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Los Angeles Times
6 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
All 43 of Billy Joel's Hot 100 hits, ranked from worst to best
If a musician's legacy can be judged by which of his peers are willing to show up and sing his praises in a documentary about him, consider Billy Joel's in good standing: Among the A-listers in HBO's new two-part 'And So It Goes' are Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, Garth Brooks, Pink, Sting, Jackson Browne and Nas. Directed by Susan Lacy and Jessica Levin, the doc goes over Joel's life and career at a moment when he's received just about every award a pop musician can receive, including the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, the Kennedy Center Honors, induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame and five Grammy Awards on 23 nominations. Less happily, it also comes as Joel has been forced from the concert stage after being diagnosed this year with a brain disorder called normal pressure hydrocephalus. Yet the 76-year-old singer and songwriter remains a much-talked-about pop-culture fixture, not least on TikTok, where his oldie 'Zanzibar' never seems far from cropping up on one's scroll. Ahead of Friday's premiere of the HBO documentary's second installment, I've ranked all 43 of Joel's singles that have charted on Billboard's Hot 100, starting with the worst and ending with the best. (Due to Joel's choices and/or Billboard's methodology, that means that some of his best-known tunes aren't here: 'Scenes From an Italian Restaurant,' for instance, and 'New York State of Mind.') Feel free as you read to open a bottle of white, a bottle of red — or, perhaps, a bottle of rosé instead. In the middle of the night … I'm still haunted by this mawkish pileup of gospel signifiers. This widely interpreted ballad about a lover's steadfast devotion only works when it's sung extremely well (as in the case of Adele) or when it's sung extremely terribly (as with Bob Dylan, who wrote it). Joel's take lands somewhere in between, which means he just sounds like somebody's drunk uncle. For decades after 1993's 'River of Dreams' — still his most recent pop album — Joel insisted he'd run out of things to say as a songwriter. 'You need inspiration to create good new music,' he told me in 2023, 'and if you don't have it, don't bother.' Inexplicably, he found a spark in an unfinished tune presented to him by a younger musician named Freddy Wexler; together, the two completed this would-be OneRepublic song, which Joel premiered live at the Grammy Awards last year. 'Turn the Lights Back On' spent a single week on the Hot 100 before dropping off the chart — the shortest stay of any of Joel's hits. No surprise that a guy long characterized as a mere imitation artist would nail Elvis Presley's vocal delivery in a cover recorded for the soundtrack of 'Honeymoon in Vegas.' Turgid midtempo rock with a lyric that defines soul rather pitifully as 'knowing what someone is feeling.' Features backing vocals by the sex-you-uppers of Color Me Badd. Six months after 'Piano Man' put him on the map, Joel was already straining against the brutal market economics of pop stardom: 'If I go cold, I won't get sold / I'll get put in the back in the discount rack, like another can of beans.' Yet his kvetching about the creative constraints of the pop song are pretty rich coming from a master of the form. Perhaps his most strained vocal performance. In the watery pantheon of rock songs about boats, this maudlin fisherman's lament ranks well behind 'Sailing' and 'Southern Cross' (to say nothing of 'Proud Mary' and 'Sloop John B'). The right idea; the wrong execution. From the weirdly stacked soundtrack of 'Ruthless People,' which also featured Mick Jagger, Bruce Springsteen and Luther Vandross. Very stiff singing atop a very funky groove. Are those steel drums I hear? 