| We have to continue to pay it forward. I remember how excited I was when Kelsea [Ballerini] or Kacey [Musgraves] or Maren [Morris] would tweet about me in the beginning, so it's so fun now to be able to do that for someone else. | | | | |  | Python Beat Box: Prince Markie Dee (right) with the Fat Boys and a long serpent, New York, June 16, 1989.
(Paul Natkin/Archive Photos/Getty Images) | | | | | "We have to continue to pay it forward. I remember how excited I was when Kelsea [Ballerini] or Kacey [Musgraves] or Maren [Morris] would tweet about me in the beginning, so it's so fun now to be able to do that for someone else." | | | | Do It Again
The newest entrant in the race to spend hundreds of millions of dollars buying up publishing catalogs and masters is IRVING AZOFF, who is not necessarily coming for all of your publishing catalog and masters. Azoff on Thursday launched a new venture, ICONIC ARTISTS GROUP, with an announcement that he's acquired a controlling interest in the intellectual property of the BEACH BOYS, including some masters and some publishing but also the Beach Boys brand and an archive of videos and other memorabilia. "The band," reports Bloomberg's LUCAS SHAW, "is giving Azoff's company, Iconic, control over everything from their social-media accounts to their names, likenesses and life stories. He will be the steward of the Beach Boys, overseeing their work even after the remaining members die." The rights to the band's classic 1960s catalog wasn't the band's to sell; as Rolling Stone notes, UNIVERSAL controls both the masters and publishing for that era.
Unlike ventures such as MERCK MERCURIADIS' HIPGNOSIS, which has been at the forefront of the past year's catalog buying spree, Iconic isn't an investment fund. It's aimed at bringing as many of an estate's assets as possible together under one roof, developing the underlying brand and solidifying the artist's legacy. The Beach Boys brand, by all accounts, has been in disrepair for some time. "An underappreciated trademark," Azoff tells Shaw. "We've gone through a few fortunes, believe me, with different organizations," Beach Boy AL JARDINE tells Rolling Stone's PATRICK DOYLE. Azoff and Iconic want the Beach Boys to be seen, again, as a top-tier, A-list band/brand.
Wouldn't it be nice? There's a 60th (!) anniversary to celebrate and talk of a documentary, a TV special, consumer tie-ins and other opportunities—some of them very very long-term. Singer MIKE LOVE envisions a future where the Beach Boys can still be playing concerts long after he and his current bandmates are gone. But can he and Beach Boys mastermind BRIAN WILSON settle their long-running differences long enough to play a few concerts themselves, together, to get the rebranding in motion? I asked SUSAN GENCO, co-president of the AZOFF COMPANY. There's no guarantee, and the venture doesn't depend on it. But "it speaks volumes," she said, "that the Beach Boys made a unanimous decision to trust Iconic with their legacy. It is a big deal, an honor and a huge responsibility."
Tiers of a Clown
What if yelling the ugliest, most racist word imaginable turns out to be a good career move? Two unexpected takeaways from Billboard's survey of how the industry is reacting to MORGAN WALLEN's self-implosion: 1) The magazine estimates Wallen's label, BIG LOUD, is currently pulling in more than $1.5 million a week from sales and streaming of his album DANGEROUS, which has been the #1 album in the US for five weeks, two of those weeks coming after he was caught on tape saying a word that has caused much of the industry to go into crisis mode. Officially, the label has suspended its biggest star, which largely seems to mean it isn't actively promoting the album. But the crisis appears to be doing all the promotion the album needs: Sales went up, not down, as soon as radio took Wallen's music out of rotation. Fans appear to be rushing to his defense despite his explicit request that they don't. What more could a label marketing department ask for? 2) An insurance company that provides "disgrace insurance" to companies worried about scandals like this, says Wallen's outburst rates only a Tier 3 crisis in a system that goes up to Tier 7. That's because of the belief that his language was directed at a friend and—this is the key part—"the public expected this kind of behavior" from him. Which is sort of like saying the more likely you are to get into trouble, the more it's OK if you do get in trouble. Or, the more fights you get into, the faster you get paroled. If LIL NAS X had put the word in a song, it would seem to be game over for him, at least in Nashville. But if Morgan Wallen puts the word into real life: tier 3. Of seven. A reminder, finally, that despite this framing, and despite executives worried that "one ignorant guy took the rest of us down with him," the issue Nashville is facing isn't about one singer and the solution, if it ever comes, may have little or nothing to do with him. MusicSET: "This Is Not a Set About Morgan Wallen."
