You know what I find very strange? Airlines, like all airlines now, when you’re boarding the plane and when you land, they immediately turn on music. It’s a very strange idea to me that there would be some kind of music that pretty much everyone would like. | | | | St. Vincent at the Pitchfork Music Festival, Chicago, July 2014.
(Roger Kisby/Getty Images) | | | | | | “You know what I find very strange? Airlines, like all airlines now, when you’re boarding the plane and when you land, they immediately turn on music. It’s a very strange idea to me that there would be some kind of music that pretty much everyone would like.”
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| | rantnrave:// If you are of a certain age or a certain inclination about pop music, THE RINGER's lengthy feature on BRYSON MORRIS, a 14-year-old rapper from MISSOURI, is designed to anger you, frighten you or make you head to the nearest bar to prepare for the apocalypse. It's a great feature, worth the NEW YORKER-length time it's asking you for the read. Bryson gained a sliver of attention with a bubblegum trap song and video called "LOUIS GUCCI." It hasn't gone viral and he hasn't released anything else. But he's got a team of journeyman music and marketing people behind him. They like him because 30 percent of his YOUTUBE audience comes from families with incomes over $100,000 and because they are, in writer SAM ROSEN's words, "young kids with poor impulse control and their parents' credit cards." They refer to their young charge as "a stock," "a startup," "an app." They don't want their 14-year-old white suburban rapper to keep making trap records even though that's what he loves. They think it's "dumb for artists to record entire albums without knowing if any of the songs will resonate with consumers." They plan to market-test songs like websites market-test headlines. In other words, they want to manufacture a pop star. Change the names, dates and data points and you could have written the same story about ONE DIRECTION or BRITNEY or TIFFANY or the OHIO EXPRESS. All of whom made good, even great, music, and none of whom ushered in the apocalypse. They did make a lot of people smile. And dance. The thing that struck me about Bryson Morris and his team is that while they mostly discuss him in crass marketing terms, they talk about his presence like old-school A&R executives. They note how he gained his FACEBOOK followers "organically," how his raps have serious "delivery" and how his videos have charisma even if they haven't found their eventual audience yet. They're trying to develop an artist. Oh, and they have a 15-year 360 management deal with him (effectively owning him until he's 30), and BREYON PRESCOTT's CHAMELEON ENTERTAINMENT has offered him a record deal... BRIT AWARDS continue ignoring grime, but give props to overlooked GRAMMY nominees BEYONCÉ and BOWIE... Grammy bump... TRUMP bump... Drawing pictures with music, aka unicorn!... MARIAH still blaming everybody else. | | | - Matty Karas, curator |
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| Bryson Morris is a rapping 14-year-old. His team thinks he’s the next teen pop superstar. Are they delusional, or about to change the game? | | |
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| Here’s how the United States could have its own “God Save the Queen” moment. | | |
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| In 1970, two deejays discovered they had the ability to take the dance floor on a journey by playing records back-to-back, continuously throughout the night. Soon clubs all over the world adopted this style of deejaying, and a new culture and music genre called "disco" emerged. | | |
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| "I firmly believe that men should be able to marry men, and women women. I am passionately against anyone who would try to suppress this basic human right. My first thought when Chik-fil-A came to me was, 'F*** no!' But then I decided, 'F*** yes.'" | | |
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| Very few songs influenced by a drug reproduce the sensation of taking the drug, but “She Said She Said” comes close. | | |
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| Music streaming services are convenient, but they aren't to be trusted. | | |
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| In retrospect, we should thank the rappers of the world for their restraint. It's been more than four months since the Donald Trump Access Hollywood tape leaked, and I can't name a single rapper who bragged about grabbing pussy. (I'm sure some rapper, somewhere, said it, but I didn't hear it.) | | |
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| Female-run DJ collective Mamba Negra explain why they are starting a social movement on the São Paulo streets. | | |
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| The two pop singers can't seem to get their work evaluated without a mention of the other. | | |
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| The rock legends on taking risks, staying together and keeping control. | | |
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| Saxophonist's groundbreaking duo LP summed up his cosmic quest, influencing generations of jazz and rock seekers – from Nels Cline to Jack DeJohnette. | | |
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| And it features heavyweights such as Jamie Foxx, Marsha Ambrosius, Raphael Saadiq, and Lil Wayne | | |
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| On March 1st, Belafonte turns ninety. The release of a new anthology reiterates his standing as one of America’s most vital and insurrectionary folk singers. | | |
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| From the dapper highlife rhythms of Aba to the fiery psychedelica forged in Lagos, funky guitarist and composer Joe King Kologbo was a senior figure in Nigeria’s happening rock scene of the 1960s and ‘70s. Yet, like a lot of music forged in the West African nation, his name almost slipped through a crack in time forever. | | |
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| With a Las Vegas residency launching March 1, the pop heartthrobs share uncensored tales from their larger-than-life 24-year ride. | | |
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| Look back at the impact Nike's controversial 1987 commercial featuring 'Revolution' by the Beatles had on advertising, sports. | | |
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| Black artists take home big music awards a year after Brits were criticised for lack of diversity | | |
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| Little Simz has been compared to Lauryn Hill for her self-reflective wordplay. And though the British lyricist is a relative new-comer, her Tiny Desk performance was poised and confident. | | |
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| A candid conversation about creativity, depression, and her new horror movie. | | |
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| Deirdre O’Callaghan’s new book ‘The Drum Thing’ pulls up a stool and explores the world according Questlove, Death Grips’ Zach Hill, New Order’s Stephen Morris and more. | | |
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| © Copyright 2017, The REDEF Group |
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