Christmas Songs, Ranked
It's not quite Christmas without these 25 songs. Here, a mostly objective ranking of the best holiday tracks ever recorded. Merry Christmas!
The Best of 2014 Movies, Books, Music and More: A List of Year-End Lists
What were the best movies of 2014? What 2014 TV shows should you catch up on? What were 2014's biggest songs? And why trust just one outlet for answers when you can try all of them?
The New Backstreet Boys Documentary Actually Looks Worth Watching
At about 20 seconds into the new trailer for Backstreet Boys: Show Em What You're Made Of a disembodied voice (Brian?) asks: "What do you do when you're a full-grown man in a boy band?" This is exactly the kind of question a Backstreet Boys documentary should be asking.
The Best Things We Listened to This Year
Below is a roundup of exactly what the headline of this post states from various members of the Gawker editorial staff.
From "Twist" to "Disco," Pop Music's Favorite Words in Every Decade
If the data visualization below is to believed, pop music of the 2010s is just as vulgar and nihilistic as your stodgy parents say it is: the decade's most distinctive musical words are evidently "we," "yeah," "fuck," "hell," and "die."
Yes, Virginia, Mariah Carey Can Sing
Rumors of Mariah Carey's demise have been greatly exaggerated, she proved last night during the first of six sold-out, Christmas-themed concerts at New York's Beacon Theater. For much of the show, she was in as good of a voice as you could expect from a diva who's in her 25th year of wailing for the public's…
You Can Finally Listen to D'Angelo's New Album, The Black Messiah
After a 14-year wait that seemed like it might last 140, D'Angelo released his new album Black Messiah tonight on iTunes and Spotify.
U.S. Covertly Infiltrated Cuba's Hip Hop Scene in Anti-Castro Operation
The United States Agency for International Development—the same government agency that funded "Cuban Twitter" and sent undercover youths to stoke civil unrest in the country—infiltrated Cuba's hip hop scene for two years with hopes of "[sparking] a youth movement against the government," according to an Associated…
Indie Musician's Viral Tour Diary Was a Marketing Stunt for His Startup
Jack Conte of the YouTube-famous band Pomplamoose caused a stir last week when he posted an account of his tour financials on Medium. "Being an independent artist is so difficult" was the thrust of his essay—true, no doubt—and tucked into the back half was a mention of an apparent way out: Patreon, a crowdfunding…
Remember When Whitney Houston Got Booed for Being Too White?
On March 30, 1988, at the second annual Soul Train Music Awards held in Los Angeles's Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, Whitney Houston was booed.
An Innocent Rapper Could Go to Jail for Life Just for Releasing an Album
If you'd like to hear Tiny Doo's mixtape No Safety, you can do so here. But be aware that by listening to it, you may somehow be implicated in nine California shootings for which 14 men are about to stand trial. Tiny Doo himself is one of those men, and even prosecutors admit that the only crime he committed is…
Did you know there's a new Chet Haze song? There's a new Chet Haze song.
Here's a Look at One of the Beloved NYC Venues Vice Is Pushing Out
As we told you last month, major media company Vice (whose average salary is allegedly $70,000 a year), will be displacing several beloved institutions in the South Williamsburg area in order to build out its own 75,000-square foot new office space. The first to close, on November 22nd, is DIY music venue Death By…
Woman Removes Part of Brain in Attempt to Cure Seizures Induced by Ne-Yo
Zoe Fennessy, who suffers from a rare condition called musicogenic epilepsy, doesn't particularly dislike Ne-Yo's music, it's just that whenever she hears it, she freezes up and begins vomiting uncontrollably. In June, the 26-year-old had brain surgery in an attempt to ease her symptoms, but it didn't work.
There's a new unreleased track from Big Pun out today, which is 1000 times more exciting than a new unreleased track from Tupac.
I Can't Stop Listening to Babymetal, the World's Heaviest Teen Pop Band
On Wednesday, the Japanese heavy metal/teen-pop hybrid band Babymetal played a nearly sold-out show at New York City's Hammerstein Ballroom. I didn't go, and after watching a few of their videos this morning, I'm really, really regretting it.
Drake Is the Taylor Swift of Rap
Yesterday it was announced that Taylor Swift sold 1.3 million copies of her new album 1989, meaning that she moved more records in one week than any other artist has of any new album in the entirety of the past 10 months. This was appropriately being noted as a historic feat before it was even confirmed, but it…
Beyoncé's label has confirmed that she will release an expanded version of last year's BEYONCÉ later this month, but the "leaked" memo detailing its release was bullshit. Instead of an entire new album, it will come with a six-song EP. Unless this is all a ruse and she's going to surprise us again!
Beyoncé's Latest Surprise Release Spoiled--If It Actually Exists
This weekend, the internet circulated a supposed leaked internal memo detailing Beyoncé's next album—an expanded version of last year's BEYONCÉ, which came out of nowhere (as far as the average civilian music fan was concerned) and with a video for each track. Per the document, which features the logos of Beyoncé's…
"Indie" Bands Sell Out Just to Sleep in Corporate-Run Crash Pad
The music industry has shifted from a business model of "selling albums" to a business model of " sell out hard as hell and hope to get your song in an ad campaign." Now, bands can directly pimp themselves out to the Sour Patch Kids™ brand in exchange for room and board.
