Music

Subterms

    More stories

    • 150 Shares139 Views

      in Music

      Sabrina Carpenter Slices Up Her Sunny Image, and 7 More New Songs

      by

      Hear tracks by Yaeji, Amythyst Kiah featuring Billy Strings, Broadcast and more.Every Friday, pop critics for The New York Times weigh in on the week’s most notable new tracks. Listen to the Playlist on Spotify here (or find our profile: nytimes) and at Apple Music here, and sign up for The Amplifier, a twice-weekly guide to new and old songs.Sabrina Carpenter, ‘Taste’Sabrina Carpenter’s winning streak of singles continues on “Taste,” the lilting, deceptively chirpy opening track from her hook-filled new album, “Short ’n’ Sweet.” A bright, buoyantly delivered blend of ’80s pop gloss and ’90s country sass, Carpenter lets a paramour’s on-again-off-again ex know exactly whose bed his boots have been under lately: “I heard you’re back together, and if that’s true,” Carpenter taunts, “you’ll just have to taste me when he’s kissing you.” The music video, which stars the “Wednesday” actress Jenna Ortega, makes the lyrics’ queer subtext clear as day, while also indulging in some surprisingly gory Tarantino-esque violence that subverts Carpenter’s sunshiny image. Not that she’s taking any of it too seriously. “Singin’ ’bout it don’t mean I care,” she coos on the bridge, issuing another giggling wink at that image: “Yeah, I know I’ve been known to share.” LINDSAY ZOLADZAmythyst Kiah featuring Billy Strings, ‘I Will Not Go Down’“I’m the only one to ease my soul/I’m the only one that’s in control,” Amythyst Kiah vows in “I Will Not Go Down.” It’s a fierce, foot-stomping song laced with backup vocals and bluegrass virtuosity — on multiple instruments — from Billy Strings. The song’s stark declarations arrive fully armored in musicianship. JON PARELESGeordie Greep, ‘Holy, Holy’We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 138 Shares99 Views

      in Music

      8 Correct Answers to ‘What Was the Song of the Summer?’

      by

      Revisit contenders from Sabrina Carpenter, Kendrick Lamar and Billie Eilish.Sabrina Carpenter has the top contender for song of the summer.Amy Harris/Invision, via Associated PressDear listeners,I’m sorry to be the one to break it to you, but the end of the summer is approaching. Every year around this time, music fans’ favorite unwinnable debate reaches an apex: What was the song of the summer?At the risk of breaking even more bad news, I’ll say that for the most part, the Song of the Summer is a fictitious and even pointless construction, generally immeasurable and usually difficult to agree on unanimously. Sure, every so often a single tune becomes so ubiquitous during those sweltering, school’s out months that it rightfully earns the title. Think of Lil Nas X’s chart-dominant “Old Town Road” in 2019; the viral glee of Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe” in 2012; or, if you can remember that far back, the Bayside Boys remix of Los Del Rio’s “Macarena” in 1996 (Ay!).But more often than not, the Song of the Summer is up for debate. And given that I believe a true S.o.t.S. must be monocultural and undeniable, most contenders do not truly reach that status.Around Memorial Day, it did seem like we had a prime candidate: the rising pop star Sabrina Carpenter’s fun, flirty “Espresso.” It had all the makings of a summer smash, including a well-timed release date, a beach-themed music video and several goofy, endlessly quotable lyrics that just begged to be printed on novelty boardwalk T-shirts. Case closed, right?But as the summer continued, “Espresso” faced some formidable challengers. The Drake-vs.-Kendrick Lamar beef produced a bona fide anthem in “Not Like Us,” by most measures the biggest hit of Lamar’s career. The rise of the Midwest princess Chappell Roan became one of the year’s most captivating narratives, and her wrenching synth-pop single “Good Luck, Babe!” climbed the Hot 100 accordingly. Even Carpenter herself gave “Espresso” a run for its money with its irresistible follow-up single, “Please Please Please,” which achieved a feat that her previous hit did not: It went to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.So, which was the Song of the Summer? Today’s playlist contains 8 different and entirely acceptable answers to the question. If I had to pick just one, I’d still go with “Espresso,” but I’d argue this summer contained too many unexpected plot twists for there to be a unanimous winner. Maybe it’s just one of those years where you need a collection of different tunes to tell the full story of the season. So let this playlist be a time capsule that you can return to in subsequent years when you want to conjure up the sound of summer ’24 — or in a couple of months, when the autumn chill makes you long for these endless sunny days.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 113 Shares129 Views

