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Stagecoach 2023 proved to be a suitable Coachella encore this April, with headlining performances from Luke Bryan, Kane Brown, and Chris Stapleton. The annual country music festival will return to the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California from Friday, April 26, to Sunday, April 28, 2024. The 2024 lineup was announced on Thursday morning, September 6.

Next year’s headliners are Eric Church on April 26, Miranda Lambert on April 27, and Morgan Wallen on April 28. A press release additionally confirmed that Post Malone will perform “a special set of country covers” on April 27, a day that will also boast Willie Nelson & Family and Leon Bridges. The late-night performers are Diplo, Nickelback, and Wiz Khalifa.

Guy Fieri’s Stagecoach Smokehouse will be featured on the grounds for a fifth year, and the Compton Cowboys will be present for a third consecutive year.

Other notable acts include Jelly Roll, Elle King, Dwight Yoakam, Hardy, Bailey Zimmerman, and The Beach Boys.

Festival passes will go on sale this Friday, September 15, beginning at 11 a.m. PT. Prices range from $429 for a three-day general admission “Tier 1” pass and $2,999 for the Desert Diamond VIP Package. Ticketing information can be found here.

Check out the full lineup poster below.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Olivia Rodrigo‘s sophomore album Guts is out tomorrow. The follow up to 2021’s massive Sour has been previewed by her poignant ballad “Vampire” and her playful anthem “Bad Idea Right?” However, fans want to know: is she going to bring these songs to stage on a tour?

The pop star stopped by Capital Breakfast for an interview and acknowledged this. “Ooh, it’s all in the works. I can’t say anything yet but I’m so excited to play all these songs in a live show,” she said. “I wrote this album with a tour in mind, so I think they’re all songs I want people to sing in a crowd, so hopefully that’s what is achieved.”

Unfortunately, there are no dates yet, but hopefully there will be an announcement soon.

About the song “Bad Idea Right?,” Rodrigo said in a statement, “‘Bad Idea Right?’ started with us making a joke song about me hooking up with an ex-boyfriend, but then we realized we were actually onto something,” she explained. “We were throwing the weirdest things at the wall — in one of the choruses there’s a part that sounds like an instrument in the background, but it’s me gradually screaming louder and louder.”

Watch the interview above.

Guts is out 9/8 via Geffen. Find more information here.

The Recording Academy is making a grave mistake in allowing the AI-performed song “Heart On My Sleeve” to remain Grammy eligible. The song was apparently submitted for Grammy consideration by its “creator,” an anonymous social media user calling themselves Ghostwriter977. According to Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr., “I knew right away as soon as I heard that record that it was going to be something that we had to grapple with from an Academy standpoint, but also from a music community and industry standpoint.”

“When you start seeing A.I. involved in something so creative and so cool, relevant and of-the-moment,” he continued. “It immediately starts you thinking, ‘OK, where is this going? How is this going to affect creativity? What’s the business implication for monetization?’”

And herein lies the error in that thinking: Because in nearly every instance in which the implications of new technology have been “considered,” rarely has the potential harm given tech cheerleaders enough pause to prevent legitimate disaster. In the just the past three years, we saw election tampering through social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter (Nazis!), the collapse of the NFT/cryptocurrency bubble, and housing and transportation crises exacerbated by apps like Airbnb, Lyft, and Uber (to say nothing of the exploitation and abuses inherent to the workings of apps like these or the massive delivery infrastructure of Amazon).

But let’s just stick to how tech has impacted the music industry for now. Last year around this time, I wrote that the virtual rapper FN Meka, which was allegedly created through AI and voiced by a human performer, presaged an incoming industry push to make performers and writers alike obsolete. I hate to say “I told you so,” but it’s beginning to look like the next phase of that push is peeking over the horizon. While “Heart On My Sleeve” is unlikely to earn a nomination — there’s little about it that’s truly innovative aside from its use of a burgeoning technology that many of us only barely understand — legitimizing it will undoubtedly inspire future imitators.

With listeners’ attention spans already stretched to the limit by a near constant deluge of new content from artists who themselves can barely keep up with demand in the struggle to remain relevant, how are any of us going to contend with robots that can churn out as many new songs as quickly as prompts are written? Computers don’t need to take vacations — and let’s be honest here, they don’t need any inspiration or real-life experiences, either. They can just trawl our tweets (posts, TikToks, whatever) and “create” songs algorithmically programmed to crawl inside our brains and get stuck there, tickling our cortexes with mathematical precision.