'It's almost like a dying man singing to his child,' Joel told his biographer Fred Schruers, which may or may not have been the approach his then-9-year-old daughter Alexa was hoping her dad would take. Still, the elegant harmonic movement demonstrates his lifelong devotion to classical music; seven years later, he'd make his debut as a composer with the solo-piano 'Fantasies & Delusions.' Among those who've sung 'Lullabye' since Joel introduced it: Celine Dion, Rufus Wainwright — and John Stamos. One surely gratifying endorsement for this banjo-driven country shuffle: In 1999, Dolly Parton cut a version of 'Travelin' Prayer' to open the first volume in her acclaimed trilogy of bluegrass albums. Having split with producer Phil Ramone after 1986's 'The Bridge' LP, Joel hired Mick Jones of Foreigner to oversee his next album, 'Storm Front,' which opened with this delightfully trashy ode to a woman with little interest in mink coats or satin sheets. (Call it 'Downtown Girl.') Jones' production, with its stabbing synths and boxy drums, echoes the steroidal rock of Robert Palmer's 'Addicted to Love.' Wrote Robert Christgau of Joel in the Village Voice: 'Even in arena mode he's a force of nature and bad taste.' An OK song ranked this high only because it so strongly evokes a perfect one (in this case, 'Wedding Bell Blues' by the 5th Dimension). Consider that this jittery New Wave rocker about the pros and cons of phone sex arrived on an album ('Glass Houses') that also featured 'I Don't Want to Be Alone' and 'Sleeping With the Television On.' Imagine if he'd had Tinder. Possibly the purest distillation of Joel's romantic pessimism — 'Some love is just a lie of the soul / A constant battle for the ultimate state of control' — with the twist that he's assuring a lover that everything that always happens won't happen to them. (It happened to them.) A slow-rolling R&B ditty where the object of the dude's affection isn't a woman but a piano (except it's actually Ray Charles, who shows up to duet with his eager admirer). One of two new tracks added as consumer bait to Joel's 23-times-platinum 'Greatest Hits — Volume I & Volume II,' this deeply spooked synth-rock joint might be the strangest entry on this list: horny-frustrated lyrics, no real melody, just straight burnt-to-a-crisp Willy Loman vibes for 5½ meandering minutes. It's great! (It's also, as of this writing, the second-least-streamed of these 43 tracks on Spotify, with fewer than 2 million plays.) The peppiest single Joel ever made might get even closer to Motown's classic Holland-Dozier-Holland sound than Phil Collins did a year earlier in his punctilious remake of the Supremes' 'You Can't Hurry Love.' Yet 'Tell Her About It' has no fan in its creator, who said in Schruers' biography that the song is 'a little too bubblegum' — one reason Joel appears not to have played it in concert since the early 1990s. For this nearly a cappella doo-wop number, Joel sang every vocal part himself when a group he and Ramone had brought into the studio couldn't stay in tune. Four years after 'The Longest Time' charted, Bobby McFerrin topped the Hot 100 with the instrument-less 'Don't Worry, Be Happy'; three years after that, Boyz II Men got to No. 2 with the a cappella 'It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday.' Billy at his breeziest. With half a dozen Top 30 singles, including this homage to the Drifters, 'An Innocent Man' became Joel's fourth consecutive LP to be nominated for album of the year at the Grammys. (He lost, reasonably, to 'Thriller.') The title track is a showcase of vocal flexibility as he moves nimbly from a croon to a belt to a falsetto. Rooted, as he told Schruers, in 'the realization that Elle Macpherson and I were not meant for the ages,' this tense and brooding song is Joel's finest contribution to the soulful-white-guy rock of the mid-1980s; it belongs up there with Don Henley's 'The Boys of Summer' and Steve Winwood's 'Higher Love,' thanks in no small part to a spidery guitar solo by David Brown (who died last year). When Joel played 'This Is the Time' at New York's Shea Stadium just before the Mets' home was demolished in 2008, he brought out John Mayer to do the solo — an experience you can bet Mayer channeled as he cut 2021's soulful-white-guy 'Sob Rock.' Picture Huey Lewis doing Natalie Cole's 'This Will Be.' A decade after he released the studio version, Joel charted with a concert recording of the lead single from his 1971 debut — the LP notoriously mastered at the wrong speed so that his voice sounded higher and squeakier than it really was. Here, onstage at the Paradise club in Boston, his singing has a courtly charm that makes 'She's Got a Way' feel like Joel's version of Paul McCartney's 'Maybe I'm Amazed.' Joel's most Dylanesque lyric, meanwhile, comes across as his version of 'Just Like a Woman.' An unsparing ballad about how nobody tells the truth anymore, 'Honesty' earned a song of the year nod at the Grammys but lost to the Doobie Brothers' 'What a Fool Believes,' which is narrated by a guy who can't accept the truth he's being told. Covered later — and quite convincingly — by Beyoncé. Written as Joel returned to New York following his early-'70s sojourn in Los Angeles, this Ronettes-inspired confection first appeared on