| It's wonderful to watch. We were so totally out of touch with each other. |
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| quote of the day |
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| rantnrave:// |
Tok of the Town
You may not be cut out for the music business if you, like me, see the Billboard headline “TikTok Is Launching Careers for Tomorrow’s Music Executives” and assume it’s going to be a story about those future execs parlaying entry-level jobs at the video app into slightly-less-entry-level jobs at QUALITY CONTROL (psst...) or UNITEDMASTERS. Because it’s actually about TIKTOK users, with no entry level jobs in sight, who've been uploading video clips with music recommendations and maybe a little music news, finding an audience, and parlaying *that* into major-label A&R gigs, curator jobs at SPOTIFY and DJ slots at SIRIUSXM. One of the aspiring execs profiled by Billboard’s KRISTIN ROBINSON just launched his own label using TikTok’s SOUNDON as his distributor. Of course. If LIL NAS X and PINKPANTHERESS can do it, why can’t their future managers, agents and label bosses? Call it DIY corner-officing. “I wasn’t born into this business, so I had to find my own way in,” says JAYLIN HAWKINS, who turned their TikTok feed into a social media job at UnitedMasters. That’s one lesson. Another, from one-time WARNER college rep (old school!) and current TikTok curation superstar ARI ELKINS: “It’s crazy how you can build something yourself and leapfrog these [early steps] in the music business. Now you don’t have to wait on anyone.” Either way: Old story. New plot.
Meanwhile, DAVID TURNER, who does a consistently great job looking under the hood of the music biz in his PENNY FRACTIONS newsletter, weaves several dozen links from the past couple years into an illuminating financial history of TikTok as well as a rocky and complicated love story between TikTok and record companies, which has the aura of two dance partners who, well into the night, still haven’t figured out if they should be holding hands or not. Maybe those next-gen execs will figure it out for them.
Dot Dot Dot
BAD BUNNY’s $435 million gross from his 43-show WORLD’S HOTTEST TOUR is the highest grossing year any touring artist has ever had, Pollstar says, topping ED SHEERAN's $432 million take in 2018... WHITE LOTUS theme becomes dancefloor hit... Final round of GRAMMY voting began Wednesday... HILDUR GUÐNADÓTTIR’s TÁR score (not enough original music) and DOJA CAT’s ELVIS song, “VEGAS” (too much interpolating) are officially ineligible for OSCARS... BRAD MEHLDAU demonstrates how the BEATLES swing.
Rest in Peace
STEPHEN “TWITCH” BOSS, dancer, singer and, most familiarly, enormously popular in-house DJ on “Ellen.” “I don’t think anyone has showcased the joy dance can bring, in an era when dance is everywhere, on our screens big and small, as well as Twitch did,” Nadira Goffe wrote in Slate. “It’s heartbreaking,” Justin Timberlake tweeted, “to hear that someone who brought so much joy to a room, was hurting so much behind closed doors”... New York rapper GRAND DADDY I.U., whose best work was for Cold Chillin’ Records in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s... Puerto Rican salsa singer LALO RODRIGUEZ.
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| - Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator |
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Penny Fractions |
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| TikTok Cannot Afford the Music Industry |
| By David Turner |
| The recorded music industry or at least its executives' mixed perception of the company obscures TikTok’s own bumpy ride to global reach. |
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Rolling Stone |
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| How Rosalía Became Pop’s Most Fearless Superstar |
| By Cat Cardenas |
| The Spanish artist resisted industry pressures, refused to compromise and made one of 2022’s boldest albums. At the end of an incredible year, she opens up about all of it. |
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The New York Times |
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| Atlanta Rapper Gunna Reaches Plea Deal in YSL Gang Case |
| By Joe Coscarelli and Richard Fausset |
| The artist born Sergio Kitchens was among the 28 people, including the rap star Young Thug, who were charged this year with violating Georgia’s racketeering laws. |
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Culture Notes of an Honest Broker |
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| How Neuroscience Confirms the Most Ancient Myths About Music |
| By Ted Gioia |
| In this extract from my book 'Music to Raise the Dead' I reveal a surprising convergence of modern science and the oldest song traditions-and a pathway to an alternative musicology of immense value in the current day. |
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Dazed Digital |
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| The best K-pop tracks of 2022 |
| By Taylor Glasby |
| From Billlie to Ive, Dreamcatcher to J-Hope, we look back on the K-pop tracks that ruled the last twelve months. |
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Guitar World |
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| The 10 best guitar solos of 2022 |
| By Jonathan Horsley |
| As voted for by you, and featuring the lead guitar skills of Nita Strauss, Sophie Lloyd, John Frusciante, Polyphia, Steve Vai and more, here are the solos that lit up your year. |
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| what we're into |
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| Music of the day |
| “My Ma Was Good” |
| Nakhane |
| From their "Leading Lines" EP, out Friday on BMG. |
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| Video of the day |
| “Peace on Earth / Little Drummer Boy” |
| David Bowie and Bing Crosby |
| Ian Fraser, Larry Grossman and Alan Kohan wrote "Peace on Earth" in 75 minutes after Bowie walked into the TV taping and said he hated "Little Drummer Boy." Bowie and Crosby—who died a month later—had an hour to learn it. |
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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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