and an
intergenerational band said goodbye to the
world’s stages on the group’s international
Adiós tour, which ended with a concert
in Havana. (the 86-year-old Portuondo,
Ochoa and other BVSC alumni continue to
perform as solo artists).
As a narrator, the English-speaking
Juan de Marcos Gónzalez lends the new
documentary a revisionist tone. Gónzalez’s
importance in the production of the
Buena Vista album was overshadowed
by Ry Cooder’s celebrity after the record
was released and swiftly became a
phenomenon, topping Billboard’s Latin
Albums and World Albums charts, and
going platinum in the U.S. To date, it
has sold more than 12 million copies
worldwide. Wenders’ film was nominated
for an Oscar.
Gónzalez, who acted as musical director
of the Buena Vista project, and is also
known as the leader of the Afro-Cuban
Allstars, had only a bit part in that movie.
In the Adiós documentary, it’s Cooder who
appears fleetingly, in archival footage. A
disclaimer at the end of the closing credits
makes clear that Cooder did not participate
in the film.
González’s protagonism in Walker’s
movie offers a Cuban point of view on a
project that took the Cuban officials, and
even other musicians, years to warm up
to. Cuban music critic Pedro de la Hoz,
writing for the official newspaper Granma
in August 2000, voiced a widespread
opinion when he suggested that Buena
Vista was a capitalist plot to profit from
Cuban patrimony. He went so far as to
call Cooder an expert in “finding in the
Third World what the First World needs,”
and to describe World Circuit Records
label head Nick Gold, as a “wily fox” who
had created a “solid discographic saga”
with Buena Vista and its sequel albums.
De la Hoz mocked Wim Wenders’ film as
spinning a rags-to-riches story about “the
triumph of some poor musicians hailing
from a city of decrepit streets, junkyard
dogs and dilapidated cars” to the streets of
New York, a tale “as grotesque as Tarzan’s
journey to the asphalt jungle.”
In the new film, González echoes some
of that scepticism when he finds himself
basking in applause on a foreign stage at
yet another packed Buena Vista show.
“What do these people really know
about Cuba?” González asks provocatively.
“What do they know about the things
we’ve been through?”
The film takes a weak stab at answering
those questions as the opening credits roll.
Historic snippets walk us through moments
in Cuban history, and its music history. The
archival clips are as visually engaging as
could be expected, but ultimately amount
to a short list of facts, spanning centuries,
that can’t help but seem random.
BVSC: Adiós does pick up the
thread of a wider historic context at
times, emphasizing issues of racism
and corruption in Cuba in the preRevolutionary period before Fidel Castro’s
rise. The thorny subject of Cuban exile
is raised when Portuondo expresses her
obvious disapointment that her sister
and former bandmate sent her young
niece to Miami along with thousands of
other children with the Peter Pan antiCommunist airlift in the early ‘60s, and
soon left for the U.S. herself. At that
intriguing moment in the movie, the
personal becomes political. But Portuondo,
who for over two decades in the global
spotlight has proved herself to be a
consumate diplomat, doesn’t go further
with it. And, unfortunately, neither does
Walker.
Using outtakes from the first movie,
previously unseen footage and archival
clips, Adiós re-tells the by-now familiar
stories of Ferrer, González, Segundo,
Portuondo, Ochoa and others in the group,
and relives performances of some of their
well-known songs. The documentary
fleshes out individual background stories
of the main artists, and adds some intimate
moments to the existing Buena Vista
canon, particularly shedding suggestive
light on the connection between Portuondo
Page 13 of 22
[In Brief]
and Ferrar.
The impish big-voiced singer Ferrar
emerged as the sun of Buena Vista after
he stole the show in the Wenders’ film.
There’s a poignant moment in Adiós when
the singer, who died at age 78 in 2005,
asks himself why, after a lifetime in show
business during which he never fully got
his due, success arrived at an age when he
was practically too old to enjoy it.
But again, Walker misses an opportunity
to say more. We see Ochoa, who at the
time of the recording is dressed in cheap
separates, now splendid in the sharp black
suit that has since become his trademark,
and a well-groomed Ferrer expanding
his wardrobe of newsboy caps. Ferrer
went from shining shoes for money to
supplement his small pension one year,
to making $100,000 in album royalties
and concert fees the next (according to an
interview with González at the time) - and
presumably much more in subsequent
years. At one point in Adiós, González
notes that the artists were in it for love, not
money, and there’s no doubt his statement
is not a mere platitude or party line. But
the artists of Buena Vista Social Club kept
a rigorous tour schedule, performing in
some of the most prestigious theaters
and at festivals around the world. The
movie totally sidesteps the issue of their
material wealth, and how it played within
the context of a Communist Cuba where
musicians’ relationships with the state, as
well as ideas about being compensated for
their work, were rapidly changing.
The changes in the Buena Vista
artists’ lives directly paralleled, and
even influenced, changes in Cuba. After
the Buena Vista album took off, and the
musicians were welcomed around the
world, they were finally embraced at home.
The first Buena Vista Social Club concert
in Havana took place two years after the
record’s release. By that time, the project
had spurred a global interest in Cuban
music that had not been seen since the
1950s; the fever was particularly high in
the United States, where the embargo had
kept music from the island off the radio for
more than thirty years.
The musicians even had an unwitting
role as statesmen. In Miami, they
experienced exile politics first hand: in
1998, the Miami Beach Convention Center
was evacuated when a bomb threat was
called in during a concert in which Compay
Segundo was performing. Afterward, when
the audience was allowed back into the
hall, Segundo, who was then 90 years old,
returned to the stage, announced drolly,
“Okay, so you had a rest,” and played on.
At one point he shouted “Music doesn’t
bother anybody. Music is music!” In 1999,
Ferrer and Ruben González canceled
a show in Miami that was besieged by
advance exile protests. But overall, Buena
Vista’s pre-Revolutionary sound softened
Cuban exile audiences’ opposition to
music from the island, and primed them
to gradually accept contemporary groups
coming from Cuba. Today, a concert by
a Cuban musician in Miami is a common
occurrence. And a Cuban artist making it
to the Billboard Latin charts is no longer
remarkable. In 1997, when the Buena Vista
Social Club album took the No. 1 slot, it was
a historic event.
In addition to solo albums by the
Buena Vista artists, the market became
flooded with vintage Cuban music and
Buena Vista wannabes. Foreign producers
mined the archives of Cuba’s state label
Egrem to create compilations of old
Cuban music, and Cuban music officials
realized the extent of the value in their
vaults. The allure of Buena Vista also
called out to tourists at a time when the
Cuban government had just begun to
increase their efforts to promote Cuba as a
destination in the wake of the collapse of
the Soviet Union and a period of economic
emergency in Cuba.
None of this is addressed in Adiós. And
there’s no follow up to that compelling
early scene when González reveals the
Buena Vista Social Club gymnasium. There
is some reference to the pre-Revolutionary
segregation that created such social clubs,
but no mention of the fact that interest in
the album led to a reunion of the original
members of the actual club in 1999,
where they exchanged photos of the great
Benny More performing there. Later, in
2007, a short-lived revival of the club was
documented by German director Carsten
Moller in Second Look: Buena Vista Social
Club, a downbeat portrait of frustrated
Havana residents that contrasted with the
euphoric story of the Buena Vista Social
Club.
Adiós is a sentimental journey that,
despite some attempts to cover new
territory, ultimately doesn’t stray far
from that original Buena Vista story line.
Curiously, it doesn’t even detour to meet
the accomplished and appealing younger
artists who joined the line-up over the
years; they make only cameo appearances
in the film. Certainly their stories, while
perhaps lacking the fairy-tale appeal of
their now more famous predecessors, are
equally as interesting, and could have
provided the perfect vehicle for taking the
story forward.