the 'Turnstiles' LP in 1976. But 'Say Goodbye to Hollywood' didn't blow up until five years later, when he put a slightly rowdier live rendition on 1981's 'Songs in the Attic' LP — by which time Ronnie Spector herself had taken a crack at the song with help from Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band. A febrile Cold War freak-out with a hideous, Cronenberg-lite music video. Joel told Schruers he could envision his survivors playing this very pretty ballad at his funeral, which is certainly one place for a song about the inevitability of pain. Was 'Glass Houses' truly Joel's punk album? Take it from no less an authority than the Chipmunks, who performed the LP's driving opener on 1980's 'Chipmunk Punk.' To my ears, 'You May Be Right' sits at the precise midpoint between the Beatles and the Rolling Stones — a testament to Joel's absorptive powers and his stylistic aim. 'You can speak your mind but not on my time' probably isn't the sickest burn in Joel's catalog. But enlisting Peter Cetera to trill sweetly behind him as he sneers is A+ record-making. Mr. New York's signature song documents the six months he spent entertaining the patrons — the real estate novelist, Davy in the Navy, the old man sipping tonic and gin — of L.A.'s long-shuttered Executive Room near the corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Western Avenue. (His handsome pay, as he told me in 2017: 'I got tips and made union scale.') Joel's first single to chart on the Hot 100, 'Piano Man' can be hard to hear today as a work of detailed storytelling; that's what half a century of sloppy sing-alongs will do to a narrative. But then, of course, Joel has no one to blame for that but himself. Tell me you're not a wimp without telling me you're not a wimp. 'I'm probably the most proud of that album as a sonic work of art,' Joel says in the HBO doc of 'The Nylon Curtain,' on which he and Ramone deployed the whoosh and crunch of a steel mill to juice the beat of this Rust Belt threnody. Yet 'Allentown' also poses a pretty sophisticated critique of the social and political forces converging on a generation of Americans promised prosperity only to find a flag thrown in their face. With its head on fire and its eyes too bloody to see, 'Big Shot' imagines a morning-after quarrel between Mick and Bianca Jagger, Joel told Howard Stern, amid the excesses of what he described with disgust in Schruers' book as the 'coked-out, disco-drenched New York club scene' of the Studio 54 era. 'I shouldn't put it down, because I don't really know much about it,' he added. OK, Bill. Joel's most-streamed song on Spotify (with more than 1.2 billion plays) is an ouroboros of simpler-times nostalgia: a pitch-perfect Four Seasons rip that looks back at the early '60s from the early '80s — then became the longed-for totem at the heart of Olivia Rodrigo's 'Deja Vu.' 'It's the only song where I wrote the words first,' Joel said in 2017, 'which it sounds like, because the music sucks.' Demonstrably untrue — those timbales! Even if he were right, though, the rapid-fire historical roll call of 'We Didn't Start the Fire' deserves our respect as a crucial artifact of a pre-internet America. Your Wikipedia could never. The guy's asking for a lot: do this, don't do that; amuse me but not too much; listen to what I say instead of what I do (although sometimes I'll forget to say it too). But then there's that gently insistent groove and that pillowy electric piano. And that singing! Showy but intimate, talky yet supple, it's murmuring assurances to rebut the very doubts he's raising. Joel's first No. 1 offered him early proof that sometimes haters win. Think about the way Joel starts this song: 'Come out, Virginia, don't let me wait / You Catholic girls start much too late / But sooner or later it comes down to fate / I might as well be the one.' Two opposing worldviews colliding in four little lines against music trembling with the shared sense of anticipation that unites both the narrator and Virginia. Pop gets no richer. What other Billy Joel song could top a list of Billy Joel songs? 'Movin' Out' wants us to believe that success is for suckers, which is somehow a credo he's continued to sell — and we've continued to buy — through his ascent to the uppermost reaches of pop culture. These days Joel isn't Anthony or Mama Leone or even Mr. Cacciatore — he's the big shot who owns the medical center, not to mention whatever else is available on Sullivan Street. Yet his glorious bridge-and-tunnel music — proud, wounded, defensive, ambitious — keeps asking: Is this all I get for my money?
