The biggest stars in music joined with film and interactive media and the hottest city of the Lone Star State? It’s South By Southwest in Austin, Texas and every year it’s one of the biggest festivals around. But how did it begin? What goes down when all the industries collide? And what’s in store this year after a two-year in-person break? This is Billboard Explains: South By Southwest.
John Mayer knows his guitar playing skills on “Neon” are impressive, but he didn’t think they would become a trend on TikTok.
During his first show at the Los Angeles Forum on Sunday (Mar. 13), before playing “Neon,” he shared that the song “is interesting to me because it’s one of my oldest songs, and I would have thought that time would just send it down the assembly line and the older songs go in the back and the newer songs go in the front.”
“But, suddenly, this song now feels like a TikTok trick shot video challenge song and I feel kind of bad about it, because I wrote this song when I was playing alone in bookstores and cafés and stuff and wanted to get people’s attention,” he continued. “It’s a little cynical in the sense that it’s like, a little bit of circus trick.”
The “TikTok trick shot video challenge” he’s referring to started back in March 2021, when Mayer uploaded a video to the platform sharing a “guitar tip” on how to play his 1999 hit. The tip was to move your thumb and index finger back and forth on the guitar strings, which is difficult for the normal hand. “U forgot to explain the step where u just dislocate your thumb,” one of the 15,000 comments reads.
“I need a tutorial for this tutorial,” another says. Fans went on to post point-of-view videos poking fun at Mayer’s brief “Neon” tutorial — while subtly flexing that they can play the song.
“I feel bad because I have thumbs like a mile long,” Mayer said at the LA Sob Rock tour stop. “You know, like, the kid in school who could turn his eyelids inside out? That’s sort of what this is. It’s this one freako thing that I can do.”
He went on to flawlessly play “Neon,” only as John Mayer and his mile-long thumbs can do. Watch the whole bit via a fan video below.
One of K-pop’s biggest record labels is firmly planting its foot into the U.S. market in the latest move to indicate South Korean pop music is increasingly creating significant stateside business.
JYP USA, the North American subsidiary of JYP Entertainment, will focus on the U.S. development of JYP’s roster, as part of a “full-scale North American market development and global expansion maximization” by the South Korean label, Billboard has learned.
JYP Entertainment, one of South Korea’s publicly traded agencies, was founded in the late 1990s by musician-producer J.Y. Park, who created early breakout stars like Wonder Girls, the first K-pop act to enter the Hot 100 chart in 2009.
The North American launch follows last month’s news that JYP’s strategic partnership with Republic Records would grow to include boy band Stray Kids and girl group iTZY, continuing from what started as an initial collaboration for TWICE in 2020.
And it comes after HYBE, the South Korean label that is home to chart-topping boy band BTS, put in motion a restructuring last July that created hubs in the U.S. (Los Angeles) and Japan. HYBE also is partnering with Universal Music Group’s Interscope Geffen A&M Records to create a joint record label and a “girl group audition challenge” in the U.S. with Universal.
JYP USA will be based in Los Angeles initially, with plans to expand to New York City.
In addition to boosting its established chart-toppers, the new entity will also lay a foundation in the U.S. for the agency’s newest artists Xdinary Heroes, the six-member rock band that debuted in December, and NMIXX, the seven-member girl group whose Feb. 22 debut with the single “O.O” has garnered nearly 50 million YouTube views.
JYP USA also says it will “discover and foster local U.S. artists” — in a similar way to what the Korean label has done in Japan with its girl group NiziU.
Jointly produced by JYP Entertainment and Sony Music Japan, NiziU emerged from a 2020 competition TV show that whittled down 26 hopefuls to the eventual nine-member lineup that has landed two No. 1s on the Billboard Japan Hot 100.
The North American initiative will serve as an “international bastion of K-pop,” enabling JYP’s artist roster “to gain a greater foothold in the U.S. market,” Republic Records’ founder and CEO Monte Lipman said in a statement.