Walker’s documentary is more of an
encore than a sequel. But it does serve
to demonstrate, 20 years on, that the
Buena Vista Social Club was not a mere
novelty, but a gifted group of professional
musicians who collectively achieved one of
the most spectacular second acts in music
history, and revived interest in Cuban
music in the process. The best thing about
Adiós is that it will give diehard fans a
chance to see them one more time.
https://youtu.be/Vc2okbnxBtI
Pete Tong on
10 Years of the
International Music
Summit & Why the
U.S. Dance Market
Has Peaked
BY MATT MEDVED
Dance music’s premier tastemaker on expanding IMS, his chart-topping successes
and where dance music goes from here.
Few in dance music successfully wear
Page 14 of 22
[In Brief]
as many hats as Pete Tong. As a BBC
Radio 1 c­ urator, the Dartford, England,
native helped launch the careers of many
of dance music’s elite, from Daft Punk to
deadmau5. And as a co-founder of both
William Morris Endeavor’s electronicmusic d
­ ivision and the International Music
Summit ­conference — which celebrates
its 10th anniversary this week and has
added events in Los Angeles and Shanghai
— Tong has extended his influence far
beyond its original radio reach. He also
runs his FFRR label and plays shows as a
DJ.
“I’ve straddled that weird ­existence
between artist and e
­ xecutive,” says
Tong, 58. “I see both sides of the story.
Sometimes I feel the artist side has suffered
over the years.”
This year, Tong donned a new hat: that
of chart-topper, after his Classic House
LP hit No. 1 on the U.K. albums chart in
January. Featuring seminal dancefloor
anthems like Jamie Principle’s “Your Love”
and the late Robert Miles’ “Children”
reworked with Jules Buckley’s 65-piece
Heritage Orchestra, the album resonated
with an aging 35- to 45-year-old British
raver demographic that “might not go
out as much as they used to, but are still
passionate about the music,” he says.
Tong and Buckley recorded the album
after their joint Ibiza Classics Tour, which
included sold-out shows in Manchester,
Birmingham and London, at the O2 Arena.
“No generation of dance music from the
beginning had gotten old before,” Tong
tells Billboard. “Nobody knew how they
were going to react.”
This year marks the 10th anniversary of
IMS Ibiza.
It’s the most important year since the
first one [and] a big milestone for us to
reach. We’re not a baby act anymore. I
feel that we’ve established a real event
there that has a life of its own. There’s an
element of IMS Ibiza now where people
just come to network and hang out because
they know it’s a place that’s got a minimarket in terms of trading, bringing music
to it and getting music ready for that
moment. There are a lot of publishing and
record company artist-producers [there];
I’m very proud of that.
It’s fair to say the other big access and
opportunity for us is Asia-Pacific, because
no one’s really done it. It’s a learning
experience, but we’re already four years in.
We’re ahead of the curve. We think we can
scale up quite quickly up there.
What are the challenges and
­opportunities in the Asian market?
It’s the last part of the world where it
feels we don’t really know that much about
it. But the world seems to be opening up
more to China, and China is opening up
to the rest of the world. I think there’s a
perception that there’s gold out there in
those hills. I’m not saying there isn’t, but
none of us know how much gold there is
out there and how much they really want
this scene.
They’re very open-minded, and not
necessarily following what’s been popular.
And while the obvious things do resonate
quite well, like the peak EDM stuff from a
few years ago, it’s not necessarily true to
say that it will just reflect. They love a show
and they love a great production.
What inspired the Ibiza Classics and
Classic House projects?
This opportunity came along at the
beginning of 2015, when I got invited to
curate a classical show at the Royal Albert
Hall. The theme of it was to reflect the
dance music history of Ibiza. I reached out
to Jules Buckley and he comes hand-inhand with the Heritage Orchestra, which is
run by a guy named Chris Wheeler based
out of Brighton. The weird thing was,
as the work progressed, everything was
theoretical and written down which was
so unusual for me, being used to hearing
everything from the first drum kick. So to
be in silence, effectively, for this whole
journey was a bit disconcerting. We didn’t
anticipate the recording on YouTube going
genuinely viral after the next couple of
weeks. People all over the world started
seeing it and we started getting promoters
offering us to do it.
What’s your view of the state of the U.S.
dance music market?
I think the market’s peaked. No one
wants to say it too loudly. It’s fantastic
having had the experience in the U.K. and
Europe, because everything is way bigger
over here than it was there, but the patterns
are similar. The door didn’t shut over a day;
it was like a deflation, a puncture. I think
we’ve been going through that for a couple
of years. And now in 2017, like a housing
crisis or decline, you’re really feeling it
more this year.
I think you’ll see more change and things
shake out this year. We were even having
these conversations in 2015 and 2016 where
we’re kind of in a Twilight Zone, like,
“How much is it affecting us?” Whereas I
think in 2017, the mists are clearing. There
are fewer festivals, there are fewer buyers.
I think in terms of the market, it does come
down to: You need to make better records,
you need to throw better parties and
festivals. And only the strong survive.
This article originally appeared in the June 3
issue of Billboard.
http://www.billboard.com/biz/
articles/7809384/martina-mcbride-reflectson-her-first-25-years-in-the-music-industry
Legendary East
Bay Punk Scene
Comes to Life
in Green DayAssisted Doc:
Exclusive Trailer
Premiere
BY DA’SHAN SMITH
The film is set for its world premiere May 31
at SF Docfest.
Turn it Around: The Story of East Bay
Punk is the latest project to get the coveted
Green Day co-sign. The exciting new doc
tells the story of the hyper-influential San
Francisco-area punk scene that nurtured
numerous notable bands.
“In the mid-’90s, I found a home
performing and volunteering at Green
Page 15 of 22
[In Brief]
Day’s early stomping grounds, Berkeley’s
924 Gilman punk music collective,”
director Corbett Redford tells Billboard.
“In 2013, out of the blue, I got a message
from my old friend Billie Joe [Armstrong].
He was on the search for some hard-tofind Green Day footage and thought that
I might have known where to obtain it…
I gathered the footage and delivered it
to Billie. He asked me if I knew someone
who could direct a documentary about
the early years of the Gilman scene from
which Green Day had emerged, and I
immediately said, ‘Yes. I can direct it!’”
In addition to being executive produced
by Green Day, Turn it Around features
narration from Iggy Pop and a slew of
guest commentary.
Other artists appearing in the visual
include Kirk Hammett of Metallica, the
Dead Kennedys’ Jello Biafra and East Bay
Ray, and Rancid’s Tim Armstrong, Matt
Freeman and Lars Frederiksen.
Find the trailer below (premiering
exclusively via Billboard) followed by
an excerpt from the doc’s press release
detailing release plans.
https://www.facebook.
com/eastbaypunxmovie/
videos/1289744387813767/
The feature documentary will have its
world premiere as the opening night film
of the 16th SF Docfest on May 31 followed
by an initial one week theatrical run at
the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in San
Francisco starting June 2. The hometown
opening will be followed by screenings in
cities across the USA in tandem with Green
Day’s Revolution Radio World Tour, with
the theatrical campaign launching in New
York City in late July and culminating in
Los Angeles in mid-September. In a unique
release strategy, Turn it Around: The
Story of East Bay Punk will “tour with the
band” enabling theaters to be marketing
partners with Green Day in promoting the
film’s theatrical release and the band’s
nationwide tour. Abramorama is handling
theatrical distribution.
