I don’t think rock and roll is the absence of doubt. Rock and roll is not giving a f*** that that doubt is there. | | | | Jazz singer Christie Dashiell at Bohemian Caverns, Washington, D.C., June 16, 2015.
(Eva Hambach/AFP/Getty Images) | | | | | |  | “I don’t think rock and roll is the absence of doubt. Rock and roll is not giving a f*** that that doubt is there.”
| | | | | | rantnrave:// There should be a BEYONCÉ greatest-hits album and a DRAKE greatest-hits album and maybe it's time for one from TAME IMPALA, too (greatest-hits album exist for beloved oddball singles like this, don't they?). It's universally accepted that, aside from the occasional WHITE STRIPES curveball, there's no particular need for such an endeavor in these days of celestial jukeboxes and endless playlists. Anyone can make a greatest-hits album for any artist in a minute or two of clicking and dragging. SPOTIFY has essentially made hundreds if not thousands of its own and could make thousands more tomorrow if it wanted. Or you could just hit the play button on the "top songs" module for any artist at your favorite streaming service and what else would you need? But the greatest greatest-hits albums and best best-ofs are more than the sum of those frictionless efforts. They're acts of careful, purposeful curation aimed at telling us something. The arc of an artist's growth. The context in which these hits and those album cuts existed. A different way to approach an artist you thought you knew or weren't sure you needed to know. A way into a discography, or maybe a way out. They're arguments. Acts of consideration and reconsideration. Immaculate corrections. Soundtracks to biopics that haven't yet been made and may not need to if the soundtrack is good enough. And, maybe most important, they're common points of reference. Ten people go to APPLE MUSIC in search of the best of Tame Impala and find 10 different playlists with 10 different answers. A different song or two here. A different sequence there. And runaway personalization has brought us a world of playlists that may change depending on who you are and when you click. They deliver a million unique experiences but no shared understanding, no reliable point of view. We could use some common points of reference these days. Give me Drake's version of Drake's greatest hits, fixed to a format, his "TAKE IT EASY" always there at the beginning to comfortably ease me in, his "ONE OF THESE NIGHTS" always there at the top of side two to remind me how far he'd gone in just two or three years, and how much further he still has to go. I just might decide to go further, too... Here at REDEF, we've started making box sets: collections of our collections of oral histories from around the universe of pop culture. Just released: "REDEF Box Set: Music Oral Histories" which compiles dozens of oral histories of classic albums, clubs and music videos... The iconic CAPITOL STUDIOS in Hollywood has shuttered its mastering operation... Further down the California coast, TAYLOR GUITARS is now 100 percent owned by its employees... BANDSINTOWN has launched a $9.99/month livestream concert subscription... As a reminder, since there's no longer sufficient space in this newsletter to share the names of everyone who's sold their publishing to HIPGNOSIS for 10s or 100s of millions of dollars, I'll instead be checking in occasionally to let you know who has *not* done so. Today's non-seller: HIPSWAY. Still looking forward, meantime, to the day when someone cashes in with Hipgnosis for $200m and uses the money to invest in the publishing of 10 newer/younger artists for $20m each, like a basketball team gutting its roster and rebuilding from scratch... RIP HOWARD JOHNSON, MARK KEDS and PAUL DELEON. | | | - Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator | | | |  | NPR Music | | Half of the top 10 spots in 2019's NPR Music Jazz Critics Poll went to women. But a deeper look at the data from across the poll's lifetime complicates claims about women's equality in jazz. | | | |  | Bloomberg Businessweek | | The music-streaming service is staking its future on finding more Joe Rogans. | | | |  | The Ringer | | Despite challenges from the president and a ban in India, the app grew last year, helping to propel a handful of artists new and old up the chart. But