I'm not there for the beauty of my voice or to be the best dancer, I go out to express myself and stir up the audience. I'm like the guy that jumped on stage at a gig and didn't get thrown off. And that's who we perform for too, that guy. | | | | The Prodigy's Keith Flint at Arrow Hall, Mississauga, Ontario, May 26, 1997.
(Kelly Henderson/Toronto Star/Getty Images) | | | | | | “I'm not there for the beauty of my voice or to be the best dancer, I go out to express myself and stir up the audience. I'm like the guy that jumped on stage at a gig and didn't get thrown off. And that's who we perform for too, that guy.”
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| | rantnrave:// Welcome to the Terrible Tuesdays edition of MusicREDEF, featuring TERRIFYING and OUTRAGEOUS content intended to piss off your parents, your children, your local record company exec, your mayor, your cat, someone, anyone. For starters: The word "content." Which pisses off ME. Artists do not make content. They make music. If you must insist on calling it content, please keep your tie tied and your shirt tucked in and please do not stray from the executive suites on the 50th floor. I make content. SOLANGE and KACEY MUSGRAVES make music. Which I sometimes make content about. Actually that's not even true. I write. Go away... For firestarters: KEITH FLINT was the '90s version of the SHOCK-ROCK frontman with the too-loud face and the not-quite-right voice and the snotty attitude all conspiring to produce a sound that legitimately did terrify some upstanding citizens of the 1990s, who were sure the sometime lead singer of the PRODIGY would lead their children down a candy-colored, drug-fueled highway to rave hell. Others were terrified and/or outraged because he didn't make what they considered to be proper rock music and because he did make what they considered to be improper, electronically generated dance music. Also, sometimes he just danced wildly onstage and didn’t do anything else. I've no doubt already used the word "rock" to much in this item, for Flint, who took his life at age 49, was one of the key figures in electronic music's advance toward arena stages and mainstream TV and radio in the Big Beat dance-music era. He was "an absolutely iconic figure for the late '90s" who "physically embodied the anarchic spirit of the rave." I mean, hell, this vocal. And he meant the world to millions of people whom he did not terrify, because he was, as is often the case in these situations, not in fact terrifying. Just a cultural firestarter. RIP... And then there are BOOTLEGS. Which have been around longer than you have, in every format that has been available to be bootlegged, and will continue to be around long after you're gone and the music business has miraculously solved all its other problems. RIHANNA hit #67 on the ITUNES albums chart this past weekend with an unauthorized album of demos and unreleased songs, which, yes, says a little about how easy it seems to be for anybody to upload pretty much anything to a streaming music service (hello, internet!) and a little about how easy it is for anyone else to find it, inasmuch as all one has to do is type "Rihanna" in a search box. Or, if you're a few years older, perhaps you'll type "STEELY DAN" in that box, and if you're on SPOTIFY the first thing you'll see is this, which has been around in various forms for years and which—educated guess here—neither DONALD FAGEN nor UNIVERSAL MUSIC has ever signed off on. Forty or 50 years ago, you could walk into a record store and find something similar on vinyl, and 40 or 50 years from now all you'll have to do is think the word "bootleg" to yourself and all the rare and unreleased SKY FERREIRA your grandmother ever wanted will immediately start playing on your internal hard drive. And the problem won't be the format then any more than the problem is the format now. Don't blame APPLE or Spotify. Blame yourself. You're the one who went looking for it... How terrifying does this KANYE WEST contract sound? And is it in fact terrifying, or does it just sound that way? (That's an actual question. I have no idea)... HOWARD STERN was once terrifying, too. Now he's an ace publicist and marketer for 25-year-old rock songs... RIP also: STEVE JAMESON. | | | - Matty Karas, curator |
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| Is the legendary guitarist and singer the last of his kind? | | |
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| Solange Knowles's vastly-anticipated new album, "When I Get Home," is set to shake the cosmos and defy boundaries. To celebrate, writer Stevona Elem-Rogers meets her in her hometown of Houston to discuss music, belonging, and becoming Solange. | | |
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| The new HBO doc about harrowing testimony of abuse by Michael Jackson raises deep questions about American faith. | | |
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| “Leaving Neverland” should change the way we hear his music forever. | | |
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| Having the support of 'stan twitter' and fan accounts has been integral for artists like Gunna, Travis Scott, Doja Cat, and more. | | |
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| The recording industry’sefforts to build playlists or influence playlists have fallen short though lack of imagination, global thinking, context and shareability, but that just means that the industry is free to work more creatively with the wider playlist community. | | |
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| Read our September 1997 cover story on The Prodigy.. | | |
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| "I'm not there for the beauty of my voice or to be the best dancer, I go out to express myself and stir up the audience. I'm like the guy that jumped on stage at a gig and didn't get thrown off. And that's who we perform for too, that guy." | | |
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| How an English-teaching expat cracked the K-pop biz. | | |
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| In South Korea, all military age males are required to serve, meaning K-pop idols sometimes have to put their career on hiatus for up to two years. | | |
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| In a recent group exhibition, a co-working space provided a perfect setting for sound art installations and performances. | | |
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| 30 years ago, four school friends from Long Island changed the world. Angus Batey pieces together the story of De La Soul, their groundbreaking debut, and what happened afterwards | | |
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| Musician Duff McKagan (founding member Guns N' Roses) sits down with Milana (Rabkin) Lewis (Co-Founder, Stem Disintermedia) to discuss the early days of Guns N' Roses, making money (or not) in the music business, becoming successful, getting sober, taking control of finances, and living a punk rock life. | | |
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| You want to be an accountant? Sure; go to school, do some research, become an accountant. Want to be a plumber? Sure; learn the trade, do some research, be a plumber. Want to make a living playing music? Go f*** yourself, figure it out, good luck, and prepare to be destroyed. | | |
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| Merge co-founders Laura Ballance and Mac McCaughan talk Spotify and indie music. | | |
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| The mambo got a foothold in New York's 1940s and '50s melting pot, bringing Jews, Italians, Puerto Ricans and others in step, as portrayed in 'The Mamboniks,' premiering March 3 | | |
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| Today's artists earn money in more ways than ever, which fuels the debates on how to best manage their careers when they die. | | |
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| Meet The 1975's worst kept secret. | | |
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| A new documentary detailing allegations of sexual abuse has the pop star’s most activist supporters ready to jump on Twitter and YouTube to defend his name. | | |
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