I was doing press with somebody in the mid-'90s, and they made an argument that stayed with me: that I have influence, and that it’s my job to call out whatever needs to be called out, because there are people who feel the same way but need someone to articulate it. And I think about that today, because it seemed like it was a lot easier to just keep your mouth shut and let it go back then. | | | | Thinkin bout you: Frank Ocean at the Parklife Festival, Manchester, England, June 11, 2017.
(Visionhaus/Corbis/Getty Images) | | | | |  | “I was doing press with somebody in the mid-'90s, and they made an argument that stayed with me: that I have influence, and that it’s my job to call out whatever needs to be called out, because there are people who feel the same way but need someone to articulate it. And I think about that today, because it seemed like it was a lot easier to just keep your mouth shut and let it go back then.”
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| | rantnrave:// A day after BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN went off-script in his BROADWAY show to denounce the TRUMP administration's immigration policy, TRENT REZNOR was in the NEW YORK TIMES saying artists not only have a platform to talk about politics, but an obligation to do so. The platform, he told interviewer MOLLY LAMBERT, comes with that obligation, "because there are people who feel the same way but need someone to articulate it." I screamed in agreement. Now more than ever. I thought of this amazing JLIN quote from a year ago, in the early days of a presidency that has challenged artists to stay quiet while daring them to make noise: "NINA SIMONE ... said when you have a gift you have a responsibility to create and reflect the times. In this day and age, it’s ridiculous for an artist to make something and not have a reason for it. ‘I made it ’cause it sounds good.’ You made something ’cause it sounds good? For real? You’re not doing enough.” I had screamed in agreement then, too. Make noise and make it count. And then Reznor took a swipe at TAYLOR SWIFT, which not surprisingly became the headline, not in the Times, but everywhere else. He is, of course, not the first person to suggest Swift cares too much about her brand and her career to dirty herself with the business of taking a political stand. But there are many ways to articulate your politics, just as there are many ways to reflect the times in your art. You can make arguments and ask questions, as Reznor does on NINE INCH NAILS' new album, BAD WITCH (out Friday). You can make a straight-up protest song. You can make a speech, Springsteen style, to 900 people at the WALTER KERR THEATRE. You can use the sound of your instrument to articulate what no human voice can. You can tell me about yourself, show me a different way of thinking about the world. You can tweet. You can make a point of booking two women as the openers for your summer tour at a time when your REPUTATION is very much on the line. You can make sure one of those women is a Cuban immigrant whose biggest single is a Latin-flavored pop song called "HAVANA" and who will be tweeting and re-tweeting her feelings about the Trump administration's immigration policy from the tour bus. And telling pop fans something about herself, and her way of thinking about the world, every night. I'm glad to know Taylor Swift and CAMILO CABELLO fans are screaming for that, just as I'm glad for another NINE INCH nails album... I screamed again when Reznor reminisced about mistakenly ordering (or, rather, forgetting not to order) a BARRY MANILOW album through the COLUMBIA HOUSE record club when he was a kid. And then: "OK, I own it. I paid a price for it. I’m going to listen the [expletive] out of this thing." Remember what it was like to have to literally invest in music, and how that changed your relationship to it? How maybe you listened differently, and harder? The MUSIC MODERNIZATION ACT isn't going to bring those days back, but it does aim to change the way artists and composers are paid, and maybe that would change our relationship to music in some other way we can't grasp yet. The omnibus bill once seemed like it might sail through CONGRESS, but it has hit some roadblocks both inside and outside the Capitol, and the debate is far from over. Can music and tech companies convince Washington to improve the way artists are paid? And is that in fact what they're doing? MusicSET: "Money for Something: Debating the Music Modernization Act"... Best wishes to RICHARD SWIFT... RIP GÉRARD HOURBETTE, DAN JUGLE and FRANCIS WALKER-SLOCUM. | | | - Matty Karas, curator |
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 | Rolling Stone |
| How an opioid 30 times stronger than heroin infected the industry. Prince's sister and Tom Petty's family weigh in. | | |
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 | Gizmodo |
| "If I gave two fucks - two fucks about streaming numbers, would have put Lemonade up on Spotify," Beyoncé proclaims on "NICE" from her joint album with Jay-Z which they dropped exclusively on Tidal over the weekend. | | |
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 | Noisey |
| For those who grew up in the 2000s, the file-sharing software offered a way to forge a taste in music and understand the internet. | | |
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 | REDEF |
| One massive bill, two legislative bodies to pass, ten thousand opinions. Can music and tech companies convince Washington to improve the way musicians and composers are paid? And is that in fact what they're doing? | | |
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| Noisey |
| Using song lyrics is a form of expressive arts therapy, which can help people tap into their emotions and invoke personal change. | | |
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 | Variety |
| CEO Patrick Spence is vocal about 2018 being a defining year for the company, which has been on the defensive against tech giants like Amazon, Apple and Google: “Looking back 10 years from now, this will be the point where we made the leap into the next phase of Sonos,” he says. | | |
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 | Salon |
| Many women are still waiting for music's reckoning. People in the industry tell Salon why it's so complicated. | | |
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 | NPR Music |
| The Society for The Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America first convened in the spring 1938, in an all-white social club in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It's come a long way. | | |
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 | Billboard |
| Ge has become one of the most in-demand producers in his genre, pumping out acclaimed records from Father John Misty, The Lemon Twigs, Whitney, Alex Cameron and more, most of which hail from his Woodland Hills garage. | | |
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 | Red Bull Music Academy |
| An oral history of what happened behind the console during the making of one of the most important debut albums in hip-hop. | | |
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 | DIY |
| “I feel lucky that these people are interested in working with me.” | | |
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| Rolling Stone |
| "I want to get 100 of those," the rapper said after his Post Malone collaboration "Psycho" rose to the top of the charts. | | |
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 | The Drum |
| SoundCloud is among one of the largest streaming sites in the world, claimed its chief executive, but unhappy with that, he is keen to differentiate it by redoubling its focus on championing the creative talent that helped build the open music platform in the first place. | | |
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 | The New York Times |
| The saxophonist’s new double album picks up where his breakout 2015 LP left off, with a huge group of musicians dreaming big together. | | |
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 | The Ringer |
| After an extended hiatus that found him becoming more beloved, the crown prince of middle-of-the-road ’80s Top 40 has embarked on a farewell tour. What will be his legacy? | | |
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 | Music Business Worldwide |
| BMG boss isn't bothered about direct artist licensing, as he's confident his company can compete. | | |
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 | The Outline |
| There’s nothing preventing someone just as charismatic and problematic from being elevated to stardom in the future. | | |
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| NPR Music |
| America's top orchestras are presenting little if any music written by women next season. Why is that? | | |
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 | Afropop Worldwide |
| In April 2018, with President Robert Mugabe out of power, Thomas Mapfumo returned to Harare, Zimbabwe, to perform an all-night stadium concert for an estimated 20,000 people—his first show in his home country in 14 years. Banning Eyre, author of "Lion Songs, Thomas Mapfumo and the Music that Made Zimbabwe," reports on a historic homecoming concert. | | |
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 | Snipette |
| How do you pick up a tune, and hold it in your hand? | | |
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 | YouTube |
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