Black opera singer Emmanuel "Onry" Henreid went viral in June with a video of an impromptu duet with a student Madisen Hallberg performing national anthem - a moment of racial unity during the Black Lives Matter protests. BBC talked to Onry - he described how he was told he wasn't able, physically, to sing opera, and how he is prevented from singing by the police anywhere outside opera houses.
he Forty-Five describes innovative methods K-pop artists use to make online concert feel alive and exciting, making fans feel like they're close to the musician, even closes in some instances. Organizers use Zoom to make feel fans cheering on from home over Zoom as a venue crowd. Few lucky viewers get real-time video calls from musicians. Also, the acts are merging online chatrooms with between-song banter...
American federal judge Carl Nichols blocked President Trump's TikTok ban on Sunday, granting a temporary reprieve to the video-sharing app, NBC reports. During a telephone court hearing on Sunday, lawyers for TikTok argued that the app is a "modern day version of the town square" and that shutting it down is akin to silencing speech. D.C. judge responded by halting the ban, which was set to kick in at midnight Sunday.
Startup Create/OS made a Record Deal Simulator, a fun little tool designed to show how record deals work. So, in a standard 20/80 royalty deal where 20% goes to the artist, and 80% to the label, with a $1 million budget - $400,000 advance, $200,000 in recording costs, and $400,000 for marketing -te artist would have to generate 1 billion streams before making the very first dollar in royalties. The label will have made $3 million in profits at that point.
Taylor Swift’s 'Folklore' returns to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart this week, collecting a seventh nonconsecutive week atop the tally with that album, Billboard reports. Swift’s total weeks at Billboard's No. 1 now stands at 47 across all seven of her chart-topping albums, so she surpasses Whitney Houston’s longstanding record, among women, for the most cumulative weeks at No. 1 - Houston’s tally stays at 46. The all-time record with the most weeks at No. 1 is held by The Beatles, with 132 weeks at No. 1 across 19 albums. The male act (and solo artist) with the most weeks atop the list is Elvis Presley, with 67.
The newest season of Lost Notes podcast is out - season three covers the year 1980 - "the brilliant, awkward and sometimes heartbreaking opening to a monumental decade in popular music". This season is hosted by the poet and cultural critic Hanif Abdurraqib. In 1980, Sugarhill Gang where doing something that would change the music, the death of John Lennon would mark death of an era, punk singer Darby Crash died just a day earlier...
The Doobie Brothers wrote Bill Murray a funny letter requesting him to stop playing or start paying for their song 'Listen to the Music' to promote hit own golf apparel brand William Murray Golf, CNN reports. Murray started running new ads promoting William Murray Golf’s latest shirt named Zero Hucks Given, using Doobie Brothers' song without asking, so they told him - "given that you haven’t paid to use it, maybe you should change the name to ‘Zero Bucks Given'”. The thing, they don't like those shirts - "we’d almost be OK with it if the shirts weren’t so damn ugly. But it is what it is. So in the immortal words of Jean Paul Sartre, 'Au revoir Golfer. Et payez!'”.
The posthumous debut album by US rapper Pop Smoke, 'Shoot For The Stars, Aim For The Moon' climbs to Number 1 on this week’s Official UK Albums Chart. It has become a norm for hip-hop albums to get the majority of the sales from streaming - 97% of Pop Smoke's charts sales figure this week came from streams (rock still clings to physical album sales). Pop Smoke, who died in February this year, becomes the first solo artist to land a posthumous Number 1 debut album in the UK – the only other act to have done so was Warrington band Viola Beach who topped the Official Albums Chart with their self-titled debut in 2016 (a few months after the complete band died in a car crash).
The UK rock/metal publication Metal Hammer called Canadian rapper Backxwash one of “modern rap's more avant garde artists” after hearing her EP 'Stigmata' and her debut album 'God Has Nothing To Do With This Leave Him Out Of It. MH's online output described her debut as "thrilling trap metal" and "fucking brilliant". Complex sees two reasons for it - her lyrics are cathartic, but also dark, aggressive, and loaded with goth and biblical imagery; her music is powerful and dark, with plenty of classic rock and metal samples.
