Country super-group The Highwomen were the big winners at the 19th annual Americana Honors & Awards, taking home album of the year accolade for their eponymous debut, song of the year for 'Crowded Table', and duo/group of the year. John Prine, who died in April 2020 at age 73, won artist of the year while Black Pumas won emerging act of the year.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have signed a deal with streaming service Spotify to produce and host podcasts, CNN reports. In a trailer, the pair - introducing themselves as "Harry and Meghan", without the royal attributes - promised "different perspectives" and interviews with "amazing people". Their charity will receive an undisclosed sum from the partnership between their production company, Archewell Audio, and Spotify.
"It's an album of contrast and tension as tracks veer between extremes as if constantly searching for some kind of indefinable resolution" - PopMatters writes about Ital Tek's 'Outland', their choice for the best album of the year. The full list:
20. Lee Jones - 'Down Into Light'
19. TENGGER - 'Nomad'
18. Die Wilde Jagd - 'Haut'
17. Squarepusher - 'Be Up a Hello'
16. Pantha Du Prince - 'Conference of Trees'
15. Drab City - 'Good Songs for Bad People'
14. Actress - 'Karma & Desire'
13. Amnesia Scanner - 'Tearless'
12. The Soft Pink Truth - 'Shall We Go On Sinning So That Grace May Increase?'
11. Four Tet - 'Sixteen Oceans'
10. DJ Python - 'Mas Amable'
9. Rival Consoles - 'Articulation'
8. Tristan Perich - 'Drift Multiply'
7. Nicolas Bougaïeff - 'The Upward Spiral'
6. Nahash - 'Flowers of the Revolution'
5. Ghetto Kumbé - 'Ghetto Kumbé'
4. CS + Kreme - 'Snoopy'
3. Beatrice Dillon - 'Workaround'
2. Kelly Lee Owens - 'Inner Song'
"With an indisputable punk ethos, goth aesthetics and mosh-loaded concerts, they’ve long surpassed the restrictive 'trap' label altogether" - Spin writes in their special about three Romanian trap artists. Polly's music character is dual, embodying gore and fetishism, trap and heavy metal. Brasov's music is experimental, with dark, harsh lyrics. Bruja is versatile and an activist. Together, they "are paving the way with experimental, authentic and collaborative energy".
The soundtrack fountain has been flowing plentifully this year - the Quietus writes in its introduction of their selection of the best movie scores of 2020. There's Robert Glasper, Warren Ellis, Terence Blanchard, Brian Eno, Blanck Mass...
Music fans spent $40 million through Bandcamp Friday, monthly promotions where the platform was waiving its percentage cut for sales made on the first Friday of each month. Nearly 800,000 fans participated in the platform Bandcamp Fridays this year, which means that fans spent an average of $39. The company has announced an extension of the program through May 2021.
Lizzo has sparked a body positivity debate after posting videos on TikTok of her 10-day smoothie diet trying to lose weight, Billboard reports. Some fans have commended her efforts on health grounds, while other have criticised the star for encouraging "diet culture". She responded with a follow-up video, explaining that she was "proud of the results" and how "every big girl should do whatever they want with their bodies".
Brooklyn Vegan made a selection of best 45 albums of 2020, with the authority on indie music putting Jeff Rosenstock's 'No Dream' on the top. There are also some expected ones on the list, like Touche Amore and Stay Inside, as well some borderline punk albums like Infant Island and Envy. The top ten are: 10. Teenage Halloween - 'Teenage Halloween'
9. Kill Lincoln - 'Can't Complain'
8. Higher Power - '27 Miles Underwater'
7. Touche Amore - 'Lament'
6. Record Setter - 'I Owe You Nothing'
5. Gulch - 'Impenetrable Cerebral Fortress'
4. Strike Anywhere - 'Nightmares of the West'
3. Stay Inside - 'Viewing'
2. Infant Island - 'Beneath'
Several publications - PopMatters, Stereogum, JazzWise, and Bandcamp - have published lists of best jazz albums of 2020. All of the above differ in perspective - modern, classical, crossover jazz - but a few albums do appear on several lists, like Ambrose Akinmusire's 'On The Tender Spot Of Every Calloused Moment', Matthew Shipp's 'The Piano Equation', or Irreversible Entanglements' 'Who Sent You?'.
Reddit has acquired short video platform Dubsmash, one of TikTok’s biggest rivals, which has however struggled for several years after a brief stint of popularity in 2015 during its first incarnation as a lip-sync video app. In 2017 it began transforming itself into a social platform and moved its headquarters from Berlin to Brooklyn. By the beginning of this year, Dubsmash’s share of the United States’ short-form video market was second only to TikTok when counted by app installs. While many of TikTok’s highest-profile stars are white, Dubsmash is known for its large communities of Black and Latinx content creators, TechCrunch reports.
Half of the titles among the top 10 on the Billboard 200 chart are Christmas albums for the first time since 2013, Billboard reports. It's Michael Bublé’s 'Christmas', Carrie Underwood’s 'My Gift', Nat King Cole’s 'The Christmas Song', Pentatonix’s 'The Best of Pentatonix Christmas', and Mariah Carey’s 'Merry Christmas'. The top spot of the week is taken by Shawn Mendes and his 'Wonder' with 89,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending Dec. 10.
