Songs For Screens: Raphael Saadiq on Creating HBO’s ‘Lovecraft Country’ Score (Over Zoom) and Upcoming Aretha Franklin Doc

Dominic Patten Senior Editor, Legal & TV CriticSPOILER ALERT: This article contains details of tonight’s Lovecraft County episode ‘A History of Violence’ on HBO. Tread carefully.EXCLUSIVE: “There was an operative sentence that came to me at the beginning, and it had to do with Jurnee Smollett calling me on a Saturday early early early in the morning,” explains director Victoria Mahoney of how she came to direct tonight’s ‘A History of Violence’ episode of Lovecraft Country.“She said a sentence

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.

Andrew Hampp Teddy Riley can remember the first time he experimented with the concept of 3D audio, nearly 30 years ago during the making of Michael Jackson’s “Dangerous.” Using the now-defunct Roland RSS Space Sound Compressor, Riley filtered his voice through the gear to create a surround-sound “5-4-3-2-1” countdown during the intro of Jackson’s 1991 single “Jam” in an era when such technology was too prohibitively expensive and bulky for the masses.“It’s come a long way,” says Riley.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorStaging an awards show in a pandemic is a steep challenge, but for the VMAs on Sunday night, MTV and Toyota will present Latinx music stars Maluma and CNCO performing at a special drive-in location, where fans can enjoy the performances in a safe and controlled environment at an undisclosed iconic location overlooking the New York skyline.The performances will both be debuts: Colombian singer — and recent Variety cover star — Maluma will perform “Hawaii,” from his

Andrew Hampp Like many professional musicians, Roger Neill wears many hats: he’s an in-demand composer for film (including Mike Mills’ “20th Century Women” and “Beginners”), TV (Amazon’s Golden Globe-winning comedy “Mozart In The Jungle,” Fox’s “King Of The Hill”) and radio (NPR’s “This American Life”).

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorFor years, several high-profile artists — including Prince, Metallica, Bob Seger and others — held back their music from streaming services, due usually to the comparatively low royalty rates compared with physical product.However, in some cases, the holdout was due to disarray within the artist’s rights-holders — which has long been the case with Aaliyah, the R&B star who died in a plane crash in 2001 at the age of just 22.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorLebanese-British singer-songwriter Mika will stage a livestreamed concert to raise funds and awareness for relief in the wake of the explosion in Beirut last month that killed more than 200 people and devastated a large area in the country’s capital.His “I Love Beirut” benefit concert will take place on Saturday 19 September and will be live-streamed across four time zones via YouTube.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorHipgnosis Songs announced that it has acquired 50% of the copyright interest and writers share in the song catalog of Wu-Tang Clan’s primary producer, Robert “RZA” Diggs. He has produced nearly all of Wu-Tang Clan’s albums, as well as many of the multiple solo albums released by the group’s members.The group’s enormously influential debut album, “Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers),” was released in 1993 and has been followed by a series of group and solo releases,

[This story contains spoilers for the second episode of HBO's Lovecraft Country, "Whitey's on the Moon."] With an opening scored to Ja'Net DuBois' "Movin' On Up," best known as the theme song for television's The Jeffersons, the first few minutes of Lovecraft Country's second episode suggest things are indeed moving on up for Tic (Jonathan Majors), Leti (Jurnee Smollett) and George (Courtney B.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorEven in a week loaded with high-profile singles and albums, one song stands out: Pharrell and Jay-Z’s moving ode to Black entrepreneurship, “Entrepreneur,” which is part of an issue of Time magazine dedicated to the subject called “The New American Revolution” and curated by Pharrell.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorR&B singer-songwriter SZA is one of the most popular new artists to emerge in the past five years, with nine Grammy nominations for her debut full-length “Ctrl,” her work on the Kendrick Lamar-helmed “Black Panther” and a duet with The Weeknd and Travis Scott, among several high-profile features.While the features — most recently with Justin Timberlake on “The Other Side,” from “Trolls World Tour” — have kept her in the public eye, it’s been more than four years

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorFive years after Apple Music launched its global radio station Beats 1, the company has renamed it Apple Music 1 and launched new Country and Hit stations, under the overall name of Apple Music Radio.“For the past five years, if ever there was a meaningful moment in music culture,” said Oliver Schusser, vice president of Apple Music, Beats, and International Content.

Jon Burlingame “Can you believe that’s an online orchestra?” asks composer Laura Karpman.She’s talking about the musical score of HBO’s new “Lovecraft Country,” which debuted Sunday night and is believed to be the first post-pandemic series to be entirely scored, from first episode to last, by musicians recording remotely from their homes.Together with musical partner Raphael Saadiq, Karpman scored the 10-part series in which three African-Americans drive across 1950s America experiencing not

HBO’s new series “Lovecraft Country” — and is joined by nightmarish beasts from the works of author H.P. Lovecraft.In the series, produced by Jordan Peele and JJ Abrams, stars Jonathan Majors, Courtney B.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorAugust used to be the doldrums for the music business, a dumping ground for low-priority releases that were usually ignored while everyone was on vacation and/or gearing up for the big Fall releases that would carry through until the holiday season. That model was on its way out even before the pandemic, but now all bets are off: Seven years after Beyonce proved that a gigantic project can drop at any time, anything does.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorR. Kelly’s former manager has been arrested on charges related to a gun threat that forced the evacuation of a media screening of “Surviving R.

Jurnee Smollett has made notable appearances on everything from to. Most recently she starred on co-creator Misha Green’s short-lived WGN America series and was enlisted to play Black Canary opposite Margot Robbie in.

is shining a light on buried histories of America. Created by Misha Green and executive produced by Jordan Peele and J.J.