Billie Eilish‘s Guitar Songs has topped this week’s new music poll.
Music fans voted in a poll published Friday (July 22) on Billboard, choosing Eilish’s new EP as their favorite new music release of the past week.
Guitar Songs brought in more than 60% of the vote, beating out new music by Megan Thee Stallion, Em Beihold, Lil Uzi Vert and more.
The surprise two-track EP, with the songs “TV” and “The 30th,” delivers an acoustic, raw feel from Eilish. Upon their release, the singer-songwriter expressed to fans that the tracks “mean so so much to me. i am so happy for them to be yours.” Guitar Songs arrives just a year after Eilish’s sophomore studio album, Happier Than Ever.
Trailing behind the latest release from Eilish on the fan-voted poll is Megan Thee Stallion’s new song “Pressurelicious” featuring Future, with almost 16% of the vote.
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On the Eras Tour, Taylor Swift at one point plays a piano that appears to be covered in moss. But there are certain aspects of the show that are guaranteed not to gather that substance, judging from the second night of the tour, which, like the first, took place at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.
One of those is the costuming, with the pop superstar trying out some different dresses (or, in the case of “The Man,” black or grey suit-dresses) in different parts of the concert Saturday than she had at Friday night’s tour opener.
But perhaps more notably, Night 2 was already allowing for two tour premieres among the setlist, where only one wild card slot had been expected. Near the end of the set, Swift took to the acoustic guitar to play a solo rendition of “This Is Me Trying,” from the “Folklore” album, following by a short trip over to the piano for a solo reading of “State of Grace,” from “Red.” (See video excerpts of those numbers, below.)
On the first night at State Farm Stadium, those solo-acoustic slots near the end of the three-hour-plus had been filled by “Mirrorball,” from “Folklore,” and “Tim McGraw,” from her self-titled debut. Anyone who caught the opening night expected “Mirrorball” to be making a one-time-only appearance, as Swift preceded it by explaining that this was a moment in the set where each night she would do a different catalog song, never to be repeated on the more than 50 U.S. dates (unless she messed something up, she added, in which case she reserved the right to try to get it right in another city). So it was no shock to get “This Is Me Trying” in place of “Mirrorball” on night 2 — but to the extent that the song pick itself was a surprise, it was a welcome fan, as many fans had hoped “This Is Me Trying” would squeeze its way into the regular nightly set.
“State of Grace,” however, was more startling to attentive Swifties — and again, mostly in a good way, as few will ever complain about getting a bonus from “Red,” a fan-favorite album. However, losing “Tim McGraw” meant that the evening went without any representation at all from the 2006 debut LP, in a show that had material from her other nine albums present and accounted for. Will “Tim” be back after it was put on pause, or are there going to be two wild cards each night instead of the previously announced one? On night 2, Swift did not preface the no-repeats slot with an explanation like she did the previous evening, so fans may have to wait till she performs again — next weekend in Las Vegas — to “see how this is gonna go,” to quote a lyric. The faithful were already champing at the bit of the prospect of 50 or more unique songs showing up along the American tour, so if there might be even more than one acoustic surprise a night, Swifties will really have extra reason to be attuned from afar to nightly setlists as they pop up online, to find out what they’re missing.
Taylor Swift on night 2 of the Eras Tour in Glendale, AZ (Chris Willman/Variety)
One thing that didn’t change Saturday: the lateness of the hour. Although the Friday night closing time of 11:12 seemed like the show might have accidentally drifted past an 11 p.m. curfew that many venues enforce, the show actually went even a few minutes longer than that on Saturday. And a leaked crew sheet showed that the weekend concerts were indeed deliberately budgeted to go until 11:15, making for a running time calculated to be right around 3 hours and 15 minutes.
Taylor Swift picks up an elaborate golf club in performing “Blank Space” on night 2 of the Eras Tour in Glendale, AZ (Chris Willman/Variety)
Although the show has many costume changes, Swift is only very briefly offstage during those roughly 195 minutes. Some of the changes even involve taking something off or putting something on while not leaving the stage, whether that’s in front of everyone’s eyes or, in one clever staging moment, behind a confluence of umbrellas that fit together to form a dressing-room shield. The fact that Swift is on stage for all but two or three minutes of the epic running time means that she’s more than matching the stamina of her fans, who have their own somewhat lesser endurance test — since there’s hardly a person in the building who’s going to sit down at any point in her set (and most also stand for her two opening acts, which this weekend were Paramore and Gayle).
Check out some of the overlapping or completely different looks Swift rocked at her second show, which largely involved different colors or textures or — in the case of “22” — a T-shirt with different lettering. (On Saturday, the shirt read “Who’s Taylor Swift anyway? Ew” instead of Friday’s “A lot going on at the moment.”) The only look that’s almost certain to remain identical from night to night — even if more than one of the pieces might have been manufactured — is her striking outfit for the “Reputation” segment of the show, in which one leg is laid bare and the other is black while her torso is all red-and-sequined snakes. That is something you don’t just sub out for the sake of doing the laundry.