For more, check out the doc’s official site.
https://eastbaypunk.com
Niall Horan Braces
for Stardom
Outside One
Direction, With
Advice From
Justin Bieber & the
Eagles
BY CHRIS MARTINS
When Niall Horan decided to move from
London to Los Angeles in early 2016, it’s
no surprise that he chose a house in Laurel
Canyon, the epicenter of ’60s folk-rock culture. Horan was the one ­toting a guitar in
One Direction, the British boy-band juggernaut that was just then going on a hiatus,
and he’s got the soul of a singer-songwriter:
He’s charismatic, witty and sensitive, but
also easygoing and no-nonsense. Viewed
alongside his bandmates — born rock star
Harry Styles, “sensible one” Liam Payne,
“funny one” Louis Tomlinson, moody
R&B prince Zayn Malik — Horan, 23, is
sort of like the middle brother: the most
­approachably handsome, the second-most
popular across social media (29 million
Twitter followers; 19 million on Instagram)
and the most likely to lust after a gig at the
historic Los Angeles rock club The Troubadour. “Playing for, like, 500 people. What
more do you want?” says Horan. “I’ve
had some good moments with screaming
­teenagers, but I like when the room is completely quiet. It’s a ­different kind of respect.
People are actually listening.”
It’s exactly that reverent anticipation that
greeted Horan when he played the ­opening
notes of his first single, “This Town,” at
the Los Angeles Jingle Ball near the end of
2016 — although when he strode into the
spotlight, alone but for his guitar and this
one little solo song, he was playing to an
entire stadium (the Staples Center, to be
exact). “This Town,” an acoustic comingof-age tale that persuasively showed that
the tweeny-bopper had grown up, would
go on to hit No. 20 on the Billboard Hot
100 in January. “Slow Hands,” the next
single off his planned 2017 solo album, is
a throbbing, R&B-inflected rock tune that
persuasively shows that he’s a grown-ass
man, and it’s climbing the Mainstream Top
40 airplay chart at this very moment.
But one Wednesday morning at the
Laurel Canyon house, Horan seems
­positively boyish. He’s on the phone with
his mom, for one. And he practically slides
into the kitchen, wearing workout pants
and a Nike shirt — a break from his typical
uniform of topsiders, patterned socks,
cuffed jeans and buttoned-up shirts. A nice
lady who works for him brings us veggie
omelets. “No pepper for you,” she chides
Horan. “Acid reflux,” he explains.
Horan’s fandom is thoroughly on display
here. A framed black-and-white portrait of
Frank Sinatra hangs in the den. The Rolling
Stones lounge in full-color bacchanalian
glory above the living room couch. Across
from the fridge, Paul McCartney gazes up
at a picture within that picture — Sinatra,
again. Most of all, it’s the Eagles who
occupy a place in Horan’s home. They get
an entire wall: five photos lovingly hung
outside his office.
Ask Horan for a celeb story, and he’ll
tell you about the time he met those very
Eagles at a gig of theirs in Toronto. He’ll
break out his Joe Walsh drawl to share a
bit of wisdom from his favorite guitarist:
“You better enjoy the ride, because one
day you’re going to be sitting on your own
balls.” Then he might add, far too ­casually,
“Don Henley and I talk every couple weeks
or so. It’s mad. I call him ‘Dad.’ He calls me
‘Son.’”
In fact, says Horan, “Slow Hands,”
co-written by Adele collaborator Tobias
Jesso Jr., was inspired by Henley solo
hits like “Boys of Summer” and “Dirty
Laundry.” It’s almost as if he has retraced
the evolution of two decades of California
rock in his nearly 18 months outside of One
Direction. Henley himself gives Horan a
hearty endorsement: “Niall is a solid guy
whose focus is right where it ought to be:
on songwriting. He’s got the Irish charm
and a healthy, self-effacing sense of humor,
Page 16 of 22
[In Brief]
which is an essential ­survival tool in this
business. I think that Niall will evolve
into a resonant, thoughtful voice for his
generation.”
As a member of 1D — even the guy
pegged as “the cute one” — Horan has
a major leg-up on voice-of-a-generation
status. Or at least, pop-star-of-a-generation
status. After five years of working in
lockstep with four (three, after Malik’s
exit) other dudes — churning out an album
a year, then touring to promote it while
writing and recording the next one on the
road — it’s now the mundane moments,
away from the stage, where Horan feels
a bit naked. “Every now and then you’re
like, ‘Fookin’ hell, where is everyone?’ ” he
says. “You’re sitting in an airport lounge,
they call you for a plane, and you don’t
stand up initially because you’re waiting on
­everyone else, you know? ‘Oh, Louis’ll be
back from the toilet in a minute.’”
When I first meet Horan — in the
studio back in November, his first month
­recording his solo album, which is due on
Capitol this fall — he’s his own toughest
critic. “I have loads of songs, but now that
I’ve heard what we’ve done, I realize the
rest are shite,” he says. “Nothing I do will
be as big as One Direction, but I have to
try at least to get somewhere near it.” By
late April, though, he tells me, “The songs
are sounding really good,” and he’s itching
to get out of the studio and play live (he’s
currently got a few dates planned in June).
“Niall’s got the stuff,” says Don Was, the
producer and president of Blue Note, who
worked on some potential album cuts with
Horan. “He drove himself to the studio,
carried his own guitar, stepped up to the
microphone and was great every take. If
they do the Desert Trip festival in 50 years,
he’ll be headlining.”
Perhaps a future “Oldchella” will include
Horan’s bard-like pals: Ed Sheeran (who
wrote for 1D), James Bay (whose drummer
is now Horan’s live music director) and
Shawn Mendes. Horan is clearly veering
away from boy-band pop but insists he
isn’t at a crossroads. “I told my m
­ anagers
from the start: When One Direction
comes knocking, fook what I’m doing.
I don’t give a shit if I sold out arenas or
won Grammys. I wouldn’t be doing this
if it wasn’t for that.” Yet he confirms that
while the m
­ embers of 1D talk frequently,
“we haven’t even had a c­ onversation about
how long we think the break will be.” And
with the others well into their solo careers
— Styles just released his debut, Malik’s
lining up his second album, and Payne and
Tomlinson have both dropped singles — it’s
a good thing Horan’s getting comfortable
on his own. Gearing up for the grind that’s
once again about to engulf him, he says,
“It’s all comin’ for me now.”
After 1D made its final appearance, at
the Billboard Hollywood Party for the 2015
edition of Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’
Eve, Horan packed a rucksack, grabbed two
of his cousins (and one chill security guard)
and flew to Southeast Asia. The guys rented
scooters wherever they went, ate whatever
was around, shared rooms for $20 a night
and bought s­ ame-day flights to get to
whichever place was next. Horan “literally
didn’t wear a shirt for three weeks” in
Thailand, but in Bali “it pissed rain.” They
learned about history in Vietnam and “got
very drunk” in Hanoi. In Boracay, they got
stuck at a bad motel -- “lights flickering,
cats drinking out the pool, spiders walking
the wall, damp ­bedsheets, plus you’ve got
the shits from the dodgy food” -- and they
loved it.
“I didn’t want the schedule anymore,”
says Horan. “I’ve spent so much time
­setting alarms on phones.” When 1D was
still a going concern, he says, “all me mates
were backpacking, while I wasn’t even
allowed to go outside of the hotel.”
In his newfound free time, Horan
revisited stuff he had heard as a kid,
relearned “how effective simple music can
be” and cataloged his experiences in his
leather-bound book of song ideas. Born of
blue-collar Irish stock in tiny Mullingar,
Ireland, he was the classic townie with a
dream. His mom soldered p
­ ewter ware,
Mullingar’s biggest export, and his dad
worked nights behind the butcher counter
at the Tesco ­supermarket (where 1D fans
knew to find him until 2016, when he was,
says Horan, “made ­redundant”). They
divorced when Horan was 5, and he and
his big brother moved in with their dad.
