Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Adele Will Say Good-“Bye Bye Bye” To NSync

Folks, we have breaking news. Adele’s 21 has sold 3 million copies in the US on its first week beating NSync’s No Strings Attached from 2000. This will make the first album by a female artist to sell more copies than Taylor Swift’s 1989 in the US during its first week since Britney Spears’s Oops I Did It Again 15 years ago.

Speaking of Britney Spears, it seems that Adele’s 25 finally beats Britney Spears’s Oops It Did It Again making it the most albums by a female artist sold in the US during its first week. In fact, Adele’s 25, according to Nielsen Music, has sold 2,433,000 copies in its first 4 days, breaking the single-week record for album sales with the album selling over 900,000 digital copies on ITunes in the US in its first day on sale. The mark was previously held by NSync for their 2000 release No Strings Attached, which tallied 2,416,000 sales for the week ending on March 26, 2000.


These sales figures are particularly meaningful, as the NSync record was set in an era of CDs of the 1982-2004 era, and paying for digital music downloads and streaming music were years away. Adele and her record labels Columbia and XL made the strategic decision this time around to withhold 25 from streaming services like Spotify.

Columbia Records declined to comment on the sales numbers. The Journal reached out to Adele for comment.

According to Dave Bakula, senior vice President of industry insights for Nielsen Music, the sales so far are split about 50/50 in terms of CD and digital sales of 25.

“[In 2000], the album was the only point of entry for people,” Bakula says. “This thing is going to be pushing close to three million by the end of the week, a number I don’t think anybody in the industry thought we’d see, ever. It’s crazy.”

Bakula doesn’t know whether the decision to withhold 25 from streaming services helped bolster sales, but he does worry that other artists will see this and think they can replicate the same success. “The thing that concerns me the most is that other artists that aren’t names Taylor or Adele are going to think this is the right strategy for them. And this doesn’t work for everybody like it does for Adele.”

The 25 rollout was relatively short as with the album’s announcement occurring just a month ago with the music video for Hello broke YouTube viewing records and the album sold almost 1 million copies in the US via ITunes in its first day on sale. This resulted to sell more than 900,000 copies on November 20 on its way to what is expected to be the biggest opening week in US album sales, history according to Billboard.

So Bakula never thought he’d see anyone break NSync’s long-standing sales record. “Every single person in the industry has said ‘I never thought I’d see this,’” he says. “It’s the double-rainbow with the unicorn at the end.”


Congrats, Adele. You deserve it. I’m really excited to hear 25 when 25 will be available for streaming pretty soon. Good thing Pandora uploads it. Yay.

What do you think? Are you happy that 25 sold 900k copies on US ITunes in just a day? Are you happy that Adele sold more copies than NSync’s No Strings Attached during its first week? Is this record a good move? Sound off below!

Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Here Comes The 2015 American Music Awards

This is it, American Music Awards of 2015 is almost here. This Sunday, American Music Awards of 2015 will air live on November 22 at 8pm on ABC.

The 43rd Annual American Music Award will be held at the Microsoft Theatre in Los Angeles, California and Jennifer Lopez was announced as the host on October 7, 2015. Taylor Swift leads the nominations with six.

Joe Jonas and Charlie Puth announced the nominations on October 13, 2015 and here they are:

Artist of the Year
Luke Bryan
Ariana Grande
Nicki Minaj
Taylor Swift
One Direction

New Artist of the Year
Fetty Wap
Sam Hunt
Tove Lo
Walk the Moon
The Weeknd

Favorite Pop/Rock Male Artist
Nick Jonas
Ed Sheeran
Sam Smith

Favorite Pop/Rock Female Artist
Ariana Grande
Taylor Swift
Meghan Trainor

Favorite Pop/Rock Band/Duo/Group
Maroon 5
One Direction
Walk the Moon

Favorite Pop/Rock Album
X – Ed Sheeran
In the Lonely Hour – Sam Smith
1989 – Taylor Swift

Favorite Country Male Artist
Jason Aldean
Luke Bryan
Sam Hunt

Favorite Country Female Artist
Kelsea Ballerini
Miranda Lambert
Carrie Underwood

Favorite Country Duo or Group
Florida Georgia Line
Little Big Town
Zac Brown Band

Favorite Country Album
Old Boots, New Dirt – Jason Aldean
Anything Goes – Florida Georgia Line
Montevallo – Sam Hunt

Favorite Rap/Hip-Hop Artist
Drake
Fetty Wap
Nicki Minaj

Favorite Rap/Hip-Hop Album
2014 Forest Hills Drive – J. Cole
If You're Reading This It's Too Late – Drake
The Pinkprint – Nicki Minaj

Favorite Soul/R&B Male Artist
Chris Brown
Trey Songz
The Weeknd

Favorite Soul/R&B Female Artist
Beyoncé
Mary J. Blige
Rihanna

Favorite Soul/R&B Album
X – Chris Brown
Black Messiah – D'Angelo and The Vanguard
Beauty Behind the Madness – The Weeknd

