Narrowing down 365 days of great music to a list of 30 records is near impossible, but we figured it out! With a lot of amazing tracks not making the cut, we have put together our list of the 30 best tracks of this past year. From epic collaborations to Soundcloud released diss records, our list has a little bit of everything. A few veterans dominated our list this year, but a lot of emerging artists found spots high on our list as well. We won’t spoil too much for you, check out the Top 30 Tracks of 2015 below and send us a tweet @TheEarlyReg to tell us what you think!
2016 Grammy Nominees Taylor Swift and Sam Hunt (Photo by Dan Garcia/The Early Registration)
The official nominations for the 58th Annual Grammy Awards were announced earlier today and while none of their picks were major surprises, artists like Taylor Swift, Kendrick Lamar and The Weeknd are looking to win big when the awards are announced next year on February 15th, 2016. And if reading the list of nominations has your scratching your head, wondering who will pick up the W for each particular category, don’t worry! We have the work cut out for you as we put together our list of predictions for some of Grammy‘s biggest categories.
Check out our predictions for the 58th Annual Grammy Awards below.
Following an arguably weak year for albums, 2015 has seen a lot of great projects and many unexpected ones as well. While this year we saw the highly anticipated return of Adele, patient fans are still awaiting Frank Ocean’s sophomore album and Kanye West’s Swish. But where Frank and Kanye have left music fans hanging, new comers like Bryson Tiller, Alessia Cara, GoldLink, BOOTS, Halsey and more have put out some great albums to help kick off their relatively young careers. 2015 though was also a great year for some heavyweights, of course we’re referring to artists like Drake, Future, Kendrick Lamar and even pop superstars like One Direction and Justin Bieber. In just one day, November 13th, the music world saw more great releases than it did in a span of months in 2014. Cheers to hoping 2016 delivers as well as 2015 did!
Are music videos a lost art in 2015? With MTV and VH1 airing more reality television programs than actual music videos, it is no surprise that a lot of artists have abandoned the music video route of promotion. Fortunately not all artists subscribe to such logic. Many superstar artists still know that fans crave visuals, even if they are streaming it from their phone or tablet.And a lot of emerging artists know that creating some dope visuals are a great way to gain exposure and put your name on the map. Check out our favorite music videos from this past year and see who got our number one spot.
2015 saw a lot of great concert tours, from J. Cole’s Forest Hills Drive Tour with Big Sean, YG and Jeremih to Taylor Swift’s huge 1989 World Tour. Some tours sold out stadiums and arenas, selling out the entire tour before it even begun, and some tours were in small intimate venues, either strategically or because simple supply and demand. Some had stacked lineups top to bottom and some introduced us to a lot of great new artists. Festivals like Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo and Coachella were bigger than ever this year, but that didn’t stop your favorite artists from building up some great shows of their own.
Hit the jump and check out our list of our 20 Favorite Concert Tours of 2015!
Rihanna took to Twitter minutes ago to make a huge announcement. Along with rumors that Rihanna is releasing a new album, reportedly titled Anti, on Black Friday, at the very least, fans will be happy to hear that the ‘BBHMM’ singer will be hitting the road next year on a huge worldwide tour of the same name! Bringing along Travis Scott for the North American dates and The Weeknd & Big Sean for the Europe dates, tickets for the “ANTI World Tour” go on sale on Thursday, December 3rd. You don’t need us to spell it out for you, this is not a tour that you want to miss!
Check out Rihanna’s announcement below and stay tuned as the official dates and locations are released.
Chicago felt the madness tonight at the United Center. Kicking off the U.S. leg of The Madness Tour, after two sold out nights at Toronto’s Air Canada Centre earlier this week, The Weeknd performed for yet another sold out crowd, this time for the Windy City in the house that Michael Jordan built. He didn’t do it alone though, as the entire lineup was stacked and provided a great deal of variety. Fans who arrived on time were treated to great sets from ‘Beggin for Thread’ singer Banks, as well as G.O.O.D. Music‘s and Grand Hustle’s always energetic, rapper Travis Scott.
While the opening performances only consisted of a few songs each, both Banks and Scott set the tone for the night, both with completely different sounds and moods. Banks performed a handful of records from her latest LP, Goddess, including her big 2014 single, ‘Begin for Thread’. After her beautiful collection of songs, Travis Scott turned up the volume and energy to an entirely different level.
Instantly Scott made sure that everyone in the arena was ready to rage. He may have been playing the largest venue in Chicago, but the energy felt like a club performance. A few hundred feet separated the ‘Antidote’ rapper and the 300 level of the UC, but his energy reached the rafters. Travis choose to perform some of his most turned up records, including his Days Before Rodeo and Owl Pharaoh bangers like ‘Don’t Play’ and ‘Quintana’, and of course his tracks in support of his new and debut LP, Rodeo.
While Scott’s and even Bank’s fans showed up in numbers, the man behind the madness, and whose music is the reason the entire tour sold out even before it began, was set to headline the show. And to open his set, The Weeknd kicked things off with the same record that kicked off his latest LP, ‘Real Life’. After ‘Real Life’ and throughout the night, The Weeknd performed his entire Beauty Behind the Madness album.
Weeknd did not limit things to his latest and most successful album though, performing a number of records from his discography, including a variety of tracks from his critically acclaimed series, The Trilogy. But despite providing ample entertainment for his day one fan base, the crowd was most alive as The Weeknd performed his singles, like ‘The Hills’, ‘Can’t Feel My Face’ and ‘Often’, that have been dominating the airwaves and clubs in the past half year. The tour may have opened up in The Weeknd’s hometown, but it is hard to imagine an energy that could be matched when compared to tonight’s performance at the United Center.
Check out our photos of The Weeknd’s sold out show with Banks and Travis Scott below.
Earlier today, singer The Weeknd took to his Instagram to make the huge announcement that his big North American arena tour, “The Madness Tour”, has officially sold out before it even began. Today actually kicks off Weeknd’s tour, as he will be playing a hometown show at Toronto’s Air Canada Centre, and throughout the next couple months Abel is hitting the road throughout Canada and the U.S., with all dates now sold out. Accompanied by Travis Scott, Banks and Halsey, this is a tour that you will not want to miss.
Even though it’s sold out, check out the tour dates below and look out for our coverage of his Chicago date later this week.
The fall is a lot of things for many different people. For some, it’s cuddling season and for others, it’s the time of year where the sadness begins to crawl from it’s pit and threatens to drag everyone down with it. I won’t comment on which of these position I find myself in, but what I will do, however, is provide you with just the right soundtrack to get you through these next few months.
Hit the jump for the Top 10 Albums To Get You Through The Fall!
These are the highlights of this past week in music! Hopefully you can bump these tracks on your way to work to brighten up your Monday mornings, and to stay up-to-date on today’s music. This week we have another new collaboration from The Weeknd and Lana Del Rey, a self-produced track from Big K.R.I.T., and a new song from Kyle.
The Early Registration 