Music

When Taylor Swift announced on May 30 that she’d finally regained control of her master recordings, she also revealed that she hadn’t completed the re-recording of her album Reputation, and wasn’t sure if she ever would. Swifties responded by streaming the original album like crazy.

Reputation, which debuted at #1 when it first came out in 2017, had been hanging out at #78 on the Billboard Top 200 album chart. But now, it’s jumped all the way to #5, with a sales increase of more than 220%. The last time the album was in the top five was Jan. 27, 2018. 

In her letter to fans on May 30, Taylor wrote, “The Reputation album was so specific to that time in my life, and I kept hitting a stopping point when I tried to remake it … to be perfectly honest, it’s the one album in those first 6 that I thought couldn’t be improved upon by redoing it … so I kept putting it off.” 

She added that unreleased “From the Vault” tracks from that album could still be released in the future, but said that if she did put them out, it wouldn’t be “from a place of sadness.” Instead, she said, “It will just be a celebration.”

Elsewhere on the Billboard 200, Morgan Wallen‘s album I’m the Problem spends a third consecutive week at #1, while Miley Cyrus scores her 15th top 10 album with Something Beautiful, which debuts at #4.  The short film that accompanies the album will screen in theaters July 12.

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Killswitch Engage‘s song “I Believe,” the current single off their new album, This Consequence, is the band’s biggest rock radio hit of their career and their first top-10 hit on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Airplay chart. When first picking a track to be a single off of This Consequence, bassist Mike D’Antonio tells ABC Audio that “I Believe” felt like a fitting choice.

“Based on rock play that we’ve had in the past, we knew that [‘I Believe’] was probably the closest to a rock single that we could have,” D’Antonio says.

However, D’Antonio shares that he needed some convincing to get on board with the song initially.

“I personally thought it was a bit too honey sweet, a bit too heart-on-your-sleeve,” he says. “But we kinda went with it, and I think it came out for the best. It’s definitely doing really well at radio.”

While “I Believe” may be “honey sweet,” at least relative to other Killswitch songs, D’Antonio’s experience filming its video definitely was not. The shoot’s use of video screens reminded him of a time he got very sick on an amusement park ride.

“If you ever watch that video, I’m not moving too much, because I threw up many times,” D’Antonio laughs. 

Killswitch Engage will return to the road in support of This Consequence on the Summer of Loud tour, which kicks off June 21 in West Palm Beach, Florida. The bill also includes Beartooth, I Prevail and Parkway Drive.

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Being outed as gay by his ex-boyfriend helped Khalid realize something: his music is universal. Speaking to Billboard, he shared the moment he noticed his fans’ reaction to his music hadn’t changed with the news about his sexuality.

“I had a moment where I walked out and I looked into the crowd, and I’m singing these songs that — I was obviously gay when I wrote them, but the world may not have known,” Khalid recalls. “Everybody is singing them the same way they were before I was outed! So [that shows me] none of my fans care about my sexual preferences. I think they care about our mutual respect for music.” 

Khalid described the experience as liberating, noting it showed him he can be 100% himself “and still be embraced and appreciated.”

While Khalid wants to inspire young Black men to be open about their sexuality, he makes it clear he’s not targeting a specific audience with his music.

“Music is subjective,” he says. “If you place yourself in an experience, we can relate to people all across the board. It doesn’t matter if you’re gay, it doesn’t matter if you’re straight. We all have feelings and we all have emotions.” 

In his new era of music, Khalid wants to show fans he’s not as private and serious as he once portrayed.

“I’m actually extremely extroverted,” he says. “I love to socialize, I love to hang out, I love to see new things and meet new people.”

“I had my fair share of time to be serious,” Khalid continues. “Now I don’t have a care in the world. I can just have fun.” 

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A new book about Pink Floyd is set to hit bookshelves this fall.

Pink Floyd Shine On: The Definitive Oral History was written by author Mark Blake, who’s worked with the band for the past 35 years. The book is described as a “forensic retelling of one of the most turbulent and enduring groups in rock music history.”

According to the description, the book is “the most comprehensive history of the band ever compiled” and includes new, archival and unpublished interviews with Pink Floyd members David Gilmour, Roger Waters, Nick Mason and the late Richard Wright. Their story is also told through the words of friends, family members, contemporaries and more.

Shine On also features a rare and previously unpublished interview with Rosemary Breen, the sister of Pink Floyd’s original frontman, Syd Barrett, who was kicked out of the band in 1968 and died in 2006.

Pink Floyd Shine On: The Definitive Oral History is due out Oct. 9 and is available for preorder now.