News18
a day ago
- Entertainment
- News18
BLACKPINK Becomes First Female K-Pop Group To Score 10 Entries On Hot 100
Last Updated: Within just days of its release, BLACKPINK's new single JUMP has already broken many records. BLACKPINK did it again! The four-membered girl group, comprising Jisoo, Jennie, Lisa and Rose, is taking over the charts with their latest single, JUMP. The song is their first release in nearly three years, since the release of their Born Pink album in 2022. Within just days of its release, it has already broken many records. According to a report by Soompi, BLACKPINK's digital single JUMP just debuted at No. 1 position on both Billboard's Global 200 and Global Excl. U.S. charts in the week ending on July 26. This marks the K-pop group's third No.1 song on the Global 200 chart after their previous hits Pink Venom and Shut Down. JUMP is also their fourth track to peak on the Global Excl. U.S. chart, following Lovesick Girls, Pink Venom and Shut Down. BLACKPINK's JUMP Streamed Over 123 Million Times According to Luminate, formerly known as Nielsen Music, JUMP managed to pull in a massive 123 million streams and 14,000 sales worldwide in the week ending July 17. The song, which BLACKPINK debuted on their first Deadline World Tour concert, made history by becoming the first track in four months to cross 100 million global streams. Previously, Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars' song Die With A Smile was the one to achieve this feat. Besides this, BLACKPINK's JUMP also entered the Billboard Hot 100 chart at the No. 28 position, marking their tenth entry on the weekly chart that ranks the most popular songs in the US. It is also their sixth song to be on the top 40 in the Hot 100 chart. BLACKPINK Is The First Female K-pop Act To Have 10 Entries On Hot 100 Chart This is a huge milestone in their career as they are the first female K-pop act to have 10 entries on the Hot 100 chart. Before JUMP, their other songs which were on the chart are: DDU-DU DDU-DU, peaking at No. 55, Kiss and Make Up, their collab with Dua Lipa was at No. 93, Kill This Love at No. 41, Sour Candy, their collab with Lady Gaga peaked at No. 33, How You Like That, also peaked at No. 33, Ice Cream with Selena Gomez was at No. 13, Lovesick Girls at No. 59, Pink Venom at No. 22, and Shut Down at No. 25. And if you think that was all, let us tell you that BLACKPINK re-entered Billboard's Artist 100 at No. 65 this week. This was their 33rd week on the chart. First Published: July 23, 2025, 10:41 IST Disclaimer: Comments reflect users' views, not News18's. Please keep discussions respectful and constructive. Abusive, defamatory, or illegal comments will be removed. News18 may disable any comment at its discretion. By posting, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Did the Surprise-Release Strategy Work for Justin Bieber's ‘Swag' Based on Its First-Week Returns?
It was a quiet start to the summer in pop music, but it's been a lot louder recently — with perhaps the most noise being generated by superstar Justin Bieber's release of a new album with just 10 hours' notice. Swag, Bieber's first LP since 2021's Justice, dropped at midnight on July 11 after having been announced earlier that afternoon. The 21-track set features another sonic left turn for The Bieb, eschewing the widescreen pop sound of his Justice LP in favor of a softer, more intimate alt-R&B, inspired by collaborators like Dijon, Eddie Benjamin and Carter Lang. The album bows at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, with 163,000 first-week units (according to Luminate), while launching 16 tracks onto this week's Billboard Hot 100, led by the No. 2-bowing focus track 'Daisies.' More from Billboard Stevie Wonder Says He'll Never Give Up Performing: 'You Don't Have to Retire' Nick Cave Reflects on Lessons of Grief on Anniversary of Son's Passing Megyn Kelly Slams Steamy Jennifer Lopez Concert Clip: 'So She's a Soft Porn Star Now' How should Bieber feel about the album's debut performance? And does it show the surprise-release strategy to be a smart one for him? Billboard staffers discuss these questions and more below. 