Horan did his own laundry and cooking
and got himself up each day to walk the
mile-and-a-half to school. (“I didn’t need
all the pampering,” he says.) He was also
brought up on “the good stuff ” -- Crosby,
Stills & Nash; Fleetwood Mac; Jackson
Browne -- and adopted his brother’s guitar,
a neglected Christmas gift, at 12. He did
talent shows and small gigs. You can still
find little Niall covering Justin Bieber’s
“Baby” on YouTube.
These days, Horan’s getting hard-won
wisdom direct from the source. “Bieber
told me that you never really know when
you’re finished” with an album, says
Horan, who in addition to Was and Jesso
has been working with songwriters Greg
Kurstin (1D, Sia) and Jamie Scott (1D, Olly
Murs), plus producers Jacquire King (Tom
Waits, Kings of Leon) and Julian Bunetta
(1D, Fifth Harmony). “He thought he was
done [with Purpose] and then got ‘Love
Yourself ’ at the last minute. I thought
my album was finished, and then I went
on a bit of a run ’cause I was writin’ crap
stuff up until then.” Although he does call
“Flicker,” a pretty, strings-laden early track
about the last night in a failing relationship,
one of his favorites. “On the Loose,” a
newer r­ ecording, reinvents Fleetwood
Mac’s “Dreams” for the tropical-pop set.
All his self-discovery aside, Horan
remains close with his bandmates. “I see
Louis and [his son] little Freddie all the
time. He lives around the corner from me
[in Los Angeles],” he says. He picked up
gifts for Payne’s month-old boy that he
hasn’t been able to present yet, because
their s­ chedules haven’t aligned. He
planned to see Styles when the lanky star
was in town for a w
­ eeklong residency on
The Late Late Show With James Corden
and genuinely gushes about his April
episode of Saturday Night Live: “I loved
his brilliant impression of Mick Jagger” in
the Family Feud sketch, he says. As for his
musical performances, he adds, “I really
enjoyed them. He’s smashin’ it.”
Horan even shrugs off Malik’s post-1D
kvetching: “Oh, pfft. I know what Zayn’s
like -- outspoken, and fair play to him.” He
offers the same civility to Simon Cowell,
who p
­ ublicly attacked Horan’s loyalty for
Page 17 of 22
[In Brief]
c­ hoosing Capitol over his Syco label. (1D
formed on The X Factor.) “We’ll always
have mutual respect. When we get back to
the band, he’ll be at the forefront again,”
says Horan. And he’s certain they’ll be
back: “When it will be, I don’t know. I
­prefer not to do it after I’m 40. I’d prefer
the next few years.”
Capitol chairman/CEO Steve Barnett,
who signed 1D when he was at Columbia,
says he has seen Horan grow from
“a special little kid from a provincial
island” to “the absolute top in terms of
professionalism, thoughtfulness, work
ethic and appreciating what he’s got. You’d
be proud if he was your son.”
Horan did pay his mom’s mortgage
and tried to buy his dad a country
home, although the old man refused.
Was that awkward? “No, I love it,” says
Horan, g
­ rinning. “I always say there’s
­ignorance and there’s Irish ignorance. It’s
on a ­different level. He’ll barely take a
Christmas present off me. He doesn’t want
any of it. He just wants me to come visit.”
Horan’s own home in Laurel Canyon -- a
five-bedroom, 4,400-square-foot house
on a 9,600-square-foot lot, bought for
$4 million -- is modest for a guy in his tax
bracket. And while he does have a trophy
wall in it, you get the feeling it’s because
he doesn’t buy knickknacks -- just the
­occasional $20,000 guitar, like the 1961
Gibson ES-335 he toured with in December.
In other words, it is almost freaky
how free Horan seems to be of the post-­
traumatic stress of young stardom. “Maybe
it’s where I’m from,” he says. “I’m quite a
simple old soul, me.”
When in London, where he first moved
when he was 16, Horan hangs out with his
three cousins — one lives in the apartment
he keeps there — and Irish buddies who’ve
made their way to the city. (He has played
the Manchester Arena, a few hours away
by train, “many times,” he says, and calls
the May 22 bombing of the Ariana Grande
concert there “horrendous and hard to
comprehend. Watching a concert by your
favorite artist should be a happy event.”)
In Los Angeles, he’s got his best friend
since he was 4, who moved there for work,
and s­ ocializes with Selena Gomez and her
crew, because -- if the rumors about he and
Gomez are true -- he’s the rare celebrity
who stays on good terms with his famous
exes. (“Selena is the p
­ erfect role model
for young girls. It takes balls to go in front
of the world and share your problems,” he
says, referring to her public struggle with
lupus.) He and Ellie Goulding, a c­ onfirmed
ex, are close, too. “We always have a great
laugh,” he says.
Horan good-naturedly dismisses rumors
that he’s dating Gomez BFF Courtney
Barry, with whom he was s­ potted at
Disneyland in April. He’s single and thinks
he has been in love twice but, he says,
“it could have been lust.” “I think I got a
type, anyway,” he says. “Dark hair, dark
eyes. Someone I can see as a friend. At the
moment, I’m enjoying being 23. I only get
one go at me 20s. I’d like to give it me best
go.” All the same, “I’m happy to go home
alone on a Saturday night, drink and watch
football.”
“I’m pretty nervous in front of other
celebrities still, but he’s so calm and chill,”
says Mendes, another close L.A. friend,
who went over to Horan’s after last year’s
American Music Awards and again to
watch the Grammys. “We just started
jamming out, and it didn’t feel like, ‘Oh,
I’ve got to be good in front of him.’ It was
complete fun, no ego, like the reason you
play music in the first place.”
Music is not Horan’s only passion. In
2015, he caddied for Irish golf champ Rory
McIlroy (and fell, with the bag, in front of
a TV camera). He’s geeky talking about his
astronaut pal Shane Kimbrough, whom
he met when 1D shot a video at Johnson
Space Center in Houston and who regularly
called Horan from the International Space
Station when he was overhead. Horan
watched sci-fi flicks like Interstellar so he
could ask Kimbrough “if they got it right.”
Back on earth, there’s no place Horan
can ­completely escape his fame, ­including
Mullingar. There’s a small shrine to him at
the Greville Arms Hotel, a local ­landmark
that also has a section devoted to James
Joyce. “My dad gave them my BRIT
Award,” says Horan. “I gave it to him to
keep, and he gives it to a hotel.” And he has
come to expect a string of fans knocking
on his folks’ doors h
­ oping for a photo op.
He was dreading this when we first met last
fall, before he traded his blond boy-band
coif for his natural hue: respectable brown.
Then, he had every reason to assume the
Directioners would follow him anywhere,
even back to his roots as he makes the
sort of music their parents probably loved.
When we catch up in the s­­pring, Horan is
relieved to report his last trip to Ireland was
fairly quiet. But looking ahead at the rest
of 2017, he knows work will keep him away
from all his homes: “I might as well not live
anywhere -- I’m busy all year.” Enjoying
the ride, as Joe Walsh would surely point
out.
Watch Niall Horan talk about recording
his album tracks “completely live” in “one
or two takes” and gaining confidence on
stage as a solo act.
This article originally appeared in the
June 3 issue of Billboard.
http://www.billboard.com/biz/
articles/7809322/niall-horan-braces-forstardom-outside-one-direction-withadvice-from-justin
Nile Rodgers, Carl
Craig, Louie Vega
Named Assn. For
Electronic Music
Ambassadors
BY ANDY GENSLER
The Association for Electronic Music
(AFEM) has announced the first phase of
its artist ambassadors initiative, which now
includes Nile Rodgers, Louie Vega, Carl
Craig, Jean Michel Jarre, Anja Schneider,
Armin Van Buuren, Black Coffee, B-Traits,
Nicole Moudaber, Paul Van Dyk, Pete Tong
and Seth Troxler.
