58th Annual Grammy Awards
2016 GRAMMY NOMINEES ALBUM TRACK LISTING REVEALED
Latest Edition Of Compilation Features 21 Hits From The World’s Biggest Superstars And Emerging Talent
Album Available Jan.22 In Stores And At All Digital Retailers
Fans Can Pre-Order Now; Gives Fans The Chance To Attend
Music's Biggest Night®
The Recording Academy®'s GRAMMY Recordings® and Republic Records announced the track list for the 2016 GRAMMY® Nominees album — available in stores and at all digital retailers on Jan. 22. The full 2016 lineup of artists and songs can be found below.
The 22nd installment of the best-selling series features 21 GRAMMY-nominated artists and hit songs from the world’s biggest superstars and hottest emerging talent, including Album Of The Year nominees Alabama Shakes, Kendrick Lamar, Chris Stapleton,Taylor Swift and The Weeknd, as well as Best New Artist nominees Courtney Barnett,James Bay, Sam Hunt, Tori Kelly and Meghan Trainor among others. Pre-order the album here.
Once again, a portion of the proceeds from album sales will benefit the year-round efforts of the GRAMMY Foundation® and MusiCares Foundation® — two Recording Academy-affiliated charitable organizations.
"The 2016 GRAMMY Nominees album represents some of the finest songs and talented artists that make up this year's remarkable nominees," said Neil Portnow, President/CEO of The Recording Academy. "We thank Republic Records for collaborating with us on this project, which also provides much needed support for the invaluable programs and initiatives our charities produce year-round. We look forward to another successful GRAMMY compilation."
"It's an honor to partner with the Recording Academy for the 2016 GRAMMY Nominees album," says Republic Records Founder/President Avery Lipman. "It's a very special project that captures the year through showcasing its biggest and best songs and simultaneously benefits some very important causes."
By visiting www.2016GRAMMYalbum.com or www.CBS.com, fans will have a chance to win a trip for two to the 58th Annual GRAMMY Awards®.*
The 58th Annual GRAMMY Awards will be held on Monday, Feb. 15 at STAPLES Center in Los Angeles, and will be broadcast live on CBS from 8 — 11:30 p.m. (ET/PT).
2016 GRAMMY® Nominees Album
Track List
1. MARK RONSON
"Uptown Funk" Feat. Bruno Mars
Record Of The Year
Best Pop Duo/Group Performance
2. TAYLOR SWIFT
"Blank Space"
Record Of The Year
Album Of The Year
Song Of The Year
3. THE WEEKND
"Can’t Feel My Face"
Record Of The Year
Album Of The Year
4. ED SHEERAN
"Thinking Out Loud"
Record Of The Year
Song Of The Year
5. MAROON 5
"Sugar"
Best Pop Duo/Group Performance
6. FLORENCE + THE MACHINE
"Ship To Wreck"
Best Pop Duo/Group Performance
7. ALABAMA SHAKES
"Don’t Wanna Fight"
Album Of The Year
8. D’ANGELO AND THE VANGUARD
"Really Love"
Record Of The Year
9. KENDRICK LAMAR
"Alright"
Album Of The Year
Song Of The Year
10. CHRIS STAPLETON
"Traveller"
Album Of The Year
Best Country Solo Performance
11. LITTLE BIG TOWN
"Girl Crush"
Song Of The Year
12. WIZ KHALIFA
"See You Again" Feat. Charlie Puth (From Furious 7)
Song Of The Year
Best Pop Duo/Group Performance
13. MEGHAN TRAINOR
"Lips Are Movin"
Best New Artist
14. TORI KELLY
"Should’ve Been Us"
Best New Artist
15. SAM HUNT
"Take Your Time"
Best New Artist
16. JAMES BAY
"Hold Back The River"
Best New Artist
17. COURTNEY BARNETT
"Pedestrian At Best"
Best New Artist
18. CARRIE UNDERWOOD
"Little Toy Guns"
Best Country Solo Performance
19. CAM
"Burning House"
Best Country Solo Performance
20. LEE ANN WOMACK
"Chances Are"
Best Country Solo Performance
21. KEITH URBAN
"John Cougar, John Deere, John 3:16"
Best Country Solo Performance
Is Taylor Swift Really Trying To Rob Photographers?
