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Taylor Swift‘s music has been all over cinema lately, with “This Love (Taylor’s Version)” up in The Summer I Turned Pretty, “Wildest Dreams (Taylor’s Version)” in a trailer for Spirit Untamed, and “Carolina” in Where The Crawdads Sing.

Now, the pop star’s influence is reaching even further into the film world with “Bad Blood (Taylor’s Version)” and “Message In A Bottle (Taylor’s Version)” will be in DC League Of Super-Pets, which is in theaters as of today. This was confirmed by The Rock and Kevin Hart via TikTok. The Rock captioned his video with, “Pumped to have TWO of my friend @Taylor Swift’s tracks in our #DCSuperPets! In theaters TONIGHT!” The “Love Story” singer left a comment, “Leave it to my friend Dwayne to support the ethically sourced versions of my songs. Good luck with the film!! Ur the man.”

Swift has been all about surprising her fans lately. Recently, she joined Haim on stage at a show in London and sent the arena. She told the crowd, “I haven’t been on stage in a very long time. It’s nice…it’s nice, it’s very nice. When I heard my girls were playing in London at the O2, I thought, ‘I’m going to have to see that.’”

It’s no secret that noted pronoun hater Lauren Boebert passed the GED mere months before her election to the U.S. House of Representatives. Legend has it that, in addition to the documented time of passage, that it took her four times to pass the test that stands as an equivalent to a high school diploma. She did not graduate from high school and obviously did not attend college, and all of that would be just fine if Boebert wasn’t a U.S. lawmaker who often appears to decide that she doesn’t need to brush up on the U.S. Constitution.

After all, she knows about the Second Amendment to the Bill of Rights, and she apparently believes that’s enough. Boebert’s frequently willful lack of knowledge of high school civics matters, including the branches of government, and the difference between Samuel and John Adams, well, it’s all led to mockery. That spirit often turns into comeuppance when Boebert decides to righteously punch down at every opportunity. And let’s just say that her proposal for more reading time isn’t going as planned.

Boebert has proposed a rule for House lawmakers to receive 5 days (apparently a working week for those who are feeling traditional) to read bills before voting on them. She tucked that into this 4-minute video full of patriotic production values.

Federal lawyer Ron Filipkowski brought the waiting period to attention.

And no one is debating that lawmakers should actually read bills before voting on them. It’s particularly egregious when lawmakers are scribbling additional lines in margins immediately before the vote, simply does to slip things in undetected. However, five days does seem like a long time for bills that need immediate attention. And that makes me wonder if Boebert should spend less time tweeting and more time working.

Responses to Boebert’s proposal were not too kind.

And now, she’s lashing out: “Democrats being outraged that I’m pushing to force a five-day period for legislators to actually read legislation before they pass it tells you everything you need to know about how they think government should work.” The rooter and tooter added, “Know what’s in the bill BEFORE passing it. Pretty simple.”

Boebert also retweeted this defense, and to be fair, she seems to be struggling to keep up with her job. It happens! But again, if she spent less time trolling and insulting people and turned off her phone, that would make more sense than a week-long waiting period in a lot of cases. We’ll see how this proposal fares, though.

Today marks the theatrical release of B.J. Novak’s new movie Vengeance, in which he stars alongside Ashton Kutcher. It turns out Kutcher once gave Novak his big break on TV, as Novak appeared in a number of episodes of Punk’d in the early 2000s. Novak talked about that during an appearance on The Late Show yesterday and told a terrific story about pranking Usher.

Stephen Colbert mentioned the Punk’d connection and Novak noted Kutcher “changed my life with that show.” Colbert asked if the celebrities he helped prank ever got mad, and Novak was quick to respond, “Terribly mad, and here’s the problem: So I’m meeting all these celebrities for the first time, right? It’s thrilling for me. I’m meeting Missy Elliott, I’m meeting Usher; It’s the worst day of their life!”

He then got into the Usher prank that was on the Season 2 premiere (that aired on October 26, 2003), explaining the situation and how Usher acted after the reveal:

“My job once, I got to meet Usher, but my job was I was a store owner on Melrose and [Usher’s] little brother had been busted for shoplifting; he was in on it with us. And the only way I would let the brother go was if [Usher] recorded a rap jingle for my store, which I rapped for him. And he was like, ‘First of all, I’m not a rapper. Second of all, why does it refer to ‘Ice?” I’m like, ‘Well, we wanted Vanilla Ice.’ It’s a well-written show, I didn’t write the joke, it’s so funny.

So then he’s furious and then Ashton comes out and he’s like, ‘Bro!’ Like, it’s a huge hug. And I’m like [open arms gesture] and he’s like, ‘No no no no no.’ Like, your first impression of someone sticks, you know, so I have not run into Usher since. I don’t think he’ll be in my next movie.”

