Soul doesn’t have to sound any one way. It just has to hit you in the gut with its transformative power. | | | | Slider: Trombone Shorty at Jazz Fest in New Orleans, May 5, 2019.
(Douglas Mason/Getty Images) | | | | | | “Soul doesn’t have to sound any one way. It just has to hit you in the gut with its transformative power.”
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| | rantnrave:// "What I do is try to amplify many voices in a world that often crushes them." That's DEBORAH DUGAN talking to reporters shortly after she was named the next president and CEO of the RECORDING ACADEMY. She's the first woman to hold the titles, and for reasons that have been widely reported and discussed over the past year, she'll have ample opportunity to amplify a range of crushed voices. In her first press conference, she did a ninja-like job of not directly addressing her new employer's contribution to that crushing. "I plan to approach it with a Buddhist beginners’ mind," she said of her new job, "which is really just to listen and learn in the beginning and look at the organization and say, 'Is [the matter at hand] relevant and reflective of the artists’ community which it serves.'" It's hard to argue with that philosophy. Listen. Learn. Dugan's hiring comes on the heels of a USC study documenting the music industry's poor track record of hiring female songwriters and producers and nominating them for awards, and follows a year of work by the Academy's Task Force on Diversity and Inclusion, formed after the disastrous 2018 GRAMMY AWARDS, which the Academy runs. A lawyer with long experience in both music and publishing, and currently the CEO of (RED), she appears to have wide support in the industry and an implicit understanding of one of the things that music from hip-hop to rock to country to jazz has always done—amplify voices in a world that continues to crush them. Dugan takes over for longtime Academy boss NEIL PORTNOW on Aug. 1. Her first Grammy Awards will take place just under six months later and, as the NEW YORK TIMES notes, she "may also be under pressure" to figure out a way to get more people to watch. Details... More comings and goings, by which I mostly mean goings: PLEDGEMUSIC will not be sold and will go into administration—which is British for bankruptcy—co-founder BENJI ROGERS says. The troubled crowd-funding company's creditors include numerous artists owed an estimated total of $1 million to $3 million. If the company's assets are sold off in administration, "it seems unlikely that there will be enough money to cover the entire amount owed," VARIETY reports... After half a century, the call letters WPLJ will disappear from the New York radio dial when its new owner switches to a Christian format in three weeks. WPLJ will be fondly remembered as a New York rock and new-wave staple in the 1970s and early '80s and as a "morning zoo" pioneer in later years; I'll leave the "fondly" qualifier on the second half of that sentence up to you... ULTRA MUSIC FESTIVAL is leaving Miami after a two-decade run. This year's festival, held on the barrier island of Virginia Key for the first time, caused issues for both festivalgoers and nearby residents. Fish weren't happy either. But the festival itself appears far from done. The MIAMI HERALD reports festival organizers are considering moving southward to Homestead, Fla, next year... MICHAEL JACKSON album titles have disappeared from advertising for an upcoming QUINCY JONES concert in London. MADONNA is not responsible for this... Thirty-eight (!) discs of the original WOODSTOCK... RIP DARRELL WOODSON... And finally, a correction: On Monday I threw out 0.004 cents as the amount artists typically get paid for a single stream on a subscription service. That was based on a mis-reading on my part. While payout numbers aren't exact and vary from month to month and service to service, a more accurate average would be about 0.4 cents per stream. My apologies. | | | - Matty Karas, curator |
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| | | my life with the thrill kill kult |
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| How a new doc captures the origin story - and little-known gay history of - the industrial music label imprint that launched Ministry, KMFDM and My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult. | | |
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| The choreography of these college dance troupes makes me feel proud knowing that this artistry is so deeply embedded in black American life, there is little danger of it ever being appropriated. | | |
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| Lizzo spent her birthday eating ass. Not just any ass, but her own ass — just one glowing example of how the Detroit-born twerking rapper, flutist, and pop star is taking self-love and empowerment to new heights. | | |
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| A contentious relationship from the beginning, the streaming industry and the rest of the music business have been increasingly at odds of late. | | |
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| "I’m just starting and I plan to approach it with a Buddhist beginners’ mind, which is really just to listen and learn in the beginning and look at the organization and say, 'Is [the matter at hand] relevant and reflective of the artists’ community which it serves.'" | | |
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| Daddy Yankee's reggaeton crossover smash "Con Calma" is the latest example of a Latin urbano hit drawing pop appeal and a swift remix. How it got here is a lesson in the future of collaboration between artists, labels and cultures in this explosive genre. | | |
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| The Punjabi-Canadian rapper may be a frequent target of maligning memes and industry plant accusations, but The Weeknd’s homegrown favorite now has a Billboard chart-topping album despite the hate. | | |
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| The singer-songwriter and the editor-in-chief of GQ Magazine talk about their close friendship, Will's recent cancer diagnosis, expensive risk-taking, and their shared sobriety. | | |
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| Modern therapists, like Susan Zeller, are able to tap into a client's subconscious to help improve motor skills and hand-eye coordination. | | |
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| In excerpts from his forthcoming book, "Bass Mids Tops," Joe Muggs maps the multiple continuua of bassline-driven music that has reverberated through British life for half a century. | | |
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| In the early '80s, The Knockabouts blazed a furious trail. | | |
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| The network promised viewers everything from wild parties to new homes to loads of cash, but the reality was a little darker, and much weirder. | | |
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| Ending a two-decade run, organizers of Ultra, a world-renowned festival with a large international audience, announced their departure in a letter delivered to the city. The letter simultaneously severed the homegrown event’s longstanding relationship with the city of Miami and put a $2 million dent in the city’s bottom line. | | |
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| “Cornucopia,” the iconoclastic artist’s new live extravaganza at the Shed, features a 50-member choir, seven flutists and music describing a feminine, hopeful future. | | |
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| I went back into PledgeMusic just over three months ago as a volunteer to try and help the board and team turn around and sell the company, but I am sad to report that this effort has not met with success and that PledgeMusic will shortly be heading into administration. | | |
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| The Grand Theft Auto video game franchise developed a close relationship with hip-hop, starting with its launch in 1997. | | |
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| If you don’t know it’s Dylan, my dad told me later, you'd think it was someone pretending and doing a bad job. | | |
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| Whether it's two-part harmony or a 100-member orchestra, some of the greatest music happens when people come together. Policymaking works the same way. | | |
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| Musician Joe Jackson was drawn early to classical music before achieving fame as a frenetic rocker, then going on to develop one of the broadest compositional palettes in contemporary music. In the midst of his 40th anniversary tour, Jackson reflects on a unique career with NewsHour Weekend's Tom Casciato. | | |
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| It’s incredibly rare for a festival of this nature to have such a fully-formed identity, even if that identity is “washed 30-something indie music fan.” | | |
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| | | | | Jamila Woods feat. Nico Segal |
| | Inspired by James Baldwin's "The Fire Next Time." From "Legacy! Legacy!," out Friday on Jagjaguwar |
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| © Copyright 2019, The REDEF Group |
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