| Many of the challenges I faced as a musician and label owner earlier in my career are now mostly alleviated for modern musicians who have access to powerful, global, and autonomous solutions. These same tools have serious potential for improving music’s bleak gender equity, as well as diversity and inclusion for all groups across the independent sector. | | |
| |  | Pharoah Sanders and Sam "Floating Points" Shepherd.
(Eric Welles-Nyström/Shore Fire Media) |
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| | | “Many of the challenges I faced as a musician and label owner earlier in my career are now mostly alleviated for modern musicians who have access to powerful, global, and autonomous solutions. These same tools have serious potential for improving music’s bleak gender equity, as well as diversity and inclusion for all groups across the independent sector.” | |
| | Change Agents
It's exhausting to have to read yet another study of the many ways women are held back across the music industry—but not nearly as exhausting, I can only imagine, as being a woman who has to keep living through this. And working through this. MIDIA RESEARCH, in partnership with TUNECORE and BELIEVE, interviewed 401 female artists, songwriters, producers and DJs for its "Be the Change" report and found, for example, that 90 percent of the women had experienced "unconscious bias," 63 percent felt excluded from songwriting and production gigs (this perception is backed up by data), and 81 percent think it's "harder for female artists to get recognition than male artists." They face ageism, pay disparity, a lack of female role models and the weirdly persistent expectation that they'll eventually give up their careers to raise children. "Why do women leave music or not go into it?," the report asks. "For some, there's 'only so much s*** you can take.'"
The biggest problem, women reported, is sexual harassment and objectification. Some 82 percent said they had experienced harassment themselves, with 27 percent saying it happens frequently. The same day the report was released, Minneapolis indie rocker SEAN TILLMANN, better known as HAR MAR SUPERSTAR, publicly responded to multiple women who have come forward this week to accuse him of harassment, grooming and "physical sexual assault." He called the women "brave" and admitted to "harming people around me and failing them and myself" with "a toxic mixture of alcohol, drugs, and cavalier sexuality." But he also denied the account of the first woman to come forward. She told the STAR TRIBUNE she's still haunted by the sound of his belt jangling from when, she says, he unbuckled his pants, exposed himself and attacked her. Hours earlier on Thursday, Pitchfork shared the accounts of seven women, most of them fans, most of them young, accusing another veteran indie rocker, MARK KOZELEK, of grooming, exposure, unwanted touching and what in one case the site called "nonconsensual intercourse." This was a followup to another round of accusations last summer. Kozelek denied all of them in a statement through his attorney.
In his blanket Twitter apology, Tillmann wrote, "I've realized that this type of behavior is a problem in music and entertainment communities everywhere, and until very recently it was shrugged off as 'sex, drugs and rock and roll.'" One of the problems with that passive deflection—"it was shrugged off"—is its refusal to acknowledge who was doing the shrugging off. Most of the women who accused Kozelek and Tillmann, according to their accounts, did no such thing, not in the moment and not today. One of the recommendations the "Be the Change" report makes is simple and straightforward: "Bring more female creators into the industry." There's also an ask for more women in leadership roles. Fewer people to shrug off terrible behavior. Fewer people to think everyone does it. Fewer people to do it. Fewer people to exclude creative talent just because they look like they might be stay-at-home moms one day. More people to write songs and produce them. More people to create paths and opportunities for those songwriters and producers. More people to move the business forward while writing fewer reports like this.
It's Friday
And I'm in love with this image of death, rebirth and immortality in GIOVANNI RUSSONELLO's review of the magnificent collaboration between SAM "FLOATING POINTS" SHEPHERD, PHAROAH SANDERS and the LONDON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA on PROMISES, which consists of a single 46-minute piece rendered over nine tracks: "When [Sanders] plays his final notes of the album, at the end of Track 7, he does not so much disappear as become one with Shepherd’s web of humming synthesizers." My kind of singularity. The album is out today on LUAKA BOP... Singer/songwriter SERPENTWITHFEET skirts the overlapping edges of R&B and gospel in his warm, ambitious, deeply personal second album, DEACON... Reggaeton singer/songwriter KAROL G's third arrives nearly a year and a half after her NICKI MINAJ collab "TUSA," which was its first single. She finished the album early in the pandemic, wasn't feeling it and pretty much started over... 24KGOLDN's first arrives eight months after this out-of-nowhere 2020 pop hit... CARRIE UNDERWOOD sings the Christian hymns she grew up with... The ALCHEMIST produces cult hip-hop duo ARMAND HAMMER.
