| God gave us 12 notes. It's the same 12 notes Duke Ellington had, Bach had. It's the same 12, Nina Simone, and all the nominees... I'm just thankful to God for those 12 notes, man, that's so dope. |
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H.E.R. performs her Oscar-winning "Fight for You," written with Dernst Emile II and Tiara Thomas, for the Oscars pre-show.
(Richard Harbaugh/Getty Images)
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“God gave us 12 notes. It's the same 12 notes Duke Ellington had, Bach had. It's the same 12, Nina Simone, and all the nominees... I'm just thankful to God for those 12 notes, man, that's so dope.”
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Seven Year Ache
Point/counterpoint: FAIR's fair, says singer/songwriter ALOE BLACC, speaking in favor of California's proposed Free Artists From Industry Restrictions Act, which would limit recording contracts in the state to seven years, regardless of how many albums an artist delivers in that time frame. FAIR could be ruinous to both labels and artists, says RIAA boss MITCH GLAZIER, speaking for the labels, who says the number of albums, not the length of time, is the key metric that makes recording contracts work. (Nice package, Billboard.) A hearing on state Assemblywoman LORENA GONZALEZ's bill has been pushed back to next January, which gives artists and labels the better part of a year to get together and come up with a compromise at a time of booming industry profits and increasing awareness of artists' rights, which is clearly the legislator's preferred path. Personal service contracts in all other California industries, most notably Hollywood, have a seven-year limit, but the music business has an effective exemption that says while it can't hold artists to longer contracts, it can sue them if they try to leave after seven years without delivering enough albums—you can check out any time you like, but you can never recoup. If I were an arbitrator, I might tell the two sides to look for a solution that works within that basic seven-year limit rather than trying to find a way to effectively work around it. Items for discussion: How many albums can realistically be released in seven years by a typical artist (and how does it differ from genre to genre)? Is there a legal/contractual difference (or any difference) between a mixtape and an album? How should contracts be different in an industry that's moved from physical distribution to streaming? Can artists, especially newer ones, live with smaller advances? Where else might artists have room for compromise? In a lot of ways they have the leverage, with a healthy business and an increasing number of ways to finance projects outside the major label system. But labels have the existing law on their side, and they're critical to the state's economy. These are "pretty complex issues," Gonzalez tells Billboard, adding, maybe as a message, "We don’t legislate obviously in the entertainment business that often."
Get On Up
I'm not telling you anything five thousand Sunday night tweets didn't already tell you but, yes, QUESTLOVE should DJ every OSCARS telecast for the rest of time, along with any other awards show telecast he'd like to play. No disrespect to the live orchestras who have played Oscars past, but the DJ makes more sense, especially if the Academy is interested in the under-65 demo... JON BATISTE, a co-winner with TRENT REZNOR and ATTICUS ROSS for their SOUL score, is only the second Black composer to win the scoring Oscar. The first got his statuette in 1987... The line that got ANDRA DAY censored during the "Questlove's Song Trivia" segment was her guess that PRINCE's "PURPLE RAIN" "probably wasn't even nominated and that's some bulls***." Her indignation was 100 percent correct; her facts were half right. Bizarrely, Prince's entire collection of songs for PURPLE RAIN won the 1985 Oscar for Best Original Song Score—a category that no longer exists—but neither the title song nor any other Prince song got a nod in the separate Best Original Song category, which STEVIE WONDER won with "I JUST CALLED TO SAY I LOVE YOU." Another music film was that year's big winner... GLENN CLOSE's scholarly breakdown of E.U.'s "DA BUTT" in the same segment was fully on target (and obviously scripted), as was her dancing... Heartened to see DMX honored in the In Memoriam segment. Saddened to not see ADAM SCHLESINGER's name.
Dot Dot Dot
Live venues can finally begin applying for federal relief today, when the delayed SHUTTERED VENUE OPERATOR GRANTS program opens at noon ET... Scene reports from DMX memorials on Saturday (featuring KANYE WEST's SUNDAY SERVICE CHOIR) and Sunday, both in Brooklyn... The science of lofi hip-hop (still waiting for an article on the spelling of lofi hip-hop, as in where do the hyphens go?)... MAC chimes of death.
Rest in Peace
Underground/freeform radio pioneer BOB FASS of New York's WBAI, who came from a time and a place where you could do this on the radio, or maybe only he could do that on the radio, even then... Italian pop singer MILVA... German mezzo-soprano CHRISTA LUDWIG... New Orleans trumpeter TERRY GIBSON JR. of SPORTY'S BRASS BAND... Singer/guitarist JERRY BURGAN of '60s folk-rock group WE FIVE... Bassist STEVE "STEVIE D" DAVIS of Phoenix punk-rockers GLASS HEROES.
