Woodstock 50 organizers ignored recommendations from partners and regulators about things like the festival’s proper size, budget, number of stages, transportation plans, Spin comments after documents have been made public about the legal battle between the apparently doomed festival and the event’s erstwhile investor Dentsu Aegis. Documents show that Woodstock co-founder Michael Lang declined to reduce the […]
The historic live music venue the Borderline in London's West End is to close this summer, due tu rising rents in the West End, licensing pressures and the redevelopment of the building where it is housed. The Borderline is one of the last remaining live music venues in Soho, after the closure of the Astoria […]
Lana Del Rey recently teased an upcoming cover of Sublime song 'Doin’ Time', a move sure to bring the 1990s ska-rock band to a new and younger group of listeners. The Ringer argues that "larger appetite for ’90s nostalgia shows no signs of abating, and people looking for a short-lived and influential band led by […]
"We still haven’t earned a penny from it ['Bohemian Rhapsody' movie]. Isn’t that funny? How successful does a movie have to be before you make money?” - Queen's Brian May told BBC. The movie made 900 million dollars, making it the highest-grossing musical biopic of all time. He says he did like the movie, and […]
Breakbeat is having a comeback over the past couple of years, the Guardian writes, as a redress to a scene that remained stubbornly white, straight, male and stale. The new movement is spearheaded by a coalition of acts from the queer fringes - CCL, Ciel and LSDXOXO, two relative lifers, Chicago’s Eris Drew and Lisbon’s […]
“Everyone has that stereotype when you’re a bad kid: you’re going to go to jail and end up with a kid at a young age. Well, I ain’t in jail and I ain’t got a kid and my family’s proud of me” - English rapper Slowthai says in an interview with the Guardian about his […]
The Strokes headlined this year's City of Angels, for their first live performance together in over two years, debuting also a brand new song 'The Adults Are Talking', their first new material since 2016’s 'Future Present Past EP'. CoA is a benefit concert raising proceeds for two homeless organizations in Los Angeles, Consequence of Sound […]
Hælos have the ability to dig deep into core, universal themes like love, faith, and loss, and on their second album, 'Any Random Kindness', the band have decided to focus their gaze outwards, addressing themes ranging from the destruction of the planet to the emptiness and loneliness of social media. The band have also chosen to broaden […]
36 hours of hippie happiness is about to be let loose to the world through a box set with all the songs performed at the original Woodstock festival. ‘Woodstock 50 – Back To The Garden: The Definitive Anniversary’ will be released on August and collect 432 tracks across 38 CDs, including 276 songs that were […]
"Ambient music... creeps in, then situates its listener in its sonic world: background music that lodges itself in the front of perception... Thoughts come. Stimulated, my mind wanders. I remain still" - the Quietus says in it's review of 'Anthology Of Interplanetary Folk Music Vol. 2: The Canon', made by former Ramones and Suicide producer, […]
Every year 160 million vinyl records are being pressed, and the demand is getting higher. Production processes of those vinyls are largely stuck in the late 70s, and are decidedly anti-green. It involves toxic acids, huge amounts of energy including steaming and cooling, and the records themselves are typically PVC, a plastic thought to be […]
We needn’t raise technology to be a “monster.” 'PROTO' is a love song to the capacity for machine-made music to be full of life - artist Holly Herndon wrote about her amazing new album which she made with help from a artificial intelligence she named Spawn. She explains in an interview with the Vice: "We wanted to […]
Vampire Weekend sold 138,000 equivalent album of their third LP 'Father Of The Bride' last week in the USA, which makes it the biggest selling album in the country, and brings VW to the top of the Billboard 200. The sum represent the largest for any rock album in 2019. 'FOTB' earned 20.29 million on-demand audio […]
Morrissey performed seven shows on Broadway, and for his last, Saturday night’s show the former Smiths frontman played the band’s 1987 song 'I Won’t Share You' live for the first time ever, Brooklyn Vegan reports. Taken from the band’s final album, 1987’s 'Strangeways, Here We Come', the song grew out of a series of tense […]
Forty-one nations are competing in Tel Aviv this week at Eurovision 2019, BBC had a listen to this year's selected songs and chosen 20 that stand out from the pack - from pop-opera to bondage techno. Listen to all the songs here.
