Ryan Book, The Music Times

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  • Courtney Love Making Musical Theatre Debut in 'Kansas City Choir Boy' as Part of Prototype Festival in New York

    Courtney Love has been so caught up in tabloid-style news for years that we forgot that she produced some damn good music at one point and that an actual artist existed somewhere in there. Everyone can feel good about her newest project, a song-cycle-style play featuring herself and songwriter Todd Almond, should be a good splash of cold water on our cynical critics' faces. The former Hole vocalist/guitarist will perform in 'Kansas City Choir Boy' as part of the annual Prototype Festival, an event showcasing experimental theatre.

  • Akon Coming Back With New Album, Five Disc 'Stadium' Set Featuring Five Different "Genres"; First Album Since 'Freedom' in 2008

    Many rappers put out way more music than they can possibly release on LPs, which is why we're constantly getting new Chief Keef mixtapes and we'll be getting new Tupac Shakur material until we ourselves are dead (at which point we hope we can put out a record as well). The best rappers know that a majority of the work they put out isn't album-worthy, which is why it never sees the light of day. A few double-album exceptions exist, such as Shakur's 'All Eyez On Me' and The Notorious B.I.G.'s 'Life After Death,' but nothing could have prepared us for what Akon has planned for 2015: A five-disc set of original material titled 'Stadium.'

  • Broadway Ends 2014 Big: 'The Lion King,' 'A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder' and 'It's Just A Play' Set Theater Records

    We at Music Times are getting tired of writing about things being down during 2014-album sales were down, it seems like digital single sales will be down, and we just reported that piano sales are way down-but good news: One thing was up toward the end of the year and it wasn't vinyl sales. Broadway productions in New York City brought in huge numbers. More than 30,000 more viewers showed up for shows than they did during Christmastime 2013. Of the 36 shows currently in production on the Great White Way, 19 broke $1 million.

  • Piano Stores Closing Doors as Fewer New Instruments Being Sold; Busy Kids and Restorations Hurting Sales

    Everybody knows that album sales are down, and at least in the UK singles downloads are down as well, but the advancement of the computer age is leaving another segment of the music market in the dust as well: pianos. A mini-feature by Billboard sheds light on the rapid rate at which piano retailers are closing their doors amid a climate where folks just aren't shelling out for the most significant of instruments. Last year saw the sale of somewhere between 30,000 and 40,000 pianos...compared to the instrument's peak year of 1909, when more than 364,000 were sold.

  • 7 Renditions of "The Promise" to Celebrate Your New Year's Resolution: Bruce Springsteen, When In Rome, Tracy Chapman and More

    Ugh, Day one of a new year. By this point we've already broken our new year's resolution, if only to recover from the hangover we're enduring to last year's last minute binge. Congratulations to you if you actually come through and accomplish your goals for 2015. Plenty of bands have made a promise, or "The Promise" to be specific. Here are a few examples, from Bruce Springsteen to When In Rome.

  • Garth Brooks Going Big during Record-Breaking 'Today Show' Appearance January 8; Does Performer Have Big Tour Plans to Announce?

    Garth Brooks had a fairly accomplished 2014: He released a new album, Man Against Machine—which we suspect may have gone platinum...if only his website would report digital sales for the album—and he also set personal concert sales records at nearly every venue he visited during the tour supporting that album. Now he'll start off 2015 with a bang, scheduled to appear on the Today Show on January 8, which itself will be of note because he's due to appear throughout the entirety of the four-hour program.

  • Founder and Artistic Director Dame Fanny Waterman Stepping Down after 53 Years with Leeds International Piano Competition

    The Leeds International Piano Competition will look at least a little different during 2016. After this year's event during August and September, Dame Fanny Waterman will be stepping down from her traditional role as the artistic director for the music contest. She and her husband Geoffrey de Keyser, as well as accomplished pianist Marion Thorpe, founded the Leeds Competition during 1961. Although her husband died during 2001, she has maintained her role in the competition and will serve one last time during 2015. She is 94 years old.

  • Despite Big Sales Years for Taylor Swift and 'Frozen,' Album Sales Still Down 11 Percent during 2014; Downloads Also Down 9 Percent

    Earlier this week we got the exciting news that Taylor Swift and 1989 had passed the Frozen Original Motion Picture Soundtrack to become the bestselling album of 2014. Both albums went well beyond triple-platinum status during their 2014 sales runs and it seems Swift's most recent album will be one of the bestselling albums of the decade, if not the sole best selling record, but the time it's done. But now it's time to take the facts into consideration: Album sales as a whole were down by more than 11 percent during 2014.

  • The Hollywood Reporter's Best Music Books of 2014: Nonfiction(?) on The Rolling Stones, Aerosmith, Billy Joel, Fleetwood Mac and More

    Happy New Year! If you're anything like us, you've about had enough of every website publishing its own Top 10 of everything for the year and of certain Sirius stations playing the same countdowns every day during your commute and watering down an otherwise diverse channel. The Hollywood Reporter has down the unthinkable and published a list of the best books (?!?) of the year, all of which deal with the topic of music. Check out a brief summary below and then head to your local library or bookstore.

  • Iggy Azalea Confirms TMJ Diagnosis but Don't Worry: Emcee Will Enter Studio Next Week for 'The New Classic' Follow-Up

    Some viewers of Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve may have noticed that Iggy Azalea was acting somewhat peculiarly as she performed "Fancy" with Charlie XCX: She was dressed rather conservatively. This had nothing to do with a more interesting tweet she sent out early in the day where she confirmed that she had been diagnosed with temporomandibular joint dysfunction, or TMJ (she also announced she's working on a new album but we'll get to the good news later).

  • 7 Songs Featuring Non-Traditional Instruments; Featuring Tracks from The Beach Boys, Nirvana, Pearl Jam and More

    On this day 40 years ago Pink Floyd began working on what would become what many consider to be the band's masterpiece, and what would become one of the bestselling rock albums of all time: Dark Side of The Moon. A Floyd project that fewer people are familiar with is the album that the band meant to do instead of Moon: An album recorded using nothing but household objects. This project, despite the inevitable cult stays that it would attain, probably wouldn't have lived up to the acclaim of the album the band did end up recording. Still, we can't help but appreciate the idea of using non-musical items in a more musical sense. Here are seven songs (if not full albums) that feature some outside instrumentation.

  • 5 Times Square Music Events from 2014 That Weren't 'Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve'; Featuring U2, Kanye West, Michael Jackson and More

    Happy New Year to those who read this article seven hours late, and happy preparation for the new year to those of you reading it today. Right now most of the music world's attention is on Times Square for another night of Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve, featuring performances from Taylor Swift, Florida Georgia Line and Idina Menzel. Midtown's main tourist attraction has long been the headquarters for the American celebration of another year coming to close but this isn't the only time big name musical acts have stopped by. Here are five other musical events you may have missed in the last year as you were clawing your way toward the Bubba Gump's location for lunch.

  • Taylor Swift No. 2 All Time for Weeks at No. 1; No New Albums to Interrupt Nicki Minaj, Pentatonix and One Direction Post-Christmas

    Another week and another run at history by Taylor Swift: Her album 1989 managed to top the Billboard 200 for the seventh time during its nine weeks on the charts, selling 326,000 full copies and generating 430 multi-metric equivalent albums (MME's). That no. 1 spot moves her into second place all-time for women atop the Billboard 200 with 31 weeks at no. 1, trailing only Whitney Houston and her crazy 46 week total.
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