His feet are constantly moving and that’s the groove—the shoulders are moving one way, the head is moving another, the pelvis and feet are moving, too. It’s all keeping the pace for the band and hitting different parts of the beat, so out of that, he’s able to give signals. It’s like a freight train barreling down the tracks. | | | | Mask-erade Ball: Ariana Grande and Lady Gaga at MTV's Video Music Awards, which aired Sunday night.
(Kevin Winter/Getty Images) | | | | |  | “His feet are constantly moving and that’s the groove—the shoulders are moving one way, the head is moving another, the pelvis and feet are moving, too. It’s all keeping the pace for the band and hitting different parts of the beat, so out of that, he’s able to give signals. It’s like a freight train barreling down the tracks.”
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| | rantnrave:// You can add TRILLER to the short list of suitors for the most important A&R operation in pop music, aka TIKTOK, which could be sold as soon as this week. TikTok isn't necessarily taking the bid from its rival social video service seriously, though I'm fascinated by Triller co-owner RYAN KAVANAUGH's argument that MICROSOFT, with whom TikTok has been negotiating, would have to import TikTok's existing code and "there is no possible way that Microsoft could guarantee" there wasn't any Chinese spyware embedded somewhere within. Triller, whose offer is $20 million, has suggested it could simply acquire the brand and attach it to a new version of its own service. Kavanaugh's message may be intended more for the man forcing the fire sale than for the company in the middle of it. The more likely suitors are Microsoft—in partnership with WALMART—and ORACLE. The potential innocent bystanders include MEGAN THEE STALLION, PPCOCAINE, LIL NAS X and every musician and record company that wants to follow their viral examples. MusicSET: "How TikTok TiikTook Over Pop Music"... MTV's VIDEO MUSIC AWARDS aired Sunday night and, despite the vague hype of a "live" show, nearly all of it appeared pre-recorded. Which meant, for the first time, MTV's premiere celebration of videos actually showed videos, complete with green screens, helicopters, fireworks and the kind of production values one generally needs to win Video of the Year these days. The WEEKND, who brought the fireworks—those fireworks, dearest New Yorkers—won that Video of the Year Moonman for "BLINDING LIGHTS." He said this was no time for celebrating and called for "justice for JACOB BLAKE and justice for BREONNA TAYLOR" in one of the show's several references to police brutality. DABABY merged that theme and the pandemic into a medley that started with a group of dancers furtively packing boxes as if they contained contraband, but which, it turned out, actually contained masks. From there, the rapper wound up handcuffed in the backseat of a police car (for unlawful PPE distribution?), but he made his way out and ended his segment singing "ROCKSTAR" on top of the patrol car. Interpret that as you see fit. LADY GAGA honored the moment by performing the entirety of her nine-minute featured slot in a mask with an electronic screen that suggested apocalyptic rave. She wore several others as she collected an armful of trophies. "I know there's a pandemic," Gaga's style seemed to say, "but I'd probably be wearing a mask even if there wasn't." Thumbs up. There were three Latin music segments and all three were literally Toyota commercials. One hopes MALUMA, CNCO and all the participants in the Latin New York tribute got to take home some of that product-placement money. And finally, you, too, can be a tricon, Gaga told viewers as she returned to graciously accept MTV's first Tricon Award, recognizing her lifetime of triconship. This, apparently, is what a tricon is, in case you, too, were confused on that point. It also appears to be the new incarnation of what used to be the VIDEO VANGUARD AWARD and later became the MICHAEL JACKSON VIDEO VANGUARD AWARD, a choice that became problematic after LEAVING NEVERLAND aired on HBO in 2019. MTV never publicly addressed the controversy over the name; it just quietly reverted to the old, MJ-less name when handing the award to MISSY ELLIOTT that year. Not playing along, Elliott gleefully accepted the "Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award." MTV still hasn't said a public word about this—so as not to offend Jackson's estate and his fans, one imagines—but now it doesn't have a Video Vanguard Award at all, just a totally, categorically different award to give out to a similar artist at the same point in the same show. If MJ is spinning, or moondancing, in his grave, we'll never know (nor do we care), and MTV will never say... DAVE GROHL, age 51, vs. NANDI BUSHELL, age 10... The LEONARD COHEN estate vs. PRESIDENT TRUMP... And tonight: BRANDY vs. MONICA... RIP WALDEMAR BASTOS, RILEY OSBOURN, CLARENCE BURKE SR., ITARU OKI and CHET HIMES... And—this is going to hurt for a long time—JAMES BROWN portrayer CHADWICK BOSEMAN. | | | - Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator |
