My Chemical Romance's Catalog Continues To Soar, Despite A Lack Of New Music
My Chemical Romance's 'Helena' is now certified four-times platinum by the RIAA, joining a short ... More list of the band's most successful songs in the U.S. MILAN, ITALY - NOVEMBER 21: My Chemical Romance posed backstage in Milan on November 21 2006. L-R Ray Toro, Frank Iero,Gerard Way, Mikey Way, Bob Bryar (Photo by Mick Hutson/Redferns)
My Chemical Romance hasn't shared a full-length album in almost a decade and a half, but fans are clearly still devouring its discography. The band's anthems — both the major hits and the deeper cuts — continue to rack up streams and sales throughout the U.S., and all that attention has earned the group a new collection of RIAA certifications. These latest wins show that even during an extended hiatus, the staple of the emo movement is still relevant to what must be a large number of listeners.
The biggest new certification scored by My Chemical Romance belongs to "Helena." The single, which helped catapult the band to fame, has quietly been racking up plays and sales – but likely largely streams – even though its last certification was snagged way back in 2008. At that point, it was named a gold hit for moving 500,000 equivalent units. This time around, it leaps all the way to four-times-platinum status, which means it has now shifted four million units in the U.S. alone.
That's not the only win for the group this time around. Another massive single, "I'm Not Okay (I Promise)," also earns new love from the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America). The cut was previously certified platinum in 2017, and it has now reached triple-platinum territory.
While the band's most recognizable singles are being upgraded, other beloved tracks reach the RIAA's radar for the first time. "The Ghost of You" jumps straight to platinum, bypassing the usual gold milestone. At the same time, two more tunes, "Thank You for the Venom" and "You Know What They Do to Guys Like Us in Prison,' have both finally been certified gold.
With its latest award, "Helena" is now tied as My Chemical Romance's second-most-certified track in the U.S. It matches the total earned by "Teenagers," another fan favorite that has also moved four million units. Sitting above them all is "Welcome to the Black Parade," which has already established its five-times-platinum status.
Just behind that trio are a pair of platinum-certified smashes: "I'm Not Okay (I Promise)" and now "The Ghost of You." Altogether, the band has seven songs that have at least gone gold.
These latest RIAA awards show that My Chemical Romance's music is still being consumed in large numbers, even without much new material to promote. The band hasn't released a proper studio album since 2010's Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys, though a handful of standalone songs and compilations have trickled out since then.
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Los Angeles Times
9 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
Turnstile's Brendan Yates on what the hardcore band's new album might be about
Brendan Yates says he's learned innumerable things fronting his band Turnstile over the last decade and a half, not the least of which is that an ambitious musician needn't move to Los Angeles or New York to make it. 'There's nothing we haven't been able to figure out living in Baltimore,' Yates says, and Turnstile's success suggests he's right: In 2021, the band — which spent the 2010s steadily rising through the East Coast hardcore scene — scored three Grammy nominations with its breakout album, 'Glow On,' a set of fervent yet luscious punk jams laced with bits of funk, dream-pop and electronic dance music. The next year, Turnstile toured arenas as an opening act for My Chemical Romance then did the same for Blink-182. At April's Coachella festival, Charli XCX ended her main-stage performance with a video message predicting a 'Turnstile Summer.' 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Yates, 35, discussed the album over coffee last month in Silver Lake, a few days after Turnstile played a rowdy gig at L.A.'s Ukrainian Culture Center that featured an endless succession of stage-diving fans. Who did the cooking while you were recording in the house? We had a couple friends come in and cook meals. And we kept the fridge stocked. 'What are we gonna eat?' — you can lose hours out of every day to that. What's the advantage of making a record the way you did? You can kind of break away from normal life for a little bit and just exist in the music. You're not going to the studio but thinking, 'I've got to go to the grocery store later.' You wake up, have your little peaceful time in the morning before you get started, then just go right into the living room. We didn't really need to leave the house for weeks at a time. In a recent New York Times profile, the writer referred to you as Turnstile's 'workaholic frontman.' A fair characterization? I wouldn't describe myself that way, but I understand the sentiment. I'm in a band with people I grew up with — my closest friends — and we're really passionate about what we're doing. I give myself to it, but it never feels like work. When I was younger, I always separated music and real life. I thought of music as the thing that I love and real life as going to school and hating it. Even when I went to university, I was like, I'm not gonna do music. You wanted to protect music from the strictures of