| I want to say thank you to the gay agenda. Let's go gay agenda! |
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Good for her: Olivia Rodrigo at the VMAs, Brooklyn, N.Y., Sept. 12, 2021.
(Mike Coppola/Getty Images)
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“I want to say thank you to the gay agenda. Let's go gay agenda!”
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Ghosts of MTV Past
MTV was always good at creating music sub-brands—YO! MTV RAPS, TRL, 120 MINUTES, UNPLUGGED, etc.—and the queen of them all, which pre-dates the rest and is the only one still around to acknowledge the channel's 40th anniversary year, is the VIDEO MUSIC AWARDS, which did the acknowledging Sunday night by inviting the ghosts of pop stardom past to return for a variety of cameos: opening the show, introducing younger stars, giving out awards, but not, heaven forbid, performing, save for the two old-school New Yorkers, BUSTA RHYMES and ALICIA KEYS, called upon to salute the host city, and the one group of West Coast classic rockers chosen to receive something called the Global Icon Award, which should not under any circumstances be confused with the missing-in-action Video Vanguard Award. Mostly, it seemed, the olds were there to affirm that the kids are still alright, which has always been one of MTV's core messages. (And we now have confirmation, in case anyone needed it, that BILLIE EILISH loves FOO FIGHTERS, AVRIL LAVIGNE and Alicia Keys.) They also served to affirm that this was still MTV you were watching, even if you literally weren't watching MTV. On a network that doesn't have much time anymore for either music or videos, at least on its main cable channel, the Video Music Awards survives as its own ghost of MTV past, presenting awards, performances and viral moments on behalf of a brand that long ago moved on. It's basically a radio/playlist pop awards show, presented with more flair than any other such show. There are winners and losers, the specifics of which have never particularly mattered, though, if you must know, it was a good night for LIL NAS X, JUSTIN BIEBER and OLIVIA RODRIGO. Mostly, it's a barrage of elaborately staged zeitgeist performances, and Lil Nas X, joined by a marching band and JACK HARLOW, and Olivia Rodrigo, who was accompanied by her own romantic rage and ended her set by smashing a camera lens—as good a visual as I've seen on an awards show in a long time—were among those who rose to the occasion Sunday. MTV quickly posted every performance on YOUTUBE, suggesting it understands that most people, including the kids it's trying to reach, have better things to do on Sunday nights than watch MTV, or any TV. Which is to say, for all its faults, the network still has a deep familiarity with the zeitgeist. MTV also understands—even though the show was staged as a fully live, indoor and not socially distanced, event—that there's still a pandemic going on. Masks were prevalent in the audience, and there were plenty onstage too. That's an even more important zeitgeist to be in touch with, and there ought to be an award for that.
Rest in Peace
Influential British folk guitarist (and singer/songwriter) MICHAEL CHAPMAN... Fiddler DON MADDOX, the last surviving member of country pioneers the Maddox Brothers & Rose... Ethiopian singer/songwriter ALÈMAYÈHU ESHÈTÉ, known as the "Abyssinian Elvis," who was a major star at home in the 1960s and '70s and found a new audience in the West decades later thanks to the "Éthiopiques" series... MARÍA MENDIOLA, one half of Spanish disco duo Baccara... Polish soprano TERESA ZYLIS-GARA... HARRY COOMBS, longtime promo exec at Philadelphia International Records.
