I play music vibrationally so people can feel good – I don’t care about playing some rare f***ing tune so that three guys at the back can nod to themselves at how clever I am. That whole crate-digger persona thing just kills me – I am all about finding new records but I do not pontificate on it and I definitely don’t base my identity as an artist on it. If that’s the only way you can be interesting, well, then maybe you’re not very interesting! | | | | Blues great Jimmy Reed's guitar, Apollo Theater, New York, circa 1960.
(Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images) | | | | | | “I play music vibrationally so people can feel good – I don’t care about playing some rare f***ing tune so that three guys at the back can nod to themselves at how clever I am. That whole crate-digger persona thing just kills me – I am all about finding new records but I do not pontificate on it and I definitely don’t base my identity as an artist on it. If that’s the only way you can be interesting, well, then maybe you’re not very interesting!”
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| | rantnrave:// "There are no quick fixes here," says TINA TCHEN, the TIME'S UP co-founder who the RECORDING ACADEMY has brought in to lead its task force on inclusion and diversity. And that seems like a good start, both the hire and the idea—that this is a deeply rooted problem that's going to take a broad, long-term effort to address, rather than simply putting more women onstage at next year's GRAMMYS. (But you can do that too, right?) The task force, which NARAS announced after a widely criticized Grammy ceremony and awkward aftermath, will include reps from around the music industry; a strong outsider at the head of the table will add credibility and a dose of diversity for the task force itself. And, perhaps, a sense of perspective. Tchen, who was First Lady MICHELLE OBAMA's chief of staff and director of the White House Council on Women and Girls, tells BILLBOARD, "Gender discrimination has transcended time, geography and culture. It's been around in every kind of workplace, in our homes and schools. So it's going to take us longer than an awards cycle or two to really address these issues in any industry." Which doesn't absolve the Academy for mistakes made, or take the pressure off finding solutions. Rather, it sets a framework. Run the world, girls... Q-TIP, QUESTLOVE, COMMON, MC LYTE, MIMI VALDÉS, LL COOL J and others will form a different task force, this one convened by the KENNEDY CENTER to expand the public's knowledge of hip-hop while strengthening the Center's own hip-hop culture program. Q-Tip is overseeing the Kennedy Center Hip Hop Culture Council, and he explains. It's nice to see someone in Washington supporting culture. Just sayin'... This blind audition on THE VOICE... And, bling bling, this one... All three majors have committed to sharing their proceeds from SPOTIFY's upcoming stock offering with their artists. But indie labels and artists who are distributed by the majors want their share too... Party like it's 1968, or maybe 1988: Fifty years after disrupting rock and roll with the gloriously loud, messy and galvanizing KICK OUT THE JAMS and disrupting politics by soundtracking the protests outside the Democratic National Convention, MC5 guitarist WAYNE KRAMER and a band of disciples including SOUNDGARDEN's KIM THAYIL and FUGAZI's BRENDAN CANTY will re-create that album on tour under the banner MC50. And three decades after rhyming the known universe into submission with the hip-hop classics PAID IN FULL and FOLLOW THE LEADER, president ERIC B. and microphone fiend RAKIM will tour next month because, and I quote from a tweet they've already deleted for some reason, "It's time to show you"... I like to think the great Nashville indie-rocker SOCCER MOMMY called her new album CLEAN so at least one service would go ahead and title it "Clean [Explicit]." Thank you AMAZON and NAPSTER for coming through... GOOGLE SONG MAKER, I kind of love you. | | | - Matty Karas, curator |
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| Jay Penske, the scion of an auto-racing empire, has a legitimate shot to turn the baby-boomer culture bible around—if he can make it safe for millennials. | | |
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| With "Atlanta," Donald Glover created a series that forces people to see how ridiculous the world is, even if they aren't directly affected. | | |
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| The longtime voice of Judas Priest explained the origins of the band's new album, "Firepower," his darker lyrical turn on the record, and even guitarist Glenn Tipton’s struggle with Parkinson’s Disease. | | |
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| Brazil’s musicians have historically had a hard time becoming household names anywhere but Brazil, which accounts for just 1 percent of the $16 billion global music market. Doing so could come with a big payoff. | | |
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| The R&B singer Tank has had plenty of hits in his decades in the music industry - he worked closely with Aaliyah, and did good numbers on his own, but how did streaming on Spotify help bring him to the next level and into a new era? | | |
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| Three pieces of legislation that aim to update how royalties are paid to songwriters and artists — the Music Modernization Act, the CLASSICS Act and the AMP Act — are going before Congress this year. NMPA president/CEO David Israelite and RIAA president Mitch Glazier argue for combining them into a single piece of legislation. | | |
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| Focused on female inclusion and diversity issues, the force will be charged with identifying "the various barriers and unconscious biases faced by underrepresented communities throughout the music industry and, specifically, across Recording Academy operations and policies,” including the Grammys telecast, the Academy said in a statement. | | |
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| Eight fan-recorded performances, spanning from 1902 to 1970, that capture the best of not-for-profit bootlegging. | | |
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| That’s why I go to see music, because it re-fills you with hope. WeTransfer Presents "Friends of Wonder" - a documentary film by Kurt Vincent & Irene Chin about Courtney Barnett, Kurt Vile, and the community of the Loew's Jersey Theater. | | |
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| Three veterans offer advice for navigating the DIY tour circuit. | | |
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| Growing up in Sacramento 25 years ago, I couldn’t conjure anything cooler about the city than Russ Solomon and Tower Records. Today, I still can’t. He and Tower were vastly cooler than anything in "Lady Bird." And I loved "Lady Bird!" | | |
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| With the collab "Meant to Be," a New York pop singer has the longest Hot Country Songs chart Number One with a female lead. | | |
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| All three majors have committed to sharing Spotify stock proceeds with their artists, as has independent label organization Merlin, but indie body WIN (Worldwide Independent Network) wants Universal, Warner and Sony Music to compensate indie labels distributed by them "their corresponding share of any pay out received." | | |
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| The most interesting artists are the ones that establish contradictions and spend their careers negotiating the space between these poles. | | |
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| More than a year after his death, the poet, novelist and singer-songwriter is experiencing a cultural resurgence in the city of his birth. | | |
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| Maverick jazz guitarist Bill Frisell moved back to New York City and looked deep into his own catalog of tunes for a new solo guitar recording. Our interview. | | |
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| Sirius XM should ban the rocker over his “crisis actors" comments about the Parkland school shooting. | | |
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| This brother from Brentwood, L.I. takes us from '80s park jams to his upcoming new album. | | |
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| And gave her the strength to embrace her inner weirdo. | | |
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| One of America's most respected media institutions is hiding a secret that's anything but tiny. | | |
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