I was singing from the sadness in my life... I was able to pull on my voice with the soft moans. That would even go back as far as to tribal Africa—those moans in the black voices. It was also back to the slavery days when we used the blues to communicate. We wouldn't say anything; we would do codes through music. We'd sing a song that only we'd understand. | | | | "Violin was the love of my life," Motown singer Brenda Holloway once said, "until I had my first kiss."
(GAB Archive/Redferns/Getty Images) | | | | | | “I was singing from the sadness in my life... I was able to pull on my voice with the soft moans. That would even go back as far as to tribal Africa—those moans in the black voices. It was also back to the slavery days when we used the blues to communicate. We wouldn't say anything; we would do codes through music. We'd sing a song that only we'd understand.”
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| | rantnrave:// Will ROSALÍA be able to book a tour through the United Kingdom with her Spanish passport without asking permission of the British government once the Brexit dust is settled? What about CHRISTINE & THE QUEENS or IBEYI with their French passports, or ROBYN with her Swedish papers? Will they have to check in with authorities before they answer those emails from GLASTONBURY? And what if the dust never quite settles? Four years after the original vote and four weeks after England's break with the EU became reality, confusion reigns in any number of areas, including the live event industry, assurances from the government notwithstanding. "We recognize the importance of the continued ease of movement of musicians, equipment and merchandise once we’ve left the EU," UK culture minister NIGEL ADAMS said in January, shortly before his country officially Brexited. But musicians don't recognize any evidence of that belief in the UK Home Office's proposed immigration policy. For starters, they're unclear why touring musicians are being addressed at all in immigration policy. "We had been into the Home Office explaining to them that touring is not the same as immigration and they didn’t really get it," DEBORAH ANNETTS, chief executive of the nonprofit INCORPORATED SOCIETY OF MUSICIANS, told the GUARDIAN. Depending who you ask, the proposed rules either will or won't require touring EU musicians to apply for visas to enter the UK, and either will or won't require them to be formally sponsored by an event organizer and prove they have enough money in the bank to support themselves. The proposed rules, needless to say, aren't written in conversational English, and it appears any actual conversations between the government and the culture industry haven't been conducted in that language either. Fearing the EU will impose similar rules on UK musicians, Annetts told the INDEPENDENT the paperwork and financial requirements will be especially hard on indie acts. "This will cut the legs off the bottom half of the music industry," she said. The Home Office swears that won't happen: "The UK attracts world-class artists, entertainers and musicians," a spokesperson said, "and that’s not going to change." That's all the live music industry is asking for. But it's looking for a policy that doesn't simply declare it, but actually makes it so... Is GRIMES' new album Silicon Valley propaganda?... "It feels as if she's there": WHITNEY HOUSTON on tour. In 2020... DEF JAM chairman and CEO PAUL ROSENBERG stepping down... Solving a ROLLING STONES copyright mystery... Onstage at a club strikes me as an extraordinarily bad place for an artist to be carrying a concealed weapon, or even a non-concealed weapon. And I don't believe BLAC YOUNGSTA or any individual musician is the problem; rather, he's a symptom of a much bigger problem we all might want to think about solving... RIP JON CHRISTENSEN, NEDDA CASEI and LINDSEY LAGESTEE. | | | - Matty Karas, curator |
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| According to a flurry of new SEC filings, financial giants now claim big chunks of the streaming service. | | |
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| The unique brand identities of music-streaming services are quickly eroding, which is perhaps an indication of the market becoming more commoditized and saturated. | | |
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| Hip-hop has long been stalked by the same issues of violence, drug abuse and mental health that affect young people of color everywhere in America. But if you’re a fan today, and your social media feeds are flooded with memorials to young rappers every few months, it’s hard not to feel weary and depressed by it all. | | |
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| Pop Smoke, Juice WRLD, Nipsey Hussle, Mac Miller. The volume of rap deaths has been unbearable. | | |
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| In the digital era, accusations of surreptitious chart manipulation are common throughout the world - in South Korea, it's called sajaegi. | | |
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| If the Netflix docuseries "Cheer" is any indication, there's a sense of acceleration to almost everything about cheerleading these days: physical risk, technical skill, personal celebrity, and financial reward. And the music is no exception. Gone are the chaste chants from the 1950s-modern cheer squads perform to rah-rah-sis boom-bangers that make even Jock Jams sound sleepy. | | |
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| In the age of streaming and limitless choice, Magic Radio pulls in millions of listeners. What is it that keeps people coming back? | | |
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| There are some unique challenges of organizing a rap tour for an act called "Lil Phag," – as in the homophobic slur – for an audience of largely under 21-year-olds. For starters, you have to be able to find venues that will allow signage that says "Lil Phag." | | |
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| TikTok is a world in which lesser-known artists are no longer subject to the whims of radio and streaming. If a teen dancing in their bedroom in Minnesota likes it, then one day we may all be singing it. | | |
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| Was Weatherall the greatest DJ ever? Here are ten sets across three decades that say: Just maybe. | | |
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| What is the superstar doing in Wyoming? | | |
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| Icons don’t come much bigger, bolder and defiantly rock’n’roll as Ozzy Osbourne. The icon talks the influence of Lemmy, Post Malone’s role in his new record. | | |
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| Professional body urges ministers to clarify proposed post-Brexit immigration rules. | | |
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| This year’s Country Radio Seminar placed an emphasis on talking about the format’s biggest problem -- if not solving it. | | |
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| "He who carries death in his pouch" speaks truth to power. | | |
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| A handful of late-nineties Apathetics recordings sound as fabulously squalid as SoCal hardcore punk from twenty years earlier. | | |
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| It's not as mean as it might sound (though it does involve a little electrocution) and the results can be both beautiful and, well, eye-opening. | | |
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| From blackface minstrels to the Velvet Underground to virtual reality: How a gritty neighborhood in New York always turned out the best music. | | |
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| “There are song lyrics that are ruining the mental health status of our children,” he said. | | |
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| Yacht Rock Revue is a polyester-clad tour de force built on the legacy of Toto and Lionel Richie. | | |
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| | | | | | | One of the handful of classic singles she recorded before walking away from Motown, and from pop music, at age 22. |
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