Taylor Swift and company on night 2 of the Eras Tour in Glendale, AZ (Chris Willman/Variety)
Taylor Swift and ensemble member reenact scenes from a marriage in performing “Tolerate It” on night 2 of the Eras Tour (Chris Willman/Variety)
Taylor Swift performs material from “Red” on night 2 of the Eras Tour (Chris Willman/Variety)
Taylor Swift and company perform songs from “Reputation” on night 2 of the Eras Tour (Chris Willman/Variety)
Taylor Swift and band member on night 2 of the Eras Tour (Chris Willman/Variety)
Taylor Swift and ensemble “My Tears Ricochet” on night 2 of the Eras Tour (Chris Willman/Variety)
Taylor Swift and ensemble perform “The Man” on night 2 of the Eras Tour (Chris Willman/Variety)
Taylor Swift performs material from “Folklore” on night 2 of the Eras Tour (Chris Willman/Variety)
Taylor Swift’s surprise four-pack should have an immediate impact on the U.K. singles chart.
The U.S. pop superstar last Friday (March 17) dropped a batch of recordings, including “All The Girls You Loved Before” a previously-unreleased song that didn’t make the final pressing of 2019’s Lover LP.
Perhaps it should have made the cut. “All The Girls” is on track for the week’s highest debut, at No. 7, for what would be Swift’s 22nd top 10 appearance, according to the Official Charts Company’ first chart blast of the week.
Swift’s fresh four songs included re-recordings of Swift’s The Hunger Games tracks, plus “If This Was a Movie (Taylor’s Version),” all dropping on the eve of her The Eras Tour opener.
At the top end of the First Look chart, which captures sales and streaming data from the first 48 hours in the cycle, Miley Cyrus’ “Flowers” is on target for a 10th consecutive week at No. 1.
Calvin Harris and Ellie Goulding could have a say in that. The pair’s latest collaboration, the ‘90s rave-channeling “Miracle” is set to lift 3-2 in its second week. Meanwhile, Pinkpantheress appears to have missed the chance for a maiden No. 1 with “Boy’s a liar,” which, after several weeks at No. 2, slips to No. 8 on the chart blast.
Further down the list, BTS’ Jimin could snag his debut solo top 20 with “Set Me Free Pt. 2.” It’s new at No. 14 on the chart blast, coming soon after bandmate J-Hope cracked the top 40 (and made chart history) with his J. Cole collaboration, “On The Street.”
Finally, Lewis Capaldi could crack the top 20 with his new tear-jerker, “How I’m Feeling Now,” set to arrive at No. 19, while Irish singer-songwriter Hozier is hovering just outside the top 20 with his comeback single “Eat Your Young.” It’s new at No. 21 on the chart blast, the OCC reports, and is expected to become the “Take Me To The Church” singer’s third first top 40 single and first in eight years — since “Someone New” hit No. 19 in 2015.
All will be revealed when the Official U.K. Singles Chart is published late Friday.
Courtney Love has taken aim at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, penning a scathing essay that calls out the dearth of women and Black artists showcased in the Cleveland-based organization.
“If so few women are being inducted into the Rock Hall, then the nominating committee is broken,” Love wrote in an op-ed for the Guardian. “If so few Black artists, so few women of colour, are being inducted, then the voting process needs to be overhauled. Music is a lifeforce that is constantly evolving – and they can’t keep up. Shame on HBO for propping up this farce.”
Love did not hold back when calling out the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. “Barely 8% of its inductees are female. The canon-making doesn’t just reek of sexist gatekeeping, but also purposeful ignorance and hostility,” wrote Love, a musician, songwriter and actor who led the 1990s band Hole and was married to the late Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain (who was posthumously inducted).
Representatives for the Rock Hall did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Love’s criticism comes on the heels of last month’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nomination class announcement where, ironically, the most woman were nominated in the hall of fame’s four-decade history: Kate Bush, Cyndi Lauper, Missy Elliott, Meg White (The White Stripes), Gillian Gilbert (New Order) and Sheryl Crow. Artists become eligible 25 years after their first record’s release. Founded in 1983, Chuck Berry, James Brown, Ray Charles, Little Richard, Sam Cooke, Fats Domino, the Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley made up the first class, which included no women. Sister Rosetta Tharpe, who Love thought should have made the initial class, was not added until 2018, after a groundswell of public support for her inclusion.
Love noted that only nine of the 31 people on Rock Hall’s nominating board are women and that less than a tenth of the inductees are women, and pointed to the difficulties Black artists face too.
“The bar is demonstrably lower for men to hop over (or slither under),” Love said. “If the Rock Hall is not willing to look at the ways it is replicating the violence of structural racism and sexism that artists face in the music industry, if it cannot properly honour what visionary women artists have created, innovated, revolutionised and contributed to popular music – well, then let it go to hell in a handbag.”
Despite her frustrations with the Rock Hall, Love recognized that the induction still holds great value. “As scornful as its inductions have been, the Rock Hall is a bulwark against erasure, which every female artist faces whether they long for the honour or want to spit on it. It is still game recognising game, history made and marked,” Love said.
On Instagram, sharing her essay, she also posted the names of the board of directors. Earlier this month, the singer blasted the Rock Hall sharing a tweet from writer Jessica Hopper and a text conversation screenshot with inducted member Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters and Nirvana with the caption “so over these ole boys.”
Nominations are sent out to a voting body of 1,000 members of the music industry, with an additional fan vote taking place through April 28. The inductees will be announced in May, with the ceremony taking place this fall.