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<ul class="summary-list"><li>"<keyword id="11161179" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="a-thousand-miles">A Thousand Miles</keyword>" is about a Juilliard student <keyword id="8926107" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Vanessa-Carlton">Vanessa Carlton</keyword> had a crush on in the mid-90s.</li><li>Carlton is purposefully not gendering the person or naming them because they're now a famous actor.</li><li>"I would never talk to this person," Carlton, who is bisexual, told Vice. "I was very shy."</li></ul>Singer Vanessa Carlton's recent <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLO_57IV6Zc">Vice documentary about "A Thousand Miles"</a> has been making waves after she revealed that the indelible '00s hit was about a now-famous actor."The song is about a crush I had on a Juilliard student," Carlton told Vice. "I would never talk to this person. I was very shy ... I had a better a chance of falling up than ever having a relationship with this person. I can't say the person's name because they're a famous actor and I don't want to say it."When asked if this person knows the song is about them, Carlton said "no."Carlton wrote the song when she was around 16 years old, while living in New York City in the mid-90s. It was released as the lead single of her 2002 album "Be Not Nobody," and became a cultural phenomenon.<div type="image" title="Vanessa Carlton attends the 73rd Annual Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall on June 09, 2019 in New York City Getty" height="1131" width="1508" msid="82263932" hostid="261"></div>The documentary episode was released on April 11, and fans have been speculating online about which now-famous actor Carlton might have been referencing. On April 22, <keyword id="4578" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="entertainment">Entertainment</keyword> Tonight (ET) interviewed Carlton and <a href="https://www.etonline.com/vanessa-carlton-addresses-speculation-over-who-a-thousand-miles-is-about-on-songs-20-year-164476">asked her about all the guesswork</a> surrounding the song."I'm purposefully ... I'm not attaching a gender and it will remain like that," she told ET. "It's better for everyone if it just remains a mystery."Since <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/vanessa-carlton-bisexuality_n_5660702fe4b072e9d1c4f708">Carlton is bisexual</a>, some fans believe she's avoiding using pronouns in reference to the crush in order to avoid narrowing down options to a man or woman. You can listen to Carlton discuss the song's inspiration at the four-minute mark in the video below:

Vanessa Carlton says her iconic hit 'A Thousand Miles' is about a high-school crush who's now a famous actor

<ul class="summary-list"><li>An influencer threw a slice of cheese at Terry Crews' head and told him he would be "bald forever."</li><li>It has sparked amusement, and viewers questioned how the collaboration came about.</li></ul>Influencer Nathan Kessel collaborated with actor <a href="https://www.insider.com/terry-crews-porn-addiction-affected-relationship-with-wife-kids-2023-7">Terry Crews</a> for a TikTok sketch in which he threw a slice of Swiss cheese at his head and told him he would be "bald forever."In the <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@kessel_nathan_official/video/7275893538267630890">video</a>, Crews was sitting down when Kessel threw the cheese at his head. He appeared shocked as he looked up at the camera. Then, he flexed his acting talent by turning toward a man standing next to him and pretending to cry while hugging him for consolation. The seven-second video was posted on September 7 and has 3.4 million views. It's titled, "We cheese of truthed Terry Crews." The <a href="https://vine.co/v/exzmjnziqIa" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Cheese of Truth</a> was originally a satirical viral video posted on the now-defunct short-form video platform Vine by creator <a href="https://vine.co/Olaf.Falafel" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Olaf Falafel</a> in September 2015. In the video, Falafel threw a slice of Swiss cheese at the Daily Mail newspaper and read out the words between the holes in the cheese: "Immigrants cause cancer," a reference to the publication's <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2016/sep/05/newspapers-publish-anti-immigration-stories-but-what-is-to-be-done" target="_blank" rel="noopener">often negative portrayal of immigrants</a> and reputation for <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2010/apr/27/dailymail-cancer">frequently publishing articles</a> about tenuous links between everyday products or activities and cancer risk.The video was hugely popular, with over 54 million replays, 224,000 likes, and 82,100 reshares. It's since become a meme and <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@tav.___/video/7195837441150831914" target="_blank" rel="noopener">made</a> <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@imthe_annag/video/7105153483115859246" target="_blank" rel="noopener">its</a> <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@oblivious_lover/video/6988346621562047750" target="_blank" rel="noopener">way</a> over to TikTok, where it has become popular for people to throw slices of Swiss cheese at pages of text and then make predictions based on which words can be seen through the holes in the cheese.Kessel's video has sparked amusement, and many viewers expressed shock that Crews had allowed him to throw the slice of cheese at his head. Several viewers wrote that they were jealous that Kessel had got to meet Crews.One viewer questioned how the collaboration came about. Kessel acknowledged the comment but ignored the question. In response, he just wrote the word, "Yes."Many viewers referenced Crews' acting roles in the comments."That's 23 cents worth of cheese," one viewer wrote, referencing Crews's character Julius in "Everybody Hates Chris," who is known for his comical, over-the-top money-saving tips.In one scene from the show that involves a kitchen accident, Julius cries, "That's 49 cents of spilled milk dripping all over the table. Somebody gon' drink this milk!" In another scene, Julius says, "Unplug that clock, boy. You can't tell time while you sleep! It's 2 cents an hour!"Others wrote out lyrics to the song "A Thousand Miles" by Vanessa Carlton — a reference to a scene in "White Chicks" in which Crews enthusiastically sings along to the song while driving a car in his role as Latrell Spencer. Kessel, who has 10 million TikTok followers, has <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@kessel_nathan_official/video/7240121938037722411">previously</a> <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@kessel_nathan_official/video/6960737105580412165">posted</a> various Cheese of Truth videos on his account, and many of them have gone viral. Crews, 55, is also <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@terrycrews?lang=en">active on TikTok</a>, where he has 23 million followers and often posts behind-the-scenes clips of "America's Got Talent," which he's hosted since 2019.