Etc Etc Etc
NY POPSUP, a public series of more than 300 performances over several months meant to bring live entertainment back to a city starving for it, launches Saturday with a roaming performance by jazz bandleader JON BATISTE, opera singer ANTHONY ROTH COSTANZO, jazz singer CECILE MCLORIN SALVANT and tap dancer AYODELE CASEL. They'll play for free health care workers at the JAVITS CENTER in Manhattan, then continue on to parks, street corners and hospitals in all five New York boroughs. To thread the needle between having entertainment but not drawing huge crowds in a pandemic, many events in the series, unlike this one, won't be announced in advance. Shoutout to our friend JANE ROSENTHAL, who's producing the series with SCOTT RUDIN and the state... UNIVERSAL is reviving the VIRGIN brand as a distribution and artist services company... DE LA SOUL guest stars Saturday on CARTOON NETWORK's TEEN TITANS GO!, in an episode in which aliens try to steal the group's music... DOLLY PARTON says thanks but no thanks to a statue of herself in Tennessee.
It's Friday
And that means new music from British rapper GHETTS, who goes major label with help from SKEPTA, STORMZY and ED SHEERAN... TRIPPIE REDD, who leans into rock with an assist from TRAVIS BARKER and MACHINE GUN KELLY... 30-year-old country singer CARLY PEARCE, reflecting on a rough 29th year on her "29" EP... The first new album in 33 years from Bay Area synthesist/composer PAULINE ANNA STROM, who died in December... The HOLD STEADY belatedly arriving, pandemic-delayed 2020 album... British pop producer SG LEWIS' solo debut... Underground rappers YOUR OLD DROOG & THE GOD FAHIM's second joint album in a month... And albums from PERFUME GENIUS (remix album), CJ, MR. EAZI, KELLY ROWLAND, JIM JONES & HARRY FRAUD, KATY KIRBY, WILD PINK, CASSANDRA JENKINS, MOGWAI, GRAVESEND, SUFFERING HOUR, NOTHING NOWHERE, ICON FOR HIRE, BLACK DRESSES (released earlier this week), LYLE WORKMAN, JOSÉ JAMES (live album recorded during the pandemic), CAMERON GRAVES, JOHN PATITUCCI/VINNIE COLAIUTA/BILL CUNLIFFE, QOQEQA, EDIE BRICKELL & NEW BOHEMIANS, LAEL NEALE, TASH SULTANA, SMITH & BURROWS, ANOTHER MICHAEL, MISTER GOBLIN, ANDREW MARLIN, YOUNG BUCK, SYLVAN LACUE, LAVA LA RUE and KEVIN GATES.
Rest in Peace
MARK MORALES was best known as PRINCE MARKIE DEE, a founding member of one of hip-hop's first true superstar groups, the FAT BOYS, about whom you should click right now on QUESTLOVE's INSTAGRAM appreciation: "OMG! they were the first stadium hip hop headliners... Like they were so dope we just took them for granted." Morales had a brief solo career, too, and then, under his birth name, went on to a second life writing and producing pop for the likes of MARY J. BLIGE (including her first top 10 hit, "REAL LOVE") and MARIAH CAREY... Pioneering reggae toaster and DJ U-ROY, aka the Originator, cast shadows over the development of both hip-hop and dancehall with Jamaican hits like "RULE THE NATION"... MILES SEATON was a founding member of experimental rock band AKRON/FAMILY.
| | | | Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator |
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| | |  | | Afropop Worldwide |
| | The Black History of the Banjo | | by Ben Richmond | | We trace the history of this most American of instruments from its ancestors in West Africa through the Caribbean and American South and into the present, as a new generation of Black women artists reclaim the banjo as their own. | |  | | Rolling Stone |
| | Inside the Ambitious Plan to Monetize the Beach Boys' Legacy | | by Patrick Doyle | | Brian Wilson, Mike Love, and Al Jardine on why they've sold a controlling interest in their intellectual property to a new company led by Irving Azoff — and how they hope to celebrate their 60th anniversary. | |  | | The Guardian |
| | 'We have to nurture each other': how Olivia Rodrigo and Gen Z reinvented the power ballad | | by Laura Snapes | | Rodrigo's global hit Drivers Licence is the epitome of new-school pop songwriting, where sexuality is complex, emotions are specific and bombast is traded for intimacy. | | |  | | Billboard |
| | Why My Mom and the Go-Go's Deserve to Be In the Rock Hall of Fame | | by James Duke Mason | | Growing up as the son of the group's lead singer, I always assumed that people knew and understood why The Go-Go's were so important -- not only for female musicians, but for music and history more broadly. | |  | | The New York Times |
| | One Album Released by 44 Labels. Is This the New Global Jukebox? | | by Grayson Haver Currin | | For a decade, Senyawa has helped redefine how Indonesian music sounded. Now, the duo wants to revolutionize how it gets heard. | |  | | interdependence.fm |
