This is as important as roads, as important as cell phone towers. This is how we communicate with each other. | | | | New year's mindstate: De La Soul at the Palladium, New York, Dec. 31, 1993.
(David Corio/Redferns/Getty Images) | | | | | | “This is as important as roads, as important as cell phone towers. This is how we communicate with each other.”
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| | rantnrave:// "If an album isn't online, does it really exist?" That's PANAMA JACKSON of VERY SMART BROTHAS asking one of the essential philosophical questions of the streaming age, having just spent $25 for a CD copy of DE LA SOUL IS DEAD, which he's long considered his favorite album, and which he already owned on CD, but "just to look for the CD, I’d have to unload my storage unit, and then go through each box of CDs I have—and I own thousands of CDs, so it’s many many boxes," so he bought it again so he could copy it to his computer and listen via ICLOUD, but he still can't easily share it with anyone else, such as his nephew who he's trying to educate about '90s hip-hop, and he fears his favorite album is slowly disappearing into the pop-culture ether. His nephew, like Panama himself, is going to hear a lot more of A TRIBE CALLED QUEST's MIDNIGHT MARAUDERS, which is Panama's other favorite album (everybody should have more than one) and which, unlike "De La Soul Is Dead," can be found on any streaming site, which means he can play it whenever he wants and share it with whomever he wants, plus he's regularly discovering new things within its grooves, which helps keep his love alive. The De La Soul album, like the rest of the band's '80s and '90s discography, is in streaming purgatory and, therefore, not "present in the convo. To me they exist in my mind; to my nieces and nephews the up-and-coming hip hop generation, they don’t at all." Is he right? And what's the proper amount of worrying we should be doing about this, about major pieces of musical heritage that still exist in the increasingly theoretical physical world but not in the increasingly dominant virtual world? Do they really exist? Do they exist to one generation but not to the next one? Has physical existence become some kind of ironic oxymoron? Jackson also cites ADRIANA EVANS' 1997 self-titled debut, which he spent $21 on just so he could have the song "HEY BROTHER," and AALIYAH's infamously gone-missing second and third albums. We all have own favorite lost causes, which might be entire runs of albums from some fairly significant 20th century artists or, perhaps, a GRAMMY-winning modern composer who really, really doesn't want to have anything to do with the streaming economy (which at least means the choice is hers, as opposed to her weird uncle's). I'm having a small obsession at the moment with A'ME LORAIN's 1989 dance-pop album STARRING IN STANDING IN A MONKEY SEA, which featured the BILLBOARD top 10 hit "WHOLE WIDE WORLD" (also, this) and which has been wiped from streaming existence. On SPOTIFY, A'me Lorain currently exists as an artist with five monthly listeners, no "About" page and a grand total of three songs, all from the 2010s, none of which have the whole wide world within them. Does her fleeting pop career still exist? Of course it does. I have the CD. If my internet goes out, I still have it. I don't have to worry about her label losing the rights and having to pull the album down, or someone in her camp replacing the album I love with a badly remastered, remixed or rerecorded facsimile. My copy of "Starring in..." probably has better fidelity than Spotify's copy of "Midnight Marauders." But I can't add it to a playlist. I can't email it to my nephew. As far as the current conversation is concerned, the album doesn't exist, and she may as well not exist either. I ask this question once a year or so in this space: Why? Who's the manager in charge of this department? What department even is this? Whose job is it, in 2020, to make sure CARDI B's catalog will still exist in accessible form in 2050? Seriously. Whose job? One more pertinent Panama Jackson quote: "This is stupid"... Caveat to the previous 700 words: Almost everything referenced above is available on YOUTUBE, I mean, duh, there are links. But YOUTUBE is an entirely different existential question for the streaming age, and I'm not convinced it can save A'Me Lorain. Or even De La Soul... APPLE MUSIC rebrands BEATS out of streaming existence and puts Nashville on notice... I would like to coin a new word, demo-splaining, which I think is what NICKI MINAJ's lawyer is trying to do to TRACY CHAPMAN's lawyer here... Virtual nightclub turns away 40,000 people, or possibly the same person 40,000 times, it's hard to tell on the internet... RIP PANDIT JASRAJ and COUNT SHELLY. | | | - Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator |
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| If your music isn't available in the place where it matters most, does it exist? | | |