1. Bieber's debuts at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 with 163,000 first-week units (behind Jackboys & Travis Scott's best-selling set), while its lead single 'Daisies' bows at No. 2 on the Hot 100 (behind Alex Warren's 'Ordinary' in its seventh week on top), as 15 other tracks from the set also enter the chart. On a scale from 1-10, how good do you think Bieber and his team should be feeling about that first-week performance? Katie Atkinson: Considering the whole world didn't know the album existed until the day before — and there was no physical release, music videos or promotional appearances — I'm going to go with a 9. These are big week-one numbers based almost entirely on streaming, and it's Bieber's biggest streaming week ever. Not to mention, if Swag came out one week earlier, it would have been No. 1 (as Morgan Wallen's I'm the Problem spent its eighth week atop the chart with 151,000 equivalent album units). It isn't No. 1, but it's a win. Katie Bain: I'm sure there's a twinge of disappointment as the reasonable expectation for a project of this magnitude is No. 1 debuts across the board. However, the competition is stiff right now, so I'm sure the general vibe is like, 8-ish, and the idea now is to pull the necessary levers to keep climbing. Stephen Daw: A hearty, solid 9. Had it been double No. 1 debuts and the dethroning of 'Ordinary,' this would be a strong 10, but moving over 150,000 units and charting more than half the album's songs on the Hot 100 is still a massive reason for celebration. Kyle Denis: A solid 8. Considering this is a surprise release that had a limited number of formats and a sound that strayed from the chart-topping pop of Justice and Purpose, Swag pulled off a strong showing. Over 75% of the album landed on the Hot 100, and the LP gifted Bieber the biggest streaming week of his career. No. 1s are nice to have, yes, but it's not like he's starving for them on either the Hot 100 or Billboard 200. Andrew Unterberger: An 8 seems right. Considering how Bieber's sonic detours haven't always been warmly greeted, this getting such a resounding streaming debut and such a major response for its lead single have to be seen as wins — though undoubtedly, Bieb and his team would've loved to see at least one of those No. 2 bows get bumped up a spot. 2. was given a largely surprise release, debuting just 10 hours after its existence was announced. Would you say the first-week response to the set has validated that release strategy, or do you think he would have done better with more build-up? Katie Atkinson: I think the surprise release was effective, but could have been even more potent if his team had been working on a physical release behind the scenes (not unlike the Jackboys 2 rollout, which had the surprise element and a physical release) or if there had been a 'Daisies' music video ready to roll at midnight. Of course, then there would have been way more opportunities for the surprise release to be spoiled. So if Bieber wanted the purest possible surprise, he got it this way… and his best streaming numbers yet. Katie Bain: 2021's Justice got the full court press, superstar artist red carpet album campaign. (Including, fwiw, this cover story I got to write about it.) That all worked about as well as the global team that made it happen hoped it might, with the album debuting at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. That said, I think the sonic right turn of Swag and the general tone of Bieber's public life and persona right now are simply more well-suited to a surprise drop, given that it's effectively a mic drop move that cuts through the considerable noise. The sonic evolution of the album, paired with its release style, gives the sense that regardless of what the messaging has been about Bieber over the last 12 months or so, he's doing things on his own terms. (Here I can't help but think of Beyonce's 2013 self-titled surprise drop, with that out of nowhere release strategy similarly underlining the new direction of that album.) And whether or not Swag could have done better with more build-up seems negligible, as it's doing quite well. Stephen Daw: It's a validation, I think. Take a look at his last album, 2021's Justice, and you'll see that the traditional release pattern worked — Bieber announced that album about a month prior to its release, and the LP earned a No. 1 debut on the Billboard 200 and 154,000 equivalent album units in its first week. While Swag didn't nab that top spot, it did move almost 10,000 more units in its first week with almost no promotion beforehand; the only reason it was boxed out of the top slot of the Billboard 200 was because of another behemoth album bow. Clearly, the prospect of having a new Bieber project available to listen to within mere hours of its announcement paid off in spades. Kyle Denis: I think the sneak-attack strategy was the right move. Between the overt shift in sound, the built-in discourse provided by the Druski skits, and the general lack of an overarching visual aesthetic, too much lead time would have given fans too much opportunity to form conclusions and opinions about Swag before hearing it in its entirety. The only downside is that he couldn't pull to release week armed with a litany of vinyl variants and physical listening formats. Andrew Unterberger: I think it works for this album, because it's clearly