Music

In hindsight, Blake Shelton was an unlikely choice for one of four high-profile coaching jobs on NBC's The Voice. Ten years later, however, he's the face of the show, to the point that it's impossible to imagine the reality show continuing without him. How did that happen?In 2011, Shelton was a rising star with potential, but his commercial success was far short of historic. Musically, he was hit and miss over the first decade of his career. No. 1 hits like "Austin" and "Some Beach" were separated by songs that barely...

The Weeknd dominated the 2021 Billboard Music Awards Sunday, May 23rd, winning the most awards and delivering a wholly unique performance of his latest single, “Save Your Tears.” The pop star took home 10 trophies total, including Top Artist. For his performance of “Save Your Tears,” the Weeknd delivered the song while perched on the top seat of a cherry red convertible as a cavalcade of cars drove behind him, swerving about in unison. By the end of the performance, the Weeknd was standing in the middle of a giant...

Luke Bryan briefly swapped his judge's chair for a spot on the stage -- and his country twang for glam rock -- during the American Idol finale on Sunday night (May 23), inviting recently-eliminated contestant Casey Bishop back to the stage for a duet performance of Bon Jovi's "Livin' on a Prayer."The 15-year-old Florida native was a standout Idol hopeful throughout her time on the show, delivering hard-rocking performances of songs like "House of the Rising Sun" and covers of The Black Crowes, Incubus, Paramore and Alanis Morisette. Bishop was eliminated right before the finale...

The Smile — the Radiohead side project featuring Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood alongside drummer Tom Skinner — made their debut Saturday during Glastonbury’s Live at Worthy Farm livestream, with the trio performing a set boasting a handful of new songs as well as revisiting an unreleased Radiohead rarity. The band opened their first-ever gig — played within a giant tent on the Glastonbury site — with “Skating on the Surface,” an updated take on Radiohead’s “Skirting on the Surface,” a thrice-played relic from The King of Limbs tour that...

Garth Brooks turned to social media on Saturday (May 22) to share his excitement after receiving the Kennedy Center Honors.The country superstar was one of the handful of artists who received the honors in 2021, alongside comic actor Dick Van Dyke, dancer, artist and choreographer Debbie Allen, singer-songwriter Joan Baez and violinist Midori. The recipients were honored on Friday night (May 21) at a medallion ceremony that had been delayed from December 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.The medallion ceremony traditionally takes place at the State Department, but the Associated Press...

MadGic, a collaboration between Logic and the producer Madlib, have released their second single “Raddest Dad.” The new track follows “Mars Only Pt. 3,” a surprise release in April given the Logic’s “retirement.” The artwork for “Raddest Dad” features Logic and his son on the cover, with the rapper proclaiming at the song’s end, “When you grow up in the hood without a male role model / And your momma turn to the bottle / Give a damn about status, who the baddest / I just wanna be the raddest...

Forty years ago today, on May 23, 1981, Rosanne Cash earned her first No. 1 single with "Seven Year Ache." The song, written by Cash, was the title track of and debut single from her third studio album.At the time, Cash was married to Rodney Crowell, who produced the Seven Year Ache album. With poignant lines such as, "Everybody's talking, but you don't hear a thing / You're still uptown on your downhill swing / Boulevard's empty, why don't you come around? / Baby, what is so great about sleeping...

Just days after teenage punk band the Linda Lindas went viral with a performance inside the Los Angeles Public Library, the group has inked a deal with Epitaph Records, Variety reports. While Epitaph has not yet announced the signing, the Linda Lindas’ library rendition of new song “Racist, Sexist Boy” was uploaded onto the label’s YouTube. A label rep confirmed the signing to Variety, who noted that the father of Linda Lindas’ member Mila is producer-engineer Carlos de la Garza, who has worked with bands like Paramore, Best Coast and...

American Idol finalist Willie Spence recently celebrated Mother’s Day by delivering a stunning performance of the Joe Cocker classic, “You Are So Beautiful.” And before the powerful song was through, both Spence and his dear mother watching from home were in tears.But they weren’t the only ones.“I couldn’t stop crying,” American Idol’s music director, Kristopher Pooley, admits during a recent interview with Taste of Country. “The fact is that we are experiencing these performances much the same way as the people at home are, and sometimes that gets pretty embarrassing...

Fresh off Foo Fighters’ Rock Hall induction announcement, Dave Grohl will serve as co-host on the Monday, May 24th episode of The Tonight Show, Jimmy Fallon revealed on Friday’s episode. Together, Grohl and Fallon will deliver the monologue, interview guests — scheduled to be comedian Jim Jefferies with musical guest Blake Shelton — and participate in all the games the Tonight Show has planned. Monday’s appearance marks Grohl’s fourth visit to The Tonight Show and first time co-hosting. However, the Foo Fighters frontman does have some late-night hosting experience: Grohl...

Morgan Wallen is "back" on his record label's website and he was "back" at Kid Rock's Big-A-- Honky-Tonk Rock 'n' Roll Steakhouse on Wednesday night (May 19). After three and a half months, is the singer slowly stepping "back" into the spotlight?Whatever the answer, he won't be "back" in major categories on the 2021 CMA Awards ballot. The Country Music Association announced on Friday (May 21), per Billboard, that Wallen's music will be eligible for the November awards show — so as not to punish his collaborators -- but Wallen himself won't be...

For over a decade, J. Cole has rapped as the enlightened everyman, navigating issues of race, class, and gender like a thoughtful jock. His latest release, The Off-Season, finds him pondering inventive gun violence prevention measures one moment, and lobbing sexist locker-room insults the next (“Check your genitalia, pussy-niggas bleedin’ on yourself,” he raps on “95.South”). Still, the album is generally absent the overt social critiques that have built his reputation as a rapper of substance.  Last summer, on “Snow on tha Bluff,” his last lengthy engagement with ideas of...

On May 22, 2012, Pistol Annies singer and solo artist-on-the-rise Angaleena Presley married Jordan Powell, whom fans might recognize from his work as a producer on American Middle Class, Presley’s blockbuster 2014 album. The two wed in a private ceremony in Jackson Hole, Wyo., after getting engaged in 2011.It’s unclear exactly how Powell and Presley met, though no doubt, fate intervened at some point when Powell was serving as Miranda Lambert’s tour manager. It was long rumored that a feud between Presley and Lambert, a fellow Pistol Annies member, was behind the trio's hiatus; in a 2014 interview with...

In the first few seconds of her debut album, Sour, Olivia Rodrigo declares, “I want it to be, like, messy!” That shouldn’t be too difficult for a pop star who emerged seemingly out of nowhere in January, a Disney actress whose hit “Drivers License” ignited widespread interest in a love triangle between her High School Musical: The Musical: The Series co-stars. Rodrigo belted extremely relatable, heart-wrenching lines about doing something you were supposed to do with your partner but are now doing alone — and it gave us a glimpse...