We’re definitely out of practice... It’s just as painful as it was to do all the artwork, and we check our own typesetting and we do all of that and it’s a little bit nerve wracking. | | | | Ain't that ashamed: The Dixie Chicks at Shepherds Bush Empire, London, March 10, 2003, the night their lives changed.
(Brian Rasic/Getty Images) | | | | | |  | “We’re definitely out of practice... It’s just as painful as it was to do all the artwork, and we check our own typesetting and we do all of that and it’s a little bit nerve wracking.”
| | | | | | rantnrave:// The first major performers to be canceled in the 21st century, long before the words cancel and culture were officially wed, were the DIXIE CHICKS, who offended a certain segment of the American population with 15 words that singer NATALIE MAINES blurted out about a certain president, not the current one, between songs at a show in London in 2003. Their lives were threatened, their music all but banned from country radio and their career derailed—for 15 words that, if uttered today, would get a few retweets and be forgotten next week. "I said way worse things every night onstage," Maines recently remembered. But the words were quoted in a review in the GUARDIAN that went viral, and a country on war footing decided, for a time, to train its guns on a country band that had dared to dissent. And it was a reasonably effective cancellation until the women, with a healthy dose of righteous anger and the support of a different, larger segment of the American population, decided to uncancel themselves. They persisted, as it were. This middle finger of a single. This film. These GRAMMY AWARDS. And then they went silent again, this time on their own terms, taking the better part of a decade off (there were occasional tours but no recording) while their reputation as an influence and inspiration for a new guard of country and pop stars steadily grew. There are still raw feelings about the Dixie Chicks at radio and, as Chicks fan TAYLOR SWIFT reminds us in her documentary MISS AMERICANA, young country musicians are still taught to not be like them. But as Swift also reminded us, at least some musicians are awakening to the possibility that the smarter and truer path may be to follow their example anyway. And now the first Dixie Chicks single in 13 years has arrived and it's called "GASLIGHTER" and it's bold, upbeat, defiant, angry and not at all about who or what you'd think a song called "Gaslighter" in 2020 would be about. It's a breakup song. Which is kind of perfect. The Dixie Chicks aren't here to shut up and sing what you want or expect them to sing. They're here, as always, to sing their own truths. And if you want to infer 15 or so additional words as unspoken context, you're free to do that on your own... The second performer to be canceled in the 21st century, if you're keeping score, was JANET JACKSON. The idea of canceling men came much, much later, and the punishment was rarely as severe. R&B and pop radio treated R. KELLY way better than country radio treated the Dixie Chicks... Coronavirus fears have taken out a major festival, Miami's ULTRA MUSIC, while more companies, some rather big, continue to pull themselves out of SXSW. There's a "general fear" throughout the live music industry. The merch industry says it's doing OK, at least for now... A coronavirus anthem, ahead of its time... Through its Gibson Gives program, GIBSON is offering replacement guitars to musicians who lost theirs in the Nashville tornado... RIP NICK APOLLO FORTE. | | | - Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator | | | |  | Los Angeles Times | | While thus far coronavirus has mostly forced concert cancellations overseas, concern grows that U.S. music festivals and large-scale gatherings may be susceptible. | | | |  | Billboard | | Q Prime, Collective Artist Management, Dualtone Records and others are beginning to rebuild from Tuesday's devastation. | | | |  | GQ | | With the release of his enormous breakout album, "African Giant," Nigerian-bred Burna Boy is staking a claim as one of the biggest stars on the global music scene—a crossover sensation who refuses to compromise. Instead he's letting the world cross over to him. | | | |  | Vulture | | An excerpt from "Legendary Children: The First Decade of RuPaul’s Drag Race and the Last Century of Queer Life." | | | |  | Bloomberg | | Acts are weighing everything from straw bans to train travel to cater to environmentally conscious fans. | | | | | Vulture | | "YHLQMDLG" is an expression of Bad Bunny’s freedom both in the title and the music. | | | |  | The New York Times | | Learning to perform without live audiences, or sometimes even theaters, as artists adapt to trying circumstances. | | | |  | Pollstar | | Fifty years ago, on Valentine’s Day 1970, a New York hippie of sorts and hi-fi aficionado named David Mancuso threw a party for some friends. “Love Saves the Day,” went the invitations – a winking reference to the LSD that spiked the punchbowl, but also a genuine mission statement. | | | |  | Variety | | Among the documentaries premiering at this year's TriBeCa Film Festival is Stacey Lee's debut feature-length project, "Underplayed," about the gender inequality in electronic music. No stranger to the festival, Lee's documentary short, "Live Fast, Draw Yung," about a seven-year-old rap portrait artist and his relationship with his father, premiered at TriBeCa in 2015. | | | | | Los Angeles Times | | Record executive Joe Smith, who died in December at 91, was memorialized Tuesday by such entertainment luminaries as Don Henley, Clive Davis and Mel Brooks. | | | | | Billboard | | At 12 years old, and 23 months after going public, Spotify is still acting more like a venture capital-funded startup than a company traded on the New York Stock Exchange. | | | |  | Penny Fractions | | Is there any there, there? | | | |  | Indy Week | | In "Cellular Songs," the iconic vocalist, composer, dancer, and performance artist dreams a new society into being through music and movement. | | | |  | The Trichordist | | There is an unsurprising discussion going on about song titles in the metadata deliberations regarding the regulations mandating the conduct of the Mechanical Licensing Collective quango. The least surprising part of the discussion is that the services change song titles as it suits them. | | | | | GQ | | Louis Bell is in the midst of a historic run of pop dominance. Here's how. | | | |  | Highsnobiety | | Pop Smoke was slated to headline this week’s FRONTPAGE cover story, but on the morning of our photoshoot, the Brooklyn rap phenom was shot and killed at the house he was renting in LA. In the wake of this tragedy, we wanted to honor our commitment to celebrating his life and the legacy he leaves behind. | | | |  | Rolling Stone | | Jadu is making interactive digital video with artists to promote songs, in the music industry’s latest hologram play. | | | |  | Music Business Worldwide | | It’s the Spotify rival that impressed ex-Spotify CFO Barry McCarthy so much, he admitted it was packed with “really clever social features”. Resso, the music streaming app owned by TikTok parent Bytedance, has today (March 4) publicly launched in India, taking on the likes of SPOT, plus Gaana, JioSaavn and Apple Music in the market. | | | |  | Twenty Thousand Hertz | | From the sixties to the nineties parents worried messages hidden in rock albums would make their children do drugs and worship the devil. The truth could only be revealed if these records were played backwards. Bryan Gardiner unveils the history behind the backmasking panic and Curiosity Daily’s Ashley Hamer explains why our brains hear hidden messages... even when they’re not there! | | | |  | Longreads | | Jessica Lynne remembers a long distance love affair that began in Miami and the Billie Holiday song that kept her company through the relationship’s transitions. | | | | |  | | YouTube | | | | | | | | | | | "You're sorry, but where's my apology?" | | | | | | | | © Copyright 2020, The REDEF Group | | |
