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Day in Pop Report for 07/09/2015



Miranda Lambert Suffers Vocal Chord Injury

(Radio.com) Miranda Lambert has been a touring juggernaut of late, seemingly performing an endless run of dates behind last year's hit record, Platinum. But, it seems like her commitment to performing has finally caught up with the country star just ahead of a highly anticipated appearance at the upcoming Calgary Stampede festival.

Lambert has canceled her Thursday night headlining slot at the order of her physician, citing "serious inflammation of her vocal cords." No makeup date is yet known, though Lambert's statement indicates one will be scheduled.

"I'm so sorry that I can't be at Stampede this week," Lambert said in a statement, "but I'll be back in Calgary just as soon as I can for all of my Stampede fans." Read more here.

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Taylor Swift's '1989' Hits Another Milestone

(Radio.com) You don't need charts to know that Taylor Swift's 1989 is a mega-hit, becoming a cultural moment that has stretched beyond its fall 2014 release and throughout the first half of this year.

But if you like charts, here's a notable achievement for you: 1989 has surpassed five million copies sold, becoming the fastest album to do so since Usher's Confessions in 2004.

It took Swift 36 weeks to cross five million records sold, while it took Usher only 19 weeks, according to Billboard. 1989 is also the first album to pass five million in sales since 2011, when Adele's 21 crossed the mark on its way to selling more than 11 million records to date. Read more here.

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Facebook Reportedly Looking At Launching Music Streaming

(Radio.com) With the recent launch of Apple Music, the options for digital music streaming are suddenly seeming flooded, with Spotify, TIDAL, Rdio, and Google Play holding position as the biggest names, while YouTube, Bandcamp, Pandora, and Soundcloud all offer their own unique for online music listening.

Now it looks like we will be adding Facebook to the pile, with Music Ally reporting that the social media giant is in plans to launch a streaming service to compete with the industry giants.

This will come after the launch of native music videos being hosted on the site, which is already in advanced stages and expected to launch in the next few months. Read more here.

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Joni Mitchell Expected To Make Full Recovery

(Radio.com) Joni Mitchell is reportedly recovering well after suffering an aneurysm in March. Court papers uncovered by People and filed on July 2 claim she is expected to make a full recovery.

Mitchell's conservatorship, however, will continue at her own request. In the court papers, her attorney Rebecca J. Thyne gave a statement recounting Mitchell's wishes.

"She also told me that she receives excellent care from caregivers round-the-clock," Thyne said. "It was clear that she was happy to be home and that she has made remarkable progress. She has physical therapy each day and is expected to make a full recovery."

Despite her progress, Thyne recommended that Mitchell "be judged to lack the capacity to give informed consent for medical treatment" and that her temporary conservator Leslie Morris, a longtime friend to the singer, be officially appointed to the post. Read more here.

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Taylor Swift Helps Young Cancer-Stricken Fan

(Radio.com) A young Taylor Swift fan fighting cancer just got the gift of a lifetime from her favorite singer. After Naomi Oakes was diagnosed with AML (Acute Myelogenous Leukemia) last month she realized she would have to be in the hospital for the next six to nine months and would miss Swift's concert in Phoenix, Arizona.

As a way of cheering her up, her dad made a video showing his little girl singing Swift's song "Bad Blood"--Naomi's fight song. In the video, posted to YouTube, her dad asked fellow Swifties to share photos with the #TeamNaomi in hopes her favorite pop star would get word and send Naomi a message.

Swift did one better, donating $50,000 to Oakes' GoFundMe page to help pay her medical expenses as she battles leukemia. The family's original goal was $30,000.

Swift also sent a message along, writing on the donation page, "To the beautiful and brave Naomi. I'm sorry you have to miss it, but there will always be more concerts. Let's focus on getting you feeling better. I'm sending the biggest hugs to you and your family." Read more here.

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Waka Flocka Flame And Good Charlotte Release 'Game On' Video

(Radio.com) Waka Flocka Flame isn't playing games in his new video with Good Charlotte--literally. The song, "Game On," is the theme song for a new movie called Pixels, in which a cast of humans must fight against an alien civilization that's sent a horde of pixelated video game characters to wreak havoc on Earth.

The video intersperses footage of video game havoc wrought by giant video game monsters with shots of Flocka jumping around and yelling his trademark "bow, bow, bow" adlibs. Benji and Joel Madden, the brothers of Good Charlotte, come in near the end to sing the chorus. The video ends with Flocka become pixelated as he's captured by an alien spaceship.

It's a rare appearance from the Maddens in Good Charlotte form; Flocka, meanwhile, is gearing up to release his forthcoming Flockaveli II sometime later on this year. Or so he says. Watch the video here.

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Carrie Underwood, Brad Paisley Lead Country Hall Benefit Lineup

(Radio.com) Carrie Underwood is headed to New York City this fall. The "Little Toy Guns" singer will headline the All for the Hall Benefit Concert, which raises funds for Nashville's Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. The concert will take place at New York's Best Buy Theater on Oct. 6.

Underwood will join Brad Paisley, Vince Gill and Emmylou Harris for the guitar-pull event. During the concert, each artist will take the stage sitting beside each other, taking turns in a round telling the stories behind their songs before playing them for the audience.