The announcement, which was made at
the tenth edition of the International Music
Summit Ibiza, said the purpose of the
ambassadors is to raise awareness of key
Page 18 of 22
[In Brief]
issues facing the electronic music industry.
This includes such current topics as royalty
transparency, diversity, piracy and harm
reduction.
“The challenges we face and
opportunities we must take do not only
impact on electronic music businesses,
they impact on DJs, musicians,
songwriters, DJs and fans,” said Mark
Lawrence, CEO of AFEM, in a statement.
“With the announcement of our Artist
Ambassadors, AFEM becomes the global
voice of the electronic music genre, for
those who create our music right through
to those who passionately enjoy and
embrace it.”
AFEM has initiated several campaigns
forcing on issues such as diversity, anti
piracy and mental and physical health
support for fans and professionals. These
include “Get Played Get Paid,” an initiative
that advocates using technology to ID
the music played in clubs and festivals so
that the right artists, labels and publishers
get paid per play; and “Safe In Sound”
which connected experts, promoters,
governments and clubs to modify laws
and employ best practice and education
surrounding harm reduction and drug
policy.
The organization also announced that
Pioneer DJ and Native Instruments are
joining AFEM as full members alongside
other member companies such as DJ
Monitor, Yacast and BMAT.
AFEM was created by Ben Turner
and Kurosh Nasseri in 2014 and now has
140 members in 40 countries and 20
working groups. Current members of the
organization include the likes of CAA,
Insomniac, Live Nation, Ministry of Sound,
Paradigm, Universal, WME plus artist
managers, media, labels and publishers
from across the spectrum.
The second phase of AFEM artist
ambassadors will be revealed at
Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE) this
October.
TWICE Earn
Biggest U.S. Sales
Week Yet, First
Heatseekers Chart
Entry With ‘Signal’
BY JEFF BENJAMIN
Twice continues to be a rising girl group
to watch Stateside with their latest release
marking a host of new chart accomplishments.
The girl group’s new EP titled Signal:
The 4th Mini Album charts at No. 3 on
Billboard’s World Albums chart this week,
tying their best showing on the ranking so
far, along with their first-ever appearance
on the Heatseekers Albums chart — the
latter of which sees far fewer entries from
K-pop acts. With 1,000 traditional albums
sold, Signal marks Twice’s best sales week
yet in America while also being the topselling K-pop album in the U.S. this week.
Signal debuts at No. 11 on the
Heatseekers Albums chart, making
them the eleventh K-pop act to send an
entry to do so in 2017 and one of the few
rare female acts to move a remarkable
amount of copies. Impressively, Twice is
the highest-charting female K-pop act on
Heatseekers in 2017 and the year’s fourth
best entry among K-pop acts (with only
GOT7, NCT 127 and Monsta X charting
higher) and too. The last female act to
chart higher on Heatseekers was Tiffany
(whose I Just Wanna Dance EP hit No. 10 in
late May of 2016) while the last girl group
to chart higher was f(x) (their late 2015
album 4 Walls peaked at No. 7).
https://youtu.be/VQtonf1fv_s
Signal saw a bit of a change of pace for
the group with the title track blending a
playful hip-hop beat (courtesy of legendary
K-pop producer J.Y. Park) and whooshing
synthesizers for an unexpectedly quirky
pop track that still brought the endless
amount of hooks listeners would expect
from Twice. There were other moments of
growth like members like Tzuyu and Sana
handled the choruses for the first time on
“Signal,” while Jihyo and Chaeyoung cowrote the cheery “Eye Eye Eyes” track.
The ninesome can also claim victory by
snagging the biggest-selling K-pop song in
America this week with “Signal” debuting
at No. 3 on the World Digital Song Sales
chart. Twice’s best-charting single on the
ranking is “TT,” which peaked at No. 2 in
November 2016. Watch the ladies bring
“Signal” to life with one of their first live
performances of the track below:
https://youtu.be/TRijPlol9D8
Ziggy Marley Talks
40th Anniversary
of Dad’s Iconic
‘Exodus,’ Ben &
Jerry’s One Love
Partnership
BY GAIL MITCHELL
June will be a busy month for Ziggy Marley.
The Grammy-winning artist and eldest son
of reggae legend Bob Marley will celebrate
the 40th anniversary of Bob Marley & the
Wailers’ iconic Exodus album with the June
2 release of Exodus 40 – The Movement
Continues. Then Ziggy will hit the road
again for the duration of his summer tour,
starting June 12.
But preceding all that, Ziggy dropped
by the Roxy Theatre in Los Angeles this
week (May 22) to formally introduce One
Love — that’s the name of the newest ice
cream flavor created by Ben & Jerry’s in
partnership with the Marley family. A
portion of the proceeds from each pint
sold will benefit Jamaica’s One Love Youth
Camp, a program operated by the Bob
Marley Foundation and Partners for Youth
Empowerment.
This is actually the second time the
Marley family and Ben & Jerry’s have
Page 19 of 22
[In Brief]
partnered. A year ago, the partnership
launched One Love in the U.K. and Europe.
The resulting success prompted the
decision to bring the flavor — banana ice
cream with caramel and graham cracker
swirls and chocolatey peace signs —
Stateside.
“The combination of music and ice
cream is a nice way to talk about issues
with people and get them to open up their
hearts and minds,” says Ben & Jerry’s
co-founder Jerry Greenfield, who cohosted the Roxy launch party. “We’re also
celebrating the values and vision of Bob
Marley and his music: peace, love and
social justice. In the wake of Manchester,
now more than ever we need to find
additional ways to unite people and build a
better world.”
“Partnering again with Ben & Jerry’s to
use ice cream to represent the idea of one
love — blending well together — gives us
another platform to spread that message,”
adds Ziggy.
The kickoff party at the Roxy was
immediately followed by the first official
listening party for the upcoming Exodus
40 — The Movement Continues. The
reimagined version of Marley’s classic 1977
album Exodus was curated and produced
by Ziggy, who calls the finished project
a “restatement.” Delving into original
session recordings, he incorporated unused
and never-before-heard vocals, lyric
phrasing and instrumentation. In the case
of the track “One Love,” for instance, Ziggy
discovered 10 lead vocal outtakes that he
pieced together to create a new lead vocal.
“My father and the band were very
adventurous, very rebellious in their
musical expression,” Ziggy says of
revisiting the session recordings. “I heard
stuff that I didn’t expect to hear within the
so-called genre of reggae that kind of blew
my mind.”
The Exodus 40 rollout on June 2 via
the Marley family, Island Records and
Universal Music Enterprises (UMe) will
feature a two-CD package (the original
Exodus and Ziggy’s Exodus 40) and a
three-CD set/digital equivalent (original
album, the “restatement” album and
Exodus Live). Also available: a limited-
edition gold vinyl version of the original
album. Coming June 30 is a super deluxe
four-album package plus two 7-inch
singles. Additional information about the
aforementioned packages is available at
BobMarley.com.
Ziggy’s summer tour encompassing
headline shows and festivals across North
America and the U.K. began April 22
in Miami. The tour picks back up again
on June 12 at San Diego’s Humphreys
Concerts by the Bay and includes his
fourth headline appearance at Los Angeles’
Hollywood Bowl on June 18 — also his first
time performing with an orchestra. Find all
his tour dates here.