In recent news, Taylor Swift criticized Apple for initially not paying artists during the trial period for Apple Music, their latest music streaming service. The battle went on for one quick day as Apple shortly retreated, granting victory to Swift's team and stamping the rare power she continues to have on music business.
Meanwhile, at the stem of this rebuttal, freelance photographer Jason Sheldon published an open letter on his blog where he argued Swift's recent image-licensing policy, suggesting the hypocrisy to her complaints towards Apple. In her policy, Editorial photographers assigned to shoot her shows must sign away rights to their photos, preventing them from being paid while giving Swift unlimited use of the pictures for publicity and promotion. It gets worse...
One section of the policy that Sheldon doesn't mention is the right to her management company to destroy a photographer's equipment if they break the terms of the contact, one they are obligated to sign before shooing her show. It reads the following:
If you fail to fully comply with this Authorization, authorized agents of FEI, the Artist or the Related Entities may confiscate and/or destroy the technology or devices that contain the master files of the Photographs and other images, including, but not limited to, cell phones and memory cards, and the Photographs and any other images.
Just today, a UK representative for Taylor Swift quickly countered and told Business Insider via email that the standard photography agreement to which Sheldon referred was "misrepresented." To me, this all sounds like "Bad Blood" more than anything.
At this point, we know that Apple changed their course of action but will Taylor Swift? As a photographer, I feel this is indeed quite hypocritical. Especially because it's photos from concert photographers that tend to promote ticket sales, creating a huge monetary benefit for promoters, venues and the Swift team alike. Needless to say, I'll refrain from shooting any Taylor Swift shows any time in the near future. What do you think?
Apple Music Will Pay Artists During Trial Periods Thanks to Taylor Swift
When Apple Music was unveiled earlier this month, many saw it as Spotify's starkest competition. After all, when a behemoth as large as Apple enters new territory, it will always be seen as one of the top dogs. However, the biggest complaint facing Apple Music's revelation was Apple's policy on not paying royalties to artists during trial periods. It's absurd to think a company as large as Apple would implement a terrible, anti-artist policy.
Yesterday, pop megastar Taylor Swift wrote an open letter to Apple detailing her reasoning behind not releasing her 1989 album on the service, stating:
I’m not sure you know that Apple Music will not be paying writers, producers, or artists for those three months. I find it to be shocking, disappointing, and completely unlike this historically progressive and generous company.
This is not about me [...] This is about the new artist or band that has just released their first single and will not be paid for its success. This is about the young songwriter who just got his or her first cut and thought that the royalties from that would get them out of debt. This is about the producer who works tirelessly to innovate and create, just like the innovators and creators at Apple are pioneering in their field…but will not get paid for a quarter of a year’s worth of plays on his or her songs [...]
But I say to Apple with all due respect, it’s not too late to change this policy and change the minds of those in the music industry who will be deeply and gravely affected by this. We don’t ask you for free iPhones. Please don’t ask us to provide you with our music for no compensation.
Thankfully, Apple listened. Eddy Cue, Apple's Senior Vice President of Internet Software and Services, responded to Swift's letter on Twitter by announcing the policy will be reversed, allowing all artists to be paid for their music:
#AppleMusic will pay artist for streaming, even during customer’s free trial period
— Eddy Cue (@cue) June 22, 2015
When an artist of Taylor Swift's magnitude comes out denouncing your service, you listen. Cynics might point at the potential loss of revenue from artists like Swift as their main reasoning for reversing their policy. However, no matter what Apple's intentions may be, the fact that all artists of varying sizes will be compensated for their music is a much larger win for everybody.
Thanks, Taylor Swift.
[via USA Today]
Taylor Swift's "Bad Blood" Video is All Kinds of Good
There are very few subjects I can say I'm well versed in, but when I get the opportunity to gush about them you can be sure I'm going to tell you all about it. The venn diagrams of my interests rarely cross over, but now that we've got a Taylor Swift music video featuing all sorts of science fiction nods, I'm not sure what to do with myself. Although the country community felt the sting of when Taylor Swift decided her latest album, 1989, was going to be an all-pop production, and many more felt the loss when she removed her music from Spotify, it's hard to fault her when she's having so much fun in all of her music videos.
