George Michael has passed away. He was 53.
The star, who launched his career with Wham! in the 1980s and had huge success as a solo performer, “passed away peacefully” on Christmas Day in Goring, Oxfordshire, his publicist said.
I just wanted to take a minute to wish everyone a happy holidays and a merry Christmas. I hope everyone is having a great weekend and at the very least enjoying some good food, drinks, family, and entertainment. The Chorus staff and contributors are working on finalizing our end of the year lists and we’ll have those ready for publication right after the new year.
Thanks to everyone that’s read this website this year and/or become a supporting member. Starting and running Chorus has been the most fulfilling months of my career, and I couldn’t do it without all of you. So, thank you, from the bottom of my heart.
My thanks to Heavy Things for sponsoring the website this week. The artist formerly known as Will Deely has signed to InVogue Records and just released a new music video for “Sold.” They have a debut full-length album coming in March of 2017, so keep your eyes peeled for that.
BBC’s Shamir Masri is reporting that the Arctic Monkeys are working on a new album.
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross sat down with Zane Lowe to talk about the new Nine Inch Nails EP. Reznor revealed that he plans to release “two new major” NIN projects in 2017. You can listen to the interview below.
Ryan Adams has released the new song “To Be Without You.”
This week’s super sized episode of Encore features a lengthy discussion about our favorite albums of 2016. We go through our top 10 and break down why those albums were important to us this year. The second half of the episode is all about Rogue One: A Star Wars Story — it is filled with spoilers so you can pause if you haven’t seen it yet and come back to it later. We wanted to give you a jam packed episode for the last two weeks of the year.
Hope you enjoy and have a great holiday!
Not a whole lot coming out this week … but I’m definitely going to be checking out that new Nine Inch Nails’ EP. If you hit read more you can see the sparse number of releases we have in our calendar for the week. Hit the quote bubble to access our forums and talk about what came out today, what albums you picked up, and to make mention of anything we may have missed.
Joe Coscarelli interviewed Jimmy Iovine and Larry Jackson of Apple Music for The New York Times:
We wanted to work with Frank Ocean. We had a deal—we were working with Frank Ocean, and he controlled where his music came out. Why would it be in our interest to be part of a fast one, a slow one or any one? We were getting the record no matter what. Whatever happened with him and Universal is really between him and Universal. It has nothing to do with us. Nothing.
Avril Lavigne has posted a response to news that Facebook’s Mark Zuckerburg programed his house AI to never play Nickelback.
Read More “Avril Lavigne Asks Mark Zuckerburg to Not Bully Nickelback”
Cassadee Pope’s lip sync of Panic! at the Disco’s “I Write Sins…” is now up for viewing. It contains a nice little cameo from Brendon Urie himself.
Spoon will release a new album next year. The band briefly spoke with Entertainment Weekly for their 2017 music preview:
They’ve also teamed once more with Flaming Lips’ longtime producer Dave Fridmann. “I love working with Dave because he makes a point to f— things up,” says frontman Britt Daniel. As ever, Daniel & Co. have crafted multidimensional jams that showcase textured guitar riffs, warm keyboards, oddball studio effects, and Daniel’s sandpaper-rough croon. Twenty-three years in, he is creatively invigorated like never before. “I love this record,” Daniel says. “I feel like we are on to something—we’re covering some new ground.”
Music Forum: Members EOTY Lists 2016
Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day performed “Ordinary World” on Conan last night. A video of the performance can be found on Conan’s website.
Björk has penned an open letter on Facebook addressing the media and the sexism that female artists face.
women in music are allowed to be singer songwriters singing about their boyfriends . if they change the subject matter to atoms , galaxies , activism , nerdy math beat editing or anything else than being performers singing about their loved ones they get criticized : journalists feel there is just something missing … as if our only lingo is emo …