To paraphrase a wise sage, you come at the queen, you best not miss. Indeed, Remy Ma’s ongoing war with reigning rap-pop monarch Nicki Minaj is a high-risk, high-reward gamble. Executed well, a publicity-generating rap battle can be a boon to both artists, burnishing reputations and showcasing lyrical acumen, all while stoking sales and streaming [...] Read more

Since his death three weeks ago, Prince has been lodged in the upper reaches of the Billboard charts, as hundreds of thousands of Americans have acquired his music—in many cases, for the first time. Prince’s near-total refusal to allow his music on streaming sites of any kind—no Spotify or other on-demand audio sites except Tidal, [...] Read more

Photo by CBS Photo Archive/Getty Images If you were a music fan with a TV and Twitter on February 15, chances are you parked in front of both for the 58th annual Grammy Awards. But for chart geeks like me, this is the moment—the week after the Grammys—we watch closely. Now’s when we find out [...] Read more

That’s how it starts: They go back to the stage. As one of the most acclaimed live acts of the last decade, LCD Soundsystem will, naturally, kick off their long-predicted comeback with a headlining slot at Coachella, with a full tour to follow. But James Murphy wasn’t inspired to reboot his project-cum-band out of a [...] Read more

Photo by Gina Ribisi Even before Grammy night, reporters were already comparing Beck, the token "rock" contender for 2015’s Album of the Year prize, to Steely Dan. Back in 2001 the AARP-eligible duo of Donald Fagen and Walter Becker beat Beck in this same contest. Then, after Sunday night, when Beck’s Morning Phase stunned pundits [...] Read more

Since it landed like a joy-bomb late Sunday night, D'Angelo’s long (long!) awaited Black Messiah has upended critics’ and music nerds’ end-of-year conversations, with some outlets slotting it as their No. 1 album of 2014 just two weeks before the end of the year. But one list Black Messiah won’t be No. 1 on anytime [...] Read more

All that fanfare, and Taylor Swift is still No. 1?! That’s an understandable reaction to the new Billboard 200 album chart, the first under the new Billboard and Nielsen SoundScan rules that now count streaming and digital tracks alongside traditional album sales. When Billboard announced the changes a couple of weeks ago, the magazine billed [...] Read more

The news last week that veteran band Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers scored its first No. 1 album—yes, ever—prompted a number of reactions, ranging from “Petty’s still got it…classic rock rules!” to “Man, it’s way too easy to top the charts these days.” Both reactions are understandable, but the truth lies somewhere in between. Supporting [...] Read more

After a long, colorful career, Bobby Womack died on Friday at age 70. Critics, music historians and longtime R&B fans know his importance, but despite Womack’s deserved induction five years ago into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, describing the magnitude of his accomplishments to the larger public is something of a challenge—this is [...] Read more

photo by Neal Preston Hey, did you hear that awesome Michael Jackson song that popped into the Top 20 a month ago? It just materialized all the way up at No. 14 on Billboard’s Hot 100 one week in late May, and it was better than anything on the chart that week. Supple, propulsive, impossible [...] Read more