not geared for top 40 dominance and it has a sort of spontaneous, of-the-moment feel to it — down to it including skits that address Bieber memes that were still peaking in public awareness the week of its release. There've been reports that he has a more traditionally pop album due in 2026, I'm confident that one will get the full advance push, and also probably be better off for it. 3. Much has been made of the sonic left-turn of the set, with Bieber adopting a more organic, alt-influenced approach to R&B (influenced by collaborators Dijon, Carter Lang, Eddie Benjamin and more). Do you think the transition has been a successful one for Bieber? Katie Atkinson: It's a perfect fit, honestly. And even more so than the sound of those contemporaries, I keep hearing a much earlier inspiration of 'quiet storm' R&B — albeit in a much rawer production. There are so many songs that I feel like are reaching for the sound of Michael Jackson's 'Human Nature' (which is a pretty high bar to reach for). His fans have always clamored for R&Bieber, and this feels like a natural sound for his adult evolution. Katie Bain: Absolutely. To my ears, Swag is the most cohesive and fully formed (read: best) Bieber album yet. Nothing sounds put on or like made-in-a-lab pop music. His collaborators all feel extremely well-suited and bring their own flavor while also helping Bieber make that flavor his own. I feel like he's been working towards this level of authentic artist statement for a while, and with the R&B meets AM radio sound on Swag, he claims it. Stephen Daw: By the numbers, by the audience's reaction, by the reviews and by my own personal taste, I'd say yes, this is definitely a successful pivot for Justin. Sure, there were some songs that didn't quite work as well for me on this album (I could've done without the interstitial skits), but the ones that did work felt like they were really excellent additions to his discography. It also didn't feel forced — Justin has been steadily moving into his R&B lane since Changes, so watching him lean into this slightly more experimental R&B sound felt natural to the progression he's been building over the last half-decade. Kyle Denis: Yes. From Believe deep cuts to Journals, Changes and 'Peaches' — which earned him his first R&B Grammy nod — R&B has always informed Bieber's music. With Swag, this alternative-minded approach feels like a more natural fit than the faceless trap&B he played with on Changes. The Biebs' voice has always shone best, to me, against analog instrumentation, and there's plenty of dry, acoustic guitars for him to play around with on Swag. In fact, the album's music is so solid that it only exposes how unnecessary, and generally unfunny, those Druski skits are. Andrew Unterberger: Sure. Shoulda given it a different title tho. 4. Does 'Daisies' make sense to you as the focus track and best-performing song on the set? What percentage chance would you say it has of eventually dethroning 'Ordinary' on the chart? Katie Atkinson: Yes, and I think if he had put out a visual alongside 'Daisies,' it would have had a real chance to replace 'Ordinary' this week. If radio continues to grow for 'Daisies' and we get a music video (bonus points if his baby Jack Blues appears in the video, as he's been a presence in the promo photos), there's a clear path for Bieber to score his ninth Hot 100 No. 1. Katie Bain: I mean, not really. I think that's why it works? It's not an obvious single and it doesn't sound like a whole like the rest of the album, but it does sound really different from a lot of what's on the charts right now. I think that's hooking people. In terms of it dethroning 'Ordinary' — I don't know, but I do think that that song, while nice, is a sound that's been heard before, so maybe 'Daisies' night overtake it on the power of freshness. Stephen Daw: I wholeheartedly agree with our colleague Lyndsey Havens that 'Daisies' was the immediate standout on Swag. His voice sounds the best it has in years on this track, the accompanying guitar creates a familiar vibe and the track grooves into this natural crescendo that just feels good. Given the right radio push (which is already in the works) and a cool music video, I'd give 'Daisies' a solid 60% chance at dethroning 'Ordinary' in the next few weeks. Kyle Denis: If I think about it… yes, 'Daisies' makes sense. (Though I can't shake the feeling that songs like 'Yukon,' 'Go Baby' and 'Way It Is' may pull ahead in the coming weeks.) I'd say 'Daisies' probably has a 70-80% chance to dethrone 'Ordinary,' it just needs to build up some motion on radio. Andrew Unterberger: There's a number of songs off the set that may have worked, but 'Daisies' certainly feels as appropriate as any of them. I don't know if it has much chance of dethroning 'Ordinary,' though — it'll need a ton of radio support (and/or a majorly viral music video) for that, and I can't say I see that coming for 'Daisies' in the near future, if at all. I'd say 20%. 