AM Prep-Music
MUSICIANS TO BE FEATURED AT MACY’S REIMAGINED THANKSGIVING DAY PARADE
NEW YORK (AP) — For music fans, today’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade in New York may look and sound the same as it did in years past. But even though this year’s event will feature appearances by Pentatonix, Jordin Sparks, Patti LaBelle and others, it will be vastly different. Of course, that’s because of the coronavirus pandemic, which forced Macy’s to scale back the celebration drastically. Instead of performers strutting along the 2 1/2-mile parade route, the action will be clustered into a single block in front of Macy’s flagship store in Manhattan. There will be no audience.
BTS GETS SOME GRAMMY LOVE
SEOUL (AP) — Amid all the talk about Beyonce getting loads of Grammy nominations and The Weeknd getting none — you may have missed the news that’s making headlines in South Korea. The K-pop band BTS has earned its first Grammy nod. And critics say that shows how strongly K-pop is infiltrating the mainstream U.S. music industry. One music critic based in Seoul calls the Grammy nod for BTS “historic.” The band is up for best pop duo/group performance with their all-English song “Dynamite,” which topped the Billboard singles chart this year. BTS will compete with artists like Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga w/ Ariana Grande and Bon Iver.
THE WEEKND AND THE GRAMMYS
LOS ANGELES (AP) — It’s hard to remember many cases recently when a musician who had so much success during a year is being so ignored when it comes to Grammy nominations. Perhaps that’s why there hasn’t been a lot of blowback against The Weeknd for his tirade against the Recording Academy after being shut out of the nominations the other day. The musician called the awards process “corrupt” — and called for increased transparency in the voting process. The Weeknd isn’t the first to complain. Less than a year ago, the Recording Academy’s ousted CEO accused the group that makes nominations in top categories of having conflicts of interest — and not being as transparent as it should be.