I was a MySpacer. My layout was fly. Now I feel old because I’m on TikTok—what the f*** am I doing? | | | | Marian Anderson singing at the Lincoln Memorial, April 9, 1939.
(Bettmann/Getty Images) | | | | | |  | “I was a MySpacer. My layout was fly. Now I feel old because I’m on TikTok—what the f*** am I doing?”
| | | | | | rantnrave:// Is there a music equivalent to what's going on in the NBA, WNBA and other sports leagues? Can there be? Should there be? First, a word about the NBA, whose initial decision to resume its pandemic-interrupted season inside its infamous Bubble came a week and a half after police in Minneapolis killed GEORGE FLOYD. Playing games in arenas draped with Black Lives Matter messaging while players wore words and slogans like "Equality," "Say Their Names," "Enough" and "Black Lives Matter" on the back of their jerseys seemed like well-meaning gestures, but just gestures, in a league whose most immediate problem was trying to navigate an unpredictable pandemic, and which was about to literally cut itself off from the rest of the world. But seeing all of it in action when games resumed in August made me well up with emotion; the gestures were provocative and powerful. I thought I'd eventually get so used to seeing the slogans that I wouldn't notice them, but the opposite happened. The messaging seemed to get louder. It burned into my head and became so normalized that I could no longer imagine not seeing it. I wanted the players to keep wearing those jerseys for as many years as it took. And then came another police incident, in Wisconsin, and Wednesday's dramatic response from the league. Six teams, led by the MILWAUKEE BUCKS, went on strike, and at least two teams reportedly said they want to shut down for the season, leave the Bubble and rejoin the real world. Teams and league officials will be in a room this morning deciding how, or if, to proceed with the 2020 season. It's not out of the question that athletes who are often told to shut up and play will be speaking up and not playing for quite some time. A potentially enormous. and costly, gesture. Musicians have been known to hang around with basketball players. Some *are* basketball players. What's their move? Shut up and sing? Speak up and not sing? Talk harder *and* sing louder? Reverse that and go silent? Music is different from sports in some rather obvious ways, starting with the fact that the messaging is embedded in the very thing the industry is already producing and selling every day. The art is the message. Do we want artists to walk off the job in the face of a nationwide crisis, or do we want them to double down on their work? Artists like LIL BABY, YG and the late POP SMOKE have helped soundtrack this summer's protests. Protest music new and old is on pop and hip-hop radio, on streaming playlists, in the air. Much of the response this summer has been organic. And little has changed. So what else? Musicians can't stop playing live because the pandemic has already done that for them. (But hey, MTV, are you going to go through with the VMAs this weekend? And if you do, what've you got planned?) In June, the music industry spearheaded BLACKOUT TUESDAY; how about taking the diversity plans developed back then and speeding up the timelines? The same week, some artists withheld releasing new music in sympathy with protesters while others rush-released singles and albums in response to the movement (another obvious difference with sports: Musicians don't have teams or, for the most part, unions). DUA LIPA, KATY PERRY (congrats!) and others could pull their new albums from streaming services this week, though I'm not sure it would turn too many heads or affect too many people's business. But what if labels pulled their entire catalogs off streaming services (is that possible on one day's notice? I have no idea) and went truly dark? What if every major streaming service pulled its own plug for a day or a week or longer? What if radio stations (music stations, that is) went silent? What if music simply stopped? What if in the middle of that silence—this is an idea that a few prominent voices were pushing circa Blackout Tuesday—every label gave every Black artist, especially older ones stuck in decades-old, cumbersome deals, their masters back? That wouldn't send a message to police, but it would set a hell of an example for the world, and actually help people. And it would cost a ton of money, kind of like canceling a basketball season would cost a ton of money... Question of the day... Sending love to the Louisiana and Texas coasts, from Lake Charles to Port Arthur and beyond... RIP MIKE NOGA.
| | | - Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator | | | |  | The Washington Post | | A closer look reveals that the event wasn’t all kumbaya. It was something more complex, and more miraculous. | | | |  | Rolling Stone | | The viral-video app’s music team has given crucial assists to artists like Roddy Ricch, Doja Cat, and Saweetie. But can it keep powering the music industry -- especially amid uncertainty about TikTok’s fate in the U.S.? | | | |  | DJ Mag | | Major cities have long been the central hubs for dance music, in part thanks to their appeal to travelling DJs and fans. With coronavirus massively impacting tourism, however, even when clubs do reopen they could face severely reduced crowds and income. What could this mean for the future of city clubbing? | | | |  | Tennessee Lookout | | Nashville's live music industry employs thousands, but with clubs closed and touring off since March, the industry is in crisis. | | | |  | NPR Music | | These songs take on some of the ugliest stories in our history and reflect the commitment of Black musicians to telling the truth of how Black people have been wronged, and survived, and fought back. | | | |  | Penny Fractions | | Investors are following the company’s narrative pivot from music to audio with little resistance. | | | |  | The New York Times | | The internet loves watching young Black YouTubers pour out blessings on Boomer favorites - an enthusiasm that says a lot about the nation today. | | | |  | Pitchfork | | The Dallas screamer, who died at 34 this week, was an irreplaceable voice in the modern metal landscape. | | | |  | Variety | | Popular podcast host and cultural commentator Joe Budden said he will leave Spotify after a two-year exclusive run of his "The Joe Budden Podcast with Rory and Mal" on the service, claiming the audio provider is "pillaging" his audience. | | | |  | Journal of Interdisciplinary Voice Studies | | Through autoethnographic analysis coupled with sonic attention to how Jay-Z, Public Enemy and Prince Paul represent ‘cop voice’ through shifts in their rapping flow, this article examines how police officers in the U.S. use a racialized and gendered way of speaking to provoke fear and extreme forms of compliance from people of colour. | | | | | | | to get back to lake charles | |  | Nashville Scene | | Musician Kyshona Armstrong and staff from Grimey’s and Third Man Records discuss the USPS’ vital role. | | | |  | Music Business Worldwide | | Our relationship with Sensorium provides TIDAL with the opportunity to gain exclusive rights for its stellar artist roster to have their shows and music broadcast exclusively within Sensorium.' | | | | | NPR Music | | Billie Eilish used some of her signature video magic to perform in front of the Tiny Desk from the comfort of her own home. | | | |  | Pollstar | | The Black Promoters Collective is a relatively new group of Black concert industry professionals who saw the need to unite in the face of the industry shutdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, but is finding itself in a moment as events grew to include the Black Lives Matter movement and increased societal attention on systemic racism. | | | |  | City A.M. | | In this episode Christian talks to music industry veteran Merck Mercuriadis whose FTSE-listed investment firm has just hit a £1bn market cap. | | | |  | Okayplayer | | racy Chapman’s lawsuit against Nicki Minaj could have real implications toward hip-hop if a ruling is made in her favor. | | | |  | Song Exploder | | Black Pumas break down their hit song “Colors,” which singer Eric Burton started writing ten years ago, when he was first learning how to play guitar. | | | |  | DownBeat | | Hearing Ambrose Akinmusire perform brings to mind Louis Armstrong’s description of first hearing trumpeter Bix Beiderbecke: “Those pretty notes went right through me.” | | | |  | MusicAlly | | SoundStorming could be a lot of things, and at a glance it appears to begin a trek up that unassailable summit of music-tech: a social network for music. | | | | | NPR Music | | Your favorite band's favorite band, once again ripe for discovery. | | | | |  | | YouTube | | | | | | | | | | | For Louisiana and East Texas. | | | | | | | | © Copyright 2020, The REDEF Group | | |