Watch the Novak interview above and find clips from the Usher Punk’d episode below.

Metallica have been enjoying a new moment in the spotlight ever since Stranger Things character Eddie Munson performed “Master Of Puppets” during a pivotal scene from the show’s fourth season. They’ve really embraced all the attention and their new connection to the show, too, taking it to a new level at their performance at Lollapalooza yesterday (July 28).

At Chicago’s Grant Park, they closed out their encore with “Master Of Puppets” and actually showed clips of Munson’s big scene on giant screens behind them as they performed the song.

Joseph Quinn (the actor who plays Eddie Munson) recently told Jimmy Fallon about playing the song on the show, saying, “It was kind of nerve-wracking. It was at a weird point in the pandemic where no one had seen any live music for ages. It was me and Gaten [Matarazzo] and it was so fun. I was nervous but it was kind of like a rock concert and I got to feel like a rock star for one night, and that was pretty great.”

After the Stranger Things episode with “Master Of Puppets” premiered, Metallica shared a note about it, writing, “The way The Duffer Brothers have incorporated music into Stranger Things has always been next level, so we were beyond psyched for them to not only include ‘Master of Puppets’ in the show, but to have such a pivotal scene built around it. […] It’s an incredible honor to be such a big part of Eddie’s journey and to once again be keeping company with all of the other amazing artists featured in the show.”

Margot Robbie appeared on the Australian soap opera Neighbours from 2008 to 2011. Her breakout role in Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street (where she may have interacted with “complete and utter buffoon” Donald Trump) came two years later; since then, she’s become the face of the DC Extended Universe, been nominated for multiple Oscars, and used her influence to start a female-focused production company, LuckyChap Entertainment. Also, she’s playing Barbie. But Robbie hasn’t forgotten her Aussie roots, and she appeared on the series finale of Neighbours this week.

“The Australian soap bowed out on Channel Ten after 37 years on screen, becoming the top-rating show of the night, with 873,000 tuning in across the country’s five state capital cities,” Deadline reports, including cameos from singer Kylie Minogue, actor Guy Pearce, and Robbie, who appeared via Zoom. She’s a busy person, y’know?

“The years living on Ramsay Street were honesty some of the best of my entire life,” Robbie said in her brief video appearance. “You all stood by me, even when I invented the Shrugalero.” That reference went over like gangbusters to everyone who has seen all 8,900-plus episode of Neighbours. To everyone else (me), here’s Robbie saying the word “Shrugalero” in her Australian accent a bunch of times.

You can watch Robbie’s cameo below:

And here’s her first appearance on Neighbours:

(Via Deadline)

Every month, Uproxx cultural critic Steven Hyden makes an unranked list of his favorite music-related items released during this period — songs, albums, books, films, you name it.

1. Guided By Voices, Tremblers And Goggles By Rank

Still most associated with his mid-’90s work — in which GBV became indie-famous for minute-long, lo-fi songs on albums like 1994’s Bee Thousand and 1995’s Alien Lanes that somehow hit with the anthemic force of Who’s Next — Robert Pollard in recent years has made some of his most ambitious and sprawling LPs, like 2019’s expansive 32-song, 74-minute Zeppelin Over China and 2021’s dense and often thrilling concept album Earth Man Blues. But what’s more impressive than the quantity or even the quality of GBV’s recent output has been Pollard’s ability to keep on surprising even his most loyal followers. This month, GBV put out its second LP of 2022, the (of course) inscrutably titled Tremblers And Goggles By Rank, which is precisely the sort of GBV album I would have never expected or thought I wanted — a tight rock record with zero filler. At 10 songs and 38 minutes, it’s 18 songs and three minutes shorter than Alien Lanes. You could even call it relatively “normal,” no matter that one of the catchiest tunes is called “Cartoon Fashion (Bongo Lake).” For this band, “normal” or “tight” are not necessarily compliments. But in this case, to my ears, they absolutely are.

2. The Bear soundtrack

If you watch enough prestige TV — and you’re the sort of person who pays attention to the music playing in the background — you no doubt understand what these shows are supposed to sound like. The soundtracks often treat songs like signifiers of “quality.” They are so aggressively tasteful and curator-approved that they can feel a little anonymous and even oppressive, like you’re watching the televisual equivalent of a blandly fashionable downtown boutique. But the acclaimed FX/Hulu series The Bear moves to a radically different rhythm. The bulk of the soundtrack is made up of songs from the ’80s and ’90s that patrons of the show’s fictional eatery The Original Beef Of Chicagoland might like: Pearl Jam, John Cougar Mellencamp, Counting Crows, Genesis, Radiohead. If that’s not dad rock enough for you, there are also three Wilco songs. While some snobs might wince at such a normie playlist, the music enhances the everyman vibe of The Bear, while also feeling true to the characters and the milieu. So many TV shows and movies bungle their soundtracks by turning the protagonists into inauthentic music experts whose listening habits don’t line up with real life. Whereas in The Bear, when Carmy’s lunkhead cousin Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) retreats to his car during a tough day at the restaurant, it makes perfect sense that he would have a live acoustic version of Counting Crows’ “Have You Seen Me Lately?” playing on the stereo. (It’s also, to be clear, an awesome song.)

