Day in Pop Report for 11/20/2014
While Ruffin didn't achieve the iconic status of many of his Motown label mates, "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted" remains one of the label's most enduring hits; it has been covered throughout the years by artists including the Supremes, Boy George, Joe Cocker, Martina McBride and Rod Stewart. It was a No. 7 hit in 1966. Ruffin's next top hit wouldn't come until 1980′s "Hold On to My Love," a No. 10-peaking track from his Sunrise album, which was produced by Robin Gibb of the Bee Gees. Read more here.
The band has been stuck in their tour bus for nearly two days now after a major winter storm hit Buffalo, N.Y, putting the city under six feet of snow, The Daily Dot reports. They're not just stuck in a parking lot somewhere with civilization nearby, either. The tour bus is stuck on I-90, where multiple cars have been trapped for more than a day. The snowy circumstances have forced the band to cancel a show in the Toronto (at the Kool Haus, naturally), with their next scheduled date on Nov. 20 in Montreal also up in the air. They're then scheduled to head back into the U.S. for a gig on Nov. 21 in Boston. Read more here.
Today has brought tastes of both of them. It started with a 30-second snippet of "7/11," and now a similar clip for "Ring Off" is here. Clocking in at the same amount of time-30 seconds-"Ring Off" somewhat recalls another ring-focused Beyonce track, "Single Ladies," though this one suggests going ahead and taking off that ring when your significant other no longer appreciates you. "Until you had enough then you took that ring off / You took that ring off," she sings over funky guitars and fuzzed-out synths. "So tired of the lies and trying and fighting and crying / You took that ring off / Ooh, now the fun begins." Read more and listen here.
Billboard asked Migos about what's been going on that led to the incident; they made clear that no love is lost between the crews. "F**k 'em," said Migos' Offset. "Nothing's going on. That's it. F**k 'em. F**k 'em, f**k 'em, f**k 'em, like OG Maco said [on 'F**KEMX3']. F**k 'em." On Monday, Quavo seemed to address the issue when he posted a video on Instagram that showed him still wearing the chain. "Chain's on me, still danglin'," he says. Read more here.
The clip for "Lips Are Movin" hit YouTube and Vevo Wednesday (Nov. 19), and much like previous smash hit "All About That Bass"'s millions-reached video, the imagery is quite colorful. The premise for the video is simple enough: Trainor is found singing the soulful tune, sometimes flanked by some backup dancers. Since they're mentioned prominently in the song title and chorus, pairs of lips are featured quite a bit in the video as well, whether it's via closeups of Trainor's mouth, a drawing of a large pair on the wall behind them or a couch shaped like them, on which Trainor lounges at one point. It's all shot on a quickly changing set, props being lifted on and off screen by workers throughout the entire clip. Watch it here.
It's a shining example of a vintage Wu posse cut-everyone gets a verse. The beat is timeless-Ennio Morricone-esque sound effects, piano plinks, old movie dialogue, a smothering atmosphere of minor-key villainy. It's the perfect sonic environment for the Clan to boast about the quality and quantity of their jewelry: "My necklace had the whole crowd on some next s**t, guestlist full of real n***as that's hectic." Raekwon has a particularly evocative verse, describing his diamond-studded necklace as "oceanic" in depth. Listen here.
Eminem and his team have already been hard at work crafting a series of celebratory releases-first came the a cypher featuring Slaughterhouse, Yelawolf, and Eminem to go with Shady XV, and now the team has promised an extravagant mixtape. Speaking during a recent podcast, DJ Whoo Kid and Paul Rosenberg described the release, claiming it will have 66 tracks. "You guys gave me 130 records," Whoo Kid said. "Physically, you can't fit all of them on 80-minute CDs, so we had to do a double disc. Three hours [of music]." Read more here.
Rolling Stone reports that Bono will have to receive "intensive therapy" following the spill, which occurred Sunday (Nov. 16) in Central Park in New York (we already made the "Sunday Bloody Sunday" reference so you don't have to). Doctors have called the incident a "high energy bicycle accident" after Bono attempted to avoid another rider. All told, Bono suffered multiple injuries, including a "facial fracture involving the orbit of his eye," plus three fractures of his shoulder blade and a humerus bone fracture in his left arm, the latter tearing through his skin. Read more here.
In addition to Pennsylvania, the short four-day tour includes stops in New Jersey, Virginia and South Carolina. According to Gill's website, the tour will be "intimate solo and duo performances." In an interview with Radio.com earlier this year, Gill talked of his latest project, Bakersfield, which honors Buck Owens and Merle Haggard, with friend and bandmate Paul Franklin. "We were sitting there together every Monday night, playing all of the great songs that we love to play," Gill said about their standing weekly residency as the Time Jumpers, "and every now and then I get my belly full of swing music and I'd say, Hey, let's play 'Together Again' or let's play 'Holding Things Together,' both Buck Owens and Merle Haggard songs, and the crowd would go crazy. I told Paul, 'There's something here. Maybe we can find a way to do something to honor those guys.'" Read more and see the dates here.
