Search Results for: decade

Los Angeles – In a dismal year for the touring industry, with ticket prices soaring and seats going unsold, music fans in North America partied like it was 1989 as Prince and Madonna topped the concert box office. According to freshly tabulated estimates provided by concert trade publication Pollstar, Prince sold $87.4 million in tickets in 2004, while Madonna earned $79.5 million. Prince also worked a bit harder for his payday, playing 96 shows, compared with 39 for Madonna. Canadian pop singer Celine Dion actually topped Madonna by about $900,000, but her haul came exclusively from 154 dates performed at… Read more »

The North American touring business is breathing a sigh of relief as the curtain drops on what many call the industry’s worst year in a decade. The final Billboard Boxscore tally shows the industry finishing with a microscopic increase in gross ticket sales of 0.2% in 2004. But that does not tell the full story of a year in which profitable shows were hard to find and promoters scrambled to fill seats, especially in an oversaturated summer season. As promoters lick their wounds, the big question facing the industry is whether the flat performance of 2004 was a blip on… Read more »

Madonna has reinvented herself once again, this time as the top touring act of 2004. The singer’s Re-Invention Tour was the year’s biggest grosser, according to Billboard Boxscore, taking in $125 million through September and scoring 55 sellouts out of 56 shows. The elaborate concerts averaged $2.23 million each night. Another ’80s icon, Prince, came in second place, with one of his most successful tours in more than a decade. Playing to more people than any other artist (almost 1.5 million), Prince’s Musicology tour grossed $90.2 million. Country star Shania Twain was third, playing to almost 950,000 fans and grossing… Read more »

Los Angeles – None of the Grammy nominees was more surprised than Chris Morris, who was taking notes along with the rest of the press corps Tuesday morning when he heard his name announced among the luminaries. Morris, who joined The Hollywood Reporter as music editor in September, was nominated for the liner notes he wrote for “No Thanks! The ’70s Punk Rebellion.” That Rhino Records compilation of various artists gives an overview of the genre’s early days by gathering 100 songs in a four-CD boxed set. Morris contributed a definitive context for the music in a thoroughly researched 116-page… Read more »

Los Angeles – Motley Crue, the hard-living Los Angeles heavy metal band that symbolized rock’n’roll excess in the 1980s, is reuniting for a world tour beginning next February in Florida, it announced on Monday. The foursome’s original members last played together six years ago, when drummer Tommy Lee – embroiled in domestic difficulties with then-wife Pamela Anderson – quit to form a short-lived side project. Vocalist Vince Neil, bassist Nikki Sixx and guitarist Mick Mars briefly continued with other drummers, before pulling the plug a few years ago. The hiatus marked the end of a two-decade run that produced hits… Read more »

December 07, 2004 01:53 PM US Eastern Timezone Ray Charles’ Multi-Platinum “Genius Loves Company” Nominated for 10 GRAMMY Awards, Including Best Album of the Year BEVERLY HILLS, Calif.-(BUSINESS WIRE)-Dec. 7, 2004- Music Legend’s Final CD is Best Selling Recording of His Career; First Ever GRAMMY Nominations for Starbucks Hear Music; CONCORD Nominations Now Tally Over 100 Genius Loves Company, the final recording from music legend Ray Charles, has been nominated for 10 GRAMMY® Awards; it was announced today. The “Genius” received nominations for Best Album of the Year, Best Pop Vocal Album, Record of the Year (“Here We Go Again”… Read more »

So much for that “Ebony and Ivory” stuff. At least as far as Stevie Wonder and Eminem go. Speaking to Billboard magazine, Wonder comes to the defense of old Motown roster mate Michael Jackson, saying he was “disappointed” Em mocked Jackson’s child-molestation allegations in the rapper’s video for “Just Lose It.” “Kicking someone when he’s down is not a good thing,” Wonder tells Billboard. “I have much respect for his work…[b]ut I was disappointed that he would let himself go to such a level. “He has succeeded on the backs of people predominantly in that lower pay bracket, people of… Read more »

Washington – Music legend Elton John, opera diva Joan Sutherland and conductor John Williams – along with actors Warren Beatty, Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee – were being honored Sunday with a star-studded tribute at The Kennedy Center. The six recipients of the 27th annual Kennedy Center Honors were being saluted for their lifetime contributions to American culture through the performing arts. First lady Laura Bush greeted the honorees – as well as actors Louis Gossett Jr., Robert Downey Jr. and Bo Derek – at a reception at the White House Sunday afternoon. Later, President and Mrs. Bush were honored… Read more »

When Agnostic Front vocalist Roger Miret calls modern “hardcore” bands up on the carpet for degrading and bastardizing the genre, you don’t look at him as a grumpy old scenester. You snap to attention. Accredit it to over two decades of proud loyalty to the scene he and Agnostic Front helped create. After all, if there were no AF, you surely wouldn’t be rockin’ out to Hatebreed and their throngs of clones today. That frustration is the focal point of the band’s forthcoming full-length Another Voice. With tracks such as “Hardcore! (The Definition)” and “Pride, Faith, Respect,” Miret heralds the… Read more »

After witnessing this incredibly uneventful performance by “super group” Velvet Revolver, it’s safe to surmise that they’re getting by on history alone. Like many bands before them, they feed off of what their individual names used to mean and are entirely undeserving of the glory bestowed upon them. Now, before you start firing off hate emails, read on. Given the wealth of talent comprising Velvet Revolver and the obvious success of debut album Contraband, one cannot deny that this quintet is capable of writing a few solid tunes. The problem is that, aside from purely ego centric reasons, they’re just… Read more »