If Bandleaders Are Bosses, What Management Style Makes the Best Music?
How bandleaders have managed music making, from Duke Ellington to Lauryn Hill.
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Kent Diimmell of In This Moment in Valley Center, Calif., Aug. 24, 2018.
(Daniel Knighton/Getty Images)
(Daniel Knighton/Getty Images)
Kent Diimmell of In This Moment in Valley Center, Calif., Aug. 24, 2018.
(Daniel Knighton/Getty Images)
(Daniel Knighton/Getty Images)
MUSICREDEF PICKS
Lip-Sync Justice, Bandleaders as Bosses, Tyranny of Metrics, Danny Brown, Gram Parsons...
quote of the day
I like to interview people very early in their careers or very late in their careers. I think vulnerability and willingness to be vulnerable is at a peak in those two parts. Young enough not to know better, old enough not to give a damn... But in the middle when your primary obsession is how do I protect my role? How do I keep my spot? How do I keep the throne? I'm not as interested in that.
Jon Caramanica,
New York Times pop critic
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A few random artists who have admitted to lip-syncing in the past decade: BEYONCÉ, MARIAH CAREY, GARTH BROOKS. Great singers all. Performing on live TV all. An oft-unforgiving platform, especially when you're outdoors and you can't do a proper soundcheck (Beyoncé), or you're outdoors and it's going to be a thousand degrees below zero (Mariah), or you're indoors and you're sick (Garth). Two of them got a little grief for their transgressions, one got a lot of grief, all carried on with their lives and their careers and none need be haunted by the moment ever again. This is in contrast to someone like ASHLEE SIMPSON-ROSS, a once-major pop talent who hasn't released an album in 10 years and is recognized these days as an actor and TV personality, maybe more than she's recognized as a musician. "It's something that happened to me and things in life happen to you and they make you stronger and they make you a better performer, a better person," Simpson-Ross said this week as she promoted an upcoming reality series on E! in which she and her husband will release a new duet each episode. That something was her appearance on SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE in 2004, during which the backing track from her single "PIECES OF ME" started playing while she was supposed to be singing "AUTOBIOGRAPHY," making her pop's most infamous lip-syncer since MILLI VANILLI. Musicians of nearly every stripe have been lip-syncing, or singing along with canned backing tracks, since long before Ashlee Simpson was born, including both skilled and mediocre singers, but only some get called out for it and fewer still have their lives ruined by it. Though her music career has never been the same, Simpson was one of the lucky ones. She confronted the controversy directly, elicited some sympathy and, at least, has been able to remain in the spotlight. Others, who lip-synced like so many before them because they wanted to put on a perfect show for audiences who wanted to hear that perfect show—why exactly is that a crime?—haven/t been so lucky. MusicSET: "Sync for the Laughter, Sync for the Tear"... JANET re-creates MICHAEL... Michael's estate reworking Michael... Garage-rockers the ORWELLS announce they're breaking up, less than a week after three bandmembers were accused in online posts of sexual assault and misconduct. The band said the sexual assault allegations are "completely unfounded" but said "callow altercations and vulgar language we’ve used in the past must be recognized and owned up to"... RIP RONNIE SAMOSET.
Culture, disruption, Spotify - and the tyranny of metrics
Recommendation engines tend to be opaque for commercial reasons, which means that even though we know the result, we can’t discover what drives the choices. (Excerpted from "What Matters? Taking Value in Australian Culture.")
The Future of Music Festivals Is … the Internet?
After the triumph of Beychella, it seemed as though the mega-music fest was stronger than ever. But the cancellation of several high-profile events and a serious market correction has the industry reconsidering its future. And one long-running festival thinks it has the answer: make festivals into content.
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Mourning From The Ground Up: Aretha's Funeral Is Part Of A Joyful American Tradition
While it's not wrong to observe decorum and sombre reflection in the wake of such a loss, there's no reason that honoring a life as monumental as Aretha's can't be joyful -- and yes, entertaining.