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| The Austin-based background music company has just emerged out of bankruptcy, with a continuing appetite for the softer hits or ambient styles it provides. Meanwhile, some fans of the old Muzak still fetishize the schmaltzier "elevator music" sounds of old. | | |
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| The rapper explains his unorthodox route to success and influence, from his secret "Tenet" track to his dream of buying Astroworld. | | |
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| Songwriting and production duo Nova Wav just worked on "Black Is King," but it's been a long journey to collaborating with Beyoncé and Jay-Z. | | |
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| "I def think it's time for us to take nightlife back!" a Brooklyn promoter said whilst inviting me to a rave as if this is our decision make. The race war and the pandemic have illuminated a depressing reality -- club safety has never been a priority for some promoters. | | |
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| As dance music’s top-heavy, tour-focused infrastructure crumbles, people across the industry are wondering how new revenue streams can emerge to support artists during and after the pandemic. DJ Mag looks at different projects that are taking bold steps to reimagine how dance music can work for everyone. | | |
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| A portrait of the man, in the words of those who know him best. | | |
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| The singer, songwriter and guitarist writes frankly about having bipolar II disorder on “Sugaregg,” the first album she’s made as a solo project. | | |
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| Apple has announced a rebranded and expanded radio offering within its music division today (Aug. 18), as Beats 1 radio becomes Apple Music 1 and two new channels join the lineup: Apple Music Hits and Apple Music Country. | | |
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| White hair billowing around him, with no attention to give to a gaping audience, Jasraj on stage often took the form of a singular devotee. | | |
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| Hip-hop's hustle can't be stopped even in the face of a pandemic. While rappers have spent the last six months self-quarantining and taking precautions against coronavirus, they've also been thinking of creative ways to connect with fans since touring has come to a halt and social distancing is a must. | | |
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| Tracy Chapman goes for the win against Nicki Minaj, who predicts the case "will have a significant impact on the music recording industry, one way or the other." | | |
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| Singing experiments with residents of the Bolivian rainforest demonstrate how biology and experience shape the way we hear music. | | |
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| Sheryl Crow and Ketch Secor, of Old Crow Medicine Show, talk about hallowed ground for music fans, the one-time home to the Grand Ole Opry that bears witness to country, folk and rock history. | | |
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| The singer has lived under a complex court arrangement since 2008, but in a new filing, her lawyer says the singer no longer wants her father in charge. | | |
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| Because of their distinct take on genres with dedicated, often puritanical, fans, guitarist Cole Kakimoto originally thought his band would flop. He was wrong. | | |
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| Maria Schneider doesn't make it easy to hear her music. It's not on Spotify, Tidal, or YouTube. Her CDs aren't available from Amazon, or any conventional retail outlet. Her previous releases are available through the iTunes store, but the only way to get her latest album, Data Lords, is through the crowdfunding site ArtistShare. | | |
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| Deep Dive: An AllMusicBooks Podcast |
| Often called "the bible of alternative rock," Trouser Press was a highly influential music magazine in the '70s and 80s. We speak with Ira Robbins, who was a founder, writer, editor and publisher with the magazine and the series of "Trouser Press Record Guides" that followed.Robbins has recently put all 94 issues — in their entirety — online at www.trouserpress.com, and is adding new content as well. | | |
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| How does such a diverse array of sonic persuasions fall under a single chart that is supposedly steered by a genre? | | |
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| Steve deep dives into the origins of the song that popularized a controversial dance move, launched multiple social movements and proved to be the starting gun for the rebellious 1960's. | | |
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| | | | | | | "And when I write him / He better get it on time." |
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