When things happen, when they started taking these babies away from their mothers, taking these children away from their mothers and putting them in cages, it hurts my heart. It bothers me. The best I can do is just put it in one of the songs to keep the people aware that this is not right. | | | | Mavis Staples performs at MusiCares Person of the Year concert honoring Dolly Parton, Los Angeles, Feb. 8, 2019.
(Kevin Mazur/Getty Images) | | | | |  | “When things happen, when they started taking these babies away from their mothers, taking these children away from their mothers and putting them in cages, it hurts my heart. It bothers me. The best I can do is just put it in one of the songs to keep the people aware that this is not right.”
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| | rantnrave:// The NEW YORK TIMES published a disturbing story about RYAN ADAMS that levels charges of inappropriate contact with underage girls and a pattern of abuse and control over the careers of women he has pulled into his orbit, including his ex-wife, MANDY MOORE; his ex-fiancée MEGAN BUTTERWORTH; and PHOEBE BRIDGERS (Adams said the accusations are exaggerations or "outright false"). The story echoes those we read about women in production in the ANNENBERG INCLUSION INITIATIVE'S 2018 report. The report found that one of the career barriers many face is being sexualized and stereotyped by gender. It lays out a correlation between this behavior and a lack of representation for women in the music industry. When you're the only woman in the room—and that happens all the time in every corner of the business—you are seen as the "other." That othering is how women's skills get discounted, and why it's easy for their colleagues to dismiss their contributions. It amplifies gender stereotypes that impact what kind of jobs women are considered for, and helps explain why they find themselves on the receiving end of unwanted "innuendo, undesired attention, propositions" and experiencing a sense of "being personally unsafe in work situations." British music photographer SARAH GINN told ELLE UK in 2017 about the insidious problem of men hitting on women and then withholding promised work as retribution if romantic encounters don't go the way they wanted. Ginn was one of several women who chimed in for my report for REFINERY29 on what women want to happen to improve working conditions in music. I heard numerous comments about wanting to network without having sexual strings attached, both before and after it was published. The behavior Adams is accused of is extreme, although certainly not unheard of (according to the Times, he told one 16-year-old girl via text, "If people knew they would say I was like R KELLEY lol"). The outcomes that many of his accusers describe are familiar to far too many women in music: having your livelihood rest on the whims of someone who doesn't care about your talent, doesn't respect your workplace and thinks they are entitled to your body. This has cost many women lucrative jobs, forced some out of the industry altogether, and caused trauma. This isn't the last time you'll see a story like this. But it can be a turning point. How do we fix this for an industry far beyond Ryan Adams? Start hiring more women in all jobs, not just PR or as backup singers, or whatever else you think of as a job for women. Empower women and give them a genuine seat at the table, and behind the studio desk, and a place on road crews. Listen to them... If you're looking a less toxic read, SHE SHREDS has a great essay (with women to the front) about the transformation the guitar is undergoing in pop music. I hope this trend brings some guitar dominance to that genre... QOBUZ launches in the U.S. today. The high-resolution download and subscription service enters a crowded market, but U.S. managing director DAN MACKTA sounds sure that Qobuz's plan to attract dedicated music fans can reach its niche. It would be nice to have some higher quality audio files to play through my SONOS speakers. | | | - Courtney E. Smith, guest curator |
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 | The New York Times |
| Several women say Adams offered to jumpstart their music careers, then pursued them sexually and in some cases retaliated when they spurned him. He denies the claims. | | |
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 | Billboard |
| A new album, ‘Live in London,’ and a schedule full of 80th birthday celebrations demonstrate the power of the soul legend speaking her truth. | | |
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 | Curbed Seattle |
| Craftsmans are for punks, too. | | |
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 | VIBE Magazine |
| When Drake released his breakout mixtape So Far Gone in 2009, his hometown of Toronto had already been a hotbed for hip-hop talent, but despite the success of acts like Kardinal Offishall and K'naan, no acts had reached true superstardom in the United States. That all ended with Drake. | | |
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 | The Muse |
| After a particularly lackluster 2018 VMAs, so sleep-inducing that the big opening number was the former Vine-turned-pop star Shawn Mendes, New Yorker critic Doreen St. Felix commented that “the first true post-millennial V.M.A.s, was so bereft of shock, sex, and offense that it seemed barely to register.” | | |
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 | UPROXX |
| The country-rock superstar is the better, more inclusive version of the ’A Star Is Born’ character. | | |
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 | Rolling Stone |
| French music-streaming service Qobuz, an audiophile favorite, will make its American debut Thursday. | | |
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 | Fast Company |
| The Oscar-nominated composer has become one of the go-to artists for directors like Barry Jenkins and Adam McKay. | | |
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 | She Shreds |
| It’s an instrument that has always been prevalent in chart-topping tracks, acting as foundation for countless hooks and choruses comprising the varied language of pop sounds. However, recent history has seen the guitar’s presence in mainstream pop dwindle. | | |
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 | Variety |
| When is a dance a dance and not just a move, and can you copyright it? That seems to be the lynchpin question in a series of lawsuits filed this month against " Fortnite" creator Epic Games by a rapper, an actor, and an Instagram star. | | |
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 | National Review Online |
| He is wasting the prime years of his unmatched talent on trivialities. | | |
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 | Lefsetz Letter |
| What kind of crazy, f***ed-up world do we live in where Michelle Obama gets the biggest ovation at the Grammys? One in which Beto O'Rourke holds a counter-rally to the President in his hometown of El Paso and makes you believe, despite lacking charisma and a stage-ready voice. | | |
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 | Pacific Standard |
| How a gay Christian rocker created a new life after Christian radio rejected him. | | |
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 | BuzzFeed |
| The 23-year-old has landed the difficult leap from YouTube sensation to real-life star, but she still doesn't know what she's doing: "I'm still finding my feet pretty much." | | |
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 | The New Yorker |
| As two midwinter New York concerts made plain, early-music performers have ventured beyond the repertory’s familiar names. | | |
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 | DJBooth |
| This wonderful field grows more and more uneasy by the day. Because of the Internet, words are no longer quite as premium. But writing is just as important today as it ever has been. | | |
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 | NPR |
| The voices of Amelia Meath, Molly Erin Sarlé and Alexandra Sauser-Monnig come together behind the Tiny Desk, with songs that conjure a simpler life: dogs, friends, moonlight or skinny dipping. | | |
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 | NBC News |
| After an inauspicious start, AirPods have "gone viral," according to one analyst, and CEO Tim Cook has described them as a "cultural phenomenon." | | |
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| The New York Times |
| That song from the movie? The one that got stuck inside your head? A chat with the guy who wrote it. | | |
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| Rolling Stone |
| John Fogerty, Keith Urban, Lisa Marie Presley and others involved in NBC’s new tribute show reflect on the lasting impact of the King’s ’68 career milestone | | |
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 | YouTube |
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