In 2016, streaming and downloading music generated around a 194 million kilograms of greenhouse-gas emissions - some 40 million more than the emissions associated with all music formats in 2000 - author Kyle Devine says in his recent book 'Decomposed: The Political Ecology of Music'. Given the special circumstances the figure for 2020 will be much greater. Devine Devine incorporates his ecology of music into a more comprehensive vision of anthropogenic crisis, the cost of having all the music at the touch of a finger, New Yorker reports.
Renowned Indian singer SP Balasubrahmanyam, a Guinness world record holder for his more than 40,000 songs over 50 years, has died aged 74, following a Covid-19 diagnosis, CNN reports. From romantic hits to popular dance tracks, he sang some of Indian cinema's best-known numbers, spanning 16 languages. The Wire listed 15 of his awards for which he won awards.
The 2020 Mercury prize for the year’s best British album has gone to Michael Kiwanuka for his self-titled album, 'Kiwanuka', BBC reports. He has been nominated for each of his previous albums: 'Home Again' (2012) and 'Love & Hate' (2016). He gets the honor and wins £25,000 this year. The other nominated artists this year were Anna Meredith, Charli XCX, Dua Lipa, Georgia, Kano, Lanterns on the Lake, Laura Marling, Moses Boyd, Porridge Radio, Sports Team, and Stormzy.
"In 2020, the Griselda Records boom works as a sort of canny counter-programming to the streaming-era rap mainstream" - Stereogum says presenting the unusual un-mainstream un-alternative hip hop collective and record label. "Instead, the rappers and producers in the Griselda braintrust have come up with their own version of Roc Marciano’s broken, impressionist take on East Coast impressionist-rap". The core of the collective are rapper Westside Gunn, his brother Conway the Machine, their cousin Benny the Butcher and in-house producer Daringer.
Paddy Hanna released an Italian murder ballad 'Sinatra'; Violent Life Violent Death step into dark metallic hardcore with 'Roseblade'; Bruce Springsteen announced his new album with a thumping rock song 'Ghosts' which takes him back to her earliest days; The Shins shared a clubby indie rock song 'The Great Divide'; Clipping feature twin-duo Cam & China on their new single ''96 Neve Campbell'; Sylvan Esso released a simple yet rich ballad 'Free'.
A number of musicians - Megan Thee Stallion, The Weeknd, Selena Gomez, J Balvin, Halsey, Jennifer Hudson, Yo-Yo Ma, Anaïs Mitchell - made TIME Magazine’s annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. Megan Thee Stallion and The Weeknd also made the covers.
Canadian venues and performance spaces lit up red Tuesday evening (Sept 22) in a show of support for the live event industry "that is still dark", Indie 88 reports. The #LightUpLive campaign says "the effect of shutting down a $100 billion industry in Canada will have unimaginable impacts on both companies and individuals".
American National Public Radio had Korean boy-band BTS for their Tiny Desk concert on Monday, which set a record for online viewership. Later that day, Gabe Rosenberg, the digital news editor for Columbus, Ohio, NPR affiliate WOSU, encouraged the K-pop band’s fans to donate to public radio stations to say thanks. And, so they did, Washingtonian reports. Earlier this year, Korean band’s fans, who are known as ARMY, raised more than $1 million for Black Lives Matter.
“We sell an extraordinary amount of records on Bandcamp Friday. It’s enough for me to pay for a month’s worth of groceries. It keeps lights on in my house” - Nashville singer-songwriter Emma Swift told the LA Times about how much Bandcamp means to her. In August she earned $1,400 through the platform, and another $1,500 on the first Friday of September. On each first Friday Bandcamps forgoes its regular 15% cut on digital sales to artists. Since then, fans have paid artists nearly $100 million. The platform has generated $584 million for artists since 2008.
Juliette Greco, a French singer, actress, cultural icon and muse to existentialist philosophers of the country’s post-War period, has died aged 93, Billboard reports. Greco immortalized some of France’s most recognizable songs in an enduring seven-decade career, including the classics 'Soul le ciel de Paris' ('Under the Parisian sky') and 'Je hais les dimanches' ('I hate Sundays').
Experimental rockers Joan of Arc will end their 25-year career with one final album, 'Tim Melina Theo Bobby', due December 4, Pitchfork reports. As the title implies, the album was made by the band's current lineup of Melina Ausikaitis, Bobby Burg, Theo Katsaounis, and Tim Kinsella. The video for the first single 'Destiny Revision' was made up of photos taken on various Joan of Arc tours.
