| I've never thought about music in a genre way. I feel like music is a spectrum. The same way gender is, the same way sexuality is, the same way, you know, color is... What resonates for us is what ends up getting processed and coming out of the music. |
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 | | Allison Russell at the Basement East, Nashville, May 22, 2022. | | (Catherine Powell/Getty Images) | | |
| quote of the day |
| "I've never thought about music in a genre way. I feel like music is a spectrum. The same way gender is, the same way sexuality is, the same way, you know, color is... What resonates for us is what ends up getting processed and coming out of the music." | | - Allison Russell | |
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| rantnrave:// |
Hip(gnosis) Deep
The top five music publishers by revenue in the strange new world of 2021, per Billboard: SONY, UNIVERSAL, WARNER CHAPPELL, HIPGNOSIS, PRIMARY WAVE. There was a huge dropoff in revenues, it should be noted, between the top two and the rest, and another huge dropoff between #3 and the rest. The obvious industry disruption is apparent nonetheless. Either there are more majors than there used to be, or the very idea of being a major isn't what it used to be, or both. (Not explained, it should be noted, is why Hipgnosis and Primary are listed ahead of three companies, KOBALT, BMG and CONCORD, that the magazine estimates as having higher revenues.) (And currently up for grabs, it should also be noted, is the rather desirable catalog of PINK FLOYD, which had a long association with that other HIPGNOSIS).
LOL at the magazine's similar ranking of record companies, in which WARNER ("includes revenue from ATLANTIC RECORDS [and] ELEKTRA MUSIC GROUP...") is #3, Atlantic ("includes revenue from Elektra Music Group...") is #7 and Elektra (just Elektra) is #32. Other Warner sub-labels show up at #11, #23, #25, #28 and #34. The list similarly double- and triple-counts various subsidiaries of UMG (#1, #5, #6, #9, yada yada yada) and SONY (#2, #8, #10, blah blah blah) while giving short shrift to every indie except "aspiring fourth major" BMG, which checks in at #4 thanks to a number of classic-rock catalog deals. Shoutout BEGGARS (itself a collection of affiliated labels) at #27 and RIMAS (home of BAD BUNNY) at #29.
Dream Magazine Etc Etc Etc
The imperfect, or slant, rhymes that are one of the basic building blocks of hip-hop songwriting are like the distorted notes of a JIMI HENDRIX guitar solo and they've elevated a language, English, that's never been particularly suited to traditional perfect rhymes, DAVID LEVIN BECKER writes in his new book, WHAT'S GOOD: NOTES ON RAP AND LANGUAGE. Slant-rhyming hip-hop lyricists "find the blind angles, the shortcuts, the secret overlaps, and use them, sometimes, to build stunning models of invention and entente, spaces where small discords combine into larger resolutions and we see, hear, how boring it would be to live in a perfect world where like belongs only with like." (H/T the New Yorker's ADAM GOPNIK)... One of KURT COBAIN's favorite guitars—the 1969 FENDER MUSTANG seen in the "SMELLS LIKE TEEN SPIRIT" video—went for $4.5 million at auction Sunday, a slightly higher markup than one normally pays for a lefty guitar. Cobain treasured his Lake Placid blue Mustang partly because it was, in his words, "reasonably priced." The buyer was INDIANAPOLIS COLTS owner JIM IRSAY, an avid guitar collector; Cobain's family will donate part of the proceeds of the sale to Irsay's mental health charity, KICKING THE STIGMA... Irsay's purchase seems like a savvier investment than buying $3,500 worth of OLIVIA RODRIGO tickets for your daughter's birthday and then setting them on fire when you discover Rodrigo is requiring fans to show proof of vaccination. DOUG WOOD wrote on Facebook that his daughter and her friends "decided on their own" they didn't want to go to the concert, "after some tears, long chat, prayer, sadness, more prayer." He didn't say if they then drove past the street where Phoenix's FEDERAL THEATRE is located, but one can hope... Under new ACADEMY AWARDS rules, only three songs from any given film can be submitted for Best Original Song. The limit used to be five... The revived YO! MTV RAPS premieres today on Paramount+, with hosts CONCEITED and DJ DIAMOND KUTS and guest FREDDIE GIBBS.
Rest in Peace
Singer/songwriter/keyboardist CATHAL COUGHLAN, who fronted Irish rock bands Microdisney and Fatima Mansions... SIMON PRESTON, organist and composer who was an influential force in British church music.
| | - Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator | |
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 | | Pitchfork |
| | The Woes of Being Addicted to Music Streaming | | By Jeremy D. Larson | | After a decade under the influence of music algorithms, a look at what streaming services afford the most engaged fans and what lingers below the surface. | | |
 | | Music Business Worldwide |
| | Music streaming has a 'tsundoku' problem | | By Eamonn Forde | | The Japanese concept of tsundoku means when someone buys so many books that the very act of reading them becomes overwhelming. So they sit unread as yet more books are added to the teetering piles, the blank bibliomaniac behind bars. | | |
 | | The New Yorker |
| | The Rules of Rhyme | | By Adam Gopnik | | True rhymes are marvels; a slant rhyme's a sin. Or is it vice versa? Let the battle begin. | | |
 | | The Signal |
| | Because The Night | | By Mitchell Cohen | | While on tour in May 1976 promoting "Radio Ethiopia," Patti Smith took a tumble from a Tampa, Florida, stage in the midst of singing "Ain't It Strange." Her injury kept her on the sidelines for about a year, but she was back in the studio in '77 working on the album that would become "Easter" with producer Jimmy Iovine. Also toiling away at the Record Plant in Manhattan was Bruce Springsteen. | | |
 | | Artist Rights Watch |
| | CRB Unfreezing Mechanicals w/Kevin Casini | | By Nik Patel, David C. Lowery, Chris Castle... | | On the this episode of the Artist Rights Watch, Nik, David, and Chris sit down to talk about the recent developments with the CRB and mechanicals with lawyer and advocate Kevin Casini. | | |
 | | Black Music and Black Muses |
| | Mostly the Voice | | By Harmony Holiday | | The tonal bond between Future and Billie Holiday and how it exceeds itself. | | |
 | | Culture Study |
| | 'Don't Get Chicked' | | By Anne Helen Petersen | | The past and future politics of country music with "Her Country" author Marissa Moss. | | |
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 | | Technomaterialism |
| | On the Capitalistic and Racist Dynamics of Sampling | | By Jean‑Hugues Kabuiku and Mathys Rennela | | In this essay, we discuss how sampling is a technique that fits in a legal and socio-economic framework that stems from racial capitalism. We outline how sampling is used to undermine Black artistry and explain that those racist and capitalist dynamics highlight the way the music industry operates. | | |
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 | | The Smart Set |
| | A Year Without DMX | | By Marvin Weisbord | | "It's Dark and Hell is Hot" in our hearts and Honda Accords. | | |
 | | The Ringer |
| | Vangelis's Return Flight to the Cosmos | | By Tim Greiving | | The synth pioneer and Oscar-winning film composer, who died last week at age 79, saw his work as part of something bigger than all of us. | | |
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| what we're into |
 | | Music of the day | | "Farther Along" | | Mavis Staples & Levon Helm | | From "Carry Me Home," out now on Anti-. | | |
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| Music | Media | | | | | | Suggest a link  | | "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?'" |
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