Growing up, it was incredibly important to hear strong, amazing, talented women on the radio. It let me know that I could do that, too. | | | | All hands on deck: Janet Jackson in the '80s.
(The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images) | | | | | | “Growing up, it was incredibly important to hear strong, amazing, talented women on the radio. It let me know that I could do that, too.”
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| | rantnrave:// From oddball '70s pop purveyor TODD RUNDGREN to heartbroken '80s heartbreaker STEVIE NICKS to '90s molotov cocktail RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE, there isn't a single act among this year's ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME nominees that doesn't deserve immortality somewhere somehow. They all, in fact, already have it. Like all hall of fames, the rock one has virtually no power to bestow immortality; its role, rather, is to recognize it and curate it, as much as immortality can be curated. The question for the voters of this especially subjective hall isn't who belongs inside—they all do—but rather who belongs inside right now, and what do they want this institution to represent, and what are they trying to say about this thing they're calling rock and roll? There are no wrong answers and no automatic ones either. By my count, there hasn't been a single act who absolutely, positively had to be voted in since JOAN JETT and LOU REED in 2015. For the most part these days, we're voting as much on our tastes as we're voting on any given band. So. Yes to ROXY MUSIC and the CURE, who stand at or near the peak of two schools of British rock that have been one of the hall's most glaring blind spots. Yes to JANET JACKSON, who at her '80s and '90s peak was pretty much the platonic ideal of futurist (and rock-infused) R&B and who was singing for freedom, independence, dancing and pleasure with greater fervor than many of the men and women who have preceded her into the hall. (Plus: RHYTHM NATION 1814 "bustles along as exhilaratingly as anything on DEF JAM or ALTERNATIVE TENTACLES at the time")... Yes with an asterisk to DEF LEPPARD, the only great new wave of British heavy metal band that can also be called a great pop metal band and who poured some sugar over two straight diamond-selling albums. (Does anyone even know what a diamond album is anymore?) Asterisk because inducting Def Leppard before its NWOBHM classmates JUDAS PRIEST and IRON MAIDEN may cause some form of metallic wrath to rain down on all of us, deservedly. Also thinking about: KRAFTWERK and RUFUS & CHAKA KHAN, who I assume have even less of a chance of getting voted in than Roxy Music does; RADIOHEAD, whose failure to get in a year ago is telling, though I'm not sure what exactly it tells; DEVO, whose failure to be previously nominated is also telling; and, wait, someone snuck JOHN PRINE onto the ballot?... TAYLOR SWIFT appears to have had an effect on voter registration in Tennessee. What have you done for us lately, everybody else? (Also a correction: Swift is 28. I said she was 27 in Tuesday's newsletter because I'm worse at math than I used to be)... Pirates, they're still among us... Speaking of pirates, where did FLEETWOOD MAC get those GETTY IMAGES photos?... T-PAIN goes into battle with DELTA AIRLINES, which rises to the challenge... Holy SHA NA NA, this story... YOKO reimagines "IMAGINE"... Taylor Swift, CAMILA CABELLO and POST MALONE among winners at AMERICAN MUSIC AWARDS... LADY GAGA joins WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION director-general TEDROS ADHANOM GHEBREYESUS to call for more funding for mental-health treatment and suicide prevention... RIP LORD SUPERB. | | | - Matty Karas, curator |
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| | | we are a part of the rhythm nation |
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| “Women in Nashville deserve to be heard, even if they are not on the radio.” | | |
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| How guitarist ‘Vinnie Taylor’ came back to life 20 years after dying of a heroin overdose and fooled the cops for four years while allegedly playing in the retro rock & roll band that Jimi Hendrix brought with him to Woodstock. | | |
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| The roster of pop music acts on the short list for Rock Hall of Fame induction veers from critically acclaimed veteran singer-songwrtier John Prine to rapper LL Cool J to German techno band Kraftwerk. | | |
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| On witnessing an American stadium-sized crowd trying to replicate traditional Korean drums with their mouths. | | |
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| YG Entertainment shares insight into how their group BLACKPINK is helping K-pop take over the world. | | |
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| Remember when Bright Eyes' "When the President Talks to God" and TV on the Radio's "Dry Drunk Emperor" protested George W. Bush? And when the Internet was full of promise for the best of humankind? | | |
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| You need to watch the film, directed by his daughter Rashida Jones, and bask in his unbridled genius. | | |
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| There’s no real way to track what motivated all those registrations. But what would explain such a sudden spike, if not for Swift’s post? | | |
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| Pirate radio is thriving on YouTube where people seek the community and intimacy long gone from personalized streaming and crappy terrestrial radio. | | |
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| Nearly 20 years after its last album - and two years after the death of frontman Ross Shapiro -- the Athens, Ga. band has shared two new songs, with plans for a full-length in November. | | |
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| | | i still recall the thrill of it all |
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| September was a month of shakeups within the ticketing business. | | |
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| It’s been a decade since her last ubiquitious solo smash. | | |
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| The new LP is one step for Quavo, two steps for the Migos, and three for Atlanta. | | |
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| Defending club culture means getting involved in local politics, Andrew Ryce writes. | | |
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| Analyzing 6 key traits of the strongest in the business. | | |
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| The Woah has been done by Lil Uzi Vert, Drake, and Travis Scott but, in Dallas, dancers are feuding over who created the viral dance. | | |
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| An Orbison tribute segment, set at the Grammys, allows Cooper to stumble... and a rock legend who's been gone for 30 years to shine. | | |
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| SoundCloud moves painfully slow for a tech company, and no one feels that pain more than musicians who are popular on the site but don’t get paid. | | |
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| Mercury Award-nominated artist Anna Calvi sits down with us to discuss "Hunter", her critically acclaimed album about gender non-conformity and sexual freedom. | | |
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| The two musicians reunite to discuss songwriting, a frightening accident and the long-delayed track “Burnt Sugar Is So Bitter.” | | |
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| © Copyright 2018, The REDEF Group |
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