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We’re guessing sombr is feeling anything but as he notches his first-ever #1 hit on a Billboard radio play chart.

The 19-year-old artist’s breakout single, “back to friends,” has reached the top of the Alternative Airplay ranking. 

Not only is “back to friends” the first sombr song to take the #1 spot on Alternative Airplay, it’s also his first song to chart on the tally, period. Its 10-week rise to #1 is the fastest for any artist’s debut single on Alternative Airplay since X Ambassadors took eight weeks to conquer the chart in 2015 with “Renegades.”

“Back to friends” dropped in December. Its video, which premiered in April, has over 9 million views.

Sombr will launch a U.S. tour in September.

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Bruce Springsteen brought his Land of Hope and Dreams tour to Liverpool’s Anfield Stadium Saturday and surprised the crowd with a very special guest: local hero Paul McCartney.

“We’re lucky tonight, we have a young man, a local young man, from Liverpool, who’s gonna dance with us tonight,” Springsteen told the crowd, as seen in fan-shot video posted to YouTube. “I think he’s got a lot of talent and I believe he’s gonna be going places So let’s bring out Sir Paul McCartney.”

The Rock & Roll Hall of Famers then teamed up for two songs: The Beatles‘ classic “Can’t Buy Me Love” and a cover of the Leiber & Stoller tune “Kansas City,” which The Beatles recorded in 1964 after being inspired by Little Richard‘s version of the song.

The Liverpool show was far from the first time Springsteen and McCartney have performed together. In 2022, Springsteen made a surprise appearance during McCartney’s Glastonbury Festival set, performing “Glory Days” and “I Wanna to Be Your Man” with McCartney. The Beatle also joined Springsteen for his 2017 show at New York’s Madison Square Garden, where they performed “I Saw Her Standing There.”

Bruce and Sir Paul joined forces ahead of the Liverpool show for a non-musical appearance. According to the BBC, on Friday, the two rockers visited the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA), which was co-founded by McCartney.

Springsteen and The E Street Band next hit Berlin on June 11. A complete list of dates can be found at BruceSpringsteen.net.

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Why did Miley Cyrus make a movie to go along with her latest album Something Beautiful? Because she wanted to attend one of her own concerts.

During the Q&A that followed the premiere of the Something Beautiful film Friday night at New York’s Tribeca Festival, Miley explained, “So, I was thinking, I’ve never been to a Miley Cyrus concert before, and I felt like I did tonight. She’s sickening!”

“I never actually get to experience the show in the ways that you get to experience the show,” she continued. “I wanted to experience a Miley Cyrus concert. And I also wanted to turn a live performance into something that I can share with you … getting to sit in this theater tonight, beside you.”

During the Q&A, some fans in the audience kept yelling for Miley to sing, but the only time she obliged was when she performed an a cappella rendition of her hit “The Climb,” which turned into a full-on singalong.

As for the movie itself, Something Beautiful doesn’t really have a story. It’s more a series of vignettes showing Miley giving emotional performances of the album’s songs in various settings: onstage, on a motorcycle, rolling around on the Hollywood Walk of Fame or standing in the rain. In each, she looks stunning, dressed in an array of body-baring, fabulous couture. 

The audience whooped, cheered and applauded each segment, as though they were, indeed, at a Miley concert. The moment that got the biggest response was during the song “Every Girl You’ve Ever Loved,” when Miley and Naomi Campbell, who’s featured on the track, came together and strutted it out in a dimly-lit studio.

Miley noted that she hoped to “redefine beauty” through the film. As for what she wants fans to take away, she said, “I just hope that when you watch Something Beautiful, it ignites something in you. I hope the thing that’s burning in me catches you on fire.”

Something Beautiful will screen in theaters for one night only on July 12.

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Badflower has premiered a new song called “Snuff,” a track off the band’s upcoming album, No Place Like Home.

In between frontman Josh Katz‘s explicit lyrics, the song’s bridge turns into a robotic voice message that shares, “In this part of the song, Badflower intended to insert a short sample of a popular song from the 1990s, but they were unable to get in touch with the copyright holder, so rather than risk litigation, they decided to remove the sample and insert this instead.”

While you try to figure out what that song was, you can listen to “Snuff” on digital outlets.

No Place Like Home, the follow-up to 2021’s This Is How the World Ends, drops June 20. It also includes the single “Detroit,” as well as the previously released songs “Paws,” “Haunting You” and “London.”

Badflower will be touring the U.S. alongside 311 beginning June 20 in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

(Video contains uncensored profanity.) 

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