Favorite Alternative Artist
Fall Out Boy
Hozier
Walk the Moon

Favorite Adult Contemporary Artist
Ed Sheeran
Taylor Swift
Meghan Trainor

Favorite Latin Artist
Enrique Iglesias
Ricky Martin
Romeo Santos

Favorite Contemporary Inspirational Artist
Casting Crowns
Hillsong United
MercyMe

Favorite EDM Artist
Calvin Harris
David Guetta
Zedd

Song of the Year              
See You Again – Wiz Khalifa featuring Charlie Puth
UpTown Funk! – Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars
Thinking Out Loud – Ed Sheeran
Blank Space – Taylor Swift
Can't Feel My Face – The Weeknd

Top Soundtrack
Fifty Shades of Grey
Empire: Original Soundtrack from Season 1
Pitch Perfect 2

Collaboration of the Year
See You Again – Wiz Khalifa featuring Charlie Puth
FourFiveSeconds – Rihanna, Kanye West and Paul McCartney
UpTown Funk! – Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars
Where Are U Now – Jack Ü featuring Justin Bieber
Bad Blood – Taylor Swift featuring Kendrick Lamar

OK, these are the nominations for the popular music outputs (mainstream and country). I hope you can enjoy revealing the nomination list as the 2015 AMAs will arrive this Sunday hosted by Jennifer Lopez. So stay tuned.

Taylor Swift’s 1989 Is Now The Fifth Album To Spend First Year In Billboard 200 Top 10

Taylor Swift’s first pop album, 1989, has continued to earn accolades a full year after its release. The pop record is only the fifth project ever to spend its entire first year in the all-genre Billboard 200 Top 10.


1989 was released on Oct. 27, 2014, and debuted in the No. 1 spot. Since then, it has spent 11 non-consecutive weeks at the top of the chart, becoming Swift’s second album to spend more than 10 weeks at No. 1. The country-turned-pop superstar is only the second woman to have at least two albums stay at No. 1 for at least 10 weeks; Whitney Houston had three albums stay in that position for that length of time.

The four other artists who have had albums spend their first year in the Billboard 200 Top 10 are Bruce Springsteen (Born in the USA, 1984), Adele (21, 2011), Celine Dion (Falling Into You, 1996) and Fleetwood Mac (Rumours, 1977).

Taylor Swift’s newest album became the best-selling album of 2014, beating out the incredibly popular soundtrack from Frozen. It was also one of only four albums to be certified platinum, for sales in excess of one million units, last year.

In addition, After more than a year, 1989 has dropped out of the top ten on Billboard‘s album list. 1989 is one of the biggest selling albums of all time by a female artist. It is actually the biggest selling album by a woman since Adele’s 21 beating albums by Katy Perry and Lady Gaga.

Taylor Swift has manage to first got things rolling when she released the song Shake it Off in August of 2014 by the time GP was impressed with how Swift went from country to full-on pop.

With 1989 received great reviews from critics including a perfect score of four stars from Rolling Stone, Taylor Swift’s 1989 then spawned hit after hit — something pop stars such as Lady Gaga and Katy Perry couldn’t do with their latest albums. Besides Shake it Off, Blank Space (which is now the most viewed video on Vevo of all time surpassing Justin Bieber’s Baby music video) and Bad Blood also hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, Style and Wildest Dreams both hit the top five. All 5 singles off of 1989 are number 1 singles in the US on Pop Songs chart making 1989 the most US number 1 singles of any Taylor Swift album surpassing Speak Now’s 4 US number 1 singles like Mean and Sparks Fly. The singles kept hitting, while Taylor Swift launched what is, perhaps, the first fully stadium-oriented tour in the United States by a female star since Madonna’s Who’s That Girl Tour in 1987. The reviews for Swift’s tour were almost unanimously positive.

Excellent reviews for Taylor Swift’s tour has appeared in just about every other outlet that reviewed the show including the New York Times, Vulture, Mashable, and perhaps one of the best reviews came from Eric Sundermann of Vice, who said the show was engineered to be the best night of your life. Taylor Swift really hit a home run on the 1989 World Tour.

Unfortunately, but expectedly, Taylor Swift’s major success has led to somewhat of a backlash including people like fans complaining about why Taylor Swift is a pop star now or why people like kids think Taylor Swift only makes pop music and not going by other genres like country. There seems to be a concentrated effort to defame Swift, and some media outlets really showed their true colors when they accused Taylor Swift’s recent Wildest Dreams video of being racist. However, Taylor Swift is about to take a long-deserved break and will no doubt shake off all the ridiculous criticism thrown her way.