The very first All for the Hall New York performance was held in 2007 and included performances by Gill, Taylor Swift, Patty Griffin, Jewel, Shawn Colvin, Raul Malo, John Rich, Trisha Yearwood and Bill Anderson. All For the Hall New York returned in 2013 with Gill as well as Jason Aldean, Rodney Crowell, Ashley Monroe, Gregg Allman and Train's Pat Monahan.

'I think it's important for us younger artists to represent that and say, 'Hey, don't forget about these guys over here,'" Jason Aldean told Radio.com during an interview backstage at the event in 2013. 'They're the ones that paved the way for us to be here." Read more here.

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Harry Shearer Not Leaving The Simpsons After All

(Radio.com) Don't fret, for Harry Shearer will return to The Simpsons for the next four seasons. Shearer is the voice of Mr. Burns and Ned Flanders on the show, and EW reports that he, along with the show's primary voice actors (Dan Castellaneta, Yeardley Smith, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright and Hank Azaria) have all signed the same contract, guaranteeing they will all return.

Shearer said his dispute with the show was not over money, but rather over his free time. Whatever the reason he returned, Twitter seems to be pretty sure the impetus was Ted Cruz's shockingly terrible Simpsons impressions, released last week. Ted Cruz himself included.

The Texas senator and presidential candidate tweeted "It appears Harry Shearer was so horrified by my Simpsons impressions he agreed to return: bit.ly/1CYK9Dd http://t.co/vHToDfHCXM- Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) July 07, 2015" Read more here.

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Old Dominion Go 'Back to the Future' For 'Break Up With Him' Video

(Radio.com) Old Dominion are obsessed with the 1985 classic film Back to the Future, so obsessed in fact that they tailored their debut music video for "Break Up with Him" around the premise of the film.

At the video's start frontman Matthew Ramsey is found skateboarding through his high school's halls to overhear a fight with a couple about to attend the school's dance. The clip's resident bully is played by his bandmate Trevor Rosen in which he is seen forcing his date upstairs to the dance where, conveniently, Ramsey will soon be performing.

Arriving late to the stage, Ramsey grabs his guitar and mic and makes eyes at the beautiful girl he just saw in the hallway. He sings directly to her, trying to convince her to, well, "Break Up with Him." Her boyfriend notices this and won't let the singer get away with wooing his girl, so he enlists the help of his friends. As he drags the girl out of the dance, his friends hint at the impending fight before Ramsey's doppelganger from the future saves the day.

'The concept of the video for 'Break Up with Him' is based around the movie Back to the Future," Ramsey told Taste of Country. 'It's this crazy reconstruction of all our favorite scenes. We're constantly on the bus talking about the movie. We're all huge fans, so we wanted to do something different and not just kind of interpret the song." Read more here.

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U2 Performs 'Desire' with Tribute Band

(Radio.com) Irish rock legends U2 continue to redefine themselves on the band's current iNNOCENCE & eXPERIENCE tour 2015, from a revolutionary sound system to taking chances onstage, including a recent stop in Toronto where they invited a local U2 tribute band to join them during the show.

The lucky band in question is known as Acrobat, named after a song on U2's 1991 classic, Achtung Baby. After welcoming them to the stage, the two bands merged to play the Rattle and Hum single, "Desire," with actual members of U2 (other than The Edge, who played along) eventually ceding the stage to Acrobat to enjoy the performance from the pit.

Among the members of Acrobat include one Mark Baker, a self-proclaimed U2 super-fan who is also the star of documentary film, U2 Brothr, a chronicle of his life as one of the band's biggest followers in the world. Watch it in its entirety here.

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Marvel Teases 'Ant-Man' With Mock News Broadcast

(Radio.com) Is Scott Lang a bona fide hero who crusaded on behalf of cheated VistaCorp customers? Or is he a vicious thief? WHiH's Christine Everhart is investigating.

Well, Leslie Bibb playing Everhart is investigating, anyway, in the just-released mock news promo for Marvel's Ant-Man. Ant-Man's marketing campaign has gotten creative in a way sure to make fans of the Marvel universe giggle by way of the new promo, which offers up plenty of Easter eggs from recent superhero films.

Bibbs' character Everhart, for instance, first emerged in Iron Man, and as the report begins, the anchor is finishing coverage of the "conflict in Sokovia"--a nod to the events of the end of Avengers: Age of Ultron. Additionally, the scroll at the bottom of the program includes nods to Avengers' villain Baron Von Strucker and Thor's Jane Foster.

As A.V. Club notes, Everhart also asks for more "transparency" from superheroes when it comes to their culpability for, well, destroying countries, which is essentially the "backbone" for the upcoming Captain America: Civil War. Read more here.

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New 'Goosebumps' Trailer Released

(Radio.com) Always take the author's word for it. That is the lesson Zach Cooper learns the hard way in the trailer for the new film adaptation of R.L. Stine's Goosebumps book series.

Cooper (played by Dylan Minnette), moves in next door to the curmudgeonly R.L. Stine (played by Jack Black) and his daughter Hannah (Odeya Rush), and, perhaps guided by panic (and teen hormones) after hearing Hannah yell, wanders into the house he has been warned to avoid.

Zach and a friend stumble onto Stine's manuscripts, discovering he is the author of the famed series. Unfortunately, insatiable curiosity gets the better of him, and Zach opens a padlocked book he shouldn't have, allowing dozens of monsters to break out of purgatory to terrorize the streets. Watch it here.

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