      in Music

      The Meaning Behind Beyoncé’s ‘Freedom,’ the Harris Campaign Anthem

      by

      Since Kamala’s Harris’s first appearance at campaign headquarters a month ago, the rousing strains of Beyoncé’s “Freedom” have been the candidate’s spirited anthem, blaring under the campaign ads and ahead of Harris’s speeches. The song, from the 2016 visual album “Lemonade,” builds momentum with each verse and features a chorus that is a striking call: “I break chains all by myself/Won’t let my freedom rot in hell/Hey! I’ma keep running/’Cause a winner don’t quit on themselves.”It served as the driving force behind the latest campaign ad that debuted during Night 1 of the Democratic National Convention, which has itself been buoyed by energetic music throughout. It has also provided a sonic shift in messaging, offering Democrats a muscular keyword with widespread appeal to voters across partisan lines.But the song’s origins and supporting videos, and Beyoncé’s live performances of it, offer a deeper meaning for a candidate hoping to make history as the first Black and South Asian woman president.At the time of its initial release in spring 2016, “Freedom” appeared on what was, to that point, Beyoncé’s most politically explicit record to date. Its video paid clear tribute to Sybrina Fulton, Gwen Carr, Lezley McSpadden and Wanda Johnson, Black women whose sons — Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Michael Brown and Oscar Grant III — had been recently killed in racially charged incidents. In the video, the women sit next to each other as Beyoncé, dressed in a tiered white dress, belts the song in a visual performance that heightened the intensity and cathartic potential of the music. It features a verse from Kendrick Lamar, who raps, “But mama don’t cry for me, ride for me/Try for me, live for me.”Along with Lamar’s 2015 single, “Alright,” the two artists released arguably the most enduring protest anthems of the Black Lives Matter movement within a span of months.The song’s success is already resonating with the many and riling up others. Just yesterday, Beyoncé sent a cease-and-desist to Donald Trump’s campaign for its use of the song without permission on a social music video. More

    • 100 Shares159 Views

      in Music

      Cash Cobain Is Changing the Sound of Drill

      by

      Drill music hasn’t always been this fun. The subgenre’s ominous beats and menacing lyrics infiltrated mainstream hip-hop over a decade ago, but its ascendant stars have been stalled by violence, police surveillance and the flattening effect of at-home copycats. Cash Cobain, the 26-year-old breakout rapper and producer from the Bronx, is helping to raise its trajectory. With lusty rhymes and unorthodox samples, he’s become a central figure of “sexy drill,” a more lascivious offshoot, and one that has tilted the sound of rap nationally.En route to a Coney Island performance in early August, sitting in the passenger seat of a new Mercedes sedan, Cobain rapped along to “Rump Punch,” a song from his upcoming album, as it oozed through the speakers. In between doo-wop-esque lines of flattery for a paramour (“When it comes to pretty, you the pinnacle”), the track sandwiches a hilariously profane offer of oral sex between dreamy keys and a simple repeated drumstick clack.When people hear his music, he explained, “everyone should feel that, feel like they can’t control their body. Their body just gotta dance because the music is so sexy.”It’s a sound that has caught the ears of the melodically inclined hornballs that constitute rap’s upper reaches, perhaps best defined by the 2022 moment when Frank Ocean debuted a gold and diamond-studded sex toy for his jewelry line and used a Cobain track to soundtrack the introductory Instagram post. But the lusty stamp that counts most came when Lil Yachty passed along several Cobain beats to Drake, who barely tweaked one for “Calling for You,” a single that reached No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100. In the past year, Cobain has rapped on tracks he produced for PinkPantheress and Central Cee, Don Toliver and J. Cole.The 26-year-old Cash Cobain has released six projects since 2021, including his breakthrough mixtape, “2 Slizzy 2 Sexy.”Andre D. Wagner for The New York TimesBy the time Cobain was set for a New York City victory lap, a show in April called Slizzy Fest, demand was such that police preemptively shut it down for overcrowding. (Fans got wind that Drake might attend.) Cobain led fans to Union Square and held an open-air show, rapping along to music boosted by a Bluetooth speaker. Born Cashmere Small (yes, his stage name nods to the late Nirvana frontman), Cobain is now on a national tour supporting Ice Spice, the reigning queen of “pop drill” and his collaborator on the remix of “Fisherrr,” a single that has steadily crept East to West across airwaves since its release in February. The song and the tour are a conjoining of drill’s sonic offspring, each taking the sound past its hyperlocal roots. His new album, “Play Cash Cobain,” is set to arrive Friday with cover art by Drake, and it both trades in Cobain’s usual tropes and offers a bunch of groovable swerves.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 150 Shares129 Views