JYP USA is JYP Entertainment’s latest foray into the U.S. market. During Wonder Girls’ initial U.S. advancements, the agency had a joint-management arrangement with the Jonas Group and a New York office location that housed the Wonder Girls. Since that time, TWICE joined Wonder Girls with a single on the Hot 100. TWICE and iTZY have also landed multiple entries on the Billboard 200, with Stray Kids looking to be the company’s next entry with their upcoming Oddinary EP out Friday.
Former Disney CEO Bob Iger (and his avatar) is entering the metaverse.
Iger is investing in and joining the board of a company called Genies, which lets users create their own digital avatars for use in virtual worlds (you can see Iger’s avatar above). Iger joins Genies CEO and co-founder Akash Nigam, Genies co-founder Evan Rosenbaum, and venture capitalists Mary Meeker and Rick Yang on the Genies board.
Genies has become popular among stars including Jennifer Lopez, Rihanna and Lil Nas X. The company also has partnerships with Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group for avatars and NFTs.
“I’ve always been drawn to the intersection between technology and art, and Genies provides unique and compelling opportunities to harness the power of that combination to enable new forms of creativity, expression and communication,” said Iger in a statement. “After spending the last few months getting to know Akash and learning more about Genies, I am very excited about his vision and how it will be fulfilled and I look forward to working with the entire team.”
With talk of both the metaverse and web3 (a buzzword closely associated with crypto technology), Genies is trying to position itself as the future of online identity, whether that future is in virtual worlds or on the blockchain … or both. The hope is that after users create their avatar, it can be used everywhere and in every app (or virtual world).
And Iger, who officially left Disney at the end of the year, is exploring the metaverse just as his successor Bob Chapek begins exploring similar territory. Chapek cited the metaverse in his memo outlining three strategic “pillars” for the company in January. And in February, Disney tapped executive Mike White to lead its metaverse strategy. But while Disney is presumably looking at the metaverse as an opportunity to tell stories, Iger is betting that soon enough each one of us will be experiencing that Disney content in the metaverse through our own cartoon versions of ourselves.
This article was originally published by The Hollywood Reporter.
Em Beihold shares the feelings behind depression and anxiety in her relatable 2022 single, “Numb Little Bug.”
If you need a guide to follow along with Em Beihold’s “Numb Little Bug,” find the lyrics below:
I don’t feel a single thing
Have the pills done too much
Haven’t caught up with my friends in weeks
And now we’re outta touch
I’ve been driving in L.A.
And the world it feels too big
Like a floating ball that’s bound to break
Snap my psyche like a twig
And I just wanna see if you feel the same as me
Do you ever get a little bit tired of life
Like you’re not really happy but you don’t wanna die
Like you’re hanging by a thread but you gotta survive
‘Cause you gotta survive
Like your body’s in the room but you’re not really there
Like you have empathy inside but you don’t really care
Like you’re fresh outta love but it’s been in the air
Am I past repair
A little bit tired of tryin’ to care when I don’t
A little bit tired of quick repairs to cope
A little bit tired of sinkin’
There’s water in my boat
I’m barely breathin’
Tryna stay afloat
So I got these quick repairs to cope
Guess I’m just broken and broke
The prescriptions on its way
With a name I can’t pronounce
And the dose I gotta take
Boy, I wish that I could count
‘Cause I just wanna see if this could make me happy
Do you ever get a little bit tired of life
Like you’re not really happy but you don’t wanna die
Like you’re hanging by a thread but you gotta survive
‘Cause you gotta survive
Like your body’s in the room but you’re not really there
Like you have empathy inside but you don’t really care
Like you’re fresh outta love but it’s been in the air
Am I past repair
A little bit tired of tryin’ to care when I don’t
A little bit tired of quick repairs to cope
A little bit tired of sinking
There’s water in my boat
I’m barely breathin’
Tryna stay afloat
So I got these quick repairs to cope
Do you ever get a little bit tired of life
Like you’re not really happy but you don’t wanna die
Like a numb little bug that’s gotta survive
That’s gotta survive
Lyrics licensed & provided by LyricFind
Lyrics © Songtrust Ave
Written by: Andrew DeCaro, Emily Beihold, Nick Lopez
