Music

Rolling Stone has acquired a majority stake in Life Is Beautiful, the annual music and arts festival staged in downtown Las Vegas. The sale — terms of which were not disclosed — is part of larger effort at both Rolling Stone, and its parent company Penske Media Corporation, to make further inroads in the live event space. While Life Is Beautiful will continue to take place each year in Vegas, Rolling Stone plans to bring it to new territories and expand the festival’s digital footprint.  “Live events have to have the...

It feels like everyone is itching for a bit of comforting nostalgia these days, but it's easy to fall short when trying to rekindle the magic of another time. With his new boot scootin' new track "Neon Blue," Joshua Hedley masterfully magnifies the sound of early 90s country through a modern lens."Neon Blue" is the title track and first single from Hedley's upcoming sophomore album, due out April 22 on New West Records. The song introduces a different era for Hedley, who has become a stalwart of Nashville's ever-shrinking traditionalist country scenes that's anchored...

Marry Me is a fun, gaudy rom-com with a fun, gaudy soundtrack, successfully tapping the distinct musical styles of the film’s co-stars, Jennifer Lopez and Maluma, who perform together and solo throughout the LP. As Lopez put it to Billboard, “You can’t have a movie about two pop stars who are performing and not have a soundtrack.” And the Latin stars deliver with a 12-track LP filled with pop ballads, club-ready bangers, and a handful of reggaeton would-be hits. Staying true to the movie’s nuptial theme, the soundtrack opens with...

Dustin Lynch has announced his spring tour plans. The "Thinking 'Bout You" singer has revealed his Party Mode Tour, beginning in March of 2022 in Texas.After two dates at legendary Texas venues, Lynch and opening act Sean Stemaly will tour heavily through April, with five additional dates in Alabama and California in May. The Party Mode Tour is named after a song called "Party Mode" on Lynch's upcoming Blue in the Sky album (Feb. 11). The uptempo song begins his fifth studio album.Tickets for most shows go on sale on Feb. 11...

Rosalía’s Motomami transformation is fully underway. The Spanish singer just announced her new album will be out on March 18 and, ahead of its release, she has dropped a new track called “Saoko.” The song smashes together distorted chords, jazz flourishes, and a sample from the famed reggaeton hit “Saoco” by the genre’s titans Wisin and Daddy Yankee. The Valentin Petit-directed video shows Rosalía hanging out in a convenience store before going on a high-octane, adrenaline-fueled joy ride with an all-girl motorbike crew. They speed along the pitch-black night just...

Although Morgane Stapleton has earned widespread admiration and acclaim for her incredible backing vocals on most of her husband's biggest hits, she's much more than just Chris Stapleton's talented other half.Along with her powerhouse voice, Morgane has proven herself to be one of country music's most talented and sought-after songwriters. She's penned tracks that have been recorded by some of the genre's biggest names, with her first major cut coming all the way back in 2005.Morgane Stapleton knows how to channel heart and depth into anything she does, and you can see it in...

When Latto appears in the lobby of the Sea Fire Grill, a seafood restaurant in midtown Manhattan, it’s apparent that she is on edge. As is everyone else: Her entourage has preceded her arrival by a few minutes, trickling in in twos and threes, until there are 12 of us waiting to be seated for a seven-person reservation that was supposed to begin an hour ago. Latto scans the scene, seemingly trying to determine the likelihood that this mid-November night is about to go left. One of her managers procures...

There's something about Keith Urban that just seems to catch the eyes of powerful women. First, Loretta Lynn jokingly requested he jump out of a cake on her 87th birthday — and he obliged, during a massive birthday tribute show in Nashville in 2019. Now, Dolly Parton admits that she thinks Urban's pretty easy on the eyes, too."I love Keith Urban. I've always thought he was one of the most talented and cutest guys in the world," Parton says during an interview with ABC's Good Morning America. "I'm not trying to...

UPDATE (2/2/2022): Drakeo the Ruler’s son filed his wrongful death lawsuit in Los Angeles Wednesday asking for at least $60 million in damages from defendants, including concert promoter Live Nation. According to the complaint, the promoters “were completely knowledgeable of the potential dangers” at their Once Upon a Time in L.A. festival last December and allowed the show to go on despite an “utter lack of security” in the backstage area where Drakeo, born Darrell Caldwell, was fatally stabbed. Drakeo’s “ongoing public feud” with fellow festival rapper YG was listed as...

Miranda Lambert just proved that her husband Brendan McLoughlin isn't the only one who looks good in a swimsuit. On Instagram, the "If I Was a Cowboy" singer offered five pictures of the two of them on their anniversary getaway.Both Lambert and McLoughlin look as relaxed as you can imagine, with sand between their toes and the sound of the surf behind them. The trip was to celebrate three years of marriage."Spent a few days in the sun with my sunshine," the country star writes in a post pushed to social media on...

Days after Lucy Dacus teased fans by posting flyers in cities advertising a “Kissing Lessons” hotline, she’s finally dropped the track of the same name. Complete with a video of a pre-teen dancing around her bedroom in a feather boa and killing time with a Gameboy, “Kissing Lessons” kicks off with a crunchy guitar riff and Dacus’ vocals. The track was recorded during the sessions for her recent album Home Video, a time capsule of the songwriter’s upbringing in Richmond, Virginia. “Kissing Lessons” follows Dacus’ “Thumbs Again,” a full-band version...

The 2022 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nominees have been announced, and country music icon Dolly Parton is among the artists who are under consideration for induction into rock music's most venerated institution.Parton appears on a slate of 17 newly announced nominees the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame unveiled in a press release on Wednesday morning (Feb. 2). The 2022 nominees run the musical gamut, including Beck, Pat Benatar, Kate Bush, Devo, Duran Duran, Eminem, Eurythmics, Judas Priest, Fela Kuti, MC5, New York Dolls, Rage Against the Machine,...

In the first of several such scenes in MJ, the new Broadway musical about one of the pop’s most explosive and, now, polarizing figures, a fictional MTV reporter tries to get Michael Jackson to open up. Jackson, played by Myles Frost down to the trademark billowy white shirt, curly ponytail, and feathery voice, demurs: “I want to keep this about music.” To which the reporter responds, “Is it possible to separate your life from your music?” Returning to the topic later in the show, Jackson also tells her, “Listen to my...

Negro spirituals sung by enslaved African-Americans are categorized as the oldest American folk songs. Thus, because country music is a descendant of blues and folk music, the Black musical tradition in the genre extends to the 17th century, well before the genre’s established 1920s roots.The inspirational fiber of country music was expertly refined and developed by, and then passed down from, men and women who were the sons and daughters of slaves and sharecroppers to their generations of Black descendants, who still tend and grow the legacy of these profound...