| I genuinely try to carry the flag of my country in everything that I do... There is so much incredible talent coming not only from South Africa, but coming from the African continent as a whole, and being able to bring our culture to these types of platforms only opens the window of opportunity further and further for all of these incredible acts. |
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| DJ Black Coffee at the Altitude Beach Club, Johannesburg, March 21, 2021. |
| (Luca Sola/AFP/Getty Images) |
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| quote of the day |
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“I genuinely try to carry the flag of my country in everything that I do... There is so much incredible talent coming not only from South Africa, but coming from the African continent as a whole, and being able to bring our culture to these types of platforms only opens the window of opportunity further and further for all of these incredible acts.”
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- Black Coffee, winner of the Grammy for Best Dance/Electronic Album
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| rantnrave:// |
Take Your Pick
ELON REEVE MUSK at 50 or PRINCE ROGERS NELSON at 11?
Big Grammy Science
Totally (or mostly) positive next-day takes on the GRAMMYS: "Accept Reality: We Now Live in a World Where the Grammys Are Awesome." "Sometimes feeling good is good enough" (with caveats). "Not Every Awards Show Has to Be a Hate-Watch." All well thought out and worth sharing as we digest the news of awful ratings that accompanies every awards show these days, which says as much about network TV as it does about the thing being awarded, though, to be fair, it says something about that, too. Sometimes it feels like we're living in a post-awards world but haven't quite adapted to it yet. One good adaptation the Grammys should get credit for, as all the above takes note and as the droves of people who didn't watch could hardly have known, is doubling and tripling down on the celebration of live pop music (plus some jazz and whatnot) and de-emphasizing the actual awards, even more than usual. You do want to recognize the performers and producers and songwriters who bring us all this music; I certainly found reason to complain about the TV show's seeming erasure of so many nominees and winners. But at the same time, celebration feels like a better mode than competition to be in right now. I wouldn't have minded more of the whatnot—a wider lens on what music sounds and looks like in 2022. A BLACK COFFEE performance, say. An AROOJ AFTAB performance. A tropical Latin performance that's more than bumper music going into and coming out of a commercial. More jazz. If a news show on the same network can make room for a LAURIE ANDERSON segment in a prime slot right before the Grammys themselves, why can't the music show make room for a current-day equivalent? Can an ANDY AKIHO be programmed on the same three-and-a-half-hour music celebration as BTS, BRANDI and BIEBER (all of whom were really, good)? Does the programming vision and dexterity to make that happen still exist? Does the marketing knowhow? I can answer both of those questions with an easy yes. What I'm really asking is if the willpower is there. And I want to believe it is.
Opening: Set
Anyone want to headline COACHELLA a week from Sunday? TMZ reported Monday (and other sites confirmed, though there's been no official announcement) that KANYE WEST, who was scheduled to be the Sunday night headliner on April 17 and 24, has pulled out. Billboard's DAVE BROOKS reports agents were on the phone with GOLDENVOICE's PAUL TOLLETT within an hour of the not so shocking news breaking, and the names being floated include the WEEKND and SILK SONIC. One source told Brooks while Kanye's agency, CAA, was among those who reached out, it doesn't have any particular claim to the slot and Tollett "will book whoever he wants." There's no shortage of major acts either on tour or gearing up to tour in what Pollstar has dubbed "The Year of the Stadium," such as, for example, BAD BUNNY, who just wrapped his indoor El Último Tour Del Mundo and has some time off before he heads outdoors for the World's Hottest Tour. Just sayin'. Radius clauses may or may not come into play—they can always be waived, Brooks notes. Or maybe someone on the second line of the Coachella poster (DOJA CAT, anyone?) steps up to the first line, like they do in basketball? Or maybe Tollett calls ROXY MUSIC and tells them to start their fall reunion tour a few months early and to coax BRIAN ENO to come along, which would be a very old-school Coachella thing to do and which is obviously not going to happen but, hey, still just sayin'? HARRY STYLES is the Friday headliner, BILLIE EILISH is the Saturday headliner and SWEDISH HOUSE MAFIA is the headliner without portfolio and after two lost years it still feels both weird and amazing it's happening at all, and maybe those three headliners and dozens and dozens of really good smaller-font bands (plus a secret, $375-a-person, omakase-only, sushi bar) are enough? Yeah, I know. Anyway, just sayin'. BRITNEY is free, I hear. Literally.