An influencer threw a slice of Swiss cheese at Terry Crews and said he'll be 'bald forever.' Naturally, it went viral.

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Sexyy Red is one of the fastest-rising figures in rap right now.</li><li>She's currently supporting Drake and 21 Savage on tour.</li></ul>Sexyy Red is one of the fastest-rising figures in <a href="https://www.insider.com/ice-spice-facts-to-know-about-gangsta-boo-rapper-2023-3">rap music</a> right now.Already this year, the 25-year-old has scored a hit song with <a href="https://www.insider.com/nicki-minajs-ex-manager-sickamore-recalls-quitting-over-photoshoot-2023-3">Nicki Minaj</a>, featured on tracks with Da Baby and NLE Choppa, and supported Drake on tour.Here's everything you need to know about the "Pound Town" rapper.<h2>Sexyy Red was born in Missouri </h2>Sexyy Red, real name Janae Nierah Wherry, was born in St. Louis on April 15, 1998.<a href="https://www.complex.com/music/a/eric-skelton/sexyy-red-interview-pound-town">Speaking with Complex in May,</a> Red said that her boyfriend cheating on her served as her inspiration to start rapping."My boyfriend was cheating on me with a lame-ass bitch, so I made a song about it," she said. "I showed my boyfriend the song, and he was like, 'Dang, you straight know how to rap. You straight snap.' And I'm sitting here talking stuff about him, but he was liking it." It was in 2018 that Red first garnered attention when her track "Ah Thousand Jugs" — a reworking of <a href="https://www.insider.com/vanessa-carlton-a-thousand-miles-song-about-famous-actor-juilliard-2021-4">Vanessa Carlton's "A Thousand Miles"</a> — went viral.In 2021, Red released her debut mixtape, "Ghetto Superstar," before she got her big breakthrough in January 2023 with the release of her song "Pound Town.""Pound Town" went viral on TikTok and in May an official remix, "Pound Town 2," was released featuring Nicki Minaj.The remix peaked at No. 66 on the Billboard Hot 100, marking Red's first ever appearance on the chart.After the release of "Pound Town 2," Minaj sent an email to her fans explaining why she chose to team up with Red for the hit song."I met with Sexyy Red &amp; found her to be so down to earth &amp; sweet," she wrote in the email, <a href="https://www.hotnewhiphop.com/682270-nicki-minaj-sexyy-red-pound-town-2">according to HotNewHipHop</a>. "I couldn't hear myself on this song at first but once I let go &amp; decided to just have fun with a bad b!ch, I ended up LOVING how it came out!"<h2>Sexyy Red has a close relationship with Drake</h2>In July, <a href="https://www.insider.com/drake-for-all-the-dogs-release-date-what-we-know-2023-7">Drake</a> shared a picture to his Instagram story of him cozying with with Red backstage after one of his shows in Brooklyn, New York.In the photo, Red was sat on Drake's lap while he was kissing her cheek. "Just met might my rightful wife <a href="https://www.instagram.com/sexyyred" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-type="externalLink">@sexyyred</a>," the "Hotline Bling" rapper <a href="https://www.etonline.com/drake-kisses-rapper-sexyy-red-calls-her-his-rightful-wife-208300">wrote</a> atop the snap.Red shared the same photo to her Instagram and captioned it: "I'm yo favorite rapper favorite rapper." In early August, Red announced on social media that she would be opening for the remaining dates of <a href="https://www.xxlmag.com/drake-travis-scott-best-songs-get-high/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Drake</a> and 21 Savage's It's All a Blur Tour."Be there or be square come see a bad bthc," she wrote on <a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cv5zt6Et6bZ/">Instagram</a>. "thank u Draaaaaake @champagnepapi."<h2>Sexyy Red has a son</h2>Red has one son, Chuckie, who was born in 2020.The boy's father is in jail, <a href="https://www.hotnewhiphop.com/702131-sexyy-red-baby-daddy-jail-call-interview-hip-hop-news">according to HotNewHipHop.</a><a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/sexyy-red-interview-1234786906/">In an interview with Rolling Stone in July</a>, Red declined to reveal why Chuckie's father was behind bars, but said that she finds the circumstances very difficult. "It's a lot for me," she said. "That's my high school sweetheart. Free him. That's my dog. I hate being on this journey without him. I have my momma, but I don't have him." Red often refers to her son's father in her Instagram posts, including in a recent photo she shared of her and Drake hugging."I'm wit my but it's still free my udda ," she captioned the picture.Drake commented: "3 that man."<h2>Money is her motivation</h2>Red told Complex in May that her career goal is simple — make as much money as possible. "I ain't going to lie, I'm in it for the moolah," she said. "Because I need money. I got to live. So I want all the money. Whatever I can do to get some money."<div type="image" title="Sexyy Red speaks during HOT 107.9's Birthday Bash 2023 at State Farm Arena on June 17, 2023 in Atlanta, Georgia." height="1768" width="2000" msid="102992179" hostid="261"></div>Red said she wants to use the money to get her son "out of the hood" so he doesn't have to "grow up in the kind of environment" she did."Money is the main route because I feel like money's going to take you anywhere," she said.