Congrats, Taylor Swift. What will Taylor Swift now after 1989 era is over this Christmas? How about absorbing all her music that isn’t pop like country to her pop career and have all her non-pop music to stay pop music. Duh. Also, how about Taylor Swift’s greatest hits album where all Taylor Swift’s singles (pop or not) gets to be included in the 2 disk singles collection including 2 new 2016 singles and a neat surprise like Tim McGraw’s Highway Don’t Care. That would be perfect for Taylor Swift’s 2016 album.

Anyway, keep up the good work. I’m proud of you, T-Swizzle.

Sunday, November 15, 2015

Ariana Grande Has Lost Her Focus

Hey, everybody. Just to let you know that Ariana Grande's Focus has released 2 weeks ago. So far, according to Wikipedia, the song received mixed reviews from music critics, who noted its similarities to the Love Me Harder singer's own Problem.


Hold on a second, why on earth did Focus received mixed reviews from music critics upon its release? Then it got ugly, the critics think that Focus's structure has been heavily compared to Ariana Grande's previous lead single, Problem, from her album My Everything. Wait a minute, why did the critics think the song's structure has been heavily compared to Ariana Grande's previous lead single, Problem, from her album My Everything? I bet Brennan Carley of Spin calls Focus, "male howling the faux-chorus" for "[getting] grating quickley" and for making "Focus" too similar to Grande's previous lead single "Problem". Time's Nolan Feeney also commented it for being similar to "Problem", buy noted that this might not be a bad thing saying: "if it ain't broke, don't fix it-no need for Grande to check her vision here". The song is about controlling a vision and focus on one thing at a time as the song's lyrics describe. That's why the title is called Focus. Seriously, critics. It's just a song. And of course, Billboard editors rated the song two-and-a-half out of five stars, commenting "Grande has never released a less-than-great single - until now, with "Focus," a rehash of 2014's "Problem.""

Here's my thoughts: Why did the critics called Focus, "a Problem rehash?" Also, why do critics think Focus is similar to Problem? I bet it was Max Martin to make Focus, Problem 2.0. When I hear Focus, it's pretty different. It's not a Problem rehash or a recreate the sucess of Problem. I personally think Focus does seem to be different than Problem. The pop music sound heard like it feels more like a jungle pop music. So I personally think that the pop sound is very jungle feel for a pop single. I bet there's something wrong with Focus. The "song recieved mixed reviews" stigma killed Focus, not the song itself. Seriously, Focus is the first lead single that is not a collabo and yet people like critics called the song a Problem rip-off. What the fart? What's wrong with you critics? I think the song is fine.

Anyway, the song was very lucky. The song debuted at No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Ariana Grande's sixth top-ten single in the United States (as well as fourth top-ten debut); the song sold 113,000 downloads in its first week on the market. With the release of Focus, Ariana Grande became the first and only artist to have all lead singles from her first three albums debut in the top-ten on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. In addition to that, it also became her first top-ten song in the US unaccompanied by another artist. So that's darn good for a singer like Ariana Grande. But the way critics called a new single a clone from another single released by the same artist is not a good way to represent the single. Let's move on.


The music video for Focus has arrived. The director, Hannah Lux Davis directed the song's music video, which was released on October 30, 2015. She had previously directed the music videos for Ariana Grande's Love Me Harder and her joint single, Jessie J's Bang Bang. The music video is awesome. I love that video, it's nice to see Ariana Grande gets to show her butt in the music video. Let's not forget that the dance moves and blowing a trumpet too. Also, her eyes has a star symbol in it. Overall, this is a better music video than what Problem and Love Me Harder did last year. So I take this video over Problem's or Love Me Harder's any day. The music video has gained more than 83 million views on Vevo. So that's good for an Ariana Grande music video like this one.

Oh yeah, one more thing. Focus was recorded in May 2015 and it's Ariana Grande's first track to have a swear word. Lol. She sang the sh word in the lyrics. Of course, this isn't the only thing Ariana Grande did that. Demi Lovato did swearing in Cool For The Summer and Confident on her single titled fifth album. Selena Gomez did this similarly on her single Same Old Love.

After Focus was released, the pop singer will be working on rock music and R&B music as future side projects. Hopefully the pop singer will tackle new genres later on like metal as side projects. That would be awesome if it's gonna happen one time. Well then, here's my final thoughts: shame on you, critics. That makes Ariana Grande sad.

What do you think? Do you think critics calling Focus, Problem 2.0 have misrepresent the single itself? Do you think critics calling Focus a Problem knock off is not the best way to promote the single? Sound off below!

Friday, November 13, 2015

YouTube Music Is Here And It’s A Game Changer

Hey there, YouTuber’s who look up music videos like Taylor Swift music videos. I gotta tell you that YouTube Music is finally out yesterday. I downloaded mine on my IPad Mini and it was awesome. Go check it out if you haven’t.

Now, I’ll talk about why I think YouTube Music can rule all streaming services. So let’s check it out. Shall we?


