I really don’t like politics and I wish I didn’t have to urge people to register and vote. I’d rather just focus on making art. But as artists with a platform, we have a special responsibility to lead by example and do whatever we can to make a difference. | | | | Spelled to the nines: Lizzo at the Billboard Music Awards, Los Angeles, October 2020.
(Kevin Winter/Getty Images) | | | | |  | “I really don’t like politics and I wish I didn’t have to urge people to register and vote. I’d rather just focus on making art. But as artists with a platform, we have a special responsibility to lead by example and do whatever we can to make a difference.”
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| | rantnrave:// Have you vote baby voted yet? Are you still planning to? Let the music industry help you... Only 36 percent of eligible voters in the 18–29 demo voted in 2018, so ATLANTIC RECORDS is running a cheeky get-out-the-youth-vote campaign in which artists have edited songs and videos down to 36 percent of the original audio and video content. Such as PORTUGAL. THE MAN's (or, should I say, PTG. T M's) "FEEL IT STILL," presented here as if only 36 percent of the faders on the band's mixing console had showed up. "36%," the campaign's tagline tells us, "isn't enough." Funny because it's true... TYLER, THE CREATOR, age 29, used to be among the wrong 64%. He's voting for the first time this year and, with the caveat that "I know I’m the last person y’all should ever take advice from," he used his social platforms to urge others to do the same—and not just for president. "Y’all want a new DA? Pull up," he tells fans in a Twitter video. "Y’all want all these rights? Then f***in' pull up." Listen to him... Also voting for the first time and letting music fans know: OFFSET and SNOOP DOGG, both of whom, per the Atlantic, "believed their criminal records precluded them from being able to vote." A lot of people are learning a lot about voting in 2020, as one imagines a lot of people do every four years, but this year, it seems, there's a little more to learn and a few more people who want to learn. If you can set that quest to a melody and a beat, that's gotta help, right?... Yes it can help, from Rock the Vote to RAVE THE VOTE to HEADCOUNT, the voter registration organization co-founded by DISCO BISCUITS bassist MARC BROWNSTEIN that grew out of the jam band scene and has exploded all over the rest of the live music and festival scene in recent years. This year it moved, for obvious reasons, into the vibrant virtual live space. "I used to think voting wasn’t for me,” says KEVIN MORBY, who performed at HeadCount's "Vote Ready: A Concert for Voter Registration. "As I’ve gotten older, I see how necessary it is"... And yes it can help LIFT EVERY VOTE, to quote the name and hashtag of this New York-based effort to get "musicians, performers & noise makers" to flood the American zone with live performance videos encouraging voters to dance their way to the polls. The hashtag has been making its way around the jazz community—and various others—leading to encouragements like this from harpist BRANDEE YOUNGER and this from drummer JOHNATHAN BLAKE... On Election Day, the two-year-old organization #IVOTED is virtual-staging what Pollstar calls "the largest single-day digital concert ever," with more than 450 performers including DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS, FANTASTIC NEGRITO, JULIEN BAKER and JIM JAMES performing over the course of 14 hours. The price of digital admission to the performances, hosted by the tech startup MANDOLIN, is a selfie proving you've voted—or, for those too young to vote, an explanation of why they're excited about voting one day. "We don’t care who you vote for," says #iVoted co-founder Emily White, a music industry vet who runs the management company COLLECTIVE ENTERTAINMENT. "We just want people thinking about voting"... In answer to the question this rant started with—Have you vote baby voted yet? Are you still planning to?—the only answer we're accepting here is yes. But if you're in the "still planning" category, let me add my voice to the chorus urging you—screaming at you if I must—to do it in person, whether that means masking up and delivering your mail-in ballot by hand or really really masking up and standing in line at a traditional polling station. This new lullaby by Kevin Morby notwithstanding, the US Postal Service hasn't done a great job of convincing anybody it can get a letter from here to there in the six days between now and Election Day. And as for the courts, um—just do it like LADY GAGA, OK? MusicSET: "Pop the Vote 2020"... TIM MCGRAW recently broke into the (amazing, you really should see them someday) display cases at the COUNTRY MUSIC HALL OF FAME to take his idol KEITH WHITLEY's C.W. PARSONS acoustic guitar. MIRANDA LAMBERT grabbed one that JOHN PRINE played on records she once found in her father's collection. They and others did it for the museum's Big Night at the Museum fundraiser, which airs on YOUTUBE at 9pm ET tonight... MEGAN THEE STALLION was named Hip-Hop Artist of the Year at the BET HIP-HOP AWARDS... Sprucing up TIPITINA's... RIP BRYAN WAYNE GALENTINE and BRIAN "KENT WON'T STOP" TROTTER. | | | - Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator |
