Music

After spending the past few weeks hovering in the top five, Olivia Rodrigo‘s debut album SOUR has once again claimed the top spot on the Billboard 200 chart. 

The singer’s debut album was boosted by its August 20 vinyl LP release: SOUR sold an additional 133,000 units, with 76,000 consisting of vinyl sales alone.  Billboard says that marks the second-highest sales week for any LP since it began tracking vinyl sales data in 1991. Taylor Swift‘s evermore holds the title, with an impressive 102,000 copies of the vinyl version of the LP flying off the shelves in the first week of June.

SOUR was also streamed 69.82 million times in the past week.  

SOUR, which debuted May 21, has been assisted on the chart by Olivia’s trilogy of hits: “Drivers License,” “Deja Vu” and “good 4 u.”  But most of the album’s other tracks are also charting on the Hot 100 as well.

Currently, “good 4 u” leads the pack in the number-three spot.  “Deja Vu” also clings to the top 10 for another week, currently resting at number nine. “Traitor” and “Favorite Crime” are also charting in the top 100.

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Justin Bieber has further cemented his status as the prince of pop — a title given to him by Lizzo on Sunday — by being crowned Spotify’s most listened-to artist.

The music streaming service confirmed that the “Peaches” singer has amassed over 83.3 million monthly listeners, a new all-time record, reports Chart Data.  The milestone isn’t all too surprising, considering “Stay,” Justin’s collab with The Kid LAROI, has dominated the Billboard Hot 100 for three consecutive weeks.

Justin leads the Spotify pack by a wide margin, with The Weeknd earning second place with 74.5 million monthly listeners.  Ed Sheeran rounds out the top three with 72.4 million listeners per month.

Dua Lipa is the service’s most-streamed female artist, boasting 65.5 million monthly listeners.

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Before this summer, the most you’d probably heard about Walker Hayes was with his 2017 top-ten hit, “You Broke Up with Me.” But now, he’s “Fancy Like That.”

If you’ve missed it, “Fancy” is the rap-influenced, country-flavored earworm that extols the virtues of a girl who “wanna dip me like them fries in her Frosty” at Wendy’s, and get the “Bourbon Street steak with the Oreo shake” from “Applebee’s on a date night.”

And it was all fueled by a video Walker made with his 15-year-old daughter.

“Lela and I did the dance on Sunday afternoon,” Walker explains. “She said, ‘Hey Dad, “Fancy Like” doesn’t have a dance. We need to do one.'”

“We kinda created it together,” he continues. “She made up most of the moves. I made sure most of the moves could be done, even if you weren’t a great dancer — like me.”

“We popped it off in two takes… And the rest is history,” he reveals. “We pretty much knew hours later, we had accidentally done something — odd.”

Since then, at least one of the restaurants Walker name-dropped has come calling. 

“Within days, people began to predict ‘song of the summer,’ how viral it would go, things like that,” he tells ABC Audio. “I don’t necessarily say I believed ’em, but here we are.”

“There’s an Applebee’s commercial,” he points out. “The Oreo shake is back on the menu thanks to the power of a song.”

“And millions of people have done this dance,” he marvels. “And the song continues to climb all charts, all genres. It’s mind-blowing. It’s absolutely mind-blowing.”  

Sure enough, “Fancy Like” has already spent six weeks atop Billboard‘s Hot Country Songs ranking, while sitting at #12 on the pop-oriented Hot 100 as well.

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After releasing their album Dreamland over a year ago, Glass Animals is finally getting the chance to tour behind it. Their Dreamland tour kicks off tonight in Lewiston, NY — and frontman Dave Bailey says fans can have fun looking at their “bonkers” stage, and predicts he’ll spend some of the night “crying a little bit.”

Describing what fans can expect visually, Dave tells ABC Audio, “There’s Dreamland visuals, there’s giant palm trees, there’s floating neon signs and cereal bowls, and there’s a giant swimming pool.” He laughs, “It’s quite mad. It’s definitely the most bonkers stage design we’ve ever done!”

Between headlining shows, the “Heat Waves” group will also be playing festivals like Bonnaroo, Life Is Beautiful and Outside Lands, though Dave says those shows, like, their headlining shows, will be all about reading the room.