school. I guess so. I was doing these majors that I had no interest in. I started with kinesiology until I realized I suck at science and math. I switched to criminal justice, then I was like, 'Wait, what am I doing?' Honestly, I think I was just looking for whatever major I could mentally check out on the most to make more space for music. Did you graduate? I left early because I wasn't interested and I wasn't doing well, and I got the opportunity to tour with this band that I played drums in. Eventually, years later, I went back and got a communications degree online. Why? I ask myself the same question all the time. One thing is, I'd started and I wanted to finish it. I probably wouldn't have gone if it wasn't for remote schooling. I never went back into the classroom — I was in the back of the van writing essays. Does 35 feel old in hardcore years? It would have seemed ancient to me as a 16-year-old. Never in my wildest dreams would I think at 35 that I'd be doing the same things I was hyped on doing when I was in high school. But I feel like age is a bit of an illusion. When you're 12, you're like, 'I'm definitely gonna be married by 18 and have my first kid at 19.' Certain aspects of aging are less illusory, right? Physical sturdiness, for example. How does that compare to 10 years ago? I remember playing shows 10 years ago, and I had two knee braces on. At that time, I was just like, 'This is what it is — here on out, this is what my knees are doing.' You're saying in fact you're sturdier now. What I figured out — look, I'm not a singer. Earlier on in playing shows, I'd throw the mic down and just jump into the crowd, mostly because of nerves and adrenaline. Feels important to say that you're definitely a singer. I sing, but I wouldn't call myself a singer. I've never done vocal lessons. Even forming the band, at that time everyone was like, 'OK, we've got this band, but we should start one where you're on the drums.' This band was literally: 'Let's do one on the side where I'm singing and you should get on guitar. Franz, you've never played bass, but you should play bass in this one.' Then you wake up 10 years later and — oh, shoot — this is the one we've put a lot into. For every fan of Turnstile, you've got someone accusing you of ruining hardcore. Ever hear a critique that actually stung? I have no interest in having any dialogue about anyone's opinion about anything that I'm doing. I appreciate the definitiveness of that. It just doesn't matter. Whose praise has been especially meaningful? There's a great viral TikTok of James Hetfield and Rob Halford digging your set at some festival. We've had so many cool moments like that — just like, 'How is this real?' Obviously, getting to meet your childhood heroes is huge. But then there's also the people you build relationships with and end up in the studio together — Dev or our friend Mary Jane Dunphe. You realize: These are actually my favorite people making music right now. Notwithstanding your view on the opinions of others, what's a moment on this album that feels creatively risky? In the first single ['Never Enough'], after the band drops out, there's like two minutes of just this synth chord. There was very much a conversation: 'Is this too long? Should we shorten it?' And I'm sure there's plenty of people where it might just be white noise to them — like, 'Skip — I don't need this.' But I feel like with this album there's this intention to force yourself to sit with the chaotic moments and then sit with the very still moments and kind of have that relationship going back and forth. I think those moments of stillness are very connected to the film — you'll kind of see how it all works together and why those moments are necessary. Our dream scenario would be that people's first time hearing the album, they're watching it with the film. Someone says to you, 'I didn't really get the album until I saw the film' — that's OK by you? I would love that. Who opened the door to the idea that you could make a movie? The last album, we did a four-song EP ['Turnstile Love Connection'] that came with a video. I'd called my friend Ian [Hurdle], who's the DP, and I was like, 'Hey, I have an idea: We do this video, and it does all this and it's about 10 or 11 minutes with these four songs.' I told him the whole idea, and then I asked him, 'So who should we get to direct it?' He goes, 'It sounds like you're directing it.' I was like, 'I guess you're right.' I mean, I'm not a director. You've now called yourself not a singer and not a director. On paper, I don't have any experience. The only thing I have experience in is really being excited about trying to make something work. But that video was a huge learning experience — the idea of, like, OK, this is possible. There's a rainbow color pattern that recurs throughout the new album's videos. You're using it as a live backdrop too. What's it mean? There's a lot in the album that maybe ties into those colors. The record cover itself is a double rainbow. We were in Paris playing shows like a year and a half ago. 