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 | Freedom Of The Press Foundation |
| The popular free software project “youtube-dl” was removed from Github on Friday following a legal notice from the Recording Industry Association of America claiming it violates copyright law. The tool is widely used by journalists for various reporting purposes. | | |
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 | Complex |
| The intersection of the internet and hip-hop is often credited for aiding the rise of young mavericks like Soulja Boy, Chief Keef, and many "SoundCloud rappers." But it also provided a creative space for newcomers who are a generation or two older than them. | | |
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 | REDEF |
| In November, a divided America comes together, at least for a day, to take part in a presidential election not quite like any other. Musicians, including some who've never done anything like this before, are providing a loud, urgent soundtrack. | | |
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 | VICE |
| The 2010s landscape of emo rap and forward-thinking pop has given birth to a new generation of artists who are young, queer and fiercely protective. | | |
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 | Midia Research |
| A White Paper on the rising power of UGC and the untapped opportunity to monetise the growth in UGC consumer behaviours and new platforms. | | |
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 | The New York Times |
| The artist says her baby, X Æ A-XII, stays up watching “radical art.” So she made him an A.I. lullaby. | | |
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 | First Floor |
| a.k.a. The unequal distribution of outrage when it comes to COVID-era partying. | | |
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 | Billboard |
| When the music industry comes together, powerful things can happen. Alisa Coleman, chair of the board of the Mechanical Licensing Collective, looks back at how the MLC came together and where it goes now. | | |
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 | Tidal |
| The cofounder of rock’s most original band talks devolution in the era of Trumpism. | | |
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 | ABC7 Chicago |
| The death of Chicago native turned international famed rapper Juice WRLD rocked the entertainment industry. Now, almost a year after a fatal drug overdose, his mother hopes her son's death can be a lesson for others. | | |
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 | Broken Record |
| In this interview with Malcolm Gladwell and Rick Rubin, Bruce talks about how listening to "Born To Run" 45 years after it was released made him realize just how good he really is. He also talks about how his Irish and Italian sides physically manifest into songs, and how he recorded his stellar new album live with the E Street Band in just four days. | | |
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 | Decibel |
| Decibel celebrates the 30th anniversary of GWAR's landmark "Scumdogs of the Universe," and dodges blood and semen to bring you the ULTIMATE oral history of the legendary release. | | |
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 | Mixmag |
| Yewande Adeniran explores the impact of No Signal, the radio station celebrating Black British culture and communities. | | |
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 | Okayplayer |
| Though K-pop has become its own genre, there’s no denying the clear hip-hop and R&B influences that can be seen and heard. | | |
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| The New York Times |
| “Swirling,” the group’s first album of new recordings in 20 years, is an affirmation of how vital the band remains under the direction of the saxophonist Marshall Allen, 96. | | |
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 | Pitchfork |
| The director discusses her heartrending film, which heavily features the compositions of Ethiopian pianist Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou. | | |
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 | Guitar World |
| The Dirty Nil, Monster Truck, David Wilcox and PUP offer a guided tour of the Canadian six-string scene. | | |
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 | Global News |
| Ever hear about the time Canada held its own Woodstock-style Festival? It happened. And what a story. | | |
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 | Pollstar |
| Chicago punk legend Pierre Kezdy was a perfect embodiment of his best-known band, Naked Raygun: physically daunting, but privately big-hearted and quick to laugh. Or at least smirk. | | |
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 | YouTube |
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