Would you rather be a trend, or you rather be Ralph Lauren? You know what I mean; like, you rather be a trend, or you rather be forever? | | | | 'Tis the season for boy bands: Why Don't We at KISS FM's Jingle Ball in Dallas, Nov. 28. 2017.
(Kevin Winter/Getty Images) | | | | |  | “Would you rather be a trend, or you rather be Ralph Lauren? You know what I mean; like, you rather be a trend, or you rather be forever?”
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| | rantnrave:// Besides the obvious—beat the competition, stake your claim, get the clicks—I've never understood the rush to release year-end lists in November. The year is not over, people. THANKSGIVING is not the new CHRISTMAS. And if you're publishing now, that means you probably polled your writers somewhere around October, when they should have been thinking about candy corn and pumpkins, not how those LORDE and KENDRICK albums compare to those TAYLOR and EMINEM albums that didn't exist yet. How do you know CHRISTIAN SCOTT ATUNDE ADJUAH doesn't have more albums to release between now and Dec. 31? What about that ESPERANZA SPALDING thing? But, hey, if you've already decided the best album of 2017 was made by Kendrick in April or Lorde in June or by THUNDERCAT or PARADISE LOST or CÉCILE MCLORIN SALVANT or LOYLE CARNER, so be it. I'm here to collect, not complain, same as every year. Just make sure you mention SZA early and often in your lists, OK? MusicSET: "Best Music of 2017: The Year in Lists." Bookmark the link if you're into that sort of thing. I'll be updating it daily into early 2018. (And if you need to change your site's entire list between now and then, cool. I accept do-overs)... More of the best of 2017: Best turntables. Best hi-fi gear... JESSIE REYEZ Tuesday night at the BOWERY BALLROOM was one of the most exuberant, electric, ecstatic pop shows I've seen in a long time. Pure performance; see her soon. Also, her audience, which consisted of industry and fans who scooped up tickets in the 60 seconds between the show going on sale and selling out, has a frighteningly good collective singing voice. This is the jam. But also this... Metrics that SPOTIFY editors consider when adding/removing songs from playlists, per DANIEL BREITHOLZ, head of shows and editorial for Spotify Nordic: skip rates, saves, repeat listens, time spent listening, completion rate, historical data about the artist, gut feelings. As for algorithmic playlists like DISCOVER WEEKLY and RELEASE RADAR, here's your unfortunate quote of the week, from Breitholz: "[They] should mirror your music taste. If they are not working for you it’s not our fault! It’s you! How you are listening to music." Listen better, people!... Great cause, cool performances, I love everything about this: BEDSTOCK... Look out world, BOB LEFSETZ has a podcast... Music editor ANDY HERMANN was among the nine editorial staffers laid off Wednesday by the alt-weekly's new owner; the draconian cuts included all of the paper's editors 'cause whoo neeeds thsoe?... RIP SHADIA. | | | - Matty Karas, curator |
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 | REDEF |
| Our annual running list of top 10s, top 40s, top 50s and top whatevers from around the music universe. The albums, singles and other random things that mattered most in this, the year of our Lorde (and our Kendrick and our Cardi and our Uzi and our SZA and our Khalid) 2017. | | |
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 | The New York Times |
| The music mogul talks with The New York Times’s executive editor at the close of an eventful year. | | |
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 | Rolling Stone |
| With YouTube counting less on the charts and paid services like Apple Music counting more, will hip-hop, R&B and Latin artists actually suffer? | | |
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 | Pitchfork |
| The Baltimore musician finds the innate warmth in an instrument first used as physical therapy for WWII soldiers. | | |
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 | Oxford American |
| Sturgill Simpson is a Kentucky rascal, born in the heart of the Appalachian mountains. Jackson—population around twenty-one hundred. He comes from a family of coal miners. He was in the Navy. He worked on the railroad and played music and sang, and his wife reassured him he was good and should keep doing it. | | |
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 | Billboard |
| "The problem is not solved yet, the solution is not there." | | |
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 | Resident Advisor |
| Marea Stamper connects the past with the present for our 600th podcast. | | |
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 | Detroit Metro Times |
| If you're a metalhead in Detroit looking for a hall to see your favorite band, Harpos is, and has long been, the spot. Sure, it's notoriously grimy, and the bathrooms have been better known for keeping water on the floor than in the toilets, but fans go there anyway. | | |
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 | Stereogum |
| It didn't start with "Watch The Throne." For decades, established rappers have been forming groups or teaming up for one-off collaborations. In the '90s, there was TRU (Master P, Silkk The Shocker, C-Murder) and Westside Connection (Ice Cube, WC, Mack 10). | | |
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 | Lefsetz Letter |
| For the inaugural episode, Bob sits down for an interview with long-time friend and guest John Boyle, Chief Growth Officer of Insomniac. The two discuss a bit of John’s background, and then turn the microphone around to Bob so listeners can learn more about his humble beginnings in the business. | | |
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 | Los Angeles Times |
| The Grammys are finally hip to hip-hop as rappers Jay-Z and Kendrick Lamar lead the nominees. | | |
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| Billboard |
| As rock fights to adjust to changes in the Grammy nomination process, bands like Imagine Dragons and Portugal. The Man secure nominations -- but not in the categories you'd expect them. | | |
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 | Complex |
| This list highlights a few of the tastemakers adapting to a business that all but requires its power players to have many jobs in one—and how they make the industry their own in all the many things that they do. | | |
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| The New York Times |
| A number of people in the Kawangware community had never heard a violin played before. | | |
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 | Afropop Worldwide |
| This Afropop Closeup zooms in on Kizito Mihigo, a beloved Rwandan singer imprisoned for 10 years for treason. | | |
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 | TechCrunch |
| Streaming services have turned playlists into one of the main ways to discover new music, but they’re missing the personality of traditional radio — the kind of radio where I knew the names of my favorite DJs, what kind of music they liked and random details about their life. That’s the experience that Stationhead is trying to bring to the streaming music world. | | |
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 | The Muse |
| I believe that Björk’s ninth adult solo album "Utopia" is the execution of a singular vision, and I am happy for her achievement. I admire her finished product from a remove, like a perfect-looking couple whose bed I will never share or a glorious penthouse spread across the pages of "Architectural Digest," whose doors I will never enter. | | |
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 | Genius |
| Alabama teenager YBN Nahmir scored his first breakout hit in 2017 with "Rubbin Off the Paint," a song that gained attention in part because people thought he was dissing Texas MC Tay-K. | | |
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| Los Angeles Times |
| She's called the greatest female blues singer under 40. Chicago Tribune critic Howard Reich writes in-depth about blues singer Shemekia Copeland, daughter of blues great Johnny Copeland. | | |
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 | Deadline |
| Some composers obsess over minimizing their scores in exchange for the drama onscreen, but Carter Burwell always leaves the moviegoer with a sense of time, place and mood, especially in such films as the Coen brothers' "Miller's Crossing" and "Fargo" or Todd Haynes' "Carol." | | |
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