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| Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator |
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Broadcast |
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| Library Music |
| by Liz Pelly |
| In the age of streaming, public libraries offer small-scale alternatives for local archiving. |
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The Washington Post |
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| In a new documentary, Alanis Morissette makes multiple allegations of statutory rape. But she won’t attend its premiere |
| by Steven Zeitchik |
| In a new documentary on which she collaborated, Alanis Morissette says multiple men engaged in sex with her when she was a 15-year-old pop star in Canada, below the age of consent. But in a twist, the singer now appears to be unhappy with the movie. |
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The Forty-Five |
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| The big royalty debate: what does a credit really mean in 2021? |
| by Jenessa Williams |
| Royalties have become more than an exchange of money; they are a public co-sign that says something deeper about the integrity of the artist. |
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Billboard |
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| MTV Celebrates Its Own Legacy in Unexpectedly Retro-Minded 2021 VMAs, But Newest Stars Bring Biggest Thrills |
| by Andrew Unterberger |
| The VMAs spent most of its three-hour runtime with one foot still squarely in the past, even as most of its best moments dragged the show back to the future. |
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Los Angeles Times |
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| Music is essential to movies. Too bad the Academy Museum fails to treat it that way |
| by Mark Swed |
| Film composers deserve a better museum showcase for their art than this: a black box room that's not even playing real movie music. |
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Washingtonian |
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| A Replica of the Old 9:30 Club Will Open Behind the New 9:30 Club |
| by Andrew Beaujon |
| Dave Grohl broke the news during a Foo Fighters show Thursday. |
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The Guardian |
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| ‘I knew I was pushing buttons’: Kacey Musgraves on breaking country music taboos |
| by Alexis Petridis |
| She’s already broken out of Nashville to become an unconventional pop superstar. Now she’s stretching the limits of country again - with the help of psychedelics and a four-poster bed in her studio. |
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MTV News |
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| Normani Is Ready For You Now |
| by Ilana Kaplan |
| On the cusp of releasing the best music of her life, she's giving herself the time to 'just be.' |
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The New Yorker |
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| Waiting to Testify at R. Kelly’s Trial |
| by Jim DeRogatis |
| Lizzette Martinez was allegedly abused by the R. & B. star when she was a minor. Now she may be asked to testify against him. |
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Vulture |
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| The Never-ending Story of 'Glitter,' 20 Years On |
| by Matthew Jacobs |
| How 9/11, MTV, and Y2K-era celebrity culture continue to complicate one of Hollywood’s most notorious flops. |
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The New York Times |
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| Top Orchestras Have No Female Conductors. Is Change Coming? |
| by Javier C. Hernández |
| At the largest American ensembles, one of music’s most stubbornly homogeneous spheres, a shift might be on the horizon. |
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Los Angeles Times |
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| Gustavo Dudamel built a ladder. These conductors, many women, are climbing — fast |
| by Mark Swed |
| Former Dudamel Fellows are showing up everywhere, from the Hollywood Bowl to the Proms. It's a diverse and L.A. Phil-centric generation of conductors. |
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Streaming Machinery |
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| Music. And Spreadsheets. |
| by G.C. Stein |
| Yeah, spreadsheets are boring and lame but maybe by now digital music services are mature enough to recognize and embrace the opportunities available if they could embrace their “spreadsheet heritage” a little more full-heartedly. |
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Billboard |
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| Shuttered Venues Are Suing the SBA Over Grant Denials |
| by Taylor Mims |
| Venues who are were denied federal funding under the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant program are taking their cases to court. |
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Fast Company |
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| It’s hard to play music over Zoom. Why not head to the metaverse? |
| by Steven Melendez |
| Roar Studios hopes to be a virtual platform to help musicians find collaborators and perform via avatar. |
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The Washington Post |
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| Saint Etienne looks to the past but limits the nostalgia |
| by Andy Beta |
| As diligent students of the indie-pop form and expert practitioners, few modern bands have remained as durable and beloved as England's Saint Etienne. While most acts from the 1990s have gracefully disbanded, dissolved into obsolescence or else re-formed so as to trot out renditions of their best-remembered tunes on the nostalgia circuit, the trio of Bob Stanley, Pete Wiggs and Sarah Cracknell strolls along at an unhurried pace. |
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The New Yorker |
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| After a Year Without Crowds, Caroline Polachek Takes the Stage |
| by Jia Tolentino |
| The singer-songwriter tries to hold down an uncertain moment. |
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Music Industry Blog |
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| The oncoming fandom crisis |
| by Mark Mulligan |
| The Chinese authorities' crackdown on fandom represents the first major growing pain for the global fandom economy. Tencent Music Entertainment will likely be the bellwether of this shift, with two thirds of its revenues coming from non-music (i.e., fandom) related activities. |
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Vulture |
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| Why Does Britney Spears’s Dad Suddenly Want Her Free? |
| by Claudia Rosenbaum |
| Experts say Jamie’s heel turn this week to now petition to end his daughter’s conservatorship is likely too good to be true. |
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SPIN |
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| 30 Artists Reflect on Metallica’s Black Album Turning 30 |
| by Jason Pettigrew |
| Metallica's commercial breakthrough album, the aptly titled 'Black Album,' turns 30. In celebration of that, we spoke with a number of musicians. |
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The Guardian |
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| Louis Armstrong and the spy: how the CIA used him as a ‘trojan horse’ in Congo |
| by Jason Burke |
| Book reveals how the jazz musician unwittingly became party to secret cold war manoeuvres by the US in Africa, |
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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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