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What's always fascinated me about the ocean is its power and how small I felt in that moment as I was passing out. And I truly did pass out — saw the white light and everything. Just how fast that could happen and how small I could feel put things into perspective in a different way. OK, few more for you: One thing you guys have sort of crept up to but not quite done yet is a full-on ballad. The final song on the new record ['Magic Man'] is literally just me and a Juno [synthesizer] in my room. In some ways it's uncomfortable, but simultaneously it felt like it needed to happen. I needed to sing that. You don't drink. Does that have to do with your upbringing? Is it connected to a hardcore or straight-edge ideology? Maybe experience seeing things when you're younger that can lead you in a different way? But, I mean, getting into hardcore, finding out about straight-edge and stuff — I felt a little more comfortable in my own skin, not needing to drink. I like to make sure it's never from a place of being stubborn, where I'm just like, 'I don't drink because I made up this idea in my head that I'm not going to drink.' I don't think that's a good way to be about anything in life. If you were starting the band now, would you still put your website at Probably. At the time, was taken. I feel like that was such a cool time, where every band's MySpace or Twitter, it was the band's name plus 'HC.' That was such a time stamp. But yeah — hardcore music is what we all grew up in. It was like the funnel for us to find ourselves through a music scene and a culture and a community. What feels outside the window of possibility for Turnstile? 'We'll never write a country song,' or 'We'll never play a cruise.' We've done so many things that were outside our comfort zone. We did some arena shows, and that was such a cool learning experience — how to connect to someone who's 100 yards away, sitting down in a chair, versus a kid that's onstage with you. That show in L.A. the other night was like the ideal for us, where the stage is low and it's this intimate room. But then I had so many close friends who couldn't get in. You could see the show as Turnstile keeping it real or as Turnstile indulging itself. In a way, it made us inaccessible. I look forward to the Turnstile Cruise in 2028. It's been offered. It's never made sense. My first question is: What does the show feel like? Is it more about people going on a boat just to day-drink and throw up while we're playing? Or can you figure out a way to make it an actual thing? I don't know — it's not off the table. But I've never been on a cruise in my life. You've accurately sussed the vibe. I've seen the pictures.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
Pusha T Addresses Drake's UMG Lawsuit Over Kendrick Lamar's 'Not Like Us'
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Yahoo
3 days ago
- Yahoo
Jason Aldean Recording New Song With Former Duet Partner
Jason Aldean Recording New Song With Former Duet Partner originally appeared on Parade. Country superstar Jason Aldean was on Taste of Country's show on Friday, May 30, where he talked about his latest album, which he has been working on for the past six to eight months. He said that there will be at least two duets on the album, and while he played coy as to the exact duet partners, one thing he said has us screaming about it potentially being a reunion with or . Aldean and Clarkson made a splash in 2010 with "Don't You Wanna Stay," which was certified 2x Platinum by the RIAA and hit No. 1 on the U.S. Country Chart and U.S. Hot Country Chart, plus it got to No. 31 on the Billboard Hot 100. Then a decade later, Aldean and Underwood released "If I Didn't Love You," which hit No. 1 on the U.S. Country Chart, No. 2 on the U.S. Hot Country Chart, No. 15 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was certified 1x Platinum by the naturally, when he says he's teaming up with a former duet partner for another song, we are very excited that it could be either American Idol winner. Aldean told Taste of Country that he's going to have at least two and possibly more duets on his new album and when pressed for who the duets are with, he wouldn't say, but when asked if it's someone he has done a duet with before, he confirmed that one of them is. "Uhhh, one is and the other is not. The other's not. Gotta save a little bit [of mystery]," teased Aldean. 🎬 SIGN UP for Parade's Daily newsletter to get the latest pop culture news & celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox 🎬 Now, if it's not Clarkson or Underwood, it could be a lot of people because Aldean has sung with a lot of other artists over the years, including Eric Church, Luke Bryan, Tyler Farr, Miranda Lambert, Ludacris, Darius Rucker, Charles Kelley, Brantley Gilbert and Florida Georgia Line. So there are a lot of possibilities. But we're crossing our fingers for Clarkson because their duet was straight fire. As to the rest of the album, Aldean had this to say, "We've been in the studio a lot, man. Probably the last eight months or so, six or eight months, we've been in the studio a lot. Basically, pretty much done with the album, at least my part, still gotta mix and master and all those kind of things. It's gonna be a cool project. Lotta songs. Couple duets in there too, so it's gonna be pretty cool."He went on to say that a couple of the songs are duets but they haven't actually found the duet partner yet, saying, "[All the duets are] gonna make it [on the album], there's a couple songs that I know are gonna be duets and then there's a couple, one maybe two, that we still kind of haven't found our partner for that yet, but it's gonna go in that lane too, so." Jason Aldean Recording New Song With Former Duet Partner first appeared on Parade on May 30, 2025 This story was originally reported by Parade on May 30, 2025, where it first appeared.
