He needed an entire entourage to help him function—enablers, drug dealers, hookers, groupies, hangers-on, bodyguards, and yes, his secretary. I became his unofficial cleaner. By the end of the night, his clothes were usually encrusted with cocaine or vomit or both, and he needed a good wiping down.
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Van McCann of Catfish and the Bottlemen at Lollapalooza, Chicago, Aug. 4, 2018.
(Timothy Hiatt/WireImage/Getty Images)
Monday - August 06, 2018 Mon - 08/06/18
rantnrave:// It's complicated. It's always complicated. The twist on today's quote of the day, which comes from DOROTHY CARVELLO's upcoming memoir, ANYTHING FOR A HIT: AN A&R WOMAN'S STORY OF SURVIVING THE MUSIC INDUSTRY, is that she loved working for AHMET ERTEGUN at ATLANTIC RECORDS. She loved working there despite the time he signed some important financial papers for her while in a studio control room getting a blow job, and despite the fact that his body resembled "a shriveled egg." She loved working there despite the executives who constantly groped her or asked her for sex, and despite the time two execs pulled down her skirt on a company elevator. The atmosphere was demeaning, abusive and, somehow, also fun for a former Catholic school girl. "Ahmet was free," she writes. "His life was the exact opposite of mine, and I got paid to live some of the wildest parts with him." That, in short, is the crazy, romantic, complicated part of the record biz. Dorothy Carvello wanted to be part of it. But, also, it wasn't *that* complicated. Here's the uncomplicated part: There were very few women in positions of power at Atlantic. Very few opportunities for women who might have wanted such a position. And when she finally complained about the way she was treated, she says, she was fired. Because the people who were in power, presumably, wanted those wild, crazy times to last forever, and they didn't want to hear about the rest... The next story in this week's BILLBOARD, after the magazine's excerpt from Carvello's book, is a celebration of the 60th anniversary of the HOT 100 chart, including an attempt to calculate the biggest singles of the past six decades in raw numerical terms, as if there were a musical equivalent of baseball's WAR statistic. There isn't, and there's no universe in which CHUBBY CHECKER's "THE TWIST," Billboard's all-time #1, is the most important single of the past 60 years, or even of the year it came out. There's also no world in which "UPTOWN FUNK," "PARTY ROCK ANTHEM" and "SHAPE OF YOU," the three most recent entries in the top 10, would tell the story of music in the 2010s. But they're all great songs and I love this chart, which, like the weekly Hot 100, attempts to tell us what people are actually listening to at any given time, whether on jukeboxes, the radio or SPOTIFY and YOUTUBE. It's an imperfect, subjective chart, dependent on which jukeboxes, which radio stations and which corners of Spotify and YouTube the magazine chooses to measure. But if there's a more democratic representation of the melting pot of commercial pop, I've never seen it. If there's a radio station that plays more women, more rock, more R&B, more hip-hop, more country, more pop, all at the same time, I've never seen that either... The last guitar has gone silent on the WARPED TOUR, which ended its 24-year run Sunday in West Palm Beach, Fla. Members of NEW FOUND GLORY, YELLOWCARD, SENSES FAIL and more look back on one of the most enduring rejoinders to the notion that rock is dead (as well as one of the strongest affirmations that rock is really, really hard work)... What are your songs worth—in the literal, economic sense? ROYALTY EXCHANGE aims to answer that question for you with its new KNOW YOUR WORTH app, which the company is pitching as ZILLOW for royalties. An instant valuation of your catalog of music and lyrics... Speaking of worth: UNIVERSAL and SONY, combined, are making $550,000 in streaming royalties per hour... Your weekly reminder: R. KELLY is still signed to RCA RECORDS... RIP RICK "ZOMBIE BOY" GENEST, ELLEN LOO and C STRUGGS.
- Matty Karas, curator
let's twist again
Billboard
Plunged Into 'A Circus Mixed with an Orgy'
by Dorothy Carvello
In an excerpt from her memoir "Anything for a Hit: An A&R Woman’s Story of Surviving the Music Industry," the author recalls her harrowing experience working for Atlantic Records in a pre-#MeToo record industry.
Affidavit
M.I.A. and the Defense of Nuance
by Fariha Róisín
While outrage culture has its merits, nuance has evaporated. So often it involves reducing someone to their mistakes, their greatest hits collection of f***-ups.