Well then, as you may know that streaming music is an incredibly crowded field. There’s Apple Music, Spotify, and Pandora. There’s Rdio, Rhapsody, and Deezer. Amazon throws in a music streaming service when you sign up for Prime. But you know who’s really killing it with music, a company almost so obvious you wouldn’t even know it? YouTube.

Come to think of it. While Taylor Swift once readily pulled her music off of platforms like Spotify and Apple Music (at least, until Apple agreed to pay), she never made the same move on YouTube. It’s the same for other artists like Christina Aguilera, who often put up exclusive music content on the video service as a way to reach 1 billion-plus users at once. Compare that to Spotify’s 75 million users or Apple Music’s 15 million.

Plus, YouTube’s audience is unique. They love to engage. They watch, like, and share. They make remixes, covers, lyrics clips, and response videos. And they do this for everything that’s already part of the YouTube collection, including official music videos, fan videos, and concert footage.

Now, YouTube is taking this massive corpus, mixing in some neat new features, and opening it up to everyone as a standalone app with a clear focus on just the music. Today, the company is launching its first official standalone music app called, well, YouTube Music. “It’s all about high-reward, low-effort experiences,” T.Jay Fowler, head of music products at YouTube, tells Wired.

That’s right. I’m talking about YouTube Music. In fact, YouTube Music is a perfect tool for music veterans like Backstreet Boys because music veterans like Nelly Furtado would be perfect for YouTube Music allowing veterans to finally have the time to be popular in YouTube Music.

So enter YouTube Music. YouTube Music is the new king of music compared to Spotify and Apple Music. Remember when mainstream music really wish rock music is coming back. Well then, with YouTube Music, people will feel in love with rock music again. If only Metallica avoids streaming music. Duh.

"We do a lot of quality evaluations," T. Jay Fowler, head of music product development at YouTube, tells The Verge. "Because when someone uses your service and asks for a certain style of music, when they expect something to play, that is an important contract you have [to] fulfill."

Yesterday, Google officially unveiled YouTube Music for Android and iOS, the third YouTube app to be spun off from the main app, after YouTube Kids and YouTube Gaming. It also takes on another Google music streaming app, Google Play Music, and while it may not make sense for Google to have two apps with the same basic purpose, YouTube Music is nothing like Google Play Music.

Not only that, the Google-owned YouTube spinoff, which Google has been hyping for several weeks, is more than just a Spotify or Apple Music clone. In fact, YouTube Music is backed by YouTube's long history of being the most dominant music streaming service on the Internet for years, with Spotify and Pandora following by a long shot. Big time.

YouTube Music banks on the popularity of YouTube and offers access to the 30 million music videos — roughly around the same number of songs available on Spotify and Apple Music — in its repository to users who can play them as audio-only with the app running in the background, that is, if users have a $9.99 subscription to YouTube Red. It's simple and easy to use. As with other music apps, users can search for songs, artists or albums and play them.

However, with YouTube being the most popular video content sharing website in the world, YouTube Music also has access to a wide collection of other musical content, aside from the official music videos licensed by record labels. These include live concerts, song covers from lesser known artists and even instructional videos about, say, how to play a certain song on the piano. That's not something you can get from Spotify or Apple Music at the moment.

What is lacking from the service, however, is the user ability to create or share playlists, as Spotify and Apple Music users can. Instead, YouTube Music creates daily playlists based on the songs the user has listened to, the songs the user likes and the songs the app thinks the user will like. There's a "Love" button that tells the app what users like, and when they listen to a song, the playlist will automatically tweak itself to fit the user's tastes.

This is all done using Google's AI-powered machine learning system in conjunction with a small team of humans making sure the machine processes the selection of music properly. The machine takes advantage of the vast repository of playlists curated by YouTube's users over the years to learn what songs go together, while the human curators ensure the songs are woven tightly around the playlist. In essence, it combines Spotify's algorithm-based technology and Apple's human curation team to deliver better results.

Wow, this reminds me of something. I would like YouTube Music to include the tagging genres section. That way you can tag a specific song with a specific genre like tagging a Taylor Swift song with the genre pop. That would be sweet, OK then, let’s move on.


According to Wired, from day one, YouTube Music app is launching on IOS and Android in the US. As Sowmya Subramanian, an engineering director at YouTube explains, it’s the culmination of everything YouTube learned from launching Music Key, its beta music subscription service, last year. (That service had only ever been available to heavy music listeners identified by YouTube.)

In YouTube Music, everything is personalized. You start with a home screen, which has three elements: “My station” plus two genre stations—say, country and pop—that come up based on your listening patterns. Choose your personalized station, and that sends you off on what Fowler calls “an endless discovery journey.” The station is based on stuff you like, and what YouTube’s algorithm thinks you will like, based on how you’re browsing.

