Mike Nichols didn’t write “Mrs. Robinson,” “The Blower’s Daughter” or “It’s the Hard Knock Life.” And he didn’t perform them (at least not to any great public renown).

But there’s little doubt that the celebrated film and stage director, who died Wednesday at the age of 83, helped embed these songs in popular culture. A master storyteller with a keen musical sense, he was doing the work of a so-called curator long before that job title became fashionable.

Nichols is probably best remembered among musicians for his prominent use of Simon & Garfunkel’s songs in his 1967 movie “The Graduate,” a then-maverick move that elevated the standing of that duo and led to Hollywood’s increased reliance on pop tunes in film soundtracks.

Thanks in part to its association with Anne Bancroft's indelible character, “Mrs. Robinson” -- Simon & Garfunkel’s second No. 1 hit after “The Sound of Silence,” also featured in “The Graduate” -- even went on to become a kind of modern standard, with covers by acts...

After taking this year off, YouTube announced it will bring back its music awards next year. But things will be different.

YouTube has teamed up with Kia Motors and executive producer Vice Media for the awards, which will have a different format from its inaugural bash in 2013.

The YouTube Music Awards, which will take place in March, will integrate fans in creating video collaborations between artists and directors. YouTube has already launched a new channel that will feature new videos from both established and emerging acts.

Last year’s ceremony, held in November, was live-streamed from New York’s Pier 36.

Aside from honoring stars of viral videos, the show staged eight "live music videos" from Eminem, Arcade Fire, Lady Gaga, Tyler the Creator & Earl Sweatshirt and others. 

Creative director Spike Jonze steered the unscripted ceremony, which was heavy on bizarre and spontaneous moments.

The entire show was a glorious trainwreck – Gaga literally wept through one performance, co-hosts...

After she'd worked her microphone for the duration of an assured, memorable set at the Echo in Echo Park, the artist known as Cold Specks ditched the amplifier altogether for the final stanza of her encore. 

In a rendition of a traditional ballad called "Old Stepstone," the singer, who goes by the name Al Spx, opened by harnessing the power of the P.A. Wearing a rhinestone-collared black dress, Spx sang of "strange faces we see every day" like she was the lone face amid a crowd of blurry heads, with pitch-perfect drama and a purity of expression. 

Spx had ample time to season that throat Wednesday night. Highlighting songs from her new album, "Neuroplasticity," the followup to her 2012 debut, "I Predict a Graceful Expulsion," the artist and her four-piece band had already presented a dozen songs that merged Southern field hollers with cavernous rock-based arrangements and a dollop of timeless blues. 

The artist is best known to mainstream America for her work with producer-musician...

What’s being described as the most significant change in more than two decades to the way Billboard magazine calculates its album chart positions is set to kick in next week: For the first time, digital streams are to be factored in with the retail sales on which the chart has always been based.

As consumers move in greater numbers to streaming music rather than buying it, Billboard and the Nielsen SoundScan sales monitoring service that gathers the data on which the charts are based are to recognize that shift in determining chart positions. Under the new plan, 1,500 streams of any song will be treated as the equivalent of one album sold, and counted toward that album’s position on the weekly Billboard 200 album ranking.

The new policy is to be implemented for the sales week starting Monday and running through Nov. 30, and will appear in charts to be published Dec. 4 online and contained in Billboard’s Dec. 13 print issue.

“Adding streaming information makes the chart a better...

Either imitation really isn’t the sincerest form of flattery, or flattery simply isn’t all it's cracked up to be. Either way, the new two-CD tribute to the music of Paul McCartney, “The Art of McCartney,” is a glaring example of a blown opportunity.

It must have looked great on paper. Producer Ralph Sall, a longtime fan of the ex-Beatle as well as a big admirer of the long-running touring band that backs McCartney on his concert tours, started with a great idea and then scored the participation of a wealth of rock and pop stars, each offering his or her take on a song from McCartney’s estimable songbook.

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FOR THE RECORD

An earlier version of this post misidentified Paul McCartney touring band member Rusty Anderson as Rusty Young.

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That talent list is impressive: Bob Dylan, Brian Wilson, Willie Nelson, Allen Toussaint, Dr. John and, in a nod to musicians who got their start after 1970, the Airborne Toxic Event, Owl City and Perry Farrell, to name a smattering of...

Wu-Tang Clan’s long-awaited comeback album, “A Better Tomorrow,” isn’t due until December, but a few thousand fans already have most of the record.

Fans didn’t get the album, the Staten Island collective’s first effort since 2007's “8 Diagrams,” from an unauthorized leak or a preview stream meant to drum up pre-release hype. Their first listen came from a speaker. 

Wu-Tang’s de facto leader RZA teamed with speaker maker Boombotix to created a limited-edition device. Dubbed the Boombot Rex 20th Anniversary Wu-Tang Edition (the album's release marks the milestone), it contains eight tracks — the bulk of which will be included on the album. 

“We wanted to find a way to get the music out to fans in a new way and to bring back tangibility to buying music,” said RZA in a recent phone conversation. “I’ve seen it go from vinyl to cassettes to CDs to downloads. Being a music lover, I'm excited to get music any way I can get it, but what’s missing to me is something I can hold in my hand.” ...