The godlike power that you have of affecting the emotional response of the viewer is incredible. | | | | The week before everything stopped: A double exposure of Tame Impala's Kevin Parker at the Forum, Inglewood, Calif., March 10, 2020.
(Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images) | | | | | | “The godlike power that you have of affecting the emotional response of the viewer is incredible.”
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| | rantnrave:// "The BAND has their myths. I have mine," TA-NEHISI COATES wrote in 2009 about a then-40-year-old song by one of the most critically acclaimed and literate bands of the classic-rock era. It's one of the most devastating reviews I've ever read of a pop song, in this case an ambiguous, well-researched yet historically inaccurate story song set in Tennessee in the aftermath of the Civil War, told from the point of view of a defeated but proud Confederate farmer, and empathetic to his plight in the way that poems and books and films tend to be empathetic toward their subjects. Coates' review is not at all empathetic toward its subject, and there's no reason why it should be. We live in a divided world. It was divided in the 1860s, it was divided in the 1960s, it was divided in 2009, it's divided now, and Coates does not want to sing along with the "na na na na na na" chorus of "THE NIGHT THEY DROVE OLD DIXIE DOWN," as both the Band and JOAN BAEZ, who turned it into a major pop hit a couple years later, all but beg you to do. What, then, are we to do with "THE NIGHT THEY DROVE OLD DIXIE DOWN" in 2020, in this year of toppling Confederate statues and jettisoning words like Dixie and antebellum from polite culture and facing up to those centuries-old divisions in so many other ways? Can you still sing along with those na-na-nas? Can you—must you—change the words? Can you defend an anti-war song written in 1969 as an allegory that might not be about the Civil War at all? Does it matter if ROBBIE ROBERTSON, the Canadian songwriter who was inspired to write it by his drummer/singer's Arkansan father, has always been a little vague about what he was getting at? Is that even a songwriter's job? Does it matter that it's fiction? What does the fact that this has come up for discussion this summer say about 2020, or any year that came before? MusicSET: "The Classic Rock Song That Whistles 'Dixie'"... When is a stream not a stream?... TIKTOK sues the US government... Peripatetic streaming brand NAPSTER sold to virtual reality company MELODYVR in a $70m deal (the seller is my old employer REALNETWORKS)... Two very different approaches to soundtracking two of the best HBO series of the past year, one with underscore and one with hip-hop and R&B needle drops... You can't dance in Ibiza anymore. | | | - Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator |
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| On one end of the spectrum, Spotify is in direct, self-proclaimed competition with terrestrial radio for both listener share and music-industry advertising dollars. On the other end of the spectrum, Apple Music is leaning more into linear radio experiences than ever. | | |
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| Inside Roc Nation, there’s Team Roc, a group that’s driving the company’s social-justice initiatives through bespoke campaigns. | | |
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| What to make of the Band's "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down," a 1960s song about an 1860s war with ambiguous sympathies, in 2020? Classic? Problematic? Can it be both? | | |
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| At a time when so many people are barely allowed to touch each other, pop music is once again giving voice to our thirstiest desires. | | |
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| Spotify confirms that "Dyamite" was streamed 12.6 million times in total | | |
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| BTS has made inroads with American listeners before, but never quite like this. | | |
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| There's a big gold rush in the area of intellectual property and some musicians are getting very, very rich. | | |
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| Colin Fleming re-examines November 26, 1945, when Charlie Parker led what is arguably the most monumental recording session in the history of music. | | |
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| The singer-songwriter understood the richness and cruelty of the modern world. | | |
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| Justin Earle never seemed to be afraid of anything. A lanky little boy, he'd turn up sometimes caught on fire and ready to take on the world. By the time his dad had some success, the dark-headed child with the hubcap eyes that took in everything was immortalized on the second side of the iconic debut Guitar Town. | | |
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| A soundtrack so good, the series didn’t need a traditional score. | | |
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| The composer has infiltrated every phase of movie history, from silent pictures to superhero blockbusters. | | |
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| While it seems any band can put on a livestream right now, it takes a small army – and years of artist development – to pull off what Trivium did with its “A Light Or A Distant Mirror” ticketed stream, which sold just under 12,000 tickets and grossed $108,000 July 10. | | |
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| Futuristic with a propulsive underbelly, evocative and spiritual, the song has been covered by a variety of artists. | | |
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| Kevin Parker brings his "Tame Impala Soundsystem" to life in a Tiny Desk from Australia. | | |
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| For today’s biggest artists, an album release isn’t just about the music. | | |
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| Widowspeak’s Molly Hamilton talks unemployment and creating art under capitalism. | | |
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| Believe’s Denis Ladegaillerie envisions a bright, bold future for the UK market. Trigger warning: major record labels might not completely love it. | | |
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| Genre fusion, secret identities, a Timbaland cosign... RMR may be a rising artist but he's just about got it made. | | |
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| Ten years ago, the Fab Four’s song about civil rights gave the soul singer a creative spark. Now she’s releasing an album of tracks originally popularized by Black women. | | |
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| | | | | | | "Black rage is founded on two-thirds a person..." Recorded in 2014. |
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