Together with
Stage cr(ash). These days, fans are taking stage crashing to a whole new level. During a recent P!NK show, an attendee threw her mother’s ashes (yes, you read that right) onto the stage in a now-viral video. “I don’t know how I feel about this,” was P!NK’s reaction. Don’t worry, P!NK, that’s what we thought too.
In other news… country tops the charts, the internship rat race, and The Bear’s packed menu of brand partnerships.
Top Trends
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MUSIC
Country music speeds to the top of the Billboard charts
The Future. For the first time in over 40 years, two country songs are occupying both the #1 and #2 spots on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. While hip-hop and pop have ruled the charts over the past decade, country may have always been as popular — it just took the genre’s fans longer to transition to streaming, according to SiriusXM/Pandora general manager Steve Blatter.
Them good ole’ hits
Morgan Wallen’s “Last Night” and Luke Combs’ cover of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car” are ruling the charts.
“Last Night” has reigned atop the Billboard Hot 100 chart for 12 weeks straight, while “Fast Car” parked in second place this week.
Forbes reports that it’s the first time two country songs have been in the top two spots since 1981.
They’re also in the same positions on Billboard’s top streaming songs chart, with “Last Night” accumulating 29.8 million streams, and “Fast Car” zooming past 21.2 million.
Additionally, Wallen’s One Thing at a Time is only behind Adele’s 21 in most non-consecutive weeks at #1 on the Billboard top albums chart, while the supporting tour is the first country one to top Billboard’s top tour chart.
It’s all a sign of the times as country music surges in popularity — country music streaming jumped 58% in the past three years.
WORK
“Another application?!” // Illustration by Kate Walker
Internships can be harder to score than jobs
The Future. The internship experience has been battered by the confluence of COVID, remote work policies, and a raft of mass layoffs. That’s made landing a good internship much harder to come by. But without bringing back robust internship programs, many firms may find themselves without a pool of qualified employees for entry-level positions.
Competitive disadvantage
Internships are paying better than they have… but are nearly impossible to land.
A survey by recruiting startup RippleMatch found that almost half of Gen Zers are sending an average of 50 applications.
Over 50% aren’t confident they’ll land the internship that they need or that will meet their standards — especially as listings are down almost 15%, per Indeed.
And thanks to the rise of remote work, firms have a wider pool of applicants to choose from… even though most young people report that they would rather be in the office.
Aaron Terrazas, Glassdoor’s chief economist, told Bloomberg that internships were once “this special entry point to a top-tier workforce… but the pandemic really changed that. The internship experience has really eroded.”
That’s not to say that some companies aren’t trying to make them better. Hedge fund Citadel raised its intern salary to a whopping $120/hour. But good luck getting in. It only accepted 1% of 69,000 applications for their summer program this year.
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ENTERTAINMENT
The Bear stocks up on brand partnerships
The Future. Getting a spotlight on the second season of The Bear was the hot ticket on Madison Avenue, so Hulu-operator Disney had no problem closing deals with hot brands. The feeding frenzy may reinforce that in the age of streaming, integrating organically into movies and TV shows may be the best way to get products and services in front of a mass audience.
Making the menu
Over 40 advertisers hit up Disney after The Bear’s first season, wanting to get their products featured on the second helping.
Disney worked with brands like Stella Artois, Coca-Cola, American Express, and Resy to integrate them into scenes.
The brands also created custom promo content that would play during ad breaks, such as Stella’s ads with chef Roy Choi and the series’ culinary producer, Courtney Storer.
It seems like betting on The Bear was satisfying for all involved — the second season served up 70% more hours streamed than the first, becoming the most-watched season premiere of any FX series on Hulu.
A delicious binge.
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Highlights
The best curated daily stories from around the web
Media, Music, & Entertainment
Ryan Seacrest is taking over Pat Sajak’s hosting role on Wheel of Fortune after the legend’s 40-year run finally comes to an end. Read more → people
Paramount+ has officially swallowed sister streamer Showtime to create one super service: Paramount+ with Showtime. Read more → thr
Barbie is stepping up its marketing game by listing a real-life Malibu Barbie dream house on Airbnb… and yes, there’s a lot of pink. Read more → variety
Fashion & E-Commerce
Allbirds has unboxed its new M0.0NSHOT sneaker, which has a legit 0.0 carbon footprint thanks to the use of regenerative wool for the shoe, sugarcane waste for the box, and delivery using only biofuel and EVs. Read more → fastcompany
Kering is getting into the beauty business with a $2 billion acquisition of the fragrance brand Creed. Read more → businessoffashion
Herschel is swinging back into the market with eco-friendly versions of their classic bags, using a sustainable material dubbed “EcoSystem.” Read more → hypebeast
Tech, Web3, & AI
OpenAI is working on an AI “personal assistant” that can draft emails in the user’s voice and collate information relevant to their business. Read more → theinformation
London-based tech brand Nothing is partnering up with Swedish House Mafia to compose “visual ringtones” — customizable jingles that sync up with LED lights on the back of Nothing’s phones. Read more → hypebeast
Unicorn social app IRL logs off for good after admitting 95% of its users were fake. Read more → techcrunch
Creator Economy
TikTok is ditching its BeReal clone, TikTok Now, after it (and BeReal itself) started to see users lose interest. Read more → engadget
Telegram is introducing its own version of Stories that can be customized to last anywhere from six hours to forever. Read more → engadget
King Charles fires up his own YouTube channel to discuss “sustainable solutions to the climate crisis.” Read more → tubefilter
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Editing by Melody Song. Publishing by Darline Salazar.