If I'm going to sing like someone else, then I don't need to sing at all. | | | | Billie Holiday, circa 1954, already tired of women's struggles to be heard in the music industry.
(Charles Hewitt/Picture Post/Getty Images) | | | | |  | “If I'm going to sing like someone else, then I don't need to sing at all.”
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| | rantnrave:// Oooowwwwwww!!! This novella-length CNN investigation into JAMES BROWN and a circus singer and the possibility that he was exactly as problematic a human being as you thought he was, and that he may have been murdered, which probably had not occurred to you, and—huhhh!—just wow. Take the day off, if you need to, to read it; there's a lot to take in. And maybe take time along the way to ponder the fact that he was one of the most important musicians of the 20th century; that he changed the direction of popular music in ways that still reverberatentoday; that he treated a number of women very badly; that he may have treated JACQUE HOLLANDER that much worse; that he was a crucial civil rights figure; that we are sometimes left to reconcile all that and more into a single life, and that sometimes we can't, or maybe we don't want to... It's a man's man's man's world, James Brown once soulsplained, for better or worse, mostly worse. Further proof arrived Tuesday in data that should bother everyone, male and female, who has any stake in music. USC's ANNENBERG INCLUSION INITIATIVE studied the 633 songs on BILLBOARD's HOT 100 year-end charts between 2012 and 2018 and found they were written by a total of 3,330 songwriters (I know, I know; subject for another rant, another day, but here's my executive summary: Don't worry about it). Some 88 percent of them were men. Worry about that. And that, relatively speaking, isn't the bad news. This is: Of those 633 songs, exactly three were written solely by women. One. Two. Three. Ninety-nine percent of the biggest pop songs of the past seven years had at least one male writer. "So, what does that do to the lyrics?," the report's lead author, DR. STACY L. SMITH, asks. "It's a male saturated viewpoint of the lyrics that saturate the charts." And then there's this: The ratio of male to female producers on these songs was 47 to 1. And though the industry has been talking about this exact issue for a long while, the report suggests the numbers aren't improving from year to year. Women interviewed for the study share some stories that will make you wonder if this is the 1950s, 1970 or 2010s, and if there's any difference. Women objectified. Check. Creative work hogged by men. Check. Doors closed. Check. There's a way to fix this. All it requires is willpower, buy-in and persistence. Easy. Or not. The RECORDING ACADEMY took concrete steps this week. And then possibly a step backward, too, if this report about ARIANA GRANDE pulling out of Sunday's GRAMMY AWARDS turns out to be true. This year's slate of nominees gives the Grammys a golden chance to showcase lots and lots of talented and popular women, if only the show will allow itself to... Proposed new digital publishing rates... 21 SAVAGE, fighting back... If you grew up in Boston, you probably grew up with "CHARLIE ON THE MTA," a folk song about a poor guy who had enough money to get on the subway but not enough to get off (Boston can be weird). The song was written as a political protest against a subway price hike, and after doing its job—the price hike was quickly scrapped—it turned into the official unofficial Boston subway song. Charlie is still stuck on the subway 70 years later, as far as anyone in the city knows. The KINGSTON TRIO did the popular version and two women wrote it (see? It can be done!), including lyricist JACQUELINE STEINER, who died in January. RIP... RIP yet another behind-the-scenes folk legend, IZZY YOUNG. | | | - Matty Karas, curator |
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 | CNN |
| She says James Brown raped her. She also says someone murdered him. And others share Jacque Hollander’s suspicions. Twelve years after Brown’s death, nearly a dozen people who knew him are calling for an autopsy or a criminal investigation. | | |
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 | USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative |
| Gender and race/ethnicity of artists, songwriters & producers across 700 popular songs from 2012–2018. | | |
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 | Refinery29 |
| In news that will shock no one with ears, women did not may strides to even up representation for their gender in music last year. | | |
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 | The DataFace |
| Data shows that streaming services have supplanted radio DJs as the tastemakers of the music industry. | | |
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 | Complex |
| Everyone from Rich the Kid to YG are getting Hollywood smiles at Bedford Dental Group. Here's how Dr. Daniel Naysan became rap's most in-demand dentist. | | |
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 | Variety |
| Pity not the plight of the remix producer: Despite the fact that most producers hired to rework popular songs don’t share in publishing revenue on compositions they re-imagine, in the Spotify era, a remixed version of a song can sometimes eclipse the original recording, generating millions on the master side. | | |
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 | MTV News |
| With eight breakout contenders, it's the most stacked Best New Artist class ever. | | |
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 | Billboard |
| In a twist not even M. Night Shyamalan could conceive of, it seemed the 2019 best picture Oscar race was coming down to two controversial biopics about musicians: "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "Green Book." | | |
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 | The Washington Post |
| A Grammy nominee for best new artist, he surprised everyone with his quick success, including himself. | | |
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 | The Guardian |
| The much-maligned mid-00s remix craze was, thankfully, short-lived. With KDA’s new hit, it may be in for a comeback. | | |
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 | Afropunk |
| On February 5th, BET debuts an original scripted series, a love letter to the iconic music-performance and dance program, 'Soul Train.' | | |
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 | PopMatters |
| Four decades after it unfairly became a casualty of the "Disco Sucks" movement, maligned as a cheesy artifact of the era like high platform soled shoes and white polyester suits, Sister Sledge's 1979 album "We Are Family" remains one of the most solid soul collections ever put on wax. | | |
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 | Rolling Stone |
| Listeners continue to crave unhurried music: The average tempo of major hits in the last two years has stayed around 93 beats per minute. | | |
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 | Forbes |
| With 500,000 registered musicians and 50,000,000 users, Bandsintown, the website that brings together touring artists and concertgoers, is one of the biggest resources for musicians. I spoke with CEO Fabrice Sergent about how they are working with that massive community. | | |
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 | GQ |
| The 21-year-old R&B phenom is a world-class singer, nominated for five awards this year. But the true power of her art resides in the mystique she’s constructed through concealment. | | |
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 | Bloomberg |
| After a decade of plunging sales because of illegal downloads, big music labels have seen revenues climb since 2014—spurring Vivendi to consider selling a stake in music giant Universal. | | |
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 | Red Bull Music Academy |
| Nate Patrin delves into the extensive history of one of hip-hop’s most recognizable drum breaks. | | |
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 | Garage Magazine |
| The singer is facing a plagiarism lawsuit, but is she copying or just ‘referencing’? And who gets to decide? | | |
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| Rolling Stone |
| Decades-spanning report finds the greater the difference between artists on a song, the more likely it is to succeed on the charts. | | |
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 | Vulture |
| "Yo, can you get some vegetarian tacos for the crib?" Ghostface Killah asked a helper. He was wearing a bright-yellow puffer jacket with a yellow faux-fur-trimmed hoodie that made him stand out even more than he already stands out, oozing badassery wherever he goes. | | |
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 | YouTube |
| | | | | | Written after she caught her husband, trombonist Jimmy Monroe, cheating. “Lyin' to me was worse than what he could’ve done with any b****," she later wrote. "Take a bath man, I said, don’t explain.” |
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