Dua Lipa Unveils ‘Radical Optimism’ — New Album’s Tracklist, Cover and Release Date

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Lou Reed was indisputably one of the most provocative musicians the rock world has known, releasing songs about heroin abuse and sadomasochism on his very first album (“The Velvet Underground and Nico”), utilizing piercing guitar feedback on many of his songs, and scoring a global hit single in 1973 that referenced oral sex (“Walk on the Wild Side”). But arguably his single most provocative musical move was “Metal Machine Music,” a double-LP filled with nothing but deafening guitar feedback and effects that was released in 1975, at the peak of his commercial success.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music A series of billboards apparently teasing Billie Eilish’s new album have popped up in major cities across the world, as noted in multiple social media posts on Tuesday. The billboards do not feature the Grammy- and Oscar-winning artist’s name but do include her familiar “blohsh” symbol and what appear to be lyric snippets saying things like “Did I cross the line?,” “I try to live in black and white” and “She’s the headlights I’m the deer.” A rep for the artist did not immediately respond to Variety‘s requests for comment.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music With hits like Snoop Dogg’s “Drop It Like It’s Hot,” Kelis’ “Milkshake,” Gwen Stefani’s “Hollaback Girl” and dozens of others, Pharrell Williams and longtime collaborator Chad Hugo rode to multiplatinum success as the songwriting/production duo the Neptunes. While Pharrell has become a superstar in his own right over the last two decades, with solo hits like “Happy” and “Freedom,” Hugo has kept a comparatively low profile – but the pair are now in a legal dispute over the group’s name.

Dua Lipa has revealed which song gave her the “eureka moment” for her new album ‘Radical Optimism’.In a new interview with Variety, Lipa shared the song that gave her the “eureka moment”, which she described as the moment that “takes you into the next phase of the album”. Lipa is gearing up to release ‘Radical Optimism‘, her third studio album due for release on May 3.Speaking to Variety, Lipa named ‘Illusion’ as the song that unlocked her “eureka moment”, saying: “That was a song where I felt like lyrically, I got this radical optimism,” she said.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music In the weeks since Beyonce announced her “Cowboy Carter” album, there’s been an enormous amount of commentary over the singer’s move into country music, and the long-overlooked contributions of Black artists to the genre since its very beginning. There’s also been more-humorous comments about the album’s title — which comes from Beyonce’s married surname and her husband, Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter — and the long legacy left by the Carter Family, whose music is widely viewed as the single biggest influence on the country genre.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Universal Music Group and Spotify — the world’s largest music company and the world’s largest paid music-subscription service — have unveiled an expansion of their “strategic relationship” in an announcement that has very few details but is likely the opening of a new maneuver in UMG’s ongoing battle with TikTok. UMG and the China-based platform, which has been the leading source of music discovery for the past five years, have been in a standoff over multiple issues, primarily the platform’s low royalty payments and AI policies, since their licensing agreement expired earlier this year.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music The U.S. recorded music industry grew its revenue by 8% in 2023, reaching an all-time high of $17.1 billion and marking eight consecutive years of growth. However, there’s no question that the streaming boom of the past decade, which produced years of double-digit growth, is leveling off and the industry is reacting with layoffs and talk of a “transformational moment” in the months and years to come.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music R&B ace Maxwell has announced “The Serenade 2024” North American Tour, which will see him joined by two special guests: two-time Grammy winner Jazmine Sullivan and rising singer-songwriter October London. Full dates appear below.

PlayStation 1 game covers.Over the past few days, X user wxrldprinceii has shared a series of images that see modern-day classic records transformed to look like PS1 games.Dua Lipa’s ‘Future Nostalgia’, Lady Gaga’s ‘The Fame Monster’, Lana Del Rey’s ‘Born To Die’, Charli XCX’s ‘How I’m Feeling Now’ and Caroline Polachek’s ‘Desire, I Want To Turn To You’ have all been featured, with each cover racking up plenty of views and reposts across social media.Desire, I Want to Turn Into You (PS1) pic.twitter.com/4OPJTS79YC— shy ✫彡 (@wxrldprinceii) March 21, 2024Future Nostalgia (PS1) for @LipaKacper_ pic.twitter.com/aqOm8VrlVT— shy ✫彡 (@wxrldprinceii) March 21, 2024Of course, this viral success hasn’t come without criticism. Responding to complaints that the images are far more polished than PlayStation 1-era games, wxrldprinceii wrote: “Reminder that this is what PS1 covers looked like! They rarely used in game stuff for the art, so pls stop @ing me saying it doesn’t look like a PS1 game because it’s not meant to!”reminder that this is what PS1 covers looked like! they rarely used in game stuff for the art, so pls stop @ ing me saying it doesn’t look like a PS1 game cause it’s not MEANT TOOOO AHHHH pic.twitter.com/JhDOY87Ro6— shy ✫彡 (@wxrldprinceii) March 21, 2024Several other creators have also gotten involved in the trend, with hussi_maraj sharing reworked takes on Grimes’ ‘Art Angels’ and Nicki Minaj’s ‘Pink Friday’.I would play this all day everyday! pic.twitter.com/ZeP1MvhYAT— Hussi (@hussi_maraj) March 22, 2024Other people have taken issue with the AI filter used to create these pieces, when artists have been creating their own low-poly images for several years now.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music If there’s a top jack-of-all-trades in the music industry, there’s a good chance it’s Ryan Tedder. He’s a hugely successful recording artist (as leader of OneRepublic), one of the top songwriter-producers of the past 15 years (Beyoncé’s “Halo,” U2, Taylor Swift, Miley Cyrus, Ed Sheeran, Maroon 5, Ariana Grande and many more) and is also a more savvy music publisher than many full-time music publishers.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Spotify has provided further details on the record $9 billion it paid out to the music industry in 2023, which was first announced in January. For context, the company stated that the “amount has nearly tripled over the past six years, and represents a big part of the $48 billion-plus Spotify has paid since its founding.” Last March, the company said it pays out nearly 70% of every dollar it generates from music back to the industry, generating its music revenue from two sources: subscription fees from its Premium platform paying subscribers, and fees from advertisings on music on its Free tier.