Jerry Perenchio,
Hollywood
Dealmaker and
Former Univision
Head, Dead at 86
BY MIKE BARNES
Jerry Perenchio, the preeminent Hollywood dealmaker who bought and sold
Univision, partnered with Norman Lear
and promoted game-changing sporting
events featuring Muhammad Ali and Billie
Jean King, has died. He was 86.
Perenchio, who got his start in show
business as a talent agent working for the
legendary mogul Lew Wasserman, died
Tuesday of lung cancer at his Bel Air home,
a family spokesperson told the Los Angeles
Times.
In 1992, Perenchio and his partners
acquired the then-flagging Spanishlanguage TV network Univision from
greeting-card company Hallmark for $550
million, then took it public four years later.
After adding 13 TV stations in a $1.1
billion deal with Barry Diller to their
portfolio, they sold Univision to an
investment group led by Haim Saban for
$12.3 billion in 2007. (Perenchio collected
some $1.3 billion for his stake off his initial
investment that was said to be about $33
million.)
In 1973, longtime showbiz partners
Norman Lear and Bud Yorkin enlisted
Perenchio to work with them at Tandem
Productions, their burgeoning company
behind such TV hits as All in the Family,
Maude and Sanford & Son (and later
One Day at a Time, Good Times and The
Jeffersons).
Lear and Yorkin had met Perenchio, then
an agent, when they were working on a TV
special starring crooner Andy Williams and
were looking to book a comedy act called
The Stewed Prunes (Richard Libertini and
MacIntyre Dixon), who were represented
by Perenchio.
“I knew from that experience on, if I ever
got to a place where it was time to have a
business head, I would want Jerry,” Lear
said in a 1998 interview with the Archive of
American Television.
Perenchio helped grow the business, and
in 1981, he and Lear acquired the film and
TV studio Avco-Embassy for $25 million
and added that to the Tandem assets.
Four years late, they sold their company to
Coca-Cola — which a couple years earlier
had bought Columbia Pictures — for $485
million.
“The word creative is so often misused
in our business. There’s the creative side
and then the ‘other,’” Lear said. “There
is more creativity in Jerry Perenchio than
there is in three-fifths of the ‘creative
community.’”
Said Lear on Wednesday in a statement:
“The world has lost a glorious, most
generous man and an absolute original.
There will never ever be another him.”
Disney Studios chairman Alan Horn
said he got his start in the entertainment
industry when Perenchio hired him at
Tandem. “He was a mentor, a dear friend
and a singular, brilliant talent,” Horn
said. “More important, he was a man of
total integrity, whose humility belied his
extraordinary success. I loved him.”
Perenchio also was an original investor
in Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas; a
pioneer in pay-per-view television; and
instrumental in bringing then-unknown
Page 20 of 22
[In Brief]
British singer Elton John to the U.S. And
he was a money man behind such films
as Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner (1982) and
Driving Miss Daisy, the 1990 Oscar winner
for best picture.
The reclusive executive rarely spoke to
the media and reportedly fired those under
him who did. He followed Wasserman’s
“Rules of the Road,” one of which was:
“Stay clear of the press. No interviews. No
panels. No speeches. No comments. Stay
out of the spotlight. It fades your suit.”
The grandson of Italian immigrants,
Andrew Jerrold Perenchio was born in
Fresno, Calif., on Dec. 30, 1930. He was an
only child, and his father owned a winery.
He spent time at a military school in Los
Angeles, then graduated from UCLA in
1954 and served in the U.S. Air Force as a
fighter pilot.
In 1958, Perenchio landed a job in the
mailroom at MCA and then became a
talent agent, eventually representing
the likes of Marlon Brando and Ronald
Reagan.
When the Justice Department forced
MCA, also the owner of the Universal
movie studio, to divest itself of its talent
operation, Perenchio lost his job. But
in 1963, he launched his own agency,
Chartwell Artists — named after Winston
Churchill’s country estate — where the
clients would include Elizabeth Taylor as
well as music acts Williams, Donovan,
Henry Mancini, Glen Campbell and Johnny
Mathis.
While on a visit to London, Perenchio
heard John’s first album and instructed
an agent at Chartwell to get the musician
to the U.S. as soon as possible. Soon,
the singer/piano player was making his
American debut at the Troubadour in L.A.
on Aug. 25, 1970.
Perenchio and co-promoter Jack
Kent Cooke (then the owner of the Los
Angeles Lakers and Kings) bankrolled
the first of Ali’s three legendary boxing
matches against his bitter rival Joe Frazier,
guaranteeing a $5 million purse for the
March 1971 bout at New York’s Madison
Square Garden.
At the time, both fighters were
undefeated, and Ali was trying to regain
the heavyweight crown that had been
stripped from him for refusing to serve in
the Vietnam War.
Frazier won a brutal 15-round unanimous
decision, and Perenchio was a big winner,
too: An estimated 300 viewers around
the world paid $25 apiece to get into a
theater to watch the bout on closed-circuit
television.
In 2001, Perenchio was back in the fight
game as the promoter for the popular, East
L.A.-bred Oscar de la Hoya.
Perenchio also was architect of the
September 1973 “Battle of the Sexes”
tennis match between King and Bobby
Riggs held at the Houston Astrodome.
A crowd of nearly 30,000 (and another
50 million watching live on ABC) saw
King win, striking a blow for feminists
everywhere.
Perenchio helped launch National
Subscription Television (ONTV), one of
the first over-the-air television subscription
services, in 1977, and he later owned and
sold Loews Theaters, making millions on
that deal.
In 1986, Perenchio bought for $13.5
million the Bel Air mansion on 10 acres
that TV viewers know as the Clampetts’
house on The Beverly Hillbillies. Ronald
and Nancy Reagan were his neighbors, and
in July he purchased their home for $15
million. He also owned several sprawling
properties in Malibu.
Forbes last year estimated Perenchio’s
net worth at $2.6 billion.
In November 2014, Perenchio
announced that his $500 million art
collection, which included paintings
by Claude Monet, Paul Cezanne, Pablo
Picasso and Edouard Manet, would go to
the Los Angeles County Museum of Art
upon his death.
His appreciation for art began when, as
a junior agent at MCA, he was assigned to
accompany British actor Charles Laughton
to museums all over the U.S.
Survivors include his wife, Margaret.
This article was originally published by The
Hollywood Reporter.
‘The Get Down’
Canceled at
Netflix After One
Season
BY COLIN STUTZ
The hourlong music drama hailed from
director Baz Luhrmann.
It’s the end of the line for The Get Down.
The ambitious music drama from writerdirector Baz Luhrmann has been canceled
after one season.
The news comes nearly two months after
the second half of the series’ first season
premiered on Netflix. The Get Down was
described as “a mythic saga of how New
York at the brink of bankruptcy gave birth
to hip-hop, punk and disco” and was set in
the Bronx in the late ‘70s.
Originally announced in February
2015, the series marked Luhrmann’s first
foray into television and stemmed from a
concept he had been working on for more
than a decade.
However, the Sony-produced series
soon hit delays and also saw the departure
of original showrunner Shawn Ryan. The
first six episodes of season one debuted
in August 2016 — marking the first time a
Netflix original season was split into two
parts rather than released all at once as has
been tradition at the streaming giant for
scripted series.
The five remaining episodes were
subsequently released in April 2017,
bringing the season one total to 11 — two
short of the original 13-episode order The
Get Down received in 2015.
“The truth is that at a certain point, there
was no precedent for how you make such a
music-driven show,” Luhrmann told THR
when discussing Ryan’s exit. “Ultimately,
right now, I ultimately was asked to take
the position of being responsible for
everything and yes, I am responsible for
everything, including saying we have to
stop and get it right. … We would start
doing it [shooting] and I was being asked to
Page 21 of 22
[In Brief]
get more involved because it was either not
working or it had to be re-engineered.”