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 | REDEF |
| The (old town) road to a pop hit these days goes through millions of short, homemade, vertical videos. How did a video-sharing app make itself indispensable to the music business, and what will become of TikTok now that the U.S. government is forcing it parent company to sell it faster than you can say ppcocaine? | | |
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 | Complex |
| The heyday of music blogs was all about community, competition, and context. One ex-blogger reminisces on this unique and short-lived chapter of music history. | | |
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 | Level |
| His three-comma aspirations inspired millions. But what now, when billionaires are under fire? | | |
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 | The Daily Beast |
| Miley Cyrus sang while straddling a disco wrecking ball. Lady Gaga did alien-themed group choreography (while wearing a mask!). Nature is healing. | | |
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 | NPR |
| The rapper Drakeo the Ruler titled his latest album after the prison phone service provider GTL, whose lines he used to record it, leaving a trail to follow the money through a controversial industry. | | |
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 | The Guardian |
| Record Store Day offered welcome relief for retailers as customers queued up across the country. | | |
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 | Clash Magazine |
| Talking 'Dynamite', and the craziness of 2020. | | |
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 | The Independent |
| If anyone knows about survival, it’s the heavy metal band who’ve lasted four decades. As they release a recording of their live orchestra performance, the thrash legends tell Roisin O'Connor how they’ve been waiting out the pandemic and why we need to move forwards. | | |
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 | The New York Times |
| The NY Phil Bandwagon’s pop-up concert series, the orchestra’s first public performances since March, debuted despite rain and other obstacles. | | |
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| The Daily Beast |
| After playing Jackie Robinson in 42, the actor wasn’t interested in another biopic. Now, he’s receiving raves for his riveting portrayal of The Godfather of Soul. | | |
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 | Billboard |
| "This song hit home with a lot of people. Whether they want to feel that way or not." | | |
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| The New York Times |
| Men rap and sing about sex in preposterous and sometimes awkward detail all the time. It’s beyond time that the same courtesy is extended to women like Cardi B, Megan Thee Stallion and ppcocaine. | | |
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 | Music Industry Blog |
| 2020 will go down as a rough year for many artists, largely because of the income they lost when live ground to a halt. Unfortunately, the live music sector is still going to be disrupted in 2021 and it may take even longer for the sector to return to 'normal'. | | |
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 | Variety |
| Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter return as Bill and Ted for another adventure in "Bill & Ted Face the Music," on-demand and in theaters on Aug. 28, and their quest this time is to find a song they wrote and save the world through music. But what's the story behind that song? | | |
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 | Talkhouse |
| Little did the filmmakers know that so many similar businesses would suffer similar fates. | | |
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 | Slate |
| They knew their goofy creation had caught on when fans started showing up to see their videos in captain’s hats and Hawaiian shirts. | | |
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| The Guardian |
| When musical notation failed the great avant garde composers, they drew a picture instead. Now, a new project hopes everyone else will follow in their footsteps. | | |
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 | The New Yorker |
| Parker, whose centenary lent modernist jazz its definitive sound, tone, legend, influence, and curse. | | |
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 | Treble |
| A meditation on doom metal and self-care, and finding the right balance. | | |
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 | gal-dem |
| Speaking to the people behind UK soundsystems, Yewande Adeniran finds a rich culture of resistance, acceptance and celebration. | | |
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 | YouTube |
| | | | Chadwick Boseman as James Brown |
| | From "Get on Up" (2014). The voice belongs to JB, the performance to CB. RIP. |
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