Noisey
In Pursuit of Popcaan
by Lawrence Burney
Four days in Jamaica chasing down Popcaan, the dancehall superstar eyeing a global takeover.
Pitchfork
Talks with RCA About Dropping R. Kelly Are Stalled, Says Color of Change
by Michelle Kim and Jillian Mapes
The nation’s largest online racial justice organization shares with Pitchfork its talks with Kelly’s notably quiet label.
Fast Company
The future is ear: Why “hearables” are finally tech’s next big thing
by Peter Burrows
The explosive growth of their AI voice assistants has Google, Apple, and Amazon racing to put your entire smartphone in an earpiece.
Pando
Sonos' IPO: A first day pop, but can it fight off Apple, Amazon et al and win for the long term?
by Kevin Kelleher
Sonos' strength lies in the managers guiding it -- but don't discount the possibility it could become the next TiVo.
The Ringer
YG and the Wonders of Modest Rap Stardom
by Justin Charity
The Compton MC isn’t the biggest rapper in the world. But at any given moment on his new album, "Stay Dangerous," he sounds like the best.
The New York Times
As Brexit Looms, Musicians Brace for the Worst
by Andrew Dickson
Britain’s classical music scene relies heavily on freedoms that come from European Union membership. How will it cope outside the bloc?
The Daily Beast
Prince's Identity Has Been Stripped From Paisley Park
by Shannon Carrier
Wandering the cold halls of his home/office/recording studio, you wonder why his estate handlers seem bent on erasing every trace of his lubricous—yet often spiritual—presence.
Motherboard
RIP Musical.ly: A Very Brief History
by Samantha Cole
The video creation platform loved by teens is getting a rebrand. Here are a few of its best moments.
slow twistin'
Narratively
This Black Woman Was Once the Biggest Star in Jazz. Here's Why You've Never Heard of Her
by Lorissa Rinehart
Hazel Scott was a piano prodigy who wowed the worlds of music, TV and film. But when she stood up for her rights, the establishment took her down.
The Undefeated
A woman’s place is at the soundboard: Women’s Audio Mission works to change the industry of music
by Soraya Nadia McDonald
Trakgirl is a Washington, D.C., producer who’s been making beats for 13 years. But until May, she’d never been part of a recording session that was 100 percent female, from the songwriter to the vocalist to the engineer to the producer.
The New York Times
The Go-Go’s Gave Us the Beat and So Much More
by Evelyn McDonnell
The new wave band, whose music is being celebrated in a Broadway musical, provided a blueprint for girl-powered groups. But the Go-Go’s weren’t always taken seriously.
NPR
A Brief History Of The Drum Set
by Allyson McCabe
Today's common drum kit is just 100 years old, even though drums have been around for millenia. It fell out of favor with the advent of drum machines and sampling. For many, there's no substitute.
Rolling Stone
Why Isn't Jamaican Dancehall Bigger in the U.S.?
by Elias Leight
When acts like Hoodcelebrityy break through here, they’re overcoming major structural obstacles to their success.
Perfect Sound Forever
The Vinyl Anachronist: That '70s Sound
by Marc Phillips
Modest little receivers seemed to sound much better than the bland-looking bell-and-whistle collections that pass for receivers these days. And turntables were cheap, and good. They were made of wood, not plastic, and they lasted forever. And speakers... well, they were big and loud and they really pissed off your parents. Yep, those were the days.
Vulture
What’s That Sound? In Ashley Fure’s Compositions, It Could Be Almost Anything.
by Justin Davidson
Imagine that you're a young composer and one day you realize that you don't much care for notes. Actually, you're also kind of disappointed in instruments, pitch, melody, and rhythm.
SSENSE
On the Record with Apple Industrial Designer Eugene Whang
by Thom Bettridge
Thom Bettridge talks to the San Francisco-based DJ about music as an object, tech-bros in disguise, and how he landed his gig at Apple.
NPR Music
Fania Records' Legacy Lives On With New Owners: 'It's The Culture'
by Felix Contreras
The historic Latin record label has been sold to Concord Music. Sig Sigworth, president of Concord Music's Craft Recordings, talks about preserving Fania's legacy.
The Believer
Broken Time
by Steve Silberman
“Nardis” and the curious history of a jazz obsession.
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