An artist’s duty, as far as I’m concerned, is to reflect the times... I don’t think you have a choice. How can you be an artist and NOT reflect the times? That to me is the definition of an artist. | | | | Angel Olsen at the Austin City Limits Festival, Austin, Texas, Oct. 7, 2017.
(Erika Goldring/WireImage/Getty Images) | | | | |  | “An artist’s duty, as far as I’m concerned, is to reflect the times... I don’t think you have a choice. How can you be an artist and NOT reflect the times? That to me is the definition of an artist.”
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| | rantnrave:// Now that SONOS and AMAZON are dating in the smart-speaker space and players from APPLE and GOOGLE to JBL and HARMAN KARDON are trying to get you to swipe right on them instead, BAS GRASMAYER, who spends a lot of time thinking about this stuff, has a question. Not "Which one sounds best?" Bas wants to know, "How Will We Remember Bands When Interfaces Are Voice-Controlled?" The liner-notes/metadata/radio junkie in me lives for these kinds of questions, which Grasmayer paints as a bigger problem for artists ("how will people remember you when they don’t even see your name"?) than for fans. But the pop fan in me trusts that other pop fans will figure it out without having to be told how. The record industry began complaining decades ago that commercial radio stations had a strange habit of not announcing what records they were playing, and yet, somehow, everyone seemed to know exactly what was playing on the radio at all times. Words, melodies, artist names, producer names, who's dating who, everything. Fans are good at that. Especially youngish fans. And that, I assume, is how it will still be even when you're getting your music by asking your JBLs to play "that song that goes like this" (as you hum a few notes) or telling them to "play something to get me through a Tuesday morning." The speakers will respond by playing KELELA or DRAKE or ANGEL OLSEN, and you, without any assistance from the speakers or the record company or the publishing blockchain, will know exactly who it is, same aw you always have. Which doesn't mean someone shouldn't come up with technological/curatorial/publishing-tracking solutions to make it a easier for me and everyone else who isn't as quick to adapt as the average 15-year-old is. And hopefully they will think about that 15-year-old as much as they think about that 45-year-old in a corner office and remember that not every problem needs an immediate solution... Add JASON ALDEAN to the long list of ordinary Americans who are able to express the country's social bond more clearly, compassionately and convincingly than their president. Powerful cold open, SNL... Job listing of the year. (Skills: QUARK EXPRESS, ADOBE PHOTOSHOP, "some knowledge of PRINCE")... The NEEDLE DROP's ANTHONY FANTANO responds to the FADER... BILLBOARD splitting serious hairs—and/or reaching new levels of musical purity policing—in declaring GARY NUMAN "sonically" ineligible for its dance/electronic chart. This Gary Numan. This Gary Numan whose current album, which reportedly has sold/streamed enough to top this week's chart, was largely produced on electronic instruments. This Gary Numan whose current album, granted, doesn't sound much like MARSHMELLO or AVICII—except that it does if you are willing to zoom out your lens a little bit. I understand the need for policing—you want the genre charts to actually reflect their genres—but maybe a lighter, more inclusive touch would help?... RIP BUNNY SIGLER and MAJOR ACE. | | | - Matty Karas, curator |
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 | Medium |
| Two ex-major label guys, both music lifers, help their clients any way how. Think Winston Wolf in "Pulp Fiction" (minus the dead body). | | |
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 | On The Media |
| For non-fans, country music is often assumed to represent a white working class that is reactionary, simplistic and bigoted. A look at the genre's depth and why it's misunderstood. | | |
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 | BuzzFeed |
| Despite the success of “Despacito” and “Mi Gente,” Latinx artists in the US are still treated as one-time novelty acts, and face old pressures to play to cliched expectations. | | |
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 | The Line of Best Fit |
| It’s taken 16 years for Dhani Harrison to start working under his own name, and three years to record his debut. He tells Patrick Clarke about how he navigated that turbulent time. | | |
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 | Tour de Frump |
| Tom Petty doesn't tell you what a woman is wearing, or the color of her hair, or how good she looks in lingerie or on his arm or what she's like in bed; he brings his women to life by describing how they feel, what they want, (and how they kiss), and makes them live from the inside out. | | |
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 | Pitchfork |
| Kanye and Lloyd’s of London continue to fight over what really happened at the end of last year. | | |
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 | Drowned In Sound |
| We delve into the tech behind some of the best earphones in the world. | | |
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| Medium |
| “Bodak Yellow’s” roots are in “You Don’t Own Me” and other 60s hits. | | |
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 | Electronic Beats |
| When will the growing number of DJ award shows start celebrating women? | | |
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 | Sasha Berliner |
| I'm not going to attack you, but rather, explain with as much transparency as I can why people are making a big deal out of your words. Women are finally claiming voicedness in a genre and industry that has rejected and demeaned them time and time again, and that is something to be visibly celebrated. | | |
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 | The Atlantic |
| Talking politics with country music's bawdy, boozy star. | | |
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 | Refinery29 |
| Looking at the women nominated for the 2018 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, including Nina Simone, Kate Bush, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Eurythmics, & Chaka Khan. | | |
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 | Billboard |
| Today's top artists -- from Ed Sheeran and Fifth Harmony to Cardi B and Kygo -- would not be selling out arenas or dominating the charts without the vision, innovation and "no is not an option" perseverance of this fresh crop of young industry executives. | | |
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 | Red Bull Music Academy |
| Our series on important music-making devicescontinues with the personal computer that was the first major step in the democratization of electronic music production | | |
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| BuzzFeed |
| The release of "The Velvet Rope" twenty years ago helped paved the way for pop music that is both personal and political. | | |
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 | The New Yorker |
| She made the best music of her generation by falling in love, over and over, while defending her sense of self. | | |
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| Pitchfork |
| To the soon-to-be-shuttered AIM we say, ~so long and goodnight, so long not goodnight~ | | |
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 | Variety |
| Synch licensing has edged past mechanical as source of songwriter revenue, according to National Music Publishers Association president and CEO David Israelite, who pegged the U.S. publishing and songwriting industry at $2.652 billion as of 2016, almost a 20% jump since 2014. | | |
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 | Consequence of Sound |
| A collection of songs that prove first impressions really can last forever. | | |
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| Billboard |
| Sam Smith found multiplatinum fame overnight... and then he basically disappeared: “I’d had enough of me, me, me.” Now he’s humbled, fit -- and making his most heartbreaking music yet. | | |
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 | YouTube |
| | | | | | He would have been 77 years old today. |
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