3. Alvvays, “Pharmacist”

Some of the best news to come down in the indie world this month was the announcement of a new Alvvays album, Blue Rev, which is due Oct. 7. It’s been five long years since 2017’s Antisocialites, which is just about as perfect as the Canadian dream pop band’s classic self-titled first album from 2014. The news arrived with a new single, “Pharmacist,” that thankfully sounds very Alvvays-y, albeit with a slightly rougher and more energetic edge. This is no doubt related to how the album was made in Los Angeles with ace producer Shawn Everett (who is perhaps best known for working on the last two War On Drugs albums). Everett encouraged the band to play live to tape, and they responded by essentially tearing through the material like they were at a live gig. The result is a record that will likely land in the upper reaches of my year-end list.

4. Wild Pink, “ILYSM”

Speaking of albums destined for my year-end list: I’ve had a promo copy of the fourth Wild Pink album due in October, ILYSM, for about a month, and it already seems like one of the more dazzling and emotionally overpowering records of 2022. I’ve been a fan of John Ross’ band for a while now, and while I’ve loved all of their albums there was a danger that they could fall into a lilting synth-rock lull. But ILYSM finds Ross shaking up the formula with an expansive supporting cast that includes Julien Baker, J. Mascis, Ryley Walker, and Yasmin Williams. Written and recorded in the midst of Ross’ recent cancer diagnosis — he’s thankfully in remission at this time — ILYSM sounds like an attempt to evoke the fear, confusion, and stubborn survival instinct of navigating life-changing trauma. Musically, this record swings for the fences — it sounds like an attempt by Wild Pink to make their own Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Did they make it all the way? We’ll talk more about it later but … get excited.

5. Pool Kids, Pool Kids

I remember first hearing about these smart-aleck-y Florida math-punks in 2019 when I came across their Audiotree session, which spotlighted the Iron Maiden-like guitar interplay between lead singer Christine Goodwyne and guitarist Andy Anaya, as well as Goodwyne’s witty observational lyrics. At the time, they seemed a little green but with a lot of potential. Flash forward three years later, and their self-titled second LP has fully lived up to the promise that they showed in that clip. Pool Kids is a consistently fun and tuneful pop-rock record that delivers insight and laughs in equal doses. My favorite song is “Arm’s Length,” because the 27-year-old Goodwyne describes my own life as it existed at age 27: “I don’t think I have the energy / To make it out of my bed today / It’s not even a bed / I’ve been sleeping on / A air mattress with a hole / For almost three months.” I also slept on an air mattress with a hole in it for three months at that time! Is this a more common experience that I realized?

6. John Moreland, Birds In The Ceiling

In the early 2010s, people referred to Jason Isbell as a “songwriter’s songwriter.” But now Isbell is too famous to be classified that way. The current reigning “songwriter’s songwriter” has to be John Moreland, a 37-year-old Tulsa native who has been putting out music since the late aughts. I started listening around the time of 2015’s High On Tulsa Heat, and over the course of subsequent albums, he’s perfected that low-key, Townes Van Zandt-style of writing where he’s slowly ripping your heart out even if his voice never rises above a resigned warble. In his recent work, he’s been dabbling with electronic elements, and on Birds In The Ceiling it complements the rough-hewn, acoustic instrumentation like heat lightning dotting a humid, mid-summer sky at dusk.

It is not enough to simply throw a bunch of good songs together on an album. Music listeners are more critical than ever about sequencing and transition. Unsurprisingly, Beyoncé understood the assignment on her new album Renaissance and fans are in awe.

An early favorite 1-2 punch is “Plastic On The Sofa” into “Virgo’s Groove.” Another fan acknowledged the sequential trio of “Cuff It,” “Energy,” and “Break My Soul.” One, Scottie Beam, even described the transitions as “tender a** fall off the bone.” Needless to say, people seem happy with the album.

Beyoncé’s new album Renaissance is out now via Parkwood Entertainment LLC and Columbia Records. The 15-track LP was first announced in June, with Variety reporting it would feature heavy country and dance music. The latter was confirmed with the release of the upbeat lead single “Break My Soul.”

After sharing the album’s tracklist last week, the Lemonade artist finished off her rollout with a statement on her website saying “Creating this album allowed me a place to dream and to find escape during a scary time for the world. It allowed me to feel free and adventurous in a time when little else was moving. My intention was to create a safe place, a place without judgment. A place to be free of perfectionism and overthinking. A place to scream, release, feel freedom. It was a beautiful journey of exploration.”

