| Eleven years ago I wanted it to be so good. Now, I just sing exactly what I’m thinking. |
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| Did you know that there's a mirror over Sunset Boulevard? Lana Del Rey at the Roxy, West Hollywood, Calif., Dec. 21, 2012. |
| (Chelsea Lauren/WireImage/Getty Images) |
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| quote of the day |
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“Eleven years ago I wanted it to be so good. Now, I just sing exactly what I’m thinking.”
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- Lana Del Rey
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| rantnrave:// |
X Marks the Pot
It’s March 2023 and SPOTIFY’s new AI DJ is suddenly in the mood to remind me what I was listening to around the time of the 2021 SUPER BOWL, which in my case, apparently, was SONNY ROLLINS’ “THE BRIDGE." No complaints here, but was there something especially interesting about the 2021 Super Bowl or that pandemic winter in general, or is Spotify’s new AI DJ smoking on the job and a little unclear as to what day/month/year it is? Or, come to think of it, should I just smile at what might be the most human thing my robot DJ will do all day?
The future of fake radio, aka Spotify’s DJ X, has rolled out in the US and Canada and let’s call it a work in progress. It will get better/scarier/friendlier/more dystopian soon enough. For now I’m trying to decide if X needs to smoke a little more or a little less. The most interesting thing about version 1.0, which is basically an algorithmic playlist on which a robot voice occasionally pops up to say hi, is how transparent its inner workings are.
Here’s some music “based on recent listening.” Here are some tracks “from your past.” Here are songs “recommended for you.” Here are a million current country songs in a row until you get bored and hit skip enough times, prompting X to get on the mic and tell you he’s going to switch things up. Here's X telling you, in his best FM radio text-to-voice, "so I've been noticing that jazz is sorta you're thing," and following up with 40 or so minutes of classic jazz. Here he is introducing a block of “rollerskating music” (I guess?) that goes like this: ARETHA FRANKLIN – FUNKADELIC – ROSE ROYCE – BIG K.R.I.T. – COCTEAU TWINS. A little adventurous. A little shaky on the segues. A little too enamored for some reason—it isn’t my Spotify listening history—with the soundtrack of HAMILTON.
I want to be surprised, X. I want you to synthesize all those discrete threads into new stories and soundtracks. I want to know *why* you’re taking me back to my Super Bowl 2021 playlist. Weirdly, perhaps, I want to know a little more about you (I think). Smoke a little more (or less), go through five of six updates, absorb a few billion more words of pop culture data and metadata, and let’s meet again, shall we?
Over at the competition, meanwhile, APPLE MUSIC CLASSICAL has arrived. Some thoughts on that in Thursday's newsletter.
Dot Dot Dot
Is TIKTOK creating a generation of one-hit wonders?... “I couldn’t dream of a better person to share this with because he was the one who taught me what it is to be on a major label, to be humble, to keep grounded and focus on the music,” said ANGÉLIQUE KIDJO of CHRIS BLACKWELL after they and ARVO PÄRT were named recipients of the POLAR MUSIC PRIZE. They’ll be honored May 23 in Stockholm... Allentown is over that BILLY JOEL song (which was never really about Allentown)... Prices for synths and DJ gear appear to be falling back down to earth after rocketing to the moon during the pandemic, when semiconductor chips were as hard to find as toilet paper... TAYLOR SWIFT, HARRY STYLES and PINK were the top winners at the IHEARTRADIO MUSIC AWARDS... Are we living in a Kpopcore world?
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| - Matty Karas, curator |
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Time Magazine |
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| Bad Bunny's Next Move |
| By Andrew R. Chow and Mariah Espada |
| In 40 minutes, the former grocery bagger from Puerto Rico will try on outfits worth thousands for the cover of this magazine. In 12 hours, he will be photographed embracing the world's highest-paid supermodel. In one month, he will be staring out onto a sea of 125,000 superfans from the heights of Coachella's main stage. |
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Switched On Pop |
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| Switched On Pop: Reinventing Bach |
| By Nate Sloan, Charlie Harding and Dan Tepfer |
| On his new album, Dan Tepfer fills in the missing nine keys from Bach's Inventions while updating the music with modern improvisation. In this conversation Tepfer walks co-host Charlie Harding through his process of playing Bach and applying it to jazz improv. |
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Dada Strain |
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| Bklyn Sounds: The Best Live Music Deal in Brooklyn |
| By Piotr Orlov |
| The idea that a major touring artist is playing a gratis/first-come-first-served show at a local hole-in-the-wall without a corporate underwriter, is the kind of event that can’t help but reframe the ever-widening divide currently invoked in conversations about live music. So maybe it’s worth appreciating what’s happening at the corner of Union and Meeker. |
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Trapital |
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| What Private Gigs Tell Us About the Music Industry |
| By Dan Runcie |
| Corporate private concerts are often seen as a mysterious underworld, where closed doors and NDAs breathe life into a sector that’s distinct from the rest of the business. But these gigs have more in common with broader trends in live entertainment. |
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Interview Magazine |
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| Lana Del Rey and Billie Eilish Fall in Love |
| By Billie Eilish |
| Ahead of her ninth studio album, the singer calls up one of her biggest fans for a cathartic conversation about validation, gratification, and obsession. |
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Black Music and Black Muses |
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| Songs of Black Spring |
| By Harmony Holiday |
| A look at black music's favorite season. |
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| what we're into |
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| Video of the day |
| “Women Who Rock” |
| Jessica Hopper |
| Jessica Hopper's four-part docuseries, on MGM+ and streaming through the end of this week on Amazon Prime. |
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| Music | Media |
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Suggest a link  |
| “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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