Here’s an act that has been popping up a lot in playlist from our readers (yes, we do check what you listen on Spotify out of cheer curiosity really). We guess that The Weeknd’s appeal towards this scene probably lays in the frequent use of electronic and new wave elements in his music.

Today it became clear that The Weeknd has made history as the first artist to reach 100 million monthly listeners on Spotify. As of today, he scored the biggest monthly listener count ever on the platform with 100.4 million. His “Blinding Lights” remains the most streamed song of all time with 3.4 billion streams and counting.

The Weeknd, whose real name is Abel Makkonen Tesfaye, is a Canadian singer, songwriter, and record producer. He was born on February 16, 1990, in Toronto, Canada, to Ethiopian immigrant parents. He dropped out of high school at the age of 17 and spent most of his time working on his music, which he uploaded to YouTube under the name The Weeknd.

In 2011, The Weeknd gained widespread attention with his mixtape “House of Balloons,” which was released for free on his website. The mixtape led to a record deal with Republic Records.

The Weeknd’s debut studio album, “Kiss Land,” was released in 2013, his next album, “Beauty Behind the Madness” in 2015. The latter was a commercial success. The Weeknd’s subsequent albums, “Starboy” (2016) and “After Hours” (2020) did even better and especially “Starboy” featuring Daft Punk became a huge success.

The Weeknd’s music is known for its dark and moody themes, and the ability to blend different genres, including R&B, pop, and electronic music.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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Out via the nice colleagues of darkTunes is a compilation called “Hard Pop, Vol. 1”. The compilation basically turns radio hits from the past 3 decades into metal and goth.

The compilation starts with “Seven Nation Army” by The White Stripes covered by Blackbook. What follows is a series of bands including Omnimar, Dust In Mind, Toal, Extize, Basszilla and many more taking us on a journey through nostalgia up to today’s tunes by artists such as Billie Eilish, Lady Gaga, Madonna, Katy Perry, Lmfao, t.A.T.u, P!Nk, Christina Aguilera, Rihanna & Calvin Harris.

Further covers include “Back to Black” by Amy Winehouse, “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” by Green Day, and even “Complicated” by Avril Lavigne.

Next to these ‘older songs’ we also find modern era covers songs such as “Radioactive” by Imagine Dragons, “Blinding Lights” by The Weeknd, “Around the World” by Daft Punk and “Rolling in the Deep” by Adele.

In total 17 pop hits were reimagined by the metal and gothic bands signed to the darkTunes label.

The compilation is also available as a 6 sided digipak (500 copies only) with 16 pages booklet and stickers and of course as download.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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The French electronic duo Daft Punk have called it quits. The news was announced on their social media by the means of “Epilogue” from their 2006 film “Electroma”. The 8-minute video includes an image of two robot hands and “1993-2021” as you can see above. The news of the split-up was confirmed by their longtime publicist Kathryn Frazier.

The Parisian duo Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo formed Daft Punk in 1993 and with it also commercialized the French Touch scene. Not that they were really prolific, the duo only released 7 albums of which 5 studio albums: “Homework” (1997), “Alive 1997” (1997), “Discovery” (2001), “Human After All” (2005), “Alive 2007” (2007), the “Tron: Legacy” OST (2010) and “Random Access Memories” (2013).

Next to that they delivered 3 remix albums: “Daft Club” (2003), “Human After All: Remixes” (2006) and “Tron: Legacy Reconfigured” (2011).

“I Feel It Coming” was the last single for the band and a collaboration with Canadian singer the Weeknd, from his third studio album, “Starboy” (2016).

Below is the farewell video.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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The last few months Daniel Bressanutti aka Daniel B. (Front 242, Morf, Prothèse) has joined the Acronym project. The project has now partnered with the Republic of Gamers to launch skyanycolour.com, an online group exhibition featuring over 50 artists and designers.

Daniel B.: “The project’s purpose is to explore humanity’s increasingly complex relationship with the future, a topic that has become even more relevant given the events of this year.”

Here’s the trailer for the project.

Over 50 artists and designers were introduced to form smaller breakout teams, each choosing their own formats. Initial works were showcased inside the recently-released Acronym X ROG ZEPHYRUS G14–ACRNM®, limited edition laptop, and form basis for the Sky Any Colour program launch. The ongoing exhibition, with new film, animation, music, graphic and photographic works will continue to be released on skyanycolour.com into the first quarter of 2021. Acronym also partnered with the incubator accelerator Hxouse, co-founded by artist, The Weeknd, creative director, La Mar Taylor and global innovator, Ahmed Ismail.

The participants in this multi-disciplinary project include Daniel Bressanutti, Ruben Fro, Sebeyu, Laura Dubuk, Aaron Beck, Evian Christ, Bisi Ezerioha, Phil Saunders, Kat Zhang, Steve Teeple, Khyzyl Saleem, Monika Bielskyte, Chris Bjerre, NOKENTY, Errolson Hugh, Stephen Platt, Rod Chong, Nicolas Kadima, David Rudnick, Ornamental Conifer, Ryan Davis, Look Mister, Michael Tello, Nathan Qi, Clouds, Ian Wang, Hans Olo, Reuben Wu, Kim Jung Gi, Corin Roddick (Purity Ring), Spencer Canon, Laith Safa (Hxouse), Whyishnave Suthagar (Hxouse), Alim Sabir (Hxouse), Eric Cheung, Sebastian Palencia, Rayul (Hxouse), Trish Roque (Hxouse), Joshua Schachter, Ben Dosage, Glare, Mike Sunday, Joyce Mao, Evian Christ, Daniel Swan, Malte Müller, Kazuhiro Aihara, Sam Madhu, Raf Rennie, Pussy Riot, Asad Malik (Jadu Hologram), Kristopher Ho, Harlan Hugh, Ed Palumbo, Liam Wong, Dobu Supply, Gat Kong and Jennifer Bin.

About Acronym, Republic of Gamers (ROG) and Hxouse

Acronym itself was founded in 1994 by Michaela Sachenbacher and Errolson Hugh as an independent design agency with a focus on the unification of style and technology in apparel. Through its eponymous brand, as well as its numerous contract design projects, Acronym has been instrumental in the emergence of a new generation of technical apparel products and users.

Republic of Gamers (ROG) is an ASUS sub-brand dedicated to creating the world’s best gaming hardware and software. Formed in 2006, ROG offers a complete line of innovative products known for performance and quality, including motherboards, graphics cards, laptops, desktops, monitors, audio equipment, routers and peripherals. ROG participates in and sponsors major international gaming events and ROG gear has been used to set hundreds of overclocking records and continues to be the preferred choice of gamers and enthusiasts around the world.

Hxouse is a next-generation incubator and accelerator that is at the forefront of fostering innovation and opportunity for creative entrepreneurs. It facilitates connections between talent and industry to build mutually-beneficial relationships between future talent and current industry titans. A not-for-profit venture co-founded by multi-platinum artist The Weeknd, creative director La Mar Taylor, and global innovator Ahmed Ismail.

Work for RMT01 gaming laptop

Daniel B. also did music and sounds for the launch of the RMT01, the world’s most powerful 14 inch gaming laptop. The machine has been radically retooled by Acronym and designed David Rudnick using magnesium and aluminum alloys, custom machining, precision etchings, specially developed paints, and two completely original typefaces.

With an 8-core AMD® Ryzen™ 9 CPU and RTX graphics, RMT01 is not only built for the most dedicated gamers, but uniquely tailored to the specs of the next generation of creative professionals. It is also equipped with eight custom-designed animations exclusive to RMT01.

Full info can be found on this website.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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