| Critiquing masculinity while maintaining his position within the enduring hierarchies that put those bad boys on top, [Matty Healy]'s the one you love to roll your eyes at. He's a dirtbag, baby, in a long line of antiheroes who interrogate the shapes of male privilege from the inside, even as they benefit from its persistence. |
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 | | In the beginning: BTS at the K-Pop Expo in Asia, Incheon, South Korea, Sept. 21, 2014. | | (Choi Soo-Young/ImaZinS/Getty Images) | | |
| quote of the day |
| "Critiquing masculinity while maintaining his position within the enduring hierarchies that put those bad boys on top, [Matty Healy]'s the one you love to roll your eyes at. He's a dirtbag, baby, in a long line of antiheroes who interrogate the shapes of male privilege from the inside, even as they benefit from its persistence." | | - Ann Powers, "Love Songs of a Dirtbag" | |
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| rantnrave:// |
Seven Sensation Army
I don't pretend to know what will become of BTS' supernova-like run atop the pop universe once its members start slipping into and out of the South Korean military, or what would have become of that run if they'd been allowed to skip that step of Korean citizenship. But I think it's safe to say the group has already surpassed any reasonable expectations for even the most superstarry of superstar pop acts. Six #1 albums and five #1 singles in the US (despite singing primarily in Korean). Billions of streams. Sold-out stadiums around the world. Cultural ubiquity. An army of their own. And all that notwithstanding, I think it's equally safe to say it wasn't going to last. It never does. The supernova part of any pop career has a shelf life.
BIG HIT MUSIC's Monday announcement that the seven members of the group will honor their mandatory service at staggered intervals over the next few years triggered analyses noting how BTS is committed to carrying on with both solo and group projects, while Big Hit's parent's company, HYBE, has its own plans to weather the storm with a growing, diversified roster of artists and business interests. Other Korean bands like SEVENTEEN and TOMORROW X TOGETHER will contribute to the company's bottom line in BTS' absence, but so will American acts including ARIANA GRANDE and JUSTIN BIEBER and a variety of tech products and platforms. HYBE's stock took a bit of a hit Monday, Billboard reported, but "for now, the market seems to have priced in the reality that... this version of BTS would not be able to stay together for much longer."
But the market doesn't know any more than I do what will become of BTS' run. Spreadsheets are only of so much use when it comes to pop music. Big Hit says it expects BTS to be working again as a full civilian group in 2025, three years from now. For some pop groups and their audiences, that would be a lifetime and a half. But it's only half as long as RIHANNA's been on hiatus since she last released an album or toured, and she's about to headline the SUPER BOWL. So it's either four, five seconds or four, five years until BTS is BTS again; it's hard to say which. In the meantime, solo projects... and one of BTS' newest acquisitions is the AI voice synthesis company SUPERTONE, so maybe there's a BTS album with virtual J-HOPE and JUNGKOOK and real everybody else to come sometime in the near future? Would the army—either army—be good with that? Then there's the example of rappers GUCCI MANE and the late DRAKEO THE RULER, who kept recording and releasing albums while locked behind bars, without access to the technology, budget or support system BTS will have.
So maybe they'll keep working. Or maybe they'll make like Rihanna or GEORGE R.R. MARTIN and just stop for a minute. Maybe pop will quietly pass them by. Maybe they'll come back with a quiet storm R&B album and do a small theater tour. Maybe they'll play Super Bowl LX with special guests BLACKPINK and NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK. Maybe Oct. 15, 2022 in Busan was BTS' last concert. A few things are safe to say but we can't pretend to know the rest, not yet.
Etc Etc Etc
About that ALICE COLTRANE bumper sticker... The ROCK HALL OF FAME case for manager GARY KURFIRST... Video game music at the GRAMMYS... QUESTLOVE wants to teach you how to be creative.
Rest in Peace
R&B singer/songwriter JOYCE SIMS, who left an enduring mark on house music in the US and UK with '80s singles like "(You Are My) All and All" and "Come Into My Life"... Ukrainian conductor YURIY TERPATENKO, murdered by Russian troops after refusing to participate in a Russian-sponsored concert in the occupied city of Kherson... Clannad guitarist/singer NOEL DUGGAN... MIKE SCHANK, Milwaukee guitarist best known for his featured role in the 1999 documentary "American Movie," which he also scored... Retail and distribution exec BURT GOLDSTEIN.
| | - Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator | |
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 | | NPR Music |
| | Love Songs of a Dirtbag | | By Ann Powers | | On "Being Funny In A Foreign Language," the new album by his band The 1975, Matty Healy makes romantic music for cynical outsiders who insist they're ready to give love a try. | | |
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 | | Backseat Freestyle |
| | A Bad Bunny Primer For Hip-Hop Heads | | By Jayson Rodriguez | | My Twitter timeline is filled with folks gawking at his reported September haul of $123.7 million in touring revenues and subsequently also saying they never hear his music anywhere. Both certainly can be true, which speaks to the phenomenon that he is and trying to understand what's happened in 2022, his mainstream breakout year. | | |
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 | | 5 Magazine |
| | Ultra, Simply Ultra | | By Terry Matthew | | With house music history again part of the mainstream conversation, Ultra Naté steps forward with a brilliant new album that shows everyone how it's done. | | |
 | | Music Industry Blog |
| | TikTok Music could change the game | | By Mark Mulligan | | It is a logical leap to assume that if TikTok becomes a key force in music discovery, it could do the same for consumption. | | |
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 | | The Atlantic |
| | ABBA's Triumphant Return | | By James Parker | | At a purpose-built arena in East London, ABBA has orchestrated an immaculate 3,000-person, 95-minute digital hallucination. | | |
 | | Chicago Reader |
| | Indie rock, immortalized | | By Jonah Nink | | Local filmmaker Dan Stewart spent the summer shooting "Local Band," a feature film dedicated to Chicago's DIY music scene. | | |
| what we're into |
 | | Music of the day | | "Therapy pt. 2" | | Robert Glasper ft. Mac Miller | | From Robert Glasper's "Black Radio III: Supreme Edition," out now on Loma Vista. | | |
|  | | Video of the day | | "Sirens" | | Rita Baghdadi | | Rita Baghdadi's documentary about the all-female Lebanese thrash band Slave to Sirens, in theaters. | | |
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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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