Everything you need to know about Sexyy Red, the rapper Drake called his 'rightful wife'

The hotel bed in Silver Spring, Maryland, is perfect: crisp white duvet, plump pillows, woven blanket folded at the foot. And Aly and AJ Michalka, 34 and 32, are preparing to jump on it. The sisters have been in the chic, mid-century modern hotel room for a little more than an hour showering, ordering room service, and applying makeup. They're about to leave for The Fillmore to play the 12th show of their "<a href="https://alyandaj.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">With Love From</a>" tour, after which they'll sleep on their tour bus. Which means they won't return to this space — or its bed. And so, in the name of being <a href="https://la.curbed.com/2014/3/27/10124612/fitzgerald-to-lohan-a-history-of-las-celebrity-hotel-trashings" target="_blank" rel="noopener">true rockstars</a>, they've decided to fuck shit up. AJ grabs a final french fry from the room service tray. Then she and Aly line up and count off: "one… two… three!" On cue, they flop onto the mattress. The blanket stays folded. When they get up, the duvet is barely wrinkled.Aly and AJ are, in fact, rockstars — there's no denying that when you see them working a crowd. They're impossible to look away from as they strut around onstage, play 16 different instruments, fling their hair and do their funny little dance moves. They have that something that makes them hypnotizing, even to people who don't know their music — the new stuff or the hits they churned out as teenagers for Disney in the early 2000s. But they're also unfailingly sweet and eager to please in an unguarded way — a way that leads them into, say, a 10-minute conversation with an apparently drunk guy on the street in Philly. "If anything, it's almost to our own detriment," Aly says. "We're so open-book." "I joke that they're like, 'Do you want my shirt and my pants?'" says Stephen Ringer, Aly's cinematographer husband. "Do you want my underwear?" Where some former child stars retreat behind a hardened exterior, the Michalka sisters have done exactly the opposite. After the Disney years, the sisters took a decade-long break from music while acting on shows like "iZombie" and ABC's "The Goldbergs." They picked things up again in 2018 and haven't stopped moving. For two days in April, I spent every waking moment with Aly and AJ on their current tour. Here's what it was like.<h1>Day one: Silver Spring, Maryland</h1>1:00 p.m. EST: When I arrive at The Fillmore, Aly and AJ — or "the girls," as everyone on the tour crew calls them — are asleep on their bus, which I'm told is like being in a sensory deprivation chamber.1:45 p.m.: The girls are up! I meet them aboard the bus, a luxury number with extra-large bunks (meaning they're stacked in twos instead of threes). They tell me they've been burned by an all-access journalist before: in their Disney era when they invited a reporter over for family dinner. "We were too young," AJ says. "And we said things because we were nervous. And I don't know if we knew the meaning of off-the-record. So we just fucked ourselves." 2:15 p.m.: Aly and AJ acquire coffee, and they, Stephen, and I climb into an Uber to their hotel. The sisters like to book hotel rooms in the cities they visit as base camps for the day. We're accompanied by their two enormous silver Rimowa suitcases (about $1,800 a pop). Aly and AJ bought the Rimowas for this tour and refer to them with the fondness of mothers.3:15 p.m.: We arrive at the hotel and ascend to the room. <div type="image" title="Aly gets ready in the hotel" height="2500" width="2000" msid="103717156" hostid="261"></div>3:20 p.m.: I don't fully understand how Aly and AJ sustain life on tour. Their eating schedule is erratic; sometimes they don't have a full meal until around 11 p.m., after they've played. I suspect Stephen is the one keeping them alive. He orders a room service feast. 3:25 p.m.: Aly and AJ are taking a shower. "You can put in the piece that AJ and I shower together," Aly says. "We don't care about that."3:45 p.m.: Makeup kits are strewn across the bed and desk. Aly and AJ are in robes applying Bobbi Brown contour, Kossas foundation, Charlotte Tilbury blush. They usually do their own makeup on tour, except if they're in New York City or Los Angeles and can hire a makeup artist.4:00 p.m.: AJ is sitting on her suitcase, but it won't close. She squashes it down several more times. "It's so hard to close the latches on my Rimowa," she jokes. Finally, they click.4:15 p.m.: We are running sort of late. "I'm ready," AJ says. "I just gotta…" "There's always an 'I just gotta,'" Aly says. "Usually it's, 'I'm ready,'" Stephen says, "'I just gotta put on clothes.'"4:21 p.m.: The Rimowas have been loaded into another Uber. As we drive back through the Silver Spring suburbs, Aly sees a house she likes and looks it up on Zillow: 2,500 square feet, $1.3 million. She is, says AJ, a Zillow fiend.4:45 p.m.: Aly and AJ are on stage for sound check. About two dozen people have been let in to watch: the evening's VIPs. They stare up at the women and their band — drummer Ben, guitarist Connor Sullivan, bassist Thomas Drayton — and I wonder what it's like to have a crowd gawk at you while you're working. Neither sister seems to notice. Afterward, fans line up to take pictures with Aly and AJ in front of a "With Love From" banner. One of them is 30-year-old Justin Pope, originally from North Carolina. He first saw Aly sing on "Phil of the Future" and became obsessed with the band's early albums "Into the Rush" and "Insomniatic," the latter of which he brought for the sisters to sign. "As a gay boy, any blonde girls singing pop music, you were just like, 'Yes,'" he says. "It's very escapist." "Seeing them from 15 now to 31, I feel like they're like me," he added. "We're experiencing life at the same time and going through the motions and finding ourselves."<div type="image" title="Fans with their Aly and AJ memorabilia" height="465" width="1157" msid="103717158" hostid="261"></div>7:00 p.m.: Aly and AJ are in the green room signing an enormous stack of vinyl records. I mention my conversation with Justin. "The more we tour, the more I'm like, 50% of this audience is queer," Aly says. "This is crazy. How did we attract this? We're two straight, white women." She theorizes that their uplifting lyrics reached people who were closeted as kids. Plus, she and AJ have been outspokenly supportive of the queer community since their return to music, "and I think that just ramped it up."Stephen theorizes that queer fans are drawn to Aly and AJ's "underdog" narrative — the way they returned to music after a decade and are growing steadily, though nowhere near the rate of, say, Taylor Swift. The way they continue to reinvent themselves, each subsequent record sounding different than the last. 8:10 p.m.: By now both sisters are dressed for the show in jeans and western shirts, AJ's black with curly white embroidery, Aly's paired with a brown tie. Aly shares that '90s piano goddess Vanessa Carlton will open for them at LA's Greek Theatre. It's a genius girl-power nostalgia pairing. "That was my idea," Aly says, adding that they initially asked Michelle Branch, who was unavailable. She fantasizes about other pairings: The National, My Morning Jacket, Muna. <div