Justin Timberlake and Missy Elliott received honorary degrees at Berklee College of Music on Saturday in Boston. Missy Elliott is the first hip-hop artist to receive this honor from Berklee, and broke down in tears before offering words of wisdom to Berklee's graduating class: "I just want y'all to know, there will be ups and downs. If […]
"With an arsenal of synthesizers, drum machine, sparse electric guitar, and a skeptic’s pen, he builds a plodding dystopian story of living death stoked by internet anti-reality, big pharma conspiracy, and environmental apocalypse" - Pitchfork reviews new album by minimalist folk singer-songwriter A.A. Bondy. 'Enderness' is his first in eight years, and PopMatters discusses the […]
Flying Lotus has a new animated video for his song ‘More’ featuring Anderson .Paak. It was directed by Shinichiro Watanabe - the two worked together on 'Blade Runner: Black Out 2020'. The Japanese director says how “Flying Lotus’ sound and Anderson Paak’s rap on this track are just incredible. Their work greatly inspired me to […]
"With 'I: Voice', Warforged aim to explode away from obscurity with perhaps the most unpretentiously progressive death metal releases of recent times, taking inspiration from deathcore to tech-death and beyond" - Invisible Oranges reviews debut album by Chicago black-death metal quintet Warforged. Angry Metal Guy is equally enthusiastic: "With time and a little trimming this arboraceous […]
Guardian has a great article about how getting rid of hard drugs affected Fat White Family and making of their new album 'Serfs Up!'. They moved to Sheffield to make the album - “It was just far enough away from London to keep smack out of proceedings”, as Lias Saoudi points out. Questions of racism […]
London-based drum'n'bass musician Basic Rhythm has a new album out, 'On the Threshold', and for PopMatters he chose 10 tracks that influenced this album the most. Coil seem to be one of the biggest influences "not just sonically but in that they had the courage of their convictions", as well as Moodyman - "a big influence […]
Brooklyn Vegan's choice of best new indie-rock albums for the week: dreamy, baroque psych-folk Death and Vanilla; inventive, fun and funky arty trio Doomsquad; garage rock with soul The Mystery Lights; jangly, manic post-punk pop Pottery; dark, sexy synth music by Missions; and heartfelt guitar pop by Mammoth Penguins.
David Gilmour is streaming his entire concert 'Live at Pompeii' on YouTubeu (watch it here). He performed at the bottom of Pompeii volcano in Naples in 2016, full 45 years after Pink Floyd performed there in one of the best concerts of that era. Tone Deaf...
Guardian talked to Burt Bacharach about his career, and about how he still has the urge to write songs. Why? “This is my form of resistance. I can’t stand what’s happening in this country – my country”. There's this one person who he really dislikes - "We must pick somebody who’s capable of getting rid […]
Each track on second album by Chicago-based poet, singer, activist, and teacher is named after a cultural icon who inspired Woods and shaped her identity as an artist and individual. "'Legacy! Legacy!' dapples in R&B, funk, rap, jazz, and even some electronica", and is "a beacon for a type of self-empowerment informed by the predecessors who […]
A John Lennon-owned copy of the Beatles’ infamous “butcher cover” version of 'Yesterday and Today', sold for $234,000 at a Beatles-themed auction this week. The vinyl copy – autographed by Lennon, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr - and featuring a back cover sketch drawn by Lennon is the third highest price paid for a vinyl. Highest price […]
Seattle rapper Porter Ray makes an appearance in PopMatters' 20 Questions segment, where he chooses his favourite albums - "music for me is a mood... some of my favorites are Arthur Verocai's self-titled debut, OutKast's 'Aquemini', and Pink Floyd's 'The Dark Side of the Moon'". The best thing he bought is "the equipment I use to record […]
Florence + The Machine have performed 'Jenny of Oldstones' live for the first time, at Arizona Arcosanti festival this weekend, Stereogum reports. Florence Welch dedicated their remake of Game of Thrones classic 'Jenny’s Song' to Arya Stark, "who saved us all”. The song was published on 'For The Throne', 'Game of Thrones' companion album including […]
Citizens of Denver voted for Initiative 301 which makes the possession, use and cultivation of psilocybin mushrooms among people aged 21 and over the lowest priority crime for law enforcement in the city. What it practically means is that it prohibits Denver from spending any resources to prosecute people with them. Rolling Stone analyzes symbolism […]
Mary Jane Leach's album 'Pipe Dreams' "became a soundtrack to the moments where I embraced the solitude of living somewhere quite secluded by myself", psychedelic Welsh singer-songwriter Cate Le Bon describes to the Guardian what she's listening to now. Why the 1980s classical album? "It has these beautiful drone sounds that interact with bass, and […]
Richard Bienstock and Tom Beajuour, the authors of the new oral history 'Nöthin' But a Good Time: The Uncensored History of the '80s Hard Rock Explosion' choose eight of the most archetypal and illustrative videos of '80s hard rock. It's Poison's 'Talk Dirty To me', Guns N' Roses' 'It's So Easy', Mötley Crüe's 'Looks That Kill' and several others similarly ridiculous. As for Binstock and Beajuour's book, All Music argues it is a "treasure trove of stories, drama, and details from one of the most over-the-top eras in rock".
Jason Derulo was a teenage-star, but at the end of 2019, his career has stagnated for a while. Them he discovered TikTok and now he is the most followed artist on the platform, he ranks 12th overall. Variety collected his advice: “Everybody has a different audience, and you have to spend some time to get to know yours. Then, the most important thing is good lighting, and use trending songs because they capture people’s interest instantly. Also, start your videos with a close-up — you have literally one second to stop people from scrolling, so what are you going to do with that second? Quick cuts keep people’s attention, and there’s tricks like having two or three sentences on the screen, but just long enough for people to read just the first one, so they have to watch the whole video again to read the rest of it".
