As far as songwriting and production goes, we’re on the cusp of a wave of something that I don’t think we’ve really seen, maybe ever.
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Friday May 12, 2023
REDEF
A tiny bit further, my God, from thee: Lauren Daigle at New Orleans Jazz Fest, May 7, 2022.
(Tim Mosenfelder/WireImage/Getty Images)
quote of the day
As far as songwriting and production goes, we’re on the cusp of a wave of something that I don’t think we’ve really seen, maybe ever.
- Shawn Everett, producer/engineer, on the use of AI in music
rantnrave://
It’s Friday

And singer/songwriter/producer MADISON MCFERRIN’s music floats through notions of neo-soul, jazz and pop without ever quite landing on any of them on her overdue debut album, I HOPE YOU CAN FORGIVE ME. McFerrin’s songs keep floating on, carried through space by breathtaking layers of vocals that might also serve to remind you of her familial heritage. The album follows a few years’ worth of shorter collections that she says helped her “figure out how I want to present myself in an album context, because an album is a more definitive statement. I want to make sure that the album is an album and it’s not just, ‘Here are a bunch of songs put together’”...

Contemporary Christian music star LAUREN DAIGLE takes another step into the mainstream pop world with her self-titled fourth album, her first for a major label (Atlantic) and her first featuring secular love songs. Doubling down on a 2018 appearance on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” that got her into trouble with her more conservative fans, she wrote several songs with gay Nashville (and Broadway) songwriter Shane McAnally. “I’ve seen people ask, ‘Is Lauren Daigle even a Christian anymore?,’" she told the New York Times. "It’s to be expected, so it doesn’t bother me.” (Others, meanwhile, may wonder how secular she can be)...

RP BOO’s LEGACY VOLUME 2 collects tracks recorded between 2002 and 2007 by the Chicago footwork godfather, many of them never properly released before. His skittery, repetitive, minimalist, sample-heavy productions have a singular goal—transforming a roomful of dancers, as he explained a few years back, because “the dancefloor—the party place—is the actual science lab of everything.” The results are immediate and glorious... RICHEST OPP is YOUNGBOY NEVER BROKE AGAIN’s second album in [hang on, checking my archives] three weeks and his third of 2023, which puts him on pace to match the eight he released in 2022. The speed of that turnaround may explain why there are no features on the album, or it be that he doesn’t much like the competition... CELINE DION’s soundtrack to the rom-com LOVE AGAIN, in which she plays herself, features five new Dion songs and several older ones that also appear in the film.

Also today: New music from Overmono, Alison Goldfrapp (her first solo album), Jonas Brothers, Parker McCollum, Bailey Zimmerman, Béla Fleck/Zakir Hussain/Edgar Meyer, Cattle Decapitation, the Acacia Strain (two albums in one day from the Massachusetts metallers), Devildriver, Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean, Moby (remakes of his own tracks from the ‘90s and ‘00s), Belinda Carlisle (EP of songs by Diane Warren), Eluvium, Blawan, Sub Focus, Oval, James Ellis Ford (of Simian Mobile Disco), Helen Money/Will Thomas, Rahill, Heem B$F, Chuck Strangers, Soulja Boy, Deante’ Hitchcock, Boogey the Beat, Dropkick Murphys (another album of songs written from Woody Guthrie lyrics), Bruce Cockburn, BC Camplight, Parker Millsap, Savannah Conley, Vivek Shraya, waveform, Seán Barna, Island of Love, Never Ending Game, Mike Gordon, Jeffrey Silverstein, Midwife & Vyva Melinkolya (shoegaze), Hot Mulligan and Softee.

Etc Etc Etc

Entertainer of the Year CHRIS STAPLETON, LAINEY WILSON and an absent MORGAN WALLEN were the big winners Thursday night at the ACM AWARDS, which also featured ED SHEERAN trading a courtroom for sawdust in a duet with LUKE COMBS, and co-host DOLLY PARTON trying out some material that may or may not be legal anymore in a couple states... Also absent was last year’s co-host, JIMMIE ALLEN, who was suspended by his label and dropped from next month’s CMA FEST after Variety reported Thursday that he’s being sued by his former day-to-day manager, who says he raped her and repeatedly abused her during the 18 months she worked for him. Allen told the magazine he and the woman, identified as Jane Doe, had a consensual relationship. Please note the Variety story linked here is graphic and disturbing... JOHN NÉMETH, BUDDY GUY and ALBERT CASTIGLIA were multiple winners at the BLUES MUSIC AWARDS, handed out Thursday night in Memphis... EUROVISION’s Grand Final will be broadcast live from Liverpool at 3 pm ET Saturday on Peacock Premium.

