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Beyoncé Launches Scholarship Program

Beyoncé Launches Scholarship Program
Jason Tate

To celebrate the one-year anniversary of Beyoncé’s Lemonade, she has announced a new scholarship program for young women:

Four scholarships will be awarded, one per college, to female incoming, current or graduate students pursuing studies in creative arts, music, literature, or African-American studies. The schools selected for participation are Berklee College of Music, Howard University, Parsons School of Design, and Spelman College. All details and application deadlines are available directly from the colleges.

Doritos Bags That Play Music Are a Thing

Guardians of the Galaxy
Jason Tate

Doritos and Marvel have teamed up to release bags of chips that will play the Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack:

The custom bags will be available for consumer purchase on April 28 via Amazon.com/Doritos while supplies last. On May 5 — the release date for the second installment in the Guardians franchise — Doritos will also host Rock Out Loud pop-up recording booths in New York and Los Angeles. Fans will get the chance to sing one of the Marvel/Hollywood Records soundtrack’s classic tunes. In addition, they’ll have the opportunity to win various prizes, including the custom cassette player replica Doritos bags, concert and other event tickets and free bags of Doritos.

The cheese dust makes the music sound “warmer.”

Behind the Chorus to “Call Me Maybe”

Carly Rae Jepsen
Jason Tate

Carly Rae Jepsen sat down with Billboard to talk about the chorus of “Call Me Maybe” and how she feels about the song today:

The next day, Jepsen and Crowe brought the song to Josh Ramsay, the leader of pop-rock group Marianas Trench, who suggested that they turn the song’s pre-chorus into its proper chorus. “He went, ‘That pre-chorus is way hookier than the chorus that you guys have, so let’s repeat it,’” says Jepsen. From there, “Call Me Maybe” — originally more of a folk-leaning track, in the vein of Jepsen’s earlier singer-songwriter work — was re-imagined as a bubblegum pop track by Ramsay, who ended up producing the song. “He got inspired and started adding strings,” remembers Jepsen. “before we knew it, it had this whole new life.”

Billboard recently released a list of the “100 greatest choruses” of the 21st century. Fall Out Boy, Yellowcard, Fun., Jimmy Eat World, and Walk the Moon all feature.

Robert Pirsig Passes Away

Jason Tate

Robert Pirsig, the author of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, has passed away. He was 88.

Robert M. Pirsig, whose “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance,” a dense and discursive novel of ideas, became an unlikely publishing phenomenon in the mid-1970s and a touchstone in the waning days of the counterculture, died on Monday at his home in South Berwick, Me. He was 88.

Phoenix to Release New Album in June

Phoenix
Jason Tate

Phoenix will release their new album, Ti Amo, on June 9th. The band sat down with The New York Times to talk about the album:

But the album also hints at a darkness that surrounded the group while it recorded in Paris during a turbulent time, as its hometown absorbed a swell of refugees, underwent a surge in alt-right sentiment and endured terrorist attacks. On the night of the attacks at the Bataclan, a concert hall where Phoenix had played and attended shows, the guitarist Christian Mazzalai was trapped in the studio, where the band was recording after the police shut down Paris.

Open Letter to Radiohead Asks Them Not to Perform in Israel

Radiohead
Jason Tate

A number of artists and activists have signed an open letter asking Radiohead to “think again about” performing in Israel. The band is scheduled to perform at Park HaYarkon in Tel Aviv, Israel on July 19th.

We understand you’ve been approached already by Palestinian campaigners. They’ve asked you to respect their call for a cultural boycott of Israel, and you’ve turned them down. Since Radiohead campaigns for freedom for the Tibetans, we’re wondering why you’d turn down a request to stand up for another people under foreign occupation. And since Radiohead fronted a gig for the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we’re wondering why you’d ignore a call to stand against the denial of those rights when it comes to the Palestinians.

Unroll.me Being Super Shady

Jason Tate

Unroll.me CEO, Jojo Hedaya, has responded to the controversy arising from revelations in The New York Times that the company does things like sell your “anonymized” receipts to third parties:

Our users are the heart of our company and service. So it was heartbreaking to see that some of our users were upset to learn about how we monetize our free service.

And while we try our best to be open about our business model, recent customer feedback tells me we weren’t explicit enough.

What a load of horse shit.

It’s Been Ten Years Since “Chocolate Rain”

YouTube
Jason Tate

It’s been ten years since Tay Zonday’s “Chocolate Rain” became an internet hit. BT.com spoke with Tay about the last decade and catching up with one of the first “viral” stars I remember:

Today, 112 million views would likely translate into cash, but Tay decided early on to make his song available for free download.

“I didn’t put it on iTunes,” he says, “I definitely regret that”.

Downtown Boys Pen Open Letter to Coachella Owner

Downtown Boys
Jason Tate

Downtown Boys have penned an open letter to the owner of Coachella over anti-LGBTQ donations:

Of course, to participate in this festival at all means playing a capitalist and mainstream music venture, but we can make demands within that framework, and it is totally unacceptable that money from its owners or anyone for that matter ever goes to anti-LGBTQ organizations or any efforts that endorse hate. We need to call this all out, though it can’t end there. We need to work to redistribute the cultural and economic resources so that Coahcella no longer holds so much power. We need to increase public funding for the arts so that musicians are not dependent on people like Anschutz to pay our checks.

Kendrick Lamar Debuts at Number One

Kendrick Lamar
Jason Tate

Kendrick Lamar has the number one album in the country.

Kendrick Lamar’s Damn. blasts in at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart with 2017’s biggest week for an album: 603,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending April 20, according to Nielsen Music. That’s the most units earned by an album in a single week in nearly a year, since Drake’s Views launched with 1.04 million units in the week ending May 5, 2016.

Paramore Talk About the Struggles of the Past Few Years

Paramore
Jason Tate

Paramore talked with The Guardian about their upcoming album and the struggles to get it made:

“What I will say is that it’s such bullshit that we’re in a lawsuit,” sighs Williams. “I wasn’t OK for a while; maybe I’m still not.”

Taylor York says that he didn’t even feel Davis’s leaving because he was so used to the pain of Paramore. “I was just numb,” he says. “It was just another drama and another example of being in a band and it being really difficult, and feeling bad about that. We have the coolest job ever but why does it have to be so hard?”