She released yet another statement upon the album’s release, thanking the fans who were patient enough to wait until today (July 29) to listen despite Renaissance leaking earlier this week.

Check out some of the adulatory tweets about Renaissance above.

Renaissance is out now via Parkwood/Columbia. Listen here.

An unfortunate reality for artists is that while they fully intend to deliver new music on their own timetable, the internet often has other plans. Many artists have had songs and entire albums leak ahead of their planned release. Shockingly, Beyoncé fell victim to this as well with Renaissance leaking just two days before its official drop. Queen Bey seems unphased, though.

In a tweet, the “Halo” artist posted a regal photo of herself and thanked the fans who waited. “So, the album leaked, and you all actually waited until the proper release time so you all can enjoy it together. I’ve never seen anything like it. I can’t thank y’all enough for your love and protection. I appreciate you all for calling out anyone that was trying to sneak into the club early. It means the world to me. Thank you for your unwavering support. Thank you for being patient. We are going to take our time and enjoy the music. I will continue to give my all and do. my best to bring you joy. I love you deep.”

Beyoncé’s new album Renaissance is out now via Parkwood Entertainment LLC and Columbia Records. The 15-track LP was first announced in June, with Variety reporting it would feature heavy country and dance music. The latter was confirmed with the release of the upbeat lead single “Break My Soul.” The rollout continued with the reveal of Renaissance‘s cover art, with a semi-nude Beyoncé sitting atop a crystalline horse with bright yellow lights within it.

Excitement for the album grew even further when the internet discovered its list of composers, including Drake, Jay-Z, Skrillex, Big Freedia, The Neptunes, Mike Dean and several other talented creators. A reference track for “Heated” performed by Drake even surfaced on the internet, causing fans to wonder if they would get a follow-up to their 2015 collaboration “Can I” and the cult classic “Mine” from 2013’s Beyonce.

After sharing the album’s tracklist last week, the Lemonade artist finished off her rollout with a statement on her website saying “Creating this album allowed me a place to dream and to find escape during a scary time for the world. It allowed me to feel free and adventurous in a time when little else was moving. My intention was to create a safe place, a place without judgment. A place to be free of perfectionism and overthinking. A place to scream, release, feel freedom. It was a beautiful journey of exploration.”

The wait is over. The Renaissance is here.

Renaissance is out now via Parkwood/Columbia. Listen here.

Jackson Wang has a way with his words and his lungs in the new “Cruel” video. It opens with the artist walking through a destroyed city while women rises out of its ashes. One by one, he takes them into his grasp and inhales the fire coming out of their mouths. He ultimately reaches what appears to be their final boss, and after some physical back and forth, she sends him into a black hole. Cruel indeed.

“Cruel” arrives as part of Jackson Wang’s latest album Magic Man, available today (July 28) via Team Wang Records, 88rising Records, Warner Records, and Ryce Music Group. The 10-track LP is a more raw and honest version of the 28-year-old that feels true to his current moment. The lead single “Blow” was released back in March and is Wang’s highest viewed music video to date with over 26 million views.

Magic Man is a quick follow-up for Jackson Wang, who released his mixtape Lost & Found back in March of 2022 after a nearly three-year hiatus since 2019’s Mirrors. The K-pop artist has been all over this year with an appearance during 88rising’s Coachella set, marking the first time a Chinese national performed at the esteemed festival.

Wang is set to headline 88rising’s Head In The Clouds festival on August 21 at Brookside At The Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. Magic Man is sure to have fans even more excited for his set.

Listen to “Cruel” above.

Magic Man is out now via Team Wang Records, 88rising Records, Warner Records and Ryce Music Group. Listen here.

Jackson WNG is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Fred Again.. is revisiting a Future classic. Or perhaps, a past classic? Either way, the British singer, songwriter, and instrumentalist has teamed up with Swedish House Mafia and Future for “Turn On The Lights Again,” a hypnotic dance-ready anthem that samples the latter’s namesake 2012 breakthrough hit from his debut album, Pluto.

Fred has been teasing the song for the past month by way of a sound on TikTok, which has since pulled in over 3.7 million views on the original clip, and over 10 million on clips utilizing the sound. According to a statement, Fred ripped the repeating “Turn On The Lights” vocal sample after streaming a video clip of the song online. He later presented the stems and bones of the song to Swedish House Mafia, who played with the track several times before landing on a final mix.

Last month, Fred released “Jungle,” which features vocals from Elley Duhe. Earlier this month, he teamed up with Rico Nasty, who helped completely transform the track into a chaotic, flashy new remix for her new album, Las Ruinas.

Check out “Turn On The Lights” again above.

Fred Again.. is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.