Even at a time of year like Christmas when everything's very focused on celebrating, I'm always looking for the other side of that and the fact that the reason we need to celebrate is because of the other stuff that happens throughout the year. | | | | Billie Eilish at KROQ's Almost Acoustic Christmas, Inglewood, Calif., Dec. 9, 2018.
(Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic/Getty Images) | | | | | |  | “Even at a time of year like Christmas when everything's very focused on celebrating, I'm always looking for the other side of that and the fact that the reason we need to celebrate is because of the other stuff that happens throughout the year.”
| | | | | | rantnrave:// As 2020 hurtles toward its long awaited ending, a $15 billion bill designed to give live music venues and other cultural institutions the financial help they'll need to survive into 2021—"the largest public rescue of the arts in U.S. history," per the Washington Post—passed both houses of Congress Monday. By the reckoning of almost everyone in the business, the Save Our Stages act will be a crucial lifeline. Also by the reckoning of almost everyone in the business, the largest public rescue of the arts in U.S. history won't be enough. More money is going to be needed next year for an industry that estimates its 2020 losses at north of $30 billion, with further losses to come. This is live music's bittersweet Christmas, and I'm reminded of my favorite Christmas song of the 21st century, TRACEY THORN's "JOY," which seeks, in the lights of the holiday, a path through darkness. "We'll gather up our fears," Thorn sings, "And face down all the coming years / And all that they destroy / And in their face we throw our joy." Which is something the best music i this or any year can do. Live music especially... Christmas music has always been suffused with darkness. The Independent reports on "The sad indie albums saving Christmas," while the New York Times offers a selection of this year's "Largely Skeptical, Somewhat Unconventional" pop music carols from TAYLA PARX, GIRL IN RED, FINNEAS and others. Even MARIAH CAREY's "ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS YOU" is "A Lot Sadder Than You Realize," says the Ringer. We collect the hopeful, depressing and strange tales of Yuletide's best in MusicSET: "(All I Want for Christmas Is) Behind the Song, Vol. 15"... I've kept a database of notable music deaths for the past several years, and nothing has come close to the terrible toll of 2020, a year in which we said goodbye to EDDIE VAN HALEN, LITTLE RICHARD, JOHN PRINE, POP SMOKE, KENNY ROGERS and way too many other artists, composers, producers, label executives, agents, club owners and others who devoted their lives to music. We memorialize them all—599 as of this morning—in our REDEF ORIGINAL "Make Me an Angel: Music Deaths 2020." Covid-19 was responsible for at least 70 deaths, and 21 musicians—all men—were murder victims. For comparison, my 2019 database has 433 names. May their music live on, and may next year be kinder... K.T. OSLIN had Covid-19, too, but it's not clear if that was the cause of her death Monday at age 78. She had her first major country hit at the unheard-of age of 45 and a year later became the first woman ever to win Song of the Year—a songwriting honor—at the CMA AWARDS. "She changed everything—forever," country singer CHELY WRIGHT tweeted. A good thread by my friend BRIAN MANSFIELD on why Oslin was never particularly prolific. And one sad/perfect tweet from TYLER MAHAN COE on what happens when a 40something woman tries to send a song about dating "YOUNGER MEN" to country radio. RIP... RIP also CHAD STUART... This is the last regular edition of MusicREDEF in 2020. We'll publish three special editions between now and the end of year looking back at the artists of the year, the year's most notable obituaries and remembrances, and the lost year of live music. Our first newsletter of 2021 will arrive Tuesday, Jan. 5. Wishing you a safe, healthy and happy holiday. | | | - Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator | | | |  | Variety | | Senator Amy Kolbuchar (D-MN.), who introduced the Save Our Stage act in the Senate with her colleague John Cornyn (R-TX.), spoke with Variety about what’s in the bill and what it means for venues across the country. | | | |  | The Washington Post | | Tucked into Congress's immense, end-of-year relief package is an item that must be regarded as just this side of a miracle: $15 billion to help save the entertainment industry - the largest public rescue of the arts in U.S. history. | | | |  | The New Yorker | | Wallen has become a singer, a character, and, to the surprise of many Nashville professionals, an online sex symbol. | | | |  | Vulture | | Metaphorically unmasking the DJ whose viral videos soundtracked this year. | | | |  | Rolling Stone | | Labels are trying to use TikTok to launch a new song into the Christmas music canon. | | | |  | Pitchfork | | Revisiting the motley trends of 2020, from “male manipulator music” to Flo Milli and nightcore remixes. | | | |  | REDEF | | Eddie Van Halen, Little Richard, John Prine, McCoy Tyner, Kenny Rogers, Charley Pride and Pop Smoke were among the giants lost to this dark, devastating year. | | | |  | The Conversation | | There could be a way to make streaming work for musicians - if it was more like how they already earn money from their songs being played on the radio. | | | |  | Hollywood Reporter | | A gigantic spending bill has become an opportunity to smuggle in some other line items including those of special interest to the entertainment community. | | | |  | MusicAlly | | In the music industry, where inequality has persisted for many decades, the Blackout Tuesday initiative created by Brianna Agyemang and Jamila Thomas, was a moment of reckoning. | | | | | | | we see the beauty in the spark | | | REDEF | | "Christmas Wrapping" unwrapped! "Last Christmas" regifted! "All I Want for Christmas Is You" diminished (yet undiminished)! And more stories of Yuletide's greatest hits! | | | |  | Tidal | | Was Christmas music the most important catalyst in country’s crossover success? | | | |  | Billboard | | The performance rights organizations have teamed on the new SONGVIEW platform to offer comprehensive publishing data. | | | |  | Slate | | Many artists spent quarantine doing radical reinterpretations of each other’s work. | | | | | Slate | | Music livestreams, music movies, music TV shows. But is there still room for music criticism? | | | |  | Passion of the Weiss | | Oumar Saleh documents how rap music has intersected with the epochal television series and vice versa. | | | |  | The New York Times | | Sometimes it’s enough to adore a pop star from afar, even if you aren’t an Arianator. | | | |  | JazzTimes | | The legendary saxophonist takes us through other highlights of his discography from the past 50-plus years. | | | |  | Bitch Media | | Men may have been able to eclipse ageism, but women in hip hop are still obscured by it. | | | |  | i-D Magazine | | Everyone’s a ho, ho, ho this Christmas. | | | |  | Centuries of Sound | | This compilation of Christmas recordings spans an era which includes the entirety of WW1 and the influenza pandemic of 1918/1919, but of course you wouldn’t guess it from the contents. The only reminder perhaps is the two different versions of “Silent Night”, which was famously sung by opposing sides in the trenches at Christmas 1914. | | | | |  | | YouTube | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | © Copyright 2020, The REDEF Group | | |
