Demi Lovato, Marshmello, Sia, David Guetta, James Blake and More Top Songs of the Week

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorLil Yachty was arrested and charged with driving more than 150 mph down an Atlanta interstate, according to the city’s WSB-TV.Yachty (real name: Miles McCollum), was pulled over on Sept. 21 on the Downtown Connector near University Avenue in Atlanta.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorLast week, Universal Music Group and its Task Force for Meaningful Change (in partnership with UMG’s °1824 and Diversity & Inclusion teams, Def Jam Forward, Interscope/Geffen/A&M and Republic Record’s Action Committee), launched a series of special programs and discussions in celebration of this year’s Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Annual Legislative Conference.The events are free and open to the public.

Janelle Monáe has spoken about the police system and its connections to racism, saying it was “built on traumatising Black folks”.The musician and actor appears in the movie Antebellum, which tackles slavery and Confederate-era America.Speaking about the recent resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement, Monáe told the Guardian she was “happy” that the conversation was being had, even though “a lot of people [are] late to the party”.“You can’t talk about white supremacy, systemic racism,

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorOn a week like this, with a crushing onslaught of strong contenders for the coveted Fri 5, your faithful reviewer feels like an “American Idol” judge, with a whole load of self-imposed rules about what constitutes a great single (as opposed to a great song), trying to disregard considerations like how popular an artist is or isn’t, which record label it’s on, etc. Like…“The new Lil Wayne song ‘Life of Mr.

Jordan Peele’s and his follow-up,, finally shattered any preconceived notions about who could tell these stories — and just as importantly, who could star in them. “The fact that there’s, you know, a small handful of films led by Black people, to me, was the horror itself,” the director said in the 2019 Shudder original documentary , which traces the untold stories of Black people’s contributions to the horror genre and how they’ve finally been embraced by Hollywood. Three years after, the 2020

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorSO. MANY.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorSting, Norah Jones, Trey Anastasio of Phish and many more will perform tonight (Thursday, Sept. 17) at SummerStage Jubilee, a free benefit concert supporting City Parks Foundation’s programs in parks, taking place via livestream at 8 p.m.

DEALSChinese streaming service NetEase Cloud Music has announced a deal with BMG which will see the digital platform get direct access to the music firm’s catalogue. The two companies will also collaborate on “unique initiatives and projects crossing cultures and genres”.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorSiriusXM today announced that Chief Executive Officer Jim Meyer intends to retire on December 31, 2020.Upon his retirement, Jennifer C. Witz, President of Sales, Marketing and Operations, will become the Company’s new CEO.Gregory B.

Demi Lovato teamed up with Marshmello for a heartfelt anthem about mental health, David Guetta and Sia dropped an 80s-tinged bop about the unifying power of love, and Florida Georgia Line delivered a perfect country tribute to the last nights of summer.Plus, Janelle Monáe released her first new music since 2018's — a powerful political anthem for the new documentary — and Usher got candid about his «Bad Habits» in a new single.Read on for some of our favorite recommendations for new songs and

DEALSHaving bought a whole publishing company earlier this week, Hipgnosis has gone back to signing up individual songwriters – this time Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders. “I’m proud to say I have been a vegetarian, now vegan, for 35 years thanks to the influence of Chrissie, and as a result I have four grown children that have never had meat pass through them”, says Hipgnosis founder Merck Mercuriadis.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorCapping a week that has seen the company acquire Big Deal Music Group and appoint several new top officers, Hipgnosis Songs announced that it has acquired the music catalog of Chrissie Hynde, founding member, lead vocalist and primary songwriter of pioneering rock band The Pretenders.Hipgnosis has acquired 100% of Hynde’s music publishing catalog of 164 songs, including publishing and writer’s share (PRS) from the Pretenders and her other projects. Terms of the deal

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorDigital music distribution and publishing admin company TuneCore has named Maria Ho-Burge global communications director.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorHipgnosis Songs has acquired Big Deal Music Group and brought board its senior staff, with Kenny MacPherson becoming CEO of Hipgnosis Songs Group and reporting directly to founder and CEO Merck Mercuriadis. He is joined by Co-Presidents Casey Robison and Jamie Cerreta and Executive Vice President Dave Ayers (New York) as well as Senior Vice President Pete Robinson (Nashville) all of whom have signed new five-year contracts, according to the announcement.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorTriller, the music-video creation app, has named a dozen top female music industry executives to a new advisory board.

Like Danny & Sandy, Thelma & Louise and J-Lo and Pitbull, David Guetta and Sia are absolutely an iconic duo.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorHipgnosis Songs founder Merck Mercuriadis named Ted Cockle president and Amy Thomson as chief catalogue officer of the company.Cockle was most recently president of Virgin EMI in the U.K., which under his tenure managed the recorded music for artists including Queen, Elton John, Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, George Michael, Justin Bieber, Emeli Sande, The Killers, Lorde and Lewis Capaldi.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorCompared with the avalanche of recent weeks, the days leading up to Labor Day weekend were relatively slow for incoming new songs — which means we went through just 80 instead of 120! — providing a great opportunity to shine a light on some lesser-known artists.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorFor today only — Friday, Sept.