Evoke Candle has announced an officially licensed Motörhead candle, which smells like smoked whiskey and oak, Loudwire reports. It has a burn time of 70 to 80 hours. The store sells candles inspired by popular rock and metal songs, including the 'London Calling', 'Paint It Black', 'White Wedding', 'Heavy Metal' etc. The standard price for any candle is 36$.
Bristol venue Colston Hall is dropping its name following decades of protests and boycotts over its association with the 17th-century slave trader Edward Colston. A statue of Colston was toppled by Black Lives Matter protesters and thrown into the harbour in June. The process of renaming the hall began in 2017, following protests by civil rights campaigners, music lovers and artists, including the Bristol band Massive Attack, who refused to perform in the venue. From now on it will be known as Bristol Beacon.
"It's becoming a sort of respect thing" - singer-songwriter Gordi, now a practising doctor in hospitals in Australia, told BBC about face-masks. "As someone that is going to work in these places everyday, where health workers are putting their lives and the lives of their loved ones at risk - to wear a mask is not asking you to do a great deal," the 27-year-old says. This spring, after putting her doctor's career on hold, she moved to London and was supposed to start a tour with Bon Iver. When corona started she turned back home and to her patients...
Georgia Dobbins Davis, the founding member of the Marvelettes - one of the pioneering female vocal groups, and co-author of 'Please Mr. Postman', has died, Soul Track reports. 'Please Mr. Postman' was not only a 1961 hit, it was Motown’s first #1, and help set the label up for a decade of radio dominance in the 60s. Dobbins’ father forced her to leave the group because he was worried about the teens playing in nightclubs...
Rolling Stone has revised their list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, the first time since 2012. The electorate this time includes Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, and Billie Eilish. There are also rising artists like H.E.R., Tierra Whack, and Lindsey Jordan of Snail Mail. Veteran musicians are represented by Adam Clayton and the Edge of U2, Raekwon of the Wu-Tang Clan, Gene Simmons, Stevie Nicks, and others. Check out all the albums from Arcade Fire's Funeral' to Marvin Gaye's 'What's Going On' here.
A third (34%) of professional British musicians are considering abandoning the industry completely, because of the financial difficulties they face during the pandemic, a survey of 2,000 members of the Musicians’ Union has found. Almost half (47%) have already found work outside their industry, Dazed reports.
"We in Northern Ireland are very proud of the fact that one of the greatest music legends of the past 50 years comes from our part of the world... So there's a real feeling of disappointment - we expected better from him" - Northern Ireland Health Minister Robin Swann has written in Rolling Stone about Sir Van Morrison's songs that protest against the coronavirus lockdown. In the lyrics, Van Morrison claims scientists are "making up crooked facts" to justify measures that "enslave" the population. "It's all bizarre and irresponsible. I only hope no one takes him seriously. He's no guru, no teacher" - Swann wrote.
Nine Inch Nails have announced a line of limited edition "Pandemic" shirts, and a hat - "this collection of re-takes re-flects our anxiety and anger during this unprecedented time", NIN said. Included in the collection are the "Mutation" tee ("Time to mutate. Feels good man"), the "Every Day Is Exactly the Goddamn Same" tee ("Getting tired of predicting the future accurately"), the "USAshamed" tee ("American pride, R.I.P.")...
he European Court of Justice has ruled that record labels will be forced to pay performers an increased share of revenue collected from the broadcast and public performance of sound recordings, Hot Press reported. The ruling makes it clear that each time a musical work generates a payment to the record label for broadcasting or public performance, the performers on that recording are entitled to receive an equal share of earnings, by now it was approximately 20%. Phonographic Performance Ireland has argued that the rule of equal share could not happen where Irish performers did not receive similar payments from non-EEA countries. The EU court ruled, however, that EU law precludes a member state from excluding performers who are nationals of non-EEA states from the right to a single equitable remuneration for the playing of recorded music, Law Society reports.
Surely something we could have expected from a poetry-loving bearded guy, Jarvis Cocker releases a brand of tea - Peppermint Jungle. It goes with hit new musical identity, so it's named Jarv Is, just like his latest album 'Beyond the Pale'. NME took a sip, says it "is undoubtedly the most soothing release of 2020". So, Jarv Is, planning on live-streaming your tea at 5?
