HOT: POTUS and Veep Summer Tunes
If you need reaffirmation of the generational gap that separates our current president and vice president, look no further than their recently released playlists of songs they like to jam out to in the hot season (because nothing else is happening in the world, right?). While the president’s list of songs makes it look like he’s angling for a job at Pitchfork in January (with tracks on the playlist by Chance the Rapper, Courtney Barnett, Charles Mingus and Wale), the vice president and his wife’s playlist is straight-up Dad Rock/Mom Rock, with tunes by Coldplay, Tina Turner, Frank Sinatra and Joe Cocker.
WARM: Adele Says No to NFL
It’s not often that a musician breaks news by announcing during a concert about a forthcoming gig that he/she will not play, but when the musician is superstar Adele and the forthcoming gig is the Super Bowl halftime show, headlines will be made. The singer told an L.A. audience she wouldn’t do the halftime show because it “is not about music” and noted that she doesn’t dance. Though Adele said she was offered the slot, the NFL responded by saying it had not formally asked her to perform. This is, of course, the same league that for years fought against the notion that repeated head trauma can cause devastating brain injuries, so…
COLD: Sheeran the Song Robber?
After the estate of Soul legend Marvin Gaye last year successfully won a court case against Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke (to the tune of more than $7 million) because their song “Blurred Lines” kinda sounds like a Gaye song, Ed Sheeran is now being sued over his 2015 song “Thinking Out Loud.” In the suit, the composer of Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On” says Sheeran’s song “copied the ‘heart’ of ‘Let’s’ and repeated it continuously” in his song. Sheeran was already being sued for allegedly stealing a less-than-legendary song — a 2010 X Factor winner says Sheeran’s “Photograph” is a “note-for-note” copy of his track “Amazing” (it’s not).
This article appears in Aug 10-17, 2016.