While you might know that actress Mandy Moore began her career as a teen singer, you might have forgotten her early stint as a Britney Spear-ish pop goddess. Moore was famously signed by Epic Records at age 13 when a Fed-Ex driver who had a friend at the label overheard her recording some demos at an Orlando recording studio. She quit high school during her freshman year and toured with NYSNC and Backstreet Boys while working on her debut album. "So Real" came out in 1999 when Moore was just 15 and it was filled with perky, slightly sexy tracks that fit into the same wheelhouse as Spears and Christina Aguilera. The album eventually made its way into the Top 30 on the album charts and eventually sold more than a million copies.

There were three singles released from the album and "Candy" was the first single, making it to #41 in the Top 100 singles chart. It wasn't Moore's most successful single, but it perfectly encapsulates her early singing career and that moment in music. It's worth noting that Moore apparently loathes the song & has mentioned in some interviews that she would just prefer if everyone forgot about it.

For my part, I think it's a cute and poppy single that deserves to be remembered. Even if it's just for today.

On Sunday, Ithaca Holdings LLC., a media holding company led by SB Projects founder Scooter Braun, announced that it has fully acquired Big Machine Label Group. 

BMLG is an independent record label founded by Scott Borchetta. In a joint announcement, the companies claimed that the buyout "creates one of the most powerful label, management, streaming, publishing and media companies by combining complimentary services, artists, executives and expertise".

The deal includes the entirety of Taylor Swift's master recording rights for records released on BMLG, including control of her six multi-platinum studio albums including "Taylor Swift," "Fearless," "Speak Now," "Red," "1989" and "Reputation."

This announcement did not please Taylor Swift, who lashed out at Borchetta and Braun in an extended statement on Tumblr.

Here is Swift's statement in full, which was posted Sunday on her Tumblr page.

For years I asked, pleaded for a chance to own my work. Instead I was given an opportunity to sign back up to Big Machine Records and ‘earn’ one album back at a time, one for every new one I turned in. I walked away because I knew once I signed that contract, Scott Borchetta would sell the label, thereby selling me and my future. I had to make the excruciating choice to leave behind my past. Music I wrote on my bedroom floor and videos I dreamed up and paid for from the money I earned playing in bars, then clubs, then arenas, then stadiums.

Some fun facts about today’s news: I learned about Scooter Braun’s purchase of my masters as it was announced to the world. All I could think about was the incessant, manipulative bullying I’ve received at his hands for years.

Like when Kim Kardashian orchestrated an illegally recorded snippet of a phone call to be leaked and then Scooter got his two clients together to bully me online about it. (See photo) Or when his client, Kanye West, organized a revenge porn music video which strips my body naked. Now Scooter has stripped me of my life’s work, that I wasn’t given an opportunity to buy. Essentially, my musical legacy is about to lie in the hands of someone who tried to dismantle it.

This is my worst case scenario. This is what happens when you sign a deal at fifteen to someone for whom the term ‘loyalty’ is clearly just a contractual concept. And when that man says ‘Music has value’, he means its value is beholden to men who had no part in creating it.

When I left my masters in Scott’s hands, I made peace with the fact that eventually he would sell them. Never in my worst nightmares did I imagine the buyer would be Scooter. Any time Scott Borchetta has heard the words ‘Scooter Braun’ escape my lips, it was when I was either crying or trying not to. He knew what he was doing; they both did. Controlling a woman who didn’t want to be associated with them. In perpetuity. That means forever.

Thankfully, I am now signed to a label that believes I should own anything I create. Thankfully, I left my past in Scott’s hands and not my future. And hopefully, young artists or kids with musical dreams will read this and learn about how to better protect themselves in a negotiation. You deserve to own the art you make.

I will always be proud of my past work. But for a healthier option, Lover will be out August 23.

Sad and grossed out,

Taylor

If you're a casual classic rock fan, you've probably heard the hit song "Free Ride" by The Edgar Winter Group. Since it was a #14 hot for the band in late 1972, it's been used in countless commercials and movies, thanks to a killer hook ("C'mon, take a free ride") and a guitar riff that's memorable ear candy.

Weirdly, that song wasn't the big hit off the band's album "They Only Come Out At Night." The biggest single of the band's career was "Frankenstein," an all-instrumental track that went to #1 on the Top 100 singles charts. At the time, the song was everywhere but over the years its been neglected in favor of the commercial-friendly "Free Ride."

So let's remember "Frankenstein" one more time, if for no reason because it contains a very 1970s drum solo. And be sure to check out Edgar Winter in this video, who had invented a strap that would allow him to rock out with the rest of the band while playing his keyboard. The downside is that by the 1980s, this setup had evolved into the cheesy keytar.