| I had spent twenty-five years as a heavy metal singer hiding the truth about myself, living a lie... and I had brought it all to an end in a matter of seconds. This was it. The end. I no longer had to pretend, to conceal, to hide. I could finally be me. I had confessed. And it felt f***ing great. |
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Judas Priest's Rob Halford at the US Festival, San Bernardino, Calif., May 29, 1983.
(Paul Natkin/Archive Photos/Getty Images)
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“I had spent twenty-five years as a heavy metal singer hiding the truth about myself, living a lie... and I had brought it all to an end in a matter of seconds. This was it. The end. I no longer had to pretend, to conceal, to hide. I could finally be me. I had confessed. And it felt f***ing great.”
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No Music Please, We're British
In New York, where I've been camped for the last couple months, more doors seem to be opening than closing these days. There are still plenty of empty storefronts; masks and social distancing are still the norm indoors, and it's not as if every club from Bushwick to the Bronx is teeming with life. But there's no shortage of options if you look around. Every week the music seems to be getting a little louder. It's heartbreaking, then, to hear about yet another roadblock to the full resumption of live music in the UK. On Monday, Prime Minister BORIS JOHNSON officially scrapped a plan to ease restrictions on live music next week, saying the country needs another month to tame the spread of Covid-19. British musicians, fans and promoters are on the brink of another lost summer and they're confused, angry and, in many cases, worried for their own survival.
Most seem to understand the virus remains a threat—cases in Britain are rising again and the so-called Delta variant is especially worrisome—and that the June 21 target for allowing venues to operate at full capacity was never guaranteed. The anger and frustration are aimed at a government that's perceived to be treating live music events differently than other events and that's been reluctant and/or slow to offer financial assistance to an industry that's been forced to put itself in silent mode. Indie venues say a four-week delay in reopening will cost them £36 million. The ASSOCIATION OF INDEPENDENT FESTIVALS says 86 percent of the festivals planned for this year in the UK will be canceled. “This delay," UK Music chief executive JAMIE NJOKU-GOODWIN says, "is catastrophic." The delay alone isn't the catastrophe. The catastrophe is the failure to adequately compensate the industry for that delay. That compensation is—or should be—part of the price of fighting the virus.
Festival organizers have renewed calls for government-backed cancellation insurance, without which they say they can't afford to schedule and plan events that they might not be allowed to go through with. To date, the government has said no. Clubs don't have the same lead times but they're in a similar bind. "We knew it wasn’t always certain that we’d reopen on June 21, but you can’t wait until June 14 to book an entire calendar of events," booking manager CHRIS PRITCHARD of the Forum in Tunbridge Wells told NME. Which is to say, he and other bookers now have that headache—a calendar full of events that have to be canceled—on top of everything else. (Kudos, by the way, to NME, which has been covering these issues for several months like a neverending five-alarm fire, with seemingly every event organizer and live event association on speed dial. Invaluable.)
Making Cents
The royalties that online radio stations and webcasters like PANDORA and IHEARTRADIO have to pay sound recording owners are going up under a new five-year rate schedule approved Friday by the US Copyright Royalty Board. The board raised the royalty for subscription webcasters from 0.24 cents to 0.26 cents per play, and for free, ad-supported services from 0.18 cents to 0.21 cents. SOUNDEXCHANGE, which was seeking a slightly higher increase, praised the decision. The NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF BROADCASTERS and YOUTUBE were among those asking for a decrease in the royalty rate.
Rest in Peace
PATRICK THABO MOKOKA, South African jazz bassist and co-founder of the Malopoets... KARLA BURNS, musical theater actress and the first Black performer to win a Laurence Olivier Award.
