Library of Congress Selects Records by Green Day, the Chicks, the Notorious B.I.G., ABBA, Blondie for National Recording Registry

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Taylor Swift‘s “The Tortured Poets Department” has lived up to its blockbuster potential and then some. Billboard reported Sunday that, per data provided by Luminate, the new release racked up 2.61 million album-equivalent units in its first week out — the best one-week figure for any album in nine years. The last album to debut with a higher figure was Adele’s “25,” which bowed with 3.482 million in 2015, a number that is considered unrepeatable with the changes that have occurred in consumption since then.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic It would be hard to imagine a more actually polarizing set — as in, splitting real fans into roughly even, truly diametrically opposed camps — than the headlining show Eric Church delivered to round out the first night of Stagecoach in California. The 70,000 festival attendees will definitely not lack for anything to talk, or argue, about for the rest of the weekend, and the debate will also continue among the many more fans who watched the livestream on Prime Video and Amazon’s Twitch channel.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic The tide of Black women in country is a phenomenon that much of the world has suddenly become aware of, thanks to Beyoncé’s “Cowboy Carter” and the lesser-known artists being championed through guest slots on the album. Does this mark the true signal change that advocates for diversity in country have long dreamed of? Or is the real progress within the ranks of the music industry that could allow young Black country artists so lacking that the current excitement might be destined to go down as a glorious blip? These were among the topics of a presentation by the Black Music Action Coalition at Live Nation’s Beverly Hills headquarters Wednesday, with Mickey Guyton, songwriter-artist INK (who is a key contributor to “Cowboy Carter”) and academic researcher Dr.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic More than 20 years after his death, there are treasures in the Johnny Cash vault that have remained unmined, despite assumptions that everything interesting might have been brought into the light in the posthumous recordings that came out in the years following his 2003 death. On June 28, Universal Music will issue “Songwriter,” a collection of 11 previously unreleased recordings that Cash demo-ed in 1993, all of them self-penned originals.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic There’s no golden ticket quite like the golden ticket of finding your name in the lyrics of a Taylor Swift song. It’s one thing if you’re Charlie Puth, and already on a list of Spotify’s 150 top monthly artists. But for another musical artist name-checked in Swift’s album “The Tortured Poets Department,” the impact stands to be much more impactful.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has revealed the names of 16 artists or other musical figures who will be inducted in 2024. It’s a diverse list that stretches from R&B/rock pioneer Big Mama Thornton to pop superstars Cher and Dionne Warwick, and from ’70s-rooted rockers like Peter Frampton, Foreigner and Ozzy Osbourne to ’90s icons the Dave Matthews Band, Mary J.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic There’s a certain type of vinyl geek that has all 387 exclusives coming out for Record Store Day 2024 committed to memory — color variants, pressing quantities and prices included. The rest of us may need a bit of guidance, which is where this look at 25 wallet-worthy releases comes in. Obviously, our list represents less than 10% of this year’s RSD population, but you can go to the full list — found here — after you get a start (or a reminder) with our rundown, which includes a mixture of the most obviously commercial titles and an assortment of cred or cult items.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Taylor Swift can’t quit breaking her own records. After Spotify revealed Friday that “The Tortured Poets Department” had become the first album in the DSP’s history to amass 200 million streams in a single day, the service updated that news early Saturday, to report that first-day streams actually surpassed 300 million, when all was said and done and counted.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic The torture is over for fans who waited weeks and months for Taylor Swift’s “The Tortured Poets Department” to arrive. But the truly faithful still have some work ahead, in trying to decode what or who is the subject of each of the 16 songs (plus four bonus tracks).

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Taylor Swift usually writes either an essay or poem to be included in her album packaging, but for “The Tortured Poets Department,” she used the buddy system. Stevie Nicks contributed a handwritten poem she wrote for Swift, which is the first thing fans will see when they open the LP gatefolds or CD booklets Friday morning. That doesn’t mean Swift skipped out on her usual duties, as the album packaging also includes a long handwritten poem she penned herself, placed after the lyrics in the booklets as a sort of epilogue.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Returning for its 15th annual edition this weekend, the TCM Classic Film Festival will turn Hollywood Blvd. into the center of the movie universe again for four days, for that very obsessive and loving subset of film fans that has the network’s vintage fare as part of their weekly and daily lives. And just what time span “classics” falls into is exemplified by the big opening and closing night films.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Barbra Streisand has recorded a new song, “Love Will Survive,” to serve as the end-title theme for “The Tattooist of Auschwitz,” a six-part, Holocaust-themedseries that premieres on Peacock in the U.S. and Sky in other territories on May 2. The song will come out globally via her longtime label, Columbia Records, on April 25.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic For an artist looking to break Coachella, it pays to enlist friends at a cutting-edge production firm. At this year’s festival, L.A.-based Silent House has laid claim to designing and executing the elaborate productions for three of the four headliners.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic For decades, the attitude toward the documentary “Let It Be” in the Beatles‘ camp seemed to be: Let it it rest in peace. But the film is finally going to be seen again.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic With the April 15 episode of “NCIS” on CBS, the overall franchise — including its multiple spinoffs — clocks its 1,000th episode. That’s a milestone for all of the associated series, but the mothership show accounts for nearly half of those, and is edging ever closer to its own once-unfathomable benchmark: “NCIS” O.G.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Doja Cat has rarely turned in an uninteresting or unprovocative performance, and her headlining set Sunday night at Coachella offered a plethora of looks and concepts designed to prompt dazzlement and debate among the viewing audience. Dinosaur skeletons? Mudbath choreography? Twerking Yetis? Her hour-and-a-half set just about had it all… Well, everything except for her biggest pop hits, like “Say So” and “Kiss Me More.” Familiar older songs were notably MIA from a setlist that included 12 songs from her 2023 “Scarlet” album, with its determined focus on her rapping side, and four more from the deluxe edition, “Scarlet 2: Claude,” that just popped.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Lana Del Rey had a couple of heavily favored cameos during her Coachella performance, welcoming recent collaborators Jack Antonoff and Jon Batiste, both of whom will be fronting their own sets later in the weekend — but also one far less easily guessed guest, in the form of Billie Eilish, who turned up for a surprise pair of duets. Taking to a terrace overlooking the massive stage, the duo first joined forces on Eilish’s “Ocean Eyes,” then turned their voices to “Video Games.” Both songs represent the first real breakout hits in these artists’ respective careers.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic She is still Shelby Lynne. That may sound like it’s saying it’s a little, but it’s really saying a lot, for anyone who holds a special place for the landmark album “I Am Shelby Lynne,” a turn-of-the-millennium masterpiece that put its bearer on the artistic map for good.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Paul McCartney was the obvious headliner of the bill Thursday at the Hollywood Bowl. But it was Buffett-mania that was in full sway, as a cast of dozens of singers and celebrity presenters — from Jane Fonda to Snoop Dogg — saluted or parroted a fallen musical hero for the three-and-a-half-hour “Keep The Party Going: A Tribute to Jimmy Buffett.” Most of the night’s entertainers covered Buffett classics or obscurities, although McCartney, the Eagles and Snoop Dogg broke with that to regale the full Bowl house with their own material, while Zac Brown and (sending in a video contribution) Dave Matthews debuted brand new songs saluting Buffett.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic The title of Laufey‘s new single and music video, “Goddess,” is intended somewhat ironically. The storyline of both has a star feeling she’s let down a lover who only wanted the glamorous version of her he’d seen on stage, not the everyday person.