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Today’s Music News: Rob and Laura would have broken up in ‘High Fidelity’ sequel, says Nick Hornby

by Staff

March 08, 2015

Author Nick Hornby doesn't plan to write a sequel to his 1995 novel High Fidelity (made into a 2000 movie, above), but he speculates that if he did catch up with the novel's lead characters 20 years later, they'd be raising kids—but separately, having ultimately broken up. Hornby says that one sticking point for him in conceiving a sequel is that he can't figure out what record store owner Rob would be doing in 2015. "All one can say for sure is that selling scratched copies of Replacements albums didn't help anyone lay down a conventional career path," writes Hornby, considering record store employees he's known in real life. (Billboard)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8DIm_47xPU

Björk performed at Carnegie Hall on Saturday, marking the live premiere of material from her acclaimed new album Vulnicura. (Billboard) Meanwhile, the BBC premiered a one-hour documentary about the Icelandic singer-songwriter's eccentric career.

Future Music Festival Asia has been cancelled, just a few days before its scheduled dates of March 13-14. Singapore officials decided not to license the event, which was to have featured AviciiFatboy Slim, and other artists. (Billboard)

M.I.A. released a new track, "Can See Can Do," and hinted that more new material might be coming this summer. (Pitchfork)

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In other new-music news, Kendrick Lamar shared an iTunes link suggesting that his next album, which remains untitled, will be released on March 23. (Pitchfork)

Albert Maysles, the director of the 1970 Rolling Stones documentary Gimme Shelter, has died at age 88. Gimme Shelter documented the 1969 Stones tour that ended with the infamous, chaotic Altamont Speedway show at which four fans died—three accidentally and one in an armed confrontation with the Stones' Hell's Angels security contingent. (Billboard)

After deliberating for a day, the jury in the "Blurred Lines" trial failed to reach a verdict and will continue deliberations on Tuesday in the case pitting Marvin Gaye's heirs against Robin ThickePharrell Williams, and T.I. (Billboard)

In honor of International Women's Day, Spotify released lists of most-streamed female artists, sorted by the gender of listeners. Beyoncé is the number-one most-streamed female artist among women, but she's only sixth among male listeners; men's favorite female artist is Katy Perry, who comes in at number two among women. A female artist more strongly preferred by men over women is Lorde, who's number three among men but just number six among women. (Billboard)

Indications are that the new Beats Music streaming service, likely to debut this summer as part of iTunes, will be only for paying listeners—as Beats Music was when it first launched as a standalone—but at a suspected price of $7.99 per month, will be two dollars less per month than Spotify Premium. (Billboard) Meanwhile, Apple's surging stock is replacing AT&T in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. (Billboard)

Kanye West is the new Madonna, says none other than Madonna herself, who collaborated with Kanye on her new album Rebel Heart. "We're comrades in the envelope-pushing genre," says Madonna. (Billboard) Maybe that's why people have started auctioning bags of air from Kanye shows. (Consequence of Sound)

Pete Doherty visited the life-sized sculpture of himself being crucified, which is currently hanging at the St. Marylebone Parish Church in London. The sculpture, which was created by an artist friend of Doherty's in 2008, is on display until March 17 as part of a charity show. (NME)

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