| | Artist Led Pricing, Scene ownership and defecting from Spotify with Audius | | by Holly Herndon and Mat Dryhurst | | In this episode we welcome the full Audius squad to discuss their new music protocol, how it establishes the rails for artist led, rather than centrally mandated, pricing and design of economic and interactive relationships, Soundcloud and the dangers of platform risk, and the ways in which we might drag people away from centralised platforms and toward decentralised ownership. | |  | | NPR Music |
| | City Scenes: The Fight to Save Live Music in Austin | | by Jeff McCord | | KUTX in Austin shares stories of survival from the live music community. | |  | | MetalSucks |
| | Culture Shock Treatment: How Metal Bands Survive Censorship in China | | by Ryan Dyer | | Living in China is hard. Starting a band in China is harder. Having a band which walks the tightrope of singing about social or political issues in China is damn near impossible. | |  | | InsideHook |
| | Should You Have a Sex Playlist? | | by Kayla Kibbe | | The sex playlist discourse is more complicated than you may think. Spoiler alert: We're all overthinking it. | |  | | VAN Magazine |
| | The Secret Lives of Ushers | | by Benjamin Poore | | We seldom pay attention to ushers. In "The Natural History of the Theatre," Theodor Adorno's otherwise extravagant sociology of concert-going, the usher receives only a glancing mention: a missed opportunity for a writer who discerned the ideological contradictions and atavistic energies of music in a thousand minor details, from gales of applause to foyerside finger buffets. | | | | | Rolling Stone |
| | RETRO READ: The Fat Boys: Hip-Hop's Pop Culture Ambassadors on Crushin' 1987 | | by Will Hodge | | The rap pioneers, Beach Boys collaborators, 'Disorderlies' stars and 'Hollywood Squares' guests talk their unique crossover coup. | |  | | Boomshots |
| | Reasoning with Daddy U Roy The Original Dancehall Teacher | | by Reshma B | | The race is not for the swift, but who can endure it. And Jamaica's foundation deejay Daddy U Roy is still setting the pace. | | | quote:// "They were all running around saying, 'Oh, he's paying 25 times,' because they had to give their shareholders an explanation." - Merck Mercuriadis | | | | | Billboard |
| | Mercuriadis Rising: Meet the Man Songwriters Love and Publishers Fear | | by Ed Christman | | The founder of Hipgnosis has spent $2 billion to transform the business of songs, making some creators rich and infuriating rivals by forcing them to spend more. Now he wants to rally songwriters to raise royalties - a plan that might even boost the fortunes of those who call him Publishing Enemy No. 1. | | | | The New York Times |
| | What Frustrated Workers Heard in That Dolly Parton Ad | | by Brooke Jarvis | | A protest song about degrading work becomes a rousing call to do even more work after that. | |  | | Level |
| | Why Brooklyn's Drill Music Is the Heartbeat of My New Film | | by Marcus K. Dowling and Eddie Huang | | Eddie Huang discusses his directorial debut, and what it was like working with the late Pop Smoke. | |  | | The Daily Beast |
| | Justin Timberlake Revealed His True Colors to Me Before the Britney Spears Documentary | | by Ernest Owens | | The self-proclaimed "President of Pop" knew he wronged Janet Jackson and Britney Spears long before the #FreeBritney movement-he just didn't care. | |  | | Slate |
| | Why Do We Ever Play the National Anthem at Sports Games? | | by Joel Anderson, Stefan Fatsis and Josh Levin | | The Dallas Mavericks' failed attempt to cancel it begs the question of why we do this in the first place. | |  | | Spotify |
| | Black Girl Songbook: Getting Success like Sade and Estelle | | by Danyel Smith and Estelle | | In Chapter 3 of 'Black Girl Songbook,' Danyel Smith looks at the reserved yet widely successful British singer-songwriter Sade and the ambition that led her to international stardom. Then, Grammy Award–winning singer Estelle checks in to talk about her upbringing and "lovers rock" connection to Sade. | |  | | GQ |
| | 'Studio 17: The Lost Reggae Tapes' Documents the Wild Story of the Birth of Reggae | | by Rob Kenner | | Untold stories, unsolved murders, and unreleased music drive this documentary from journalist and reggae music curator Reshma B. | |  | | Discogs |
| | The State of Discogs 2020: End-of-Year Report | | Discogs is excited to share our annual report that dives into the data, trends, and music sales that made 2020 a record-breaking year for physical music. | | | | | Music | Media | Sports | Fashion | Tech | | "REDEF is dedicated to my mother, who nurtured and encouraged my interest in
everything and slightly regrets the day she taught me to always ask 'why?'" | | |  | | | Jason Hirschhorn | | CEO & Chief Curator | | |  |
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