“We try to keep festival shows fun, but honestly, we really react to the crowd, at any show that we’re doing — be it a headline show or a  festival show, you have to look at the crowd and see how they’re feeling,” Dave explains. “…[I]f it’s like 6:00 in the afternoon and everyone’s pretty chill, then you can play things a bit slower, and maybe turn the ambient stuff up. Or if people are dancing and a dance artist has played before you, turn the drums up…have a total party.”

But Dave says one major highlight of tonight’s opening show will be seeing a live crowd react to “Heat Waves” — which is something he and the band haven’t really gotten to experience since it became a massive hit in the past year.

In fact, Dave admits, “I think I’ll probably end up crying a little bit.” 

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Kanye West’s long-awaited album Donda has finally arrived.

The album hit streaming services Sunday morning following three listening events over the past month — the latest one taking place Thursday in Kanye’s hometown of Chicago.

Donda, named for Kanye’s mother who passed away in 2007, was initially supposed to be released July 23.

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Meek Mill collabos with Lil Baby and Lil Durk on “Sharing Locations,” which dropped Friday, featuring a video he directed.

They’re living the high life in the clip, cash overflowing, riding in a private jet and Rolls Royce and contemplating their next sexual adventure.

“Gave her a pill, they all get high, you ever had a foursome?” they rap. “This too much cash for me to hide, I had to give lil’ bro some”

Also, after Megan Thee Stallion fought in court to have her “Butter” remix with BTS released, the song dropped Friday. The Hot Girl Summer adds her Texas hip-hop flava to the track by the South Korean pop group.

“So smooth like the car I ride.” she raps. “Even ya best party planner couldn’t catch this vibe/
Big boss, and I make a hater stay on they job/ And I be on these girls necks like the back of they bobs.”

Kash Doll is feeling “Single & Happy” which is the title of her new single featuring Wale and Eric Bellinger. The Detroit rapper celebrates female empowerment and relying on a partner for validation in the follow-up to her previous single, “Like a Pro.”

Finally, Baby Keem released “Family Ties,” featuring his cousin, Kendrick Lamar on the track, and Normani in the video.

Lamar raps he’s been quiet since the beginning of the COVID-19 virus. “I been duckin’ the pandemic, I been, social gimmicks/ I been duckin’ the overnight activists, yeah/ I’m not a trending topic, I’m a prophet.”

The 13-time Grammy winner also gives props to Megan Thee Stallion, rapping, “I can multitask like Megan, brother/ 2021, I ain’t takin’ no prisoner/New flows comin’, be patient, brother.

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Are you ready to rumble? Well, Brian Setzer is! The Stray Cats frontman released his first new solo album in seven years, Gotta Have the Rumble, today on CD and digital formats.

The new collection features 11 original tunes written or co-written by Setzer. To coincide with the album’s arrival, Brian has debuted a third single from the project, the old-time country-flavored “Rockabilly Banjo,” along with a companion music video.

Setzer co-wrote the tune with Stephen “Dibbs” Preston, lead singer of the veteran rockabilly band The Rockats. The song, which combines country and rockabilly influences, features some impressive banjo picking by Brian, as well as the talents of lauded pedal-steel guitarist Paul Franklin.

The video, which you can watch on Setzer’s official YouTube channel, features a montage of vintage black-and-white footage of banjo players, including clips of legendary folk artist Pete Seeger.

Explaining how the song came together, Setzer notes, “Me and Dibbs were hanging around, and it was one of the few times ever that someone gives me a song that’s just the music and not the lyrics. And Dibbs said, ‘Hey, you play banjo, I love the way you play it.’ You know, banjo makes everybody smile and everybody’s after me to play more banjo.”

Setzer adds, “And Dibbs said, ‘Hey, I got a song, what do you think of this?’ and I thought ‘Wow! Let’s clean it up.’ So that’s the last track.”

“Rockabilly Banjo” follows Setzer’s two previous singles from Gotta Have the Rumble, “Checkered Flag” and “Smash Up on Highway One,” which also were released alongside companion videos.

A vinyl version of Gotta Have the Rumble is due out in the fall.

Here’s the album’s full track list:

“Checkered Flag”
“Smash Up on Highway One”
“Stack My Money”
“The Wrong Side of the Tracks”
“Drip Drop”
“The Cat with 9 Wives”
“Turn You On, Turn Me On”
“Rockabilly Riot”
“Off Your Rocker”
“One Bad Habit”
“Rockabilly Banjo”

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