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| Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator |
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Bloomberg |
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| How TikTok Chooses Which Songs Go Viral |
| by Shelly Banjo |
| The app’s hits seem to emerge organically, but the success of artists like Megan Thee Stallion reveals a highly managed curation process. |
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Music Business Worldwide |
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| Netflix is going ‘wobbly’ without fresh hits. The music industry is learning to live with the same thing |
| by Murray Stassen |
| Netflix is relying on classic movies, rather than new ones. Meanwhile, the music industry is saying: “Hasta la vista, ARPU.” |
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Billboard |
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| FAIR Play? Artists, Managers Reignite War on Record Deals |
| by Melinda Newman |
| Irving Azoff and a coalition of artist advocates are pushing a California law that would let acts get out of recording contracts after seven years without penalty. |
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BuzzFeed News |
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| There’s Room For Everyone In The Church Of Brandi Carlile |
| by Elamin Abdelmahmoud |
| Six albums into her career and with a new book out, Carlile knows exactly who she is and whom she writes for. |
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Pitchfork |
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| A Very Necessary Ranking of Every Guest Star on Young Thug’s 'Slime Language 2' Compilation |
| by Alphonse Pierre |
| Plus more highs and lows from the world of rap this week, including Lil Yachty’s latest regional obsession and an analysis of the Brooklyn Nets’ favorite rappers. |
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VICE |
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| Stop Calling Artists ‘Industry Plants' |
| by Josh Terry |
| The controversy around Tramp Stamps shows why the nebulous term ignores the industry’s faults and blames musicians. |
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The Guardian |
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| ‘Like losing a hand’: musicians on the crisis in hearing loss |
| by Hannah May Kilroy |
| "Sound of Metal" depicts a drummer battling hearing loss. As rock stars like Myles Kennedy explain, it’s a debilitating and worryingly widespread problem. |
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Variety |
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| ‘I’m Going to Break Your Heart’ Review: Music Duo Unfurl Their Musical Differences, and Marital Ones Too |
| by Chris Willman |
| Canadian stars Raine Maida and Chantal Kreviazuk have some issues, musically and maritally, in the rock doc "I'm Going to Break Your Heart." |
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The Washington Post |
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| Shock G of Digital Underground was a psychedelic rap pioneer who helped hip-hop crossover |
| by Jeff Weiss |
| He was one of the first — and best — at translating George Clinton’s P-Funk across genres and generations. He was a high concept ringleader of a canonical hip-hop band indelibly remembered for a song cycle about NASA-created "sex packets." He was an eccentric visionary who collaborated with Dr. Dre and Prince, and helped discover 2 Pac. |
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The New York Times |
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| Behind ‘Strange Fruit,’ Billie Holiday’s Anti-Lynching Anthem |
| by Bryan Pietsch |
| It helped make Holiday a star, but it was written by Abel Meeropol, a teacher in the Bronx. An Oscar nomination and a year of protests against racism have kept it in the conversation. |
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| when their pockets are full |
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Billboard |
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| Red Rocks Amphitheatre Resumes Concerts With High Hopes, Smaller Crowds |
| by Steve Knopper |
| Live concerts have been shut down since last March, but Denver's Red Rocks Amphitheatre reopened Thursday night (Apr. 22) and is moving ahead with shows at reduced capacity. |
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The Guardian |
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| Sisters With Transistors: inside the fascinating film about electronic music’s forgotten pioneers |
| by Jude Rogers |
| They turned drawings into symphonies and made black boxes sing. Why were they never given their due? The maker of a new film, full of revealing archive footage, aims to put this right. |
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Complex |
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| Funk Flex Has Stories to Tell |
| by Jessica McKinney |
| Funk Flex is brutally honest about everything he’s seen in rap. Inviting us into his home, he tells stories about Biggie, Jay-Z, radio payola, and more. |
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Synchblog |
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| World Mapped: The Future of Music Royalties on a Global Scale |
| by Eamonn Forde |
| As the music industry deals with royalties on an increasingly global scale, we examine the need for more multi-territory and global licensing. |
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Variety |
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| How The Weeknd and Juice WRLD’s Vibrant Videos Are Moving Anime Into the Mainstream |
| by Emma Kumer |
| The Weeknd's music video for "Save Your Tears," featuring Ariana Grande (and her seldom-heard lower register), begins with a dismembered head. It's a brightly-colored tour through an assembly line that translates the song's unmistakable '80s vibe into fuzzy, globoid visuals. |
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Pitchfork |
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| TT the Artist Wants Baltimore Club to Get Its Due |
| by Noah Yoo |
| The director talks about spotlighting the electrifying dance scene in her new Netflix documentary "Dark City Beneath the Beat." |
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Big Shot Magazine |
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| RETRO READ: A Conversation With House Music Pioneer Lil’ Louis (1995) |
| by Darren Ressler |
| “I don’t compromise. If you knock me down, I'll just get right back up again.” |
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Refinery29 |
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| Are You Ready To Meet The Real Rebecca Black? |
| by Natalie Morin |
| Rebecca Black is moving past her "slight trauma" and taking back her power. |
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Vox |
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| How trucker country music became a ’70s fad |
| by Estelle Caswell and Antonella Crescimbeni |
| Long-haul truckers were once country music’s heroes. |
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| Music | Media | Sports | Fashion | Tech |
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“REDEF is dedicated to my mother, who nurtured and encouraged my interest in
everything and slightly regrets the day she taught me to always ask ‘why?’” |
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| Jason Hirschhorn |
| CEO & Chief Curator |
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