#t: billboard

[muppenthings]

hello for you ark ideas would you like to draw a giant who is very new to being a giant?

They just smacked their head into yet another billboard. :)

[psykopaths]

[teayoungg]

reasons why 4*town deserves a comeback: a lengthy post

★ their music is nostalgic for 90s–00s kids, who grew up with groups such as *nsync and backstreet boys.

★ their talent was recognised by significant award shows, including nominations for the oscars (best original song), and the grammys (best song written for visual media).

★ their hit single, 'nobody like u', peaked at #49 on the billboard hot 100 in 2022. it made history as the first ever song from a pixar movie to achieve this.

★ 'nobody like u' was certified gold and platinum in the same year (2023) by the riaa, and was honoured in riaa's hall of fame 2023. they were 1/57 recording artists last year to achieve this, proving their commercial viability.

★ 2 petitions were made on change.org, calling for pixar to release more music for 4*town:

★ they have 1.2m monthly listeners on spotify, showing that they have established a strong fanbase and still hold relevancy.

[darkangel1791]

MALEC

is

Matthew Daddario as Alec Lightwood

Harry Shum Jr as Magnus Bane

Crazy Chemistry

and

All of their fans, 50% of which only watched Shadowhunters for them

[hit-song-showdown]

Year-End Poll #58: 2007

[Image description: a collage of photos of the 10 musicians and musical groups featured in this poll. In order from left to right, top to bottom: Beyoncé, Rihanna, Gwen Stefani, Fergie, T-Pain, Carrie Underwood, Plain White T's, Akon, Nelly Furtado, Fergie. End description]

More information about this blog here

This poll highlights some interesting changes in the direction pop music was heading. By this point, it was clear that pop music was shifting towards a more electronic sound and specifically club music. Buy U a Drank by T-Pain is especially notable for this. Most obviously, T-Pain was one of the most successful adopters of Auto-Tune as a stylistic choice. I touched on the plugin briefly when discussing Cher's Believe, but with both that sound and most of T-Pain's discography, the vocal effect was used to give off a futuristic, almost robotic quality to the voice. But that didn't stop Auto-Tune (and T-Pain specifically) from being used as a punching bag for "untalented singing". In case it needs to be said, the exaggerated use of Auto-Tune on these songs were a stylistic choice. If you're using Auto-Tune to fix a bad vocal performance and it sounds like that, someone messed up. (Also T-Pain actually is a very talented vocalist).

I'm also bringing up this song for how it represents a subgenre of southern hip-hop that would become forever associated with the decade: snap music. While it has its stylistic origins in crunk, snap was recognizable for its simpler production and more laid-back sound. Popular snap songs from the time include Laffy Taffy, Crank That (Soulja Boy), and It's Goin' Down. While not on this poll, Crank That (Soulja Boy) is relevant for being one of the first examples of a song taking off online (as in, someone made the song and posted it online themselves). The song was first posted to SoundClick before expanding to a wider audience on MySpace.

This subgenre is more commonly remembered as "ringtone rap", for how this sound really worked with the audio processing technology capable of cellphones at the time. Like "bubblegum pop" in the past and "mumble rap" in the future, the term "ringtone rap" was often used in a derogatory sense.

But the simpler production techniques found on these tracks is also emblematic of how music production was starting to become much more accessible. Crank That (Soulja Boy) was created using a demo version of FL Studio, and the drum loop for Rihanna's Umbrella comes from Apple's GarageBand (specifically Vintage Funk Kit 03). Technology was allowing people to have easier access to both music production and audiences.

Also, this was the year this site was founded. Yay.

[seeminglyranch87]

Taylor & Travis Timeline

December 2023 - part 2

December 10 - Chiefs v Buffalo Bills, Arrowhead Stadium, Kansas City.

Travis Kelce arriving ahead of game

Taylor flies into Kansas City to attend the Chiefs game with her cousins, Travis' cousins & friends at Arrowhead Stadium

Travis made a brilliant play contributing to a touch down but was denied due to a team mates penalty.