      in Music

      Taylor Swift Says She Felt ‘Fear’ and ‘Guilt’ After Canceled Vienna Shows

      by

      The three stops in Austria on the pop star’s Eras Tour were canceled after the authorities discovered a terrorist plot targeting the concerts.Taylor Swift said Wednesday that she was devastated by the cancellation of her Eras Tour concerts in Vienna, adding that the terrorist plot that had targeted her shows there had filled her “with a new sense of fear, and a tremendous amount of guilt because so many people had planned on coming.”In an Instagram post celebrating the end of the European leg of her tour, Ms. Swift offered her first public comments about the three derailed shows, which were called off after officials in Austria said they had arrested two men accused of plotting a terrorist attack. One of the men, they said, had recently pledged allegiance to the Islamic State online and had focused on the Eras Tour as a potential target.Nearly 200,000 people had been expected to attend the Vienna concerts, which were to start on Aug. 8.In her social media post published on Wednesday, Ms. Swift said she was grateful to the authorities, “because thanks to them, we were grieving concerts and not lives.”“I decided that all of my energy had to go toward helping to protect the nearly half a million people I had coming to see the shows in London,” she said of the next stop on her tour. “My team and I worked hand in hand with stadium staff and British authorities every day in pursuit of that goal, and I want to thank them for everything they did for us.”“Let me be very clear: I am not going to speak about something publicly if I think doing so might provoke those who would want to harm the fans who come to my shows,” she continued. “In cases like this one, ‘silence’ is actually showing restraint, and waiting to express yourself at a time when it’s right to. My priority was finishing our European tour safely, and it is with great relief that I can say we did that.”Thousands of fans who had been eager to spend a few hours with Ms. Swift in Vienna — including many who traveled great distances to see her — shed tears over the canceled concerts. Many others who had planned to see her the following week in London endured anxious days, worrying both about their personal safety and about whether the highlight of their summer would also be called off.But Ms. Swift’s shows went on as planned, a fact that she celebrated in her Instagram post.“All five crowds at Wembley Stadium were bursting with passion, joy, and exuberance,” she said. “The energy in that stadium was like the most giant bear hug from 92,000 people each night, and it brought me back to a place of carefree calm up there.” More

    • 138 Shares179 Views

      in Music

      Coming Soon to Jersey City: A Gleaming Home for the Symphony

      by

      The New Jersey Symphony, which long lacked a permanent space, will move into a 550-seat theater that it hopes to make a hub for concerts and classes.The New Jersey Symphony has long lacked a permanent home, performing in a variety of spaces across the state. But come 2026, that will change: The orchestra is getting a gleaming 550-seat theater in downtown Jersey City, the ensemble and the city announced on Wednesday.The new theater, to be called Symphony Center, is expected to become a hub for concerts, classes and other activities. While the New Jersey Symphony will continue to perform across the state, the theater will serve as its flagship location.“We’ve always been in someone else’s house,” said Gabriel van Aalst, the orchestra’s president and chief executive. “This not only gives us an emotional home, but the opportunity to reinvent, re-explore and re-examine our business model, and to look at ways to set the orchestra up for the future.”The project is a coup for the New Jersey Symphony, which, like many arts organizations, is still grappling with the financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Last year, the orchestra announced it was trimming its season and cutting its administrative staff by about 15 percent. To keep up with rising costs, the orchestra has dipped into its endowment: The fund is now valued at about $3 million, down from about $9 million in 2019.Symphony Center was recently constructed for about $40 million, as part of a luxury housing development by the home builder Toll Brothers. The space is owned by Jersey City, which will allow the symphony to use it under an initial 30-year lease agreement. The symphony plans to raise an additional $12 million to furnish the space and fine-tune its acoustics.Steven Fulop, the mayor of Jersey City, said the theater was part of the city’s efforts to become a cultural destination. He said it would help elevate the symphony’s profile and bring tens of thousands of people downtown each year.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 138 Shares189 Views

      in Music

      Charles R. Cross, Biographer of Cobain and Hendrix, Dies at 67

      by

      He tracked the rise of grunge as the editor of the Seattle music magazine The Rocket. He also wrote acclaimed books about two of the city’s most celebrated rock luminaries.Charles R. Cross, a Seattle music writer who edited The Rocket, a local rock bible, during the city’s grunge-era flowering in the 1990s, and who wrote acclaimed biographies of two of the city’s most venerated musical figures, Jimi Hendrix and Kurt Cobain, died on Aug. 9 at his home in Shoreline, Wash., He was 67.His death was announced in a statement from his family. No cause was given.Mr. Cross was the editor of The Rocket, a biweekly magazine, from 1986 through 2000, a period when Seattle bands like Nirvana, Soundgarden and Pearl Jam redefined rock. It was considered a must-read for musicians looking to join the wave.It would be “impossible to imagine the music or community of Seattle in the 80s and 90s without charles r. cross,” Chris Walla, a former member of Death Cab for Cutie, the critically acclaimed alternative rock band from Bellingham, Wash., wrote on social media.Mr. Cross was also a well-known sage to fans of Bruce Springsteen: He turned his self-produced fanzine into Backstreets Magazine, a trove of Springsteen arcana that was well known to the artist himself.At a concert in Pittsburgh on Sunday, Mr. Springsteen paid tribute to Mr. Cross, telling the audience that his “help in communicating between our band and our fans will be sorely missed” before launching into his song “Backstreets.”Mr. Cross published the first of his nine books, “Backstreets: Springsteen, the Man and His Music,” in 1989, followed two years later by “Led Zeppelin: Heaven and Hell,” an illustrated history that he wrote with Erik Flannigan, with photographs by Neal Preston.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More