"You now could be held liable for being influenced. That is bad news for pop stars, and the producers and songwriters who help them craft hits. They are now marks for frivolous litigation premised upon nebulous assertions as well as a complete and willful ignorance of how pop music is actually made" - New York […]
“Five years ago, you had to have a massive chorus. Now, it’s not the rule” - Camille Purcell, who releases music as Kamille, told Guardian about writing potential hits now - it’s all about interesting beats, not hooks. Purcell cites the dominance of hip-hop as the cause of this trend, adding how she takes inspiration […]
Chinese web giant had finalised a deal to buy 10% of the Universal Music Group from French entertainment conglomerate Vivendi for about $3.3 billion. Tencent is already the leading player in digital music in China, and exclusively represents the catalogues of various global music companies within the Chinese market, including all three majors. Complete Music […]
Full title of new album by the pop-metal band is actually ‘Music to listen to~dance to~blaze to~pray to~feed to~sleep to~talk to~grind to~trip to~breathe to~help to~hurt to~scroll to~roll to~love to~hate to~learn Too~plot to~play to~be to~feel to~breed to~sweat to~dream to~hide to~live to~die to~GO TO’, it lasts equally long 85 minutes (in 8 songs), and it goes further […]
Variety is disturbed by the lack of women at Coachella this year. California fest is headlined by Frank Ocean, Travis Scott and Rage Against the Machine, with top 10 performers being mostly men as well - "looking at the 10 top-billed artists on each day, Friday’s is 2/10 female, Saturday’s is 3/10, and Sunday’s rockets […]
Based in Tel Aviv, El Khat have members from Yemen, Iraq, Poland, and Morocco, playing "international folk fusion music" influenced mostly by traditional Yemeni music. PopMatters says their album 'Saadia Jefferson' is "a heartfelt expression of love for a culture brutally disenfranchised, as well as one of the potential of that same culture to continue […]
Brooklyn Vegan made a selection of best screamo albums from 2019. Not a perfect selection, but a good start. There is: Zeta with their mix of screamo, post-hardcore, prog, psychedelia, jazz, and experimental rock on 'Mochima'; Shin Guard who started out with emo, and got to it's "nastier cousin screamo" on '2020'; Frail Body are cross-over with […]
Guardian has a lovely article about choirs that require no auditions getting more popular in the UK. Making Music, an organisation that supports a cross section of “leisure-time” music, has seen a rise in registered vocal groups from 1,781 in 2014 to 2,065 today, Rock Choir membership has rocketed to about 30,000 people, and London […]
Toymakers Hasbro, manufacturers of products like Transformers, Power Rangers, Furby, Nerf, Twister, and My Little Pony, are now the legal owners of Death Row Records, home to Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, and Tupac, as part of a $3.8 billion merger deal with Canadian studio Entertainment One. The merger was signed on December 30. Entertainment One, […]
Lifetime docu-series 'Surviving R. Kelly Part II: The Reckoning' has been aired across three nights last week, and it chronicles the stories of survivors who have brought forth allegations of sexual abuse and misconduct against the embattled musician. It highlights the reactions and responses to the documentary and the survivors featured, as well as Kelly’s current legal situation. The […]
The 21-year-old singer is recording her first album and it makes her "want to crap myself", as she says the BBC. "I'm like, 'Why am I stressed every day, I should be excited about this? But why should I be excited when this is nerve-wracking?'. I'm massively over-thinking everything", she explained. Joy Crookes is BBC's […]
"Happy birthday/ to Greta, who stood today/ as every Friday, refusing/ to be neutral” - Patti Smith wrote in a birthday Insta-message to environmentalist activist Greta Thunberg. Read the poem in full below.
Singer and visual artist Eartheater and experimental duo LEYA have released their digital EP 'Angel Lust', with Eartheater's “vacillating, ethereal” at the forefront. She is backed by LEYA's harpist Marilu Donovan and violinist Adam Markiewicz. Watch the haunting video below.