“It represents the entirety of your musical tastes,” Fowler says. You can dig deeper into the settings to tweak something called “variety.” Choose “less variety” to play more songs you’ve liked directly; “balanced” to get a mix of algorithmic and manual preferences; and “more variety” to let the machine go wild.

Once you’ve got a song playing, you’re taken into a view with two tabs: Playing Now, and Explore. Flip over to Explore, and YouTube’s algorithmic smarts stare you right in the face. The app combs through the huge pile of music in the entire YouTube collection and surfaces all related content, whether that’s a fan video of the song you’re currently listening to, a live concert, a lyrics video, remix, or cover by another artist—all labeled. Fowler says the app can do this by leveraging YouTube’s smart Content ID system—an automated system originally for identifying pirated copies on the site. It also has a “Melody ID” algorithm for songs, Fowler says.

For those hoping to keep up with music trends, YouTube Music includes a tab called Trending. The app serves up categories like “The Daily 40,” or “On the Rise,” culled from the larger YouTube community.

YouTube Red subscribers enjoy added bonuses. A clever toggle in the upper right corner lets users tell the app they’re not interested in watching video, and the frame instantly freezes on the screen, signaling an audio-only experience. That’s a godsend, Fowler says YouTube beta users told the team, because it lets you use YouTube in the car or while you’re out for a run, guilt-free—since you’re not burning all that video data. (Other benefits of a Red subscriber on YouTube Music include background play, ad-free watching and listening, and the ability to take your music offline.)

But the favorite feature of all is something called the offline mixtape. You determine how much of your phone’s data you’re willing to spare for songs, pick the audio quality, and let the app make you a playlist. It’s a lot like Spotify’s excellent Discover feature, except it’s refreshed daily, not weekly. The offline mixtape is another exclusive for YouTube Red subscribers.

"We do a lot of quality evaluations," T. Jay Fowler, head of music product development at YouTube, tells The Verge. "Because when someone uses your service and asks for a certain style of music, when they expect something to play, that is an important contract you have [to] fulfill."

For all the processes curation goes through, YouTube Music on the front end is extremely easy to use and intuitive. After installing the app, users will be automatically logged into their Google accounts, with all of the music videos they've ever watched on YouTube already loaded. The interface is sleek and simple, and it doesn't take long for users to figure out where to go.

YouTube Music is highly integrated with YouTube Red. Users who already have a subscription will be able to enjoy all the premium features of the new app, including listening to audio-only in the background and offline listening. Users can still listen for free, but without the backgrounding and, of course, with ads. It's a similar freemium business model that Spotify uses, which appears to be favorable to users but not to artists and record labels, who prefer Apple Music's subscription-only model. Cool. I like that. With the rise of streaming music, this will be a game changer for artists that otherwise unable to perform well in terms of poor marketing or sometimes that people got tired of like Avril Lavigne.

So how big a deal is YouTube Music in terms of the future of music? “It’s already enormous,” says Larry Miller, professor of music business at New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. “YouTube is already the world’s largest on-demand streaming service by far,” Miller says. “In other words, put every other service in the world in a bathtub, and you won’t begin to fill the bottom with respect to the size of YouTube’s on-demand streaming service.” Conveniently, all the licenses—from record companies, music publishers, and even smaller, independent labels—are already in place on YouTube.

YouTube, for its part, says it wants to help the artist community, pointing out that any artist—at any stage in their music career—can upload a music video to YouTube and get exposure to a billion plus viewers. This app offers artists yet another avenue for making money—whether a cut from ads or subscription fees. And YouTube’s work on Music is hardly over.

“What we’re hearing from our partners and from the industry is that they’re very excited there’s a new experience coming to the market,” Fowler says. “This is our first product, but you’re going to see a lot more soon.”

Nice, I’m really exciting for YouTube Music. With YouTube Music dominates the music streaming service, this will allow poorly publicized music like rock music will change the future of music. So let’s say goodbye to repeats and radio and say hello to YouTube Music.

So what do you think? Do you like the new YouTube Music? Is YouTube Music the future of music? Do you think YouTube music can save longtime veterans like Jewel? Sound off below!

Friday, November 6, 2015

Adele’s Hello Sets A New Record

Following Carrie Underwood makes history with all 6 albums topping the country albums chart with Storyteller, debuting at number 1, Adele has set a new record for Hello.


In fact, Hello’s music video broke the previous Vevo Record by achieving over 27.7 million views within a 24-hour period, held previously by Taylor Swift’s Bad Blood which accumulated 20.1 million views in the timeframe. Then the music video has continued to break Miley Cyrus’s Wrecking Ball Vevo record for the fastest video to reach 100 million views in 5 days.

Thus, the phrase Adele hello was also the top YouTube search term of Friday and Saturday, and on average the video was getting one million views her hour during the first 2 days, peaking at 1.6 million in a single hour, beating the peak view rate of the trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which peaked at 1.2 million views per hour. But wait, that’s not all.

