Saturday, June 2, 2012
Friday, June 1, 2012
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Taylor Swift is Pop’s Biggest Earner in 2011
Country singer Taylor Swift earned more than any other pop act last year. According to Billboard, Swift made a cool $35,719,902 last year if you include music sales, royalties and touring income.
Rock legends U2 came second with $32 million while another country singer Kenny Chesney was third with $29.8 million. Lady Gaga could only manage fourth place.
Top Earner of 2011:
1. Taylor Swift - $35.7m
2. U2 - $32.1m
3. Kenny Chesney - $29.8m
4. Lady Gaga - $25.4m
5. Lil Wayne - $23.2m
6. Sade - $16.4m
7. Bon Jovi - $15.8m
8. Celine Dion - $14.3m
9. Jason Aldean - $13.4m
10. Adele - $13.1m
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Taylor Swift Goes Stevie Nicks for <em>Vogue</em> Cover Shoot
Country-pop star Taylor Swift appears on the February cover of Vogue magazine, and for the shoot, Swift goes for a young Stevie Nicks vibe. In the high-profile spread, Swift wears a ’70s-style sunflower-speckled dress over a pair of jeans, a floppy beige hat and flowing accessories, with a style awfully similar to Nicks’s chic.
Nicks and Swift, of course, performed together at the Grammy Awards in 2010. Speaking with Time magazine, Nicks admitted she had a few hesitations about performing with the young starlet.
“When I first got the call from Taylor Swift about performing with her at this year's Grammy Awards, I really didn’t want to do it,” she told the magazine in 2010. “She's 20 years old, 5 ft. 11 in. and slender; I’m 40 years older and, to be frank, neither of the other two things! I was not about to stand next to this girl on national television. But her little face just lights up like a star, and I couldn’t say no.”
Nicks went on to say that she sees some of herself in Swift. “Taylor reminds me of myself in her determination and her childlike nature,” she said. “It’s an innocence that's so special and so rare.
“This girl writes the songs that make the whole world sing, like Neil Diamond or Elton John. She sings, she writes, she performs, she plays great guitar. Taylor can do ballads that could be considered pop or rock and then switch back into country. When I turned 20 years old, I had just made the serious decision to never be a dental assistant. Taylor just turned 20, and she’s won four Grammys.”
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Dave Grohl Recruits Corey Taylor for New Project
Few people really know exactly what Dave Grohl is up to, but his new project is boasting big names. Following news two weeks ago that Ratt’s Stephen Pearcy and Warren De Martini had recorded a song with Grohl, Corey Taylor of Slipknot and Stone Sour has revealed that he has been working with the Foos man.
In a Tweet on January 18, Taylor said: “HUGE checks off the Bucket List today – did a song with Dave Grohl and Butch Vig. Do the words ‘holy s--t’ say enough about it?!?”
It could well be a project about Sound City Studios. In 2011, Grohl said he was working on a film about the Los Angeles studio. “When Sound City closed last year it was a very sad day. That place was like a church. The list of people that recorded there is like a virtual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. We recorded Nevermind there back in 1991. That funky old place had the best drum room in the world. The drum sound at the beginning of ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit?’ That’s Sound City. I decided to make a film about that feeling when you put five guys in a room, hit ‘record’ and the hair on the back of your neck stands up. Expect some epic jam sessions.”
Saturday, January 7, 2012
Stone Sour’s Corey Taylor Loves Stephen King Horror Novels
Stone Sour and Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor knows a thing or two about writing. After all, he recently penned an autobiography, Seven Deadly Sins: Settling the Argument Between Born Bad and Damaged Good, that landed on the New York Times bestseller list.
Taylor recently chatted with Artist Direct about his favorite reads, and he said Stephen King’s The Stand is at the top of the list. C’mon, are you surprised?
“I’d have to say the unabridged version of The Stand with the extra 150,000 words,” he said when asked to rattle off his No. 1 pick. “I pretty much read that once a year, and I have since I was … 20-years-old. It's one of my all-time favorite books, and it’s such an adventure that it’s almost like reading the script to a fantastic movie that you know will never get made. The Stand is definitely a favorite. How stoked do you think I was when Slipknot got mentioned in Stephen King’s Cell?”
