News on Music

The celebration of black music and culture at the Essence Music Festival in New Orleans will provide comfort to artists and fans alike after a tough week following Michael Jackson's death. Singer Lionel Richie, a longtime friend of the pop superstar and festival headliner, says performing at Essence will give him and others a chance to regroup. "We'll celebrate his life and come together as a family down there," Richie said. "It's New Orleans ...

Weekly charts for the nation's best-selling recorded music as they appear in next week's issue of Billboard magazine. Reprinted with permission. (Platinum signifies more than 1 million copies sold; Gold signifies more than 500,000 copies sold.): Billboard Hot 100: Top 20 (Airplay monitored by Nielsen/BDS. Sales data compiled by Nielsen/SoundScan.) 1. "I Gotta Feeling," The Black Eyed Peas. Interscope. 2. "Boom Boom Pow," The Black Eyed Peas. will.i.am/Interscope. 3. "Best I Ever Had," Drake. Bryant/Frozen Moments/Hip Hop Since ...

DETROIT (Billboard) - Aerosmith's next album might be "on the bench, in pieces," waiting for the group to resume recording after it finishes touring in mid-September, but guitarist Joe Perry's next solo album is just about ready to go. Perry tells Billboard.com that he's finishing mixing the follow-up to 2005's Grammy-nominated "Joe Perry." He plans to release a single in late July or early August, and the album will come out in the fall. The one thing Perry doesn't have yet is a title; for ...