Rest in Peace
JOE MESSINA, who as one of the three featured guitarists in Motown's Funk Brothers is heard on most of the label's classic 1960s and early '70s cuts. That's him doubling James Jamerson's bass line on Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell's "Your Precious Love"... FRANCISCO GONZÁLEZ, a founding member of Los Lobos who went on to become a regional Mexican music performer, a college theater teacher and, most prominently, a maker of custom strings for Mexican guitars... PAMELA ROOKE, who under the singular name JORDAN was a 1970s and '80s British punk style icon, influential in the careers of the Sex Pistols and Vivienne Westwood. She also managed Adam & the Ants and Wide Boy Awake... ANNE PARSONS, longtime president of the Detroit Symphony.
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| - Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator |
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dot.LA |
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| TikTok’s Fingerprints Were All Over The Grammys |
| By Christian Hetrick |
| Given TikTok’s ability to catapult new voices into Gen Z’s consciousness, it was only a matter of time before artists like Emily Bear and Abigail Barlow managed to turn viral videos into a Grammy-winning project. |
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The New York Times |
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| Why the Grammys Couldn’t Resist Jon Batiste |
| By Giovanni Russonello |
| The jazz pianist is an inheritor more than an innovator, but he puts the past to use in service of fun, blending genres and embodying the pleasures of his hometown, New Orleans. |
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Money 4 Nothing |
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| Mat Dryhurst and the Case for Crypto in Music (Part 2) |
| By Saxon Baird, Sam Backer and Mat Dryhurst |
| Part 2 of our conversation with Mat Dryhurst on Crypto’s evolving place in the music industry, both major and independent. Dryhurst has long been one of the most active and articulate proponents of these technologies (and the social formations developing around them). |
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Culture Notes of an Honest Broker |
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| The First Music Streaming Service |
| By Ted Gioia |
| In the 1930s, a Seattle entrepreneur created a successful analog streaming platform-and ran it out of a drugstore. |
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The New Yorker |
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| The Glorious Lightness of Wet Leg’s Rock |
| By Amanda Petrusich |
| On their self-titled début, the band’s members are plainly making each other laugh; anyone else’s enjoyment seems almost incidental. |
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The New York Times |
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| Why We Can’t Quit the Guitar Solo |
| By Nabil Ayers |
| A guitar solo is not just a display of musical showmanship, technical mastery and bravado. At its best, it’s a moment of exquisite vulnerability. |
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Pollstar |
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| El Nuevo Rey Del Estadio: Bad Bunny Jumps To Stadiums With The ‘World’s Hottest Tour’ |
| By Isabela Raygoza |
| It's a brisk foggy night in March, but inside downtown Brooklyn's Barclays Center, it's a sweltering packed house. An immense 53-foot black semi-truck pulls up inside the arena, making its way front and center, and a startlingly loud honk presumes to cue tens of thousands of concertgoers to scream at the top of their lungs. |
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And The Writer Is... |
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| And The Writer Is...Gayle |
| By Ross Golan and Gayle |
| Today’s guest is a 17-year-old singer/songwriter who creates the kind of self-possessed pop music that’s empowering for both artist and audience. Her debut single for Atlantic Records, “abcdefu” has quickly proved a breakout hit. |
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American Songwriter |
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| What it Takes to Make a TikTok Hit |
| By Kathleen Nolan |
| While there is no true formula for creating a great TikTok song, there are ways to play to the app’s algorithm and get people to engage with a song. |
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| what we're into |
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| Music of the day |
| “Ready for You” |
| Black Coffee ft. Celeste |
| From "Subconsciously" (2021). |
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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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