The rock and roll people I [dated] – they didn’t understand my life. You would think they would have, but they didn’t. They weren’t all that different than your normal lawyer, because they thought, in the egos of men, that I would be giving up a part of my life for them. And I wasn’t going to do that. I was also in a band that was equally as famous as their bands, so that wasn’t going to work for them. | | | | Stevie Nicks strikes a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame pose in Oakland, 1977.
(Richard McCaffrey/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images) | | | | |  | “The rock and roll people I [dated] – they didn’t understand my life. You would think they would have, but they didn’t. They weren’t all that different than your normal lawyer, because they thought, in the egos of men, that I would be giving up a part of my life for them. And I wasn’t going to do that. I was also in a band that was equally as famous as their bands, so that wasn’t going to work for them.”
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| | rantnrave:// I'm all for personalization. If SPOTIFY could show me a shelf of my current favorite tracks, albums and playlists every time I signed on that actually looked like a shelf of tracks, albums and playlists, I'd be all in. If it could figure out which piece of content that starts A-N-T-I I'm most likely looking for when I type those letters in a search box, I'd reach into my digital wallet and give the app a tip. If a gruff but enthusiastic Spotify voice could come over my smart speakers at a random but appropriate moment and say, "Dude, have you heard the new LION BABE single? I think you'd love it," I'd faint, quit my job and move to Sweden. But sometimes I really, really don't want personalization. Like when I decide to click on my preferred ANTI. I don't want to hear the re-sequenced version of the album that Spotify thinks would be best for me, and I don't want to start on track 2, no matter how great track 2 is. If I wanted that, I would've clicked directly on it. I want to hear the album RIHANNA actually made, sequenced and mastered. That was the intention of my click. Likewise any of the playlists that I follow. I follow them because I like the music and the flow and/or I like and trust the curator. The unspoken agreement between me and them is they'll put thought and effort into the playlist and I'll listen. Period. That's it. I hate this. Labels love this, I'm told, because it's a way to get more tracks and therefore more labels on any given playlist. But who wants that kind of democracy? I want the four most interesting, pertinent, appropriate tracks you've got, not one from each of the three major labels and one from a token indie. Does anybody not want that? (Also, isn't it a bit of a tracking mess for a label to know song X is on 72 playlists but not know how many of each playlist's followers will ever see it?) I want flow. I want to know that flow mattered to the person or entity that made the playlist. And I want to hear the same HOT COUNTRY playlist that everyone else in the community hears. If I find out that most listeners get a version of this week's Hot Country with exactly four women on it (there are north of 50 tracks in total), but a carefully chosen subgroup—let's call them progressives—get more like 15 or 20 women, I will scream and yell and write angry tweets. I want my curators to lead. If they're just passively following me, why exactly am I following them? How does that even make sense? Then again, users apparently respond well to the general idea of personalized playlists, at least according to the metrics that matter to the business, so maybe it's just me. Maybe I'm old and stodgy and no fun. I don't know. Either way, get off my streaming lawn... I've met few execs in recent years who are as zealously committed to making life better for songwriters and musicians than the team at DOWNTOWN MUSIC and SONGTRUST. Congrats to them on the purchase of CD BABY parent AVL for a reported $200 million (!), which I'd like to think, and I do think, is the kind of merger/acquisition that benefits everyone... Proposed design for what would be the largest indoor concert venue in England. The futuristic, skyline-altering MSG SPHERE, which looks like either the largest golf ball ever built or the smallest Death Star, would be twins with MSG's other Sphere, now under construction in Las Vegas... In southern California, freeways shape music, duh, but also: Music shapes freeways...Do you want to argue with RZA about this? I don't. | | | - Matty Karas, curator |
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 | GQ |
| The blue-haired, face-tatted youth are taking over music and making a farce of everyone in their paths. And we’re all here for it. | | |
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 | UPROXX |
| The rise of services like Spotify and Apple Music has led to a new scapegoat for the music that draws the ire of critics. | | |
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 | Rolling Stone |
| SoundExchange pays out nearly $1 billion to musicians each year, but the lack of attention around it highlights the music industry’s overall disorganization. | | |
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 | The Washington Post |
| His new album, “This Land,” has quickly emerged as his most successful, critically and commercially. | | |
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 | The FADER |
| After seven years of incarceration, how will Jamaican icon Buju Banton adapt to an ever-changing musical and societal landscape? | | |
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 | Complex |
| Fans have been saying "hip-hop is dying" and "new rappers are ruining rap" for decades. Here's a look at rap forums and blog comments over the years. | | |
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 | Vanity Fair |
| As the Grammy and Oscar-winning producer prepares to release his fifth solo record, he reflects on his collaborations with Lady Gaga, Amy Winehouse, and Bruno Mars, and his own new creative path. | | |
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 | Billboard |
| Roger Charlery, the Englishman of West Indian descent who died on Tuesday (Mar. 26) of lung cancer and brain tumors, gave the Beat a pathos that matched the shimmering fluidity of drummer Everett Morton and bassist David Steele. | | |
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 | Motherboard |
| If the music industry has its way, accused pirates could be kicked off the internet permanently based on what’s often flimsy evidence of guilt. | | |
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 | LAist |
| The original idea for soundwalls can be traced right back here to Los Angeles. | | |
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 | South China Morning Post |
| It’s 11am and in two-and-a-half hours BTS, the biggest K-pop outfit in the world, are due to arrive in Hong Kong as part of their Love Yourself World Tour. A small crowd of around two dozen fans are waiting by the special exit at the airport arrival lobby where celebrities are usually hurried into private cars. | | |
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 | Red Bull Music Academy |
| How doomsday rhetoric scorched the earth of rap’s underground. | | |
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| Billboard |
| Warner Bros. employees look back fondly on times with Neil Young, Prince, Flaming Lips and more in their iconic "ski lodge." | | |
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 | NPR |
| At 17, Billie Eilish is music's newest misfit pop star. Eilish, along with her producer and brother, Finneas O'Connell, discuss the artist's debut album, "When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?" | | |
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| The Washington Post |
| “He was extremely focused and disciplined about accomplishing what he wanted to accomplish.” | | |
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 | Okayplayer |
| On March 27th, 1984, Run-DMC released their self-titled debut album. After the album was released, it was clear that things would never be the same for rap. | | |
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 | Dick Taylor Blog |
| Growing up in the 20th Century, things looked like what they were. Telephones were easily identified as telephones. Television sets were easily identified as televisions. And radios were easily identified as radios. | | |
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 | The Daily Beast |
| The pop star has had a difficult time dealing with his trauma during B2K’s reunion tour, which has divided the group’s fans. But his courage in speaking out shouldn’t be forgotten. | | |
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 | Electronic Beats |
| "Not many people can take their art outside of Israel, it’s not so easy. It’s a language thing…so many good bands here can’t do the crossover. Nobody speaks Hebrew, you know. And we’re not actually in Europe." | | |
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 | Pitchfork |
| The man who slapped a side of pork on The Drift and played machetes on Bish Bosch reflects on decades of collaboration with the uncompromising icon. | | |
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 | YouTube |
| | | | | | From "The Wild Heart" (1983). |
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