type="image" title="AJ gets ready in the hotel" height="2500" width="2000" msid="103717161" hostid="261"></div>I ask Aly about doing a sound check with fans there — about being so closely observed. "It's interesting," she says. "It's a little bit like being a zoo animal in a cage just going about your life, but everyone's like, 'look at the monkeys!'" "We have kind of no boundaries," she adds. "But I think it's because we've been around for so long." 8:45 p.m.: It's time for the mom prayer. Carrie Michalka, also known as "Mamachalka," calls "Alyson" and "Amanda" before each show and prays for them over the phone. For the tour's September leg, she sent a Dropbox folder of pre-recorded prayers labeled by city and date.9:00 p.m.: Aly and AJ take the stage. Being at one of their shows is kind of like being at the slumber party in "The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement." It's wholesome, bubbly, cathartic, deeply unselfconscious. There are little easter eggs for the queers: the lights at the end of "Love You This Way" flash rainbow. <div type="image" title="Aly and AJ onstage in Nashville, TN on their &quot;With Love From&quot; tour" height="3333" width="5000" msid="103717163" hostid="261"></div>The sisters have the self-assurance and presence of people who've been performing for 20 years. Their energy doesn't flag throughout the two-hour set, which encompasses every song from their new album, as well as some older hits like "Take Me" and, of course, "Potential Breakup Song," which peaked at number 17 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2007. They're singing "Like Whoa," another classic from "Insomniatic," on this tour, too. But they've stripped down both hits to fit their current California country-leaning sound. Later, AJ tells me she and Aly found new love for the songs in remaking them. "I don't feel angst toward the old material," she says. "We kind of got past all that.""'Potential Breakup Song' I feel like we have to play till we're dead," she adds. But for the first time, they're not ending the set with it. "It's a really important song in our career, but it doesn't always need to be the apex of who we are." 12:58 a.m.: The sisters are back in comfy jeans and tees. They walk into the venue's parking lot where about two dozen people are waiting for them against low barricades. Both women move along the line talking to people, answering questions, posing for photos. One woman hands AJ a Lowe's business card with her phone number scrawled across it. "I get a lot of lesbian's numbers," AJ tells me, "but I've never gotten one on a Lowe's card." 2:27 a.m.: I can't stay awake for another minute, but Aly and AJ are still up, using their bunks' privacy curtains <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@alyandaj/video/7222527140292578606?lang=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener">to film a TikTok</a>. Have I mentioned they're both Aries?<h1>Day two: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania </h1>1:20 p.m.: Sleeping in the bunk was rough. I woke up around 5 a.m. convinced we were about to die as the bus careened around what felt like a million curves. But we lived, and we're now parked on the street in front of a different Fillmore — this one in Philly. 1:30 p.m.: Aly, AJ, and Stephen emerge from the bus with their luggage. A heavyset gray-haired man approaches and asks for a photo. He recognizes AJ from the 2014 Lifetime movie "Expecting Amish." They oblige, and the man seems thrilled."Some people discover our music from cartoons, some people discover us from TV shows," AJ says in another Uber. "Some discover us from a really bad Lifetime movie where I was a pregnant Amish woman." 1:45 p.m.: We arrive at another hotel, a gorgeous suite with a tangerine velvet couch, a full kitchen, and huge wood-framed windows. Stephen orders food before the showering and prepping commences. <div type="image" title="Aly Michalka on With Love From tour in Nashville" height="2500" width="1786" msid="103717168" hostid="261"></div>3:10 p.m.: Aly is sitting on the floor doing her makeup in a full-length mirror. Her blow dryer, diffuser attached, is on high and pointed at her legs."We like the white noise and the heat," AJ says. It's a comfort thing from childhood, she theorizes, when they spent lots of time in dressing rooms."We're really weird," Aly adds. The blow dryer stays on for at least half an hour. 4:00 p.m.: We're back at The Fillmore for sound check by 4, running extremely on time. The same rigamarole ensues, with Aly and AJ again greeting the VIPs.7:20 p.m.: The sisters, Stephen, and their friend Sarah Nekich, a music photographer and social media manager, decide to go for cheesesteaks. We head to Joe's and order slabs of meat and diary on crispy, chewy buns. Afterward we go back to the hotel, and Sarah and I imagine what the room might cost as a Brooklyn apartment.8:30 p.m.: The band goes on in 30 minutes. We file out of the hotel…and straight into a youngish, drunkish guy on the street named Eugene. Instead of brushing him off, Aly and AJ engage him in conversation. He asks to buy them a drink, but they tell him they have a show to play and invite him. He can't come, but can he walk them to the show?Stephen cuts in: "We're actually about to get an Uber." In that case, can Eugene join us in the Uber?Stephen: "I don't even think there will be room. We're already pushing it." Relief.A woman named Star approaches next; she's a server at the hotel restaurant. She just broke up with her boyfriend of four years, and Aly and AJ's song "Slow Dancing" became her anthem. "You guys are amazing" she tells both women about a hundred times.<div type="image" title="Aly and AJ meet with fans." height="2500" width="1786" msid="103717170" hostid="261"></div>8:48 p.m.: We're back at The Fillmore, and Aly and AJ are dressed in different jeans and western shirts, but neither one is wearing shoes.9:03 p.m.: And yet, somehow they're on stage by 9. 9:46 p.m.: Of all the songs on the setlist, "Potential Breakup Song" inspires the most hysteria, the most cell phone cameras held up to record. "Who's here because they wanted to make sure they heard that song?" Aly prompts. Some 80% of the audience cheers. "And who's never heard it before?" One person in the back yells loud enough to be heard from the pit. They're here for the future.10:40 p.m.: Back in the green room, Aly and AJ go over a harmony they want to adjust in "Rush." It's bizarre to hear them, real human people across the couch from me, bust into songs that shaped the first era of my life. It's like someone getting up to sing "Man! I Feel Like a Woman!" at karaoke, except that person is Shania Twain.12:06 a.m.: Stephen, AJ, and I are back at the lovely hotel while Aly has returned to the bus; she usually goes right to sleep after shows.2:05 a.m.: We're showered, changed, brushed, and headed out. We pass another door in the hallway, and Stephen and AJ wonder what this other suite might look like. The door is unlocked, so we walk in. The room has a similar vibe to Aly and AJ's: cozy farmhouse meets industrial chic. And there's the bed, made up in crisp white with a gray flannel throw. AJ and I look at each other, and she walks over to the edge, throws her arms up, and falls backwards into it while I snap a photo. She gets up and grins.