what’s in store for TikTok’s future? | | | |  | Money 4 Nothing | | Seems like greatest hits albums are more or less done for, killed by the infinite "playlistification" of all things (unless you're trying to make a retro statement...hello White Stripes!). We spend some thinking through what the greatest hits was, what it did, and what that might tell us about the art-form shaping format known as the album. | | | |  | REDEF | | Talk talk. Everybody's talkin'. Tell it like it is. In this set of sets, artists, producers, friends and random interns share the stories of classic albums, clubs and music videos. | | | |  | Pollstar | | At 30 years old, Andrew Lieber is head of one of North America’s fastest-growing independent agencies, representig some of hip-hop’s brightest young stars, including DaBaby, YoungBoy Never Broke Again, Rod Wave and Polo G. | | | |  | Interview Magazine | | The musicians discuss Springsteen, jelly beans, and Paul Ryan bench pressing to Rage Against the Machine. | | | |  | iHeartRadio | | On the heels of her courageously honest and compelling memoir, "The Meaning of Mariah Carey," Mariah joins Quest and Team Supreme for a good no holds barred 2 part conversation. Check out part one where we dive into the opinions, voices and development processes that matter most to Mariah. | | | | | The Ringer | | While 26 of the NBA’s 30 arenas sit empty this season, team DJs are still considered essential staff. How are they adapting to this new environment? And what requests are they getting most from players? | | | |  | USA TODAY | | U.S. Rep. James Clyburn pushes to make "Lift Every Voice and Sing," the Black national anthem, America's national hymn. | | | |  | The New York Times | | Steven LaBrie is a freelance baritone in New York. Jarrett Ott has a full-time job singing in Germany. As the coronavirus spread, that made all the difference. | | | |  | The Forty-Five | | Sarah Lavigne looks back at 2020 through the eyes of Bristol’s iconic venue: The Louisiana. | | | |  | CNET | | CES 2021's biggest (only?) party is in a virtual club floating in star-speckled space. You're transformed into a hovering circle that serves as a port-hole window to your webcam. Dua Lipa will chat with Ryan Seacrest on a digital stage flanked by titanic speakers, before Billie Eilish puts on a show -- maybe the biggest act iHeartMedia has booked for its CES party in years. | | | |  | Entertainment Weekly | | Though he may be best known for lush transgressive melodramas like "Carol" and "Far From Heaven," Todd Haynes is certainly no stranger to music world. | | | | | The New York Times | | Daniel Dumile, who died in October, paved a path for rappers, producers and beyond to embrace personas, fill their music with lyrical complexity and reach for sounds outside of the usual boxes. | | | |  | The San Diego Union-Tribune | | The San Diego area company twhose high-end instruments are played by such stars as Taylor Swift, Zac Brown Band and Jason Mraz, is making headlines, but not with a new instrument. | | | |  | Music x Tech x Future | | Endlesss is a collaborative music making app founded by musician Tim Exile. In December, Endlesss launched its desktop app which I’ve now given a go and it provided a glimpse of how music is reconquering a quality it has lost in the age of the recording: participation. | | | |  | Mixmag | | Crystal Mioner meets The 83rd, the New York-based music professor whose club music is a continuation of the radical Black tradition. | | | |  | The Bitter Southerner | | Fifty years ago, Marion Brown recorded “Afternoon of a Georgia Faun,” an experimental, musical collaboration to re-create the sounds of nature from his Southern childhood. Jazz critic Jon Ross takes us on a journey through Brown’s musical legacy. | | | |  | Los Angeles Times | | Supervising sound editor Nicolas Becker takes viewers on an aural journey that leaves us feeling what it’s like to lose our hearing. | | | |  | Billboard | | Rev. Moose, executive director of NIVA, says, "I would hope that if there is a need for additional COVID funding, that the government is able to move faster." | | | | |  | | YouTube | | | | | | | | Marcus Strickland and Christie Dashiell | | | | From "Revive Music Presents Supreme Sonacy, Vol. 1" (2015). | | | | | | | | © Copyright 2021, The REDEF Group | | |
