The very nature of film is musical, because it uses time as a basis for its energy. It needs to go from here to there, whereas pictures and paintings are just there. | | | | D.A. Pennebaker (in hat) films Bob Dylan (with cigarette) for his classic film "Don't Look Back," England, 1965.
(Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images) | | | | | | “The very nature of film is musical, because it uses time as a basis for its energy. It needs to go from here to there, whereas pictures and paintings are just there.”
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| | rantnrave:// Why do I find myself reaching for songs about gun control so often when I'm selecting this newsletter's music of the day, and why does it seem so hard to find them? This is not a rant about protest music. As I've written before, we are surrounded by protest music nearly everywhere we turn, everywhere we dance, everywhere we bang our heads. Pop and hip-hop and jazz and rock are all doing their part, in ways both subtle and not so subtle, coded and not coded. But in the particular subgenre of songs about the proliferation of guns that take a direct stance in opposition to that proliferation, the popular music literature is surprisingly thin. In SONG OF A GUN, the finale of this year's second season of KCRW's LOST NOTES podcast, host JESSICA HOPPER asks around to try to figure out why this is. And she discovers that not a lot of people want to talk about it. "Trying to get anyone to talk—artists, managers, even other journalists—was hard," she says. "Managers and publicists would tell me how important they thought this conversation was and thank me for bringing it up, but would continually decline on behalf of the artists they represented." She dutifully takes note of the artists who *have* taken their gun-control politics into the studio over the years, including several rappers from her hometown, Chicago, and she tells the story of a couple important (and long ago) crusades: The KRS-ONE–led STOP THE VIOLENCE song and campaign, and ROLLING STONE publisher JANN WENNER's gun-control activism in the 1980s. She notes the various other ways guns have been depicted in music over the past 100 years—often as instruments of power, for both better and worse. She hears from experts like music historian ELIJAH WALD, who points out, "The basic role of guns in American popular music is just like the basic role of guns in American popular movies: they're exciting," and from young fans who wish their favorite artists would say something but who realize it might not be on brand. She wonders if it would matter even if more artists did put it into song. She talks to publicist and manager DANA MEYERSON, who says there's a line of thinking that "there's money to be made and we don't wanna freak people out [or make people] afraid. And it's, like, they should be afraid." Artists, one hopes, are not afraid or making people afraid. As art can sometimes do... GILLES PETERSON pays radio tribute to RAS G. And FLYING LOTUS pays tribute in song... M-M-M-Moscow Mitch... RIP D.A. PENNEBAKER—chronicler of DYLAN, MONTEREY POP and so much more—and IAN GIBBONS. | | | - Matty Karas, curator |
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| Dylan was on fire in 1965, and the late documentarian's revolutionary "direct cinema" captured his every barb, snarl and transcendent performance. | | |
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| The technology may be obsolete, but it’s associated with attractive stories that the streaming generation wants to try on. | | |
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| Katy Perry just lost a $2.8 million dollar court case against Christian rapper Flame. The case hinged on the testimony of the plaintiff’s expert musicologist... | | |
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| He went into a car crash-induced coma, sold his instruments, and turned to pot farming along the way. | | |
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| The rapper landed back on U.S. soil Saturday, leaving behind him the looming verdict in an episode that has led to unexpected tension between the U.S. and its European ally. | | |
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| Once pegged as the successor to both Thom Yorke and Co. and Oasis, Travis’s megasuccessful 1999 placed the group in the rarefied air of Britpop royalty. | | |
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| Jalee Baumann, 15, is obsessed with Mariah Carey's, "Obsessed." The song was released in 2009 and wasn't a terribly big hit compared to the singer's other works. It peaked on the Billboard 100 at No. 7. But it gained a second life recently on TikTok, where users created and shared choreography for a dance to the track. | | |
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| Emmy-nominated Dream Hampton chronicles her 19-year pursuit of the recording artist, now in jail facing sex crimes charges. | | |
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| From #Him2 hashtags to a not guilty plea, here's what happened at R. Kelly's Brooklyn court date. | | |
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| When Meghan Patrick was harassed by an audience member, "I had no idea it would turn into this. But it put me in a position where I have a platform.” | | |
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| Let's look back at the longest-running No. 1 hits of each of the last seven decades and see how they fared at the Grammys. I show the number of nominations and wins--and detail the categories in which they won. | | |
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| Now that charts rely on traction from streams, and the single-digit set has smartphone access and apps like TikTok, a fun viral fad can turn into a spot on the Hot 100, so we're going to see more tween tastes reflected in the charts. | | |
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| "I started filming it as if it were a war zone," director Michael Wadleigh says about the iconic movie that documented the 1969 Woodstock music festival. | | |
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| With its new learning institute, a venerable organization seeks to broaden its reach. | | |
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| Why is so much music being hit with lawsuits? Recent cases involving Katy Perry, Led Zeppelin, and Ed Sheeran mark a trend that shows no sign of slowing. | | |
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| Spoon's Britt Daniel and the brothers of the Natural History retrace the song's many lives. | | |
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| How have musicians and vocalists working in dance music been affected by the digital revolution? | | |
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| Bad metadata has cost producers and songwriters millions of dollars. | | |
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| Curtis Mayfield's previous songs for The Impressions had often been broadly inspirational - but here, he aimed his pen directly at black listeners, pledging that better times were ahead. | | |
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| The director of "Dont Look Back" inteviewed by the renowned rock and culture critic Greil Marcus. | | |
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| | | | | | | Trigger warning: Video contains scenes of mass shooting. |
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| © Copyright 2019, The REDEF Group |
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