'We have kind of no boundaries:' 48 hours with sister musicians Aly & AJ

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="1432681" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Ed-Sheeran">Ed Sheeran</keyword> posted a video singing his song "Afterglow" on <keyword id="6762469" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="TikTok">TikTok</keyword> asking for duets.</li><li>However, people duetted his video ironically, loudly playing instruments rather than singing.</li><li>Ed Sheeran hate isn't a new phenomenon, and the video he posted seemed doomed to fail on TikTok.</li></ul>On December 27, English singer Ed Sheeran posted a video playing and singing his song "Afterglow" on the guitar, asking for people to duet him. A simple request from one of the world's biggest pop singers who, by all accounts, hasn't really done anything that bad, was received with sarcasm, comments about the "dude from Game of Thrones... putting himself out there," and an overwhelming amount of noise. He's just the latest <keyword id="6355064" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Celebrity">celebrity</keyword> to unintentionally become the punchline of the day on TikTok.The video - presumably part of a promotional push for the single, which Sheeran released on December 21, 2020 - is only the eighth video uploaded to Sheeran's account, which has 2.2 million followers. The most recent two are tied to "Afterglow," while the preceding six are promoting "Beautiful People," his 2019 single featuring Khalid. It's safe to say, Ed Sheeran is not a habitual TikTok user, and others on the app are taking the opportunity to clown on that fact with gusto.The joke goes like this: duet Ed Sheeran, but don't sing. Instead, play the iconic piano lick from Vanessa Carlton's seminal "A Thousand Miles," whack a snare drum, add some tuba support, or maybe layer in Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit." In a video that appears to have since been deleted or set to private, Charlie Puth, who is fairly active on TikTok, also duetted Sheeran, writing "Ed and I have talked a long time about doing something together. Here is the start of it" in the caption and then proceeding to blast the opening chords of Toto's "Africa." Others used less-conventional instruments to get in on the fun and "support" a "small [creator]," as user @kelsocryfest wrote in the caption of their video. There's a storied tradition of Ed Sheeran hate in pop <keyword id="24504" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="culture">culture</keyword>, essentially tracing back to the fact that Ed Sheeran is... a pretty neutral guy. As Vice UK writer Joel Golby wrote in 2018, Sheeran "actually seems fundamentally quite decent and sound," but that certain facets of his public appearance lends itself to conjuring up other observations, like that fact the oftentimes Sheeran doesn't act like a typical celebrity. He notably was a no-show at the 2018 Grammys, where his song "Shape Of You" beat out Kesha's "Praying" for Best Pop Vocal Performance. Instead, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BehkmuBlYXq/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link">he posted a photo of his cat to say thank you</a>.In short, Ed Sheeran isn't detestable, but on TikTok he's following in the footsteps of other meme villains like Lin-Manuel Miranda (whose <a href="https://www.insider.com/lin-manuel-miranda-lip-biting-selfie-tiktok-memes-hamilton-2020-7">selfies haunted TikTok For You Pages as a bait-and-switch meme</a>) or Matthew Morrison, who <a href="https://www.bustle.com/entertainment/why-tiktok-hates-matthew-morrison-meme-explained-grinch-glee">garnered TikTok's ire partially as a bit</a> and partially due to people re-examining some of his weirdest moments from "Glee." TikTok is coming for Sheeran in the same sort of way, either by directly dunking on him in his duets, or hiding his image in other videos. TikTok's duet feature has lead to some of its most famous musical collaborations (<a href="https://www.insider.com/ratatouille-the-musical-tiktok-remy-2020-11">"Ratatouille" the musical</a>, or <a href="https://www.insider.com/sea-shanty-tiktok-wellerman-social-media-nathan-evans-2021-1">sea shanties</a>, for instance), but Sheeran, a gigantic pop star with little to no habitual TikTok presence earnestly asking for duets was only inviting clownery in a culture that's all about boosting the average joe. Even past the copious ironic duets, comments on Sheeran's original post are belittling: "you got a decent voice, u ever thought about being a singer?" one commenter wrote; "YOOO RON WEASLEY GOT BARS" another said.Of course, there were people who did <a href="https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMeJWaWWY/">earnestly lend their voices</a> to Sheeran's, hoping that he'll notice their video. But on an app that's <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/21575707/tiktok-cringe">governed by cringe</a> and isn't known for being kind to <a href="https://www.insider.com/gen-z-dragging-millennials-on-tiktok-harry-potter-zoomers-twitter-2020-6">millennials</a>, the singer never had a chance.