Now, as Mr. Mason points out (perhaps inadvertently), this won’t be a problem for anyone on the business side of the equation. A sleepless machine churning out an endless stream of content is a perfect money generator in the streaming economy. The labels will, of course, see infinite profits in investing in these technologies, because we’ve seen CEOs pull out the same playbook in industries like auto manufacturing, construction, and even now, in the ongoing struggle between the movie and television studios and their writers and actors. They’ll drive profits by cutting overhead — meaning labor — trying to squeeze blood from stones.

We see the problems with this approach, even if the CEOs never seem to. Elon Musk thought he could run Twitter (I am NEVER calling it “X”) with a skeleton crew of devoted loyalists; the site barely runs, and this plan has been executed with all the forethought and thoroughness of a game of Calvinball. Label heads might see AI music as a great investment initially, but as they realize that entire departments become superfluous as a result, they’ll cut those jobs too — right up until they’re being asked to perform basic administrative duties by themselves, with no idea how exactly to manage the “artists” whose inner workings they have only a baseline understanding of.

If this seems like catastrophizing or slippery slope rationalizing, just look at every other time a new technology has rumbled the foundations of the music industry. When .mp3s came along, there was mass panic until the innovation of the 360-degree deal — a proposition that took more wealth out of artists’ pockets and sent it up the pyramid to the shareholders and CEOs. As Spotify became the default source for fans to enjoy the music they love, labels not only worked out favorable deals to ensure they got the bulk of the revenue, but also bought parts of the platform itself to get paid both ways. And as TikTok became the music discovery watering hole of the digital age, labels swooped in to monetize that too.

All of this came at the expense of the artists who actually create the product that drives the profits. How many artists have complained in the past two years that they’ve been pushed to “go viral on TikTok” instead of making music (the answer: a lot)? How many stories have we seen about artists losing money as their slices of streaming get thinner and thinner? And that’s not to mention the peripheral industries, the managers, the lawyers, the promoters, the touring bookers, and the venues, all losing out as the streaming space gets more and more crowded with viral one-hit wonders and wannabe superstars whose attentions are being pulled in a thousand different directions — sync licensing, sponsorship seeking, merchandising, and social media management/monetization — just so they can make rent.

Imagine that this is all a house of cards built on one shaky foundation: human creators relating human experiences to human listeners. Streaming and social media have already sent tremors through this foundation by gaming algorithms and creating overnight stars with few credentials and even less credibility. But adding AI to the equation just might kick that foundation out entirely, taking the entire industry with it. And it all starts with seemingly insignificant moves like considering AI songs for awards that committees already rarely get “right” in the eyes of fans.

Legitimizing work like Ghostwriter977’s — whether they truly wrote the song or not — wouldn’t just hurt the artists it imitates, although Universal Music Group was quick to issue a takedown request for “Heart On My Sleeve,” since it would clearly violate likeness rights in a sane society. It would also hurt practically every other artist in the industry, devaluing their work for what’s basically a novelty. Then, like dominos, dozens of peripheral industries could fall, until the only thing left is the AI. Then, when the bubble inevitably bursts, all that’ll be left is deafening silence.

John Fetterman has had enough of Republicans threatening to impeach Joe Biden. While talking to reporters, the Pennsylvania senator who relentlessly pummeled Dr. Oz during the 2022 election aimed his cannons at the GOP and let them have it.

“Go ahead, do it. I dare you,” Fetterman said in response to the Biden impeachment talk. “Your man has what, three or four indictments now? Trump has a mug shot, and he’s been impeached twice.”

As Fetterman explained to reporters, the GOP knows trying to impeach the president with no evidence will look bad, but he’s tired of them “talking like they’re hard asses.”

Via NBC News:

“Sometimes you just gotta call their bulls—,” he said.

Fetterman, who is in his first term, said that a Biden impeachment “would just be like a big circle jerk on the fringe right” and that it “would diminish what impeachment really means.”

Despite his fiery words about the GOP’s impeachment charade, Fetterman was notably sympathetic towards Republican Senator Mitch McConnell. Fetterman suffered a stroke during his senate race against Oz, and it gave some perspective on the calls for McConnell to resign after he experienced two public freezing episodes.

“I truly don’t believe in kind of hammering individuals, elderly, I just don’t,” Fetterman said. “It’s not really a partisan thing. It’s like whenever it’s the right time to leave, I believe they have the right to do that, as well.”