During the impact, following the US sales of Hello, Adele was described as having a widespread appeal as well as unbelievable popularity. According to Forbes Magazine, Hugh McIntyre called the songs sales “important”, stating that “Hello was able to smash a sales record in a time when nobody is buying music anymore. The ten biggest debut sales weeks are all from the past 6 years, as the adoption of purchasing singles on ITunes and other online storefronts has lead to some pretty incredible first week numbers for big stars, but all of that is changing. Streaming has become the go-to way for millions of people to listen to music, and in the past few years, the total number of paid downloads (of both albums and singles) has dipped. The fact that she was able to move so many units in just 7 days speaks volumes.”

Because of this, Hello entered at the top of the Digital Songs chart with the sales of 1,112,000, becoming the first tracks to digitally sell one million copies and almost doubling the record for the most downloads sold in a week, previously held by Flo Rida’s Right Round, which sold 636,000 downloads in a week ending February 28, 2009. Hello started with 61.6 million US streams, becoming her first number-one song and the second greatest weekly total on the Streaming Songs chart, behind Baauer’s Harlem Shake, which registered 103 million streams on week of March 3, 2013.

This makes Hello, Adele’s fourth number-one single on the Hots 100 and the first leader by a female artist in 22 weeks, since Taylor Swift’ Bad Blood topped the chart on June 6, 2015. Hello has entered at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 for the chart dated November 14, 2015 on November 2, 2015. Hello becomes the only 24th song to debut at number one.


Congratulations, Adele. Hello is an excellent song. Much better than Justin Bieber's stupid What Do You Mean? song. I hate Justin Bieber. With Adele setting a big new record, if only real mainstream music like rock music and Jewel could've been big as Adele would. That would've been great if this happens. That's way, rock music like Pop Evil will follow Adele's footsteps.

What do your think? Are you happy for Adele reach the fastest to gain 100 million views in just 5 days? Are you happy that Hello sold more than 1 million digital copies in a week in the US? Are you happy about Hello topped the Hot 100 chart? Sound off below!

Storyteller Makes History At Number 1

Country singer, Carrie Underwood has topped Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart with her sixth country album, Storyteller, Carrie Underwood’s fifth album. This makes Carrie Underwood the only artist in the chart’s 51-year history to have all six albums like Greatest Hits: Decade #1 debut at number 1. This makes the pop singer now joins the ranks of iconic country vocalists Reba McEntire, Loretta Lynn and Dolly Parton for having the most albums debut at number 1 on Billboard’s chart.


According to Nielsen Music, the highly anticipated pop album sold 177,000 album units which includes traditional album sales, track equivalent and streaming equivalent albums combined.

Carrie Underwood c-wrote six of 13 songs on Storyteller, which was produced by Mark Bright, Zach Crowell and Jay Joyce. The pop record (which was country at that point) was released on October 32 is the highest-selling debut by a female country artist of 2015.

One week after November 3, the Smoke Break singer announced the Storyteller Tour – Stories in the Round. She will kick off the road show in January, inviting Easton Corbin and the Swon Brothers to open.

“I am so blessed to have this career and get to do to the things I do,” the Little Toy Guns hitmaker said in a press release, “but there is nothing like that moment when I get to step onto the stage to sing and all the fans are singing along with me.”

Carrie Underwood’s Storyteller is also at number 2 on the US Billboard 200 charts where 5 Seconds Of Summer’s Sounds Good Feels Good won the weekly sales and consumption races as Carrie Underwood’s Storyteller was number 2 in both categories. Demi Lovato’s Confident is also at number 2 on the US Billboard 200 chart around the time Carrie Underwood’s Storyteller came out.

According to the website, Saving Country Music, where Trigger gives the album, 1 1/4 of 2 Guns Down (Lol), the random commenters who makes random comments on Storyteller’s review page agreed. That country album is a pop album because all the country songs on Storyteller are pop songs.


Congratulations, Carrie Underwood, you deserve your sixth US number 1 album. This will be in the lead competing against Britney Spears, Beyonce, Kelly Clarkson, Rihanna, Taylor Swift and Katy Perry in the US album sales race. If Carrie Underwood gets to crossover her country genre to pop much like Before He Cheats did a decade earlier and make pop music for the pop audiences, it’s best to have pop music to be considered as a side-project. Duh.

However, not all albums sales are always popular these days. Back in 1982-2004, people buy albums like Michael Jackson albums. In the last 10 years however, the only people buying albums these days is Taylor Swift albums and the rest like Demi Lovato are either small number 1 successes or rather poor sales like Avril Lavigne albums.