During the game, NFL announcer and former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo referred to her as "Travis' wife" while on the air with announcing partner Jim Nantz.

"As you see, Kelce's wife, Taylor Swift, in the audience," Romo pointed out, quickly correcting himself and saying, "I'm sorry -- girlfriend."

"Not yet," Nantz said in response.

Chiefs were defeated 17 - 20.

Taylor and Travis leave the stadium together

Taylor and Travis together with team mates, coaches friends and family gather at Miracle Pop Up Bar

Travis' barber shares a photo of Taylor and Travis (x)

Lots of photos emerge from the party with Taylor and travis taking photos with friends - these have been cropped...

December 11 - Taylor is nominated for a Golden Globe for The Eras tour movie.

USA Today reports that Taylor has donated $1 million to a Tennessee tornado relief Fund (x) after a Tornado ravaged the state on Saturday 9 Dec.

ET article (x)

According to Cheterah Jackson, a Columbus, Ohio-based real estate agent and friend of Travis', the couple rented a luxury bus to transport their group and reserved the Christmas bar in downtown Kansas City for friends and family. 

Jackson tells ET, "My boyfriend Calvin Locke... is Travis' friend and has known him since the 7th grade. We were in the suite at the game, which was filled with family and friends."

"Taylor is an absolute sweetheart. She is very down-to-earth and kind." 

"Taylor and Travis are so in love. It was so cute seeing them together and I can see them getting married"  

December 12 - Taylor returns to NYC. Pictured with Miles & Keleigh Teller

December 13 - New Heights Ep. 68 airs (x 5:05)

Jason and Travis limit talking about Taylor although when the brothers chat about the No.1 & No.2 sales of NFL jerseys in the UK, they give credit to Swifties for helping with the success of topping the sales and Travis gives a "shout out to Kylie and Taylor." Travis suggests that perhaps they could "find our way over there this off season and say hello to everyone in person" and record a live show in the UK. Jason replies "we also got an opportunity to do one in Australia - we could make it a world tour"

Any one know of an international pop star who may be touring in the UK and Australia in 2024 that coincides with the NFL off season? Are the Kelce brothers hinting that Travis and perhaps Jason will join Taylor on tour next year? It should be noted that Patrick Mahomes has also raised the idea of possibly catching the Era's Tour in Europe in the off season too...

The boys answer "No Dumb Questions" from handle "metal-as-hell", a reference to Taylor's TIME article calling Travis "metal as hell" when he publicly declared his interest in dating Taylor.

Taylor Swift's 34th Birthday - Taylor heads to Banzarbar, NYC with friends to celebrate her birthday into the early hours of the morning - Happy Birthday Taylor! The paps even broke out into song to sing Taylor "Happy Birthday". Note Travis remained in KC with commitments to the Chiefs. This was expected.

December 14 - Taylor and friends share photos from the birthday celebration the evening before (x)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Taylor Swift (@taylorswift)

December 15 - Taylor is named Billboard's No.1 Greatest Pop Star (x)

It didn’t seem possible that anyone could have a year this dominant: not this deep into the streaming era, not this long after the oft-proclaimed death of the monoculture, not when the entire industry seems to be in crisis over how to capture and hold onto listener attention. It was a year not to be judged against Swift’s 2023 peers, but against the entirety of modern pop history. 

There is no wasted potential with Taylor Swift, no what ifs – the chance was there for her to have one of the greatest years any pop star has ever had, and you know that she grabbed it. Taylor was here. No one who was around for her 2023 will ever forget it.