People are making fun of Ed Sheeran on TikTok by completely drowning out his request for duets

<ul class="summary-list"><li>18-year-old New Jersey native Zeke has millions of streams and just put out an album, "Frailty."</li><li>They make emo <keyword id="12600533" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="electronic-music" source="Orion">electronic music</keyword> under the name dltzk and silly mashups under the name leroy.</li></ul>Zeke lives a double life online. The 18-year-old produces emo electronic compositions under one identity (dltzk) and goofy, genre-pulverizing mashups under another (leroy), reaching millions of streams across <keyword id="11911163" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="spotify" source="Orion">Spotify</keyword> and <keyword id="12278599" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="soundcloud" source="Orion">SoundCloud</keyword>.They've also coined a subgenre that's rising in popularity on SoundCloud and inspiring a wave of artists."I'm finally making the music I've wanted to make since I was 9," Zeke, a New Jersey native who doesn't disclose their last name because of privacy concerns, told Insider.Zeke released their debut album, "Frailty," on November 12 under the handle <a href="https://soundcloud.com/dltzk">dltzk</a> (pronounced "delete Zeke") to <a href="https://twitter.com/en_cohen/status/1459345125172121602">critical</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/lfitzmaurice/status/1460066922653966337">acclaim</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/underscoresplus/status/1459962976463736834">praise from peers</a>.Under their second pseudonym, <a href="https://soundcloud.com/c0ncernn">leroy</a>, they've just begun the third project for "dariacore," the eclectic microgenre they spearheaded from their childhood bedroom late last year.Dariacore is "pop music on steroids in the best way possible," Bill Bugara, a SoundCloud creative director and manager at Zeke's label, deadAir, told Insider.The sample-heavy subgenre revolves around "how one deconstructs pop and dance music into this amalgamation of controlled chaos," added Bugara, who released <a href="https://soundcloud.com/actuallynotbill/sets/daria-vs-core-1">a charity compilation on SoundCloud</a> on Sunday featuring dariacore songs from about a dozen musicians including Zeke.<div type="image" title="Zeke2" height="3024" width="4032" msid="87892670" hostid="261"></div>Zeke left for college near Philadelphia several months ago. (They said they hadn't yet chosen what to study.) Almost all the songs they make now are about "crossing the barrier between childhood and adulthood," they said.Zeke's influence among their peers in music hasn't fully translated to real-world self-confidence yet: The artist said they were too insecure to record music within earshot of their parents or bring a microphone to college, where prying roommates could hear them sing.<h2>Zeke has loved EDM since they were a kid</h2>Like <a href="https://www.insider.com/quinn-osquinn-hyperpop-digicore-tiktok-soundcloud-rap-2021-10">Quinn</a>, whom Zeke cited as an influence, Zeke is at the vanguard of a fast-rising group of Zoomers making intimate, nervy music from their computers.Zeke learned how to make <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/11/13/778532395/the-mainstreaming-of-edm-and-the-precipitous-drop-that-followed">electronic dance music</a> at 9 after fiddling with iMaschine, a basic iPhone songwriting app. "I fucked around and found out" how to produce music, they said.Zeke said they'd always loved loud, frenzied songs. "One of my most vivid memories from elementary school is asking my gym teacher to play <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cR2XilcGYOo">Skrillex</a> in class while we were playing dodgeball," they recalled, adding that as a 9- or 10-year-old they would eagerly play homemade EDM mashups for kids and counselors at summer camp.As a teen, they began producing trap beats and, eventually, <keyword id="12600531" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="hyperpop" source="Orion">hyperpop</keyword> — a genre with experimental vocal techniques and chaotic beats that's sometimes called <a href="https://www.complex.com/pigeons-and-planes/life-cycle-of-internet-genres-scenes-hyperpop-digicore-cloud-rap">digicore</a> — around early 2020. Zeke's first major break was "<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjLRRwd3g40">Teen Week</a>," an eight-track EP they self-released in March. Its electric anthem "<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRA-lL2i_gE">homeswitcher</a>" amassed 100,000 plays on SoundCloud in its first two weeks.<h2>'Frailty' is inspired by video-game music and nostalgia</h2>Dltzk's debut record, "Frailty," released with <a href="https://twitter.com/deadAirrecords/status/1458847694336765960">deadAir</a>, is full of ultra-detailed and texturally cluttered electronic music that draws on hyperpop and other genres like indie rock. The songs are emo symphonies, putting listeners on a roller coaster of gentle guitars, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b46OnodEaOI">hazy distortion</a>, wistful vocals, and poignant synths.While many hyperpop musicians make one- to three-minute tracks, Zeke expands that hyperactive energy over four, five, or six minutes. Songs like "movies for guys," "eyes off the wheel," and "kodak moment," packed with beat switches and ambient interludes, burn with the intensity of dance-floor bangers before chilling into lullabies at the end.