In addition to multiple production
delays, the series financial issues,
with the overall budget reported to be
approximately $120 million — making it
the most expensive series on television, a
fact which Luhrmann refuted.
“I heard The Crown was the most
expensive show ever made, that’s what
someone told me,” Luhrmann also said in
July 2016. “Yes, it took longer and it’s been
more difficult than I imagined. As for the
number, it wasn’t cheap. But I don’t think
it’s the most expensive show. I think it’s on
the high end of storytelling.”
Although Luhrmann had taken a larger
role on the series in the wake of Ryan’s
exit, he had recently revealed plans to take
a step back from the series should it have
been renewed for season two.
Luhrmann posted a lengthy note about
the show’s demise on his Facebook page
Wednesday night. Read it here:
https://www.facebook.
com/BazLuhrmannOfficial/
posts/1856753604650395
Linkin Park On
Course for 10th
Top 10 Album on
Billboard 200
Chart
BY KEITH CAULFIELD
Linkin Park is aiming for its 10th top 10
album on the Billboard 200 chart with One
More Light. Industry forecasters suggest
the set — which was released May 19
through Machine Shop/Warner Bros. Records — may launch with around 90,000
equivalent album units in the week ending
May 25. The album, which is Linkin Park’s
seventh studio effort, will likely arrive in
the No. 2 slot on the chart.
The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most
popular albums of the week based on
multi-metric consumption, which includes
traditional album sales, track equivalent
albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent
albums (SEA). The top 10 of the new June
10-dated Billboard 200 chart (where Linkin
Park will likely start at No. 2) is scheduled
to be revealed on Billboard’s websites on
Sunday, May 28.
Linkin Park will probably be blocked
from No. 1 by Kendrick Lamar’s DAMN.,
which could return to the top for a fourth
nonconsecutive week at No. 1 (with around
100,000 units). The album bowed at No.
1 on the May 6-dated chart and spent the
next two weeks in the penthouse. It then
slipped to No. 3 for the past two weeks.
Linkin Park has previously visited the
Billboard 200’s top 10 nine times — with
all six of their earlier studio efforts, along
with two remix albums, and the band’s
collaborative mash-up set with Jay Z,
Collision Course.
The rest of next week’s top 10 will be
fairly quiet, as no other albums are on
course for a debut in the region.
Harvard Dropout
Mark Zuckerberg
Returns to
Cambridge
to Deliver
Commencement
Speech
BY ASSOCIATED PRESS
Mark Zuckerberg is giving a commencement address at Harvard, where he
dropped out 12 years ago to focus on
Facebook.
Zuckerberg, 33, follows another famous
Harvard dropout, Bill Gates, who spoke
before its graduates a decade ago. Steve
Jobs, who dropped out of Reed College in
Oregon, gave Stanford’s commencement
speech in 2005.
Zuckerberg started Facebook in his
Harvard dorm room in 2004. He also met
his wife, Priscilla Chan, there.
The event will be livestreamed Thursday
afternoon on Harvard’s website and on
Zuckerberg’s Facebook page. On Tuesday,
Zuckerberg and Chan live-streamed a
video from Zuckerberg’s old dorm room on
his Facebook page. //
Rolling Stones’
Ronnie Wood
Has Lung Lesion
Removed
BY ASSOCIATED PRESS
A spokesperson for Ronnie Wood says the
Rolling Stones guitarist has had a lung lesion successfully removed and is expected
to make a full recovery.
Wood, who turns 70 next week, says in a
statement that he is grateful to doctors who
found the lesion in its early stages.
He is not expected to require further
treatment and the procedure will not affect
the Stones’ upcoming tour, which kicks off
in Europe in September.
Wood joined the Rolling Stones in 1975.
June 3
2017
Billboard 200
Page 22 of 22
LAST
WEEK
THIS
WEEK
HOT
SHOT
DEBUT
1
Title
ARTIST CERTIFICATION
IMPRINT/DISTRIBUTING LABEL
#1 HARRY STYLES
1 WK
Harry Styles
ERSKINE/COLUMBIA
WKS. ON
CHART
LAST
WEEK
THIS
WEEK
1
1
55
51
FLORIDA GEORGIA LINE
IMPRINT/DISTRIBUTING LABEL
2
1
47
52
J. COLE ¡
DAMN.
1
5
58
53
53
CHILDISH GAMBINO
NEW
22
3
3
KENDRICK LAMAR
2
4
CHRIS STAPLETON From A Room: Volume 1
MERCURY NASHVILLE/UMGN
2
2
RE
54
54
AUDIOSLAVE 3
4
5
SOUNDTRACK Guardians Of The Galaxy, Vol. 2: Awesome Mix Vol. 2
4
4
59
55
ADELE a
NEW
66
PARAMORE
5
7
DRAKE
NEW
88
EST19XX/BAD BOY/INTERSCOPE/IGA
6
TOP DAWG/AFTERMATH/INTERSCOPE/IGA
MARVEL/HOLLYWOOD
Dig Your Roots
BMLG
Welcome Home
ZAC BROWN BAND
SOUTHERN GROUND/ELEKTRA/AG
Title
ARTIST CERTIFICATION
PEAK
POS.
WKS. ON
CHART
2
38
4 Your Eyez Only
1
23
Awaken, My Love!
5
24
Audioslave
7
101
25
1
78
Rumours
1
223
DREAMVILLE/ROC NATION
MCDJ/GLASSNOTE
PEAK
POS.
INTERSCOPE/EPIC/UME/LEGACY
XL/COLUMBIA
After Laughter
6
1
62
56
56
FLEETWOOD MAC k
More Life
1
9
49
57
BLACKBEAR
digital druglord
14
4
MACHINE GUN KELLY
bloom
8
1
57
58
KENDRICK LAMAR ¡ good kid, m.A.A.d city
2
238
9
ED SHEERAN ¡
Divide
1
11
60
59
RAE SREMMURD
Sremmlife 2
4
40
8
10
BRUNO MARS ¡
24K Magic
2
26
NEW
60
60
THE NEW BROADWAY CAST RECORDING
Hello, Dolly!