5. Between Bieber's and Tyler, the Creator's this week, we've seen a return to the surprise-release (or at least quasi-surprise-release) album format that had largely seemed to fall out of vogue with pop's A-list in recent years. Do you see this as a potentially meaningful pivot moment in terms of industry strategy, or is it more just a scheduling fluke? Katie Atkinson: As much as I professionally bristle at a surprise release (journalists like a heads-up), I understand an artist's desire for a shorter ramp into a project – especially artists at the level of Justin and Tyler. Less speculation about what a project will sound like, fewer interviews. It puts the focus almost instantly on the music and not fans' ideas of what the music could or should be. Katie Bain: If I have to guess, two surprise drops happening so close together is probably a fluke. However, I do think two artists of this caliber both going this route right now suggests a broader fatigue with traditional album campaigns, perhaps on the part of both labels and the artists themselves. Not everyone can pull it off, but for artists with the fanbase and name recognition, it seems like an effective way to cut through the noise and sidestep the demands of promoting a new project in a pretty fractured media ecosystem. Stephen Daw: I think it's safe to call this a pivot in industry strategy at this point, and Swag and Don't Tap the Glass are just the latest examples. Kendrick Lamar's GNX was a surprise release, and it's been hovering in the upper echelons of the chart for the last 33 weeks. Even A-list albums that are traditionally announced and then released are seeing shorter and shorter promotional windows, and it keeps paying off for big artists wanting to capitalize on novelty in a news cycle that's grown increasingly fast-paced over the last decade. Don't be surprised when we start seeing more and more 'world stop' moments from big-name artists in the coming years. Kyle Denis: I think it's a meaningful pivot in terms of artists — at least those who can afford to — releasing off-cycle more often. New Music Fridays only get more crowded with each passing week, so dropping albums midweek à la Tyler or Jackboys allows artists to get an entire day's worth of attention and conversation to themselves as opposed to fighting 1,000 acts for a sliver of the public's eyes and ears. I think we'll also continue to see surprise-esque releases for pop A-listers trying on notably different sounds, like Drake surprise-dropping his dance album (2022's Honestly Nevermind) a few years back. Andrew Unterberger: I think it might be something we start to see more of from artists who don't necessarily want to generate maximum advance hype for their new sets — either because they've been gone for a while and want a softer return (like Bieber) or because they actually haven't been gone for long at all and don't want to risk overexposure (like Tyler). I'll be very curious to see what Beyoncé does for her expected upcoming Part III release; she's always been a true bellwether for industry standards with these things, so if she returns with a sneak attack, that officially means we should all be on high alert for major releases falling from the sky until further notice. Best of Billboard Chart Rewind: In 1989, New Kids on the Block Were 'Hangin' Tough' at No. 1 Four Decades of 'Madonna': A Look Back at the Queen of Pop's Debut Album on the Charts Chart Rewind: In 1990, Madonna Was in 'Vogue' Atop the Hot 100 Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Stevie Wonder Shares Poignant Response to Longstanding Rumor He's Not Really Blind
Stevie Wonder has used an appearance at a recent concert to address the longstanding conspiracy theory that he isn't actually blind. Wonder – who has been performing since the age of 11 and scored his first Hot 100 chart-topper with 'Fingertips' at 13 – has long been noted for his status as a blind man, having lost his vision weeks after his birth. More from Billboard Kesha Makes Chart-Topping Debut With New Album '. (Period)' Rauw Alejandro Gains Big: 'Carita Linda' Takes No. 1 Spot on Latin Airplay Chart Pusha T on Drake's 'What Did I Miss?': 'Just Not for Me' However, his prolific output and tireless work in the music industry over the past 64 years has resulted in a half-serious theory that Wonder can in fact see. Though often shared as a tongue-in-cheek rumor, Wonder's ability to navigate the world around him has resulted in many of these theories coming to light. In 2019, former NBA player Shaquille O'Neal shared a tale of Wonder recognizing him in an elevator, while comedian and actor Anthony Anderson once recalled how he challenged Wonder to a basketball game. 