<div type="image" title="deadAir" height="631" width="842" msid="87892672" hostid="261"></div>Across the album, Zeke sings about the slipperiness of time and personal anxieties. Many of the songs address an unidentified "you," which Zeke told Insider was "current and past" versions of themselves as well as other unnamed people.A crucial inspiration for the record's dreamlike tone is video-game music, particularly the bucolic soundtracks from "<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHPHqgweZ34">Pokémon Diamond and Pearl</a>" and "<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbOaIrU-LWw">Pokémon Black and White</a>," which Zeke said reminded them "of being younger and having no responsibilities, of not even really having a conscience."Much of "Frailty" sounds pixelated or noisy like an old Nintendo DS game soundtrack, which Zeke said they accomplished with a <a href="https://soundbridge.io/bitcrusher/">bitcrusher</a>, an effect that lowers the audio resolution to become charmingly fuzzy.The video-game influence is especially apparent on tracks like "kodak moment." The outro's yearning piano notes and breezy electronic ambiance evoke the bittersweetness of the "<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVeq5Vw0jc8">Emotion</a>" theme from "Black and White.""Emotion" was "one of the first songs I taught myself on the piano," Zeke said. "I remember when I was really little and I first heard that song I think I cried."The sentiment at the core of the album, Zeke said, is realizing that despite the pressure to become an adult when you turn 18, you still have so much time left — and you can still do the things you used to do, like play video games."If someone were to take something from 'Frailty,' I think it would be to appreciate the moment," Zeke said. "Adulthood is scary and inevitable, but it isn't something that I should be worrying about right now."<h2>Zeke is credited with starting a music microgenre</h2>Zeke has also gained traction with their wackier alias, leroy, under which they produce dariacore, weaving pop hits and meme sounds into a whirlwind of breakbeats, <a href="https://www.finals.blog/posts/Greetings-from-Planet-Newark:-An-Extensive-Look-at-the-New-Generation-of-Jersey-Club">Jersey club rhythms</a>, and <a href="https://monstercat.fandom.com/wiki/Dubstep">dubstep-like</a> noise explosions.<a href="https://soundcloud.com/c0ncernn/s3-e2">Hit play on a dariacore track</a>, and within two minutes <a href="https://soundcloud.com/c0ncernn/pizza-song">you might hear PinkPantheress</a>; a squeaky-bed sound effect; <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwLBF2Tj8O0">the YouTuber Fred Figglehorn</a> hollering, "Hey, it's Fred!"; a dolphin squealing; Vanessa Carlton making her way downtown; police sirens; and Yeat rapping, "She eat me up like it's Benibachi." The basic template is a <a href="https://soundcloud.com/c0ncernn/snare-of-a-lifetime">breathless mishmash</a> of recognizable songs pitch-shifted and layered over each other.Dariacore is "electronic music that's been filtered through over a decade of the internet's love-hate relationship with big-stage EDM and dubstep," Jesse Taconelli, the founder of deadAir, told Insider. Taconelli said that Zeke had pioneered a subgenre that samples older genres and rewires them into something beyond "people's current understanding of them."While Zeke is credited with naming the subgenre "dariacore," the only aspect related to "Daria," the late-'90s animated TV show about an affectless teenage girl, is that every song's thumbnail is a screenshot from the cartoon. Zeke referred to the subgenre's name as "a joke that's been going on for too long."<div type="image" title="dariacore Bandcamp." height="720" width="960" msid="87892675" hostid="261"></div>Zeke said dariacore was musically inspired by the electronic artist Vektroid's song-production livestreams and her mega-glitchy track <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KI67zJJpN-U">"Sick &amp; Panic,"</a> and <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/53aeb8/here-are-9-of-the-best-and-most-upsetting-soundclowns-we-could-find">SoundClown music</a>, an <a href="https://soundcloud.com/xarlable/final-soundclown-destination">internet remix fad</a> in the mid-2010s that featured artists combining disparate pop, rap, and video-game songs.The subgenre has spread across SoundCloud, with Zeke's leroy account — the only place they post dariacore tracks — amassing 800,000 plays.There's <a href="https://soundcloud.com/saoirsedream/pizza">already a crop</a> of <a href="https://soundcloud.com/saycarbine/good-time">new artists</a> making <a href="https://soundcloud.com/d1tto/d1tto-is-back-and-is-mean">diverse variations</a> of <a href="https://soundcloud.com/elxnce/whats-gen-z-doing-nowadays">the dariacore style</a> of spliced sounds and berserk beats; many stylize their cover art after a different children's cartoon ("The Amazing World of Gumball," "<a href="https://soundcloud.com/kosutwo/dariacore-is-cool">Rolie Polie Olie</a>") and tag it on SoundCloud as dariacore.Despite the scene's growing popularity, Zeke said they didn't feel any pressure to be its most visible or popular figure."The whole concept of leroy is doing whatever I want," they said. "If that means dismantling the dariacore agenda, so be it."

