I don’t know a single person that has sold their catalog that hasn’t eventually regretted it. | | | | Rina Sawayama on "The Tonight Show," Oct. 26, 2020.
(NBCUniversal/Getty Images) | | | | | | “I don’t know a single person that has sold their catalog that hasn’t eventually regretted it.”
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| | rantnrave:// Today's MusicREDEF is dedicated to my fellow music scribes who've spent their pandemic either starting their own SUBSTACKs or being bought out by hedge fund millionaire metal fans who come to meetings with spreadsheets of every concert they've ever been to, "meticulously laid out," complete with "various rules about what counts as a show." I don't know yet if this dedication is about the death or the rebirth of music media. Ask me in a few years... The HBO documentary about the birth and death and rebirth and death and rebirth of the BEE GEEs that everybody, or possibly just everybody over 40, is talking about is a weird, disjointed, elision-filled, genuinely moving film about a band of brothers who may or may not have had something to do with Australia (I thought I knew before I saw the doc; now I'm confused), who may or may not have invented the two-bar drum loop (spoiler: seems unlikely), and who had an almost miraculous musical bond to go along with a biopic-worthy family bond that survived their multiple breakups. Zero in on the details that interest you, ignore the details that aren't there, luxuriate in the great vintage footage (and, of course, music) and prepare to cry more than once. There's a mini-documentary within on the initial rise and fall of disco starring DJ NICKY SIANO, who coins my new favorite music industry diss ("some executive in diapers"), and house music producer VINCE LAWRENCE, who accurately boils Chicago's disastrous Disco Demolition Night down to "a book burning. It was a racist, homophobic book burning." Director FRANK MARSHALL intercuts footage of that musical book burning with a Bee Gees concert from the same summer and it's virtuoso editing and an entire BEHIND THE MUSIC episode in 5 minutes. They weren't the first pop band to radically reinvent themselves mid-career and they weren't the last, but they're one of the gold standards and a pretty good object lesson in the benefits of hiring a legendary R&B producer to help with the transition. In case any current pop bands are looking to do the same. They were all, for what it's worth, in their mid-20s at the time... Oh, and it would be nice if someone could explain why Bee Gees keyboardist BLUE WEAVER, who talks in some detail of how he wrote "HOW DEEP IS YOUR LOVE," with BARRY GIBB, isn't credited on the song, which, one imagines, could still be providing a nice little income in 2020... Clickwrap and browsewrap aren't new EDM or indie-rock subgenres though perhaps they should be. They're descriptions of two different ways websites display their terms of service, which turns out to be a crucial detail in a class-action suit filed by a RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE fan who says TICKETMASTER changed its terms of service after the pandemic started and didn't refund his $590 when the band postponed but didn't cancel its 2020 tour. Ticketmaster apparently uses modified clickwrap, which was enough for a federal judge in California to conclude last week that Hansen could have, or should have, read and understood its terms, which dictate that any such complaint is to be be handled by an arbitrator rather than a judge. I'll leave my thoughts on cancellations, postponements and refunds for another time, but for now a note to this and all judges: No civilian has ever read the terms of service of any website, and as long as they continue to be written by lawyers without editors, it absolutely does not matter how or where they're displayed... Also headed to arbitration: The MICHAEL JACKSON estate's claim that HBO violated an agreement not to disparage the King of Pop when it aired the documentary LEAVING NEVERLAND... RIP PAULINE ANNA STROM, DON ZIMMERMANN and ANN REINKING. | | | - Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator |
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| Columbia Journalism Review |
| Enrique Abeyta, a former hedge-funder, goes all in on metalhead media. | | |
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| We ask some of the new platform's more visible members how it's going. | | |
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| The Q&A founder and ex-Spotify exec joins the MBW podcast to talk independent artists - and the future of the business. | | |
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| The HBO documentary “The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart” traces the decades-long arc of a band that mastered a rare pop skill: adaptation. | | |
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| No longer confined to novelty singles, RuPaul’s cinched spawn are putting out albums and ready to take the pop world by storm. From the Frock Destroyers to Jodie Harsh, it’s time to smash the pink ceiling, they tell Nick Levine. | | |
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| The boutique music promotion company helmed by Graham Williams shutters due to ongoing shutdowns related to the pandemic. | | |
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| As audiences experienced screen fatigue, performers got innovative, laying the groundwork for an exciting 2021. | | |
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| Sample the sonic world of the Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture. | | |
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| How country’s first Black superstar broke barriers while thriving in the genre’s commercial mainstream. | | |
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| With little recognition, Black people made huge contributions to the genre. | | |
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| The Philly radio station WXPN polled its listeners and is revealing their choices in a marathon show. “I treasure the folly of it,” our critic writes. | | |
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| BigStar’s Nick Lawrence on why the royalties system is well past its sell-by date. | | |
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| Today I drove past the old State Fairgrounds in Detroit. I realized that the old bandshell would likely not be spared from the wrecking ball following news that the city of Detroit sold the property to Amazon for a new distribution center, so I snapped a photo of it. | | |
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| Other artists used quarantine to produce work about the isolation of modern life. McCartney’s new album, by contrast, is cheery and optimistic. | | |
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| BTS (방탄소년단)‘ “Life Goes On” is their latest hit, and it’s already racked up 190 million views on YouTube. On the track, BTS delivers an uplifting message in the face of the global pandemic. Watch them go line-for-line on “Life Goes On.” | | |
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| These are our favourite tracks of the last 12 months | | |
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| Columbia Records’ Head of Urban Music Phylicia Fant came on the Trapital Podcast and talked about the artists she’s worked with, the challenges the industry has faced in 2020, the use of the word “urban,” and more. | | |
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| Thanks to her seasonal blockbuster "All I Want for Christmas," Mariah Carey has become this century's Bing Crosby, the entertainer who soundtracks the holiday. | | |
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| People who own Sonos speakers aren't having the best time dealing with the death of Google Play Music. | | |
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| A tornado tore the roof off of Gillian Welch's East Nashville studio. She's now released dozens of 'Lost Songs' that were nearly lost forever. | | |
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| Puerto Rican singer José Feliciano first came up with the Spanish/English Christmas song because he missed his family. Now, 50 years later, he's recorded a new version with 30 friends. | | |
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| | | | | | | Edited and arranged by Four Tet. From "Sound Ancestors," coming in January on Madlib Invazion. |
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| © Copyright 2020, The REDEF Group |
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