• Seattle vs. New England: Spotify Compares and Contrasts Music Listening in Super Bowl Competitiors' Hometowns

    Music Times made an attempt several weeks ago to predict the winner of the Super Bowl based on quality of albums coming out of the regions represented in the AFC and NFC Championship Games. So far so good: Seattle is facing New England, as we predicted, but will the Seahawks triumph? Who knows? Not Spotify. The music streaming service did use its numbers-tracking technology to create two playlists of songs representing the performers that listeners in the respective regions listen in far greater numbers than their foes on the opposite coast.

  • Katy Perry Talks Rumored Taylor Swift Beef, John Mayer Relationship, Childhood, Lenny Kravitz & More Ahead Of Super Bowl Halftime Performance

    With the Super Bowl just days away, Katy Perry graces the cover of Billboard magazine ahead of her halftime performance. When she takes the stage at the University of Phoenix stadium on Sunday, she will perform for 12-and-a-half minutes for an audience of about 100 million TV viewers and 63,400 attendees. The cover story follows Perry through rehearsals, where she dishes on her childhood, her home life, her relationship with John Mayer, her rumored beef with Taylor Swift, and her thoughts on all things Super Bowl XLIX-related, among other topics. Here's what we learned:

  • Charli XCX Records Japanese Versions of 'Boom Clap,' 'Break The Rules' [LISTEN]

    Even though Charli XCX's great new album Sucker was released in the United States on Dec. 15, it doesn't come out in Japan until Feb. 8 for whatever reason. As a special treat for her Japanese fans who have been forced to wait so long on the album (the ones who haven't illegally downloaded it, anyway), XCX has recorded Japanese versions of two of the album's singles as bonus tracks: "Boom Clap" and "Break The Rules," which you can check out below. In true J-Pop fashion, these versions find XCX singing mostly in Japanese, but switching over to English for some key phrases (apparently there's no Japanese translation for "boom clap").

  • Katy Perry & Lenny Kravitz's "Leaked" Super Bowl Song Surfaces Courtesy Of Tim Heidecker [LISTEN]

    Katy Perry's Super Bowl song featuring Lenny Kravitz has leaked. By song, we mean fake song, and by leaked we mean purposely released as a joke. The song actually comes from Tim Heidecker, the Tim and Eric franchise comedian, who is known for his Super Bowl halftime show "leaks." As Billboard notes, last year he dropped the unintelligible "Abracadabralifornia" ahead of the Red Hot Chili Peppers' Super Bowl halftime appearance, and in 2012 he leaked a "Madonna" song that featured a terrible impersonator scatting and singing vague things about football.

  • Barack Obama, David Cameron and Narendra Modi: Guessing at 6 World Leaders' Favorite Performers

    The favorite music of the world's most powerful people is often kept a secret, as one controversial faux pas could be the death of a political career. Things have started to warm up however, as the leaders of the free (and less than free) world have taken to filling the general public in on their Facebook favs. David Cameron told the world this week that he preferred Bryan Ferry over Jay Z, and even Vladimir Putin has warmed enough to inform his constituents that he was "a Russian man and I listen to Russian music." French President Francois Hollande used "Niggas in Paris" as part of a campaign commercial during 2012 (although we doubt he personally is a fan of Jay and Kanye).

  • Common Drops Verse on Stacy Barthe's 'Live for Today' [LISTEN]

    Fresh off of his Golden Globe win — and as of this morning, Academy Award nomination — for his song "Glory" from the movie "Selma," Chicago rapper Common has dropped a new verse on Stacy Barthe's "Live for Today," which you can check out below. As its title implies, the song is about seizing the day and not waiting around for moments of greatness to come, with Common asking, "I know the world is changing / But I'm still in my mind, where the peace be?" The true highlight of the track, however, is Benny Cassette's excellent production, which is based around a killer bassline and some jazzy electric piano chords. You can check out Stacy Barthe's "Live for Today" featuring Common here, via "Hot New Hip-Hop":

  • Katy Perry Super Bowl: "Dark Horse" Performer Reports She Didn't Pay for Gig, Hints at "Firework" and "Roar" for Playlist(?)

    The world chuckled at the arrogance of the NFL when reports came out that it had given a suggestion to potential Super Bowl Pepsi Halftime Show headliners Katy Perry, Coldplay and Rihanna that they might consider paying the leaguer for the right to perform at the 2015 event. Perry, the eventual act chosen for the February 1 game, reports to Rolling Stone that she did not pony up for the gig.

  • Lenny Kravitz Joins Katy Perry Super Bowl Halftime Show as 'Special Guest'

    Last year, Bruno Mars got the Red Hot Chili Peppers to join his Super Bowl halftime performance. There was really no need for the addition, from an aesthetic point of view, because Mars killed it on his own — but the NFL and Fox decided they needed to appeal to an older audience. This year, Katy Perry was expected to have enough firepower to perform her own gig, but the "Teenage Dream" singer just announced she is adding Lenny Kravitz to the show. "My first special guest is going to be an incredible rock & roll icon, a guitar god," Perry told NBC's Willie Geist in an interview set to air Monday, Jan. 12, on "The Today Show," via "Rolling Stone." E! reports the 30-year-old singer was pumped about the addition of Kravitz, an international sensation with two U.S. mainstream rock No. 1 hits — "Are You Gonna Go My Way" and "Fly Away" — under his belt.

  • Katy Perry and John Mayer Back Together? Couple Spotted at Hollywood Restaurant on a Date

    Nothing is official, as per usual, but it looks like Katy Perry and John Mayer are back together. The couple went to dinner at the Tower Bar in Hollywood Thursday (Jan. 8) and a source told the New York Post's Page Six that the superstars looked like they were on a date. Rumors of the rekindled romance surfaced at the beginning of the month after Mayer and Perry were spotted for the first time since their split in February 2014.

  • Are These 3 New Katy Perry Songs?

    All has been quiet on the Katy Perry music front lately, but it appears that something has been brewing in the "Dark Horse" singer's lab of late. As to be expected with any large pop star, there have been rumors and plenty of speculation from die-hard fans, but nothing concrete as of yet. That seems to have changed. According to the résumé of decorated mixer Serban Ghenea via "Popjustice," there are three new Katy Perry songs that he has worked on, titled "She's So Creepy," "In Flames" and "Heartache Crusade." Check out his résumé in the document here and skip to Page 4 of 23 to see the evidence. Ghenea has mixed for artists like Keith Urban, Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber, Kesha, One Direction, Rihanna, Usher, Katy Perry and more. He has worked on just about every big pop star of the past 15 years in music. The song "She's So Creepy" could be throwing shade at Taylor Swift and would bring their public tiff to a new level from the occasional comment and social media jab into discographies. Katy Petty would be pulling a Taylor Swift by writing a song about an enemy. The irony.
View More
Festivals
Popular Now
Real Time Analytics