1
11
LOGIC
Everybody
1
2
65
61
MCA NASHVILLE/UMGN
10
12
EPIC
EPIC AF (Yellow/Pink)
6
3
RE
62
62
MICHAEL JACKSON 4
13
13
MIGOS
Culture
1
16
76
63
63
BRYSON TILLER ¡
NEW
14
14
SEETHER
15
15
POST MALONE ¡
FUELED BY RAMEN/AG
YOUNG MONEY/CASH MONEY/REPUBLIC
ATLANTIC/AG
ATLANTIC/AG
VISIONARY/DEF JAM
VARIOUS ARTISTS
QUALITY CONTROL/300/AG
CANINE RIOT/FANTASY/CONCORD
REPUBLIC
SOUNDTRACK ¡
WARNER BROS./RHINO
BEARTRAP
TOP DAWG/AFTERMATH/INTERSCOPE/IGA
EAR DRUMNER/INTERSCOPE/IGA
MASTERWORKS BROADWAY/SONY MASTERWORKS
SAM HUNT 2
60
1
Montevallo
3
134
Number Ones
13
220
TRAPSOUL
8
86
Lil Uzi Vert Vs. The World
MJJ/EPIC/LEGACY
TRAPSOUL/RCA
Poison The Parish
14
1
69
64
LIL UZI VERT
Stoney
6
23
67
65
THE CHAINSMOKERS ¡
37
51
Collage (EP)
6
28
GENERATION NOW/ATLANTIC/AG
DISRUPTOR/COLUMBIA
14
16
WALT DISNEY
Moana
2
26
68
66
UNIVERSAL STUDIOS/ILLUMINATION/REPUBLIC
Sing
8
23
NEW
17
17
NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK
Thankful (EP)
17
1
70
67
THE WEEKND 3 Beauty Behind The Madness
1
90
12
18
THE CHAINSMOKERS Memories...Do Not Open
1
6
74
68
ED SHEERAN 4
1
152
17
19
FUTURE 0
21
20
20
RIGHT HAND/RCA
NEW
Starboy
11
NKOTB/KOBALT
DISRUPTOR/COLUMBIA
SOUNDTRACK
XO/REPUBLIC
x
ATLANTIC/AG
FUTURE
1
13
72
69
NAV
American Teen
9
11
85
70
70
TUFF GONG/ISLAND/UME
21
21
SOUNDTRACK The Bob’s Burgers Music Album
21
1
45
71
WALE
19
22
THE WEEKND
1
25
79
72
DRAKE 4
YOUNG MONEY/CASH MONEY/REPUBLIC
20
23
SOUNDTRACK ¡ Guardians Of The Galaxy: Awesome Mix Vol. 1
1
95
73
73
SUMMIT/INTERSCOPE/IGA
24
SONY MUSIC/UNIVERSAL/UME
VARIOUS ARTISTS
NOW 62
11
2
114
74
74
ROAR/SOUTHERN GROUND/ATLANTIC/AG
There’s Really A Wolf
A-1/FREEBANDZ/EPIC
KHALID
20TH CENTURY FOX/SUB POP
XO/REPUBLIC
MARVEL/HOLLYWOOD
7
25
RUSS
24
26
PLAYBOI CARTI
23
27
KODAK BLACK
DIEMON/RUSS MY WAY/COLUMBIA
AWGE/INTERSCOPE/IGA
DOLLAZ N DEALZ/ATLANTIC/AG
CHRIS STAPLETON 2
XO/REPUBLIC
BOB MARLEY AND THE WAILERS f
2
66
75
RICK ROSS
12
NEW
76
76
XXXTENTACION
Painting Pictures
3
7
NEW
77
77
JUANES
470
SHINE
1
220
La La Land
2
23
Greatest Hits So Far...
20
119
Rather You Than Me
3
9
Revenge
76
1
Mis Planes Son Amarte
77
1
MAYBACH/EPIC
BAD VIBES FOREVER/EMPIRE RECORDINGS
UNIVERSAL MUSIC LATINO/UMLE
5
3
ZAC BROWN BAND
5
12
Legend: The Best Of...
16
SOUNDTRACK
7
24
Take Care
MAYBACH/ATLANTIC/AG
Playboi Carti
NAV
22
28
MERCURY NASHVILLE/UMGN
Traveller
1
88
77
78
DC/ATLAS/WATERTOWER/ATLANTIC/AG
SOUNDTRACK ¡ Suicide Squad: The Album
1
41
26
29
ORIGINAL BROADWAY CAST 3 Hamilton: An American Musical
3
86
78
79
J. COLE 2
1
128
31
30
DRAKE 4
1
55
81
80
PANIC! AT THE DISCO ¡ Death Of A Bachelor
1
70
32
31
TRAVIS SCOTT 0 Birds In The Trap Sing McKnight
1
37
71
81
JOHN MAYER
The Search For Everything
2
5
RE
32
32
A&M/UME
SOUNDGARDEN 5
Superunknown
1
78
82
82
G.O.O.D./DEF JAM
The Life Of Pablo
1
58
35
33
SOUNDTRACK ¡
86
36
34
BIG SEAN 0
9
35
GORILLAZ
HAMILTON UPTOWN/ATLANTIC/AG
Views
YOUNG MONEY/CASH MONEY/REPUBLIC
GRAND HUSTLE/EPIC
PARLOPHONE/WARNER BROS.
VARIOUS ARTISTS
DREAMVILLE/ROC NATION/COLUMBIA
DCD2/FUELED BY RAMEN/AG
COLUMBIA
KANYE WEST ¡
Trolls
3
34
87
83
83
THOMAS RHETT ¡
Tangled Up
6
I Decided.
1
15
83
84
MIRANDA LAMBERT The Weight Of These Wings
3
26
Humanz
2
3
93
85
85
JUSTIN BIEBER 3
Purpose
1
79
God’s Problem Child
10
3
Greatest Hits
3
191
VILLA 40/DREAMWORKS/RCA
G.O.O.D./DEF JAM
2014 Forest Hills Drive
VALORY/BMLG
VANNER/RCA NASHVILLE/SMN
SCHOOLBOY/RAYMOND BRAUN/DEF JAM
37
36
RCA
The RCA-List, Vol 5
27
4
61
86
LEGACY
34
37
SOUNDTRACK The Fate Of The Furious: The Album
10
5
99
87
87
2PAC a
38
38
FUTURE
1
12
84
88
TREY SONGZ
Tremaine The Album
3
8
40
39
39
KEITH URBAN ¡
96
89
LIL UZI VERT
The Perfect LUV Tape
55
40
41
40
SHAWN MENDES 0
Dangerous Woman
2
52
42
41
CHANCE THE RAPPER
Back 2 Life
91
1
28
42
MARY J. BLIGE
Turn Up The Quiet
18
2
56
43
43
So Good
26
9
1
320
UNIVERSAL STUDIOS/ARTIST PARTNERS GROUP/ATLANTIC/AG
HNDRXX
A-1/FREEBANDZ/EPIC
Ripcord
WILLIE NELSON
AMARU/DEATH ROW/INTERSCOPE/UME
ATLANTIC/AG
4
54
Illuminate
1
34
86
90
REPUBLIC
Coloring Book
8
53
NEW
91
91
LETOYA LUCKETT
Strength Of A Woman
3
3
18
92
DIANA KRALL
Fifty Shades Darker
1
14
95
93
ZARA LARSSON
44
RIHANNA 2
ANTI
1
69
92
94
WEB/AFTERMATH/INTERSCOPE/UME
46
45
45
SOUNDTRACK Beauty And The Beast (2017)
3
10
98
95
95
METALLICA g
Metallica
1
431
44
46
TWENTY ONE PILOTS 3
FUELED BY RAMEN/AG
1
105
94
96
TEE GRIZZLEY
My Moment
44
6
1
26
161
97
97
Kane Brown
10
24
Brett Young
18
14
102
98
98
BRUNO MARS 5
Doo-Wops & Hooligans
3
324
FREE 6LACK
34
22
90
99
JOURNEY f
Journey’s Greatest Hits
10
461
Back From The Edge
39
28
89
100
VARIOUS ARTISTS
Epic Lit (Version 3)
38
12
43
HIT RED/CAPITOL NASHVILLE/UMGN
ISLAND
CHANCE THE RAPPER
CAPITOL
GG
SOUNDTRACK
UNIVERSAL STUDIOS/REPUBLIC
WESTBURY ROAD/ROC NATION
WALT DISNEY
Blurryface
51
47
47
METALLICA ¡ Hardwired...To Self-Destruct
48
48
BRETT YOUNG
52
49
49
6LACK
54
50
JAMES ARTHUR
BLACKENED
BMLG
LVNR/INTERSCOPE/IGA
COLUMBIA
6 6 G o to B I L L B OA R D.CO M/ B I Z fo r co m p l e te c h a r t d a t a
GENERATION NOW/ATLANTIC/AG
ARIANA GRANDE ¡
EONE
VERVE/VLG
RECORD COMPANY TEN/EPIC
EMINEM a
BLACKENED/WARNER BROS.
300/AG
PS
KANE BROWN
ZONE 4/RCA NASHVILLE/SMN
ELEKTRA/AG
COLUMBIA/LEGACY
EPIC
The Eminem Show