I’m an artist on a major label who doesn’t really operate like one. I’m doing the creative. I’m booking my own sessions. I don’t want the suggestions. I have my own identity and thought process. I don’t feel like I have to prove myself or get permission to do anything. I need my money from my major label to make sick videos, but I don’t want all the f***ing crap that comes with it. | | | | Charli XCX at the Pitchfork Music Festival, Chicago, July 21, 2019. "Charli" is out today on Asylum and Atlantic UK.
(Michael Hickey/Getty Images) | | | | |  | “I’m an artist on a major label who doesn’t really operate like one. I’m doing the creative. I’m booking my own sessions. I don’t want the suggestions. I have my own identity and thought process. I don’t feel like I have to prove myself or get permission to do anything. I need my money from my major label to make sick videos, but I don’t want all the f***ing crap that comes with it.”
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| | rantnrave:// Early in the development of MTV's short-lived subscription music service, URGE, circa 2005 or 2006, several of us flew from New York to Nashville to meet with our cousins at CMT. The trip was part get-to-know-your-colleagues, part hear-some-bluegrass-at-the-STATION-INN, but mostly it was them presenting us with what was basically a twangy TED talk with two slides. Slide one: Country is not rural music. Slide two: Country is urban music. Country is Nashville (a large blue island in the middle of Tennessee). Country is Dallas. Country is Chicago. Country is urban dwellers living urban lives, more likely to work in an ad agency than on a farm, and who expect to be programmed and marketed to with that in mind. It was a basic rethink-your-prejudices lesson that has stuck with me through the years, and it's on my mind as I anticipate KEN BURNS' eight-part, 16-hour documentary COUNTRY MUSIC, which premieres Sunday night on PBS. One of Burns' stated goals is to get Americans to reconsider their ideas of what country is and where it came from. In Burns' telling, the music and culture are anything but homogeneous. It's a culture with lots of roots and even more branches. In the first episode, he'll trace some of those roots to Africa (where the banjo was birthed) and to African Americans who were more than just influences on country patriarchs and matriarchs like JIMMIE RODGERS and the CARTER FAMILY; they were part of each other's world, their contributions not easily separable. "Every facet of country," writes TIME's ANDREW R. CHOW, "is indebted to African and African-American traditions, but commercial decisions by white industry executives led to their exclusion from the genre for decades." The NEW YORK TIMES' JON CARAMANICA puts it this way: "In positioning country music as, essentially, the music of the white rural working class, Nashville streamlined—make that steamrollered—the genre’s roots." This isn't necessarily what my CMT colleagues were trying to tell me when they used the word "urban." They were using it literally, as far as I know, not as code, and they certainly weren't trying to indict their colleagues working on MUSIC ROW. At least I don't think they were. But maybe I'm wrong. Culture is a quilt, beautifully and sometimes randomly stitched together, and anyone who would deny that deserves at least a little scolding. Let's make that slide three on our PowerPoint... One of the great love crimes of our times, per CHARLI XCX's "FEBRUARY 2017": "You read but won't reply." I love that line. On the one hand, a cheap and easy reference to current technology, which will date itself soon enough. On the other hand, that technology probably means a lot more to most youngish couples today than, say, flowers or chocolate, and those five words carry enough yearning and anxiety to fill an album's worth of love songs, or a couple months' worth of therapy. Pop concision. CHARLI, her third album, is out today... Somebody—a friend of a friend—has uploaded to YOUTUBE the audio from DANIEL JOHNSTON's four-minute show at New York's KNITTING FACTORY in November 1998, which I wrote about in Thursday's newsletter, and which is up there with my favorite shows ever. This, too, is a good, concise lyric, from that night: "ADOLF HITLER was a man / Was a big man / But GOD was bigger and Japan and Germany surrendered at the war." We've added a lot more stories to MusicSET: "True Love Did Not Find Daniel Johnston in the End but He Never Stopped Looking." He was, in fact, very well loved. I hope he knew... BILLBOARD's "21 Under 21," from 17-year-old BILLIE EILISH to 19-year-old PALOMA MAMI... It's FRIDAY and that means new music from CHARLI XCX, JPEGMAFIA, JENNY HVAL, SAMPA THE GREAT, ELZA SOARES, AHMAD JAMAL, KORN, CRYPT SERMON, DOLD VORDE ENS NAVN, (SANDY) ALEX G, BELLE AND SEBASTIAN, METRONOMY, MOZZY & GUNPLAY, GHOSTFACE KILLAH, MEN I TRUST, CHELSEA WOLFE, the LUMINEERS, ALEX CAMERON, SAM FENDER, PIXIES, the GOO GOO DOLLS, DEVENDRA BANHART, BETHLEHEM STEEL, EMELI SANDÉ, MIKE PATTON & JEAN-CLAUDE VANNIER, COMPTON'S MOST WANTED, JOSEPH, SHAWN COLVIN, SARAH ROGO and ALICE COOPER... And this fashionable PURPLE artifact. | | | - Matty Karas, curator |
