Music week in brief – November 21

New releases

The soundtrack album Wicked: For Good has arrived. Cynthia Erivo appears on seven of the eleven tracks, while Ariana Grande features on six.

Tate McRae drops a deluxe edition of So Close To What, expanding the album with additional material.

YUNGBLUD and Aerosmith join forces on the new EP One More Time.

Charli XCX releases the music video for Chains of Love, one of the tracks from her upcoming album Wuthering Heights, created for Emerald Fennell’s adaptation of Wuthering Heights.

Kesha celebrates fifteen years of her breakthrough era with a special anniversary edition of Animal + Cannibal, which now includes previously unreleased tracks.

Skrillex unveils hit me where it hurts x, a five-song project made with Caroline Polachek, Nakeesha, Varg2™ and others.

Music news

Billboard publishes its staff list of The 100 Most Iconic Pop Star Memes of All Time, featuring moments from Kendrick Lamar’s “Say Drake!” to Poot Lovato.

A new teaser trailer is out for The Moment, the upcoming film starring Charli XCX as a fictional version of herself navigating the pressures of preparing for a major tour. The film premieres on January 30, 2026.

Tyler, The Creator has been named Apple Music’s Artist of the Year 2025.

The Weeknd sets a new record as his After Hours Til Dawn tour surpasses one billion dollars in revenue, becoming the highest earning tour ever by a male solo artist.

Spotify introduces an expanded version of Song Credits that highlights all contributors behind each track, including engineers and producers. The rollout begins on mobile before moving to desktop. The platform is also preparing to launch SongDNA, an interactive view that maps connections between songs through collaborators, samples, and covers, powered by WhoSampled. In addition, Spotify will soon debut About the Song, a feature with swipeable cards that share creative context, inspirations, and behind the scenes details for Premium users.

You can read last week’s music in brief here.