newsmakers

newsmakers

Taylor Swift to release new album Oct. 27

NEW YORK

Taylor Swift is saying goodbye to country music, for now: The singer says she’s releasing her first full-length pop album Oct. 27.

The 24-year-old revealed in a livestream 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 livestream and was released Monday. She danced happily in a cropped white top and skirt with the audience as the song played.

Swift called her upcoming 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 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 told the audience.

The singer also premiered the music video for “Shake It Off” during the livestream. 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.”

Tidbit from Rowling: bio on Potter character

LONDON

J.K. Rowling has posted new details about a minor character from her Harry Potter books on the fan website Pottermore.com.

The author has written a short biography of Celestina Warbeck, a glamorous singing sorceress resembling Shirley Bassey and a favorite of Mrs. Weasley’s.

The new backstory for the character, who was mentioned only briefly in the series about a boy wizard, was posted online Monday along with one of her songs, recorded by a singer at the Harry Potter theme park at Universal Orlando Resort in Florida.

Rowling calls her one of her favorite “offstage” characters in the series. She writes that Warbeck’s special abilities include tap-dancing and an extraordinary voice that can “drown out a chorus of banshees.”

Judge rejects rapper Meek Mill’s appeal

PHILADELPHIA

The 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.

She 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.

“I wanted him to be able to grow and get to the next level [of his career],” Common Pleas Judge Genese Brinkley said. “But I can’t do that with him thumbing his nose at me.”

Mill, 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. He since has emerged as a gifted rapper who has been tapped to perform with Jay-Z.

But his career has been interrupted the past two years by what he considers an increasingly fraught relationship with a new parole officer.

Associated Press