- Matty Karas, curator
let's talk about love
Pitchfork
Musicians Are Already Using AI More Often Than We Think
By Marc Hogan
It goes beyond the rise of deepfakes and ChatGPT. AI tools will-and already are-changing how music is made.
Billboard
The New ‘Princess’ of Rap: How Ice Spice Exploded Into Stardom
By Heran Mamo
Just two years after her debut single, the viral Bronx rapper has scaled the charts and been dubbed “the People’s Princess” by her fans. But she’s still adjusting to the spotlight.
Hollywood Reporter
'It Was Lighting in a Bottle': An Oral History of MTV News
By Seth Abramovitch
Thirty-six years after TV's youth-culture monolith changed the face of cable news, its star correspondents - Kurt Loder, Tabitha Soren, John Norris, SuChin Pak, Alison Stewart and Gideon Yago - reminisce about the pre-internet golden years of the coolest media job ever.
Tumblr
RETRO READ: Rockin’ All Over The World: Live Aid & The Rise of MTV News
By Doug Herzog
It was mid July 1985, The Coca Cola Company’s horribly misguided “New Coke” was declared an epic fail as it was pulled from shelves nationwide and ”Back To The Future” was a box office smash. I was days away from my 26th birthday, less than a year into a job at MTV, and headed down the New Jersey Turnpike on my way to cover the biggest concert since Woodstock.
NPR
Inspiration or theft? The rise of interpolation in the music industry
By Mary Louise Kelly and Ann Powers
NPR's Mary Louise Kelly talks with NPR music critic Ann Powers on the rise of interpolation in the increasingly litigious music industry and the line between nostalgia and theft.
Notes on K-pop
Korea's ticketing model should be taken into consideration for the US live music market
By Tamar Herman
Concert tickets should be affordable.
Consequence
Tomorrow X Together: How K-Pop’s Lost Boys Found Themselves -- And Global Stardom
By Mary Siroky
Tomorrow X Together went from K-pop's Lost Boys to global superstars, and they reveal how in our new cover story.
Variety
Country Star Jimmie Allen Sued for Assault and Sexual Abuse by Former Manager
By Elizabeth Wagmeister
Allen calls the allegations "deeply troubling and hurtful," admitting to a sexual relationship, but claiming it was consensual.
VAN Magazine
On Leon Botstein’s Defense of Jeffrey Epstein’s Donations
By Olivia Giovetti
What will last longer than any of the money that Jeffrey Epstein gave to Bard is Leon Botstein’s defense for accepting it.
The Atlantic
Surrender to Steely Dan
By Jack Hamilton
How the insufferably perfectionist duo captured the hearts of a new generation of listeners.
falling into you
The Guardian
Eurovision represents everything that is nonsensically termed ‘woke’ – that’s what makes it so special
By Frances Ryan
The high-camp contest, hosted this year by the UK on Ukraine’s behalf, is diverse, unifying, tolerant - all things we need more of.
The Guardian
All 69 Eurovision song contest winners -- ranked!
By Alexis Petridis
From Abba to Céline Dion, chicken noises to lyrics about magical shoes, we rate and slate every winning entry from 1956 onwards.
Billboard
How AI Brought Biggie Back From the Dead
By Kristin Robinson
Timbaland’s use of AI to regenerate the late rapper’s voice raises questions about the use of AI vocal rendering technology for deceased artists.
CNN
The Prince Mixtape: Love Symbol No. 2
By Nichole Perkins, Owen Husney, Lynnée Denise...
What inspired Prince to scrawl the word “slave” on his face and change his name to an unpronounceable symbol? Prince’s first manager, Owen Husney, scholar Lynnée Denise, and writer Anil Dash unpack Prince’s battle with his label to own his masters.
DJ Mag
Detroit's Octave One on their contemplative new album, and three decades of techno innovation
By Bruce Tantum
Detroit's Burden brothers talk their new album, their creative process, and just how they became so adept at packing their live gear.
Rolling Stone
We’ve Heard the Future of Music. So Far, It Sounds Terrible
By Ethan Millman
While the sound itself needs improving, Google’s recently released MusicLM has limitless potential.
NPR Music
'You're supposed to be somewhere doing hair and makeup'
By Gabby Bulgarelli and Sidney Madden
Since 2019, Saucy Santana has been a regular presence on the social web, producing several streaming hits. But the very qualities that set him apart threatened to hold him back.
The Independent
How Gen Z fell for and reinvented quiet-loud indie rock
By Ed Power
Ed Power finds out why bands such as HotWax and Bleach Lab are so inspired by the sound of Pixies, Hole and Nirvana.
what we're into
Music of the day
“Pop Machine”
RP Boo
Pop as in soda. But the machine doesn't work. A Chicago footwork masterpiece. From "Legacy Volume 2," out today on Planet Mu.
Video of the day
“Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga”
David Dobkin
2020 Will Ferrell and Rachel McAdams comedy, streaming on Netflix. Arguably the best feature film about Eurovision released in the 2020s :)
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