The film focuses on Margaret Keane, the American artist whose iconic 1950s and '60s paintings of big-eyed children were falsely credited to her then-husband, Walter. "Lana's song expresses what Margaret is feeling so perfectly, it's like a soliloquy of her inner thoughts," producer and co-screenwriter Larry Karaszewski told The Hollywood Reporter of the title track, which Del Rey co-wrote with another one of her frequent collaborators Daniel Heath, who also helped her write her hit "Blue Jeans." Karaszewski says Del Rey saw the film before writing the songs and fell in love with it. He also says the title track perfectly sums up the feminist stance of the movie. "The whole thing is about a woman who can't find her voice," he explained. Read more here.
In a new video, Em says, "I don't remember any of the first verse. I don't remember it." Dre had to remind him, and even then, he couldn't recall recording the demo. Eminem then shared a brief snippet of the track, which appeared in his semi-biographical movie 8 Mile. The demo is just the skeleton of the track and a few familiar words that fans can recall being in the final version of the song, which went on to win Em an Oscar. Watch the video here.
Topping this year's list is Australian actor Chris Hemsworth. Along with Shelton, other runners-up include Tim Tebow, Chris Pratt, Michael Strahan and Bradley Cooper. Aside from Shelton and Tebow, all the fellas on the list are actors-and, curiously, most are well over 30 (Strahan and Scandal actor Scott Foley are even in their-gasp-40s). Read more here.
In a new video for Funny Or Die, Ross shows off his slimmer physique and advertises his new workout tape #ROSSFIT, which promises to help you also slim down in just a few simple steps. According to Ross, you have to get your neck muscles working by wearing the heaviest chain. Heavy enough for the Hood Billionaire himself, which just so happens to be the title of his new album out Nov. 24. Make sure you take a Wingstop break. Lemon pepper is his personal favorite. And, spend some time popping bottles of champagne, bobbing your head to his new album and taking money baths. Good for the muscles. Unfortunately, this workout video is available nowhere because as Ross tells us, there will never be another Boss. Not even Bruce Springsteen. Watch the video here.
But then there is Jason Isbell, a seasoned veteran of the industry who revealed that he was nonetheless asked if he would like to appear on the show in an audition. Wednesday (Nov. 19), Isbell took to Twitter to share with fans a "real" email he received from a producer on The Voice. In it, the producer offers Isbell an audition. While tweets from his fans were mixed, some saying congrats while others said it just makes them ill, Isbell however took the insult in good humor. Read more here.
During his performance on Nov. 13 in Pennsylvania, Bentley saw three fans in the audience dressed up as flight attendants and a pilot like in his "Drunk On a Plane" video. Impressed, he invited the three onstage to sing the song with him. The trio were dancing and singing along during the song and all was going well until a few minutes into the song when one of the fans began vomiting onstage. He kept going, though-and when he noticed the puke all over the stage, he reportedly changed the lyrics fittingly to "puke on a plane." Read more here.
So what better time for the MC to dig through the archives and share, as he wrote on his Tumblr, "RANDOM SONG LAYING AROUND THOUGHT WHY NOT PUT IT SOMEWHERE." "Diaper" opens with organs, but don't let that fool you. The track quickly swerves into something chaotic, with a scratchy funk-based beat and blown-out bass where Tyler raps about his rise. "Ballin' out, shouldn't wonder how I got here/ This for everyone who ever gave a f**k, yeah," he raps. "A lot of n***as don't know because I am, yeah/ They tell me to sit down, s**t I ain't chairs." By the end, he riffs on Drake's "0 to 100." Listen here.
She said she and Diplo are friends still, no issue there-but since she and Swift are, too, she's not going to let those comments go uncontested. "I love Wes [Pentz, Diplo's name] and he's a big brother to me and one of my first friends in the industry, and part of having a friendship with someone like that is not letting them say stupid s**t," she said. "Taylor's my friend as well, and I'm a girl, and if I see some weird body-shaming on my feed I'm going to be like, 'Hey man�' We do still love each other, hopefully." Read more here.
Ford was not the last designer name Blige would drop when naming a few of her favorite things, which include Chanel, Givenchy, Rag & Bone and Elie Tahari. "The fashion world has always been important to me, as an artist, because our image is, you know, a lot," Blige says. "It's everything when it comes to our fan base and being a trailblazer. I've always been into different designers. As a younger person coming up, when you have access to so much you do so much. You do too much. Now I've grown into a more sophisticated 'less is more' look." Blige is a big fan of throwback photos on Instagram-she often posts her '90s and '00s looks under the #tbt and #fbf hashtags. "Oh man, what do I think when I go back and look at my pictures from 10 and 20 years ago?" Blige responds with a laugh. "Sometimes I say what was I thinking? Sometimes I say is that me? Oh my god! And sometimes I say, 'Oh, you were so cute.'" Read more here.
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