• Taylor Swift is saying goodbye to country music, for now: The singer says she's releasing her first full-length pop album on Oct. 27. The 24-year-old revealed in a live video stream via Yahoo on Monday that 1989, named for her birth year, is her "first documented official pop album." The first single is the upbeat jam "Shake It Off," which she debuted during the live stream and was released Monday. Swift called her coming fifth album a "rebirth." "We made the most sonically cohesive album I've ever made," she said of 1989, which was available for pre-order on Monday. Swift's last effort was 2012's Red, which sold 1.2 million copies in its first week. Swift said she was mainly inspired by late '80s pop music when recording 1989 over the past two years. "I woke up every day ... not wanting but needing to make a new style of music than I made before," she said. The singer also premiered the music video for "Shake It Off" during the live stream. The song was produced by Max Martin and Shellbeck, who helmed the Swift hits "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" and "I Knew You Were Trouble."
• Philadelphia rapper Meek Mill pleaded to be released from jail Monday to resume his music career and support his son and 30-person entourage, but the judge who jailed him on a parole violation last month was unmoved. The judge ordered the 27-year-old to take anger-management classes for what prosecutors called a parole office "tantrum" over travel restrictions, and a Twitter rant aimed at a parole officer and prosecutor. The rapper, born Robert Williams, has been on probation for about five years after a 2009 drug and gun case conviction, for which he served about a year of house arrest. His career has been interrupted the past two years by what he considers an increasingly fraught relationship with a new parole officer. He has not committed any new crimes while on probation but was flagged this year after failing a drug test and appearing to use a gun in a music video. Defense lawyer Dennis Cogan said Williams had a prescription for the OxyContin after spraining his ankle, and said the video prop was a water pistol. Williams has been kept in protective custody at Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility but complained Tuesday that his neighbors on the high-security block are rapists and murderers.
A Section on 08/20/2014