Taylor’s other favorites include Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Legs McNeil’s Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk, the latter which he says is a must-read “if you’re into music history and you want to know where real punk music came from.”
In more Taylor news, he’s currently working on a new album with Stone Sour that’s expected to arrive in 2012.
Monday, December 19, 2011
Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift Top Forbes’ Top-Earning Women in Music
Pop and country gals fared very well in 2011, as Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, Celine Dion and Adele all top Forbes’ list of Top-Earning Women in Music in 2011.
Gaga scored the #1 spot, taking in $90 million with the sales of Born This Way, her blockbuster Monster Ball Tour and numerous endorsement deals. Swift came in second place, albeit taking in half of what Gaga did at $45 million over the past year. Perry landed just below Swift at $44 million, while Beyonce and Rihanna rounded out the top five, earning $35 million and $29 million, respectively. Other big showings were Celine Dion, earning $19 million, and Adele, pulling in $18 million.
Forbes assembled the list by calculating income earned from May of 2010 through May of 2011. Forbes also used data from Pollstar, RIAA and others, in addition to interviews with industry insiders such as lawyers, managers, agents, concert promoters and, in some cases, the musicians themselves.
While the numbers are impressive, there still seems to be a “glass ceiling” for women in the music business, apparent by the fact only five of the women on this list were among the overall 25 highest paid musicians, according to Forbes. “Women artists seem to be less likely to diversify their holdings and to build multi-tier enterprises to take advantage of their success and celebrity,” entertainment attorney Lori Landew said. “What remains unclear, however, is whether this is because these women have less of an entrepreneurial spirit than their male counterparts, which I doubt, or whether they are simply presented with fewer opportunities.”
Monday, December 5, 2011
Roger Taylor: No New Queen Album Planned
Contrary to recent reports, Queen members Brian May and Roger Taylor are not at work on a new album with leftover vocal tracks from the late Freddie Mercury. Ultimate Classic Rock had reported that May and Taylor were looking at demo tracks recorded before Mercury’s death in 1991.
“I’ve got to tell you, there won’t be an album,” the Queen drummer told Ultimate Classic Rock (via NME). “There’s just not enough and the last thing I want to do is have a sort of barrel-scraping exercise.”
However, May and Taylor have been involved with some tracks Mercury and Michael Jackson recorded together.
“There’s a couple of great tracks that Freddie recorded with Michael Jackson that Brian and I are working on and they are good,” Taylor said. “So at some point they will surface I think when we feel it’s a good moment. I don’t really want to ride any sort of wave there. So that’s an interesting thing, but that will be probably later some point next year.”
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Foo Fighters’ Taylor Hawkins Says Getting on Stage is ‘Do or Die’
Foo Fighters are continuing their world takeover with a headline slot at next week’s T in the Park festival in Kinross, Scotland. Drummer Taylor Hawkins, for one, can’t wait.
“It's been a while since we last did T in the Park — 2005,” he noted to the Daily Record. “And I think we did it in 2002, as well. The Scots are definitely some of the wildest crowds around, there's no question about that. The dudes are real dudes — it's great. And I love Scotland, it's beautiful."
For Hawkins, playing to wild festival crowds is what it’s all about:
"It's always scary, but always fun. Every time I get on stage, it's do or die — that's the way I am."
The blond basher also reminisced about being asked to join Dave Grohl’s outfit back in 1997.
"I knew I liked the music and I wanted to be a part of it. I was going from band to band and doing whatever I could, at that point, just to keep working. And one of my favorite bands in the world was Foo Fighters. When I joined, I didn't know how long it was going to last. I was just like, 'All right, I'll join Foo Fighters, maybe just for this record and that would be it.’”
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Keith Urban, Lady Antebellum, Taylor Swift Live at 2011 CMA Music Festival
Country superstars Keith Urban, Reba and Taylor Swift will be joined at this year’s CMA Music Festival by a diverse line up of country artists performing on a variety of stages throughout the event.
Celebrating its 40th birthday this year, CMA Music Festival takes place Thursday-Sunday, June 9-12 in downtown Nashville.