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| Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator |
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Culture Notes of an Honest Broker |
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| Would You Buy Shares in Your Favorite Musician? |
| by Ted Gioia |
| The next stage of music tokenization might look very strange, |
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Complex |
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| Saweetie's Art of Influence |
| by Aria Hughes |
| Saweetie is a rapper, CEO, creative director, and content queen who figured out how to bottle up and sell her persona (and music) to a distracted generation. Here’s how she and her team do it. |
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Music Business Worldwide |
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| Let’s welcome Sony’s forward-thinking move on unrecouped artists. But let’s keep going. |
| by Annabella Coldrick |
| This isn’t the moment to step back and applaud, it’s the moment to step up, to embrace further change to make the music business fairer, more artist-friendly and more sustainable. The momentum here feels unstoppable. |
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NME |
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| Music venue bosses 'numb and frustrated' with £36million set to be lost as June 21 reopening delayed by a month |
| by Andrew Trendell |
| Grassroots music venues have spoken of their fear and frustration as a result of the easing of coronavirus restrictions being delayed by four weeks. |
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The New Yorker |
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| The Photographer Who Captured the Birth of Hip-Hop |
| by Hua Hsu |
| As a teen-ager, Joe Conzo, Jr., took intimate pictures of the Bronx music scene. He’s lived several lives in the time since. |
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The New York Times |
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| Amythyst Kiah Found Her Powerful Voice. Now She Has a Sound to Match It |
| by Jewly Hight |
| The 34-year-old singer and songwriter fuses folk, blues, rock and once-hidden emotion on her new album, “Wary + Strange.” |
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them. |
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| 5 Years Later, Pulse Survivors Reflect on Its Legacy: 'My Whole Life Changed' |
| by Samantha Allen |
| “As horrible as it is, it shouldn’t be forgotten. I will carry it with me forever.” |
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VICE |
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| 11 Living LGBTQ+ Legends on the Importance of Queer Clubs |
| by Louis Staples |
| "Honestly it’s all very blurry, but in the best way." |
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Billboard |
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| CRB Sets Royalty Rate for Pandora, iHeartRadio and Other Webcasters |
| by Ed Christman |
| While slightly less than what SoundExchange and others had wanted, the Web V ruling ignored digital broadcasters’ petition for big rate decreases. |
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SPIN |
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| In Defense of Silverchair |
| by Niko Stratis |
| The Australian trio have aged better than you may think. |
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Cocaine & Rhinestones |
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| Wandering Soul: George Jones, Starday Recording Artist |
| by Tyler Mahan Coe |
| CR019/PH05: There are some personalities who would embrace being called The Greatest Country Singer Ever or, at least, settle into the role once it became clear the brand was eternal. George Jones did not have one of those personalities. |
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Pitchfork |
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| 8 New Records That Reimagine What a Guitar Can Do |
| by Sam Sodomsky |
| A new generation of solo guitarists is offering fresh directions forward for the future of the instrument. |
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The New York Times |
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| Grammy Officials Oppose an Open Hearing on Reasons for Ousting C.E.O. |
| by Ben Sisario |
| The lawyer for the former chief executive, Deborah Dugan, said the Recording Academy, which runs the Grammy Awards, had already agreed to an open session to discuss her grievances. |
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The Sydney Morning Herald |
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| Global Sony boss investigating bullying and harassment claims in Australia |
| by Nathanael Cooper |
| Sony Music’s head office in the US has held confidential discussions with at least four former and current staff members. |
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The New Yorker |
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| The Musical Mysteries of Josquin |
| by Alex Ross |
| During the Renaissance, his crystalline choral works led him to be celebrated as the Michelangelo of music. But many works attributed to him may be those of gifted contemporaries. |
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Sam Enright |
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| A Beginner’s Guide to Miles Davis |
| by Sam Enright |
| My aim with this guide is to write something that would have been very helpful to me when I started listening to Miles Davis. |
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Music Business Worldwide |
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| What can music learn from the rise and rise of the video games business? |
| by Kim Bayley |
| If the UK recorded music industry had grown at the same rate as games over the past two decades, it would now be worth not £1.5bn, but £11.7bn! |
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The Guardian |
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| Polo G: ‘Death and depression made me lean towards music. It became therapeutic’ |
| by Iman Amrani |
| The Chicago rapper’s last album spent 47 weeks in the UK chart, testament to the power of his raw, introspective tracks. He discusses his journey out of crime and drug use towards being one of rap’s biggest stars. |
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Billboard |
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| Al Schmitt’s Son Chris Reflects on the Remarkable Life of His ‘Daddy-O’ |
| by Chris Schmitt |
| Chris Schmitt reflects on the life of his father, the legendary engineer Al Schmitt. |
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The Editorial Board |
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| Reasons for hard political hope |
| by John Stoehr |
| A lesson from Ralph Ellison. |
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| Video of the day |
| "Rock Star" |
| Warner Bros. Pictures |
| Problematic in a number of ways—no one involved in inspiring this 2001 metal film à clef had anything good to say about it—and yet weirdly fascinating. |
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YouTube |
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Problematic in a number of ways—no one involved in inspiring this 2001 metal film à clef had anything good to say about it—and yet weirdly fascinating.
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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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