This one for her latest single "Bad Blood" (featuring a remix from Kendrick Lamar) tops all of her other craziness so far. Directed by Joseph Kahn (from Detention and that Power/Rangers fan video from a few weeks back) We've got numerous shout outs to sci-fi films like The Fifth Element, Sucker Punch, Mad Max, and awesome cameos from Selena Gomez, Lena Dunham, Hailee Steinfeld, Ellie Goulding, Zendaya, Karlie Kloss, Cara Delevingne, Ellen Pompeo, Mariska Hargitay, and f**king Cindy Crawford.
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I've been a big advocate for wacky music videos all my life. In fact, I think wackier music videos actually saved music artists in the digital age thanks to how much sharing through social media accounts for notoriety now. Taylor Swift just gets that.
Take the video for "Blank Space" (which was one of my Top 10 Pop Songs of 2014) for instance. Such a goofy video for an admittedly generic song helped launch her into several blogs like this one. Although she really doesn't need more attention, she gets it by taking risks. Swift plays around with the visual landscape in order to get your attention (and thus, your all important clicks) because she's got enough pull to do so. She's at the point in her career where she can't really make a bad decision, and can experiment with her brand. It's sort of like how Nicki Minaj gets crazy sexual in each of her videos, yet never quite goes over the line of decency in order to further get her name out there. Nothing the two artists do actually hurt their brand, and if an experiment fails (like Minaj's unfortunate "Nazi" video or Swift's slightly racist "Shake It Off" video) they bounce back.
Where Swift ultimately succeeds is her "pop princess" persona. It sort of brings down the fun in the "Bad Blood" video (it'd be much better if she didn't perform it and just let it all play out), but her "happy go lucky" style really works wonders for how weird she's taking 1989. I can't wait to see what she does next.
The Taylor Swift Takeover
Photo by Virgil Solis.
1989 is the best pop album to come out within the past five years, and with its release comes the global takeover of Taylor Swift. Swiftmageddon. Taylortopia. T-Swiftpocalyse. It’s here, people. You can’t avoid it anymore. Taylor Swift is taking over the world one catchy hook at a time.
Before 1989, I’ll admit, I was a skeptic. Yeah, I had some T-Swift songs on my iPod, but it was nothing earth shattering. “Fifteen,” “I Knew You Were Trouble,” “22,” “You Belong With Me,” and “Our Song” were the only songs I knew. Honestly, they weren’t anything to be that hyped about. I have friends in the hardcore and punk scenes who wear “TAYLOR SWIFT OR FUCKING DIE” hoodies and “T-Swift forever” shirts, but I never got the appeal with her... until 1989.
When “Shake It Off” dropped mid-summer in 2014, I was captivated by the cheery melody and upbeat lyrics. It was like a fizzy-pop sensation, an '80s-esque dance beat, and a sugary candy-like sound all wrapped into one song. When “Blank Space” premiered not long after, I was consumed. When I finally listened to the full album on an airplane to LA two weeks ago, I became obsessed. This is pure gold, I thought. Taylor Swift has released the catchiest, female pop album since Katy Perry’s Teenage Dream (2010). Every song is a banger with a story and purpose for each word. Her songwriting skills have flourished along with her perfectly cast gang of artists (Imogen Heap and Jack Antonoff) to help produce some of the songs. A musical fairytale of fast love, 1989 makes me want to shout from the rooftop, “I FUCKING LOVE TAYLOR SWIFT!” She has become my best friend. Together, we sing in the car on our way to work, at work, on our way home, at home, before bed, and then again when we wake up. I feel like the fans in the Josie and the Pussycats movie, just liking her because I’m being brainwashed to enjoy it by those corporate big dogs. Maybe, maybe not. Whatever the case may be, I find myself wearing red lipstick every day along with outfits that get more retro by the minute and I’m totally okay with it. Thanks, Tay.