“I just really leave it to each person to have the respect to and the dignity to handle it the way they want to,” he added.

(Via NBC News)

The last time actress Julia Garner and director Kitty Green worked together, they made The Assistant, one of the best movies of 2019 (and the best movie about the #MeToo movement). The pair have have reunited for The Royal Hotel, a thriller starring Garner and Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery scene stealer Jessica Henwick as best friends who take a job in remote Australia. They expect kangaroos but instead are greeted by, OK yes, kangaroos, but also threats from misogynistic customers and — because it’s Australia — snakes.

You can watch the trailer from Neon above. Here’s the official plot synopsis:

Americans Hanna (Julia Garner) and Liv (Jessica Henwick) are best friends backpacking in Australia. After they run out of money, Liv, looking for an adventure, convinces Hanna to take a temporary live-in job behind the bar of a pub called ‘The Roval Hotel’ in a remote Outback mining town. Bar owner Billy and a host of locals give the girls a riotous introduction to Down Under drinking culture but soon Hanna and Liv find themselves trapped in an unnerving situation that grows rapidly out of their control.

The Royal Hotel, which also stars Toby Wallace, Hugo Weaving, Ursula Yovich, Daniel Henshall, James Frecheville, and Herbert Nordrum, opens in theaters on October 6th.

British high schoolers were asked to sample some of America’s most iconic cereals, and some of your favorites might not pass the worldwide taste test.

Author and culinary enthusiast Josh Carrott, who often invites people to try food of different cultures over on YouTube, introduced a handful of students—and their principal—to Lucky Charms, Trix, Cap’n Crunch, Froot Loops, Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Reese’s Puffs.You know, all the staples of American childhood.

Since these kids eat breakfast cereal on a regular basis, they couldn’t be that surprised by the new flavors, could they?

Yeah…no. British and American cereals are worlds apart, apparently.

“It looks like a bath bomb!” exclaimed a student named Rory after seeing the tiny marshmallow green clover in his bowl of Lucky Charms. (He’s not wrong).

“Why would you want your milk to be pink?!” asked Ricky, utterly confused as to why Trix would advertise such a thing. (Also, not wrong).

At this point, it’s mentioned that cereals in the UK don’t turn the milk different colors because the chemicals that do that are illegal in the country, since it can’t be ruled out that they cause genetic damage. Not America’s finest moment, but worth mentioning.

So no, colored milk did not impress. Nor did artificial fruit flavorings. Both Trix and Froot Loops got the lowest rankings, not to mention they left the group pretty flabbergasted.

“What even is the taste?” said headmaster Smith after one bite of Trix.

Even Reese’s Puffs failed to impress, despite many of the kids liking the candy. According to student Casey, it looked and tasted like “rabbit poo.”

Not to worry, not all American cereals failed! Both Cap’n Crunch and Cinnamon Toast Crunch, colorless as they are, got an enthusiastic stamp of approval. Goes to show that appearances don’t account for everything.

Americans are all too aware of the way many of our most popular food brands rely on obscene amounts of sugar, artificial chemicals and a well-marketed sense of nostalgia in order to sell products. But it’s still another thing to see how unappealing these kinds of food are to folks who haven’t really been exposed to them.

Regardless, it’s fun to watch how some of these stack up. And as the kid who enjoyed their Saturday morning cartoons with a tasty bowl of Cap’n Crunch, I personally felt vindicated for my superior taste buds.

Watch below:

The Boys social media game is arguably better than that of any other show on TV right now. To that end, it’s best to read all of the account’s tweets in Billy Butcher’s voice, including, “Young lads still got so much to learn.”

Earlier this week, the full (and very redband) Gen V trailer landed, and one might wonder exactly when this spinoff takes place in The Boys timeline and especially in relation to Homelander. Obviously, there’s at least one statue devoted to the baddest Supe around, so they’re very clearly aware of Antony Starr’s soulless character. And these young Supes are all learning the ropes at Godolkin University, where sinister things are afoot, but they go in wide-eyed while vying for the chance at a spot in The Seven.

The show promises to be as outrageous as the original and has apparently even freaked out Arnold Schwarzenegger, but when, exactly, does it take place in the Homelander continuum?

The answer will not remain unclear. In fact, The Boys is “clearing up the timeline” and pointing out that Gen V‘s first season “takes place between S3 and S4.” That means that “the kiddos at God U all saw Homelander laser a guy’s head off to the sound of thunderous applause.”