Keith Urban and wife Nicole Kidman, who both have roots in Australia, are giving $500,000 to support firefighters in their battle against Australia's devastating wildfires, Billboard reports. P!nk also said she is donating $500,000 to help fight the deadly wildfires in Australia, Spin reports (P!nk has no Australian roots, describes herself as "Irish-German-Lithuanian-Jew"). Why did […]
Icelandic composer Hildur Guðnadóttir has won Best Original Score at the Golden Globes for her score for 'Joker'. Guðnadóttir is the first woman to win the award solo in the history of the Golden Globes. She is also the first woman to win the award since Lisa Gerrard shared the prize with Han Zimmer in 2000 for their score […]
Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic, and Pat Smear reunited for a brief set at the Heaven is Rock & Roll Gala at the Palladium in Los Angeles on Saturday night, Consequence of Sound reports. Beck, St. Vincent, and Grohl’s 13-year-old daughter Violet took a turn singing lead vocals. St. Vincent took the lead on 'Lithium', 'In […]
Travis Scott-led project Jackboys debuts at No. 1 on Billboard 200 chart with their first EP 'Jackboys, a seven-track set 21 minutes long. It started with 154,000 equivalent album units sold, and of that sum, 79,000 were in album sales. Jackboys comprise Scott, Sheck Wes, Don Toliver, and Chase B. Billboard...
NME made a list of 100 new artists, "set to take over 2020 and the next decade". Some are already known, like the eclectic 100 gecs, spoken word indie band Black Country, New Road, soul singer Celeste, Billie Eilish's brother Finneas, Ariana Grande writer Victoria Monét, and some less so. Check em all out here.
"She tears her low, surging voice to shreds, braying like she’s beckoning you from the opposite end of a crowded room. It adds an eerie, intense quality to her music—a desperation behind the calm of her arrangements" - Pitchfork says in a review of debut album by the Australian singer-songwriter. So, seemingly usual songs sang […]
The Strokes played a New Year's Eve show in New York, and during the show, they played a new song called 'Ode to the Mets', Stereogum reports. Julian Casablancas confirmed that a new full-length album, the band’s first since 2013, would arrive in the new year. Watch the new song below.
154 million albums were either streamed, bought or downloaded the UK last year, the largest amount since 2006, when the figure stood at 161.4 million. The majority of sales (three quarters) were made through streaming - fans streamed 114 billion songs last year, a new record (1,000 streams generate one "sale"). Just three years ago, […]
Neil Innes, the English writer, comedian, and musician, known also as "The Seventh Python" for his work with the Monty Python, has died aged 75. He was also known for his work with the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, and spoof Beatles band The Rutles. Innes was later known as “the seventh Python” thanks to his […]
The Norwegian trio released a restored version for the music video of their 1985 hit Steve Barron, which blends animated pencil sketches and live-action scenes in an eye-catching visual. A press release said that "most music videos from this time were edited in tape format, while this clip was uniquely restored from the original 35mm […]
Brooklyn Vegan combed through the 2010s as well and came up with 141 best albums of the last ten years (it was a shame to kick out Leonard Cohen, right?!? :_) ). The first ten are: 10. The National – 'Trouble Will Find Me Read More' 9. PJ Harvey – 'Let England Shake' 8. Beyonce […]
"If you’re looking for something to keep you company on a long drive or help you turn up a workout, I hope there’s a track or two in here that does the trick” - Barack Obama said in his post on social media, where he listed his favorite songs of 2019. There’s 'Redesigning Women' from […]
There is fun in these albums, there's happiness, love, hope, braveness, stepping out and forward, sincerity, wisdom... All we are saying is - give these songs a chance! 1.Black Midi: 'Schlagenheim' They're new, they don't care about what was before them, or what comes next, they just play how they feel. The most earnest album […]
Journalist and publicist has two points in his article: streaming is killing the idea of a mainstream, and second - even the astronomically famous have had to resort to ruses to commandeer public attention. On the bright side - "in this flourishing post-geographical world of 'local' cultures not tied to location, small is bountiful and […]
"I'm no longer going to diminish my heritage... we will celebrate light and life... I'm a Jew in America. This is my story. Shalom” - Brooklyn rapper Your Old Droog says in an introduction of his new album 'Jewelry'. YOD describes it as a "Chanukah celebration", if features references to Jewish prayers and songs, a song […]
Elton John has been appointed to the Queen's Order of the Companions of Honour in the New Year Honours list for a remarkable music career and his services to charity. He becomes one of only 65 people apart from the monarch who can hold the honour at any one time. Apart from him, Olivia Newton-John, […]
"If I was going to name a favorite record that has been a favorite for all my life it would probably be either 'Beggars Banquet' or 'Let It Bleed' from the Rolling Stones. Actually, 'Sticky Fingers', 'Let It Bleed', 'Beggars Banquet', 'Exile on Main St.' — those four records in a row are pretty much my favorite music of all time" - Slash said about […]
Pakistan instrumental quartet Jaubi have released their debut album 'Nafs at Peace' where they "explore eastern mysticism and the spiritual Self". The modern traditional record "starts in the Indian classical tradition and extends its tenets outwards to subtly incorporate atypical instrumentation such as the guitar, synths and drum kit", the Guardian reviews. "Across seven tracks, Jaubi effectively convey this journey of the self via shifts in musical character – from a hip-hop swing to classical ragas and ferocious jazz improvisations – and a subtle increase in pace and intensity".
