It’s like liking a girl in middle school, right? You try to do something cool to impress her, but at the same time you want to act like you don’t care. But then you’ll do the little bulls***, like 50 pushups at home, and hope she notices. But if she doesn't, whatever, it’s fine. | | | | Right in front of your eyes: A fan focuses on Natalia Lafourcade at Le Bataclan, Paris, Feb. 3, 2018.
(David Wolff-Patrick/Redferns/Getty Images) | | | | |  | “It’s like liking a girl in middle school, right? You try to do something cool to impress her, but at the same time you want to act like you don’t care. But then you’ll do the little bulls***, like 50 pushups at home, and hope she notices. But if she doesn't, whatever, it’s fine.”
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| | rantnrave:// Leaving aside the politics and the subtext of KANYE WEST's Kanye-esque ramblings in the WHITE HOUSE last week, what pissed off a lot of people in the music business was that it happened minutes after the president signed the MUSIC MODERNIZATION ACT, the most significant piece of music legislation in decades, one that a lot of Kanye's fellow artists, composers and producers had spent months, even years, fighting for. It was their day, not his. It was the entire business's day, not his. It was a day for celebration and acknowledgment, not a day for iPlanes and Yeezys. But Kanye, who knows a thing or two about sucking the air out of a room, pulled off his signature act again, this time without even offering an "Imma let you finish." Fortunately, Kanye can no more stop the legislation itself than he can take a Video Music Award away from TAYLOR SWIFT. The MMA, unlike the iPlane, is real. It's just that the moment "kind of got squished," as JOYCE MOORE, wife of soul singer and MMA advocate SAM MOORE, told ROLLING STONE's STEVE KNOPPER. We'll be talking about the MMA quite a bit going forward. Let us never talk of that other thing again... DRAKE can still talk about KANYE, though... LEFSETZ vs. FLOM: The industry event no one knew they wanted, but everyone needs. (In related news, I was accosted at a party in LA a while back by a songwriter/producer who thought I was JASON FLOM. It was getting dark)... 21 under 21, from 20-year-old SHAWN MENDES, whose music has been streamed nearly 4 billion times, to 19-year-old SNAIL MAIL, who's still working on her first 20 million... Striking musicians have reached an agreement with Chicago's LYRIC OPERA... Morphing faces. Real bullets in animated worlds. Reuniting with a man named AUBREY whose name isn't Aubrey anymore. And there's a first time for everything, MICHELLE PFEIFFER. MusicSET: "Sweet Visuals Are Made of This: Music Video Oral Histories, Vol. 1"... RIP ANNAPURNA DEVI, CAROL HALL and JOE RAINEY. | | | - Matty Karas, curator |
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 | Rolling Stone |
| Why the Murphy Arts District, a multimillion-dollar development in the middle-of-nowhere, is betting 2Chainz and Toby Keith can bring a struggling town back to life. | | |
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 | The Ringer |
| In so many aspects of our culture, 2018 has been the year of women’s rage. On the radio and on the charts, though, that just hasn’t been the case. Unless you’re Drake or Maroon 5. | | |
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 | The New York Times |
| A British group that aims to create the way it consumes, the 1975 mixes pop, R&B and hip-hop influences in an effort to push a staid genre forward. | | |
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 | Billboard |
| As the Alternative Songs chart celebrates 30 years of compiling the hottest tunes bubbling just under the radar, how many of those jams that first characterized the format remain in regular rotation on alternative airwaves? | | |
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 | Polygon |
| Thoughts from a live-reading of a Broadway hopeful. | | |
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 | DJ Tech Tools |
| Many DJ brands have announced they are increasing US prices due to the new tariffs. Keep reading to learn who is increasing their DJ gear prices. | | |
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 | Vulture |
| St. Vincent walked us through the writing and recording of both versions of the track “Savior,” which explores the discomfort of trying to mold yourself to your partner’s desires. | | |
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 | Newsweek |
| "The things [Prince] left behind are, in many cases, better than another artist’s very best work," said Michael Howe, chief archivist for the Prince estate. | | |
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| Vulture |
| In declaring Post Malone and Cardi B ineligible for BNA while still forcing members to now fill up a wider pool of nominees, the Grammys have all but painted themselves into a corner and left the door wide open for XXXTentaction. | | |
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 | Mumbai Mirror |
| Pandit Ravi Shankar’s former wife, who stopped performing in public in a futile attempt to save their marriage, seemed to find more joy in playing for herself and her goddess. | | |
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| Billboard |
| Two titans in live music are ending their five-year relationship, as music manager Irving Azoff buys his partner, MSG executive chairman/CEO James Dolan, out of their joint venture, Azoff MSG Entertainment, for $125 million. | | |
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| Rolling Stone |
| How streaming services are helping down-tempo, smoothed-out R&B acts like H.E.R. and Daniel Caesar build a career without club or radio hits. | | |
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 | BBC |
| As the UK's celebrates National Album Day, Spotify says albums "can still be absolutely monumental." | | |
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 | Slate |
| The singer-songwriter was a longtime admirer of hip-hop and braggadocio. He was just getting in on the fun. | | |
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 | NPR Music |
| To cope with the tumult of a difficult week and the anniversary of the #MeToo movement, music critic Ann Powers spent the week with music from women expressing one thing: Being fed up. | | |
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| The New York Times |
| For decades, medal winners in the Olympics and other events have been excused from South Korea’s mandatory military service. Some people are asking why. | | |
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 | MEL Magazine |
| Millions of people flock to his YouTube channel to hear to what bizarre sounds like. | | |
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 | Music Tech Solutions |
| As recently as yesterday I had a digital music service executive tell me that they’d never raise prices because the alternative was zero–meaning stolen. Very 1999, but also oh so very modern as long as Google and their ilk cling bitterly to their legacy “safe harbors” that act like the compulsory licenses they love so much–except the “license” is largely both royalty free and unlawful. | | |
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 | NPR |
| Violinist and social justice advocate Vijay Gupta, one of the 2018 winners of the MacArthur Fellowship, speaks about his work in under-resourced communities in Los Angeles and what's next. | | |
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| BBC |
| The record only existed in the pages of Hornby's 2009 novel "Juliet, Naked"... until now. | | |
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 | YouTube |
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