I’ve never won anything, not even a karaoke contest and I’ve been in a lot of them. | | | | First-time Grammy nominee Sophie (Best Dance/Electronic Album) in London, March 13, 2018.
(Burak Cingi/Redferns/Getty Images) | | | | | | “I’ve never won anything, not even a karaoke contest and I’ve been in a lot of them.”
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| | rantnrave:// So how many times did you Google BRANDY CARLILE and H.E.R. this weekend? And what was the ratio of think pieces to actual music that came up? In one sense, the two women atop everyone's list of shocking GRAMMY nominees in this first year of the RECORDING ACADEMY's quest to prove it cares about musicians who are not men are perfect old-school Grammy nominees. They write their own songs, they play traditional instruments, they make well-produced commercial pop records, they're unquestionably talented, they have stories to tell, they sound current. They're exactly the kind of artists the Grammys could have and should have celebrated, say, last year. But in another sense, they're canny responses to last year. Carlile's "THE JOKE," an undeniable ballad that transcends the Americana slot where she's had most of her success, is, in her own words, "for people that feel under-represented, unloved or illegal." She had bigger things than the Grammys in mind when she wrote it, but you could have sung it at your Grammy protest march without changing a word. It's up for Record of the Year, Song of the Year and it's the centerpiece of Carlile's Album of the Year nominee BY THE WAY, I FORGIVE YOU (whose title is a thinkpiece of its own). And in nominating the mysterious GABI WILSON, aka H.E.R., for Album of the Year and Best New Artist, the Academy addressed another blindspot. She's a young artist who built her (still relatively modest) following not on traditional radio but on SOUNDCLOUD and who can confidently assert that "being put on... playlists is more important than being put on the radio." She's a stand-in for an industry-within-an-industry that the Academy has had trouble acknowledging; even this year, SoundCloud rap, a major force in pop culture, remains all but invisible to the Academy. Neither Wilson nor Carlile is part of the same pop zeitgeist as CARDI B, who's deservedly up for two of the big four awards, or ARIANA GRANDE, who's curiously absent from the top of the nominees list, but they both made good records and they're both good nominees. To complain about them in a year in which you've been yelling at the Academy to open itself up to women's voices seems... odd. On the other hand, to note that the full nominees list seems a little odd, which it does, is basically to note that this is still the Recording Academy and these are still the Grammys. What happened to reggaeton? What on earth makes MARGO PRICE a new artist? Bless you for the TIERRA WHACK and SOPHIE nominations. Who exactly are you planning on watching this thing on TV come February? Headline of the week, courtesy the LA TIMES: "Why the perfectly reasonable Grammy nominations feel like something of a letdown"... As many people have noted in the past few days, nominating a diverse group of artists is one thing; getting the Academy membership to vote for a diverse group of artists is something else altogether. In its attempt to diversify that membership, the Academy extended invitations to 900 new people this year. But only about 200 of them accepted, it turns out. Against a total membership of 13,000, it seems unlikely they'll have much impact. Also, it turns out a lot of voting members have no idea they're voting members... Congrats to my old MTV NEWS colleague RAHMAN DUKES, who narrates WHO KILLED JAM MASTER JAY?, the newest entry in NETFLIX's music-doc series REMASTERED... Punk-rockers fall in and out of love, too, PETE SHELLEY and the BUZZCOCKS told us in a blistering catalog of 2- and 3-minute singles that redrew the contours of punk while daring to be as catchy as bubblegum. We've collected the best remembrances of Shelley in our new MusicSET: "Pete Shelley Was the Bleeding Heart on Punk's Loud Fast Sleeve." | | | - Matty Karas, curator |
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| The 1975, Robyn, Rosalía, Drake, DJ Koze... | | |
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| It took mortgages, lawyers and detective work to get "Amazing Grace" to the big screen. | | |
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| Kendrick Lamar, Cardi B and their fans shouldn’t get hopes up if Grammys history is any indication. | | |
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| During one of the most despicable and dangerous eras most of us have ever lived through, Black musicians created their own gold and went to the future. | | |
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| A teenage ritual comes of age, or when a legendary jam band’s parking lot suddenly has strollers. | | |
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| Having served seven years in a US prison on drugs charges, the biggest Jamaican musician since Bob Marley is returning to a hero’s welcome -- but can he leave his former notoriety behind? | | |
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| Some in the industry claim that the streaming giant’s setup unfairly advantages A-list pop stars. Could a new payment system be the answer? | | |
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| Legendary music manager and VC Troy Carter on how he decides which companies to invest in and what the music industry is like for new artists now. | | |
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| Music has always had close ties to literature. Songwriters are quick to reference poetry in their lyrics, or draw inspiration from works of fiction. And although many authors get nods, there was one author who became a favorite of '70s rock scenes, J.R.R. Tolkien. | | |
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| Famed humorist Jean Shepherd was not one for hero worship--especially when it came to the Beatles. | | |
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| At 70, the beloved children's musician is speaking (and singing) his truth. Just try to stop him. | | |
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| The entertainment company has hedged its bets for the disruption in the music industry. | | |
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| Despite the passage of licensing reform, the streamer still faces lawsuits with billions on the line. | | |
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| Why did Drake get nominated for Album of the Year, but not Best Rap Album? Why are there so many nominees for the big categories all of a sudden? And once and for all, who exactly is eligible for Best New Artist? To answer all of this and more, Complex spoke with the Recording Academy’s senior vice president of awards, Bill Freimuth. | | |
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| "I'm happy enough with it," Buckingham said. "I'm not out there trying to twist the knife at all. I'm trying to look at this with some level of compassion, some level of wisdom." | | |
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| If 2017 was bad for women in music, the numbers look bleak again in 2018. Spotify's streaming data says we listened only to men - and a lot of Drake. | | |
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| The songwriter and producer has worked with Rihanna, Katy Perry and more. Now, Blanco has released his debut album, Friends Keep Secrets. | | |
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| "We needed a sad Christmas song, didn't we?” Joni Mitchell said of “River,” her oft-covered 1971 confessional that somehow became a seasonal classic. | | |
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| A new generation of artists is changing an industry and a genre that has traditionally not allowed for more than one female superstar at a time, while pitting other women against one another or ignoring them entirely. | | |
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| I have a theory that because of the way we curate our social media circles nowadays, I believe most of us think our circles are representative of reality. This is my story, this is my song. I also think it’s pure bulls***. | | |
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