Fans of her early work would tell me, “She’s going pop and she’s going to be terrible at it.” Oh, how wrong you were. If anything, Taylor has been dominating the genre with the release of 1989. Her PR team of media wizards are like the NSA of pop. You can’t stream her album ANYWHERE - SoundCloud, YouTube, Spotify- they’re empty, like the Swiftening never happened. Practically stealing money out of listeners pockets, some still eagerly lined up to own the album in a world where digital music is essentially free. Sure, pirating is easy, but her PR people are so gung-ho about the whole thing that they’ve started to shut down sites that have her album available for downloading. In 2014, with her album being released in full for just three short months, this is some of what she has achieved with 1989:
- Best-selling album of the year (Billboard, iTunes, Cosmopolitan)
- Rolling Stone’s #2 album of the year
- On the cover of TIME
- On the cover of Billboard
- She performed at the Thanksgiving Day Parade in NYC
- On the cover of The Hollywood Reporter
- Snagging multiple guest spots:
- Jimmy Kimmel, SNL, ABC, The Voice, BBC America, The View, The Ellen Degeneres Show, and pretty much every other talk show out there
- She’s named the most powerful woman in U.K. media in 2014
- She’s been nominated for three Grammy’s (and she’ll probably snag ‘em all)
- She performed at the American Music Awards
- She performed at the Victoria Secret Fashion Show
- 1989 sold 1.287 million units in its first week, which hasn’t been done since 2002
Taylor Swift is slaughtering the music biz competition right now and probably will be for the better half of 2015. While some music critics, journalists and artists are calling her pull from Spotify/YouTube absurd, I think it’s a smart move. If you really want to listen to 1989, skip the Chipotle today and just buy the damn record. Don’t hate the player, hate the game. You know what they say, if you can’t beat ‘em, then just pull your catalog from every site and make fans buy your album like a REAL pop sensation. Boom.
Taylor Swift: Cultural Appropriation or Misguided Attempt at Music Evolution?
Photo by Virgil Solis
Taylor Swift, the songstress forever linked to Kanye West following the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, has had quite the career before and after K.W. Despite all of the awards, fame, and success, a real artist will want to continually change their art, showcasing growth and evolution in ways that are entertaining, inspiring, and above all else, interesting. Using the aforementioned Kanye as an example, he's not the same artist now that he was back during The College Dropout, showing major growth over his past three albums alone (808s and Heartbreaks, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, and Yeezus), but can you blame him? Taylor, meanwhile, has lined up the ex-boyfriends and break-up songs alongside her plentiful awards while still sticking to the same formula that found her her success. It's about time she evolved, no?
Earlier this week, Taylor Swift released the music video for her new song, "Take It Off," which you can watch below. The fallout has been widespread following the video's release thanks to many claiming the video and singer as racist and appropriating black culture in some of the scenes. If you haven't watched the video yet, Swift takes part in and dresses up in different types of dance cultures (ballet, break, cheerleading, etc.) while she sings about dancing/shaking off any problems that come her way. It's a cheesy, yet positive song about being able to overcome differences and issues that may arise. The controversy comes from Swift's representation of "black culture" with some questionable stereotypes being portrayed in some of the scenes.
However, is this inherently racist, or just woefully ignorant? The song's theme, as I stated, is a positive message about facing adversity no matter the situation, as illustrated in the video with the various subcultures represented. Detractors are angry of the portrayals of twerking consisting of predominantly black dancers. Realistically, though, wouldn't there be detraction if the majority of the twerkers were white (or even a different culture)? I don't think the "Shake It Off" video appropriates black culture, but rather misrepresents all of the dancing cultures to a bare minimum.
