Every artist or every company or business—I consider myself a business—should revamp every three to four to five years. Rebrand, rethink, and really look at the company and numbers and everything. | | | | Eric Church sings "Amazing Grace" to open the CMA Awards in Nashville, Nov. 8, 2017.
(Image Group LA/Disney ABC/Getty Images) | | | | |  | “Every artist or every company or business—I consider myself a business—should revamp every three to four to five years. Rebrand, rethink, and really look at the company and numbers and everything.”
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| | rantnrave:// Five weeks after the horrific mass shooting at a country music festival in LAS VEGAS, the country community responded with thoughts and prayers—prayers mostly—at Wednesday night's CMA AWARDS, and if your heart didn't explode into a million pieces, you might want to have it checked. Sometimes it's OK not to talk literally about politics. Sometimes emotions are politics. I say this as someone who generally loathes public thoughts and prayers in these situations and who thought, and still thinks, the COUNTRY MUSIC ASSOCIATION was sticking its foot deep into its mouth when it tried to tell the media not to bring up guns or politics at its annual awards show (it later changed its mind and apologized). Don't tell everyone else what to do or not do. Instead, show them what you want to do. Show them what you're feeling. That's what happened Wednesday. First ERIC CHURCH, who was one of the headliners at the tragedy-stricken ROUTE 91 HARVEST FESTIVAL, stood alone in the middle of BRIDGESTONE ARENA and sang "AMAZING GRACE." Then the camera panned to the main stage, where DARIUS RUCKER started singing "HOLD MY HAND," by his old band, HOOTIE & THE BLOWFISH: "With a little love and some tenderness, we'll walk upon the water, we'll rise above this mess." He was joined at first by KEITH URBAN and, eventually, by pretty much the entire population of NASHVILLE. That was a thought and a prayer and an emotionally resonant response to a hell of a year in both country and *the* country. Co-hosts BRAD PAISLEY and CARRIE UNDERWOOD then ribbed the CMA while offering some bipartisan political humor, ending with a pretty good RANDY RAINBOW imitation. Who did it better: Randy? Brad & Carrie? And no one talked about guns, except STURGILL SIMPSON, who set up as a busker outside the arena and told passersby, “Nobody needs a machine gun, coming from a guy who owns quite a few guns." That's valid, too. Emotionally true. And literally true. Well done, Nashville... Oh, and GARTH BROOKS was named Entertainer of the Year for a sixth time. And lip-synced. Which is valid, too. It's a TV show. And PINK showed up and sang and TAYLOR SWIFT did not show up and won an award. And KEITH URBAN debuted a song inspired by HARVEY WEINSTEIN which is called "FEMALE" and which is, formally speaking, a really good pop song but which is also, um, I don't know... You should always, no matter what, leave the high E string open when you play guitar, according to KURT VILE. Co-sign. There is no better show for guitar geeks than GUITAR MOVES, whose newest episode finds host MATT SWEENEY trading licks with Kurt and COURTNEY BARNETT... RIP PAUL BUCKMASTER. His was a name I saw on a lot of records when I was a kid and always wondered about. They were almost always great records. Funny how that works. Playlist: The Master: Paul Buckmaster... RIP also TZIPORA JOCHSBERGER. | | | - Matty Karas, curator |
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 | Hollywood Reporter |
| At home in Toronto with music's reigning (and restless) hitmaker as he shifts his focus to new projects with Netflix and Apple and unveils plans to "take six months or a year to myself and do some great films." | | |
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 | The New York Times |
| As the singer prepares to release “Reputation,” her die-hard fans interact directly with their queen away from the critical glare of other social media. | | |
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 | Vulture |
| When MTV debuted a video-countdown show called "Total Request Live" on September 14, 1998, the cable network was in the throes of an identity crisis - a perpetual state for the flailing company in recent years but only a recurring one back then. | | |
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 | Real Life |
| Streaming music services have made record reviewing superfluous. But are we really better off without it? | | |
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 | MusicAlly |
| Spotify, Deezer and SoundCloud are among the founder members of a new coalition that plans to represent the European digital music industry in Brussels. | | |
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 | The Ringer |
| How an inspired prank helped the Seattle music scene get its revenge on the world. | | |
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 | Noisey |
| As beat leasing becomes a common practice, artists gain independence, but what is lost? | | |
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 | Mixmag |
| The Scandinavian hit machine is back with another breathtaking album. | | |
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 | Medium |
| In a fast-paced world of non-stop information, whether it be news, fake news, clickbait, or worse, there is surely nothing more depressing than a band being on the receiving end of a terrible PR stunt through no fault of their own, only to discover the ramifications of the stunt through the electronic grapevine. | | |
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 | The Tennessean |
| Garth Brooks made it a six-pack at the 51st CMA Awards, claiming the top honor on country music's biggest night for a record sixth time. His entertainer of the year win capped an evening big on memorable moments, as country's top stars sought to balance showmanship with tributes to artists who've died this year and those killed in last month's Las Vegas shooting. | | |
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| Noisey |
| The Atlanta rapper has worked too hard to just be considered “funny.” With 'Pretty Girls Love Trap Music' and a new TV show, he's hell-bent on claiming his rightful throne. | | |
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| The Ringer |
| Since the 2016 election, she has been criticized for refusing to engage with national politics, or speaking out against the hate groups that celebrate her. Can a pop star afford to stay apolitical in our current climate? | | |
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 | JAAK |
| Official footage from the Ethereum Foundation livestream of Devcon 3 in Cancun, November 4th 2017. | | |
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 | The Fader |
| After being on probation for ten years, the rapper is still struggling to escape the system. | | |
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 | The Verge |
| Whether or not Keith Urban is a nice guy isn’t really useful information to me, a young woman who has listened to his new song “Female” — a response to the recent flood of sexual assault allegations against Harvey Weinstein — and is now bleeding profusely from the eyes, nose, and ear canals. | | |
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 | Pitchfork |
| In one of his final interviews, the late drummer recounts his family’s troubled history and his most formative early life experiences, including the death of a beloved brother. | | |
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 | Billboard |
| On pop radio, a steady trickle of almost entirely male singer/songwriter ballads has turned into a flood. | | |
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 | Hypebot |
| Blockchain tech's potential for the music industry has long been discussed and debated, but not always acted upon. Ujo Music is one organization which has worked to make blockchain integration an actual reality, and although its first attempt didn't exactly go smoothly, hopes are high for round two. | | |
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 | The New Yorker |
| In a scene featuring the song, the titular character finally acknowledges an interiority that doesn’t hew to her own expectations of herself. | | |
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 | LA Weekly |
| And then, just two months later, began work on the best album of her career, the just-released "Lune Rouge." | | |
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 | YouTube |
| | | | | | Strings arranged and conducted by Paul Buckmaster. RIP. |
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