A great text by the American jazz critic and music historian Ted Gioia about how he worked as a fixer in the 1990s. He looks back into an episode from China where he had to find an "honest broker" - "true brokers, intermediaries between others. They aren’t going to participate in your deal, no matter what it is. They are go-betweens, really. But do not underestimate the power of this kind of brokerage. Whatever you need—a loan, a building permit, political influence, a place to land a private jet, whatever—they will introduce you to the right people and steer you away from the sharks. And they do this for a very simple reason: their prestige is enhanced by making these connections. In many cases, they don’t even want to be paid. Or let me put that differently—you repay them by becoming a trusted contact for them in future dealings". A great read!
YouTube music theorist Rick Beato shared a new video where he tried to explain the regression of musical innovation. He goes back decades to look at the pop music of the 1960s and the 1960s like The Beatles, Led Zeppelin and Earth, Wind & Fire, and compares it to Bruno Mars, Daft Punk, Jonas Bros., etc. Why is this happening?
Jacobin magazine goes into a quest to find socialism in hip-hop, starting with the most famous examples - Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G. - and taking a left turn to find some new ones in underground hip-hop: "A handful of artists have been unequivocal in their willingness to operate under a red flag. Paris, Immortal Technique, and the Coup have been recording radical songs since the 1990s".
Fact has a documentary by Mia Zur-Szpiro about some of the key women working in India’s electronic music scene. Filmed across several months, it features interviews with women artists in the Indian scene, touching on themes of mental health, spirituality, overcoming racial and patriarchal prejudice and the impact music has had on their lives.
Sound Field hosts Nahre Sol and Arthur Buckner dive into the history and mystery surrounding Beethoven's 'Für Elise', one of the most widely recognizable classical pieces in the world. It has appeared in commercials, movies, and even garbage trucks in Taiwan. So how did it get so popular, and is it overrated?
Miranda Reinert goes on to explain the punk subgenre orgcore, melodic punk, different from in due to the way music is discussed online, namely, it gets defined simply as “music enjoyed by users of punknews”. It is also defined by the type of person who enjoys it, which is why sometimes it is called FestCore and Beard Punk, because both bands and fans in the orgcore scene typically have beards. Typical bands from the scene include Dillinger Four, American Steel, None More Black, The Loved Ones, and The Falcon.
Mexican folk singer-songwriter Ed Maverick shared a piece of latino nostalgia called 'Contenta'; Berlin post-black metallers Praise The Plague released their intense single 'Blackening Swarm II'; American r'n'b'/soul singer Mereba shared some powerful R'n'B with ‘News Come’; Julia Jacklin and fellow Australians RVG cover beautifully Björk's 'Army Of Me'; Dusted shares some seaside rock with 'They Don't Know You'.
California multi-instrumentalist and producer Georgia Anne Muldrow released her 21st album in 15 years, the largely instrumental electro/hip-hop/funky LP that she wrote and produced herself. PopMatters describes it as a "17-track clinic on creating rhythmic framework that wow you with their complexity and propel you into movement", whereas New Yorker hears it as "fidgety and animated, as if the music is longing to move out of confinement, to vibrate toward something". All Music argues "Muldrow's aim here is to provide listeners with superhero themes that facilitate emboldened movement out of doors".
Pop-country vocalist B.J. Thomas, famous for the 1969 smash 'Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head', written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David for the 1969 Paul Newman/Robert Redford Western 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid', has died at the age of 78 from lung cancer. Grammy-winning singer had hits in pop, country, and gospel with songs like 'Hooked on a Feeling' and '(Hey Won’t You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song'. The New York Times looks back at his career.