An 18-year-old invented a new genre of meme-heavy music called 'dariacore' that's like 'pop music on steroids'

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image">PlayStationThe latest update to the PS4 makes the Music app so much better.</div></div></div>Imagine you're several minutes into an "Overwatch" match - absolutely killin' it with Zenyatta, throwing Orbs of Discord all over the place - when suddenly, you hear it: The gentle, tinkling piano intro to "A Thousand Miles" by Vanessa Carlton.No offense, Vanessa, but now is just not the right time.The PS4 has had a Spotify app for awhile that's been able to run in the background, playing music over whatever game you're playing, but until now, it's had a crippling weakness: There was no way to skip a song without suspending your current game.If you're in a multiplayer game like "Overwatch," switching apps will immediately boot you from your current match, meaning that you just had to hope your current playlist was chock-full of tonally appropriate music.Thankfully, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ps4-system-software-400-update-features-2016-9">the PS4 just got a major update on Tuesday</a> that has all sorts of features, but the one I'm most excited for is pretty simple: You can now skip tracks without leaving your current game! All you have to do is hold down the controller's home button, and a new overlay will partially cover the screen, allowing you to swap tracks without messing everything up.Also included in the update is the ability to organize your library into folders, HDR functionality for those who own HDR-compatible TVs, and a whole bunch of other <a href="http://blog.us.playstation.com/2016/09/12/ps4-system-software-update-4-00-out-tomorrow/">small but welcome updates</a>. <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-iphone-design-details-2016-9">7 incredibly tiny iPhone details only superfans know about</a></h3> <div> <div> <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="N4bmM3MzE6Hibcy_uubKaUG4zlRMWXbY" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div> </div> </div> </div>

Spotify's music app on the PlayStation 4 just got so much better

This past summer, <a href="http://www.techinsider.io/vine-star-logan-paul-profile-2015-7">I profiled a Vine star named Logan Paul</a> - a good-looking 20-year-old who wants to blow past his internet fame and become a mainstream celebrity.<div><a href="http://giphy.com/gifs/logan-paul-3oEdv70kbX4Ar3JZDO">via GIPHY</a></div>Logan started out making 6-second videos on Vine, but now reaches his millions and millions (and millions) of fans across all social platforms, like Snapchat, Instagram, and Twitter.<div></div>... and YouTube, where just today&#xa0;Logan dropped a new video called "Music Changes You," where he and 2 buddies perform 17 throwback songs in his mom's car. Favorite tunes include Vanessa Carlton's "A Thousand Miles" (see the gif above) and Coolio's "Gangsta's Paradise."Logan emailed me about it at 5a.m. - 2a.m. in LA, where he lives. Here's the video in full.<div></div>"I literally threw this up 5 minutes ago," he&#xa0;said.This doesn't surprise me. If there's one thing I learned Logan and his Vine-famous crew, it's that they work around the clock making sure they're producing high-quality content."Music Changes You" is a take on another popular YouTube trio's trope. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVx6cXf5Liw">Check out SketchShe's stuff here.</a>Here are our favorite moments from Logan's new video:<div><a href="http://giphy.com/gifs/logan-paul-3oEduJe1BB7CH9W7qU">via GIPHY</a></div><div><a href="http://giphy.com/gifs/logan-paul-3oEduWUfQrLbnVacKc">via GIPHY</a></div>And this shot of the group dancing to Justin Timberlake's "Dead and Gone."<div><a href="http://giphy.com/gifs/logan-paul-l41lXChs1mVenzeF2">via GIPHY</a></div>&#xa0;And of course, everyone's favorite ASPCA commercial. Grab the tissues.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div> <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/clear-iphone-space-storage-2015-11">The best way to clear out a ton of space on your iPhone superfast</a></h3> <div> <div> <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="5qcmxndToofREk2JFghn1wjMFTZOXP_E" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div> </div> </div> </div>

Notorious Vine star Logan Paul performs 17 throwback songs from his mom's car

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div>If you're looking to hire a coding superstar, you may have to call their agent.
10x, a big name talent agency that has represented artists like John Mayer and Vanessa Carlton, is now representing computer programmers aka "digital rock stars," <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/11/24/programmers-price">Lizzie Widdicombe at The New Yorker reports</a>.
The agency was founded by two veteran music and entertainment managers, Michael Solomon and Rishon Blumberg, and for nearly 19 years they represented musicians and recording artists. 
But with the decline of the music industry and the dearth of tech talent, they have refocused their business on managing elite programmers.
Solomon and Blumberg realized the similarities between talented musicians and talented programmers - they were both extremely skilled and talented people, but with zero business knowledge. "We were, like, 'This is a musician! This is what we're used to!' That was the light-bulb moment," Solomon told the <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/11/24/programmers-price">New Yorker.</a>
As the tech industry continues to grow, CEOs and hiring managers are desperate for talent.
Most recruiters working in the tech industry have little to no experience working technical jobs themselves, and can relentlessly spam top digital talent.
"Our companies are dying for talent. They're like lying on the beach gasping because they can't get enough talented people in for these jobs," venture capitalist Marc Andreessen told <a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/10/marc-andreessen-in-conversation.html">New York</a> last month.
The programmers pay a 15% agency fee, and 10x negotiates their deals.
10x programmer salaries depend on the developer, but can reach hundreds of dollars an hour, and the agency currently has almost eighty clients. Most are based in North America, however a few work in Israel, one works in India and one works from a beach in Thailand.
"In their minds, you're not just paying them to do their job," a tech executive told the New Yorker. "You're paying them for the opportunity cost of not becoming Mark Zuckerberg."
10x co-founder and agent Altay Guvench, refers to himself as a "nerd whisperer." He is a former engineer himself, and has signed several high profile clients since joining the agency, including one who who co-created the famed programming language Django. Instagram was written in Django.
Guvench explains that, of course his clients don't need help finding work, but they do need help understanding their options and dealing with the nitty gritty details.
"Tom Cruise doesn't need help finding work, but he has an agent," he says. 
Go <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/11/24/programmers-price">read the whole story at the New Yorker, it's a fascinating look at a new industry &gt;&gt;</a>

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