“MANIC MONDAY MUSIC NEWS” By Scott Rossi. February 24, 2014 Monday Edition.Find out what’s happening in the world of Rock & Roll, Alternative Rock, Hip Hop, EDM, and Top 40 music every Manic Monday! Have you heard any music news?
TOP 40/POP NEWS: England to Count Music Streams in Compiling Its List of Top 40 Music.
At this week’s Radio Academy Playlists: What Makes a Hit in 2014? event in London, BBC Radio 1’s Head Of Music George Ergatoudis announced, “plans to count UK music streams towards the Official Top 40 Chart.”
Song streams doubled in 2013 by 100% to a remarkable 7.4 billion plays, so it was an inevitable move, but music fans everywhere should appreciate the move. “Premium account subscriptions to services such as Spotify and Deezer generated £103 million in revenue for the music industry in 2013. Figures for ad-funded streams and revenue made from sites like YouTube and VEVO have yet to be added, meaning that that total amount in reality is considerably higher.”
Streaming music nowadays is the fastest-growing trend in how we consume music, so it made sense that it should be represented in a chart that tries to reflect the most popular songs in the country each week. So, how will the inclusion of streaming data affect the Official Chart?
“The Official Charts Company launched their Official Streaming Chart back in May 2012, and since its inception the number ones have largely reflected those on the sales chart. Daft Punk’s ‘Get Lucky’ ruled the Streaming Chart for seven weeks in 2013, while Avicii’s ‘Wake Me Up’ reigned for the same period of time just weeks later. Both were also big sellers on the Official Chart.”
Read more: http://www.digitalspy.com/music/thesound/a552123/music-streaming-to-count-towards-top-40-what-effect-will-it-have.html
ROCK “N” ROLL NEWS: U2 Rocks Jimmy Fallon’s Debut as Host of the Tonight Show.
Jimmy Fallon, the new Tonight Show host, kicked off his run recently, which was the first Tonight Show to be taped in New York City in more than four decades. It featured a performance by U2. Over the course of an hour, Fallon’s love of music imbued the entire program.
Fallon took the show to the roof of Rockefeller Center, halfway through the show, to show off New York City and U2. The group played their new single “Invisible,” and on either side of drummer Larry Mullen, Jr. was the Rutgers University drumline. Bono came from out of nowhere, and pounded his fist into his hand, feeling pumped up to be playing for the intimate crowd. It was the first major live performance that U2 had playing on a rooftop in years, and their very first time was when they played on a roof in their video for their song, “Where the Streets Have No Name”.
At the end of the show, Jimmy Fallon convinced U2 to perform an acoustic rendition of “Ordinary Love,” which was the group’s Golden Globe-winning track, now up for an Oscar. It included Fallon lending the Edge his “personal” guitar and Bono giving Fallon a (RED) guitar. Towards the end of the jam, Bono requested a little accompaniment from the Roots who fell into the groove. Bono singled out one of the Roots in particular with some subbed lyrics: “We cannot reach any higher, if we can’t deal with . . . Questlove.” Quest just smiled, and toward the end of the show, Questlove, who received 110,000 new followers on Twitter in the first half-hour of the show, declared his shout-out from Bono as “the most magical moment EVER.”
Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/6-best-musical-moments-from-jimmy-fallons-tonight-show-debut-20140218
ALTERNATIVE NEWS: New Album Coming Out This Week by Beck.
Beck Hansen, known as Beck, streamed his brand new album, “Morning Phase”, in full on NPR’s website a week before its release this Tuesday.
This newest album, to be released by Capitol Records, comes a long six years since his last album, and is his 12th album in his long career. His latest album is being called a sequel to his 2002 record, “Sea Change”.
Beck also has a collaboration with award winning producer, Pharrell, along with other more high profile team ups, that will be released later this year.
Read more: http://variety.com/2014/music/news/beck-streams-new-album-ahead-of-release-1201109545/
EDM NEWS: New Album, “In the Moment” Coming Out By Kaskade This Week.
The latest from the EDM star known as Kaskade, his new album, “In the Moment” is available for full stream on his Youtube Channel. It will feature such new classics such as “Stepping Out” and “Yeah Right” that according to one music news reporter are simply beautiful. Its his second album in his still growing career, and he even made a promise to upload music every Monday until, as he states, “the entire catalog is up”.
Kaskade is considered one of the most talented producers in the industry and his music speaks for itself. Overall, this full stream is a nice for all the Kaskade fans to enjoy the music that touched his fans when they first heard it.
Read more: http://www.youredm.com/2014/02/18/listen-kaskades-moment-album-full/
HIP HOP NEWS: “The Message” is Declared the Greatest Hip-Hop Song of All Time By Rolling Stone Magazine.
Rolling Stone magazine compiled a list of the Top 50 songs that have influenced Hip-Hop history. Their top selection was based on the voted of a Rolling Stone staff panel, and Hip-Hop “experts” such as “Questlove” of The Roots. In the less than 40-year-old Rap genre the top pick was Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five’s “The Message”.
According to the magazine, the hit single from 1982 by the South Bronx collective was able “to tell, with hip hop’s rhythmic and vocal force, the truth about modern inner-city life in America.”
With its stern “Don’t push me/’cause I’m close to the edge…” warning, “The Message” showed impoverished life in American ghettos in a new unheard of way among the fledgling Hip-Hop tracks of the time.
Other songs on the list included Public Enemy’s militant “Fight The Power”, and the Hip-Hop standard “Rapper’s Delight” by Sugarhill Gang, yet another pioneering Rap group formed in the late ’70s.
According to Nathan Brackett, deputy managing editor of Rolling Stone, “It’s a list that would have been a lot harder to do ten or 15 years ago because hip hop is so young,” he told Reuters.
“We’ve reached the point now where hip hop acts are getting into the (Rock and Roll) Hall Of Fame… it just felt like the right time to give this the real Rolling Stone treatment.”
Read more: http://allhiphop.com/2012/12/05/rolling-stone-magazine-declares-the-message-as-greatest-hip-hop-song-of-all-time/
New Music Releases
Beck: Morning Phase
Kaskade: In the Moment.
Our last item for this week’s Manic Monday Music News…Noted February/March Birthdays this week in Music!!
February 23: Brad Whitford (guitarist; Aerosmith)
February 24: George Thorogood (singer, guitarist), George Harrison (UK guitarist, singer; Beatles/solo)
February 25: George Harrison (UK guitarist, multi-musician; Beatles)
February 26: Johnny Cash (singer, guitar), Michael Bolton (singer), “Fats” Domino (singer, pianist)
February 27: Johnny Van Zant (US singer; Lynyrd Skynyrd)
February 28: Pat Monahan (singer for Train)
March 1: Roger Daltrey (UK vocalist, actor; The Who/solo), Justin Bieber (Canadian pop/R&B singer), Ke$ha/Kesha (US singer), Harry Belafonte (US singer, actor, humanitarian), Glenn Miller (American jazz musician; big band leader), Frederic Francois Chopin [composer, pianist].
Every Monday look forward to the “Manic Monday Music News”, run by yours truly, Scott Rossi! Music is the Universal language which brings the world together, something we can all agree on, so I will always try to find some cool weekly news for you to hear about, here on our blog.