Atlanta based Alex Harris will releases a new track Say Less along with a music video that will be released Friday via Red Music/Epic Records. Growing up on Dr. Dre and Eminem, the singer-songwriter blends pop, hip-hop, alternative and R&B. His debut EP Pink Cloud in February has clocked over 200K Spotify streams. “I want to bring honesty through my music,” Harris confesses while discussing what he wants listeners to take away from his music. “It’s okay to be vulnerable and express how you feel. There’s so much pressure to look cool, be cool, and control your life through social media to give the perception that everything’s good. If I can give people my true interpretation of the good, bad, and ugly in my life, maybe it can encourage others to embrace those things in their life. You can better yourself.” Give it a listen.

Belgium based indie pop act The Lighthouse releases the track Cover Story. Fans of Phoenix and The 1975 will love the band. The 5 piece got picked up by StuBru radio receiving airplay on a variety of stations in Belgium and The Netherlands. The band will drop their debut album “Whatever Comes Our Way” on September 27th and will perform at Ancienne Belgique on October 26th. Give it a stream!

While most never heard of K-Pop, more and more Americans are hearing about it. I had a conversation with a Canadian who wasn’t Asian and she said that an industry professional advised her to audition for a K-Pop singing show. Even though I told her that she would not quality because she wasn’t Asian – she still wouldn’t give up. At that point I began to dig deeper into the world of K-Pop.

First, K-Pop or Korean pop is based out of South Korea. Secondly, it’s growing fast. Third, K-Pop is a culture, it’s not a genre. The biggest K-pop act are BTS. You probably never heard of them. It’s difficult for a K-pop band to break into the U.S. You generally need top 40 radio to break in America and the K-Pop artists don’t sing in English, although they are very popular on YouTube.

Most Americans vaguely remember South Korean PSY who came out of South Korea but he isn’t really K-Pop. In fact, South Korea which is one of the smaller countries are supplying the pop hits for over a billion Asians. South Korea is a music power player.

The main suppliers farming out the K-Pop idols are companies like JYP, SM and YG. These are hybrid companies which more or less resemble old Hollywood Studios in the way they do business with talent. They are all in one -record labels and management companies. They are training stars for a long time that includes acting, singing, dancing – teaching them foreign languages, training them physically, and even plastic surgery. These companies hold yearly auditions searching for the next K-Pop stars and up to 50,000 teens show up. CONTINUE READING

Julia Church releases the slow-tempo electro track Square 1 – I really feel the low-fi production. She’s been featured on international dance hits and charted in South African Charts with Crazy White Boy and Goldfish. The songwriter-producer worked on a one-on-one songwriting session with Paul McCartney.
Streaming: a million+ plays with SoundCloud covers
Shows: Ronnie Scott’s on June 25th in London

Selena Gomez – one the most followed singers on instagram with 152 million followers said the social media platform made her depressed. In a time when big tech has come under fire, Gomez says she doesn’t even have the instagram app on her phone.

“It’s just become really unhealthy, I think personally, for young people including myself, to spend all of their time fixating on all these comments and letting this stuff in, and it was affecting me,” Gomez said. “It would make me depressed. It would make me feel not good about myself, and look at my body differently, and all kinds of stuff.”