Lenny Kravitz and legendary drummer Nate Smith gifted the 10-year-old drum wonder-girl Nandi Bushell a custom Ludwig Legacy Mahogany drum kit, Spin reports. Bushell posted a reaction video with her being really enthusiastic, with Kravitz saying "keep doing what you’re doing. I love watching all of your progress”, and Smith telling the young musician to have fun.
Sweet country lady Dolla Parton saved young actor Talia Hill who walked into the path of an oncoming vehicle and the singer "grabbed me and pulled me back”, as the young actress told Inside Edition. Hill dances and sings in the new Netflix original movie 'Christmas on the Square', while Parton plays an angel sent to supernaturally pressure a hardhearted landlord into being a better person. This wasn't Parton's first good deed this year - in spring she donated $1 million to help fund the Moderna vaccine, her Imagination Library recently gave away its 150 millionth book, and she came out this year as an enthusiastic supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement, Consequence of Sound reports.
The concert industry in North America alone stands to lose more than $30 billion in 2020, Pollstar reports. Touring and live performances lost $9.7 billion, with the rest of the $30 billion deficit coming from things like sponsorships, ticketing costs, concessions, merch, and ancillary businesses like transportation, restaurants, and hotels.
The first drum kit the late Neil Peart ever played with Rush has been sold at Bonhams auction for exactly $500,312, Exclaim reports. Peart originally purchased the Slingerland double bass drum in Toronto in August 1974, mere weeks after joining Rush. He played the kit on his first three albums with the band as well as during various live performances. The set had been expected to fetch between $100,000 and $150,000.
Country music legend Charley Pride, the genre's first black superstar, died Saturday at age 86 of complications from Covid-19. His baritone voice was featured on more than 50 Top 10 country hits and he was the first Black member of the Country Music Hall of Fame. He was a sportsman at first - he played Negro League baseball at 16, eventually becoming an all-star player with the Mets. He quit baseball and arrived in Nashville in 1963 to start a career that spanned more than four decades, and included 52 Top 10 country hits, Grammy awards, and the status of RCA Records' top-selling country artist. Pride's early singles were released without mention of his race or a photo of him. Some of Pride's biggest hits include 'Is Anybody Goin' to San Antone', 'Just Between You and Me', 'Kiss an Angel Good Mornin''.
Mariah Carey’s festive hit 'All I Want For Christmas Is You' reaches Number 1 on the Official UK Singles Chart 26 years after its release, and breaks a record in the process, the Official Charts Company reports. Upon its original release in 1994, 'All I Want For Christmas Is You' peaked at Number 2, below East 17’s 'Stay Another Day'. Carey's hit summits in its 70th week in the Top 40, and sets a new chart record - no other song has spent more weeks in the Official Chart Top 40 before eventually reaching Number 1 in UK chart history. The song notched up 10.8 million streams over the last seven days – the most streams in a week by any song in 2020 so far.
Blue Ivy Carter has become one of the youngest Grammy nominees in history - the eight-year-old daughter of Beyoncé and Jay-Z was added to the nominees for best music video for her mother's 'Brown Skin Girl', People reports. Leah Peasall of The Peasall Sisters is the youngest Grammy nominee (and winner) as one of the credited artists on the 'O Brother, Where Art Thou?' she was eight at the time. Deleon Richards is the youngest performer to receive an individual nomination - she was nominated at 8 1/2 years old for a 1985 award for best soul/gospel performance, female for her album 'Deleon'.
Space-jazz masters The Comet Is Coming released their hybrid new single 'Imminent' featuring MC Joshua Idehen; Thou & Emma Ruth Rundle released a mighty cover of Cranberries' 'Hollywood'; screamo boys For Your Health released 'Birthday Candles in the Effigy' with a ballerina dancing to it in a sinister video; Burial, Four Tet, and Thom Yorke collaborated on two new moody songs 'Her Revolution' and 'His Rope'.
Indie rock bands with very sizable followings have already turned in new albums to their labels with the understanding that they be held until, at the very least, next fall - Last Donut of the Night blog writes about the prospect of new albums by indie bands like Death Cab For Cutie, Soccer Mommy, Protomartyr... It is similar with A-list stars - we could have expected new albums by Lana Del Rey, Drake, Kendrick Lamar, and Billie Eilish were it not for the pandemic...
"We can’t in good conscience benefit from a process that has—both this year and historically—so overlooked women, performers of colors, and most especially Black performers” - Alastair Moock & Friends, the Okee Dokee Brothers, and Dog on Fleas wrote to the Recording Academy asking to rescind their nominations for the 2021 Grammy Award for Best Children’s Music Album. Three of the five nominees say that "it is not an aberration” that all of the 2021 nominees are white and only one nominee is female, Pitchfork reports.