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 | Billboard |
| As the founder of Island Records, Chris Blackwell guided the careers of Bob Marley, U2, Cat Stevens and more. Now, with the label he launched turning 60, one of the music business’ greatest-ever moguls looks back on a career, and a life, well-lived. | | |
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 | The Washington Post |
| Sharon Van Etten, Lucy Dacus, Emily Haines and others on the risks of getting “dumped in your little pink sidecar.” | | |
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 | Forbes |
| Recording artists and independent labels will check out of the Hotel California if Gov. Gavin Newsom signs the controversial "gig economy" bill, warn music industry groups who say they hit a wall in negotiations with the musicians' union. | | |
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 | Time Magazine |
| The new PBS documentary series by Ken Burns delves into the black artists that helped shape country music, and then were left behind. | | |
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 | The New York Times |
| The eight-part, 16-hour documentary tells the genre’s story, from Appalachia to arenas. | | |
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 | The Face |
| Pinning down the pied piper of Fairfax (and the most influential artist of the decade). | | |
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 | The FADER |
| The British pop-rock phenoms have spent much of the decade growing in size and stature — and as they work on their fourth album, can they become the biggest band in the world? | | |
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 | Music Think Tank |
| Since streaming became the new norm, overtaking CD sales and now paid downloads of artists music, it's now become more evident how streaming and music playlists are actually hurting artists and devaluing who's behind the music. But does anyone care? | | |
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 | BBC News |
| The latest song by Canadian singer Esthero includes a spoken-word protest at Spotify's royalties. | | |
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 | Jewish Telegraphic Agency |
| Louie Kemp, who followed the singer on tour and even lived with him, has documented it all in a memoir. | | |
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 | Amazon Music |
| "The Birth of Biggie: 25 Years of Ready to Die" follows the Notorious B.I.G. at the crucial moment when he was transitioning from “unsigned hype” to rap superstar. The minidoc includes interview audio with Biggie by biographer Cheo Hodari Coker, as well as conversations with producers Easy Mo Bee and DJ Mister Cee; Coker, and Arista/Bad Boy's Rob Stone. | | |
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 | SPIN |
| Charli XCX opens up about what inspired her most personal album to date, her struggles with depression and the pressures of fame, collaborating with Lizzo and more in SPIN's September 2019 cover story. | | |
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| Billboard |
| As indies watch their contemporaries drop out of sight, they're also seeing AEG and Live Nation snap up more national club deals. | | |
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| The FADER |
| Columbia’s Lost Rings imprint aims to highlight women gamers of color and their musical talents. Will they succeed? | | |
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 | Trapital |
| The problematic New York rapper built his brand on shock value and adjusted his approach to keep that same energy in today's climate. | | |
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 | The Tennessean |
| Craig Morgan released "The Father, My Son And The Holy Ghost" independently. Blake Shelton is determined that as many people as possible hear it. | | |
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 | American Songwriter |
| All but one of the Emerging Act category’s five nominees were black artists. | | |
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 | Seeking Alpha |
| Spotify has struggled to achieve profitability due to the poor economics inherent in the music streaming business model. I believe Spotify is on a path to becom | | |
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 | VICE |
| Ahead of their new album 'The Nothing,' the nü-metal pioneers reflect on their massively successful career-and why they don't want to be a nostalgia act. | | |
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 | Texas Monthly |
| The artist’s iconic ”Jeremiah” frog mural in Austin is seemingly indestructible, and so is his musical legacy. | | |
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 | YouTube |
| | | | | | From "The Return," out today on Ninja Tune. |
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