It can seem so casual, so matter-of-fact, so harmless. And that's exactly what makes it harmful. An article about "The Rise of SARAH SHOOK AND THE DISARMERS," a great young country-rock band, starts out by informing us it's "tough being a woman" in the country biz, which, yes it is. And then, before we've had a chance to absorb that fact, the article tells us that "to understand the rise of Sarah Shook, you first have to"—know the stories of the women who struggled before her? Know something about the difficulties facing any traditional country-rock band in Nashville in 2018? Nope and nope. To understand the rise of Sarah Shook, we first, apparently, have to know the story of her ex-boyfriend. Really know it. There will be five paragraphs about a singer, songwriter and drummer named JOHN HOWIE JR. before Sarah Shook's name comes up again. Later, there will be a couple paragraphs about Howie's new album, a note about how his breakup with Shook gifted her with some great breakup songs and then, and I am not making this up, an admonishment that "the story of Sarah Shook shouldn’t just be framed through the lens of Howie Jr.’s aid." On that point, at least, Sarah Shook would agree. Meanwhile on the indie-rock circuit, CHERRY GLAZERR singer-guitarist CLEMENTINE CREEVY says her band has become accustomed to walking into clubs and being ignored or laughed at by the staffs of the venues that booked them. Because, guess why. Hint: Their touring sound engineer tends to be called "Miss, Missy, 'The Lady,' sweetie." Stage managers ask the band what they're doing here. Perhaps there's some hip-hop being played in the background at these clubs, and perhaps there's someone rapping about gold diggers or "down chicks." Please click on both of those links, by REFINERY29's SESALI BOWEN and THE OUTLINE's MELINDA FAKUADE, which explore ideas about women that are casually, matter-of-factly baked into so much pop music, and which may be harmless in any given song but start becoming harmful when they repeat in song after song after song. This is not new, obviously. I offer the entire output of the ROLLING STONES as a thing you first have to know in order to understand what exactly rappers like G-EAZY and DRAKE are getting at at least some of the time. I like a hell of a lot of Rolling Stone songs. I like plenty of Drake songs. This isn't about them and it isn't about him and it certainly isn't about Sarah Shook's ex-boyfriend. It's about ideas that are pervasive in all of these cultures, ideas that seep out a verse here, a chorus there, through the speaker of a car radio or a laptop or a high-end stereo system, and into the ears of fans stuck in traffic on the 405 and executives idling in corner offices of record companies to the east and to the west... WorkingMusicianREDEF: How the Nashville number system works, minor keys be damned. How to arrange your guitar pedals, according to STEVE VAI. Where you can go to school to major in electronic digital instruments. How to build an app that classifies your drum samples. How to budget your tour. How to manage your finances in general. Is your music too damn loud? Seriously, is it too damn loud?... JENNIFER LOPEZ is this year's winner of MTV's VIDEO VANGUARD AWARD... RIP LEEKELEEK and RAY COOPER.