A very good selection of the best books covering musical topics released this year, picked out by the Rolling Stone. Sasha Geffen presents an interesting idea in 'Glitter Up the Dark: How Pop Music Broke the Binary' - that "popular music has always been powered by transgressive ideas about identity". Mark Lanegan's 'Sing 'Backwards and Weep: A Memoir' is "one of the most compelling and revealing rock memoirs ever". 'The Baddest Bitch in the Room: A Memoir' by the marketing specialist Sophia Chang is about, well, the character in the title.
An encouraging story in the Rolling Stone about the aspiring Australian rapper YNG Martyr who quit his job (didn't like, wasn't good at it), took out a $15,000 dollar loan from the bank, and spent it all on Instagram memes incorporating his song 'Nike Ticks'. Thanks to these memes interest in the song rocketed upwards, earning more than 30 million streams on Spotify in the last 14 months, and it got YNG Martyr a record deal. Turned out he's also a good meme-maker, so he started YNG Marketing that works on meme campaigns.
Rap videos and lyrics are increasingly being used as evidence in criminal trials in the UK - over 60 cases where “rap evidence” has been used in this way have been identified - presented by prosecutors as autobiographical confessions to crimes, threats of violence or proof of gang affiliation, rather than fictional or greatly exaggerated stories. Enter Prosecuting Rap: Criminal Justice and UK Black Youth Expressive Culture, a research project headed by Eithne Quinn, Senior Lecturer at the University of Manchester, networked with other academics and legal professionals, serving as rap expert for the defense in trials, trying to differentiate the menacing musical persona in the song with the young person sitting in the dock. DJ Mag reports on the worthy collective.
Guns N' Roses' 'Patience', John Lennon's 'Watching the Wheels' and Sinead O'Connor's 'Nothing Compares 2 U' are some of the songs covered by Chris Cornell on an album surprise-released today, Seattle Times reports. 'No One Sings Like You Anymore' is Cornell's “last fully completed studio album”, and it also includes Ghostland Observatory (with 'Sad Sad City') Harry Nilsson ('Jump Into The Fire'), Carl Hall ('You Don't Know Nothing About Love') Electric Light Orchestra ('Showdown'), Terry Reid ('To Be Treated Rite'), Lorraine Ellison ('Stay With Me Baby'), and Janis Joplin ('Get It While You Can').
Rapper Nines won album of the year for 'Crabs in a Bucket', and best hip-hop act, while R&B singer Mahalia won best female act and best R&B/soul act at the 2020 Mobo awards, returning for the first time since 2017 to celebrate music of Black origin. Drill rapper Headie One was named best male act, while 'Don’t Rush' by pop-rap duo Young T & Bugsey was voted Mobo song of the year.
"One of the main vehicles helping us during this time is music. Heavy, experimental, interesting you name it. And from that perspective, it has been an excellent year! ... Experimentalism is thankfully on the rise, as boundaries are still pushed and new realms are explored" - PopMatters says about this year in metal music. Their top 20 in the genre:
20. Black Curse - 'Endless Wound'
19. Megaton Sword - 'Blood Hails Steel'
18. Kevel - 'Mutatis, Mutandis'
17. Spirit Adrift - 'Enlightened in Eternity'
16. Spirit Adrift - 'Enlightened in Eternity'
15. Wake - 'Devouring Ruin'
14. Pyrrhon - 'Abscess Time'
13. Haken - 'Virus'
12. Thou and Emma Ruth Rundle - 'May Our Chambers Be Full'
11. Faceless Burial - 'Speciation'
10. Wayfarer - 'A Romance With Violence'
9. Oranssi Pazuzu - 'Mestarin kynsi'
8. Expander - 'Neuropunk Boostergang'
7. Old Man Gloom - 'Seminar VIII: Light of Meaning/Seminar IX: Darkness of Being'
6. Neptunian Maximalism - 'Éons'
5. Ulthar - 'Providence'
4. Duma - 'Duma'
3. Paysage d’Hiver - 'Im Wald'
2. SUMAC - 'May You Be Held'
Sean Malone, the longtime bassist of the great progressive metal band Cynic, has died aged 50, Loudwire reports. Malone played on all three of Cynic's full-length albums, leaving a great mark in music. "Without any hyperbole; a true legend" - Steve Di Giorgio of Death wrote, adding - "Sean Malone is basically responsible for an entire genre of metal bass playing. Very influential and definitively ahead of the rest of us".
"It feels like we were standing on the edge of the folklorian woods and had a choice: To turn and go back or to travel further into the forest of this music. We chose to wander deeper in" - Taylor Swift said on Twitter announcing her second surprise album of 2020. 'Evermore', coming out at midnight, is described as a "sister album" to the delicate, escapist 'Folklore', which itself arrived out-of-the-blue in July, the New York Times reports. As with 'Folklore', 'Evermore' will contain collaborations with indie artists Bon Iver and Aaron Dessner, as well as female rock trio Haim.
CI's list of 75 albums of 2020 starts with both Sault's albums released this year, but then it becomes different, offering a wealth of lesser-known albums by artists such as Moses Boyd, Moor Mother, Irreversible Entanglements, Sauce and Dogs...