Also today: New music from ROD WAVE, YBN NAHMIR, NF, EL MICHELS AFFAIR, DEATH FROM ABOVE 1979, DR. LONNIE SMITH (with a little help from IGGY POP), ELVIS COSTELLO (remixes), XIU XIU, TUNE-YARDS, the ANTLERS, TOMAHAWK (Mike Patton, Duane Denison, Trevor Dunn and John Stanier), EVANESCENCE (first album of new material in 10 years), UMI, BEN HOWARD, YOUNG DOLPH & KEY GLOCK, BENNY BLANCO, VIC MENSA, SCARYPOOLPARTY, JOHN SMITH (link provided to save you a challenging Google), FIRST AID KIT (live LEONARD COHEN tribute album), ESTHER ROSE, SARA WATKINS, BRIGITTE DEMEYER, MINOR MOON, FOR THOSE I LOVE, LOST GIRLS (Jenny Hval and Håvard Volden), STRING NOISE, HANNAH PEEL, TOMAGA, CLARK, LONEY DEAR, NAOKO SAKATA, REAL ESTATE, NOGA EREZ, WITCHSEEKER, GENGHIS TRON, GHOSTS OF ATLANTIS, SUZI QUATRO, NEW MOON JELLY ROLL FREEDOM ROCKERS (Charlie Musselwhite, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Jimbo Mathus, Luther Dickinson, Cody Dickinson and the late Jim Dickinson), DJ MUGGS & FLEE LORD, SAIGON, BLUEBUCKSCLAN, FLOATIE, '68, KALI MASI, ANNA FOX ROCHINSKI, CITIZEN, CIVIC, CATHAL COUGHLAN, RENÉE REED ad TUNS... And a new old TAYLOR SWIFT song (with help from MAREN MORRIS) and new new ones from DEMI LOVATO and LIL NAS X.
Etc Etc Etc
"SHOPLIFTERS OF THE WORLD," on streaming platforms and in theaters today, is "based on true intentions"—a real-life story of a teenager who was planning to force a Colorado station, at gunpoint, to play nothing but SMITHS songs, but who lost his nerve when he got there. The story grew into an urban legend in which, naturally, he succeeded. Guess which way the movie goes. It's a "sweetly nostalgic look at lost boys and lonely girls" whose favorite band has just broken up, writes the New York Times' JEANNETTE CATSOULIS... (And yes this is, to say the least, an awful week to open a movie about guns in Colorado, no matter how sweet and lighthearted)... On Saturday, HBO premieres DAN LINDSAY and T.J. MARTIN's TINA TURNER documentary, TINA—"a beautiful, moving film," says Vulture's JEN CHANEY, that "frames itself as the final word on this music legend, strongly implying in its closing moments that this two-hour movie is essentially Turner’s farewell to the wider world"... British Prime Minister BORIS JOHNSON told Parliament Thursday that music "is a massively important part of the economy" and he shares the frustration of musicians who are livid that Brexit has left them unable to tour Europe without work visas. "We must fix it," said Johnson, who failed to mention that he was instrumental in breaking it... The 20 cents worth of cryptocurrency that came with copies of BJÖRK's 2017 album UTOPIA is now worth a lot less than 20 cents... Happy birthday to REDEF CEO JASON HIRSCHHORN, my boss and my friend of more than 20 years, who keeps me honest and curious and awash in JODECI recommendations.
Rest in Peace
BERTRAND TAVERNIER, who directed DEXTER GORDON in the great ROUND MIDNIGHT.
| | | Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator |
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| |  | Pitchfork |
| | Meet the Experimental Musicians Who Built Their Own Streaming Service | | by Andy Cush | | Unsatisfied with the corporate streaming model, an idealistic group of avant-garde improvisers created a small-scale alternative-and want other artists to do the same. | |
 | Billboard |
| | Is It Time to Retire Gendered Categories for Music Awards? | | by Stephen Daw | | As non-binary artists continue to call for fair representation, awards shows contend with the established practice of separating categories by gender. | |
 | Slate |
| | Verzuz Has Been a Music Nerd’s Dream Show--Even if It May Not Last | | by Nitish Pahwa | | The viral music competition show was inspired by the lockdown. Can it outlive it? | |
 | Midia Research |
| | Be the Change: Women Making Music | | by Hanna Kahlert, Srishti Das and Kriss Thakrar | | Gendered expectations have skewed recognition and reward in the music industry. | |
 | Variety |
| | How Creator Services Can Advance Gender Equity in Music: Guest Post by Songtrust’s Molly Neuman | | by Molly Neuman | | Throughout my music career, I’ve experienced numerous shifts in the ways that the music industry operates, witnessing these changes from the perspective of a songwriter, performer, label owner, and industry executive. I’ve often considered how companies that embrace the hard work that musicians and songwriters might not want to do themselves can provide value and health to our industry. | |
 | The Attic |
| | Poly Styrene: The Black Punk Trailblazer The Scene Forgot | | by Ashley Reese | | Why was it so hard to finance a relatively low-budget documentary about someone who is now regarded as one of the most consequential figures of punk history? | |
 | Vulture |
| | Did 'Genius: Aretha' Really Need to Exist? | | by Craig Jenkins | | It’s not awful, but it’s very messy. | |
| rave:// Take it to the bridge... | |
|  | The New York Times |
| | Olivia Rodrigo's Hit 'Drivers License' Has the Best Part of a Song | | by Jenna Wortham and Wesley Morris | | Jenna and Wesley search for the best part of the song. | |
 | Complex |
| | The Problem With the Rap Antihero | | by Andre Gee | | In movies and TV, antiheroes are praised for their relatability. But in real life, celebrating them can mean romanticizing abusive entertainers. | |
 | The New Yorker |
| | Chronicling Rock and Roll’s Neglected Stories | | by Nick Paumgarten | | Miriam Linna, who recently published a five-pound book on the history of Fortune Records, keeps her apartment teeming with jukeboxes, magazines, and records made more for love than money. | |
| hand it over, hand it over |
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|  | Star Tribune |
| | Accused of misconduct by women, Minneapolis singer Har Mar Superstar offers ‘deep apology’ | | by Jenna Ross and Chris Riemenschneider | | Minneapolis singer Sean Tillmann, whose provocative Har Mar Superstar stage persona earned him celebrity friends and a star outside First Avenue, issued a public apology Thursday acknowledging "conduct that was harmful, abusive, and selfish" after several women accused him of sexual assault. | |
| Pitchfork |
| | Sun Kil Moon’s Mark Kozelek Accused of Sexual Misconduct by Seven More Women | | by Amy Zimmerman | | Following a Pitchfork report last summer, additional women have come forward with allegations of sexual coercion and emotional manipulation. | |
| Billboard |
| | Secretly Group Recognizes New Union. Could More Music Unions Follow? | | by Steve Knopper | | Indie label group Secretly Group recognized a newly formed employees' union minutes before a Thursday-evening deadline it was given earlier this week. | |
| The New York Times |
| | Pharoah Sanders and Floating Points Meet in the Atmosphere | | by Giovanni Russonello | | On “Promises,” their new collaborative album, Sanders’s tenor saxophone becomes one with the electronic composer’s web of humming synthesizers. | |
 | NPR Music |
| | Armand Hammer Raps From Another Dimension. It's On Us To Catch Up | | by Marcus J. Moore | | For nearly two decades, billy woods and ELUCID have established themselves as cult figures in hip-hop. The duo's new album, "Haram," is their most approachable, even if the rhymes are still intricate. | |
 | Music Business Worldwide |
| | As Round Hill’s market share of US hits climbs, company tells music biz: Don’t call us a check-book publisher | | by Tim Ingham | | Josh Gruss walks MBW through the surprising news that a catalog acquisition company keeps cropping up on hit radio market share charts. | |
| Variety |
| | RIAA, NMPA, More Music Groups Slam Twitter’s ‘Rampant Theft of Creative Works’ in Letter to Congress | | by Jem Aswad | | Ahead of Twitter's CEO Jack Dorsey testifying before the House Energy & Commerce Committee this afternoon, the RIAA, the National Music Publishers Association, the American Association of Independent Music, Songwriters of North America and the Music Artists Coalition have jointly penned a letter to committee leadership. | |
| Vulture |
| | Lana Del Rey’s 10-Year War With the Culture | | by Nate Jones | | A decade of backlash. | |
 | Refinery29 |
| | When Black K-Pop Fans Are Terrorized Online, Who Listens? | | by Tiwa Omolade | | If you’re deemed an “anti,” the harassment can be brutal and unrelenting - and no one is stepping in to help. | |
 | Spotify |
| | Black Girl Songbook: Fallin' in Love With Alicia Keys | | by Danyel Smith and Jeanine McLean-Williams | | This chapter of 'Black Girl Songbook' celebrates the 20-year anniversary of Alicia Keys's trailblazing career. Danyel begins by detailing the beauty and strength of Alicia's iconic first single, "Fallin,'" before diving into Alicia's backstory with her former creative partner and manager, Jeanine McLean-Williams. | |
| | | Music | Media | Sports | Fashion | Tech | | “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?’” | |  | | Jason Hirschhorn | | CEO & Chief Curator |
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