The Nightly Concerts at LP Field are the highlights of CMA Music Festival.
Thursday, June 9: Jason Aldean (with a special guest performance from Kelly Clarkson), Easton Corbin, Sara Evans, Brad Paisley and Zac Brown Band (with special guest performances from Alan Jackson, Amos Lee, Sonia Leigh and Randy Travis).
Friday, June 10: Dierks Bentley, Lady Antebellum, Reba, Ashton Shepherd, Sugarland, and Keith Urban.
Saturday, June 11: Trace Adkins, Little Big Town, Martina McBride, Rascal Flatts, Josh Turner and Chris Young.
Sunday, June 12: The Band Perry, the JaneDear girls, Miranda Lambert, Darius Rucker, Blake Shelton and Taylor Swift.
Aside from the Nightly Concerts there will be plenty of music for country fans, much of it free. Free Daily Concerts will be held on the Chevrolet Riverfront Stage in Riverfront Park Thursday through Saturday, June 9-11.
The Lay's Stage at Bridgestone Arena Plaza will also offer free performances on all four days, beginning at 11:00 AM and ending at 5:30 PM and the Durango® Acoustic Corner will present daily acoustic concerts from acts such as Rhonda Vincent and Riders in the Sky at the Nashville Convention Center in Room 209.
Four-day tickets to CMA Music Festival, which include all four Nightly Concerts at LP Field and daily access to the Fan Fair® Exhibit Hall, can be purchased through Ticketmaster at Ticketmaster.com or 1-(800) 745-3000. They can also purchase them through CMAfest.com or 1-(800)-CMA-FEST (262-3378).
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Slash Discusses New Album, Van Halen, Corey Taylor
Slash has a bit of insider knowledge about the new Van Halen. The guitarist spilled the beans to U.K.’s Rock Radio, according to Blabbermouth.net.
“They’re finishing [up their new album right now], actually,” he said. “I don’t wanna speak on their behalf, but one of the guys that works for us works for Van Halen in the studio and he told me that they’re in the mixing stages.”
Of course, Slash has got an album of his own in the works. The former Guns N’ Roses axeman said he’s in the writing stages for the follow-up to his 2010 solo debut.
“The band is so great and Myles [Kennedy] is one of the most fantastic singers I’ve ever worked with or even seen or heard; he is amazing. So we are actually knee-deep in writing for the next record. We’re all going to perform on it. It’s gonna be really, really good; the material we have is awesome.”
Slash said the album will be released in 2012, although fans might get a preview of some songs at one of his live shows.
“The thought [of debuting some of the new tracks on tour this summer] has crossed my mind, so if there’s something that’s developed enough to the point where we can pull that off, then we will, ’cause I think that’d be a cool thing to do,” he said.
He also discussed what happened with Corey Taylor when the Slipknot/Stone Sour singer tried out to be Velvet Revolver’s new frontman.
“There is a lot of controversy over this one. Corey came down and we had kept it pretty quiet and then word got out that we had worked with him,” he said. “And we did write some songs with him and made demos and all that kind of stuff, but it just didn’t end up working out. But then word got out about him coming down way after the fact. So then it became this new rumor that was six months behind schedule. But it didn’t end up working out.”
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Duff McKagan, Corey Taylor and Steve Jones to Cover Judas Priest
At next week’s Revolver Golden Gods Awards ceremony, Duff McKagan will lead members of Slipknot and the Sex Pistols in a tribute to metal legends Judas Priest. McKagan’s band, Loaded, will be joined by singer Corey Taylor and guitarist Steve Jones to play Priest’s classic, “Electric Eye,” according to Blabbermouth.net.
The awards show – which celebrates the best in hard rock and metal – will take place April 20 at Club Nokia in Los Angeles. Other performers include recent Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees the Alice Cooper group, Avenged Sevenfold, Sebastian Bach with Asking Alexandria, Cherie Currie with Volbeat and Chris Jericho’s Fozzy.
If you can’t make it to L.A. for the event, you’ll be able to catch the performances when the show is televised on May 28 on VH1 Classic.