| I don’t tell people what to do. I encourage them to do what they can. |
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| BTS at the Grammy Awards, Las Vegas, April 3, 2022. "Proof" is out today on Big Hit. |
| (Johnny Nunez/Getty Images) |
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| quote of the day |
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| rantnrave:// |
The Write Stuff
There were 10 categories for songwriters at this year’s GRAMMYS, including one of the night’s biggest awards, Song of the Year (winners: ANDERSON .PAAK, BRUNO MARS, D’MILE and BRODY BROWN), and nine songwriting awards in various genres and specialties. But songwriters often feel overlooked on the industry’s biggest night, and you can hardly blame them: Even if they’re shown on TV, which most of them aren’t, the genre awards, like Best Rock Song and Best R&B Song, sound to the casual viewer like they’re going home with the song’s performers, not their composers. And Song of the Year has long been saddled with the problem that while the industry knows it’s a songwriter’s award, distinct from Record of the Year, a lot of fans don’t. Fans, unlike people in the business, don’t automatically think of “songs” and “records” as two different things (which can cause confusion in licensing and copyright discussions as well; nomenclature has never been the music industry’s strong point).
On Thursday, the RECORDING ACADEMY gave songwriters a thing that will be theirs and theirs alone: a Songwriter of the Year award, which will debut at the 2023 Grammys. To make clear who the award is meant for, and to ensure, presumably, that this won’t be just one more trophy for TAYLOR SWIFT or BILLIE EILISH to take home, the Academy said only “non-performing and non-producing songwriters” will be eligible. That excludes all four 2022 winners of Song of the Year, two of whom are performers and two of whom are producers. “The intent,” said Academy chief HARVEY MASON JR., himself a songwriter, “is to recognize the professional songwriters who write songs for other artists to make a living.” That explanation echoes long-simmering grievances in various corners of the business about the differences in how songwriters and artists are compensated. There will almost certainly be closed-door discussions, come awards time, about what “non-performing and non-producing” means. What if this songwriter self-released an album that only a few hundred people bought or streamed? What if that songwriter was one of five co-producers on one or two random album cuts? It wouldn’t be a proper Grammy Award if it wasn’t at least a little confusing.
There will be open-door discussions elsewhere about how you can call someone Songwriter of the Year without even considering the Taylor Swifts, Billie Eilishes, Anderson .Paaks and D’Miles of the world. The legendary Motown songwriting—and production—team of LAMONT DOZIER and BRIAN and EDDIE HOLLAND wouldn’t have been eligible either. The Academy might discover that its rules shut the doors to entire genres while leaving a wide-open lane for others. Depending, as always, on what the fine print says.
Another notable change to next year’s ceremony will be a special Grammy for best social change song—a song with “lyrical content that addresses a timely social issue and promotes understanding, peacebuilding and empathy.” A request to the Academy, if I may: Not all social change songs are explicit about that change. Some of the best ones embody, rather than explicitly express, the idea. They show rather than tell. They don’t preach. They make you feel. I hope those will be considered, too.
It’s Friday
But it feels more like a Throwback Thursday, starting with PROOF, a 48-track anthology from BTS featuring the new single “Yet to Come (The Most Beautiful Moment)” and a handful of other new and unreleased songs along with three discs’ worth of hits, album tracks, solo songs and demos documenting the first decade of one of the world’s most popular pop groups. Only 35 tracks are on the streaming version; here are your various old-school options for hearing the rest... ELVIS COSTELLO throws it back a half-century on THE RESURRECTION OF RUST, a six-song reunion with ALLAN MAYES, his bandmate in an early ‘70s teenage duo called RUSTY. Their aim is Americana and the EP ends with a Neil Young medley... KELLY CLARKSON’s KELLYOKE EP, actually released on Throwback Thursday, takes the signature karaoke segment from her daytime talk show into the studio for covers of Billie Eilish, the Weeknd, Radiohead and others... Robyn, Sia, Jamila Woods and Anohni are among the artists who reimagine NENEH CHERRY songs on THE VERSIONS, which is simultaneously serving as a tribute album and Cherry’s own sixth album... RUFUS DOES JUDY AT CAPITOL STUDIOS is RUFUS WAINWRIGHT’s second album of songs by JUDY GARLAND, who would have turned 100 today. It was recorded during a livestream a year ago with exactly one person in the audience—Oscar-winning Garland portrayer Renée Zellweger... LOOK AT ME: THE ALBUM is a companion to Sabaah Folayan’s XXXTENTACION documentary “Look at Me” and features several songs by the late Florida rapper that have never been legally available for streaming before.
Also today: new music from music from Maluma (surprise!), Carrie Underwood, Joyce Manor, Sada Baby, Curren$y & Fuse, Blackhaine, Steve Reich/Ensemble Intercontemporain, the late Klaus Schulze, Levon Vincent, µ-Ziq, Max Richter, Yann Tiersen, Sam Gendel, Julius Rodriguez, Billy Mohler, Gabby Fluke-Mogul, Troy Roberts, the Dream Syndicate, Trail of Dead, Shearwater, the Inflorescence, Elucid, CyHi, the Range, Salamanda, Toshiya Tsunoda, David Lang, Benny Bock, SAD, Kula Shaker, Nick Mulvey, George Ezra, Vance Joy, Xylø. FKJ, Patty Griffin, Judah & the Lion, Florence Dore, Sinead O’Brien, onelinedrawing, Grace Ives, Liss, Marvin Sapp, Tauren Wells, Mapache, Life, American Aquarium, the Wrecks, Billy Howerdel (of A Perfect Circle), Kreator, downset., Seventh Wonder, Dragged Under, and the Never Broke Again label compilation “Green Flag Activity.”
Rest in Peace
Singer JULEE CRUISE, best known for her haunting collaborations with director David Lynch and composer Angelo Badalamenti for "Twin Peaks" and "Blue Velvet"... JOE FRIEDMAN, co-founder of New York music and audio retail mecca J&R Music World.
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| - Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator |
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Creatr |
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| Music Publishing and the missing £500 million |
| By Henry Marsden |
| Recent research by The Ivors Academy suggested the data-streaming gap to be worth £500 million annually. That's a LOT of money slipping down the back of the industry's sofa- tangibly pinching the pockets of creators. |
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Los Angeles Magazine |
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| The Rock Star Next Door |
| By Rosecrans Baldwin |
| For two years, a flamboyant, out-of-work rock guitarist rode out the pandemic in our Hollywood Hills home. Then, one day, he was gone. |
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Music Industry Blog |
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| Why Spotify’s TAM is only part of the story |
| By Mark Mulligan |
| Spotify has long touted the concept of its total addressable market (TAM), its path to a billion users and the role of emerging markets as the surest path to this figure. |
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Stereogum |
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| We’ve Got A File On You: Neneh Cherry |
| By Rachel Brodsky |
| Today, genre fluidity is a pretty much a given in pop music. But Neneh Cherry was light years ahead of her time when she released her 1989 debut album, "Raw Like Sushi," which featured lead single "Buffalo Stance," a Grammy-nominated feminist proclamation melding hip-hop, electronica, and dance. |
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| what we're into |
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| Music of the day |
| “Nos Comemos Vivos” |
| Maluma ft. Chencho Corleone |
| From "The Love and Sex Tape," surprise-released today on Sony Music Latin. |
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| Music | Media |
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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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