It sucks that Maroon 5 were caught in this. They are a great band, but the cause is bigger than their performance. | | Cuban percussionist Pedrito Martinez in Rotterdam, July 14, 2018. "Duologue," his album with pianist Alfredo Rodríguez, is out Friday on Mack Avenue. (Peter Van Breukelen/Redferns/Getty Images) | | | | “It sucks that Maroon 5 were caught in this. They are a great band, but the cause is bigger than their performance.” |
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| rantnrave:// This might be my favorite ice-cold winter song, sung by a problematic singer from another era. I reflexively YOUTUBE'd it Wednesday afternoon as I read about the havoc a storm named JAYDEN was wreaking across the Midwest, only pausing later to ask myself why I haven't added her to the list of artists whose music I won't listen to. I do have a list. Shorter than some people think it should be, longer than others think it should be. I'm definitely not one of the people who contributed to the spike in R. KELLY streams the week SURVIVING R. KELLY aired, nor am I one of the people who ascribes any significance to that spike. When people are in the news for any reason at all, other people look them up. That's basic human curiosity, not a reflection of sudden adoration for the newsmaker and also certainly not, in this case, a conscious rejection of so-called cancel culture. I hate the term cancel culture. It's a judgmental, reductionist term that people use to accuse other people of being judgmental and reductionist. I'd like to cancel that term. I have listened to XXXTENTACION over the past year because I'm curious what it is about his music that holds deep meaning for his fans. I'm curious about what he's saying and how he says it. I'm aware of the horrible things he was accused of. If I didn't have professional interest, I'm not sure what I'd do. I will not listen to Kelly, partly because I don't want to contribute a penny to his bank account, but mostly because I'm repulsed by the very thought. I don't want to hear his voice. Ever. I have a hard time understanding people who do, but I try not to judge. I love this NME story on how Gen Z is navigating the ethics of dealing with problematic artists, even if I'm confused and bothered by how and where some people draw their lines. We all bring our own nuances, our own sense of ethics. Which is OK. I've absorbed the art of horrible people over the course of my life. I've stepped out of the way of some of it, but not, I assure you, all of it... No one is accusing MAROON 5, TRAVIS SCOTT and BIG BOI of being problematic artists, but there are plenty of voices calling them out for performing as the guests of a problematic sports league. Was a time when all you had to do on SUPER BOWL Sunday was root for one team or the other. Do you now have to root for or against the halftime performers, too? How did one of music's most prestigious and sought-after gigs become its most controversial? MusicSET: "12-Minute Warning: The Meaning of Super Bowl Halftime"... Also performing on a football field this weekend: MARSHMELLO. He'll DJ Saturday afternoon at the football field in Pleasant Park, which is a suburban town inside FORTNITE... MusicREDEF is taking a long weekend; we'll be back Monday morning. But Friday will still be FRIDAY, and that will mean new music from CHERRY GLAZERR, GIRLPOOL, FREDO, LUIS FONSI, ALFREDO RODRÍGUEZ & PEDRITO MARTINEZ, MAURICE LOUCA, MIKRON, J.S. ONDARA, BEIRUT, LEE GAMBLE, MASAKI BATOH, GUIDED BY VOICES, DEER TICK, UNLOVED, LEON VYNEHALL, BOY HARSHER, MANDOLIN ORANGE, PEOPLE UNDER THE STAIRS, EMILY KING, the SPECIALS, BROODS, ASTRONOID, FRED UND LUNA, NINA NESBITT, AMERICAN AUTHORS, LE BUTCHERETTES, CASSADEE POPE, SPIELBERGS and BUSINESS OF DREAMS. | | - Matty Karas, curator |
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| The biggest deal of 2019 so far should close by the end of this week. | |
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It’s common for musicians to be ‘cancelled’ -- and for their popularity to surge afterwards. Are generation z less PC than millennials? | |
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After breaking through on YouTube in 2008, DJ Mujava disappeared back into the South African townships that gave his song its name, as questions of authorship lingered. | |
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You used to root for one team and against the other. Now you have to root for or against the halftime performers, too. How did one of music's most prestigious and sought-after gigs become its most controversial? And will Maroon 5, Travis Scott and Big Boi win or lose on Super Bowl Sunday? | |
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James Ingram’s name doesn’t come up often in current music discussions. But during Ingram’s run of just over a decade, spanning from 1981 to 1994, he knocked it out of the park consistently. | |
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Advances in technology are keeping Swift and her fans safer, but where is the line drawn? | |
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What does a music industry look like in a post-fan, post-genre, post-streaming world? The Orchard co-founder Scott Cohen unveiled his disruptive technology-powered vision at European music conference Eurosonic Nooderslag. | |
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Industry experts explain why another label could take a chance on the singer, despite an alleged years-long history of sexual assault. | |
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Max Bemis just quit his day job. For almost 20 years, he served as front man for the venerable Say Anything, one of the most adventurous acts of the early 21st-century emo explosion. | |
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Although Liberty Media’s controlling interest in Sirius has received little media attention, the Pandora acquisition comes at a time when conservative music industry giving has prompted protest. | |
| The Fender Telecaster was the first -- and many still insist, is the definitive -- mass-produced solidbody electric guitar. Here, the people who introduced it to the world and helped turn it into an enduring musical icon tell the remarkable story of its creation. | |
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Michael Lang has built much of his legacy around the famed Woodstock festival he co-created in 1969 but he could do without the constant comparisons. | |
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We talk to Egyptian jazz musician Maurice Louca on his new album, "Elephantine." | |
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Sada Baby can sing. This was a pleasant surprise. If all you know about the Detroit rapper is "Bloxk Party," the ridiculously fun 2018 collaboration with fellow Detroit rapper Drego, you would know that Sada Baby could dance. You would know that he could come up with viciously enjoyable punchlines. | |
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Netflix makes hits. Streaming music services do not. | |
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From viral videos to a hot Pepsi ad to her own Atlanta concerts, the rapper is changing the game. | |
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The fest’s trio of music docs give you three portraits of an artist as a bastard -- and one look at the human being behind one famous muse. | |
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How the rappers made amends for their early-career misogyny. | |
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Lady Gaga's 2011 megahit has been praised as inclusive and criticized as exploitative. But there's a little history to the song's origins that isn't often discussed. | |
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By the end of 2000, Kerala’s hip-hop scene started developing. We trace the history of hip-hop culture in Kerala. | |
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