Even during the 90s, while a majority of albums like Backstreet Boys albums sold a lot, only a handful of albums successes lost the US number 1 peak track. Spice Girls, in example, used to be pretty big during 1997 when Spice Girls’s Spice is a huge success and Wannabe peaked at number 1 on the Billboard charts. However, after Wannabe peaked the group’s career, other Spice singles like Say You’ll Be There lost the US number 1 peaks and the only people listening to Spice singles is people hearing Wannabe on the radio and people watching Spice Girls music videos on TV channels like MTV. That’s all people listen to Spice Girls in the 90s, Spice/Wannabe/music videos like Mama music video. The second 2 albums, Spice World and Forever, and the 2007 Spice Girls reunion did not go as far very well despite Spice World’s success in 1998. Thus, people quit Spice Girls like Spice World in 1998 and Geri Halliwell leave the group by June 1998 before people listening to music has moved on by summer 1998.

Anyway, back to Carrie Underwood, congrats on Storyteller topped the country albums chart. You deserve it. Next up, pop music as Carrie Underwood’s first side-project and crossing over to pop music for pop side-projects.

What do you think? Are you happy that Carrie Underwood’s Storyteller topped the country albums chart? Sound off below!

Tuesday, November 3, 2015

Rant: Taylor Swift Is A Pop Artist

Note: I’m no expert and this entire rant is opinion-based. If you’re looking for exactness, don’t read any further.

Hey guys, just to let you know that Wildest Dreams topped the Billboard charts. Wildest Dreams peaked at number 1 on the Mainstream Top 40.

Wait a minute… Another number 1? What? First of all, how many number 1s do we need Taylor Swift? Second, why people hearing Taylor Swift only have radio pop like Love Story and number 1s like I Knew You Were Trouble? That’s all people listening to Taylor Swift does these days, radio like Everything Has Changed and number 1s like Blank Space. Why can’t people listen to Taylor Swift in general like Taylor Swift country music (like Mean)? I personally think Taylor Swift songs reached number 1 on US Billboard charts like Hot 100 chart is way overused and pointless in this day and age. This makes me worried. I’m a Swiftie and I’m worried about Taylor Swift being a pop artist ruined the success of her 9-year career since 2006 after she ditched the crossover country-pop scene and changed her music career to pop which completely screwed over her successful music career.


I hate Taylor Swift is a pop artist appearance. I’m sick of Taylor Swift is a pop artist appearance. I hate Taylor Swift songs are pop songs because Taylor Swift songs are not country version of Taylor Swift-less country music. Why Taylor Swift’s crossover country music only have 2006 and Tim McGraw’s Highway Don’t Care? Why can’t Taylor Swift’s crossover country music appeal country in general like Begin Again? I’m sick of Taylor Swift’s pop songs are more popular than crossover and country. Why Taylor Swift making music only have pop these days? I hate Taylor Swift songs are pop songs. Why can’t country music play crossover Taylor Swift like Sparks Fly? I’m sick of Taylor Swift-less country music. Now the only way is inventions.

Why Taylor Swift’s country songs are pop songs? I hate Taylor Swift’s country songs are pop songs version of Taylor Swift-less country music. Why Taylor Swift’s country songs only have pop? Why pop music playing Taylor Swift’s country music only have Mean/Begin Again/Red? Why can’t pop music plays Taylor Swift’s country songs in general like White Horse and Ours? I guess you have to use computer and Taylor Swift albums to hear country Taylor Swift like Picture To Burn. Worse, why all Taylor Swift songs are pop only have internet? Why can’t all Taylor Swift songs are pop everywhere including country ones like Should’ve Said No? What’s wrong with Taylor Swift’s music industry on the internet these days? It's getting repetitive.

Man, 2010s is a nightmare for Taylor Swift. All 2010s does these days is repeats like sex and radio and screwed diversity like country music and Avril Lavigne. Why 2010s hates diversity like rock music and only appeal repeats like big name producers and Justin Bieber? It’s getting annoying. Why can’t 2010s music play 2010s country like Carrie Underwood? It’s getting repetitive.

Man, I hate brokens. Brokens ruined America successes and never stops. I want my postives back. Why America hates postives and only like negatives these days? Well who am I kidding. I have to get back to why Taylor Swift’s pop music has ruined her career. I’m done with poor grammar.

Now where was I? Oh yeah, why Taylor Swift making pop music ruined Big Machine Records. Whenever Big Machine does country, BMR has to use BMR pop music like Taylor Swift. Why Big Machine Records pop music only have Taylor Swift? Big Machine is suppose to be making country music like Tim McGraw. But no, Taylor Swift and pop music ruined Big Machine’s country music label and never stops. What was Taylor Swift thinking? Is Taylor Swift singer-songwriter, not country-pop crossover star? Is Taylor Swift anti-country music pop singer who makes Nashville pop songs and ruined Nashville’s country music? Is country music like Tim McGraw dead and the only way is country music-less music like rock music? Is Taylor Swift a Nashville pop artist? Is Taylor Swift the only Big Machine Records pop artist? Is Taylor Swift’s country songs pop songs, not country songs? Well then, beats me.