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MUSICSET
Sync for the Laughter, Sync for the Tear
Some of the world's best singers do it, at least sometimes. Some of the world's worst do it, too. Lip-syncing may be pop music's most unfair genre of scandal. Why does it tar some careers while barely feathering others?
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Is Danny Brown's Twitch Stream The Future Of Mixtapes?
Danny Brown just dropped "the first-ever Twitch album," but it won't be the last.
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Bland on Blonde: why the old rock music canon is finished
The 1970s brought about the idea that rock was important - and needed a canon of greatest albums to match. But in a digital age, is definitive musical excellence a ridiculous notion?
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Lauryn Hill Shouldn't Still Have To Correct You
Twenty years ago, Lauryn Hill outlined a solo album that dismantled the restrictions society projected on her and two decades later, she’s still fighting to define herself.
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Michael Jackson's brand is stronger than ever -- but what about his image?
Nearly 10 years after his death, the Michael Jackson brand is stronger than ever with an acclaimed exhibit in London, a hit song with Drake and an upcoming Broadway musical. But rehabbing his image hasn't been the easiest.
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music
Can Critics Learn to Love the Jukebox Musical?
They are often Broadway sensations, but jukebox musicals rarely get good reviews. We invited our critics to stop snarking and tell us what they want.
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History of American Protest Music: Which Side Are You On?
Just as we were in the 1930s and ’60s, America is suffering a moral crisis. We have to decide which side we are on: hate and exclusion, or justice, inclusion, and democracy?
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Gram Parsons' Cosmic American Trip
Fifty years after Parsons helped define country rock with the Byrds, we trace his steps there and beyond in bootlegs and demos.
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Spin Cycle
Prof. Larry Miller from the NYU Music Business Program explores the evolution and licensing issues of background and foreground music used in businesses, from the birth of Muzak in the wartime factory -- and then we shift into overdrive with Soul Cycle’s rawk gawd Sean Linehan on how he sculpts the playlists for each of his sold out spin classes.
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sports
Odesza -- Making of Coachella
A behind the scenes look from our 2018 performance at Coachella. We created this show alongside Foreign Family Creative collaborators Luke Tanaka & Sean Kusanagi and couldn't have been more proud of the result.
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Dr. Luke’s Queasy Two-Front Comeback Effort
As the once-ubiquitous pop producer accused of abuse by Kesha continues his court battle against her, the appealing new voice of Kim Petras sells his songs.
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Looking Back at 'Josie and the Pussycats': A Perfect Picture of 2000's Music Revolution
Directors Harry Elfont and Deborah Kaplan discuss how their sneakily subversive movie, 2001’s ‘Josie and Pussycats,’ was misunderstood.
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Joni Mitchell at the Isle of Wight Festival 1970
Murray Lerner's documentary of this historic event shows Joni Mitchell braving a restless and angry audience at Britain's answer to Woodstock.
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Google Trends and Genius Lyrics: The Bright Side of Dark Places
With a steadily growing following, brash yet introspective “emo rap” artists such as Juice WRLD or Lil Uzi Vert could be seen as one of music’s newer trends. But the youthful malaise and diversion from the mainstream is timeless: they echo the spirit of Sid Vicious and Kurt Cobain more than they do today’s Jay-Z or Cardi B.
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Mason Ramsey: Inside the Curious Fame of 'Lil Hank Williams'
The 11-year-old yodeled his way to the Opry, Coachella and the charts, but is Ramsey going to be a “country Bieber” or just a passing meme?
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Detroit’s ritual for Aretha Franklin becomes a family reunion
They called her ReRe and auntie and sister. They stood in line under the baking August sky for the world’s Queen of Soul, yes, but citizens who paid respect Tuesday to Aretha Franklin were really saying good-bye to a cherished member of the family that is Detroit.
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