With reference to Taylor's relationship with Travis, Billboard's Andrew Unterberger says:

... rumors were beginning to swirl about her and Kelce. The Chiefs star had become increasingly coy in his comments about the pop icon, saying he’d invited her to come see him play a home game (after he’d seen her Eras show in Kansas City that July). She did indeed do just that on the September 24th, with her presence at Arrowhead sending both the worlds of sports and pop culture into a frenzy, and leading to numerous posts and videos of non-football-conversant Swifties sharing the sport’s rules with one another, so they could better understand what was happening in between the shots of their hero in a private box with Kelce’s mom Donna.  From then on, every Sunday (and a couple Mondays and Thursdays) of 2023 was overtaken with Taylor talk: Would she be showing up at the Chiefs’ next game? What other celebrities would she be attending with? What kind of Kelce swag would she be wearing, and what would that mean about their relationship? What do you mean Kansas City is on a bye week?While Swift’s short relationship with Healy was extremely controversial to Swifties and her long relationship with Alwyn was largely uninteresting to everyone else, her love story with Kelce – a well-liked, unproblematic figure, a Super Bowl-winning superstar as an athlete with enough of a Q rating as a celebrity to host SNL – was universally accessible, and found near-100% public approval. You didn’t need deep grounding in Swift Lore to understand the relationship, because it just felt right: the All-American athlete dating the All-American pop star. 

Go to part 1 of December 2023

Go to part 3 of December 2023

Return to the timeline

[fy-mina]

TWICE's 'With YOU-th' is one of the BEST 20 K-POP Albums of 2024 by @billboard ❤️‍🔥 Who else loves the 'ONE SPARK' & 'I GOT YOU' ERA? 🎆

[kissoflifenet]

haneul: kissy road

[badscientist]

i used to be under the distressed impression that higher powers* (religious connotation) were fuckhuge scientists experimenting on us and watching our every move like were in dollhouses

[daily-twice-content]

TWICE's 'With YOU-th' is one of the BEST 20 K-POP Albums of 2024 by @billboard ❤️‍🔥 Who else loves the 'ONE SPARK' & 'I GOT YOU' ERA? 🎆

[witchern]

this is so fucking stupid

[psykopaths]

[teayoungg]

2 years ago today 4*Town made their first appearance on the Billboard Hot 100 chart at #50

it made history as the first Pixar song to do so

[ittybluebell]

g/t writer use another descriptor besides 'billboard-sized face' challenge

[hit-song-showdown]

Year-End Poll #59: 2008

[Image description: a collage of photos of the 10 musicians and musical groups featured in this poll. In order from left to right, top to bottom: Flo-Rida, Leona Lewis, Alicia Keys, Lil Wayne, OneRepublic, Jordin Sparks, Sara Bareilles Usher, Chris Brown. End description]

More information about this blog here

Now well into the latter half of the decade, the direction pop music has been heading is even more evident. The music is starting to skew electronic in its sound and the plugin Auto-Tune is starting to be featured more as a stylistic choice, as seen with T-Pain and Lil Wayne. Lil Wayne's influence over rap would become even more prominent in the late 2000's and early 2010s. Especially with the artists that would eventually be signed to his label, Young Money Entertainment.

There are many reasons why the sound of pop was skewing towards club and dance music. Modern production techniques worked really well with the style, music-purchasing platforms such as iTunes worked better for listening to individual singles rather than full albums (which caters to dance music well), and the 2008 financial crisis. With the recession, more and more people were looking to pop music as an escape. As touring and traditional concerts became less financially accessible for both artists and audiences, clubs and parties served as environments to experience music with a group. To quote this article on the subject:

With themes of luxury, escapism and radical optimism, these upbeat and positive tracks provided comfort in the fantasy of extravagance. Despite most peoples’ situations at the time, almost every song on the radio was about loving life and getting money. Music was fast and people were dancing. (Amanda Kiefer)

But more than that, CD sales plummeted after the recession, while online music consumption soared. More and more, music was making its home on the internet.

There are a surprising number of articles written about dance music in the face of global financial inequality (and many of them have started popping up recently, I wonder why...), so I've linked to a few below.

"How music has responded to a decade of economic inequality" Scott Timberg, Vox

"The Recession in the Music Industry - a Cause Analysis" Peter Tschmuck

"How the Recession is Impacting Music, Too" Laura Palotie (this article is from 2008, so it's interesting as a contemporary reading of the situation.)

[fictionalcanadianshowdown]

Shout out to Dave and Morely from the vinyl Cafe. The radio show is dear to my heart, also I think Santa should be here the north pole is technically canadian

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