Artists like Britney [Spears] ... you hear her voice and you know it's Britney. And I think you hear Drew's voice and you know it's Drew. That, to me, is what a good voice is—not, like, runs or anything. | | | | Ready to rock: Festivalgoers at Outside Lands, San Francisco, Aug. 13, 2017.
(Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic/Getty Images) | | | | |  | “Artists like Britney [Spears] ... you hear her voice and you know it's Britney. And I think you hear Drew's voice and you know it's Drew. That, to me, is what a good voice is—not, like, runs or anything.”
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| | rantnrave:// You're in your record-company office on a sunny day in August 2017, four days after neo-Nazis marched on CHARLOTTESVILLE, and you get a package with a KU KLUX KLAN return address whose contents are a cassette tape labeled "TRUMP/COMEY Recordings" with Russian text, garbled audio and an email address taking you to a password-protected site featuring a Russian flag and an eyeball staring back at you. Do you a) contact the FBI and the police, b) take your computer immediately offline and notify your IT department, c) get incredibly creeped out, d) vow to never write about, talk about or promote whatever idiot prankster—you hope it's a prankster—sent you this thing, or e) all of the above? It took a while for people in the music biz on Wednesday to figure out that this particular mailing was the work of a PORTLAND indie-rock band, which I will not mention by name and which I do not plan to write about again. I was not a recipient, but I witnessed the horrified reactions. There is never a good time for a prank as tasteless as this; but this is a particularly horrible time. The band, after being outed, released a tone-deaf statement saying the mailing was aimed mostly at far-right media with the intention of trolling them. It's a creepy, idiotic troll no matter who it's addressed to, and that much creepier when also addressed to innocent, unaware record-company staffers who may be, say, Jewish. It's a desperate and awful way to try to generate publicity for an album, and feeds a roaring fire of fear, hatred and confusion that needs to be extinguished, not fed. The band, for what it's worth, is not ARCADE FIRE, which has spent the summer engaged in a bizarre, protracted fake-news publicity campaign of its own, which has not risen to the KKK level of tastelessness but which is, at best, an unfortunate way to promote art in 2017. The idea of fake news isn't funny right now. Campaigns like this prey on people's unease and help to normalize the very concept they aim to parody. Please cease and desist, band from MONTREAL, and goodbye, band from Portland... In other white-supremacist news, SPOTIFY responded to a DIGITAL MUSIC NEWS article citing 37 "white supremacist hate bands" whose music was on the service by removing them. DMN reports that DEEZER is following suit... TAYLOR SWIFT's blunt, forceful testimony last week in her civil case against a radio DJ who she said groped her—a jury agreed—may have been a watershed legal moment, providing both a path and inspiration for sexual assault victims who have been too scared, intimidated or numb to pursue their own cases in court. Not all, obviously, have Swift's resources or the freedom to devote so much time to the fight, but lawyers, advocates and victims say her positive example may be a resource of its own. Has it changed Swift herself? MusicSET: "Taylor Swift Takes the Stand"... Unfortunately, there are still CHRIS BROWNs out there, too... WU-TANG CLAN ain't nuthing ta f*** wit, even if you're MARTIN SHKRELI... RIP JO WALKER-MEADOR. | | | - Matty Karas, curator |
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| | | this world is not my home |
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 | The Conversation |
| While Pandora continues to lead in the US in streaming music all the signs from investors, user momentum and tech talent indicate Spotify is on the verge of seizing the crown. | | |
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 | The Ringer |
| With intimate, exclusive performances from the likes of Chance the Rapper and Adele, the live music series has an entire industry chasing a ‘pivot to video.’ But it won’t be easy to replicate. | | |
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 | Genius |
| Artists from Chuck D to Jaden Smith have thoughts on the King's legacy. | | |
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 | REDEF |
| Taylor Swift transformed herself from pop star to feminist hero with her testimony against a DJ she accused of groping her. Her legal victory inspired other sexual assault victims, but will others be able to follow in her path? And is this a new Taylor Swift? | | |
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 | Passion of the Weiss |
| Ethan Davenport takes a look at the celebrity cosign. | | |
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 | Sky News |
| Spotify and TPG will open talks over the terms of a $1bn bond in the music service as it prepares to go public, Sky News learns. | | |
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 | Macleans |
| 'It was a communal experience of religious proportions.' Canada's musical luminaries remember the Tragically Hip's final show. | | |
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 | The New York Times |
| At an outdoor concert, a reporter learns why Mashrou’ Leila’s music is like air to its fans. | | |
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 | Medium |
| In fewer than two years, the smart speaker has gone from head-scratcher to head-turner. Along the way, this device has brought artificial intelligence and voice commands into millions of American homes. | | |
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 | TIME |
| The singer will celebrate the astronomical event like only she can. | | |
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| | | i'm just a-passing through |
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 | Pigeons & Planes |
| An investigation into Arcade Fire's strange 'Everything Now' marketing campaign led us to a mysterious character named Tannis Wright. | | |
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 | Daily Dot |
| Poppy is a manufactured pop star for the internet age. But who is she really? Does it even matter? | | |
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 | Invisible Oranges |
| Owner Martin Aamodt on running a haven for metal fans | | |
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 | Okayplayer |
| Priscilla Ward breaks down how gentrification and the police are criminalizing 'Showtime' for a generation of youth looking to make a way for themselves. | | |
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 | LA Weekly |
| Roberto Carlos Lange, the man behind Helado Negro, wrote the song as a personal statement. But in the age of Trump, it's taken on new significance. | | |
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 | Variety |
| No recording artist in history has a single archivist quite like Ernst Jørgensen, who began working on the Elvis Presley catalogue in the 1990s and has become, not just the producer of his reissues, but the primary researcher and even liner notes writer as well. | | |
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 | The Tennessean |
| Under her leadership, the genre flourished, and she oversaw the creation of the CMA Awards, Fan Fair, and the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. | | |
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 | Playboy |
| From her open DMs to "Hopeless Fountain Kingdom" to her biracial heritage, pop powerhouse Halsey proves no topic is off-limits in her 20Q with "Playboy" magazine. | | |
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 | Harper's Magazine |
| A transcription of the jury-selection profess in the case of a certain Martin Shkreli who is on trial for eight counts of securities and wire fraud but who also, according to a prospective juror, "disrespected the Wu-Tang Clan." | | |
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| The New York Times |
| A reporter was ruminating on a storied German opera festival’s troubled past, only to learn at intermission that Nazi sympathizers were on the march back home. | | |
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 | YouTube |
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