Guardian explores an interesting theory - that there aren't any new pop bands anymore in western music, rather a line of solo musicians. Ben Mortimer, co-president of Polydor Records, says that it's much cheaper and simpler to start a solo music career - "you could download Ableton [production software], shut your bedroom door and get creating straight away. Culture is shaped by technology”. Ben Mortimer, co-president of Polydor Records points out a socio-cultural change - “The majority of young people aren’t excited by band music in the traditional sense: groups of lads with guitars. And that’s reflected in the number of streams these bands receive. That then impacts on what talented young musicians go on to create". The G admits however that it's exactly bands at the forefront of pop music in Asia.
Nazi punk and nazi black metal are both present on the biggest streaming services, and Medium observes a similar trend with electronic synthesizer music. Fashwave (a portmanteau of “fascism” and “wave”) or Trumpwave have emerged in recent years with lounge music sounds superimposed by fascist imagery like swastika and Hitler on top of it. Both Fashwave and Trumpwave come up frequently on YouTube, Soundcloud, and Spotify for those willing to look. Interspliced in between electronic beats on YouTube are speeches to segregationist or fascists leaders, as well as straight-up fascist speeches (no hyperlinks to those here).
In the span of mere weeks, Jay-Z’s net worth has jumped 40 percent up to $1,4 billion, SCMP calculates. In addition to selling 50 percent of his champagne brand Armand de Brignac, also known as Ace of Spades, to LVMH, Jay-Z sold a majority stake of his streaming service Tidal to Square. 51-year-old rapper and businessman ishappy about his partners - “I’m very fortunate. Jack Dorsey, who created Twitter, Square and Cash App, and Philippe [Schaus] and the guys who created LVMH – you couldn’t ask for better partners; they’re the top of the top. [Things] usually align like that when people do really great things. You could get into partnerships and people short-change the business for different reasons. These guys don’t cut corners, they try to get it right. It’s about respect".
"Over more than 40 years I've never had anyone say to me, 'I sure am glad I sold my publishing when I did. It was the best thing I ever did'. But I couldn't begin to estimate the number of times that folks like Tom Petty, Paul McCartney, Steve Lukather, Tom Johnston, Roger McGuinn, George Harrison and Donald Fagen have told me that selling their songwriting catalogs was one of the biggest mistakes they ever made" - Randall Wixen of the Wixen Music Publishing wrote in Billboard about a recent surge of sales/purchases of publishing rights by Hipgnosis, Universal etc. So, why are they selling? - "writers' representatives have seen the money they make plummet over the past few years (especially if COVID-19 or an artists' age interrupted touring plans) and hope to make some nice fees for 'helping' them sell their songs. A lot of the encouragement to sell (and make money off of the sale) begins with the assertion to songwriters that 'folks are offering insane amounts for catalogs' and 'you should sell ASAP because Biden might raise the capital gains tax'".
There's plenty of tension in that calmness at the beginning of live session version of 'The Code' by London-based Ethiopian-singer model Egyptian Alewya and British jazz drummer Moses Boyd. After the build-up, it turns into powerful rock/jazz/global territory. Previously, the two have recorded a live version of her song 'Sweating'.
Canadian Indigenous scholar, writer, activist, poet, and artist Leanne Betasamosake Simpson speaks and sings of the urgency of taking care of a planet in peril on her new album 'Theory of Ice'. It is, as PopMatters explains - "a dramatic, deeply eloquent, and musically rich celebration of the Earth and one of its most precious resources: water". Although concerned about the future, Betasamosake believes "human relationships can create real change" and she makes "saving the planet... somehow seem within our grasp".
A very interesting theory in The Baffler about Hipgnosis and similar investment funds which buy rights to old hit songs, and make cash from those songs being played or remade. "This puts them in a curious position with regard to 'new music', which they must perforce view with a combination of avarice, suspicion, and fear. Every original song that gains cultural traction drains potential listeners—and therefore revenue—away from the Hipgnosis portfolio, diluting the value of their assets... In their ideal world, therefore, there are no original songs, no fresh styles or hybrid genres—nothing, in short, which might lure listeners away from the necrotic embrace of 'Can’t Touch This'”.
Spotify has launched a new website – Loud & Clear – with plenty of information about money generated on the streaming platform. In 2020, some 13,400 acts generated total payments in excess of $50,000 around the world, double the number of artists who generated over $50k in payments from Spotify in 2017 (7,300). Also, L&C shows that 7,800 artists generated $100k-plus in 2020, the $500k-plus-per-year club counted 1,820 artists in 2020, and the $1 million-plus-per-year club counted 870 artists in 2020. Generated is important here - it's the amount made by the artist's music, and that amount is being split by the artist and the publisher, with the big chunk (85% or so) going to the publisher. As of 2020, Spotify has paid over $23 billion in royalties to rights holders — including over $5 billion in 2020 alone, up from $3.3 billion in 2017.
