For so many of us, we all look forward to the weekend after a long and excruciating week at work, at school and sometimes doing other things that would take up our Monday to Friday lives. In a perfect world, the period from Friday afternoon until Sunday night would be when the entertainment industry unleashes its biggest content... but given the huge effect of the pandemic that's not the case for the movie industry or for the live events scene. But even without the usual array of live concerts, the show must go on for the music industry to give us some fresh content during these tough times, and they've provided us with plenty of comfort food in an otherwise dark start to this decade.
For years, it was a hodgepodge for when new music would be released around the world: those in Europe got first dibs on checking out new albums and singles from top artists on Mondays, a day before those across the Atlantic in North America would join in, and followed by other nations sometimes days later. But five years ago, the trade association that represents the global music industry decided to follow in their movie counterparts' steps and establish a uniform release day for new music releases on Friday. And for those in America and up in Canada, it's become a tradition for music fans here to stay up until midnight to stream new albums and watch new music videos premiere online when it's posted.
The pre-Thanksgiving New Music Friday last week saw the holidays arrive one week early in music land, headlined mega collaborations of Canadian megastars Justin Bieber & Shawn Mendes in "Monster" and Miley Cyrus & Dua Lipa in "Prisoner." The world's biggest boy band BTS returned with a new album Be, as its lead single "Life Goes On" offers a message of hope to their fandom known as the Army, and there were also new music videos that were just as juicy. Ariana Grande dropped the second clip from her new album entitled "34+35," while Grammy queen Billie Eilish brought us to the mall on "Therefore I Am." New songs by Jason Derulo, Sia, DaBaby, Meek Mill, Future, Chloe x Halle, Ava Max, French Montana, Kelly Rowland and Josh Groban rounded out a stellar lineup, providing a lead-in to last Sunday's American Music Awards.
While at Prairie View A&M, Megan began making waves when she uploaded videos of her freestyles on social media and one of those rap battles became viral, which kicked the wheels off of her rise to stardom. As she rapidly grew her following and by the time she got her diploma, she eventually adopted the name "Megan Thee Stallion" in reference to being like a horse while in high school due to her 5'10" height and her body frame, a large-boned endomorph.