“Let’s choose a lane.” – Taylor Swift

Yes, Taylor Swift, I know. Anyway, here’s what happened. 3 years ago, when Taylor Swift was writing for her fourth album, Red, Taylor Swift wanted to make more country-pop songs or even tradtional country music like her earlier work. She has written all her Red’s country songs like Red and Begin Again. It wasn’t pop unless one of them were crossover hits like Teardrops On My Guitar and Back To December. It was well, different experiences of pop country songs that the first 3 albums did. At least, that what Taylor Swift wants to release for 2012.


Her record label however didn’t like her country music because Universal, not Big Machine wanted to make Taylor Swift’s pop songs now that Taylor Swift crossed over to pop and become big in the pop world thanks to Fearless’s 2 singles Love Story and You Belong With Me. So Big Machine’s Scott Borchetta wanted to recreate the success of Taylor Swift’s pop music. They need more pop songs on the radio instead of crossover and country songs that Red does. She didn’t want to repeat pop music because she needed to stay country and only do pop for crossover. Taylor Swift didn’t want to write pop songs because furthermore, that would ruin the vision she had for her new album. So Scott Borchetta hire Max Martin and takes her to Sweden so she can finally recorded a couple of pop hits for her fourth country album and Red was released 3 years ago.

And of course, those pop hits like Everything Has Changed were singles and they completely misrepresented the pop-country album. The pop singles, We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together, I Knew You Were Trouble and 22, sound like they could have come from a Taylor Swift pop album. So of course people has to buy Taylor Swift’s pop songs, not country songs or crossover, because if Taylor Swift makes a country album, Big Machine has to put pop songs on her country albums and ruined her crossover. So people listening to Taylor Swift has to be pop not crossover and other genres like country. Thus, Red had screwed over her country singles and only listened to pop songs like Everything Has Changed. Then it got ugly, I Knew You Were Trouble is her favorite song off of Red. What? Are you saying that I Knew You Were Trouble was Taylor Swift’s favorite song off of Red? What the fart, Taylor Swift?

Well then, with Taylor Swift putting pop music on Red allowing Taylor Swift transitioning to pop music ruining Taylor Swift's crossover and country career, she will only make pop music these days. Let's take a look at why Begin Again and Red did not survive the Red era curse.

Begin Again is the second single off of Red and so far country music hated it because country music only wants 1 pop song which is We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together. Critics praised the song and fans loved the song. But pop music is damaging country music loves Taylor Swift appearance and never stops. Begin Again is a perfect Taylor Swift country single off of Red for country radio. But Big Machine Records blew it.

Big Machine blew it again on Red. With 4 pop singles like 22 and Everything Has Changed were pretty big in the pop causing people to buy Red and only listened to pop songs like I Knew You Were Trouble, Red somehow is rather forgettable. Country music don't seem to care about Red and you have to use pop music to play Red which is country, not pop. I mean, why people listening to Red only have pop music and fans? Red is suppose to be perfect for country radio. But no, country radio only listened to Taylor Swift-less country music instead of Red country radio should've played. Why, Red era? Why you ignore crossover and country and the only way is pop? Bottom line, Red turned out to be a mess. Taylor Swift's pop songs like I Knew You Were Trouble ruined Taylor Swift's crossover country career and her country singles off of Red only have 2. Stupid Red era.

Now that Red was taken off of country radio 2 years ago, there will be no more cool country music Taylor Swift released. No more awesome crossover of the two genres during pop and country days. Country music have moved on from Tay Tay by 2014. You have to use pop music to play country Taylor Swift like Ours. Taylor Swift's country singles are NOT country singles. Taylor Swift's country singles are pop non-single album tracks. What is Taylor Swift thinking? In my opinion, why can't pop radio play country Taylor Swift singles like Tim McGraw's Highway Don't Care? All her country only country singles like Picture To Burn are single worthy Taylor Swift singles for pop radio and yet pop radio only play her pop songs like Shake It Off. What is Taylor Swift thinking?

It looks like Taylor Swift will have to make pop music these days starting with her fifth album, 1989. Unlike Red, 1989 has no pandering, just pop songs and it worked great. However unlike other albums like Speak Now, 1989 singles like Bad Blood only have number 1 singles and never stops. Why can't 1989 singles have non-number 1s? Curse you, Taylor Swift singles has to be number 1s.

Overall, Taylor Swift's music career is broken. All she does these days is pop music and number 1s. That's all she does these days and never stops. Even Taylor Swift has to try something new doesn't help. She will have to leave Big Machine Records and move to another label like Republic Records. This makes me a sad Swiftie because I like Taylor Swift and her music is great. I miss Taylor Swift is crossover country-pop. I'm sure she will take a break so she can release her greatest hits album next year. Curse you, Taylor Swift's pop music.