In saying that, I find issue with the change in Swift's song and its appropriation of modern Top 40 songs. I'm not a Taylor Swift fan, nor do I listen to (or care about) Top 40. What I find alarming is Swift's attempt to expand upon her music career with this song in which she raps, very poorly at that, to fit into a current sound that is anything but what she's known for. There's a break in the middle of the song in which Swift says:
Hey, hey, hey
Just think while you been getting down and out about the liars
And the dirty dirty cheats of the world
You could have been getting down to this sick beat
Yes, Taylor, "Shake It Off" features one of the sickest beats to ever hit Radio Disney. Thanks for pointing it out to us. What follows after the break an awkward sounding Swift talk-rapping about seeing an ex-boyfriend and wanting to dance with another guy with nice hair. What? In an attempt to evolve her music from its country-pop roots to a more contemporary sound, Swift stumbles with a generic-sounding "rap" that is completely out of place and character. I understand risks and going outside of your comfort zone, especially in art, but when it's something as misguided and blatantly wrong like this, it's infuriating.
And please, don't even get me started on Swift's attempts at dancing in this video... If any accusations of cultural appropriations are being levied against Swift, it's the appropriation of the current pop sound and her attempts to fit into that dynamic with her own music. Misguided? Definitely. Racist? Hardly. Watch the video below and let us know what you think.
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[Video] 2014 Grammy Awards Performance Recap
While the awards may have left some excitement on the table, the performances of the 2014 Grammy Awards certainly did not disappoint. Jay-Z and Beyonce started things off with a rousing performance of their track "Drunk in Love" from her recent release that got the energy going in the Staples Center. Lorde performed her 2013 seminal track "Royals" to a certain degree of minimalism, sporting a darker new look and Pharrell and Daft Punk teamed up with none other than Stevie Wonder for a rendition of "Get Lucky" which went on to win record of the year and Kendrick Lamar linked up with Imagine Dragons for an inspired performance than skipped across songs, opening with "m.A.A.d City" which had at least two in the front row out of their seats. Alas, all the showmanship was thus in vain to the almighty Macklemore & Ryan Louis whose Teflon-esque evening continued into their live performance as they trumped the rest of the field by hosting 33 gay marriages onstage with Madonna. There's a lot you can do to create entertainment, but I have to say there's not much more than that. We rounded up the whole lot of Grammy performances and have them streaming here below for your viewing pleasure. Check them out and stay tuned to RH for continuing Grammy coverage.
Beyonce & Jay Z: "Drunk In Love"
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Imagine Dragons & Kendrick Lamar: "Radioactive"
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Lorde: "Royals"
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Pharrell, Stevie Wonder & Daft Punk:
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Katy Perry & Juicy J: "Dark Horse"
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Taylor Swift: "All Too Well"
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Keith Urban & Gary Clark Jr. "Cop Car"
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Pink: "Try"
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Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Mary Lambert & Madonna 'Same Love"
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Grading the Grammy Nominations
As the music industry has evolved over the past decade into the digital world, things have changed quite a bit. Hard copies are hardly ever bought anymore, nor does anyone seem to buy whole albums at all, as the iTunes Store model has taken over and the industry has increasingly become about what the consumer wants as opposed to what the labels want the listeners to hear. While this has resulted in a sort of musical reawakening, creating a culture where listeners can stream, download or play any track they can think of with the touch of a button, music has expanded at a rapid pace, creating new genres and sub-genres and infinite new off-shoots that don't fit cleanly into any one established genre or sound.
Standing behind this industry, bearing the largest prize of all, is the Grammy Awards. This year, the award show enters its 56th installment and, while a dance music category was finally introduced last year, the judging seems more out of touch than ever, but of course this has been an issue for some time. The Grammys are like Social Security. You don't really care about it much until you're too old to get up from the sofa. Generations have rallied against the award for years. In 1991 Sinead O'Connor simply refused to show up and boycotted the show, despite being nominated in four categories. After winning "Best Hard Rock Performance" in 1998, Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder stood onstage perplexed and, staring at the golden trophy, said into the microphone, "I don't know what this means. I don't think it means anything." It's not news that the team behind the Grammy Awards has been out of touch for some time, but at no time in history has it been so blatantly about the money in an industry that today makes significantly less money than it used to. It's macroeconomics of the current American condition played out with celebrities and gold gramophone statues. Plus, Kanye already spoke out. So, for this latest round of Grammy nominations, I figured I would sift through who was chosen and offer up my own choices for the top prizes in music this year.