Steven J. Horowitz Senior Music Writer Dua Lipa has much different expectations leading into her upcoming third album “Radical Optimism” than with her last, “Future Nostalgia.” “It was a record that I envisioned coming out at a time when people could have been out and dancing and in clubs and enjoying a disco record in that way. And it was the exact opposite,” says the 28-year old, who’s seated in a conference room at a West Hollywood hotel.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Jeff Lynne’s ELO hae announce their final tour, dubbed “The Over and Out Tour.” The 27-date excursion, produced by Live Nation, will kick off in Palm Desert, CA on August 24 and travel across North America before concluding in Los Angeles on October 25. Artist Presale will begin on Wednesday, March 20 at 10am local time and the general onsale will start on Friday, March 22 @ 10am local time. Exclusive VIP experiences will be available March 20th at 10am local.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Fifty may be the new forty in some areas of life, but popular music isn’t one of them. With very few exceptions, pop musicians make their most vital work in their twenties and early thirties, and even if they continue to perform to sold-out arenas into their eighties, as the Rolling Stones have, the fans are largely indifferent to their new music and just want to hear the hits — leading to the seemingly counterintuitive situation of artists with sold-out tours connected to new albums that are, comparatively anyway, flops.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music For their headlining set opening the Rolling Loud California festival in Los Angeles on Thursday night, Kanye West and Ty Dolla $ign merely stood onstage for an hour while pre-recorded music from their already released first album played over the loudspeakers. While the wording in the official announcement of the late-added performance was unspecific — “Vultures headlining new Thursday night,” the since-deleted post read — it’s safe to say that most people expected the duo, who have been working together under the name Vultures, to at least deliver vocals.

Phoebe Bridgers, Caroline Polachek and yeule are among the contributors for their upcoming horror film, I Saw The TV Glow.Other artists to feature on the soundtrack include L’Rain, Bartees Strange, The Weather Station, Jay Som, Maria BC and Florist.Directed by Jane Schoenbrun, I Saw The TV Glow follows the story of two teenagers who bond over a supernatural TV show which mysteriously gets cancelled as they start to lose their grip on reality.A synopsis of the film reads: “Teenager Owen is just trying to make it through life in the suburbs when his classmate introduces him to a mysterious late-night TV show — a vision of a supernatural world beneath their own. In the pale glow of the television, Owen’s view of reality begins to crack.”Bridgers also appears in the movie alongside Snail Mail’s Lindsey Jordan and Limp Bizkit’s Fred Durst.The soundtrack will be released on May 10, following the film’s release.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Jennifer Lopez has canceled seven dates of her first North American tour in five years, in support of her new album “This Is Me… Now” and its pair of companion films. The dates spanning Aug.

Dua Lipa has this evening (March 13) unveiled details of her third album, ‘Radical Optimism.’ Check out the album track list and artwork below.The new album will arrive on May 3 and is made up of 11 songs, including lead single ‘Houdini‘ and the recently released ‘Training Season.’ You can pre-order/pre-save ‘Radical Optimism’ here.A statement about the album said: “Inspired by Dua’s own self-discovery, ‘Radical Optimism’ is an album that taps into the pure joy and happiness of having clarity in situations that once seemed impossible to face. The hard goodbyes and vulnerable beginnings that previously threatened to crush your soul, become milestones as you choose optimism and start to move with grace through the chaos.”The album is said to also be inspired by the energy of Dua Lipa’s London hometown and the “rawness, honesty, confidence and freedom of ‘90s Britpop.”Speaking about the album, Dua Lipa added: “A couple years ago, a friend introduced me to the term Radical Optimism.

Dua Lipa‘s third album has a title, album cover, release date and track listing!

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music The standoff between Universal Music Groupand TikTok over royalty payments and AI policies has resulted in a near-complete blackout of all music owned, distributed and published by the company on the platform — the videos are still there, but the music is muted. Yet new songs by UMG artists, including Ariana Grande, Camila Cabello and Niall Horan could be found on TikTok at the time of this article’s publication. How and why is that happening? While reps for UMG and TikTok declined comment, and an explanation of the platform’s logistics and process quickly devolves into a mind-melting blizzard of jargon and abbreviations, here’s a vast oversimplification of a couple of possibilities.