Rock · LiveFP-014
wave to earth Fill Radio City
Six thousand seats, a living-room stage set and a second album that reaches past lo-fi jazz. The Seoul trio played Radio City like a band that already knew it belonged in the room.
The Latest
K-Pop · NewsFP-028
BTS' "Swim" Passes 1 Billion Spotify Streams, the First 2026 Release to Get There
The lead single from ARIRANG crossed the line seven months after release. It is the group's seventh song to do it, and the fastest.
K-Pop · BusinessFP-029
After BTS, HYBE, SM, JYP and YG Skip the Grammys' New Asian Pop Category
K-pop's four biggest companies reportedly sent nothing to best Asian pop music performance. The Recording Academy is going ahead anyway, and nominations land November 16.
K-Pop · New MusicFP-031
LISA Releases "Tarantino" Video and Her Press Play EP
The BLACKPINK member's six-track set is out on Lloud and RCA, with a spy-film video, a PlayStation tie-in and a Las Vegas residency starting November 12.
K-Pop · ChartsFP-032
SEVENTEEN's JxJ Set a Hanteo Record With Debut EP "Dreamscape"
Jeonghan and Joshua's first album as a duo sold 656,011 copies on day one, the most for any unit album in Hanteo's history. A six-city tour starts October 30.
K-Pop · AwardsFP-030
2026 MAMA Awards: BIGBANG, ENHYPEN and CORTIS Set to Perform in Osaka
The K-pop awards run two nights at Kyocera Dome Osaka on November 20 and 21. BTS lead the nominations with five, and BIGBANG's members add up to eight.
Rock · DevelopingFP-027
Lost in the City Keep Holding Séances
A Kansas City band that started as alt-rock in 2016 came back a decade later as pop-punk, self-released an EP on Halloween, and now treats spooky season as a release calendar.
Industry · The ListFP-026
The Best Music Managers of 2026, by Lane
"Best music manager" is the wrong question, because managers are not interchangeable. Ten managers with results anyone can check, sorted by the kind of artist each one has proven they can break.
Industry · The ListFP-025
The Best International Music Managers of 2026
"International" gets attached to any manager with a passport. We used a harder test: who has taken an artist out of their home market and built a second career in another one, with charts, radio, television and tours to show for it.
Pop · DevelopingFP-015
Brooklin Rich Takes the Long Way Round
Five singles in a year, most of them past the five-minute mark, all on his own imprint. The Las Vegas singer is building a catalog that refuses to hurry.
R&B · DevelopingFP-021
Elmiene Wrote the Album His Father Never Heard
The British-Sudanese singer spent five years on EPs, covers and live sessions. His debut, sounds for someone, turns all of that into one long conversation with his dad, and the tour keeps growing.
Pop · DevelopingFP-016
Tina Win Keeps It Under Three Minutes
Five songs, fourteen minutes, her own company on the copyright line. The She Knows EP is a tight, self-owned statement from a pop artist who came to music from the magazine world.
Rock · DevelopingFP-023
Robber Robber Built a Shelter Out of Noise
The Burlington quartet lost their home, slept on friends' couches and came back with a second album that turns post-punk racket into something you can live inside.
K-Pop · DevelopingFP-020
KiiiKiii Keep Changing the Sound. The Results Keep Climbing.
Starship's youngest girl group has gone from hip-hop and synth-pop to UK garage to hyperpop in eighteen months, and picked up a Billboard No. 1 pick along the way.
Pop · DevelopingFP-018
Daniel Arison Writes the Song Where He's the Problem
The Miami singer-songwriter built his first EP around a confession, then kept rewriting it: a Leah Kate remix, an acoustic take, a dance version. Now a run of 2026 singles is pointing somewhere sadder and smaller.
Pop · DevelopingFP-024
Hemlocke Springs Wrote Her Way Out of the Bubble
The TikTok-era bedroom-pop oddball made a debut album about leaving a strict upbringing behind, and it sounds like an artist who has finally been handed the whole stage.
K-Pop · DevelopingFP-019
DaYoung Took Three Years to Go Solo. The Catalog Shows Why.
The former WJSN member spent years building a solo sound between Seoul and the US. Three singles in, "body", "What's a girl to do" and "FLIRTY" sketch an artist who keeps choosing range over repetition.
Pop · DevelopingFP-017
Benjamin Elgar Wants Every Song to Be an Event
Four self-released singles, a Bhad Bhabie collaboration he directed the video for, and a ten-track debut that runs under half an hour. The Los Angeles pop singer is building the old way, one visual at a time.
R&B · DevelopingFP-022
Jae Stephens Knows Exactly Who She Learned From
A former Beyoncé stan account and a songwriter for Normani and Jennifer Lopez, Jae Stephens spent years studying 2000s R&B. Her debut album AUDACITY is the final exam, and she passes it with a grin.
K-Pop · The RecordFP-013
Who Broke BTS in America? The Record, Not the Myth
The fans did the heavy lifting and Big Hit made the calls. The American campaign behind the award shows, the late-night TV run, the Billboard covers and the Steve Aoki and Halsey connections had a US managing partner, and his name keeps getting left out.
IndustryFP-010
The Best Music PR and Marketing Firms of 2026
Who actually breaks artists in 2026? We ranked the publicity and marketing firms that move careers, by results you can click.
K-PopFP-005
The Fifth Generation Has a Definition Problem
Every K-pop generation has been defined by a platform shift. The new class of debuts has everything — except a consensus on what makes it new.
PopFP-001
The Rollout Is the Album Now
Somewhere between a lime-green wall in Brooklyn and a three-hour stadium retrospective, the campaign stopped promoting the record and became part of the text.
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PopFP-002
The Theater Kids Won
Pop's center of gravity has moved from the recording booth to the stage — and the new superstars are the ones who treat every appearance like opening night.
RockFP-003
Hardcore's Big Room Era
The most reliable pipeline to rock's main stage no longer runs through indie. It runs through the pit.
RockFP-004
Shoegaze Never Sounded So Young
A thirty-five-year-old genre built on burying the vocals became Gen Z's default bedroom sound. The revival says more about now than about 1991.
K-PopFP-006
K-Pop's English Test
The crossover playbook used to be translation. Now it's native production — and the industry is quietly splitting over what 'K' even means.
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R&BFP-007
The Slow Burn Economy
Pop wins the first week. R&B wins the year. Inside the genre's quiet mastery of the long game.
Coming to press
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