Tuesday, March 8, 2022

jason hirschhorn's @MusicREDEF: 03/08/2022 - Hot 'Heat Waves,' Spotify Goes to War, 'Levitating' Lawsuits, Cécile McLorin Salvant, Walker Hayes...

Unfortunately most of the news about Ukraine is about politics and war, but it is very important to talk about culture, too.
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Tuesday March 08, 2022
REDEF
Ukrainian singer, musician, composer Mariana Sadovska at GlobalFest, New York, Jan. 17, 2016.
(Jack Vartoogian/Archive Photos/Getty Images)
quote of the day
"Unfortunately most of the news about Ukraine is about politics and war, but it is very important to talk about culture, too."
- Mariana Sadovska, in 2015
rantnrave://
Slow Waves

In a world of songs and albums that race to the top of the ITUNES chart in a matter of hours and then are displaced by their own remixes and deluxe editions a week or two later, there's something refreshingly old-school about the laid-back, leisurely pace with which GLASS ANIMALS' "HEAT WAVES" has conquered the world. This is a song that's not in a rush. Its electro-pop groove lopes along at a barely-mid-tempo 81 beats per minute; if you weren't humming along, you could take a decent nap in the time it takes "Heat Waves" to get through the four bars of a single chorus. But that chorus is practically speed metal compared with the time it took the song to scale the charts.

"Heat Waves" was released as a single on June 29, 2020, and first crept on to BILLBOARD's Alternative Airplay chart in November 2020. It crossed over to the Hot 100 two months later, quietly registering at #100 on the chart dated Jan. 16, 2021. It fell off for two weeks, re-entered at #91 on Feb. 6 and began its quiet and lengthy ascent. Seasons came and went. Variants swept the world. Baseball went on strike. That four-bar chorus kept coming around and around and around. And in March 2022, this week, "Heat Waves" hit #1 after a 59-week climb, by far the longest climb to #1 in Billboard history. So long, in fact, that if you buy or stream the #1 song in the US today, SOUNDSCAN will register it as a "catalog" transaction. Literally. As far as the industry is concerned, "Heat Waves" no longer belongs in the same category as "ABCDEFU" or "WE DON'T TALK ABOUT BRUNO." It should be rung up instead with your MARVIN GAYE and LED ZEPPELIN records. Catalog music has completely taken over the streaming music market and Glass Animals apparently are why.

Elsewhere in Billboard news, you won't find KANYE WEST's DONDA 2 on any chart. Since the album can only be played on Kanye's $200 STEM PLAYER, the magazine is counting all sales as merchandise/music bundles, which are disqualified from chart consideration under the Billboard's bundling policy. It's a reasonable policy—meant to prevent artists from juicing their chart placement by throwing in an album with every t-shirt or ticket sale—but a terrible result. No one is buying a Stem Player because they actually want a $200 device that can only play one album. In this case, the album is the thing the fans want; the Stem Player is the thing the artist is throwing in and forcing them to buy at the same time. They want the album so badly they're willing to spend $200 plus for it. Those album sales should count.

Elsewhere in catalog news, DUA LIPA's two-year-old album FUTURE NOSTALGIA is registering as a catalog sale every time someone picks it up at their local record shop, its placement next to JACK HARLOW and GAYLE on end caps notwithstanding. It's also registering as exhibit #1 in your local courtroom, with the single "LEVITATING" having become this month's plagiarism defendant du jour. Lipa was sued on March 1 by a Florida reggae group, ARTIKAL SOUND SYSTEM, and three days later by disco-era songwriters L. RUSSELL BROWN and SANDY LINZER, with the two groups of plaintiffs accusing Lipa of stealing the same hook from different songs, which, um, you do the math. This is a fantastic YOUTUBE musical analysis of the first accusation by the always insightful ADAM NEELY, who explains in detail how eerily similar "Levitating" is to Artikal Sound System's 2017 "Live Your Life" and how that similarly almost certainly has nothing to do with plagiarism. Or, as a snarky lawyer might put it to Artikal Sound System, just because you think it's about you doesn't mean it's about you.

Non-TV Party

The stars of Monday's ACADEMY OF COUNTRY MUSIC AWARDS, the first major awards show to cut the cord and present itself via livestream, and possibly the first in a long time to go entirely maskless, included CARLY PEARCE and ASHLEY MCBRYDE, who tore through a performance of their Music Event of the Year winner "NEVER WANTED TO BE THAT GIRL"; the not-even-nominated BRELAND, who brought the church to Las Vegas' ALLEGIANT STADIUM with a show-stopping performance of his "PRAISE THE LORD" (with THOMAS RHETT); and AMAZON PRIME, which did the livestream and was name-checked more times over the course of the night than co-host DOLLY PARTON. There were no commercials—yay!—but also no pause and rewind buttons, which seemed a strange step backward for live event programming. The internet should give us things that TV can't offer, not take away things that TV can.

MIRANDA LAMBERT, who was eight time zones away in London, was named ENTERTAINER OF THE YEAR after a decade of being nominated for the top prize and not winning at both the ACMs and country's other premier awards show, the CMAs. At the ACMs, save for a 2020 tie between CARRIE UNDERWOOD and Rhett, no woman had won the award since TAYLOR SWIFT in 2012. I wouldn't have bothered showing up either if I were Lambert. "This one goes out to the singer/songwriter girls out there, we did it, this is for us," she said via video.

Rest in Peace

Country singer/songwriter JIMBEAU HINSON, whose songs were recorded by the Oak Ridge Boys, Kathy Mattea, Steve Earle and others.

- Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator
late nights
USA TODAY
Russia invaded Ukraine. Then Spotify users bombarded the music scene with violent, pro-war messages
By Amanda Florian
Despite Spotify's guidelines, USA Today found at least 66 suggestive or hostile playlists, plus a slew of others that contain mixed political messages.
Adam Neely
Did Dua Lipa ACTUALLY Plagiarize Levitating?
By Adam Neely
Did Dua Lipa REALLY plagiarize a reggae band from Florida? Hmm…
Variety
Dua Lipa Slammed With Two 'Levitating' Copyright Infringement Lawsuits in Four Days
By Jem Aswad
It's almost become a model in recent years: If a song's a hit, the copyright-infringement lawsuits follow, and Dua Lipa was clobbered with two of them in four days last week.
The New York Times
How the 'Encanto' Soundtrack Became a Smash
By Ben Sisario
With its eighth week at No. 1 on Billboard's album chart, the LP featuring songs from Lin-Manuel Miranda is a lesson in how fans drive hits from social media to streaming services.
Billboard
5 Reasons Why Glass Animals' 'Heat Waves' Took a Record-Breaking 59 Weeks to Top the Billboard Hot 100
By Andrew Unterberger
The alt-pop hit finishes its historic climb to No. 1 on the Hot 100 this week.
Vulture
Is Amazon Paving the Way for Streaming Awards Shows?
By Josef Adalian
The ACM Awards could be a test for future events like the Emmys and the Oscars.
The Guardian
Jazz genius Cécile McLorin Salvant: 'In periods of loneliness and fear, it's instinctual to want to talk about love'
By Kadish Morris
Fresh from receiving a MacArthur Foundation grant -- and releasing an album inspired by Kate Bush and ghostly folk -- the daring singer is already absorbed in the next challenge.
WQXR
4 Female Composers in Conversation
By Heather O'Donovan
We asked Missy Mazzoli, Jessie Montgomery, Angélica Negrón, and Gabriela Ortiz) what Women's History Month and International Women's Day (March 8) mean to them. All four have upcoming premieres with major symphony orchestras. They echoed the importance of amplifying women's voices, the necessity of representation, and, above all, the value of mentorship.
The Tennessean
2022 ACM Awards merge country music's traditions and digital evolution
By Marcus K. Dowling
The Academy of Country Music's latest award ceremony highlighted the fun still possible within the frenetic pace of music's streaming future.
Rhythm Passport
RETRO READ: Interview: Mariana Sadovska (April 2015)
By Marco Canepari
When actress, composer, musician and singer Mariana Sadovska tried to 'cut the cord' with her musical traditions (or at least leave them momentarily behind) her tradition restated itself like a flashback or a musical reminiscence. Sadovska discovered she was unable to distance herself from Ukrainian music, her roots and her primary inspiration. 
in the middle of june
The Washington Post
You may know him as the 'Applebee's guy,' but country star Walker Hayes is more than a viral TikTok
By Emily Yahr
After years of ups and downs in Nashville, the singer-songwriter is hoping to make the most of 2021′s runaway hit.
Stereogum
COIN Are The Last Gasp Of 2010s Alternative Pop
By Rachel Brodsky
The Nashville pop-rock band reminds me of peak millennial micro-trends, like pizza-patterned socks from TopShop, neon signage, finger mustaches, chambray shirts, direct-to-consumer products run by girlbosses who will later be accused of racism and workplace abuse.
Billboard
Concert Industry Scrambles to Hire Skilled Workers Amid Labor Shortage
By Steve Knopper
Drivers, stagehands, lighting designers, you name it. A ramped-up touring schedule means companies are hiring and training new employees in a hurry.
The Guardian
'Breathtakingly starry': is the American Song Contest about to outdo Eurovision?
By Stuart Heritage
Michael Bolton represents Connecticut, Macy Gray sings for Ohio and Snoop Dogg hosts with Kelly Clarkson. It's the US's new Eurovision imitator.
Sound & Vision
Spatial Audio, You're One of My Kind
By Mike Mettler
Listening to the Beatles, Dove Cameron, Stromae and others from the inside.
The New Yorker
Music Fills the Rothko Chapel
By Alex Ross
In a space of abyssal stillness, Tyshawn Sorey conducted his gripping new work.
Black Music and Black Muses
Tell 'em bout it Tyrone: On Sun Ra's "Nuclear War"
By Harmony Holiday
So glib you can't predict whether it's a prayer for war or a warning against it, Sun Ra's "Nuclear War'' (1982) is a preemptive war memorial, a song sculpted at the altar of imminent danger, but in a spirit of maddening and defiant play.
Music Business Worldwide
Even without AWAL, Kobalt Music Group is a $600m+ annual business… and comfortably profitable
By Tim Ingham
Company posted first ever full year of EBITDA profitability in FY2021.
Pitchfork
How Today's Electronic Music Is Bringing Age-Old Folk Traditions Back to Life
By Philip Sherburne
Incorporating everything from Mayan flutes to medieval choirs to ancient Mediterranean pots, contemporary producers are looking to the past to help unlock the present.
CTV Toronto
Small-scale music memories: A Toronto man is rebuilding the city's most historic musical venues
By Scott Lightfoot
In the memories of music lovers, Toronto's most famous bars and clubs remain larger than life. But in Andrew Smith's living room, the venues are just a few inches high.
what we're into
Music of the day
"Zozulya (live, 2012)"
Mariana Sadovska
Video of the day
"Chernobyl: The Harvest (live in Kyiv, 2013)"
Kronos Quartet & Mariana Sadovska
Part 1 of Mariana Sadovska's song cycle "Chernobyl: The Harvest," performed with the Kronos Quartet.
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