'What y'all don't know is, Stevie can see,' he told Stephen Colbert in 2016. 'It's just an act.' Now, at a recent tour stop in Cardiff, Wales for his Love, Light & Song U.K. tour, Wonder used an opportunity to speak to the crowd to dispel the enduring speculation. 'I must say to all of you, something that I was thinking, 'When did I want to let the world know this?' But I wanted to say it right now,' Wonder began. 'You know there have been rumors about me seeing and all that? But seriously, you know the truth. 'Truth is, shortly after my birth, I became blind,' he continued. 'Now, that was a blessing because it's allowed me to see the world in the vision of truth, of sight. See people in the spirit of them, not how they look. Not what color they are, but what color is their spirit?' Wonder has not released a new studio album since 2005's A Time to Love, though since 2008, he has spoken about a new project titled Through the Eyes of Wonder, which has been described as a performance piece that will reflect his experience as a blind man. 'What I want to do with our live performances is to create visuals that [give] my take on how I see the world and how most various things affected me,' he explained at the time. Best of Billboard Chart Rewind: In 1989, New Kids on the Block Were 'Hangin' Tough' at No. 1 Janet Jackson's Biggest Billboard Hot 100 Hits H.E.R. & Chris Brown 'Come Through' to No. 1 on Adult R&B Airplay Chart Solve the daily Crossword
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2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Stevie Wonder Says He'll Never Give Up Performing: ‘You Don't Have to Retire'
Stevie Wonder has confirmed that he's not going anywhere, with the veteran musician claiming he'll be performing and creating until his dying day. Wonder's comments came from a new interview with the BBC's Sidetracked podcast, where he entered into a discussion with host Annie Mac about the topic of retirement. More from Billboard Shakira & The Weeknd to Headline 2025 Global Citizen Festival in Central Park The Who Kick Off Farewell Tour in Italy, Perform First Show Since Zak Starkey Sacking Tool Announce First Hawaii Concert in Nearly 15 Years After turning the question back onto Mac after she inquired about his thoughts on the matter, Wonder explained that as long as he's physically able to, he'll keep creating in some capacity. 'For as long as you breathe, for as long as your heart beats, there's more for you to do,' he explained. 'I love playing music, that's like my mantra. I think I can do all the stuff I want to do – still have fun and do what I need to do – but I'm not going to stop the gift that keeps pouring through my body.' 'I love doing what I'm doing,' he added. 'An artist doesn't stop drawing – you keep on. As long as you can imagine is as long as you are going to be creative, and as long as you let your mind work, you don't have to retire.' Close to the entirety of Wonder's life has been dedicated to creating music, with the 75-year-old having released his first single at the age of 11, and later scored his first Hot 100 chart-topper with 'Fingertips' at 13. Currently, it's been almost 20 years since Wonder released his last studio album, A Time to Love, though a number of singles have arrived in the years since – including 2024's 'Can We Fix Our Nation's Broken Heart.' Since 2008, the musician has spoken about a new project titled Through the Eyes of Wonder, which has been described as a performance piece that will reflect his experience as a blind man. During his appearance on Sidetracked, Mac asked Wonder about his relationship with music, to which the veteran artist responded he's 'going to put music out' at some point, and is 'excited' about the long-discussed Through the Eyes of Wonder project. During his recent time in the U.K., Wonder also performed in Cardiff, Wales where he took the opportunity to share a poignant response to viral rumors that he is in fact able to see. 'You know there have been rumors about me seeing and all that?' he asked the crowd. 'But seriously, you know the truth. 'Truth is, shortly after my birth, I became blind,' Wonder explained. 'Now, that was a blessing because it's allowed me to see the world in the vision of truth, of sight. See people in the spirit of them, not how they look. Not what color they are, but what color is their spirit?' Watch Stevie Wonder's appearance on Sidetracked below. Best of Billboard Chart Rewind: In 1989, New Kids on the Block Were 'Hangin' Tough' at No. 1 Janet Jackson's Biggest Billboard Hot 100 Hits H.E.R. & Chris Brown 'Come Through' to No. 1 on Adult R&B Airplay Chart Solve the daily Crossword
