The Album May Be in Trouble

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Tim Ingham, writing at Rolling Stone, makes the argument that the LP as we know it, is in trouble:

Sure, hits on streaming services make a lot of people a lot of money. But as the death knell rings for the album — and the music industry returns to the pre-Beatles era of track-led consumption — are fans being encouraged to develop a less-committed relationship with new artists? […]

The music industry is facing a bit of an existential crisis, then: How can something (streaming) be considered the “equivalent” of something else (an album sale) when, by your own measure, the former now completely dominates the latter?

In 2018, “streaming-equivalent albums” seems like daft phrasing. It is e-mail-equivalent faxes. It is car-equivalent steeds. It is Netflix-equivalent Betamax.

Panic! at the Disco Hits Number One, Again

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Panic! at the Disco’s “High Hopes” has hit number one on the Billboard alternative charts:

“High Hopes” spends a second week at No. 1 on the streaming-, airplay- and sales-driven Hot Rock Songs chart, where it’s Panic’s first leader. The track becomes the band’s first top five hit on Adult Pop Songs (6-5) and second top 10 on Pop Songs (12-9), after “I Write Sins Not Tragedies,” which reached No. 2 in 2006

Merch Dude Caught Stealing From Bands

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The merch guy for IDKHOW and Waterparks was caught allegedly trying to steal money from the bands:

Police say that the band members then started searching their trailer and found the cardboard box with the money wrapped up in the suspect’s sweater with other merchandise boxes.

The suspect again denied involvement but then allegedly finally admitted to taking the money once he realized that the band was firing him and that he wouldn’t be allowed back on the tour bus.

He also told police that he was tired of the band members leaving money all over the bus and wanted to prove a point but was going to return the money later.

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A Year After Reputation

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Taylor Swift

One year ago, Taylor Swift’s somewhat infamous LP Reputation hit the shelves and digital libraries of 700,000 listeners. It would go on to sell 1.26 million copies in that first week, making it a member of an elite club of albums to have broken a million copies (at all, let alone that first week) in the last decade… a club that is mostly comprised of Swift’s other records. It was an auspicious achievement in the pop star’s increasingly controversial career – every album she’s released since 2008’s Fearless has broken a million records sold in its first week.

Swift has become a polarizing figure in the pop culture sphere. Between the ongoing Kimye saga, 100% valid conversation and critiques about the downfalls of white feminism, her own personal #MeToo moment and the usual, misogyny-fueled obsession with her love life that’s been prominent since that first record broke a million all those years ago. (She has arguably used that obsession to her advantage in the years since, but… wouldn’t you?) The stage was certainly set for Reputation to be as polarizing as the woman herself – it was the first Swift record that broke her every-other-year-pattern ever, and followed a nearly year-long (and highly advisable) social media hiatus/blackout on Swift’s part. It’s safe to say, nobody knew what to expect; uncommonly for an artist whose unflinchingly loyal following was built on the closeness she shares with her fanbase, “nobody” included the vast majority of her fans.

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Review: Coheed and Cambria – The Unheavenly Creatures

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Coheed

When looking for adjectives to describe Coheed and Cambria and their latest effort, The Unheavenly Creatures, I kept going back to the same word: epic. Coheed have never been strangers to expanding their repertoire of complex space odysseys and intermingled stories of fictional characters, but on this LP they have genuinely created something quite remarkable.

This album grabs your interest directly from the first notes of “Prologue” that sets that stage for all that will come next in this saga. From the shiny and brilliant packaging of the entire album and its artwork, it’s hard not to get directly sucked into the vortex of Coheed’s world on this fantastic record.

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Metro Boomin Tops the Charts

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Metro Boomin has the number one album in the country this week.

The surprise set, which was announced Oct. 31 and released Nov. 2 via Boominati/Republic Records, earned 99,000 equivalent album units in the week ending Nov. 8, according to Nielsen Music. Of that sum, 5,000 were in album sales, as the album was largely driven by streaming activity.

Dave Grohl Cooks BBQ for Firefighters

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Sam Moore, writing at NME:

Firefighters continue to tackle the blaze across the state, with people now stepping in to aid and assist the fire personnel as they work long hours – with Grohl playing his part by cooking BBQ for firefighters in Calabasas, Los Angeles County. Fire Station 88 were one of the recipients of the free BBQ last night (November 12), which was provided by Grohl’s recently launched Backbeat BBQ.

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