Let’s be clear: if you believe the government belongs in a woman’s uterus, a gay persons business or marriage, or that racism is okay- THEN PLEASE IN THE NAME OF YOUR LORD NEVER F***ING LISTEN TO MY MUSIC AGAIN.
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Tuesday June 28, 2022
REDEF
Naming names: Olivia Rodrigo (left) and Lily Allen at Glastonbury, Pilton, England, June 25, 2022.
(Joseph Okpako/WireImage/Getty Images)
quote of the day
Let’s be clear: if you believe the government belongs in a woman’s uterus, a gay persons business or marriage, or that racism is okay- THEN PLEASE IN THE NAME OF YOUR LORD NEVER F***ING LISTEN TO MY MUSIC AGAIN.
- Pink
rantnrave://
Irreconcilable Differences

How many ways can you say “f*** you”?

In England, at the GLASTONBURY festival, PHOEBE BRIDGERS had fans chanting “F*** the Supreme Court." LORDE chanted the same thing herself. MEGAN THEE STALLION conducted a cheer of “My body, my motherf***ing choice." And OLIVIA RODRIGO and LILY ALLEN dedicated the latter’s song “F*** YOU” to five members of the court, who Rodrigo named, one by one, while Allen raised alternating middle fingers.

Cathartic, frightening, life-affirming moments, all of them.

In Los Angeles, at the BET AWARDS, JANELLE MONÁE offered a middle finger of her own, which was shown on live TV, and a “F*** you Supreme Court,” which was edited out.

LIZZO (joined by LIVE NATION) and RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE donated hundreds of thousands of dollars. BILLIE JOE ARMSTRONG said he was going to renounce his citizenship. RHIANNON GIDDENS posted an a cappella cover of PEGGY SEEGER’s ballad “JUDGE’S CHAIR,” about a woman who dies from an illegal abortion. BRANDI CARLILE counterprogrammed with a message of hope: “We outnumber the oppressors and we are unstoppable.” MARGO PRICE promised a “riot girl summer.”

A long, loud, sad, angry weekend at the top of a long hot riot girl summer in (and around) an irreconcilable country. There are other things in the world and in music that deserve thought and discussion, but this isn’t the time. It really, really isn’t the time. Many (if not most) of the artists who’ve spoken out over the past several days are women, and many (if not most) have jobs that require them to regularly travel through cities and states with people, and laws, that may or may not have their best interests at heart. It’s time to listen to these troubadours, and to act.

Here are more examples of artists speaking and singing out, as collected by the indispensable ANN POWERS, and here and here are the beginnings of lists of what the business is doing about this. Labels, agencies, promoters and others are pledging to cover travel expenses for women who need them for abortion care. LIVE NATION appears to have gone further than most so far; the company announced it will cover the bail of employees arrested at peaceful protests and will work with artists and others to support abortion rights and voting turnout.

But politics, as they say, makes strange—and sometimes inconvenient—bedfellows, and some of those companies may discover a need to ask themselves about their own role in the changing political landscape that they’ve vowed to fight. Not showing up yet on either of the above lists is UNIVERSAL MUSIC, which was a major contributor to the US Senate campaign of MARSHA BLACKBURN, a Tennessee Republican who has been a reliable supporter of music business interests in Washington and an equally reliable opponent of abortion rights. TAYLOR SWIFT, one of UMG’s biggest artists and a Tennessee local, was an outspoken opponent of Blackburn’s campaign, but UMG had Blackburn’s back. ASCAP and the RIAA were big contributors to Blackburn as well. WARNER MUSIC was a smaller donor. One wonders how, and if, artists and employees at those entities will reconcile those (and other) donations in the days ahead. And if choices will be made.

Rest in Peace

Producer/songwriter BERNARD BELLE, a frequent collaborator with new jack swing pioneer Teddy Riley. He wrote or co-wrote for Michael Jackson (“Remember the Time”), Bobby Brown & Whitney Houston, and his sister, Regina Belle, and was a successful gospel producer in later years... R&B songwriter KEN WILLIAMS, whose biggest hit was the Main Ingredient’s “Everybody Plays the Fool”... Funk/R&B pianist, producer and songwriter REGGIE ANDREWS (the Dazz Band’s “Let It Whip”), who became a high school music teacher in Los Angeles, where he mentored artists including the Pharcyde and Tyrese Gibson.

- Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator
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what we're into
Music of the day
“F*** You (Glastonbury 2022)”
Olivia Rodrigo and Lily Allen
"This song goes out to the justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh. We hate you."
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