So, there you have it. Also, it looks like there are at least two vacancies that will need to be filled fairly quickly with the departure of Queen Maeve and Starlight going fully rogue. Also, there may or may not be a new Black Noir, so stay tuned for more heartbreak and mayhem on that note.

Amazon’s Gen V will premiere on September 29. The Boys Season 4 release date remains nebulous.

Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion will set the rap game on fire on Friday, September 8, when their single “Bongos” arrives — a very welcomed (and long-teased) reunion between the “WAP” collaborators.

That song by itself would be satisfying enough, but is it a sign that Cardi is finally initiating her album rollout?

The multi-Diamond-certified rapper visited DJ Whoo Kid and his Whoo’s House podcast this week, and she was asked about the status and title of what will be her first album since 2018’s Invasion Of Privacy.

“I’m keeping it under wraps,” she said. “I’m kind of still working, but I have a date in mind.”

Cardi B did disclose that her sophomore album will not drop around her birthday, which is October 11, adding, “Matter of fact, I don’t want nothing coming out in the month of October. October is my month. I don’t want no sh*t related to work in October.”

Previously, Cardi B covered the September 2023 issue of Vogue Mexico and gave insight into where the album stands.

“I’m not going to release any more collaborations,” Cardi B told the publication for the cover story published on August 25.

“I’m going to release my next solo single. Right now, I’m working on the cover art and ideas for the next record because it’s definitely coming up. Everyone always tells me I should put the record out now, they did when I released ‘WAP’ [with Megan Thee Stallion] and when I released ‘Up,’ but I always let them know I’m not going to wait long after all these singles. So stay tuned because it’s coming out very soon.”

Watch Cardi with DJ Whoo Kid above.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Drake‘s new album For All the Dogs is highly anticipated after false release dates and controversial rumors. It’s finally coming out on September 22, and Lil Yachty discussed it on his A Safe Place podcast with MitchGoneMad.

“It sounds current, you know? It sounds very current,” he said. “It’s interesting, it’s coming together a lot better than I thought when I — I just had a talk with him a couple days ago in Vancouver and I was like, ‘Man…’ I was a little worried, ’cause I have a lot of the songs, I don’t have all of ’em, I have a lot of ’em though. And I was just like, ‘Man, I just don’t know if it’s — how are you gon’ put this together? Because it’s a lot of great songs but they don’t really — in my brain, I was like, they didn’t really sound together. And then we had a talk about it and he explained to me his thought process about it. And we drove somewhere, we drove to that video shoot which was like an hour away, and we listened to it, and it makes sense now.”

He continued, “It has the most, I would say like the most ‘performance’ album he’ll have, as far as like energy. … I think some of the best Drake verses that I ever heard are on this album.”

“Some of the verses I’m just like, ‘Bruh, what’s wrong with you?’ You know what I’m saying?” he said. “People gonna have a lot to say about some of his topics on this album. And I don’t think he does it on purpose, I think it’s just him — he just has a real… I will say he deals with some controversial things.”

Watch the podcast episode above.

Drake is currently touring North America for the first time since 2018, and so far, his and 21 Savage’s It’s All A Blur Tour is a rousing success — from an endless stream of fan-flung bras and For All The Dogs teasers to reportedly earning $41,195,428 in revenue through August 18.

According to setlist.fm, Drake and 21 Savage have needed two hours and five minutes, on average, to run through over 40 songs. Complex confirmed as much while reviewing the It’s All A Blur Tour stops at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York and Madison Square Garden in New York City.

“Drake has one of the strongest and most diverse catalogs in rap history, and his range is on full display during this tour,” Complex’s Jordan Rose wrote. “Few artists can go hit-after-hit for 30 minutes straight, but Drake does it with ease and still finds ways to incorporate new and unique mixes to his classic tracks. The show runs for about two hours, but it doesn’t feel that long thanks to Drake’s stage presence and how he can control a crowd.”

Erik Skelton echoed the sentiment, writing, “Drake’s catalog is undeniable. When it comes to the sheer volume of commercial hits he can string together in a two-hour concert, he’s unmatched at this point (or at least in the conversation with a select few, like Jay-Z). He’s tapped into so many subgenres that he can put together a two-hour set with more range than anyone right now, which makes for a very fun show.”

Drake’s catalog is about to become even more textured on September 22, when he finally drops For All The Dogs. The Toronto icon confirmed the release date on Wednesday night, September 6, and his dad, Dennis Graham, teased that the album contains “some of the best music that I’ve heard him do.”